With the Dragonite Skull missing, myself and the Nacrene Gym Leader, Lenora, make our way into the Pinwheel Forest. Her Watchog was able to deduce that this is where the thief made a swift and accessible escape, all of my Pokémon are searching. Orla and Cola stay close by, while Quinn circles the area, and Ruff sniffs out anything peculiar.

“You go that way, I’ll go this way. Deal?”

“Sure, I’ll call you if I see anything, Alec.” Lenora runs towards the clearing, while I venture into the middle of the woods.

The trees have vines growing in and around them, many of them blocking our clear pathway into the deeper crevices of the woodland. Orla manages to chop down as many as she can, with Cola guiding Sewaddle and Venipede out of the forest for safety. Ruff leads the way with his strong sense of smell. I was knocked out today and now I’m hunting down a fossil renegade. Adventuring is a lot more than I thought it was.

The layers and layers of foliage reveal hidden Pokémon, in pain and trying to heal.

“Cola, can you help these Bug Pokémon back into the clearing!” She complies. Ever since my incident earlier, her and Quinn have been a lot more serious. Orla continues slashing down vines and digging through tunnels where Ruff points out the necessary.

I hear my phone ringing.

“Hello?”

“Alec, it’s Lenora! I’ve called the Striaton Gym Leaders to come and help us out. I haven’t been able to find the culprit but strength in numbers, you know?”

“Good idea, I’ll return to the clearing soon.” We make a sharp turn and discover a verdant path into a small clearing. A family of Cottonee are guarded by a Pansage.

“Quinn, can you come down here and help these guys out?” I shout at the top of my voice, reaching my Pidove. He swoops down and brings the Cottonee out on his tail wind. The Pansage retreats into the wilderness alongside Cola. Remnants of scorched trees reveal themselves in the process. Ruff follows them.

“You’re doing great, Ruff, hopefully it’s just a little-” as we approach the clearing we’re met by a skittish, fallen man wearing hideous garb. He’s shaking. He’s crying. He’s holding the stolen Skull.

“Excuse me, sir. I believe you have something that doesn’t belong to you.” I stand over his figure. I’d consider him somewhat attractive if he wasn’t, you know, a criminal.

“What do you want!? I’m just following orders...you can’t make me do anything!” He screams sporadically, writhing in the holds that Sewaddle have tied him in. I get my phone out to call Lenora. Ruff and Orla try their hardest to keep him down but he swats them off, sending them flying into the trees.

“What the heck did you just do!?” I roar, losing my temper and dropping my phone in the process.

“Little brats had it coming! Your damn ‘Pup bit me!” I kneel on top of the struggling thief.

“What kind of idiot would hit a Pokémon, in front of their very, very peeved off trainer. Give me that damned Skull right now or I’ll be taking yours to the museum instead.” I hear the grunts and coughs of Orla and Ruff. I want to help them but the Sewaddle web is getting thinner and looser.

“Apologise.”

“What?”

“Apologise to my Pokémon.” When, suddenly a torrent of light floods my eyes, blinding me.

When the light dissipates, there is a Herdier laying on top of the thief, and a tap on my shoulder averts my attention: a Dewott.

My research team, my partners, they evolved.

“Wott- dewah” Orla pushes me off the thief, handing me back my phone.

“Grrruff. Gruff!” Ruff howls at the skittish man.

Recovering my demeanour, I get on my phone, already dialled with Lenora worrying on the other end.

“We’ve found him, I’m sending you my coordinates.”

***

Lenora’s museum security showed up half an hour later, alongside the Striaton Gym Leaders nursing all the injured Pokémon back to health.

“We’ve taken the man in for questioning, we found identification on him so we’re going to call the authorities once we’ve undertaken our own investigation. Thank you, Alec.”

“It’s just the right thing to do, here’s the Dragonite Skull, by the way.” I hand her the skull, protected in Sewaddle webbing.

“This’ll be annoying to clean...but at least the Pokémon seem to understand this is important to the heritage of Unova too. While we know it’s not the Legendary Pokémon, knowing that Dragonite used to be commonplace here is curious, isn’t it?” A voice I recognise pipes up from behind Lenora, a man who had been spraying Potions onto a troupe of Petilil.

“Lenora, I don’t think now’s exactly the time for a history lesson.”

“Young man, you have to listen to what I’ve gotta say some day! Just because you’re a Gym Leader now doesn’t mean you don’t have to learn!” It’s really sweet seeing Lenora like this, being so calm and friendly without all of the hectic stuff. Despite everything that’s gone on, I can really tell just how much she cares about everyone. Chili walks right past her, laying an arm around my shoulder.

“Well, long time no see! Looks like someone’s been wrangling deviants!”

“Possibly.” I promptly remove the arm. “How’re Percy and Brant?”

“They’re good! We’ve got Brant on kitchen duty like I said and Percy’s the cutest little waiter, I’ll show you a photo of him in uniform, cute right?” He certainly is. “You seem to have some new pals though, a Roggenrola and Pidove are a pretty good combination!”

“They were a little troublesome, but they’ve done the job.” The two of them come up to me, Quinn tugging on my jean leg.

“Looks like they wanna talk, I’ll leave you guys to it. By the way I forgot to give you this when you left, sorry, I’m new to this whole Leader thing, but we’re allowed to give these to brave adults who we deem worthy too!” He hands me a pin badge. Did I just earn my first Gym Badge at 23? Oh my god.

I bend down to Quinn and Cola’s eye level.

“What’s up?” They both beckon behind them, at the families of Pokémon I’d asked them to save earlier. “Yeah, what about them?” Cola and Quinn look at each other, then me, then to the Pokémon, finishing by stomping their feet and standing proudly...I think I get it?

“You two...you two want to leave?” I say, dejected.

“They don’t want to, they feel like they need to.” Lenora’s deep voice interrupts, putting me in my place. “It looks like they feel a sense of duty here, Alec. Pinwheel Forest can be dangerous, and these two partners in crime seem to know they’re useful here, to help defend the little guys. What’re you going to do?” Pokémon going again, huh. Orla looks up to me, worryingly, patting me on the back. Ruff nuzzles against me.

“You won’t be alone, Alec. Look at those little guys trying to keep you up right now.” Lenora joins me, hunched over. “I’ll look after them, trust me on that, okay?” We both stand up, and I present Quinn and Cola’s Poké Balls.

“Thank you. See you later, okay?” They salute me, or whatever Cola thinks she’s doing. And stand by Lenora’s side.

“You’ve impressed me today, man. I saw Chili give you one earlier but here: a Gym Badge to prove you’ve done something not a lot of people would have done.” Another pin badge for my good deed, fantastic. And not an inch closer to Reshiram.

“My husband brought over those documents for you, if you wanna head out into Castelia City I’ll have a present waiting for you once you get there. You’ve been brave and strong today, sticking to your ideology. You’re saying goodbye to some friends today but tomorrow? Who knows?” Chili joins us, with a small green Pokémon playing in his hair.

“Right! If we know anything now, it’s that we can count on you. This little Petilil kept staring at you too, I think she likes you but she’s way too shy to say anything!” The cute verdant creature in question blushes, shaking furiously in Chili’s hair. Her petals, torn from the attack.

“That’s awfully sweet of her. Hello, I’m Alec.” She emerges from his ruffled mop once again. Orla hands me something, a Poké Ball.

“I think your Dewott’s got the right idea.”

***

“I trust you’ll pay this favour back in kind later.” She was one of the Petilil I helped out earlier. She’s a cutie, and Chili wasn’t the only one who saw her staring at Alec all evening.

“Oh don’t worry, girls gotta stick together, right! Love the new look, by the way.”

***

The Petilil jumps down with a twirl onto the Poké Ball. Instantly catching it.

“Elle.” As I almost instinctively say it, Orla looks up to me, smiling, nodding. “Her name is Elle.” Orla, now able to, holds my hand while riding atop of Ruff, as I bring out Elle, I place her on my shoulder, brushing her torn fringe-leaf to the side.

Without a goodbye, we make our way out of the Pinwheel Forest, leaving Cola, leaving Quinn, leaving Lenora, and with a large research paper to get through on the way to the metropolis we’d only heard of: Castelia City, where we await the delivery of Lenora’s present.