So I became the strongest. Now what?

“At least you have some brain cells, eh? Had to pull the dumbass who tried that out of the ocean last year.”

And so, her meal ticket of the day has been secured! If she’s gonna be leading him around all day, she can’t exactly forage while doing so, after all.

“Alright, I’ll take you south…Try to keep up.”

May gestures for him to follow…And takes off, navigating the landscape and weaving around Shroomish nests like she’s known these woods her entire life.

“Not to mention the air currents around Hoenn are some of the most volatile of all the regions.”  Between being surrounded by warm ocean and having a volcano, sudden, violent storms were nothing unusual here, he imagined.  “And everyone has their specialties.  Navigating without a damn map simply is not one of mine.”  He felt his eyebrows beginning to scrunch up in irritation.  Heck, he was probably making a really nasty face as he said that, but whatever.  If she was one of those people who’d get scared off easily then so be it... but he was more inclined to believe she was the opposite sort of person.

“Geez… And that difficulty’s worth putting off a map? You really must get into scenarios like this often, eh Seviperman? Don’t tell me you neglect to check meteorology reports before flying into storms too…”

“Fine, I’ll lead you back to Petalburg in exchange for lunch and a favor. Is that good enough for you?”

“You speak as if I have the gall to put my Team at that kind of risk.  At least when I wander around like this, I’m the only one in trouble.”  The accusation irked him and his already villainous countenance pulled into an even deeper sneer.

“Pardon?” Sawyer asked, remembering to use the higher voice, he’d been practicing. 

He was so focused on trying not to lose his balance in these heels that he almost passed by the foreigner without noticing him. He looked up at the building he was talking about and then smiled back at him.

“Oh! That’s the Showcase Hall! They hold, well, Showcases there. And Showcases are where Performers, like I want to be, go and show off their bond with their pokemon. Pokemon and Performer working together to show off their combined appeal to the crowd~ It’s a wonderful event! And when someone wins 3, they get to enter in the Master Class Showcase! The final stage to become Kalos Queen! It’s an exciting and beautiful art form! ..In my opinion at least. Sorry if I got carried away…”

Kakios was lost not halfway through her explanation.  ‘Showcases’? ‘Performers’?  

Petra looked down and nodded.

“I’m sorry that it feels that bad for you…” she spoke, unsure of what else to say.

She wanted to help him, but it seemed clear he wasn’t too interested in talking to her. Hobs kept looking back at him, sending little glares back at him.

“The Pokemart isn’t too far from here. Should be there in about 10, 15 minutes tops.” she replied. “So, what brings you to Hoenn? What are heading to Lavaridge?”

She wasn’t entirely convinced he’d give her an answer, but she had to try.

“Well...”  He grumbled, mostly absent-mindedly and to himself.  It wasn’t like his home-region didn’t get hot, unreasonably hot and humid, but the tropics was something else entirely.  Seriously.

He really has no idea, does he? Either he’s never left his home town or he’s completely unfamiliar with Hoenn. Even the youngest bug catchers know better than to stray off the main trail lest they find themselves wading through Wurmple stings and Shroomish spores for days. 

“…You left the route hours, if not days ago, Seviperman. This path’s been marked by Twigs and I for our personal use—which is why you probably haven’t seem anyone else on it.”

… And if he did, she’d have to do a lot more garbage disposal.

Petra gave a nod and started to head in the direction of the nearest Pokemart. She was used to the humidity and heat to a point where it mostly didn’t bother her unless it was a particularly hot day. She didn’t even really think about it until he mentioned it. Hobs couldn’t help a chuckle at Kakios’s response to the heat.

“I suppose it’s usually around this temperature, but there are the occasional days where it’s even hotter than this.” she acknowledged. “Over time, you mostly get used to it.”

“Hey it’s okay! That’s what–” Uh. Well, they weren’t friends but that was pretty much her default response to most things. Hm. “Well, anyway, I’m happy to help! Just holler if you find her first!”

Azu was already gliding through the water far ahead of her on a mission. Togo stuck by his trainer’s side– or as close to her side as he could get from fifteen feet above their heads. Lyra tried to keep up as best she could, eyes close to the ground as they searched. “Noooox! Noxxy!”~ Her voice carried up and over the sound of Azu kicking up water as he swam, but she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary until Togo trilled above her.

In the distance, four little white feet teetered near the edge of the river. “Azu! Look!” With a twirl, the water-type sped towards his trainer and then, catching sight of where she was pointing began to make his way to the lost Amaura’s location. “Hey!” Uh. Crap. What was his name? “Uhh, hey! I think I found her!”

Kakios nodded, not entirely sure how to respond.  Was this where people said ‘thank you’?  Or would that just sound odd?  He chose to forgo it altogether and start searching along the riverbank.  He, of course, ran straight over when called, though.

“You found her?  Where was-?”  The moment he saw the hatchling, he knew grabbing her was going to be trouble.  When Nox saw him she bounced around playfully, running in circles, darting away, and then running in circles again, clearly an invitation for tag.

“Nox...” The tone of his voice was warning.  The baby wanted to play, but he was clearly not in the mood, granted he probably looked more menacing than intended, but Nox clearly still had no intention of coming into line.  She wanted to play tag, and that was-

It isn’t often that May finds somebody near her usual training spots. She’d purposely chosen a location off the routes to avoid being disturbed by battle happy strangers but when one of them’s lost, it falls to her to lead them back onto the main trail. 

“Hey, Seviper head, Rustboro’s thirty minutes to the south of here…just don’t don’t mind the cliff.”

Seviper head?  That was a new one, not that he could exactly call it ‘wrong’, even he was aware of his rather villainous countenance.

At the sigh - an expression of disappointment, if she remembered correctly - Zossie would mentally note down information regarding a ‘pokedex’ as being common knowledge on this planet. While the Ultra Recon Squad was in possession of similar devices, it seemed that they were much more readily available here. 

“Well, how am I supposed to know? I don’t know anything about your ‘pokedex’,” Her lips pursed as she briefly brought her free hand up, a gesture similar to a shrug back in Ultra Megalopolis, before bringing it back down to the holographic screen. “Maybe the information it gives you has to be written by someone else first? I don’t think everybody knows about Ultra Beasts…”

Miss Lusamine had told them that it was “too sensitive” to reveal to the general public yet, but Zossie didn’t agree. What was so sensitive about informing the Alolan people of creatures who fell down here who needed to go back home? Besides, it would have meant that the current situation had less talking and more walking.

With her focus directed towards pulling up the necessary information on Nihilego, the girl didn’t notice the expression on Kakios’s face. His tone and choice of words, however, was noted with some distaste.

“You don’t have to ‘have at it’, you just have to catch it with a Beast Ball…no one needs to get hurt here, alright?” She began to recite from the report on her screen, awkward pauses punctuating her sentences as she translated her native language to English. “Nihilego has been classified as a Rock-Poison type. It produces a strong neurotoxin that can be absorbed through skin contact, which induces delirium and strong feelings of aggression in its hosts. Generally, the use of water and harsh light is able to stun a Nihilego should it attack you.”

She took a deep breath as she looked back up, grabbing at the Trainer’s arm and tugging it to emphasize her point, if her slurred-to-the-point-of-intelligibility words weren’t enough.

“Nowcanwegotothis‘cape’place? Itneedsourhelp!”

“Most all Trainers have one,” Kakios replied, clearly exasperated.  He wasn’t about to push the issue any further though.  It irritated him and he didn’t get it, so it was better to just brush it off and move onto the important things.  Not having a PokéDex... or knowing what one was was’t liable to actually cause any real trouble... for now.  

Without waiting for a reply– time was of the essence after all!– Lyra and Togo made their way over the barrier and landed on the narrow strip of soil just over the other side. She cast a quick glance back when the stranger and his Noivern flashed in her peripheral and offered a wave before turning back to the given path. She kinda wanted to stay behind and marvel at that awesome-looking Kalos-native Pokemon, buuuut she had more important things to do right now!

“Hey, Azu! Give us a hand, will ya?” From her satchel strap came another burst of light, but this time, an Azumarill was suddenly floating in the water beside them. “We’re lookin’ for an off-color Amaura, okay? See if you can find her in the water just in case!” Confident the trio could keep eyes in all possible places the Pokemon might have wandered off to, Lyra began to half-jog half-walk down the river bank in search of the missing hatchling.

As soon as they were over the wall, Kakios dismounted Fol, patted her side, and sent her off to look for Nox.

“Understand?  We’re just looking for Nox.  I’ll let you fly around properly later but I don’t need two of you getting lost on me,” he stated with a rather nasty glare.  The idea of having to go off to look for the young dragon as well made him irritated, and he’d much rather she stay put until he could find somewhere to stay that she would come back to.  The Noivern spat at him but, seemed like she’d listen as she took off for upstream.

Much to Kakios’s defense, many had trouble reading Petra’s demeanor due to her generally stoic nature and monotone voice. Perhaps Petra should be more careful, but she also wanted to see the good in others. It was pure naivety, but that was just the kind of girl she was. Though it was rare for Hobs to be the more sensible of the two, this was one of the few cases. Petra didn’t really have to hold on to him now as he refused to leave her alone with this guy. Hobs kept his eyes on the guy as he clung to Petra’s side.

Petra nodded, “Alright. I’m more than happy to help you.”

Though she had traveled quite a bit, there was no place she knew better than her home region. So, helping someone else get around wasn’t anything too difficult for her. If it was another region, she’d have to consult her map, but Hoenn was different.

“O-Oh, an Alola to you! What’s a Pokedex?”

At the sudden voice, Zossie would hurriedly turn around and perform the traditional Alolan greeting, albeit a more rectangular version, on instinct. Sudden voices and touches were the norm in Ultra Megalopolis, where practically everybody knew one another, but experiencing it in a foreign world was unexpected, to say the least.

“Woah! It’s pretty!”

Still, a smile would quickly replace her look of confusion as she reached out for the red device, gently tugging the screen towards herself to get a better look. Wearing the protective visor did shield her sensitive eyes from the harsh rays of the Alolan sun, but it did tend to make everything, well, darker. So much so that the girl’s eyes would be drawn to the vibrant red (a rare sight!) of the device before anything else, before her gaze settled on the screen. Was a Pokedex another word for camera, she wondered.

Huh. The image quality wasn’t all that good, but she could make out a few details. Let’s see….white in colour, many limbs, oh hey that frill does look famili-

“That- That’s a - Hey mister, where did you see this Nihilego?!”

The photo, although blurry, was unmistakably, unmistakably one of the more troublesome Ultra Beasts. Not very intelligent, nor dangerous when alone. But if it had managed to infect the local fauna then time was of the essence. Pulling herself away from the image, Zossie moved her attention towards the Trainer, as she tapped a button on the Aura Reader mounted on her left wrist.

“Are you good at battling, mister?” Zossie asked, speaking very quickly. “Nihilego is not from here, it needs to be captured immediately before it can harm anyone or itself!”

“A PokéDex registers Pokémon and gives you informaition on one.  Like a digital field guide.  You mean to tell me you’ve never seen one?”  Kakios just stared at the other for a moment and sighed.  “I can battle better than most,” Kakios replied, tugging his PokéDev back and shoving it away in a pocket.  “Or at least enough to make enough of a living off of it.”  So this person recognized the creature?  And it was... what a Ni-... Nihilego?  He was going to forget that one for sure.  “Why, is it strong?”  The idea of a strong opponent, regardless of if it was Wild or not, got his blood pumping.  “I saw it at the cape about a half-hour back.  Though if it was something strong, I should have just had at it.”  He was regretting not taking the initiative now.  The creature hadn’t seen him, but maybe if it had a proper fight would have ensued.  Should he have Valefor fly him back?  Hmm...  But she was getting a bit fed up.  Barbaros wasn’t much of an option either because Kakios refused to show him off outside of a League battle.  Then a though recurred to him.