I loitered around the area outside of Meteor Falls as Ace Trainers continued to manage the aftermath of the operation. There was a palpable sense of defeat from the Ace Trainers that persisted even through now, hours later. After all, Team Magma got away.

And that bothered me.

I thought that since Ash had traveled through Hoenn last year, this region’s terrorist organizations would have been defeated. Was that not the case? Weren’t evil teams supposed to disappear once Ash got involved? I knew that Team Rocket was still around, but outside of Mewtwo they had never involved themselves so heavily around a single operation only to fail. They’ve had their losses, like shown in most early Pokémon movies, but they never failed as hard as Team Magma’s and Team Aqua’s attempt to control Kyogre and Groudon.

Team Aqua was gone for good. Back when I still worked with Marty, I had checked the status of all the evil organizations and found that Team Aqua’s leader had been arrested and its admins were currently performing volunteer work to reduce their sentence. Maxie, the leader of Team Magma, was also arrested but there weren’t any mentions of his admins. I didn’t think of it back then, but considering I just saw Courtney fight off a member of the Elite Four, it’s pretty clear to me that somehow Team Magma was still around.

I was nervous about the fate of the world I found myself in. I trusted all the “good guys” from the games and anime to take care of it, but I knew one of them. Wally was technically included in that grouping, but he’s just a kid. I didn’t want to ever see him be caught up in terrorist’s evil plans.

And even further, what about Team Galactic? If they don’t get defeated in Sinnoh like I expect them to, will they eventually succeed in resetting the universe?

As much as I wanted to have a normal journey on my quest to become a Fairy Type specialist, I was seriously debating just coming clean about everything I knew. This was my world now and I could save a lot of people if my knowledge was shared.

An Ace Trainer with a Wobbuffet at her side approached me, interrupting my thoughts. She held a clipboard and was mumbling to herself while reading the papers attached to it. She only looked up once she was only a few feet away. Both Vulpix and Swablu had returned to their Pokéballs to rest, and neither Marill nor Floette wanted to be out in a place with so many people around. I was alone with just her and the Wobbuffet when she started to speak.

"Do you have a form of identification?" She asked.

I handed her my Trainer ID and she looked it over. She took some quick notes on her papers before handing it back to me.

"Are you currently affiliated with or previously a member of the organization known as 'Team Magma?'"

"What? No!" I exclaimed.

Wobbuffet saluted next to her and she rolled her eyes in response to my reaction.

“Please. I’m required by law to ask these. It’s just a legal requirement to get out of the way before we can give you your compensation.”

My face scrunched up.

“Compensation?”

She let out an annoyed sigh.

“You weren’t properly escorted away and you were forced to take out a Magma Grunt on your own. Per the laws of this region you’re entitled to compensation for your troubles as well as the standing bounty on all Magma Grunts.”

At least I’ll get something good out of this.

I motioned for her to continue.

"Please state how you entered Meteor Falls."

"The same way as everyone else. I entered through the entrance on Route 114 after traveling through the forest."

Wobbuffet saluted and she scribbled down a few notes.

“Were you told to leave the area by any League employee, registered Psychic, or temporary sign?”

I shook my head.

“No one approached me and I never saw any signs. I was in the forest for a few days before I even got close to Meteor Falls.”

Once again, Wobbuffet punctuated my answer with a salute and the trainer wrote down my response.

This discussion continued as she asked me a series of questions regarding what I encountered in Meteor Falls. Wobbuffet kept saluting after each of my answers, which started to make me think something else was going on outside of Wobbuffet’s normal eccentricities. The Ace Trainer asked what attacks I recognized, what Pokémon came near me, and more details about the Team Magma grunt that tried to rob me. Despite the topic, the conversation proceeded as if it was just a mundane discussion. That is, until I couldn’t help but ask her about what was going on with her Wobbuffet.

“Why does your Pokémon keep saluting? It does it every time I answer you. Is something going on?”

She tapped her pen to her lips for a few moments before responding.

“Well there’s only one question left so I might as well tell you. Wobbuffet are capable of simple Telepathy, so it’s skimming your surface thoughts to see if you’re telling the truth. It’s commonly used as a lie detector for its truth-detecting ability and specialization in defending the interrogator if the person getting asked attacks.”

I immediately went pale.

She said surface thoughts, but doesn’t that mean it’s reading my mind? Are they going to figure out how suspicious I am and take me in? Neither Steven nor Wattson acted like that was the case, but they didn’t know the depths of what I knew. I know I was debating whether to reveal my knowledge, but I didn’t want it to come out like this.

I tried to push down my panic as my thoughts spiraled into hypothetical scenario after hypothetical scenario, and asked her to clarify as calmly as I could.

“Have you been reading my mind this entire time?” I asked with barely concealed frustration.

The woman’s eyes went wide and she waved her hands to deny my question. Wobbuffet wobbled back and forth for a moment in response to what I asked.

“Mind readers can only detect surface thoughts,” she explained, “Anything deeper requires years of practice or some mystical power like with Unown. Wobbuffet has been purposefully trained to not speak human language for the sake of privacy, so its Telepathy only gauges your feelings. Your privacy has not been invaded, unless you count my Pokémon getting a surface sense of your emotions as an invasion of privacy.”

I calmed down a bit, but still felt upset that they invaded my mind like that without my permission. It was a different world and a different culture, and I understood keeping that knowledge hidden was important as an interrogation technique, but I still couldn’t help but feel mad. I had been raised to not be comfortable with that sort of invasion of privacy so this whole experience rubbed me the wrong way. I would have appreciated if they asked first.

The Ace Trainer sighed in relief when she saw I calmed down. Wobbuffet visibly relaxed next to her, causing its punching bag-like body to deflate a little. Their response made me think that similar reactions had happened in the past, and some of those reactions might have been more violent than mine.

“If you have any complaints about how I’ve treated you, you can submit them to the League after we’re done. We have an entire department dedicated to that, so anything you say will be treated with the utmost respect. There’s just one question left, and you can go do that after I ask it, okay?”

I let loose one long breath to reduce my own tension. I honestly wasn’t going to submit a complaint as much as I was annoyed at this situation. The unexpected inclusion of mind reading made me feel like everything I worked so long to hide was suddenly revealed. It was honestly a bit terrifying. At least knowing mind readers couldn’t dig into my memories took a weight off my shoulders. Now the only suspicions the League had were suspicions I gave them myself.

Well, I never said I was perfect.

The Ace Trainer flipped over the paper on her clipboard to read the final question off of the next sheet.

"Please describe the events of the Forme Change you witnessed on top of the waterfall."

"Forme Change?" I questioned back, not quite understanding what she wanted me to talk about.

"The Camerupt."

Fuck.

"I refuse to answer that question."

The Ace Trainer glanced at her Wobbuffet, who just shrugged in response. She immediately frowned and wrote something down on her clipboard.

“Excuse me. Please wait here.”

She turned around and quickly strode off towards a command tent that had been set up after everything within Meteor Falls had concluded. She entered it with her Pokémon and I looked around.

The Ace Trainers had almost completely cleaned up the area and were taking down the medical tents. I was still obscured from reporters by a partition they set up, so outside the first moment where I left, my identity was still hidden. As for escape routes, if they didn’t like my answer to that last question, I couldn’t find anything that would prevent any of the numerous powerful trainers around me from hunting me down anyway.

The Ace Trainer returned after just ten minutes, carrying a large white envelope instead of her clipboard. I just glanced at what she was holding as she began to speak.

“You’re free to go. As a representative of the Pokémon League please accept our deepest apologies for the danger you went through, as well the miscommunication on our part regarding Wobbuffet.”

She held out the envelope.

"This contains the standing bounty of the Team Magma grunt you captured, as well as compensation for endangering you during the operation. It also contains a bit more than necessary as an extra apology for any emotional distress you might have gone through regarding our truth-detecting Pokémon."

I took the envelope from her and opened it up, checking the contents to see how much it contained. I froze when I saw the massive wad of cash inside.

If this is a bribe, it’s working.

The trainer quickly said goodbye and left me alone as I glanced around. The majority of the reporters had already left, and there were just a few casual trainers waiting to be let into Meteor Falls.

I took off my cap and rubbed my head to help me calm down a bit more. I put my hat back on to hide my now messed up hair and charted a path southwards that avoided the crowd as much as possible

That was far too stressful. I’m tired of hiding my knowledge. I’ll think about what to do later. For now, I need to train my team and take on my third Gym in Rustboro.

Route 115 was situated at the base of the small mountain range between Meteor Falls and Mt. Chimney, and mostly consisted of rolling hills. It was a safe and relaxing journey since the route was so close to a large city that there were no hostile wild Pokémon, and the soft ocean breeze that blew over the terrain from the western coast let the environment stay at a comfortable temperature. It was a big improvement over the routes around Fallarbor, and I took my time to enjoy the pleasant terrain.

I had hoped to be able to battle some trainers on the way to Rustboro, but without any strong reason to visit Fallarbor during the season, not many of them entered this route. It seemed that the large crowd of trainers outside of Meteor Falls was just to observe the show. It made me think that somehow that information about the Team Magma operation was leaked, but I brushed that thought aside. I didn’t have the power to be able to do anything about it if that was the case.

Marill was the only Pokémon on my team that didn’t walk with me. Vulpix stayed at my side but occasionally ran excitedly through nearby tall grasses to explore. Swablu nested on top of my hat and made it feel like I had a pillow on my head the whole time. Floette simply rode on Vulpix’s back or stayed on my shoulder when Vulpix got too excited. Floette was a bit nervous to be around Swablu, but as she got to know him better her disposition towards him slowly improved.

It only took two days of travel to reach Rustboro. The city consisted of massive skyscrapers packed together on top of a paved and elevated foundation. It reminded me of how Goldenrod and Saffron City looked when I passed through to reach Hoenn. Rustboro’s buildings were a bit different, however, since they were mostly built out of stone rather than metal. The entire city’s style of architecture matched its history as one of the oldest cities in Hoenn.

The Pokémon Center I went to was much like the Pokémon Center in Mauville but without the extra amenities Mauville provided. It was built into the bottom of a skyscraper and reached several stories up. The upper floors were filled with office spaces for official League workers so they were not available to the public. There was a large open training space behind the building, nestled between several other skyscrapers and obscured from view. The interior of the Pokémon Center was essentially identical to almost every other Pokémon Center I had stayed at, so there was no issue finding my way around.

I also took time to reserve a slot for both the Gym Trial and Gym Battle as soon as I arrived in the city. Rustboro Gym was a favored beginner gym, in that new trainers were more likely to sign up at Rustboro Gym than any other Gym. It was mostly since the Gym Leader, Roxanne, worked at the local Trainer School and tended to go easy on new trainers. When I entered the Gym, its interior had a decent number of people waiting, but nowhere near the amount that I had seen in the previous two Gyms. The initial rush had already started to die down as trainers left for the wilderness between cities to train and catch new Pokémon.

I scheduled my Gym Trial to be two weeks in the future, and my Gym Battle two weeks after that. In total I would wait a full month before I attempted to earn my third badge. I purposefully scheduled my challenge so far in the future to give me time to properly prepare and train my team. There were earlier slots I could have reserved, but I didn’t bother since I was so ahead of schedule and could afford to wait.

This Gym would also likely be the last Gym I would need to reserve a slot for, since when the League reached the middle of the season the amount of challenges Gyms received would be significantly reduced. Most trainers retired after completing the handful of Gym Trials they aimed to complete. Only the most dedicated of trainers or trainers squeezing in one last badge would still be active as the season progressed.

My month-long wait would be used to ensure my team had time to learn the moves I planned for them, and to have time to get more battle experience against trainers. Wild Pokémon on routes and jobs were fine enough, but to truly prepare for the Gym Battle, fighting trainers that actually used complex strategies would develop our battle capabilities the most.

"Let's talk strategy," I said to my Pokémon.

My entire team was sitting on the floor of my room in the Rustboro Pokémon Center. I had sent them out for a group discussion on how to improve our cohesion as a team. Of course by "group discussion," I meant it would only be me talking, but their responses would help shape my explanations.

"I've been thinking and watching recordings of old Conference battles and I realized we haven’t been acting strategically."

Vulpix let out a shocked gasp while everyone else remained silent. She furrowed her brows and shot an annoyed look at all my other Pokémon. Floette tried to mimic her gasp after being subject to Vulpix’s glare, but the moment had already passed.

"When we've been battling, we only use damaging moves. Outside of Wish, our utility moves are solely defensive in nature and honestly you’d be better off just dodging instead. We’re not going to get far if we solely depend on brute force. All of you have your own specialities, so we need to make sure those are properly developed so we can be a real threat in battle."

I was never an advanced competitive battler in my old world, but I had browsed sites that listed competitive strategies and was aware of some minutiae of Pokémon capabilities when it came to battles. Each member of my team would be good at something, and it was important for their specialties to fill in for another member’s weakness.

"To simplify it as much as possible, Pokémon have three different roles and generally only excel at one or two. A Pokémon can be great with attacking, defending, or using utility moves. When it comes to our team, we’ll focus on making sure each of you excel in your strongest role before we branch out.

"Vulpix, you're an excellent special attacker. You have great mobility, and once you evolve your illusions will make you near impossible to hit. As we improve your cryokinesis you'll eventually be able to branch out into more advanced hit-and-run tactics.

"Marill, you're like Vulpix except you're an excellent physical attacker. You deal a massive amount of damage when you hit, and can tank a lot of damage. However, you don't tend to last long since you don't bother dodging and most attacks hit you dead on. If we can reduce how often you take a hit and give you some way to heal yourself, you'd be able to last a lot longer in battle and thus deal more damage.”

Marill grinned at that idea.

"Floette, you’re also a good special attacker, but you’re even better at defending against special attacks. While you can be easily defeated in melee, if a Pokémon tries to take you out at range with their special moves I doubt they’d be able to deal significant damage. If we can get you to learn some supporting moves to help enhance your sustainability and damage, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could always defeat Vulpix when she doesn’t use illusions."

Vulpix looked intrigued and glanced at Floette. Floette shied away from Vulpix’s stare and furrowed her brows as she comprehended becoming as strong as I said.

"Floette’s future defensive capabilities show exactly what I mean by roles. Vulpix would struggle fighting her due to Floette’s special bulk and sustain from Wish, but Marill would have no problems overwhelming her in melee. Depending on what opponents we face in battles, I can choose which of you to send out to give us the highest chance of winning. It’s all about checks and balances.

“I know it might be frustrating to hear me say there are times I don’t plan on using you in battle, but Pokémon battles are a team effort. If one of us wins, we all win. Plus, if you get strong enough I doubt even Pokémon specialized to counter you would be able to win.”

I suppressed a shudder as I suddenly pictured Marill snapping a Steelix in half while boosted from Belly Drum, a move she would eventually learn.

Maybe there is such a thing as too much strength.

Swablu squawked to get my attention. I hadn't mentioned him yet.

"Yeah, you're a different case, Swablu. You aren’t good at taking hits or dealing damage just yet, but once you evolve you pretty much have your choice of what to do. Altaria is a decently balanced Pokémon, but for now I just plan on teaching you some basic moves to let you defend yourself in battle. I’m not really sure how to train a mixed attacker, but that’s basically what you’ll be once you evolve."

Every Pokémon in the room cocked their head at that. Even Marill, who had been pretending not to listen.

"Alright, so basically, Swablu, you won’t excel at either attacking from ranged or attacking up close, but you’re not bad at either. You’ll be able to choose what attacks to use to make the most of whatever situation you find yourself in. While you aren’t great at taking a hit right now, once you evolve you’ll have some decent defenses. If anything, you won't be as strong in a single category, but you’ll be more flexible than anyone else."

Swablu's eyes were sparkling at the end of my explanation. Vulpix and Marill looked skeptical of my claims while Floette got lost in her thoughts once again.

"That's the gist of it, I want to bring out what you're best at and have everyone cover everyone else’s flaws. More specific strategies can be made later, but I wanted to get explaining the overall concept out of the way."

All my Pokémon made noises of agreement, with Swablu's tweet the loudest and most excited.

I'm glad my stumbled-through explanation made sense. It looks like everyone's onboard.

"So now that I’ve explained the basics, let’s go into detail about the specifics of what we’re going to train..."

The time we took to train over the next month was the most successful period of training we've had so far. Everyone made great strides in improving their capabilities, which wouldn't have been the case if I had been as inexperienced as I had been when I first started training. I first caught Vulpix over four months ago and the rate I could help my Pokémon get stronger right now far surpassed the rate they got stronger way back then.

I had learned to be a better trainer and all of my Pokémon were relying on each other for support. It was a beautiful group pursuit of power that I would have shed a tear for if I hadn't been so focused on training while it happened.

Vulpix was the easiest to train. She needed to reach a level of mastery over her innate cryokinesis to eventually master both her abilities. She was able to fully master Aurora Beam, and had started to work on Ice Beam. It was likely Ice Beam would be usable within a week or two after Rustboro Gym, and then it would be time to start developing her abilities.

Marill still hadn’t even learned the basics of Charm in the entire month of training, but she was able to branch out to two different utility moves that would provide a bit of ongoing healing and would enhance her attacks.

The first move was Aqua Ring, which coated Marill in water that soaked into her skin and healed her wounds. It was only a weak passive effect, but it didn’t go away until Marill was returned to her Pokéball, so the overall healing added up.

The second move Marill learned was Rain Dance. It wasn't key to our strategy but could flood the battlefield and synergize with some powerful moves down the line. At the current moment, we would use it to enhance her Water Type attacks and create puddles to manipulate the terrain.

She also practiced movement that would allow her to survive hits better, training techniques that let her do things like turn a direct hit into a glancing blow. She got a decent amount of practice defending herself against everyone else’s moves.

I was against the idea of harming a team member, but Marill practically begged to be attacked in her pursuit of getting stronger.

Floette also used teamwork to increase her own skills. Vulpix and Floette worked together when Marill wasn't available to develop their own capabilities. Vulpix practiced her cryokinesis by trying to freeze Floette, and Floette practiced taking a hit and curing statuses with Aromatherapy by defending herself from Vulpix's moves. Whenever Floette took a bit too much damage, Vulpix would immediately stop attacking and run over to check to make sure she was okay. It was a cute show of friendship between them that happened a little too frequently in their joint training sessions.

After mastering Aromatherapy and learning how to properly defend herself, Floette worked on learning Grassy Terrain. It took a lot of energy out of her, but the passive restoration from the move while it was in effect let Floette shrug off exhaustion. She was able to develop it enough to be usable in battle, which would allow her to heal other team members even more by setting it up and switching out to let them benefit from it. Its boost in damage for Grass Type moves also significantly enhanced Floette’s own damage potential.

The final Pokémon to train was also the Pokémon that required the most hands-on effort. Swablu had to be trained from the ground up, possessing absolutely no battle instincts. Luckily he was in decent shape and didn't need to do excessive physical exercises like I had done with Vulpix when I first caught her. Instead, Swablu was motivated to learn, and I took advantage of that.

Within the month, Swablu was able to learn four different moves and got used to flying around to attack and dodge. I wanted him to focus on ranged attacks for now since aerial harassment would make the most of his capabilities since he wasn’t good at taking hits in melee.

Swablu learned two physical attacks, one special attack, and a utility move. The easiest move he learned was Peck, where he would enhance his beak to do Flying Type damage. He also learned Fury Attack, where he would repeatedly attack with his body to deal damage any way he could. It honestly reminded me of Struggle whenever he used it.

Swablu as a species was good at using their voice in battle, but he seemed to not understand that idea. I wanted him to learn both Sing and Round to let him force enemies to fall asleep and to give him a ranged special attack that took advantage of his Normal Type, but the best he could do with his voice was powerful squawks. However, we were able to take those squawks and with the help of Floette’s experience with Fairy Type energy, Swablu was able to learn Disarming Voice. Disarming Voice channeled Fairy Type energy into his ear-piercing screams to turn them into tangible attacks that penetrated and damaged his opponent’s body.

The development of Disarming Voice made me feel warm inside since that kind of learning method was the exact reason I wanted to be a Type Specialist. When I failed to help out Swablu, another Pokémon on my team was able to step in and teach him a move of my chosen Type. That was the exact kind of assistance that I hoped would continue from here on out.

Honestly, just picturing the future made me giddy. A single member of my team learned Moonblast? Guess what! Everyone knows Moonblast now!

The final move that Swablu learned was Mist. Mist provided a thin layer of, well, mist that traveled with Swablu and protected him from moves that affected how well he could battle. If Marill ever figured out how to learn Charm (which I was starting to seriously doubt), it wouldn’t be able to affect Swablu at all. It was a good way to make sure Swablu would always be able to perform exactly what he needed to do.

While we did focus on training, it wasn’t the only thing we did during our month before our Gym Battle.

At the rate of progress we were making, we still had time to take the afternoons off to relax. I had enough money from my Gym victories, Fallarbor jobs, and the Meteor Falls payout that we could afford to only do jobs a day or two each week. I acquired a pamphlet that listed local tourist destinations from a Pokémart and we took turns choosing fun activities. We rotated through three days for jobs and trainer battles and four days for relaxation. Each day of relaxation, one Pokémon on my team got a choice of what to do that day. I didn’t even blink at the prices of some of the activities since for once we actually had money to spare.

Vulpix liked to watch local Contests. One was held each week so we scheduled it so that she could always choose to go when they happened. Floette would watch with her, but Marill stayed in her Dive Ball and Swablu was only interested if a Pokémon sang. Both Vulpix and Floette loved the beautiful effects the coordinators and their Pokémon created and spent hours after each contest chatting with each other and making classic Pokémon noises as they discussed what they saw.

Marill stuck to her favorites and just wanted to battle trainers when she got to choose. We hung around the fields behind the Pokémon Center and challenged anyone that seemed willing to battle. At first our team lost more than we won, but as time went on my team adapted to the strategies of trainers and they developed their individual skills. Towards the end of the month, we started to win about 70% of the time. That win rate was high enough that for the matches we bet on I was able to recoup my initial losses and then some.

Floette would choose to go for walks in local parks and other natural areas. She only deviated from her usual choice for a single day when she decided to visit a museum owned by someone referred to as "The Cutter." He was an old man that worked to help establish Rustboro by clearing out trees. The museum was dedicated to the history of the city as well as tree-cutting techniques throughout the ages.

One display was a massive slice of an ancient oak that was felled to make way to expand the city. When Floette saw it she was crestfallen and placed her hand on its rings and almost seemed to pray. I didn't know what exactly she was doing, but I knew she had a deep connection to nature and looked much happier once she let go.

Swablu, well, he didn't have a set pattern of things he wanted to do. He would randomly pick out places of interest on the brochure and we would visit whatever he chose. We visited the trainer school, spent the afternoon at a lake to the south, went to a café filled with Skitty, and even toured Devon Corp HQ. I spent the tour in their headquarters terrified that Steven would "just happen to be there" and recognize me, but that never happened. I had no clue why, but Swablu enjoyed listening to the tour guide drone on and on about the latest Devon technology developments in thinly veiled advertisements.

After two weeks had passed, we also spent a day doing the Gym Trial. It was less of a trial and more like a short event we participated in. Roxanne's Gym Trials weren't individual trials, but a once-a-day group event. The participants were divided up by number of Gym Badges, and then sent to a large auditorium to listen to a series of lectures made by the teachers from the local Pokémon School. The lectures were followed by a test on what was just explained, and then participants had to fight Gym Trainers based on the number of questions they got wrong.

The Gym Trial was less boring than I expected since they purposely made it so the lectures were filled with tips relevant to training Pokémon. We only had to battle one Gym Trainer since I didn't miss that many questions, but it was a little awkward when a Rain Dance-boosted Aqua Tail one-shot the trainer's Geodude to grant me the win. I didn't think they were expecting that from a trainer with only two badges.

But at the end of the month my Pokémon had finished training, the city had been explored, and we were ready to finally earn our third Gym Badge.