Welcome to Gaia! ::

Gotengo

"Gabriel Leroux..." Salieri's voice trailed off, then came back with, "What am I helping you with, exactly? Are you trying to take this on? You're so far out of your depth, the kiddy pool's a concept to you. You must have no clue how real this is...If you really want what's best for Helena, you should both get as far from Kalos as possible."

She sighed. "But if you really want to know what I know...you have a Kirilia, right? How close can you Teleport to the south coast? We need to talk in person."

Gotengo

Mia caught her phone. "She's in Cyllage City. That's just north of Ambrette Town," she said, following him outside. "How are you getting-oh."

All the partygoers in the courtyard looked up in awe at the sight of the grand fossil Pokémon. Not quite at the level of awe, Mia rose an eyebrow and adjusted her glasses. Growing up with the Soledad siblings conditioned her to people running off abruptly in spectacle. It seemed Zack was more similar to Salieri than they must have thought.

"You kids play nice. Bon Voyage." Aerodactyl flapped and Mia held her skirt down with one hand to brace the takeoff's gust. "He didn't take her phone number..."

The rando teen Zack spoke to first stepped back onto the porch. "Yo, did you hear that Aipom?"
Mia nodded, grabbing a beer from her nearby six pack. "Yeah. He didn't look Spanish to me."

Cyllage City

"You don't have to worry about Helena winning the league, because I'm-hello? Hello?" Sal stared at her phone before hanging up with a growl. "Damn, that guy really pisses me off. Banksy!"

She released her brother's Torkoal, who yawned out a puff of smoke. "Can you take me back to Route 8?" The tortoise sighed, then nodded reluctantly and got into flying position. Sal hopped on and surfed Banksy into the sky.

They flew south until Salieri came across what she was looking for: a large pillar of jagged stone jutting out of the ocean just off shore. It was topped with a plateau. A perfect signpost and waiting area. In a streak of white smoke they went up, and Banksy landed on the plateau.

Sal casually spraypainted a huge red X on the stone, turning the plateau into a highly visible landing pad. Banky knelt down to bask in the late afternoon sun, and Sal leaned against her shell, playing a bubble popping game on her phone.

The adorable sound of a Skitty popping bubbles cause Banksy to perk up her ears. Slowly, she craned her neck to look at the phone, pretending it was just passing interest. Sal took note and scooched closer to Banksy's head. "Wanna watch?"

Banksy made a shrugging motion with her head, but nevertheless kept watching the game. It was a little moment, but it reminded Sal of when Banksy wasn't such a shut-in.

Route 8 - Plateaued Pillar

When Antiq’s shadow was cast down on the plateau, Salieri knew Zack had arrived. Out the corner of her eye she saw the size of the Aerodactyl. It looked strong, but Salieri preferred Pokémon on the smaller size. She didn’t look up from the game on her phone until Zack spoke to her.

“Obviously it’s you,” she groaned, standing up and approaching the other trainer. A few feet away she stopped and crossed her arms, giving Zack an inquisitve look.

“So? Tell me what you think you figured out. Is Helena okay?”

Route 8 - Plateaued Pillar

"I see you have a conscience after all," Sal noted with a nod towards Gremlin. "Look, I'll tell you what I know, but only for your sister's sake. I don't like you, you don't like me. No pretenses here." She took a deep breath, and said, "There hasn't been a champion in years that hasn't been a noble. Any normal promising person ends up quitting, or disappearing. Some of them have even died."

Sal started pacing in a wide circle around Zack and Gremlin, looking off wistfully at the rippling ocean. "There's a secret sect of noble trainers that hunt those darkhorses down. They're called the darkhorse hunters, led by a girl named Nicolette Nostrad, and you won't hear about them in the news. The nobles will throw people and money at anyone they deem a threat to their lineage, including trainers looking for that champion seat." With her back turned to Zack, she added, "It happened to my brother. He got screwed..."

She kept pacing. "This morning it almost happened to me. I was under watch by a darkhorse hunter for the past twenty four hours, but I managed to track him down and take him out. And this morning, someone tried to bribe me into quitting." Pivot, stop. "They have other secrets too. Secrets they would kill to protect. They tried that with my dad, but it didn't take..."

Salieri's sentence petered out as she stepped closer to Zack. "Alright. I showed you mine, show me yours. Tell me everything you know."

"He's not coming back," Helena said, deciding that Wayne would be useless and that she'd have to harass Zack later, when they were less angry at each other. "That's called walking away with finality."

Helena turned and started away from Wayne. "Like this."

***

"So I made a huge mistake," Bridgette announced as Helena met up with her after a quick text exchange.

"There's no party, and you just heard wrong?" Bridgette seemed to be about as old as Wayne, and neither one any more mature.

"Yes and also yes. There is a party, but I thought they said free pancake day, but it was free waffle day. So I had to pay for all of those pancakes," Bridgette said. She looked flustered, but cheery. A happy smile adorned her face almost constantly, matching her hyper mannerisms - like the way she pivoted slightly from one foot to the other as if she were dancing when she stood in one place, or the skip in her step when she walked around.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Helena said. She wasn't sorry, she was angry at Zack. It was fuming that lead her to agree to go to a party in the first place. It was out of her element, and away from her brother. He'd never be caught dead, not around people having fun.

"Yeah, so I was wondering if you could pay the cab fair. I did buy all of those pancakes."

Helena took in and let out a deep breath. She didn't have a lot of money already, and losing the gym match just ate more into her wallet. "Yeah, okay."

***

"So, have you ever been to a party before?" Bridgette asked as the two of them sat in the taxi.

Helena had given instructions since she'd remembered from when Bridgette first mentioned it, but the younger girl had forgotten.

"I have been to many," birthday, "parties." Helena stared out the window at the sights of Lumiose City. It actually was beautiful, the animated billboards showing trainer advertisements, the fancy hotels each inviting one in with their own archways and fountains.

The darker it grew, the more vibrant the city became as its lights took over the sky.

"Me too," Bridgette said confidentally. Everything the girl said sounded confident, though. A part of that came from everything she said being loud and squeaky. "I get invited all the time. I have my third badge, after all. Wanna see?"

"I'm fine, but thanks," Helena said. She didn't even have her second yet. For Bridgette to have a third only made Helena feel worse about herself as a trainer.

"Okay," Bridgette said. Without missing a beat, she continued on, "I'm from Sinnoh. My father's an engineer. He helps out with the Pokemon Stadium. It's really cool, so I get to go all the time. This one time..."

Bridgette's conversation was endless. Helena found herself going from interested, to unable to keep up. Even if she wanted to give the younger girl attention, she'd find herself quickly incapable. How Bridgette even kept up with herself seemed like a mystery.

"Stop!" Bridgette suddenly shouted and the taxi jerked to a halt. "We're here."

Helena looked out at the building. It was large, a mansion with a driveway that looked like it would take several minutes to cross. There was even a street name at the start of it, 'Leisure Ln.'

"This places looks awesome," Bridgette said.

Helena pulled up the GPS on her holocaster and felt impressed that they actually had arrived at the right location with Bridgette yelling stop suddenly before she or the driver had recognized it.

"Pay the man and let's go rock and roll," Bridgette said. Under her breath she leaned over to ask if people still said that and Helena shrugged.

***

The actual walk to the mansion was several minutes. It wasn't any more painful than any other part of their journey, and Helena felt more dehydrated than tired after walking so much. Her lips were chapped, and she let it serve as a reminder to grab something to drink once they were inside.

"Ladies," the doorman said, holding up an arm to prevent them from walking inside.

"We're here for the party," Bridgette said.

"I'm sure you are, little miss, but it's not gonna happen." The doorman looked about as tall as if Bridgette stood on Helena's shoulders. He was several times as wide as them too, but it was all muscle.

"Why not?" came an all too familiar voice and Helena turned to see Grant, smiling at the two of them.

"Ms. savior," Grant nodded to Helena.

"Hey," Helena said. "Helena," she added after a moment.

"Grant." He turned to the young lady next to him. "This is Henrietta."

The girl was only slightly taller than Bridgette, but looked several yearse older. Her blues eyes and pastel pink hair stood out, emphasizing each other. Her hands were at her at her sides, but there was a slight movement of the girls fingers like she was waving at them.

"I asked her to be my date this evening, but she prefers women so she said no."

"Y-you don't have to put it that way!" Henrietta said, her voice a higher pitch than Bridgette's.

Helena looked at her, then she looked to Bridgette, who was introducing herself and forcing Henrietta into an uncomfortable hand shake followed by a hug.

Her eyes settled on Grant. "You ladies look like you could use an in, would you be willing to accept out help?" The sponsored trainer looked confident. Helena could guess why - he had probably gotten another badge. His popularity was likely skyrocketing.

"Henrietta, you'd just have to take Bridgette as your date, and we'd all get in."

"No!" Henrietta squeaked as she slipped away from Bridgette and moved to Helena's side. "That's weird, y-you do it."

Grant looked at Bridgette, who beamed up at him happily, unaware to the tone that was set by her presence. "I think we should-"

Grant turned his head to look toward Henrietta and Helena, but the two had already slipped past the doorman and into the mansion.

Grant let out a sigh and offered an arm to Bridgette. "Shall we?"

"Yes!" Bridgette wrapped both her arms around his one and the two followed after, the doorman moving aside to let them into the party.

Sycamore Research Lab - Upstairs Lab

Dexio and Sina were surrounded by stacks of old boxes. Dexio pulled them out of a deep, wide cupboard, blew off a layer of dust, and passed them to Sina, who started rifling through. The window sat open a crack, and light streamed in through the blinds, but the room was dim. Dexio passed Sina another box, which had the label peeled off. It was sealed with a thick coating of tape, so she started hacking at it with scissors.

'I can't believe he's got us doing this,' Sina grumbled, worming the tip of her scissors into the tape to make a good starting hole. 'This is all your fault, you know.'

Dexio hit his head on the underside of the cupboard, then peered out, aghast. 'Me? You're the one who was rude to the Professor! Rude!'
'Well he'd have broke if you'd just backed me up,' Sina sniffed. 'Now we'll never know why he lied about Team Flare...'
'Yes, well. I'm certain he has a very good reason. You can't expect a respected scientist like Professor Sycamore to report findings based on conjecture and hearsay. We don't know for sure that Flare are guilty.'

'Well my intuition's telling me otherwise,' Sina said, stabbing through the tape and ripping it along a seam, allowing the flaps of the box to open easily. 'And how can we-' she peered past the open door, and down the long hallway opposite. Dead and silent, with nobody to overhear. 'How can we defend Kalos if we don't listen to our guts?'

'You do raise a good point,' said Dexio, stroking his chin. 'Perhaps... perhaps if Dexio and Sina can't make the Professor talk, the Defenders of Kalos can?'
'Now you're getting it,' Sina grinned. She went through the box expecting to find old papers dating years back. The cupboard was chiefly used as storage, and in his irritation, Sycamore had ordered them to organise it. Instead of finding another stack of research documents, Sina found a collection of rectangular plastic sticks.

'Oh,' Sina said. 'Oh my god, no way. Dex, come see this.'

The sound of something hard hitting something harder suggested Dexio tried climbing out the cupboard too quickly. Rubbing his head, he crawled through the towers of boxes and paperwork, and sat on the floor next to Sina. She took her Holo Caster out of her shirt and opened a cap on its side, locating a port designed to work with the memory sticks. She plugged one in at random and set the Holo Caster on the floor.

The feed was fuzzy and blurred in places. Early Holo technology was impressive for the time, but recent years had done wonders for its resolution and quality. Even so, it was obvious that the person projected as a glowing blue ghost was a younger, shorter version of Dexio.

'Aww, you're so cute!' Sina laughed, putting on a baby voice. 'Wook at widdle Dexikins. Nice bowtie.'

Dexio, meanwhile, had set a powerful crimson across his face. 'I had no idea these tapes had... survived.'
'Well duh. They're our time capsule tapes.'
'Yes, but-'
'Shhshhshhh! You're talking.'

'Is? Is the camera on?' the Holo ghost started, 'I don't see a light- okay it's on. Ahem. Dear future Dexio, I hope you're well. This is a message from the past, which is-'
'Hurry it up, doofus!' came a familiar shout from out of shot. Past Dexio stood upright indignantly.
'I'm trying!' he yelled, waving a thick stack of cue cards. 'But I've a lot to get through! Now, to begin with, let's discuss our academic prospects. I realise this discussion may seem somewhat one-way, but I have complete confidence-'

'You're so lame,' Sina grinned, nudging Dexio in the ribs. He sat in scowling silence with his arms folded tight over his chest.

'You're so lame!' the voice shouted again, and a second later, past Sina shoved into past Dexio, snatched the cards from his grasp, and pretended to read from them in a mock posh accent. 'You'll be in the future before you're done recording, geez. Ahem! Dear future self- blahblahblah- I hope you're a professor by now- blahblah- Stand shoulder to shoulder with Professor Sycamore, who is perhaps the greatest mind of our time?'

Past Sina paused, while both future and past Dexios tensed up. She slotted through the cards, skimming each one until passing Dexio a withering look. 'Dude, the rest of this is just praise for the Professor. How... how many of these do you have?'

The Holo cut out, its blue light bleeding from the room in an instant, leaving it dim once again. Sina wore the exact same expression she had all those years ago, and Dexio shifted uncomfortably on the spot.

'He's a brilliant man...' Dexio muttered quietly. Sina shook her head.
'Issues.' She swapped out the memory stick for another one. Since none of them were marked, and they had to organise the lab, then they had to watch each one in turn, right? Otherwise they couldn't do their job properly. Pleased with her justification, Sina pressed play.

'Sina's Holo Diary #127 I saw the Professor's abs today and HOLY s**t-

Sina's finger lingered on the Holo Caster's off switch, her eyes open wide. Dexio leant over so his mouth was an inch from her ear.

'That's not proper use of lab equipment,' he whispered. Sina batted him away and cleared her throat.
'Let's... ignore that one,' she said, picking the next stick with more care. She eyed it like it was a gun that might go off, and plugged it into the Holo Caster.

It took a couple of seconds, but the hologram opened up, bathing the room in blue glow. There was a proper background to this one. It looked like it had been filmed near a beach, with tables and chairs in the background. In the middle were two grinning teenagers, arm in arm. One was clearly Esme, except her face was rounder and her smile much wider. The other looked a year or two older, lean, with stylish hair that dipped just past his sharp, attractive eyes. Allard Fortier. Sina swallowed.

'So hey,' Allard said. 'When you're seeing this in the future, when I'm a big name trainer-'
'League champion,' Esme corrected.
'League champion, of course,' Allard grinned, kissing the side of her head.
'Of course,' Esme said, 'And when I'm a doctor-'
'Professor.' Allard said. Esme broke into a giggle fit, slapping her forehead at her mistake.

'Professor,' she giggled, her face flushing dark. She fought for a straight face, carrying on. 'I'll be the best professor. Sorry if you're watching this, Future Professor Sycamore. But you probably already know that I'm so the best doc- professor.' She grinned again, and waved her arm in a wide arc, putting on a haughty voice. 'Bow down before me!
'You'd better not act like that in the future,' Allard said as he gave her a light squeeze.
'I'm acting like that right now,' Esme replied, looking up at him so their noses brushed together. They smiled deeply at one another, and went in for a proper kiss. The recording cut off. Sina had unplugged the stick with a guilty look on her face, like she'd peeked on someone changing their clothes.

'Oh man,' she said, running her hand through her hair. 'I wish I could rewind my brain. We shouldn't have watched that.'

Dexio opened his mouth to speak, but to his surprise, a girl's voice came out. 'You're right.'

Sina jumped. In the doorway was the real Esme, her arms folded over her chest. Sina got to her feet to apologise, but Esme held her hand out.

'Relax,' she said. 'I'm not mad.'
'That's a relief,' Sina sighed. 'Uh, how long were you watching?'
'Long enough,' Esme smirked. '"Sina's Holo Diary"? Really?'

Sina slumped down while Dexio watched smugly. Esme went into the room proper, glancing at the stick with her video on for a moment. Then she gave her attention to the two aides.

'Where's the Professor? He's not in his lab.'
'He's not? Very strange,' Dexio fiddled with his lip. 'He got back not long after you left. I can't imagine he'd leave again so soon.'
'That settles it, we have to go talk to him,' Sina said. 'I really don't like us being suspicious of each other. It feels weird.'

'Agreed,' nodded Dexio, taking out his Holo Caster. He ran a search for Professor Sycamore on the PSS. 'It says he checked into Café Lysandre 14 minutes ago. It's quite far away, on Magenta Plaza, so we'll have to hurry. As we all know, it takes only 7 minutes to be served at this time of day, which is surprisingly efficient considering the rush of people between-'

'Let's go,' Esme said, turning for the door. Sina followed close behind.

The mansion was packed with bodies and shallow light. Dim lights lit most of the rooms, hiding most peoples features in the dark. People were dancing to music that Helena couldn't understand, the dim light hiding a lot of things, but not the way peoples bodies moved as they danced.

The body heat that emanated from people, the sweat, the glowing rings that hung around some people, it was all very sexual in nature. Helena, who had no real sexual experience herself, could tell that much just from looking at it.

On girl, luminiscient green ring around her throat like a choker, stood just across from her as they entered the mansions parlor. What stood out about her wasn't that her eyes seemed to dance invitingly to people as she paid attention to people she danced with only using her body, was that two glowing hand prints, from some sort of glow in the dark paint, were over her breasts on her tank top.

The smell of sweat, varying in a million different ways, combined with the smell of alcohol. People weren't just dancing, they were standing around, flirting, drinking. As the four of them moved through the mansion, Helena caught sight of people occupying just about every piece of funiture. Cuddled up, sitting apart but talking, kissing - sometimes a little more bold actions taking place.

Following it all was a bit overwhelming to Helena. Grant seemed to know what he was doing as he followed just behind them, steering Bridgette of the darker places with his arm.

Helena was following Henrietta, who lead them through the mansion. She didn't appear to be moving with any sort of cause or sense of direction, but her steps were meaningful. She stepped carefully, past and around people. The movements of her head were subtle as she scanned rooms, never lingering at the sights, simply as if she were checking things out.

They reached the back room, a large dining room with all of the chairs occupied and people feasting and drinking. At the opposite end of it was a sliding glass door. When Henrietta spotted it, her pace picked up and she lead the four of them through it and into the backyard.

Outside the air was fresher, but the smell of alcohol was more potent.

"I forgot was air tasted like," Bridgette said in a way that made Helena question whether or not she was serious.

People were outback as well. On the far end of the yard was a long and wide pool, occupied by a dozen people playing various pool games or just fooling around. Next to that was a hot tub. Closer to them was a circle of chairs with a few people sat chatting, one of them a man in a wheelchair with some bandages around the base of his head.

Closer still to them it seemed more chaotic, a beer pong table here with a game in play, a table with various shot glasses, an ice chest housing several bottles of liquor, a long grill that someone was using to make steaks, promising excessively to anyone who might be listening that he makes them really well.

"The outside type, huh?" Grant said, now that the music was just a dull noise and they could properly hear each other.

"Y-you're free to head inside if you'd like," Henrietta said as she turned her head to look at him. There was a confidence in her voice despite the slight stutter.

"No way, it's all about sex in there, and I'm clearly committed." Grant lifted his right arm, which Bridgette still held on to. Now she dangled from it, giggling and Grant didn't budge. A combination of how little she weighed, and how strong he was.

He lowered his arm and Bridgette planted her feet firmly back on the ground.

"Clearly," Helena said. "You only had to ask out two girls to find the right one, and she wasn't even one of the two."

Bridgette pouted at that. "I'm not that bad." She looked up at Grant. "Right?"

"Darling, you're amazing, but maybe a little young for me." Grant slipped his arm away and Bridgette crossed hers and humphed. An action that lasted only as long as it took her to spot the table full of drinks and then she was on the move.

The three of them watched her go and then turned back to each other.

"Someone should probably watch her," Helena said.

Henrietta and Grant exchanged a look, and Henrietta sighed. "Okay." She followed after Bridgette and that left Helena and Grant alone.

The evening air was cool compared to the rest of the day. Especially after moving through the house, Helena felt herself feel pleasant as a gentle breeze kissed her skin.

"I'm glad you're not dead," Grant said and Helena tensed up, brought back to the reality of the previous day.

"Yeah," she said, hearing the detachment in her voice, "I'm glad you're not dead either."

"It was close, though. I was helping evacuate people, and then the stampede reached the Pokemon center. We held the line, but little victories like that are rarely worth the sacrifice it takes to make them." A lot of homes, buildings, businesses - a lot of missing or unidentified people. Hospitals still packed with victims. It wasn't the type of situation that went away over night. Some scars caused by the Ambrette Town stampede would never heal.

Helena had her own scars, ones gained by the same event, but detached from it. "I managed to find my brother. Turns out he didn't need my help. Never does, really. Always so much better, knows so much more."

"Is he competing?" Grant asked. He respected her, Helena knew that much. She suspected that he'd respect Zack a whole lot more.

"No, he's just around to coach me. If I could win, it'd probably be cake for him to."

"Why doesn't he?"

Helena shrugged. She could craft a variety of reasons that would fit Zack. At the top of the list was, "Zack knows how important this is for me, so he wants to help and support me."

"Well, he sounds like a good guy."

Helena stifled a laugh. "Yeah, he's great, once you look past his abrasive nature, the fact that he picks fights for no reason, or that he sometimes seems like the antithesis of fun. Don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful brother for wanting to help me out, I just wish he wouldn't be so mean about it."

Grant opened his mouth to speak when Henrietta returned, drinks in hand. Bridgette was beside her, cup of what Helena hoped was water in one hand. She offered the one in her other to Grant who took it with a thank you.

Henrietta handed Helena a drink and Helena sniffed it and winced at the smell.

"What took you?" Grant asked.

"The cups of water are littered among cups of vodka, so we had to sniff them all until we found the right one," Bridgette said. "Though I wouldn't have minded if I had vodka." Bridgette looked up at the three of them, chin lifted as she tried to look confident and mature.

"I'll trade you," Helena said but Henrietta caught her wrist as she moved to offer the younger girl her drink.

"No, you won't."

"No, I won't."

Helena retracted her hand and the sound of someone clearing their throat caught everyone's attention.

Stood next to the wheelchair bound young man, was another man. His face spoke of his youth, but his natural height being close to seven feet tall made him immediately imposing. His posture was perfect, and Helena was sure his biceps were bigger than her head. The muscles, which rippled along his arms and across his chest through his muscle shirt, were well defined - like they were cut with a precision laser.

"I'd like to make a toast," the man's deep voice resounded across the backyard. "I know most of you don't know my buddy here, Brigadier Aldric Stripeson," he reached down to put a hand on the wheelchair man's shoulder, who couldn't help the giant grin on his face.

The man's deep voice held its thick kalosian accent, but he didn't speak the language for his speech. "As you all know, he's the host of this party." Several people whooped or cheered in response.

"Alright, alright," the kalosian man said, nodding and waving a hand for everyone to calm down. "Most of you probably don't know that my good buddy here just got out of the hospital for a pretty serious injury he received. Those of you that know me know that I was against this party, but what my brother in arms wants, I help him with."

Everyone was looking at the giant man quietly. There was a good nature to his face, but his voice was stern. He was letting them all stay there to have fun, but he wouldn't put up with a very clear line being crossed. "So, everyone enjoy yourselves, pay respect to the host and his place, and don't leave a huge mess or I'll track you down and make you clean it up tomorrow."

Helena made an immediate mental note of the nearest trashcan.

He sat back down and the party was still for a moment. People were awkwardly moving back into their motions. Helena went to take a sip of her drink, building up the courage for the smallest of drinks, when a hand caught her wrist.

Surprised, her head snapped up to fall on a darker skinned girl. Lighter than Salieri, but definitely not white.

"Don't do that," she said, her accent Unovan like Henrietta's.

"Why not?" Helena asked, unaware that the party was still so quiet and she could be heard.

"Because he just drugged it," the girl nodded to a man by the table who was watching them until Azucena drew attention and then he diverted his gaze.

"Who drugged it?" boomed the giant's voice, his thick kalosian accent intimidating despite how silly Helena had found it, at least in men, up until that man had first spoken.

The girl pointed out the perpetrator more obviously and the large man was up in a second. The much smaller man barely had the chance to flinch backwards and raise his arms up, with a meek, "yo, man, back the ******** up. Mind your own, mind your own."

The larger man simply grabbed the smaller man by one of his spaghetti by comparison arms, twisted it around his back, and lead him into the mansion.

The party had grown quiet now. Only the dull music from inside sounded, and nobody said a thing or moved as they all watched the door.

A minute later the soldier returned. "Did everyone die?" he asked, looking confounded. "Party, come on. Dance, drink." He waved at everyone, and they slowly fell back into their motions. It would be a minute or so before people were moving like they had been before, though.

The large man turned to Helena and her small group. "I am sorry about that. Would you like to come sit with us? It's the only way I know how to apologize."

"Um," Helena started, by their new arrival interrupted her.

"We'd love to."

"Great! Come on then." He snatched up several chairs that had been strewn around the backyard as he lead them to his circle of friends in the center of the backyard. They moved their chairs back as he placed the seats for them all to sit, before sitting next to the wheelchair bound man himself.

"Do you speak kalosian?" the wheelchair bound soldier asked. Helena shook her head, unaware of what anyone else might have been doing to answer the question.

"National it is," he said.

Even though they were all speaking the same language, Helena still couldn't follow all of the conversations. A lot of it was personal; in-jokes, insights into personal lives, military humor, kalosian jokes about Kalos, or about other countries. One quip about Henrietta and Helena, both Unovan, not being obese.

As the conversations carried on, people would grab drinks every now and then. Helena had to build up to her first one, but it had been spiked. Since then she'd babied a new glass, but hadn't taken a sip.

Helena managed to notice little things about what was happening. How all of the men there, even the one in the wheelchair, carried themselves with perfect posture. she was sure they were all military friends. There were a few girls here and there, one came up every now and then to rub the back of who Helena determined to be her boyfriend. Another girl was attached to the lap of one of the men there.

There were things about her own group that Helena noticed, a well. Henrietta kept looking at the new girl, who never turned her head to notice, but kept moving her eyes to look back. Grant chatted confidentally with each of the men there, holding and breaking conversations like it was practiced. Bridgette chimed in every now and then, but she seemed as lost as Helena felt - there only difference was that Bridgette tried earnestly to follow what was being said.

"Azucena, right?" the large man, who had introduced himself at Absolon, asked the girl who had rescued Helena from the would-be-rapist.

"That's right," Azucena said with a nod, "or if you prefer my stage name: The Help."

"The Help?" Helena said, stifling a laugh. "Why would they call you that."

"You heard the music, right?" Azucena said. She pointed toward the mansion and Helena nodded. The strange, yet catchy soundt aht she couldn't follow nor place. It was nice, smooth, unintellegible.

"Yeah, it was definitely something."

"Something?" Aldric looked amused. "That's K-Rok, I'm excited that he's here."

Helena's eyes widened, "the singing Krookodile?" She'd never actually heard his music, but now it all made sense.

"Yes, pioneer of Pokespeak music," Aldric explained. "Azucena is the manager and trainer of him. If not for her, we would have no such beautiful sound."

"It's new age experimental stuff," Azucena explained. "Like, uh, kalosian music to unovans. Alizee is really popular in Unova, but most people there don't know what she's saying."

"But you know how she looks," one of the other people in the circle chimed in, grinning to himself.

"Yeah, novelty helps appeal. Or, appeal helps novelty, something like that."

"Shouldn't you be doing a concert?" Helena asked.

"We don't tour, we travel. It's kind of fits in with the Pokemon league. In the off-months we work on new material, during league months we travel. I love the scene, meeting new people from all over the world. It's the best thing ever. We're couch crashers too, like, we find a part and we go in and we're all 'hey, you need some music.' and if they say yes, we perform. Very D.I.Y. and then we stay there for if they let us and move on in the morning. We basically chase parties by night." Azucena spoke with a passion that drew everyone's attention. Helena caught herself immersed in the girl's words, and when she snapped out of it she realized that Azucena was looking at her, waiting for a reply.

"Oh," Helena squeaked, "that's actually pretty cool."

"Yeah," Azucena said with a nod. "I recommend it if you ever just want to travel around for a while. We don't live in a very harsh economical situation globally, so long as you can train Pokemon since the league turns it into a huge profit farm. I mean, you're a trainer, whats the worst situation you've been in since you've been here, financially speaking?"

"Clothes," Henrietta chimed in.

"I saw that video," Azucena said back, pointing at her. Henrietta's face turned crimson, and Helena caught the smile this put on Azucena's lips.

"What video?" one of the soldiers said.

"Just a second," Grant said. He'd already whipped out his poketch and was bringing up the video in question.

Helena found herself leaning over to see it as people got up to crowd around. Henrietta reached over to try and stop him, but his long arm managed to keep her at bay, preventing her from interrupting him.

Helena couldn't see the video clearly from her seat, but it was clear that Henrietta caught on fire during a pokemon battle, tore off her clothes, and revealed sportswear underneath.

"It didn't take any damage," Grant said once the video was done, and Henrietta's entire body had gone a couple shades redder than Helena thought possible. "her underwear I mean, cause it was a specialized brand. So word of that spread, and the company decided to sponsor her. She doesn't even have to win any badges either, as long as this video is relevant, she'll be their showgirl."

People looked over at Henrietta, who looked to be about to cry.

"It's okay," one man said, with no intention of being subtle, "with a body like that, you'll be relevant for a while."

Henrietta hung her head with a defeated groan.

"You're a cruel man, Grant," Absolon said as everyone moved to their seats.

"Hey, us non-noble sponsored trainers aren't all that special. Some of us get picked for our relatively decent skill, others get picked for their bodies. In the end, just the nobles win. Sign of where the real skill is."

"Yeah?" Absolon said. With an amused look he said, "so you're not that great either?"

"I'd like to think I'm pretty good, but it's taken me a long time to get here. Eight years, actually. I've been participating since I was ten. Last time was the best I ever did, but I spent so much of it not getting any badges for as long as I could. I kept losing on purpose, testing out gym leaders for weaknesses and strengths, for new lessons. I accidentally got my first badge, and waited until the league was almost over before I tried to just power through it."

Grant's expression shfited to a more serious one as he continued. "It's a whole new world after your fourth badge. I was getting one a day until that point. Getting my fifth took a week, I was trying every day, and there were just so many fundamental lessons to those battles that I had completely missed in my early matches. By the time I got my sixth, which was even harder, it was too late to get the rest. I know now what I didn't know then, the only way I'm going to be strong enough to win is if I get to that point early on. It wasn't difficult for me to power through the first four badges, it's the last four that are going to be the real tests."

Everyone listened as he spoke. Helena felt herself drawn in again. Grant, she could better relate to. But she struggled with the beginnings of Pokemon training, while he was trying to grasp the expert lessons and beyond. She suddenly felt embarrassed about her loss. It was just for her second badge, but it felt leagues out of her skill level.

"Ha, I cannot understand such a thing," Absolon said. "As a soldier, my Pokemon are all trained to kill, not to fight. You learn to land your slashes wherever they may go, mine go for the throat."

"And that's why I would never challenge a soldier," Grant said.

"Smart man."

"So you two are trainers as well?" one of the men gestured to Helena and Bridgette. Suddenly Helena felt the reality that they were all on display. Everyone else knew each other, only the five of them were new and interesting.

"I am, I just got my third badge," Bridgette announced and Helena felt herself fume with embarrassment, and anger at herself.

"I only have one," Helena admitted, deciding to put it out in the open before it could bite her in the butt.

"I have two," Henrietta said meekly.

"Four, three, two, one, we have our rankings," said Aldric, as he pointed at each of them.

Bridgette smiled proudly at being second place, and Helena was beginning to understand how Henrietta felt.

As the conversations continued to shift around, and people began to properly exchange names and information, Helena felt herself sit more comfortably in what was being said. As she began to comfortable fit into the conversations, she fell into them. Suddenly, she had her own comments, and she could share in the laughter without feeling awkward.

She almost didn't recognize the courage she had, but she used it to take that first sip of alcohol. This, too, lead to a moment of laughter as she gagged and began to cough and sputter. She admitted that it was her first sip ever, and people patted her back and asked if she was okay. Assuring them she was fine, she displayed it with her second drink, which she winced down but managed to avoid a dramatic display over.

"Well done!" Absolon shouted as he clapped and Helena couldn't help the smile on her face.

Helena wasn't sure of the time, but she assumed it was late. When Aldric leaned over to whisper to Absolon, it was in kalosian. After a short exchange, he turned to everyone.

"My friend is tired, so I'm afraid the party has to end here."

Helena felt a pit form in her heart. The feeling was surreal to her, a lesser form of the one she got when she thought about her father. She realized at once that she didn't want the night, the party, or her time with the present company, to end.

"It was nice meeting you," Grant said, standing with everyone else. Helena realized she would be the last to stand, and that would just leave Aldric sitting in his wheelchair. By the time she got up, people were in the middle of exchanging their farewells. Hand shakes, double kisses on cheeks, hugs. Everyone had their preference, and Helena realized that she had none as she was pulled into each persons. One hug here, a hand shake there, lips on her cheeks, a short wave, one of the girls blew a kiss.

Then they were off, the first ones toward the door as Absolon started the long process of emptying the mansion of its guests.

Once they were down the driveway, Helena realized that the group of them still stood together.

Azucena trailed along at the end, having made the quick pit stop for her Pokemon.

"Are you going to be okay without a couch to crash?" Grant asked.

Azucena looked at Henrietta who blushed and lowered her head shyly, but didn't break eye contact.

"I'll be fine. Besides, I don't really want the night to end just yet."

Me neither. Helena realized.

"How about a walk then?" Grant said, and he gestured them onwards. Helena had no idea what time it was, where they were going, or when it would end, and she didn't care. It might have been the alcohol in her stomach, causing her skin to tingle and her mind to hazily dream up thoughts she'd never have entertained normally, but she felt euphoric.

Route 8 - Plateaued Pillar

Sunset came upon the two trainers, turning the sky a vivid pink around the sun's bold orange. Already there were twinkles in sky. Salieri looked up at the sky. The menace ruling Kalos never stopped looming in her thoughts. It never detracted from how beautiful he thought Kalos was either.

"My plan is to become the next champion. And the rest is none of your business...I just want what's right." Sal nodded at the horizon. "I want to be free in my own country. I don't want to watch my family suffer anymore. So let them come. I don't fight fair either. I fight to win...I have to win."

She pointed to Zack. "What about you, what's your plan? Be your sister's bodyguard? The sibling's keeper act doesn't work, trust me. If you really think Helena's going to win the league, then you know she's gonna go her own way."