The ship I boarded sailed straight to Slateport without any stops. Out of all the available ships that went to Slateport, it was the cheapest option. I would have liked to have boarded a ship that stopped at a Mirage Island, but the tickets for those boats were outside my budget. To my disappointment, the ship also completely skipped Pacifidlog Town. I wanted to see how an entire city could exist floating on the water, but I was unlikely to see it unless I came back later in my journey.

The ship itself was no luxury cruise liner, but it had enough space for all the passengers to walk around freely. It had an open deck and a cheap dining hall but no other major amenities. Most passengers either lingered outside on the deck or in their rooms, and there was a strict “no battling” rule on the ship. If I had boarded a more expensive cruise ship it would have likely had an internal battlefield available to use.

Thankfully there were no rules against training Pokémon on the deck, but that kind of activity was only permissible during the day. Long ranged moves and moves that affected a wide area moves weren’t allowed either. Unfortunately with the crowds of passengers loitering outside there was little room to run with my Pokémon. With those restrictions, Vulpix’s and Marill’s training was limited to working on reducing the time it took to use their moves. I would have liked to have them spar but that was considered to be the same as “battling” and wasn’t allowed.

During our time on the ship, Marill quickly adapted to our small team. She was friendly enough with Vulpix but never outwardly affectionate. She acted like she only tolerated our presence more than anything else. One thing I noticed was that the scowl on Marill’s face never faded away. Marill seemed to have a severe case of Resting “Irritated” Face, otherwise known as RBF. At least she wasn’t mean, just aloof.

Marill preferred to eat her berries by biting off chunks rather than eating them diced like Vulpix. I didn’t comment on it, but the way she ate made her look way cuter than normal. There was something about how she glared at her food while she ate made the whole process look absolutely adorable.

Without much to do on board and our training options limited, we were pretty bored for most of the trip. I tried to pass the time by talking to other passengers on board. Not many were willing to talk since they had the foresight to bring reading material with them. The ones who did spare the time would talk about how excited they were to visit Slateport and the numerous beach resorts it had. It seemed like Slateport was the go to vacation spot in between League seasons.

Some of my fellow passengers were trainers who either just finished their Gym Challenge or were taking a break from traveling between regions. When I asked why so many trainers were on board the cheapest passenger line they just looked at me funny.

I should have figured I wasn’t alone with monetary issues.

While no one else was a Fairy type specialist, a lot of the retired trainers were generalists who had trained a small team during their journey. Most didn’t earn more than five or six badges, but I did get some tips for training specific Fairy Types.

One man had his Clefable with him and was more than happy to show off some of its capabilities. I listened intently as he rambled about the specific details about its behavior, eating habits, and moveset. Most of the information he provided was specific to his Pokémon, but there were nuggets of knowledge in there that could be adapted to other Pokémon. It was nice to talk to someone so involved with taking care of their Pokémon.

I also received information from a friendly elderly couple who visited Slateport annually ever since they met there on their respective journeys. The older one had brought an Azumarill they kept together on the trip with them. He gave so many tips about developing Marill’s Huge Power ability that I was confident I could help her master it before the season started. With that kind of strength behind her, Marill was sure to dominate any battle she was in.

Their Azumarill was very sweet, so much so that compared to my grump of a Marill, a decent chunk of the behavioral information they gave me wouldn’t apply. I didn’t mind much since it was so kind of them to be so open about their Pokémon and because I could adapt the information they gave me to other Fairy Types.

Overall the trip to Slateport took roughly a day and a half, and I disembarked the ship the morning of the second day, thankful to have something to do and excited to see what Slateport had to offer.

Slateport’s main port was located on the eastern side of the city. It was overloaded with docks containing massive cargo liners and cruise ships. It was filled with crowds of bustling people, embarking and disembarking the boats at will. I fell in line with the rest of them after I left the ship and followed the traffic to enter the city proper.

Slateport looked like one giant port. There was a clear division between where the ships docked and the rest of the city lived, but the style of architecture gave the entire city the same feeling as walking through a commercial dock.

Unlike Mossdeep, which was spread out along the coast, Slateport was tightly packed and full of tall buildings separated by streets lined with palm trees. The roads themselves were said to have been made of slate, which is where the city’s name came from, but I was pretty sure that wasn’t the case since slate was too fragile.

At least, I’m pretty sure that slate would be too fragile. I'm not a geologist, and I’m certainly not a Rock Type specialist.

Checking the map on my Pokégear, I decided to head to the northernmost Pokémon Center to stay at while I was in the city. That Pokémon Center was near the residential district so it would be less crowded and have more job listings at my level.

Since I planned to stay in Slateport for a few days before heading to Mauville, I chose today to be a break day. Vulpix and Marill were in their Pokéballs since the streets were too crowded to let them out, plus Marill preferred to be inside her Pokéball anyway.

I took a winding scenic route through the city to reach my targeted Pokémon Center. I planned to head southwards to the beach then west along the resort path next to it. Once I reached the west end, I would check the famous Slateport Market, then travel north along the main road until I reached my selected Pokémon Center. I also mapped out a few famous locations for me to check out along the way to see what the architecture of mainland Hoenn looked like. Today would be spent primarily sight-seeing around the city.

The southernmost part of Slateport, had a large boardwalk lined with resorts, tourist-attracting shops, and restaurants. The boardwalk was only a few feet off the beach so it was filled with off-season tourists and almost completely coated with sand. I tried my best to avoid bumping into people but that was difficult to do while I was distracted by all the sights.

Rather than the eye-catching advertisements of the businesses alongside the road, what distracted me the most was the large variety of Pokémon resting and playing on the beach with their trainers. I recognized that the vast majority of them weren’t native to Hoenn.

I saw a massive Scolipede sprawled out and sunbathing. I watched as an even larger Rhyperior built sandcastles through terrakinesis while children climbed on it like a jungle gym. In the distance I could just barely make out what looked to be people in the water riding their Mantine like surfboards. The number of Pokémon out and about on the beach almost matched the number of people I bumped into on the boardwalk.

Without prompting, I suddenly stumbled in shock after seeing something completely unexpected. In a small cleared out section of the beach, a group of people dressed in white uniforms interacted with a moving sand castle. I didn’t remember the name of the sandcastle Pokémon next to them, but I did remember the name of their group. Specifically, I remembered the name of the pseudo-villainous organization the uniformed people were all employed by: The Aether Foundation.

It made sense, looking back on what I knew, for the Aether Foundation to have a presence in Hoenn. The group dealt with Pokémon conservation, which was pretty closely related to the projects increasing regional biodiversity. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the only reason I was able to catch Vulpix in the first place.

When I was looking up differences between the games and anime and this world, the Aether Foundation had completely slipped my mind. They weren't necessarily an evil team, but the leaders of their group didn't have the same good-hearted interests in mind as the rest of them.

The best that I could remember about their villainous nature is that there were two different potential “bad guys” in their leadership: their leader Lusamine and their head researcher Faba.

Lusamine was either obsessed with preserving beauty or brainwashed by the Ultra Beast Niheligo's poison. Faba, who shared a name with a type of bean, was all around a just a complete dick and may have performed some extremely unethical experiments. The lore of Alola wasn't my strong point, especially since their leaders were inconsistent enough across different forms of media that I wasn't sure if they would be truly evil or not.

Should I do something about this? If they're a potentially evil organization operating in this region I should know what they're doing. I think. I'm not really sure what my responsibility is as someone not native to this plane of existence.

…

I guess it wouldn't hurt to check.

I decided to approach the group just to figure out if Lusamine was off the deep end in this reality. Faba would be messed up no matter what so I didn't need to ask about him. I was hopeful Lusamine wasn’t crazy, since I was pretty sure she was fine in the anime. I didn’t watch the Alola anime, so my knowledge of her in that form of media was even more lacking than my knowledge of her in the games.

I stepped off the boardwalk and approached the uniformed group. I waved my hand to signal that I was approaching and one of the Aether Foundation members split off from the others. I spoke up when she got close.

“Hey, I saw you all working with that Pokémon and recognized you as Aether Foundation. I’m a fan of your organization’s conservation efforts, so I wanted to see what was going on.”

The woman who approached had tan skin and dark hair. She wore a white hat protecting her face from the sun, the same as roughly half of the group of Aether workers.

“Yup, we’re seeing how Palossand behaves in this environment. Its pre-evolution is native to Hano Beach in Akala, and Slateport’s beaches have a similar environment. There’s more people here so we wanted to make sure the line reacts appropriately to this many humans. If it responds positively we plan on relocating several families of Palossand to beaches around Hoenn.”

Palossand. That's what it's called. I know the name of the top-secret Ultra Beast Niheligo but not the sandcastle Pokémon. Nice job, Alex.

I nodded politely, not detecting anything suspiciously evil in that plan. “That makes a lot of sense. Do you do this type of relocation work often?”

She shook her head no. “I personally specialize with Ground Types and was only a recent addition to the team. My work focuses on Human-Pokémon interaction and rehabilitation so I wasn’t needed until we started this specific project. Some of the other members have worked in this region in the past, but this is my first task here.”

I crossed my arms.

Might as well just ask outright.

“What do you think about the Aether Foundation, since you've worked there for so long? Have you met Lusamine?"

Her eyes sparkled in response. “Oh! My work is absolutely incredible, the amount of good we do to help Pokémon warms my heart. Lusamine is an absolute inspiration, she's led so many projects to help others it makes my head spin. If you’re interested in applying, we have a website that can take applications, and you can contact us by email.”

No sudden red flags outside of the recruitment attempt, but that’s pretty normal for an international organization. Nothing sticks out about Lusamine, but then again what would a low level grunt know?

I stepped back to begin walking away. “Thank you for the information, I’ll think about it. I’ll let you go back to your work with Palossand, I’ve taken up enough of your time as it is.”

“Oh it was no problem! We love to answer questions about our work and inspire others to do the same. We’re only working with one Palossand today so a minute or two missed isn’t important. Before you go, take this.”

She reached into the chest pocket on her uniform and pulled out a white card displaying the pointed logo of the Aether Foundation. She handed it to me and I pocketed after looking it over.

“If you need any information, our contact details are included on the card. Have a great day!”

She jogged back to her team with the Palossand and I returned to the boardwalk.

Everything about that seemed normal and good-hearted, but that’s how the Aether Foundation looked like in the games. There are definitely good members of the foundation but it doesn’t confirm or deny anything. Ash is in Sinnoh so there’s still a few years before he goes to Alola, which is when things should start to go wrong. I shouldn’t need to worry about it until then. Even if Lusamine was crazy, there would be nothing I could do about it.

I doubt anyone would believe me if I tried to warn them.

What would I even do? Go up to some Gym Leader and be like, "Hey, I'm no one important but there's a chance this super famous, super important, and super rich lady might go crazy?"

That kind of thinking was the exact reason I didn't go to Sinnoh. I knew Ash was there so things were bound to get messy. I didn't have the power to deal with any of the stuff going wrong in this world unless I revealed I was from another universe and knew a summary of the future. The issue is if I did that, they would label me as crazy and lock me up as a danger.

I might be able to pull off revealing myself far down the line when I'm a recognized Fairy Type specialist by claiming “Fairies are otherworldly and therefore so am I,” but that's a stretch longer than Alolan Exeggutor’s neck.

I already knew from the anime that Ash would take care of any troubles that happen in this world. If not, someone else more important than me could do it. Red is still around after all.

Doesn’t Red show up in Alola in the games? Eh, it’ll be fine. It’s not my problem anyway.

I wiped my concerns about the Aether Foundation from my mind and moved on. For now, I wanted to check out the Slateport Market.

Slateport market was a massive flea market with an absolute multitude of vendors.

It took up an area the size of a county fair and was purposely set aside for anyone with a permit to hawk their wares. The difference is it was far more crowded than a normal market.

Vendors set up booths, tables, wares, and whatever else they needed to sell their merchandise. They were positioned wherever there was space as long as they didn't block foot traffic. The chaotic layout forced people to weave between a countless number of tables and booths in order to properly explore what was available.

There was a much larger variation in goods for sale than there were in the games. There were apricorn balls, TMs, held items, rare berries, custom clothes, environmental goggles, hard to find stones, evolutionary items, signed posters, collectables, and even rare Pokémon species for sale. It was such a large collection of wares it made my mind spin, but the Pokémon for sale rubbed me the wrong way. Some of the Pokémon vendors had a large area set up for the Pokémon to roam and play in, but I did see one vender that just left them in large cages. Seeing creatures that had human-like intelligence treated so poorly deeply bothered me.

I did see that one Breeder, which was the official job title, had a young Eevee up for adoption. It was a child of a Grand Contest winner and had an adoption fee of several hundred thousand Pokédollars. The cheapest fee to adopt an Eevee I saw cost enough to pay for a team of six for a month.

As a poor, poor Pokémon Trainer, I decided right there and then I would not be getting an Eevee. Nope, at that moment I decided that I would wait until I had more money and get one later.

I went ahead and browsed various stone vendors to search for evolutionary stones, looking for an Ice Stone in particular. There were many different stalls selling stones, and they each had a wide array of options. Most of the available evolutionary stones were common ones like Fire, Water, and Thunder Stones, but Ice Stones were exceedingly rare and could only be imported from out of region. The common stones were surprisingly affordable but would take a big chunk of my remaining savings. I had about 2500 Pokédollars left after spending extra time in Mossdeep, and an elemental stone cost over 2000 Pokédollars. I technically had enough to buy it, but I wanted to be able to afford to eat during the week.

I didn't find an Ice Stone for sale until I stumbled upon a hard to see vendor sitting behind two other larger stalls.

I approached his table to more clearly inspect his merchandise.

The vendor was a scruffy man wearing a vest who, unlike other vendors, wasn't bothering to advertise his business. His stones were laid out in rows over a cloth on the table with no protection or casing whatsoever. I briefly worried that someone could easily steal them, but I realized that the massive Nidoking resting behind him would be a pretty good deterrent.

He didn't say anything after I approached, so I just stood there and browsed silently.

I finally saw what I was looking for placed on the edge of the table. It was the first Ice Stone I had seen, but the price was far too high at 5000 Pokédollars. I could haggle the price down, but I doubted I could get it below 2500 Pokédollars. Even if I did, I'd be left broke and unable to pay for food and shelter.

Disappointed, I was about to walk away when a different stone caught my eye. It was smooth and round, and colored light blue with a bronze helix in its center. It looked like a large marble, but I knew better than that. A stone like this one was an absolute rarity. I checked the price tag, and then checked again. I could not wrap my head around the price.

I spoke my first words to the vendor as my mind was still processing the number I had read.

"How much for that?" I asked as I pointed to the glimmering stone.

"Can't you read? Five hundred." He snapped.

My eyes went wide. "Five hundred thousand?"

Yes, that was a more reasonable price. There was no way a stone that rare would be sold that cheap.

"Psh. If I had a stone worth that much, I wouldn't be selling it here, would I? Five hundred flat."

The vendor was too busy looking around the market to notice me sputter.

There's no way that he's selling that for this cheap right? There's got to be a catch.

"Do you take Pokédollars?" I ask, testing the waters.

He raised an eyebrow and looked at me like I was an idiot.

"If you don't have the money, get out of here. Paying customers only."

I wave my hands in front of me to placate his annoyance. "No! No!” I shout, “I'll, uh, take the stone."

I handed over 500 Pokédollars in cash, and quickly pocketed the stone. I immediately left the stand and jogged away from him to make some distance. I looked around to see if anyone followed or noticed me but thankfully everyone was distracted by the colorful market booths.

Moving as quickly as possible, I left Slateport market to head to my targeted Pokémon Center. I was 500 dollars poorer, but had a Mega Stone in my pocket.

Despite the extra time it took me to get there, I was thankful I had already chosen a Pokémon Center out of the way. As soon as I arrived I quickly rented a room, waited 15 minutes upstairs to not look suspicious, and then hurried downstairs and rushed to claim a PC.

Using the Pokénet’s built in search engine, I tried to make subtle probes into the public’s knowledge of Mega-Evolution. If Mega-Evolution had been discovered then I had no reason to worry. If it hadn’t, then well, I just purchased the key to unlocking a very destructive power and may have a target on my back if the wrong people found out.

I followed a chain of searches to look up the most famous Mega-Evolution trainer I knew. I took precautions to try to cover up the fact I had a Mega Stone just in case someone could check my search history. I didn’t want to leave any clues if the worse case scenario came true.

I calmed my excited breathing and slowed myself down. I needed to look like a normal trainer if I wanted to pull off my fake search chain properly. I typed in my searches.

First I searched up a list of known Fairy Types.

Then I searched for a list of Psychic-Fairy Types.

Then a search for Gardevoir.

Then known Gardevoir trainers.

And finally I looked up Diantha, hoping that my recent chain of searches was a justifiable excuse and in no way made me look even more suspicious.

On the League archives website, I watched a video of a Kalos champion using their Conference victory rights to challenge Diantha. The battle was insanely-high level, as expected, but Diantha fainted five out of her opponent's six Pokémon with just her Gardevoir. When her opponent sent out their starter, a Chesnaught, Diantha said something to them not picked up in the recording. Once she finished dialogue with her opponent she grabbed the pendant around her neck and her Gardevoir Mega Evolved.

I stopped the video there.

So Mega-Evolution does exist and is developed enough to be shown in a publicly available video. It’s definitely known, but I’m not sure to what extent it is.

If it is known, why did that vendor not recognize the stone as a Mega Stone? Did he just not personally know? Or...

I went to the Kalos generalist forums and browsed until I found a thread talking about Diantha. I looked around until I found a section of posts discussing her Gardevoir.

I read through the messages on the discussion and my heart rate immediately skyrocketed.

They... they think it's a Form Change. They don't know about Mega-Evolution. They think it’s something special about her Gardevoir specifically. The vendor didn't recognize the Mega Stone because he didn't know what it was. The League knows but the public doesn’t.

I stiffened and looked around the room to make sure no one was paying attention to me. I quietly logged off the computer and returned upstairs.

I start to think about what I could do with the Mega Stone. I wanted to avoid any extra attention, but if I suddenly started to use Mega-Evolution someone might start asking questions. If I were to stay out of any complicated situation, I would need to not use the stone. I had consciously avoided the mess in Sinnoh, but now I had to avoid the mess involving Mega-Evolution.

As much as I wanted a Mega Pokémon, I knew it was an extremely dangerous power in a world where a single Pokémon could level a town. Without public knowledge of the phenomenon, I doubted a random trainer using that power would go unnoticed.

I laid down on the bed to relax my body as my thoughts raced.

Using the Mega Stone isn’t an option anyway. I don’t have a Key Stone nor do I have a clue what Pokémon the stone is for, so I couldn’t have used it even if I wanted. Trading it for a Fairy Type Mega Stone would have been nice, but no one knows enough about Mega Evolution for that to be an option for me. On the bright side, doing nothing will hide the fact I own a Mega Stone. Considering evil teams always used the new gimmicks in the games, I wouldn’t be surprised most of them are aware of Mega Evolution since they seem to be so much more competent in this world. I don’t want to paint any unnecessary targets on my back.

I rolled over on my side to move into a more comfortable position. Vulpix let herself out of her Pokéball and jumped onto the bed with me.

Argh, that was such a waste of 500 Pokédollars! I barely have the funds to spare. If I could resell it I would, but most people don’t know its true value outside of how pretty it is. What a stupid impulse purchase.

I petted Vulpix absentmindedly while I tried to think of what to do with it. I wasn’t able to think of anything, so I just exhaled one long breath to clear my head.

Well, I have a Mega Stone and it's completely useless to me. No use crying over spilled Moomoo Milk, I just have to move on.

I didn't sleep much that night due to a nightmare I had about the Mega Stone.

Shadowy figures kept screaming at me to tell them the location of the stone, but I was unable to speak anything other than gibberish to tell them it was just in my backpack.

I attributed the nightmare to stress about this unfamiliar world.

It had taken me a while for the fact that this world wasn't a game to sink in. There were plenty of reasons that made that fact evident. Red wiped out numerous Rocket bases, but Team Rocket still operated as a global terrorist organization that hurt people daily. Pokémon were frequently eaten by other Pokémon in the wild, and I was still not sure where the meat I ate came from. Trainers died in the wild all the time, so much so that certain locations record the number of yearly deaths as a warning. Heck, a Gengar stole a woman's child!

Going into Shoal Cave was extremely stupid, and I only survived because of sheer luck.

I was a little nervous about owning a Mega Stone that I couldn’t even use. The idea of an evil team kidnapping or assaulting me to steal the item stayed on my mind. I doubted the Pokémon League would do anything harmful to obtain it, but I still had a deep-seated mistrust of the government that carried over from my old world.

If it wasn’t so important, I'd mix it with a bag of marbles and give it to a child.

Still in line with my decision from last night, all I could do was try to move on. What was the chance that someone knew a badgeless trainer like me had one, anyway?

I left my room early in the morning to take some jobs for extra cash and to get my mind off of the situation. Vulpix wasn't too happy to have been woken up early, so I returned her to her ball to let her rest.

The Pokémon Center wasn't crowded this early in the day. There were only two other Trainers up and about in the room and I was the only one reading the job board. Despite my lack of sleep, there was one advantage to this situation: there was bound to be a well paying job or two posted this early in the morning. I could at least start earning some money to make up for the 500 Pokédollars I wasted yesterday.

I heard the automatic doors of the center open, but I didn't think much of it.

The newcomer walked across the room with a confident stride and stood next to me to read the job board as well. He spoke up while I looked over the jobs.

"Good morning," he said.

"Mornin’," I replied.

"Pleasant day so far, don't you think?" He asked.

Grumpy from my lack of sleep and annoyed at the unwelcome small talk, I made a snarky comment I would soon regret. "Wouldn't know. Haven't left yet."

The stranger ignored my rudeness and we were left in a few blessed moments of silence.

Out of nowhere, he suddenly asked me a question that immediately shook me out of my morning fog.

"You wouldn't have happened to have bought any rare stones recently, have you?"

I forcibly stopped my head from snapping to stare at the person next to me. I already felt sweat starting to form on the back of my neck. I had no idea who they were, but they definitely knew about the Mega Stone.

Did an evil team find out? Should I run away before they can do something?

"No, can't say I have," I squeaked out.

Without missing a beat, the man next to me spoke up once again.

"I've been tracking down a certain rare stone that my contacts informed me was for sale in Slateport Market. When I went to buy the stone, to my surprise, I found it had already been purchased! Interesting story, hm?"

My knees felt weak. It hadn't even been 24 hours. They already found me.

Was it the searches from yesterday? Yes, it was the searches. I made it too obvious.

"Yeah," I choked out, "interesting story."

Out of the corner of my eye, I watched the man turn to face me. I stiffened in fear that he would soon identify himself as a member of some criminal group.

"Oh my, I just kept talking and talking, but I completely forgot to introduce myself!"

I twisted my head and shuffled my rigid body to face him. His outfit screamed "Tourist," but his demeanor was anything but. He wore tan cargo shorts and a pair of socks and sandals. He had a cap similar to mine but printed with a red Pokéball icon and crafted from orange cloth. His eyes were obscured by a pair of dark sunglasses, and the white shirt on his chest had the word “DEVON” printed on it in bold blocky letters.

I stared at him without comment, recognizing something about him but couldn’t fully remember from where. His outfit was completely unfamiliar, but there was something about his hair that caused alarm bells to start ringing in my mind. His hair was light blue and stuck out in points aimed out and down around the sides and back of his head. If he wasn’t wearing a cap, I felt like I would have known who he was. I tried to picture him hatless and froze.

I didn’t recognize his outfit because it wasn’t meant to be recognizable. It was a disguise.

His hair, though, I did recognize.

He spoke before I could verbalize my realization.

"Steven Stone, Collector of Rare Stones, current Champion of Hoenn, and Heir to the Devon Corporation. It's a pleasure to meet you."

He smiled at me while I was unable to respond.

"Have you eaten breakfast yet?"