I locked eyes with Altaria, who stared back with determination clear on his face. The other trainers assisting Sycamore stood off to the side, waiting for their turn to Mega Evolve their Pokémon after exploring Lumiose earlier today. Hope, on the other hand, had already done it around lunchtime, but I, however, hadn't. Instead, I spent time in the ranch with my Pokémon to cool off after everything that went on with Lysandre, and was now doing today’s attempt before I went to bed.
I focused on Altaria and once more tried to picture all of the good times together. I remembered teaching him his first moves, the moment he beat Kirlia in Petalburg, and his fight against Wally's Flygon in the Ever Grande Conference. Events went in and out of my head like water as I tried to compact every moment that I was proud of him for into one thought.
However, I just couldn't get my mind off of what had happened with Lysandre earlier in the day. His words echoed in my ears, and that twisted expression that appeared on his face when he discussed the world getting uglier flashed in my mind.
Altaria’s Mega Stone glowed, but soon faded back to nothing, the phenomenon failed to take hold once more.
I dropped the arm wearing the Key Stone and slumped back in my seat, panting heavily. Mawile walked over and patted my leg to comfort me, and I smiled at her but could barely keep my eyes open. I leaned my head back and took an energy bar out of my pocket to munch on, and Sycamore and Cosette began to remove the various monitoring devices off of Altaria and I.
"Don't worry, Alex, you'll get it eventually," Sycamore said. "It might be taking you a bit longer than most to get another success in, but at the rate you’re going, I’m sure it’ll happen soon. Look on the bright side, though: you’re giving me an incredible amount of data!"
I shot Sycamore a look and he chuckled sheepishly.
"Hah, sorry about that Alex. I was just trying to lighten the mood. You’ve done a lot for me, like I’ve said before, so as long as you need it I will support you.”
He patted me on the back as I wobbled back to my feet, and I flinched from the sudden contact.
“I believe you’ll have figured it out in no time at all,” he said.
That didn’t make me feel much better, however, and I walked away to make room for the other approaching trainers. I saw that same Dedenne I’ve been seeing rather frequently recently waiting off to the side for Altaria, and the blue bird followed him as he disappeared into the depths of the garden.
I laughed softly.
Looks like those two might be getting up to something soon.
I found a place under a tree and leaned against it before sliding to the ground. Ninetales trotted over next to me, and laid down with her head in my lap. Mawile also approached and simply sat nearby as she watched the upcoming Mega Evolution attempts by my side.
I briefly closed my eyes as the trainer sent out his Scizor, and almost immediately after opened them back up as an approaching voice suddenly spoke up, trying to get my attention.
"Hey, Alex. I know we don’t really know each other that well, but I saw how you were acting, this morning. I’m not sure if that was normal, but you seemed... off. Are you okay?" Hope asked.
I thought about bringing my arm up to wave her off, but found I had no energy to do so, and instead just said "I'm fine," a little too quickly.
A sudden flash of light distracted Hope before she could follow up that question, and the Scizor in the distance began to shift. First, its claws increased in length and sharpened to an extreme, looking far crueler than before. The Scizor’s posture straightened out, and it ever so slightly increased in height, and, at the same time, parts of its shell extended out and solidified, enhancing its armor. Finally, its legs thickened up as the muscles there strengthened, and with that, it looked ready to take on anything that came its way.
Hope and I watched in silence as the successfully Mega Evolved Pokémon began to walk around, somehow in control and without any issues despite the trainer’s lack of practice. Hope crossed her arms and I frowned as it seemed its control was just good enough to avoid going berserk.
Soon enough, Sycamore called out for the trainer to end it, and Scizor was briefly engulfed in glowing light, then turned back to its base form in moments.
“Feels a little unfair they got it on their first try,” Hope said quietly.
“Yeah,” I grumbled back.
As the next trainer approached the seat to Mega Evolve their Scizor, Hope turned back to me to continue what she was asking before.
“Anyway, Alex, what’s going on? You were tense during that entire meeting, and that question you asked was really uncomfortable. I’m worried about you.”
I shot Hope a surprised glance, and she continued to stare at me with a strangely impassive face. Sighing and realizing I couldn’t justify an outright lie, I slowly shifted my head around to make sure no one would overhear what I was about to say.
A second flash of light signified the second successful Mega Evolution of the night, and I took this opportunity to quietly vocalize a warning without anyone else hearing me.
“Don’t trust Lysandre. There’s something going on with him.”
Her eyes went wide and she opened her mouth as if to refuse me, but her brows then furrowed as she slowly closed her mouth, and seemed to get lost in thought.
The second Scizor wasn’t able to last in its Mega Evolution form, and the trainer was forced to stop the process before it lost control and went berserk.
Hope didn’t say anything else to me, and walked away to gather her Pokémon before she left the room, and I ended up dozing off. I woke up a bit later, probably only after a few minutes since most of the machines were packed up and taken away, and Sycamore called out to me to have me come over.
“Well then, Alex,” he said as I approached, “you stepped out earlier today so you missed the conversation, but I think we have the time to properly talk about the Pokédex and Holo Caster, right?”
I perked up.
“Right,” I said excitedly.
I swung my backpack around, taking out the two pieces of technology I had ignored until now, and placed them on the table in front of us.
“To start, this is the Pokédex, of course,” he said.
He held up the red device in his hands, and I finally took a proper look at it. As far as I could tell, the Pokédex just looked like a red square with a Pokéball-like indent in the center. That indent revealed a pane of glass between the red sides, and Professor Sycamore tapped it, and it popped open, forming a thin, smartphone like screen with two red edges.
Several white concentric circles suddenly appeared on the screen then spread out, and a few boxes not unlike the app icons I used to be familiar with faded into view.
Sycamore, seeing my shocked expression, smiled and tapped on the first app, which changed the screen to resemble the classic Pokédex user interface from the games, with an image of the Pokémon selected on the top half, and a scrollable list of all Pokémon in Pokédex-order on the lower half.
“Wonderful, right?” he said. “Using the Pokédex is actually pretty self explanatory. Simply hit the center like I did to open it up, and you can select which mode you wish to access. It’s already loaded with data from the regional Pokédex, as well as the basic data for the national Pokédex, but if you want to update it with specifics for Pokémon from other regions, you’ll need to visit that region’s lab to download the data.
“A Pokédex can both tell you all the details you’d ever need to know about a species, or it can scan a Pokéball to tell you specifics about a Pokémon you’ve caught. In addition, it has a basic mapping function, although a PokéNav is still higher quality. It also has camera, and it will give you local news alerts when needed. You can explore it a bunch later, but for now, why don’t you try scanning one of your Pokémon?”
Sycamore handed the Pokédex back to me, and I glanced down at Ninetales, who nodded to give me permission. Returning her to her Premier Ball, I began maneuvering through the Pokédex to begin the scan.
Following Professor Sycamore’s instructions, I switched apps to the scanning function, and pointed it to her Pokéball and let it begin. There wasn’t any flash of light or scanning lines, but instead a minimalistic Pokéball design appeared on the screen and spun around, and soon enough, a summary of everything about Ninetales appeared on the screen.
She let herself out of her ball to look it over with me, and my eyes went wide with awe as I realized how much this would truly help with my journey.
Not only did it reveal the basic information a Pokémon Center computer would reveal, it also revealed her current health conditions, like the fact she was suffering from minor dehydration, meaning she was thirsty. It listed her height, weight, age, and even preferred flavors! I had no clue how it found that out, and to my amazement it even gave me tips on what to feed her to improve her diet, and listed every known move an Alolan Ninetales could learn.
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“Impressive, huh?” Professor Sycamore said, snapping me out of my new obsession with the Pokédex. “This Pokédex in particular is actually an early version of an upcoming model, and there are even better ones in the works. Just between you and me, I’ve heard a rumor that they’re considering including Rotom and Porygon in future versions to see if the Pokémon could enhance the functionality.”
I glanced back down at the Pokédex, and smiled as I put it in my pocket. I knew for a fact I would be using it quite frequently in the future, and the quality of care my team received would skyrocket with all the new information it provided.
“Thank you. I really appreciate this-”
“Ah, ah, ah! Don’t thank me just yet! We also have the Holo Caster to go over!”
My smile faded as he mentioned the invention of Lysandre Labs, and I used this moment to finally ask a question that had been bothering me all day.
“So, uh, Professor Sycamore. About what Lysandre said earlier... don’t you think his words were a little... wrong?”
He frowned then shook his head.
“I know where you’re coming from, Alex, but you have to understand that while Lysandre may seem to have extreme beliefs, he really doesn’t. I’ve known him for years, and he’s always working to help others. Did you know the vast majority of the profits Lysandre Labs made off of the Holo Caster went to providing Pokémon Centers with the latest medical devices? I admit his words might seem a bit too emotional, but they’re just that: words.”
I pushed my lips together, and after taking a moment to think, tried to voice why he shouldn’t trust Lysandre.
“But you have to understand that he does have the power to go through with what he said, right? If he thought the world was currently falling backwards, there’s no one stopping him from actually destroying it, which is what he said he would do. All I’m saying-”
“Alex, Lysandre is my friend,” Sycamore said, interrupting me. “Everything he does is to benefit others. He’s the reason I could afford to sponsor so many trainers, and he’s the one who donated the Holo Casters as part of the sponsorship. Please, I can see he might have rubbed you the wrong way, but I trust him with my life, and I don’t appreciate you making insinuations based around hypotheticals.”
I grimaced at his response, and simply picked up the Holo Caster to have it be explained next. Sycamore took it as the cue to move on, but I could tell neither of us were happy about how this conversation had just gone.
The sad truth sunk in as he explained the Holo Caster, and I realized that Sycamore wouldn’t be able to be trusted. He had been blinded by his friendship with Lysandre, and it would take drastic action to convince him Lysandre only had the worst in mind - drastic actions I wasn’t willing to take.
I took comfort in the fact that Thomas would hopefully be able to send the message to Steven soon, and hoped he understood how pressing this matter was if I needed him to visit personally. I learned quickly that the Holo Caster was simply a phone that could project holograms during calls, and zoned out while I considered my next steps.
In all honesty, if I was just waiting for a response, I wanted to spend tomorrow doing nothing and relaxing.
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"Every day I ask you all what you want to do, and every day you brush off exploring Lumiose in favor of training as a group. I understand you want to spend time together while our team isn’t split up, but we can't just spend every day sitting in the ranch and working together. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but I think it's time we do something much more relaxing. Please, I really need this after what happened with Lysandre yesterday."
My Pokémon looked a bit guilty, but didn't look away as I set out the pamphlet of popular tourist locations on the floor in our room. It was still the morning, so we had the entire day ahead of us, and I started narrating what we could do in the city.
"There's an art museum in the north, and a bunch of cafes, well, everywhere. There's a few different plazas with street performers we can watch, and even a Rhyhorn racing track to the southeast. Alternatively, we could visit one of the battling restaurants to see if we could earn a good meal."
My Pokémon listened intently, and chatted among themselves about each option. Out of all of the options, the battling restaurant seemed to garner the most interest, although Azumarill was most interested in the Rhyhorn races, and Altaria wanted to go to the museum. I filed away those options as something we could do another day, and while they were deciding what they wanted to do, I briefly called Lacey to apologize and tell her I was unable to assist today.
After a brief discussion, we confirmed the battle restaurant as our choice and headed out.
It would be rude of me to have my entire team take up the path, so I rotated which Pokémon stayed out while we casually meandered through the city. Since the restaurant wouldn’t take the whole day, we decided to just passively explore in the meantime.
While I kept Pokémon out alongside me, I could only have so many out without getting rude stares. At the most, only Mawile, Ponyta, and Whimsicott could be out together, since they were all small and Whimsicott could ride on my shoulder, so the rest of the time the other Pokémon were out one by one.
We passed by many shops with bright open windows displaying the goods for sale inside. There were bakeries and grocers, boutiques and jewelers, and even just a shop that sold rare stones. Ninetales eyed a few of the clothing stores, and Mawile seemed to be interested in the jewelry. Altaria was the one most interested in the rare stones, for some reason, and I made sure to memorize their interests just in case any member of my team wanted to accessorize in the future.
We also walked through several plazas, which either acted as miniature parks, or served as decently-sized open spaces with either a fancy fountain or sculpture in the center. Generally speaking, the stone structures contained images of native Pokémon on them, but one plaza actually contained a statue of an old king of Kalos, the one that used to own Parfum Palace to the west.
A number of street performers were present too, and we stopped a number of times to watch the performers go through various acts of sleight of hand supported by Psychic powers. There was one humorous show between a mime and a Mr. Mime where the mime kept trying to perform, but Mr. Mime would interrupt him by creating actual psychic structures.
Eventually, it reached noon and a larger number of people than expected got off work to prepare to eat. At that time, Azumarill was out with me, and we walked towards the battle restaurant, making it in record time due to people unintentionally keeping their distance after becoming scared by Azumarill’s face.
Battle restaurants were gimmick locations popular in Lumiose, aimed specifically towards tourists and trainers. Essentially, before guests were allowed to eat, they had to engage one of the servers in a specific type of battle, and once it was done, they would receive a meal based on how well they fought. Minimal food would be served on a loss, but at the same time, crushing the server within only a few moves would reward a high-class delicacy not available anywhere else. There were rumors of people performing poorly enough to only get a single slice of cheese to share between the team, and also stories of people performing well enough that the meal they received brought tears to their eyes.
It was more of a silly experience than anything else, and in some places the servers were purposely rude just to add to the atmosphere. Considering I wanted to stop thinking about Lysandre, it was the perfect distraction for me and my team.
The restaurant itself was a large building, wider than most of the others around it. This one wasn’t as popular as others, so there was no line outside, and I was able to get in after only a short wait. The up-front cost was higher than I expected, but considering some people probably stormed out after losing, it made sense why that was necessary.
I returned Azumarill when I was let in, and a waitress waved me over and escorted me to an elevator in the back. I walked past a number of people sitting at large tables surrounded by their Pokémon, and even got to witness the humorous scene of one trainer looking downcast at a chunk of ice covered in ketchup. His team didn’t find that as funny as I did.
As I entered the elevator, the waitress glanced over to me.
“Would you like the single battle course, or the double battle course?” she asked.
I hummed.
“Double battle, please. It would be fun to have another one of those again.”
The waitress simply nodded and hit the “2” button on the elevator, and we stood in silence until the elevator reached its destination, where it opened up into a large, empty room that contained a single battlefield. One wall had a number of ceiling-high windows that overlooked the streets below, and I could see Prism Tower, the central Lumiose tower, in the distance.
The room was empty, and when I glanced over to the waitress next to me, she simply smirked and walked over to take her place in the trainer box.
“New to this, huh? I’ll be your opponent, as well as the referee. Your actions here will determine the quality of your meals, so think twice before you trash talk.”
I wisely kept my mouth shut, and approached the other side of the field. The waitress shouted out to me from across the room.
“We’ll only be using two Pokémon each, and we’ll send them both out at once. Once every Pokémon on one team faints, it’ll be over, so I hope you brought healing items for when your Pokémon are knocked out!”
I shifted my backpack around and purposely patted it, referring to the small supply of healing items I kept for emergencies. The waitress seemed satisfied at that, and tossed forward two Pokéballs from her pocket.
Appearing on the field was a large bipedal panda chewing on a twig, as well as a white, swan-like bird with blue plumage on its breast. The Pangoro and Swanna yelled their names as I grabbed two Pokéballs to make a choice.
Appearing on my side of the field were Whimsicott and Mawile. While Whimsicott still didn’t have his attacking moves ready for battle, he was still an exceptionally strong support Pokémon, which was perfect for Mawile’s lower mobility but powerful attacks.
As we waited for the waitress to start the battle, Whimsicott floated down to rub his fluff on Mawile, and her face contorted in annoyance and she pushed him off.
A sudden snap caught our attention, and the waitress pointed forward right at my team.
“Let’s begin! Platter two: Close up, and far out!” she yelled and commanded.
Pangoro lumbered forward, its large paws curled up into heavy fists, and Swanna took to the air. Mawile approached the buff panda, and Whimsicott stayed close to the ground, near Mawile. Pangoro brought its fist back then shot it forward straight at Mawile.
She quickly brought her jaws forward and enhanced them with Iron Defense, blocking the incoming Hammer Arm punch. There was a gong-like sound as the move impacted her large metal mouth, and I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw a sudden puff of Stun Spore come off of her jaws.
It seemed that when Whimsicott rubbed on her earlier, he placed Stun Spore on the surface of her jaws, where it wouldn’t affect her actual body, so when she blocked her foe would get paralyzed.
Locked in its position, Pangoro stiffened and tried to move its arm back and failed. Mawile opened her jaws to bite down on the extended appendage, but Whimscot suddenly shot forward to pull her back.
Impacting into the ground where she just was, an Air Slash just barely missed her, and Swanna screeched. The angry bird sailed past its immobilized ally and chased both Whimsicott and Mawile, far outpacing Whimsicott’s encumbered speed.
Mawile pushed Whimsicott away again, separating the two of them, and he floated high into the air as she flicked her jaws forward and sent out a Stone Edge. Swanna tried to dodge, which meant a few of them went wide, but a good number of the stones dug into its wings.
It started to fall, and Whimsicott used this opportunity to send a Leech Seed forward. Swanna blocked that attack by puffing out loose feathers that spiraled around it in the air, then sailed at Mawile.
While the Feather Dance ended up coating Mawile in the debilitating fluff, and gummed up her jaws, I smirked.
“That means nothing to you, Mawile! Take it out!”
Swanna landed on the ground and sent a Water Pulse at Mawile, but she simply took the damage head on, washing a few feathers off of her body, and her teeth crackled with electricity. Her Thunder Fang latched onto Swanna as it screamed in pain, and unfortunately for it, the four times effective move was too much and it fainted.
“Nice try with the Feather Dance, but Mawile has the ability ‘Hyper Cutter,’ and the effectiveness of her jaws can never be lowered. You might have made it harder for her to bite, but her teeth dug into the Swanna just as well.”
The waitress crossed her arms.
“That sounds like trash talk to me. Might have to take off some points for that.”
I grimaced.
Oops.
Pangoro, a short distance away, managed to force through the reaction that was paralyzing it with Stun Spore, and with stilted movement, made its way towards Mawile.
Honestly, I could have had Mawile move in and easily take it out, but sometimes it was better to stay at a distance to make sure my Pokémon wouldn’t be damaged.
“Mawile, stay back. Whimsicott, Fairy Wind.”
Whimsicott, using one of the two offensive moves he knew, puffed up and sent out a controlled breeze of pink wind that crackled against Pangoro’s body. It was unable to properly defend itself due to the paralysis, and the Fairy Type move was four times effective against its Dark and Fighting Type body.
Mawile assisted by sending forward a few Stone Edges, and Pangoro fainted without being able to attack for a second time.
The waitress returned her Pokémon, and despite losing, didn’t look upset at all. She crossed her arms, closed her eyes, and tapped her foot for a while as Mawile moved close, and Whimsicott floated around me. The battle had been a lot easier than I expected, but I was proud of my Pokémon, regardless. I patted Whimsicott, and brought out a Potion to help with the single dent on Mawile’s jaws, healing her up while we waited.
Eventually, the waitress’s eyes shot open and she snapped her fingers.
“B-plus,” she said.
I had little clue what grading scale they used, but it felt like I had done decently well.
She waved a hand, motioning me to follow, and I returned my Pokémon, the little bit of damage taken now healed. The elevator brought us back down to the ground floor, where she brought me to a large table, and left to place the order for us.
I sent out my team, who all looked around mildly impressed, except for Ninetales. She looked a little miffed that it wasn’t colder here. A group of unfamiliar waiters then brought out a number of stools of various sizes for my Pokémon to sit on, which let them all reach the table. My team chatted among themselves as I silently waited to be served, and eventually, a number of plates were set out for us, letting me see what we were given.
They looked like stuffed tomatoes, but were clearly Tamato berries instead. I knew Ninetales, Florges, and Ponyta wouldn’t like their spicy flavor, so I resolved to buy some kind of treat for them later. The berries were filled with a variety of mixed vegetables, and as I took a bite, I frowned.
It was delicious, but there was something about the way it was heated up that felt off. Having a sudden realization, I used my fork to pull out a chunk of the center, and when I bit down on it, it was freezing cold.
Our meal had been microwaved.