Lucia stood in the middle of the long Opal Bridge. It was close to the Grand Hall. To get to it her and Theros had battled a few trainers, making sure to only use Tackle and later Vine Whip once he learned the grass type move. Currently, she was trying to figure out how to help Theros not be so afraid of fire. She had started to break through to him, showing him that the fire he created wouldn't hurt his body. Once he got over that part, they focused on how to use Ember effectively.

Everything was going well until using Ember got out of control. This time instead of a small amount of fire a large blast of it came out of his mouth. Despite getting over part of his fear he was still afraid of it. He yelped in surprise and ran down the bridge, away from Lucia. She ran after him immediately but being a Pokémon, he could run faster than her, "Theros, wait!"

When she caught up with him, she found him surrounded by three boys. They were in the corner of the bridge and the words of one of the thugs made her blood boil, "Hey, little Pokémon. You like to swim, right?"

Another one of the boys chimed in, "If you don't do exactly as we say, we'll throw you right over the bridge."

The third boy noticed her standing there, Kaladin's Pokéball in her hand, "Can't you see we're busy here? Scat!"

Lucia rolled her eyes, "That's my Pokémon over there, you're harassing!"

The first thug chimed in, forcibly picking up Theros who squirmed in the man's arms, "Oh, this little Pokémon here?" He smirked and hovered Theros above the water, "Here's the deal. You're pretty hot. If you do something for us, we'll let your little Snivy go." The other boys snickered in agreement.

"No thanks. Your guy's faces make me want to throw up."

The same man scowled, "Well say goodbye to your Pokémon then!" He let go of Theros above the water.

"Catch him!" Theros barely fell before Kaladin came out of his Pokéball. He stood on the tall railing of the bridge, holding Theros in the crook of his arm. He turned to the thugs below him, who were staring up at him. One of the guys was even shaking when he saw Kaladin glaring at them.

The boy who had told her to leave spoke up, "Run!"

Lucia clicked another Pokéball letting Arlow out, blocking the punks from leaving. They backed away when they saw Arlow. Kaladin jumped down from the rail, letting Theros down. The thugs jumped as they heard him step onto the ground behind them. Lucia scowled, "Cowards. Send out your Pokémon and fight, you pussies."

"Fine then you little bitch!" The three sent out a Mudbray, Fomantis, and Trubbish.

"Handle this, Theros. Ember!" She could see how pissed Theros looked at how the boys had spoken to her and what they tried to do. A large blast of fire came out of his mouth, and he knocked out the three Pokémon. From what it was the move didn't seem like Ember, it had turned into a stronger fire type move, Incinerate.

Her Pokémon smirked as the boys returned their Pokémon to their Pokéballs and ran away, cussing Lucia out on the way. She couldn't stop herself from laughing as she went over to Kaladin and Theros with Arlow following her, "Sorry for the quick introduction there, Theros. The Garchomp who saved you is Kaladin, and this is Arlow." Theros smiled at the two, "Great job there too! I'm proud of you for your bravery with the fire." The Snivy nodded, his nose tilted high and hands on his hips.

She returned Kaladin and Arlow to their balls, leaving Arlow out so they could continue battling any trainers and they left to go explore Peridot Ward.

***

The more Lucia explored Reborn City the more she hated it. The city itself was disgusting but the people were what solidified her hatred. The city is infested with thugs who are crawling at every corner. She had to save a woman from a creep who was harassing her. The number of comments made about her body was concerning at best. Some guy even threatened to kidnap and murder her. Fun.

All of her Pokémon were in their Pokéballs now. Theros was doing great at battling. Vine Whip had evolved into Leaf Tornado, and he had learned the move Growth.

Eventually she found a somewhat quiet spot near a factory. She wasn't doing anything productive and was just scrolling through her phone and relaxing. That was until she was interrupted.

A man ran by wearing all black and gray clothing. His entire body was covered other than his face. It was a gray bodysuit with black gloves and boots. He also wore a black hood that covered his hair.

Behind him a boy who looked to be around her age was chasing the man. The boy had short muted green hair and a shirt of the same color with a lime green collar. He wore brown shorts and sneakers. His green sunglasses were falling down his face as he ran.

The hooded man ran past Lucia, "Excuse me, miss!"

The green-haired boy yelled out to the man, "Hey! Get back here, you loser!" The man continued running and the boy stopped, hands on his knees and panting, "Dammit... faster than he looks." He noticed Lucia looking at the man as he ran and then looked at him. The boy scoffed, "So what's your problem?"

Lucia couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes, "I don't have a problem. It's pretty hard to ignore two people running and shouting."

"I don't think you know who you're messing with." A smirk appeared on his face, "Name's Fern. I'm the cool cat and the top dog. Got it memorized?"

"I'm Lucia. I don't know why you think I care about who you are."

"...Tch." His eyes wandered below her face, "Look, you may be hot as hell, but I don't appreciate you not respecting me."

"I know where you're staring, creep." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Men having no shame was apparently a recurring theme today as Fern only scowled, "Yeah, yeah whatever. Anyways, I know that was the culprit responsible for the accident at Grandview Station."

"Good for you then? I don't know why you're talking to me about this."

"I'm trying to hold a conversation with you. Get to know you." His smirk reappeared, "As the top dog I can only associate myself with strong people. You know good battlers. You have a nice body and I'd be willing to hang out with you if you're strong enough to get close to defeating me in a battle. Of course you won't beat me though." Fern grabbed a Pokéball from his belt.

"And why exactly do you think I want to be friends with you?" Lucia grabbed Theros' Pokéball.

"Because everyone does." He clicked the Pokéball and a Budew popped out of it, "Get ready to take notes, Lucia. You're about to get schooled."

Lucia clicked her own Pokéball and Theros came out of it. He landed gracefully on the ground, ready to battle. Before Fern could yell out a command she nodded at Theros, "Incinerate." The large burst of flames coming from his mouth hit Budew, knocking the Pokémon out in a singular hit.

"What the hell was that!? Snivy's aren't able to use fire type moves!" He returned his Budew to its Pokéball.

"Well, he's able to use them."

"Ugh, you think you can get away with that?" He clicked another Pokémon and sent out a Sandile, "Scratch!" The Pokémon slashed at Theros, the attack causing him to skid back on the ground.

"Theros, Leaf Tornado!" A large pile of leaves surrounded Theros' body and were flung at Sandile, also knocking the Pokémon out in one hit.

"Dammit!" Fern returned the Sandile to its ball and gritted his teeth.

"Cry about it." She snickered at the boy's reaction.

"Ugh... Rowlet let's go!" He sent out his final Pokémon, a bird-like Pokémon.

"Let's finish this, Theros. Incinerate!" Flames shot out of his mouth again, once more knocking out Fern's Pokémon in one hit.

"Tch. Whatever." He returned Sandile to its ball and Lucia picked up Theros. Fern smirked again and winked at Lucia, "Well at least I know I can get to know you more, now."

"Yeah no—" A man who appeared to be important came up to the two.

The man looked back and forth between the two of them before nodding, "Hello. I am Reborn City's Official Inspector. I saw the perp was near you two earlier. Do you have any more information on him?"

"No, we don't."

"That is good news. You two may move along now."

Fern sneered, "That's it? Just move along. You're seriously going to sweep this under the rug like the rest of the shady business that's been going on here? Everyone knows the police don't do a damn thing."

"Hush, child. You should listen before you speak. My Torkoal and I already got information out of the perp that will be of use to the main force. We'll be raiding their hideout soon after some paperwork is done."

"So, they're not working alone? What's this hideout?"

"Classified information, kid. I'm not going to leak information on a nearby criminal den to a whelp like you. Ask your mommy once it's on the news." With that the man sauntered off.

The entire time Lucia had been snickering as all the insults weren't aimed at her. Fern huffed in annoyance, "Dumbass... he just said it's nearby. And I know for a fact that shady guy mentioned something about a facility. If it's not this building it has to be the other one." He walked over to Lucia, "Here's the plan. That 'paperwork' is going to take them too long. So, we can do something about it. Got it?"

Lucia sighed, "Yeah, no. I'm not associating myself with literal terrorists."

"Don't tell me your scared."

"Believe me I'm not. I just have common sense. Something which you clearly lack."

"I have—"

She cut him off, brushing past his shoulder as she walked away, "Bye, Fern. I hope to not see you again, you annoying prick." She could feel Fern glaring at her as she left. It didn't make any sense that he would make sexual comments about her body and then act like they're friends.

Instead of going to the other factory she went to the Electric Gym. She was ready to challenge Julia and knew that her Pokémon were too.

When she got to the door, she reached to open it, but the door almost hit her in the face as it was swung open by someone from the inside. Julia ran right into Lucia in her rush to get out of the building.

Julia saw who it was she ran into and laugh, "Oh, hey, Lucia! Are you here to challenge my Gym?"

Lucia nodded regaining her balance from almost being knocked over, "I am."

"Ugh... that sucks! I'd love to battle you, but it has to wait; we've got trouble! I just got a report from Ame about the bombing! They caught the perp and apparently, they've got a team planning a second attack! On my Gym! Nobody blows up my Gym except for me! Only I can be responsible for ludicrous amounts of property damage!" Lucia tried to get a word in, but Julia wasn't taking any breaks and was talking too fast to interrupt, "So, I'm going to hippity-hop over to their hideout and teach them a lesson! I know! Why don't you come too?"

"Um... I think I'm good—"

"Too bad!" She grabbed Lucia's arm and began dragging her along, away from the Gym and towards wherever the base was, "We're going to Mosswater Industrial! It's right by the train tracks."

Lucia felt a knot in her stomach form as Julia dragged her towards the factory. 'Great.' She thought silently, 'I came to this region to avoid evil teams. Not even a day in and I'm about to get involved with another one. Oh well. How bad can they be?'