Divvy pushed the front doors to the Poniose campus open, allowing Mikael, Jacqui, along with Sandbar and his friends to exit and make their way to the Poniose Town plaza. While Mikael and the others laughed as they conversed, Smolder had her arms firmly crossed as her face was frozen in an angry pout.
“And then,” Silverstream chortled, “when her Leavanny took out her Gabite with a single Leaf Blade, I was like, ‘WWWWHHUUUUUH?’!”
“Alright!” Smolder stopped with a stomp, getting many of the other students standing nearby them to look over to her direction. “I don’t need a play-by-play on what happened! I was there!”
“We know,” Gallus jabbed with a smirk. “So were we, and we could feel the embarrassment from our desks.”
“Okay, okay!” Jacqui’s exclamation completely quelled her friends’ laughter just before it could resume. “Smolder, look, I’ve been training my Pokémon probably as long as Mikael’s trained his Bronzong, and you saw how strong he was against Sandbar’s Pokémon. Your Dragons are all in great shape for their age and how long you’ve spent with them. I’m sure once they each evolve again, you’ll be unstoppable.”
“You…”Smolder sniffled. “You really think so.”
“Totally!” Sandbar agreed. “I mean, of the six of us, you probably have the best team. Heck, I bet you could take Mikael on and beat him if you wanted to.”
“Hey now!” Mikael shouted with a chuckle. “Don’t be giving her any ideas!”
Jacqui and the others laughed, and Smolder found herself joining in with them.
“Jacqui!” Hearing a familiar voice, the group of friends turned to see Rosanna walking up to them. “I’m glad I was able to catch you.”
“Ms. Sixsmith!” Mikael greeted. “What are you doing here?”
“I was simply curious as to how you were going to be spending your evenings is all.”
“If you wish to know,” Ocellus responded, “the eight of us were going to head into town and check it out.”
“And Rosanna don’t have to worry!” Yona added. “Yona and friends do homework during lunch period!”
“And I helped!” Gallus pointed to himself with his thumb-claw, Yona smiling in agreement.
“Wonderful!” Rosanna replied with a clap of her hands. “It’s so good to see that you’ve all made some new friends on your first day. But to really answer your question, Mikael, I was curious to know if the eight of you would be privy to having dinner with me at my home?”
“That’s quite alright, Ms. Sixsmith,” Mikael responded. “I’m sure we could easily get something to eat with those cards you gave us. And thank you very much again for those.”
“Hmhmhm, you’re very welcome, Mikael, but I would hate to see any of you already spending your points so frivolously on just the first day.”
“Hmm,” Gallus pondered loud enough to hint what his decision already was. “She makes a good point, guys. Free dinner or buying dinner? Real headscratcher.”
“Well, if Gallus is going,” Silverstream spoke next. “Then I’m up for it too!”
“Hold on!” Sandbar interrupted. “We should ask everyone what they want to do! Maybe we’ll find someplace neat downtown and we can make it our regular meeting spot.”
“We have all year to do that!” Smolder argued. “Besides, if the woman who helped build this place is offering to feed us, chances are we’re in for some good eats.”
“Not to tip the scales in either way,” Jacqui cheekily croaked, “but she did hire two of the top graduates from the Lumiose Culinary Academy to serve as her personal chefs while she’s here.”
“Okay, yep. Definitely some good eats. I’m in.”
Mikael thought for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “Eh, I agree; we can find our official hideaway tomorrow if we wanted to. Let’s do it.”
“Yona want to come!” she exclaimed.
Sandbar breathed a sigh out, seeing where this was headed. “Looks like majority’s ruling on this one. So what do you say guys, let’s go?”
Mikael and Jacqui nodded as the other six cheered, their minds made up.
“Excellent!” Rosanna began to turn away from the school. “If you’re all ready, you can follow me to my building. It’s the tall one with the penthouse windows.”
Mikael and Sandbar and his friends looked up at the tallest building in the town, seeing the larger windows at the top floor. While they certainly could not make out any other features inside, they were most certain that it would amaze them nonetheless.
The doors of the spacious and ornately painted elevator opened up, allowing Rosanna to step out, followed by Mikael, Divvy, Jacqui, and their six Equestrian friends. Seeing the interior made each of them, save for Jacqui, slow to their own gradual stops as they felt their lips part from each other of their own volition.
Down the large hallway from the elevator was a pristine and massive space surrounded entirely by tall, frameless windows that overlooked Poniose Town and beyond from all angles. Near the window directly ahead of them was a long dining table with nine seats arranged side-to-side with one on the very end. Separating it on an island of short white carpet was a contemporary black couch with white cushions and a long glass table with a compact control panel on the right before it.
In both corners ahead of them were two lit cone fireplaces whose chimneys extended all the way to the ceiling, which was adorned with dozens of cylindrical glass lamps that hung at different heights. Entering further inside and looking back, there appeared to be a stairway on the left that led up to another room with tinted windows, though Rosanna’s guests were content to marvel at the sights they were given on their current floor.
“Not to be rude straight away,” Rosanna said, “but I’d prefer that you refrained from touching the lights. Apologies.”
Smolder and Silverstream, who were both up in the air looking at the glass coverings for the lights, shamefully fluttered back down to the floor to join their other friends there.
“Thank you,” she said to the two of them and to no one in particular. “If you need to use the restroom, it’s up the stairs to my bedroom on the left there and it’s the first door on the right.”
“You live here?” Gallus remarked, his head constantly tilted up. “Was a big mansion not cool enough or something?”
“I’ve always preferred an urban setting with a view. Plus, just because I’m helping oversee functions within the town does not mean I’ve decided to neglect my duties as chairwoman of Macro Cosmos, so I had this building constructed so that I may continue to do my most essential duties remotely.”
“And not to be rude myself,” Smolder responded, “but what do you even do as chairwoman of this Micro Cosmos, especially to make all of this?”
“Macro,” she corrected, “quite the opposite, you see. But, as chairwoman, I oversee the functions and well-being of all the smaller subsidiaries under our control, such as our energy, transportation, and media among many other things. While most of what we do benefits the Galar region especially, services our company provides also extend to the other regions as well, such as our banks and insurance companies among others. As you can imagine, having that much influence and outreach can be massively lucrative.”
Looking back out to her Equestrian audience, they, save for a visibly attentive Ocellus and a beaming Silverstream, did not appear as easily as wowed about this information.
“Oh!” Rosanna shook her head and chuckled. “Look at me boring a group of young Equestrians with such dull details! Perhaps I can show you something a bit more… interesting…”
Rosanna walked over to the table near the couch and pressed a button on the control panel, causing a keyboard and virtual button display to be projected onto the table. The Equestrians all crowded around and watched in awe as she tapped a couple of buttons on the display, which reacted to her touch as if they were physically tangible. Just then, the windows around the room darkened, partially blocking out the afternoon sun.
After typing away on the keyboard, the window overlooking the dining room table brightened up as a virtual screen appeared before it cut to security footage of a large red-lit laboratory. In the center of the room was a large glass orb held up by machinery connected to both the ceiling and floors. Coiled up inside the glass was a large skeletal purple dragon whose harsh light emanating from its exposed chest gave the room it was held in its harsh glow. Despite the compactness of its space, the dragon appeared to calmly and serenely stir inside.
“No way!” Silverstream yelled. “Is that what I think it is?”
“If you’re thinking that that’s the legendary Pokémon Eternatus,” Rosanna replied, “then yes, you’d be correct.”
“Unbelievable…” Sandbar walked closer to the screen to get a closer look, stopping just before reaching the dining table. “How did you even manage this?”
“As Mikael and Jacqui probably already know, when the former chairman Rose attempted to use Eternatus by bringing about the Darkest Day six years ago in order to replenish the Galar region with Dynamax energy, his plan was thwarted by the current champion Victor and his friend. Shortly capturing Eternatus, Victor gave control of it back to Macro Cosmos around the time I gained control of the company. Since then, we’ve been harnessing its energy in order to provide Galar with abundant power as well as finding ways to provide Power Spots to areas and cities without them.”
“Wait!” Smolder perked up. “Does that mean that we can start Dynamaxing anywhere now?”
“Not quite. While planting Power Spots in formally-deficient cities like Spikemuth have been successful, our efforts to create new Power Spots outside of the Galar region have proven to be far more difficult, which is why I began the Worldwide Max project.” Rosanna typed another few keys on the keyboard to bring up another screen showing a digital interior of a halved planet Earth. “My goal was to harness and store enough excess energy from Eternatus that after a few years time, I will be able to unleash that energy so that it will create Power Spots all across the globe.”
Everyone then watched an animation as a pink dot on the surface of the planet appeared, followed by the light traveling along and within the crust of the earth as it encircled the planet. As the light traveled, dozens upon dozens of smaller pink dots began appearing on the outer edge of the planet until it was entirely covered by hundreds of them.
Rosanna resumed her explanation. “So my hope is, Smolder, that one day yes, trainers the world over can begin experiencing the wonder and power of Dynamaxing. Because of this, I’ve also received vast amounts of financial support from the other eager regions of the world that have also contributed greatly to my success as well as the success of Macro Cosmos. So believe me when I say that my… new flat here is a mere drop in the bucket to what I am able to afford.”
“That’s quite impressive,” Ocellus complimented, “and I thought that was all very informative and interesting to learn. Thank you, Ms. Sixsmith.”
Rosanna smiled to her warmly. “You’re very welcome, Ocellus. I simply wanted you to get to know about me and my duties a little better. But dear me, I’ve been making this meeting of ours all about me when I should be the ones getting to know you! Please, let’s sit down and have a drink while dinner is being prepared!”
“Alright!” Gallus lept over the couch and gilded to the dining table. “Now you’re talking my language!”
With Gallus already taking his seat, the others took the cue to sit down as well as Rosanna shut her display down and cleared the windows back up.
Mikael speared the last bite of his salmon and pushed some of the last bits of sauce on the plate onto it with his knife before taking everything he gathered and putting it into his mouth. As he chewed, he couldn’t help but continue smiling over how delightfully crispy the skin still was after all the time it sat on his plate.
Rosanna glanced to Mikael as she stole a sip of her wine. “I take it you liked everything?”
Mikael nodded, looking back to his empty plate. “It was all incredible, Ms. Sixsmith. Thank you.”
“I’ll say!” Silverstream dried the bottom half of her plate with her tongue as the sauce drained down that way. “I’ll have to ask the chefs how to make it so I can show my family back home!”
“Unfortunately,” Rosanna responded, “the recipes all belong to the chefs, and mine in particular are not the kind to divulge their secrets.”
“I’m sure if you asked Sam,” Ocellus said to the hippogriff, “he’d be happy to share a good recipe with you.”
“Whoa!” Jacqui’s mouth was muffled with half a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “Sam cooks?”
“Jacqui!” Rosanna quietly snapped before taking another sip of wine.
“Very well, as a matter of fact,” Ocellus answered. “Last year, every other Friday he would do something called ‘lunch labs’ where he’d make us all lunch as he did his lessons. I wonder if he’ll do something similar this year.”
“Doubt it,” Smolder jumped in. “Our class is so much later now than it was last year, so it certainly won’t be a ‘lunch’ lab.”
Smolder pushed his large porcelain bowl caked with fragments of lettuce leaves and crouton crumbs back so that it would no longer distract him. “I can’t imagine Sam wouldn’t just do nothing; he’s really cool like that.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Maybe he’ll whip up some tasty snacks or something.”
“Guys!” Yona suddenly shouted as she shot up, nearly overturning her own finished bowl of salad. “What if Pinkie Pie and Sam make friends dessert instead?”
“Ooh, good thinking!” Gallus complimented, pointing his fork at her.
Rosanna downed the rest of her wine, ready to move on with the evening. “Speaking of dessert, I have to imagine that your own Pokémon are probably very hungry themselves by now. Why don’t we make our way to the pool area downstairs and enjoy dessert there while your Pokémon are fed?”
“Really?” Ocellus wondered. “You’ve already done so much for us?”
“Nonsense. I cannot say I’ve done possibly enough if I haven’t even made sure your companions eat. Now please, whenever you’re ready, we can make our way down.”
“Okay?” Sandbar pushed his chair out and prepared to follow Rosanna to wherever she wanted them to go. “Will there be enough room for all of us?”
“Of course! I haven’t even gotten around to getting it filled yet, so I have to imagine that all of your Pokémon will be perfectly capable of sharing the space with us.”
“I mean… if you say so! We wouldn’t want to make a mess of it now.”
“Sandbar, darling, you worry far too much about me! If I can’t handle so much as a dirty pool, I may as well resign from Macro Cosmos right now!”
“I…” Sandbar resigned himself, knowing he could not win against her unstoppable generosity. “Thank you again, Ms. Sixsmith.”
“That’s quite alright. Come, everyone! And don’t worry about the dishes, they will be collected!”
Rosanna made her way back to the elevator door, pressing and holding the down button with her thumb as a green band of light scanned down from the top down. With an affirmative green flashing, the door opened back up, and Sandbar led his friends inside until he and the other seven were present. With Divvy and Rosanna heading in last, she pushed a button just below the top one, the doors closing in front of them.
The elevator moved down two stories before it came to a stop. Once the doors opened, Rosanna stepped out to allow her guests to breathe in their newest surroundings. With the echo of their various footsteps filling the place and stunning them immediately, they were in even greater awe to be standing near the edge of an Olympic-sized pool, which was bone dry and empty as Rosanna had said. Its ceilings were at least another story up, only adding to the space. On the other side was another room containing a small gym featuring a couple of treadmills and ellipticals among other machines as well as a row of different sized handweights.
Rosanna snuck up behind Sandbar as he struggled to take in the enormity of this room. “You think this will be enough room for us?”
Sandbar nodded.
Jacqui took a small lime tart from a large cart set at the poolside filled with various pastries and cakes, adding to her plate already containing two small vanilla cupcakes and a half eaten wedge of Nabnab-crème pie. With her plate firmly in hand, she sat between her Leavanny and two Joltiks on the edge of the pool, the former munching on what looked to be a small loaf of bread speckled with the red and blue skins of the pureed berries baked into it while the latter two shared a dish of green pellets together. Jacqui looked down her Equestrian friends all sat inside the pool with their Pokémon as they each enjoyed their food.
Standing by Yona, who sat down with Sandbar and Torterra, Carracosta, and Torkoal, were three buffalo-like Pokémon with massive afro-like furs over their heads and two gold rings over their sizable horns. Rosanna walked along the pool’s bottom, ensuring that her guests were feeding themselves and their Pokémon as well as she hoped. She then approached Yona and Sandbar, being stopped by the territorial huff of one of Yona’s Pokémon.
Rosanna stood still and kept her distance. “Yona. Very interesting choice to have three Bouffalants on your team.”
Yona turned to acknowledge her. “Yona believe that Bouffalant most like yak, and since yaks best, Bouffalants best too. Beside, Yona teach them all different move to trip up opponents.”
“Well, I look forward to seeing what they can do in battle. And Sandbar, I like your team quite a lot. It suits you.”
“Thanks a lot, Ms. Sixsmith!” Sandbar replied. “I’ve been getting that a lot lately.”
“Then we all must have great taste.” Sandbar smiled, allowing Rosanna to make her way further down the pool.
She then found Gallus with his Pokémon, including a dark-brown lion with light-brown legs and a fiery red-and-yellow mane that covered its whole head, a large brown bird with red tail feathers and long crest feathers colored red and yellow, and a creature made up of six armored beings with shielded arms and red spikes on the tops of their heads, the spike of the lead one longer than the others.
“Are your Pokémon enjoying their food?” Rosanna asked him.
Gallus glaced down to his Pokémons’ bowls and dishes, seeing that they were mostly picked and licked clean. “Uh, no they all hated it. You should get them another.”
Rosanna chuckled, immediately picking up on Gallus’s tone, something that he smiled appreciatively at.
“Ms. Sixsmith!” Rosanna turned to become face to face with Silverstream, who fluttered in the air to be at eye level with you. “Come on, you have to meet my Pokémon now!”
Grabbing her by the arm, Rosanna let the excited hippogriff guide her to where her Pokémon were resting, their bowls and dishes already empty. In her group of Pokémon was a blue monkey with cream-colored legs whose long hair curled up and around on the ends, a blue octopus with black tentacles and yellow suckers that matched the mask-like marking on its face, and a large green-and-brown dinosaur-like Pokémon with palm-leaf wings and bananas growing at the top of its long neck.
“Wow!” Rosanna exclaimed. “So that’s your Tropius?”
“Mmhmmmhmmmhm!” Silverstream rapidly nodded. “She’s my favorite Pokémon… well, she’s in a three-way tie, but you know how it goes!”
“I certainly do. It’s a very nice team. Keep it up!”
“Eee! I will! Thank you so much!”
Rosanna then moved onto Smolder and Ocellus, who sat by their Pokémon as they nearly finished their food. Along with Smolder’s Dragon-type Pokémon and Ocellus’s Zoroark, she had two other Pokémon sitting by it. The first was a greyish-blue frog creature with red spikes jutting from the top of its wrists that matched the large sac under its throat, and the other was a pink-and-cream colored Pokémon with beady blue eyes, large, fluffy ears, and a puffy white tail.
“My, what incredible teams you both have!” Rosanna said with confidence. “Such rare Pokémon. You must have spent a long time trying to find them.”
“I mean,” Ocellus answered, blushing, “it helps when you have a teacher as good as Sam to help us find them.”
“It’s not just finding them. I firmly believe that trainers and Pokémon choose each other equally, so the fact that you found these Pokémon and they clearly trusted you enough to be caught by you says a lot about both you.”
Smolder smiled graciously. “Thanks a lot, Ms. Sixsmith! That really means a lot coming from you.”
Rosanna smiled and chuckled, flattered. Further down, Jacqui finished the last bite of her desserts just as Mikael and Divvy approached her.
He reached up to her. “Need a hand down and join the rest of the party?”
“No need!” Jacqui placed her plate on the edge of the pool and hopped down, her Leavanny and two Joltiks coming down with her. “It’s pretty cool, though, huh?”
“What is?” Mikael looked about, unsure if he was supposed to spot anything in particular.
“I mean, just that fact that we get to end up in one of the most exclusive schools on either world with all these different creatures and their Pokémon. Just think about how cool a Chaser Battle with either of them must be.”
Mikael rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Is that really all you’re thinking about?”
“Oh come on, I’d bet money that Smolder is probably into that stuff too, and who knows who else could be?”
“I don’t know, but unless Dave is cool with us wrecking his rink again, I’m not sure we’re going to have anyplace to do one.”
Jacqui shrugged. “We could always use the pool while it’s still empty.”
“Absolutely not!” Mikael turned around and Jacqui looked forward to see Rosanna walking up to them with her arms crossed. “Listen Jacqui, I understand that you’re very excited to become a chaser, and after talking with Dave a few days ago, I took what he said to me into consideration.”
Jacqui turned her head away but kept her eyes on her, unsure of what she was implying. “What are you saying?”
“Before I escort you back to your dorms for the night, I would like to show you all something, if you’re willing.”
Jacqui and Mikael turned to each other, genuinely intrigued by what she was proposing.
With the sun almost completely set on Poniose Town, most of the busy activity that had filled the streets and the plaza less than an hour before had quieted down, enabling a serene and easy walk back to the Poniose campus. Rosanna Mikael, Jacqui, Divvy, and their friends across the street to the campus grounds.
Jacqui broke the silence, nervousness filling her voice. “Okay, we’re almost back already! What do you want to show us?”
“Just follow me.” Rosanna made a slight right heading toward an empty field far away from the right side of the building.
With the others looking to each other in confusion, they nonetheless unquestionably followed Rosanna off the stone walkway and onto the grass, the group venturing into seemingly nowhere. Just then, they encountered a cluster of brown, humanoid Pokémon whose bodies appeared to look like small men wearing overcoats and tall hats. As the group got closer, the Pokémon formed a line and aimed their handless arms at them, the red, green, and yellow dots on the ends and their green sunglass-like eyes glowing forebodingly.
“What’s with all the Beheeyems?” Ocellus wondered, hiding behind Yona.
“It’s alright,” Rosanna loudly spoke to them, “they’re with me. You can go ahead and take the barrier down.”
“Barrier?” Smolder and Gallus both queried together.
The Pokémon turned around and kept their arms pointed out at the open area. Just then, a blue light formed a large capsule-shaped border on the grass, which rose up in a liquid-like manner like an ethereal curtain. As the bottom of the invisible barrier rose up, a red wall appeared, stunning Mikael and Jacqui along with their friends. About twenty feet up, wooden planks and steel beams jutted out from the sides where it had not been furbished yet.
Gallus and Silverstream flew up and looked down to get a better look of what was being kept a secret from them until now. Inside the red, unfinished walls, the edge of the interior was ramped down halfway down to the center, only a couple of sections installed with stadium-seats. They then saw a wooden track built further inside, which appeared completed save for anything around it, but the purpose was clear to the two Equestrians.
“What’s down there?” Jacqui asked.
She suddenly yelped as she felt herself lifted off the ground by an unseen force, looking over to suddenly see her rising up to Silverstream and Gallus’s heights. With an understanding nod between them both, they suddenly looked down to get a good look at what her friends saw, but she connected the dots far more quickly.
“Ms.–” Jacqui spun around to look down at her. “Rosanna? This isn’t–”
“It is,” she answered back. “Obviously, it has a ways to go, but I’m hoping it will be ready in no more than two weeks.”
“What is it?” Sandbar called up. “Come on, the suspense is killing us down here!”
“It’s…” Gallus sputtered. “I think it’s supposed to be a Chaser Battle arena.”
“What?!” Smolder’s smile grew wide and her excitement exploded out. “No way, for real!”
“Wait!” Mikael exclaimed. “You’re into Chaser Battles too?”
“Sure am! Sam streamed a few games during class last year, and it’s the coolest thing! It’s just the kind of battling I’d love to get into! Ms. Sixsmith, I can’t believe it…”
“You better,” she teased. “Obviously, you, Ocellus, Gallus, and Silverstream can all fly, Mikael and Jacqui are both very talented skaters, and Sandbar and Yona most likely have the speed and stamina to keep up with the best of them, so once this is finished and ready to be used, I’m expecting the eight of you to make the most use out of it.”
“Yona and friends most certainly will!” Yona hugged an equally ecstatic Sandbar close. “This is best day ever!”
Finally, Divvy came down with Jacqui, Gallus, and Silverstream. Jacqui stood with a slouch, her body still unable to fully come to terms with everything.
“Jacqui?” Rosanna approached her, a tinge of worry in her expression. “Is everything o–”
Jacqui leapt at Rosanna and hugged her tight, Rosanna taken aback by the uncharacteristically affectionate act. “Thank you so much, Rosanna! Thank you, thank you!”
“You…” Rosanna softened in Jacqui’s embrace and put her arms around her. “You’re most welcome, Jacqui. After all the work you’ve put in with me, you deserve it.”
One by one, Sandbar and his friends all approached the two of them and joined in on the hug, creating a tight, furry cluster to show their appreciation to the woman who gave them far more than they ever expected that day. Mikael, on the other hand, stood by and watched, Divvy flying up behind him and nudging him in the back.
“Don’t worry,” he assured it, “I’ll shake her hand in a bit. I just feel a bit weird hugging her like that. Still though… Rosanna, god damn…”
Mikael and Divvy looked up at the stadium, the both of them left to wonder just how magnificent it would look once it was finally finished.