I shook Roark’s hand, exchanged a few polite words, then left the Gym, heading back to the Pokémon Center.

After the niceties were observed, I allowed myself exactly one hour and twenty-one minutes to sulk after my loss, the exact length of time that Venus and Kōjin were being seen by the nurses.

“Your Pokémon will be fine.” The pink-haired nurse said to me, when they were handing back the Poké Balls. “I recommend several days of rest and light exercise only, but other than that they have no broken bones or serious wounds.”

“Thank you.”

The nurse nodded and stepped away, leaving me alone once again.

From there, I made my way back to the hotel rooms we had rented. The Rangers had set us up with rooms in the Pokémon Center upon getting out of the caves, but they weren’t nearly as comfortable as actual hotel rooms.

After so long in the caves, we had all decided to splurge on nice places to sleep.

Once I had returned to my room, I let out Kōjin and Venus. Venus’ leg had been wrapped from where she had been trapped by the Rock Tomb, and Kōjin had a large ice pack over his side.

“I want you to know,” I said to them. “That I’m not blaming either of you for our loss. You both did amazing work during that battle.”

Venus seemed a bit dispirited regardless, but Kōjin yipped happily.

“I’m serious Venus, you were amazing. It’s not your fault that Roark beat us. He’s just stronger than us - there’s a lot of Trainers out there like that. Think about Lucas and Ted, they beat us almost half the time in our practices.”

Venus grumbled, laying down and resting her head on her paws.

“One second.”

I pulled out Zetian’s Poké Ball and released her. She buzzed around anxiously for a few seconds, checking in on Venus and Kōjin.

“They’re okay, just a little banged up.”

Zetian’s shoulders slumped in relief for a second, then her red compound eyes flashed in anger, and she started buzzing around.

I didn’t need to be a Psychic to understand her.

“I know. We lost this time, but we’re going to train, okay? We’re going to get better, and when we’re ready, we’ll challenge Roark again. And that time? We’ll beat him.”

Kōjin barked, Zetian buzzed, and while Venus didn’t do much, I saw her ear twitch and her tail wag slightly.

She was sulking even more than I had.

“So, we’re going to take a couple days to rest, and then we’ll get to the business of training.”

I wondered if it would be possible to get a copy of the battle from the Oreburgh Gym. I knew they were recorded, for safety and liability reasons if nothing else, but it could be a handy training tool to see where we had messed up, and what we had done well.

But for now…

I reached into my bag and pulled out the box of poffins I kept in there.

Even Venus’ ears perked up at that.

/^\

The next day, we got to watch Ted and Lucas beat Roark.

It was a bitter salve to my soul, watching my friends get the Badge that I had been unable to win, but the battles taught me a lot more than I had expected.

Lucas’ fight was interesting to watch, especially how he had to work with Kyūdō to convince the Pokémon to fight.

Or rather, how he had to convince Kyūdō to battle the way Lucas wanted him to.

The past week and change had been good for their teamwork, but there was still a bit of friction. Every now and again Kyūdō wouldn’t follow Lucas’ orders, choosing to do its own move instead.

Most of the time it didn’t work out the way the owl-like Pokémon had intended, and Roark’s Pokémon managed to capitalize on the errors, punishing Kyūdō with bits of rocks hurled at nasty speeds.

At the end of the day, Kyūdō had a strong type advantage against Roark’s Pokémon. Everyone always said that type advantage wasn’t always the deciding factor in a fight, but it was important nonetheless.

It only took a couple of hits for a Geodude to get knocked out, and although Kyūdō’s fight against one of Roark’s Onix lasted a bit longer, it was fairly evident that the giant rock-snake didn’t have a chance.

Ted’s match was a bit closer, but not by much.

Mayfly was in much the same boat as Zetian had been with an extreme type disadvantage - one that not even training could overcome, and was knocked out early in the battle.

Unfortunately for Roark though, Switchback was a Hisuian Sneasel, not just a regular one, and Fighting was its secondary typing.

That little fact still wasn’t widely spread, and Roark’s Pokémon had been taken by surprise. To most people, Switchback just looked like a strange, oddly colored Sneasel. Maybe they thought it was a shiny Pokémon, or just some other quirk of genetics.

Soon enough I was sure that Hisuian Pokémon would become a lot more famous as Pokémon Researchers began to investigate the Grand Underground, but for now Switchback’s Fighting type had been a nasty shock.

That wasn’t to say Ted and Switchback had it easy. Roark’s Pokémon, another Onix and a Nosepass of all things, were clearly stronger than the ones who had faced Lucas and I.

It was a little annoying to know that I hadn’t even been beaten by Roark’s strongest team, but I shoved those irrational feelings down with a vengeance. Ted was an accomplished Trainer in Hoenn after all, so this wasn’t his first rodeo.

Still, after a close-fought battle, Ted and his party were victorious.

We had a small celebration with some pizza and then got to the business of planning our next steps.

/^\

“The way I see it,” Ted said as we all sat hunched over a map of Sinnoh. “There’s really two main ways we can go.”

He reached over and followed the Routes north with a finger. “We can head up to Snowpoint City by way of Eterna, or cross Mount Coronet to get to Hearthome City.”

He tapped the symbol for the latter city.

Lucas frowned as he looked at the map. “There’s no real ‘typical’ procedure for challenging Gyms, but most people on this side of the island start here in Oreburgh and make their way north towards Snowpoint. I’m inclined to head that way myself.”

“Is that because you know you can get an easy win with all your Fire-types?” I said with a smile, and Lucas put a hand to his chest in mock pain.

“You wound me Alina!”

“But seriously, why those two?” I asked. “Why not Canalave?”

I reached over myself and tapped the western coast of mainland Sinnoh.

“We all have decently strong Pokémon against Steel-types, and it’s a lot closer than Snowpoint.” I frowned. “Although it’s not quite as close as Hearthome is, we would have to cross Coronet.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I’ve heard the region around Canalave City has a lot of strong Steel-types.” Ted said. “Stronger than our Pokémon, at least. It might be better to wait until our teams get a bit tougher. If Rakkyo was here, I’m sure it wouldn’t be an issue, but as it stands now…”

“Eh.” Lucas waggled his hand.

“Eh?”

“Don’t get me wrong, there definitely are strong Pokémon there, but I think you’re thinking of Iron Island. Canalave mostly has Water-types surrounding it.”

“But Byron has a Steel-type Gym?”

“Gathered mostly from Iron Island. There are ferries that travel to the island constantly, as well as all across the Four Islands from Canalave Port.”

Ted sat back. “Huh.”

“Iron Island itself is known for the strong Steel-types that live there, so it’s a great place to train. Canalave City itself kinda inherited its reputation back when Byron took over the Gym.”

“Well, you learn something new every day.”

“Personally,” I said, trying to steer the conversation back towards our planning. “I’d rather not go north to Snowpoint right now.”

“No?”

“To be honest, it feels like I’ve spent the entirety of my Journey so far traveling north to Eterna City, then back down here. I’d rather see more of Sinnoh than just this one stretch of road.”

“That’s fair.” Ted said, and Lucas nodded.

“So, Hearthome or Canalave?”

We sat there in silence for a long minute as we thought about it.

“I can’t really do much against a Ghost-type leader.” I said regretfully. “Venus would be completely nullified.”

“Switchback wouldn’t be very helpful either.”

“I’m okay with it.” Lucas said, and Ted and I rolled our eyes.

“On the other hand, we’re all strong against Steel.”

“I could use a win.” I muttered.

“It would be nice to see the ocean again.” Ted said.

“Canalave then?”

We all exchanged a look, and nodded.

“Canalave.”

“Agreed.”

“Okay, we’ll have to start planning on how to get there.” I said. “Head to Jubilife and take Route 218 from there?”

Ted started to agree, but Lucas scoffed.

“Please, I know a way to get there way faster.”

“A ferry?”

“A train?”

I wouldn’t mind taking a train, considering we’d been walking everywhere for the past several months.

“Hah! Come with me, and I’ll show you!”

/^\

I stared up at the giant steel bird, preening its blade-like feathers.

Rationally, I knew that Corviknight were big Pokémon, but I was feeling anything but rational as I stared at the massive bird.

Birds weren’t something I had spent a lot of time thinking about in my past life, but I did have to do a research project on them once for a mandatory biology class in college. One of the facts that I was now remembering was that the snowy albatross had one of the largest wingspans of any bird, around eleven feet long, even though their body was only about four feet tall.

That was a big bird by any metric. Massive, actually.

The Corviknight in front of me was easily seven feet tall, if not larger, and as it opened one wing in order to scratch at a feather, the wing itself was at least twenty feet long.

One wing alone was larger than an entire car, and I felt very, very small.

Even Ted, one of the largest people I’d seen in this world so far, seemed to feel the same way, judging by the way he was staring up at the massive wing.

“Canalave eh?” An old woman in an aviator’s coat and goggles said. “Yeah, we can get you there.”

She had a thick British, or rather Galarian, accent that was made even more difficult to make out through the scarf that was wrapped around her neck and lower face.

“Great! How much do we owe you?”

“Owe?” She cackled. “You don’t owe me anything lad! After you helped me and Cheepy here with his little wing problem, I said that you ride for free! It’s getting a bit late to take a flight today, but come back tomorrow and we’ll get you there, no problem!”

“Do you know what’s going on?” Ted asked, voice a bit distant.

I nodded, not taking my eyes off of the feathers of the Corviknight. They each could have been used as a sword.

“Yeah, uh, well kinda. A while back Lucas said that he had to help find a Metal Coat to heal a Corviknight’s wings. Honestly I thought he was just telling stories, but apparently not.”

Queenie’s Taxi Company was a new addition to Oreburgh City, because I certainly wouldn’t have missed seeing the massive Corviknight when I’d been here before.

“So,” I said slowly, catching their attention. “How does this work?”

“Eh? You never rode in an air-taxi before?”

“Once, in Jubilife, but that was operated by a pair of Staraptors.”

“Bah! Overgrown Chatot, that's what they are!”

The old woman rapped on the side of her Corviknight, the incongruously named “Cheepy”. The noise sounded like she was banging on a metal wall.

“Cheepy here is the real deal! He’ll get you anywhere you need to go, and he’ll power through any disruptions in the way!”

Almost two hundred pounds of a giant metal bird would do that, I figured, unless there was a Fire-type around.

Or a Tinkaton, although I figured it would probably be smart not to mention the little pink Pokémon.

“Just let us know when you’re willing to go, and we’ll be off!”

We all nodded, exchanged a few farewells, and headed back to the hotel to finish getting ready.

There was a part of me that wanted to stay here in Oreburgh and try to rechallenge Roark, but it would have been a fool’s errand.

We’d already lost once, and we would need to train in order to have a chance to beat Roark. Sure, we could do that in the areas around Oreburgh, challenge some of the miners, maybe even some of the Gym Trainers, but if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to spend too much longer here.

Like I’d told Ted and Lucas, I wanted to see more of this wonderful place I’d found myself in.

So, we’d be going to Canalave City. I was reasonably sure we could defeat Byron’s team, especially if Kōjin was to get stronger. Zetian would be annoyed, her Flying- and Bug-types weren’t very effective against Steel-types, but at least she wouldn’t take as much damage as she would have facing down Roark.

My thoughts were buzzing with plans to beat Byron as we got back to the hotel and started packing.

We’d gotten separate rooms, and mine was a little bit of a mess. The problem with having a bag that could carry everything you wanted was that it could carry everything you wanted.

Kōjin had leaned into his Rock-typing for Roark’s Gym, but now we would have to pivot back to the Fire-typing.

My poor boy was probably going to be getting whiplash.

I dropped my guitar back into my backpack, my toiletries kit, the Legend Plate, a skirt that I’d decided not to wear today…

I blinked, and stopped, skirt in my hands.

“What.”

Reaching down into the bag, I pulled out the tablet sized stone.

“Uh.”

I fumbled at my phone, eventually managing to call the Oreburgh City Gym.

“Hello?”

“This is Alina Knighton, I need to talk to Leader Roark.”

The secretary sighed.

“Leader Roark is in the middle of a-”

“It’s really, really important.”

They were quiet, then sighed. “Very well.”

I got a bit of hold music, then the phone connected again. “Hello?”

“Roark, where’s the Legend Plate?”

“Alina?”

“Yes! Where’s the Plate?”

“I’m not so sure why you’re so bothered, it’s still in my wall safe, I haven’t brought it over to the museum yet.”

I stared at the stone in my hand.

“Can you look at it for me?”

“What’s this all about? I’m a little busy right now-”

“Please?”

Roark was silent for a long second, then he sighed.

“Very well, I’m opening my safe now.”

There was the quiet clicking of a combination lock, Roark sighing as he obviously got it wrong, and more clicking.

“Alright, see, it’s fine, it’s right-”

“Roark?”

“It’s gone.”

His tone carried with it an undercurrent of fear, and anger.

“Somebody must have broken in, I don’t-”

“It’s here. I have it in my hands.”

I could almost hear the gears in Roark’s head moving.

“I see.” He said. “Actually, no, I don’t. How did you get it?”

“I don’t know!” I hissed into the phone. “It just showed up in my bag! It wasn’t here earlier today, that much is for sure!”

Roark mumbled a few swears. “Alright, this is way above my paygrade. This is some Ghost- or Psychic-type stuff. I’m going to have to call in a specialist.”

“Do I need to stay here? We were planning on visiting Canalave City soon.”

“Canalave?” Roark’s pitch rose. “You, uh, right, of course.”

Oh yeah, his dad. There was something going on there, but I wasn’t going to pry.

“No, no, that’s fine.” He continued. “They can go there. I’ll get in touch when I figure out the specifics.”

“Who is it?” I asked.

“A specialist in Sinnoh history and mysticism.”

A hollow pit formed in my stomach.

“You’re not talking about Champion Cynthia, are you?”

“Hah!” Roark barked out a laugh. “I wish, but no, Cynthia’s far too busy for you. No offense. But you’re close! I’m not going to be reaching out to Cynthia.”

“Oh good.”

“I’ll be contacting her grandmother.”