Ding dong. At the top of Mesagoza, Naranja Academy’s bells swayed back and forth in the tower, like kites on a beach. The enormous front doors opened, and students piled into the round courtyard. A few cut across the grass, but most of them followed the school’s main path. It led to a spot for Flying Taxis.

“Finally!” Nemona said the second she and Scarlet exited the academy. She reached for the sky and punched it a few times. “Oh, Scarlet,” she begged, “let’s battle again. Please? Pretty please?”

Again? But Nemona and Scarlet battled just an hour and a half ago.

“Come on, Nemona, give her a break,” a voice said from off to the side. Penny pushed past the crowd of students and approached her friends. Her large, Eevee backpack bounced up and down on her back, and she pushed her glasses closer to the bridge of her nose.

“Oh, Penny! Perfect timing!” Nemona cheered. “Why don’t you and I battle, then?”

“Whoa!” Penny said, waving her small hands. “You know I don’t like to battle Nemona.”

“Aw,” Nemona groaned, “but I wanna battle.” She lowered her head, but it wasn’t long until she lifted it again. “Then I’ll go find Arven. Surely he’ll battle with me, right?”

“He’s not a strong trainer, though,” Penny countered. She ran her fingers through her red and blue bowl cut. “Besides, you don’t even know where he is.”

“Such a pessimist,” Nemona admitted. She removed her Rotom phone from her pocket. “I called him earlier, but he didn’t pick up. However, Rotom tracked his signal to Poco Lighthouse. Right, Rotom?” She smiled at the Pokémon in her phone, and it returned it. It flew in a few circles around Nemona’s head.

“Well, then, I’m off!” she said, jumping up and down, and then she sprinted for Naranja Academy’s godly staircase that went almost straight down. “Watch your back, Arven, because Nemona’s coming!”

“Wait!” Penny shouted from behind. “How do you even know he wants to battle?” Nemona was already too far down the stairs to hear her. “Wow, rude enough?” Penny asked herself, and she faced Scarlet. “Scarlet, we need to go after her. Arven’s not in the right mindset to battle her right now.” Since returning from Area Zero, she had been observing his behavior, and it was pretty clear that he was struggling to accept what AI Sada told them about Professor Sada.

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Scarlet nodded at Penny’s request and let Koraidon out of his ball.

“Agia?” he asked, and he sat like a dog in front of her.

“Oh, perfect!” Penny said. “We’ll ride Koraidon to Poco Path.” She preferred him over a Flying Taxi any day.

Scarlet hopped onto Koraidon’s back first, and then Penny climbed on behind her. She wrapped her arms around Scarlet’s tummy.

“Go, Koraidon! Go!” Penny cheered. Just being on him again, she felt like a queen.

Scarlet kicked Koraidon’s sides, but before he could even jump in his dash, the whole sky above Mesagoza, Los Platos, and Poco Path flashed bright infrared. It was like it had turned into a computer performing an emergency reboot.

“Whoa!” Penny yelled. She almost fell off Koraidon because she shielded her face with her arm.

The sky pulsed—one, two, three times—and then it returned to normal.

Everything at Naranja stopped: the chirps of the Squawkabilly and conversations.

Students pointed at the sky and murmured to each other.

Within seconds, Director Clavell was out the front doors. “Is everybody all right?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” the students answered, still a little shaken up. “What was that, Director?”

Clavell dropped his arms to his sides, and his aging eyes studied the quiet atmosphere. “I’m not sure,” he answered. He switched his focus from the sky to Koraidon and put his hands behind his back. “Did you do this, Koraidon?”

“No, no!” Penny fought. She quickly got off him. “He had nothing to do with it. Right, Scarlet?”

Scarlet gave Clavell a quick nod and set her gloved palm down on Koraidon’s brow.

“Please, Director,” Penny whimpered. “We were just getting ready to look for Arven when it happened.”

Clavell shook his head of medium-length, white hair. “Very well,” he said in a stern voice, and he clapped his hands. “All right, back to class. There’s nothing to worry about.”

The students obeyed, but a few walked with caution and stuck close to their peers.

Clavell turned his back to Scarlet and Penny. “Carry on, Scarlet. Penny.” Anger slipped off his tongue, like drops of water on a leaf after it rained. Did he know that Scarlet, Penny, Nemona, and Arven went to Area Zero? No, surely he didn’t. They made sure not to tell anybody. Traveling to the Great Crater of Paldea meant expulsion from Naranja Academy.

Penny’s legs shook under her, but she climbed back onto Koraidon. “Let’s go,” she whispered in Scarlet’s ear. “We need to make sure Nemona and Arven are okay.”