"I-uhm Emerald. Wha-" I stumbled over my words. Emerald seemed to be completely disheveled. His clothes were torn and his hair was a complete mess. "What happened?"

Wow, it's this guy again. What happened to his face? He looks way less cool now Wal. I returned Kirlia to his Pokeball to stop his word vomit.

May and Brendan had their mouths shut. They looked at each other with their eyebrows raised.

Emerald put his hand on his chest and caught his breath. "I'll explain everything in just a moment. I just need to rest for a moment."

I closed my mouth and waited for Emerald to speak again. It didn't take long for him to slightly recompose himself. "I suppose I have some explaining to do. Do you remember Team Crown from Verdanturf town?"

I nodded and Brendan's head perked up. "Oh yeah those are the nuts we battled back in Lilycove, weren't they?"

"Ah, so you've encountered them once again? Well, I have a... personal vendetta against the team. So I've been trying to track down my-their leader. From what I've been able to find he's heading towards Sootopolis City." Emerald explained, taking very notable pauses while explaining. "I don't believe I can beat him alone. I need your assistance so I can corner him."

I had absolutely no idea how to process what he was telling me. Brendan took the lead instead though. "Well sure we can help you but what's this crazy guy even want to do at Sootopolis?"

Emerald rubbed his temples. "I'm not sure. I can only imagine it has to do with his desire to destroy all of Hoenn. So he can rebuild it into New Hoenn."

May and Brendan's curiosity had been piqued at this point. "New Hoenn? We're going to need a better explanation than this." May said.

Emerald sighed and then looked around. "I... suppose I'll have to explain a little more of what I know but... if so can we please go somewhere with food? It's been quite a painful week."

The four of us went into a nearby restaurant to eat something while Emerald explained his full dilemma.

"You see Team Crown are a group of villains who believe they're part of some ancient royal line. They also view themselves as entitled to this land. They have some sort of powerful Pokémon under their control that they're using to destroy all of Hoenn." Emerald explained, afterward, he dug into his food.

Brendan's eyes darted back and forth while he furrowed his brow. "Hang on... destroy all of Hoenn? Are these guys the ones screwing with the environment?"

"That would make sense. The Pokémon's powers are relatively weak from what I know so it would be a slow buildup." Emerald said after swallowing down an entire bowl of soup.

May clenched her fists. "So hang on, how do you know so much about these crazies anyway?"

Emerald seemed to plan out his next words very carefully. "I have informants who would rather Hoenn not be destroyed and I've taken it upon myself to prevent that destruction."

I decided that I had sat in silence for long enough. "So what happened to you after you left? That made you so... hurt?" I wasn't sure how to phrase things but I wanted to know what had left him all battered during the week we'd been apart.

"Well... it's dangerous work trying to take down an organization bent on destroying the region. I'll spare you the details but some members don't give up until they AND their Pokémon are defeated." Emerald explained to me.

Brendan shot up. "Well, that settles it. Let's go and stop this guy before he can cause any more damage!"

May opened her mouth to say something but clamped it shut. Emerald finished his food and we went down to the docks where a boat was set to depart for Sootopolis City soon.

Before long we had boarded the ship and we're flying across the water. The boat was substantially smaller than the one we had taken to Mosdeep but hopefully, the ride wouldn't be nearly as long.

Emerald found somewhere to sit and promptly fell asleep with one hand on his sword.

May sighed after looking him up and down. "Wally... tell me more about this guy."

I told May the event that had brought me to meeting Emerald and how the two of us had worked together

May glanced back at the sleeping boy. She shook her head and sighed. "Something about him just gives me a weird vibe. I don't think he's being totally honest with us."

"Me neither," I admitted. "But I trust he has good intentions. He helped me get Rodney back and the least I can do is help him stop this bad guy."

Brendan strolled up to us as we spoke. "I don't know about you guys but I trust him. There's no reason Hoenn would just randomly start to fall apart like what I found. This place has been stable for hundreds of years."

May clearly wanted to say something but stopped herself. "We'll just have to see."

I stepped away from them to try and organize my thoughts. Just when I thought I'd found some quiet Kirlia popped out of his Pokeball.

Wally dude you can't just put me away and leave me out of the juicy drama. What's going on? Did you guys have to beat the cool guy up? Kirlia pestered me with questions.

I groaned and explained what happened as simply as I could. Kirlia interrupted me multiple times to ask completely unrelated questions.

"I don't know what soup he ordered. Why does this matter?" I asked. I want to know if it's any good. "How would I know?" What you didn't try it?

Through a lot of patience, I managed to get Kirlia all caught up.

Man, that's so lame. Kirlia huffed and look away before jumping up and down. Oh hang on, we caught that new guy right? Send him out! I have to initiate him.

I furrowed my brow. "What are you talking about, Kirlia?" Just send him out! I was completely mentally exhausted at this point so I sent out Piplup.

Piplup and Kirlia began conversing and then they both stood straight up and flared at each other. What was even happening? Were they trying to intimidate each other?

Suddenly they began shouting at each other in Pokémon-speak and began shoving each other.

Wally tell this dimwit I'm the strong one on the team! Kirlia shouted at me.

"If anything Nian is the strong one. He won the gym battle." I told Kirlia. Not helping! "Didn't you beat him in battle before anyway?"

Kirlia raised his chin and glanced down at Piplup. That's right! I sure did! Meaning I must be the strongest! Oh, it was totally fair! If anything I was handicapped until you ruined my ice cream!

My head started to hurt more and more as I watched the two Pokémon bicker. It was seemingly endless antics from Kirlia.

Yet that dream flew into my mind and softened my assessment. He wanted to get stronger, so I would help him do just that.

"Kirlia, why don't you guys have another battle to prove you're the strongest? I'll just watch and make sure everyone plays fair." I offered.

Kirlia nodded and relayed the offer to Piplup. Sounds good. Let's do this!

I watched the two Pokémon have an almost identical battle as they had undergone just a few days before. The most interesting thing I saw was how Kirlia would use his teleportation to confuse Piplup and attack him while his guard was down.

After just a few minutes though the winner was Kirlia just as I had expected. I congratulated them both and returned Piplup and Kirlia to their Pokeballs.

With that out of the way, I was pleased to see Sootopolis City on the horizon. The gates swung open into the giant crater and I was shocked as I took in the city.

The entire city was surrounded by gigantic white walls formed from a meteor thousands of years ago. The buildings were built on the giant hills that made up the land and in the front and center of the town was a small dock and the Pokémon Gym.

In the heart of the city, there was a large tree and the entrance into the Cave of Origin, which was currently guarded by two sages.

The boat pulled into a dock and I awoke Emerald. Afterward, we all poured off of the boat and took in the warmth that the sun sent into the town.

There wasn't a breeze blowing through the air but for some reason, the area wasn't too hot. "Wow... this place is something else." I marveled.

"It really is," Emerald said, taking in the large walls encircling us. "I do hope that we can enjoy this city to its fullest soon, but for now we must get the job done."

Brendan looked around. "So where would this leader guy be?"

May gestured towards the Cave of Origin. "If I had to guess he'd probably be in the cave." She seemed to be begrudgingly assisting with the mission.

I didn't have much to say so I followed Brendan as he tried to navigate through the winding city over to the cave entrance.

Eventually, we reached the cave but nobody was entirely sure as to how we would get in.

Emerald approached the two men and cleared his throat. "Hello, I believe that the leader of Team Crown is in that cave with intent to bring about the end of Hoenn. We would most appreciate you giving us-" One of the sages put his hand up.

"Now now no need to fret. Royalty has every right to enter the cave." The sage said, his hazel eyes bore into us.

Emerald sighed and smacked both men in the head with the hilt of his sword swiftly. The two men crumpled onto the ground and passed out.

Emerald looked back at us. "Well we know he's in there now." And he stepped into the darkness.