Pokémon XYZ: Life, Death, Order, and Chaos (book 2 of the HBoD series)

Chapter 13: Training Day

I tossed a pokeball in the air, catching it once it fell down. I was laying down in the guy's tent alone, pondering. Kamake was back. I already had a vague guess on why her new boss, whoever that was, would want the artifact. The power to revive the dead is what Princess Allie had said, but I was banking on the notion of everlasting life, like the king in the story. 

Now the question was, who was Kamake working for? The people stealing the stones? The ones who messed with Garchomp? At the moment there were too many variables and I couldn't rule any possibility out. Especially the one where they are all connected.

"Then there's Lysandre," I thought, grabbing Robert's Holo Caster and checking the message again.

"Squad 2 reporting. Two stones vital to our operation on Route 10 have been stolen. Currently tracking the culprits. Will report later."

So that definitely ruled out there only being one party involved. So we had Lysandre and whatever he was up to and the ones who stole the stones. Who was Kamake working for? And who were the ones involved with Garchomp?

As my thoughts became more tangled, I heard the zipper to the tent slide down. I put down the Holo Caster to see Robert there.

"Food's ready," he jerked a thumb behind him and I nodded.

I crawled through the tent flap and stood, stretching. The air was beginning to cool as dusk swept across the small forest on the edge of Route 7. Robert had got a fire going with a boiling pot over it in the middle of the small clearing. Alex was already sitting on a log near it, with a light blue jacket to keep herself warm. She smiled when she saw me and I smiled back. I sat on a small log to the left of her, there being three logs in total, arranged in a triangle around the fire.

Robert dipped a ladle into the stew and filled a bowl with it, handing it to Alex, who nodded in thanks as she sipped at it with a spoon. I got mine next and I took a spoonful, blew on it, then carefully ate it. 

"So," Robert said as he began giving out pokefood to all our Pokemon around us. "It's been a day. Any thoughts on Kamake?"

I nodded, putting my stew down. "There's at least two parties involved. Lysandre and his group, and then Kamake and her boss. Whoever Kamake's new group is, they were probably the ones who stole the stones on Route 10, but I can't rule out the possibility of there being a third group."

"It's Alola all over again," Alex commented as she went for more stew, testing the handle of the ladle that was sticking out of the pot.

"Yeah," I said. "Seems that way huh. But that just adds more to the mystery. Like which one drugged Garchomp? Lysandre, Kamake, or this hypothetical third group?"

Robert nodded, finally digging into his stew. "They're not going to make it easy for us are they?"

I shook my head. "It never is. Though, from what Kamake said, her boss wants to test me."

"That just means we're going to run into them again," Alex said. "At least finding them will be easy."

I nodded, but I was still bothered by something. "Look, we're going to be dealing with a lot of dangerous people."

"Just like Alola," Robert pointed out.

"Yes," I said. "I know, but-"

"Zeno," Alex put down her spoon. "We're going to stop them. No matter the risk."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know. That's now what I'm getting at."

Now they looked confused. I hesitated, then said, "In Alola, we got lucky. There wasn't a whole lot of hand-to-hand combat and when there was, I took care of most of it."