“I kind of feel weird that we’re stalking a child,” I said to Steven.

Steven turned to look at me on the cliffside we were standing on. Our bird Pokémon lingered in the air above us.

“First off, Alex, doing this was your idea, and second off, Ash is a teenager, not a child. Despite how it may seem on paper, keeping a close eye on Ash Ketchum has paid dividends towards Sinnoh's regional security. You are aware that we managed to arrest several squadrons of Hunter J’s men last time Ash encountered her, right?”

I blinked at his comment.

“What?” I asked.

“Indeed,” Steven answered. “Hunter J attempted to capture a herd of Shieldon located on the hills south of Mount Coronet when I intercepted her. I managed to distract her long enough that, with the help of Ash, the nearby Ace Trainers were able to move in and take out all the crews she had sent to the ground. I imagine that blow to her capabilities will cause her to be much more hesitant to take more jobs any time soon."

"Huh."

In the few days since Steven and I left Veilstone, we’d followed Ash Ketchum and his group of friends as they meandered in the direction of Lake Valor. It’d gone differently than I expected for a journey southwards, since, alongside Steven, we’d been forced to take a strange route to follow Ash without revealing ourselves.

Our purpose wasn’t to directly track and monitor the group of protagonists' activities, but to be nearby if an encounter surpassed a certain level of danger. Despite the risks something like a rampaging Rhyperior might have posed to their group, Steven was not to move in unless it was evident that they were in extreme peril, or if they were roped up in a potentially region-affecting activity.

That rampaging Rhyperior? That actually happened when we were only a day out from Veilstone. Somehow, Ash was getting up to far more than what was shown in the anime.

Based on the number of episodes in the anime, as well as the number of days in a season, I expected Ash to have some major encounter every other day or so. That was still true, but he frequently stopped for minor encounters that wouldn't necessitate an anime episode.

Ash was a big fan of helping others, which seemed to stretch to the wild Pokémon he encountered. Ash and friends had helped a Bibarel gather wood for its dam, found a berry tree for a pair of Staravia to nest in, and even moved a Burmy over to a nearby tree when it requested it. Those events happened at least once an hour and never lasted more than a few minutes. He'd occasionally battle wild Pokémon, too, which meant his team was getting plenty of practice.

The most notable thing that I watched happen, which I swear was the only event to likely be an episode, was when Ash and friends hung around with a magician and a pair of three Chingling. Team Rocket appeared, causing a whole mess with a giant mechanical Chingling. Steven's policy for Team Rocket sightings was to wait and watch from afar.

“I do have to admit, I can understand why Ash was the star of an anime,” Steven admitted to me when we watched the Chingling event. “His penchant to solely travel off route causes him to meet quite a surprising cast of people and Pokémon. If there was anyone around to serve as the sole insight into this world, he would be it.”

As he said that, Steven and I watched Team Rocket get blasted into the distance. We practically had to strain our necks to see them slowly disappear across the horizon.

When it came to Steven and my actual traveling habits, we only ever moved close to Ash when he was going through something that could potentially be “an episode.” So while it was Steven’s Skarmory and Altaria who kept an eye on them from high on the sky, Steven and I tended to find hillsides to linger on and watch during major events.

Our route tended to become rather stop-and-go due to Ash's frequent pauses, which meant that my team was frequently free to train as we traveled.

Steven would spend the late mornings and mid-afternoons in The Underground, following along in the network of tunnels that criss-crossed all across Sinnoh. Each night, he’d come up with a padded case full of rare rocks he’d found and merrily categorize them by their quality, rarity, and size.

Whenever he left, he would leave at least one member of his team behind, like he promised.

Training with Champion-level Pokémon so often was great for my team. Azumarill frequently sparred with Armaldo, Kirlia and Ponyta marveled at and gained insights from Metagross's psychic control, Altaria raced with Skarmory, and Dedenne pretended he was better than Scyther because he had "beaten" her.

(I was convinced Steven purposely let us win simply so he would have an excuse to leave more often, following our bet. If Scyther had used both Agility and Swords Dance, like he noted after the battle, there was no way Dedenne could have won.)

A lot of the training was just general conditioning or practice with their new moves, but in Ponyta's case, it was a bit of both. I knew from Reggie that Ponyta was close to evolving, and, from the signs he taught me, he was getting closer each and every day. I was really looking forward to including Ponyta in some tougher battles once he evolved, so I tried my best to have him ready himself to become a Rapidash.

After having a discussion about evolution, Ponyta fervently threw himself into practicing his moves. He finally perfected Mystical Fire to a battle-ready level, and he got a good handle on how to use the TM move, High Horsepower. He hadn't been taught Wild Charge just yet, though, so that was on the radar for the next town. At one point, he tried to shift his focus to teaching Kirlia Mystical Fire, but Kirlia much preferred his own pure Psychic Type moves.

Speaking of Kirlia, he continued to compete with Azumarill. At one point, we were forced to delay our trip due to a contest they had to see who could uproot the most trees the fastest. Afterwards, the rest of the team had a contest to see who could put back the most trees the fastest in an attempt to fix their destruction.

Even with Ash’s nearby presence and our constant training, nothing that notable—at least, nothing Ash-level of notable—happened during our trip towards Lake Valor. I expected the events we chaperoned to be far worse than they actually were, but overall, everything was fine.

We reached Lake Valor without much hooplah.

Lake Valor, in the games, was essentially an empty location that basically just consisted of a lake and nothing else. The real interesting part was the location south of it, where a sprawling resort overtook the coast and some hills, filled with trainers visiting from abroad.

Here, that resort was actually located on the lakeshore itself.

Personally, I thought it was strange that Lake Valor was so settled when it was secretly the location of the Legendary Pokémon Azelf, but I didn't really have a place to judge. I came from a world that tended to exploit every possible exploitable environment, and at least in the Pokémon world, people were somewhat environmentally-conscious.

Built off the shore of the resort was a large arena-slash-stadium where the Wallace Cup would be held. It was the default location of Sinnoh's Grand Festival, which said a lot about Wallace's influence in the Pokémon Contest sphere if he was able to schedule his own event to take place here.

Honestly, just the fact that the normally expensive hotel rooms were discounted so much for competitors said a lot.

We arrived at Lake Valor from the northeast, so we had to follow the shoreline to get around. Steven walked strangely animatedly along the shore of the lakefront as we headed directly towards the town itself. He hummed as he did so, maintaining a small smile on his face.

"In a good mood?" I asked as we went along.

"Oh, absolutely," he responded. "Wallace is a close friend, and it's been ages since I've last seen him in person. Also, these last few days have been wonderful for my stress, so I'm feeling great!"

I hid a wince. I knew following Ash was stressful, but I hadn't realized just how much. I simply chose to be thankful that, for the moment, I had been able to take some of the load off his shoulders by tagging along for this leg of the journey.

As we neared the resort, Steven pulled out his PokéNav and typed rapidly on it. He waited a few moments before there was a ding, and he smiled. He then put it away back in his pocket and increased his pace.

"We're almost there," he said. "Only a short distance, now."

What he said was a bit confusing, since we still had a third of the shoreline to cross.

"The city's still far away though," I pointed out.

Steven's smile widened.

"You'll see."

We moved further along, and as we did, I started to hear a faint song ringing out. It was sung by an absolutely melodious voice, one that was echoing much further than it should have, based on how I couldn’t see anyone nearby. Considering the lack of lyrics, it seemed to be a Pokémon's song rather than a human's, and once the noise became clear to Steven too, his pace increased even further.

Soon, we broke past a bit of foliage that had blocked our path to arrive in an isolated cove obscured from all angles. We weren't alone, however, because alongside a beautiful Milotic in the water, there were two people standing on the beach, watching it.

The first person I saw was a person I was already familiar with. He wore a perfectly white sailor's cap and cloak, as well as a violet and sea green top that covered his chest. His face was clean shaven and smooth, with his teal hair tucked back into his hat.

Despite seeing Wallace, who had affected my journey so greatly, again, my gaze was instead locked to the woman next to him.

She had an impeccably tailored black outfit, long, blonde hair, and a pair of hair clips that stuck out above her ears. She was Cynthia, the Champion of Sinnoh, and she was engaged in a deep conversation with Wallace.

I swore that for a moment, Milotic's song almost sounded like a few dramatic piano keystrokes.

Wallace was the first to notice us arrive.

"Ah, Steven, my friend! It's so wonderful to see you!"

Steven laughed.

"Wallace! Cynthia! It's great to see you both once again, too."

Steven and Cynthia dipped their heads respectfully, but Wallace was already striding forward, laughing with his arms held up. Steven was literally swept off his feet in a hug that embraced his entire body, and once he was set down, he was forced to spend a moment to readjust his suit and tie to return them to his prim and proper usual approach.

Steven cleared his throat before speaking.

"Ahem. Yes. Hello Wallace. Anyway, this is Alex, the trainer I mentioned. Alex, this is Wallace and Cynthia. If I recall correctly, you've already met with Wallace, right?"

I nodded silently. I was too worried about what Steven might have said about me and the fact Cynthia was present to properly form words.

The aforementioned Champion walked up to get closer to me.

There was a moment where we stood off, and I realized the games never truly mentioned the presence she had. She carried herself like an experienced trainer completely aware of the immense power she wielded, and briefly, I flashed back to when I was a kid, struggling against her unstoppable Garchomp.

Her head very obviously tilted up and down to look me over. Eventually, she coughed into her hand and blushed awkwardly.

"So, uh, how much do you know about the history of Mega Evolution?" she asked.

"What?" I asked.

"What?" she repeated.

Steven stepped forward to get closer. Claydol released themself from Steven's belt as he did so, then teleported away, presumably to form a barrier around this area for privacy.

"I think I should explain, here," he began. "Essentially, when you shared information about Mega Evolution, Alex, the League hid your identity to most people outside of the Champions and a few select professors."

He tilted his head to the side, and I realized this was a meeting about Mega Evolution, and not anything else.

"As the current Champion of Hoenn, Wallace is privy to the fact you were the one to advance our Mega Evolution knowledge, and Cynthia was there in the initial meeting about you. As your secondary contact, I took it upon myself to schedule this meeting since Cynthia had been so insistent on meeting you ever since she found out you were in Sinnoh."

Cynthia wrote something down in a notebook. I hadn't even seen her pull it out.

"So, now that you're here, I have to know," Cynthia began, "do you know the history of Mega Evolution, or just the mechanics? You used to be a member of the Draconid Tribe, right? I know they're capable of it, but are there places elsewhere in the world that have used it outside of Kalos? I have a theory that some previous depictions of the Legendary Dialga and Palkia might be Mega Forms, based on discrepancies between a few Hisuian documents. To support that, you wouldn't happen to have an approximate date when Mega Stones first appeared, do you?"

Head spinning, I turned to face Steven.

"Wait, you're my secondary contact? Who's my first?"

He cleared his throat and looked away.

"Phoebe," he answered.

Somehow, that explained a lot but nothing at all.

Rubbing my head, I began to answer Cynthia's many questions.

"To start, yes, I know the gist of the history of Mega Evolution, I'm not sure if any region outside of Hoenn and Kalos historically used Mega Evolution, and I think that Mega Stones first appeared approximately three thousand years ago.

Cynthia nodded rapidly and hummed while writing everything I said down. The intimidating aura she had earlier was practically gone.

"Mhm. Mhm. Follow-up question: would you like to battle?"

Today was just a day of unexpected occurrences.

"I'll be honest, Azumarill probably does, but you've caught me so off guard I don't think I can command my Pokémon in any way they deserve in a battle against you."

Cynthia looked a bit disappointed. Wallace patted her on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Perhaps after the Cup, once there are less people around?" he suggested.

"But I'll have to go by then!" Cynthia whined.

Cynthia just whined. Like a petulant child.

I felt a small piece of my worldview break away and shatter.

"So now that part of Cynthia's desire for knowledge has been satisfied, I have to know, Alex, how are you?" Wallace asked.

I let out a breath at such a casual question.

"Better," I replied. "I've gone through some dangerous stuff in the past year, but despite injuries both my team and I have sustained, I feel like both we and the world are better off for it."

Both Wallace and Cynthia looked confused. I turned to Steven questioningly.

"...Did they not know about Lysandre?" I asked quietly.

"That was you?"

"Wait, you're that trainer?"

Steven grimaced.

"Not until now," he said.

"Anyway," I continued, forcibly pushing past that topic, "I definitely feel like my team and I are in a better place than before."

"Ah, then I'm curious, have you figured out your own definition of what the Fairy Type is to you?" Wallace asked.

I nodded. I'd been waiting to share this since I first saw Wallace was here.

"Fairy Types are fairies," I stated.

Wallace sent me a confused look.

"Okay, I understand that's not the most descriptive definition, but I'm not wrong. Fairies can be tricky, fairies can be cute, and fairies can have a close connection to nature. I struggled to really understand what Fairy Types are for so long because I was trying to think about them too specifically. Emotions, pranks, flowers, and even sweets might all be aspects of what a Fairy Type can be, but on their own, they aren't what a Fairy Type truly is: Pokémon that are like fairies."

I wasn't going to get into how I believed some Fairy Types had close connections to myths of fae, but I felt my basic description was enough to answer his question, as simple as it was.

"So fairies are fairies, just like how Water Types are... Water Types?" Cynthia mumbled.

Well, my definition didn't seem to work in the Pokémon world. They didn't really have the concept of fairies outside of Pokémon.

"Honestly, Alex, your description makes little sense to me, but that is not the point," Wallace said. "The point is you've found your own definition of what a Fairy Type is, and you're improving your team in the manner you think is right."

"Kind of," I interjected. "I have that definition, but it feels a bit too autological, so I'm still working on it. There's still plenty of room for improvement."

Wallace gave me a genuine smile.

"There always is."

The conversation split off into a much more casual group discussion after that, where Steven and Wallace caught up, and Cynthia pestered me for more information. I had to say, it was more than strange to answer questions like this, since I was only barely able to tread the fine line between acting like someone who knew about Mega Evolution and acting like someone who knew things they shouldn't.

There was also the uncomfortable feeling that came with being in a secret, isolated location surrounded by three of the most powerful and influential trainers in the world. However, if what Steven had told me was true, it was likely that some of the information I shared was making waves just as important as these three might have done in the past, which was its own can of worms to think about.

I might have actually deserved to be here, talking to them. I didn't know how to feel about painting myself in that kind of positive light.

Almost as if to end this strange meeting, Wallace finished his practice with Milotic by having his Pokémon perform a series of moves that finished in an explosion of several water orbs that rained droplets of shimmering light onto the beach. He then turned to me and asked a question.

"I recommended Contests to you after our Gym Battle. Do you have any plans to compete in the Wallace Cup?"

The quick turnaround from the impressive performance to a serious question forced me to take a few moments to respond. I had to get over how awestruck I was by Wallace, first.

"I do. I've been practicing with my team, and we've even earned two ribbons so far."

"Truly?" Wallace asked. He seemed genuinely shocked. "I don't recall seeing you in any contests in the region."

"That's because I go in disguise. Are you aware of the masked Robin?"

"That was you?"

"You're that coordinator?"

"I didn't realize you were competing in Contests."

I turned to Steven.

"Did I not tell you?"

His face turned red.

"Ah. I, uh, you have to understand, Alex. When we talk, my mind tends to get preoccupied with... the more important matters."

Ah, yes. The world-threatening information I keep dropping on him. At least following Ash only means he has to deal with Hunter J and potentially two more encounters with the gods of reality!

...I need to thank him more often.

"If you are Robin, then I hope they register for the Wallace Cup," Wallace said. "For now, I must be off. I have an interview scheduled five minutes ago."

"And I need to leave, too," Cynthia said. "I have to talk to Lucian about continuing our improvements on the Ace Trainer outpost here. I'm meeting him at three."

"It's after four," Steven deadpanned.

"Then I better not keep him waiting!"

Wallace rode off on his Milotic, and Cynthia released her Togekiss and jumped on its back before flying off. Seeing a rare Fairy Type like that filled my heart with jealousy, but Altaria was filling a Togetic's potential role on the team just fine.

"So, off to the resort?" I asked.

"I believe so," Steven responded.

We started to head out towards the town, but as we did, a question came to mind.

"Wait, so did you schedule that meeting on purpose? And you didn't warn me?" I inquired.

Steven chuckled.

"Well, you've caught me off guard so many times in the past that you have to forgive me if I enjoy seeing you suffer the same."

Yeah, I really need to be nicer to Steven.

Sometimes, it felt like my life was ruled by nothing more than coincidences.

I found Steven's Metagrossite before he did, I met Wally randomly in a field to bring him to a doctor, I got caught up in a battle with Team Magma, not once, not twice, but three times, and finally, I went to the same region Ash was in and encountered him the same day he was visiting the Professor when I was.

I still didn't expect what happened in the resort town.

I was walking along, trying to find a place to treat my team to a nice meal, when Kirlia randomly released himself from his Nest Ball. His eyes were wide with panic, and he looked around rapidly before Teleporting down the street, then disappearing with a second use of the move.

I immediately released Ponyta to help.

"Kirlia is freaking out and Teleported away," I said quickly. "Help me find him!"

Ponyta didn't even need to acknowledge my words before running off, racing down the street with me hot on his trail. We swerved in between the pedestrians that narrowly moved out of our way, frequently catching sight of Kirlia before he would disappear once more.

Eventually, we made our way to an open park where many people who had come to watch the Wallace Cup were relaxing and watching the sunset. Kirlia stood in the middle of the road then flashed once more to reappear in front of a random person.

Ponyta and I ran up to the pair, letting me catch the words of the trainer speaking.

"Oh, is that you, Ralts? Well, I guess you're Kirlia now. It's great to see you again!"