Between the soothing feel of Chloe's finger rhythmically running along my body and my overall exhaustion, it wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep while watching the numbers on her screen continue to tick along. I woke up back in my Ball, resting on the surface of Chloe's nightstand. As I got my bearings I was treated to the sight of Chloe herself propped up on her bed, leaning back against the upholstered headboard with her legs stretched out before her.

I noticed first that she was still wearing her stockings from last night, and then I realized her entire outfit hadn't changed. She still had her tablet in her hands; she must have stayed up all night monitoring things, but even without a wink of sleep and in yesterday's clothes she still possessed this flawless beauty that I simply couldn't resist.

She must have noticed me sitting up against the side of my Ball and staring, because after a moment her head slowly turned towards me. My heart immediately set to racing to be held in her gaze and see her tremendous, warm, earnest smile.

"You're awake," she noted, her voice still wonderfully sweet even if it was a little flat. I only gave a happy nod and a stifled yawn in response, and, to my delight, she reached out to pick me up. "Go, Lucy!" she called out, lazily tossing my Ball towards the end of the bed and giggling briefly at her own silliness as I popped out in a burst of light, finding myself sprawled out at her feet, feeling strange to be suddenly back to my original size.

“You should get dressed,” she suggested with a smile, stretching out her stockinged foot, which I immediately and reflexively kissed when she gave my face a little nudge.  “Malva should be here soon, and I want you to take her out on a little assignment.”

I looked down at the tiny little nightgown I’d been wearing for the past several days and when I thought of Malva seeing me in it I suddenly felt terribly exposed.  Somehow it had seemed totally fine when I was just being a tiny ornament dangling around Chloe’s neck, especially since she’d picked it out for me, but now I wasn’t comfortable at all.  “Wear your old clothes,” Chloe suggested as I slid back off the edge of the bed.  “You’re going to be doing some walking and probably some battling, too.”

My eyes lit up when I heard that, immediately remembering the thrills of my adventures over the last year and the well-publicized contests I’d had with some of the best and most famous trainers in Kalos.  I was good at it, better than anyone else, and I loved it.  That’s what made me the Champion, obviously.

The outfit I’d been wearing when Chloe… caught me had been cleaned since she brought me here, I pulled on my blouse and stepped into my matching short pleated skirt, but I was still pulling my striped socks up to my thighs when I heard Malva burst through the door.  “Naked check!  Hope you guys aren’t fooling around back there,” she called out while clomping towards the bedroom and unceremoniously pushing her way through that door as well.

“Seriously, though,” she seemed to just start rambling, barely even looking at us as she turned to the nearby full-length mirror and started to fix her slightly messy hair, picking at it a bit and smoothing some flyaways.  “That was the most fun I’ve had in years, or maybe even ever.  I’m pretty sure I nabbed like, fifty at least.”

“Forty-six,” Chloe interjected after a few taps of her fingertips on the screen of her tablet, grinning a little to see her friend filled with so much energy.

“Whatever,” Malva snapped back with a brief glance over her shoulder.  “One of your stupid grunts kept getting in my way.  He’s lucky I didn’t shove him in a Ball and remind the little moron of his place.  So, what,” she finished applying a fresh coat of lipstick and gave herself one last appraising look in the mirror before she turned back around.  “Are you seriously not ready yet?  Let’s go!  I’m on a roll.”

I looked her over for a moment, slowly letting a small grin spread across my face.  She didn’t look like she’d slept either, but clearly she was still riding a high from her night full of activity.  She looked good, back in her cutout leggings, boots and cropped sleeveless top like I’d seen her many times at the Pokemon League.  “I was just waiting for you, Mal,” I muttered while my grin grew.

“Oh?” She replied, her eyebrows excessively raised as she questioned me, but I was undeterred.

“Get my boots,” I instructed her with a little jerk of my chin towards my low-heeled lace-up footwear on the floor by my side, and while she took a minute to furrow her brow and seemingly consider my demand, she did eventually move across the room to me and bent at the waist to pluck them up from the floor, every movement exaggerated like she was some small child being forced to perform a loathsome chore.

“Go on,” I encouraged, placing a hand on the nearby wall and lifting one of my feet towards her, wiggling my toes inside of my sock.  Again, my smile only grew as she sunk to her knees and complied, guiding the shaft around my descending pointed toes and giving a little tug to help my heel settle in.

I sighed happily as I watched her do the same with the other one, then set to work pulling and tightening the crisscrossing laces with care.  Maybe it was just the promise of upcoming Pokemon battles filling me with confidence or something, but I was really enjoying bossing Malva around right now, and I could tell from the little smile she was trying to hide that there was something about it she was enjoying, too.

Once she’d finished and started to stand up, I reached out without thinking and placed my hand on the back of her head, stopping her from going anywhere.  She was confused for a moment, and truthfully so was I, but deep down I knew what it was I wanted her to do.

My right foot slid forward a few inches and I shivered as I said the words.  “Kiss my boot.”

I might have heard the faintest chuckle from her, but I was too fixated on watching her slowly bowing down before me to really notice or care.  When she placed a long, sweet and loving kiss on the top of my foot I couldn’t help but let out a small, satisfied gasp, and after she pulled back I found myself smiling and staring at the little trace of pink that the outline of her freshly painted lips had left behind on the black leather.

“You should get going, girls,” Chloe suggested, and when I glanced over at her I caught a bit of her smile before her eyes drifted shut and she rolled her neck back and forth, stifling a tiny yawn.  “I’m going to try and get a bit of rest while you’re gone.

“You have no idea how much fun this is going to be,” Malva uttered while rising from her knees, already heading towards the door, and I followed after her once Chloe gave me a little nod of approval.  I blew her a kiss over my shoulder before closing the door and immediately felt like an absolute and total fool for doing that, but I hoped she’d either be tired enough to forget or just chalk it up to a long week in my Ball doing funny things to my head.

“So where are we going?” I asked Malva as I watched her pick up a rather large bag and sling it across her shoulder.  She handed me one of my own, and when I peeked inside it was packed to the top with Flare Balls.

“Lost Hotel,” she informed me while reaching up for something on one of the shelves by the door.  I was pretty surprised when she handed my Pokedex.  I hadn’t really thought about my things since I watched Chloe rummage through them back when we met, but it made sense that she’d still have them here.  “Go ahead and grab a Pokemon from your bank.  You should only need one, so don’t go crazy.”

“Just one?” I questioned as I poked the screen and punched in the information needed to access my Pokebank.  All my old friends, I hadn’t seen them in so long…

Malva was going through her bag, picking through the Balls she was carrying and examining a few while she waited for me.  “Yeah, we’re travelling light.  Shouldn’t be much of a fight, but if you get into trouble you’ve got big, strong me to bail you out.”

“Alright, I’m ready,” I declared once I’d made my choice, and Malva quickly snatched the Pokedex back from my hands and popped it back on top of the shelf.

“Good,” she declared as we headed out and closed the door behind us.  “Who’d you pick?”

“Buzzbeat, my Zapdos,” I responded with pride, but she only groaned and shook her head.

“Of course you’d bring a legendary.  You’re such a little show off.”

“You’re only bitter because I’m so much better than you,” I immediately shot back, and she turned and gave me this withering glare that startled me for a moment, but to my relief it quickly softened, and by then we were on the elevator, able to focus on something other than each other.

"You have the worst nicknames," she quipped as we both stared at the door.

"Shut up, <i>Mal</i>," I retorted with a smirk and the confidence of a Champion.

*****

When we made it to the Lost Hotel, Malva pulled a Pokeball from her bag and I took the hint to do the same.  "So there's a few dozen holdouts down there from what we figure. Don’t pop your stupid bird out until we’re ready to go, alright?  Think you can try to keep quiet on our way inside?"

I blinked once, slightly confused as I slowly turned the Pokeball I held over a few times in my hand.  “So, we’re not going to be having a battle down there?”

Malva rolled her eyes briefly and shook her head.  “Not if we do this right.  Just… follow my lead, okay?”

I nodded and with that we were on our way down the stairs, Malva moving ahead of me, trailing her hand along the wall and carefully placing each step she took, moving in absolute silence as I did my best to quietly follow along.  We reached the end of a hallway and she peeked around a corner, motioning for me to come up alongside her, and when I took a glance as well I saw the people we were there for.

Like she said, it was twenty-some, maybe thirty people at the most, but it was more than just the punk types I’d been accustomed to seeing down here, with a few older adults and even one or two kids mixed in as well.

“Ready?” she whispered, and I found myself wiping my hands on my shirt, surprised at how sweaty they seemed to be.  This wasn’t a battle.  Was I supposed to just attack these people with my Pokemon?  That wasn’t even close to what I’d trained them for, but Chloe’d sent us here for a reason…

“Now!” Malva hissed, and I simply reacted.  I flung my Pokeball towards the middle of the group, calling out, “Go, Buzzbeat!” as my Zapdos burst into the air with its piercing cry.  “Use Discharge!” I screamed while Malva’s Pyroar popped out of its Ball, dashing towards the group with a startling roar.

I watched as the people tried to scatter, flares of electricity dancing between them and leaving some falling to the ground, twitching with paralysis.  Malva flung the first of her Flare Balls at some of them, and as they gently rocked with the slight spasms of the tiny people inside she called out, “Lise, Hyper Voice!”

Even directed away from me the ensuing roar was bone-jarring, and as I watched with my hands over my ears even more people crumpled under the overwhelming sonic force.  I took a couple Balls from my bag and tossed them out, capturing four or five.  “Thunder Wave!” I called to Buzzbeat, and the few people still trying to flee went down one by one as their bodies seized up under the pulsing electricity, and from there it was easy for Malva and me to hit the rest of our targets with our Flare Balls.  It had barely been a full minute and every single one of the people were now trapped in our little spheres on the floor.

“Too easy,” Malva purred as she started to saunter towards her Pyroar, chuckling softly as she watched her bat around the nearest Flare Ball, purring as she played with it.

“Look out!” I cried, but it was too late, or maybe Malva was too absorbed with the rush of our success to interrupt her stride.  One of the many Flare Balls littering the ground loudly crunched beneath her heeled black boot,

“Oops,” she remarked in a completely unconvincing and casual way, barely pausing to examine the little red smear left behind amidst the shattered shards of plastic as she stepped away.

I was already uneasy about what we were doing down here to start with, and as I watched Malva move up to her Pyroar and let her nuzzle her hand for a moment, my insides started to churn and boil at her utter disregard for what she’d just done.

“Malva!” I shrieked, though she didn’t react at all, instead focusing on letting her Pyroar nuzzle her hand for a moment.  “What’s wrong with you?  These are <i>people</i>!  Now let’s start picking them up.  <i>Carefully</i>,” I added, but she still didn’t so much as even look at me.

“Return, Lise,” she softly murmured, her Pokemon giving a little purr as she returned to her Ball.  I watched her clip it back to the strap of her bag and then fish around inside the bag for a moment before she produced one more Flare Ball.