The Search

Lux was no ordinary Pokémon.
About eleven years ago, when he had just evolved into a relatively ordinary Luxray who was the first-caught Pokémon of his trainer James, he might seem like one.
But now, things are different.
Being the main Pokémon of the National Championship team which he takes great pride in for nearly four years, he had experienced events most other Pokémon could only dream of.
Defending the title was an extraordinarily hard task in the beginning, but it had since eased up due to both the drop in the quality of challengers and the improvements of team’s skill.
Hardly any challengers were capable of surpassing the regional champions, much less defeating Lux and his teammates.
Believed by many to be one of the best in the world, the team currently consists of eight Pokémon including Lux himself.
Torry the Torterra, James’s starter.
Star the Staraptor.
Ayra the Gardevoir.
Hardy the Aggron.
Blake the Flygon.
Glace the Glaceon.
And lastly, Flare the Typhlosion.
As a matter of fact, they had other Pokemon as members of the team in the days past.
But as of now, the eight of them are the only active team members.
Since James became champion, the team had been very active in combatting various unlawful organizations.
Including Team Galactic which they disbanded before James became champion, they had direct involvement in taking down four major villainous teams and over a dozen minor ones.
After the defeat of the last of the Rockets nearly three years earlier, what remained of the underworld activities have been forced to go further downwards.
Amounts of illegal activities like Pokémon theft or trafficking had since plummeted.
Understandably, a lot of people credited them for the increasing peace, despite established organizations such as the International Police having done most of the work.
However, in the week after the fall of Team Rocket, James decided to move to his villa in a remote segment near Resort Area, partially due to excessive media attention, but mainly to something else.
Sometime later, they collectively agreed not to go out in public unless out of necessity in order to avoid being the subject of headlines.
But consequentially, there was basically nothing to do, since the necessity hardly existed.
With most villainous groups disbanded and trainers basically giving up trying to take the championship title, the team found themselves with too much time.
Normally, the team hung around the villa to train.
However, they soon grow bored of it.
So, one of the strongest Pokémon teams in the world was lying around half-asleep or daydreaming.
“Any ideas?” Lux suddenly spoke up.
The sound returned the group to the real world from their respective daydreams.
“Get some training?” suggested Glace.
Flare shook his head.
“Nah, getting sick of it.”
“Want to pay Gira a visit? Haven’t done that in a while,” Star threw in his idea.
“I’m right here, you know.”
The predatory avian turned his head around and saw a black-and-yellow-colored basilisk floating fifteen feet away, apparently just exiting a portal behind it.
“Oh, speak of you, and you shall appear. Why aren’t you in the Distortion World?”
“There’s literally nothing to do there right now, so I thought I’d pay you guys a visit.”
“Well, Gira, seems like we have similar issues then,” huffed Star.
Normally, regular Pokémon would cower in the presence of Giratina, so calling him nicknames is quite unusual.
Then again, spending years in a team with someone does make you bond with them.
“So, where’s James, anyway? Can’t see him anywhere in here…” asked the dragon of antimatter.
“Asleep,” said Ayra quickly.
“Where? And why is he asleep in the middle of the day?”
“Blake somehow convinced him to help with his usual stuff, and he got carried away.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll wake him up,” Flare said. “Can’t have him miss your visit, can’t we?”
That being said, Flare headed to his trainer’s bedroom.
Weak sounds of fire and a surprised yelp could be heard.
Mere moments later, James can be seen walking into the training room with Flare, muttering something about alarm clocks.
The twenty-four-year-old trainer was 6’6” and he wore his signature glasses with a gold-colored frame.
Behind him was Blake, accidentally awoken with the same fire.
“Oh, hi there, Gira.”
“Still a lazy sleeper, I see.”
“He got worse,” Torry commented.
“Oh, shut up.” James said, rolling his eyes. “It happens when you have blank schedules for weeks, you know.”
Normally, humans wouldn’t comprehend Pokémon speech.
But this is no longer the case for James after Gira granted him the ability to do so.
Although sometimes, James feels like the capability of understanding Pokémon is more of a curse than a gift.
“Now that you’re awake,” Lux said.
Everyone turned their attentions to Lux.
“We currently have absolutely nothing to do, and are dying of boredom. So, does someone has any more ideas?”
“Well, anyone up to going down to Veilstone for a change? It’s quite close to Gira’s place anyways, might as well go there too.”
“You know we’ll get swarmed by fans if we go out in a small town, and you want to go to Veilstone?”
“We won’t. I’ll be as secretive as I can. So, who’s with me?”
Most of the team, save Lux and Torry immediately chorused their agreement.
Those two, on the other hand, turned pale.
“We’re not going to like this, aren’t we?”
“Nope.”

They were right.
Mere seconds after Star landed on the outskirts of Veilstone, residents of Veilstone city rapidly recognized James and spread the word.
Even though James was wearing a casual sleeved shirt and trousers instead of his champion’s attire, apparently Star’s hairdo was enough of a giveaway.
Almost instantly, the landing spot was swarmed by fans and reporters, considering it’s been months since they were out in the open.
James had to release the whole team from their Pokéballs – mainly to force the reporters away and make a secure perimeter.
It wouldn’t have taken long for the perimeter to be overrun, though.
Fortunately, Giratina came to the rescue by opening a portal to the Distortion World… Directly underneath the team.
As they were falling through the portal, Lux could’ve sworn he heard Star muttering about changing his hairstyle.
One harsh landing later, they were inside Gira’s domain.
“Well, so much for secretive trips…”
“Told you,” said his first two Pokémon simultaneously.
“Actually, you didn’t,” added Ayra. The two seniors rolled their eyes.
“Anyways, thanks for saving our skins,” said Glace.
“It’s fine, really…” Gira said dismissively. ”But now I might appear in headlines.”
“Um…. Sorry about that.” the trainer said, rubbing his head.
He moved his attention to his surroundings.
“Huh, this place changed quite a lot from last time… Gira, why is there a house here?”
“I built it myself. I finished it a week ago,” their host said, somewhat proudly.
“Pretty neat. What did you build it from?” Torry commented.
“Limestone and finely-ground bones,” Giratina said flatly.
Everyone else seemed disturbed, at the very least.
“Hey, got to work with what you got, right?”
James shook his head, and said, “You sure it’s a good idea? The ‘rains’ in here seems quite…. acidic, you see…”
“And what does that imply…. Oh wait, crap.”
“You might want to apply some plaster to the walls before it dissolves,” James suggested.
“I’ll…. Get to that soon…”
Suddenly, a strange loud noise was audible.
“Was that my house?”
“I don’t think so…..” James took another look around. And blinked.
“Guys, are we seeing the same thing?”
“If you just saw a huge airship-like slamming into the rock pillars, then yes,” Glace said, in a surprised tone.
“Well, at least we found an activity…” Flare sighed.

Inside the airship….
“Giratina’s on the radar!” a red-haired woman shouted.
“Did you really need to shout? Man… My ears hurt…” complained another blue-haired man.
 “Mars, Saturn, calm down. Let’s just get Giratina and get away from here,” said another purple-haired lady.
“You sure about this, Jupiter?” Saturn spoke up, uncertainty in his voice.
“It’s fine. The plan’s quite simple, remember? Capture Giratina and use it as a bargaining chip for Cyrus’s release. Maybe they’ll even throw in Charon as a bonus!” Mars answered.
“Okay, but are we supposed to just throw a ball at Giratina or something? I mean, it’s not like it’ll come willingly, and the last time we got involved against it, we ended up in ruins…” replied Saturn, still uncertain.
“Oh, we haven’t told you, haven’t we?” said Mars, a grin forming in her face.
“Told me what?”
“Of these.”
Mars activated a switch.
A small container appeared from the walls, containing three heavy balls.
“Don’t tell me….”
“Yep, they’re those three,” Mars’s grin grew wider.
“How did you even get them?”
“Hey, we made efficient use of the remaining funds after abandoning the Eterna Base, you know,” said Jupiter. “Got to admit, it took quite a while to find them. Fortunately, they were already awakened for some reason”
“So this is what you people have been working on since Stark Mountain? Wow…” Saturn said, somewhat flabbergasted.
“Yes, and I’m calling dibs on Regice,” said Mars, snatching one of the heavy balls.
Jupiter took another one. “And I’ll take Registeel.”
“Oh well, Regirock’s fine with me, I guess…” Saturn said, taking the last heavy ball.
“Anyways, men, prepare for combat!” ordered Jupiter to some grunts.

Meanwhile…
“That symbol…. Isn’t it Team Galactic’s?” observed James.
“Didn’t you guys destroy them, like, eight years ago?” asked Ayra, somewhat confused.
“Actually, we didn’t annihilate them, we just stopped their main mission and disbanded them,” Star said.
“Plus, their admins were never actually arrested. Except for that Charon guy in Stark Mountain, I believe,” Torry added.
“Wait, why didn’t you tell us?” Flare questioned.
“Well… We thought they’ll never pop up again…. So we kinda forgot about them…” Lux admitted.
“You guys owe us a lot of explanation now...” Blake complained.
“Sorry…” the Sinnoh-born members of the team chorused. Including James, and strangely, Giratina.
“Anyways… Alright, here’s the plan,” James said, returning the focus.
“Torry, use Frenzy Plant or whatever move you prefer on the airship to pin it down. Ayra, teleport to the top of the airship with Hardy, Flare, and Glace. Star and Blake, strike the airship from its flanks. Lux, Gira, come with me,” James commanded. “We need to crush them once and for all.”
“Right,” all Pokémon present said simultaneously.
Immediately, Hardy and the team couple surrounded Ayra in a circle.
Star and Blake took off, leaving dust trails.
Torry began to plant roots to bind the airship.
And James…
James hopped onto Lux’s back, to the latter’s annoyance.
“Why can’t you just ride on Gira?” the electric-type groaned.
The basilisk chuckled slightly.
“Hey, the last time you did this, you took off way too fast and ended up being left out of the fight! You need counterweights now!” James replied.
“Ugh, fine…” Lux rolled his eyes, then used Magnet Rise.
Lux launched upwards in a sudden jolt, leaving pebbles standing straight thanks to magnetism.
Fortunately, Lux didn’t put too much energy into it and stopped accelerating twenty feet above ground.
“That’s better than last time. Now, straight to the cockpit, guys!”
Back at ground, a sphere of light appeared, and vanished.
“It seems like we’ll get there last,” Gira commented.
“Then let’s not miss all the fun!” Lux quickly said, and began to hover forward in his standard manner, which looked like he was making a big leap, minus that he had an acceleration against gravity.
Not that the direction of gravity is constant in the Distortion World.
“Yeah…” Giratina said, hovering in the same direction.
James wisely decided to keep his mouth shut to prevent an accidental inhalation of Luxray hair.
“Wonder how we’ll get in the cockpit in the first try with the airship moving that rapidly,” the electromagnetically levitated Pokémon said.
As if on cue, a large amount of roots and trees appeared from various positions and struck the airship, causing it to abruptly hang in the air almost a hundred foot off ground.
If ‘ground’ was defined by a flat surface in a downwards direction from the airship.
Otherwise, the nearest surface was less than five meters away.
And saturated with plant roots.
“Never mind…”
“Huh, didn’t expect Torry to use that immediately,” James plainly stated.
Atop the airship, four figures were clearly unhappy with the abrupt halt.
“Ouch... Remind me to set Torry on fire later,” Flare said, after his head slammed into a wall.
“And to think that I had adjusted our arrival speed to prevent something like this… Damn inertia…” Ayra muttered, picking herself off the ground.
“Hardy seems fine to me…”  Flare replied.
“He's an over half-ton Pokémon standing in a small crater made simply by him standing there, of course he doesn’t feel anything.” Glace answered, rolling her eyes.
“Hey!”
The four Pokémon turned their heads to the source of the sound.
“Who are you Pokémon?” shouted a male grunt, pulling out a radio. “Infiltrators on the roof! Requesting backup!”
“Team Galactic, huh? Glace, which Pokémon do they normally use again?” Ayra calmly asked.
“Mostly the Zubat and the Glameow line, some have the Bronzor or the Stunky line. But it’s been nine years after all, perhaps they’ve learned some lessons.”
Three more grunts appeared out a hatch, and the quartet released all their Pokémon at once.
Revealing a dozen Golbat, half a dozen Glameow, and another half-dozen Stunky.
“Attack!”
“Never mind, they haven’t.”
Ayra raised both her hands, and her eyes glowed an eerie red and suddenly eighteen Pokémon found themselves completely unable to move.
The Stunky, on the other hand, froze in shock.
“Showoff,” Flare muttered.
“Hey, don’t be selfish!” Glace shouted.
“First strike, first scores,” Ayra said, grinning. Which was quite scary considering her eyes were glowing red. “And hey, I left the Stunky for you.”
“Whatever… Right, here goes!” Glace said, charging a Blizzard attack and firing it.
Flare and Hardy followed with a Fire Blast and a Rock Slide, respectively.
The grunts’ jaw dropped as the unusually huge attacks swept over their Pokémon.
Ayra’s eyes stopped glowing. Lowering her arms, she commented:
“Okay, that was a bit overkill.”
As the dust settled revealing two dozen unconscious Pokémon, some frozen solid and some buried under rocks, one of the grunts managed to pull himself together sufficiently to make radio contact.
“Hey, patrol team in. Requesting to send all available manpower… Yes, all available manpower. Or else we’re screwed.”
Glace fired another Blizzard, comically freezing the quartet in a block of ice.
“You people are screwed from the very start,” she said, chuckling.
Several hundred meters away…
“Huh, Torry sure overdid it this time,” Blake said, looking at the plant-bounded airship while floating in the air. “Using Plant Genesis right off the bat…”
“You should’ve seen when he fought Groudon a couple years back. Now that was some thick vegetation,” Star casually replied, flapping his wings to stay in the air.
“Now I regret catching a cold…”
Their conversation was cut short by the sound of a launching missile.
“What the…”
Reflexively, Blake fired a long, conical Dragonbreath at the missile. The missile then exploded ten meters ahead of them, slightly disrupting their stability.
“Tell you about that later. Got some anti-air ballistics to destroy!” Star said, flapping his wings once to stabilize and another flap to propel himself ahead with a massive speed.
“Right,” Blake replied, also rapidly moving ahead. “You take the Port side?”
“Fine by me,” Star said, turning leftwards.
“Cheers. Okay, let’s see how tough these guys make their missile launchers.”
Some flaring sounds, and Blake barely put a Protect up in time to block incoming machinegun fire.
“Missile launchers and machine guns. Right.”
On the other side of the airship, Star was having slightly more trouble.
Unlike Blake which have free arms to put up the Protect shield, Star had no limbs available to put up defenses.
He made a mental note to learn how to make energy barriers using his talons.
But for now, he was limited to dodging the bullets and missiles.
Fortunately, he was fast enough not to get hit.
“I hate being tailed...”
He turned back for a split second and used Aerial Ace, splitting a missile behind him in half.
And dived down immediately to avoid the next one blowing up in his face.
With one missile down and four more trailing him, he pondered on how to take them down without risking being hit by the bullets.
An idea came up to his mind.
Star used Steel Wing.
“Let’s see if this works...” he muttered, wings glimmering from using Steel Wing.
He shed some of his steel-hard feathers, which made contact with three of the missiles, blowing them up.
“Oh, of course there’s one left…” Star groaned. “Might as well then…”
Star began charging energy across his body and made a sharp aerial U-turn, facing the missile directly.
With about three seconds until the missile blew him up, he unleashed the stored energy.
And was surrounded by glowing energy in the shape his body, only slightly larger.
“Brave Bird!”
The blue-colored energy bird suddenly launched even faster ahead of Star, and in less than a second made contact with the missile.
Which immediately blew up.
However, the attack did not dissipate. Instead, it continued moving rapidly towards the airship.
And made contact with the middle of the side.
And exploded, taking out the two missile launchers and the machinegun which were conveniently located near the point of impact.
Oh, and making a large bird-shaped hole gaping in the side of the static airship.
“Well, that was easy. Wonder how Blake is doing.”
A large sphere of greenish energy rose from the other side of the airship, stopped for a brief moment, and split into multiple smaller ones which launched into the starboard side.
Multiple explosions was heard.
“Guess he’s doing okay then.”

“Huh, those guys sure are making a good light show,” Torry said to himself.

“The heck? How did they… Fine, I’m coming up there,” Jupiter said in the radio.
“What happened? And what was all those trembling?” Saturn questioned.
“Some Pokémon attacked the ship, and there are now four Pokémon making their way in from the roof, and two more from breaches in the flanks,” Answered Jupiter.
“Any ideas on their trainer?” asked Mars.
“Here, these are the pictures of the ones coming through the flanks… And the ones coming from the roof. Look familiar to you guys?”
Observing the pictures, the admins quickly focused their attention on an avian Pokémon.
“That Staraptor…” Jupiter whispered.
“Isn’t he trained by…”Mars continued.
“This isn’t good…”Saturn finished.
“Well, at least that explains the sudden plant mass appearing,” Mars said. “Now, it’s not like we’ve got a choice anyways, so I’m going to try and fight off those two from the flanks! Jupiter, try to hold those four off! Saturn, stay here and defend the cockpit!” she continued, dashing out of the cockpit.
“Right!” Jupiter copied, also dashing out from the cockpit.
“Oh dear….” Said Saturn, preparing himself for whatever may be coming his way.
Mere moments after the two female admins left, Saturn spotted a couple of silhouettes heading for the cockpit.
Several seconds later, one of the silhouettes got close enough for Saturn to figure out what it was.
And electricity began to crackle across the cockpit window glass.
“Ah, crap.”

Meanwhile, in the upper levels of the ship…
“These guys are too easy!” Flare shouted, flooding a corridor with Lava Plume, taking out another group of hostile Pokémon.
“Yeah… It’s almost boring…” Glace lazily said, freezing a corridor with an Ice Beam, causing several Pokémon to slip over before being frozen by another Ice Beam.
“Why are you people blocking our own path?” Ayra shouted to the duo.
Hardy poked her in the shoulder, signalling her to give way.
The aforementioned Aggron proceeded to slide through the frozen corridor, cracking the ice and slamming into an unfortunate grunt who launched into a metal gate.
“Wonder what’s behind that…” Glace said.
“Open it then. The other corridor seems to lead to the restrooms, so this must be the right way to go.”
Hardy prepared himself to ram the door, with the grunt screaming on the top of his lungs.
Fortunately for the grunt, Ayra psychically opened the gate before Hardy could flatten him.
“Well, apparently it’s not locked,” Ayra said to herself.
Hardy sighed out loud.
The quartet proceeded to cross the door and found themselves in a large, empty conference room.
“Huh, seems empty. Ayra?” Flare said, wondering.
“It’s…. strange. I can only spot one other person in this room,” Ayra replied.
“So, you’re James’ Pokémon,” a sound said from the other side of the room. “But I’ve never seen you before.”
“She doesn’t look like a grunt,” Flare commented.
“Of course she isn’t! We’re in a large room perfect for a large-scale fight and you expect to simply steamroll some grunt’s Pokémon?” Glace remarked.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you’re all going down!” the purple-haired admin said. “Go! Skuntank, Purugly, Crobat, Bronzong!”
“Man, and I was hoping for something more than one-on-ones with evolved grunt Pokémon…” groaned Flare.
“And go! Registeel!”
The heavy ball popped open, revealing Registeel with a small, reddish, handcuff-like chain binding its left arm.
“There you have it,” said Glace.
It was all she managed to say before having to dodge a Flash Cannon.
Not from the golem, though. From the Bronzong.
Before she could properly strike back, she was hit by a sudden Night Slash.
“Glace!” Flare shouted.
Suddenly, he was struck by a feline Pokémon, and flinched back.
Fortunately for him, he managed to regain his senses just in time to avoid a barrage of Air Slashes.
“That was close…”

In a slightly different area of the room, Ayra was having her own difficulties.
With eyes glowing and arms lifted, she was attempting to hold Registeel in place.
While she managed to significantly slow it down, Registeel managed to slowly move towards her.
“Could use a little help here…” she said, grunting.
Hardy was firing Flash Cannons and Rock Blasts at the Crobat, who managed to dodge them well while keeping Flare away from Bronzong.
“We can deal with this! Help Ayra first!” Flare shouted before forming a Flame Wheel and charging into Crobat who barely managed to dodge.
“These guys aren’t the worst we’ve fought, you know,” Glace added. “Just deal with Registeel before it can get to Ayra!”
Hardy nodded as he heard it and turned back, using Body Slam on Registeel.
Ayra’s psychic grip on Registeel happened to break at just that moment.
The collision of the two steel-types produced a shockwave which reverberated across the room.

“Why shouldn’t we go in there yet?”
“There could be a trap in there, you know…” Blake replied. “If those guys fired an ice-type attack at us, we’ll be in big trouble.”
“But we need to get in there! We can’t let Lux and the others get all the fun!”
Blake rolled his eyes. “Fine… You go in first, and if you don’t get frozen solid, I’ll go in too.”
In a blink of an eye, Star was already just ahead of the gap.
“Doesn’t seem like anyone’s guarding it….”
“There you are!” Mars said, halting from a sprint on the other side of the gap. “Go, Regice!”
“Did she just say…”
Regice materialized, bound by a reddish chain almost identical to that of Registeel’s, and fired an Ice Beam, from which Star failed to dodge completely, causing Star’s left wing to be partially encrusted in ice.
“Told you…” Blake mumbled before having to dodge from an Ice Shard.
“Ugh, dammit…..” Star muttered, flapping his good wing more to maintain altitude. Flying an erratic flight path, he knew he wouldn’t be able to dodge another well-aimed Ice Beam.
So he made a decision, and flared some energy.
Like in a Brave Bird attack, the energy surrounded his body.
However, instead of gathering in his front side, the energy took a shape of a huge bird surrounding him, emitting a purplish color.
As Mars began to release her other Pokémon, she noticed the energy bird heading towards Regice, with the Staraptor as its center.
Regice fired a Blizzard at the purplish phoenix.
Clouds of steam formed instantly.

At the cockpit, Saturn released all his Pokémon from their Pokéballs, then Regirock, also bound with the Red Chain.
The front windshield began to crack with electromagnetism.
He braced himself mere moments before it shattered into pieces.
Then his intended target along with a Luxray with a young man on it glided in.
“Huh? You? Thought you stopped with these large-scale operations after Spear Pillar!”
Saturn sighed. “I did, but when those two said they found a way to get our boss back, well, I can’t say no to that…”
“And what does capturing him have to do with your boss?” James said confusedly, pointing at Giratina.
“Wouldn’t it be obvious? As a bargaining chip!” Saturn exclaimed.
“Bargain with whom? As far as I know, no one knows where Cyrus is now!” James replied.
“Wait, you people didn’t arrest him at one point?”
James shook his head.
“Oh man…. Well, I guess it’s too late now… Regirock! Take Giratina down! Everyone else, Deal with the Luxray!”
“Regirock against me?!” GIra chuckled. “Really?”
“Gira, mind standing down?” Lux said.
“Huh?”
“I need to…. Practice one move a bit…”
James’s eye widened, realizing what Lux meant.
“Oh, the Ion Tsunami?” Gira inquired.
“No, a new move. So far only James have seen me use it. By the way, you might need to get him and yourself a bit away.”
“Fine then….”
That said, Giratina vanished into the shadows.
James leapt into a shadowy area, where Gira opened a portal for him to enter.
“Huh. Well then, take the Luxray!”
As five Pokémon charged at him, Lux closed his eyes, and said under his breath:
“Electrosphere.”

As Flare and Glace was fighting four opposing Pokémon, they felt slight static electricity sting their foot.
“Wonder if that’s Lux…” Flare muttered, before firing a Flamethrower at the Crobat, this time managing to land a square hit. “Finally! Hate those Agility users….” he said as the Crobat fell to the floor.
He quickly turned his attention to the Purugly which was recharging after failing to land a Hyper Beam on him earlier.
Glace, on the other hand, was in a harder situation since she needed to continually dodge Flash Cannons from the Bronzong and Night Slashes from the Skuntank.
Between dodging those two, she had little time to counterattack due to her speed which was considerably lower than her boyfriend’s.
So she made a risky decision.
She jumped away from a Flash Cannon, and landed on the ground where the Skuntank charged with dark-glowing claws.
However, she did no dodging whatsoever.
“Ah!” She yelped, as the Night Slash landed squarely. Then her eyes glowed a faint blue.
Glace grinned, even with the pain, and her grin grew wider as her Avalanche attack began.
The Skuntank was instantly swept away by a wave of snow, before being buried under a foot of them.
She turned her attention to the Bronzong, expecting another Flash Cannon.
Only to see it glowing red and falling to the ground.
“Man, you took quite your time… I guess too much naps make you rusty!” Flare said casually, his mouth grinning while emitting smoke, courtesy of a Fire Blast.
Near him was a trail of fire ending with a fainted, slightly charred Purugly slammed into a wall.
“Hey, you didn’t have to face a type advantage!”

Less than fifty feet away, Hardy and Ayra were facing Registeel.
Hardy groaned as he engaged in a duel of raw power with the golem.
Ayra was still gasping for air after holding Registeel with Psychic powers for a little too long.
“Help?" he requested softly
“Just….. A moment…..” Ayra said, gasping for air. Then her eyes began to glow red once more.
Immediately, Hardy began to dominate the power struggle.
Registeel faltered slightly backwards, and Hardy took his chance.
He used Head Smash.
A loud bang echoed across the room, and Registeel fell down with a large dent on its body.
Hardy muttered something as he caressed his own head.
Ayra’s eyes returned to normal as she turned her attention to the awestruck admin.
“Right, now for the trainer…”
Jupiter found herself immobilized.

Outside the airship, the steam cloud had just dissipated revealing Star covered in a phoenix-formed energy.
“Using Grand Phoenix already?” Blake commented.
“Not like I’ve got much choice anyways….” Star replied, his voice somewhat deepened.
“What in the…… Everyone, fire Ice Beams!”
Regice, along with a Gastrodon and a Glalie complied, while a Toxicroak and a Skuntank stood still.
Star flared his energy, and the Ice Beams turned into more steam clouds.
“Ah, nothing like some warm mist…” Star commented.
“So, what’s the attack plan?”  Blake said.
“I go ahead slowly as cover, and when we’re close enough, just land a couple Draco Meteors.”
“Fine by me…. Wait, what’s going on there?”
Mars, looking somewhat frustrated, revealed a ring with an embedded gemstone.
“Wait, don’t tell me that’s!” Star said, somewhat shocked.
Mars pressed something one the ring and it shined a bright light, along with a small sphere between her Glalie’s eyes.
“Oh dear…”
The light dissipated, revealing a Mega Glalie.
“Now, everyone use Blizzard!”
Star flared his energy once more, this time barely able to hold the Blizzards back.
Tiny beams of ice managed to pass through and some landed on Star or Blake, causing some damage.
Clearly, flaring his energies was taking a toll on Star.
“You okay, Blake?” Star said, panting.
Blake’s eyes were twitching madly.
“Oh, crap.”
In a panic, Star flew away from the airship, exposing Blake to the Ice-type attacks.
“Now’s the chance, more Ice Beams!”
The Ice Beams landed squarely on Blake, freezing him solid and causing him to fall freely.
Not for long though.
With a deafening roar, the ice block encasing Blake shattered, revealing a thawed, enraged Flygon.
Immediately, it flew towards the Galactic Admin with a high speed, releasing a continuous stream of Dragon Pulse from its mouth.
“What the… Open fire!”
The Ice-type attacks were swiftly evaporated by the over-energized Dragon Pulse.
Blake briefly halted the Dragon Pulse stream, forming a sphere in its mouth and fired it, twenty feet away from his foes.
It split into dozens of separate Draco Meteors without rising first.
Mars dove for cover.
The energy spheres exploded on contact, causing a massive amount of explosions around the gap.
Mainly centered at the Mega Glalie.
A few seconds later, the smoke receded, revealing four fainted Pokémon and a barely-conscious Regice.
Blake blinked.
“What just happened?”
As Regice was just about to fire a Blizzard at Blake, Star approached it and let loose a Close Combat, taking the golem out of the count.
“You saw a Mega Evolution,” Star said.
“Oh.”
They decided to pass through the gap and enter the ship.
And saw Ayra and the others.
“Who caused the ship to rock so much?” Ayra said with a lump on her head, furious.
Blake and Star glanced at each other.
“Run,” Flare whispered.
The dragon and the avian flew right back through the gap, screaming and flapping their wings for dear life.
“Don’t you dare run away from me!”
“Um…. Ayra?” Flare quietly said.
“WHAT?”
“The Admin?” he said, glancing at the dizzy, floored Mars.
“Oh, yeah…”
Mars also found herself immobilized.
Glace made makeshift Ice chains and handcuffs and attached them to the walls before Ayra bound the Admin with them.
“Same as the other one, right?”
“Yeah….”
A few hundred feet away, Star and Blake was freaking out.
“We’re in trouble,” Blake said.
“It was your fault, man!” Star replied.
“Why didn’t you stop me from…. Wait, what’s that?”
Star turned around.
And saw a yellowish ball of light over thirty foot across which seemed to produce some small thunderbolts.
“What in the….”
“It’s Lux, isn’t it?”
“Not that I can think of anybody else…”
In the cockpit, the five Pokémon was still lunging forwards at Lux.
And they were stuck in the lunging position, frozen in place.
“What the….” Saturn said, or tried to say, but he found himself incapable of any motion, even to move his lips to speak.
The atmosphere within the cockpit was very…. electrical.
Static charges was present all across the room, and metallic objects which was close to each other began to pull themselves together magnetically.
Not to mention the occasionally zapping thunderbolts which seemed to appear randomly.
“Well, that worked as I expected…” he said, before unleashing a Discharge.
Being in widely-opened attack stances, all hostile Pokémon present, save Regirock, immediately dropped down, fainted.
Lux followed up with a surgical Crunch attack, crushing the Red Chain binding Regirock.
It promptly began to tremble and faint.
“Huh, didn’t expect him to faint that quickly. Well, whatever then,” he said to himself. “And for you, a Thunder Wave.”
Saturn was already both unable to move and electrified, but he now felt more electricity flow throughout his body.
Lux closed his eyes once more, and the electrical globe vanished, returning electromagnetism to normal within the cockpit.
Three seconds later, Gira and James appeared from a portal.
“What the heck did you just do?”
“Let’s wait for the others, should we? I don’t feel like explaining twice, and I’m sure James doesn’t either.”
“You made it a lot more flashy than necessary…” James commented.
“Hey, got to steal the show somehow…”
The door to the cockpit opened, and a foursome of Pokémon went in.
Another couple of Pokémon also went through the window, and Torry showed up through one of Gira’s portals.
“Right, I guess it’s explaining time…”

“So you’re saying that the sphere was basically your control area?” Blake said.
“Yeah, he can manipulate most electromagnetic effects and charged particles within the sphere, which means he can do basically anything within it.”
“As long as I have enough energy, mind you. Besides, I haven’t been able to do much with particles. Had I been able to, I could probably do some weird transmutations or something.”
“And you two haven’t told us about this?” Flare questioned.
“Hey, we just figured how to do this move like last week! And this is only the second time Lux used it!”
“So that’s what you two had been doing while training alone….” Glace muttered.
”So how did you hold them like that? I mean, their stances was just like Ayra’s victims!” Star commented.
“Or like the both of you in a few moments.” Ayra said, a slight glow in her eyes and a small grin on her face.
Blake and Star gulped.
Everyone else sweatdropped.
“Ayra, you can kill them after we’re done, OK?” Torry said.
“Fine….”
“And Lux? My guess would be that you did something to the neural impulses, correct?” Torry continued.
“Precisely. The currents within nervous systems are low, so it wasn’t hard to negate the impulses.”
“So you use the Electrosphere to make…. countercurrents for nervous impulses?” Flare checked.
“Pretty much. And that’s all I could use it for at the time being…”
“Ummmm…. Guys?” Glace spoke up. “Have we took out the Red Chains on the other two Golems?”
Silence.
Then some facepalms happened.

For next few hours, the group was busy gathering up the grunts and the three admins before delivering them into custody courtesy of Gira’s portals and Ayra’s teleporting.
The three golems returned to their respective dwellings via the same method after being freed from the Red Chain and their heavy Balls.

Later that day, outskirts of Veilstone City.
“Thanks for the ride! Oh, and also for the hoodie!” James said, walking out of a portal wearing a pitch-black hooded jacket.
“Not a problem. You need the jacket anyways, otherwise I need to rescue you from those crowds…”
“Where did you get those anyways?” Lux said, being the only one outside his Pokéball.
“You’d be surprised if you see what people gave as offerings at Sendoff Spring… I’m pretty sure someone dropped a pair of stockings there once…”
The trainer and the Luxray sweatdropped.
“Right….. Anyways, see you!”
“Later!” Gira replied, before reentering the portal. “Now, where to find some plaster powder…” he muttered as the portal vanished.
“Now what?”
“Want to get something for dinner?”
“Sure,” Lux nodded. “Where should we go?”
“Well, I don’t recall any restaurants with discounts today,” his trainer noted. “So let’s just go back and throw a big dinner…”
“Should’ve expected that…”

Later on, James’ Villa.
“Drink! Drink! Drink!” five Pokémon chorused.
“Thirteen……” Ayra mumbled, preparing to chug another glass. "Come on, Hardy, you're only at twelve..."
Hardy hiccuped before collapsing at the table.
“Yeahh!!!” the spectators chorused once more.
James and Lux sweatdropped.
“Funny, last time I checked, Gardevoir are weak to Poison and Aggron are immune…” James said.
“Well, either alcohol is a Fighting-type drink or it’s just Ayra being Ayra…” Lux replied, slurping the last of his Root Beer.
“Pretty surprised Torry is cheering for them, though,” James noted.
“He ate way too much ice cream, and when he couldn’t wait for more he simply sipped some sweetened milk and asked Glace to freeze it in his mouth…” Lux said, rolling his eyes.
“I heard that,” Torry said from across the room.
“Well…” James confirmed, taking a gulp of sitrus soda. “Good thing this room’s soundproof, eh?”
“I just hope they don’t smash the wall apart…” Lux muttered.
“By the way, what’s today’s date? I lost track of it a couple weeks ago…”
“Let’s see….. It’s the twelfth of January.”
“January 12, huh?” James wondered. “Oh, crap!” He said, slapping his forehead.
“What’s with it?” Flare questioned.
“I completely forgot! The National Trainer’s Assembly starts on the 15th, and the league specifically requested me to head the meeting!”
The occupants of the dining room suddenly turned around, facing James.
Except for Hardy who was too drunk to pay attention.
“You’re really the worst trainer in the world when it comes to schedules…” Glace groaned.
“Sooo……. Wha-what do wee d-doo? *hic*” Ayra replied, barely sober enough to speak.
“And you’re drunk. Great,” James muttered. “Right, we need to pack up as quickly as we can, so we can get to Viridian on time…”

Twelve hours of frantic preparations later.
“Right,” James said, placing a lock on his travel bag before yawning. ”Champion’s clothes, check. Formal attire, check. Other clothes, check. Trainer supplies, check. Did I miss anything?”
“Apparently not,” Lux replied weakly with a drowsy face, carrying a small bag on his back.
“Well, ready to go?” Ayra asked, sobered up.
Hardy groaned something while clutching his head, having just recovered from his hangover.
“Come on dude, the flight’s in less than three hours!” Blake said.
 “Right, whenever you’re ready, Ayra…” James said, before changing his expression to that of realization. “Wait! How did I forget about it?”
James rushed back into the villa, to his Pokémon’s questioning looks.
A minute later, he went back to the backyard, carrying a small box.
“And what’s that?” Torry questioned.
“See for yourself,” James responded, opening the box.
Inside was a small, radio-like device and a mouthpiece.
“Lux, come here for a second,” he said.
As Lux walked towards him with confused look, James put the device around his neck.
“What in the world are you doing?” Lux exclaimed.
James didn’t reply, but he continued to setup the device.
“Right….Now, open up.”
Lux was still confused, but he lowered his jaw anyways.
James stuck the mouthpiece between two of his fangs.
“It’s good to go!”
“What did you just put in his mouth?” Glace inquired.
James flipped a switch on the radio-like device, and a small LED light turned on.
“Okay, what was that?” A computerized voice said in English.
Startled, all the Pokémon turned at the source of the voice, which appeared to be Lux.
James grinned. “Well, I guess it worked!”
“This device…… A translator?” Lux said with his synthetic voice.
“Yeah, a prototype of one, to be precise. Scientists from Silph, Devon, and the League have been working on one for the last decade, and the device you’re wearing right now is the second Pokémon translator ever made,” James explained.
“Why can’t we get one for ourselves?” Torry complained.
“As I said, it was the second one of the two made so far, and it was only finished two weeks ago. In fact, I just got it three days ago, and I keep on forgetting to test it out…” James replied.
“And how do I go back to normal voice? I don’t feel comfortable talking without hearing my own voice…” Lux asked.
One tongue motion later, the mouthpiece slipped from between his fangs and out of his jaws.
“Oops.”
“Well, that’s how.” James picked up the mouthpiece with a handkerchief, cleaning it before storing it in a pouch on Lux’s bag.
“Right, ready now?” Ayra spoke up.
Everyone nodded in confirmation, and three seconds later no one was in the backyard.

Jubilife Airport, several microseconds later.
Eight figures appeared next to the runway, before being blown to the ground, courtesy of the jet stream of an aircraft taking off.
“Dammit, Ayra!” Glace shouted.
“Sorry…” Ayra said mareepishly, rubbing her head.
An hour later, the group was in a private, league-reserved aircraft with several elite Sinnoh trainers bund for the meeting also aboard.
James had reserved the rear of the aircraft for them.
Well, except for Hardy, since the pilot understandably refused to take flight unless Hardy was in his Pokéball.
“A three-hour flight, eh? Bet I could fly back in an hour,” Star commented smugly.
“I’m sure you can,” Blake rolled his eyes. “But if you want to carry a hundred pounds of baggage for seven hundred miles, be my guest.”
 “Hey, Ayra?” James spoke up.
“Huh, what?” she questioned. “What’s the matter?”
“Just wanted to check. Did you bring your Mega Stone?” James replied.
“Hm?” Ayra checked in her dress. “Yep, I did… Hardy? Oh…”
“I checked with him before the flight…” James muttered. “Well, it wouldn’t have mattered had you left it, anyways…”
“What do you mean?” Lux questioned. “Besides, James, what’ll we be doing there anyways?”
“I’m going to be making the opening speech and leading the meeting. Maybe also overseeing some exhibition matches. By the way, Lux, you might want to wear the translator, to get used to it.”
“And why do I need to?”
“Well, check out my schedule here,” James pulled out a sheet of paper. “On the 17th, I need to lead a meeting, but I also need to fight an exhibition match.”
“Wait, don’t tell me…. You mean to have Lux replacing you in the exhibition match?” Torry deduced.
“Well, he is used to general trainer strategies…. Right, Lux?”
 “But… How the heck can a Pokémon become a Pokémon trainer?” Lux was dumbfounded.
“Well, technically there are no rules against it…” Blake commented.
“Guess we’ll see how good you are then,” Star smirked.
Lux nervously gulped.
“Hey, you two! Stop making out in the corner!” Ayra shouted.
Glace and Flare quickly pulled away from their cuddling, cheeks blushing red.
A couple hours later, the plane was above the Kanto Region.
After the plane landed at Viridian Airport, the team gathered in front of the airport before Ayra teleported them to the league headquarters, having been there before.
National Pokémon League HQ, Central Viridian Metropolis.
“Well, haven’t been here for a while…” James commented, gazing on the tall building in front of him.
“When was the last time? Last year, wasn’t it?” Torry replied.
“I think so…”
“Oh, there you are!” a voice exclaimed.
“Ah, Mr. Goodshow. Sorry for being late….” James turned to the voice, then rubbed his head mareepishly.
“Well, you aren’t exactly late…” he commented. “So, have you prepared the materials for the meeting? The merging of the world’s national leagues is a very important, issue, you know.”
“Well, not the presentations themselves, but I’ve got the materials needed to make them…” James said, somewhat blushing. “I guess I’d have to rush the presentations, then…”
“Well, I hope you get to finish them on time...” replied the league president. “Anyways, have you checked out our new living quarters?”
“New…. Living quarters? For whom?”
“Mainly for regional VIP trainers having business with the League. Of course, we reserved the best rooms for you champions!”
“Do we get our own space?” Blake asked hopefully, and was met by a blank look.
James translated.
“Oh, of course your Pokémon gets their space in the room! I mean, why else would we reserve two floors for six rooms?”
The Pokémon cheered.
“And I’m looking forward to your exhibition match!” the League president added.
“Umm….. Might have to talk to you about that…” James said sheepishly.
The champion explained the situation.
“So… You’re telling me that you’ll be leading the conference, and Lux over here will be acting as trainer via a translator?”
“Err… Yes…”
“I’m guessing this is bad omen?” Lux said to himself.
“Brilliant! Now this is the opportunity we’ve been looking for!” Goodshow exclaimed.
“Opportunity?” James asked.
“The translator project isn’t very well-known, and we’ve had a plan to announce the project in this assembly. The exhibition match will be a perfect demonstration!”
“I guess it wasn’t, then…” Lux replied to himself.
“Anyways, you might want to head up as soon as you can. The regional champions have arrived for days now, and they’re just waiting for you to begin the planning!”
“Oh, right… Well, see you later, Mr. Goodshow!”
That said, James headed inside the building.
Bad idea.
With an event of this scale about to be held, the area around the front office was loaded with reporters and paparazzi.
They only backed off when Flare flared his back flames.
“Good afternoon, may I get my room keys, please?” James spoke to the receptionist, with cameras flashing behind him.
“Ah, Mr. Helios! Your room is at the 29th floor. The other champions have been expecting you,” the receptionist replied. “Please use the special lift in the back there, you’ll need it to access any floor higher than the 20th.”
“Thank you,” James said simply, before turning back. “Right, everyone. Let’s go.”
James returned everyone except Lux to their Pokéballs.
As James headed to the elevator, he was barraged with questions.
“Mr. Helios! Where have you been for the past six months?”
“Are the gossips about you and your Gardevoir true?”
“What’s your comment on the Galactic incursion to the Distortion World?”
James and Lux continued walking towards the lift, not answering any of the questions.
James pressed the switch and waited patiently.
“Who are you going to face in the exhibition match?” a reporter threw his question.
That triggered a reaction, and a grin formed in James’s face.
“Lux, open up,” James said with a low volume.
Throwing the mouthpiece into Lux’s mouth, he raised his other hand.
As the crowd silenced down, James glanced at Lux, who nodded, and said:
“I’m not going to face anyone in the exhibition match.”
The reporters looked at each other.
“I will,” A computerized voice sounded as Lux opened his mouth.
The crowd gasped.
Conveniently, the lift door opened just then, and both of them quickly slipped inside the lift.
James pressed the close button immediately, leaving the surprised crowd outside.
Chuckling, Lux removed the translator with his tongue before speaking, “Well, we gave them quite a shock, didn’t we?”
“Yep! And now, expect yourself to be in the headlines of all Trainer Magazines for the next month!” James said, pressing the proper floor button.
Lux rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Aloysius James Helios…”
“Oh, shut up, Luxius Raymond…”
Lux blinked. “That’s not my name!”
“It’ll be if you call me with my full name.”
“Ugh, fine….. James…” Lux rolled his eyes. “And by the way, we’re there.” He continued, as the lift bell rang, and the door opened.
Revealing a wide hallway with three doors: One in the left side, one in the right side, and another at the end of the hallway.
“Alright… Room 29B, here we go…” James muttered, placing the key card on the sensor of the door on the right, opening it.
“Whoa…” Lux said to himself.
The room was a huge one with over two thousand square feet in area, with a small pond and a mini garden inside.
“They overdid this, didn’t they?” James commented, releasing the rest of the team.
“Wow! This is actually bigger than the Villa!” Blake exclaimed.
“Check out the balcony!” Star told him. “It’s definitely large enough for Hardy to roll around without slamming into anything!”
“Sick… And there seems to be four separate bedrooms in here!” Flare added.
“I’m bunking with Glace,” Ayra said firmly.
“Huh? What?” Glace replied confusedly.
“No, you’re not sleeping in the same room as Flare. Not yet.” Torry supplied.
“Aww….” The couple complained, disappointed.
There was a knock on the door.
“Just a second…” James said, heading towards the door, peeking through the peek hole.
On the other side, four trainers were standing, crossing their arms.
“Oh, damn,” James cursed. He opened the door.
“You’re late,” a blonde-haired lady said.
“As usual…” A white-haired man continued.
“Now we’re left with less than two days to prepare for a huge meeting,” another red-haired man concluded.
Another trainer with eerie red eyes and a Pikachu on his shoulder silently stared at him.
“Whoops,” Lux said from behind James.
“Errr… Sorry, everyone…” James said, very quietly.
The room at the end of the hallway, which happened to be the meeting room, three minutes later.
“So far, we’ve only made the opening slideshow, which means we still need to prepare the speech texts, data analysis, discussion points, and presentations related to all major events within the year. With a deadline coming in thirty-six hours, if we all work on it twenty four-seven,” Cynthia explained.
“Please tell me you brought the data,” Steven said.
“Fortunately, I did,” James said, placing a large brown envelope on the table.
“Good. I’m clearly not looking forward to researching them all over again…” Lance commented.
Red merely nodded.
“He might have strangled you or something if you haven’t,” his Pikachu, Pika, spoke for him.
Although no one in the room aside from James, Lux, and Red understood him.
“It took him quite a while to find it. You should’ve seen the storage space in his room,” Lux said, with his generated voice.
The other champions looked at Lux with puzzled looks on their faces before drawing the connection.
“Oh, I see. The translator project, huh?” The Hoenn champion responded.
“They gave you the initial prototype?” queried the only female in the room.
“Nah, this thing I’m wearing is the second one,” replied Lux.
“And they sent it to you first?” Lance questioned.
“Perks of being the national champion,” James retorted, grinning smugly.
Red shook his head. Everyone else rolled their eyes.
“Riiight. Speaking of which, how’s the thing with the world league?” Lance continued.
“Not sure about the details, you should ask Goodshow about it…” came the reply. “But I heard they’re planning the tournament next year…”
“What, next year?!” Steven exclaimed. “How?! They haven’t got any setups yet!”
“Don’t ask me…” James muttered.
“Right. If they do somehow manage to pull it off, you’d better be the International Champion, so one of us can be the National Champ!” Lance said, chuckling.
“This guy’s already planning on taking the rest of you on for that title…” Pika commented.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” James said, rolling his eyes. “Well, anyways… Let’s start, should we?”
Twelve hours later…
The door to the meeting room opened and Lux walked out from it, barely conscious. Behind him was James who was in a similar state.
“How did you drag me into this...” Lux weakly muttered, translator turned off.
“Not that I have a choice…” James replied, yawning.
Returning to their room, they were met with silence.
Of the four bedrooms, three had their doors closed, presumably occupied by the other team members (though Torry was asleep outside).
“Great. Everyone’s asleep, and seems like they’ve locked their doors already. Now I’m stuck with you for the night.”
“Huh. Unusual for them to get to sleep this early…”
Lux gave James a look. “Now’s 2 AM...”
“WHAT? Damn, I always lose track of time whenever I chase deadlines…”
“Well, at least we dealt with most of it…” Lux commented, also yawning. “Though I now hate the four of them for leaving before midnight…”
“To be fair, it was mainly our fault that we had to rush it…”
“Your fault. Not mine.”
“Alright, alright, my fault…” James replied, heading towards the open door.
Lux followed, yawning once more.
They both looked at the interior of the room which included a medium-sized bunk bed, a wardrobe, and a small table.
“Damn, those guys picked the best rooms already,” Lux groaned.
James facepalmed slightly.
“Oh well. Top or bottom?”
“I’m going with the bottom one. Not wanting to fall out of bed again…”
“Fine by me then,” James replied, climbing up the ladders and letting his body spread across the top mattress.
Lux hopped on the bed, and quickly positioned himself into a comfortable stance.
Thirty minutes later.
“You awake?” Lux whispered from the lower bed.
“Yeah…” James replied. “Damn mild insomnia…”
 “You know, usually whenever this happens we talk about a lot of strange stuff until we get bored…” Lux commented. “Got any topics?”
“Last time, I started,” James said. “How about you choose the topic this time?”
Lux hummed a bit, then spoke up.
“Remember the match with Arceus, back then?”
“Yeah…. Why?” James asked.
“To be honest, I still have no idea why I did that. I mean, it’s freaking Arceus!”
“Fifth time you told me that now…” James rolled his eyes. “Speaking of the fight, have anyone else found out about that yet?”
“Not that I can tell…” came the reply. “You know, despite what I just said, sometimes I feel somewhat strange about doing that well. Before the fight, I thought that Arceus would be an omnipotent, all-powerful being.”
“You thought so, and yet you still went forwards?” James questioned.
“I wanted to show Arceus my determination,” Lux replied. “I didn’t expect the fight to be… like that…”
James sighed. “Well, that’s one thing I didn’t know. But it was somewhat… different to me. After all, I never believed Arceus was an omnipotent deity. A deity, yes; A god, perhaps; But, an infinitely powerful being?”
“You don’t believe in one?” Lux asked.
“Don’t get me wrong. I do believe in the existence of one, but I don’t believe such a being would be physically comprehensible to anyone.”
James continued. “After all, infinity is a powerful word. To infinity, everything else, be it one-millionth, one, or a million, is the same. Same goes with an omnipotent being. To one, you are as powerful as any random Magikarp.”
“Yes, o’ noble mind James,” Lux chuckled.
“Oh, shut up,” James said, also chuckling.
Then both yawned once more.
“Well, nice chat.”
“Agreed. Well, sweet dreams…” Lux said, shutting his eyes.
“Yeah,” James muttered softly.

James’s mindscape, later in the night.
“…”
“…”
“…”
I have faith in you...
A bright light flashed, and James was no longer on his bed.