Other than the bridges, there are several ways to traverse Route 201. There's the climb taken by hikers and climbers through the cliffs. There's also the boat travellers. And then, there's the high suspension bike trail taken by only the most daring.

Looker and Anabel take it, and that's how they find both the bridges destroyed.

It's not a good situation— the evacuating group are taking an extended meeting at the camp, because now that this route is closed for the foreseeable future, it's an absolute mess.

He manages to call Barry for meeting up, and Looker will have to go the same way back.

"I'll go back to tell Thorton of the situation," Anabel volunteers. "Communication is being harshly disrupted."

"Even on our communicators?" Looker frowns. The International Police have phones that shouldn't be defeated by weak signals and weather.

"I suspect a Psychic-type Pokemon's influence," she says. "I don't have a good feeling. Catch up with Barry's progress, I'll call Thorton in from Solaceon."

Before Looker could finish his affirmative "got it," Anabel was already gone.

He sighs.

She has good instincts, so this can't bode well. If even the International Police Walkies aren't working right, he can't believe the Poketch will. What about something that doesn't need connection, like the Pokedex or the—

"Ah, right!" he reaches for the bag, "I still have the Vs. Recorder. The Live feed may not work, but the tracker should be just active enough."

He won't follow it, but he'll send a message off to Anabel about it.

"I should head onto the camp, it would be good if I could gain the assistance of a number of Defog Pokemon!" he deems to himself. Folding up his bike quickly, he scampers down the rocky cliffs with his Croagunk, coming to the edge of the waterfalls. There are no bridges down this way, but with some of his tools he could effectively stride across the few paces needed to cross the river, and then—

—a loud scuffle and a sharp shriek of a feral Sneasel catches his attention.

He squints to make it out, but something is tumbling down the waterfall on the other end, splashing into the water with a rather violent tumble.

"How suspicious! Is it a Wild Pokemon, or is it our source of danger showing themselves?!" He finally pulls out his Super Secret Inspector Police Hidden Gadget #42, the Through-Fog Goggles and puts them on to get a better look.

"Hmm... those red feathers are Sneasel. Odd. Have they come down from Mount Coronet?" he frowns. That's not a good sign if they're getting into a scuffle with the local water Pokemon. But Sneasel are careful. They couldn't have fallen into the water like that— and they're pack Pokemon. There wouldn't just be one, there would be many jumping in after it if it were under attack. "And that navy sheen with a golden crown— ah, A Prinplup!"

A beat of registration.

"I see, that must be a trained Sneasel!"

One more beat.

"IS THAT YOUNG BARRY'S PRINPLUP?!"

He started running very soon after that.

He had to use Super Secret Inspector Police Hidden Gadget #21 the Wheeled Cart to transport the Munchlax that came plunging down afterward.

-

It took a lot of convincing to stop Prinplup from charging back up the Waterfall. It didn't even know HM Waterfall yet but that sure wasn't stopping him from trying.

Luckily, Anabel handled the situation, and with his trainer's safety ensured, Prinplup took Munchlax's wheelcart from Looker and while Croagunk took the fainted Sneasel, they headed to the camp where they could heal.

There, Looker was met with the communicator, which was now up and working.

"Seems my Assistant has dealt with the psychic interference!" he says, proudly, as they reestablished connections with Solaceon, where Crasher Wake was holding up the day's trip through until they assessed the situation. "Mister Wake, sir! I trust Anabel has informed you about young Barry?"

"[Looker! Is it true the bridges have all collapsed?]"

Looker sighs deeply. "Looking at the damage from Young Barry's fight as well, just fixing the bridges won't be all we need. We'll need to restructure some of the mountains as well."

"[Ah... Then I suppose just calling for young Roark may not be enough. Is Bertha still on the mainland, Grimsley?]"

That makes Looker glance toward the other prominent person by him. He was an elite Four of another nation visiting-turned-helping, and he was meant to escort the evacuation group out today because he was strong and qualified.

"I bet she's still at Ramanas with Darach and Caitlyn," he says, a little sourly. "Even with a high-speed flight, it'll be a few hours out. Today's trips will have to be pushed back."

From that came a few disappointed sighs from the people behind them, all who've been trapped in Celestic for longer than they'd like. Understandable, but there's little anyone can do to speed up this process.

"That aside... do we have any leads on who the culprit is? Do we know for sure it's Team Galactic just yet?" Grimsley says. "We've managed to capture countless of those mindless grunts so far, but we've yet to spot an actual Admin."

"[And how fares young Barry?]" Crasher Wake adds.

"Ah, yes... we've managed to identify them," Looker says. "Young Barry is secured, but I won't be able to get the Vs. Recorder footage until Anabel returns. Meanwhile I've managed to identify her attack patterns from the live records."

He puts up an image on his digital pad, with the profile so far.

"I've come across her in Eterna's Galactic Building. Her name is Jupiter. The culprit of Ramanas and the representative at Veilstone included, that will be the third of these admins finally making her move."

Crasher Wake frowns at that.

"[They've certainly started doing a lot,]" Crasher Wake says. "[With the explosions, we can no longer leave them alone, but we can't exactly abandon our posts to confront them, either. It's hard to say they won't abandon their Veilstone Headquarters the same way they've done the Eterna Building. If that happens, we'll lose all traces of them.]"

"If we could at least find out what they're after..." Looker frowns.

The door opens just then, and a ruckus is heard outside as the trainers standing watch rush in, harried and calling out for any trainers with healers.

Heads turn sharply toward the entrance, but the sight is burned into their eyes with horror all the same.

Anabel cradles the boy in her arms, her sleeves stained with red. Barry lays limp with his head on her shoulders, a Skorupi clinging desperately to his chest, unwilling to leave. Beside them, a frantic Staravia scours the room before hurrying toward Prinplup and Munchlax.

"Looker! I need emergency care, right now!" Anabel yells, louder than she's ever raised her voice, "he's losing too much blood! He was hit by a Skuntank!"

And the bacteria under a Skuntank's claws is poisonous to humans.

-

Barry was unconscious for two days.

They've managed to move him into Celestic, but not before Crasher Wake managed to have most of the issues amended. The bridges were put on hold in favour of transport through the river, where the local Water Pokemon and volunteering trainers from Pastoria helping out.

"Sure we're not telling the other Dexholders about this?"

Grimsley collapses down on the couch beside Roy, who's taking care of the Pokemon Daycare set up in the Center.

"Maylene said they went down Route 214 toward Lake Valor," Grimsley sighs. "Until region-wide Poketch connection comes back up, we're out of luck on contacting them. They went to investigate Hotel Grand Lake going radio silent, too."

They've managed to get communications with PCs back online, but there was still interference. It's presumably over the entire region— Poketches with their limited connection stood no chance. Even with the stronger computer systems, it was difficult to even reach Snowpoint.

"Hotel Grand Lake's systems are down? What about the Pastoria entrance?"

"With the earthquake making the sea's tides rise, Route 213 is untraversable at the moment, I hear," Grimsley says.

Roy frowns. This seems awfully targeted. "Have we at least called his parents?"

"Well, that's the thing... Twinleaf doesn't have a Center, and right now, it's been locked off."

"Huh?"

Grimsley sidles over, avoiding the baby Pokemon, to show Roy a tablet with the current updates on the region's connection situation. Looker had given them one before he left to handle the investigations, and it wasn't looking good.

"The citizens at Sandgem are reporting feral Pokemon behaviour in the area. Even from Ramanas, it's too dangerous a trip, and no one's been able to check on the people past Route 201," Grimsley says. "So along with Hotel Grand Lake and Snowpoint, Twinleaf is completely unaccounted for at the moment. Efforts are put in to ensure their status, but so far, there's been no word."

That's... disastrous.

Roy's fists tighten over the hand of the Budew in his lap.

"Along with Celestic, their goal must be the Legendary Pokemon of this region."

"Roy," Grimsley begins, "just because it happened in Unova doesn't mean—"

"Grimsley," Roy interrupts, sharply. He glances toward Barry in the ICU, still unconscious as his Pokemon watches from outside the glass— "how many times must it happen before we stop thinking it's all a coincidence?"

Grimsley has no answer for that.

Instead, he changes the topic.

"Won't you go home?" he begins, weakly. He already knows the answer, but he can't help but plead, anyway. "We're all waiting. We've all been unable to move on."

Roy turns away, and wraps his arms around the little baby Pokemon that were willing to cuddle, catching a Cherubi nuzzling into his neck warmly in the motion.

"I won't."

It's not a decision up for debate.

"Whether I stay here, or go home... I know there will always be more, and it will all happen, all over again, whether I do anything about it or not," he says, bitterly. "So can't you let me live here? Here, in a region where I don't have to be the hero of the story?"

-

Madam Carolina makes it to Celestic, where Cynthia greets her grandmother with relief.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't be there," she says.

"Oh, spare me the condolence!" Madam Carolina reprimands. "I'll be here from now, so go take care of the region, Shirona. Arceus knows what'll happen if you just let it fall apart at the seams at this rate."

"Yes," Cynthia agrees.

She crouches down, and finds Ponyta— rubbing it tenderly on the snout with all the gratitude she can wordlessly convey. Ralts feels it true and purrs happily, and Cynthia allows them to feel the same relief as she does.

"Young Barry will make a full recovery, but it won't be soon," she says. "While we know he's out of danger, it's unknown how long it'll take for his body to recover well enough for him to wake up. Until then, he'll have to be held here."

Cynthia remembers Barry, and it feels like ages ago, when she'd first met those children in Eterna and gave them a Togepi egg.

It's heartbreaking, that the very thing Barry was sour about back then had come to fruition here, just as they'd all feared. She feels awful for being unable to prevent a desire as simple as that.

"That's about enough from you, Shirona," Madam Carolina says. "Just go and make it right. Leave the rest to me, alright?"

Hesitant, Cynthia nods. Releasing Togekiss, she looks back once more.

"Thanks, Grandmom. I'll be going, then."

The region needs its Champion, and Celestic has distracted her for far too long. Now that they've managed to confirm Team Galactic no longer aims for the ruins here, though, she can finally go.

It's better that way.

"General and Knight, you two head to the Center to see young Barry," Madam Carolina says. Then, loudly hollering with a tone that needed no megaphone, "will SOME kind young man around here escort me to the ruins! NOW?"

The amount of people that scrambled to her at the call was baffling and impressive at all at once.

"Yes, Elder Carolina!"

"Elder Carolina! When did you get back?!"

"The ruins are dangerous! Please let us come with you!"

Glancing at each other before nodding, Ponyta and Ralts head off toward the big red building, Talts perching on top of Ponyta's head as they looked around toward the buddy town.

Usually it'd be unthinkable for Celestic to be bustling like this, but with the situation at that, it was inevitable. The only area not consistently crossed back and forth by people was the shrine in the center of the town, the square left empty out of respect. Occasionally there were people entering the ruins from there, and other times someone in very much of a rush stumbled through it as a shortcut, but otherwise, it was left quiet.

Ralts' horn lights up with curiosity for the shrine and the ruins beyond it.

Ponyta nods. They both had the sense that Barry would love to explore this town, once he was awake.

-

Crasher Wake had one mission, and that was to handle the unrest from Solaceon to Pastoria, connected by the Great Marsh. That was a terrifyingly large area for one Gym Leader, so he couldn't spare the effort to go to Celestic no matter how hard he protested.

"I sent him in there!" he had been very vocal about this. "The least I could do is be there until he wakes up. Please."

"You know we can't allow that," Thorton says from Celestic's Camp. "If you leave Pastoria now, there's a 99% chance the balance we've managed to gain will completely crumble. Your priority now is to maintain your area, and assist in identifying the issue at Hotel Grand Lake."

Wake sighs deeply.

He has a great point, but he despises the sense it makes.

They can't even contact Palmer, who's headed straight for Snowpoint, and Barry's mother's in one of the areas completely unaccounted for. They even have to call backup from the Battle Zone, but that's no assurance to their two remaining Dexholders going untraced once more.

"Could you do one thing for me?" Wake says, getting ready to leave the shelter at Solaceon as his orders from the Champion go.

"What is it?" Thorton is willing to hear him out as long as it's reasonable.

"He protected Madam Carolina, and made it through Route 210 for the most part," Crasher Wake says. "And most of all, I see he was able to properly integrate the last member of his team to the formula. So... could you send his Prinplup over? I'll send it back as soon as I can."

Thorton frowns, but doesn't protest.

-

Meanwhile, with Luce and Dawn who are none the wiser of the situation, their rush down Route 214 is... not a leisurely pace.

"Now that you're healed up, I need you two to run an errand for us," Maylene says. Fantina left last night, returning to her territory in the heart of the region while her fellow Coordinators spread out across the region to quell national panic.

Luce and Dawn didn't have any plans until their meeting date at Lake Valor, which was still at least a few days off.

"We've recently lost contact with Hotel Grand Lake," Maylene says. "They don't have a Pokemon Center, but their communicators there should be around the same specifications— so, it's odd that we can't reach them via the nationwide channel."

And right now, with Veilstone in this state, Maylene can't quite leave, even if Hotel Grand Lake is under her jurisdiction in these trying times.

"[Hotel?]" Luce asks, lifting his notebook. His Poketch's completely offline.

"It's the entirety of Route 214 and 213," Dawn explains, reading the paper map in her hands. "Lake Valor is between them."

Luce considers that. He does recall a long, pain-in-the-ass route down from this point to Pastoria, but he barely remembers the hotel in the middle that served no purpose except to look really fascinating as a location that held no important plot events.

All Cece could recall about it was that if you turned right, you'll find the road to Sunyshore.

(Speaking of Sunyshore, he wonders how that town's faring in this crisis. According to Maylene, Snowpoint's having trouble, but Sunyshore's similarly out of range. But no one's worried about that town at all.)

"I just need you two to go there and find out what's going on," Maylene says. "It shouldn't be too dangerous. There are VIPs in that hotel, and most of them are strong. But I want you two there by tomorrow morning, so make it to Lake Valor by tomorrow morning."

Dawn and Luce blink at that.

It is currently three in the afternoon.

"But isn't the trek pretty rough?" Dawn hesitates, "you want us to make it there by sunrise...? But it's usually a two-day journey?"

"I can make it there in three hours running," Maylene says.

Dawn squeaks at that. "What kind of running do you do?"

"The type of running you'll need to learn to survive and get stronger on your pilgrimage," Maylene says. "So, go on now, I'll time you. Consider this your trial, because if you make it through this, I'll let Luce challenge me at the gym again."

Luce grimaces at this.

But Monferno leaps up to his shoulders and points forward excitedly with a loud cheer. This is immediately followed by Lopunny and Luxio using Grotle as a step-stool to point gallantly sunward declaring the same thing in their languages.

Grotle is just letting that happen.

Kadabra sighs, floating up and picking up Togepi, Cleffa, and the Manaphy egg in Psychic. With another resigned sigh, Grotle returns to its Poke Ball. Golduck would join, except she's already dozing off in her Poke Ball.

Luce and Dawn share a glance with their Pokemon that are apparently way too eager to get going already.

"In the spirit of our great Hisuian ancestors," Maylene raises an arm, "if you wanna protest against the way things are, you better go fight God yourself and make it right! So hurry on now!"

With a loud confused whine, Luce and Dawn break off running out of the Veilstone gates, into Route 214, and toward a long grassy marathon.

-

While Luce and Dawn haven't had a double battle before, they realize pretty quickly into their biking race up hills and flying off wheelies that it's not all that different from their synchronized Contest routines.

And damn, that really simplified the formula a lot for them.

There aren't any trainers on the route, of course, with Veilstone in that state— so they rush right past the camps, off the ledges and through tall grass.

Luce had to admire Dawn's adaptability. This was clearly not her first time playing like that on the bike, as evidenced by Kadabra's expert handling each time she hiked a foot up to her seat, and flipped it right over the taller rock formations in a somersault. The landing would not have been smooth without some Psychic cushioning the fall, but she goes right on anyways.

Luce was doing all he could to catch up on the safer paths.

She goes on ahead, whistling for notice of Pokemon, signaling toward him the number and types, and Monferno would launch off Luce's shoulder, looking back just long enough to catch the signed order before catching himself on Luxio's back. Using Luxio as a launchpad, that Mach-punch sends the angry Houndour reeling, and a Discharge across the field paralyzes them just enough for Dawn to soar her bike right overhead with a loud yell.

Kadabra follows, longsufferingly. Togepi and Cleffa were both excitedly cruising along on telekinetic energy, just as ecstatic to be here even if this is logically a horrible influence.

Luce catches up, gambling on the right time to hop off the bike for the three steps and jump off the ledge, before tumbling back onto his bike to begin cycling once more.

(Luce mildly thinks she's a hypocrite. She's complaining about him and Barry being reckless all the time, but come to think of it, she charged into a ghost mansion back in Eterna. She's clearly the loose cannon among them.)

Dawn pushes her bike into full speed— leaps off, and jumps onto a railing, running its thin length past a sharp turn. Her bike cruises right under the length of those railings, which in hindsight is probably a dangerous railing height, but oh well. Just as seamlessly, she reboards her bike for the pleasant downhill. Luxio hops onto her back for the synchronous windy cheer as they coast down.

Luce cannot believe that she's doing most of it. Kadabra is just following protectively, but most of it is Dawn's own power. That can't be real.

Also, watching her is bad for his blood pressure.

Monferno latches onto his shoulder, and Luce sighs. Fine, fine, he'll deliver— he speeds up, uses his hand for the sharp turn, and manages to stand on his bike with a foot on the seat and another on the center of the handle— then they cruise down the downhill with all the thrill of a roller coaster, Monferno shrieking in excitement the whole way down.

In their defense— Maylene left them unsupervised.