The Eon Academy [S.S. Wishmaker Side-Story]

[[Desolate Divine]]

Spiritwater Episode 1: Reunions

Spoiler:

“It’s two in the afternoon,” Jon said, his patience wearing thin…

Latios cried out in objection.

“It’s five o’clock in Kanto…” Jon understood Latios to be saying. “Time is a construct to control the masses…”

“Since when were you so anti-establishment?” Jon asked, knowing the answer. “I never knew you to stick it to the man?”

“I’ll stick it to the man when he tells me I can’t have a beer…” Latios replied verbally, Jon understanding thanks to his stint as an Altaria, three and a half years earlier.

It was Tuesday May 25th, 2021, with the Eon Academy’s summer program due to start in a week. Abbee had arrived at the Eon Academy a few days before, having gotten more paid leave from Elesa’s gym in Nimbasa City than she was expecting, and decided to come a week earlier. Whilst she had told Jon it was to see him and Alyssa, Jon knew they made up ten percent of her reason for coming early, with the other ninety percent being in the stadium with her, training.

Jon had seen Charlotte over New Years Eve, after she had competed in a tournament in Rustboro City two weeks earlier. She had stayed at the Academy with Jon, Alyssa, Amelia and Dylan for a few days before heading out to her next destination. Whilst Jon hadn’t seen Justin since they parted ways in Jubilife City the September before, they had kept in contact, and like Charlotte, Jon was expecting Justin to arrive on Saturday.

Chris however was a different story. Whilst Charlotte mentioned she had battled against him at the tournament in Rustboro, and had beaten him, Jon hadn’t heard from Chris since they parted ways at Jubilife Airport the summer before. Jon had attempted to get in touch with Chris in the nine or so months since, however Chris had been avoiding Jon’s calls, and ignoring his messages. Dylan and Abbee had seen him last November, however that meeting went poorly, with Chris, having just turned eighteen, drinking too much, and saying things that Jon couldn’t convince Dylan to repeat.

Despite the rift between them, Jon still held out hope that he might hear from Chris in the next week, wanting to come back, however knew he was probably setting himself up to be disappointed.

Jon sat in the kitchen, with Latios hovering outside, his head through the open window. He had been asking Jon for a beer, citing the heat, and how refreshing it would be, with Jon refusing, on the basis of it being barely two in the afternoon on a Tuesday. On the small dining table in front of Jon sat a PVC card printer, hooked up to a laptop. With the summer program beginning Sunday, and a hundred and fifty people signed up for it, he wanted to be ready with all the ID cards that would double as keycards for the Eon Academy buildings, so had set aside the afternoon. Alyssa was at work in Lilycove, and Amelia was with Abbee and Dylan, watching their training session with Victini and Darkrai. Whilst Jon originally thought Darkrai may scare Amelia, she seemed to have an innate curiosity surrounding any and all things Pokemon, and Jon was yet to find one that she was more scared than curious of. Sure enough, she saw Darkrai, and was entranced by it.

Now, Jon had what should have been his first afternoon free of distraction to get this task done, but there was a distraction he should have foreseen. Latios…

“What if I have one now, but don’t have one tonight with dinner?” Latios said . Jon scoffed.

“You really think you will be content not having a beer with dinner?” Jon asked, not convinced.

“Let’s find out…”

“Latios, I love you, really…” Jon said. “But keep this up, and I’ll put you in your Pokeball, and next time I let you out, it will be in rehab…”

“You honestly think rehab could keep me?” Latios retorted, though Jon had enough.

“Goodbye Latios,” Jon said as he pressed the button on Latios’ Pokeball. “Enjoy rehab…”

Whilst Jon didn’t want Latios drinking any more than he did, he knew that Latios didn’t care as much about having an afternoon beer as he made out. Really, Latios was bored, and pestering Jon for a beer and arguing with him about it made for good entertainment. Not for the first time, Jon considered it might be time to start competing again, for Latios’ sake. Whilst Latios and all his Pokemon were kept busy during summers, outside of their weekly training session with Steven, and the odd session with Dylan, they were growing a little restless. That however, was a decision to make after summer was over, and this summer's participants had all gone home…

The next half hour, Jon spent changing the ID card template with information and photos of those attending the Eon Academy’s summer program. The first he made were the five for his interns, Chris included, a mark of Jon’s hope that Chris would come back. The rest were all the campers coming. He changed the photo, adjusted the name and date of birth, before double checking them against the registration form, and finally printing it. Each card took approximately two minutes when he was in the rhythm of the task, and he had over a hundred and fifty to make, expecting this to take five hours.

Search Trainer ID.

Copy Image.

Paste Image.

Change Name.

Change Date of Birth.

Proofread.

Print.


Search next trainer ID while card is printing.

Repeat.

The task was monotonous. The sort Jon hated, but knew he needed to complete before students arrived. He forced himself not to tune out of the task, knowing that’s when mistakes would be made. However, it was inevitable that he would eventually begin to get caught up in his own thoughts, and forget the name he printed on the last card he had produced. He was pulled from his thoughts however, by the sound of the front door opening…

His first thought was that Dylan and Abbee had returned, however they both knew during the day, the back door that led into the kitchen was unlocked, and came through there by default. He quickly stood, readying Scizor’s Pokeball, with Scizor being the Pokemon best suited to fighting in close quarters without destroying his house.

He stood by the doorway into the main hall, quickly poking his head around the corner. The door was ajar, ringing alarm bells in Jon’s mind. The front door was normally locked, and Alyssa’s last message had been an hour ago from work. Even if she left early, it was a two hour ferry trip back to Mossdeep. One she only made once a fortnight.

Jon crept through the hallway, looking at the door, before looking out, to where he and Dylan’s cars were parked. Alyssa’s wasn’t there. He closed the door, locking it, before hearing the sound of something moving in the lounge. He darted into the lounge, to see it empty. However something wasn’t right. It took him a moment to see it. One of the cushions from the couch had been pulled off, and left on the floor by Amelia that morning while she watched TV. It remained on the floor, however with a small smear of dirt across it, as if something like a dirty boot rubbed against it as the wearer walked past, very recently.

The lounge was connected by a doorway to the kitchen, which was a cosy room. A bench jutted out into the room itself, dividing it into a dining area and food preparation area, and Jon could hear something moving behind the island. Something big.

“I know you’re hiding there,” Jon called out the person he imagined hiding behind the island. The sound of movement stopped, as whoever hid behind the bench stopped moving. “Come out now, or I get my Scizor to play bouncer…”

“One…” Jon called out, using the same tactic he did with Amelia when she wouldn’t go to bed. “Two…”

There was the sound of movement again, and Jon readied Scizor’s Pokeball, half expecting someone to be attempting a surprise attack. However he was shocked when no person emerged from behind the counter. Instead of one big form, it was three smaller forms. An Eevee, a Furret, and a Buneary…

Jon’s eyes widened as he realised who he was looking at.

“Were you seriously going to set Scizor on us?” the Eevee said, sounding far from impressed. “I still hurt when I remember what it did to Victini…”

“I thought I had some psycho creeping around my house!” Jon said, though the answer wasn’t satisfactory.

“We had to make sure you were alone in here,” the Furret interjected. “Cass recognized your car, but not the other one, and didn’t think it would be Alyssa’s…”

“Nobody else is in the house,” Jon said. “But why are you here?”

“Hello to you too,” the Buneary retorted indignantly. “It’s only been four years, most of that with no contact! We could have been dead for all you knew, and we don’t even get a stinking hello?”

“Where was your hello?” Jon asked, and the Buneary was silent…

“Well… We were trying to be inconspicuous until we knew there weren’t any strangers in here…” the Buneary tried to explain, though the Eevee was growing impatient.

“Jarena, now isn’t the time,” the Eevee said. “Can we talk somewhere, where we won’t be interrupted?”

Jon nodded, gesturing towards the lounge.

“Nobody else will be here for at least another hour,” Jon said. “We’ll talk in the lounge…”

Unsure of what these Pokemon ate in their day to day lives, Jon got a bowl of water, as well as some fruit, placing it on the coffee table, and the trio of Pokemon jumped up. Jon watched in disbelief as the three of them quickly had something to eat and drink, Jon knowing they had travelled a long way.

Whilst Jon figured this Tuesday in particular would be mundane and ordinary, he never would have predicted he’d be visited out of nowhere by Cassandra, Violet and Jarena, the presumed dead, former Diamond Ladies…

When they seemed content, Jon spoke.

“So why are you here?” Jon asked. “When Cass helped me with Rayquaza, she made it abundantly clear you guys were happy being Pokemon…”

“We are,” Violet answered. “But something happened, and it doesn’t look good…”

Jon’s brow furrowed. If something happened that was enough to draw Cassandra, Violet and Jarena out of hiding all the way to Mossdeep, he figured it doesn’t look good was going to be an understatement…

“Two weeks ago, we all had this dream,” Cassandra explained. “The same dream, at the same time…”

“It was of Agatha, the former Elite Four member…” Jarena continued.

“Agatha?” Jon asked. “The one who was forced to retire because of her age? Right after the S.S. Wishmaker incident?”

“That’s her,” Violet answered. “The ghost specialist…”

“But it turns out, she is a specialist in more than just ghosts,” Cassandra explained. “It takes powerful shadowcraft to make a vision like that, which can reach as far as hers did, or as many people…”

“Wait, you weren’t the only ones?” Jon asked, confused where this was going. Jarena nodded.

“The vision was a call to rally for all shadowcraft users…” Jarena explained. “At the end of June, to meet on Akala Island in Alola for the Spiritwater Festival.”

Jon had heard of the Spiritwater Festival only recently. As a former High Seas Champion, especially one who had achieved as much as he had since, he was offered complimentary tickets to this year's High Seas Tournament, which would end this year with the S.S. Wishmaker docking on Akala Island, for the Spiritwater Festival.

“Why does she want to gather so many of you?” Jon asked, and Violet answered, her tone far from optimistic.

“She promised to strengthen them in their power and knowledge of Shadowcraft,” Violet answered. “The thing is, if fulfilling that promise wasn’t going to come at some sort of cost, I doubt she would have used such an indirect way to reach out…”

Violet was right. Shadowcraft, whilst socially a taboo, was not illegal in and of itself, and had grown in popularity the last few years. Using it to harm someone was no more illegal than simple assault, just as using it to cheat in tournaments like the Diamond Ladies had, was simply just fraud in itself. The only difference the revelation of it made, was that people now knew it existed and could actually be aware of the effect it may have.

“And if she is using the promise of power to draw them in,” Cassandra said. “She will be attracting the worst kinds of Shadowcraft wielders…”

Jon nodded in agreement. Agatha was up to something nefarious. He had little doubt of that. He looked to his unexpected visitors.

“I’ll inform Steven, and make sure he keeps your involvement out of it,” Jon said. “He can mobilise the League, and they can handle this…”

Jon looked around the house, before speaking again.

“You’re welcome to stay here and recover from the trip before you head back to Johto,” Jon explained. “Though there’ll be a hundred and fifty teenagers on the property as of Sunday, which could make it hard to remain inconspicuous in.

There was silence between the three Pokemon, before Cassandra spoke.

“Jon, I don’t think you understand. We have a really bad feeling about this,” Cassandra explained. “This isn’t looking like it’s gonna be a few people made dizzy, or turned into Pokemon. I think that this is going to be a war…”

Jon’s eyes widened a little hearing that. She was right, he had mistaken the severity of it, seeing it as the three of them offering a tip off for a potential witch problem as their due diligence, before being on their way, back to their lives as Pokemon. Any doubt in the severity of the situation Jon may have had, disappeared, when Cassandra asked her next question.

“Do you still have our DNA samples?”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“Steven’s on his way here now…” Jon said, as he entered the lounge, where the former Diamond Ladies, now in their reverted human forms, sat, seeming to be unused to being human again.

“So you never told us where you got our old clothes…” Violet said, while Jarena put a hairbrush through her somewhat matted hair, and Jon couldn’t help but grin. However, before he could answer, Cassandra cut him off.

“Don’t ask…” Cassandra said, her voice showing how much she meant it. “You don’t want to know… Trust me…”

Jarena looked between Violet, Cassandra and Jon, trying to figure out how Jon got them, before realising she probably should take Cassandra’s word for it. She shrugged, as she continued brushing her brunette hair.

“So where’s Alyssa?” Violet asked.

“At work,” Jon explained. “She takes the ferry into Lilycove one day a fortnight, and works from home the rest of the time so she can keep an eye on Lili…”

At the reference to Lili, Jon saw blank stares from all three, before realising.

“S**t, I haven’t seen you guys since before Lili was born,” Jon said, before clarifying. “My daughter. Amelia. She just turned three…”

“I guess we’re a little late in offering congratulations…” Jarena said with a weak smile. “Is she with Alyssa?”

“No, she’s with Dylan and Abbee,” Jon began before realising he was making the same mistake. “Two of my interns. They’re in the stadium training…”

Hearing this, Jon realised there was another miscommunication, as all three of his guest’s eyes widened.

“You said that there was nobody else here?” Violet said, her tone suspicious.

“Yeah, nobody else in the house…” Jon clarified. “Abbee, Dylan and Lili are all in the stadium. They’ll be coming back soon…”

“Jon, we can’t be seen by your workers…” Cassandra said, shocked at how seemingly careless Jon was being.

“They’re not just my workers, they’ve been my students from day one. I trust them with my life…”

“You trust them,” Violet corrected. “We don’t know them…”

“You can trust them,” Jon said, his tone leaving it not up for discussion. “Two years ago, I was off the island and Abbee, Dylan, and the other three interns, who I trust just as much as them, were keeping the place running while I had to go to Slateport. The one weekend I was gone, and a Legendary Pokemon attacked the island, nearly wiping it out. The five of them kept it at bay and caught it-”

“Sure, they’re talented, but that doesn’t mean they won’t tell anyone about us being here!” Jarena objected.

“The five of them kept it at bay and caught it, while Dylan kept Rayquaza in its Pokeball,” Jon explained. “He is my second in charge here, and he knows everything about Rayquaza. When Deoxys attacked the island, Alyssa gave him Rayquaza’s Pokeball, and told him he was in charge of the evacuation. Dylan led the others to fight tooth and nail to beat and catch this Pokemon, refusing to use Rayquaza until he had absolutely no other choice, because he knew Rayquaza needed to be kept a secret for my sake. And he succeeded…”

Cassandra couldn’t help but take Jon’s word for it, hearing that. His tone left no room for mistaking just how dangerous the situation was, and Dylan had kept Jon’s secret even in the face of that.

“Fine, Dylan seems trustworthy. I can’t argue with that…” Cassandra said. “What about the other one?”

“Abbee?” Jon asked. “Well she has been Victini’s trainer for nearly three years, so if you can’t take my word for it that she can be trusted, take his…”

Cassandra’s eyes widened at Jon’s revelation. Not the fact that Victini had found another trainer, but something even simpler.

“Victini is here?”

Jon nodded.

“In the stadium…” Jon explained. “I was that surprised to have you three show up and tell me Agatha is bringing about the apocalypse, that it slipped my mind…”

Cassandra leapt to her feet, before darting for the door.

“Cass wait!” Violet called out, to no avail, before following her. Jarena glanced at Jon, shrugging before following after the pair.

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“Victini, V-Create!”

Cassandra heard the unfamiliar voice, as she stepped into the doorway of the stadium. On one side stood a girl who looked to be eighteen, with straight, black hair that hung to just below her shoulders, and determined green eyes. Opposite her stood a guy in his early twenties, who was tall and well built, with shaggy brown hair, standing behind a Pokemon she had never seen before.

Victini cried out, before encasing itself in a crown of flames, and rocketing towards the Pokemon, and Cassandra was proud to see the flames burning much more fiercely than when she had battled alongside Victini on the S.S. Wishmaker.

Standing behind the girl that Cassandra presumed to be Abbee, holding on to her jeans, was a toddler, with shoulder length fair hair, and curious eyes, grey like Jon’s. She watched Victini in awe, however seemed to notice before anyone else that they had company. She tugged at Abbee’s jeans, causing her to look down, then towards the entrance where Cassandra, Violet, and Jarena watched.

“Can I help you?” Abbee asked, her voice friendly, although somewhat suspicious of the three. They didn't blame her. Dylan looked over, and the Diamond Ladies could see in both trainers, a sense of recognition that was moments away from registering to them. Before that however, Victini looked over, his eyes widening immensely, before beginning to tear up.

“Cass?!” he called out verbally, neither Dylan nor Abbee understanding, before darting towards them. Cassandra stepped forward, kneeling down to meet Victini at ground level, and it wasn’t until then that Abbee and Dylan realised who had just entered the stadium…

“Holy s**t…” Abbee muttered, before realising Amelia was listening, and wincing at her loss of composure. She walked towards the visitors, Dylan joining her, as Victini enjoyed his tearful reunion with his former trainer.

“What are you doing here?” Victini asked. “All of you? Why aren’t you in Johto? And why are you all human?”

“Something came up, and we wanted to let Jon know,” Cassandra said to Victini. “We’ve been here for nearly an hour and Jon only just told us you were here…”

Abbee arrived to hear Cassandra’s last words, before speaking herself.

“Miss Silvers?” Abbee asked, wanting to confirm what she was already near certain of. Cassandra looked up, seeing Abbee, with Amelia behind her, still clutching at her jeans. Whilst Amelia was curiously confident around Pokemon, she was a little on the timid side with people she didn’t know.

“Cassandra,” Cassandra replied, cringing a little as she was reminded of her Miss Silvers outburst on the S.S. Wishmaker that was hardly her first. “I take it you’re Abbee?”

Abbee nodded, unsure of how to respond. Based on what she had heard of Cassandra from Jon and Victini, she knew Cassandra had not been planning on becoming human again. And given what she had just said, about something coming up and wanting to let Jon know, she didn’t have a good feeling. Though, the more she thought about it she wasn’t sure if that not-so-good feeling was what she was telling herself it was, or something else. She looked at Victini, who looked up at Cassandra in ecstatic disbelief, and felt a pang of jealousy, before a wave of guilt at said jealousy.

“Thanks for taking such good care of Victini,” Cassandra said. “I know he can be a bit of a handful…”

“So he was a fiend for ice-cream when you had him?” Abbee joked, trying to mask her feelings, and earning a grin from Cassandra. “And chose to ignore polite boundaries when it came to his telepathy?”

“Ice-cream, definitely. He’d have eaten himself into a diabetic coma if I had no say in the matter,” Cassandra explained. “But he wasn’t overly chatty with other people when we were together. He tended to keep to himself a little more, though it has probably been good for him, being around more trainers and Pokemon…”

”He is right here…” Victini chimed in, this time telepathically to include Abbee and Dylan in the conversation, a little indignant that he was the subject of a conversation that he wasn’t necessarily a part of, when he was present.

“The adults are talking Victini,” Dylan said patronisingly, though Victini knew that it was all in jest. Dylan looked from Victini to their surprise visitors. “I’m Dylan. What’s come up that’s brought you out of hiding?”

Violet went to answer, however Jarena nudged her quickly before nodding to the toddler who hid behind Abbee, who she presumed to be Amelia, Jon’s daughter.

“Maybe don’t bring up a potential apocalypse in front of her…” Jarena said quietly, and Violet realised she was right, before nodding.

“We just filled Jon in, and Steven is on his way here,” Violet explained. “Maybe we should discuss it at the house…”

Cassandra looked somewhat uneasily at Violet, not sure that Dylan and Abbee should know everything, however Violet disregarded it. Fact was that whilst Steven had proven himself to be trustworthy after the incident with Rayquaza, both in his keeping their existence a secret, but also working to protect the Starglade, which had made their roles notably easier since, they had intentionally come to Jon first for a reason. And if things played out the way they wanted, Abbee and Dylan, as well as Jon’s other workers, may be running the summer program without him…

Dylan, having seen the exchange between Violet and Jarena, understood why, and led the way back towards the house. Abbee was the last to leave, watching Victini walk alongside Cassandra, speaking verbally, which she knew Cassandra could understand, but not herself.

“Why is Victini with her?” said a small voice from next to her.

Abbee looked down to see Amelia looking at the pair as they walked away.

“She was friends with Victini before you were born,” Abbee explained. “He hasn’t seen her in a while, and is just happy to see her again…”

She held out her hand for Amelia to grab onto, before joining the group that were walking towards the stadium entry, though found herself not necessarily believing what she had just said herself….

************************************************** ************************************************** *****
“Jon has filled me in,” Steven said, as the seven adults sat on various couches and chairs in the now cramped lounge of Jon and Alyssa’s house. Victini sat on the coffee table, whilst Latios kept Amelia company in another room, telepathically linked to Jon, so Latios himself could be a part of the conversation, and Jon could see Amelia through his sight sharing. Whilst Jon was now used to the phenomenon enough that he could see through Latios’ eyes whilst retaining his own sense of sight, he did this by not letting his focus be drawn to either vision, resulting in a few instances of him seeming to be staring into space, or staring dumbfounded directly at someone, until he explained himself.

“I’m glad you have let us know,” Steven continued. “Agatha didn’t take it well when she was stood down. Especially since she was hoping to take Lance’s place as Indigo Champion after his arrest. Had we known she was capable of using Shadowcraft, we would have kept a closer eye on her, given her bitterness about retiring…”

Cassandra nodded in agreement.

“Honestly, everything about this makes my skin crawl,” Cassandra answered. “I know we caused enough problems, only having known how to use Shadowcraft for less than a decade. But I get the feeling if Agatha hasn’t been caught, she isn’t a novice. Chances are she has been practising Shadowcraft for decades…”

Steven nodded gravely, as Violet interjected.

“So what happens next?” Violet asked. Of the three, she was the most forward thinking, albeit that came from a slight pessimism and years in the spotlight spent looking over her shoulder. Whilst Jarena was more likely to consider how things were at present, and Cassandra would consider more how they got to where they were, Violet tended to focus more on ’what next?’

“I’ll reach out to Cynthia, as well as my superiors in the Hoenn Government, while Cynthia does the same in Sinnoh. I’ll also get support from the Kanto and Johto Governments, since Agatha was a member of their Elite Four, and the Alolan Government, since this is happening under their noses,” Steven answered. “From there, we will begin an operation, similar to the one that we launched into you three…”

“Minus Lance,” Cassandra said, though there was no hint of a question. Steven nodded in agreement.

“Minus Lance…” Steven agreed. “I’ll call on a few people from the S.S. Wishmaker, as well as some contacts I have made since…”

“Anyone we know?” Jarena asked Steven, and he nodded.

“Jimmy Kendo and Avery Miller,” Steven said, though noticed a concerned look cross Jon’s face.

“I don’t know that that would be a good idea…” Jon interjected. “After things got thrown into disarray with Lance leaking information to the media, and we finally seemed like we just needed to get through the cruise, Jirachi almost made everything worse…”

“Jirachi was young,” Jarena said, a little irritated that Jon still held suspicions against the Pokemon. “And don’t forget, Latios left more holes in the ship than there were days at sea…”

“Latios followed my orders to the letter. I was the one who told him to get your backpacks after you turned each other into Pokemon, no matter what it took…” Jon said evenly. “If you’re going to blame anyone for the holes in the ship, blame me…”

Cassandra shifted uncomfortably hearing the disagreement between Jon and Jarena. Whilst she did like Jirachi, she also respected Jon, especially after their trip to Sky Pillar years earlier. She was thankful when Steven ended this discussion, his tone indicating this wasn’t up for debate.

“Jimmy Kendo has been an operative for us on numerous other operations over the last four years, with Jirachi being one of the key tools at his disposal,” Steven explained. “Jirachi is still a little immature, however follows Jimmy’s orders…”

“Look, it’s your call whether to include them in this. You know where I stand,” Jon explained. “I’m not going to bulls**t myself by trying to think I can change your mind. But if anything bad happens at Jirachi’s hands, it’s your responsibility.”

“Same goes for if something good happens,” Steven retorted. Jon shrugged.

“You think I’m that childish to not give you credit where credit’s due?” Jon joked. Steven shrugged it off, and the banter was cut short by Dylan interjecting.

“You said no to approaching Avery Miller,” Dylan noted. “I thought you held a lot of respect for them…”

“I do,” Jon said. “And if this were a month earlier or later, I’d be saying call them…”

“Why not now?” Violet asked, wondering why Jon was against asking Avery.

“They’re getting married the weekend before the S.S. Wishmaker departs, and it seems like all of this s**t Agatha has planned will come to fruition during the Spiritwater Festival the week after,” Jon explained. “You really want to call on Avery and tell them to postpone their wedding?”

“No…” Cassandra said in agreement. “Let them have this…”

Jon nodded, as Violet continued.

“Okay, so we have us three incognito of course, Jimmy and Jirachi, and Jon…” Violet said, more so to process the information herself, however to everyone’s surprise, Jon shook his head.

“Jon, surely you’ll come to Alola?” Steven asked, struggling to hide the shock in his voice.

“You can’t seriously be sitting this out to run a summer camp,” Violet added. “This could be apocalypse level s**t going down! Let Dylan, Abbee and the others run camp!”

“It’s not that,” Jon answered. “Think about it. It’s common knowledge I was involved in the investigation into you three. I revealed that, when I said on TV that you three had earned my respect, and part of that was because I said that the S.S. Wishmaker was my last operation…”

“That was before we knew about Agatha…” Cassandra answered, disappointed in Jon for refusing. Jon shook his head.

“Every summer since the S.S. Wishmaker, I have run the program here, and it’s been quite public. Now, Agatha has just gone and sent out an open invite to all Shadowcraft users to meet her on Akala Island,” Jon said, as Steven realised where Jon was going. “Now out of nowhere, Steven and Cynthia, two of the most famous people in the world, will happen to be on Akala Island for when Agatha’s little party begins, and for the first time, I have not attended my own summer program in order to be there as well. Three famous trainers, all involved in a previous sting, happen to show up where Agatha has something planned…”

“You’re not wrong…” Steven said with a sigh. “If you do go, it could tip her off that we know she is planning something and are investigating her…”

Cassandra realised that Jon was right. If he stayed in Mossdeep as if nothing were happening, it would help their chances of being undiscovered in Alola.

“I want to be there, really,” Jon said. “If something big happens, and I didn’t do anything to stop it, I’d hate myself for it. But I also know that me being there in the front line puts you four, and any other operatives at risk.”

“What if you were to not be in the front line?”

Jon looked at Steven, puzzled by his question.

“I’m a battler. If we are going up against a former Elite Four member, my talents are best suited in the front line…” Jon answered, though Steven shook his head.

“On the S.S. Wishmaker, you weren’t in the front line until these guys slipped up and turned themselves into Pokemon. You had Latios tail them and figure out that they were using Shadowcraft, then had Latios grab their belongings, all while you were in the arena, supposedly training for that evening. After that, you were in the front line,” Steven explained. “Let’s say I give you a squad to oversee. A mixture of more covert operatives, as well as some who are more suited to battling. You remain anonymous until the endgame, giving orders and planning ahead like you did on the S.S. Wishmaker, then surfacing, alongside Latios and Rayquaza when secrecy can be damned and we have a fight on our hands…”

“That could work,” Jon said. “But Charlotte, Justin, Abbee and Dylan can’t convince a hundred and fifty kids that I am here with none of them seeing me for a few weeks. Even if we weren’t short an intern. It would get out within a week that I wasn’t at the Academy…”

“Then we cancel the summer program…”

To everyone’s surprise, it was Dylan who suggested it, his expression remaining neutral.

“Wouldn’t that be even more suspicious?” Jarena asked. “Jon cancels the summer program for the first time, a week before it’s due to start, and then decides to take a leisurely trip to Alola?”

“Not if we play our cards right…” Dylan explained. “Let’s say we told everyone that a swarm of Rotom got loose in the property’s electrical grid. Fried everything. Lights, appliances, outlets, the works. Jon can’t safely keep kids on site…”

“A swarm of Rotom?” Cassandra asked, finding the excuse to be a little flimsy.

“Doesn’t have to be that, but effectively the property is damaged to the point where one, it is not safe to run the summer program, and two, it is too expensive and time consuming to fix before students arrive,” Dylan explained, before looking to Jon. “Are the organisers of the High Seas Tournament still pestering you to make a guest appearance? Sending the free tickets and s**t?”

Jon nodded. Whilst he understood Cassandra’s concern, he also knew Dylan well enough to know this plan was worth listening to.

“After the property is damaged, you get in touch with them, and offer to do whatever media appearances on the S.S. Wishmaker they are after, for a large sum of cash, which will be so you can do the repairs to the Academy,” Dylan explained. “It gives you a pretty strong alibi for being away from the Academy. And it means I can come with you…”

“Wait, what?”

“Steven’s giving you a squad made up of people who are good behind the scenes, and those who can handle themselves in a fight…” Dylan explained. “I’m not the best battler by any means, but I can help out behind the scenes, and I am less likely to be recognized than you…”

“And if Dylan and I come with you, it adds to the story of you being there to fund the repairs to the Eon Academy,” Abbee added in, though choosing not to argue Dylan’s statement about his battling prowess. “Surely nobody would suspect you’ve recruited your students to be operatives with you…”

“Surely they wouldn’t, because I’m not,” Jon said to the pair of them. “Agatha is dangerous-”

“All the more reason we should be there to back you up,” Dylan interrupted. “If Charlotte and Justin were here, they’d agree…”

“Jon, they both raise pretty valid points…” Steven noted. “You want people in your squad you can trust? I don’t think you’ll get any better than your interns. And Abbee is right. You going on the S.S. Wishmaker alone will be a little suspicious. But bringing them will add to the cover-up Dylan has proposed…”

“Abbee’s barely eighteen!” Jon protested, Abbee flushing red with the embarrassment of being pointed out to be barely an adult.

“You were barely Dylan’s age when I recruited you…” Steven said calmly. “And both of them are far better trainers than you were at their age…”

Jon couldn’t argue with that. He would happily say all of his interns are stronger now than he was when he took the High Seas Champion title.

“Jon, we could really use you there,” Steven said. “All three of you really, but you especially, and Dylan and Abbee coming will make it easier for you to not draw suspicions…”

Jon was quiet, knowing that Steven was right. All present watched on the edge, when he finally answered.

“Look, I want to come, and you’re right. We can make it work,” Jon said, though didn’t want to get their hopes up. “But I need to speak to Alyssa about all of this. We’ve got Lili now, and this sounds like the most dangerous operation you’ve asked from me to date…”

Steven nodded, content with Jon’s answer. Cassandra however realised something.

“If the three of us are going to Alola, we need to be prepared,” Cassandra said. “Just like you two and Cynthia being in the same place would draw attention, the three of us being seen together will likely draw attention as well…”

“You’re not wrong,” Steven said. “Especially given that it is right around the anniversary of the S.S. Wishmaker incident…”

“You can’t be saying we split up?” Violet asked, and breathed a sigh of relief when Cassandra shook her head.

“We stick together, but that means we gotta cover ourselves completely,” Cassandra said, before looking back towards Steven. “Think you could get us some fake identities?”

“I can arrange that,” Steven answered. “But will that be enough?”

Cassandra shook her head.

“Honestly, we’re in the same boat as Jon. If we’re noticed, it raises a lot of questions. So think of us less as operatives, and more as Shadowcraft advisors,” Cassandra explained. “We will generally stay at HQ, and try to make a point of not leaving the building together. We’ll make our own way to Akala, avoiding the S.S. Wishmaker, and avoiding notice. Fake names and IDs will be enough to convince someone who thinks one of us may be familiar that we aren’t who they think we are.”

“It wouldn’t be enough to prevent the three of us together being noticed,” Violet agreed. “But if I duck out on my own to buy lunch, and the person serving me thinks I’m familiar, I have something to hopefully cover myself…”

“It also means that we don’t have to tell everyone involved in the operation that we’re alive…” Jarena said solemnly. “Other than Dylan and Abbee, nobody new has found out we are alive. The only people who know are everyone in this room, Cynthia, Alyssa and Jimmy…”

“You’ve seen Kendo?” Jon asked, somewhat surprised, and intentionally not telling them that Chris and Charlotte both knew they were alive as well.

“He wandered into the Starglade as a Pikachu, with a head injury,” Cassandra said, before reiterating. “An accidental, self-inflicted head injury. He was struggling to recall anything, so we healed him and he went on his way…”

Jon raised his hands in a placating gesture, knowing Cassandra’s reiteration was to cease any suspicions of Jirachi that Jon may be brewing.

“Point being, that once we have fake IDs, we can remain hidden from the rest of the operatives, and the story can be that we were just trying to do our due diligence, and approached Steven…” Jarena explained. “That way, if we play our cards right, when this is over, we can go back, and not have to worry about word spreading further about us…”

“Beyond individual aliases, a group alias would be beneficial as well,” Steven explained. “For logistical purposes, I think our best bet is to assign you three to your own squad. Very few operatives operate outside of a squad, and if operatives found out the three of you were independent of any squad in this operation, it would raise questions as to why. Jimmy Kendo is a good example, due to Jirachi being a one Pokemon squad himself. If Jon weren’t leading a squad, he’d be an independent as well.”

“So what, we’re going to be our own squad of three?” Violet asked, to which Steven replied with a nod.

“In that case, we’ll figure out our aliases soon, but for this,” Cassandra said, taking charge, like she did in their Diamond Ladies days. “Call us Triad…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Steven had left not too long after the conception of Triad, knowing that there was little more they could come up with until Steven had made all the calls he needed to make, and Jon had spoken to Alyssa about joining the operation as the commander of his own squad. Eon Squad.

Jon, not having had the chance to do so before the meeting with Steven, went to Amelia’s room, where Latios was keeping her entertained, watching Super Sylveon Smile Squad with her, though Jon knew Latios secretly liked the show. Picking up Amelia, he walked out into the lounge, where Triad had been talking and sat down.

“Everyone, this is my daughter, Lili,” Jon said, as Amelia looked anxiously between the three new faces. Amelia did seem to be more anxious around people than Pokemon, and Jon had an idea.

“Lili,” Jon said to Amelia, who looked at him. “This is Eevee, Buneary and Furret…”

Violet rolled her eyes slightly, figuring that Jon was being a smarta**, whilst Jarena couldn’t help but grin, especially when Amelia seemed to relax nearly immediately after having them introduced that way. Cassandra however realised there was more to it than that. Jon wanted to introduce them to his daughter, but knowing the need for secrets, had found a way to tell her, and be truthful, without telling his three year old daughter something that they didn’t want her repeating in front of other people, and giving away their identities.

“It’s nice to meet you Lili,” Cassandra said, trying to sound friendly and welcoming, and holding out a hand. “We’ve known your mum and dad since before you were born…”

"Latios too?" Amelia asked, unable to hide the curiosity in her voice, as she cautiously took it.

"Latios especially…" Violet answered, forcing the dryness from her tone so as to not potentially have Amelia think she disliked her. Jarena choked back a laugh at the statement.

Alyssa returned home in the early hours of the evening, before practically tackling their three unexpected guests in a hug, expressing how thankful she was the three of them were okay, however not knowing details of why they had arrived. Whilst Jon had told her, somewhat cryptically over the phone they had three guests who he was not expecting to see, he hadn’t even tried to explain why, on the very slim chance his phone had been tapped. They explained to Alyssa why they had come to see Jon, before Jon and Alyssa went to another room, leaving Amelia with Abbee and Dylan, so Jon could talk to her about joining the mission in Alola.

After an hour of discussing, Jon returned, informing those present that he had Alyssa’s blessing to join them. Whilst Alyssa didn’t want to stop him, knowing that whilst this was dangerous, his presence there could be the difference between the mission being a success or a failure, and with the stakes as high as they potentially were, if the mission failed, he was hardly going to be any safer in Mossdeep than in Alola. However, she wanted to make sure that Jon was asking her blessing whilst understanding completely the ramifications of anything happening to him. She wanted to know he wasn't just viewing this as a chance to relive his younger, glory days as an operative, and actually was going because he would be needed there.

Whilst they had no idea what Agatha was planning, they weren’t going to make the mistake of underestimating just how dangerous she was. They had made that mistake with the Diamond Ladies, and nearly had a half dozen people doomed to spend the rest of their natural lives as Pokemon. The same mistake had been made with Lance, underestimating just how far he would go to restore his damaged pride, and Jon and his interns had won many battles by letting their opponents underestimate them.

Jon showed the Diamond Ladies to the lodge, where they would spend the next few days as they prepared for their own separate trip to Alola, planning on setting up there before the main force of operatives arrived over the next few weeks. Dylan and Abbee had their own rooms, which had been their rooms in previous summers, and were practically home to them, whilst Cassandra moved into Chris’ old room, Violet into Justin’s and Jarena into Charlotte’s.

That evening, when everyone was settled, Jon left the property, driving to Steven’s house. In light of what was to come, he needed a few favours from Steven, some somewhat unrelated to the mission. When he arrived, he knocked on the door, and Steven opened it, holding a phone to his ear in one hand, that looked to be outdated by a factor of fifteen years. He didn’t seem surprised to see Jon, quickly letting him inside as he continued the phone call.

Steven lived in a modest home, contrary to his very high ranking title, and the fact he was the heir to one of the wealthiest companies in Hoenn. This surprised most people at first, as well as his modest car, that seemed to be one of the most common in Hoenn. Jon knew that like himself, Steven wasn’t too fussed about living lavishly, instead, using the bulk of his income to fund life after he decided to step down from being Hoenn Champion. Whilst he did opt to spend a little more on things such as his car, or appliances, it was usually not in the reason of excess or glamour, but simply the quality, and the prospect of going longer without needing to replace it. Steven did have a passion for collecting minerals, and had quite an impressive collection, however showed restraint in his collecting, buying far less than he could actually afford to buy, figuring the more he saves now, the sooner he can retire, and spend his days living a life of leisure. Until then however, he had responsibilities, such as overseeing an operation to catch Agatha before she caused trouble…

Jon found his way to the comfortable kitchen, sitting at the table which was covered in loose pieces of paper, freshly printed, and folders, next to a large, yet slim laptop. The papers were a mixture of files on Agatha, her Pokemon, known associates, and Akala Island itself. Additionally, there were pieces of paper that Jon recognized as handwritten notes by Steven, likely while he was on one of his numerous phone calls, taking note of important things, and linking individual pieces of this operation together visually to comprehend it a little more.

Steven ended the phone call, before entering the kitchen, grabbing two beers from the fridge, and handing Jon one, before getting the bottle opener. There was no need to ask at this point. Most evening meetings between Jon and Steven, both professional and social, involved a beer, and given the weight of that day's news, they both appreciated it.

“I spoke to Alyssa,” Jon said. “I’m coming on the mission…”

“I figured you would,” Steven answered. “But you have other reasons for coming all the way here…”

Jon nodded. He could have vaguely notified Steven with a phone call along the lines of ’I’m in, however there were some things he wanted from Steven before the mission.

“Got a few things I want from you,” Jon explained. “Firstly, I have someone I want specifically on my squad, that Cynthia should be able to recruit.”

“And that is?”

“Peter Miller,” Jon explained. Steven nodded, appreciating Jon’s thinking.

When Steven had been detained by the military to prevent him from interfering with their plan to catch Rayquaza, Cynthia sought the help of a computer expert in the Sinnoh League by the name of Peter Miller. Whilst he was a systems engineer for the League, he had spent his university years hacking, and Cynthia was aware of his talents. He had been the one to find the security footage of Steven being detained, and create a means of contact between her and Steven, in addition to the window for him to escape through to meet Jon and Cassandra, and brief them about the mission. And since then, Peter had been planting false sightings of Rayquaza in the Pokemon League’s database, in order to keep the attention away from Hoenn.

“I was thinking of recruiting him to work directly under me,” Steven noted, before considering it.

“I’ll be directly under you, and you’ll still be able to give him orders,” Jon explained. “But having someone like that in my squad, especially since we’re going to be a hybrid of recon and assault, will be great…”

“It definitely would be,” Steven said, before nodding. “He can join Eon Squad…”

Jon hadn’t shared the idea for his squad’s name with Steven yet, however grinned as Steven, who knew him too well, had predicted his actions perfectly.

“Additionally, I want Peter to start flagging Rayquaza as being seen migrating towards Alola,” Jon explained. “Rayquaza is more than safe to be around other people and Pokemon if I’m there to keep it in line, and if the s**t hits the fan, I don’t want to be avoiding using Rayquaza, like Dylan did against Deoxys…”

“So what, you’ll officially capture it in Alola?”

“That’s the plan,” Jon said with a shrug. “I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to arise for me to do this for a year or two now. Before last summer, Hill was watching me too closely. And every time I have left Hoenn since he was sacked, it either was too short notice to create a convincing trail for Rayquaza to be there, or Rayquaza was supposedly too far away from where I was going.”

“That, and God help you if you get caught trying to smuggle an unregistered Pokeball onto a plane…” Steven remarked, as Jon nodded.

“Exactly. This is the best opportunity I have to not have to keep Rayquaza a secret, and if things go as s**t as we think they will be, I’ll need that…”

“So what else?” Steven asked.

“Two more things,” Jon said, as Steven sighed in feign exasperation. “I want to use your secure line to make a phone call, but before I do that, I want to look someone up in the League Database…”

Knowing that Jon wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important, Steven obliged, opening a window on his laptop before sliding it across the table to Jon. Jon nodded his thanks, before searching a trainer, specifically, where they were registered to compete, and where their Pokeballs had been scanned by healing machines, security scanners and other such devices. When he had an idea, he dialled the number into Steven’s secure line phone.

”Hello, Charlotte speaking…”

Her voice sounded confused, Jon figuring it being an unfamiliar number phone number, and likely one that looked different to any she had seen calling her.

“Charlotte, it’s Jon,” Jon said. “You got a minute to talk, where we won’t be overheard?”

Charlotte spent a minute walking through her house, going to her own room, before speaking quietly.

”Jon, what’s going on?” Charlotte asked, concern evident in her voice. ”Why are you calling on this number?”

”It’s a secure line,” Jon answered. “Near impossible for anyone to listen in on…”

”Why do you need a secure line?”

“Something’s come up, and we’ve had to cancel the summer program…” Jon said, continuing quickly before Charlotte could object. “Something big. The League is running another operation, and I’ve been asked to join it. As have Dylan and Abbee…”

”What sort of operation?” Charlotte asked. Steven glanced at Jon, however figured that if someone as sceptical as Jon trusted Charlotte to keep this a secret, she could be trusted. She had kept Rayquaza a secret since finding out a year earlier, after all.

“We received a tipoff about witchcraft, potentially a f**kload worse than the S.S. Wishmaker, and are going to investigate, and hopefully prevent any damage being done…”

”I’ll come too,” Charlotte interrupted. ”And I know Justin would as well…”

“I know you guys would happily come, but I need you to do something else…” Jon said, ending that discussion.

”What’s that?”

“I’m worried about Chris…”

There was a silence, as Jon tried to figure out how to explain it.

“Honestly, from what I have seen and heard, he is at a tipping point. One way, he grows from it, and is better off for it. The other, and he just continues to plummet…” Jon explained. “It was the same when you guys all saw him in Jubilife for his birthday, but the problem was all his wounds were still fresh, and made it hard to help him. We’re lucky he hasn’t shifted any further, and now that this long has passed, I think we might have a better chance at getting through to him…”

”Why now?” Charlotte asked. ”Before this mission, Justin and I would have been flying out to Hoenn in the next few days. So why do you suddenly want to try and do something about Chris now?”

Charlotte’s question was to give Jon a chance to disprove the suspicion she had. That Jon asking something of them involving Chris was simply to make them feel like they were doing something without actually being on the mission themselves.

“Because even if I take every precaution I can, there is a chance I might not make it back from Alola…” Jon said solemnly, as Charlotte went silent. “If this were going to be a normal summer, I’d more than likely have the opportunity to try and help Chris myself once the summer was over, and he had time to work some stuff out. But I might not make it back, and I figure if you and Justin already had set time aside to come to Mossdeep for summer, and that is now off the table, that time could be spent catching up with Chris and trying to help him work some stuff out…”

Charlotte remained silent, not liking the fact Jon was taking on a mission that he of all people was saying could be his last, and not for the reason of retirement.

“What do you want us to do?”

“Chris arrived in Saffron City earlier this week,” Jon explained. “He is currently registered for a string of tournaments around Kanto, before he travels across to Johto to compete there as well…”

“You want us to go to Johto instead and meet up with him?” Charlotte asked. Whilst the list of registrants for any tournament was only released to the public a week before the tournament itself, she figured if Jon had access to a secured line, and was working on an operation with the League, then he likely had access to Chris’ League profile as well.

“In five weeks, he is competing in a larger tournament in Goldenrod. I want you to compete as well, and give him a good battle. One he’d enjoy,” Jon explained. “Catch up with him after, and hell, if it isn’t going to come across as you guys trying to save him see if you can stick with him for a few days after. I think it’d be good for him to have some company, and have a little bit of Academy life, without myself, Dylan and Abbee there to bring up old hurts…”

”I’ll go see Justin tonight,” Charlotte replied. ”Perks of him studying in Jubilife…”

“Good. I really appreciate this,” Jon said. “Good luck…”

”You too Jon,” Charlotte replied. ”Come home safe. And tell Dylan and Abbee that as well. Alyssa and Lili aren’t the only ones who rely on you…”

When the call ended, Jon handed Steven the phone, who took it, his expression crestfallen.

“So you feel it too?” Steven asked. “That this is going to be dangerous?”

Jon sighed.

“Yeah, I do,” Jon said. “The S.S. Wishmaker incident was sheer dumb luck that we had no real casualties, especially considering what we were up against. But this…”

“Not everyone who goes will come home…” Steven agreed.

“And as selfish as it is,” Jon said, before taking a swig of his beer. “I can only hope every operative who doesn’t, isn’t currently in Mossdeep…”

[[Desolate Divine]]

Nearly a year after it started, the Eon Academy has finally caught up to Spiritwater. Keen to flesh out this story!
@Cutesy Lopunny
The Diamond Ladies have returned...

@Noblejanobii @IHOP Alolan Raichu
Whilst not present, we have some references to Jimmy and Avery. Got some moments planned for Jimmy and Jirachi to shine. Noble, my plan currently is to not elaborate on Avery or Abital more than what you posted in Spiritwater when it was active, and simply fleshing them out. However, if you are cool with me taking some creative liberty in the sections that didn't end up happening in the RP, like I am doing with Neo and Chakra's characters, drop me a DM, and I'll give them their own moments to shine as well.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

[Noblejanobii]

Nearly a year after it started, the Eon Academy has finally caught up to Spiritwater. Keen to flesh out this story!
@Cutesy Lopunny
The Diamond Ladies have returned...

@Noblejanobii @IHOP Alolan Raichu
Whilst not present, we have some references to Jimmy and Avery. Got some moments planned for Jimmy and Jirachi to shine. Noble, my plan currently is to not elaborate on Avery or Abital more than what you posted in Spiritwater when it was active, and simply fleshing them out. However, if you are cool with me taking some creative liberty in the sections that didn't end up happening in the RP, like I am doing with Neo and Chakra's characters, drop me a DM, and I'll give them their own moments to shine as well.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

I'd absolutely be down for that!! Even if I don't comment every chapter, I've been loving this story so far. I'll shoot you a DM later today.

[Chakramaster]

Nearly a year after it started, the Eon Academy has finally caught up to Spiritwater. Keen to flesh out this story!
@Cutesy Lopunny
The Diamond Ladies have returned...

@Noblejanobii @IHOP Alolan Raichu
Whilst not present, we have some references to Jimmy and Avery. Got some moments planned for Jimmy and Jirachi to shine. Noble, my plan currently is to not elaborate on Avery or Abital more than what you posted in Spiritwater when it was active, and simply fleshing them out. However, if you are cool with me taking some creative liberty in the sections that didn't end up happening in the RP, like I am doing with Neo and Chakra's characters, drop me a DM, and I'll give them their own moments to shine as well.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

Hey no worries! I still have some catch-up work to do haha. It's been great so far reading what I have. Can't wait to see more!

[Neo Emolga]

All caught up and…

Spoiler:

Sweet mother of mercy, Chris is an absolute train wreck. At this point, heck, I’d even recommend therapy for the guy, because this just goes from bad to worse to abysmal. That and he really needs to avoid letting alcoholism become a nasty habit, because boy, I’ve seen that easily ruin lives.

Moreover, it was kind of disheartening to see what was supposed to be a second chance reunion night go completely to hell like that again. And I feel Charlotte’s right, if he keeps doing this, he’s going to find himself alone and next time, he may never get an answer to his calls. At this point, he definitely needs some major soul searching and something that gives him a solid reason to live and set the past behind him. He’s got to choose between his stubborn pride and his friends and I definitely hope to see he chooses his friends. That and he really needs to let go of what went down between himself and Dylan because otherwise it’ll always be a vicious circle and it always seems like Chris ends up as the loser in the end. It’s the kind of situation where you don’t want to see Chris get hurt, but he needs to humble himself, quit making excuses, and pull himself back together. But I have a feeling it’s the kind of thing where he’s only going to come to this realization after hitting his absolute lowest point and realize he had something good and worth holding onto when he’s picking up the pieces. I’d have to say the situation bears some resemblance to what Cassandra had to face back on the S.S. Wishmaker.

Offhand, I enjoyed Spiritwater Episode 1 and it’s awesome to see the gang getting back together. And you did a great job setting up the backstory for Jon and the interns getting geared up and ready for the mission.

And this…

“It’s nice to meet you Lili,” Cassandra said, trying to sound friendly and welcoming, and holding out a hand. “We’ve known your mum and dad since before you were born…”

"Latios too?" Amelia asked, unable to hide the curiosity in her voice, as she cautiously took it.

"Latios especially…" Violet answered, forcing the dryness from her tone so as to not potentially have Amelia think she disliked her. Jarena choked back a laugh at the statement.

Thanks for the laugh, I could easily say this is one of my favorite lines! One of these days Amelia will learn and find out what Violet meant by that! xD

Definitely eager to see more and awesome job keeping the Diamond Ladies true to their characters!

[[Desolate Divine]]

Spiritwater Episode 2: Preparations

Spoiler:

Knock knock knock…

Justin stirred slightly at the sound coming from his apartment door, however was still too asleep to comprehend that he may need to answer it.

Knock knock knock…

As he was pulled further from slumber and into the land of the conscious, he started to realise that something wasn’t right. He opened his eyes, and looked at his phone, which was on charge, the display dimmed but turned on, showing the time to be 11pm. He had only been asleep for an hour, having his last classes for the year the next morning. He began to wonder who was knocking on his door that late at night.

Knock knock knock…

“I’m coming,” Justin called out, as he grabbed a shirt and a pair of shorts off his bedroom floor, and quickly began to dress. He hopped out of his bedroom as he attempted to climb into the shorts whilst he moved, and donned the shirt just as he opened the door, to see Charlotte, standing on the other side.

“Did I wake you?” Charlotte asked, noting the hallway behind Justin was unlit.

“Yeah,” Justin answered, knowing Charlotte well enough to know there would be little consequence for answering that question honestly. “What’s going on?”

“Inside,” Charlotte said, nodding. “I don’t want to be overheard…”

Confused, Justin stepped aside, turning on the light, as Charlotte entered. He closed the door behind them, as she made her way to the lounge, sitting comfortably on one of the couches. Justin, no less confused, made his way to the couch opposite Charlotte, not offering a drink knowing she would help herself. She was a regular visitor at Justin’s apartment, and had made herself at home.

“Jon’s cancelling the summer program,” Charlotte said quietly, as Justin’s eyes widened.

“Wait, what?” Justin said, his voice raised slightly in shock. “Why?”

Charlotte placed a single finger to her lips, to gesture Justin to be quiet, before speaking again, keeping her tone controlled.

“The League have received a tip off that something bad is going to happen, and are launching an operation to stop it. Jon, Dylan and Abbee have all been recruited to help out…”

“Why didn’t they ask us?” Justin asked. “If they’re recruiting Dylan and Abbee…”

“Do you really think Jon recruited them? You know what he is like. He wouldn’t want them anywhere near this thing, and they probably fought tooth and nail for him to let them come…” Charlotte explained. “He said it is something to do with witchcraft, and potentially a lot worse than the S.S. Wishmaker incident…”

“Well if Dylan and Abbee could convince him to let them come, surely we can convince him too,” Justin began though Charlotte shook her head.

“He has something he wants us to do instead…”

Justin looked at Charlotte, curious to know what this task was, and she continued.

“He has got a rough idea of Chris’ movements over the next few months. League information, with the tournaments he is registered for and all that,” Charlotte explained. “Jon wants us to go to Goldenrod to see Chris, and try and help him out of this funk he is in-”

“Charlotte, I know you’re not dumb enough to buy that,” Justin said, his voice slightly raised. “He’s just giving us a job to do so we feel like we’re doing something and are okay to not be there with him!”

Charlotte shook her head.

“I thought the same thing, and asked him why ask this now, considering you and I were going to be flying to Lilycove this weekend anyway…”

“And what did he say?” Justin asked, having been thinking the same thing as Charlotte when she was on the phone.

“He said that before this tip off came in, there was always time after summer to help Chris work his s**t out,” Charlotte said, her tone turning solemn. “But he has a bad feeling about this operation, and knows there is a real chance he might not make it home…”

Justin was shocked to hear Jon had told Charlotte this. From day one, Jon had seemed like a superhero. Unshakable, and when it really mattered, unbeatable. Between their scuffles with poachers, saving the Eon Academy from being bought by Mark Hill, and beating Camilla Blakely with a single Pokemon, Jon seemed almost more myth than man to Justin, even though he knew him personally, and Jon had told Justin and the others numerous times they were far closer to his level than they realised.

“He really thinks he could get killed during this?” Justin asked. Charlotte nodded.

“The S.S. Wishmaker is child’s play compared to what he is worried will be happening in Alola…” Charlotte explained. “And you know what he is like. Even if he is one of the best trainers of this decade, he wouldn’t let that cause him to underestimate what he is coming up against down the line…”

Justin nodded, understanding why Charlotte was okay with this.

“So we’re going to Johto instead?” Justin asked. Charlotte nodded.

“Not for another month. If Chris knew we were intentionally trying to make contact with him by going, he’d suspect Jon is trying to use us to get to him,” Charlotte explained. “Chris is battling in heaps of smaller tournaments, that I normally wouldn’t battle in, and would start asking questions if I happened to compete in one as well. But there is one in Goldenrod in five weeks, that is the sort of tournament he has faced me in since we were both in the adult bracket. Running into me there is hardly suspicious, and as for you coming with me…”

Charlotte seemed to have a thought, which took over. She glanced over at Justin.

“What’s Candice’s availability like during summer?” Charlotte asked.

“She’s flat out,” Justin answered. “Summer makes Snowpoint a little more pleasant for outsiders to make the trek to, so she usually has more challengers during summer to make up for how quiet it is the rest of the year…”

“Good,” Charlotte answered. “You can say Candice was too busy for you to spend much time with her, so when I mentioned competing in Johto, you decided to come along to cheer me on…”

“Think he’ll buy it?”

“It’s not unreasonable,” Charlotte explained. “Honestly, it would be easy to convince him he is being delusional if he does think we are up to something…”

Justin nodded in agreement as Charlotte continued.

“Honestly, there isn’t much to it. I’ll battle him, and try and make it an enjoyable battle, and after, see if we can spend a few days with him, and try and help him work some of his issues out,” Charlotte explained. “Honestly, we could potentially do this, before making our own way to Alola to help Jon…”

Justin’s eyes widened hearing this.

“I thought he told us not to come on the mission?”

Charlotte grinned.

“He did, but now, my summer is free, and I hear Alola is nice this time of year. I might feel like a holiday…” Charlotte explained. “Jon just told us to spend some time with Chris, but that will be a few days at most. And if we happened to be in Alola and Jon happened to need help, I don’t think he’d be in much of a position to stop us…”

Justin couldn’t help but smile.

“You know this doesn’t help dispel this whole [i]terrifying[/t] schtick you’ve got going on?”

“Why do you think I’d want to?”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

The next day, Jon had made a point of spending as much time as he could with Lili. Whilst the campers were due to arrive in half a week, Dylan was spending the day trying to sabotage the property enough that if questions were asked about their reason for cancelling the summer program, they could answer them, and Jon wanted to make sure everything was set before he started telling people that the program was cancelled. The last thing he wanted was to give Dylan’s reason to a few parents and find out from Dylan halfway through notifying everyone that the cover up wouldn’t work and they had to change their story. As such, he would be contacting parents tomorrow to notify them that the camp was cancelled, with Dylan having all day to make it believable. Dylan had flicked the circuit breaker on the property, in order to not risk electrocuting himself during the sabotage, meaning that all electronics without batteries were currently out of commission.

Seeing as his next few weeks would likely be spent with Steven, planning for the operation before he went, he was wanting to spend as much time with his daughter as he could. He wanted to spend that time with Alyssa as well, however Alyssa had work to do, and whilst he now had less to do until the prep for the operation ramped up, Alyssa taking time off work herself would raise questions.

“I love you, and I appreciate you doing this, but I still gotta meet deadlines,” Alyssa had said. “Take care of Lili during the day, and once she is asleep, we can spend time together…”

The pair sat in the lounge, as Jon felt his sanity slip as Lili wanted to watch yet another episode of Super Sylveon Smile Squad on his laptop. He began amusing himself thinking of gruesome deaths for Smiles the Sylveon, the main character of Super Sylveon Smile Squad. Meanwhile in the kitchen, Cassandra, Jarena and Victini sat at the kitchen table. An hour earlier, Violet had noted that the clothes they were wearing were their old ones, and they’d be more recognisable in them, given the designer labels. As such, Abbee volunteered to go into town with her, and help find some new outfits that were more like the common people’s, and wouldn’t draw too much attention.

On the table in front of Cassandra sat Victini, and next to him a tablet, where Victini showed her the recordings of the battles against the College of the North Wind. So far they had watched Justin and Charlotte’s battles, and were up to Chris’, Victini telling Cassandra and Jarena, the latter of which was bored by the conversation and tuning out, about the other three interns.

“There’s something familiar about Chris,” Cassandra said as she watched Chris’ Lugia beat Natasha King’s Glastrier. “I can’t put my finger on it…”

Victini replied verbally, given everyone in the house but Alyssa and Amelia could understand it.

“That would be the family resemblance…” Victini said cautiously, unsure of how Cassandra and Jarena would take the revelation. “He is Lance’s cousin…”

Cassandra’s eyes widened a little. Now she could see it. The same colour hair and demeanour as the disgraced former Indigo Champion.

“How did Lance’s cousin join Jon’s school, the first summer after the S.S. Wishmaker?” Cassandra asked, shocked at what she had just heard.

“Right after Lance was arrested, his family were divided over whether to continue to support him, or to effectively denounce him. Chris was in the middle of it, and wasn’t sure where he stood. So he wanted to learn more about Jon to figure out where he stood himself, and signed up,” Victini explained. “He was a bit of a handful, but he ended up getting his act together during the first summer. But…”

Victini went quiet, honestly saddened himself by the rift between Chris and half of the other people from the Academy. As much as he made fun of Chris when he and Abbee were together, he did genuinely like him.

“But what?” Cassandra asked, somewhat worried that someone related to and with such a strong resemblance to Lance may wind up following in his footsteps.

“Chris and Abbee dated for a year. Last summer, Abbee, well meaning, did something that really upset Dylan, and he tore into her. Made her cry. And even though Dylan and Abbee made up within a week and were fine after that, Chris held a grudge against Dylan for it, and most of last summer, the two of them weren’t on great terms…” Victini explained. “Then Abbee broke up with him about three quarters of the way through last summer…”

“Because of Dylan?”

“No. Chris had his dreams and plans for his future, but the way he talked about them, Abbee didn’t feel like he was leaving any room for her in them. She wanted to talk this out with Chris, but Chris felt like talking it out, and coming up with some way of including Abbee, would basically be admitting he can’t achieve his dreams as they were, whilst staying with Abbee, and kept putting off the conversation, saying they’d cross that bridge when they’d get there,” Victini told Cassandra. “Eventually, Abbee couldn’t take it. She figured that if they weren’t in a relationship for it to work out long term, and it was doomed to fail somewhere down the line when their goals took them in opposite directions, she’d rather end it now, than let it die on its own in a few years and it hurt even more…”

Cassandra watched as Lugia, now far stronger than normal given it stealing Glastrier’s ability, and also increasing its own strength, faced down Chandelure for a brief moment, before Natasha forfeited.

“Chris and Abbee were both pretty hurt by it. Charlotte and Justin got around Chris, and Abbee relied on Dylan, who was relying on her with his own stuff going on. The two of them got pretty close, and Chris saw it, and didn’t take it well,” Victini continued, the sadness obvious in his voice. “He was upset, and embarrassed, and lashed out at Dylan, and when Jon tried to lay down some hard truths on him, he lashed out at Jon as well…”

“I find it weird you seem to be almost taking his side…” Cassandra noted, as Victini shook his head.

“I’ll always be on Abbee’s side. When it became obvious he liked her, I told him if he hurt her, I’d dig out your old tomes and turn him into a Dunsparce…”

Jarena grinned having overheard that conversation, and Victini continued.

“But really, he isn’t a bad guy. He’s proud, like Lance was, but the difference between him and Lance is that he doesn’t let his pride take the wheel. He’d think more in terms of common sense, and the friendships he had with those around him. He knew that he was one of the strongest here, but also knew that he could act without thinking, and be immature, so he’d be hyper aware of it, and make sure to compensate for it,” Victini explained. “But when his pride took a hit, it was as if it grabbed the steering wheel, and swerved the car off the road…”

Cassandra’s expression remained neutral. Whilst she could admit her opinion of Chris was biased, given his relationship to Lance, what Victini described in this trainer did worry her. Victini, sensing Cassandra’s apprehension about the trainer, spoke again.

“He’s a good guy at heart, really…” Victini said. “He just has some stuff he needs to work out…”

On screen, Chris and Natasha left the stadium, before the recording skipped over the ad breaks and Abbee entered the field against her opponent Matt, with Victini sitting on her shoulder. Cassandra focused on the clip, curious to see Victini battling in what she had heard to be one of his most difficult battles to date. On screen, Abbee returned Victini to his Pokeball before sending out her Ariados.

“We knew what Legendary Pokemon Matt had, and I’d told Abbee it was mine…” Victini explained. “I had something to prove…”

Somewhat puzzled by Victini’s statement, Cassandra watched as Ariados, whilst increasing its own speed and attack power, dispatched of Matt’s Mismagius, before withdrawing Ariados via a Baton Pass, when Matt sent out his Toxicroak. Cassandra watched in anticipation, as Victini dispatched of Toxicroak with ease, before crying out, both audibly and telepathically. She understood the words, despite it being a recording.

”Bring me Shaymin!” Victini on screen had roared.

“You battled another Shaymin?” Cassandra asked, remembering her last win as a Pokemon trainer. Victini grinned.

“I beat another Shaymin,” Victini said. “No flukes this time either. I let the battle become high stakes. I convinced Abbee to let me use Sunny Day, then used V-Create to reduce my defence so Shaymin could beat me in a single hit, and my attack was raised enough from Baton Pass that Shaymin would go down in a single hit as well. The first to slip up would lose…”

Cassandra watched in awe as Victini on screen, battling in a high stakes battle, managed to avoid most of Shaymin’s attacks, before taking one, however using Guard Swap to just hold out, whilst also transferring his own weakened defences to Shaymin. Meanwhile, Shaymin hadn’t paid attention to Sunny Day, which wore off. Victini, knowing that was his moment, landed his final attack.

”V-Compress!” Abbee on screen shouted.

“V-Compress?” Cassandra asked.

“I create a telekinetic bubble around myself, and compress my V-Create flames. Then break it when I make contact. It becomes explosive…” Victini explained quickly, not wanting Cassandra to miss his glorious win. “I got the idea when Justin’s Alakazam did it to one of my V-Creates the summer before…

“I am Victini! The Victory Star Pokemon!” Victini on screen shouted audibly and telepathically. ”And my victory is right now!”

Cassandra watched in shock as Victini’s flames burned ever hotter, turning blue, before striking Shaymin, and launching it skyward.

“Since when could you make blue flames?” Cassandra asked, shocked at how strong Victini was, before feeling a momentary feeling of guilt. Had she actually put in the work with Victini, like Jon and Abbee had, he may have been this strong when she was his trainer. Remembering what Victini said about V-Compress being inspired by Justin’s Alakazam, she realised even something as seemingly minor as being able to train alongside other Pokemon at the same level would have been beneficial.

“Only that once,” Victini said, somewhat disappointed. “I have tried since, but couldn’t pull it off. I guess I was just that hell bent on winning without a fluke on the sun setting at a convenient time that it just came naturally to me…”

Cassandra couldn’t help but grin, before giving him a pat on the head.

“You’ve come a hell of a long way,” Cassandra commended. “Abbee should be proud. I sure as hell am…”

Jarena watched, somewhat bored, as Abbee left the battlefield, having tried to speak to her opponent after who had refused, and Dylan entered the battlefield. Not wanting to sit through another battle, she saw Dylan on screen, and had an idea.

“I’m going to see if Dylan wants some help,” Jarena said, standing to her feet. Cassandra gave a slightly puzzled nod, however didn’t say anything, as Jarena left.

Half the reason for her boredom was simply nobody to have a good conversation with. Cassandra and Victini were so focused on catching up with each other after three and a half years, and Jon was spending his time with his daughter which she didn’t want to interfere with. Alyssa had to work, and Violet and Abbee were in town. Dylan however, she figured could use some company, and realistically, her and Dylan were the two closest people in age there, her having just turned twenty-three, and Dylan turning twenty-one towards the end of the coming summer.

Jarena found Dylan outside the main hall with a shovel, digging a small trench along the side, while a small toolbox sat on the ground beside him. It was a warm day, and it hardly seemed like comfortable work. Hearing footsteps, Dylan looked up, not wanting to be spotted by an unexpected visitor sabotaging the property, and was somewhat surprised to see Jarena, who he had barely spoken to walking towards him.

“Want some help?” Jarena asked casually, surprising Dylan a little. He quickly glanced up and down at her, before responding.

“Thanks, but everything from now on is pretty much a one person job…”

Jarena, having noticed the glance, shot Dylan a glare.

“You don’t think I can help?” she asked, her tone indicating she had a hunch about what his answer was. He raised his hand in a placating gesture.

“I have no doubt you could,” Dylan explained. “But really, there isn’t a great deal left that isn’t pretty messy work…”

“You know I spent three and a half years living as a wild Pokemon…” Jarena asked rhetorically. “Messy work is nothing…”

“You’re right,” Dylan answered apologetically. “Sorry. But really, there isn’t much left to do…”

Jarena looked at the ditch Dylan had dug, where a series of thick, insulated underground wires were exposed.

“What’re you actually doing?” Jarena asked, nodding towards the ditch.

“Making our story believable…” Dylan answered. “Most of the property is powered by solar panels on the roof of the main building, and a big battery that stores the excess energy for when the sun goes down…”

He nodded towards a bulky battery that was mounted to the wall of the hall.

“There is a regulator in the battery control unit which will determine whether the power comes from the solar setup, or the city's electrical grid. And this wire goes from that regulator to the rest of the property…” Dylan said. He tossed the shovel aside, before grabbing a pair of wire cutters from the toolbox. Jarena’s eyes widened as Dylan placed them against the wires that were exposed in the ditch.

“What the hell are you-” Jarena said, as Dylan cut the wires, and she expected him to be electrocuted. Whilst she knew he had turned the power off, in that moment, it had slipped her mind. He grinned.

“I’m going to put a switch, that is remote activated, on this wire, and rebury it. Sometime tomorrow, when we have prepared for no power here for a few days, I’ll turn the switch off, and have Jon’s Jolteon hit the solar battery with a Thunderbolt attack…” Dylan explained. “It should fry the battery, regulator and the visible wires, making it look like a Rotom got in and messed it up, but everything after the switch will be safe. Though we might have to have Jolteon fry a few things Jon wouldn’t be too annoyed at replacing in the buildings to add to the story…”

“Why would a Rotom be here?” Jarena asked. “And won’t the insurance company spot from a mile away that this is a scam?”

“We won’t be contacting the insurance company,” Dylan answered, and as Jarena went to ask another question, he interrupted, grabbing the switch from his toolbox and kneeling down next to the ditch. “And it won’t be suspicious that we don’t…”

“And why is that?”

“Because the story we go with, is that a Rotom got into Abbee’s laptop before she left Johto, and she accidentally brought it here,” Dylan explained, as he quickly began using a screwdriver to connect the exposed ends of the wire to the respective terminals on the switch. “Any insurance company who knows what they’re doing would find a way to put the liability on her, and refuse to pay out. They’d say Abbee’s own insurance needs to pay for it, but her insurance only covers her own Pokemon, not a wild one that stowed away in her luggage. Which is why Jon is finally doing publicity stunts on the S.S. Wishmaker like they have harassed him to do for years. Because he needs cash quickly to fix the Academy…”

As Dylan explained this, Jarena couldn’t help but remember the meeting Jon and Alyssa had with Cassandra, Violet and herself in their glorified cell on the S.S. Wishmaker, after Jon and Latios detained them. The idea he had to cover up the existence of Witchcraft, using a Zoroark, and taking the fall himself.

“You really are his student,” Jarena said with a grin. “This seems like a very Jon sort of idea…”

“I learnt from the best,” Dylan answered, as he tested the remote for the switch, making sure he could hear it flicking on and off. “But this nitty-gritty technical stuff is more my forte than his.”

Dylan quickly began to bury the wire, before patting down the freshly disturbed earth, trying to flatten it.

“So what brings you out here?” Dylan asked. “Air con or not, it must be cooler inside.”

Jarena shrugged.

“I got bored. Jon’s trying to make the most of the time he has left with his daughter before he leaves. Alyssa is working, and Victini is showing Cassandra every one of his battles that has been recorded since he teamed up with Abbee,” Jarena said. “You showed up on the screen when they were watching the battles, and I remembered you were around, so figured I’d see if you needed help…”

“From what I have heard, it’s your loss you walked out before my battle,” Dylan retorted facetiously. “According to Abbee, it’s second only to Jon’s…”

“I’m sure I’ll get a chance to check it out…” Jarena replied indifferently, not wanting to give Dylan the satisfaction of the type of response he was after. Despite their differences in temperament, she had to admit she liked Dylan. She figured in a different life, where they may have both been students here, they may have become good friends. She noticed Dylan staring somewhat intently at the patch of earth that was obviously disturbed. Whilst he had flattened it out, it was still obvious it had been dug up.

“I will get Sceptile to make some grass grow there,” Dylan said, more so to himself, however Jarena heard, before shaking her head.

“No need…”

Dylan looked up at her, somewhat confused, before she placed both hands towards the patch of earth, palms outstretched towards it. She began muttering a quiet incantation, and a green aura appeared around her hands, as slowly, grass began to erupt from the ground, growing thicker, as Jarena timed the spell, ending it as the grass seemed to be the same thickness as that around it.

Dylan watched in dumbfound disbelief.

“Everyone knows that you guys can do stuff like that…” Dylan said. “But still, it’s weird seeing it. I get the same feeling when Jon talks to Latios and actually understands him…”

Jarena grinned.

“I had to learn that trick after a few months living rough,” she explained. “We found these berries that tasted amazing, but the problem was if we brought a few back to the Starglade, the other Pokemon would sniff them out and eat them while we were out…”

Jarena’s smile widened as she reminisced.

“I found a nearby cabin, and snuck in to steal a plastic container, and started storing them in there and burying it. But it still got found, so I learnt how to do that to cover my trail,” Jarena continued. “Even lost it myself a few times…”

“No wonder,” Dylan said, now struggling to pick exactly where he had buried the wire, now that Jarena had made it blend in. After patting the ground to find the softer area, he focused on that before getting out his phone and taking a photo.

“So I can dig this up and fix it myself when we get back…” he explained. Jarena couldn’t help but grimace. Whilst she had faith that Dylan and Abbee could handle themselves, especially given the fact Jon had mentioned in passing Abbee and Dylan, as well as his other interns were at similar, if not higher level or battling to himself on the S.S. Wishmaker, and Dylan had shown his ingenuity and ability to plan just then, she had to remember that on the S.S. Wishmaker, they were simply trying to cover their tracks, and once that was impossible, escape. They weren’t actively trying to harm anyone, let alone kill them. Agatha however, she wasn’t sure would show that same level of restraint, nor the sort of people her invitation would encourage.

Seeming to notice Jarena’s uncertain look, Dylan repeated himself.

“When we get back…” Dylan assured. “Jon and Steven make a pretty effective team, and haven’t let us down yet. We’ll make it back alive…”

Jarena nodded, though wished she could say that with the same level of conviction.

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“I never thought I’d be shopping like this again,” Violet said quietly, as she pulled out a top from the rack that five years prior, she would have bought. Whilst being a designer brand, it was one of the cheaper ones. Cheaper however was still a half day's earnings from Abbee’s job at the Nimbasa City Gym. She felt a bitterness rise up, and put it back. It just seemed wrong. Too tight and constrictive. Too flashy, and not durable enough for a lifestyle that isn’t drenched with privilege.

Even her current clothes, that were hers before the S.S. Wishmaker, seemed wrong. Too impractical, and stood out too much. She felt like she needed to check over her shoulder, and make sure she wasn’t being watched, despite wearing a pair of fake glasses, a hat and one of Alyssa’s wigs. However as she considered this, she realised she never found out how Jon got the DNA samples, or the clothes themselves. She was sure she hadn’t had these clothes for a little while before the S.S. Wishmaker incident, but couldn’t remember what happened to them…

Abbee stood at another rack, looking around. Whilst she was just as slim as Violet, Violet was half a foot taller than her, which meant that her experience of finding clothing would not translate well. Violet spoke up, quietly, but loud enough for just Abbee to hear.

“How did Jon get our clothes?” Violet asked, curiosity getting the better of her. “And our DNA samples?”

Abbee shuddered, which made Violet even more curious. She looked intently at Abbee, partially wanting to intimidate her into spilling, knowing that after this many years, Cassandra was immune to the trick. Little did she know, if Alyssa, Cassandra or Amelia weren’t around, Jon would happily tell her, to this day, finding the whole thing to be hilarious.

“When Cassandra asked Jon to find them, he looked on a few online marketplaces for Diamond Ladies memorabilia. He found this guy who was a massive creep, and used to be a mega-fan of the three of you. Had your autographs tattooed on his arm, which he was trying to get lasered off,” Abbee said. “He had a collection...”

Suddenly, Violet realised why Cassandra said she didn’t want to know. She now remembered the charity auction she participated in, as a publicity stunt, donating some of her clothes, with the proceeds going towards a not-for-profit. However, she was past the point of no return…

“What sort of collection?” Violet asked, growing more anxious by the minute. She already regretted asking, but couldn’t have this question weighing over her when she tried to sleep at night.

“Heaps of signed photos. Old clothes. Dirty napkins,” Abbee began, as Violet cringed further. “Used towels that competition organisers would give you during outdoor summer matches-”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Violet interjected, though looked at Abbee and realised she wasn’t finished. “That wasn’t the worst of it?”

Abbee shook her head.

“Tell me,” Violet said, forcing the conviction into her voice. “I want to know…”

That was a lie, but she knew the question would keep her awake at night.

“Jon said this guy had a listing for Anime Girl Body Pillows, lightly used, that were stylized to look like-”

“Okay, I lied, I don’t want to know…” Violet said, knowing where Abbee was going. She had wanted to know because she wouldn’t sleep at night not knowing. Now she just wouldn’t sleep at night in general…

Giving up on finding something that would fit Violet, not knowing how to shop for a woman as tall as her, she decided to try shopping for Cassandra or Jarena. However, as she remembered the three of them walking into the stadium the day before, she realised that Jarena was only an inch shorter than Violet, and Cassandra an inch taller.

“I’m not used to buying for someone so tall,” Abbee remarked, somewhat jokingly. “Honestly, did the three of you have a minimum height to be eligible or something?”

“Why, you want to join?” Violet asked sarcastically. “Position doesn’t pay well. Nothing really. But you spend lots of time outdoors in fresh air, and the health cover is great. Dental, not so much…”

Abbee laughed.

“I think I’ll stick with the gym…”

Violet’s eyes widened a little hearing this.

“You’re a Gym Leader?” Violet asked. Abbee laughed.

“I wish,” Abbee remarked. “Gym Trainer. The pleb you have to beat before the Gym Leader will give you a challenge. I started at the start of autumn. Nimbasa City.”

Whilst Victini had mentioned this to Cassandra, it became pretty obvious to Violet and Jarena that they were third and fourth wheeling their reunion, and like Jerena had that afternoon, Violet had given them some space, instead opting to do something practical. As such, she hadn’t been privy to most of what had been said.

“I never did any of the League challenges myself,” Violet said. “I was too focused on school to get a team ready to get the badges once I finished. And by the time I graduated high school, myself, Cass and Jarena had already discovered our talent...”

Even though the store was practically empty of other customers, Violet wasn’t going to risk saying too much.

“After that, going for badges seemed too small time, in light of what we could do,” Violet continued. “In hindsight, I probably should have put more of my time into training Pokemon when I was in school, and gone for the eight badges. Despite straight A’s, I barely remember my time in school, and I’m not even thirty yet…”

Abbee nodded in understanding, as she continued to try and look for clothes.

“I never did it myself. Heck, none of the interns have,” Abbee said. “Chris and Charlotte both wanted to focus on tournaments as opposed to the League itself, and I competed in a couple of them, because Dad had been training me, and figured it would be good to put what I learnt to the test. I’m not sure why Justin started training Pokemon, and Dylan had other reasons…”

“How is it working at the Gym?”

“It’s great,” Abbee replied. “It’s an Electric Type Gym, which means that I am not relying on Victini like I normally do. And because Electric types have a single, obvious weakness, I am consistently at a disadvantage, so I have to work hard to put up a fight.”

“Victini has gotten strong,” Violet said, having seen it herself during the training session. “You’ve done well with him. By the time we went legit, Victini had enough drive to pull off the odd miracle, but just lacked the practice to make best use of it. Now…”

“Honestly, I couldn’t ask for a better partner,” Abbee answered, however felt a pang of jealousy saying that while her partner was back at the Academy with Cassandra. Eventually, she couldn’t help herself. “How long ago did Victini meet you guys? He mentioned you were there…”

Violet took a moment to think over the numbers, before answering.

“Three years before the S.S. Wishmaker, right when we started to really blow up,” Violet answered. “I wanted to get my hands on a Legendary Pokemon, because I knew a reputation like ours would invite challenges from stronger opponents, and people would start asking questions if we were consistently beating championship teams with Legendary Pokemon without any of our own…”

Abbee nodded, having heard the story from Victini the summer before.

“I was meeting with some less than savoury characters who were going to track down a Galarian Moltres for me, and Cass came with me to watch my back in case they tried anything sketchy,” Violet explained. “They had captured Victini a few days earlier and had another buyer lined up, but Cass decided she had to take him. She was able to be very persuasive even without Shadowcraft…”

Abbee remained silent hearing this, and Violet glanced over, seeming to notice this.

“You don’t have to worry about Cass trying to take Victini from you,” Violet said, attempting to be understanding, but also firm to make sure there was no room for misinterpretation. “My Pokemon had been stolen before we decided to disappear, but Cassandra made the decision to set her Pokemon free, Victini included, and let them fend for themselves. And now Victini is happy with you, and has grown heaps. Cass wouldn’t interfere with that. She has just missed him, and doesn’t know when she will see him next when all this is over, so I think she’s just trying to make the most of the time she can spend with him before they have to go their separate paths again…”

Abbee flushed red with embarrassment that Violet had read her worries so easily. Violet however had answered the wrong unanswered question. However, she didn’t indicate this to her, instead, letting Violet think the matter was closed. She was too embarrassed to voice her real concern.

“Thanks. It’s just been a bit odd, seeing Victini with another trainer…” Abbee remarked.

“You’re telling me,” Violet said jokingly, before resuming her shopping.

Abbee’s real worry wasn’t that Cassandra was trying to take Victini away. She believed Violet when she said that Cassandra wasn’t trying to do that. Her real worry was that when this situation in Akala is over, that Victini would want to stay with Cassandra. Wanting to change the subject, Abbee remembered an idea she had for the mission.

“I got an idea I want to run past you…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *********

“So far Eon Squad is yourself, Dylan, Abbee, Peter and Ford…” Steven explained. “We need to fill it out.”

It was evening, and Steven had joined them at the Eon Academy to discuss the mission, as well as give Cassandra, Violet and Jarena their new identities. Jon and Steven sat in the kitchen of Jon and Alyssa’s house, whilst Triad were gathered elsewhere, planning how they would get to Alola together, albeit unnoticed. Dylan was scouring the various rooms of the property for electronics that would not be a major loss to fry for the cover up, and Abbee was in her room in the lodge with Victini, though nobody but Violet knew what they were up to...

Peter Miller was the computer expert and closet hacker that had assisted Cynthia with making contact with Steven during his first detainment by the Hoenn Military, and since then had been laying a trail of false sighting of Rayquaza away from Hoenn. Since his recruitment to Eon Squad, and the mission overall, Jon had asked him to start moving the sightings of Rayquaza towards Eastern Unova, and from there, Alola.

Ryan Ford, or Ford as he went by, Jon being thankful as he still unintentionally reacted to the name Ryan, was a relatively new recruit. He was only a year or two older than Dylan, having joined the League’s list of operatives after the S.S. Wishmaker. Unlike Jon however, Ford was not a circumstantial recruit, but instead worked full time for the League, and as such, had received extensive training in areas such as fitness, unseen movement, unarmed combat as well as firearms. Steven had intentionally placed him in Eon Squad, knowing that whilst Ford excelled in all his training, his intuition, planning and decision making were lacking, all of which were Jon’s strengths. He was certain that under Jon’s leadership, he’d be a serious asset to the squad.

Jon looked through a pile of folders that Steven had brought, each containing details of operatives, both permanent and casual, that Steven was considering calling on. Jon looked through the folder he held in front of him, before putting it on the pile which he had dubbed the not Eon Squad pile. The corresponding Eon Squad pile was much shorter, containing only the folders of himself, some of the contents of which Jon found to be amusing, as well as the folders of Peter Miller and Ryan Ford. There were no folders for Dylan or Abbee, given the fact they had never worked directly for the League, and therefore, there were no dossiers made for the pair of them.

“Another one?” Steven asked, nodding towards the newest rejection. “I know she wasn’t as exceptional as Ford, but she would still be a good fit…”

“She has a husband and three kids. The youngest is less than a year old,” Jon answered bluntly. “Eon Squad will be hitting the frontline when the s**t hits the fan, and I don’t want to be responsible for these kids losing their mum…”

“So you’re not going to recruit anyone with people to leave behind?”

“Her file listed that she failed a training exercise, by mistaking a target for a civilian,” Jon answered. “That sort of thing is likely to get her killed. So no, I’ll bring people along even if they have families, if I think they’re exceptional enough to have a good chance of going home to them. Otherwise, they can work in one of the reconnaissance or defensive squads…”

Jon picked up the next file, noting the name.

Luneth Tarot.

Jon opened the file, and was surprised when the image he was met with was one pulled from the League Trainer Database, of a young woman who seemed a couple of years older than Abbee, though surprisingly, with an even more pale complexion, and stark white hair. Her eyes were pale violet, and Jon couldn’t help but feel like he had seen her before…

Steven noticed Jon reading this file more intently, before glancing at the name, and chiming in.

“She’s an interesting one,” Steven explained. “Technically, she isn’t an operative, yet.”

“Then why have I got her file?” Jon asked. “If she hasn’t done any work for the League, that means she hasn’t received minimum training like I had to when you first recruited me…”

“After the S.S. Wishmaker Incident, the League received a letter from her, telling them that she had access to Shadowcraft, but still wanted to compete, so was being open about it so that precautions could be taken to make sure that there was no concern of her cheating like the Diamond Ladies,” Steven explained. “She beat all but the last gym in Galar, and all the gyms in Kalos and Sinnoh…”

“She’s got more badges than I do,” Jon agreed, having only gotten badges from Kanto and Hoenn himself. Steven nodded.

“Additionally, this morning, she reached out to the League to tip them off about Agatha, having had the same dream…” Steven explained, before finally, Jon remembered where he had seen her.

“She was there, when Latios and I first tried to take in the Diamond Ladies. She tried to interfere, and I had to get my operative ID to get her to stand aside,” Jon explained. “Remember when we decided to try and cover it up, I mentioned there was a teenager who had seen and heard enough that the cover up wouldn’t work, and we’d have to get her to sign a non-disclosure agreement? I asked you to send me information on all girls between fifteen and twenty on the S.S. Wishmaker so I could find her…”

“You never did find her?” Steven asked, slightly surprised.

“By the next morning, the cover-up was dead in the water, so why waste my time trying to find her?” Jon answered, before thinking for a moment. He then placed the file with the others in the rejection pile.

“She could be a massive asset to Eon Squad as a Shadowcraft consultant,” Steven protested, and Jon nodded.

“She could. But I can work directly with Triad, and I will be making sure that if any of my squad figures out who they really are, they keep their mouths shut,” Jon explained. “Luneth would be useful in my squad, definitely. But she could be even more useful outside of my squad, being a Shadowcraft consultant who isn’t trying to remain anonymous…”

“Fair enough,” Steven admitted. Jon raised a valid point. He was picking his squad so pedantically that it wouldn’t be difficult for Triad to be their consultants whilst remaining anonymous. But the League had a history of letting information slip, and if there were any loose-lipped operatives who needed a hex removed, it would be better for Luneth to handle that instead of being tied up with Eon Squad. Knowing that Jon would be here a while, Steven continued.

“We have four weeks until the Spiritwater Festival starts. The S.S. Wishmaker will depart Slateport in three weeks, and operatives from Hoenn, Johto and Kanto will be arriving at the Department of Defense HQ in Slateport a week from today for two weeks training,” Steven explained. “It won’t be anything too comprehensive. Basic fitness, tactical skills, operation briefings and firearms training…”

Jon nodded as he looked through the next file, surprising Steven by adding it to the three on the Eon Squad pile.

“Definitely train them, but I won’t be carrying a firearm. Neither will Dylan, Abbee, or any casual operative who isn’t well and truly experienced in using them,” Jon said, cutting Steven off before he could object. “If I’m considering a casual operative for the squad, compared to a permanent, it’s because they’re good with Pokemon, and we aren’t just battling a witch, but a former Elite Four member…”

Jon grabbed the next file, and continued reading as he explained.

“I’ve used firearms on multiple occasions, but I’m no marksman. The guys who Lance sent back in 2018, I shot at point blank range, and the captain of those poachers, I had the sawn-off shotgun pressed against his head. It was a miracle I managed to hit one of the others from the boat. And Dylan and Abbee will have never fired one before training. Their strength is battling,” Jon explained. “And if we give them a firearm, we only give them the temptation to fight with something they are less experienced with. I’d rather them not have the option, and have to rely on their Pokemon, because that’s where they’re at their strongest…”

“But it isn’t just Pokemon trainers you’re going up against,” Steven explained. “We barely know what Shadowcraft can do…”

“From what Cass has told us, the Diamond Ladies barely scratched the surface of what Shadowcraft is capable of. When Cass and I battled Rayquaza, Rayquaza was about to knock me sky high with its tail, and Cass saved me with a barrier she conjured up with Shadowcraft,” Jon explained. “If we are potentially against more dangerous users of Shadowcraft than the three of them, bullets from a government issued handgun won’t do much. Our best bet with traditional firearms is a sniper rifle, catching them by surprise, which Ford is trained in, and I’ll be requesting he be issued one.”

“You have an answer to everything, don’t you?” Steven asked, again, begrudgingly admitting Jon was right.

“It’s because I laid awake all night last night, trying to think of them all,” Jon said, whilst his tone was jesting, the words were sincere. “Honestly, there is a lot that can go wrong, and if I can come up with a small idea that can improve our chances, then I’ll come up with a thousand more if I can…”

“I’ll drink to that…” Steven muttered. “You got another beer?”

************************************************** ************************************************** *********

Dylan groaned as he placed the TV next to the battery mounted to the side of the Eon Academy’s main hall. It was an old one, that Jon and Alyssa kept in their bedroom. After moving from their old apartment in Lilycove, they had purchased a new one for their lounge, with this old one being put in the bedroom, though hardly used. If either of them wanted to watch TV, they’d watch it in the lounge, causing this one to gather dust. Next to it were a few lamps from the lodge bedrooms, Dylan’s old laptop, as well as a microwave, kettle, and a few other appliances from the lodge’s kitchen. Whilst Dylan had tried to pick items that were likely to be replaced in the coming years, he still felt uncomfortable as the running total for replacement costs was well over a thousand dollars, all for the sake of making their story believable, and that wasn’t including the battery and regulator that were going to need replacing as well. He kept telling himself it would be covered by the League after the mission, however still felt a little uncomfortable.

The plan was for the story to be that a Rotom got into the battery and caused a huge surge, doing massive damage to their electrical system. Whilst Jon’s Jolteon was going to hit the battery with a thunderbolt, overloading it massively, the isolator switch Dylan had installed would protect everything else on the property’s electrical grid. However, if they simply had a dead battery, and all their electronics were okay, then the story would have holes. As such, they had to sacrifice some electronics. Dylan would have these hooked up to the regulator directly when Jolteon overloaded it.

That morning when he had told Abbee his plan, she had volunteered some of her possessions. Namely her laptop, since the story was the Rotom stowed away inside it. Being somewhat technically minded, he offered to remove the hard drive from it, as to not destroy Abbee’s data. However he hadn’t gotten it from her yet…

He entered the lodge, making his way upstairs. He could hear Triad planning their trip in Cassandra’s room, what he knew to be Chris’ room, however he wasn’t looking for them. He walked to Abbee’s door, and could hear movement behind it. He knocked on the door, and was surprised to hear the movement change from being calm to now somewhat erratic.

“Abbee?” he called out. “You in there…”

”She is, but…”

The voice was Victini’s in Dylan’s head.

”She says you can come in, but don’t freak out…”

Somewhat concerned that Abbee wasn’t answering herself, Dylan turned the door handle and pushed the door open. He saw Victini, sitting on Abbee’s bed, and opposite him, stood a half-bald Decidueye, next to a pile of feathers...

“What the fuc-” Dylan cried out, as the Decidueye cried out in shock at Dylan’s reaction. Dylan grabbed Dusknoir’s Pokeball, to try and put this stray Pokemon that Victini seemed to have let in the lodge to sleep.

”It’s Abbee!” Victini said quickly, trying to get Dylan to calm down. The Decidueye squawked in agreement, as Dylan, more shocked than he had ever been in his life, lowered the Pokeball.

“Abbee?” he asked, to which the Decidueye squawked again. “Why are you a Decidueye?! And why are you missing so many feathers?”

”Decidueye are native to Alola, and she figures she can get around a little easier if she is one of them, and blend in too…” Victini answered, nodding towards the desk. ”Violet prepped a heap of hexes and hex removals so she can turn herself between forms…”

Dylan looked over to where Victini nodded, seeing a small leatherbound notebook, the covers tied together to hold it shut, as well as a dozen water bottles, each containing a strand of Abbee’s black hair, and a gold nugget. Behind them was a thick, dark green piece of fabric. He had to admit, this wasn’t a bad idea. Alongside Justin, Abbee was the most recognizable of the interns, being the daughter of a famous battler. However, blending in as a wild Pokemon could be beneficial. He walked over to touch the book.

”Don’t touch that!” Victini called out, as Abbee squawked in agreement. ”Violet put a hex on every page to turn Abbee into a Decidueye!”

Dylan recoiled, before remembering his other question.

“Why is she missing so many feathers?” Dylan asked, nodding to the pile on the ground.

”We’ve been pulling them out…”

“Why?” Dylan asked, knowing Victini was just being difficult to amuse himself and slightly annoy Dylan. “A bald Decidueye will stand out more than Abbee…”

”We’re going to make a cloak out of the feathers and that fabric that she can wear while she is a Decidueye, and from a distance, it will look like she has a thick coat in her Pokemon form. It will have pockets sewn into the inside to hold the book, and the removal spell,” Victini explained. ”And if she has to change back into a human out in the field, it means she won’t be arrested as an exhibitionist…”

Dylan flushed red slightly with embarrassment, noticing the clothes Abbee had been wearing that afternoon piled on the floor behind her, as Abbee avoided making eye contact with him, and continued pulling out feathers.

“Won’t the cloak stand out if she is a human?”

”People wear costumes for the Spiritwater Festival, so it would actually help her blend in…” Victini explained. ”Did you want something?”

Dylan remembered why he came, having forgotten at the shock of seeing Abbee turned into a half bald Decidueye.

“Abbee’s laptop,” Dylan explained. “I’m getting the hard drive out, before it gets fried with everything else…”

”On the table, but don’t touch the book…”

Dylan nodded, stepping carefully past Abbee and Victini to grab the laptop and its charger. He made his way back to the door.

“Carry on,” he said jokingly, as he left, still shocked at what he had seen.

Dylan left, leaving Abbee and Victini to keep plucking Abbee’s feathers, causing her to wince in pain nearly every time. After another fifteen minutes, Abbee the Decidueye stood completely bald, and Victini struggled to not laugh at the sight.

“If only you put my thumbprint into your phone,” Victini said. “A photo would be hilarious…”

“Don’t you dare,” Abbee replied, now able to understand him like Jon and Triad did. She walked towards the desk, grabbing one of the sealed water bottles, and began attempting to remove the lid, which was difficult without her normal human hands.

“Let me,” Victini offered, however Abbee rejected the proposal.

“I will need to be able to do it myself when we’re in Alola,” Abbee explained. “I gotta get better at it…”

After a few minutes, she finally got the lid loose, exposing the nugget in the water, which she knew would turn her back when she touched it. She looked over at Victini.

“Turn around,” Abbee said, Victini obliging. When she was sure Victini could see nothing, she pressed the tip of her now featherless wing in the water, making contact with the nugget. It began to glow, as she felt her whole body shift, and her form return to her more familiar human form.

“Don’t turn around yet,” Abbee called out, in her familiar human voice, as she grabbed her clothes off the ground, before getting dressed quickly. “Okay, you’re good…”

Victini turned around to see Abbee in her now human form, having quickly gotten dressed.

“Top’s inside-out,” Victini noted, causing Abbee to look down and realize in her rush she hadn’t checked. He quickly turned away as Abbee fixed it. “What would you do without me?”

Abbee remained silent, not answering the question, it having been on her mind the last twenty-four hours more than the entire three years prior. Finally she spoke.

“Cass and the others are leaving tonight…”

Victini’s expression shifted, showing a sadness in his eyes.

“You’ll see them again,” Abbee offered, however she wasn’t bringing this up for the sake of small talk. There was something she wanted to know, and Victini’s reactions would give her the answers she was after.

“I know,” Victini said, trying to convince himself as well as Abbee. “But…”

“But what?”

“They’re going into dangerous territory, and won’t have any backup until we arrive in Akala for the Spiritwater Festival…” Victini said quietly. “They have none of their original Pokemon, and are relying on finding new Pokemon on their way to Akala, and I’m worried about them…”

Abbee felt a pit of guilt in her stomach, at how selfish she thought she was being, and was thankful Victini didn’t need to read her thoughts to communicate with her anymore. She had been terrified that Victini would want to leave her and partner up with Cassandra again. And now, she knew Victini did want to go with them, though it was because they were taking a higher risk, and he wanted to have their back. She was angry at herself for having a problem with that, and being jealous of Cassandra. However, when she spoke next, trying to compensate for this, she took it too far.

“You want to go with them, don’t you…” Abbee asked quietly. Victini struggled to answer.

“I don’t know…” Victini answered. “You’re my partner, and I want to stick with you. But they’ve only got each other, and when things went bad for them on the S.S. Wishmaker, I couldn’t do enough to help them. And now, I’m letting them go off on their own, this time into danger…”

In a reasonable state of mind, Victini’s first statement about wanting to stick with her, would have been enough to ease Abbee’s concerns. However, the guilt at the selfishness she thought she was acting in, wanting to keep Victini with her, when Triad were leaving on their own, and Victini wanting to go with them, caused her to overcompensate, and act rashly.

Abbee grabbed her phone, unlocking it, before opening the League App, which had replaced the Pokedex a few years earlier. She opened up Victini’s page in her app, and pressed a button on that. Attached to her belt, which hung on her bedpost, Victini noticed his Pokeball click, as he realized what Abbee had done. Not wanting to get in the way of what she thought would make Victini happy, she had released him from his Pokeball.

“Abbee, what are you-” Victini began, but Abbee cut him off.

“If you want to go with them to Alola, and watch their backs, you have my blessing to do it…” Abbee said, as much as she hated the fact she was. “I have my other Pokemon who can help keep me safe. But they don’t right now…”

“I could have gone without you releasing me?” Victini replied, still unsure of what Abbee was thinking, releasing him from his Pokeball.

“More than anything, I want you to be happy, and if after all this is over, you would be happier with Cassandra, you have my blessing to stay with her…”

Victini remained silent. He wanted to tell her that he wanted to stick with her until the end. But he knew that right now that wasn’t completely true. He wanted to make sure that Triad remained safe during the mission, and the most logical way for him to do that was to go with them now, and figure things out with Abbee once the mission was over. However, Abbee had right now, given permission beyond just joining them for the mission, and should he convince her that her blessing to stay with Cassandra after was unnecessary, she may revoke her blessing to go for the mission as well…

“I’ll go with them…” Victini said, as Abbee forced herself to hide the utter sadness she felt hearing those words. “And we will talk more after the mission…”

Abbee nodded, giving Victini a weak smile, that had Victini decided to telepathically communicate instead, and poked around in her mind, would have realized was completely forced, and that she already regretted her offer.

************************************************** ************************************************** *********

It was nearing eleven in the evening when Jon, Alyssa, Steven, Dylan, Abbee and the members of Triad all stood in front of the battery, which powered the entire electrical grid of the Eon Academy property. Victini sat on Abbee’s shoulder, as Steven handed Cassandra, Violet and Jarena their new documents, containing fake passports and driver’s licenses, as well as ten thousand dollars in cash, to get them from Hoenn to Alola.

“Sasha Winters,” Violet said as she looked at her new name. She turned to Cassandra. “Do I come across as a Sasha?”

“I think you could pull off a Sasha,” Cassandra replied. “What about you, Jarena, if that’s even your real name?”

“Sonia Fairchild,” Jarena said. “Sonia is okay, but Fairchild is just weird…”

“Ironically, Fairchild is the surname of a woman who had to prove the children she birthed were her own. I remember seeing a documentary about it years ago,” Violet explained. “Maybe people will think you’re one of her kids…”

“What about you?” Jarena asked Cassandra. She looked briefly at her documents before answering.

“Naomi Hart,” Cassandra answered, causing Jarena to grin.

“Yeah, you could definitely be a Naomi,” Jarena laughed. Steven coughed to get their attention.

“I don’t expect you to split up getting to Alola, but try not to be seen together. Hoodies, hats, even wigs,” Steven explained. “Don’t let people see how much cash you have, and try and make it look like room costs are a lot. If people see three young women with a big pile of cash, they will start asking questions.”

“It’s ironic that this is now a big pile of cash to us,” Violet joked. “Five years ago, if someone offered me ten thousand for a TV appearance, I’d be paying for a pile of manure to be dumped on their doorstep. Now it’s all the money we have in the world…”

Steven nodded.

“Also, don’t book rooms or buy tickets as a group. It’ll draw attention,” Steven said. “And make sure to shower often. I know Pokemon don’t mind going a few days without cleaning up, but you’d be surprised how noticable a person who hasn’t showered for a few days can be…”

“I think they know what they’re doing Steven,” Jon interjected, knowing Steven could go on for hours at this rate with what they should and shouldn’t do.

Steven nodded, though actually had something he needed to tell them.

“When the S.S. Wishmaker arrives in Akala, hang around near the docks,” Steven explained. “Don’t make contact. Latios will reach out to you, and will arrange where we meet. You’ll need to fend for yourselves in Akala until the rest of the operation team arrive…”

“We’ll be okay,” Cassandra assured Steven. He nodded, as Jon looked towards Dylan.

“We doing this?” Jon asked, nodding towards the battery.

“We are, but let’s just run through the plan one more time…” Dylan said, not wanting to rush this, and risk screwing something up.

“Triad leaves tonight, and begins making their way to Akala Island to scope things out and wait for the main force to arrive over the next few weeks. You use the remote switch to disconnect the battery from the rest of the electrical grid, and plug everything we don’t mind frying into the battery directly. Then Jolteon fries it…” Jon explained. “The Eon Academy is now unable to run their summer program, and tomorrow, you and I will spend the day making phone calls to tell everyone it is cancelled. And I will make a deal with the organizers of the High Seas Tournament to do some media appearances in return for a decent pay-out…”

“Once that is out of the way, you three and myself will make our way to Slateport City unnoticed, where we will be staying at the Department of Defence facility to do two weeks of training, whilst Alyssa and Amelia will stay at Alyssa’s brother’s place in Rustboro, which will be watched day and night by Rustboro Police,” Steven continued. “The story will be that you are with them, Jon, until the S.S. Wishmaker departs Slateport. The three of you will be effectively under house arrest, since you can’t be seen in Slateport too early…”

Jon nodded in agreement.

“From there, we spend a week on the S.S. Wishmaker, and travel to Akala Island for the Spiritwater Festival, and mount the full investigation there…” Jon concluded. He looked around. “We ready to do this?”

There was a nod of agreement from those there. Jon let out his Jolteon, as Dylan grabbed the fire extinguisher he had brought out, readying it for the fire that was likely to happen.

“Hit it Dylan,” Jon called out. Dylan pressed the button on the remote, and Jon watched as the lights in the lodge on another part of the property disappeared, the switch having disconnected them from the solar battery. “You ready?”

Dylan nodded, before Jon quietly have Jolteon the command.

“Jolteon, Thunder…”

Jolteon silently let out a Thunder attack, not crying out like it normally would, knowing the need for discretion. The bolt of lightning hit the battery, causing it to explode into flames, as all the devices and appliances hooked up to it began to hiss and pop, before letting out an electrical smoke smell. Dylan moved forward to put the fire out, however Jon stopped him.

“If a Rotom got in at this time of night, we wouldn’t be here with a fire extinguisher this quickly to put out the fire…” Jon explained. “Give it a minute or two, so there is enough damage to sell the story…”

“Jon, the hall is on fire…” Dylan answered, but Jon shook his head.

“The hall is solid brick. The battery is on fire, and will scorch the brick, but not burn it. Let it burn a little longer…”

Dylan obliged, though felt guilty seeing the fire burn on the wall of one of the Eon Academy buildings, before Jon finally nodded, figuring enough time had passed that one of them had emerged, seen the fire, and grabbed a fire extinguisher. Dylan squeezed the trigger, causing a white gas to erupt from the nozzle, suffocating the flames, and leaving the battery as a smouldering wreck…

“That’s it…” Dylan said, sounding shocked. “We’ve passed the point of no return…”

Steven nodded.

“Tomorrow I will send a military electrician here to give the damage report, and make sure they know what to write in it. We’ll move the fried electronics back to where they belong,” Steven explained. “As far as the rest of the world is concerned, a Rotom got onto the property inside Abbee’s laptop, and it got in and fried the electrical system. It will cost too much to have the Academy ready to run this summer, and take too long. The summer program is cancelled, and the three of you are now free to do whatever you like…”

“I think I may go on the S.S. Wishmaker again,” Jon said sarcastically. “For old time’s sake…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *********

Once the battery had been overloaded, Cassandra, Violet and Jarena gathered the few belongings they had, before making their way to the front of the lodge, where Jon, Alyssa, Steven, Dylan, Abbee and Victini waited for them.

“We’ll see you in Alola…” Cassandra said, as they all said their goodbyes. Jon nodded.

“Don’t let them catch you before we get there,” Jon said, as Jarena laughed.

“More like don’t foil all their plans before you arrive,” Jarena answered. “We got this…”

“Well, I’m glad you’re confident,” Violet answered, earning a grin from Steven.

“We’ll make contact as soon as we arrive,” Steven said. “Just lay low until then and scope the place out. Don’t do anything that could give away why you’re there…”

After a few more minutes, Triad left, making their way to the front of the property, where they would depart on foot. The next morning, they’d take the first ferry of the day back to Lilycove City, when they were hoping the ferry would be empty and those who were on it would be too tired to potentially recognize them. From Lilycove they would begin a roundabout journey to Akala Island, trying to find and train some new Pokemon on the way.

As Triad disappeared in the darkness, and Jon, Alyssa, Steven and Dylan went back to the house, Abbee remained where she stood, with Victini on her shoulder.

“I guess this is goodbye for now as well,” Abbee said quietly to Victini. Victini nodded sadly.

“I just want to make sure they’re safe,” Victini reassured Abbee. She nodded, as Victini jumped off her shoulder into the ground.

“I’ll see you sometime in a few weeks then…” Abbee said, wishing that she had let herself be selfish and not let Victini go, however, knew it was too late.

“See you in Alola,” Victini replied. “Stay safe…”

Abbee watched as Victini began to run in the direction Triad had left in, before sighing and walking back to the lodge, which was now pitch black.

As they reached the gate, Cassandra, Jarena and Violet spoke quietly, discussing which route they would take to Alola, and where they could find Pokemon that were experienced battlers. However they were interrupted by the familiar cry of a Pokemon behind them.

“Wait for me!”

Cassandra turned to see Victini rushing to catch up with them.

“What’re you doing?” Violet asked, however Cassandra knew the answer.

“I’m coming with you guys…” Victini answered. “You have no Pokemon yet…”

“Victini…” Cassandra began to protest, however Victini interrupted her.

“You guys may be thankful for how things turned out on the S.S. Wishmaker, but that doesn’t change the fact I was too weak to help you when it counted most…” Victini interrupted. “But I’m not weak anymore, so please, let me help you now…”

Cassandra sighed, before looking to Violet and Jarena.

“Go ahead. I’ll catch up…”

Jarena began to protest, however Violet nodded, grabbing her by the forearm and turning her towards the main road, continuing their journey. When they were out of earshot, Victini looked up at Cassandra disappointed.

“Why don’t you want me to come with you?” Victini asked, sadness evident in his voice. Cassandra shook her head.

“I want you to come with us, but that’s not the way things are anymore…” Cassandra said, her tone gentle yet firm. “You’ve been with Abbee now as long as you were with me, and you’ve gotten to be really strong-”

“Which is why I want to come with you!” Victini protested, however Cassandra continued.

“You’ve gotten to be really strong because Abbee stepped up and actually was a trainer for you. You two have gone through thick and thin together, when you and I skated through and avoided any real challenges…” Cassandra explained. “It’s not right for me to benefit from the work she put in, especially after I took the easy way out, and you didn’t get stronger because of that…”

“She gave her blessing for me to come with you!” Victini argued, though left out that Abbee had also given her blessing for Victini to stay with Cassandra if that’s what he wanted.

“Because she wants you to be happy, even if it means she misses out,” Cassandra answered, not letting herself show irritation, as she picked up Victini. She appreciated Victini wanting to have her back like old times, however knew it wasn’t right. She didn’t know Abbee well, but could tell she cared about Victini. That and she was one of Jon’s students, and the first time Cassandra had met Jon, he had offered to put himself out, giving up his alias of Jon Drake, and taking the fall for her crimes, to give them a chance to turn things around. Even if it was largely to prevent the existence of witchcraft getting out, she knew Jon was the sort to do things he didn’t necessarily want to do to help people, and she figured Abbee, having that trait herself, would have had it amplified under Jon’s tutelage.

“Abbee has worked hard to give you what I chose not to…” Cassandra explained, as she hugged her former Pokemon partner, before putting him back on the ground. “You should be keeping her safe, not us…”

“But what if something happens?”

“We’ll be fine,” Cassandra said. “Victini, it’s not up for debate. I’m not changing my mind. You’re Abbee’s Pokemon. Go be with her…”

Victini sighed, as Cassandra turned to walk away, indicating the conversation was over.

“I’ll see you in Alola…” she called out, as she waved, barely visible in the dim light.

Victini stood still, as Cassandra eventually disappeared from view. He looked for a moment back to the Academy, where he knew Abbee was. He knew Cassandra was right, and he should go back to Abbee, but remembered his time with Cassandra, between leaving the S.S. Wishmaker, and going into hiding. How much the world had rejected her, and how badly her, Violet and Jarena were treated. Making a decision, hoping that both Cassandra and Abbee would forgive him, he walked silently towards the gate, following Cassandra at a distance, to watch over her during her trip to Alola…

[[Desolate Divine]]

Episode 2 is up, and we have the first reference to Luneth!
@Shruikan

Last episode in Mossdeep. Next time, we will be on the S.S. Wishmaker!

[[Desolate Divine]]

Spiritwater: Episode 3: Motives

Spoiler:

It was mid morning when the abandoned hut on the southern end of Royal Avenue was disturbed again. What hadn’t been touched in years, had now been visited once a week for the last three weeks. To anyone who walked past, the derelict shack was simply a small cabin from a previous time. An old rest stop for travellers crossing from the eastern edge of the island, to the western edge. However, it hadn’t been used in years, and when the lock began to suddenly function, the hut was part of the scenery enough that nobody even noticed. No key however, would unlock the door, and anyone who tried to force their way in would be shocked at the durability of the derelict building. However, if they looked closely, they may notice that any attempted blows would never actually strike it, but instead, be stopped by an invisible barrier less than a millimetre above the surface.

The door opened, with a flash of white light through the keyhole, as a lone figure entered the room. Whilst in the sunlight outside her wavy hair was dark brown, matched by her eyes, the moment the door clicked shut behind her, she began to change. Her hair went from being dark brown to ash blonde, while her eyes became a piercing ice blue. The freckles of her face began to vanish, as her facial structure shifted ever so slightly, making her practically unrecognisable compared to ten seconds earlier. The lines in her skin began to disappear, reducing her apparent age by a factor of ten to fifteen years.

Looking around the hut, making sure nothing had been disturbed since her last visit, she nodded contentedly, before waving her hand over the ground in the centre of the hut without a word. A white light flashed from her hand, as eight pebbles scattered on the ground began to glow, and rise up, arranging themselves into a rough circle. Once in place, the pebble on the eastern edge of the circle began to glow brightly, causing the woman to grin.

She knew Agatha was here, having received the same dream as so many other Shadowcraft wielders, inviting her to come to Akala Island for the Spiritwater Festival, with the promise of knowledge and power, more than they’d know what to do with. But she hadn’t come for that. She had these in excess, more so than Agatha herself, having used Shadowcraft to see into the void, the things that humans should not see.

She had hoped to find Agatha, however that was not a priority for her. Especially since Agatha’s location would be revealed as a side effect to her own goals. And it just had.

The eight stones correlated to eight gemstones that the woman had hidden in various places around the island. They formed a circle themselves, with the shack she stood in being the centre point.

One piece of knowledge she had gleaned by peeking into the void, was the side effect of all Shadowcraft, that few knew of. Every spell performed, generated energy, which would simply be dispersed into the world, in the forms known to mankind. What even fewer knew, was that this energy could be harnessed.

Each of the eight gemstones was placed to blanket the island in an enchantment, which would syphon this energy released from performing Shadowcraft, and store it, to be used for a larger purpose that a Shadowcraft user could not fulfil on their own. And as such, the one stone that glowed far brighter than the rest, indicated the presence of many Shadowcraft users, casting many spells. However the stone on the eastern edge wasn’t the only one. On the south western edge of the circle, another stone glowed, albeit far dimmer, but still brighter than the others, which had syphoned next to nothing.

She grinned. She and Agatha’s group weren’t the only spellcasters on the island. Likelihood was these two groups would clash at one point or another, which would result in numerous spells being performed, and a multitude of energy syphoned from the conflict. However, based purely on the glowing stones, she guessed the group on the south western edge of the island, where a stone had been hidden in Heahea City, was much smaller.

For maximum efficiency, she knew she would need to intervene. If conflict came to pass, Agatha and her group of witches would wipe out this smaller group, and for what Brianna Levine wanted, that would be a waste. A long, drawn out battle over a couple of days, or even weeks however, would provide her with all the energy she needed...

“I guess I will be taking sides…” Brianna muttered. “For now…”

Brianna waved her hand again, without speaking another word, as all hint of life in the stones vanished, before they all fell to the ground. She walked away, opening the door, her hand flashing white as she did, unlocking it, as her appearance shifted, causing her to resume her persona of a brown eyed, brunette woman in her mid thirties, still younger than she really was...

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“I don’t get it,” Jarena said irritably, as she crashed down onto the couch in the cheap motel room that the three of them rented. “Seriously, it makes no stinking sense!”

“Yeah, I know,” Cassandra replied with a sigh, as she took a sip of the iced tea she had bought from the vending machine outside. The best before date was two weeks earlier, however she had survived for three years with no best before dates, and figured there was enough sugar in the iced tea to keep it relatively safe.

Triad had arrived in Heahea City, Alola, a week earlier, having stayed in the dirty motel room since they arrived. Based on the sounds they could hear from the room next door, they figured the people who came here didn’t want to be recognised, or didn’t want to recognise anyone, and until the formal operational team arrived that afternoon on the S.S. Wishmaker, that suited their needs well.

What had Jarena so irritated however, was that in the last week that they had been on the island, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of any sign of Shadowcraft. Considering Agatha had sent an open invitation with promises of power and knowledge, they figured they’d throw a rock with their eyes closed, and manage to hit a witch. But so far, no sign. Nothing unnatural around the city. No person who seemed to be suffering from some hex or curse. Whilst they wanted to believe that potentially they and Agatha were the only remaining Shadowcraft users, and Agatha’s plan had been a massive bust, they knew they’d be stupid to think that.

“Are we sure we didn’t miss anything in the dream?” Jarena asked. “Like ’by the way, when you arrive, you can find us at 123 Fake Street’...”

“We missed nothing,” Violet answered, not peering up from the tome she had been reading since the evening before. “Agatha isn’t stupid. She’d be accounting for someone seeing her vision and ratting her out…”

It had taken them a little over three weeks to arrive in Akala, having stopped by the place in Johto where they had buried their Shadowcraft tomes years earlier, to retrieve them, as well as visiting a dozen different Pokemon adoption centres, and whilst it was convenient for their current goals, there were sadly numerous Pokemon to choose from, all having been given up, taken away for their own wellbeing, or abandoned by their trainers.

“I think I might have a hunch about what is going on…” Violet said, laying the tome down on her lap. “And honestly, if I am right, we aren’t going to find them short of scouring the island with a fine tooth comb, or one of them revealing themselves to us…”

“What have you found?” Cassandra asked.

“Lumen Ostende,” Violet explained. “A light illusion spell. Requires tungsten, charcoal and ice-water…”

Jarena took the book and read it, as Violet explained it.

“It allows the caster to create light based illusions that are only visible to people who fit their criteria,” Violet explained. “Honestly, I wish I had known about this back home…”

“So what, Agatha has left a bunch of arrows of light around the island, that are only visible to those who don’t mean her any ill will?” Cassandra asked.

“Not that exactly, but it would make sense…” Violet said with a sigh. “She could leave an easy to follow trail, that is invisible to anyone who would take her down…”

“If we knew about this back home, we could leave markers to help lost Pokemon get back to the Starglade, without outsiders being able to see them…” Jarena said, seeing what Violet was getting at.

“Honestly, we looked so little into these books outside of what could make us rich and famous,” Violet lamented. “Hell, two pages after the transformation-reversion spell, is one that would protect us from our own curses…”

Cassandra chuckled at the sentiment, knowing their downward spiral started with her accidentally triggering her own curse, turning herself into Cinnamon the Eevee...

“So what now then?” Jarena asked. “If we stand a snowball’s chance in hell of finding them on our own, do we just wait?”

“We might have to,” Cassandra answered, not necessarily pleased about that idea herself. “Remember, Latios is pretty good at tracking people down…”

Violet scoffed, knowing full well what Cassandra was referring to.

“The S.S. Wishmaker arrives this afternoon,” Cassandra continued. “Let’s get packed ready to leave, and spend the afternoon hunting down reagents for basic curse removal spells…”

Violet nodded in agreement.

“Honestly, just as likely as Latios tracking them down, is an operative accidentally stumbling across it, and if they do, they will likely need some curses removed, if they get out of the Beedrill nest at all,” Violet said in agreement.

Cassandra looked between her two friends.

“In that case, we pack, and leave one after another, with an hour's gap between. Violet, you go first, then Jarena. I booked the motel room, so I will check out,” Cassandra explained. “Be at the docks at three, but don’t make contact with one-another unless it’s important…”

Her two companions nodded, before beginning to gather their limited belongings, and prepare to leave their temporary home…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“And what is your take on last night’s match, Mister Drake?”

Jon sat opposite the young reporter, after having lunch, who seemed to be trying to come across as confident and professional, even though he seemed very intimidated by Jon, as the ramen restaurant where Jon had last spoken to Jimmy Kendo, on the S.S. Wishmaker four years earlier. Jon didn’t necessarily blame him. Even without Jon’s growing reputation from the success of the Eon Academy, especially since their win over the College of the North Wind last summer, Jon had a bit of a reputation of not handling media appearances well, which was ironic, considering his wife worked in media. Case and point, Jon’s last interview on the S.S. Wishmaker, involved some comments directed at all who continued to condemn the Diamond Ladies after they came clean, that weren’t victims of their actions themselves, which made up most of the population at that time, telling them to go f**k themselves, in addition to other harsh words.

This was one of many interviews Jon had agreed to, with the public now being well aware of the Eon Academy cancelling that summer’s program, due to property damage that couldn’t be fixed due to time constraints and budget, which wasn’t covered by insurance. The evening before, Jon had even been recruited to be a guest commentator for the grand final match, in which Lara Winters, a twenty-five year old woman from Kalos, had taken the win from Ray Spencer, a man from Sinnoh, ten years older than her. Jon had to admit that whilst Lara had battled well, he had a solid hunch that if she had battled against Charlotte, even without Deoxys in her corner, she would have found herself fighting a much tougher battle.

“Both trainers battled very well and earnt their spots in the final round,” Jon explained. “However, Lara was simply a cut above Ray, and the way her Gardevoir handled itself on the battlefield was evident of intense and intentional training. The two worked extremely well together, and despite being disadvantaged against Ray’s Empoleon, the synergy between them was what allowed her to take the win.”

Light reflected off the lens of the television camera that was held by a slightly overweight man dressed in plain blue jeans and a black polo shirt. He tried not to look directly at it, knowing that for the angle the camera operator was working, it would be less than flattering, if not somewhat unnerving.

“And what advice would you give to any potential battlers, who want to win the High Seas Tournament themselves?”

Jon thought this over for a moment, before answering, trying to not sound cliche.

“More than anything, your skills, creativity, and ability to think on your feet, will help you improve as a trainer. I’ve seen Legendary Pokemon beaten by a standard Pokemon with a huge disadvantage, and I’ve even seen a championship level Muk, helped brought down by a freshly caught Litwick,” Jon answered, remembering his own battle against Camilla Blakely’s Suicune, and Dylan’s battle against Blake during his second summer at the Academy. “Work to improve those things, just as much as you would work to improve your Pokemon’s ability to battle. And never underestimate your opponent. Even I go into every match with the mindset that if I am not careful, my opponent will beat me and humiliate me on the battlefield, if I give them the opportunity…”

“That sounds like good advice,” the interviewer said, before asking his final question. “And what can we expect to see from the Eon Academy?”

Jon sighed, feigning a sadness at the turn of events that had supposedly led to it closing that summer.

“What can I say, our luck had to run out eventually…” Jon said, somewhat joking. “In all seriousness, whilst it is nice to be here and reminisce about my own time in the High Seas Tournament, it is heart-breaking, not only for me, but my interns and students as well, that we had to cancel the program. However, the property’s electrical system suffered heavy damage, making the property unsafe to run the program, and there was no facility in Hoenn that could accommodate what we were attempting to run…”

“What about outside of Hoenn?” the interviewer asked. “As I recall, Camilla Blakely offered for the Eon Academy to run their summer program at the College of the North Wind, as it was largely empty of students over summer…”

Jon remembered seeing the message from Camilla, and swearing to himself that she had been considerate enough to offer. Really, if the Eon Academy did need to shut down due to a property emergency, the College of the North Wind would have been a perfect substitute location to run the summer program. And Jon knew his rejection of that offer would raise questions.

“Yes, it was very kind of Camilla to offer to host us, and I do wish I could have taken her up on the offer,” Jon explained. “However, it was late Wednesday evening when the Rotom caused the damage, with employees due to arrive on Saturday, and students due to arrive on Sunday. They would need to cancel flights to Lilycove, and book others to Jubilife, which they would have paid a premium for to do at such short notice. It was better for everyone involved to simply offer a refund, and a discounted rate for next summer, and move forward…”

The interviewer seemed content, and concluded the interview there, thanking Jon for his time, before leaving with the camera operator, as Jon sighed, before leaning back in his chair, albeit trying to not be too obvious about this. Despite his fame, Jon hated being in the spotlight, and disliked interviews. There was too much wrong he could say, and his natural inclination was to say it all. However, it was part of the cover up for him not being in Mossdeep, which made his involvement in the mission possible. The S.S. Wishmaker was due to arrive on Akala Island in a matter of hours, and this was the last scheduled interview he had. However, he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t be cornered by another reporter as he tried to depart the ship.

Jon looked towards the entrance to the restaurant, where outside, people walked past, going through Central Park, where the S.S. Wishmaker’s many stores and restaurants were located. From where he sat, he could see the bench in Central Park that had to be replaced after Latios destroyed it during his dive bomb to steal the Diamond Ladies’ belongings four years earlier, which had the potential to sink the ship, and cost Jon a fortune to pay for the damages for.

“I didn’t think I’d end up back here,” Jon said to himself, continuing to look through the doorway. However he was pulled from his thoughts by the familiar clash of green and purple hair, of someone who walked past the doorway to the restaurant, hand in hand with a man similar in age, that Jon hadn’t met officially, however had seen photos on Facebook of.

Avery Miller and Abital Ecke.

Jon sighed. Avery and Abital’s wedding was a little over a week before, and despite the summer program being planned, he had organised to leave the Eon Academy in the hands of Dylan and the interns, so he and Alyssa could attend. However, Jon had spent the two weeks prior to boarding the S.S. Wishmaker in a military facility in Slateport, undergoing training for the mission, and not being allowed to be seen by the public, with the story being that he was in Rustboro, staying with Alyssa at her brother Leon’s house.

Knowing that a phone call would result in questions being asked that he couldn’t answer, Jon had instead sent Avery an email with he and Alyssa’s apologies, and not much more than that. He hadn’t even considered the fact that Avery, like he was pretending to be, may be sentimental about their time on the S.S. Wishmaker, and had planned their honeymoon there…

Jon breathed a sigh of relief that Avery hadn’t noticed him. He knew that they probably knew he was on the S.S. Wishmaker. Within days of Jon agreeing to come onboard and do media appearances, it was all over social media that he would be present, the organisers of the High Seas Tournament hoping to sell a few more tickets. And whilst Avery wasn’t the confrontational type of person, Jon also knew that he owed them an explanation as to why he bailed on their wedding with less than a fortnight to go, only to then show up on the S.S. Wishmaker as, as Jon described it, the media’s w***e. And right now, he couldn’t give that explanation.

Jon groaned to himself, half wishing they were on the island, fighting witches already. He was sick of the secrecy and cover-ups already. At least when the s**t hit the fan, he would only have one secret left to keep, and if he played his cards right, he may not even need to keep that secret any longer…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“This has been Silver Wing News, speaking with First High Sea’s Champion, Jon Drake at the conclusion of the Fifth High Sea’s Tournament,” the interviewer on the large television said, before the TV went black, the power button having been clicked on the remote. Chris sat back on the couch, grabbing his phone, and flicking through Instagram, bored.

He was at his family’s home in Blackthorn City Johto, having arrived a few days earlier to compete in a tournament. His next tournament was going to be in a little less than a week, in Goldenrod City, which would take him half a day to reach on his motorbike. Whilst he had considered departing for Goldenrod straight away, he could stay at his family’s home for free, with proper food, a real bed, and all the luxuries of civilised living, that weren’t present on the many nights he spent, camped in his swag on the side of the road somewhere between cities.

Despite all these luxuries however, there was one thing he couldn’t avoid. Boredom. He tried booting up his PC to play some games while he had the opportunity, however between waiting hours for nine months worth of updates to install, and realising the metagame of most of his favourite games had shifted, with some characters being boosted in power, and others nerfed, he quickly dismissed the idea.

Whilst he had trained with his sister Clair the afternoon before, he knew there was little point to much more. He had taken first place in every tournament he competed, with the exception of a few that Charlotte had also competed in. In some cases, he beat her. In others, she beat him.

Honestly, he didn’t mind losing to Charlotte anymore. Whilst a few years prior, it would have grated on him, and stung his pride, after actually getting to know Charlotte during their first summer at the Eon Academy, a mutual respect was found between the pair of trainers. He knew Charlotte was one of the hardest working trainers he knew, and if he lost to her, chances are it wasn’t due to any glaring weaknesses he held, or vice versa. It was simply that in that battle, Charlotte had performed better than him.

It had been six months since he had last seen Charlotte, and hadn’t seen Justin since the night he got drunk and began causing problems with Dylan and Abbee, needing to sleep on Justin’s couch, where he thankfully, didn’t vomit. He however had been in somewhat regular contact with him though. Dylan and Abbee he hadn’t spoken to since that night. Dylan, because he still held a grudge, and Abbee, because he was embarrassed by his actions that night.

Jon, he hadn’t seen since he left Jubilife Airport the summer before, and whilst Jon had tried numerous times to call, from both he and Alyssa’s phones, Chris hadn’t answered. He figured Dylan had told Jon what he had said that night after drinking too much. He was too scared to face him. Scared that Jon may take it badly, and even more scared that Jon may look past it, and give him another chance.

As such, when he saw an article posted to twitter claiming the Eon Academy wasn’t running their summer program, he had been surprised to say the least. He had asked Justin, and been told about the Rotom that had snuck onto the property in Abbee’s laptop, having hidden in it since she left Johto, and the damage being too vast to fix before students arrived, and too expensive to fix all at once. Chris however, hadn’t bought it, and when he asked Charlotte about it, she had given him the same story. Despite the rift between them, he knew Jon too well, and knew he wouldn’t let something like that stop him from running the summer program. Something was at play.

Adding to his suspicion was the fact that Abbee and Dylan were also on the S.S. Wishmaker. Abbee had posted photos to her Instagram, and Dylan, who had gained a following of fans since his win over Brad Jenkins the summer before, had been spotted as well. He wasn’t sure what Justin would do during the summer. He figured either return home to Kalos and spend time with his family, or spend summer in Snowpoint with Candice. As for Charlotte, he had been surprised when he was sent the competitor list for the Goldenrod City Tournament he was competing in in the next week, to see Charlotte listed as a competitor. Whilst he knew that this would be one of the few difficult tournaments, Charlotte being the only one who competed in them that was his own match, he looked forward to it. A battle with Charlotte, even a loss, was always interesting, and he figured it would be harder for her to keep secrets about what is going on at the Academy, if she didn’t have a phone to hang up or ignore.

Chris was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of the doorbell ringing. He stepped to his feet, walking out of the lounge, towards the front door, and opening it. On the other side, stood a man in a khaki uniform, made up of a button up shirt, and a pair of shorts, which was the uniform of the Johto Courier Service. He looked at the small scanner he held on top of a small box, before looking up at Chris.

“Christopher Kingswood?” he asked, glancing at Chris.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Chris replied, somewhat confused. He hadn’t ordered anything, and his birthday wasn’t for months. The man nodded, before passing the scanner, which had a stylus attached by a thin wire, as Chris quickly scribbled his messy signature on the touch screen. The courier handed Chris the package, before saying goodbye and walking back to his truck.

The box was plain, wrapped in brown paper, with a white adhesive label, printed on which was Chris’ name and address. However there was no return address. This left Chris feeling even more confused by it. Not looking up from the box, he closed the door behind him, locking it, before making his way to the kitchen, where he placed the package on the table, before pouring himself a glass of water. He sat, taking a drink, before placing the glass down, and tearing off the paper, revealing a wooden box, on top of which was a folded, hand-written note. He opened it, his confusion growing even more.

”For a trainer who will make proper use of it…”

Chris placed the note aside, before opening the box. Inside of it, sitting on a maroon, felt cushion, was a Pokeball that seemed to be worn with age and use.

“What the-” Chris said to himself, confused, and knowing there was one simple way to find out what was in the Pokeball…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“I hate being famous,” Dylan muttered, as he and Abbee walked the hallways towards their rooms from the main pool, Latios floating behind them. During Jon’s first trip on the S.S. Wishmaker, Latios had wanted to swim in the pool, however given the fact Jon wanted Latios to be kept a secret, he hadn’t been allowed until after the Diamond Ladies had been detained, by which point the cruise was almost over. As such, Latios had visited the pool at least once a day since Jon, Abbee and Dylan had boarded the S.S. Wishmaker, although usually one of the three had timed their swimming with that to keep an eye on him. Today it was Dylan’s turn, and Abbee had decided to keep him company.

Dylan wore a pair of blue and white board shorts, which were made up of a tropical, leafy pattern, with an old, black singlet, the latter of which didn’t dry as fast as the shorts did, leaving his top half damp and chilled until he could get changed out of it. Abbee had her hair tied back in a simple pony-tail, and wore a plain black bikini with a matching sarong around her waist, whilst Latios simply floated along with a comically large beach towel draped over either side of his long neck, content at being able to swim in the pool there every day since they had boarded. Dylan wasn’t a hundred percent sure why it excited him so much, given the fact they lived on an island surrounded by water, however Latios did mention swimming one time in the water around Mossdeep, and encountering a shiver of Sharpedo, all of whom were very territorial and hostile.

“Get used to it,” Abbee remarked, pretending not to notice the people they walked past recognizing them. “As much as it sucks now, if you decide to run your own business like Jon did, it is publicity you’d normally spend millions on…”

She was right. If Jon hadn’t made waves by winning the High Sea’s Tournament, after causing some trouble on the S.S. Wishmaker, most people wouldn’t know about the Eon Academy. And Abbee knew what Dylan dreamed of doing long term, which would definitely benefit from all the attention.

“Honestly though, it does worry me that this has put a target on our backs before,” Abbee added, remembering the Whirl Islands incident. “Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if they came after us specifically, if they were to realise Jon is giving them trouble…”

She was referring to Agatha and her group of witches. Dylan nodded in agreement.

“Why do you think I’ve got someone watching our back?” Dylan said quietly, causing Abbee to look down to the space on the ground where their figures blocked out the light. For a moment, she saw the flicker of a bright blue eye, as if Darkrai was letting her know it was there. It didn’t surprise her. Most of the time, Dylan kept Darkrai in his shadow.

“Besides, Jon ended up admitting that we are the best battlers in his squad, short of himself,” Dylan added. “Honestly, as long as we are careful, I think we will be okay…”

Abbee nodded, however couldn’t help but doubt her inclusion in Dylan’s statement, without Victini. Jon had said himself that Abbee’s strength was the bond she shared with Victini, and the mutual trust they shared. Abbee’s trust that Victini knew what he was doing in a battle, and Victini’s trust that if Abbee gave a command, even while he was acting instinctively, it was the right thing to do. However, without Victini…

“You’re thinking about Victini, aren’t you…”

Abbee sighed, wondering if Dylan had telepathy, and just never told her.

“Yeah…” Abbee admitted, knowing where Dylan was going, having heard it before from both him and Jon.

“You shouldn’t have let him go…” Dylan said. “Triad can turn anyone who tries to get in their way into a Dunsparce. Victini wouldn’t have offered them much more than they could already do, and as strong as he is, I know that he is only that strong when he is battling with you…”

“I know,” Abbee sighed. “I knew he wanted to go with them, and I was scared that I was being self-centred, and getting in the way of his happiness by being jealous of Cass. So I did what I thought was right for everyone…”

Dylan went silent for a moment, knowing Abbee had been lectured already about this and not wanting to labour the point any more than he already had. He sighed.

“Nothing to do about it now,” Dylan said. “Hopefully when we arrive on Akala, Triad will have got some Pokemon, and he will be confident in letting them look after themselves…”

Abbee nodded, though the worm of fear that Victini would want to stay with them, with Cass, even if they didn't need him, was still ever present. She quickly buried this feeling as Dylan spoke.

“To be safe, stick with me until you have Victini with you…” Dylan said quietly. “Jon let you on this mission thinking you had Victini to back you up, and if he had found out before we left Mossdeep that Victini was gone, he wouldn’t have let you come.”

“So what, I’m just good for my Mythical Pokemon?” Abbee asked, although knew that wasn’t the answer.

“No, this is dangerous and you’re safer with your Mythical Pokemon,” Dylan answered evenly. “If I didn’t have Darkrai hiding in my shadow every time I left the room, Jon wouldn’t have let me come either…”

“Even though his Legendary Pokemon is with us?” Abbee asked, nodding over her shoulder where Latios hovered behind them as they walked.

“Latios isn’t his only ace…” Dylan retorted. Before the conversation could continue, they were cut off by the sound of someone speaking over the PA system.

”Good afternoon passengers, this is your captain speaking. We are now close to Akala Island, where we will be docking at Heahea City. Due to local speed limits, the S.S. Wishmaker will be slowing to a more manoeuvrable speed, before docking at Heahea Harbour in a little over an hour. Thank you for sailing on the S.S. Wishmaker…”

“We’d better get dressed and ready to depart,” Abbee said quietly. “I get the feeling Jon won’t feel like dawdling on the ship…”

The pair spent the next ten minutes, followed by Latios towards the section of cabins where their respective rooms were located, the pair getting dried, and changed into dry clothes, before packing their belongings, and emerging, to find Latios still waiting for them.

“How come you aren’t hanging around with Jon?” Dylan asked Latios, who was now dry, but not showing any indication of leaving their side. Latios looked a little crestfallen, glancing down at the ground.

”Jon has banned me from going anywhere near Central Park…” Latios said telepathically, as Dylan sighed, knowing exactly why Latios was banned. Both reasons. The obvious one being his antics around Central Park on his previous visit, and the not so obvious one being the availability of beer for Latios to potentially drink unsupervised…

“Fair enough,” Abbee remarked. “I guess you can keep us company…”

The pair walked to the bow of the S.S. Wishmaker, where Akala Island was slowly coming into view. They made their way to the furthest point forward, looking towards the island that they suspected would not be this peaceful for long. Realising something, Abbee grinned, causing Dylan to worry.

“What is it…” Dylan asked, his tone implying his mood was liable to change depending on her answer.

“We’re at the bow of one of the biggest cruise ships in the world…” Abbee said, before being direct. “Can we recreate that scene from Titanic?”

Despite it not normally being his sense of humour, Abbee had presented the opportunity far too well for him to not make the most of it. He knew exactly which scene Abbee was talking about, but played dumb. His eyes widened, as he looked to the deck, gesturing towards the cargo hold.

“That scene?” Dylan asked, feigning shock. “That’s a little forward Abbee…”

Abbee shook her head in disbelief, muttering a string of words along the lines of 'f**king idiot' under her breath, before answering Dylan properly.

“You know damn well what scene I am talking about…” Abbee said, overplaying the irritation to hide the embarrassment she felt, as Dylan couldn’t help but laugh. His laughter however was cut off, by a sudden jolt in the S.S. Wishmaker, causing both of them to lose balance.

“You make a Titanic joke, and this happens,” Abbee said, however Dylan was past the point of jokes, having a hunch that this wasn’t as harmless as mild turbulence in an aircraft. It took him a moment to realise that the S.S. Wishmaker was gaining in speed. Whilst they were out of its path, with the bulk of the above deck buildings blocking it, gales of powerful wind were blowing from sea towards Akala Island, driving the S.S. Wishmaker forward.

“Something’s wrong,” Dylan called out, looking over at Latios, who looked concerned. Latios quickly began to fly up, before being caught in the wind for a moment.

“Careful!” Dylan called out, as Latios quickly adjusted the angle he was flying, adding to the overall distance he would fly, but using his aerodynamic shape to cut into the wind and make progress. Dylan felt the brush of another consciousness making contact with his own, as his own vision was replaced by what Latios saw, initially causing him to feel uneasy on his feet, apparently being many metres above the deck of the S.S. Wishmaker, where many auras that Latios could see, began to shift to worry and panic. However, after getting past that shock, Dylan could see it through Latios’ perspective. A dark grey cloud that seemed to sit on the surface of the ocean, hundreds of metres behind them.

It seemed unnatural, both in the size, position and colour, and seemed to be the source of the unforgiving winds. As Dylan regained his own vision, he looked towards Akala Island, roughly eight kilometres away, which was now growing larger, at a concerning rate.

“We’re gonna crash…” Dylan muttered, before looking over to Abbee.

”Not if I can help it…” Latios said telepathically, taking Dylan by surprise. ”Nobody gets to wreck this ship but me…”

Dylan tried to argue, however was too distracted to focus his thoughts on a message Latios could hear clearly. Before he could attempt again, Latios, now higher in the air than any of the buildings in Heahea City, flew to the stern of the ship, struggling against the headwind, looking for something in particular. Finally, he saw it. Attached to a heavy chain, was a thick, heavy duty sheet of nylon, shaped like a parachute, in the water drifting behind the ship. He had remembered seeing it during their last trip on the S.S. Wishmaker and asking Jon what it was. He had been told it was a drift sock, to prevent them from accelerating too fast. It was filled with water to pull the ship back and give it a more constant speed.

Reaching out to Dylan telepathically, he gave a simple order.

”Evacuate the back of the ship…”

Not giving any opportunity for Dylan to question him, Latios began to fly towards and over Akala Island, accelerating at breakneck speeds, being assisted by the tailwind, and creating a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. However by the time he crossed over the island, he felt the tailwind shift into a headwind, slowing him down. He created a telekinetic barrier in front of him, shaped specifically to improve his own aerodynamics, which created some relief, and urged forward, seeing that in the distance, were the same clouds that had been present from behind the S.S. Wishmaker, also blowing their gale winds. Latios looked around and realised they formed a ring around the island, forcing all boats that got within range towards it, and trapping everyone there.

Dylan, having told Abbee, sprinted across the main deck of the ship, through Central Park, avoiding crashing into people, Jon included, who spun around to see what had Dylan so worried, before beginning to run after him.

Breathless, Dylan had reached the stern of the S.S. Wishmaker, before shouting out to those there, despite his stinging lungs.

“Evacuate the stern!” Dylan shouted, being buffeted by the wind. “We have an emergency! Evacuate the stern!”

Jon arrived fifteen seconds after Dylan, seeing what he was doing, and the panic in his voice, before stepping out from behind cover and being barraged by the wind himself. Knowing Dylan wouldn’t be doing this without damn good reason, he joined him, calling out for all to evacuate. Thankfully, most people had wanted to get out of the way of this deadly wind, and it took little to no convincing for the stern area of the deck to be emptied, people taking cover indoors, but continuing to watch.

“What’s going on?” Jon asked Dylan, shouting to be heard over the wind.

“These winds aren’t natural, and are going to crash the ship into the shore…” Dylan shouted back. “Latios is doing something, but told me to evacuate the back of the ship…”

Jon’s eyes widened hearing Latios having an idea that required part of the ship to be evacuated, and swore to himself, though had no clue what the Eon Pokemon had planned.

A minute passed, as Akala Island grew ever closer in the distance, its speed not reducing. Jon and Dylan at first watched the skies, however having heard the sonic boom of Latios breaking the sound barrier as he had flown towards Akala before, realised quickly that they wouldn’t see Latios in the sky, and instead watched in horror at the now empty stern-deck, with a rough idea of what to expect.

In a flash, something descended over the above-deck buildings, crashing through the deck so suddenly that the only evidence was a perfectly shaped cut out of Latios. A split second later, Jon and Dylan lost their balance as the ship jerked back, even harder than it had jerked forward before, seeming to have been grabbed at the rear by an invisible hand.

“What the f**k…” Jon said, before running towards the railing at the rear of the deck, stepping around the Latios shaped hole, which he had only been able to believe that morning, would not be present on this trip on the S.S. Wishmaker. Dylan followed, and looked over the rail, unable to believe what he saw.

Latios had flown through the deck, as well as through eleven other surfaces, emerging underwater from the hull of the ship, in an airtight telekinetic bubble, directly into the heavy-duty nylon drift sock, and was continuing to force himself to fly against it. And whilst Latios wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to normally pull a sixty-five tonne cruise ship, the fact it was floating in water greatly reduced the strength needed to pull it, and Latios flying at his top speed was enough to make an impact. Additionally, underwater, Latios wasn’t flying against a headwind, which was more difficult to fly through than water itself, and Latios wasn’t trying to tow the S.S. Wishmaker himself, or even stop it. Just slow it down…

“What the f**k is he thinking?!” Jon said in panic. “He needs air just like everyone else! That bubble won’t last long, especially if he’s working himself so hard!”

Dylan was just as worried about this as Jon, however noticed something below them. Bubbles in the ocean coming from underneath them. He recalled their briefing in Slateport during their training, where he saw blueprints for the S.S. Wishmaker. A small crowd began to gather around the railing, looking down, and pointing at the Eon Pokemon, furiously pushing its telekinetic bubble against the drift sock…

“Latios doesn’t need to stay there the whole time…” Dylan said, pointing down at the bubbles. “He has put holes in the ship, and they’re filling with water!”

“So we’ll sink?” Jon retorted, his composure well and truly gone.

“No, we won’t!” Dylan replied. “The S.S. Wishmaker has over twenty watertight compartments in the hull, and six can be flooded without it sinking!”

Dylan grabbed from his bag a map of the S.S. Wishmaker, looking at it briefly, and the hole Latios had left. Tracing a line on the map, he guessed Latios’ path.

“He has put holes through four of them, maybe five…” Dylan said, an ecstatic smile of relief crossing his face. “They’ll fill with water, weighing the back of the ship down, and slowing it down even more. Then, the back will beach on the ocean floor when the water shallows out…”

Abbee arrived, seeing the crowd as Dylan finished explaining, and Jon looked over at Latios, shocked that his habit of putting holes in the S.S. Wishmaker may just be its salvation. Abbee looked over the stern of the ship, to see what Dylan and Jon were looking at, before finally noticing Latios.

“Is he trying to stop the ship?!” Abbee asked in shock.

“Not trying…” Jon answered in disbelief… “Succeeding…”

The ship was gradually slowing down, and after a minute, Latios telekinetically cut through the centre of the drift sock, and surfaced, gasping for air. Whilst the ship did gain momentum for a moment without the drift sock to slow it, as the watertight chambers below began to fill with water, it resumed its deceleration, and continued. Jon, Dylan and Abbee watched in anticipation, as the bubbles erupting from under the surface of the water began to slow, and the back of the ship began to sink a little lower…

The trio ran back towards the bow of the ship, noting the slight incline as they did, where Akala Island was becoming concerningly larger in the distance, while Latios flew alongside them.

”Was that enough?” Latios asked, and Jon struggled to answer.

“It’s the best you could do…” Jon answered, still in disbelief that Latios had managed to break his previous record of holes in the S.S. Wishmaker, and it be in the ships best interest.

There was a loud metallic clang, as from either side of the bow, large and heavy anchors dropped into the ocean, and Jon realised the captain had been waiting for this moment. All on deck were jerked forward as the anchors struck the ocean floor, digging in against the movement of the ship, before being pulled themselves.

“We’re gonna make it,” Dylan said, more so trying to convince himself than anyone else. The ship continued to slow, as people on the harbour became visible as specks in the distance, when finally, the partially sunken stern of the ship, began to beach along the ocean floor, slowing the ship even further, finally to the speed it was intending to approach at. The captain, having been planning on using the anchors, though not being certain they alone would work, had lined up the ship the best he could, so it would sail directly into its designated port.

The S.S. Wishmaker continued to slow, as it sailed to its designated place, just missing scraping the side of the moored S.S. Anne, and bumped not so gently against the concrete harbour of Heahea City. People were thrown off their feet, and whilst the bow of the S.S. Wishmaker was definitely worse for wear, the ship remained afloat, just, as those present began to cheer, voicing their relief at the near miss that had occurred. Some, who had been present at the stern to see Latios fly through, before slowing down the ship the way he knew best, began to cheer for the Eon Pokemon, causing him to look around in shock, before a satisfied smile crossed his face.

“Don’t get used to this…” Jon said to the Eon Pokemon. “I can’t afford to keep fixing the ship…”

Latios grinned at Jon, making him feel even more nervous.

”Jirachi might be on all the signs…” Latios said telepathically, extending his reach to all present, as he audibly cried out a victory cry. ”But this is my ship!”

The cheers continued, as Jon realised that he had created a monster…

[[Desolate Divine]]

It was a hell of a lot of fun going back to the S.S. Wishmaker...

[[Desolate Divine]]

Spiritwater Episode 4: Carnage

Spoiler:

Jon stood in what had been dubbed the meeting room of Eon Squad Headquarters looking among those who stood before him. A few he had met during training in Slateport, being Hoenn residents themselves, however some, he had never met before, and would now be addressing them for the first time. Also present in the room was Triad, albeit keeping to the back of the room, hoods worn, and voices lowered, as to not give away their identities.

Eon Squad HQ was a villa rented by the League for the next few weeks, on the northern edge of Heahea City, chosen largely for the large sleeping capacity, plentiful space for meetings, and open position, making an ambush difficult as long as sentries were placed. It was a large building, surrounded by open grassland, contrary to the rest of Heahea City, which was a well developed grid of skyscrapers, planted in the wilds of Akala Island.

It was five in the afternoon, a matter of hours after Latios had stopped the S.S. Wishmaker from crashing catastrophically into the Heahea Harbour, and given the delay the damage to the S.S. Wishmaker had caused for those disembarking, Eon Squad had only just arrived at their HQ fifteen minutes prior. There was no time for small talk, as much as Abbee would have liked to have spoken to Cassandra about seeing Victini, figuring he was in a Pokeball for subtlies sake. Agatha had made the first move, and Jon believed that her next would be soon, which meant they needed to act.

Eon Squad had ten operatives, in addition to Jon. All of whom had been hand picked by Jon himself. Dylan and Abbee made up part of the Squad, in addition to Peter Miller, who Jon had only met for the first time that afternoon. Knowing that the Spiritwater Festival would officially begin a little after seven that evening, when the first summer full moon set below the horizon, they had little time for introductions. As such, Jon began the briefing.

“Welcome to Eon Squad Headquarters,” Jon began. “I’m Jon Drake, and Steven has asked me to lead this squad, which will act as a reconnaissance team, ready and prepared to become an assault team when the need arises. Everyone in this room, I have looked into, and handpicked…”

Jon looked between the operatives, some of whom seemed confused as to why Jon, a glorified Trainer School teacher, was running a squad. Jon continued.

“Steven asked me to oversee this squad due to my own experience in both high stakes Pokemon handling, and operations such as this,” Jon explained. “I initially rejected the offer of coming on this mission, because I am too recognizable at this present time, and could compromise the mission, however Steven wanted me onboard, and offered for me to take a squad, so I could still be involved and help with the investigation, without being recognised in the field, and compromising the investigation.”

Knowing that if Eon Squad weren’t sure about him now, he stood little to gain trying to convince them with words. Actions would earn their respect and loyalty, and action would be needed soon.

“I’m going to cut to the chase. We all saw what happened to the S.S. Wishmaker this afternoon…”

There was a murmur of agreement, Triad included. The trio had been at separate points along the harbour, waiting for Latios to reach out to them telepathically and make contact, so they could regroup with the main force, without being approached directly by an operative, or be noticed making contact with Jon. All of them saw the dark and menacing clouds form a ring around the island, and the unforgiving winds, pushing all air and seacraft towards the island. They hadn’t known what slowed down the S.S. Wishmaker and prevented it from crashing into the island, until the first of those disembarking from the large vessel were chatting about it, and how Latios had slowed the ship down by some miracle.

“We are unsure whether Agatha realises the League are investigating her activities here, but we would be stupid to presume she doesn’t,” Jon explained. “She left an open invite to all users of Shadowcraft to join her, and doesn’t strike me as the sort to just assume nobody would inform the League. And given how long it has been since she left the invitation, she likely knows that we are here, trying to figure out what she has planned…”

There was an uneasy murmur across the room, and Jon empathised with that. A lot of people in Eon Squad had been present for the investigation into the Diamond Ladies on the S.S. Wishmaker. Two operatives who had been turned into Pokemon back then had been recruited. Natalie Barone, the now ex-girlfriend of Ethan Caldwell, who had been turned into a Dedenne, and current girlfriend of Kyle Parker, also present, who had been turned into a Yamper after breaching the Diamond Ladies room on the S.S. Wishmaker.

Natalie had broken up with Ethan not long after the High Sea’s Tournament, growing sick of his rants about how Jon cheated, and Cassandra should have been disqualified before the semi finals. It ended in a huge fight when Natalie, having grown sick of hearing about it all the time, asked what his excuse for losing to Avery Miller was. Triad had recognized the pair, and was thankful that, whilst irritated at the time, didn’t act like Doug Henderson did. Heck, they could almost be credited for Natalie and Kyle meeting…

Still, they’d rather not be recognized. However, unlike the S.S. Wishmaker, the majority of the operation was spent with the Diamond Ladies being completely unaware they were being investigated. Jon was right though. Agatha likely already knew, and was sending a message.

“The S.S. Wishmaker being saved is a win, but people like Agatha will not take that lying down…” Jon explained. “And we will have most of Heahea City, gathering along Main Street, from the eastern edge of the city to the western, for the official opening of the Spiritwater Festival tonight. If Agatha’s message has been foiled this afternoon, this evening is the prime chance to make it even clearer.”

Jon pressed a button on a clicker he held in his right hand, as the screen behind him shifted to a street map of Heahea City’s Main Street. Dotted across its twelve block length, were six numbers.

“I presume that some of you know each other, so I will let you all pair up as you see fit. Either way, I want one team on each of these locations during the opening night,” Jon explained. “Wearing costumes is the standard tradition for the Spiritwater Festival, and all of you were instructed to bring a costume along for that purpose…”

“There are six locations, and only ten of us in the squad,” Ford noted. Jon nodded.

“Eleven. I might not be as visible to the public in terms of the mission as you guys, but I’ll still be involved as I can be without giving anything away,” Jon explained. “And my coming here and not being present for the opening would be more suspicious than me just being there. So Latios and I will make up the sixth pair…”

Jon looked at the screen, quickly looking over the locations. He hadn’t had time to place himself yet. He noticed a location he had marked, roughly a quarter of the length on Main Street from the eastern edge, where it intersected with one of the larger streets, and he guessed, there would be more people entering the festival from.

“I’ll take position three,” Jon instructed. “Dylan, I presume you and Abbee will work together, and I want you in position one…”

Position one was right by the stage, in which the mayor of the city would officially open the festival. If anyone was going to try anything stupid, it would be there, and whilst Jon would happily be there himself, he knew that Dylan and Abbee could handle any disaster. Jon however, had chosen his position, hoping to prevent a disaster. Position three presented the best point of entry for anyone trying to blend in with the crowd, and by extension, the best point of exit for the same reason. Latios’ talents would prove useful there, in a way nearly no other Pokemon could match.

Quickly, the operatives paired off, though Jon had intentionally assigned Peter Miller, who was more at home behind a keyboard, to Ford, who was exceptional in combat situations. Once paired off, they each chose their posts, and Jon resumed the briefing.

“Let me make something clear,” Jon continued. “Even if tonight goes to s**t, I don’t want you blowing cover. In this game of she knows that we know that she knows that we know, a simple play for Agatha would be to cause a s**tshow, and see who reacts and how. How you react to whatever happens could determine just how useful you can be tomorrow…”

“So what, if things go to s**t, you want us to run and hide?” Kyle asked, sounding less than impressed.

“Is that what I said?” Jon asked evenly, as Kyle had to shake his head. “I expect you to fight, and try and stop people getting hurt, but try and maintain the cover of someone acting in self-defence, or a Good Samaritan, or even a cowboy compensating for something.”

“So Pokemon and improvised weapons are largely safe. I think if something happens tonight, people who aren’t connected to this operation would respond that way. But Alola has strict gun control, so if those of you who concealed-carry pull out a firearm, you can almost guarantee that the enemy will know you are part of a formal response, and any form of covert activity from yourself after will be irresponsible…” Jon continued, before looking at his watch. “I wish we could go into this with a more detailed plan, but the S.S. Wishmaker’s near miss, and the delay in getting off, ate away most of the time I had planned to brief all of you. So everyone, get changed, grab an earpiece, and get into positions. Dismissed…”

When all but Jon and Triad had left the room, Jon made his way over to the trio, not having had a moment to discuss with them anything in private since he arrived.

“Did any of them seem to recognise you?” Jon asked. Jarena shook her head.

“Natalie and Kyle might, but honestly, if they are the only ones who do, I think we should be counting our lucky stars…” Jarena explained, as Violet nodded in agreement.

“We have a theory,” Violet explained. “Agatha is using a light-based illusion spell. Effectively, an illusion that she can choose who it is visible to, broadly speaking.”

“We guess it is a series of arrows, visible to anyone who doesn’t mean her ill will,” Cassandra explained. “Or something like that. Considering how watchful we were, it is odd we didn’t notice a single person who seemed to be one of her crew, wondering what to do after arriving here…”

Jon nodded, agreeing with their conclusion.

“They’re organised. I’m no expert in Shadowcraft by any means, but I presume the spell they have surrounding the island would require multiple people to pull off?” Jon asked.

“Three dozen at least to pull it off at that scale, and a dozen of those maintaining it,” Violet explained. “I’d guess that they take shifts, with a dozen at a time keeping the spell functioning day and night…”

“They’re definitely organised, which would require more than a simple ’hey, lets go party on Akala Island’ to pull off,” Cassandra agreed.

Jon grimaced.

“If they’re this organised, then I am even more worried about tonight,” Jon said quietly.

“What do you want us doing?” Cassandra asked.

“You’re not under my command,” Jon began, though Jarena interrupted.

“We’re under Steven and Cynthia’s but we haven’t been able to make contact with them yet, since we relied on Latios to make contact with you, and he got delayed, so currently we have no standing orders…”

Jon nodded, before thinking for a second.

“What would you do if you were Agatha?” Jon asked. “You’ve got dozens of followers here, and most of the island scheduled to be present on Main Street tonight. What would you do?”

Cassandra was silent, somewhat uncomfortable having to put herself back into her pre S.S. Wishmaker shoes. Violet however, didn’t hesitate.

“When I was reading our tomes to try and figure out how they could be communicating, I found a modification spell that can be applied to practically any of the hexes that we used to use,” Violet explained. “It allows them to remain dormant, until another incantation is used to activate it. Then, the next person to trigger it will be in for a bad time…”

Cassandra understood, and nodded her agreement.

“We’d spend the afternoon laying these sorts of hexes around Main Street. Leaving them dormant so they aren’t triggered to early, then when the crowds are there…”

She let her words trail off, shocked at how dangerous the festival had just become at that revelation. Jon nodded.

“So scour Main Street, and see if you can find any of these dormant hexes,” Jon explained. “They’d be a great way to cause trouble without putting dozens of her followers in the frontline…”

Cassandra nodded.

“We’ll get changed into our costumes, and head out,” Cassandra said, before her and Violet went towards one of the spare rooms. Jarena however, hesitated, looking at Jon, unable to hide the curiosity.

“What costume do you have?” Jarena asked. “You don’t strike me as a costume sort of guy…”

“Because I’m not,” Jon explained. “If I told you, you’d laugh at me, but I have my reasons for it…”

Jarena, now more curious, went to follow up with another question, however realised they were short on time, before leaving to follow her Triad companions out of the room. Jon couldn’t help but grin. This moment of casual chatter may be their last. They might as well try to enjoy it…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

The sun was beginning to set, though the vivid colours of twilight wouldn’t be visible for another half hour or so, which would coincide with the full moon setting, and mark the beginning of the Spiritwater Festival.

Jon, clad in his costume, walked past the various stalls that had taken up residence on the footpath Main Street, which had been closed for the evening's festivities. Digital billboards hung from the sides of various buildings, which would later be tuned into a camera on the stage Jon could see at the eastern end of Main Street, in order for all present to see and hear what was happening.

Despite his costume, he had been recognized multiple times, and asked for photos and autographs, as well as asked nearly every time if Latios were around, to which Jon had told them he was exhausted after what happened on the S.S. Wishmaker that afternoon and was having a well earned rest in his Pokeball, which had been enough for most of them. Latios had managed to stop a sixty tonne cruise ship from crashing into the harbour. If that hadn’t earned him a rest, nothing would. In reality however, Latios floated invisibly above the crowd, scanning and attempting to spot any emotions that seemed out of place.

Jon’s costume had gathered some interest, and he was somewhat embarrassed to be seen wearing it. It was a black, suit that covered his entire body, covered with worbla panels, also black, with patterns reminiscent of the hide of the black Rayquaza of legend, that had wrought havoc on the Hoenn region centuries ago. Atop his head was a helmet shaped like Rayquaza’s open jaws. He knew he looked ridiculous, and was starting to ache from how heavy the costume was.

”Anything?” Jon asked in his thoughts, knowing Latios was listening in from above.

”I can’t say,” Latios answered, before tuning Jon into his vision, showing the auras he saw of the crowd below. ”There are so many people…”

Jon could see the auras of the people present were largely yellow, however it wasn’t as dominant as he expected it to be. Nearly a third felt a different emotion, changing the colour of their auras. He saw a child, being led by the hand by their parent, who was anxious, he figured due to the sheer amount of people. One couple were fighting, Jon not knowing it was because the guy found his girlfriend, who had allegedly been sick, at the festival with his twin brother.

”Even if I were to keep an eye on people who aren’t like the rest, there are thousands of people here…”

”I know,” Jon answered. ”Just keep an eye out. If we can keep one person from getting hurt tonight, it’s a win, no matter how small…”

Latios chorused his agreement, before continuing to search as Jon resumed his investigation from ground level, on edge with every minute that passed, bringing them closer to sunset…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“Did you really have to pick this costume?” Dylan asked Abbee from their position closer to the stage. “I saw a toddler start crying at the sight of me…”

Abbee grinned, at the sound of Dylan’s voice, which was muffled behind the mask.

“It was the only costume I could find in Slateport that fit you…” Abbee lied, having seen the costume herself, and figuring it would be hilarious on Dylan.

Abbee wore the Decidueye cloak over some casual clothes, which had been augmented with a hood during the two weeks she spent in Slateport during training. The hood proved valuable now, making her less recognizable, and covering the earpiece that she wore. Dylan on the other hand wore a less subtle costume. A giant, mascot-like costume of a Bewear…

“I can hardly see a thing,” Dylan said. “We’re supposed to be-”

“I am keeping an eye out,” Abbee said loudly. “You won’t trip…”

Whilst his voice was muffled, Dylan was raising it enough to compensate, and was being somewhat loud. Abbee managed to save the conversation, making out she was watching their path.

“In all honesty, we’re too recognisable after the College of the North Wind, and nobody who is trying to flush out operatives would suspect you…” Abbee said, a little more quietly to Dylan. “I’ll keep an eye out, and you can lose the mask if we gotta throw down…”

“I almost hope we do,” Dylan muttered. “It’s hot in here…”

The pair continued to walk to various stands, pretending to inspect them, whilst really wanting to have reason to move around the area without arousing suspicion. As they walked, Abbee talked, knowing that the pair of them walking in relative silence would be odd.

“I can’t believe I’m at a Spiritwater Festival,” Abbee noted. “I only found out what it is after I started coming to the Academy, and didn’t think I’d be able to get to one while I still worked there over summer…”

The Spiritwater Festival was an ancient tradition, however the scope of it had only extended to what it was now in the last few years, as it became more commercialised, and used a selling point for tourists to visit Alola, not that they needed much convincing. It was only when the size of it got to this point that most outside of Alola heard of it.

“Honestly, if we weren’t here for work,” Dylan answered, “it’d be really nice to spend summer here…”

The topic of that summer hung in the air for a moment, as a question Abbee had been asking herself for a few weeks now, became more prevalent in her mind. Finally she broke.

“Remember after the prom last year?” Abbee asked. “The day after when we returned all the outfits, and went to that nice little cafe?”

Dylan tried to nod, however there was no articulation between the head and torso of the costume he wore, so spoke.

“Yeah, I remember,” he answered. Abbee nodded, before speaking again.

“Remember what we talked about?”

Dylan knew what she was referring to. He had been thinking about it just as much as she had, although the difference was, he had made his mind up already. Abbee took his silence to mean the negative so answered.

“We both thought we might have had feelings for each other, but agreed we had too much other stuff going on, and decided we’d wait until next summer to figure that out. Get other stuff figured out first,” Abbee said. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s next summer…”

Dylan sighed internally, having been expecting this.

“Look, I’m not having this conversation with you wearing this stupid mask…” Dylan said, before fumbling for the mask with his fingerless costume hands. After a few attempts he removed it, breathing in a breath of fresh air, before looking at Abbee, who looked up at him, trying to hide the expectation she felt.

“We agreed we’d talk about it next summer, and next summer is now…” Dylan began. “But we agreed that thinking we’d be in Mossdeep next summer, and our biggest problem being a group of teenage boys trying to sneak over to the girls lodge…”

Abbee became crestfallen, as Dylan continued.

“I do want to talk about it, really…” Dylan explained, his voice lowering somewhat. “But honestly, Jon is worried that he might not make it back to Hoenn, and didn’t want us coming because he is worried about what might happen to us. If we aren’t careful, we could be killed here. And I guess that for the time being, I don’t want either of us distracted by what ends up being said when we do talk about it, when being distracted could be the difference between both of us making it back or not…”

Abbee tried to force a determined, neutral expression to her face, though Dylan could see that this wasn’t the answer she was hoping for. Not wanting to see her upset, he replaced the mask, before speaking again.

“We will talk this out once this is over,” Dylan said, his voice now muffled. “I promise. For now, let’s focus on staying safe, and getting home…”

Not far from Dylan and Abbee, a couple wearing decorative yukatas walked casually through the crowds, taking in the sights of the festival in its pre-opening festivities. By this point, every stallholder had realised that they were missing out on dozens upon dozens of sales by remaining closed until the festival began, and the official opening was a glorified formality, based only on the tradition of the festival beginning then the first full moon of summer sets.

“I can’t believe people are acting like what happened this afternoon is normal…” Avery said quietly to Abital. They wore a Keldeo inspired yukata and headpiece, which was complemented by Abital’s Flaffy inspired costume. “Those clouds and winds aren’t natural, and are still surrounding the island…”

Abital signed in response, his mutism actually being beneficial, not wanting those nearby to overhear.

”If they cancelled the festival, people would realise something is wrong, and panic. They’d try and get off the island, which is dangerous with these winds, and there’d be casualties. Those who don’t, would panic buy to be able to hole up for the end of the world, and the shelves at the supermarkets would be empty…”

Like Avery, Abital was worried, however, had experience as a ranger in places of natural disaster and knew that panic in large proportions would benefit nobody.

”The League will send people here soon to figure it out,” Abital continued to sign. ”They wouldn’t ignore what happened today, especially considering how close it was to sheer disaster…”

Avery had to agree with that. Having been part of a League response themself, though flawed, the League were quick and organised at responding to incidents like this. And given the fact they knew Jon Drake was onboard the S.S. Wishmaker doing media stunts to fund repairs to his school after an incident with a Rotom made it unusable for the summer program, and Jon’s famously close friendship with Steven Stone, they figured the League already knew. Granted, they also couldn’t shake the slight feeling that Jon may have known about this prior, and was there investigating for the League. If that were the case, it answered the question Avery had as to why Jon and Alyssa told them two weeks before the wedding they couldn’t make it.

Avery sighed. Their question of it wasn’t out of any sort of bitterness that Jon and Alyssa bailed so close to the date. Despite working alongside Jon on the S.S. Wishmaker, the pair weren’t overly close, and the reception itself wasn’t an overly extravagant affair, meaning that Avery and Abital weren’t at too much of a loss for guests pulling out. In the four years since, they hadn’t seen each other, and there hadn’t been a great deal of contact. Enough to justify forwarding an invite to be polite, and Avery had thought showing up to be equally polite, but not much more.

Their history in League operations though was why Avery had suggested the S.S. Wishmaker. For nostalgia more than anything. The ship was incredible. Best in its class, and even if they didn’t have the history, Avery would have happily considered a week on it and a week at the Spiritwater Festival for their honeymoon. But the irony of it was what sold them. And now, instead of touring across Kalos like they had originally considered, they were trapped on an island, they suspected, by nefarious forces.

“I wish I hadn’t suggested the S.S. Wishmaker,” Avery muttered. “Something is seriously wrong, and a glorified joke has put us in the midst of it…”

Abital stopped walking, and pulled gently on Avery’s hand, causing them to turn to face him.

”The cruise was amazing until the last hour, and we were going to be here for a week anyway, so being trapped isn’t an issue. And even if we are stuck here for more than a week, I could think of worse places to be stuck than Akala Island during the Spiritwater Festival,” Abital signed. ”I don’t regret a thing. The S.S. Wishmaker was a great idea…”

In the disappointed mood they were in, Avery's first instinct was to answer ’You don’t regret it yet…’ but knew that was petty. Abital was trying to keep their spirits up, and just as importantly, Abital was right. The cruise was completely fine until the last hour when the wind appeared. And they were going to be here for a week anyway. The Spiritwater Festival was still going ahead as planned, and really, recent events haven’t changed anything about their honeymoon other than when it will end…

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Avery asked. Abital shrugged in mock indifference. “I’ll stop being a stick in the mud, and try and enjoy myself…”

The pair continued to walk, now with a little more intention and vitality, attempting to take in the sights of the Spiritwater Festival’s opening ceremony.

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Near where Jon watched the people entering the Spiritwater Festival, and Latios watched overhead, a young woman, slightly shorter than average, with long white hair, tied back in a ponytail, inspected a craft supplies stall as people filtered past her. She wore a Diancie themed outfit she had made herself, consisting of a short white dress, over a long grey skirt that extended down to her ankles, with a headdress made of plastic, pink crystals. Had Jon seen her, he likely would have recognised her, though had been looking around a different part of the intersection at the time.

Luneth had arrived on the S.S. Wishmaker that afternoon, as a member of one of Steven’s two squads that he oversaw, specifically, the intelligence and reconnaissance focused squad. She had the same dream that Triad did, whilst living as an Alolan Vulpix in the wild with other Pokemon, and had been that far out from civilization that it had taken weeks for her to return and notify the League, only to be contacted by Steven Stone himself. He had told her that they had already been informed, however if she wished to help, they were recruiting operatives for an investigation, which she had readily accepted. The whole situation had her on edge. She had seen the trouble caused by the Diamond Ladies on the S.S. Wishmaker, and the measures the League had to take to capture them, when really, their crimes were minimal compared to the potential danger they could have posed. Now however, she had a feeling that this invitation that Agatha had given would show the potential danger to its full capacity.

Being one of two Shadowcraft users in her squad, Luneth and the other Shadowcraft user had been given a specific mission upon boarding the S.S. Wishmaker, which the pair were undertaking now. The pair had spent most of the trip holed up in their room, scouring through the tomes they had access to, both personally, and with photos of the tomes that Alyssa Drake had taken photos of during the S.S. Wishmaker incident when they weren’t sure that the Diamond Ladies hadn’t booby-trapped them. Their current orders were to determine what reagents could be used in common hexes that Agatha and her followers may use, and once they were at the Spiritwater Festival, alongside the rest of Ammolite Squad, they would scour all the stalls to try and buy out stocks of these ingredients, similar to how the League prevented the Diamond Ladies from turning themselves back into humans four years earlier.

“What do you think?” Luneth asked her partner in the operation. “They real?”

Glimmer looked closer at the Magikarp scales that the vendor had for sale, before picking one up, and rubbing it between her fingers. It felt real, however Magikarp scales had a similar smooth feeling and weight to resin, making them easy to 3D print fakes of with the right colored resin. Giving it a sniff, she found her answer.

“Fake,” Glimmer answered, before grinning. “Let’s leave them here…”

Magikarp scales could be used for two spells. As the DNA sample for a Pokemon transformation curse, which in this case, would make a potential threat absolutely useless, or a nausea hex. However, if these fakes were used, the spells would either fail, or have some sort of adverse reaction on the caster. The pair left the stall, walking towards the next.

Glimmer had only taken human form in the last year, having studied Shadowcraft alongside Luneth, however eclipsing her trainer in Shadowcraft skill and knowledge a year before that. The transition to a human form was from a modified version of the Pokemon transformation curse, adapted to allow her to shift into the form of a human, created largely by Glimmer herself.

She wore a Salamence themed costume, consisting of a dress like Luneth’s, coloured blue and grey like the hide of a Salamence, with prosthetic wings and a tail attached, in addition to the spiked headband over her dark blue hair, the colour changed by Shadowcraft from the standard lime green she normally kept it as, through the same means.

As the pair walked, Glimmer began to yawn. Despite being in human form, there were still Shaymin traits that she retained. Her keen sense of smell, standard of most Pokemon, was one, and her reliance on sunlight was another. Normally, she rose and set with the sun, however she knew Agatha wasn’t going to follow her timetable.

“You sure you can keep at it?” Luneth asked, noting the sky starting to turn pink. “We have two dozen other people scouring the stands as well as us. We can head back…”

“I’ll be fine,” Glimmer answered, lifting her sleeve for a moment to reveal the lime green, illuminated glyph on her upper arm. “This should keep me going until midnight…”

The marking itself was a slow release, energy charm. The spell itself was basic, however the fine-tuning it required took a lot of skill.

“The sun hasn’t even set and you’re already slowing down…” Luneth replied in concern. “Are you sure it’s working?”

Glimmer nodded.

“I store energy in it, and when my own energy dips below a certain amount, this kicks in. Like a battery,” Glimmer explained. “The problem is, I can’t make it and put it on later. I have to create it on myself, and because I slow down every night, I have to make it the day I plan on using it. Otherwise the night after I make it, it will drain…”

Luneth understood what Glimmer was saying. Glimmer had made the glyph in the hours of the morning, and knowing that she’d need to be active during the afternoon, had put less of her energy into it than she probably could have, as to not let herself spend the afternoon tired before it kicked in.

“I tweaked it to be a slow burn…” Glimmer explained. “It could dispense more energy at once, and I could feel as awake as I did an hour ago, but if it did, it would be drained by nine. This way, I’m a little tired, but able to keep going longer…”

Luneth nodded, though Glimmer could tell she was still worried. Normally, Luneth didn’t focus on one thing long enough for it worry her, however this situation with Agatha was different, and as such, she was noticing more and more smaller things that had her on edge. Wanting to take her mind off it, Glimmer chose the distraction route.

“We haven’t checked out that stall over there,” Glimmer said, pointing to a fish market’s stand. “They sell Magikarp fillets, and might have the scales in the bins at their shop…”

Luneth nodded, her attention pulled towards Glimmer’s newly suggested goal, as the pair made their way towards it.

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

By the stage at the Eastern end of Main Street, Jimmy Kendo sat wearing a kimono, styled and coloured to replicate Jirachi, much to the wish-maker’s delight. He sat on a park bench, eating an ice cream, watching all the people walk by and taking in the various costumes.

”It’s a shame you’re missing this Jirachi,” Jimmy thought, knowing the wish maker was tuned into his thoughts. Despite Jirachi being far from Jimmy, well out of telepathic range, the stone he wore around his neck, once a Thunderstone, which had been changed by Jirachi to allow him to shift form into a Pikachu at will, had been given a few extra functions. Primarily, being a link between Jimmy and Jirachi, regardless of where the pair may be.

”I wish I could be there!” Jirachi answered, with an even mix of enthusiasm and disappointment. Jirachi knew why it couldn’t. That didn’t make the disappointment for Jimmy or Jirachi any less intense. Next to Jimmy sat Pikachu, his partner, who watched in amazement at the sheer variety of people in costumes walking past. Noticing something, he cried out.

“That’s a Pikachu costume!” Pikachu said eagerly, Jimmy understanding after his time as Cuddles the Pachirisu. Jimmy looked over, and saw a group of children running past, one of them in a Pikachu onesie. Jimmy couldn’t help but grin.

Jimmy was the only operative present at the Spiritwater Festival opening ceremony without active orders. Given what Jirachi was capable of, Jimmy wasn’t placed in a squad, but instead acted as a solo operative, which gave him the same level of authority as a squad leader, only under the orders of Steven or Cynthia. He had arrived on Akala Island three days ago, and using the link with Jirachi provided by the stone he wore, he had teleported off the island, to where Jirachi was, working on a somewhat secret project there, that he thought would benefit the operation, and spending his nights in that location. Only when Steven and Cynthia arrived that afternoon did he teleport back to Akala to give a progress report, and found out that only a matter of hours earlier, the S.S. Wishmaker was almost rammed by deadly winds into the harbour, stopped by Jon’s Latios who acted instantly, without Jon even being there to instruct him.

Steven had asked Jimmy about Jirachi potentially removing the clouds and winds that trapped them on the island, however it wasn’t that simple. Every time Jirachi used its wish granting power, it grew drowsy, with some more laborious tasks being enough to put Jirachi straight to sleep. There were some wishes that were that big, Jirachi wouldn’t be able to grant completely before falling asleep, it being a wasted endeavour, and Jimmy had learnt after the S.S. Wishmaker to be careful what he wished for. The moment of realisation had been attempting to resuscitate a fellow operative on a mission, who had been killed in action. He figured that because he had only died moments earlier, it wouldn’t take much for Jirachi to bring him back, especially empowered by the starlight shining down. Instead, the task put Jirachi to sleep, one it didn’t wake up from for two weeks, being a lesson for the pair.

Given the fact that Jimmy had been working ten hours days the last three days, and according to Steven, the festival was crawling with operatives, Jon included, he was told to remain present on standby. He had no direct orders at the festival, however would be expected to take action if trouble arose.

”We’ll have the marker set up soon,” Jimmy reassured Jirachi. ”After that, we won’t need you to be there for us to be able to teleport there and back…”

”And then we can go to the festival?” Jirachi asked. Jimmy didn’t want to dash the Pokemon’s dreams, chances were that if things got as bad as Steven and Cynthia thought they would, the festival would be cancelled.

”We’ll make sure to do something fun when we have this sorted…” Jimmy answered, hoping it was enough for Jirachi to be content. Finishing his ice cream, he put his palm on the bench next to him, allowing Pikachu to run up his arm, and perch atop his shoulder, before standing. The sun was dipping closer to the horizon, and that meant the ceremony would formally open soon. He made his way into the crowd near the stage, trying to get a better view. However as he did, he felt something through the telepathic channel created by the stone.

One of Jirachi’s abilities was a sense for the extraordinary. In addition to its psychic abilities, Jirachi could sense things around itself, and with the connection through the stone, around Jimmy, that were supernatural. When Jimmy had visited home, and the Celebi partnered with his mother had travelled back in time an hour, resulting in two Celebi being present in the one place, Jirachi had known that the second one was not the one from that time.

As such, this ability of Jirachi had been embedded in the stone. It created a tingle at the detection of something that Jirachi would have detected. Whilst Jirachi had made sure it wouldn’t respond to general telepathy, as to not drive Jimmy insane when he was in a place like this, potentially surrounded by Psychic Pokemon, it was intended to respond to anything supernatural.

Jimmy didn’t feel a tingle however. He felt a violent shock in the back of his neck. He lurched for a moment, losing his footing, as a passer by glanced at him, presuming he had already had too much to drink, before walking away. Pikachu called from his shoulder, having almost tumbled off.

“Jimmy! What’s wrong?” Pikachu asked. Jimmy, struggling to focus on the shock, didn’t answer, instead putting all effort into making his thoughts direct for Jirachi to hear.

”Did you feel that?” Jimmy asked. Jirachi didn’t respond with a yes or no however. Instead, a statement.

”Something’s very wrong…”

Brianna Levine walked through the Spiritwater Festival, her appearance the disguise of the brunette that she maintained through Shadowcraft when not alone. Like practically all present, she was in costume. She wore black, semi-sleeveless dress, accented with light blue trimming, reminiscent of a shiny variant Umbreon. Whilst the sleeves didn’t connect at the shoulders, leaving her shoulders bare, two large sleeves hung from her arms, connected by the blue cloth that was wrapped around her waist, tied off as a bow, with a pair of black heels. In case people didn’t understand the costume was that of an Umbreon, a pair of black ears with a blue ring on each sat on a headband on her head, with a matching tail hanging from under the bow. To any watching, she appeared to be looking around the festival, potentially for a date she was meeting there. Though she was looking for somebody, a date wasn’t it…

Had anyone there known this appearance well enough to recognise her, they may have noticed something was off with her eyes. Normally a dark brown, they were considerably brighter, though still brown. Before attending, she had performed a spell to augment her vision slightly, helping to see traces of the void.

Whilst the amount of energy being stored by the gemstones Brianna had hidden around the island indicated there were a considerable amount of people capable of performing Shadowcraft, few casual users knew the source of the magic.

The void was another plane of existence, and the source of all power manifested by Shadowcraft. The void itself wasn’t sheer nothingness like the name implied, however was filled with energy, and devoid of all forms of life. No living being could be present there, instead, being absorbed by it, and transformed into energy themself. However, Brianna, in her own desire for power, had discovered there were ways of using Shadowcraft as a looking glass into the void. The practice itself was dangerous, and one risked being pulled in by doing it if the looking glass they made were two wide. However, for those who looked into the void, they were able to glean knowledge of Shadowcraft not recorded in any tome. Brianna’s own working theory was that the tomes that existed were written by the pioneering souls who were brave enough to look into the void, transcribing what they learned for the next generation. Eventually those who did do that were either absorbed by it, or died of other courses, and there was enough knowledge of Shadowcraft recorded that the practice was deemed too risky for the relatively little reward, and largely forgotten. She had only discovered the practice by finding a tome that was relatively ancient compared to the ones that Triad used, and taking the plunge herself.

With the void being the source of Shadowcraft, parts of it existed in the world whilst Shadowcraft was in effect, and the spell Brianna used, temporarily allowed her to see the traces of it. Like a cloud, swirling around the source.

She walked near the stage, continuing to look, pretending to find someone she was meeting with, but actually looking for people who seemed to be under some effect of Shadowcraft. It didn’t take her long to find someone. A young woman, who didn’t even look to be twenty years old, wearing a Decidueye feather cloak, and walking with someone tall, wearing a Bewear costume. Thinking she may have found what she was after, she began to walk towards them. However as she got closer, she realised she was on the wrong trail.

Whilst the girl seemed to have a faint presence of the void about her, Brianna realised it was as faint as it was because it was residue. The remaining effect of Shadowcraft that is no longer active. A side effect.

She was attempting to find one of Agatha’s followers, and while the girl could very well be one of them, she could also just as likely be someone who has been struck by some sort of curse, and has since been healed. Potentially a person who was on the S.S. Wishmaker four years earlier when the Diamond Ladies turned multiple people, themselves included, into Pokemon.

Knowing she only had one shot, Brianna stopped, letting the pair walk past her, before deciding to look for someone else. Someone more certain…

It took her only ten minutes to find someone. In fact, she found multiple people. As the sun set lower in the sky, people began to appear in the crowds, who were surrounded by the void, Brianna reasoning they were using transformation magic to alter their appearances. Whilst she had a hunch something would happen tonight, it was confirmed by dozens of people, seeming to be getting into position in the crowd, for something big. She began looking for the nearest exit from Main Street, where there was someone she could target on the way, quickly settling for a well built, and handsome man in his mid twenties, though given the density of the void, she figured he was hardly young, well built or handsome in reality.

She walked towards him and as she walked past, pretended to trip, stumbling into the man, pretending to instinctively place one hand out on his chest to break her fall, and letting her other arm fall over his shoulder, gently slapping him on the back.

“I’m so sorry!” Brianna said apologetically. “I can barely walk in these heels…”

The man grunted, not saying anything verbal, though Brianna had a hunch it was because his voice would betray his appearance. She stood up straighter, before speaking again.

“Sorry again! Have a nice night!”

She walked away, making sure to get out of Main Street before the sun set. Things would happen then, and she had done what she needed to. Nobody had noticed her hand flash white as it touched the man's back. She grinned. Nonverbal Shadowcraft had been game changing when she learnt the principle of it from her time glancing into the void. Nonverbally she dismissed the spell that helped her to see traces of the void. She didn’t need it any more. When she was far enough away from Main Street, where she could find some privacy, she focused her thoughts, closing her eyes and performing a spell. When she opened them, the world around her wasn’t where she was when she closed them. Instead, she was walking through the Spiritwater Festival again, albeit somewhat taller. Her vision shifted to the right, as the mayor of Heahea City took to the stage to begin proceedings. She ended the spell and found herself back in the alley where she had hidden to test it. She grinned. She now had a set of eyes and ears inside of Agatha’s operation, and Agatha had no reason to believe that her coven was compromised yet. Brianna knew how she’d be spending the next few days, as she walked away, making her way back towards her hotel.

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Victini scowled as he watched from a nearby rooftop. It had been weeks since Cassandra had rejected his plea to come with her and have her back. And weeks since he had pretty much lied to both her and Abbee, choosing to follow Cassandra in secret, instead of returning to Abbee, like Cassandra had told him to. As far as Cassandra knew, Victini was with Abbee, and as far as Abbee knew, Victini was with Cassandra.

He had managed to make it to Akala Island without being spotted by both Triad, and any Pokeball happy trainers who would jump at the opportunity to capture a Mythical Pokemon themselves. Granted, having been captured years ago by poachers, he had grown to be a lot more careful in his stints of not being registered to a trainer, and by extension, not being protected from all but unregistered Pokeballs.

That afternoon however, had been difficult. He knew if he remained too close to Triad, Latios would detect him telepathically. Whilst Latios could reach out up to two kilometres telepathically, that was communicating with someone he knew well enough to distinguish in a crowd, and he was actually looking for. That radius was a mere two hundred metres if Latios were simply listening to all going on around him, and unless specific thoughts had given them away, Latios may not recognise a consciousness he connects with unless he knows to look for them.

As such, Victini had to give Triad some space, only ever watching from a distance, and even losing sight of them at some points. Then, when they went to Eon Squad HQ, he knew he had to stay away. Jon would have Latios acting as an invisible sentry, and in its isolated location, with Latios actually looking, he’d be able to detect Victini before he got close.

After Triad left Eon Squad HQ, Victini took to the roofs of the buildings, trying to keep track of them, however their similar costumes made it difficult to keep an eye on Cassandra when the trio split up. He had initially followed Violet, being similar in height to Cassandra, only to realise half an hour later he was following the wrong Diamond Lady, and by the time he realised, Cassandra had blended in with the crowd.

“Goddamn it…” Victini muttered to himself, as he scoured the area near the stage, trying to find hide or hair of Cassandra…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

“Still got nothing…”

Jarena spoke quietly into the microphone that was hidden in the collar of her costume, knowing that Violet and Cassandra would hear via their earpieces. The trio were scattered across Main Street, three city blocks apart, having scoured their respective areas for glyphs. According to Violet, the glyphs of spells that are dormant will still glow, albeit dimly. The past hour had been spent with each of them trying to determine where in their sections would be the best place to lay one of these traps, and from there, scouring them to see if they were safe. So far though, they had found nothing.

Jarena was by the western end of Main street, covering positions five and six, according to Jon’s map in the briefing, whilst Cassandra covered positions one and two, over by the eastern section. Violet had positions three and four covered. The three of them, wanting to blend in but also be unified, had chosen themed costumes. Onesies with added wings, and each decorated to look like a different flying bug Pokemon. Cassandra a Butterfree, Violet a Vivillion and Jarena a Beautifly.

“Yeah, I got nothing here either,” Violet answered back. “And that is far from good…”

Cassandra and Jarena knew she was right. They foresaw four possible outcomes of that evening. The first, which they deemed the least likely was that Agatha would simply leave the opening ceremony alone having made her statement with the S.S. Wishmaker. The second was that Agatha and her followers had left standard hexes, causing whoever made contact with them at any time after to be affected. However, given the amount of theatrics with the S.S. Wishmaker, they believed Agatha would not settle for one or two victims, but instead as many as she could, and the fact that there wasn’t a panic as people were dropping like Cutiefly’s from different nefarious hexes and curses, seemed to eliminate that possibility. The third outcome, which they had deemed to be more likely was that Agatha and her followers would use the delay modification on their curses, and have a select team attend to activate them once the area was full, and they’d have maximum effect. However they were sure now, having found no evidence of that, that that was going to happen. Which only left the fourth….

“Honestly, at this point, they will either come in person to cause problems, or leave it alone,” Cassandra explained. “And I know what my money is on…”

Cassandra stood near the stage, having seen Dylan and Abbee walking by, and not making contact herself. Whilst Avery Miller and Jimmy Kendo were both in the vicinity, Cassandra had been focused on looking for traps, and hadn’t recognized either in their costumes.

Her attention was pulled as a middle aged, somewhat overweight man with an olive complexion and greying dark hair in a suit stepped onto the stage, where a lectern with a mounted microphone awaited him. Elsewhere down Main Street, the digital billboards changed, as they received the feed to the main camera, showing all present the Mayor of Heahea City, preparing to address those attending. It became noticeably quieter, as people watched in expectation. Finally, the mayor spoke.

“Welcome all to the annual Spiritwater Festival,” the man began, an accent thick in his voice. “I am Mayor Analu Kelekolio, and it is my pleasure to welcome all, both residents of Akala Island, and those visiting from lands far away, to the festivities here this week.”

“For those unaware of the meaning behind the Spiritwater Festival, it is a celebration that has occurred on Akala Island for the last four hundred years. We begin it with the setting of the summer’s first full moon, as the summer is when the nights are at their shortest, and alongside the full moon setting, it is symbolic of the mischievous spirits and black magic losing their power, and growing dormant,” Mayor Kelekolio explained, illuminated by the dwindling pink light of the sun falling behind the horizon in the west. “And whilst traditionally the festivities were originally much more contained, simply being a feast, we have enjoyed sharing this aspect of our heritage on Akala Island with the rest of the world, and expanding our celebrations to include any who wish to participate…”

The sun was now blocked out completely behind the horizon and the full moon was now visible, sitting marginally over the horizon. A few minutes later, the moon would follow, and the Spiritwater Festival would officially begin.

“Over the course of this week, I encourage you to visit as many of the local stalls, trying the local cuisine, as well as purchasing souvenirs for friends and family,” Mayor Kelekolio continued. “When the festival begins, there will be rides and attractions set up across Main Street, as well as games, and children's activities. However I’d like to remind you that Main Street is a Dry Zone, and no alcohol is permitted to be in an open container in the area. Public drunkenness and other antisocial behaviour will not be tolerated…”

Cassandra scoffed somewhat, having a hunch that before long, antisocial behaviour would be given a new definition.

As the moon dipped lower, Mayor Kelekolio, at a cue, began a countdown.

“The Spiritwater Festival will begin in five, four, three, two, one!”

There was a cheer, as music began to play, however in that moment, all the flaming torches and street lanterns suddenly extinguished, leaving all present, shocked, in relative darkness. Cassandra looked around for a second, before hearing something. A droning sound she originally thought, however, she soon realised it was something else. Chanting. At first by a small group of people, but before long, others joined, and the sound grew louder and more unnerving.

There was a scream from behind her, and she turned around, looking down Main Street, towards the western edge of the island. It took Cassandra a few seconds to realise what she was looking at.

The dark clouds forming a ring around the island were growing, moving upward into the air from all directions and meeting directly above the island, trapping them in a dome, as light from the stars was blocked out. The street around her became darker, and Cassandra realised it was going down now. There was a quick incantation, before a flash of light, and someone screaming, as it all erupted into chaos…

Avery, without waiting for an invitation, grabbed Abital’s hand, and began to run, dragging their husband along. They had been on edge from the moment the lights went out, and was moving before the first hex was performed.

“We have to get out of here!” Avery shouted to Abital, though it was redundant, with Abital well aware something wasn’t right, Avery largely holding his hand to make sure they didn’t get separated in the crowd, as incantations became common, as did the screams that followed.

As they ran, Avery felt out of nowhere, a sudden sick feeling in their stomach. There was no explanation, other than a mixture of past experience, sheer instincts, and a borderline sixth sense. They had gone to sidestep a woman in front of them, however had noticed in an instant a movement familiar to them. The same movement Jarena had used when she turned Avery into a Buizel four years earlier.

Avery ducked quickly, just missing being touched by the hand encased in an eerie blue glow, before launching themselves forward, and slamming their shoulder into the woman’s torso, staggering her, as Abital launched into action, kicking her feet out from under her, and causing her to fall, grabbing Avery’s hand before he had even hit the ground.

“That was too close!” Avery said in disbelief, wondering how they of all people managed to get caught up in this twice. They looked around and began to see Ghost Pokemon emerging from the ground, and begin attacking those there, as panic set in.

The pair ran for another ten seconds, nearing the edge of Main Street, where it intersected with another major road, however stopped dead in their tracks. Opposite them stood three people, who seemed far too calm given the situation, and quickly spread out a little, cutting off their escape in that direction. Abital turned to go back, however found himself face to face with another two figures, who seemed to be in league with those causing the panic.

Avery readied Gloria’s Pokeball, prepared to send the Shaymin out, knowing she would be able to defend the pair of them, whilst attacking from a distance. Abital, equally prepared for a fight, readied his own Pokeball, however, in that moment, one of the figures surrounding the pair lunged towards Avery, hex readied. Seeing the attacker moving towards his spouse, Abital didn’t send out Meir, his Raichu, instead lunging at the attacker to push them away, the attacker’s hand making contact with himself.

Abital’s head began to swim, as nausea worse than he had ever felt, struck out of nowhere.

“A**hole!” Avery shouted, and went to send out Gloria, intentionally aiming for the one who had cursed their husband. However, before they could, the attacker was dispatched by a new arrival. A figure wearing a maskless mascot style costume that was completely brown from the neck down. His hair was medium length and shaggy brown, and he stood tall, at over six feet. Because his fists were not very useful with the costume's large paw at the end of its arm, he had instead rammed his elbow into the attackers head, knocking him limp to the ground. Avery realised that they could see this much of the attacker because there was a source of light nearby, and looked to see a girl no older than eighteen, in a feathered cloak, with a Typhlosion, who was sending fire attacks at anyone who seemed to be causing trouble amidst the chaos.

“Get him out of here!” Dylan shouted at Avery, as Abital was struggling to stand, before vomiting on the ground. Avery went to argue that the way off Main Street was still blocked by two more hooded figures, when Dylan’s shadow began to shimmer, and a black creature with a single blue eye rose from it. Being a Sinnoh native themself, Avery recognised it as the nightmarish creature described in ghost stories during slumber parties, though didn’t know the name of it.

“Thank you,” Avery called out, before grabbing Abital, and attempting to help him to his feet. As they did, they saw the two hooded figures begin to stagger, and fall to their knees, before collapsing fully, put to sleep by Darkrai’s power. Slowed by Abital being too weak to move himself, the pair darted past Dylan and Darkrai, aiming for the intersection, looking to get anywhere but here…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Luneth had been watching the screen carefully as the moon set, whilst Glimmer seemed disinterested, though Luneth knew that was largely fatigue. The spell that provided Glimmer with the energy she stored that day was trickling it out, enough to keep her awake and functioning but only barely. When the lights had gone out, Glimmer forced her focus to sharpen with sheer willpower, and looked around. Then the attack truly began.

They had chosen to run, knowing that the scene was too chaotic to stand a chance of mounting a proper defence. Their enemies could be anyone surrounding them, and to try and fight back, they may risk harming a civilian with so many people in such close proximity.

As they ran, Glimmer felt the soft touch of someone tapping her on the shoulder, and turned, to see a hooded figure, looking at her in disbelief. The hooded figure’s arm was still outstretched, and their hand glowed bright yellow. In it, was silk that Glimmer recognized to be from a Caterpie. She couldn’t help but grin. This witch had tried to turn her into a Pokemon. And if Glimmer were truly human, she’d be a Caterpie right about now.

Smiling menacingly, Glimmer began to mutter an incantation, as the witch in front of her realised the mistake she had just made, assuming the young woman she had targeted would be incapacitated, and not be able to fight back. Glimmer darted forward, grabbing the witch’s hand, and holding the Caterpie silk against it, as she finished the incantation. Whilst a human attempting that would risk themselves being turned into Caterpie, by making contact with the hexed reagent, Glimmer was immune from being turned into another Pokemon, technically being a Pokemon herself, meaning the hex could only affect the other person making contact with it.

There was a flash of light, as the witch was replaced with a Caterpie, which cried out in shock, as Glimmer caught up to Luneth. The pair reached the edge of Main Street, and were about to disappear into an alley, when Luneth heard a panicked cry from her right. She turned, to see a young girl, who looked to be no older than six, tearfully asking a woman Luneth presumed to be her mother, what was wrong. The mother’s arm was turning brown, and Luneth realised that slowly, her flesh was turning to wood. Nearby, Glimmer counted four other people, affected by various curses.

“We need to help them!” Luneth shouted over the chaos. Glimmer nodded, as the pair darted for the woman turning into wood. As they arrived, the little girl saw them moving towards her mother, and ran at Glimmer, punching at her, thinking she was an attacker coming in for round two.

“It’s okay!” Glimmer said. “We want to help!”

Without waiting for permission, Luneth placed her hands over the woman’s hand, which was now completely wooden. She quickly recited in her head the opening words of the Nox Purge incantation. The Nox Purge was a high level curse removal spell, and would be draining for Luneth, however given the fact the curse hadn’t spread past the woman’s hand, she knew she could heal it without passing out. Glimmer on the other hand, would struggle.

“You take care of healing them!” Glimmer said to Luneth, knowing her immunity to Pokemon transformation curses would make her more suited to defending. “I’ll cover your back!”

Luneth finished the Nox Purge, feeling a sudden wave of fatigue, before telling the girl and her mother to get out of there, and moving on to the next victim, who seemed to be suffering from a nausea hex. As she did, Glimmer saw a group of three witches sighting them, realising Luneth was helping people, and making her their target.

“No you don’t!” Glimmer shouted. Without looking, she placed her hand in the pocket of her bag, pulling a small handful of fine sand, and muttering an incantation, before throwing it. It struck one of the witches causing her to go blind, as the other two advanced.

“Motherf**ker!” shouted an angry voice that Luneth recognised, and actually looked away for a moment from the person she was healing to confirm. Although he wore what looked to be a black, homemade Rayquaza costume, she recognised Jon Drake from when he attempted to apprehend the Diamond Ladies on the S.S. Wishmaker years earlier.

Jon rushed the two witches, as one of them, having readied a spell for Glimmer, turned to cast it on him. Jon raised his forearm in what looked like a vain attempt to block the spell, and the witch had taken the opportunity to touch the exposed and vulnerable limb. However to the witches shock, his curse transferred as a glyph onto Jon’s forearm like expected, but didn’t activate, before Jon rammed his forearm into the attackers head, hitting it with a metallic clang, as the attacker fell to the ground, sores erupting from all over his body. The second witch had already advanced on Jon when this happened, and Jon retaliated by headbutting her, the padded metal helmet absorbing some of the shock to Jon’s own head, and knocking out the attacker.

“How did that not affect you?” Glimmer asked Jon, fatigue and the current situation causing her to speak a little too freely to the one who had helped her. “Are you a Pokemon too?”

“Too?” Jon asked, before shaking the question away. “The spells need contact right? I have bended sheet metal between each of the plates, and the black inner layer. No direct contact…”

Jon looked over at Luneth, who was visibly exhausted from healing the second person, as more who were victims, or with victims, had seen her and were bringing people over to be healed. Moving towards Jon were more witches, all wearing cloaks, and ready to attack.

“Latios!” Jon called out into the air. “Find Triad and get them here!”

Knowing Latios would likely be gone already, Jon withdrew Blaziken and Scizor’s Pokeball, sending out both Pokemon between himself and those being healed, and the attackers who were advancing on them.

“Come get some you stupid p***s!” Jon shouted at the oncoming force, both in a moment of anger and passion, and knowing that if they were focused on him and his team, who he had faith could handle them, they would be leaving other people nearby alone…

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

His neck tingling like crazy with the constant, supernatural danger, Jimmy ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding being touched by a witch, armed with some sort of ugly curse that he didn’t want to find out the details of. As he had practised many times, he focused his thoughts in an instant on his pendant, causing him to transform into a Pikachu, matching his own Pokemon partner. Unlike when he had been transformed into a Pachirisu years earlier, this transformation was the result of Jirachi’s power and as such, his clothes and belongings weren’t left behind, and when he did revert to his human form, they’d be as they were.

Having practised a lot over the last four years in his Pikachu form, knowing how hard it was for him to learn even a basic attack as a Pachirisu, Jimmy darted forward, crying out a battle cry, as he became encased in electricity. His attacker stood in shock, unsure of how Jimmy turned into a Pikachu, as she was hit in the stomach by the attack, and thrown back, before Jimmy quickly reverted back to his human form, knowing he ran the risk of being stood on, or tripping someone if he scurried around as a Pikachu amongst all the panicked people’s feet. As he reverted, his own Pikachu jumped up, Jimmy catching him in his arms, before darting off to the side of the street, where there seemed to be less people. He noticed two people fighting off witches that were going after people nearby. Dylan, battling alongside Darkrai, who was putting enemies to sleep, as Dylan attempted to knock out any who let their guard down himself. Abbee ordered her Typhlosion to launch powerful fire attacks at any witches or Ghost Pokemon who got to close to a group of afflicted nearby, who all seemed too incapacitated to escape themselves.

He rushed past them, hoping he wouldn’t get mistaken for an enemy, and made his way towards the afflicted. Abbee and Dylan were doing a surprisingly good job of holding their opponents back, however the amount of people taking refuge behind them, who were too unwell to be able to escape themselves, was growing by the minute, and the more who took refuge in the one place, the more of their attackers attention it would gain.

He made his way to the nearest, who was a man that initially seemed fine, but Jimmy realised very quickly that he was now blind.

“Jirachi,” Jimmy said audibly, knowing that focusing his thoughts would be too difficult amidst the carnage surrounding him. “I wish for the curse to be removed from this man…”

Within moments, the man's eyes cleared, and he looked around, shocked, wondering what had helped him. Before he could ask questions, Jimmy had pulled him to his feet.

“Go!” Jimmy shouted. “Get out while you can!”

Abbee and Dylan’s defence had taken the attention of most of the attackers in the area, which meant that the intersection that provided escape from the chaos of the Spiritwater Festival was now much more accessible. Additionally, whilst more were directing their attention to those in the streets actually fighting back, there were less people to get in the way, allowing those like Dylan and Abbee who were fighting to let loose a little more. Dylan sent out Sceptile, whilst Abbee sent out Glaceon, as more witches appeared around them.

Jimmy made his way towards the next of the afflicted, seeing their veins turning blue, as they choked for air.

“Jirachi!” Jimmy repeated again, knowing Jirachi would hear through the stone. “Same thing!”

Sure enough, the curse began to leave the woman’s body, however Jimmy felt Jirachi’s voice in his head.

“Jimmy, I’m getting tired…”

“How?” Jimmy asked, shocked. People nearby looked at him as he seemed to talk to himself. “You’ve performed two wishes, and they’re minor compared to what I’ve seen you do…”

”The clouds,” Jirachi answered, yawning through the telepathic channel. ”They’re blocking my connection to the stars…”

Jimmy looked up again, having forgotten about the dome of black clouds that encased them. Whilst Jirachi relied on being exposed to starlight to perform more than the most basic wishes, Jimmy bearing the stone allowed him to act as a conduit. Jirachi wasn’t under stars in its current location, and couldn’t leave for the time being. And now Jimmy was blocked off as well.

“Damn it…” Jimmy said, before looking around. There were a half dozen afflicted nearby. Two appeared to be erupting in sores, and three all seemed to have vertigo. One was convulsing on the ground.

Jimmy ran for the convulsing one, seeing him as being the one in the most danger.

“Jirachi! Last one,” he called out. “You can sleep after this, but I wish the curse would be removed…”

************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Victini watched in horror from the rooftops as the lights went out, and the carnage started. From east to west of Main Street, lights began to flash as various spells, curses and hexes were performed, and the screams began. He realised that Abbee and Cassandra were both in danger, and he had no idea where either of them were.

He ran to the edge of the rooftop he was on, and using his telekinesis and flame-discharge abilities, rocketed himself across to the next rooftop, making his way east towards the stage. A few minutes had passed when the stage finally came into view, and he began looking around for anyone he recognised. He scoured the street below him as he launched across to the next rooftop, looking for a set of large, Butterfree wings. As he got closer to the stage, however, something caught his eye.

Illuminated by the flames of a Typhlosion, he saw the brown and green hooded cloak that he had helped Abbee make before he left Mossdeep. Next to the person in the cloak was someone wearing a mascot costume without the mask, of a Bewear, Victini recognising it to be Dylan when he saw Darkrai putting attackers to sleep. He began to walk towards the edge of the building, to join in the fight, however saw in the corner of his eye, a movement on the other side of the street, moving to his left, westbound. He looked quickly, and finally, in the flashing light of Pokemon attacks and Shadowcraft spells, saw the Butterfree costume he saw Cassandra wearing earlier that day. He looked between Abbee and Cassandra. Whilst Abbee was practically surrounded, her and Dylan, with the four Pokemon between them, were picking off one by one, their attackers.

Hating the fact he was making the decision, Victini turned, running back along he building and launching himself to the next, heading west, keeping Cassandra in his vision. He knew she would be mad if she found out he had ignored her orders, but wanted to be there in case one of these attackers got the drop on her…

************************************************** ************************************************** *********

Jarena ran, ducking out of the way of being touched by one curse, whilst placing her hand on the attackers calf, releasing the hex she had been aggressively reciting the incantation for as she ran, having it readied for when she may need it. She didn’t stop to make sure it worked. She had been doing this long enough to know it had.

The hex she had chosen was a simple dizzying hex, which she had picked for the sake of it not being too debilitating that if she accidentally used it on a civilian, it wouldn’t be too big of a mistake, as well as the relatively short incantation, that after this long, came naturally to her, even whilst she was darting through the panicked crowd, trying to avoid being hit herself. As she ran, she had the annoyingly amusing thought that she had used Shadowcraft on more people in the last five minutes than she had her entire life prior.

As soon as things went downhill, Cassandra had ordered the trio to regroup at position four, which was in Violet’s sector, halfway between where Jarena and Cassandra had patrolled respectively. Jarena sprinted eastward, forcing herself not to look at the civilians who were afflicted by various curses. Whilst she could likely help some of them, there were some curses she wouldn’t have been able to lift on her own, and attempting to help them would leave her open and exposed. And whilst she saw some more experienced trainers, some she figured to actually be operatives, having their Pokemon fight back the attackers, her Pokemon were unused to her, and she didn’t want to put them in the danger of watching her back alone just yet.

She ran past a cloaked figure, who was advancing on a young boy, his hands glowing a deep and dark purple. As she ran past him, she slapped her hand against the side of his head, as hard as she could muster without breaking her own momentum. The sudden shock of contact, in addition to the dizzying hex, caused him to fall over.

“Run!” she called out to the boy, not breaking stride.

“We’ll regroup…” she muttered to herself, in a moment of respite before she’d have to continue the incantation to have her next spell ready. “And then we’ll help them…”

On the other end of Main Street, Cassandra bolted, unaware of Victini following her along the street's rooftops, wondering what she would do when she got to position four. Whilst her, Violet and Jarena’s costumes did stand out, in the madness of the rushing crowds, she wondered how she would even spot them when she arrived. Position four didn’t have a specific landmark, but was instead an area of Main Street, between two of the perpendicular roads that intersected it. It was three city blocks, and Violet and Jarena could be anywhere.

Cassandra was pulled from her thoughts by her vision growing dark, and she began to worry she may have been hit without realising it. She placed her hand in front of her face, and was thankful that it was still completely visible. She didn’t feel like her energy was seeping out of her. Finally, she realised what it was. Smoke…

Seemingly out of nowhere, smoke was materialising, and growing thicker by the second. Cassandra accidentally breathed it in, however found her lungs still filled with air as per normal. She already knew the smoke wasn’t natural, however this surprised her.

“It’s a smokescreen…” Cassandra muttered, before beginning to mutter an incantation, readying a spell, and pivoting on the spot, making sure nobody could sneak up on her.

The panicked cries grew louder as the smoke became thicker and she now couldn’t see more than a meter ahead of her.

”You guys seeing this?” Violet said in Cassandra’s earpiece, and Jarena chorus her agreement. Cassandra didn’t reply, not wanting to risk her curse not being ready.

For a few more minutes, the smoke remained stagnant. Then suddenly, it seemed to drop, hitting the ground, and dispersing into nothingness. She looked around to see significantly less people in the crowd, which was now much smaller than it was ten minutes ago. She looked back to where she expected to see the last attacker she had struck with a vertigo curse, and was shocked to see she wasn’t on all fours on the ground, vomiting like she should have been. She was gone. As she looked around she realised the attack was over. All of them, those still standing, and those who had been incapacitated, some even killed, were now gone…

************************************************** ************************************************** *********

Not far from where Cassandra looked around in disbelief, Jon was equally confused. At least confused at first. He looked back to Luneth, who seemed practically unable to stay awake, as did Glimmer, who he was yet to be formally introduced to. However as he looked around, he began to see that the group of afflicted with Luneth were far from the only ones.

Everywhere, were people afflicted by various curses or hexes. Some were unconscious. And others were dead. Finally seeing the extent of the carnage, Jon dropped all pretences of espionage, and grabbed at the microphone, hidden under his collar.

“Eon Squad, report in,” he said, hoping to Arceus that they didn’t have casualties on their first night.

”Abbee and I are okay,” Dylan reported, as Jon breathed a sigh of relief. Miller and Ford were the next to check in, after them, were Natalie Barone and Kyle Parker. As each duo checked in, Jon breathed a sigh of relief, when he realised they were all okay.

“Your orders are to triage those afflicted. There will be some who are needing treatment immediately. Identify them. If they can be moved, group them together, and report in their location. We will do what we can, and get the rest into a hospital…”

There were acknowledgements in Jon’s earpiece as each operative began to work. Jon let go of the button, causing him to not be transmitted any further, before looking in continued disbelief. Even when the Diamond Ladies had gone on their own rampage on the S.S. Wishmaker, in an attempt to force the League to need their help, and bargain with them, there weren’t corpses left in their wake. With the exception of Lance, nobody ended up in hospital. This was just sick amusement, for people with power over others…

Jon grabbed the helmet of his head, and threw it at the street in front of him, letting out an angry yell. One of the horns on it bent, before he picked it up, and began looking around his area, trying to identify who needed help the most, and realising that there was no single answer to that.

Meanwhile, as she walked towards her hotel, Brianna couldn’t help but grin. She knew there were Shadowcraft users in Heahea City not aligned with Agatha. Most of the city was there for the opening ceremony, which meant there would have been conflict. She quickly decided that the next day, she would break her pattern, and go to the shack, eager to see just how much energy her gemstone in Heahea had stored from the one night…