Chapter 85 (Patreon)

Altaria and I basically traveled in a straight line, going straight from Shalour to Lumiose. Interestingly enough, this was the same path I had traveled with Hope when we first left Lumiose. We spent a night camping off route, then arrived in Lumiose late afternoon the next day.

I had originally planned to send Whimsicott ahead since he expressed interest in meeting back up with Dedenne, but since traveling was taking more than one day, I had to send Ninetales over instead to ensure she would be in a city to continue her treatment. It filled me with worry that she was off on her own, but the assistants that worked at Sycamore’s ranch were trustworthy, and it was important for her to not miss a scheduled appointment.

Once we arrived in Lumiose, Altaria and I landed right outside of Professor Sycamore’s laboratory. A few people gawked at us as we landed, and a nearby child even laughed at the basket I had been riding in. I paid them little mind and headed straight in.

As far as I knew, Ninetales was resting in Sycamore’s garden, so I prioritized moving there first. The front gate wasn’t locked, but I still had to knock on the door to be let in.

Sophie, Sycamore’s dark haired assistant, answered the door. She smiled softly when she saw it was me.

“Hi, Alex,” she said. “Glad to see you made it safely.”

“It wasn’t that bad of a trip. I’m getting used to traveling outside of the normal routes.”

She stepped to the side to make room for me to fully walk in, and as I passed her, I couldn’t help but to notice that she had a concerned look on her face. However, she didn’t seem to be worried about me in particular.

“Sycamore hasn’t touched his research recently,” she explained once she saw I had noticed.

My head snapped to face her. She continued to speak.

“Ever since everything that happened with Lysandre, he’s barely been motivated to continue his research. He’s been going to bed at a normal time and even eating far healthier. It’s nothing like him. He mostly sits around and fills out paperwork he’s been putting off. I’m getting worried.”

I didn’t know what to think. That didn’t sound like the Sycamore I had gotten to know in the past month at all.

When it came to Sycamore, in all honesty, I was a bit bothered by him. Not only had he unintentionally leaked my identity as the source of the Mega Evolution information to his assistants, but he had also been completely blind to Lysandre’s faults. While neither of those had been done maliciously, and while I understood why he chose to trust a close friend over someone he hardly knew, he hadn’t given me any solid reasons to trust him.

While I was out, I hadn’t really called Sycamore at all. I didn’t want him to leak my whereabouts again, and also, I was paranoid that Team Flare was spying on me. However, I hadn’t really changed that once Lysandre was captured, either. The only time I had actually called was to inform them I would be coming back to Lumiose. However, it had been Sophie to pick up the phone then rather than Professor Sycamore.

“Should we do something?” I asked.

Sophie grimaced.

“I’m not sure. Maybe?”

I sighed.

“Thanks for the heads up, Sophie. I’ll try to keep an eye out.”

She gave me another soft smile, and left to return to her research in the medical wing of the lab. I turned back around and continued towards the garden to find Ninetales.

When I arrived, Ninetales was napping under a tree with a happy look on her face. I released everyone on the team, which happened to include Carbink, and they immediately started to move around the foliage. Carbink hadn’t been here before, and their eyes went wide at seeing so many plants for the first time. Mawile tapped them on the side, and after drawing their attention, she started to give Carbink a tour of the place while Ponyta walked alongside the pair.

I moved to sit down next to the sleeping Ninetales, and as I did, a familiar squeaking caught my attention. Dedenne immediately ran up my arm to my shoulder and began to chitter away in my ear. I knew he knew I couldn’t understand him, but I think he just wanted to talk anyway. It’d been over a week since I last saw him, and I think we both missed each other’s company.

Ninetales slept while I patted Dedenne. I made a quick mental note to pick up a grooming kit for both Dedenne and Carbink. My deal with Steven was still technically on, and just because I had forgotten about it for so long while focusing on Ninetales didn’t mean I couldn’t do it soon. It was pleasant just relaxing in the gardens again, but I didn’t get a chance to do so for very long. Soon, a familiar man moved to stand in the entrance of the garden with an extremely guilty-looking forced smile on his face. Professor Sycamore slowly approached where I was resting.

“It’s good to see you again, Alex,” Sycamore said quietly. Ninetales stirred in her sleep just enough to peek open her eyes to see me and smile, then closed her eyes to go back to sleep.

I stood up to make some distance from her so we could talk at a normal volume without waking her up. Dedenne stayed on my shoulder.

“I want to apologize,” Sycamore stated as soon as we reached the entrance to the garden. “I should have seen the signs. I should have known that Lysandre was suspicious. The flags were there, but I was blinded by our friendship. Every night, the conversation where you warned me repeats in my mind. If only I had believed you.”

I let out a long sigh.

“Lysandre isn’t your fault. He was putting on a mask to everyone he knew. You didn’t see it, Diantha didn’t see it, heck, practically the entire region didn’t see it. I only had the chance due to what I’m going to call an outside perspective. Don’t blame yourself for not stopping something you had no chance to stop.”

Sycamore tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace than anything else.

“You speak a harsh truth, Alex, one that I know but my mind refuses to understand. I’ve been taking a break from my normal work just to work on my mental health, but honestly I’ve been struggling with the knowledge that my best friend of years was doing so many wrongs.” He sighed. “You’re off the hook for any demonstrations for Mega Evolution. I have more than enough data to work with as it stands. You’re also welcome to stay here as long as you want, our rooms are always open to you.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling. “I appreciate that.”

This time, his smile looked more genuine.

“By the way, I recently received a shipment related to my work. Would you like to see something extremely cool?”

I tilted my head.

“Sure?”

“Wonderful!” he said excitedly, clapping his hands. “Follow me!”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Sycamore had wanted to bring me to a wing of his lab I hadn’t seen before, but of course the trip didn’t end up going right. Recently, it has felt like a lot of my trips met that fate.

We walked in silence on the way there, not having much else to say, when a door opened up and a new man stepped through. He wasn’t an assistant of Sycamore’s that I was familiar with, but I was familiar with him. Rather than the outfit I saw him wearing before, he was now dressed in a long white lab coat over his rotund belly, and wore a blue rubber glove on one hand with the other hand gloveless. The same set of red goggles covered his eyes, and his strange haircut was still dyed a Team Flare red.

When Xerosic saw me, he grinned, revealing his perfectly white teeth. Nearly every word he spoke had an almost playful tone to it, as if this whole situation was nothing more than a joke.

“Oh? It seems like we have guests, Sycamore. Why didn’t you inform me Alex was visiting?”

Sycamore just glared at him, and I felt my hair start to stand on its ends as Dedenne prepared an Electric Type move just in case. The ex-Team Flare researcher paid him no mind and continued to have a perfectly amiable look on his face.

“I didn’t know you were here, Xerosic,” I said.

I sent a pointed glance to Sycamore. He grimaced.

“Sorry, Alex. I’ve been trying to forget about him. He’s been here for a week now, but this is only the second time I’ve met him in person. I had forgotten he had claimed this room as his own.”

Xerosic chuckled at Professor Sycamore’s words.

“Forgive me for being rude. I was simply preoccupied by my own analysis work. I have a significant amount of data I recently acquired, thanks to you. Please now, enough with the staring! I am a pardoned man, my old actions are behind me in the eyes of the law. Let me start anew in the graces of the great Sycamore’s own lab.”

He held out his arms and I couldn’t help but to recognize a bit of Lysandre in him. However, where Lysandre faked his emotions and put on an act for everyone around him, Xerosic clearly wasn’t even bothering. He was just staring at our unhappy reactions with that same infuriating grin on his face, treating this as some kind of sick game.

“You’re an awful person, and you shouldn’t be free,” I snapped. “It’s a wonder that you aren’t in a prison.”

“It’s true, I’m an awful person,” he replied, faking a smile. “If you ask me if I regret my past actions, I would say I don’t. However, I understand what I can and cannot get away with now that my old allegiances have been revealed, and you can trust me that I will put all my effort forth to improve this society of ours. Together, we will put humanity forward on a brighter path! Something, I note, Lysandre failed to do.”

He paused.

“Oh, and Pokémon will be on a brighter path as well,” he added. “I can’t forget that.”

While I couldn’t see Xerosic’s eyes under his goggles, I could tell he just winked at me.

Sycamore just dragged his hand down his face, then let out a long sigh.

“Espeon, please tell Xerosic to stop bothering us,” he called out.

The second Sycamore said that, Xerosic jumped back and “eep”’d like a child. He pressed himself against the wall, and his unusually pale skin somehow became even more pale. Walking out of the room he just exited from was a pink cat-like Pokémon with a pronged tail flicking back and forth in annoyance. It let out a long yawn and glared at Xerosic.

“Ah, Espeon! We were, uh, just talking! Yes, nothing more than playful banter!” He quickly turned our way. I could see that he was sweating. “Excuse me, I must return to my work. Immediately.”

Xerosic scurried back into the room he exited from, and Espeon followed. For a briefest of moments I saw a smirk on the Psychic Type's face before the door behind the pair was slammed shut by its Psychic Type powers.

Sycamore rubbed his temples.

“Have you heard the recent developments regarding the Elite Four, Alex?” Sycamore asked as we resumed our walk to whatever it was he wanted to show me.

“No, I haven’t,” I replied.

“Well, with the revelation that Malva had been working for Team Flare, she’s been demoted and removed from her position. Replacing her, just beating out the Ice Type Gym Leader Wulfric, is Anistar City’s Gym Leader Olympia, a Psychic Type specialist. As an expert in predicting the future, it was decided that her expertise in that ability as well as the Psychic Type will help keep the region safe from future threats. As part of the plea deal Xerosic negotiated in exchange for his freedom, we’re temporarily host to her Espeon while we wait for a more permanent solution. Espeon is making sure he doesn’t misbehave.”

“Well, that explains it a bit,” I mumbled. “Sorry you’ll have to deal with him, Sycamore.”

He just shrugged.

“It’s better me than someone else. As the authority on the subject, I’ll be able to tell if he starts to dip into more dangerous areas of study, and I’ll also be able to make proper use of anything he discovers. Our areas of focus overlap, and considering the security on this place, there’s little chance he’ll ever be able to return to his cruel methods.”

I hummed. It still bothered me that Xerosic was free, but at least there were proper precautions in place to ensure he could never work with people as bad as Team Flare again. Also, I’d be lying if I’d said I didn’t enjoy hearing him scream.

We continued down through the upper floor hallways until Sycamore finally led me to a large, perfectly clean lab with a massive device hooked up in the center of it. It was sealed by a windowed wall and a door locking it off, allowing me to get only a glance at what it was. At best, I would say it looked like a fancy lathe with a device reminiscent of the one Xerosic was using to drain Diancie’s central crystal hanging from the ceiling.

Sycamore entered the room but told me to wait outside, by the window.

"I admit, I actually received the stone a few days ago, but when I heard you were coming back I purposely put it off so I can show you."

He reached underneath the lathe to pull up a metal briefcase and heaved it onto a flat surface that stuck out from the rest of the machine. Opening it up, he pulled out a gray marble with a yellow and black swirl on the inside, then walked to the corner to retrieve a ladder that had been hidden from view.

It was a little strange to see it again in this place, but I had actually seen that stone before. It was Rory’s Beedrillite.

"With Lysandre Labs out of the picture, the task of duplicating Mega Stones has temporarily fallen to me,” Sycamore explained. “I only have one moderately out of date machine so it’s a slow process, but it’s necessary to make sure the proper trainers have what they need. At this point, the duplicator should be fully charged enough for the task to succeed. It’s really a beautiful event, in my opinion.”

Climbing up the ladder, Sycamore reached the hanging device and opened up a compartment on the side. He slotted in the Mega Stone then moved back down, and returned the ladder to its spot in the corner.

After he left the room, he locked the door behind him and hit a button on the nearby wall. I heard a click and the machine whirred to life.

"Here we go!" Sycamore said happily.

A soft humming filled the air and the hanging device, which looked like an upside-down lightning rod, crackled with iridescent lightning then began to shock the lathe. At first, I was confused, but looking closer I saw what seemed to be a perfectly round gem spinning rapidly within the machine on the floor. The lightning arced into the crystal as it began to give off a bright glow. Considering the lightning wasn’t just bright white but instead all the colors of the rainbow, the entire room lit up with a colorful glow.

The way the colors shifted was unnatural, but there was a clear pattern to them that overlapped on themselves. Purples shifted to reds, and red to greens then blues in an array of shifting I had never seen before. Computers had always been able to generate patterns and the like, but I knew they would never be able to replicate something like this.

"Whenever I'm down, I always find this view cheers me up,” Sycamore whispered almost reverently. “This is proof my research isn’t for nothing. It’s beautiful, with a proper use to boot. Right here, right in front of our eyes, an incredibly rare stone is being duplicated to near perfection. In naught but a few hours, we’ll have a brand new, second Beedrillite at our disposal.”

I didn’t want to speak. It wasn’t anything I expected to see in a research lab like this.

We stood there for a while, taking in the light show until Sycamore spoke up. His tone felt a bit more serious than usual, but the way he spoke reminded me of how he had been acting when I first showed up to the lab.

"I have a proposition for you, Alex," he said.

“Oh?” I asked.

He cleared his throat.

"Lysandre has done more harm than good," he began. "He tied his organization so closely to Mega Evolution, I fear that people may be turned away from the phenomenon. I believe Mega Evolution to be the ultimate demonstration of a Pokémon’s bond to their trainer, and I want the world to see it as I do. It represents a dangerous power, but it's a power that is inherently limited to people who would only use it for good.”

I purposely didn’t bring up Courtney.

"Alex, in your upcoming Gym Challenge, how would you like to battle a few Gym Leaders’ personal teams in publicized show battles? I'd like you to demonstrate how a proper Mega Evolution looks to the world. I already have a few other trainers willing to do the same in other regions, but I’d like you to do it in Sinnoh. I'm only asking for a couple of them: three, to be exact. One in the beginning of the season, one in the middle, and one at the end. It'd go a long way to undoing the damage Lysandre caused to society."

"What about my identity?" I asked. "I do want to keep it secret."

At that, he turned my way with a funny look on his face.

"Part of being a Pokémon trainer is competing in public settings. Do you really want to avoid that?" he asked.

I coughed sheepishly.

"Well, when you put it that way... Ugh. I've been so caught up with keeping my identity a secret with everything going on, I’ve forgotten part of becoming a Pokémon trainer is to become famous. A lot of stuff has happened recently. It's only four months into the year and yet my team has fended off two different terrorist leaders. I haven’t really had a chance to be a normal Pokémon trainer in a while.”

Sycamore chuckled.

“Well, you have quite a record, and if my memory serves me right, I could have sworn there are a few videos of a certain Mega Mawile’s training exercise circling the Pokénet.” I looked away. “The offer still stands, and I’ll be sure to make it worth your while. So, Alex. Are you interested in competing in some show battles?”

I smiled. I had no reason to refuse.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Sycamore and I hashed out the details while the Beedrillite continued to be duplicated nearby. First off, I’d get paid for these battles. Each payment wouldn’t be that large since the purpose of these shows was to get people to watch them rather than sell tickets, but the real benefit was the chance to battle a few Gym Leader’s teams in an official format. Second, he called in a favor with Valerie, a local Gym Leader I planned on visiting soon. Her secondary job would be extremely helpful when it came to my future visit to Sinnoh. He also said he’d need a week or two to set everything up, and afterwards, he’d give me the list of the three Gym Leaders whose personal teams I would be facing.

Once that conversation was finished, he gave me a different proposal: duplicating Mawile’s Mawilite. Now, while the stone wasn’t available en masse, it technically wasn’t the first. Apparently, a friend of Gurkinn had her own Mawilite but declined to have the stone duplicated. The benefits were limited to an initial sum of money as well as a small bonus whenever a copy was sold through official channels. That extra fund lasted in perpetuity, which meant it would be a small amount of added income every so often. However, the Mawilite wasn’t mine, but Mawile's, which meant this was a decision for her to make herself.

We went back downstairs, chatted with Mawile, and basically asked her for her thoughts. As a Pokémon, she had no need of money, but I’d explain that the profits would basically be a fund I could use to buy things specific to her. As I talked about how she would be able to dictate my purchases with that money, she took one look at Ponyta and agreed.

We stayed in Lumiose for the next several weeks. It took about six hours for a Mega Stone to be duplicated, and seven times that for the machine to be recharged. As a result, it meant that Mawile’s Mawilite didn’t get duplicated until later that week, and immediately, she made me buy a bunch of berries to share with the rest of the team with her initial funds.

During our time in Lumiose, I made sure to make a few stops at Lacey’s bakery. Now that there weren’t any unflattering rumors being spread, her business was actually doing exceptionally well. She had a large number of customers frequently stopping by to purchase her pastries, and even more, she was branching out into what I could only call “unique” flavors.

Listed in her displays were Poké Puffs with labels such as “Energy Drink,” “Ketchup,” “Meatloaf,” and even one just called “Bark.” While none of them sold well, she told me she did have a few customers whose Pokémon were absolutely in love with those flavors, and they would stop by daily to purchase one. I found it weird, but it was clearly working for her.

When I was there, I tried to buy a Poké Puff for Carbink and a few more for the rest of the team. However, Lacey refused to sell me any and instead gave me any I asked for for free. I managed to trick her into thinking I was planning on not giving her anything in return before I threw a wad of cash into the tip jar and scampered off. I could hear her yelling at me to get back there as I left.

Carbink loved the Poké Puff, too. They had never had anything like that in their caves before.

Ninetales received physical therapy each day for the next two weeks, basically going through stretching routines and practice with certain ways of movement. Each day, she improved a little more until it got to the point where the meetings weren’t necessary. She was still required to follow through with basic exercises to promote proper healing, but she was on pace to being back to normal condition.

As a team, we did a few other things like visiting an art museum for Altaria and watching Rhyhorn races with Azumarill, but more importantly, we spent a lot of time training.

There wasn’t much to actually develop over the month. Everyone had their abilities or moves to work on, like the Grass Type-based abilities Ramos had given us advice with, and Whimsicott’s new moves. Carbink and Dedenne spent a bunch of time trying to catch up with everyone else, as neither of them had really competed in battles that much. Carbink was interested in high level battles while Dedenne just seemed like he wanted to hang out with us. I didn’t think Dedenne would ever be that great of a battler, but I had thought that about Florges and was proven completely wrong.

In terms of new moves, there were only a few small changes. First off, Ponyta was able to figure out Psybeam. It was a more offensive and direct application of Confusion that he could shoot from his horn. Similarly, he was trying to figure out Heal Pulse, but he only had Florges’s Wish to help him. I tried to ask Sophie for advice as this should have been her area of expertise, but it was the application of a Pokémon’s capabilities that she was familiar with, rather than actually teaching the moves.

She did give a few insights Ponyta found helpful, at least.

In their training, Carbink and Dedenne also learned new moves. For Carbink, they already knew two powerful Rock Type moves in the form of Smack Down and Ancient Power, so we focused on learning Fairy Type attacks instead. While Moonblast wasn’t coming as easily as it should have, Ninetales was able to teach Carbink Dazzling Gleam while she recovered, so now Carbink was able to emanate bright light from their head and crystals.

Dedenne, on the other hand, stuck with his Electric Type attacks. I wanted him to eventually learn Thunder to combo with Azumarill’s Rain Dance, but his most powerful basic Electric Type move was the relatively weak Thunder Shock. Electroweb was stronger, but operated on slightly different principles. As much of a step up Thunderbolt would be, we worked on Discharge instead as the move came to his species naturally. My goal was to follow a similar path as Ninetales to work on his power and control.

The last Pokémon to get new moves was Whimsicott. As steps in developing the moves I actually wanted him to learn, he learned two moves to act as stop gaps, although one of them was powerful on its own.

The first move he learned was Poison Powder, which he was able to hide in his attacks just as well as Stun Spore, and by learning it he gained the initial understanding of Poison Type moves for his future understanding of Toxic. Secondly, he also learned Tailwind, which was a move that conjured winds to help speed up allied Pokémon’s movements. Tailwind was nice to know in general, and I hoped he could learn it to work towards learning Hurricane in the future.

With some advice I wrote down from Ramos, Whimsicott also started to develop his “Chlorophyll” ability, which increased his available energy in the sunlight to let him move a lot quicker. The only ability that was properly developed over this time period was Altaria’s Mega Form’s Pixilate, but that was only due to Mega Evolutions’ abilities developing quickly.

We had arrived back in Lumiose late April, and left once more in mid May. The next Sinnoh League season was to start in only a couple of weeks, and there was one more place I wanted to visit before I left the region.

What kind of a Fairy Type trainer would I be if I missed visiting Kalos’s Fairy Type Gym?

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Laverre City was an idyllic town built on the rolling hills of northern Kalos. Altaria and I had to fly over a swampy forest to reach it, but considering the journey only took a day in total, it wasn’t too bad. Looking down on the route from above, I made sure to give Altaria a large number of compliments for being able to carry me in the basket. Without his willingness to carry me, it would have taken me multiple days of trudging through muck and gunk to arrive at my goal.

We made it to the city right after dusk, so I quickly returned Altaria and reserved a room at the Pokémon Center. Bright and early the next day, I went to the local Gym, which specialized in the Fairy Type.

The main building of Laverre Gym had a large tree growing out of it. It wasn’t anywhere near as large as Ramos’s tree, but it was still the size of a small building, stretching out of the roof and obscuring the area around it in shade.

Entering the Gym itself, I took in the design of the room. While the exterior of the Gym had a comfy, european-like appearance, the inside was themed classically Japanese. More specifically, the interior had a classical Johto theme.

Additionally, I was surprised to see that the lobby had several trainers waiting to challenge Valerie. Ramos’s Gym had been closed when I visited so I was caught off guard by the reminder the League was in progress. Ramos had initially temporarily closed the Gym to give his Gym Trainers a break, and that had lasted much longer than intended due to Diancie’s sudden presence. Most likely, the current set of trainers here in Laverre were trying to earn one last Gym Badge before the season ended in a few weeks.

I approached the receptionist; a dark-haired woman wearing a red and black kimono. Her head was resting in her hand and she barely looked up at me with half-lidded eyes when I spoke.

“Hello. I’m Alex, and I have a meeting with Valerie?” I asked.

She slowly blinked at me.

“We’ll call you up when it's your turn to battle her,” she mumbled.

“What? I’m not a Gym Challenger. Professor Sycamore should have called ahead.”

It took her a moment to process what I just said before she suddenly sat up straighter and quickly checked her computer.

“Oh! You’re that trainer. Yes, I’ll alert Miss Valerie that you’ve arrived. She’ll be free between battles momentarily. You’re welcome to watch the current fight while you wait.”

I thanked her for her help and entered the door she pointed to to enter the battlefield.

I emerged into a room that contained an elevated cobblestone platform with a large dirt battlefield in the center of it. The room itself was wide and open, and around the field was a sand garden trench that made the room feel like it was outside. There weren’t any bleachers like in the other Gyms I’d been to, but there was a small, wooden, upper section with a few benches set up with a handful of people already seated, casually watching the battle.

On the field below a woman was currently fighting a large man. The woman was dressed in a beautifully made pink and yellow outfit with hanging sleeves that made her arms look like wings. On her head, she had a set of purple ribbons that pointed off to the side, and that combined with the rest of her outfit almost made her seem like some kind of otherworldly creature rather than an actual human.

The large man, meanwhile, was dressed in the classic gi of a martial-arts inspired Fighting Type specialist, and he had a strained frown on his face as his beefy panda-like Pangoro struggled against Valerie’s Spritzee.

The perfume-based Fairy Type flew about in the air as Pangoro tried to punch it away. Repeatedly, it failed to do so as the small pink Pokémon was consistently able to spray a Fairy Wind mist into its face. Pangoro’s eyes were bright red and it was huffing and coughing. As a result, it was unable to land a hit at all.

Pretty quickly, the Fighting and Dark Type was overwhelmed by the barrage of the weak but four times effective moves, and its trainer was forced to return the fainted Pokémon. He scowled and stomped off the field, leaving Valerie and her Spritzee behind.

As he left, a voice echoed out from the ceiling declaring Valerie the winner. It seemed there was no referee directly present, but they were instead watching from another room and speaking through hidden speakers.

Spritzee flew over to Valerie, who rubbed the side of her Pokémon affectionately before returning the Fairy Type to its Pokéball. Her gaze slowly drifted over the audience, where it landed on me. I felt like jumping.

Her eyes didn’t have any pupils. That combined with her entire look gave her extreme uncanny-valley vibes. With her appearance, there was no question she was a Fairy Type specialist.

The way she was pointedly staring at me without speaking made me realize she wanted me to go down there. I quickly made my way down a staircase on the side of the upper section, but as I did the referee’s voice rang out once more.

“This will be a casual battle between Valerie’s guest, Alex, and Valerie herself. Each trainer will use two Pokémon from their personal team, and it will end once both of one trainer’s Pokémon are no longer able to battle.”

I snapped my head to face Valerie, who just maintained a demure smile on her face in response. I hadn’t expected a battle today, but a two on two battle against members of Valerie’s personal team? I wasn’t going to pass up that chance.

I didn’t think I’d ever battled a Fairy Type specialist before.

====================================================
Author Note:

Hurricane and Thunder as long term goals? I wonder if Alex is pushing toward having a better combination with Azumarill’s Rain Dance...

Xerosic’s presence wasn’t in my original plans. It wasn’t until I was writing Chapter 82 that I realized he might have not gone along with Lysandre’s plans in this screwed up timeline. If this was the anime, he for sure would have stayed loyal, but this universe is a mix of the anime and the games with a completely different order of events. Team Flare collapsed years ahead of time.

This chapter was essentially just a last bit of “cleaning up” as Kalos winds to the close. Next chapter is the finale of this short stay in the region.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:
Diancie
Beedrill
Espeon
Pangoro
Spritzee

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