Candy

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 92 The fight was, in no sense of the word, even. I had to fight twice the number of pokemon as I had in my part, so there was no margin of error. I had to put into practice everything I had learned over the time I spent fighting trainers and Gym leaders into this one battle. When Shelly’s Ribombee fainted, she said something for the first time since I found her here. “Va… nilla. Ni… lla. Come… fight. Come.” It appeared though, that the voice wasn’t emitted from Shelly’s will but from the puppeteering work of PULSE Hypno. Still, though, Nilla obeyed her trainer and joined the battling. However, she purposefully didn’t give her best and faked fainting after receiving just one hit from my pokemon. The battle was very heated, despite the trainers in front of me being nothing but shells of the trainers they actually were, which made me realize that my pokemon weren’t the only ones that had become stronger over the months. The battle eventually ended with me as the victor. “How?” shouted Zero stomping in place. “I had 12 pokemon. How could I still lose?” “You’re surprised? To me, it’s just as expected,” Bennett said. “Now release Cain and Shelly from your damn machine, if you don’t want my pokemon to attack you directly,” I shouted at Zero. “Zero. Let’s grant her half of her wish. Release the girl. Cain has opposed us more times than her,” Bennett said. Zero seemed confused for a moment, before grinning mischievously. “Ah, I see. Of course,” he said, and PULSE Hypno released Shelly from the hypnosis. “Vanilla? Oh no,” she said when her mind was back in her head. She ran over to where I stood, and stopped a couple of meters away from me. “I’m so s-sorry, Vanilla. I wanted to save Anna and Noel, but it seems I only m-managed to make things worse,” she said with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know why I thought I could do something on my own.” “I can’t judge you, if that is what you want me to do. I have acted rash many times, and gotten myself into terrible situations. Unfortunately, only hindsight is 20/20.” Our conversation was cut short when Bennett opened his mouth again. “Zero, is the PULSE ready to take a new mind? Do her, will you?” he said. “Yessir.” At that moment, I felt a jolt of electricity in my head, as if I had had a short circuit in my brain. Gradually, I lost sensation on my arms and legs, and this made me panic. “Shelly, stand back. I don’t know what my arms and-” Before I could finish my sentence, I lost even the sensation of my own thoughts. The sound of an alarm woke me up. I sat on my bed, still half asleep, but not even bothering to cancel the noise. My head hurt a little. It was the sensation one gets when one sleeps too much. I finally reached the alarm clock made of crystallized sugar and made it stop. As if on cue, a maid servant knocked on my door and entered. “Good morning, your grace,” she said, and started taking out my school uniform from the closet. Without thinking, or rather, from routine, I allowed her to help me change into the pristinely ironed clothes. She opened the door to the bathroom, which was connected to my room. After I was done with that, she sat me in front of a dresser to style my hair. The mirror reflected us both. Why do I feel like something is off? I thought to myself, as I watched the woman carefully brush my long almost-white blonde hair and braid it. I have seen this image as many times as I have woken up. I was sure of that. But at the same time, I felt as though this had not taken place in a long time. How could I reconcile these two opposing feelings? The woman finished the styling with hairspray and politely asked me to stand up. She took my schoolbag and we exited the room together. We walked down the hallway but made a short stop at the terrace, where my grandmother was sitting alone and having breakfast. “Good morning, Vanilla,” said my grandmother. “Good morning,” I replied. “Have fun in school.” Then we continued walking to the foyer and then outside of the castle. The chauffeur was waiting for us in front of the entrance. He received the schoolbag from the maid and placed it in a compartment of the carriage. Then he opened the door for me and we were off to school. “Hello, Vanilla,” Wolfie said when she saw me arrive at school. For some reason, I felt so uncommonly happy to see her that I almost cried. “Hi, how are you?” I received my bag from the chauffeur and walked with Wolfie to the school building. “How was your weekend?” she asked me. I tried to remember, but I couldn’t recall what happened even the day before. “Oh yeah. We went bunny chasing on Saturday, didn’t we?” she said. “I almost forgot.” Then I recalled that we had chased rabbits. “That was a lot of fun, as always. I wish Candy had been here, since she was the fastest chaser and could’ve caught one of them for us,” I said. “Ah, speaking of the devil, here she comes,” Wolfie said and waved in a specific direction. I saw Candy coming our way, and I wondered why I had even thought that she wouldn’t be here. “Hi~ How are you doing?” “We were just talking about how you caught a bunny for us. It was mighty cute.” “I’m glad you enjoyed petting the little one,” she said. “But hey let’s hurry. It’s almost time for homeroom.” We ran inside the school, but parted ways since Candy was in a different class from ours. Wolfie and I stayed together and entered the classroom, where all the other students were already seated. The teacher looked at us with displeasure, but said nothing. We quickly found open seats and sat down to hear the announcements for the day. “Good morning,” said Aladdin, who was sitting in the chair next to the one I sat in. For a brief moment, a strong emotion seemed to rush through my head, but I couldn’t explain why. Something like anger? No, perhaps disappointment? I wasn’t sure, but it was over before I could analyze it fully. I could also not recall why I had any reason to feel those things towards Aladdin either, so I dismissed its importance. “Good morning,” I replied, trying not to smile too much. Right after homeroom was over, we had class. I couldn’t be bothered to pay attention, so I spent my time practicing some pen tricks, which sometimes resulted in it rolling off my desk. On one such occasion, when I reached underneath my desk to get my pen, I felt dizzy for a bit and then heard the following: “Vanilla, wake up!” The voice sounded awfully familiar, but even when I looked around the classroom, I didn’t see anyone whose voice matched it. “Did you hear something?” I whispered to Wolfie, who was busy taking notes. “Hear what? Well, I’m listening to Mr. Appleby, unlike you.” The voice hadn’t been Mr. Appleby’s. Since no one but me apparently heard it, I again had to dismiss it as something unimportant. Class went on without any other strange thing happening. *** I knew that no matter how much I called her, she wouldn’t respond. After all, I had experienced the PULSE’s hypnosis firsthand, and knew what it was like to be trapped in a comfortable dream. Even then, I couldn’t help myself from trying to pull her out of there. “Vanilla, wake up! C-come back to us,” I shouted without avail. “With Vanilla under our control, we won’t have anything getting in our way anymore,” Zero laughed. I wanted to say something to him and Bennett, who was silently watching us, but what could I say? They wouldn’t stop what they were doing, just because I asked. And my pokemon were all fainted, except Nilla, and even she was quite tired. Maybe if I force Vanilla to leave this place, we might get out of the signal’s reach, I thought. Yet, when I tried to put that into action, Vanilla pulled away the arm that I had grabbed. “Do you think we don’t know what you would try?” Zero said. “Of course, you might not know what I can do with the PULSE, since you never got to be the witness. Allow me to demonstrate.” Vanilla twitched and started lunging towards me. She tried grabbing me, but when that failed, went in for the punch. That also failed, because her movements were slow enough for me to react to them. “Stop making a fool of yourself with those embarrassing controlling skills. Instead of wasting time, how about we take what we are after,” said Bennett at last. He sent out all of his 6 pokemon at once, and they targeted Vanilla’s bag and anyone that got in their way. That included Pikachu and me, who lacked combined strength to protect Vanilla’s belongings. It didn’t help that she opened the bag willingly, and stood quietly the rest of the time. At last, the Volcarona took some bracelets from her bag, and she went flying back to her owner. Bennett called back the rest of his pokemon to their pokeballs. Sapphire bracelets… Jewelry… That must be one of the keys. Before I could say anything about that, though, something unexpected happened. “You know what it’s time for~ Lights! Cameras! Aaaaand Drama!” said a voice I recognized from TV but hadn’t heard in person in a very long time. Gossip Gardevoir entered the space we were in, and she wasn’t alone. Luna and Ms. Voclain, who was someone I had only seen in magazines when I was younger, were with her. There was one more person, who I assumed was Mr. Vanhanen, but I couldn’t be 100% sure because they were wearing a… black cat(?) mask that covered the entire top half of their head. “Bennett!” cried Ms. Voclain as soon as she entered. “Mother? Why did you come here too?” “For you, obv-” she stopped there for a second, and followed with: “Your hair. It looks… better.” “I’m aware, Mother. Thank you. Now please go. I don’t wish for you to get dragged into this.” “You should’ve thought of that before you went and joined a terrorist organization.” “Firstly, they’re more of a religious organization,” he replied. “Secondly, I don’t approve of everything they do. I’m only doing a few jobs for them to pay my dues.” “You’ll be paying your dues for a while longer when we’re out of here,” Ms. Voclain said, with blood rising to her face. “I’m not coming home. I found what I want to do with my life. Do you understand? I am no longer a child you can boss around.” “You may not be a child, but are your actions truly becoming of an adult?” Mr. Vanhanen asked. “My actions? I’m-” Bennett stopped and placed a hand on his mouth to hide a snort. “I’m sorry. I cannot take you seriously with that ridiculous mask on. How can you preach to me what actions are becoming of an adult?” I would’ve wanted to advocate on behalf of the gentleman who helped save me from El’s cult some time back, but I was honestly blanking on words to do so. “Not all hats are created equal, but that doesn’t mean they deserve any less respect.” “Mother, how do you manage to make every new boyfriend weirder than the last?” “Don’t get the wrong idea here,” Ms. Voclain said, coloring a little. “For real! You should already know that Master is vigorously taken,” added Gardevoir. “Besides, shouldn’t we be focusing on rescuing our friends and destroying that hideous machine over there?” Gardevoir pointed at the PULSE. This sudden interjection made Bennett’s attention shift from his mother to Gardevoir. “It’s been a while, Gardevoir.” “Not long enough, if you ask me! I would’ve been happily satisfied with ‘forever’.” “I don’t fault you for thinking that way, but please understand that I am no longer the same person you once knew,” he said. “I would much rather everyone forget what happened in the past, but I understand that won’t be an easy task. Some people build a reputation for years and lose it in a second when they act out of line; I started off acting out of line and for years.” Bennett then hopped on his Volcarona and flew down to the same level we all were. He stood with his back towards Vanilla and I, so I couldn’t see his face. “I believe that, before I do anything else, I should take a moment to offer my sincerest apologies to you, Luna,” he said. “I beg your pardon?” Luna replied, surprised at being addressed so suddenly. “My behavior to you was unacceptable. It pains me to remember what I did, so the memories for you must be indescribably bitter. I disrespected you by treating you as an object before a person. There is no excuse for this. And there is no room for such acts to be forgiven. I only wished you to know that I am aware of that now.” Luna was silent, and didn’t look at Bennett but instead kept her gaze fixed at a point on the floor. “However, today you have come as my enemy, to destroy the PULSE and take the prisoners I’ve captured over a long period of time. I can’t stand by and watch as that happens. Therefore, you must excuse me if I use all that is under my power to stop you.” He then asked Zero whether the PULSE was working properly to engage Vanilla in battle. While they spoke, I quickly rushed to the others and quickly summarized to them that Vanilla was hypnotized. “She is sort of trapped in a d-dream,” I explained. “The p-PULSE Hypno creates a rather, um, comfortable dream that looks, um, so much like reality. It’s so realistic, and at the same time idealistic, that, um, I think the mind doesn’t realize it has lost control of the real body to the PULSE.” “I understand. So that means that in order to free Vanilla, we must defeat her in battle and then destroy the PULSE,” Luna said and I nodded. “In that case, let me be the first to fight her.” “Zero, before you make her battle, I think it will be best to return that ghastly mouse into its pokeball and not use it to fight,” Bennett said. “That one saw what went down, and might dissuade the other pokemon from obeying orders.” Zero agreed and made Vanilla grab Pikachu’s friend ball and return him to it. Poor Pikachu squealed unhappily, but there was little he could do to escape the pokeball’s laser. “This will be interesting. They were clever in choosing Vanilla as their first line of defense, since she has bested us all one time or another,” Mr. Vanhanen pointed out. “However, a game’s outcome can never be securely predicted. A large enough group of Pawns could very well win against 1 Queen.” “She’s tough, even with the handicap of only using 5 pokemon,” Luna said. “Zero is the one controlling her, but it seems Vanilla’s pokemon have substantially grown in strength since we last met,” Mr. Vanhanen noted. “Even when he makes newbie mistakes and lacks coherent strategy, it seems their sheer power makes up for it.” “With Vanilla on our side, we’re invincible,” Zero laughed. “You’re too hasty to conclude that. I merely took on the task to soften Vanilla enough for my parents to overcome her,” Luna said. “We will triumph as a family.” “Of course. Miss Voclain, may I have the honor of this battle?” “The last time a man asked me that, he left the arena crying,” Ms. Voclain said and flipped her pin straight hair. “That is a risk I am interested in taking right now.” “Then, let’s hope you can satisfy.” “Seriously, Mother? I’m going to be sick here,” Bennett said. “Zero, don't mind the battle. Put them to sleep.” Mr. Vanhanen and Ms. Voclain stepped forward, but Zero didn’t seem inclined to put them to sleep at all. Bennett was surprised that his command had gone completely ignored, but with quick judgment, decided to heal both Vanilla’s and Cain’s pokemon to prepare them for a double battle. Thus the battle began as a 2-vs-2. *** During the boring string of classes, I had another few lapses of feeling like something was amiss. It felt as though I was forgetting something important, but no matter how much I spent trying to remember, I just couldn’t. “Tonight we are going to The Palace,” Candy told Wolfie and Aladdin when we met up after our last class. “Oh yeah. It’s already that time of the year, huh? The Queen’s birthday celebration?” Wolfie said. Once a year, the Queen would open the doors to her palace to members of the aristocracy, to celebrate her birthday. It also served as an opportunity for the Council to present statistics such as population growth, crime rate, and unemployment rates, among other things. It was protocol, for everyone already knew what to expect from some of those statistics, but it served to give relief to the noble class, so that they could keep investing as much as they had been doing in the coming year. “I think the food must be tasty, but I’m not fond of parties,” Aladdin commented. “The food is lovely! And there’s dances and a lot of talking. But also boworing kind of talking, which I’m not a fan of either.” “Candy, you never even listen to the boring talks. You’re always dozing off during presentations.” My friends laughed and Candy scratched her head, smiling. “I can’t help it. I do try to stay awake, I really do.” “Then I guess you can convince me tonight.” After that, we each went to our homes. At night, the maid servant helped fix my hair into a bun, and to get me into an extra-formal version of our traditional bubblegum garment. I needed help because the dress was very puffy and weighed quite a bit by itself. When she was done with the makeup, I looked at myself in the mirror. I always marveled at how different I looked with color on my eyelids, black eyelashes and rosy lips, though I couldn’t be bothered to paint my face very often. It was enough that there were a few occasions in the year to confirm that I could look less ghastly if I wanted to. My father, Candy and her mother were waiting for me in the foyer. Candy was also wearing a bubblegum dress, but she had a large hat on, to represent the Hatter side of her family, which, due to not being an aristocratic family, could not attend the party. The two older adults were not wearing traditional garments, but just a normal suit and a shiny dress that wasn’t made of gum fiber. “You look so pretty, Vanilla,” Candy said and held both of my hands. “Let us take a picture before we go,” said my father, and cued a servant to come take it for us. The four of us lined up and smiled. “We all look lovely,” said Candy, looking at the picture we had taken. “Now let us get going. The carriage awaits.” The Palace is located about an hour from our residence. We passed a tunnel, which marked the limits of two Council member’s residences. There was some traffic, because there were quite a few aristocratic families in Everland and important guests from abroad, but only 4 roads that led to the Palace. Once we left the tunnel, though, the brightness of the palace was almost blinding. Even though it was nighttime, it was almost as if the sun had never set upon it. We got off the carriage and allowed servants to guide us to the venue. Some years the venue was a large hall inside the palace, and other years it was in the vast gardens. Given that the weather was nice tonight, the Queen must’ve thought that celebrating her birthday in the gardens would be most appropriate. There was a stage that had been assembled just for this night, and many round tables in front of it, where the guests could sit down and eat while the people talked on stage. One such table, on the very first row, was reserved for our family. The party started right on time. While one of the Council members, who was the host for the night, thanked us for attending the party, servants went around with trays that had some drinks and appetizers. My father and Candy’s mother took a glass of Champagne, while I took a cup of juice and two little plates of appetizers. I regretted my choice, though, because I remembered too late that I was already of legal age to drink alcohol. Candy got a glass of cocktail and also two appetizers, and wasted no time in devouring one of them. The host invited the other Council members to the stage, and began talking about the boring statistics. I looked at Candy, who was fast asleep. I didn’t sleep but kept myself busy by swirling the juice and thinking about why I was feeling like I didn’t really want to be here. The appetizers tasted nice, and so did the juice. We were seated in the front row. I looked at the other tables, and saw a few familiar faces, like the family that immigrated from Arandalle, who was seated three rows behind us. No one present was particularly distasteful to me. So why was I dissatisfied? As time passed, more appetizers came, then the main dish, which was a large steak of beef. Due to our geographical location, meat of large animals such as cows and any seafood, were considered a luxury that only the wealthy could afford, so it was custom among the upper classes to offer it to guests. However, I’m sure that only the Queen could do such an act of offering beef to the thousand that were gathered tonight. We had just begun eating our steak, when the clock struck 12 and the Queen made an appearance at last. *** “They’re too strong,” Mr. Vanhanen said when his last pokemon was defeated. “Can we really not do anything? Do we really not have an ace under the sleeve?” “Father…” Luna said. “Zero. What are you doing?” Bennett said. “Did you not hear me when I told you to put them to sleep? There was no need to battle them.” “Err, this was done to test-” “Don’t speak. I see you’ve just been enjoying puppeteering Vanilla around as you please. You’re acting based on your own feelings, instead of what is best for Team Meteor.” “I… I just wanted to make sure Vanilla was under control,” Zero said, but his face seemed paler than usual. “You wanted to feel that control. Perhaps because you’ve lacked autonomy over your own body for so long.” Zero bit his lower lip and said nothing, so Bennett carried on talking. “I read your file. You were just a grunt before joining with those girls, correct? It is no wonder that you personally resent Vanilla so much. Those two girls were the only thing that allowed you to stand out and be promoted to agent status, and now you’ve lost them because of her.” Zero looked as if he would have rather cried, but was doing his best to hold himself together. “As long as you don’t learn to suppress your emotions, you will keep being the incompetent grunt you still are.” There was silence in the room after this. I think all the people on my side were stunned at the unprovoked talk that just happened, but something else happened to snap them back to the present: Vanilla groaned. *** The second I saw her, though, my blood started boiling. Without even knowing what I was doing, I grabbed the steak knife and ran from my seat up to the stage. My ears heard unintelligible noises, probably from the commotion that my sudden action was causing. However, my eyes were set on the Queen and never let her go out of sight. While the Council members retreated to safety, the Queen stood still, silently looking back at me. Even when I stabbed her in the chest, she did not utter a word. The Queen crumbled to the floor and so did I, since I couldn’t support her weight. I stabbed her once more. Then one more time. *** “Vanilla. What is this? Her emotions are becoming chaotic. Why? She should be in the midst of a pleasant dream.” “Control her. We can’t let her slip out of our hands,” Bennett shouted. “This is perfect timing,” said Gardevoir. “I was waiting for an opening, and I think this will do.” She moved across the room and stopped in front of Vanilla. Her back was now towards us, but since I wasn’t directly behind her, I could still see part of her face. “I’m trying to show her another dream, but she’s resisting.” “Let Cain go and concentrate on controlling Vanilla. Hurry!” *** My shoulders started shaking and I heard a burst of laughter erupt from my mouth. “Finally. We are free,” I said, with so much elation as I had never felt in my life. “Your sacrifices weren’t in vain. I wasn’t chosen for nothing.” *** “If they want to put Master to sleep, and toss him aside so that he never wakes up again,” Gardevoir said. “I’ll object. I won’t let that happen, at any cost!” She lifted her arms and started making something between her hands. Something fussy and black in color. As she did, the Glass Factory started trembling a little. Anything that wasn’t well-secured started clattering. “Gardevoir!” Bennett exclaimed, when he realized that she was starting something potentially more dire than losing control on Vanilla. “Zero, forget Vanilla. Seize Gardevoir now. Now!” “Too many commands at once... it's slowing the system...” “This energy. It’s too much,” Ms. Voclain said, taking a few steps back. “Gardevoir, please don’t hurt Vanilla and Cain,” I pleaded but I didn't think she registered what I said. “I can set things right. This was my purpose all along,” she whispered to herself instead. “Zero, hurry up!” “On it!” “... Whatever happens, please remember,” Gardevoir said, turning her head slightly to see her trainer. “I will always love you more than she, or anyone else, ever could.” *** I laughed unstoppably for a little longer; however, when I saw the blood on my hands and my dress, I shrieked. Who’s blood is this? Then, I found myself in an entirely different location. I was not in the Queen’s Palace. I was in the Glass Factory, watching a Gardevoir summon a dark orb between her hands. I saw that Shelly was diagonally behind her. We locked eyes. But in the next moment, I was no longer in the Glass Factory either. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS ONE YEAR LATER... QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

Haven't played E19 yet but I'd like to appreciate the hecc of everyone who helped complete the game Thanks for creating this community as well! I've been on these forums for 5 years and it's been a lot of fun~

Hehe it was a hyperbole lol but even then, being a stranger to most people but becoming kinda famous in a few days is a feat on its own xD Imagine how many wannabe YouTubers wish they could have the same luck haha

I like things making sense, it's just I sometimes fail at fulfilling my intentions xD I cut the episode right there so I'd have time to give the gauntlet a gazillion tries haha I'm a PhD candydate uwu

That's some galaxybrain move lol Poplio is my fave starter :p glad to see her in the story Bruh gossip travels fast af xD Imagine trying not to look sus, but then everyone and their mom knowing you're sus in like your second day E19 is out and y'know I've been watching a playthru of it cause I ain't restarting. Ame overhauled a lot of it, not just adding the last episode! It's almost like a different game from up to E18 lol. Fervis will have a lot of work to do if they want to make the mod for E19 cause there's many more battles than before me thinks. Anyway, nice chapter 2 and prolly nice new chapter too :p

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 91 I'm back at procrastiwriting, like usual uwu My advisor won't appreciate it... but I hope y'all do Pikachu and I checked the windows embedded on the ground. I suspected that I couldn’t see anything down there due to the sunlight reflecting off the glass, but the view from below would be pretty clear, so I took great care not to expose myself too much as I inspected them. Pikachu seemed to notice something about the windows, but no matter how hard I tried to spot anything different from regular windows, I couldn’t see anything. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what is up with this glass. Perhaps you know the reason Hardy couldn’t destroy them, but I don’t think I’ll be able to figure it out.” In any case, I considered that perhaps breaking or even melting the glass to enter would not be a good idea. Perhaps it would’ve been, had I wanted to make a dramatic entrance that attracted everyone’s attention, but in this case I much preferred to sneak in without alarming the enemy, especially Lin, if she was indeed down there. “Alright. Let’s scratch the idea of entering through these windows off the list. Come, we’ll search the perimeter for a different entrance.” As we walked around for about 15 minutes, the morning sun was covered by clouds and it started to snow lightly. We started to examine the forest, partly to find a hidden entrance, but also to avoid the snow under the canopy. Pikachu moved closer to my neck so that the heat from both of us could warm each other. We hadn’t been in the forest for long, when we heard noises coming from a north-west direction. It didn’t sound like voices- rather they sounded like a mixture of animal sounds. I stopped moving, so that I could listen in without the sound of my footsteps getting in the way. That’s when I realized that the noise was getting louder. “Pikachu, it’s coming this way. I don’t know what it is, but let’s take cover in case it’s bad news.” We hid in a patch of shrubs close by, and waited to see what the source of the noise was. As it came closer, I discerned that the loudest noise was a buzzing noise… one which somehow felt familiar to me. I didn’t need to think about it for too long: the source of the noise appeared from among the trees. It was an illumise, but not any illumise. It was Nilla, Shelly’s pokemon, being chased by a horde of wild pokemon. “Nilla!” I shouted at her. The poor thing, tired and injured, looked around when she heard me call her name. When she saw me, she cried and jumped on my chest. I wanted to comfort her, but I had to get out of the forest before the wild pokemon would start chasing us. I couldn’t really fight a herd of wild beasts with a pokemon clinging onto my chest and another on my neck, especially in a forest which didn’t have good visibility. I ran in the direction from which I had come, and exited the forest to the area with the Devon house. Once we were out of harm’s way, I entered the Devon building so that I could sit Nilla in a place that wasn’t covered in snow. As I tended to her wounds with potions, I asked her about Shelly. “Is Shelly nearby? Is she underneath here, by any chance?” I asked her, while pointing down to the floor. The illumise was still a little confused and couldn’t understand my speech or gestures at first. Pikachu helped me by relaying the message in a language she could understand better. Nilla buzzed loudly, and I was relieved. The tone of her buzzing was easily understood as an affirmative answer. I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders, knowing that I hadn’t just come here to deal with the sleeping signal, but was actually closer to liberating Shelly than I had anticipated. I wished to know how Shelly was doing right now, or how Nilla had managed to escape and get lost in the forest. However, I didn’t trust I could interpret an answer even if I managed to ask those questions to Nilla. I guessed that, for better or for worse, I would find out in time anyway. After the potions’ effect kicked in and Nilla’s wounds healed, we followed her to the hidden entrance to the Team Meteor base. It was located halfway down a cliffside. There were stairs leading to it, but they were constructed in such a way that they wouldn’t be easily seen under the snow. There was no handrail, so I had to be careful when going down. The door was unfortunately only able to open from the inside, and I judged I couldn’t just kick it open because it was made of steel. “What do we do now?” I thought aloud. In the past, I had successfully broken a similar door by heating and cooling rapidly, just before smashing it as strongly as possible, back when Heather had been locked up by Blake. However, just seeing the frames and the hinges of the door, it was obvious to me that this door was way sturdier than the one on that small hut. There was also the matter of footing- given that this was a hidden entrance, or rather an emergency exit, it wasn’t made for multiple individuals to congregate in front of the door. I didn’t think there was enough space for Wolfie (lycanroc), Anna (K-ninetales) and Elsa (A-ninetales) to stand, and I worried they might fall over the cliff if we were careless. I stood in front of the door, rethinking my options, but nothing really came to mind. “Perhaps Hardy will reach this door and open it for us,” I joked dryly. “If he didn’t fall into a trap after all.” Right as I said that, the door opened. I was caught so off-guard that I only had time to take a step back and enter my defensive stand, in case someone ambushed us. Yet, since no one came outside, I slowly walked around the opened door, to check who had opened it. It wasn’t Hardy, but a pink dog-like pokemon. It took me a moment to recall where I had seen this kind of pokemon before, but the fact I was infiltrating a Team Meteor base made me recall battles against them, and by extension, I remembered that ZEL, or Zero now, had one of them called Espeon. I worried that this might be Zero’s pokemon and it might’ve opened the door for us to lead us into a trap. But what else could I do? I had already tried not to fall into a trap by refusing to go with Hardy, and this was probably the only other exit available to us. The Espeon turned around and walked a few steps before looking up at us with its perpetual puppy eyes. For whatever reason, Nilla showed no hesitation to trust him and followed him right away. “Let’s go. Uh… I hope it’s on our side. I hope I’m not making yet another mistake.” We followed the Espeon as quietly as possible. The hallway from the entrance to the main area of operations was quite long and its narrowness somehow reminded me of the emergency exit that led to our base back in Everland’s Underworld. It made me a little uneasy, thinking that this path might also have an auto-destruction mechanism and could collapse on us at any moment. However, that didn’t happen and we made it to where we wanted to be. I didn’t know I had expected something about the place, until I saw it. I guessed I would be in a place similar to Team Meteor’s Tanzan or Route 3 bases, given that the corridor had a similar vibe to those, but I was wrong. The place looked like a regular factory, and what it seemed to produce were glass windows. It appeared that any Team Meteor base labeled “Devon” is camouflaged not to look like a base. The glass factory had the rows of windows that Hardy and I had seen from above ground. They were a major source of light, since the factory itself had very few lamps. Espeon whined and brought my attention back to him. We continued following him, while being cautious not to be seen by the few grunts that walked around. In one corner, hidden by tall stacks of glass, Espeon stopped walking and waited for us to catch up. When we got close, we found that there was yet another pokemon there. It was a Glaceon. Espeon and Glaceon… Now, that’s a confirmation that Zero is here somewhere. The Glaceon helped us walk over some parts where the steel grate broke off, apparently because of oxidation, by making some thick ice that could support my weight. The Espeon had a very good instinct? I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but it seemed to know when we might bump into a grunt and helped us by deviating our path so we could avoid them. The factory, as one can imagine, was very large, and since we had to walk instead of running, it felt like I was walking for ages. Even though it felt as though I had pretty much covered the whole area of the factory, I never found Hardy. I wasn’t sure where exactly the stairs he used were, and even if I knew, I couldn’t exactly run out of the path Espeon was choosing on my behalf. We walked on a raised walkway, which had several rooms one after the other. The rooms had doors with small windows on them, and on the wall outside there were signs that specified what rooms they were. There was nothing particularly suspicious, since most of these were offices and, even though the doors were all locked, I could still see tables and chairs through the windows. I guess something strange was the lack of people inside, despite the lights being on. We did, eventually, find one room that caught our attention. Its door did not have a window like the others, and the sign on the wall was blank. Thinking that this could be the room they were keeping Shelly in, I tried opening the door. Though I expected to find the door locked like all the others, this was not the case. The door opened, and revealed the room’s interior to us. The first thing I noticed was the three beds. All save for one had plastic covers closed over them. The second thing I noticed was that we were not the first ones to arrive. Next to the third bed, which had the cover opened, was standing a Team Meteor grunt. He must have heard us come in, but he appeared unable to form a sentence. I recognized the grunt. It was Aster. “Y- you. Why are you here?” he asked. “What else could I be doing? Taking a tour of the glass factory?” I said sarcastically. “Your society has put an entire city to sleep, and also kidnapped our people. Obviously, I came to fix the problem.” “You’re always like this. If only you had never been around, everything would’ve gone well. And Eclipse would still be here.” I remembered that Sirius had burned Eclipse alive, just before running away with Aya. As I could understand his frustration very well, I thought out my words carefully before speaking. I slowly approached the bed Aster was standing next to. I knew who I would find lying on it, but I wanted to make sure it was her. “Eclipse was punished for rebelling,” I said. “Yet, even when she felt the pain, I don’t think she regretted trying to save her father. She used her brain in her last hour.” I looked at Eclipse’s lifeless body. The sight threatened to remind me of other such bodies, and that made me sick. I diverted my gaze from her and onto him. “It is time that you started using yours too.” Aster grunted at me and stormed out of the room without looking back once. I wasn’t sure how he interpreted what I said, but now that he was gone, it was not something I needed to concern myself with anymore. I closed the cover over Eclipse’s body, and focused my attention on the other two beds. One of them was labeled Lumina Seijaya and the other said Evelynn Seijaya. Those names would have meant nothing to me, had I not recently crossed paths with what I assumed were ZEL’s pokemon, and also witnessed Zero losing the personas of “Lumi” and “Eve” the last time I saw them. It was not hard to put two and two together and conclude that these beds contained those two’s bodies. Yet, when I opened the covers, I found that the supposed bodies had gone missing, and in their stead were two alive, sleeping children. I didn’t expect to find them here, but since I did, I rushed to wake them up. “Anna. Anna, wake up,” I said, shaking her, but she was sleeping like a log. Glaceon, though, knew the move Heal Bell, and that helped wake both Anna and Noel up. “Huh? Is that you Vanilla? Long time no see,” Anna said when she saw me. “Are you alright? Did Team Meteor do anything to you?” “Nope. But it’s not time to wa-” Anna stopped there and widened her eyes. “Wait, what?” “I heard you left the Belrose house on your own. Why did you-” I started lecturing them, but Anna cut me off. “No. This wasn’t supposed to… it wasn’t supposed to be like this.” “What are you saying?” “The boy with the broken wing wasn’t supposed to-” “Broken wing? What are you talking about? I’m not following.” “No, I can fix it. We can still fix this,” she said, with a face that made me think she’d finally lost the last screw. “You just do your thing. Don’t worry about it! Just let us sleep. Good night.” Anna then went back to sleep. I wanted to ask her some questions, because, frankly, I had not understood a word she said. However, I decided that she would probably answer me with more enigmatic words anyway, so it would be best to ask the questions to someone I could trust to speak sense. “Noel. You can tell me why you’re here, can’t you? And what Anna just said now… do you understand what she meant?” “I don’t know or understand much, either. Anna pulled me to come here with her, because, as she put it, ‘Nostra and Nomos said we had to come here’. In the end we always do what Nostra and Nomos say, because she gets mad if I tell her they’re just dolls.” I felt angry hearing that this was the reason they fled safety on their own, especially since Hardy had implied that they disappeared right after Laura, and the others followed to leave Calcenon in the search for them. However, this was also the reason that made most sense, in a way, given Anna’s eccentricity. “Okay, okay. Let’s save the long talk for later. Right now I’m looking for Shelly. Do you happen to know where she is?” Noel knitted his eyebrows. “She’s here too? I’m sorry, but I have no idea.” “That’s fine,” I said quickly. “She’s here somewhere and I’ll find her. You two stay here, since somehow you’ve stayed safe for days by being here. I’ll come find you later and we’ll leave this place, whether Nostra and Nomos agree or not.” Noel laid down and I closed the bed covers as they had been. Then I left with the 4 pokemon. After spending some more time sneaking around the factory, we finally stopped in front of a suspicious room. I call it suspicious, because once we were in front of it, the two canine pokemon stood to each side of it, waiting for me to step in. “Alright. If it’s a trap, then I guess that was the best I could do, and I’ll have to trust that Florinia will gather people to help us out.” If it was the sort of trap that could kill me… well… I think I’ll just have to trust that there really is a random reason Lin doesn’t want to murder me yet, I thought, but that didn’t serve as comfort for me. I took a few deep breaths, and held Nilla’s hand as we entered the room. My first thought as I entered the room, and saw who was inside, was that I had fallen into the trap. However, that soon became a little unclear when one of the two enemies spoke. “There! I saw them, just now. It was just a moment, but I saw them,” said Zero. I figured he was talking about the two pokemon who guided me here, since they entered right behind me but rushed to an adjacent room. “You two, stop being disobedient and come out. I’ve been looking for you everywhere, you know,” Zero continued. “Lumi, do you really think that’s going to work? Indeed, if beckoning them was all that was necessary, we would not be in this predicament. Oh… You’re right, of course… I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I never-” “Stop talking. I don’t have time to hear you lamenting over losing your pokemon,” I said, cutting him short. “You’ve kidnapped people and I’ve come to retrieve them.” “Vanilla. You’re here too. Have you come to ruin everything again?” “I know you have Shelly. If you don’t return her right this moment, I’ll do just that. I’ll destroy everything, even that stupid machine you got there.” I pointed at the PULSE Hypno. “I hate your guts. You took them from me. Do you know how quiet it is without them? Do you?” “What the hell are you talking about?” “That’s enough, Zero,” said the other person in the room. At first, I didn’t recognize them, given that I could barely see them because they were standing on a platform higher than me. But, the more he spoke with that air of superiority, the more I came to the realization that this person was Bennett, the son of the Ice Gym leader. “I could commend you on finding a way to enter this place without falling into the trap I set for you, but I believe that is hardly necessary,” he said. “After all, that is as expected of you. You’ve never really known failure.” I understood from that, that the stairs Hardy used had been, as I expected, a trap. “What happened to Hardy?” “He should be the least of your worries. He should be deeply asleep even now, since I used the most potent sleeping powder my pokemon could produce on him.” “How cowardly. You used that strategy because you knew your pokemon wouldn’t stand a chance against Hardy’s rock types, am I wrong?” “Of course. I’m an academic. I haven’t spent my entire life reading and studying to make a novice mistake like battling a rock type gym leader head on,” he said. “I’m not like you, Vanilla. I have known failure. That is why I learned to make smarter choices.” His insinuation that I had not known failure really stepped on my nerves. What did he know about my struggles? Struggles that couldn’t ever compare to losing a puny pokemon battle or having a teenage heartbreak. However, I swallowed my words, because I didn’t need to give any explanations to this guy. “As such,” Bennett continued. “I must start off by apologizing for my temperament when we last met, for that was beyond disgraceful… Back then, you joked that she wouldn’t regret making a fool out of me, unless I transformed into an entirely new person. Your words hurt me; however, I have since understood that you were correct. As you can see, I’m sure, I have taken the time to improve myself.” Bennett briefly stopped reclining on the handrail and opened his arms widely. Although it somewhat pained me to admit it, he was right. There was hardly any resemblance to the creepy kid with messy hair and old-fashioned clothes in him. “And it’s not only my appearance that has changed. We have ample time. I’ll be sure to show you what a person that wasn’t born with as much privilege as you, could accomplish through hard work and discipline.” He then signaled to Zero. This made Zero smirk at me and said, in a sarcastic tone, that it was my time to learn how it felt to have my friends be ripped away from me. The reason for this comment soon became obvious: they had Shelly and Cain under their control. “Shelly! Cain!” I called them as soon as they entered the room. However, they did not respond. I ran over to see Shelly closely, but even when I put both of my hands on her shoulders, she did not react to anything. In fact, both of them looked even more stoic than Florinia did. “What did you do to them?” I shouted at Zero. “We’re using Hypno’s power to mind-control them,” he said. “Do you want a taste of it?” As soon as he said this, Shelly brushed my hands off her and pushed me away. “Yes. It was quite easy, too, to capture them,” said Bennett. “We only really had to capture this one. It was a matter of time before the other insects came looking for their friend, and then others came to find them.” I couldn’t see who he had up there with him, but I assumed it must be Laura, since she was the first who disappeared. “We waited, captured, and waited again. What a weak system the Gym leaders set up, that it was rendered useless against such a simple strategy.” “And now we’ve lured you out as well,” Zero added. “And we’ll make you regret coming here.” With that said, Zero instructed the PULSE to make the two mind-controlled kids send out their pokemon. “So it comes down to this. Had I been facing both in their real minds, I might’ve been in dire danger,” I snorted. “However, I won’t lose to you, Zero. You’re not even half the trainer each of those two are.” VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS Next episode: pain QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

There were some walkthroughs up to E18 iirc but Idt they'd be up-to-date for E19 (unless they have lightning fingers). I'll keep an eye out for that :p It's Heather but Hardy is saying her name wrong lol Yep, the fact that Taka's death came this late in the game/story affected Vanini a lot cause she had been under the impression that her pokemon were getting stronger and she was getting stronger. It also doesn't help that this revealed that Lin is literally superhuman, and could appear at anytime. Ngl sounds like a horror story to me lol She prolly needs a boat load of therapy to deal with the traumas, emotional baggage, and Lin-induced anxiety, but Reborn's only psych department is corrupt

Poor Vanini. She her neurons have differentiated into muscle cells xD Just that when she's with Hardy, he's even more do-now-think-later type than her, so she looks more strategic Aha! Bots like to read fanfics when they ain't spamming ads or spreading sus mails

Should be good :) good luck~

We've both been beaten by Ame xD But tbh my case is more like the story of the tortoise and the hare, cause I most definitely had time to be caught up to E18 by now I also won't be playa E19 for a whale so no spoilers will come out of this Candy's fingers uwu

Maybe you could make several weather teams and use the one that fits the most for a battle? You can have castform on the teams and the other 5 can be pokemon that benefit from each weather it can summon That way I think you won't find yourself locked into just 1 or 2 pokemon per weather :p

bro that's sus xD Finished reading the first chapter so now I can comment yayay~ I never played Uranium cause I think it was suspended for a whale, and when I did get a copy of it, I wasn't interested in fangames as much (my interests and hobbies drastically change, sometimes overnight) so I only know like the first movie with the mom(?) kinda low key going missing cause a lab went kaboom or something I wonder if the reason for the body suit will be uncovered in your story or if it's something I should've known from Uranium? Idk if this would interest you but you can use Quicktime Player to record your screen and then add music on top of it using a movie editor. That's how I make my gym/important battle vids. I found it much easier than writing out how the battle went, which is why I recommend it

thx for the comment! I skimmed through the Team Showcase threads and saw yours :) I only read like half the first chapter, but it seems fun and I liked the changes you made to the story so far. The mod is also pretty neat. I'm not tech savvy at all, so it's amazing how peeps can do stuff like magic haha I can't promise I'll read more because I've promised a lot and often not been able to fulfill that cause I'm just that terrible of a reader Mindlack and EviCrystal can prolly rant about me on that My playthrough/story has been on-going for like 4 years so it's not that surprising that it'd have amassed that many views lol I was more surprised by the fact that the view count kept increasing even though I didn't update since last september Tbh I have my suspicion that the view counter is broken or something cause it's just big sus

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 90 Geez it been a whale, ain't it? Y'all can blame Genshin Impact for it. My days since September have been 90% spent going to lab and playing Genshin and watching Genshin-related vids, so I didn't have time to enter the zen mode needed to imagine Vanini's story Here's a short summary of what happened in the previous episodes so y'all ain't super lost: From up in the skies, we could see how badly the fight had been going. Even though I assumed the two dragon tamers must have worked day and night to deflect PULSE Clawitzer’s attacks, the few missed attempts had accumulated over the days to damage the city to a pitiful state. Once on the ground, we noticed an increase in police officers since the last time I had been there, which didn’t really suit the eerie absence of the general public. The Pokemon Center’s nurse told us that a few days ago, Charlotte had ordered an evacuation of all Calcenon citizens except first responders and critical personnel, for their safety. I thought this was a logical idea, so I didn’t question it. Candy escorted me until the base of operations, the Belrose siblings’ home. “Say hi to them from me. I’ll be mostly going between the Daycare and the Grand Hall to help Victoria manage everything. I know I’m not the brightest, but I’ll still do my best to be useful to this region I love so much. And I hope you all can bring an end to all this fighting soon,” Candy said, and with a despondent tone added: “For Ame’s and the sake of everyone who’s sacrificed a lot already.” Her last sentence reminded me that I had yet to tell her about Taka’s sacrifice, but I didn’t feel like this was the appropriate time to talk about that… or rather, that I was the person fit to talk about it in the first place. “Yeah. That is my wish too,” I replied with fake enthusiasm. Candy smiled at me and soon was gone with Rayquaza. I watched her silhouette until it wasn’t visible anymore, and then entered the house. “What part of ‘we have to act now’ don’t you understand, mate?” were the first words that greeted me. The lobby was empty, save for Florinia and Hardy, who, if I wasn’t mistaken, were in the middle of arguing about something. They both looked my way when they heard me entering. Hardy initially looked as though he’d seen a ghost- a welcome that I was quite used to already- but once the initial shock faded, he greeted me with more warmth that I could have expected from someone I barely knew. Florinia, as always, didn’t even twitch her pokerface. “Yo Vanilla! You’ve returned. You couldn’t have chosen a better timing to do so,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll back me up once we tell you what’s up.” Hardy pulled me next to a chair and sat himself on the sofa to, together with Florinia, bring me up to speed with the situation on this side of the region. I looked at the chair with puzzlement, unable to keep up with Hardy’s rhythm. “Wait, shouldn’t we call everyone back so that we can talk about plans? They’re still in the dark even about the fact that I’ve returned.” Hardy looked at Florinia with an awkward expression, but this wasn’t reciprocated by the latter. “Truth be told,” Hardy said, clearing his throat. “This is everyone.” It took me a few seconds to process what he said. “This is… everyone? Everyone, as in everyone?” “Yeah. Uh, yeah.” I felt my whole body go cold. I had indeed worried that Team Meteor was kidnapping our allies, but I had never expected them to have succeeded in kidnapping 7 more people in such a short time. “We don’t quite know the details either, but it’s been on-going since Laura disappeared. The twins, then Shelly, then Cain and Feather, even Saphira. We haven’t seen Charlotte for, what, an hour now? Even though we asked her to stay, she insisted on searching for Laura and Saphira. I’m not sure that she’ll come back.” Hearing Shelly’s name among those affected made me slump onto the chair. “We actually didn’t know if you’d come back, either,” Hardy said. “We thought you had also disappeared like the rest of ‘em, since you hadn’t come back in so long.” I didn’t reply. “We need to act now. Sis here found the location that the sleeping signal appears to be originating from. If we go there, we can rock those Meteors’ worlds. If they’re behind our friends disappearin’, we can demand that they be returned to us.” “Proposed procedure remains haphazardly inefficient. Current force in Calcenon has been diminished in number to a total of 3. Abandonment of the city may increase the risk of Team Meteor invasion to a substantial degree. As such, reckless enthusiasm without proper strategy will only pre-determine the outcome to failure.” “Yeah you said that before, but the fact is that we’re the only ones left that can do something to save our pals. We’ve got to check that place out ASAP. Vanilla, you agree, right?” However, my mind had gone astray in my thoughts, so much that I hadn’t heard most of the conversation. Something had been welling up inside of me, while they talked. My Defiance group, Wolfie, Aladdin, Ame, Taka, Cain, Charlotte and Shelly flashed before my eyes. Then, when I remembered Lin… and her indolent expression when she saw Ame’s limp body, and her detached voice when she made sure Taka was killed… I felt as though I forgot how to breathe. I gasped for air a few times but the fog in my head didn’t feel any clearer. “Vanilla, are you alright, mate? Rini, we need to lie her down on the couch.” I felt their grasp on both my arms as they pulled me up from the chair and gently laid me down on the couch they had been sitting on. Lying down made it slightly easier to breathe, but I still had to take deep breaths every now and then or I felt like I wasn’t breathing enough. I allowed the strength to leave my limbs, and for a moment I thought this might be how one feels just before dying. Only the weight of Pikachu sitting on my stomach reminded me that I was still alive. When I woke up, my head hurt a little, but at least my breathing had returned to normal. I remained for some time on the couch, trying to remember how I had ended up there. When I did, though, I almost couldn’t believe it. How could I have fallen to such a depth that I could actually pass out from… what, fear? Distress? Just thinking about it threatened to decompose my breathing again, so I tried to calm myself before I made any more of a fool out of myself. Yet, I couldn’t stay on the sofa forever. I had already lost precious time passing out, when any minute, any second, could mark the death of one of the missing people. Even though dying would be a kinder punishment than having to see Hardy and Florinia after the spectacle, I sat myself up and called upon them. “Ah you’re feeling better, mate? You had us worried,” Hardy said when he saw me sitting up. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry that I caused you trouble.” “Not at all. We’re the ones who should be sorry. You ain’t even from Reborn and you’ve done so much for us already. Yet we can’t even give you a proper and deserved break.” “I’m fine. I don’t need a break,” I insisted. “Tell me about the signal again. I couldn’t hear it well when you told me the first time, but I’m in a better state to hear you now.” “Are you sure? Mate, no offense, but to me, it looks like you’re just bottling up your feelings to act strong,” he said, and sat next to me. “Relax. No one’s judging you here. I know y’all were friends, and I know, personally, how it feels to have someone you care for be kidnapped.” Hardy looked me in the eye. I didn’t have much interaction with him till now, but I had very recently spent a significant duration with his bitter elder sister and… well, dead elder brother, so I couldn’t help myself from comparing him to them. I concluded all of them were different from each other, but all had some sort of defect. Hardy’s, I judged, was being too perceptive for his own good. “I’m only exhausted, that’s all. I’m tired of losing… I guess, friends. I’m tired of feeling like I’m navigating a dark cave, trusting that there’s an exit somewhere, but all I do is take one step forward and two backward.” Hardy’s shoulders dropped as he let out a relieved sigh. He placed a hand on my shoulder. “Thanks for your honesty. I promise, we will start taking two forward and one backward soon. First we gotta get our friends back, cause, contrary to what you say, they ain’t lost until we see it.” I nodded. “Count me in.” Despite her reservations, Florinia told us all she had found out about the sleeping signal while I was away. Nothing she said indicated that we would find our friends in that location between Agate and Calcenon cities, but when I asked her whether she had found any way in which we could enter Labradorra instead, she replied with a negative. As such, our choices were limited to dealing with the sleeping signal, in the hopes that we might find some clues about how the Team Meteor grunts manage to exit and re-enter the forcefield. I hated the plan, but it beat staying in Calcenon with my arms crossed. When we departed, the sun had long settled. Florinia suggested that we at least postpone the expedition until the next day, but Hardy was determined- or even stubborn- enough for the both of us, and wouldn’t acquiesce the advice. I wasn’t really sure of it, but I thought his determination might be fueled by his wish to rescue Aya as soon as possible. At least, some things he said while we shopped in preparation for our trip seemed to imply that. With a compass at hand, we headed east, in the direction of Agate City. The distance wasn’t expected to be that long, but due to mountainous terrain and the low temperatures, reaching the suspicious area would still take us some time and energy. “Have you gotten any communication from Team Meteor since I left?” I asked Hardy as we walked through the forest of Route 4. “Uhh. Not really, no.” “Huh? Haven’t they threatened us to give the jewelry in exchange for the hostages?” “I’ll be honest. I spent most of my time indoors taking care of the kids and helping out Rini in whatever she needed. There was a time when I helped guide people out of Calcenon when they decided to evacuate the city, I guess, but I didn’t have much time to be talkin’ with them Meteors if they ever came down for a chat. So if anyone coulda talked with ‘em, I’d say it was either Saphira or Feather who spent all their time out in the skies or on land pretty much. But they never really mentioned any of the sort to me, even when the twins disappeared and Feather herself went missing. Not that I’d say Saphira was particularly interested in talkin’ to me.” That sounded weird to me. If they were taking all these people hostage, why wouldn’t they use that to force our hand? If Hardy was right, then that would mean Jasmine used the hostage card even before Team Meteor did, back in Tourmaline Desert. Now that I think about it… why didn’t she say that all these other people had been captured too? Why only say that Aladdin had been captured, when she could’ve added more reason to lure me out? “Why'd you ask?” Hardy asked me. “I only thought it strange that they wouldn’t threaten us, that is all. Perhaps I’m thinking too much. We should focus on the sleeping signal now, and worry about the rest later.” I said this, but in my mind I was beginning to suspect that the Team Meteor admins in Labradorra were, for one reason or another, unaware of the kidnappings yet. Could it be possible that the hostages weren’t with them in Labradorra? That would suggest that a third party was responsible for the kidnappings. I couldn’t think of an enemy that wasn’t somehow tied to Team Meteor. And, neither could I trust that my deduction was correct. The climb was exhausting and cold, but that wasn’t news to me. I had experienced sub-zero temperatures for the first time a while back, when Shelly and I went to Ametrine City. Um, is it your first time s-stepping on snow? I remembered her asking with wonder in her eyes. The recollection of that and other few moments when we could share small details of ourselves, despite always being busy either dealing with Team Meteor or the mad doctor, made me feel somewhat melancholic. Hardy told me that the order of disappearance was: the twins, then Shelly, then Heather and Cain, then Saphira and lastly Charlotte. When I heard this, I thought it made sense. I didn’t doubt for an instant that Shelly would have gone searching for the twins way too deep into the forest, until she fell prey to whoever was doing the kidnapping. At the same time, I couldn’t help wishing that she hadn’t been that brave. “She has changed a great deal by spending time with you,” Cal had said to me. That was his impression after he witnessed Shelly battling his brother atop of Ametrine Mountain. I knew I was partially, or maybe wholly, responsible for encouraging her to be proactive and to protect instead of waiting to be protected. But in this case, that came to bite me in the ass. I might’ve meant well, but that wouldn’t even serve as consolation if she was hurt, or even died, as a result of my interference. “Vanilla, that’s not the way, pal. We have to cross one more hill and we should be there.” Hardy’s sudden caution made my heart jump, and I slipped on the snow. He rushed over to help me get up and told me to be more careful on my step. We eventually made it to a suspicious area. I call it suspicious, because up until that point, all we saw were trees and snow and a few bodies of water, but suddenly we found ourselves in a flat open space that had been artificially cleared of trees and other obstacles. Moreover, there were multiple rows of glass windows on the ground, which somehow didn’t have any snow on top. We walked slowly, at the edge of said space, so that if there were Team Meteor grunts, they wouldn’t see us. As we walked, we found a small hut. “Do you feel that?” I asked Hardy. “Feel what?” “I think it’s getting a little warmer, as we get closer to the building.” “Huh, now that you mention it, maybe. I’m not sure.” Once we were behind the building, we agreed that we would have to inspect the interior. Interestingly, we saw no Team Meteor grunts in our surroundings, but we couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t be awaiting us inside the hut… just like they had when we broke into the fake Devon Corp building. “Have your pokemon ready, and send them out right as we enter,” I said. We moved swiftly to the front of the building. The front had a double door, but only one of them had a handle, so they could only be opened one at a time. “Send out Gigalith and make him stand closer to that door,” I whispered to Hardy and pointed at the door that didn’t have a handle. I judged that if only one of the doors opened, there would be less grunts to fight at once, in case there were multiple of them waiting inside. I held the handle and mouthed a countdown until I would open the door. I opened the door very quickly and sent out Aladdin and Kame, but when we looked inside, there was nobody at all. “Eh? Is this not the place then?” Hardy sighed and raised both his hands in resignation. “We can’t be sure until we thoroughly check the perimeter,” I said. “Let’s see if there isn’t a hidden trapdoor or something. Team Meteor has pulled those types of stunts before.” Hardy agreed and we started searching. First we checked all the walls, in case they could be displaced like the one leading to a hidden passage in the hut in Azurine Island. We found none. Next, we searched the outside. There was a metallic plate in the front of the building, which I didn’t pay much attention to when my mind was busy preparing to storm the place half an hour ago. Hardy suggested we remove it since it wasn’t bolted in or anything. We could easily lift it and see what was hidden underneath. “Devon,” Hardy read. Looking at those words painted on the hut made the blood rush from my face. I knew I would be fighting Team Meteor to deactivate the sleeping signal, but I had expected it to go as it did when we stormed the Peridot factories, or even their base in Tanzan Mountain. Just barge in, and finish the job with brute force. Yet, the word ‘Devon’ was so strongly linked in my mind to Lin, that I feared she would be here. Even now, she might be watching us, laughing at our helplessness from the comfort of her office. I didn’t feel prepared to face her again, not after the mental and emotional torture she inflicted, both in Obsidia and Tourmaline Desert. The faces of two people, whose deaths I couldn’t prevent, flashed in the back of my mind. Just thinking of what public execution she could be planning this time around made me shudder. “Is something the matter?” I looked at Hardy, and remembered that with all the rush since I arrived at Calcenon, I hadn’t gotten a chance to tell him or anyone about the Obsidia Devon building, or Lin, or even about his sister. “Hardy, I believe you must have heard of Ame passing away,” I said and cleared my throat. “Yeah, it was in the news a while back. Victoria is the name of the new league coordinator, aite? What about it?” “Ame died on a mission when our allies in Reborn City tried to mount a surprise attack on Team Meteor at their secret headquarters. That secret headquarters was the Devon corp building in Obsidia Ward.” Hardy raised both of his brows and slowly nodded. “I see. So this building must be theirs. We’re in the right place then.” “We are, but we are also in great danger,” I said, as calmly as possible. “It’s best we go back and discuss a new plan with Florinia, given this new information.” “And waste another day? We can’t afford it.” “I don’t want to, either. But we might make things worse if we barge in without a plan.” I insisted. “You just don’t understand the gravity of the situation, because you haven’t seen what I have seen.” Yes, I might sound like a coward, but I believe nothing was clouding my judgment when I said that. I couldn’t feign confidence when my actions might determine someone’s survival- I had learned that the hard way too many a time. I would much rather deal with 5 Jasmines at once, than with Lin. At least Jasmine is human, albeit with some add-ons, and thus can only operate under the laws of physics. With Lin… I couldn’t even be sure she was human. “Go back if you want. I’ll stay here and find a way in. I’m not afraid of anything that Team Meteor might throw at me. Even if I die, I prefer that to a lifetime of regretting not doing the most I could today.” Hardy turned and I watched his back as he walked to survey the area. I clenched my fist as my brain rushed to decide what to do. At this point, I wished nothing more than to follow Hardy, fight and deactivate the sleeping signal, so that we could try to search our friends next. Had I been myself from months ago, I might’ve fancied myself strong enough to improvise even if things went off the rails, just like Hardy felt right now. Yet, a thought was pinning my feet to the snowy ground: the thought that I might find Lin holding Shelly as her new victim-to-be. The loss of Ame shocked me, and the loss of Taka made me feel a great deal of despair and helplessness, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I would retain my sanity if I lost her. I didn’t want to experience yet another loss that I would have to cope with by denying it even happened. While I made up my mind, I heard the sound of glass shattering. I saw that Hardy had managed to break one of the small glass windows on the ground. “Wait,” I said as I ran to where he was crouching. “Wait, you don’t mean to go down there.” “Yes I do. I got lucky. I tried breaking the windows with Gigalith, but them other windows are so hard. I’m not sure what they’re made out of. This one must’ve been damaged or somethin’.” If this was Lin’s doing, I thought. This could be exactly what she wants us to think. “It’s a trap. That’s the most obvious trap ever. We should find a different entrance.” Saying that, though, made me question whether Lin might’ve known I would think this way. I felt as though I was already in the trap. “It might be, sure, but we don’t got any other way to get in as far as I could find. I’m gonna gamble.” I wanted to stop him, but before I could say another word, Hardy waved his hand and descended the square hole. I didn’t go after him. I didn’t have the luxury to gamble this time around. I couldn’t afford a careless mistake, which might get me imprisoned together with our allies. Neither could I risk upsetting Lin into killing the hostages, if she had them near her. Any of those possibilities would pretty much mean game-set in the context of the war against Team Meteor. If Hardy and I got imprisoned, who would come to save us? Florinia couldn’t manage by herself. Titania? Amaria? … Julia? I think it would be best not to depend on anyone in this case. “Pikachu, let’s go. We have to check those unbreakable windows. If there’s no hope of breaking them, we must find the entrance Team Meteor used,” I said, then sighed. “Come on, we’ve got not a minute to lose.” Also wtf I come back to this almost-dead thread and find out it's got 100k+ views? Who has this thread set as their browser homepage VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

it's just this but replacing "car"

I think I was too liberal with the word "ending" lol I think past-me used it as a way to say that if Vanini is captured, the Defiance will have a big sink in their motivation, or maybe something else that I'm not thinking of in the present. I wonder what secret past-me wanted to keep for the Everland arc, cause evidently it was something I was excited about Prior to diving into the Everland arc, if I remember to, I'll do a summary of that stuff. Since the Everland-related content was mostly told in flashbacks and referenced in dialogue, it's difficult to keep up with them me thinks. But if you'd still want to read them anyway, I think side chapters F-J, Ep 39, Wolfie's diary in Ep 68, and the infamous From Everland to Reborn book in Silver's room are pretty much all that I can think of that have stuff about Everland (apart from the sporadic mentions with lil details all along the story). Part of side chapter G, Ep 39 and Wolfie's diary pretty much tell the same story, but (I think) it's interesting to see the same event being told from the perspective of 3 different characters that knew/felt different things. However, even if you don't read any of those and totally forgot even what Everland is, I think you'll still be able to follow the Everland arc just fine, since I always put a link to episodes that are pertinent to sentences that references them. It might not be standard for any kind of writer to be this way, but I'm more the type that laughs sadistically as I throw a whole lot of very obvious hints in y'all's face, thinking "the truth is literally in there if you'd just piece it together" but would still be happy if y'all piece it together and are like "wow the story played out just as I predicted lol".

Big SUS energy :amogus: I don't remember saying that if Vanini is over the Defiance is over too, but if I said that, it's a lie. What I might or might not have said is that Vanilla is someone that represents a unison of the Overworld (due to growing up as a noble there) and the Underworld (due to her albinism which should've sent her to the Underworld as soon as she was born), which means she's an entity that the Defiance will probably never encounter again. I might be misremembering, but in Wolfie's diary, she confesses that she would've liked to be the leader instead of Vanilla, but King (her predecessor) insisted on choosing Vanilla because she could move the masses just because of who she was (unlike Wolfie, who was always supposed to be in the Overworld, is a "visitor" in the Underworld, and isn't even a noble). Tl;dr Vanilla being the face of the Defiance is "romantic" to the people of the Underworld, which might help recruit more loyal people to the Defiance (especially the part of it that actually wants to over throw the government, instead of just causing chaos to make their lives easier (you might remember that flashback when Vanilla and Aladdin went to a just-for-the-chaos Defiance group to negotiate so that they joined them, which was not a one-time event)). Moreover, it would create a "compelling story" when/if she succeeds in a Coup d'etat (aka unison wins against the tyranny of the Overworld). The Defiance could still exist without Vanini but she's definitely a one-in-a-million chance for them.

big bummerr but hey that's still fun (not me picturing Gabriel readying himself to take off his clothes, and Luna asks him WTF he's doing ) Coincidentally, I did also kinda imply that, at least among the Karens of Reborn region, the gossips tend to fly about (with some of the wards thinking they had a ghost problem, but it was Vanilla/Pikachu). Yep he was like "Him? I thought she was a her..." and Team Meteor was like "So you've chosen death" and he was like "what is happen?????" "You get a self-congratulation, and you get a self-congratulation. EVERYBODY GETS A SELF-CONGRATULATION!!!!"

Yeah yeah I know. "You said you were restarting reading like a year ago. What happen?" I'm terrible at reading ok donut judge Luna is that u? What we gonna see, or actually, not see in that battle? Ngl I love it when these kind of things give stuff away cause even smol brain Candy can see they screwed up lol owo That's one big bad cliffhanger lol I like that you actually upped the stakes in the slums, which makes why Victoria wanted to stop Gabriel earlier make sense. He really ain't the type that could get past some gangs in one piece xP Also I want to self-congratulate myself for reading a good number of chapters on one sitting cause I can rarely do anything for this long without getting distracted lmao *bows* thank you, thank you *bows*

Glad you enjoyed the read~ When I emphasized that Vanini got ahold of a megastone, I kinda needed to make an episode where she actually got a mega bracelet :p You can expect her to use it sometime in the coming, intense af, battle(s). Afaik she has 2 pokemon that can mega-evolve so that'll be fun to change it up.

I literally foreshadowed the same thing twice (the one you mentioned and at the end of the chapter) lmao Now, it'll be disappointing af if I don't pull something shocking to justify so much overt foreshadowing I ain't tellin', but I am

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 89 Behold the most filler episode (actually maybe there were other episodes with more episodes... I can't remember donut judge) ever! Enjoy anyway uwu I exited Amaria’s Gym arena, and took a deep breath when the doors shut behind me. What a great deal of things had happened, and just when I’d thought I could take a break from the stressful events that happened in the desert. I wasn’t looking forward to what would come next... though I thought I couldn’t possibly be justified in complaining about it at this point. After all, in a way, I signed up for constant mental and emotional exhaustion when I got too involved with the people of this region. Great things must come with a great price tag. I sighed and started walking around the pool of water in Amaria’s living room. Julia was still rocking on the waves, but was fully alert this time. When I entered her field of vision, she called me to bring me to a halt. “Vanini! Did you battle Amy yet? How was it?” She tried shifting her position to sit up, but the float wasn’t stable enough and she went overboard with a massive splash, before I could answer either of her questions. She came back up and complained some about how cold the water was. As she swam over to the edge of this makeshift pool, I told her that I had battled Amaria and won. “That’s great, congrats!” she said, attempting to hug me while soaked head to toe, but I pushed her away. “I’m leaving for Calcenon now. I’ll ask Candy to take me there,” I said. “Oh yeah. You must be in a hurry. Your ex-lover was taken hostage, right?” The latter part of her sentence winded me but I recovered in time to correct her misunderstanding. “I am in a hurry,” I said. “But not because of that. For all I care, they can feed him to Lin’s Hydreigon. I’m in a hurry because I’ve been absent from Calcenon for too long, and don’t know how things are going there.” “Sure, sure, whatever you say, Vanini.” The grin on her face didn’t really synchronize with what she said, but I figured wasting time convincing her wasn’t going to be productive in any way. “What will you do?” I asked. “I’d love to go with you, but I’d like to keep an eye on Amy. I don’t think she’d like to be alone. So I’ll stay here. I think Rini is up there? Last time we saw each other, she said she was going there but IDK if she’s still there. Anyway do say hihi~ to her and the others for me.” I nodded, bid my farewells and went away. Pikachu and I walked over to Obsidia Ward to visit Candy’s shop. However, when we got there, the only person inside was Cookie, Candy’s husband. He greeted me politely and told me that Candy was helping DJ Arclight out, so he didn’t know when she’d come back. Apparently they were returning some pokemon that Team Meteor had stolen when they were posing as the Daycare couple. I remembered that incident rather well, since I had been the one to battle the impostors and free Candy from a warehouse so that she could return to her shop. Cookie served cookies and tea for me and told me to sit while I waited for their return. I asked him whether he didn’t have a flying pokemon that could take me up to Calcenon, but he gave me a negative. I asked him if I could borrow any such pokemon from among the ones he was taking care of as a Daycare, but he also refused because they took their safety too seriously to jeopardize it in any way. I understood, since the Daycare must’ve taken somewhat of a hit in their reputation when Team Meteor stole some of their pokemon, but that didn’t make me any less unhappy while I waited. Candy and Arclight returned about half an hour after I arrived. I was cooling off my third cup of tea, when the entrance flung open and Candy shouted that she was home, as if she even needed to announce it. “Vanilla! I’m soooo happy to see you. I was soooo worried when you left for the desert! I’m relieved that you’re well… albeit with skin peeling off here and there. The desert mustn’t have been very forgiving on your pale skin.” “Yeah, the sun was harsher than I expected.” “Did Archer and Julia return with you? They said they’d go after you, so I didn’t go fetch you myself.” “Yeah. Though, in multiple instances, I felt like your dragon friend would’ve helped us a great deal had you come with us.” “Hehe, that’s too bad. I’d have loved to have a vacation in Tourmaline Desert, but I can’t be absent from Sweet Dreams Pokehotel so often, or its dreams would be reduced to 50% sugar,” Candy laughed. “By the way, Vanilla. I have a huge favor to ask you, if you can spare an hour or so of your time.” “I’m in a hurry, to be honest. I only came here to ask that you take me to Calcenon.” “Please, please! I promise I’ll give you something super amazing, which will make the sacrifice totally worth it. Right Arc? You’d give her that?” “That? What is it?” I asked. Arclight laughed and almost told me what it was, but Candy stopped him. “We’ll tell you what it is if you complete my favor. I swear on my name that you’ll not be disappointed, since it’ll aid you in becoming a stronger trainer.” I was irritated by Candy’s roundabout shenanigans, but I couldn’t really turn a deaf ear to something that would strengthen me as a trainer. Perhaps I could spare an hour, since I had already been gone for almost 2 weeks already. What could change in an hour, realistically? “Fine. What is the favor?” Candy hopped on one leg and clapped once. “I knew you couldn’t resist. I’d like you to help us return the stolen pokemon to their trainers. We’re almost done, but any help would be most welcome. We’re all pretty exhausted from running and flying around all day. Ah! Also, Rayquaza’s going to be too tired to fly all the way to Calcenon if he doesn’t get help, me thinks?” “Sure, whatever. All I need to do is give the pokemon back to their trainers, correct? Do you know where the trainers are?” “Yep! Arc, give her some of yours.” Arclight opened his bag and took out five small ziplock bags that contained a small card and a pokeball each. “These cards each say what pokemon is contained in the pokeball and information on their trainers,” he explained. I took the bags and put them in my bag. “Alright, I’m heading out. You better be back when I’m done,” I said and ran out of the house. When I entered the Opal Ward, I stopped and sat on a bench to check the locations of the trainers I had to deliver to. “Peridot, Jasper, Apophyll, and two from Lapis,” I read aloud. “That’s all over the place. Is an hour really going to be enough to complete this? I wish I had like 5 people I could split this job with.” In any case, sitting on my ass would accomplish nothing, so I stood up from the bench. I was ready to head to Peridot, when I had an idea. If all we needed to do was deliver these to people, it really wasn’t necessary for the delivery person to be human. “Pikachu,” I called and he jolted on my shoulder. “Would you help me out on this one?” Pikachu hopped off my shoulder and looked up to me, but was silent. The disguise’s head was tilted to one side. “I have to deliver these to some people around the city. If you could take these two and deliver them for me, we could finish up quicker. One is in Peridot Ward and the other in Jasper, so they should be relatively close to each other. I’ll take the remaining three, and will start with Apophyll because that’s the farthest one.” Pikachu took the plastic bags and squeaked. I patted his head and we walked in opposite directions. It had been a long while since I had navigated the city without Vanilla, and even longer since I had done it completely alone. Fortunately, the Wards she assigned me were two of the three I knew best, since I had traveled through them even before I met Zo. Since I was walking over from Opal Ward, I decided to look for the owner of a Jigglypuff in Peridot Ward first. I asked around for clues and directions, but the pokemon in the area didn’t know of this Santiago guy. Whoever he was, he mustn’t be someone that spent much time out in the open, I presumed. I eventually found him in a dark alleyway, but I was at first hesitant to approach him. He was talking with a few others, all with shaved heads and big bodies like his, and from the few words I could understand, the topic of their conversation wasn’t very pleasant. Yet, I needed to finish my delivery so that Vanilla would be happy, so I approached them. They were startled at my sudden appearance, as expected. It didn’t bother me, since I was already used to such reactions from other humans. I took out the card with the trainer’s name from the plastic bag, and showed it to them. Before most of them could finish reading the card, though, the one I was looking for quickly snatched it from my hand and pulled me over to a corner of the alleyway. “Jigglypuff … f*ckin’ … pokemon. Don’t want … know about that … or … f*ckin’ make fun of me… Find some other person …? … I’ll go get … when we’re f*ckin’ done… Just f*ckin’ … tell me where.” The gist was that he needed someone to keep his Jigglypuff for the time being for reasons I couldn’t really understand. I thought I could do this for him, but would need it written because I doubted I could communicate his message to another person. I looked around me and found a pen on the floor, so I picked it up and gave it to him so that he could write the command on the back of the card I had. He gladly did it, though he seemed to have trouble with spelling a few words. Once I had the card back, I placed it in the ziplock bag again and left the alleyway. I thought that maybe I could ask the favor to the person in Jasper Ward, thereby killing two Pidgeys with one Geodude. This time also, I wandered the Ward without knowing where I was supposed to find my target. However, this time the wandering took much less time. Jasper Ward was smaller than Peridot, and I had acquaintances in it. When two such acquaintances, who had been talking to each other, saw me, they approached me quickly. One of them ran up to me and scooped me into her hands, while the other just jogged behind her. If my memory serves me well, they were Sandy and Maxwell, the two who helped my friends, Ynnie and Nina, reclaim part of their home. “I have seen you … Pachirisu mimikyu … Vanilla’s?” Sandy said. “I think his name is Pikachu,” said Maxwell. “Pikachu!” She twirled around twice before putting me down on the ground. “What brings you here?” she asked, sitting on the ground to be almost on eye-level with me. I took out my ziplock bags and handed her the one that I needed to deliver to someone in Jasper Ward. She read the card in it, and her face lit up. “... Looking for Lillin? I know … follow me,” she said and stood up. Without missing a beat, she started jogging. I understood that she would guide me to the person, but keeping up with her speed was challenging for a small pokemon like me. At last, we were in a building, and the trainer I needed to see was sitting in the lobby, reading a book. “Excuse me, Lillin?” “Oh no. What … Sandy?” Lillin frowned when she saw Sandy come inside, but when she saw Maxwell enter behind me, that frown disappeared in an instant. She stood up from her chair, pushed Sandy out of the way and got way too close to him. “Maxwell! How are you?” she asked. “... must be tired… Come up … coffee or tea?” “Thank you, but I’ll pass.” I pulled Sandy’s shirt to remind her what we were doing there. “Lillin, this is for you,” she said and handed her the ziplock bag. Lillin took the bag, but the frown reappeared on her face. “Oh no… Why … Loudred … Goodbye fair sleep.” Then, I handed her the other ziplock bag, with the card that had Santiago’s message written on. Lillin was confused at first, but once she read the message, she laughed maniacally. I got spooked by her sudden mood change and scurried to hide behind Sandy. “Jigglypuff is mine now,” she said. “... All the nights … precious sleep … they’re mine! Mine!” It appeared that Lillin intended to keep the Jigglypuff as her own to silence her Loudred. This, ironically, made me worry about Lillin’s safety rather than the Jigglypuff’s owner’s feelings. Santiago’s friends didn’t seem to be the understanding type… “You can’t keep … not yours,” Sandy scolded Lillin. Lillin said that she knew that, and that she didn’t actually intend to keep it, but that she wanted us to get her something that would deal with Loudred’s noise so that she could let go of Jigglypuff. I had no clue what I could do, but I instructed Lillin in signs and futile squeals to write her message on the back of the card and to give it to me. Fortunately, Maxwell was better at understanding me than the other two were, and Lillin was also much more willing to listen to him rather than to Sandy or I, so he got what I needed on my behalf. We returned to the corner that Maxwell had to keep standing in order to keep handing adverts. “What should we do?” Sandy said, biting her thumb. “Should … another pokemon?” Maxwell suggested. “Doesn’t … sing, it could be … sleep powder or grass whistle?” “For Lillin, hypnosis would do best,” Sandy giggled. As we were discussing potential pokemon to give Lillin, Vanilla showed up to check on me. She also frowned when she saw who I was with. “How did it go, Pikachu?” Since the situation had become slightly more complicated than I could explain with squeaks and jumps, Sandy and Maxwell did so on my behalf. “So you need something to put her to sleep despite Loudred’s noise?” Vanilla summarized, and stroked her chin pensively. “You know, I think I have an idea that won’t involve looking for and capturing a pokemon that can learn sleep-inducing moves. Come Pikachu, let’s finish delivering the remaining pokemon together.” Vanilla bent over so that I could run up to her shoulder. “See you in a bit, Vanilla and Pikachu,” Sandy said and waved at us. “I was able to deliver 2 out of the remaining 3,” I explained as I pedaled Archer’s bike. “The last one appears to belong to a kid who just recently got kidnapped. That’s my luck.” I passed the Peridot, Opal and Obsidia Wards. From Coral Ward, I sent out Kame to get me to Apophyll. “We’re going back to Apophyll. The girl I delivered a Makuhita to had these terrible noise-cancelling headphones. I’m thinking maybe I could buy them from her. After a year of battling in this region, money is one thing I have in surplus.” I reached the beach and quickly headed to Apophyll academy. The girl was still listening to music in her room, reading a magazine. As I expected, she didn’t react to the sound of the door being opened or to me calling her by name. Only by shaking her by the arm, did she notice that I was once again in her room. “Oh, it’s you again. What’s up?” “I’d like to buy off your headphones. How does ₱30,000 sound to you?” “What? Wait, wait. My headphones aren’t for sale. Besides, I don’t need that much money! Don’t you know we, who walk the path of zen, are minimalists?” “Then, why don’t you minimize your possessions by giving me your headphones?” The girl frowned at this, but apparently gave it some thought, because this was what she said next: “I think there’s something I’d be willing to trade them for, and I think you’d be able to get me it, realistically speaking.” She narrowed her eyes and her smile was nothing short of creepy when she said that. I wondered whether this was my cue to leave her alone and go along with Sandy and Maxwell’s plan to capture a pokemon for Lillin. “I’d like an autograph from this specimen of a man!” she said, pointing to a huge picture of Arclight which occupied two full pages of the magazine she was reading. “I tune into his show all the time. I was so psyched just from talking with him on the phone when he told me about my Makuhita, you have no idea!” She shut the magazine and jumped while holding it close to her chest. “Alright, alright. I’ll ask if he can do me that favor.” I took a couple of quick steps backward, so that I wouldn’t be within her reach. “You will? I’m so psyched! I’ll be waiting for you, while listening to a recording of his 2008 live performance.” I quickly headed back to Obsidia Ward. By then, it had already been 50 minutes since I started Candy’s task, but unfortunately I didn’t think I’d be done in the next 10 minutes. “You’re back! Are you done?” Candy asked, and I replied with a negative. “I need to sort 2 more and I’ll be done,” I said. “For now, I need Arclight’s autograph.” “What’s up with that? I didn’t know you were a fan of his?” Arclight also looked at me with a suggestive smile. I blushed at their obvious misunderstanding. “Don’t be idiots. It’s not for me, it’s for one of… ack, forget that. Just give me your autograph.” “Haha, it’s no problem at all,” Arclight said. “You don’t need to be shy, Vanilla,” Candy smirked and poked my shoulder teasingly. This is the last time I ever agree to one of Candy’s last-minute favors, I decided in my heart. I went back to Apophyll and gave the autograph to the girl. She was in so much awe that she said almost nothing to me and voluntarily handed me her headphones. Now that the headphones were disconnected from the source, the music sounded from the speakers. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration if I said that I could feel the whole room vibrating to each beat of music. I left that room with barely a semblance of eardrums, and made my way to Jasper Ward to hand the headphones to their new owner. Sandy and Maxwell were still chatting in a corner when I came back. They were glad to find that I managed to trade my time, pride and eardrums for some noise-cancelling headphones. I asked them to guide me to Lillin, and to our surprise, we found all the people and pokemon in the lobby fast asleep, while Jigglypuff sulked by herself. “Lillin, wake up,” Sandy shook her. “Mhm… Is it you, Maxwell?” Sandy and my glares intersected on Maxwell’s face. “Y-yeah, it’s me,” he said, blushing. “Just wake up, will you?” Lillin slowly woke up and smiled when she saw that he was, indeed, there. “I’ve brought noise-cancelling headphones. Now you’ll agree to return the jigglypuff back to her owner, right?” I said. Lillin laughed and said that she wasn’t going to keep jigglypuff anyways, since she wouldn’t steal a pokemon when hers had been stolen. However, she gladly accepted the headphones from me. “I’m glad everything is sorted out now,” Sandy said, taking Maxwell’s hand and forcibly highfiving it. “... I think I need to sort out one last thing,” said Lillin to Sandy, with a face that would scare the devil himself. I hurried out of the building, for I had neither the time nor the patience to get caught in the crossfire. “Now we have one more pokemon to return. Let’s find out where the little kid was kidnapped to, teach a lesson to those skinheads that kidnapped him, and give his pokemon back.” Something I said appeared to resonate with Pikachu. He hopped off my shoulder and started running, occasionally looking back at me to make sure I was following him. “Where are we going?” The place he guided me to was one of the alleyways that way back, when I had first set foot in the region, had reminded me of my secret base in the Underworld. In here, there was a group of skinheads, talking in a low voice. Without an ounce of hesitation, Pikachu walked up to one of them and pulled on his shirt. “Oh lil guy, you’re f*ckin’ back. Come ‘ere,” he said and ran over to a spot closer to the entrance where I was. He was spooked when he saw me, either because he didn’t expect anyone to be there or because he thought I was a ghost, but regained composure quickly. “What’re you doin’ here, lass? This ain’t no place for f*ckin’ kids like you.” “I’m that Mimikyu’s trainer,” I said. “Ah! Then you f*ckin’ know about Jigglypuff?” I nodded. “That changes a great f*ckin’ deal of things, don’t it? Come ‘ere too.” He waved his hand beckoning me to get closer, which I did. When I was close enough for him to hear me whisper, I told him where his Jigglypuff was. I omitted all the extra nonsense we had to deal with, since that was irrelevant for him. “You’re my hero, dawg. Tell me anythin’. What the f*ck do you need? I’ll do anything in my f*ckin’ power to help you out.” At first, I couldn’t think of anything I needed help with, but Pikachu pulled on my dress and I started to piece together the real reason he had brought me to see this man. Skinheads… Could there be such a coincidence? “I’m looking for a kidnapped boy. Do you happen to be involved, and if so, know where to find him?” “Ugh you’re lookin’ for that f*ckin’ kid? Look, it’s real complicated, but I guess I can f*ckin’ tell you where to find him so you see for yourself,” he said. “The lil’ f*cker’s held up on the roof of one of the buildings in the f*ckin’ Onyx Ward.” “What? Why? What is there to complicate about kidnapping a kid?” “Well lass, I can’t tell you or I’ll get in f*ckin’ trouble. Just be prepared to get your pokemon wrecked.” “How about I just call the cops on you all? What do you say to that?” “Oh no no, c’mon. If you bring the cops over there, you’ll just force them to f*ckin’ relocate as soon as they see ‘em comin’. Trust me. Go there alone and as undercover as possible.” Though I didn’t get a particularly good feeling about this, by this time I was tired of dealing with people’s eccentricities and was stressed by every minute that passed that I wasn’t on my way to Calcenon, so I decided to follow dude’s advice to go search for the kid alone. Fortunately, the search didn’t take long because there were a limited number of buildings with rooftops that were accessible to the public. On the third building I visited, I found what I was looking for. There were several skinheads who all collectively looked at me when I opened the door to the rooftop garden. I saw the kid sitting with hands and feet tied. For a young person his age, say about 8 or 9 years old, I commended him for looking quite collected. “Have you come to f*ckin’ pay off the ransom, lass?” one of the skinheads asked me. “No. I’ve come here to take the kid back to his home.” “Like we’d let you do that. Guys.” With that cue, a couple of skinheads stepped forward and engaged me in battle. Honestly, they weren’t very good battlers. Sure, they had large and powerful pokemon that they may or may not have stolen, but their teamwork was visibly all over the place. The pokemon sometimes didn’t obey their orders and attacked their allies. Needless to say, I won the first double battle. Two more double battles ensued, but I also won them thanks to their disorganization. When all the skinheads were out of pokemon they could use, they fell silent like they didn’t know what to say or do anymore. “You really are useless,” said a voice that at first confused me, because it seemed to be coming from in front of me, but I saw no one it could belong to. Until I realized that it was the kid speaking. “I’ll have to deal with this myself,” he said. “What are you talking about? Really, kid. I just came here looking for you so I could return something that belongs to you. But what kind of messed up business have you gotten into?” “Shut up. Your peabrain wouldn’t understand anything. Just battle me, lose and go cry somewhere else.” Without even really understanding why I had to waste even more time battling the kid, we engaged in battle. The youngster actually surprised me by having more coordination and strategy than any of the adults that surrounded him. It was evident that those pokemon were actually his, and had a solid bond between them and their trainer. What he lacked, of course, was experience, but that was only an advantage I could boast for having lived twice as long as he had. In the end, I won the battle, and the kid screamed and kicked with frustration. “Stupid adults, always trying to get in the way,” he said. “But you never do anything to actually help! You just take whatever is there to take, without a single thought to the consequences of it. I quit. I’m just gonna go home.” The kid fired everyone on the spot, and heard no complaints from the skinheads before rushing out of the rooftop garden. “Wait.” I ran after him, and caught him just before he accessed Obsidia Ward. “What do you want? Don’t you have anything better to do?” he shouted. “Thanks to you I’ve failed to make my uncle pay for convincing me to leave my precious pokemon in the SDP. My pokemon was stolen and all of it is his fault. I hate adults like him and you who think they know better, but they’re just ignorant of how dumb they are!” “Calm down, and shut up because your incessant shouting is really hurting my damaged eardrums.” Instead of explaining anything else, I handed him the ziplock bag with his pokemon. I figured, from what he was implying in all of his whining, that this pokemon getting stolen had been the cause of the drama. The kid pouted and received the ziplock bag. He read the card and immediately opened the bag to take out the pokeball and release the pokemon inside. “Vanillite! How did you…?” He looked at me with awe, but then lowered his gaze. “Uh. So some adults can do good things. Fine. I’ll see if I can be someone that does good things too.” The boy wrapped an arm around his pokemon and waved at me before running in the direction of the Lapis Ward. “Good things, huh?” I said. Finally done with all the deliveries, I returned to Candy’s shop. The whole thing took just shy of 2 hours, but the reward was arguably worth the struggle. “Thanks for your help. I hope you’ll find a good use for this,” said Arclight when he handed me a bracelet. “What is it?” I said, initially feeling scammed. “It’s a Mega-Z bracelet. If you have a mega stone or a Z crystal, you can give those to your pokemon and it’ll allow you to mega-evolve them or use the powerful Z moves in battle.” “Alright. I guess I’ll learn about it more when I use them in battle,” I said. “Candy. You’re ready to fly me to Calcenon now?” “Of course!” Candy sipped the last bit of her tea and stood up from the table. As everyone moved around the shop and Candy was about to pass me to go outside, I stopped her. There was something that wasn’t urgent to ask, but figured it was a harmless question anyway so it didn’t hurt to dissipate my curiosity. “Er, Candy. This might seem to come out of nowhere, but you wouldn’t be lying about your familial background, would you?” “What? My familial background? You mean who my parents are?” “Just tell me the truth. I swear I will not tell anyone if you’d rather maintain secrecy.” Even though I didn’t believe the contents of a mysterious book, which was supposedly written by a prophet, to be grounded in reality or to really be narrating the life of my cousin, I couldn’t deny that I wanted to confirm that the book was a sham whenever I had a chance to talk with Candy again. After all, I had to admit that Candy meeting most, if not all, of the characteristics described in that book- being a young Everish woman who traveled to Reborn, perhaps having quite a few features that resembled her father, and also having a cousin, me, who was close to her- was odd, to say the least. Candy was surprised, indeed, to be asked a question I knew the answer to, but she responded to it anyway with utmost patience. “I don’t really care to keep it a secret. I’m just surprised you’re asking me this, because I’ll have to disappoint you if you expect me to say something you don’t already know. My mother’s side of the family is Leiderhosen and my dad’s is Hatter, known for being descendants of the mad hatter. As you know, my mom is your dad’s younger sister, the youngest of 4 siblings. My dad moved to Everland, after years of feeling like he didn’t belong in his family. I mean, he is a goofball but not mad enough to mix with his siblings or close family in Wonderland. I hear my parents caused quite the controversy when they decided to marry, because a member of the Everland nobility marrying a regular foreigner from Wonderland of all places, was unheard of. I love both my mom and dad, though, so I’m really glad that they could marry despite all that.” As she had said, nothing she said was news to me, so I ventured just one last question to seal the topic: “No connection to the Queen, by any chance?” Candy laughed at this question. “My my, what’s gotten into you? Did someone spread lies about me? I’m not royalty at all! We sure are nobles politically close to the Queen, but nothing ties us to her by bloodline.” “No, no one is spreading lies. I just wanted to confirm what I already knew, that was all.” “You’re so funny, Vanilla. Shall we go to Calcenon now?” “Yeah. Thanks.” With my mind in relative peace, I exited the Daycare with Candy and climbed onto Rayquaza. Little did I know then, that my peace would soon be completely undone once I reached my destination. VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

Nope but watashi ga kita!!! how about we keep on the crystal theme and I predict Crystalrage?