Flora's Pov

A battle later, the two grunt guards complained about their defeat and made a run for it into the building after chanting that Team Galactic will own all Pokémon in the new world and will get rid of the useless ones who lost in battle, closing the door behind them and left the scared grunt in front of me. He coward down at my glare and kneeled down to cover his head.

"How dare they insult their own Pokémon?" I huffed and pushed the grunt with my foot to make him sit on the floor "You! Tell me what you know about Team Galactic! I won't let you get away. Your friends didn't even take you with them" the grunt shivered while looking at me. That's strange... most of the grunts I've met are all cold looking. Why is he shaking so much?

"All I know is that they moved some warehouse things to Pastoria city... Please don't kill me!" He kneeled down to bow to me, confusing me "I'm not who you think I am!" He looked up at me with tears in his eyes "My name is Lucas! I joined Team Galactic to take back Prof. Roman's research they stole from Jubilife City!"

"How does that apply to me?" I stared at him crying a storm

"I'm one of his assistants! I'm trying to stop Team Galactic the best I can! But I'm not the strongest trainer out there!"

"You're quite open to telling me who you are" I lifted my foot, making him freak out more.

"I'm telling the truth! I was the one that led you to the hideout in Eterna City!" He waved his hands quickly "I didn't expect to see you here, but I knew I could lead you to this place! I trusted your ability!" I lowered my foot "please believe me! I'm not really part of their team!"

"Why should I believe you?"

"I brought you here on purpose!" He pointed at the building "This is Team Galactic's headquarters! One of them at least!" I looked up at the large building. He's pretty docile for someone who is in a gang full of selfish individuals. Maybe he's telling the truth... I mean, he's crying like I'm going to kill him.

"Alright" I sighed "You trusted my ability so much that you brought me to a place like this" I put on a smile "Thanks" he slowly released a huge breath he was holding and took out that red device from before.

"I'm glad I was able to convince you... So it's official then?" Hm? "You're going to stop Team Galactic's plans?"

"That's the idea" I looked at the device he had "what's that?"

"It's a Pokédex. It records Pokémon data" that's cool! "I already got the research papers awhile back, so can I trust you to take it from here? Being in this gang isn't good for my asthma"

"I think it's good that you stuck around for this long. You helped me find their headquarters twice now. What will you do after this?" I asked. 

"I'm heading to Pastoria City, where Team Galactic will plan on doing something else fishy" I offered my hand, confusing him.

"Why don't we exchange numbers? If you can give me useful information, this mission will be a lot easier" I chuckled. He smiled back and gave me his number before leaving.

I doubted that guy and almost really hurt him. I bet he's gone through a lot just by pretending to be part of these people. I didn't even get the chance to apologize for scaring him so much, but I really appreciate the help.

Just when I was about to go into the building, I felt someone running towards me "Have no fear! I have come running!" Looker said out of breath. I stared at him leaning on his knees tiredly.

"It's been awhile" I chuckled "You're late, Mr.Looker"

"I'm sorry. My interest in taking care of these criminals has no time. I rushed here as fast as I could when hearing of where they're located" he twisted on the door knob, but it was locked "Perhaps you have a Pokémon that can tackle this door down?"

"For someone who is an international police, you would think he'd have more useful Pokémon instead of depending on a child" I teased him, making him sweat drop.

"Do you or not?" I back kicked the door and broke it off it's henges. I didn't think that would work so well... What's gotten into my body lately..? "Well... That's one way of doing it" Looker closed his mouth after dropping his jaw and ran in.

We entered a warehouse that had nothing but steal pipes and other equipment that a warehouse would have, but why do they have all this? To make more headquarters?

"There's another door over there" Looker and I approached a steel door that needed a keycard to open "We don't have access to this. Miss" he faced me.

"I told you my name is Flora" he nodded.

"Flora, this won't work today" I told him about the city Lucas told me about "then it will be smart to just keep going forward. The organization isn't as active, so we may not get anything from this place quite yet. I will contact you when I get something. Best be off" he ran off.

"What a strange man" I chuckled and left the building to leave Veilstone, since nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at the moment. I went to route 214 to train.

I practiced what Maylene taught me throughout the few days I spent in the route. It often left me and my Pokémon tired from how new the techniques were, but I'm more than grateful to learn something that can help us in the long term.

When it was time to go to sleep, instead of camping out where other trainers could see me and was left alone without Flame to be with me, I'd climb a tree to sleep on a branch until the next day.

The path in front of me and Luxio was dark and suddenly started to get foggy "Where did this fog come from?" Our path was hard to see through without the moon. Our feet only lead us forward for a few miles until the fog lifted and showed us in front of a natural spring that was glowing blue underneath the moonlight. I gasped amazed and leaned down to touched the water Luxio started drinking from.

"It's so beautiful..." I looked at Luxio "Should I bath here?" I looked around to see that we ended up really deep into the route. There's no way a trainer can get this far. The path was even gone!

"It's already dark. It would be suicidal to find our way back" we walked around the spring and discovered a cave that was big enough to fit me and a few of my Pokémon "Let's relax after a long week. I feel like I could die for a bed" I whined and skinny dipped into the spring with my Pokémon, except Meganium, Tropius, and Rotom, who watched from outside the cave.

"The water feels amazing!" I cheered once reaching the surface. I cupped my hands to catch some water and flinched when seeing something black leak from my skin "What is..?" There was nothing on my skin, but being in this water made whatever was on me leak off like I had black ink on me. The water removed the black color from my body.

"What just happened?" It didn't come back, but somehow I felt more calm and light again. Curious on what exactly this spring did, I dived down with Vaporeon following me to look around. We stopped when we heard something in the middle of the water.

"Daddy! Look what I can do!" A girl's voice yelled from below. After that, a splash came from the bottom of the spring and traveled upside down. Whatever came into the spring lost the bubbles from the splash and revealed a girl with long brown hair and naked like me. She opened her eyes and saw me floating upwards while she was upside down. Somehow gravity didn't make sense... and we just stared at each other like we just saw something out of this world.

Thinking the same thing as me, the girl reached out her hand to me like I was to her. As soon as we tried to touch, something gold shined between our hands. Her body had disappeared and I was lifted back into the surface with nobody around but me and my Pokémon.

"What just happened..?" I looked at my hand that tried reaching for that girl "was I seeing things..? Why was she upside down?" I looked at Vaporeon come back to the surface with a golden rock in his mouth. This must've been what separated us... "Vaporeon... did you see what I see?" He nodded. So I wasn't just seeing things.

I stared at the golden rock in my hands before swimming back to land to dry myself. I don't know what I saw or what happened, but I'll need to pretend I didn't see anything. My Pokémon didn't see her as she called out to her dad before she jumped into the water. She must've came from another world or something.

"Who was she?" I frowned, wishing I knew, but there had to be a reason why she disappeared. Our worlds probably accidentally collided and it was set back to our original place. What a ground breaking discovery to know that other worlds exist... This spring must've been the cause. I wish I could had at least knew who she was.

The next morning we left the spring and walked through the same fog that leaded us to the spring in the first place. It took us back to the main route and removed any signs of where that spring was.

"It must've been an abnormal phenomenal. Somethings must've triggered that fog and took us there on purpose" I looked back at where we came from, which was only a clear road instead of trees "We'll probably run into it again, someday. We just need to work on our journey right now" Meganium and I traveled towards the Valor Lakefront, the area where Flame's apartment apparently was.

"I doubt he'll be anywhere here" I sighed "He hasn't even messaged me since the first time we separated. Why don't we go to the lake and look around? I hardly got to sleep" all I could think about was that girl...

"Nium!" Meganium nodded and followed me while I used my Poketch for directions. I stopped and tapped on my Poketch.

"Wait a minute..." the Poketch is telling me that we aren't anywhere near the Lakefront! There's a city up ahead "H-How did we end up all the way here!?" I looked up to see buildings up in the sky "No way..." I cupped my mouth "That fog transported us to Pastoria City!"

"Ehhh?" Meganium questioned. We ran up ahead and surrounded ourselves in a new city we never been to!

"Looks like you made it here faster than I thought you would!" I turned around to see a big built man in a strange swimsuit costume walk up to me "You look a lot better than you did back in Veilstone city"

"Oh! You were that man that was with Maylene" I put my hands together "Thank you for looking out for me" he laughed.

"I didn't do much, kid! Maylene was the one that carried you" he patted my back "I heard from her that you took on her gym and even destroyed a punching bag. How did a little lady like yourself manage to do that?" I blushed, wishing I knew myself "Oh, who am I to ask when Maylene is as small as you are! I shouldn't be surprise!" I chuckled and followed him around the city for a tour. This was the city Lucas was going to find Team Galactic, so it'll be best to look around while enjoying the scenery.

The tour was decently calming, but I was still on edge by not seeing Team Galactic anywhere. I felt like I haven't been making progress and I am losing time!

Crasher and I ended up having a gym battle for the time being since he noticed how stressed out I looked. It was to let out some steam, but even after I won I couldn't stop thinking about where Team Galactic could be.

My Luxray, who evolved from Luxio during our battle, nudged me for my attention. I looked up ahead and saw Lucas running towards me in a hurry "Miss!" He shouted, out of breath.

"Calm down" I slowly waved my arms so he wouldn't have trouble breathing. He was wheezing while leaning on his knees "Stand up, you'll get more air that way" he nodded and stood up, collecting his breath.

"What's wrong, boy?" Crasher asked.

"There's... a..." Lucas was still out of breath. I sent out Vaporeon to give him a good soak. He wiped his face and looked at me like I was crazy. I waited for him to continue "There's a Team Galactic grunt in front of the observatory gate!" He panicked again "He said something about a bomb!" I cupped my mouth while Crasher started yelling.

"Wha—tt!?" He shouted "No one messes with Pastoria! Not on my watch!" He went running. I patted Lucas's shoulders to help him calm down again.

"You need to calm your breathing. Follow me" I taught him the proper way to breath. Maylene taught me a lot about breathing techniques as well. It was very useful for purposes like running so much that it'll end up taking my breath "got it?" I asked.

"Y-Yeah..." he sighed "Thanks-" we crouched down when hearing a loud explosion. There really was a bomb!

"Dammit!" We ran towards the gate Lucas was leading us too and saw smoke at a distance far from the gate we approached. Emergency responders acted quickly and rushed to help anyone caught in the Safari zone the gate was by.

"I'm going to help!" Lucas ran towards the gate. I looked around for any grunts and heard Luxray growling. She was watching a grunt sneakily leave through the alleys.

"Stop!" I shouted, running after him leaving the city. He didn't hear me call after him and kept running. Luxray pounced on him and pinned him to the ground.

"Hey! Let go of me!"

"You bastard!" I quickly pulled the man from his collar to look at me glaring at him "What did you do!? You could had hurt someone!"

"Nobody got hurt! Chill out!" I lifted my fist to punch him, but he quickly spoke "I was only doing my job! The explosion wasn't close enough to put anyone in danger! I only received a package and was told to activate the timer where no one was around!"

"You caused a lot of trouble for setting it off! How big was it?! Who gave you that order!?"

"Commander Saturn!" I punched his face.

"You endangered both people and Pokémon! What do you have to say to stop me from punching the shit out of you!?" He looked like he was about to pee his pants. I felt something come over me and I pushed him off to hug myself feeling so much pain. He ran off while I pressed on my stomach and drooled out black liquid.

"W-What is this..?" I caught it with my hands and stared at it until the pain went away. I stopped drooling and leaned on the wall, feeling panicked after what just happened "That black liquid again. What in the world..?"

"Miss!" Lucas ran towards me in the alley "Hey, are you alright?" I leaned away from the wall and cleaned myself up.

"The grunt threw something at me" I lied "How is everyone?"

"A few people and Pokémon got hurt, but it wasn't due to the bomb, just the reaction. There was a lot of damage to the safari zone" I nodded.

"As long as no one was seriously hurt, it's fine" I groaned "I'm going to beat that son of a..." I turned away, trying to calm myself in front of him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" The anger inside of me vanished after drooling that black stuff. It seemed to have come out when I got upset, so I calmed myself for the moment and reassured Lucas I'll be fine before leaving while on Luxray's back.

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As the stars on the chapter title implied, there is a hint forwards the next story! That girl will be important! Not just a coincidence!