Ding dong.
At the top of Mesagoza's hill, the bells for Naranja Academy swayed back and forth in the tower—like kites on a beach. The enormous front doors opened, and students piled into the round courtyard. A few cut across the grass, but most followed the school's main path. It led to a spot for Flying Taxis that overlooked Mesagoza's skyscrapers.
"Finally!" Nemona said the second she and Scarlet exited the academy. She reached for the sky and punched it a few times. "Oh, Scarlet," she begged, "let's battle again. Please? Pretty please?"
Again? But Nemona and Scarlet battled just an hour and a half ago.
"Come on, Nemona, give her a break," a voice said from off to the side. Penny pushed past the crowd of students and approached her friends. Her large Eevee backpack bounced up and down on her back, and she pushed her glasses closer to the bridge of her nose.
"Oh, Penny! Perfect timing!" Nemona cheered. "Why don't you and I battle, then?"
"Whoa!" Penny said, waving her small hands. "You know I don't like to battle, Nemona."
Nemona groaned. "Aw, but I wanna battle." She lowered her head, but it wasn't long until she lifted it again. "Then I'll go find Arven. Surely he'll battle with me, right?"
"He's not a strong trainer, though," Penny countered. She ran her fingers through her red and blue bowl cut. "Besides, you don't even know where he is."
"Such a pessimist!" Nemona admitted. She took her Rotom Phone out of her pocket. "I called him earlier, but he didn't pick up. However, Rotom tracked his signal to Poco Lighthouse. Right, Rotom?" She smiled at the Pokémon in her phone, and it returned it.
It flew in a few circles around Nemona's head.
"Well, then, I'm off!" she said, jumping up and down. She sprinted for Naranja Academy's godly staircase that went almost straight down. "Watch your back, big boy Arven, because Nemona's coming!"
"Wait!" Penny shouted from behind. "How do you even know he wants to battle?" Nemona was already too far down the stairs to hear her. "Wow, rude enough?" Penny asked herself, and she faced Scarlet, who stayed quiet. "Scarlet, we need to go after her. Arven's not in the right mindset to battle right now." Since returning from Area Zero, she had been observing his behavior—not that she was a stalker—and it was pretty clear he was struggling to accept what AI Sada told them about Professor Sada.
Arven's grief concerned Penny. If he didn't get it under control, she feared he would wind up in the hospital with Broken Heart Syndrome.
Scarlet let Koraidon out of his ball and nodded at Penny.
"Agia?" he asked, sitting before her.
"Oh, perfect!" Penny forced a smile. "We'll ride Koraidon to Poco Path." She preferred him over a Flying Taxi any day.
Scarlet hopped onto Koraidon's back first.
Penny climbed on behind her. She wrapped her arms around Scarlet's tummy. "Go, Koraidon, go!" Penny said. Just being on him again, she felt like a queen.
Scarlet kicked Koraidon's sides, but before he could even jump into his dash, the sky above Mesagoza, Los Platos, and Poco Path flashed bright infrared. It was like it had turned into a computer performing an emergency reboot.
"Whoa!" Penny yelled. She almost fell off Koraidon because she shielded her face with her arm.
The sky pulsed—one, two, three times—and returned to normal.
Everything at Naranja stopped: the screeches of the Squawkabilly and conversations.
Students pointed at the sky and murmured to each other.
Within seconds, Director Clavell was out the front doors. He was an older man with a tall, slender body and medium-length white hair. "Is everybody all right?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," the students answered, still shaken up. "What was that, Director?"
Clavell dropped his arms to his sides, and his aging eyes studied the quiet atmosphere. "I'm not sure." He changed his focus from the sky to Koraidon and put his hands behind his back. "Did you do this, Koraidon?"
"No, no!" Penny fought. She quickly got off him. "He had nothing to do with it. Right, Scarlet?"
Scarlet gave Clavell a quick nod and set her gloved palm down on Koraidon's brow.
"Please, Director," Penny whimpered, "we were just getting ready to look for Arven when it happened."
Clavell shook his head. "Very well," he sternly said, clapping his hands. "All right, back to class. There's nothing to worry about."
The students obeyed, but a few walked cautiously and stuck close to their peers.
Clavell turned his back to Scarlet and Penny. "Carry on, Scarlet. Penny." Anger slipped off his tongue like drops of water on a leaf after it rained. Did he know Scarlet, Penny, Nemona, and Arven went to Area Zero? No, surely he didn't. They made sure not to tell anybody. Traveling to the Great Crater of Paldea meant expulsion from Naranja Academy.
Penny's legs shook under her, but she climbed back onto Koraidon. "Let's go," she whispered in Scarlet's ear. "We need to make sure Arven and Nemona are okay."
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