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Snivy knew she was going to have to be tricky if she wanted to get out of here.

Not that it was that urgent, of course. Here was perfectly nice. The professor lady and all the other humans were friendly, and Snivy got plenty of exercise and nice food and all that stuff. Plus, like every Pokemon here, Snivy knew that she was eventually going to get a trainer- a special trainer, even, one that the humans here thought was extra good.

So yeah, Snivy knew that she was pretty lucky, all things considered. She also knew that she was so very very bored. Everyone around here was great and all, but she wanted to battle more! See the world! Smack around smug little Water-types! All the other Snivies around here were more than happy to just live in luxury until the time came, but she was just too impatient.

She had always been different from other Snivies, really. Maybe it was because of the same thing that made it so the weird human items that gave other Snivies a boost in battle actually made her feel weaker. The professor lady had been really interested in that for some reason- which meant that it would probably be even longer before she got a trainer.

Which was why Snivy was currently hiding under a table in the lab with her own Pokeball perched carefully on her tail. The young human with the green hat was getting ready to bring some Pokemon out to a new trainer; Snivy wasn’t supposed to be one of those Pokemon, but she could fix that.

The human kept the Pokeballs she was bringing out in a case that she hadn’t closed up yet; when she approached the table, Snivy swept her tail out and tripped her. As the girl stumbled and Pokeballs went flying, Snivy hastily rolled her own Pokeball out onto the floor, then scrambled to grab one of the other Pokeballs and put it under the table. She was just about finished when she glanced up to see if she’d been spotted- just in time to make eye contact with the girl.

The two of them stared awkwardly at each other for a moment, then the girl shook her head.

“You know, if you wanted to leave that badly, you could have said something.”

Snivy yipped at her, and she held up her hands in surrender.

“Alright, alright.”

The girl finished getting everything back in order, then spoke again.

“It wouldn’t be fair to skip this other Snivy over this, so I have to ask. One second.”

The girl let out the other Snivy, explained the situation, and asked if the other Snivy would be okay with waiting a little longer. After a moment’s consideration, Snivy’s fellow Pokemon sniffed, turned his head up haughtily, and strode back into the lab.

“Well, that’s settled then.” the girl said cheerfully. “Let’s get going.”

One trip to the other side of Unova later, and Snivy got to meet her first potential trainer; a girl not much younger than the green-hat girl, with a competitive gleam in her eyes and vibrating with eager energy.

“And this is Snivy,” green-hat girl was saying as she finished up introducing the potential partners. “She’s a Grass-type, and her offenses aren’t quite as impressive as the others-”

Snivy objected with a yelp, and the green-hat girl motioned for her to calm down.

“Yes, yes, they’re still fine. She’s very fast and has great defenses, too. This particular Snivy has a rare ability on top of that. In terms of personality, she’s…”

Green-hat trailed off as she looked for words.

“She’s very spirited,” she finally said.

Snivy let out a passionate cry to confirm it. Spirited was a good thing, right?

“Spirited, huh?” said the other girl, before bending down to get up closer. “Hey, there, Snivy. My name’s Rosa. I’ve got something important I need to do, and for that I’m going to need to travel all over Unova and battle a whole lot of people, even if it might be dangerous. Does that sound like something you’d want to help with?”

Snivy nodded eagerly.

“I thought so.” Rosa smiled and gave Snivy a little fist bump. “Welcome to the team.”

They barely made it ten steps before having their first battle, against a friend of Rosa’s. He had a Fire-type, but luckily it didn’t know any Fire-type moves, and the annoying Tail Whips that it kept using only made Snivy feel tougher A few Tackles later, and Rosa and Snivy’s first battle ended in a victory. Snivy couldn’t have been more pleased.

Back at Rosa’s house, Snivy sat on Rosa’s bed as she gathered everything she needed for her trip. After she finished filling a bag, Rosa turned to her, looking thoughtful.

“You know, I feel like I ought to give you a name. Unless you’d rather I didn’t?”

Snivy shook her head; giving a name was like saying that the Pokemon you gave it to was special, and Snivy thought she was pretty special, all things considered.

Rosa nodded and thought for a few moments, her gaze roaming over Snivy’s face and tail.

“You’re fast and you’re very deadly-looking, so… Viper. How does that sound?”

Snivy- Viper- smiled. It sounded very nice.

“Alrighty then, Viper,” said Rosa. “I think we’re going to have quite the journey together.”

---

Riolu carefully paced through the brush, keeping well out of sight and tracking his targets by their auras. He was following the strange human in black who was harassing one of the familiar humans’ Herdiers, and who had a very unpleasant aura- filled with greed and bitterness and cruelty.

Riolu wasn’t quite sure what to do. The human didn’t seem strong, but it was hard to tell what Pokemon he might have hidden away in balls. If Riolu attacked and won, the problem was solved- but if he lost, then there were two Pokemon in trouble and no one to try and help them. Then again, if he went to find help, the human in black and the Herdier might disappear before they could be found again.

It was a tricky problem, and Riolu was leaning towards just jumping out and going for it, when a second human- a young girl- arrived. This one was unfamiliar too, but Riolu immediately liked her better. Her aura was delightful- all warm, fiery joy and competitiveness around a buzzy core of determination, reassuring and challenging all at once. She had apparently been looking for Herdier, and as soon as she found it, she stepped in to confront the stranger, who fled almost immediately.

(Which made Riolu feel both a little silly for not stepping in sooner and more interested in this unhesitating human who had.)

Herdier’s trainer showed up then, along with another young human whose aura roiled with anger like a storm about to break, and everything was settled. But rather than fading back into the woods, Riolu found himself following the girl. Her aura was really something. Just about every positive emotion you could ask for swirled within it; compassion, love, hope, curiosity, humor, you name it, all mingled in a joy and love for life that burned so brightly that Riolu almost felt physically warmed by it even at a distance. It might have been obnoxiously happy, even, except that it was tempered by sterner emotions; determination, competitiveness, and the faintest embers of fury, banked until they were needed. Riolu had never felt an aura anything like this before; it made it clear that this human was something special, someone who was going to be doing amazing things.

When Riolu had been younger, he and some other Riolus had met an older Lucario who had told them that sometimes you met a human and you just knew. Riolu had wondered what Lucario had meant; now he knew.

And so before the girl could leave the ranch, Riolu waited in the tall grass, then jumped out as soon as she came close enough. (The spike of delight in her aura as she saw which Pokemon was standing before her was very gratifying.) A short battle with the girl’s unfamiliar but fast and durable Grass Pokemon later, and Riolu was neatly ensconced in a Pokeball; a short trip to a human healing center later, and Riolu was having a picnic in a field and getting to know his new trainer.

Her name was Rosa, and she was going to go around and fight all the best trainers in Unova to get stronger so she could beat up the mean humans in black like the one that had been after Herdier and help her friend Hugh with the stormy aura find a stolen Pokemon. It all sounded like no small task; Riolu had expected nothing less, and was eager to begin.

After a bit of training, Riolu and Rosa’s other Pokemon, Viper, went to take on a gym, which meant doing battle with a strong trainer in order to prove themselves. They fought against a Patrat and a Lillipup, which would have been easy if Riolu knew any Fighting-type attacks, but he didn’t. Instead it was a contest of speed and power, which Riolu and Viper won by a hair (and by a perfectly-timed Counter that Rosa called).

After they had recovered and were eating dinner before setting off to the next city tomorrow morning, Rosa looked at Riolu and cocked her head thoughtfully.

“You know, I forgot to ask earlier- would you like a name?”

Riolu nodded and waited patiently for Rosa to name him; the feel of her aura suggested she was putting a lot of thought into it. After a few moments her aura settled, and she spoke again.

“How about Striker?”

Striker accepted his new name with a graceful bow; it was a little simplistic, but he was both good at striking things and proud of it. Rosa smiled and held out a hand so the two of them could bump fists.

“Welcome to the team, Striker,” she said. “We’re gonna do some pretty great things together.”

--

Eevee idly paced through the grass and weighed whether it would be a good idea to make another run at the sewers. The last two times he had tried to get through, run-ins with territorial Rattatas and Zubats had forced him to turn back in order to rest and recover. However, he was pretty sure he knew where the other exit stairs were now. Maybe it would be possible if he was quick enough, and made sure to carry a Berry or something to eat on the way?

The little park that Eevee had always lived in had felt stifling for quite a while now. He had figured out how to beat up every Pokemon that lived here ages ago, and had tried every possible culinary combination that was possible with the available food, and had mapped every hollow, nook, and cranny of the place. Leaving shouldn’t have been a big deal, but for some reason, the only way to get out was through the less familiar sewers, so he had been stuck up until now. Still, eventually it would have to work out, right?

Eevee’s thoughts were interrupted by the rustling of the grass. This park was small enough that he could recognize every other kind of Pokemon in it just by the sounds they made while walking, and this wasn’t any of them.

Hooray for novelty! But who was the newcomer? Eevee slipped under a big tree and settled in a nice hidden hollow in the roots to wait and watch.

It was a strange Pokemon, walking on two legs- no, wait, that was a human. Silly him. This human was a female if Eevee was correct, and younger than most of the ones he had seen before. She found a nice spot to sit, spread some cloth out on the ground, and started getting out some food. Once she was settled, she let two Pokemon- also unfamiliar, but clearly a Grass-type and a Fighting-type, by the look of them- out of their balls for a picnic.

Eevee started creeping through the tall grass, confident that he would be fast enough to snatch a few choice morsels. Probably, anyway. Those two Pokemon actually looked pretty impressive- but that just made things more fun. Wait, two impressive Pokemon and all ready for travelling; this wasn’t just a human, this was a trainer.

Eevee suddenly had a wonderful idea for taking a shortcut out of this park.

Rather than creep through the grass, Eevee boldly strode right right out into the open. Humans liked Eevees, he had been told. (Well, if you met enough humans, you’d find at least one who liked every Pokemon, but Eevees were especially popular.) Sure enough, this human perked up at the sight of him.

“Well, hello there!”

Eevee yipped cheerfully; the girl smiled, but didn’t make a move.

Eevee did a quick internal calculation weighing his dignity against his desire for this to work and his genuine love of frolicking, and came up with an adorable little dance. The girl laughed and threw him a morsel, which he snapped out of the air- not one to pass up opportunities was this Eevee. Then he kept darting around in rapid circles as if to say ‘look how agile I am!’

“Do you want something else?” asked the girl.

Ah, right, she was a trainer. If Eevee wanted to get caught, he’d have to prove his mettle. Simple enough. With a toss of his head, he took aim at the Grass-type and struck first with a Quick Attack; it landed squarely but not nearly as hard as he’d have liked. Said Grass-type struck back with a Vine Whip that also landed squarely but probably not as hard as its user would have liked, and then the two of them were off to the races. It was the best battle Eevee had had in ages, and he was almost disappointed when it was cut off a bit early by a Pokeball flying in. (But only almost.)

A short trip later, and they were in the middle of the big city. And what a city! Sights, sounds, smells! New foods, new Pokemon, everything! Eevee nearly darted right off, but paused to look back at the girl who’d brought him here. She smiled and crouched down to talk to him.

“If all you needed was a lift out of that park, I’m happy to have helped,” she said. “But just so you know, I’m about to go and fight a gym, which means me and my team will be going up against the best Pokemon and trainers around here. If you like interesting battles, it’ll be a lot of fun. Wanna tag along?”

Eevee did like interesting battles, and that did sound like fun, so he bounced up and down eagerly; the girl laughed.

“Alright, then. My name’s Rosa. Let’s get to the battling!”

The gym proved to be a maze of webby tunnels and cocoons, out of which a weird-looking trainer would occasionally pop to do battle using a Bug-type or three. Eevee got to beat up lots of Bug types- even Dwebbles, which he wouldn’t have thought would be a good matchup for him before, but Rosa knew the best moves to use against them, and kept Eevee’s health up between battles with human medicine, too. Eevee had never gotten to fight so many battles in row before- it was exhilarating!

The cocoon tunnels were fun, but Rosa seemed oddly bad at navigating them, always taking the side paths even though you could tell where everything went just by following it with your eyes. At the next junction, Eevee got Rosa’s attention and pointed out the correct path. Rosa smiled- an expression Eevee was starting to be fond of.

“Well, aren’t you clever!” she said. “Yes, that’s the right way. But if we go the wrong way on purpose, we’ll probably get to fight another trainer.”

Eevee considered this for a moment, then bounced up and down cheerfully; Rosa laughed.

“I thought you’d like that.”

The last trainer they had to fight was the ‘gym leader’, who was the strongest one here. With help from Rosa’s directions (and a lucky flinch from Bite), Eevee managed to overcome the feistiest Swadloon he had ever met in a exhilarating fight, just barely eke out a brilliant win over a Dwebble, and land a single Quick Attack on a Leavanny before getting absolutely walloped and passing out.

Eevee woke up in a Pokemon Center with Rosa smiling over him as she flashed a badge in the shape of an insectoid wing.

“We won,” she said, both to Eevee and to her Grass-type, who apparently hadn’t done all that well against that Leavanny either and was also just waking up. “Viper, Eevee, thank you both very much for your efforts.”

Viper preened; Eevee hopped up cheerfully and licked Rosa’s face. Even with the fainting, that had been the most fun he’d had in a long, long time. Rosa laughed and stroked behind Eevee’s ears.

“Let’s go celebrate,” she told them all.

Celebrating meant getting a human food called ice cream, which was the best thing that Eevee had ever tasted. After they had finished eating, Rosa looked down at Eevee.

“You know, I’m going to be fighting a bunch more of those gyms,” she told him. “I’ll be going to every corner of Unova, in fact, and battling all the way. It might be hard and it might even be dangerous at times, but it’ll never be boring. It’s up to you what you want to do next, but if you want to come along, I’d love to have you with me.”

Eevee considered it for a moment. It sounded fun, that was for sure. Plus, he’d only been with Rosa for an afternoon or so, but he’d already had a better time today than in the last year or two put together. The more he got to know Rosa, the more it seemed like she wanted the same things out of life as Eevee did, and the more it seemed like there was just something special about her.

Eevee gave his answer in the affirmative by scrambling across the table to curl up in Rosa’s lap and purr. Rosa laughed and petted him- and she was good at pets, too! As if she needed anything more in her favor.

“Glad to have you on board.” Rosa said. “Do you want a name?”

Eevee nodded, and Rosa thought for a moment.

“Well, you’re very clever,” she said. “How about Inkling?”

Eevee thought for a moment himself, and then Inkling decided he liked it and nodded. Rosa picked him up and set him on the table, then held out her hand for a little fistbump.

“Welcome to the team, Inkling.”

As Inkling returned the bump and basked in the afternoon sun, he got the feeling that he and Rosa were going to be very good friends indeed.

--

Braviary cried out in triumph after yet another human went scurrying away from him with a fainted Pokemon. Things were…easier, here. He probably ought to be ashamed of how relieved that made him, but he wasn’t. He hated saying it, because it made him sound like a weakling, but he deserved a break after everything.

Just thinking about it made his blood boil. All the mockery and dismissal from the other Braviaries, for no good reason. A wretched, sneaking Mandibuzz had snuck up and jumped him from behind when he was still a Rufflet, and had he given up and died? No! He’d fought back hard enough that he actually evolved and sent that stupid Mandibuzz running for the hills. But were the other Braviaries impressed? No! They just mocked him for having scars on his back. It’d be one thing if he’d been running away, sure, but Braviary would like to see any of them have a Mandibuzz jump out from behind a rock and sink its talons into their back and walk away without a few scars.

None of the other Braviaries had really wanted to listen to his explanation, though, and because he’d evolved early, he wasn’t strong enough to make them listen; in fact, he mostly just got pushed around. And so he hadn’t run- he would never show such weakness. He had just… made a tactical withdrawal. To build up strength. For his eventual triumphant return. That was all.

The humans and their Pokemon around here were easy pickings, and while this meant they weren’t necessarily good for toughening up, they were good for practicing moves on. If the humans were upset about their cute little Pokemon getting smacked around by a Braviary that was hopelessly out of their league that had jumped out while they were walking (from the front, of course) and insisted on a battle, well, they were welcome to try and do something about it.

A bunch of footsteps started to sound through the rushing winds. Braviary peered through the sandstorm to see what it was. A flock of humans that he had sent packing earlier was reluctantly approaching him, led by a new human; a young girl who wasn’t even remotely reluctant to approach him.

It was an amusing sight- like watching a bunch of upset Duckletts crowding behind an angry mother Swanna, if the Swanna was younger and smaller than nearly all of them.

The girl spotted Braviary, pointed at him, and turned to ask the other humans something. Whatever answer she got seemed to satisfy her, and she walked up to him as boldly as any creature he had ever seen.

“Hello there,” she said brightly as she stood in front of him. “My name’s Rosa. What’s up?”

Braviary screeched in her face hard enough to blow her hair back a bit; she was unperturbed.

“Yeah, yeah, skree-aaaa to you too, buddy,” she said. “Anyway, you’ve been smacking around a bunch of Pokemon that aren’t really hardcore battlers and weren’t looking for a fight. Not very nice of you.”

Braviary ignored the complaint; maybe they should go out in the wild where the honorless Mandibuzzes were sometime and see what ‘not nice’ really looked like.

“You’re a lot tougher than everything else around here,” Rosa continued, “so people have been getting pretty upset. Pokemon too. There’s no way you’re getting much good practice from this, so don’t you think you should move on already? Fly somewhere where you can pick on Pokemon your own size?”

Braviary did actually think that and was planning on looking for more challenging pastures in a few days once he was rested up and had mastered all his current moves, but he wasn’t about to back down in front of some fledgling of a human. He tossed his head defiantly.

“Seriously,” Rosa insisted. “This isn’t even your natural habitat. You could at least promise to stay off the cleared roads and only battle people who come looking for a fight.”

Braviary drew himself up to his full height, spread his wings, and screeched in Rosa’s face for a full five seconds. Rosa stood her ground and barely twitched, then shook her head.

“Alright, you asked for it. Striker, get his ass!”

Out came a dangerous-looking Pokemon with blue and black fur and spikes stuck on it in various places. It stood on two legs between Braviary and Rosa and stared him down. It looked to be worth battling, and so Braviary took to the sky and attacked.

He flew straight in, at first, to test the waters with a simple Wing Attack- this ‘Striker’ looked like a Fighting-type, after all. As he approached, Rosa called out an order.

“Force Palm!”

Striker leapt up, met Braviary in midair, and landed a perfect palm strike to his chest that made him feel like all his bones were vibrating. It would take a lot more than that to throw off Braviary’s aim, though, so he landed the Wing Attack anyway. It was a clean hit, but not as good as Braviary would have liked- Striker felt oddly metallic, somehow.

The two of them separated, and Rosa called out another order.

“Great, now do it again!”

Striker lunged; Braviary tried to flap to one side, but Striker read it perfectly and corrected his course to land another perfect Force Palm; this time, the vibration in his bones stuck around, making him feel heavy and uncoordinated and stopping him in the middle of trying to use Scary Face to gain a speed advantage. Paralysis. Oh no.

Braviary was abruptly hit with the realization that this Pokemon was fully capable of beating him into the dirt and there was nothing he could do about it- and while he was processing that, Rosa threw a little blue-and-red ball at him, and he was too surprised to resist it as it clicked closed around him.

The next thing he knew, he was waking up inside the building that the humans called a Pokemon Center. Most of the other humans and Pokemon in the building were giving him a wide berth, but he was being watched by two unfamiliar Pokemon- a smug little Grass-type and a little furball that he could have snapped up in two pecks, three at the most.

Neither of them looked to be any match for Braviary, so he screeched at them to see what they’d do. The furball rolled its eyes at him and tensed to spring; the Grass-type turned its nose up at him and hissed. Surprisingly bold, considering how outmatched they were. They were probably Rosa’s Pokemon.

Rosa herself was just a little ways off, apparently talking to Striker about something; she looked over when she heard Braviary screech, then the two of them walked over to see him.

Striker walked up to him first, and spitted him with a glare that made it very clear how badly it would go for Braviary if he tried to hurt Rosa. Next was Rosa herself, who came right up and looked him in the eye.

“Striker tells me that your aura feels more hurt than mean,” Rosa told him. “So maybe we should try and talk this out.”

Braviary bowed his head in assent; as he did, Rosa stretched up and looked at his back.

“You’ve got a few scars there.” she observed. “The Pokedex says other Braviaries aren’t very kind about that. Did you have to run from a fight?”

Braviary’s outraged shriek of denial shattered several nearby vases, sent most of the humans in the room running for the exits, and even made Rosa wince a little. Striker surged forward, but Rosa stopped him with a hand to the chest.

“Easy, Striker. I just hit a sore spot is all. Sorry about that,” she added, turning back to Braviary. “Did something jump you from behind, then?”

Braviary warbled affirmatively.

“It looks like you might have had to evolve early, too.” Rosa noted. “Which means you would have been weaker than all the other Braviaries, in addition to them all looking down on you.”

Rosa looked him in the eye, her expression softened by sympathy.

“You’ve had a bit of a rough time, haven’t you?”

Braviary couldn’t help but coo sadly, and Rosa reached up to stroke the feathers on his neck. Then she smiled at him, with a bit of a mischievous edge to her grin.

“So, the other Braviaries thought you would never match up to them, huh?”

Braviary cocked his head to the side, wondering where Rosa was going with this. She held up the little ball she had used to catch him.

“What do you say we prove them wrong?”

Braviary stood still in surprise for a moment, then spread his wings and crowed in triumph. To catch the eye of a trainer was no small thing, especially one so clearly impressive as Rosa. The same Braviaries that had mocked him would be burning with envy if they could see this.

Rosa’s smile grew wider, and she gave Braviary a friendly pat on the chest.

“Welcome to the team, then,” she said. “Would you like a name?”

Braviary bowed his head in assent; a new name for a new start, and to set him apart from the other Braviaries. Rosa thought for a second, then said:

“How about Sabre?”

She showed him a picture on her little human device of a curved piece of sharp-looking metal with a handle.

“It’s a thing that humans used to use to fight each other without Pokemon. I always thought they looked cool, and it reminds me of the way your beak and talons look when you attack.”

That worked for Sabre, and he bowed his head again to say so.

“Alright, Sabre,” said Rosa. “Thanks for trusting me. I promise you won’t regret it.”

---

Viper grinned as her Leaf Tornado spiraled wickedly through the air for a direct hit; across the field, Elesa’s Flaaffy fell backwards into a faint. Viper hadn’t really gotten to shine in the last two gym battles, which had been full of noxious Poison-types and awful nibbly Bug-types. But Electric-types, now those she could handle.

Elesa sent out her last Pokemon, a Zebstrika. It looked very fast, but Viper was still confident. Flaaffy hadn’t really done any damage before fainting, and how hard could Zebstrika hit, anyway?

Rosa and Elesa gave their orders at the same time, echoing off the walls of the runway while the crowd cheered.

“Flame Charge!”

“Leaf Tornado!”

Zebstrika swept forward on a jet of flame, slamming headlong into Viper like a super-effective comet. But Flame Charge wasn’t that strong of a move, and Zebstrika wasn’t a Fire-type, so Viper stayed upright, and struck back with a Leaf Tornado, which buried Zebstrika in a shower of leaves- and, because Viper had aimed it like Rosa had showed her to do when they were training, the move hit Zebstrika right in the face, getting leaves in its eyes to make it harder for it to see.

Both Pokemon used the same moves again, and both of them hit again. Viper was starting to feel a little unsteady on her feet, and Zebstrika didn’t look much better. At least Viper had managed another hit to the face.

“Remember the splash fight on Route 4!” Rosa called out to Viper.

Across the runway, Elesa raised an eyebrow at the non sequitur, but Viper got what her trainer meant. When their team had taken a break from the dust and grit to go for a swim on the little beach off of the route, Viper had gotten very good at dodging Inkling’s little rushing splashes, and apparently Rosa thought the same could apply here.

As the Zebstrika readied another Flame Charge, Viper darted forward like she was going to try and dodge to the right, but purposefully telegraphed it. The Zebstrika ‘saw through’ it and attacked, but at the last moment, Viper spun, using the weight of her tail to whirl back to the left faster than it looked like she ought to be able to. With all the leaves that had hit it in the face earlier, Zebstrika didn’t catch it in time to course-correct and missed; as it passed by close to Viper, Rosa yelled-

“Slam, now!”

Viper kept her spin going and turned it into a Slam that caught Zebstrika in the legs, tripped it up, and sent it over the edge of the arena with a staticy cry. It hit the ground hard, tried to rise briefly, then collapsed and passed out. Elesa recalled it, and that was the victory.

The crowd around them burst into cheers, and Viper basked in them. Despite the very public loss, Elesa was all smiles as she awarded Rosa her badge, then invited her to walk down the runway with her. Rosa gave a few smiles and waves for the cameras, then swept Viper up into her arms to make sure that the cameras got a good look at her too. Viper held her head high, then winced internally as she realized that she was still a bit scorched and streaked with soot.

“Don’t worry,” Rosa told her quietly, as if she had read her mind. “It only makes you look more badass.”

Viper looked again, and as usual, Rosa was right. She finished her runway walk in even higher spirits, and then they were off to a Pokemon center. Once Viper and everyone else were fixed up, Rosa brought them to the amusement park for a picnic. Viper got a snow cone flavored like her favorite berries, and was delighted enough that she didn’t even feel the need to say anything judgemental when Inkling got half the table covered in powdered sugar while eating fried pastries.

“Thanks for all your hard work, team.” Rosa told them. “Especially you, Viper. I know the last two gyms weren’t your best types, so thanks for sticking it out.”

Viper waved it off like it was nothing, and Rosa just smiled at her.

“And hey, the next gym is Ground-type, if I remember right.” Rosa added. “Won’t that be fun?”

Viper licked berry juice off her lips with a grin. That sounded very fun. She had dreamed of getting to have days like this back when she lived in the lab, and now her dreams had come true. She was sticking with Rosa for the long haul, and she was looking forward to it.

---

Joltik peered cautiously out from behind a rock, checking to see if there were any stronger Pokemon that might be out there for her to run into. Which was the same as checking if there were any Pokemon out there at all for her to run into, really. Even other Joltiks- her Bug Bite was a lot weaker than theirs, and she never won any fights with them.

The coast was clear for the moment, so she skittered across the passage to see if anyone had already gotten to the patch of lichen tucked behind that one boulder yet. They had, but not very thoroughly, so there was still enough for Joltik to eat- one of the perks of being tiny was that you didn’t need that much food, and could often work with the leftovers that bigger Pokemon left behind.

Joltik peeked out again, getting ready to make a run back to a safer hiding spot- and found herself staring right into the knees of an unfamiliar Grass-type. She squeaked and turned to dart away, only to find herself facing even more unfamiliar beings that must have come in while she was eating; a human, a fierce looking blue and black Pokemon that stood on two legs, a purplish Pokemon with predatory grace that turned an interested glance on Joltik when it saw her moving, and worst of all, some huge bird-looking Pokemon.

“Um…hi?” the human started, but Joltik was way too nervous for conversation and ran for the nearest open space.

“Wait, don’t!” cried the human, as the Grass-type squeaked in alarm.

Joltik saw too late that the reason that the space had been open was because the bird Pokemon had been about to shove one of the giant floating boulders into it, that it was too late to stop the boulder from moving, and that this particular boulder hung low enough to squish any Joltiks in its path.

She froze, seeing the end coming and not knowing what to do about it. Then her compound eyes caught movement at the edge of her vision as the human threw something at her. Just in time, a Pokeball, thrown so that it would keep rolling once it had snatched up Joltik, caught her and pulled her out of the way.

So this was what being inside a Pokeball was like. Joltik liked it; it felt very safe.

The next thing she knew, she was being let out in a human building filled with bright light.

“Oh good, you’re okay,” said the human girl from before. “Sorry about that. My name’s Rosa. How are you feeling?”

Joltik felt fine and chittered happily to say so.

“Great!” said Rosa. “So… what do you want to do now?”

Joltik was puzzled. Presumably now that Rosa had made sure she was okay, she was just going to be released, right? Sure, it would be great to be a trainer’s Pokemon, but what trainer would want a Pokemon as weak as her?

Rosa seemed to sense her confusion.

“Just so we’re clear,” she said. “If you want to go back to the wild, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go and release you. But if you want to be on my team, I’d love to have you.”

Joltik couldn’t help but squeak in disbelief. She had literally never won a battle in her life! The only reason she had lived this long was because she wasn’t worth eating for most of the Pokemon in the caves. How was she supposed to help someone who went out of their way to fight harder battles?

Rosa once again seemed to guess what she was thinking, and crouched down so that she was at Joltik’s eye level.

“You may not look all that tough right now,” she said. “But I think I know a thing or two about Pokemon at this point, so trust me when I say that with the right guidance, you can be something really special.”

Joltik wasn’t sure she believed that, but Rosa seemed like she really, truly meant it. And it wasn’t as if Joltik wanted to go back to those caves anyway. Maybe it was worth a shot? She chittered affirmatively and nuzzled Rosa’s face; Rosa beamed and scooped her up in both hands.

“Welcome aboard! You want a name?”

Joltik waggled noncommittally. Why not?

Rosa thought for just a second.

“How about Tempest? Because trust me, you’re going to be bringing the storm sooner than you think.”

Joltik nodded. It was a nice-sounding name. She wasn’t sure it was a fitting one, but she liked the way it sounded, and she could at least give an honest effort to live up to it. Tempest she was, then.

Rosa’s first stop was in a different human building, where she gave some old human a few pieces of red stone, and he in turn taught Tempest how to use a move called Signal Beam, a Bug attack that seemed maybe like it would hit a bit harder than her old Bug Bite. Rosa also gave her some fancy powder to hold that was filled with Bug energy somehow, then took her out practicing.

(By which Tempest meant that Rosa let her new, much stronger teammates beat up other Pokemon until they had almost fainted, then sent Tempest in to finish them off. At least it meant she got to practice using her new move?)

Then they went to fight someone called a gym leader, who was apparently a special, extra-tough trainer. They got some more practice in against his minions, and then for the actual fight against the gym leader, Tempest got sent out first, to face a full-health Pokemon.

It was some kind of reptile-looking Ground-type, standing on two legs with vicious fangs and an intimidating presence that made Tempest quiver in her fur. How was she supposed to face that by herself?

“You can do it!” Rosa called out. “Signal Beam!”

Tempest did not, in fact, think she could do it, but Rosa sounded so earnest that Tempest hated to disappoint her. She had to at least try. As her foe advanced, Tempest fired off a Signal Beam; the sinister ray of light jetted forward and caught the Ground-type right in the face. The hulking beast stopped, swayed on its feet for a moment, then collapsed in a heap and didn’t get up.

She had won? That Pokemon must have been ten times her size, and she had knocked it out with one attack! She would have never in a million years thought she could do that. How had she?

“Atta girl!” Rosa called from behind her. “I knew you could do it!”

Help from her trainer, that was how.

Rosa wound up withdrawing her to let her teammates handle the rest of the gym leader’s squad, but Tempest’s feeling of wonderment didn’t fade at all. After they won and had left, Rosa set up a picnic to celebrate, then took a moment to pick up Tempest and hold her close to her face.

“I told you you could be special.” she said.

Tempest squeaked happily and nuzzled her face again. She had told Tempest that, and now Tempest was starting to believe her. Rosa giggled as Tempest’s fur tickled her nose, then gently stroked her head.

“I promise you, Tempest, this is just the beginning.”

--

Volcarona waited patiently in her chamber beneath the castle. She had been waiting for quite some time- long enough that she was worried she might have to blast her way out through all the sand that was piling up in the passageways. Still, she had faith. The wise old Gothitelle all those years ago had been quite clear that Volcarona would meet a true trainer if she stayed here long enough.

There had been a few humans who wandered by over the years, but no one really special. They had all simply fled from her, or been defeated in battle and never returned. The most recent one, quite a while ago, had been an incredibly unpleasant young man with pale green hair and a sneer, and a Zweilous that absolutely hated him. He had spoken triumphantly about how catching Volcarona could set him up as a hero, but after he had lost the battle, he had flown into a rage and tried to knock the pillars of the room down, and she had been obliged to set his coat on fire to get him to leave. After that, there had been scraping sounds echoing down the corridors that sounded suspiciously like someone blocking off the passage with a boulder, and that was the last Volcarona had seen of any humans since then.

Or at least until now, when the sound of the boulder being shoved was echoing again, and the sound of footsteps was approaching Volcarona’s chamber. She stirred eagerly and stretched her wings. Was this finally it?

Into the room came a young girl, sandy and dusty and not remotely bothered by it, her eyes alight with curiosity. As soon as she saw Volcarona, her eyes lit up, and she walked right up to her. Unlike anyone else who had come by up until now, there wasn’t the slightest hint of fear or greed in her expression, just simple delight and admiration.

“Well, hello there,” said the girl. “My name’s Rosa.”

Volcarona inclined her head politely, and Rosa returned the gesture with a graceful bow.

“You look like you’ve been here for a while,” she said. “I moved the boulder that was blocking the hall, if that was the problem.”

That was very helpful, but it wasn’t the reason Volcarona was sticking around, and she bobbed insistently in the air. Rosa looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled and held up a Pokeball.

“You up a for a battle then? I suppose I’d want to stretch my wings after so long cooped up too.”

Volcarona fluttered her wings in answer, spreading a shower of embers in an arc around the room. Unlike most people who saw her do that, Rosa just got more excited.

“Alright! Bring it on, then!”

It was a ferocious battle. Volcarona was outnumbered five to one, but most of Rosa’s current Pokemon weren’t a very good matchup for her. They were all fearless and fierce, however, and so after a while Volcarona was pretty banged up, and was definitely going to get knocked out if this battle continued.

Rosa noticed it too, and held up a hand to pause her Braviary right before it could land a decisive blow.

“Are you all stretched out, then?” she asked.

Volcarona nodded, then fluttered insistently in the air in front of Rosa. The girl cocked her head.

“You want something else?” she asked.

Volcarona bobbed up and down in the affirmative, then flicked a jet of embers towards the bag where Rosa kept her Pokeballs. She made sure the fiery spray fell well short, but the Braviary still gave a screech of outrage before Rosa stroked its back feathers.

“Easy, Sabre, she’s just trying to communicate.” she reassured him, before turning back to Volcarona. “Are you trying to say you want to join my team?”

Volcarona cried out in victory and did a loop in the air; Rosa beamed.

“Well, I’m not dumb enough to turn that down. Hold still for just a second, if you please.”

A short time later, Volcarona was resting up in a Pokemon center and getting to know her new teammates. Striker the Lucario, who happily didn’t seem to hold any grudges about being trapped in a fiery vortex earlier, had explained Rosa’s goals for her journey, and Volcarona approved; she was pleased to see that the idea of the gym challenge had survived and thrived while she was away, and she was always happy to treat Pokemon thieves to some mild-to-moderate incineration.

It had already been late when they had gotten back to the center, so Rosa and her team wound up going to bed soon after, piled up on a couch. Volcarona’s already high opinion of her new trainer was only reinforced by seeing the way all her other Pokemon cuddled in as close to her as possible, and she didn’t seem to mind being literally buried in them in the slightest. Volcarona would have joined the pile herself if she could do it without burning anybody; as it was, she settled down to sleep as close as possible, happy to serve as something of a campfire.

The next morning, they set off bright and early- early enough to get a wonderful view of the dawn from atop a little hill outside of Driftveil. Ah, now there was a sight Volcarona had missed living under the castle. She was pretty sure her long wait would be worth it, though.

“Been a while, huh?” Rosa said quietly from beside her.

Rosa seemed to appreciate a nice sunrise herself- another point in her favor. The two of them watched the colors of the sky slowly wash into the pleasant blue of a clear day. Then, just as they were about to leave, Rosa seemed to have a sudden flash of inspiration.

“Say, would you mind if I offered you a name?”

Volcarona would not mind, and in fact kind of liked the idea, and tilted her head to show she was listening. Rosa grinned.

“Sunrise, of course.”

Volcarona- or rather, Sunrise- liked it, and did a cheerful twirl in the air to indicate that. Rosa playfully curtsied back.

“I’m glad you chose me, Sunrise,” she said. “Let’s go seize the day.”

--

Sabre let out a joyful cry as he rode a powerful stream of air in a rapid loop before descending to join Rosa behind a wind-blocking wall. These giant fans were fun! No wonder a leader who favored Flying-types had so many of them.

Of course, the wind was a lot harder for Rosa to deal with. Still, she seemed to enjoy the challenge of running to each new spot of cover between the wind blasts. (Rosa seemed to enjoy running in general, really, whether it was through caves, up mountains, over beaches, or any other tricky spot.)

Sabre thought the wind was rather nice, if you were a serious battler; the challenge got your blood flowing just in time to face this Skyla human. Maybe that was supposed to be the point of it, even.

The wind subsided long enough for Rosa to make the last run to get to the gym leader. Sabre wondered if she would have any Braviaries, since she liked Flying-types. It would be a fun test if she did, but either way, Sabre was confident in his ability to fight any of his old flock-mates if he saw them again.

Sabre felt a lot better these days. He looked a lot better these days, too- Rosa made sure he was fed properly and helped him preen his crest feathers whenever he needed it. There was no need for him to hide out in desert towns to regain his strength, and he had friends to watch his back.

And in turn, when Rosa needed a battler, Sabre was delighted to fight for her. Like right now, against Skyla. Some of Sabre’s teammates would arguably have been better for this fight (especially Tempest), but he had wanted to stretch his wings, and Rosa was kind enough to oblige him.

Rosa and Skyla exchanged greetings, and then Skyla took a moment to size up Sabre.

“That’s quite the Braviary you have there.” she said.

“Thanks,” said Rosa.

Sabre stretched his wings, pleased that a Flying expert found him impressive.

“A bit of an early evolution for his species though, isn’t it?” Skyla asked.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Rosa agreed. “It’s a bit of a story, but I found him in the wild like this- and I didn’t force a Rufflet to evolve early, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I wasn’t really, but I do have to check,” said Skyla.

If Sabre was a human, he would have rolled his eyes. One day of getting to know Rosa properly and it had been impossible for him to imagine her doing any of her team wrong. He emphasized the point by leaning over to rub his face fondly against hers; Rosa laughed and stroked his feathers.

“Well, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…” Skyla smiled and held out a Pokeball. “Shall we?”

She sent out a Swoobat; Sabre, at Rosa’s sign, lunged skyward to meet it with a joyful cry.

The Swoobat was faster and struck first with Acrobatics; Sabre accepted the not-very-strong battering with ease, then flapped away to gain a little space for his counterattack. In the wild, he’d have dove right in, to tear with beak or talon or batter with sheer bulk or his mighty wings. But now that he was Rosa’s Pokemon, she had taught him another way to use his wings, and the powerful gusts they could produce, as a weapon.

Specifically, she’d taught him how to throw rocks at people.

Swoobat got absolutely nailed by Sabre’s Rock Slide and plummeted from the air; Skyla returned it to its ball before it could hit the ground and sent out a Skarmory in its place.

Rosa waved to signal another Rock Slide; the flying stones did a little damage, but mostly just crumbled on Skarmory’s steely feathers. Skarmory answered with a Steel Wing that stung but wasn’t that big of a hit. Sabre was confident that he would eventually beat Skarmory in a slugfest, but it would take a while and it would be an ugly fight.

So when Rosa withdrew him for Tempest, he was a little disappointed but not really surprised. Once he would have been furious, but after battling alongside Rosa and his teammates this whole time, he had learned better. Getting withdrawn didn’t mean he was weak, just that Tempest was better for this fight; just like how all the times that Rosa had withdrawn Tempest in the face of a Fire-type so that Sabre could pelt it with rocks didn’t mean Tempest was weak. They were a team and they had each others’ backs, and Sabre was confident Tempest would handle things.

Sure enough, when Sabre returned to the field, Skarmory was nowhere to be seen, and he was instead facing a Swanna. It struck first, showering Sabre with feathers that weighed him down and made him feel weak- until he shrieked in defiance and shook them all off, power building in his core. He wasn’t about to be taken down by a cheap trick like that.

“Uh-oh.” he just barely heard Skyla mutter.

“Rock Slide!” Rosa ordered triumphantly.

The Swanna did its best to dodge, but Rosa had shown Sabre how to put a little spin on his hurled boulders and take other Pokemon by surprise. The shower of stones landed right where Sabre wanted them, and Swanna fainted to give Rosa the victory.

Skyla accepted her defeat easily enough and handed over a badge.

“So they can have Defiant,” she said, looking at Sabre. “I’d heard it was a rare ability of theirs, but I’d never seen it myself.”

Rosa smiled and reached up to pluck a stray Swanna feather out of Sabre’s crest.

“Yeah, Sabre’s pretty special in a lot of ways.”

“Looks like!” Skyla agreed.

Sabre was happy to agree he was special, but he wasn’t the only special one.

As they left the gym, Rosa looked him over carefully.

“So, you did really good against other Flying-types. I bet if we run into your old flock, they’d be in for a nasty surprise.”

Sabre liked the thought of that. None of the other Braviaries he had ever seen could use Rock moves, so he would be at a huge advantage.

“I can’t wait to meet them,” Rosa added nastily. “Pushing you around over something so stupid. I’m going to have words with them.”

Sabre didn’t really need Rosa to stick up for him, but it was still a warm feeling, knowing that she would. If he had arms instead of wings, he would have hugged her.

Rosa, as she often did, guessed what he was thinking and wrapped her arms around him.

“They don’t know what they’re missing, Sabre,” she told him. “I’m so glad I found you.”

--

The Opelucid Gym was built for intimidation, with its cavernous ceilings, massive statues, and its older and more imposing-looking trainers. Inkling cheerfully ignored all of that as he walked through the building ahead of Rosa. He was confident that he was the tiniest and cutest Pokemon in the building, and also that he was the most powerful Pokemon in the building.

He felt plenty of dangerous presences brushing up against the edges of his psyche, to be sure. Lots and lots of fearsome dragons, who were all strong and experienced and who were all about to get a very unpleasant surprise once the battling actually started, because journeying with Rosa had turned Inkling into one of the most terrifying Pokemon in Unova.

When he had decided to go with Rosa, he had planned on seeing lots of sights and getting stronger through battling. He had not planned on evolving into an Espeon, but if he had known what it was like to be one he would have made it his top priority. He was so powerful now! Sure, Dark-types were a lot more annoying than they used to be, and Steel-types weren’t any less annoying than they used to be, but half of his teammates were well-equipped to handle those, and everything else was in trouble.

Case in point, the Dragons that the gym trainers sent out to face him, which were all big and rough and tough and not nearly fast enough to do anything but get Psychic-ed in the face and faint. Rosa hadn’t had him use their secret weapon yet, but it made sense to save that for the gym leader. No sense in playing their hand early just to knock out an Axew.

After painstakingly moving up and down the statues to make sure they fought every single trainer in the gym (Inkling still loved Rosa for doing that), they reached Drayden, and Inkling, already excited, got even more eager.

A lot of work had gone into the little surprise they had planned; hours upon hours of research, painstaking perusals of Kalosian trainers’ forums and move and typing studies written by their professors, many days of practice, some surprisingly helpful instructions from some internet guy called GreyscaleTheorist on how to jailbreak a TM70, and some fiddly technical work on Rosa’s part to actually do it. Time to see if it would pay off.

Rosa and Drayden exchanged a few words, and then the battle started, with Drayden sending out a Druddigon that probably knew Crunch and looked tough enough not to go down to a single Psychic. Fortunately, Rosa and Inkling had come up with another option. As the hulking dragon advanced, she gave the order for their trump card.

“Dazzling Gleam!”

Inkling drew up the energy, twisted it just right, and let it go, and the Druddigon collapsed in a heap before it could even try to use a move.

Drayden’s eyes went wide, and Inkling almost literally glowed with triumph. He was the first Espeon, as far as anyone knew, to pull off a… Whatever They Wound Up Naming It-type attack in an actual battle. Had he picked a good trainer or what?

Drayden’s remaining Pokemon were all slower than Inkling and went down to a Dazzling Gleam just as easily as the first one, winning the battle for nand his trainer. The old Dragon master handed Rosa her badge, still looking a little shell-shocked, and Inkling preened as Rosa scooped him up into a hug and gave him a good look at their new prize.

“I knew you could do it!” Rosa told him. “Just wait till we tell the professor about this!”

“It’s certainly a novel development.” Drayden agreed shakily. “Professor Juniper won’t be the only one interested in how you did it, I’m quite certain.”

Wonderful! On top of everything else, Inkling was going to get to be famous! Not that he wouldn’t have been anyway once Rosa inevitably became the champion of Unova, but still.

One gym, a bunch of Plasma losers, an Elite Four, and a champion to go. With his power and Rosa’s guidance, Inkling was very much looking forward to the future.

--

The streets of Opelucid City all gleamed with a sheen of ice. If this had been a month or two from now, that wouldn’t have necessarily been unexpected, given how far north the city was, but right now it was thoroughly unnatural.

And of course, the giant icebergs sitting here and there in the middle of the road were out of place in any season.

Sunrise made sure to hover as close to Rosa as she safely could; her trainer had probably been a little underdressed for the season even before said season suddenly changed from autumn to winter. Not that Rosa ever seemed to mind the cold, but Sunrise wanted to be careful anyway.

The two of them were racing around the city, searching for the Plasma ruffians that were trying to take advantage of the mess while also seeing what needed to be done to help with the ice. It was rather fortunate that Opelucid was far enough north that it occasionally suffered an ice storm naturally and was built with that in mind. No buildings had collapsed, and the humans’ electricity seemed to be mostly fine- the main problem was the big icebergs in the way of things. Speaking of which…

“Sunrise, do you think you can do something about this?” Rosa asked, pointing at an iceberg that was blocking the door of a house.

Sunrise flicked her wings and covered the closest side of the berg in a shower of embers. That ought to have melted a huge swathe of it, but instead the burning scales just sank in a little and sizzled out. This ice was strange; it was cold and dark and filled with ancient power that clung on bitterly to its existence, power that strenuously resisted any attempt to break it down and end the unnatural cold.

But then, Sunrise wasn’t exactly young herself, and her species had not been worshipped as embodiments of the sun’s fire just because they had pretty wings.

With a fierce cry, Sunrise called up actual flames and directed them in a concentrated jet at the berg. The fire splashed across the ice’s surface for a moment, then broke through and started to devour the inside. The ice hissed like a living thing as it melted, but melt it did, until the sides collapsed, the top fell off into the bushes, and there was nothing left but a few broken chunks that weren’t big enough to block anything and a thin sheen of frost.

Rosa walked up and knocked on the door, which was immediately opened for her.

“Everyone alright in here?” she asked.

“Just fine, thank you.”

Sunrise peeked inside; the other humans had warm clothes on and looked to have been working on tying a rope to climb out a second-story window. It was hard to keep folk who were used to winter down with just ice. One especially old human inside saw Sunrise in the doorway and made an old-fashioned gesture of obeisance, which she returned with a polite incline of her head.

As she and Rosa moved on, they ran into a Plasma trainer, who had come up looking for a fight but seemed to be thinking better of it upon seeing Sunrise and the still-steaming chunks of ice. Too late. Sunrise dispatched her team of Poison-types in two uses of Psychic. (Before meeting Rosa she would have never thought she would be able to learn Psychic-type moves, but that was the kind of thing trainers were good at helping with.)

They kept circling the city, stopping to dispatch more Plasma grunts and to melt two icebergs that were blocking a house and a major intersection, before finally looping back to the gym, where one of Plasma’s leaders was waiting.

“You again.” Disdain dripped from Rosa’s voice. “What’s the matter, you didn’t learn your lesson hard enough in Lacunosa?”

This wasn’t the first time they had encountered the shivering man in the ridiculous coat- Zinzolin was his name, if Sunrise remembered right. Back in Lacunosa Town, he had confronted Rosa and Hugh, and been easily dispatched by Striker and Hugh’s Emboar. Now Sunrise was going to get to take a crack at him.

It was not a dramatic battle. Rosa had been taking special care to train up Sunrise’s speed; she was plenty fast to begin with but she could always be faster. That training paid off here when she outsped both of Zinzolin’s Cryogonals and knocked them out with one Fire Blast each. Zinzolin’s last Pokemon was a Weavile, which was a very fast Pokemon and managed to get an attack off- but Dark and Ice were not dangerous types to Sunrise, so the best it could manage was a single Slash which admittedly stung quite a bit but did not stop it from getting wiped out by Sunrise’s retaliatory Signal Beam.

Zinzolin made himself scarce after losing, and Drayden caught up with them to say that things had worked out, and to show them the strange device that Team Plasma had been looking for.

“Uh, are you sure you should be taking the DNA splicers out like that?” Rosa asked him. “I dunno if you’ve ever met them, but Team Plasma has these ninja-looking guys who can-”

There was a shimmering sort of sound as one of the Shadow Triad appeared, snatched up the splicers, and vanished into thin air.

“-teleport.” Rosa finished with a sigh. “Swords damn it.”

After a brief freakout from Drayden, they pursued. One of the shadows was waiting for them by the gate; he used Dark- and Steel-type Pokemon, and lost easily. (Fire and Bug with Psychic on the side was really a good combination for dealing with Team Plasma, wasn’t it? Perhaps that old Gothitelle had foreseen that too.) Unfortunately, the shadow had only been there to delay them while the one with the splicers got away.

Drayden was rather upset about everything, as was the other human called Cheren who showed up later. Rosa, on the other hand, was rather sanguine about it.

“It’s not like we weren’t going to be chasing down Team Plasma for a fight anyway,” she pointed out. “This is just another reason to hurry. Besides…”

She snapped her fingers and pointed at a nearby iceberg that stuck annoyingly far out into the road; Sunrise obliged her by reducing it to slush with a few seconds of concentrated flames.

“If that’s the best they can do with their secret weapon, I think my team can handle it.”

Cheren at least seemed rather cheered up by that. He told them where they could most likely find Team Plasma next, and they set off in a hurry.

“Thanks for your fire, Sunrise,” Rosa told her as they ran. “We might need to melt a whole lot more before this is over, though.”

Sunrise buzzed eagerly. Volcaronae had always brought comfort and hope in the darkest parts of winter; Team Plasma might be more of a metaphorical winter than a literal one, but Sunrise was happy to do her ancient duty, and that all her time waiting under the sand had placed exactly where she needed to be, with exactly the trainer to lead her through it.

--

As yet another Water-type Pokemon was sent out to battle her, Tempest could barely resist the temptation to burst out into chittering laughter. Behind her, Rosa called out a cheerful order.

“Alright, Tempest, use Thunder again!”

Tempest focused the electricity in her fur just so and called down the fury of the sky.

Thunder was one of the most powerful Electric-type moves in existence. It was also one of the most unreliable ones- channeling that much raw lightning was hard. It jumped around unpredictably as you tried to direct it and wound up skittering off to the side of where you aimed it seemingly as often as not.

Or at least, that was how it worked for most Pokemon. But Rosa had taught Tempest how to use her compound eyes to her advantage; to track the tiny flickers of static that came right before the lightning jumped around so that she could react in time to put it back on track, making it accurate enough to actually use. One still slipped away from her every now and again, but not often.

For instance, this particular Thunder crashed down squarely into the opposing Wailord, knocking it clean out and defeating yet another trainer who stood between Rosa and the last gym leader in Unova. Tempest basked in satisfaction as they moved on. Once she had been a Joltik weak enough that she barely dared to step out into the open in case she ran into another Pokemon. Now she was a Galvantula that could take on practically anything, and she owed it all to Rosa.

Rosa had taught her Thunder and how to use it effectively, had taught her Signal Beam and was on the lookout for even stronger Bug-type moves, taught her Volt Switch so she could slip out of most bad matchups with ease while still doing damage, and even taught her Energy Ball to cover a few extra types. Not only that, but Rosa had given her the vitamins and training that made her special attacks so strong that she could blow away anything that was weak to any of her moves; her Thunder could even knock out Pokemon that took a neutral hit from it quite a lot of the time.

Tempest owed a lot to her trainer, and she intended to pay it back, with interest, in the form of victories. Speaking of which, they had finally made it to the last gym leader, a human man who didn’t wear a shirt for some reason. He and Rosa had a friendly conversation, and then the battle began, with him sending out a Carracosta.

Rosa ordered an Energy Ball, and Tempest was faster, striking home with a powerful blow- only for the foe to remain standing on the very verge of fainting, somehow. The Carracosta used Shell Smash, boosting its speed and attack power sky-high, and Tempest felt just a bit nervous, since it looked like a powerful Pokemon even before boosting. But then Rosa just ordered another Energy Ball, and even a speed-boosted Carracosta was still slower than Tempest. Whatever strange force had kept it standing last time didn’t help here, and down it went. The rest of the Pokemon that came out to fight were all Water-types that didn’t have whatever it was that had kept the Carracosta standing and went down to a single Thunder, and that was that.

The gym leader took his defeat with easy grace, handed Rosa her badge, and jumped off into the water for a swim. Rosa waved cheerfully after him, then knelt down to nuzzle Tempest’s face, heedless of what the static frizz did to her hair.

“I knew you could do it,” she said. “Told you you’d be powerful.”

Tempest buzzed happily. Rosa had indeed told her, and told her truly.

“Thanks for all your hard work,” Rosa added. “Are you up for a fight with Team Plasma still?”

Tempest was up for a fight with the great dragons, the Forces of Nature, and the Swords of Justice all at once if Rosa thought she could do it, and she squeaked affirmatively to say so.

“Alright!” Rosa said. “Let’s get you fresh and rested, then, and then we’ll go and show those Plasma grunts what it really means to bond with a Pokemon.”

Rosa headed for the Pokemon Center, and Tempest eagerly ran after her, ready to take on the world.

--

The bitter cold of the Giant Chasm clung to Striker’s steely fur as he stood between Rosa and Kyurem; he ignored it. The abominable transformation that Ghetsis had inflicted on the ice dragon seemed to be causing it some distress; its aura roiled with pain and loneliness and resentment and all sorts of normally sympathy-inducing emotions that Striker was ignoring for now because Ghetsis had ordered Kyurem to glaciate Rosa, and the absolute bastard had been about to actually do it. Kyurem could have sympathy after it had learned a lesson about showing appropriate respect to Striker’s trainer.

Striker tensed as Kyurem stalked forward for battle. It was Rosa’s call as to what the best move was here, but to Striker’s eye, Kyurem looked like an inviting target for a-

“Striker, Close Combat!”

Ah, excellent.

Striker lunged, landing a flurry of sharp blows one after another before Kyurem could do anything. Ice crunched and cracked under his paws, and scales bent and flaked away towards the end, too, as Striker landed a particularly perfect punch to finish off the combo.

Kyurem roared, reared up- and then collapsed in a dead faint, its fusion coming apart in a flash of light.

Striker blinked. He had expected a legendary dragon to be tougher. Rosa’s training regimens had paid off even more than he had thought, apparently.

(Perhaps it might have helped that Kyurem probably wasn’t motivated to try its hardest for Ghetsis, too.)

Speaking of Ghetsis, the loathsome man was ranting and raving about his superiority and how he would emerge victorious no matter what, but Striker could sense that under the bluster, his aura had a healthy measure of fear to it. As it should; if Rosa thought the world would be better off with Ghetsis reduced to a greasy smear on a cavern floor, Striker would be delighted to oblige her.

Ghetsis kept ranting until he happened to glance in Striker’s direction, saw the expression on his face, and went for a Pokeball. At least he wasn’t completely stupid.

A Cofagrigus came out next, and Rosa actually withdrew Striker- presumably to let a more suitable teammate deal with the struggle of battering through Cofagrigus’s bulk.

A short while later, Striker was sent back out- just in time to catch a Night Slash to the chest. As Pokemon moves to catch to the chest went, Night Slash wasn’t a very distressing one, so he shook it off to take in his opponent; a Drapion that had the confused and slightly static-y look of a Pokemon that had just been hit in the face with one of Tempest’s Volt Switches.

“Bone Rush!” Rosa ordered quickly.

Before the Drapion could do anything else, Striker started hurling projectiles. Three hits was enough to take his opponent down, and then Ghetsis sent out another Pokemon, a battle-scarred Hydreigon whose aura roiled with pain, resentment, and omnidirectional rage. It was a fearsome dragon- but it wasn’t as fearsome as Kyurem.

“Finish it! Close Combat!”

Hydreigon didn’t take a Close Combat any better than Kyurem either. It fainted, (a nap was probably the nicest thing that had happened to it in a while, poor thing) and Ghetsis threw a fit that was even more unpleasant to feel than it was to listen to. Had that been his last Pokemon?

It had been. Ghetsis’s aura flared with fury and shock like a supernova, then collapsed into a black hole of loathing, self-pity, and despair. His annoying teleporting minions took him away, and it was over. Rosa and her team had triumphed.

A few steps away in the cave, Rosa took a deep breath and let it out slowly, relief and satisfaction emanating from her like the warmth of a campfire.

“Thank you, Striker,” she said. “You were magnificent.”

Striker inclined his head politely; he had only done his duty, albeit very well.

After saying her goodbyes with N and Zekrom, Rosa made her way out of the cave and sat down on a rock. To the west, the setting sun was painting the sky with great sweeps of fiery orange. Rosa seemed to be deep in thought; Striker stood politely at attention and left her to it.

“We really did it.” Rosa said after a minute. “We beat Plasma. Everything worked out with Purrloin as well as we really could have expected. We won. Mission accomplished.”

Rosa shook her head wonderingly- then abruptly stood up, resolve flaring up in her aura again. She glanced back at Striker with a smile.

“Of course, there’s no sense in just sitting on our laurels.” she said. “After all, it’d be a shame if the coolest Lucario in the world and the rest of my awesome team never got to be in the Hall of Fame, right?”

Striker nodded with a grin, and Rosa’s smile broadened.

“Onward and upward, then. Come on, I think I saw a side passage in the last cavern that we can use to get to Victory Road.”

She set off at a brisk walk, and Striker, naturally, followed her.

---

Viper was on top of the world, almost. In a couple of ways- the Unova League was very high up, she was very nearly a champion, and she felt fantastic. A lot of people would probably call her smug or something for saying this, but Viper was confident that she was now the single strongest Serperior on the planet.

And it was all because Rosa had figured out how to get the most out of Viper’s ability. It had always been a strange ability compared to the rest of her species- it hadn’t been until Rosa had explained it to her that Viper realized that her ability was called Contrary, and that people didn’t just think she was contrary. Viper had considered Contrary to be kind of a mixed ability; sure, it was nice when someone tried to use Leer or something and Viper only got tougher, but not being able to use those human X-thingies or moves like Calm Mind was a pain, so it evened out.

Or so she had thought, until Rosa had taught her Leaf Storm and the world opened up. For any other Grass-type, Leaf Storm was an all-or-nothing attack that hit like a landslide once, but then lowered their special attack enough that they were mostly useless until they switched out and back in again. But thanks to Contrary, Viper got to hit like a landslide and then get even more powerful. It was a nasty combination, and Rosa and Viper made full use of it.

Right now, they were making full enough use of it that they were only three KOs away from beating the champion of Unova.

Across the field, Iris looked them over with a fiery expression and calculation in her eyes. Unlike many trainers, Iris had figured out what was going on as soon as Viper had blown away her Archeops in two Leaf Storms. But it was one thing to figure it out, and another thing to be able to do anything about it.

Iris’s Aggron came out, and Rosa took the opportunity to have Viper heal off the damage that Archeops had managed to inflict before going down, since Synthesis restored more health than Aggron’s Rock Slides could take off. Aggron kept firing away, hoping for a critical hit, but it didn’t get one. Eventually, Iris got tired of beating pointlessly against the wall that was Viper and tried an Agility, which gave Viper a chance to heal completely. Then Rosa ordered another Leaf Storm, and Aggron was blown away; Viper was fast enough that a single Agility boost wasn’t enough to catch her.

“Let’s do this, Apophis!” Iris called out as she sent out her next Pokemon.

Apophis turned out to be a Haxorus. It looked fearsome, but Viper didn’t care.

“Leaf Storm!” Rosa ordered once more.

“Dragon Dance!” Iris countered.

Viper obliged her trainer with another burst of Grass-type power. As a Dragon-type, Apophis actually resisted Leaf Storm; but that wasn’t going to be enough to help it, not with Viper still sporting the boosts from using the move three times already.

The verdant energy slammed home, and Apophis staggered, swayed- and then stood upright with a roar, draconic energy spiraling around it and flashing in its eyes as the remains of a Focus Sash crumbled off of its chest.

Behind Viper, Rosa drew in a sharp breath, then gave an urgent order.

“Viper, do it again!”

“Apophis, X-Scissor!” Iris cried.

Viper gathered her power for one last blow- and as she did, Apophis lunged, its speed boosted by the energy surrounding it, and landed two vicious swipes in a cross over Viper’s chest. Viper yelped in pain as the gnawing, crawling feeling of a Bug-type attack dug into her. She twisted in the air, nearly fell- and then it was her turn to come roaring back upright, because she wasn’t just any Grass-type, she was Rosa’s Serperior, and she was not going to fail her trainer at the final hurdle.

Her Leaf Storm struck true, and Apophis fell.

Iris rather anticlimactically sent out her last Pokemon, a Lapras, to get annihilated, and that was that. Viper was the first Pokemon of the most powerful trainer in Unova.

Rosa cheered and rushed in to fling her arms around Viper’s neck, then awkwardly cleared her throat and glanced at Iris, who looked a bit upset.

Iris took a deep breath, held it for a second, and let it out. Then she smiled.

“I’m upset I couldn’t win,” she said. “But I’m happy that we got to go all out, and that I got to meet a trainer like you!”

Rosa smiled back at her and reached out to shake her hand, and then Iris ushered them into the Hall of Fame. Viper’s heart swelled as Rosa let everyone on the team out to watch as she entered their names one by one. Sunrise regally fluttered her wings, Tempest buzzed and jumped around excitedly, Sabre crowed in triumph, Inkling leapt into Rosa’s arms and licked her face, Striker stood proudly at attention, and last but not least, Viper preened and then draped herself over Rosa’s shoulders like a scarf.

“Oof! All those muscles are getting heavy, you know,” Rosa told her, before adjusting her stance to more easily carry her.

Iris smiled at the display and bowed politely in Rosa’s direction.

“Congratulations, champion,” she said, before straightening up and pointing at her. “That being said, don’t get too comfortable in that seat, because as soon as the mandatory waiting period is over, I want a rematch.”

“I expected nothing less.” Rosa told her.

“Good! Now, let’s get going. There’s a parade waiting and everything!”

“Does everyone get a parade when they become champion?” Rosa asked. “I don’t remember yours.”

“It’s not every time, but I happen to know who’s responsible for the fact that Unova didn’t have a mini ice age just now- thanks for that, by the way. That’s the kind of thing worth celebrating extra hard.”

“Well, I won’t ever want to miss a chance to show off my team.” Rosa said, reaching up to stroke Viper’s head. “Let’s go!”

Rosa walked onwards, and Viper followed her. From laying around bored in a lab to leading a parade with her champion trainer; Viper had surpassed even her most optimistic fantasies from when she was still a Snivy. And there were still more exciting battles in her future, from the sounds of it. Viper knew she was biased, but she didn’t care; if anyone asked, she had the best trainer in the world.