The map didn’t lie, Accumula town was quite close. The sky hadn’t yet begun to darken when Adriano and Ella arrived at the entrance. Scanning the small plaza, Adriano located the Pokemon center on the right side amonst a few small house and made a beeline for it. If he was gonna tacke some nutty religious group, it would be best to gather some information first. But on the way over, he encountered a familiar face.

“Oh my gosh! Alexandre! What are you doing here! How have you been? Is Audino doing alright? I’m a Pokemon trainer now too!”

Enduring the machine-gun pace of the questions Edward asked, Adriano gave a non-comittal shrug as Ella wandered off to the side.

“I’m traveling north and I heard there was some sort of problem traveling out of here.”

“So you came to help?”

Edward’s eyes shined with admiration.

“I knew it! You are a nice person! Even if you aren’t the champion….”

Edward glanced down before drawing a shaky breath and looking Adriano in the eyes.

“I thought about what you said, and I decided to be a trainer anyways! And I don’t care what other trainers try and do, I’ll just have to be so strong they won’t want to mess with me!”

Adriano face-palmed.

“Didn’t I say that’s now how it works?”

Edward beamed back at him.

“It’ll be fine! I’ll have you traveling with me!”

“Hold on now kid, I never agreed to-“

“What are you talking about, if we’re both traveling north, you have to come with me! We can swap campfire stories and our pokemon can train together! And you can be like my wise teacher and get me ahead of everyone else!”

Adriano laughed.

“Alright, you’ve made your point, but I thought that you’d be ahead already what with your dad being a researcher and all.”

Edward shook his head rapidly.

“Nope! There was this super powerful trainer here earlier! I battled him and he won with just one pokemon! And get this, he was my age! He’s gonna challenge the league this year too!”

Adriano’s gaze sharpened as he looked around the plaza.

“Which one is he?”

Edward laughed.

“Oh, he left already. I got his Xtransciever number though! We’re gonna meet at the finals!”

Proudly displaying the pristine piece of equipment on his wrist, he grabbed Adriano’s arm with his other hand and started to drag him across the plaza towards the exit gate.

“Hold on, wait a sec!”

Shrugging himself free, Adriano turned to the confused boy.

“Weren’t there people blocking the gate? You don’t seem too worried by it.”

Edward shook his head and put his hands on his hips proudly, thrusting his chest out.

“Me and Black took care of them! It was really easy!”

He deflated a little before continuing.

“Except for that green-haired guy, he beat me in an instant….”

“And then?”

“But then Black took care of him easily too!”

Adriano shook his head and held up his hand.

“Okay, slow down. So you mentioned a powerful trainer earlier, is that Black?”

Edward shook like an enthusiastic puppy and tightened his grip on Adriano’s arm.

“Yep! His Tepig just blew through everyone! He also had a super-strong Tympole! He left quickly, but we agreed to be rivals!”

“…”

Pinching Edward’s ear, Adriano gave it a firm shake and started scolding him.

“Did you forget what I told you before! You have to be really careful around powerful trainers!”

Edward just laughed.

“It’s fine! Black’s a good person!”

Giving up, Adriano allowed himself to be dragged once more as he checked over his Pokemon. Ella was still wandering about, and Audino wasn’t making a fuss either. Tor was naturally asleep, and Ace still hadn’t awoken from when he had been withdrawn. Casting his gaze to the new arrivals, the Miltank had settled down somewhat, though it still looked somewhat unnerved. On the other hand, the Zoura was still struggling fiercely even after being captured. Bringing the pokeball up to eye level as Edward chatted away in the background, the Zoura made eye contact and bared its teeth, snarling.

He was jolted from his musings as his foot made contact with an upraised cobble and he stumbled, falling into Edward who continued to lead while talking, oblivious to Adriano’s lack of reply. Edward turned and caught him somehwhat, settling him back on his feet.

“Whoa! Watch out there! Anyways, did you hear what I was saying? We’ll get our first chance to battle together!”

“Hm? What are you talking about? You should be plenty strong enough for the trainers on the next route.”

Edward puffed smugly.

“I knew it! You weren’t listening! Black left this morning but I stayed to heal my Pokemon. And then the bad guys came back!”

By this point they had neared the exit gate and Edward gestured exitedly at two men dressed in white and gray hooded tunics. One had electric blue hair, and the was wearing a pair of tinted sunglasses. Otherwise, they looked identical. They were standing with an aloof expression, arms crossed over the shield shaped crest on their chest.

“I wanted to leave earlier, but they wouldn’t let me through! I have to beat both of them in a double battle, but I only have one Pokemon. But now you’re here, and we’ll get them!”

The strange men finally moved as the duo came closer, spreading their arms wide and blocking them from passing.

“Halt!”

“As decreed by our king, nobody may pass unless they release their pokemon from the suffering of captivity!”

Adriano shrugged nonchalantly in the face of the order from the strange men.

“And what if we decline?”

The blue haired man grinned wickedly.

“Then we’ll free them with force!”

The sunglasses man chimed in.

“Face us in a double battle, and we will show you the path of righteousness!”

Taking a fighting stance, the two strange men waited for a response.

“Alright then. We’ll do it that way.”

Adriano said calmly.

“Yeah! We’ll kick your butt!”

Edward shouted.

“Prepare to lose, bad guys!”