Chapter 7 – Helping Hand

I'd woken up to the crawling sense that someone had done something that I needed to clean up, only to find that feeling get sideswiped by something else. A white room with white walls, a white ceiling, and a white floor greeted my eyes as they cracked open, and for a moment, I was six years old and terrified.

After a brief moment of freak out – where am I? Who am I? Where did this dog come from? –, the rest of my brain finally booted up.

Right. Orre, Pokémon lab, different universe, still me, maybe a different me, and the Houndour I'd curled up around had come from a hole in the ground.

"What time is it?" I asked the Fire-type.

The Houndour gave me a look. "Rowlnnn."

"I just woke up, it takes me a little bit to remember all the junk that's going on."

The look turned from 'why do you think I have a watch?' to 'how are you an adult?' with only the slightest change of expression.

Great, even the devil dog is judging me. I'd be madder if I wasn't judging myself.

I sighed as I straightened my back, popping the vertebrae back into place as I went through the process of clearing the cobwebs. Scratching behind the closest Pokémon's ears helped a little and, from the lack of snarling, the Houndour wasn't complaining about it either.

I'd make a joke about being the Pokémon Whisperer, but honestly, I would have probably messed it up somewhere between thinking and the speaking. I'd never been good at that part.

"You wanna stay in here or come out with me?" I asked before more information clicked into place. "Oh right. You don't like people that much right now, do you? That's why you're in here. That way everyone has the space they need."

It glanced to the side. "Rn."

"Someday, you might have the appropriate amount of surliness for your size, but that day is not today." I started to switch from the slow deliberate scratches to a rougher ruffle of fur, but the Houndour stiffened right as my tempo started to shift and I pulled my hand back. "I'll be back to hang out with you later, okay? Bring some food, maybe take you out for a walk. This isn't exactly a happy room."

The Pokémon's expression screamed 'no shit, Sherlock' without having an understanding of human literature to go behind it.

I shrugged before rising up to my feet, stretching out as I went. The fact that an all-over low level pain wasn't my baseline reality anymore was amazing, even three days after the fact. No joints were popping in and out of place, no nerves setting themselves on fire just because they could, no muscles that felt like they were bound up tighter than the average guitar string, and there was no burning in the gaps in my spinal column or hands. Sure, I still had a headache, but that was mostly a 'there's too much going on' headache rather than any purely structural damage.

Christ, no wonder some people were so peppy all the goddamn time, if they felt this good every day.

I stepped out of the room, the pneumatic hiss of the door closing behind me almost lost in the dull hum of activity around the lab. The buzz of florescent lights at work, mostly, though there were other small noises that ran the gamut of possibilities from electronics to Pokémon.

Speaking of which…

A Trapinch was making a slow trek across the floor, pausing long enough to glance at me. "Crrnnch."

"Good morning to you too, cutie bug."

For a bug with a mouth like a hacksaw, its smile was very adorable. "Rnncha!" it chirped happily before it went back to its travels. If it wasn't interrupted, it might make the front door in an hour or so. If it ever evolved, the same trip would become a journey of seconds. Just another example of the wonders of Pokémon.

As my brain went through its regular wake-up process, I tried to figure out what time it was.

The sun had been up for a while, though I wouldn't say it was any later than 10 o'clock from the angle of the yellow light spilling across the floor. The fact that the overhead lights were on at all… well, maybe power conservation wasn't such a big deal. After all, between the wind farm in town, the solar panels most people had installed in their roofs, and the odd help from an Electric-type, it wasn't like electricity had much of a price tag attached.

Still, it annoyed the part of me that had grown up in a world where everything had a price. It was careless, a financially and environmentally irresponsible expenditure of precious resource. If it didn't needed to be on, it shouldn't be.

Pushing back that buzz of discontentment, I continued my walk to the main lab and found everyone gathered around a table. And on that table, amid all the papers and electronic detritus, sat the Snag Machine.

It was different than I remembered it being. It was less clunky, for one, and infinitely more obviously 'prototype' in its appearance, but there was obviously enough of a physical resemblance to what I remembered from the slightly blocky Gamecube graphics that my brain had made the connection instantly.

"Now, I know what they say about 'once being an accident and twice being a coincidence'," Professor Acacia was saying. "But with this I'm inclined to jump right to enemy action at the second mark because if this 'Cipher' is actively distributing these Shadow Pokémon, it's only a matter of time before we find number three."

This is it. This is where the 'tutorial' ends and the real shit starts. This is where I cross the Rubicon. I forced a smile as I stepped into the room, my boots making muffled thumps against the linoleum. "Starting the party without me? For shame."

"Maybe you should try for a human sleep pattern," the professor shot back with more energy than his sleep deprived appearance implied. Had he even tried to go to bed last night? I doubted it.

"We were just discussing what to do about this Shadow Pokémon situation," Eagun said, looking miles better though I knew from experience that the Aura master never gave away things like exhaustion until it was enough to send a lesser man sprawling to the ground.

"I didn't know we had much choice in it."

"We don't," Wes replied. His arms were folded over each other and it was more than obvious that he didn't want to be here.

"Well, if you don't want to do it, far be it from me to drag you into it," I informed him. "I've got no problem running solo on this if you'd rather –"

"I'm not chickening out!" the teen yelled, slamming his hands down on the table hard enough to rattle the plexiglas. "I just happen to be the one person here who has a pretty good idea of what we're up against! Forget Team Snagem; Cipher's got money, resources, and connections I couldn't begin to list. They've got enough pull to hire hundreds and we've got a sum total of… what? Six people? Yeah, six people and maybe twelve to sixteen Pokémon between them."

"And a Snag Machine," I added, nodding towards the black and red arm cover on the table.

Wes grit his teeth. "And a Snag Machine, though I have no fucking idea how you know what it is just by looking at it. Yeah, that levels the table a little bit, at least until the cops get on our asses about stealing Pokémon."

"I believe that I can help in that regard," Eagun said. Everyone turned to look at him and he reached up to flick a few stray strands of long silvery hair behind his ear. "With the size of the regions police force being… well, what it is, Sherles is flexible enough to take whatever help he can get. My recommendation will only help in swaying his decision. So long as you inform him of our concerns and what information we have currently, he would be more than willing to give us the necessary leeway… though any further aid beyond keeping his ear to the ground with regards to Cipher would be unlikely."

"There's also the problem of getting the trainers to surrender the Pokémon," Acacia added. "You've been lucky, finding the released Houndour and the last trainer you encountered being… less than concerned about retaining ownership of his Furret, but actively moving into illegal activity is not something that will help us."

Wes shifted slightly uncomfortably at that and I found myself wondering how deep his criminal past went. Did he have a record or just some dread feeling settling over his shoulder that told him that getting into this mess was just begging his old Team to come hunt him down?

"So, it sounds like we have like… seventy to eighty percent of a plan." Which is about thirty percent more than I usually come up with on my own, though I wouldn't be telling anyone that. My own primary concern was on how the hell to give therapy to the Legendaries I knew the higher-ups had on hand. "So that just leaves the question of who will bell the cat."

"What?"

"Who's gets to be the idiot to go do the dangerous shit," I repeated, looking around the table. The professor and Eagun were right out, but that still left three other people. "Besides me. Do I have any backup idiots? Anyone? Any takers?"

"Fine!" Wes said with a disgusted tone that made it vague if his acceptance was because of my chatter or not. "Might as well go with you, seeing as you don't know jack about the Snag Machine."

"I'm smarter than I look; I could probably figure it out," I replied, picking up the hand part of the machine in question. Little bit of fiddling, some random button pushing… actually, it was probably better that Wes handle it for now. Then I could figure out the controls via observation in the event that something went to hell.

Eagun pushed himself away from the table, the action serving as a signal for his apprentice to follow. "Unfortunately, I won't be able to stay here to assist you. I've been away from Agate Village long enough as it is and I should be taking Rui back –"

"I'm staying to help."

That turned the Aura guardian's head. "What?"

Rui's stance shifted into something that almost looked combat worthy. Some trick for a fourteen year old girl who was wearing pink Uggs and a jean jacket with fluffy wool lining. "I can't just sit here and pretend this isn't happening, Grandpa. I've seen what's been done to these Pokémon," she said. "And I've proven that I'm strong enough to take a Pokémon journey on my own. Going with Delaine and Wes is safer than that, bad guys or not."

I wasn't going to point out how many things were wrong with that sentence. Even I didn't know exactly what had been done to the Pokémon to make them go Shadow, but I had a pretty good idea of the gulf in relative safety between Rui's trip through Unova and the mess we were about to throw ourselves into.

So what I had left was a compromise.

"How about after we take that look around Pyrite, we stop by Agate Village and give you an update, Eagun?" I offered, drawing everyone's attention back to me again. Ignoring the immediate spike in my discomfort, I continued. "That way, if it turns out that being out on the front line is too extreme for Rui, she can switch to helping from the sidelines."

"You're not getting rid of me–"

"It's not getting rid of you! It's just… giving you an out if things end up being too dangerous, alright?" I wasn't really into the idea of dragging her into this in the first place, but this was the best I could do to strike a balance between keeping her safe and not trampling over her feelings.

Obviously, it wasn't that good a balance, especially where Rui was concerned. "You're treating me like a child!"

You are a child. When I was fourteen, the right series of stresses shoved into a short period of time could leave me crying in a heap for half a day, and that was without having to take on the task of smashing a criminal syndicate backed up by the power of preternatural pocket monsters.

Before I could make good on my impulse to just leave and let someone else resolve the situation, Wes of all people jumped in. "Look. I know what this Team is like," he said. "There is a good chance that they will try to kill anyone they suspect of being involved in this, and your… whatever the hell she is, doesn't want to drag you into it."
"You think I don't know that? They kidnapped me right off the street! If not for you and Delaine, I probably would have been dead by now," Rui snapped. "As much as you seem to think so, I'm not stupid."

Running seemed like a really good idea just about now, seeing as my ideal solution of 'leave this reality' wasn't a viable escape option and my impulse to punch her out for using that word with that emphasis was inherently wrong. Unfortunately, 'good idea' didn't exactly mean 'actual useable solution to this problem' in most situations.

That didn't stop me from doing it anyway.

"Whatever," I finally ground out, the edges of the words roughed up from shoving them past the lump in my throat. No crying, no flipping out, no nothing. "Just sayin' the door's open if you change your mind. Welcome to the party, yadda yadda yadda, try not to get killed." As I walked to the door, I gave a small pause to look back at everyone. "I'm going to home to grab some stuff and tell my mom about this whole thing. Don't do anything stupid without me."

As soon as I was out of eyeshot and heading back towards town – without my bike, which I couldn't go back for just yet because that would ruin my exit and offer someone the chance to drag me back in –, I tried and failed to let the tension out of my body.

I'd never been good with people. That was a fact universal, seeing as it had carried over to this life despite having a parent who actually saw and treated me as a human being. Social situations stressed me out, which is probably why I preferred animals. At least the nuances there followed certain themes and the social rules were a lot more obvious, even if I didn't necessarily speak the same language.

People though. I'd never quite spoken the same language as them, either thanks to my brain design or – at least in the context of my first life – my entire experience with them being immediate family members, people at school, or anyone who just happened to be anywhere my dad decided to drag me.

It was a short list, and I couldn't say that much of it proved a positive experience, seeing as the fact that I was checking off half the boxes on abuse at home and at school I was the poor, scarred, and easily riled kid which in turn meant that I was on the short list of acceptable targets the day I walked into kindergarten, a status that lasted until I graduated high school.

End result; a person with a skewed sense of proportion, unusual and occasional irrational reactions to seemingly random shit, and a set of emotions that were still healing from the repeated metaphorical flayings they received over the years.

The anger issues were easy enough to guess, seeing as me getting pissed at something or other was a weekly – daily, if life was taking a particularly shitty bent – occurrence, but there were other things. Crying at the drop of a hat, a deeply seated self-loathing, and a taste for righteous retribution were just the most obvious ones I could name. My first response to frustrations being to use my fists or some other form of violence and my instinctual distrust of authority figures were a bit harder to pick out, if only because I made an effort to pull back on them whenever they showed up.

I sighed, kicking a rock down the road. Any good mood that had come with waking up and interacting with Pokémon was long gone, as well as the anger that had followed it, leaving behind only tiredness.

"Yaay, depression."

One of my Pokéballs twitched, reminding me that, while they might be out of sight, my Pokémon still had an awareness of what I was doing.

I released Leven, the Rowlet flapping a little in surprise before it descended to the ground, shaking its round body until its feathers settled back into place.

"Whiiir?" it asked with a curious head tilt.

"I'm fine," I replied. "Just… tired."

"Chuff."

I offered up a weak smile. My starter was a good Pokémon, one that had stayed by my side for years. So what if it had never evolved? It was the closest thing I had to a best friend, despite the language barrier, and I was more likely to start a hand-to-hand brawl than a Pokémon battle, so what difference did it really make in the end?

Of course, the Rowlet didn't know what had happened to me. I'd hidden all signs of unfamiliarity and settled into a cover of convenience. But was it really fair to let Leven's loyalty be abused like that? Could I be just as good as a trainer as the me native to those world was, even while dragging all my emotional baggage along behind me?

If Leven was a human, I probably couldn't have told it. As much as I didn't understand my own kind, I'd know the look of despair too intimately not to feel it myself.

But… "I suppose I should catch you up on my situation," I said, dragging my hand back through my hair before gesturing for the Rowlet to hop up on my shoulder. Then, once the Flying-type was secure, I started walking again, spilling my story along the way.

Delora hadn't really ever expected this day to come. The fact that no-one but those who could afford to travel took Pokémon journeys was one of the few reliable things about Orre and she'd come to rely on it more than she should have. Was it wrong to depend on her daughter for human affection? Probably, but Delaine was safe and reliable in ways that most of her past relationships weren't. After all, while men could come and go and friends might move away, children didn't wander far.

Except there was an additional clause to the last statement that she'd forgotten until Delaine walked in through the front door, looking a decade older and infinitely more tired than she had when she last left. Not in that her daughter was physical older; no, there was no difference there, no sudden growth spurt or presence of wrinkles. But the eyes. The eyes were tired, almost what she would call world-weary.

Children didn't wander far. But eventually they stopped being children and after then, all bets were off.

"I'm not staying for long," Delaine said without preamble or prompting as she passed Delora and made for the stairs.

"What–?"

Delora followed her daughter up the stairs. Delaine was digging through the various piles of mess in her room, collecting a selection of objects that was all too telling of what she was planning on doing next. Pokéballs, potions, ethers, and other Pokémon care items joined her laptop and other assorted items in her bag as she threw everything else to the side to make a new pile.

She was reminded of an old habit of her daughter's from when she first started easing into her messy habits and, though she couldn't hear her saying anything now, she could hear a smaller child chanting 'Dig Dug, Dig Dug' as she made her way through the piles of discarded clothing and books in quest for one specific item.

"And where are you going?"

Her daughter didn't stop, instead moving to another part of the room in her search for supplies, no cute chant accompanying her along the way. "Someone's abusing Pokémon," she finally explained. "A whole Team of someones."

"Snagem?"
"Bigger than them. More dangerous too."
"Why can't someone else handle it then?"

Delaine stopped and turned around slowly to look her mother in the eye. "Because the other option is two fourteen year old kids trying to do it alone and you know I can't do that."

What– oh. "Rui's mixed up in this?" Delora asked.

Delaine grimaced. There had apparently been some argument about that earlier, one that her daughter had lost. "Yeah, and she won't un-mix herself from it either. And I'm not letting her rush into danger with only a fourteen year old boy as backup."

No. Fourteen year olds, while occasionally capable enough on their own, still lacked the experience that age gave. Delaine wasn't much older, but she was still ahead of them by a not inconsiderable margin and she did have a bit of training to back experience up.

"How bad is it?"

"Very. Professor Acacia could give you a better sense of the scale, but I can tell you that it's shitty enough that our first stop is informing Chief Sherles down in Pyrite Town," Delaine replied as she stood up and straightened the strap of her bag and checked how well her Pokégear was attached to its side. "Anyway, I left my motorcycle at the Lab, so I gotta get going."

Before her daughter could get to her door, Delora lunged and wrapped her arms around her, ignoring the way the girl stiffened in response. "Stay safe."

Stay safe.

What an odd thing to be bothered by, yet here I was, bothered. I had almost forgotten to grab some Pokéblocks from the kitchen to take to the Houndour I'd been working with, that's how badly my mother was able to shake me with all of two words.

Probably because they weren't ones I was used to hearing in my last life. Most of what I got was 'see you later', 'tomorrow then?', or even the semi-formal 'goodbye'. Even my friends weren't too invested in the abstract of my safety, mostly because I was the unkillable one, who could tank everything from bullets to stomach flu.

Of course, considering that only one of them really stuck around after high school, I probably shouldn't have been disappointed in the first place.

Leven hooted into my ear, breaking me out of my oncoming depressive down spiral.

I gave the Owl Pokémon a sidelong glance. "How come you're the reasonable one in this relationship?"

"Whr."

I laughed, the sudden movement of my head sending Barbara clawing for a better grip on my head. While the exact meaning of 'Whr' might have eluded me, my Aura sense could give me the approximate shape of it and how the Rowlet felt about what it had said, which in this case was 'witty retort that the bird was very smug about'.

After that, the laughter was simply infectious.

"I see you're in a better mood," Eagun said. He was walking down the dirt path to town with Sorcha, the apprentice walking their bike rather than riding it. The fact that I'd failed to notice either of them until they were literally ten feet away from me either spoke to my previous funk or the dulling of my skills.

"I'm guessing you couldn't talk Rui out of it," I said, noticing the lack of a redhead in their group.

"She's stubborn. Common enough inheritance in our family," he replied with a shrug. Despite his outer casualness, there was a tension in his bearing that betrayed his real feelings on the subject. "I do feel better knowing that you'll be looking after her."

Huh. Weird. "Well, she's pretty much family," I said, looking off into the trees to avoid any chance of eye contact. "Don't think I could live with myself if something happened to her that I could have prevented."

Eagun looked at me for a moment, almost like that statement surprised him, before shaking his head. "Anyway, once your investigation turns something up, I expect you to come to Agate Village posthaste. You remember where I live."

Hard to forget a house that was just as much tree as it was human construct. I gave him a basic wave that was little better than me raising my hand above my shoulder. "Drive safe."

The Aura master nodded and that was the end of the conversation. Ten minutes after that, I 'watched' their Aura signatures make a short stop in Chrysoprase before properly departing five minutes later. Eagun had probably felt a resupply was in order. He was careful like that.

Me? I was some schizophrenic blend of 'careful' and 'reckless'. Anxiety did that, pushing you to procrastinate and over prepare until the part of you who had decided on doing the thing in the first place screamed 'JUST FUCKING DO IT ALREADY' and compelled you to take a flying leap out the window without benefit of rappelling cord or parachute.

I mean, I hadn't done that, but given the level of situation I was about to get myself into, I wouldn't be surprised if one or more kinds of defenestration were in my future.

Finally reaching Acacia's lab, I opened the door and – without any real attention paid to the people in the front room – went back to the Houndour's containment room.

The Dark-type's head shot up as I opened the door, its Aura flaring in surprise as it recognized me.

"What? I said I'd come back and when I make a promise, I do my best to keep it," I said, sitting down on the floor. I gestured to the Pokémon clinging to my head and shoulders. "This is Leven, this is Barbara."

The Noibat chittered at the Houndour, prompting the canid Pokémon to make a literal bitch face.

"Alright, back in the ball," I decided before recalling Barbara, though Leven stayed out. I scratched the back of my head. "Anyway, I thought that you could use a little company besides me – which I will now acknowledge as being more than a little presumptuous as I do not know your mind – though I hope that the food I brought will make up a little for the mistake."

With that, I pulled some Pokéblocks and kibble out of my bag, laying out a selection. "Now, seeing as I'm not familiar with your preferences, I grabbed a selection of different fla–"

The pile of spicy Pokéblocks abruptly disappeared beneath a small black and white body.

"-vors," I finished as the Houndour destroyed that section to the exclusion of all else. It licked its chops before looking over to me with an expectant expression.

"That was all the spicy ones I had, bud."

The Houndour brought out its best puppy dog eyes.

"I don't have any more of that kind," I explained again as I started putting the rest away.

A plaintive whine joined the display.

"I cannot pull Pokéblocks out of the aether, my dude."

The Houndour pulled out the big guns to paw at my leg, nudging my side with its nose while not once letting the whine or puppy dog eyes drop.

"I would if I could, but my superpowers are limited to sensing and punching."

The whine climbed to a pitiable wail, which brought Acacia to the room.

"Problems?" he asked.

"Someone ate all the treats they liked and are now Very Upset about the fact," I replied as the Houndour kept sobbing into my side. As soon as I said that, it gathered itself… exclusively for the purpose of nipping me with its teeth. "Hey, watch the pointy," I warned the Pokémon. "Making a person bleed makes them disinclined to bring you treats, you know."

The whine returned, but with a distinctly sarcastic edge. I barely needed Aura to know that it was calling me a whiner.

"Hey, you're the one who's crying over eating all the goodies," I pointed out before turning my attention back to Professor Acacia. "Anyway, was there something you needed me to do? Besides the whole evil Team smashing thing."

Acacia snorted before throwing something at me. I grabbed it and found a Pokéball in my hand. "Well, considering how well you're doing with that Pokémon," he explained in response to my raised eyebrow. "I figure you might as well take it with you. Keep up what progress you've made on the road."

I looked down at the Houndour and then back up at the Professor. "You sure that's a good idea?"

As if to highlight the point, the Houndour bit me again. Not hard enough to draw blood – not that it could, if I cared to put my Aura training to use – but enough to reinforce the fact that we weren't exactly besties.

Not that I was surprised, what with what I knew about its background and my own track record with the dogs in my past life. Only two or three that I'd ever been around with any regularity had been trained not to attack people and only three of the remaining category weren't trained at all.

"Yeah, I do. I've seen worse rapports and I'd rather not see the little one backslide," the Professor said, folding his arms as he leaned against the doorframe. "So, are you going to do it or what?"

I sighed before looking down at the Houndour again. It wasn't exactly a small creature, coming in at a hair over two feet high and a few scant inches from being level with the middle of my thigh. That was odd, considering I'd always pictured them as being smaller. Probably because they'd always registered in my head as 'puppies'.

This wasn't a puppy, unless it was the puppy that would eventually turn into the Hound of the Baskervilles. Still, I had to remember that this was an intelligent creature, one that had been treated poorly in the past to extents I probably didn't have the vocabulary to articulate.

"Well?" I asked the Houndour. "What do you think?"

The Pokémon looked taken aback by the option… or by the fact that I was offering it.

"It's your life," I explained, forcing down my immediate impulse to voice my incredulousness. "Should fall to you how you go through it. Of course, I expect us to work together if we're on the same team, but it's your choice whether or not you wish to join in the first place."

The Houndour considered my offer silently for a few minutes before turning away.

I shrugged before standing up. "Fair enough." Turning to face Professor Acacia, I handed the Pokéball back. "I'll check in again after Pyrite. For now, maybe you could try therapy with the pack, see if that'll help bring the little guy out of that shell."

The professor didn't look happy I'd given up so easily, but eventually he just shrugged. "Like you said, it was the Pokémon's choice whether or not it wanted to work with you. Anyway, make sure to make a comprehensive report so I have some actual data to work with when you come back."

I nodded as I moved into the hallway, sparing a glance back at the Houndour. "See you later then."

It gave me a look before jerking its head around to stare at the far wall of the isolation room. Well, it wasn't perfect, but it felt like progress, so I'd take it. After all, things would only get more complicated the more Shadow Pokémon we acquired and not just because we'd be getting attention from the wrong sort of people.

Wes and Rui were waiting outside, Rui having already commandeered the passenger car on Wes's monster of a motorcycle. Ah, so I was still on her shit list. Fair enough.

I tossed Wes the spare helmet I kept for her, surprising the teen with the action. "Make sure she wears it," I told him. "Ready to get this show on the road?"

"I was ready yesterday," Wes replied.

I nodded as I hopped onto my bike. Then let my mask of confidence drop with a sigh. Yes, I thought to myself as I slid a pair of Go-Goggles over my eyes and started my bike this adventure was going to be fun.

Author's Notes

Ugh. Life tough, brain hurt, but I've got a copy of Ultra Sun coming my way, a code for a Celebi looming on the horizon, a whole bunch of older Pokémon games (Colosseum and XD included) I can play through and then trade between to get so many Legendary (just need Emerald and a whole lot of patience to get that Shiny Rayquaza), and actual progress on my whole disability case thing is finally happening so the future is looking okay.

Anyway, thank you for your kind messages regarding my hiatus. Just a… lot of stuff was happening at once and having to open up a lot of past trauma – literally years of abuse from my father, step-mother, half-sister, and schoolmates – didn't help. Updates on this story will probably still be a little slow as I've mostly been getting muse for other projects – mostly related to Chains Adventurous, so that's good – and life has been busy, but hopefully I will start advancing on the story and going back to edit previous chapters for quality and continuity errors. I've been doing the same with Dimensions In Time, so I know it's a good idea.

A few sections of this chapter saw a couple do-overs (Delora's was initial present with a Dusk-type Lycanroc that I mean to work in – might happen in edits down the line – but then I was like 'eeeeh' and deleted it, only to bring it back, probably a little worse than before) and false starts, but I eventually squeezed it out.

I am planning on having the Houndour join, but I think that I should focus on the characters already in the main party (humans and Pokémon) before bringing another into the fray. This was decided because I realized that I'd been ignoring Leven almost entirely and not really doing anything with Barbara either.

I've come up with some more worldbuilding for Orre (probably will show up later and also in edits) which is something I'll continue to work on.

Anyway, that's all the updates I have right now, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter.