The sun was high in the sky and Pelipers flew overhead, casting shadows over the sparkling waves. With nothing but ocean in every direction, a Carracosta swam lazily through the tropical water. After his dramatic talk with Edward, Adriano had decided to sail south and hide out on the small islands located off the Southern coast of Unova. The fact that it was near Nuevma town was just a coincidence, Adriano told himself. ‘I’m just going to hideout for a little while and then go back. No more adventures for me.’

The travel was slow and leisurely, he spent most of it relaxing on Tor’s back. Using some of the floor planks from the hut, he had created a platform for himself, Ella, and Audino to ride on more comfortably. Laying his head on a rough grass pillow, Adriano adjusted his straw had to cover his face and hopefully ignore the I-told-you-so looks from Audino. He had only managed to doze off for a few seconds when he felt a small poke in his side.

Groaning and rolling over, he came face to face with Ella, who was looking at him with a pitiful expression while rubbing her stomach.

“You’re hungry again?”

Ella nodded demurely.

Grumbling, Adriano reached behind him and after a few tries and some help from Audino managed to drag a crate towards himself. Without getting up, he cracked the top and rooted around for a minute before pulling out a few dried Sitrus and Oran berries.

“Here you go.”

Ella received the berries with a delighted expression and proceeded to scarf them down in short order.

“Take it easy, we only have so much food. We’ll have to make do with smaller portions until we reach our location.”

Ignoring her pleading expression, he rolled back and sighed.

“How can such a small Pokemon eat so much anyways. It’s fine when Tor does it but Ella too…”

Tor rumbled under him in response to his name, and Adriano laughed.

“Well, it’s fine. We won’t be at sea much longer. Maybe the people’s anger will cool off faster this time and we can come back early.”

Frowning, he tried to adjust the pillow so it wasn’t poking him with sharp grass stalks. Adriano eventually gave up and tossed it overboard. Pulling out Altaria’s pokeball, he looked at it thoughtfully for a moment before opening it. With a cry, the Pokemon appeared, ready for a fight as she searched for the enemy. Looking around confusedly for a moment, she focused on Adriano and waited for orders.

“Sit here. Don’t move.”

What was better than a pillow made of clouds? Adriano relaxed and ignored the look of disdain Audino was giving him. Alto’s training was mostly useless now, but it was nice having one Pokemon that didn’t give him pushback. When he traded for her, she was taciturn and gloomy, resigned to a fate of modeling for the rest of her life. He imbued purpose into her life, militant as it may be, she was happier doing something. Even if that something was sacrificing herself, so he had time to use a hyper potion on his stronger Pokemon. He commanded, and Alto obeyed.

As Adriano dozed off for real this time, Tor continued to plow through the waves. Eventually spires of rock revealed themselves in the distance. Surrounded by whirlpools and small rocky coves, it was a complete one-eighty from the tropical paradise. Woken by Tor playfully spinning around in the whirlpools, Adriano assessed the situation.

The result? At least it’s warm.

Tor beached at the base of one of the outcroppings, and Adriano spied stairs leading up to the top carved into the sides of the cliff face.

“Alright. Audino, you keep Tor here and unload the luggage. Stack it over there at the base of these stairs. Ella, you help them. Alto, you’re coming with me. We’re going to see what’s at the top of this rock.”

Audino immediately began chirping orders at Ella and Tor, who obeyed them half-heartedly. Adriano could see that Tor wanted to play in the whirlpools some more. After he was confident that the unloading was coming along, he grabbed his bag and started climbing the stairs.

When he reached the top, Adriano was treated to a flat grassy environment. Appearing entirely deserted, but from the top he could see a vague shape pasted to the top of one of the rocks in the distance. Pulling his trusty binoculars from his satchel, he was able to make out the outline of a small house perched there quietly. Curiosity piqued; Adriano called down Alto from where she had been circling.

“Carry me over to that house.”

Alto grabbed him gently by the shoulders and flew him over easily, touching down right at the front door. Clearing his throat and knocking loudly on the door, Adriano called out,

“Is anyone home?”

Not receiving a response, he tried the doorknob and found it unlocked. Pushing the door open slowly, Adriano called out again.

“I’m coming in!”

Swinging the door fully open, he stopped in the doorway and looked around, searching for any signs of life. Finding none, he stepped fully inside, but not before having Alto use cotton guard and go in first. Nothing happening, he finally entered and started looking around.

Very spartan, the back wall had a bunkbed with a chair sitting next to it. To one side was a sink and fridge, and to the other was a large machine Adriano hadn’t seen in a long time. ‘A Pokemon deposit box! Why would there be something like that here?’ Checking for any personal items was fruitless, even the refrigerator and garbage can were completely unused. ‘Maybe it’s a seasonal workhouse? Or a rest stop? Whichever, this box is a godsend!’

Utilizing a separate pocket dimension to keep Pokemon in stasis, the Pokemon deposit box was an invaluable tool for any trainer, allowing them to store as many Pokemon as they want and reuse pokeballs. He hadn’t used one in well over a year since he was banned from the Pokemon Center on Golden Island. The only problem was…

“Gaah! I don’t have any good Pokemon left!”

When Adriano had finally given up his dream of being Champion, he had either released, gave away, or traded down all his best Pokemon to other trainers. His reasoning at the time had been a combination of wanting closure on his own failures and giving his Pokemon another chance to accomplish their own dreams. The few Pokemon that had stayed with him had their own reasons and issues, and none except Alto were part of his A-team in the past. Tor almost made it, but it’s typing was made obsolete by the Elite Four’s specialties.

Pulling a standard pokeball out of his pocket, Adriano inserted it with a grumble. ‘I should at least check if there’s anything useful.’

Placing the ball in the slot and powering up the box, he was prompted to select which box he wished to use. Choosing the personal box (he had never used the others), he then chose to withdraw a Pokemon and was shown a list of those available.

‘Mh. Lots of Patrat and Lillipup. Nothing very useful. Maybe I should choose a utility Pokemon instead of a fighter? But what is there?’

Running down the list, his finger stopped on one Pokemon. ‘I haven’t used Ace since the first few years. I wonder if he would be disappointed in me.’ Making his decision, he withdrew Ace, deciding that it was his best option for now.

Grimacing, Adriano looked at the Mienshao in his hand. ‘I won’t wake him up yet. It’ll be a good trump card when I get back.’

Turning the box off, he called Alto and the two of them returned to the others down below.