Running into the barn, Ava was greeted with the sight of Jacob and his pokemon. There was a flying bug pokemon with black antennas, four arms, and a deep red shell that was open in the back to give space for wings that were lifting it off the ground. In the back of her mind, Ava noted that his ledyba must have evolved into a ledian.

  He stood next to a table that had a couple of berries and a potion waiting for her. “I got the rundown from Danny. Release your pokemon on the table.”

  Ava listened, and Lucky materialized. He was twitching slightly and had an expression that held as much pain as his bird face could express.

  Jacob put on a pair of clean gloves while commentating to her, “Normally, just keeping him in his ball would be enough to keep him safe until you made it to a poke center. Since he is your only pokemon and still not very trained, I figured it would be best to give him a little treatment to start the healing process and give you some peace of mind.”

  He gently reached out to slowly unfurl Lucky’s wing. How he knew where to start, Ava had no clue, but he turned out to be correct when they saw a large burn mark was seared on Lucky's body that was hidden by the wing. Ava gasped. She had gotten used to seeing dead and injured pokemon, even being the cause of them in most of those cases, but seeing her own pokemon injured was different. She had only been a trainer for a little over a month and already cared deeply for him.

  Jacob made sure to relay what he was doing as he worked. Ava didn't have any experience in this, so she just watched. He let her know that he was using one dose of a potion to start the healing process and alleviate some of the pain. Despite Lucky’s jerks and uncomfortable noises, Jacob persisted. He cut a berry in half, a rawst berry, he clarified. Then mashed one up into a paste with a dose of potion. Using his gloved hands, he rubbed it onto Lucky’s wound using this first half.

  The second half he gave to Ava and told her to slowly feed part of it to Lucky. He also gave her a second berry, which was supposed to help with any paralysis. Then he sat back and let her feed him slowly. Ava glanced over at Jacob as Lucky slowly chewed pieces of the berry. “Thanks for this. I appreciate it.”

  “Just doing a part of my job, I'd rather not have a trainer's pokemon die on my watch,” he said, shrugging.

  Ava let the silence ring a bit before continuing the conversation. “I haven't seen you since before our ordeals. How have you been doing?” It was only after she opened her mouth that she realized it might have been insensitive to mention the time when he watched someone die while almost dying himself. Too late to take it back.

  “Well, besides almost dying, I'd say I've been doing great,” he said wryly. Embarrassment rushed through Ava as he called out her slip up.

  “Not dying is always a good thing, I say. But since then, what have you been up to? I heard your dad got you a job, and obviously,” Ava pointed to the evolved bug pokemon who had settled down in one of the chairs in the room, “you've been doing enough to evolve your starter already.”

  “I've been really busy. I was always going to work on the farm. Now it’s just in a different way than I had previously thought. Bugsy,” seeing her confused face, he clarified, “my ledian, only evolved this past weekend. You've seen what it was like here. I've been battling almost every single day, and when you combine that with the fact that she is a bug pokemon and that I caught her when she was older, boom, you get an early evolution. I also happened to catch another pokemon yesterday, a yamper.”

  Ava didn’t know what a yamper was, so she just responded with a quick, “Hey, congratulations. Have you enjoyed working here?”

  Lucky was looking a little better and had already started on his second berry as Jacob responded, “I always knew that I would work on the farm. Never had any doubts about that. Becoming a trainer wasn't a part of that, but I'm glad I'm still able to work here, even if in a different capacity.” He shrugged, “It's my home. I'm glad I can work to protect it.” He then returned her question to her, “What have you been up to?”

  With how often she has had to retell her tales of the past month, she had her whole spiel down. Never before has she not only been asked about recent events, but she also had something interesting enough that she could respond with.

  Once Lucky had gotten enough of his strength back that he wasn’t going to keel over from a small breeze, she returned him to his poke ball. Jacob was letting her leave her shift early. Without a pokemon she was more like a civilian than a trainer and wouldn't be of any help anyway.

  She left, giving him her thanks and exchanging numbers so she could reach him if need be. Looking up directions, she headed to the closest pokemon center. There were six poke centers in the entire city. Two of them were in the trainer's district near the east gate. One closer to the outskirts and the other one deeper in where the residential areas of the trainer's district existed. Then there was one close to each other gate: North, West, and South. The final location was next to the League's headquarters in the heart of the city. Ava had been staying at the southern gate poke center, and the farms sat more north than the east gate. She wanted to get Lucky healed as quickly as she could. This may have just been her paranoia speaking, but the risk of losing him right now made her stomach sink. Better safe than sorry, so she went to the closer east gate poke center, which was only a short bus ride away.

  After loading him in one of the thankfully empty machines, she had 20 minutes while it healed him. She took this time to take a shower and rinse off the mud that had gotten all over her from her shift. The stink eye the poke center manager gave her was all the hint that she needed that she was dirty. The hot shower and knowledge Lucky was healing helped her relax after such a long day.

  Once Lucky was healed, Ava decided that she deserved a treat. When she had lived with her dad, there had been a cafe that had the best eclairs. It had been a staple, but ever since she became a trainer, she never had a chance to go there. All her food was from the cafeteria in the poke center and snacks she could buy from the nearby grocery store. The idea of relaxing in the cafe with an eclair and a hot chocolate sounded like a dream after the long day she had.

  A quick train ride brought her to her familiar destination. She walked into the store which remained the same with its warm colors, comfortable seating, and plants that were nestled throughout the place. Walking up to the counter, she greets the cashier.

  “Hi there,”

  “Hello, what can I get for you toda-oh,” the barista interrupted.

  “Could I get a large hot chocolate and two eclairs please?” Ava asked.

  “Umm,” the cashier looked around nervously before saying, “Let me get my supervisor real quick,” and scuttled off to the back.

  Ava was confused. Maybe there was something wrong with the system, so she just waited patiently. It didn’t take long for an older woman to come out of the back and come up to her. “Hello ma’am, I’m the manager of this cafe. Did you see the sign on our door?”

  “Uh no, is there an event or discount or something?”

  “Not quite,” the manager said, looking at the band on Ava’s arm. “In order to keep the rest of our customers comfortable and safe, we do not serve any pokemon trainers. We ask that you please leave the property.”

  “Wait what? I’m a paying customer, and I’ve been coming here for years. It’s not like I’m going to send out my pokemon here. I just want to order my food.”

  The manager raised her hands in front of her chest and said, “Ma'am, please don’t threaten us.”

  Ava exploded a little, “Threaten? What are you talking about-,” but then was interrupted by the manager raising her voice.

  “You have to leave now. You are disturbing our customers. Don’t make us call the league and the cops.”

  “This is fucking bullshit!” Ava yelled before storming out of the cafe. She had been coming here almost every week since she was sixteen. One of the bartenders even knew her order whenever she came in, but now just because she was a trainer, she would never be able to go back there.

  She fumed the entire way back to the poke center. When she got back to the barracks, Amiyra was already there, and took one look at her face before asking, “What’s wrong?”

  Groaning, Ava responded, “I’ve just had the worst day.” Amiyra hopped down to Ava's bed so she could listen. She talked about her shift and how it was much harder than any previous one. She talked about Jacob and had to sidetrack a little to tell Amiyra how he had been doing. That was when she told her about the close call with Lucky and how he had gotten injured.

  Amiyra had been listening intently for the entire conversation. It was only when she got to the last part of her day that a weird look appeared in her eyes.

  Ava continued venting, “It’s so stupid. I didn’t think being a trainer would mean I couldn’t even go into a stupid cafe.”

  “I know it stinks, but you know what civilians think about us. This can't be that shocking.”

  “I mean, yeah, but that’s a place of commerce. I’m used to weird glances by now, but I guess I never thought it would get this bad.”

  “Ava, no one in my family will even talk to me.” Looking up, Ava caught the serious, deep brown eyes of her friend as she continued. “Not my mom, not my dad, not my siblings, my cousins, my aunts, or anyone. Everyone I grew up with has cut me off.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry I-,” Ava was cut off by Amiyra.

  “No, I'm not looking for your pity. I’m saying that the people closest to me who should have been able to look past this couldn't. You are lucky that your family doesn’t mind, but you can’t assume everyone’s going to be like that. This isn’t entirely unfounded, either. There’s a big difference if someone you know and trust has something like a sword compared to if a random stranger walks into the place you work with a sword. That’s how they feel about us, and as much as I hate it, I really can’t blame the people who don’t know me for acting like that.”

  “I know that, of course I know that; it’s just,” Ava took a chance to take a breath and collect her thoughts. “I went to that cafe for years, and I didn’t even have a clue that trainers weren’t allowed there. Now that I’m on the other side, everything's just so different. I used to be exactly like that. I used to get nervous when trainers entered the store I worked at. Now being on the other side is like crazy whiplash.”

  Amiyra’s voice softened. “I know what you mean.” She nudged Ava’s side with her arm. “But I seem to remember a friend of mine saying something about how you have to play with the cards you're dealt.” Ava smiled slightly, remembering her own words she had said to Amiyra. “How about tomorrow we can try a cafe in the trainer's district to see if we can find an even better one?.”

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  Ava was glad she has a friend here. “I would like that very much.”

  They sat in comfortable silence for a bit before Amiyra corralled her to get ready for bed. The second her head hit her pillow, she drifted out of consciousness.

  …

  The trainer district was a small section of the city carved out for trainers. While it is called the trainer district, most of the people that lived there were actually civilians. Same with all the restaurants and stores, all run by civilians as well.

  The trainer district is the main place where pokemon trainers can live. It is also the only part of the city where it is legally required for businesses to serve pokemon trainers. There are a couple of reasons why non-trainers come to live in this zone, despite the inherent ‘risk’ of pokemon trainers. As a way to allow even D-Rank trainers to get their own apartment, the place has some of the strictest rent control in the entire city. A portion of all apartments has to be set aside for trainers. The rest is free to rent to whoever, trainer or civilian.

  In order to get people to set up stores within the trainers district, the city set up tax incentive programs for business owners who set up shop there. To hit the new target audience, a lot of the stores are geared towards providing trainers with what they need. Grocery stores have all the normal products plus a section for food, toys, and training equipment for pokemon. This is one of the few places where retail stores sell pokemon merchandise.

  The other large draw of this portion of the city is the pokemon. By law, as long as they are tamed, non-aggressive, clean, and not causing property or personal damage, pokemon are free to be out of their poke balls. While most people have a fear of pokemon, there are still those who are fascinated by them without wanting to be a trainer. The trainer district is the only place for civilians to experience less aggressive pokemon. Due to the large number of trainers, the safety from wild pokemon is unmatched. A pokemon wouldn't get 10 feet before running into a trainer.

  This is where Ava and Amiyra found themselves the next morning. After looking online for a cafe they found one with good reviews in the trainer district. It was brighter than the cozy feel of Ava’s previous cafe, but the food was good, and she was able to get some nice hot chocolate, so she wasn’t complaining. She got a little treat for Lucky too, as she was able to actually release him, and he quickly went to work, eating it up. Amiya couldn’t release her mudbray due to a recent mud bath she gave him.

  It was during this time that Amiyra mentioned something that happened a couple of days ago. “So I have something to tell you.” Before she reached towards her belt. She grabbed not one but two poke balls off of it and set them on the table in front of her.

  It took Ava a second to register what she was trying to say, but once she understood, she glanced up to see a small smile on Amiyra’s face. “You caught another pokemon!”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I caught her right before the storm.”

  Ava waited, hoping she would continue, but not seeing any indicators, and asked, “Well, don’t leave me waiting. What did you get?”

  “I caught a pidgey. Her name is Diana. I was waiting to tell you and Theo until I felt like I could tame her. I was going to do it yesterday, but you know,” Amiyra trailed off, doing a quick little gesture before continuing. “She's started to listen to some of my instructions now, so I think she will end up being a member. Now we both have a flying pokemon!”

  “Well congrats! It will be great if they can get along. Let me know when you're ready for them to meet.” Amiyra nodded, and since Amiyra led the conversation here, Ava let out what had been on her mind. “I actually kind of want to catch another pokemon myself.”

  “Is this because of yesterday's shift?” At the question, Ava nodded. This had been something on her mind for a while, but the farm shift really cemented that she needed another pokemon. Lucky definitely still had room to grow and still had the ability to evolve. But when they run into pokemon that are stronger, have a type advantage, or come in larger groups, just having one pokemon isn't going to cut it. If Lucky got tired or injured, then she was left as a sitting duck, and that was the last thing she wanted.

  “Do you have any ideas of what I should try to catch next?”

  Amiyra reached into the bag she had brought and pulled out a notebook and piece of paper. Clicking the pen, she smiled, “Let's figure it out together.”

  Then spend the rest of the morning tossing ideas back and forth. The main goal of getting another pokemon for Ava was to cover her weaknesses, especially type wise. Her biggest threats right now were Ice, Electric, and Rock types. From her research, Ice types were really rare around the city. There are rare instances where some are seen in the winter, but that was months away. Electric types appear more than Ice, but are still uncommon to see, except for events like storms. The biggest threat is one she has not encountered yet: rock types. She hasn't had to patrol near the north gate yet, but it was only a matter of time, and that was an area where rock types were common.

  The types Ava would be interested in are Water, Grass, Rock, Fighting, and Ground. Water is the first one eliminated for right now. Even though they are uncommon, her recent encounter with the plusle showed that she can, and will, run into Electric types. While Rock would be good against Electric types and able to fight against other Rock types, the issue is that it would be hard for her to catch one without risking both her and Lucky’s lives. For Fighting and Ground the majority lived in the mountain area, making it harder to catch them without running into Rock types.

  If she happens to find a Fighting or Ground type outside the mountain, she would try her best to get it. But since that wasn’t as common, she will aim to get a grass type.

  If she wanted, she could try and catch a pokemon from inside the walls, like Amiyra or Danny did. This is a safer approach, but there is no certainty that she would get a pokemon that she is looking for in a timely manner. Since she's trying to cover her weaknesses, another flying type would put her in the same situation. Those were some of the most common types she had seen so far, so she put this option as plan B if she lucked into finding one.

  Plan A consisted of going outside the wall to try to find a pokemon. This is by far more dangerous, but if she is accompanied by other trainers like Amiyra and Theo, the risk goes down. Doing it this way provides more opportunity to catch a pokemon of her desired typing. Amiyra said she would help Ava outside the wall later in the week if she wanted. They decided that they would talk to Theo, and if he's down, they could explore outside the wall. Even if they didn't catch a pokemon, if they wanted to take on harder missions, they would have to get used to the wilds. Now she just needs to check with Theo to see if he wants to go.

  …

  Ava already had a planned training session with Theo and brought Amiyra with her. Walking up to the outdoor training grounds that Theo was already at, Ava gave a wave. “Hey Theo, I invited Amirya along if that's okay.”

  If Theo was surprised at this, he hid it well. “The more, the merrier!”

  “Awesome, thanks! Before we start, I have a question for you. I was talking with Amiyra and I want to catch another pokemon. Curious to see if you were interested in coming along? We could all go out together and watch the other's back while getting used to the wilds.”

  Theo thought about that for a second. “I don’t hate that idea. It’s probably time to get another one to cover my bases. I don’t have any poke balls, though. I would have to buy one. I think I have enough saved to grab one,” he muttered, thinking out loud.

  This wasn’t a concern Ava dealt with. She still had two poke balls left from her Ordeal. One of them was the reset ball from the meowth that she spent 25 poke to reset. With how expensive poke balls were at this time, it was best to save as many as she could, even if it was a little gross. Theo continued, “When were you guys thinking?”

  They all pulled up their schedules. They seemed to work opposing schedules a lot of times. The best time to go would be either tomorrow morning or the next Friday, which was a whole week away. Ava wanted to go as soon as possible. After becoming more aware of her weakness, she wanted to do as much as she could to rectify it. Amiyra wanted to have more time to train her pidgey so they had another support in the wilds. Theo congratulated her upon hearing she had already caught a new pokemon.

  Theo also leaned more towards the later date, wanting to get more money so he could buy the poke ball and another repel before heading out. Caving, Ava agreed with the game plan. They would iron out more details closer to the date and move on to that actual training session. They spent the first half having an awkward three-way battle. The pokemon and trainers weren't too sure who to attack. It ended up with the poliwag and mudbray battling it out on the ground, while Lucky sent shots from the sky.

  Halfway through their practice session, Amiyra peeled off from the group. She wanted to spend some solo time training her new catch to listen to her commands and get it ready to take the exam required for it to join missions. Ava and Theo finished out their planned time, still working on dodging and attacking evasive units, before splitting off themselves once their session was over.

  Since she had extra time, Ava wanted to try learning new moves. Lucky has obviously gotten stronger in the past couple of weeks, and opening up his move pool seemed possible. Over their training sessions and missions, Lucky seems to have gotten the hang of growl and leer while getting stronger control over peck and gust. Seeing Danny’s murkrow use wing attack so efficiently on her last shift, she wanted to see if Lucky could learn that. After looking it up, she found he could, but it was a more intermediate technique that pidove usually couldn't learn until they got more experience and were older.

  Out of the pool of moves that Ava thinks Lucky could learn, quick attack was the most obvious answer. Having first-hand experience seeing it on the field, she knew how much that burst could surprise opponents and lead to an opening to use stronger moves. Hopefully it would also give him greater mobility to dodge some stronger attacks once they go outside the wall.

  A quick look at her poke gear and she learned that a common way to get a pokemon to start learning this move was to do short sprints. That initial push off of a sprint was what the pokemon should focus on. Since Lucky couldn't really run, Ava shifted that to short bursts of flight. Jumping from casual flight to as fast as he could handle, as well as quick starts from a stationary position.

  Progress on this move was slower than previous moves. He was getting faster at quick acceleration, which was the start she wanted, but there was no real change in it being a move he could utilize.

  They had just finished a five-minute break when Ava picked back up, “Time to get back to work, Lucky. Let's do ten more quick takeoffs.” Lucky gave no response that he heard her, so she crouched next to where he sat and reached to give him a nudge. Lucky snapped his beak at her and glared. She yanked her arm back, surprised. He had never rebuked her touch except when she first caught him, but that was when he was really young.

  Looking closer, she could tell that he was exhausted. He was still taking large breaths, and his eyes, while still glaring, looked weary. She had been pushing him too hard. Her mind was stuck on the future trip to the wilds; she hadn't noticed the signs. Not wanting to fully back off though, in case he learns that pecking at her got him what she wanted, she tries to compromise.

  “Instead of ten, how about we do three more final ones, and as an award for all of your hard work, I can get some of those pumpkin seeds you love, okay?” Ava said softly. She had found out that he had an affinity for pumpkin seeds when she bought a pack for herself and let him try some. From his reaction, she could tell it was one of his favorite foods.

  He perked up at that and despite being tired did three quick starts and stops. Ava let him rest on her arm while she gently petted his head and whispered words of praise to him. If this was any other pokemon overworking then like this might have ended up differently. She made a mental note to get better at understanding her pokemon’s limits to avoid this situation in the future.

  Ava made good on her promise and bought Lucky a bag of pumpkin seeds and she combined some of it with his normal meal feed. He must have been hungry because he devoured it quickly. After she gave him a bowl of water that he used to clean himself off and preen his feathers. As he’s gotten older he’s become more picky about his cleanliness and if he got dirty would bug her until she got him a bowl to clean himself off. With pokemon not being allowed out in most parts of the poke center she had to buy a large bowl that she filled inside and brought out. Not having your own place with your own rules definitely made parts of her life more difficult. Once done she let him rest and play outside while she played music from her pokegear and watched.

  …

  The week passed slowly. As each day inched by, Ava got more nervous about leaving the wall and tried her best to make sure she was as prepared as possible. She still had a lot of supplies from her Ordeal including two leftover poke balls. She made sure to replace the antidote she had used and stock up on two repels. There was a strap on her poke belt that could also contain a bottle. One of the repels was for sure going to be situated there.

  All her shifts for the week were front loaded at the beginning. She has been extra precautious during these shifts particularly. The amount of electric pokemon may have died down from the storm, but she wanted to make sure she wasn’t that exposed again. There was another reason she was so on guard. While she had already committed to heading outside the wall, if she was to encounter a pokemon she wanted to add to her team, she would snap it up. Sadly that never happened, her shifts were uneventful with only one battle against a wild starly.

  Friday finally rolled around. They all met at the pokemon center and headed for the east gate. After talking, they decided that was the gate with the most opportunities as the lowest risk. Ava viewed the towering walls that looked the same as the ones she left from weeks ago. It was time to catch another pokemon.