As a consequence for the pranks on me, the entire Dewford Gym was forced to take on more work, which made me feel especially smug after everything I went through in the maze. Essentially, Brawly had sent a recording of what happened to the other Gym Leaders, and while some of them thought it was funny, Norman and Wallace came down on him for "misuse of Gym funds" and "excessive focus on a single trainer." The League assigned the Gym a bunch of extra paperwork since “they had so much free time anyway,” which was one of the worst things someone could do to a bunch of Fighting Type specialists.

Now that the adrenaline from the entire series of pranks had faded, looking back on it, I realized that it was a bit excessive. I didn’t appreciate being kidnapped, and the less said about the maze the better. I had only known Laura for a few days before she left Mossdeep, and while we considered each other friends, it was a lot to drop on someone she barely knew.

Since Laura was still training as a Gym Trainer, and the work assigned to the Gym was just filling out paperwork, she was assigned to do any escalated jobs while the other Gym Trainers were busy. She apologized to me after the prank, and I decided to help her with the jobs to get to know her better. Despite being in this world for just under a year, I only knew two people other than Laura; Marty and Wally. It wouldn’t hurt to make another close friend.

Laura's own friends from the Gym, Hideki and Takao, helped out with the jobs as well. Hideki and Takao were twin brothers who had worked in Brawly's Gym for the past few years. As experienced Gym Trainers, they acted as a coach for Laura to help her train herself and her Pokémon. For that reason, they were able to skip out on the paperwork to help Laura since some of the jobs were a little tougher than what Laura’s Meditite and Machop could handle. Hideki and Takao were both firm believers of "if you rarely speak, your words will hold more meaning," but constantly failed to live up to it. They would be silent for hours, then one of them would trip over the other and as a result they’d get into an extensive argument about whose fault it was.

Other than helping Laura, for the next few days after the Gym Battle I spent the mornings participating in a training routine similar to the one I had back in Mossdeep. Rather than it being led by Laura, it was led by Brawly and included almost every Gym Trainer in the Gym. Brawly had personally invited me to participate as an apology for how awful the maze was. Apparently, everyone in the Gym had chipped in with their own ideas to enhance Laura’s plan, which was what caused everything to escalate. The workout sessions were more intense but easier to do than the ones with Laura back in Mossdeep since I was in much better shape. Brawly was an expert in how to train the body, at least when he wasn't too busy surfing or training with his Pokémon inside the Gym.

I didn’t just focus on myself and Laura, I also made sure my Pokémon kept to their own training schedule too.

Vulpix was focusing on her ability now that she could use Hail and Ice Beam. Once she could create the weather condition solely through cryokinesis and not the move, her ability Snow Warning would be fully developed and I would judge her ready to evolve.

Marill had started to constantly spar with Hideki's Machoke. She was disappointed to learn that Bulk Up wasn't possible for her species, so she took to working on improving her melee capabilities with the Fighting Type.

Floette, on the other hand, wanted to learn two different moves: Petal Dance and Moonblast. Floette was a long way away from learning Moonblast, so she focused on Petal Dance instead. She enjoyed using Grass Type moves boosted by Grassy Terrain and wanted to have a stronger move at her disposal. Petal Dance would be a great finishing move for her, so I encouraged her practice. I believed that once she figured out Petal Dance, she would most likely be ready to evolve into Florges using a Shiny Stone.

As for Swablu, he had been having trouble continuing in fights after taking damage. The move “Roost” was my solution to let him heal in battle. To use it, he would need to land on the ground and rest to heal himself up. It was complicated to perform, because there was something about the way it used Flying Type energy that would actually make Swablu lose his Flying Type in the process. It was also a bit risky to stay still for so long, but if he could pull it off he could stay in battle a lot longer. We also experimented with turning Uproar and Disarming Voice into Hyper Voice, but I was unsure if Swablu would be able to figure it out any time soon.

The issue with Roost and Hyper Voice was that they were moves that most Swablu didn’t learn naturally. They were either learned through TM or through tutoring, which meant that Pokémon couldn't learn them without human assistance since they generally required some kind of action that felt unnatural to the Pokémon. It would take a significant amount of time and effort just to learn the basics, but it was worth doing to massively increase Swablu’s effectiveness in battle.

As time went on, Laura's assigned tasks were reduced and we had time to actually hang out and relax. Laura, Hideki, and Takao took me along around the island to show off their favorite locations, which mostly consisted of beaches or restaurants. Right now, we were inside an imitation Alolan Bakery eating malasadas. I was speaking about some of my frustrations as a trainer since I figured they could give me advice as Gym Trainers.

“I feel like half the time I’m just sitting around a Pokémon Center or just outside of a town,” I said. “I enjoy training and spending time with my Pokémon, but I feel like I’m missing something. Is there anywhere else I can go to safely train my team?”

“Well, I know some professors usually organize events for the younger trainers. A lot of regions will have a few week-long summer camp events for teenagers if their season lines up with Summer,” Laura explained.

I nodded, remembering that arc in the Sinnoh anime.

Hideki spoke up once Laura finished, breaking his poorly-followed vow of a few words.

“There are tournaments once the season progresses. Those are fun.”

The idea of competing in a tournament appealed to me, but they would still be a few months out so it didn’t give me anything to do right now. I was about to speak up, but Laura provided a third option.

“Ah! I can’t believe I almost forgot! You should join the expedition to Sea Mauville. Expeditions are usually pretty fun and provide great training opportunities.”

"Expedition? What's that?"

"It’s like a group field trip, but for trainers? They're kind of uncommon and it’s usually some rich person, a company, or a lab gathering up a bunch of trainers to go somewhere dangerous. It’s safer to go in numbers and generally means a decent training environment with new people to talk to. Pays well for the risk, too. I’d have gone if they didn’t turn me down," Laura said.

I was hesitant to make a decision right now about whether or not I would go myself, but Takao spoke up before I could properly consider it.

"It's twenty thousand a week."

I shot up.

"Twenty THOUSAND!?"

I didn’t necessarily need the money, but I only received a small amount to feed and take care of my Pokémon from Marty’s low-level sponsorship. While I didn’t need to focus on money, if I wanted to make any big purchases, like TMs or tutoring, I needed a way to earn large amounts of spare cash. If I could earn twenty thousand a week for a few weeks, and get to see Sea Mauville safely? That would far beat sitting around a Pokémon Center and battling the occasional trainer.

Laura rolled her eyes at my sudden interest when I heard the pay.

"Yeah but it's a big time investment and they generally only accept trainers with Pokémon relevant to the job,” Laura explained, “Since it's a sea expedition your Marill and Swablu might be useful, but you'd have to convince them why the rest of your team makes it worth bringing you. They denied my team since they thought my Pokémon were too weak to be worth the cost.” Laura frowned. “The person in charge of recruitment is kind of an asshole."

I sat back down and closed my eyes in thought. Laura spoke up again.

"It leaves in a few days and should last three weeks. It includes free food."

I clapped my hands together.

"Alright, that settles it. I'm going to apply to the expedition."

Laura shook her head in exasperation.

"You're too motivated by money."

"I'm actually motivated by Pokémon, it just costs money to raise them."

I checked the local Pokémon Center's section on the League website and found the expedition job listed online. I had checked the job board in the Center and found no mention of it, so I hoped that the relative obscurity would mean empty spots to help me get in.

The description of the job was listed, and that caught my attention. The expedition was an ecological study in the ruins of Sea Mauville in preparation for another biodiversity expansion. The goal was to protect a group of Aether Foundation researchers while they cataloged the local Pokémon and took notes about the environment. It would run for a period of twenty-one days and would pay 20,000 Pokédollars each week, for a grand total of an incredible 60,000 Pokédollars. It also provided food to trainers and their Pokémon, which meant I could save the sponsorship money from Marty instead of immediately spending a good portion of it just to feed everyone.

Unlike my old world, where companies would provide the cheapest food just to save a few extra dollars, this expedition was partially funded by the League, and the League actually cared for Pokémon. Meals would be full meals, large enough to satisfy even the hungriest of Pokémon. If I got in, my team would eat incredibly well.

I was looking forward to safely training my team in a new environment. An overgrown ruin was much more interesting than a dirt field behind a Pokémon Center, and there would be other trainers there willing to exchange tips. I could also head out to explore the rest of Sea Mauville, which I hoped contained interesting items for me to find. I had no doubt that Vulpix and Floette would be strong enough to evolve at the end of it, so when it ended and they brought us back to Dewford, I would be easily able to catch a Mawile.

I just needed to get the job first.

I turned off the Pokémon Center computer and headed out to where the Aether Foundation was reviewing applicants. It wasn't a long walk in a city as small as Dewford, and I quickly found my way to the brick building with Aether Foundation banners hanging on the side of it.

I walked into a sterile, white office space with a small reception in the front. An Aether Employee in the classic white uniform was typing on a thin keyboard attached to a holographic monitor. I approached the front desk and made my presence known.

"Um, hello. I'm here to apply for the expedition to Sea Mauville?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

I frowned at her rudeness. I could already see why Laura called her an asshole.

"Telling you."

"Alright," she said, not looking up from her computer, "name, how many badges you got, and what Pokémon you’re bringing with you."

"Alex, Four Badges, and Marill, Vulpix, Swablu, and Floette."

"Psh. Not a very impressive team, isn't it? Anything special about 'em?"

Not very impressive?!

I crossed my arms and furrowed my brows, annoyed. I didn't like her attitude, but as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t be rude right back at her since I needed her approval to go on the expedition.

"Swablu can scout in the air, Marill is good in water, Vulpix has decent low light vision and strong Ice Type moves, and Floette can use Wish to heal. They might be unevolved, but they did earn me four badges. Don’t judge them by their species, they’d be able to defend us just fine."

"’Us’? That's a bold assumption. You think you can get in that easy?"

"Yes."

She burst out in laughter. "Tell you what, with the amount of badges you have and with the strength of your team, I can't put you in as a full role, but I can list you as an assistant. You'd work under an experienced trainer at half pay. That'd be 10,000 a week. That good enough for you?"

My frown became deeper, but I accepted. She had a point in that my team wasn’t actually that strong, since there were far more experienced trainers from other regions with fully trained teams here to participate in the Conference. This expedition probably expected those stronger trainers to join since they’d need to protect researchers who didn’t have strong Pokémon of their own. The lower amount of money was disappointing, but 30,000 Pokédollars would still be more than enough if I ever wanted to make big purchases. With that money, I would definitely be able to purchase some single use TMs to use to increase my Pokémon’s Type coverage.

She reached down and opened a drawer in her desk and handed me a lanyard.

"Here you are. One assistant ID. Fill that out on your own time. Show up at the docks day of and show 'em your trainer ID if you want to get paid. That's all you need from me, now get going. I got stuff to do."

She waved her hand in a shooing motion and I left the building. I wasn’t pleased with how she acted, but I was happy I was able to go. I could only hope that the Aether Researchers would be more tolerable than she was.

The night before the start of the expedition I had a nightmare.

I found myself standing stock still in the middle of a foggy, pitch-black room. Despite only being able to make out a door on the far wall, it felt like everything around me was spinning and my vision wobbled from how disorientated I was. I doubted I would have been able to remain standing if my body wasn’t locked in place. My Pokémon were nowhere to be found.

I tried to imagine myself somewhere else, recognizing it was a dream, but it was hard to do with how little I could focus.

A massive figure faded into existence in front of me and I wasn’t able to move to run away. It opened a large mouth on its bulbous stomach and reached into it, pulling out what looked to be a ragged gray child's doll. It placed the toy on the dark floor beneath it before the creature faded back away into non-existence.

I was locked into my standing position, but I found I could at least shift my head. I moved to look down at the toy on the floor and stared at it. For some reason, it felt like I was having a staring contest.

After what seemed like hours, the doll stood up.

Wisps of shadow flicked off its cloth skin and it took halting steps towards me. I tracked its movement with my eyes and the temperature around me steadily dropped as it got closer.

It eventually walked in between my legs and began to sink into a shadow between them. Its head twisted around unnaturally to look me in the eye and it waved goodbye. Soon, it had completely disappeared into the floor.

I suddenly fell forward, my body able to move once more. I immediately looked around for my Pokémon only to confirm I was alone.

I stood up, feeling freezing cold, and stumbled towards the singular wooden door within this blackened void. Since it was a dream, every step I took extended the distance by miles. Somehow I was able to reach it shortly. The door opened up without any movement on my part and revealed a floating skull with a singular red eye. It stared into my soul and my body locked up. I opened my mouth to scream when suddenly-

I woke up. I looked around the Pokémon Center room and found no traces of my nightmare. Light peaked in through the curtains and I quickly released my Pokémon from their Pokéballs.

They glanced at me, confused, my sudden action waking them up. Swablu jumped up and fluttered onto my head and Vulpix walked over to my feet to lay back down.

I let loose the breath I was holding, relieved it actually was just a dream.

Although... I could have sworn I had let my Pokémon out of their Pokéballs last night.

After spending my remaining days in Dewford with Laura and co., I arrived at the docks, ready to join the expedition. I wore the assistant ID lanyard around my neck and held my trainer ID in my hand. It was easy to figure out where to go since the large white Aether vessel in the harbor was so obvious.

There was a small crowd of trainers gathered around it and a few Aether Foundation members in lab coats standing nearby. I approached the group and a different Aether Foundation member, this one not wearing a lab coat, approached me.

"Are you here to join the expedition?"

"Yup," I said, "do you need my ID?"

He nodded and I handed him the card. He entered some information onto a tablet with a holographic screen before handing it back to me.

"You're good to go, Alex. You'll be in group one, handling surface details. Your team leader is just at the end of the docks and will give you further instructions once everyone arrives."

I thanked him and walked over to the group he pointed to. I held back a groan when I noticed a familiar trainer at the edge of it.

"Well, well, well, look what the Delcatty dragged in. Did you trick the League to allow you to participate?" Winston said.

“I don’t want to deal with this right now, how about you just go away?”

He sputtered at my response. I was also a little surprised at what I just said. I guess I was more fed up than I realized after the last two times I encountered him.

A few other trainers around him chuckled at his lack of a response.

I don’t even know this guy and he hates me. Why doesn’t he just leave me alone?

“Look, we both know you’re already pretty awful and make a bunch of unreasonable assumptions, so let’s just agree to not interact with each other,” I said to him. “You don’t like me, I don’t like you, and you’re clearly enraged about all of those imaginary injustices done against you, so how about we just never talk again?”

I tried to walk past him but had to step to the side when he attempted to put his hand on my shoulder to stop me. I didn’t want to let him touch me again.

"I asked you a question. Why are you here? Answer me,” he said, enraged.

"No."

His face turned redder in anger as I walked away, nothing stopping me. I tried to join up with the rest of the group to get to know the people I would spend the next three weeks with, but he shouted out from behind me.

"I’m sick and tired of you showing me no respect! I challenge you to a Pokémon Battle!"

"If you want my respect you need to do something worth respecting,” I replied. I looked around. It seemed like the ship was ready to depart. “I’ll turn down the Pokémon battle. The boat is leaving soon and I’d rather not miss it because I was distracted by some asshole."

He looked about to yell before someone clapped their hands and everyone turned to see who. The one who had done so was wearing a black trenchcoat and a pair of dark sunglasses. His hair was slicked back against his head and his clothes were all shades of gray. He almost looked like someone straight out of The Matrix, and I realized I knew him. He had been wearing a red jacket last time I saw him, but I clearly recognized him as the Murkrow trainer from the Meteor Falls alcove with Sidney. He was unexpectedly soft spoken when he talked.

“Hello everyone, my name is Thomas and I'm both an Ace Trainer in training and the leader of this group for the duration of the expedition. We’ll be in charge of protecting the Aether Foundation’s research equipment that’ll be left in camp. I’ll go into more details once we’re on the ship and on our way to Sea Mauville.”

He quickly glanced between me and Winston before continuing.

"We have three weeks together. Don't ruin it before it even starts."

Winston held back his pride in the face of the group leader and fell in line with the rest of the trainers. There were six other people under Thomas excluding the two of us, and all of their ID cards signified they were assistants as well.

We boarded the white cruiser and Thomas went over the rules and obligations of what our group would be doing. Essentially there were three groups: the surface group, the interior group, and the underwater group. We only had to protect the base camp and the fragile, immobile machines crucial for data collection while the other two groups would have to actively defend the Aether researchers while they traveled through their relevant areas. While we didn’t have a direct role in the expedition, we would have plenty of time to individually explore the ruins, which would be safer than normal due to the presence of so many trainers. There were days off on our schedules to allow us freedom to do what we wanted, as long as we didn’t interfere with the researchers’ studies.

I was a little annoyed that I would just end up sitting around on this expedition when I specifically came along to avoid that, but I was happy to at least have some time to safely explore the ruins, which was something I hadn’t done before.

I approached the familiar junior Ace Trainer, Thomas, to chat with him to see why he was here. Turns out, he was here by choice rather than on assignment for the League. Thomas signed up for the role to get experience in working as a team leader to prepare him for his future role as a full-fledged Ace Trainer. This season, he was doing an “elite run” of the local Gym circuit to challenge every Gym Leader’s personal team, which were generally ranked at around 8-stars. He had only earned three badges so far, but he was purposely pacing himself over time so he could still do missions assigned to him. He was personally specialized in Dark Types, and once we were out on the deck of the ship he released a familiar Murkrow to show me. It perched on his shoulder and lazily glared at anyone who got near.

The ship we were on was an invention of the Aether Foundation and was one of the fastest boats available. It was normally used to ferry people around Alola to the Aether Paradise, but was sent here to support the researchers. Despite the normally multiple day travel time, the ship was so fast it only took us until the end of the afternoon to arrive at Sea Mauville.

The games didn’t do the size of Sea Mauville justice. It was about half the size of the enormous mall in the center of Mauville and had tilted from years of damage from the elements. Around it and even on top of it were large mangrove trees, their presence the main reason this place wasn't demolished and was left as a nature sanctuary instead. It was held up by massive pylons in each of its corners, but the center of it looked like it had floors of rooms that extended deep down underwater. It had a massive flat area on its top that would have been a park like in Mauville if the project wasn’t canceled decades ago. The rooftop we would be staying on was both overgrown with plants but also weathered enough to reveal large, uneven metal tiles that stuck up irregularly.

The ship docked on the raised side of the structure and a few trainers had their Pokémon carry them up to the top. They threw down rope ladders for the rest of us to climb, and the trainers that had Psychic Types or strong Flying Types started to use their Pokémon to carefully move the fragile equipment off the boat and onto Sea Mauville. The sun was about to set, so we rushed to disembark.

Once everything was unloaded, the Aether cruiser undocked and sailed out, leaving us alone on the decaying structure for the next three weeks. Because it had left, the Aether Foundation researchers were now in charge.

Too bad it turned out the researchers were assholes.

The Aether researchers were clearly not part of the same friendlier group that the other Aether employees belonged to, and had no sense of respect or kindness to the trainers around them. They were quick to anger and demanding of every little detail. Considering they had to work under Faba, I wasn’t surprised that their personalities were so horrible. It made me thankful I just had to stay behind to protect the camp rather than escort and protect them like the other teams.

Every researcher had at least one Psychic Type with them, which would have made me nervous if Dr. Legere’s Oranguru didn’t tell me that I already had some sort of mental protection on me. Considering that I knew information that would have these researchers drooling, I stayed far away from their Pokémon just in case.

One scientist’s Drowzee kept giving me strange looks, which made me nervous that it might have detected the Psychic protection.

Our camp was specifically chosen to be in an open area where the overgrown plants weren’t as dense. All the trainers set up their tents around the pile of machinery that would be assembled tomorrow and created one big camp. Each trainer’s tent was actually a good distance from the others to make sure everyone had room for their Pokémon to either rest or train. There were a few areas where people placed their tents together, but it was generally pretty spread out. I made sure my tent was on the edge of the camp so I could easily leave and enter the area between training sessions and exploration.

Once everything was laid out and set up, we all settled down to rest. I had a few light conversations with some of the other trainers in my group on the ride over, so most of us knew what the others were capable of. Winston kept his distance and I was happy to do the same. We all eventually returned to our individual sleeping areas for the night while some of the experienced trainers’ Pokémon stayed up to keep watch. Tomorrow, I would help set up the researchers’ machines, then it would be time for me to see what Sea Mauville had to offer.