*A panda paw opens the casket briefly from the inside, slipping out a piece of paper.*

*It seems to be a remnant of the long lost story this dear panda never finished*

-click-

*You choose to read the chapter, noticing that another piece of paper as slowly slipping out of the casket as well*

*Whoever was inside was probably extremely uncomfortable in terms of producing work in a tight casket*

*Nevertheless, it looks like they're finally writing once more.*

Rai's team dashed through the evergreen maze, coming across the novice trainers that had been paid to encounter challengers like him. Zara was quick to dispatch threats, swiftly sliding through the grass to punt the cherubi or budew that stood in the group's way. Lucy was clinging onto her master's head like usual, struggling to hold on at times when Rai would turn sharply in the hedge maze.

Due to the tight size of the pathway, Bonnie and Jessie lagged behind. The former struggling to keep her warm body from lighting any of the leaves while the latter was behind her, pushing her every now and then when she saw the blaziken slowly turned a corner.

"This is what I get for being the last to enter the maze..." Jessie grumbled quietly, looking up the sky to see a pokemon circling over their location.

Up above was Jack, the curly-haired rival. He had been observing the group ever since they entered the maze, eyeing the half-breed and his blaziken quietly as his charizard soared through the hedged fortress. "Just what is up with that guy?..." He thought to himself, narrowing his eyes as he observed the group. After his recent encounter with the recently-evolved blaziken, it's safe to assume that something was up with that trainer, leaving Jack with many questions that had no answers.

"There's another area after this children's maze, hun." Zara spoke, panting a little as the roselia clinging to her arm was flicked away "There's a large clock platform. At best, only three of us can stand on the minute hand as it turns." Rai took notes mentally, nodding as he followed suit behind the zoroark.

"What's gonna happen when we're on the minute hand?" He asked, hoping to find more information.

"Now that wouldn't be fun if I told you, wouldn't it?" Zara replied, sticking her tongue out at him as he scoffed, shaking his head in dismissal. "Gotta keep it as a surprise or else you'll win this badge too easily~..." She giggled, sliding under a trainer, gripping him from behind as she took his wallet, chucking him into the evergreen abyss that were the walls of the hedgemaze.

""H-hey! This isn't even f-agh!" He yelped as he was thrown, disappearing within the leaves until the group heard a soft whine accompanied with the rustling of leaves.

"That wasn't nice!" Lucy puffed her cheeks, curling her paws into a fist as she gently bounced her paw on the zoroark's sanguine hair. Granted, Zara might not have even felt that, but she knew that the riolu reprimanded her regardless. Rai chuckled softly, watching the little blue pup acting like a parent towards her rowdy, darker daughter. He turned back to look at Bonnie and Jessie, whom had been trying to extinguish a branch that caught fire on the blaziken's underboob.

"Hurry up you lot! or we're ditching you!" He shouted, soon quickening the pace once more as he saw the bright light at the end of the maze. Zara had already reached it, plucking her teeth with one of the stems of the cherubi that she had thrown somewhere. He arrived by her side as they both exited the maze first, blinded by the light that was almost absent in the area that they had been zipping through.

"You're lucky I know the route. I've had a couple of trainers use me for this gym to get their badge...not that they gained it anyway." She said, pointing towards the organically constructed clock and the steep steps that showed Gardenia, the Eterna city gym leader, standing at the top in all her glory beside her roserade.

"Wait...your trainers never got the badge?" Rai turned to her, closing the distance between their faces as Zara looked away uncomfortably, looking down on the grass as her feet dug into the earth idly.

"Well...I'd show them the way, but I wouldn't help them out. It was only fair, y'know?" She murmured, looking up to see a flying charizard.

"Fair? you literally abused every trainer in the maze! You threw half of the pokemon was encountered into the air and somewhere else! You wwere nothing but fair to the people in the maze!" Rai argued.

"I'd rather watch the idiots lose their fated battle than to watch them wander aimlessly in that maze, thank you very much." Zara, crossed her arms, huffing. Confused by her logic, Rai set down Lucy from his head, cradling her as she curled up in his arms. He looked at the organic clock, judging the size of the massive palm tree leaves.

Zara was right. At best only 3 people could stand on the small platform. There wasn't much room to move about, so whatever might happen while they stand there could be very dangerous indeed. Rai turned back to see the exit of the hedgemaze, not seeing Bonnie or Jessie following their trails. Seeing that the duo were still stuck, he was left with Luna, Lucy and Zara as his team. Luna was sound asleep in her pokeball, meaning that he only had 2 pokemon to use in reality.

"Looks like you finally made it out!" The gym leader bellowed from her throne, laughing raucously as she placed her hands by her hips. Her confidence was to be expected of a gym leader, after all. In front of her was a formidable foe that might actually tarnish her win streak that consisted of newbie trainers. The tall zoroark by his side only supported her suspicions while the orange light in the middle of the maze made her wonder if the rest of his team was lost inside.

"Your next job is to stand on the minute hand of this clock. You may choose three pokemon of your choosing to accompany you once you step on it. After that, you must endure my attacks until that minute hand does a full rotation!" She declared, making Rai flinch. He only had 3 available team mates, two of which had little to no battle experience!

"Alright Zara, now's your time to shine." Rai said, pointing to the minute hand as he stepped on it.

"Nu uh."

"...What?!" He said with a confused expression. "Aren't you gonna help me over here?"

"I've got to retrieve booby chicken and her flat companion in the maze, hun. Besides, it wouldn't be right for you to get this badge from my help alone. That's not what I'd expect from a trainer like you, after all. You've got the pup and the absol. Make do with them." She ordered, casting a smirk at the bewildered Rai before diving into the green abyss once more.

With his star player gone, Rai turned towards Gardenia once more, looking down to see Lucy curled up and sleeping softly on his chest. His hand slipped free and rummaged through his pocket, enlarging the pokeball that Luna slept in. Gently, he casted it on the floor, shooting a beam of ruby red light that materialised into the absol who was also asleep, lying on her back as her foot jerked every now and then.

"...Shit."

Slowly getting back into the groove ^^, excuse my short length.

Good lord, seeing this fic made me realize the difference in my writing back then.

Oh well, now that I'm back on track and hopefully sticking to a more dedicated schedule, you'll be seeing longer posts than this from now on!

This is Sleepy, signing out once more.

See you in a few days~

Bai