The lights flickered in the shop, then the background music stopped.

"Attention shoppers! We have to ask you all to leave the building at this time. Please follow the orders of any member of staff as you are guided outside. If you have not yet paid for your purchases, please put them aside. If you have paid but not yet packed, then please retain your receipt for a full reimbursement. Devon Corporation wishes you a great day!"

Ed closed his eyes, and counted to five, breathing out slowly. "Just once," he grumbled. "Just once, I’d like a day without Lux getting herself into trouble."

"Oh come on, it’s not going to be Lux. I bet she’s just... somewhere... around..." Becca looked around the shopping center, and sighed. "It’s totally Lux, isn’t it?" She sighed again, long and low, then spotted and attempted to corner a wild employee. "Ah, sir, sir?"

"Excuse me, shopper, please exit the shopping mall at the-" said shop assistant began.

"No, you have to listen, our pokémon are missing. I am not going outside without all of them." Becca glared, and a glaring trainer — with access to potentially building-levelling amounts of power — was not something you easily disregarded.

The shop assistant looked between the safety of the outside and some indefinable location further in — probably security or the mysterious back rooms where all the missing shelf items were kept until the time of prophecies — and came to a decision.

"Mikey! Mikey! Come here, good boy!" The woman called out to a passing porygon, which promptly called out to her, then nuzzled her face and neck in friendly fashion. "Lead these two to their pokémon, okay? Their pokémon. Plot the fastest route, get them all safely balled, and then lead all of them outside, alright?"

The porygon glided over to the pair of trainers silently, swung about to stare at Ed and Becca, and then dipped affirmatively, calling out with its weird electronic cry again, before zooming off, halting and turning.

Ed and Becca ran after it, detouring slightly as the electric soldier pathed its way through the mall. First it found Guy and Sissy near some staff elevators, covered in cobwebs, then Ziggy and Chompy were discovered play fighting — hopefully play fighting — in the pokestop. Tully was having a bit of a bath getting some sort of gunk off himself in the now-silent water feature with Shadow, and Lux and Bart were... the porygon stopped in front of a staff elevator. It hung there thoughtfully for a moment, before actual alarms went off and emergency lighting took over. Then it sent out a series of beeps and boops, and wobbled towards the stairs. All of this had taken next to no time, and whatever had been happening upstairs was mostly over now.

"Um, Miss? Sir? You need to leave the—" attempted another employee as she noticed two trainers, a gaggle of pokemon and a staff porygon approaching stairs that were currently exit-only for workers from higher floors.

Becca whirled, glaring at the lady who had spoken. "You listen here... Stefany," Becca leaned and read the nametag dismissively. "We might be kids, you might be twice my age, but our pokémon are up... there, wherever that elevator and these stairs go," Becca waved her hands skywards angrily, "and I am not leaving this store without them! And neither is Ed! Now take us to our pokémon or we will take ourselves to them and there won’t be enough left of you or this building to stop us!"

Stefany magikarp’d for a moment, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly, before she nodded. "Alright, you’re circuit trainers. You’ve had the spiel about assisting the police in search and rescue, right? Well there’s a fire alarm that’s been tripped up there and the sprinklers just went off. No fire has been detected — no increase in temperature is showing — but there is smoke and we’ve had reports of an... altercation. The elevator’s are locked out, you’ll have to take the stairs."

"That’s all we need to know. Ed, let’s get our babies back!

Becca and Ed fair flew up the stairs, with the shop workers and their pokemon staff not far behind. Becca summoned Chompy back out on the run, and the almost four meter long seviper slammed into the fourth floor doors with a full on bulldoze, bursting them off their hinges.

"Bart!" shouted Becca, with Ed calling for Lux, as the pair of trainers released the rest of their pokémon and swept up the sandshrew and eevee respectively in protective hugs. Tully launched himself out of what was left of the window, hot on the trail of whoever had left a couple of corviknight feathers, but couldn’t spot more than a distant speck that may or may not have been the pokémon he sought.

Sissy went around slitting open the bonds of the captured workers with carefully judged claws, Shadow assisting, and Guy went sniffing around looking for anything that only the ghostly pokémon could see.

"What happened here?" Ed asked, as he gently put Lux down on the floor. "What trouble did you get yourself into this time?"

Lux started to vocalize, but turned as there came a sound similar to an oversized firework, and a sharply dressed elder man in a pin-stripe suit wearing some sort of backpack that spat a trail of fire entered into the building through the blasted window, of all things. He landed as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be flying a jetpack, then pulled off the backpack and straightened his tie before doffing his hat -- which had somehow remained atop his head -- at the children. He immediately called over two of the workers and spoke with them quickly, the workers gesticulating wildly and glancing towards Ed and Becca as they conversed in low, urgent tones. Moments later, the man addressed the two trainers.

"What happened here, my dear pokémon trainers, is something that needs to stay here. We’ve been victims of what appears to be a rather nasty case of industrial espionage, which requires kid gloves." He turned to one of the workers he'd been talking to, and held out the backpack-jetpack to her. "Sandy, the jetpack works perfectly now I've had a tinker with it! Although it does drag to the left still, see to the flow regulators, would you?"

"Yes sir," replied Sandy, as if being handed a jetpack by a man in a suit who used it to avoid climbing the stairs was an everyday occurrence. Maybe it was.

Becca eyed the strange man suspiciously. "And who might you be?"

"Why, Miss, you can call me ‘Mister Devon’, if you want. Or Mister Stone. Or Joseph, to my friends. You can call me Joseph. As soon as I heard we had trouble downtown, I knew the best way to get here would be by jetpack! It's a good thing I was in the area, really."

"Jetpack? Mister Devon? Stone? As if that... oh."

"That’s right, I’m the president of the Devon Corporation. At your service!" He gave a short, friendly bow. "Now, if I may have a complete briefing of what went on here — you start, children, since you seem to have good heads on your shoulders."

"W-well we really don’t know too much," Ed began. "We came here to shop, but then there was a commotion and we realized our pokémon were missing. We trailed them up here and, uh, it looks like you have some... very impressive machines here -- one of them rather broken -- some tied up workers and what’s left of a window." Ed pointed from disaster area to disaster area. Tully reappeared at that point, hopped around a few times, then flew to Ed’s shoulder with a large, dark feather held in his beak. "Oh, and a corviknight feather." Ed held it out.

"Very, very astute." Joseph Stone turned to another worker, "Brian, are we missing anyone?" Joseph Stone turned next to the milling crowd of men and women in lab coats, narrowing his eyes.

"We, uh, I-I’m not sure," one of the scientists answered, fearfully.

"Quite understandable, but I need you to find out. Helen, do you think you can tell me what happened here?"

"Sir, I... don’t think we should be discussing any of that without—"

"Ah, quite right! Young Sir, Miss, would you be willing to sign an NDA about anything and everything you have seen or heard, or might, here?"

"Umm, an... you don’t want us to talk about anything that’s up here?" Ed asked, concern written large on his face.

"What’s it worth?" interrupted Becca.

"Shrewd! Shrewd! Very shrewd! Very well... how about an all expenses paid cruise from SlatePort to LilyPort aboard the S. S. Tidal, with first class cabins?"

"We-ell, I don’t know, I don’t actually know what happened here... but sure, I think both of us can agree?" Becca looked at Ed, then both of them nodded their heads at the president.

"I’ll take that as your binding, if preliminary, agreement then! We’ll cover the messy part of actually signing pieces of paper once my people have drawn up something. Sandra, if you can deal with that? And Gary, please do intercept the police and rescue forces, let them know we have everything under control up here. If they insist on coming up, you're in charge of relations."

Mister Stone clapped his hands, then straightened his suit once more and brushed off invisible specks of lint before gesturing that the children should step forwards. Around them, the workers started taking pictures, clearing up, treating wounds and otherwise taking care of the disaster area that the laboratory had become.

"It’s less about the what's and why's of whatever it was that happened here and far more about what we do in this laboratory and many others around Hoenn that concerns me." Mister Stone fixed the children with a level gaze, treating them as he would any other adult. It made the two trainers feel respected.

They straightened, unconciously.

"After all, Devon makes everything, and not all of it is quite ready for the public yet. This machine over here, for example, I think I recognize it as the latest incarnation of the pokémon dream machine. It lets you see and experience the dreams of your pokémon, or it would if we could get it to function. Unfortunately, it seems to be a little bit... ah, waterlogged right now. As is this machine, the pokémon speech interpreter! Years of work, years, up in smoke!" Mister Stone shook his head sadly. "Neither of them were working quite yet, and now those potential breakthroughs are further away than ever."

"What about this machine?" Ed asked. He walked over to the smoking remains of what appeared to be some sort of large machine with what had been some sort of glass compartment, more than large enough to hold a human or even most pokémon. He bent down and picked up some ash between his finger and thumb, rubbing them together experimentally. The ashes were greasy, thin and uniform. Not a clue of where they had come from could be found. Were they cloth? Paper? Were they even ashes and not instead some sort of residue?

"Well now, that machine would have revolutionized human-pokémon interactions forever. In that state, though, it’s not going to do much at all. It was supposed to be a machine that could turn a human into a pokémon! Amazing, don’t you agree? It also wasn’t working yet."

"Wow! That would be amazing! How does... how would it work?"

"Well, that would require a whole new set of NDA’s, my boy. Should your pokémon journey end with a different path than a champion of the league, and instead you find yourself leaning towards the scholarly pursuits, then I would be happy to take you under my wing, but for now, I can only ask what it was that brought your pokémon up here?"

"Well, Lux... is a bit of a trouble magnet. She’s curious about everything and incredibly independent. To a fault." Ed pointed to the eevee on his shoulder.

"Oh Arceus above is that true," quipped Becca. "Bart is usually a lot more dependable. I’d thought he’d keep her out of trouble, but if he came too..." the girl shrugged, hugging Bart close again.

"Maybe she followed another pokémon up here? Or a person? She might have followed whoever it was that did... that?" Ed pointed with a wandering hand to the destroyed machine and the gaping hole of the window."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you more of what happened up here before your arrival, we simply don't have the story straight. There was an interloper, who fled the building out the window with the help of, apparently a corviknight. Your pokemon were instrumental in preventing more harm to my employees, and for that I am eternally grateful."

At that point, a Devon worker interrupted Mister Stone. He tapped the president on the shoulder and took the man aside again.

"Ah, excuse us for another moment," the president said, as he moved to converse a few feet away in hushed tones. He returned quickly and handed the children a piece of paper on a clipboard each, and a pen. "It sounds like they acted fast. Bart there — I think you said? You should be proud of him, he’s a smart one — was the one to set off the fire alarm. We know he did it to get help because there was no fire. And Lux — that’s your eevee’s name right? — took on a houndoom! By herself! Apparently, according to my staff here, they caused enough of a ruckus to interrupt whatever was the aim of the intruder that she retreated post haste, without whatever it was she was looking for. It will take a lot more investigation for us to clear up exactly what occurred, and all we ask of you is that you do not discuss, in public or in private with individuals who were not party to these events, anything of which I have told you, or even that you were here. The police have been notified of your presence, and we have prepared sworn affidavits for you to sign too."

The president handed over another piece of paper to each child, on another clipboard. "Please read these carefully, as this is what we will be telling the police about your part in this occurence. Of course, if they or we require any further help from you, you’ll be notified, and as a courtesy for your agreement to keep the wonders that Devon is working on quiet, we’ll assist you both in any way we can."

Becca took the second piece of paper, face clouded with worry, but she read the statement and slowly nodded. "I... don’t get why you’re being so kind to us, but there’s nothing here I object to and it’s pretty much exactly what I’d be telling the cops anyway. The only way they could find out any more information from Ed and me is to interrogate our pokémon! And that’s... not gonna happen any time soon, is it?"

Joseph chuckled, shaking his head as he ran his fingers through his silvern hair and replaced his hat. "No, sadly it isn’t. The real burden is going to be on my hard working staff here, they won’t be able to get away with simple statements since they were here from the beginning and saw it all. I really don’t want to see kids mixed up in such adult worries -- no offence, I know you are budding trainers and have come of age -- but after all, I’d much rather you two young heroes were able to reply that Devon Corporation did its best to take care of you given a trying situation, rather than just have nothing to say at all. Now, follow me and we’ll get you set up with Devon V.I.P guest cards for your rewards and then I suggest you take a trip to the pokecenter next door to make sure your pokémon are alright... I think a trip to the pokespa for all of you might be in order, even!"

As we all left the shopping center amidst a host of emergency vehicles, caution tape and Devon workers handing out free food, drinks and other coupons, I tried my best to keep quiet but eventually I had to ask our extra member a few questions.

"Are you... do you remember what happened to you?" I asked the nidoran behind me, as we all walked in procession down the street. None of the humans had noticed — or at least had shown no sign — when the little blue poison pin pokémon had meekly followed Bart and I out of the room and down the stairs. Not even our trainers.

"Are you going to turn me in?" she replied, fearfully. "After all, you saw what happened to me in the lab, you know what I am."

"Not sure how or why I would," I said. "I’m not sure why you’re following us, but I’m not going to stop you. You’re welcome to join us. We can even probably help."

"So... you’re okay with a human being turned into a pokémon? Aren’t you shocked?"

I rolled my eyes. "Lady, you have no idea."

In the pokecenter, we pokémon jumped up onto the counter before being put into our balls by Becca and Ed. I popped out again, startling the chansey, before the pink puff could take my luxury ball, and hopped down beside the cowering nidoran. She was hiding behind a potted plant. I nosed her over to Ed’s ankles.

"Oh? Who’s this? You’ve got a friend, Lux?"

"Vee! Eevee-vee!"

"Are you lost, little nidoran?" Ed asked, hefting the little creature up onto the counter, carefully to avoid her poison spines and horn.

"R-ran... nido... nidoran?" the nidoran answered, cowering back from the amused glances shot her way by the humans in the room. Rustboro’s — or at least this particular pokecenter’s, there were a lot of sisters, cousins, aunts and so on — Nurse Joy took a small wand-like device and passed it over the pokémon, then hummed to herself at the readouts.

"She’s a wild pokémon, no owner signature registered. She must have followed you in. We can put her through the scanner, of course, but-"

"Vee-eevee vee!" I tapped my ball.

"You want Ed to catch her?" asked Becca. "I think that’d be a great idea! Do you want to join us, little one?"

"Nido... ran?"

"It’s perfectly safe, don’t worry. Ed, do you have a ball?"

"I do, hold on!" Ed dropped his ever-present backpack and rummaged through it, to bring out a new pokeball. "I-if you want, you can come with us, with me? I’ll take good care of you, I promise!"

"Eeevee," I said.

"Nido... nidoran!" the nidoran agreed, then fearfully stepped forwards, eyes closed.

"Pokeball... gooo!" whispered Ed, and he dropped the ball onto the nidoran. It popped open, a red flash of light enveloped her and she vanished. Three shakes and a notification flash later, and it was done. Ed picked the ball back up. "Thank you! I’m going to call you... Barb! I think that sounds perfect for you! I’ll take you back out in a moment, alright? But first you and the rest of my pokémon need a checkup." He turned to the chansey who was holding a tray for pokeballs, and he filled the tray up. "Please take good care of them!"

As an eevee, the thought of a bath filled me with dread... but these hotsprings were heaven. It was odd being on the girl’s side, and even odder that it didn’t matter, but as I yamper-paddled in the oddly scented water, the stresses of the last few days melted away into a background blur that quickly ceased to bother the ‘me’ of this afternoon.

"Ahh, this is the life," I exhaled in a long, contented sigh.

"[Glad to hear you’re enjoying yourself, Lux, you were a brave girl today,]" Worst Child said. I chirruped in her direction as a peace offering, but otherwise let Becca be. Floating over to Barb, I politely asked how she was doing.

"I don’t get it, you say people turn into pokémon all the time?" she asked, still a bit shell-shocked.

"I know, who would’ve believed that there was a machine for turning people into pokémon in the Devon Corporation shopping center in Rustboro," I snarked back.

"Good point, but... uh... well. Huh. I got nothing. But it can’t happen that often, right?"

"I did tell you I used to be a human, didn’t I?"

Barb stopped paddling for a moment, waving her horn about in mild distress. "You weren’t kidding about that?" I shook my head. She slumped, and shook her head. "How can that be a thing?"

"Tully’s got a... cousin... something, that talks to some pokémon professor with a machine that sounds a lot like yours."

"Small world. That’ll probably be Bill. Yeah, he developed the theory behind both his machine and ours. We swap theories and techniques with him a lot, he’s a consultant for Devon. I... er, well I used to liaise with him often. I guess I don’t, any more."

"If Devon’s got a machine for turning people into pokémon, surely you can just-"

Barb looked downcast. "That’s the thing. Bill’s machine kind of works, most of the time, although only for him. But ours? Ours only ever went one way, and theoretically at that. I don’t even know if Bill’s machine would be safe for me, even if we could get to it. And besides, now I apparently speak pokémon, but nobody I know speaks human. Who am I going to tell?"

"That’s where we might have a bit of luck for you," I said, paddling closer and nudging her to get her to cheer up. "Apparently the gang met a meowth that can talk Human."

"Dalgia’s dark bits, you don’t mean... Meowth the meowth? As in Team Rocket’s meowth? And he really does talk? Are you... are you secretly Team Rocket? Have I set up shop with-"

I burst out laughing, then sprung onto dry land. "Prepare for trouble! And make it double!" Then, as Barb cowered in fear, I dived back in splashing her good and proper. As I surfaced, I laughed again, dodging retaliatory strikes from the nidoran as I placated her. "Apparently the duo had this whole routine... anyway, not a chance. The gang were out looking for me, I was... well, trying to find myself, you know?"

"Uh huh?" She didn't know.

"Yeah, and they gave those Team Rocket guys what for. We’re hoping we can track them across Hoenn, or at least run into them again. When we do, that meowth is going down." I emphasized my displeasure by slapping the water with my forepaws, which led to a spirited water fight between Barb and I. Once we’d stopped, we both felt much better, the maudlin atmosphere dispelled.

It was soon after that that Becca lifted the pair of us out of the water, calling to both Sissy and Chompy. Sissy had been happy to sit in the shallow end submerged up to her neck, with her gigantic backwards-facing second mouth resting on dry ground like a predatory kalosian braid. Chompy had vanished amongst the reeds of the river that fed the springs with cooler water. She’d come back suspiciously pleased with herself, suspiciously languidly; I hoped whatever the roughly four meter long reptile had found, it had either been a trainer nobody would miss or a wild pokémon. Either way, she wasn’t talking. Becca towelled the both of us dry, somewhat roughly in my case. I reminded her who was boss by shaking my coat out after she’d got her own dressing gown on.

"So tell me," Barb asked, as she stretched in bliss at the impromptu massage, "how did you end up like that?"

"That’s actually what we were doing at your place," I answered. "Ed, our trainer, found a weird pokeball ball up in the woods-"

"Don’t say near Petalburg?" Barb interrupted, suddenly alert, the astonishment plain on her blue furred face. It had to be the ears that gave it away. "Was it a weird colour you’ve never seen before? Pink and purple?"

"That’s the one," I answered slowly, eyes narrowing. "Ed caught me with it. You know it?"

"Where is it!? I thought your ball was a luxury ball?"

"Oh it is... now. But the ball that did this? Definitely wasn’t. It also didn’t say ‘Devon’ on it anywhere I saw, but then it probably wouldn’t. Not that I can read any more."

"Gods above and below, no, that one wouldn’t. We’ve been on its trail for months. It was stolen from a consignment from one of our sister sites, probably an inside job, the same way Zyrna — Beverly, she called herself when she worked for me — snuck in."

"It was stolen months ago? What is it?"

"There’s only one in the entire world. And we wanted to keep it that way. Pokeball technology is such an everyday thing that nobody thinks anything of it, but that ball... that ball should never have been conceived of, let alone made."

"Tell me. We, I, have been looking for info on it ever since this happened." I pointed to myself.

"We call it the Master Ball. There’s a lot of technology that goes into pokeballs, but the thing you have to remember is that they can always fail. Except with the Master Ball. Don’t ask me how it works, that was never my department, but I know about it. We all do. It’s Devon’s greatest triumph, and failure. And you’re telling me... what? That you know where it is? Is it safe?"

"It’s about as safe as it can be anywhere, I guess," I replied. "It’s been formatted and locked out, it doesn’t work, won’t ever work again, as far as I know. It’s in Ed’s pack."

"So, what happened? It can’t have captured a huma-" Barb began, but I swiftly interrupted, scornfully swishing my tail at her.

"It did. It caught an eevee and a human. At the same time. And here I am."

"It really caught a human? That’s... that’s not supposed to happen!"

"You think?" I dead-panned. "Anyway, tell me more about this Master Ball. It was stolen?"

"It was indeed stolen, that’s all I really know. I’m not supposed to know about it, but we’re a small group and we all share the same clearance levels. I just know Devon made it, that it was stolen, and then that thieves stole it from those thieves. And then we, Devon’s operatives at least, lost track of it. There was a pokémon ranger tracking it across Hoenn, but he’s vanished too."

"A... ranger?" I asked, ears perking up.

"Yeah, a young one, a bit inexperienced from what I heard, but eager, capable and -- more to the point -- able to blend in with groups like Team Magma, Team Aqua and Team Rocket. Last we heard he was following up a lead, but that was weeks ago. If the ball’s with your trainer, then Uxie only knows where the ranger’s got to. I’m sure he’ll turn up. Especially if you say it went to a pokecenter?"

I nodded, absentmindedly. "A ranger, eh?" I sat on my haunches. "A ranger. Imagine."

"Anyway, the Master Ball is an abomination. Devon Corporation wants to change the lives of humans and pokémon forever, but not like that. Pokemon are our... friends. Huh. Is it weird or normal that saying that feels weird now?"

I chuckled. "The way I see it, you’ve got two choices, whether you plan to change back or not. You can either live as you are and accept what’s happened, and sleep peacefully at night, or fight against it every step of the way, reminding yourself you’re in the wrong body, trapped and going mad."

"Which one did you choose?"

"I’ll let you know when I find out," I replied, stretching.

"[My, you two certainly have a lot to talk about,]" murmured Worst Child, as she gently ran her fingers through Barb’s fur, careful to avoid her spines. "[Oh Barb, you’re so pretty now! You were all dirty before, were you rolling around in the mud? Such a mess you made of your pretty fur!]"

Barb preened at the attention. "I could get used to this."

"[You ready for some poffins? Or poke-puffs? We’ve got a full spread laid on by Devon! It’s going to be so yummy!]"

"If I could poison your portion, I would!" I told Becca cheerfully. Barb looked at me askew.

"Are you... alright?"

"She’s just the worst person in the world," I said, fluffing my tail in Worst Child’s direction. "She gave Ed a squirtle bottle," I shuddered, fur sticking on end, "and taught him how to use it."

Barb laughed, then hopped down from the bench she was being dried on. "That sounds like more of a ‘you’ problem than a ‘her’ problem. Come on, I haven’t eaten since six this morning, and that was only coffee and a donut... oh no, I’m never going to get coffee again, am I?"

"That’s the thing, we’re pokémon. We can get anything we want. Especially from Ed."

"I’ll watch you first, so I know how to avoid the squirtle bottle."

"...that’s fair," I agreed, as we shuffled out of the girls’ changing rooms.

Ed stretched languidly in the bed, careful not to disturb his pokémon, all of which had taken up residence next to, around and on top of him. He woke up slowly, listening to the glorious sound of singing kricketots and kricketunes. As he turned his head, he got a mouthful of eevee tail. Spitting it out he wiped the sleep-gunk from his eyes, grumbling about Lux’s general demeanor and lack of awareness of things like ‘personal space’ — at least when it wasn’t her own. As he glanced over the bed, he saw they were all there — Tully hanging from a perch set specifically above the bed for flighted pokémon, his head under one wing. Guy hanging in the air next to him, little puffs of gas floating upwards and faint snoring coming from his mouth. Ziggy was at the foot of the bed, curled around Barb so she wouldn’t fall off. In the space of a very few days, he’d gone from one little taillow to almost a full stable!

Becca on the other hand had her capable group too, all of them super capable and well trained — Bart, who’d been with her since the beginning. Shadow, a lucky catch just outside of Mauville if he remembered correctly. Sissy had been caught deep in the granite caves of Dewford, and Chompy, well... Chompy was apparently a trade, though Ed didn’t know what Becca had traded for her. All of them had been caught before he’d had his first... and now, with a shock, Ed realized he had more pokémon than Becca! Idly, Ed wondered what it would have been like had he gone the usual route and gotten a starter from the local pokémon professor, but he’d just moved regions and had caught Tully with the aid of his parents’ Growlithe. It hadn’t seemed necessary to pick a starter he hadn’t earned, not that there would’ve been issues; pokémon were plentiful not only across Hoenn but across the whole world. More to the point though, taking a regional starter would’ve felt like betraying the trust Tully put in him. Speaking of trust, it was time to make sure his pokémon were all fed, which meant waking them up and getting some breakfast in the trainer center restaurant downstairs.

"Come on everybody, up you get! If any pokémon needs to use the little pokemon’s room, please do it now! Wash your paws, muzzles and beaks please! We’re going to get some breakfast!"

At the mention of the magical word, there was a chorus of belly rumblings that did more to actually get Ed’s posse moving than the rest of his words did. Obediently though, all the pokémon one after another made themselves ready for the morning, with a following chorus of squat toilet flushing and tap-running as hands, faces, paws, muzzles, beaks, claws and other body parts were spruced up for the trip downstairs.

Today was going to be a big day — after breakfast would come some light exercise, followed by some training, followed by... Rustboro Gym.