Celadon City had changed a lot since the last time Henry had seen it.

Fortunately, he had Espeon with him. Otherwise, he would have had a hard time explaining why he did not know his way around the area in which he supposedly lived.

("We're not being followed, but we are being watched,") said Espeon. ("Try to look casual.")

Henry entered the Rocket Game Corner and nodded to the clerk. He nodded back and Henry approached the poster hiding the secret entrance.

("Price isn't here,") said Espeon. ("It's not an ambush. We're just earlier than expected.")

That was deliberate. If he could have Price come to him, he could force the confrontation in public, away from anywhere he could easily be jumped by more trainers than he could tackle all at once. He got a drink out of a vending machine and took it outside, sat on a bench and gave Espeon an inviting pat on the space next to him.

("Maria is inside,") she reported to him. ("Should I say hello on your behalf?")

Henry shrugged. "It's up to you." He paused for a moment, then smirked and rubbed the top of her head. "But if you do, tell her 'Happy Mother's Day. It was a boy'."

Espeon mulled that over. She appeared to curl up next to him and shut her eyes, but a shimmer off of her third eye made it apparent that she was awake and had telepathically relayed Henry's message.

("Here comes Price,") said Espeon. ("He was hoping to arrive early too.")

Henry smirked, reached his arm around Espeon and scratched under her chin, with the hopeful intent that it would look like he had been there much longer than in reality.

Price rounded the corner and stopped when he saw Henry. Henry looked up and nodded to him.

"Where's Tracy?" he asked.

"The message was addressed to one 'pyroar porking prick' and no one else," said Henry. "Tracy is back in Alola, trying to catch an Ultra Beast in the one and only Beast Ball we could acquire." He stood up. "So this had damn well better be good."

Price clenched his teeth and exhaled deep through his nose. Then, to Henry's surprised, he turned around and nodded for him to follow.

"Come," he muttered.

Henry raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Not for their ears. Let's talk some place. . . Public."

----------

Back in Unova, Tracy had come to a difficult decision.

"In Alola, we were attacked by a trainer named Zach Santillana," she said before a packed habitat. "He had lost Pokemon to the Ultra Beast we failed to capture, which we ended up rescuing and taking in consolation. He tracked us to our hideout with intent to kill, and so we put him down."

Tera waddled up beside her. She poked her head into his beak and came out with a trainer's belt with four Poke Balls held between her teeth.

"These are his Pokemon," she continued. "And since Mr. Santillana will not be returning for them, they are a part of our family now."

She set the belt on the floor and pressed all four of them to open. "Brace yourselves."

From the belt emerged Purrloin, Mienshao, Type: Null and Mewtwo, in that order to gasps in increasing volume.

The first three looked around, confused. Mewtwo turned directly to Tracy.

("Where is he?") he demanded. ("Where is my trainer?")

Tracy shook her head. "He's not here. He's gone."

Some of the others began to back away as Mewtwo started to glow. ("If you think I will bow to you, or anyone else-")

He didn't finish the sentence. A flash of Tracy's eyes and he collapsed under the force of her Extrasensory attack.

"Mewtwo? Think long and hard about this," said Tracy. "Would we have let you out if we thought you posed any threat?"

Mewtwo looked up from the ground, his eyes wide at Tracy. Zangoose came up behind him and gave him a pat on the head.

"You're under-levelled," she told him. "It's against the law to create a synthetic Pokemon above the 'baby' level, and your last trainer evidently didn't, you know, TRAIN you very much beyond that point."

As Mewtwo struggled to stand, Tera pattered over towards a now very nervous Mienshao. "Can we presume that you're the proverbial senior officer?" he asked.

She nodded. "I. . . I have participated in Elite Four challenges in the past." She shrugged. "I didn't win any, but-"

"Don't worry about that." He gave one of her elongated arms a nuzzle. "In fact, don't worry about anything. All we ask is that you try to get along with everyone."

Mienshao eventually reached one of her arms up to gently rub along the top of his beak, to which Tera purred to her and nuzzled up into it.

("Stay away from him Mienshao. He's the one.")

Mienshao froze. "Pardon?"

("I've been scanning memories since I was released. And they agree: The pelipper saw our trainer last, and is the only one who could have killed him.")

All eyes fell on Tera, who, for his part, responded to the accusation with a smirk.

"And what does the pelipper know about the whereabouts of your trainer?"

Mewtwo glared, but did not answer. Tera grinned.

"Tell you what? If you can relax, stay here out of trouble, and not pick any fights, I'll tell you what happened to Zach Santillana. Does that sound like a fair-"

He stopped when Purrloin pounced and sank her claws into his butt.

"I got a better deal," said Purrloin. "You tell us where our trainer is, and I won't-"

She too was cut off by Pyroar grabbing her right by the scruff. Purrloin's natural instinct to go limp only kicked in for a second, but that was all she needed to disarm the situation.

"Aww, don't be greedy," Purugly teased. "We already let you have both of the humans."

Mienshao, Mewtwo and Type: Null all turned their heads at that. "The what-now?" said Mienshao.

Tera chuckled. "We're an odd family, but we're still a family. And you're welcome to be a part of it if you so choose."

Mewtwo's eyes narrowed.

("You killed him.")

The room went silent. Tera's head slowly turned back towards Mewtwo.

"What?!" he blurted. "No! Where would you even-"

("I don't know how you hid or erased your memory of what precisely you did with Zach,") said Mewtwo. ("But I do know your conscience is not clean.")

Tera's eyes widened, then narrowed.

He said nothing. He walked backwards, maintaining a glare towards Mewtwo as he stepped outside, then turned his back, spread his wings and flew off.

All eyes, all wide, turned to Mewtwo. He crossed his arms and turned his gaze towards Tracy.

("You can't hide the truth forever,") said Mewtwo. ("But for now, I will play along.")

He hovered himself over to a corner, behind the spiral staircase where there were no windows, crossed his legs, hovered himself in a meditation pose, and became still.

Until then, that had been Lucy's hiding place. She scooted away against the wall and found her way up beside Tracy.

"That's the most upset I've seen him. . . Ever," said Tracy.

"He. . . He didn't go far," Lucy whispered. "He's just up on the roof." She shrugged. "Maybe. . . Maybe he just needs some alone time?"

"Well, he has my daughter with him. . . But I guess in his case, that counts as alone."

She glanced over at Type: Null. "Does that helmet make it difficult to talk?" Type: Null nodded. "My friend Lucy," she said with a nod. "You two should get along just fine."

----------

Somehow, Henry ended up following Price to Celadon City Hall of all places. There were hundreds of people out front, but a pathway circling the whole building gave them a great deal of privacy off to the side. Price found a picnic table at a comfortable distance from the path, had a seat and motioned for Henry to sit across.

"If you're harboring any ambitions -- any delusions -- of moving up the ranks, forget it," said Henry. "Take out your rivals the old fashioned way and leave me-"

"Oh cut the crap Henry!" Price blurted out. "I already know you're working with Glo-Pol!"

A long, uncomfortable silence followed, durring which Henry didn't even blink.

"If you're accusing me of betraying the Team," Henry finally muttered through clenched teeth, "you had damn well better be able to substantiate-"

"I said cut the crap!" he shouted again. "I've been working on this for years and I know it's you because you're the only one left in this entire Team that I have NOT already ruled out!"

He cupped his hands over his mouth and took a deep breath. "But you know what? You know what Henry? Right now, I don't care." He folded his hands across the table. "I don't care that I've had to bail my best team out of jail three times-"

"Well if they're that bad at not getting caught, you can hardly call them your best-"

"Shut up. I don't care that you always let the legendary Pokemon get away, I don't care that you've consistently drained your venture allowance month after month even though you apparently prefer to work with rocks and sticks-"

Henry shrugged. "As opposed to giant mechs that blow up when they overheat?"

"Shut up." He shook his head. "I don't care that our female Pokemon have a tendency to *ahem* be found holding eggs whenever you visit. I don't even care that our Zamazenta clone somehow got swapped out for a magikarp right before its scheduled presentation."

Henry started tapping his index finger on the table. "That's an awful lot to be laying all on just one man. Not sure if I should be insulted or flattered right now." Then he smirked. "Did you just make that last one up hoping I'd let it slip by saying 'Hey, that one REALLY wasn't me'?"

Price huffed and took a deep breath again. "Once again. . . I don't care. I don't care because, well. . ." He reached a trembling hand up and rubbed at his temple. "Frankly, we may have a bigger concern than all of that combined right now."

He leaned forward. "You're correct in that I can't actually PROVE you've been working against us from the inside. But I do know something for a fact: You want out." He extended his hands out. "So you know what? Fine. You do what you do best, and you go. I'll liquidate your Rocket assets, delete you from the system, and I'll be gone from your life forever."

Henry leaned back, seeming to mull it over in silence, even though Price must have known by now that Espeon had been informing him the whole time.

("He does mean ill for you Henry,") she informed him, ("though the deal he will offer is legitimate. I assume he expects this will be a suicide mission.")

"I can see there's no convincing you I'm innocent," said Henry, much to Price's visible frustration. "So go ahead. What's this big final favor you need."

Price folded his hands. "Before we get to that, I need you to be honest with me about something else." He leaned forward. "Your mission in Sinnoh? I need to know everything you found there. And I mean EVERYTHING."

Henry nodded. "Espeon? Go get my laptop." She sauntered off as directed. "I don't expect you to believe what I'm about to tell you. Fortunately, I still have the photos."

----------

"The last time I was in Sinnoh, I was tasked with investigating the latest syndicate to go public, Team Galactic. As we expected, they had ambitions to capture what we today refer to as the Lake Guardians."

Henry sighed. "I wasn't the only one that figured Team Galactic was up to something epic, and I did have to pool my knowledge with a few others. I don't know if they were Glo-Pol, other syndicate operatives, or just some wannabe heroes." He shrugged. "Probably a mix of all three, I guess. But I'm fairly certain none of the people I worked with ever figured out that the Lake Guardians were just a means to an end, and that their real ambitions were to harness the power of what is known today as the Creation Trio."

He opened his laptop and started typing. "Eventually, I tracked their senior officers to Mt. Coronet, at the top of which we now know is a ruin called the Spear Pillar."

He turned his laptop around. He pushed it forward so that Price could see the photos he had taken of the ruins.

"I did not find Team Galactic, or any member of the Creation Trio," Henry continued. "I did, however, find some fairly compelling evidence that they had once been there."

Price cycled through the photos in slideshow format. His eyes grew wider as he scrolled through, until, at one, his jaw dropped.

"Holy shit," he whispered. "Is this Ultra Space?"

Henry shook his head. "As far as I know, this is what legends refer to as the Distortion World." He shrugged. "Think of it as like the. . . Glue that holds our world together. Time and space. . . Well, it'd be wrong to say they don't exist there at all, but it definitely FEELS like they don't exist."

Price looked up at Henry from over the monitor. "Is this where you disappeared off to the first time you and Tracy faked your deaths? When even we couldn't get in touch with you for six whole months?"

Henry nodded. "We'd heard of the Distortion World before, but all the legends we'd heard concerned a separate place altogether called Turnback Cave. So, Tracy and I explored a bit, and, well, it turns out there is an opening at Turnback Cave." He shrugged. "So we figured, since we had nothing to come back with, we thought we'd see. . . Well, just how expansive the Distortion World could possibly be.

"Turns out it's expansive as fuck. We found access points EVERYWHERE; in Galar, Kalos, Unova, you name it." He sighed and shook his head. "Never did find another Giratina though."

"But we do know there WAS more than one because more than one has been captured before," Price finished before pushing the laptop back towards Henry. "Thank you Henry. This confirms my suspicions."

Henry shut down and closed the laptop. "I take it this final favor is related?"

"Maybe. Are you familiar with Arceus theory?"

Henry nodded. "Whenever any Pokemon that is supposedly integral to the balance of the universe is removed from the balance, Arceus creates a brand new one to fill the void. Supposedly the reason the heat wave and drought caused by the capture of the first kyogre only lasted three days."

Price nodded. "Also the reason these diety Pokemon lose a lot of their power when they are captured: Because Arceus severs their connection to that power. Hence why everyone who tries to tap into that power attempts to do so by an alternative means."

Henry nodded. "Team Galactic used something they called the 'Red Chain'. Not a clue what that means though."

"Neither do I," said Price. "But. . . Somebody else might."

"This is the favor, right?"

Price nodded. "They're calling themselves Team Cosmic. And near as I can tell, their ambition is to reverse-engineer Team Galactic's experiments and perform them on the replacement dieties."

He leaned forward over the table. "So Henry? You do what you do best. Go to Sinnoh and fuck them up from top to bottom." He straightened back up. "If I'm still alive at the end of the year, I'll consider that a mission accomplished and make no effort whatsoever to try and find you. Stay out of Kanto and I guarantee, 100%, that you will never see me ever again."

("He means it,") Espeon reported. ("Again, he's expecting you not to survive anyway.")

Henry nodded. "Alright, it's a deal." Henry shook hands with him and stood up.

"Mind indulging my curiosity before you go?" asked Price.

Henry grumbled in his throat before responding. "Sure, fine."

"Have you ever actually verified that mythical Pokemon are not worth the effort?"

Henry sat back down. "You're asking me if I've captured one before."

"Yes, but let me rephrase it: Have you ever ACQUIRED any mythical Pokemon?"

"Umm. . . Well, I-"

"If the answer is anything other than 'No', that must mean-"

"Alright, yes," said Henry. "I've never CAPTURED one, at least not by myself, but-"

"Which ones?"

Henry put his elbows on the table and supported his forehead up in his hands. "Articuno. Raikou. Suicine. Cobalion. Shaymin." He paused, then sighed. "Lugia, Ho-oh, Latias, Latios. . ." His face slipped into his hands. "Mewtwo. . . Zekrom. . ."

When Henry finally looked up, he almost thought by the look on Price's face that he was having a stroke.

"Are you shitting me?" he whispered. "And you didn't like ANY of them?"

Henry shook his head. "If you believe in Arceus theory, the simple explanation would be that I always got the second-hand rookies. The Raikou I found? It was about the size of a growlithe.

"The Latias AND Latios, found and caught at the same time, were so easy to capture that the trainer I partnered with wanted to call them Fred and Wilma.

"And even when at first it SEEMED like they were living up to the legends, they still went down to the same Pokemon I've been traveling with for over a decade."

He shook his head. "So yes, I did write them off. I wasn't able to capture any of them by myself, so every time I had to choose between keeping the legendary Pokemon or maintaining good relations with the people who made it possible, I have always, ALWAYS chosen the latter."

Price took a deep breath. "Alright, fine. This will stay off the record. So that leaves one more thing."

"Yes?"

"I don't know who the fuck has been working with you these last three years. . ." He shook his head. "But I know it isn't Tracy." He crossed his arms. "Care to enlighten me on that?"

Henry frowned. He glanced at Espeon. She also seemed surprised.

"I. . . Did notice a change in her, but. . . Honestly?" He extended his palms out and shook his head. "I don't even know. Not where to begin, not whether I should believe what I've been told, not even whether it's even still Tracy or not. All I know for sure is that I can still trust her as a partner, and that, if she's not the real Tracy, she's done her homework."

Price sighed. "Fine." He stood up. "Tell her she'll never see me again either."

----------

Back in Nacrene, Mienshao had introduced herself to all of the Pokemon staying in the warehouse habitat, save for the two that had been tasked with minding the children, and had been cordial enough to convince Tracy that she could be trusted around them as well.

Purugly and Lycanroc had drawn the short straws. Purugly once again had Dory seated on her back with her tail fastened around her waist, while Ray sat atop a panting Lycanroc and rubbed her belly. Sis and Oshawott both watched carefully, occassionally giving a light swat at Tera Jr. every time he tried to play with them.

Pyroar followed Tracy inside, still carrying a now very grumpy Purrloin. All eyes turned their way as they entered.

"So what's the deal?" Tracy asked Purugly with a smirk. "Are you staking your claim to motherhood over Dory, or do you have a fetish for being ridden that we never knew about?"

Purugly unfastened her tail from around Dory's waist and used it to pet the top of her head. "Just letting them enjoy it while they can. One day they'll be too big to ride a purugly." She looked at Pyroar and smirked. "Trade?"

Purugly fastened her tail around Purrloin's mid section before Pyroar let go.

"Do my feet look filthy or something?!" Purrloin hissed. "I already said I'm not going anywhere. I may be a sneak and a thief, but I'm not. . ." She stopped talking when she saw Ray and Dory. "Eh?"

"These are our children," said Purugly. "And they can understand Poke-speak, so watch your language around them."

Dory smiled at Purrloin and, when Purugly held her low enough, gave Purrloin a rub behind the ears. "Don't worry. Everyone's really nice around here."

Mienshao looked around at all present. "So. . . Are you all mated to Tera too?"

"Apart from the kids, yes," said Purugly. "Though mostly just for lack of a better word."

"I see. Any particular reason he prefers field types?"

"Excuse me?" said Tracy.

"Counting the two of you, that makes seven different Pokemon who have introduced themselves to me as a mate of Tera. None of them are compatable with Tera, but would be compatable with each other. Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Possibly," said Tracy. "I do know he was bred in captivity and employed as a ride Pokemon for many traveling humans." She sprawled out next to Pyroar. "Maybe he likes field Pokemon, and humans like Ray and Dory, because he learned to like them, carrying them over and over through the sky or across the sea."

Mienshao sat down next to Tracy in turn, processing that information.

"That. . . Doesn't make sense," said Mienshao.

Tracy cocked her head at her. "Why wouldn't it? We're all entitled to our own-"

"No, no, not that. I mean. . . Everyone told me Tera met them by himself in the wild. So. . . If he was bred in captivity, what was he doing WITHOUT a trainer mingling among wild Pokemon?"

Tracy and Pyroar exchanged glances. After a moment of silence, they both looked to Purugly and Lycanroc. Only Purugly responded, and even then, only with a shrug.

"He has a lot of fond memories of his previous trainers," said Tracy. "All except for the last two. The last one was the trainer who captured him, and whose identity I have since assumed.

"I never did tell you how we met, did I?" she said to Ray and Dory, who both shook their heads. "Before me, there was a human named Tracy, a Team Rocket trainer." She turned her eyes towards Mienshao. "Your trainer and she had a lot in common. She had no interest in learning anything, no temper, and no moral compass whatsoever. From what I've been told, Henry took care of just about everything behind her back, including training all of her Pokemon for her.

"Well. . . Something happened, and the two of them had to split up for a while. During that time, she managed to catch Tera somehow, and shortly after that, she tried to capture me."

She glanced sideways at Mienshao. "Let's just say that she bit off way more than she could chew. Have you heard the legend that ninetales can live for a thousand years?" She crossed her paws in front of her. "I don't know if that's true or not, but I figure I'm about a third of the way towards a confirmation."

Dory, Ray, Sis and Oshawott all stared at her with wide eyes.

"Don't strain your brains doing the math," she said with a chuckle. "The important thing is. . . Well, Tracy made her intent pretty clear to me before she initiated the battle, and. . . I'd like to think we ninetales are patient and wise, but I must admit the there is also some truth to the legends of our vindictiveness. I didn't want to just defeat Tracy. I wanted to destroy her entire organization and took her identity so I could do so from the inside out."

She smiled. "Fortunately, Tracy's partner, Henry, had been harboring similar desires for quite some time."

"Does that mean Henry is also in Team Rocket?" asked Ray.

Tracy nodded. "It does. But please, don't tell him I told you that. He wants nothing more than to get out."

"What about Tracy?" asked Dory. "Did you curse her?"

"I. . ." Tracy frowned. "I don't know, maybe. I'll explain later because. . . Well, because Henry and I are still very much trying to piece that together ourselves."

She took a deep breath. "So. . . That was Tera's last trainer. . . Before then, that was when he was surrogating in the wild, for Lycanroc's pack and Pyroar's pride, among others. And the last trainer he had before then. . ."

She shook her head. "It's not my place to say. The only thing I know for sure is that, when I asked if, of all the humans he has had as trainers before, Tracy was his absolute least favorite, he said no. It could simply be that he never got a chance to know her well. . ." She sighed. "But I don't think he'd be up on the roof trying to cool off if it were as simple as that."

----------

Back in Kanto, Henry had found an unsecured Wi-Fi signal and a discrete location outside from which he could access it to see if he could find anything on Team Cosmic.

In a depressing sign of the continuing times, he did not have to search for long. Team Cosmic was advertising a jobs fair.

"Just how pathetic is Glo-Pol that a syndicate, trying to cover up that it's a syndicate by refering to itself as a 'Team' just like the seven major syndicates before, can advertise openly and not have shit done about it?" he asked rhetorically.

Jasper, Braviary and his Alolan ninetales all peered over his shoulders while Espeon sat curled up in his lap.

("Because it's technically not a crime to say 'I'm a criminal',") said Espeon. ("Though I have no doubt that the Global Police will be monitoring them.")

Henry scrolled down the job fair notice. Most of it was the usual dribble about teamwork and community building that even Team Rocket itself had once hidden behind, but it did provide a date with a deadline.

"Reserverations for a shining future must be made by the thirty-first," Henry read aloud. "Alright. So that's when we'll need to be at Mt. Coronet." He shut down his laptop. "Assuming they do intend to reverse-engineer the Red Chain ritual in its entirety."

"If you want to be certain, we can fly to Sinnoh and pick up the Distortion World back to Unova from there," Braviary suggested.

("I would advise against that,") said Espeon. ("We have company.")

Henry looked up from packing. "Price?"

("No. But they were following him before. I'll let you know what to do and when.")

Henry nodded and recalled all but Jasper into their Poke Balls. He exchanged his uniform top for a plain white jersey out of his bag, shouldered his pack and climbed onto Jasper's back. Jasper maintained a leisurely trot through the city and took off jogging once on Route 7, fully aware of, but playing dumb to, the pair of ninjasks following them from above.

----------

The ninjasks followed Henry to Saffron, where he only stopped twice: One quick stop into a public toilet, and one much longer stop at a park, where Jasper insisted every child who wanted to pet or play with him be allowed to do so. Other than that, they proceeded straight through to the gate to Route 8.

He took longer than he should have to pass through the gate, causing the ninjasks to wonder.

"Do you think he saw us?" asked one.

"Doesn't matter," said the other. "He'll never catch us, and he'll never outrun us."

As if on cue, Jasper tore out of the gate at full speed, making full use of the arcanine's signature Extreme Speed.

"Oh yeah, he knows!" They took off after Jasper, flying down low to stay out of the wind. "Don't let him get away!"

"He won't!" the other assured him. "That's an attack, not his normal running speed. He'll get some distance, but he won't get away-"

"BRAAAAAAAAAVE!!!"

One looked back, and there was Braviary swooping down behind them.

"WATCH OUT!!!"

They both yelled it at the same time. One to warn about the incoming braviary, the other to warn that Jasper had suddenly turned a 180 and was charging straight at them.

Back at the gate, Henry only saw the massive plume of smoke from Jasper's Flare Blitz. When he finally made it out on foot, he found Jasper standing over an unconscious ninjask, tired and bruised, but otherwise looking quite pleased with himself.

"Did it work?" Henry asked as he approached. "Where's Braviary?"

"BRAAAAAAAAAVE!!!"

They both looked up just in time to see Braviary pull up from a nose dive, smashing the other ninjask into the ground and creating an equally large dust ploom.

Henry smirked and shook his head. "I will never get tired of that."

Braviary landed and received a hug from Henry. "You were awesome." He turned and hugged Jasper. "All of you were."

Jasper smiled, letting his tongue hang out, and with it, the forepaws of an espeon. Espeon slid out, intent on falling to the ground but getting caught in Henry's arms instead.

"You especially Espeon." He hugged the still damp Espeon to his chest. "Don't know what I'd do without you." He scratched behind her ears and gave her a kiss on the side of her face.

("Fertilize a plant?") Espeon suggested. ("Play a harmonica in prison?") Henry smirked. Espeon sighed. ("Much as I love the attention, I am still soaking wet with you-know-what.")

"Yeah, don't worry about that. We can blow-dry on the way home."

They crowded around the burned unconscious ninjask and all tilted their heads.

"Is that a webcam?" asked Henry. He bent down and grasped the device strapped to the ninjask's head. It crackled under his fingers and decomposed at the first tug.

"It was a webcam," said Braviary. "What should we do?"

("Leave it,") said Espeon. ("The video evidence has been destroyed, and the ninjasks had already assumed the entrance to the Distortion World was in Lavender Town. Let their trainers retrieve them and think so as well.")

"Two ninjasks?" said Henry. "Together? Side by side?" Jasper and Braviary both nodded. "Hm. The smart thing would've been to have one follow us and the other follow the first one."

"And to use two different Pokemon and have them rotate so it doesn't look like the same one is tailing all the time," Jasper finished. "We've done that hundreds of times."

"Mm-hmm." Henry stood up. "So either they're very unprofessional, or. . ." He shook his head. "Nah. We'll go with that."

He recalled Braviary back into his Poke Ball and hoised Espeon up onto Jasper's back to let Espeon's fur be dried by the wind before climbing aboard himself.

("I know what you were thinking,") said Espeon. ("But we are prepared. And even if you feel we could be more prepared, we have the rest of the month to worry about that.")

He petted the top of her head. "I'm not worried about it. Just. . ." He sighed. "You ever wonder when this shit's really gonna' stop?"

("I have. Every single day since we first met.") She smiled and nuzzled back against his arm. ("So don't even think about quitting on me now that we finally have a date for it.")