En y repensant maintenant, Juliette en est arrivée à la conclusion qu'elle méritait probablement cette punition. Juste un peu. Elle n'a fait que se faufiler dans la salle des machines et bricoler un peu avec le câblage électrique. Bien sûr, elle a causé une panne de courant de deux heures, mais le navire est sorti dix fois plus efficace après qu'elle en ait fini avec ça! Ils devraient être reconnaissants qu'elle ait optimisé tout leur système. Juliette regarda l'homme chauve debout à l'entrée de la cabine, les bras croisés raidement et la bouche tournée dans une fronce de sterne, et les moutons souriants. Ils étaient assez légers avec la punition, toutes choses considérées. Pour s'occuper de l'électricité, elle n'était confinée qu'à l'intérieur du hangar du navire, et devait y rester jusqu'à leur arrivée à la baie d'Azure.
Juliette regarda de nouveau l'homme chauve, les engrenages dans sa tête broyant alors qu'elle essayait de trouver un moyen de le dépasser. Sanction légère ou pas, elle n'a pas pris le temps de s'asseoir et elle était coincée dans la pièce depuis cinq heures maintenant. Son Klefki s'arrêtait à côté d'elle, les clés qu'il recueillait claquant comme le rire s'arrachait le cadre, regardant dans l'amusement son entraîneur a essayé de lui parler doucement hors de l'enfermement. Jusqu'à présent, ce n'était pas possible. Juliette a délibérément sorti sa lèvre inférieure et a battu son cil dans ce qu'elle pensait être une façon attrayante, plaidant avec le ton le plus persuasif qu'elle pouvait rassembler, mais non. Pas de réaction du tout.
Elle s'est claquée la langue et a plié sur le canapé en cuir, en lançant les mains dans une démonstration exagérée de défaite. Bah, cet acte mignon était super efficace quand elle était plus jeune. Elle pensait qu'elle avait besoin de trouver une autre tactique maintenant. Lockhart se moquait encore d'elle, mais il déconnectait ses bras et lui tapait les cheveux de sympathie de toute façon.
Juliette a fait sauter quelques brins de ses franges sur son visage. "Je devrais attendre, hein, Locke?"
Il y avait un autre cliquetis des clés que le Klefki a hurlé, toujours à l'air très amusé.
Heureusement, l'attente n'a pas été aussi longue. Ils arrivèrent à la ville portuaire dans une heure, et aussitôt qu'ils s'étaient amarrés, elle fut autorisée à rejoindre les autres entraîneurs choisis débarquant le navire. Juliette se vanta de sa liberté et se limita et descendit sur les quais avec une source dans son pas. Elle passa par les autres entraîneurs alors qu'elle s'efforçait de descendre, certains d'entre eux qu'elle avait appris à connaître pendant son temps sous la tutelle de Bill. Cynthia et elle avaient fait connaissance il y a quelques semaines, en fait, après avoir mis à niveau le logiciel de son Pokedex. La blonde lui a donné un salut en passant avant de revenir à son débat houleux avec Drake.
Lorsqu'elle atteignit le pont, elle prit un moment pour s'imprégner de la vue, accueillant la douce brise marine qui lui soufflait les cheveux et chatouillait le nez. L'océan s'étendit sans fin au-delà de l'horizon, une feuille de bleu pétillant, brisée seulement par l'eau occasionnelle Pokemon sautant dehors. Il y avait des Wingulls et des Pelippers qui tournaient au-dessus d'eux, se cachant heureux entre eux. Juliette a rejoint le Dive Ball configuré sur sa ceinture et a libéré sa Nova pour une plongée rapide. La Starmie a filé dans l'eau avec florissante, sa gemme resplendissante, alors qu'elle plongeait de plus en plus profondément dans l'océan.
Alors qu'elle attendait le retour de Nova, Juliette aperçut une bataille imminente au large du port. Elle a pris place sur un banc voisin et les a regardés, curiosité piquée. D'après ce qu'elle pouvait glaner, l'ex-champion d'Unova était défié par un entraîneur, et il y avait un entraîneur aux cheveux foncés prêt à officialiser le match. Elle les reconnut tous comme des passagers du navire, les quelques-uns qu'elle n'avait pas encore connus. Bien qu'en tant que camarade Unovan, Juliette connaissait Jay Rayne et sa conquête record. Sa sœur était une grande fan de lui, mais ensuite il s'est impliqué dans ce scandale. Elle s'est toujours demandé pourquoi il a tabassé cet entraîneur. Peut-être qu'elle pourrait lui en parler...
Avec rien d'autre à faire, Juliette et Locke ont applaudi à l'écart au début de la bataille, se contentant avec enthousiasme d'en tirer le coup. C'était assez excitant de regarder une bataille d'ex-champ.
Name: Jay Rayne
Age: 24

Gender: Male
Region of origin: Icurrus, Unova
Why he was accepted: He's the Unova Ex-Champion, and holds the standing record for least amount of pokemon used to defeat the previous champion

Jay Rayne grew up in Icirrus City, and at the time he was the only child his age in the city. Like any kid his age with no peers to play with, Jay was extremely lonely and bored. So what did he do? He explored the surrounding forests. While exploring in the wooded moors, the young Jay Rayne bumped into another child who'd had the same idea. Jay made his first friend that day: a young girl with long black hair and beautiful azure eyes. Ava. The two played and played, happy as two kids could be.
Because Jay was the only kid his age in the small city of Icirrus, his parents simply assumed that he'd made an imaginary friend, happy that he was finally having some fun for once. Ava and Jay explored every inch of the moors and surrounding forests, never tiring of the other's company for an instant. It was a while before Jay found out that Ava wasn't real. She didn't exist. She was just an illusion created by a lonely Zorua to keep a boy as lonely as herself company. But Jay didn't care what she was, so long as she was his friend. They continued to play together, Ava sometimes appearing as a girl and sometimes as a small black fox, right up until the day winter reared its ugly head. Once it started to snow, Ava told Jay that she was leaving the area with her family. He was sad that his one friend was leaving, but he knew there was nothing he could do to change the fact. He'd never met this family of hers, but from what she spoke of them, he didn't want to.
A few years passed, and Jay was now eight. His explorations had turned with time into hunts. He was going to be the best trainer in the world, so he practiced hunting and capturing pokemon, which wasn't as easy without any pokemon of his own, or even any pokeballs. On one particular hunt, just as Jay was about to pounce on an unsuspecting Vanillite, someone grabbed him from behind and pulled him backwards. Ready to yell at whoever had attacked him and let his quarry escape, he spun, and froze. "Ava?"
The two were inseparable, and this time Jay even convinced Ava to come into the city with him. Everyone, including his own parents, were surprised to say the least. And even Jay was surprised by her as well when she dropped her illusion for him. She had evolved during the time he hadn't seen her, into a dark and elegant Zoroark. She didn't leave him again, her evolution giving her freedom from her pack's control. When Jay turned ten, Ava became his first pokemon, his partner in crime for the long journey to come.
Jay and his partner rose through the ranks like a flaming arrow, incinerating all in their way to the top. Along the way, Jay assembled a team of pokemon. His team grew slowly, as Jay never just took a pokemon out of its natural habitat. It had to want to go with him. "Ava" the Zoroark was his queen, sweeping the competition with ease without letting any of jay's other pokemon get a chance to do anything. His second pokemon was a Tyranitar, nichnamed "Gula", raised from a Pupitar that had attacked him. Jay had been impressed with the creature's ferocity even then, and he'd asked it to join him. His third pokemon was given to him as an egg, which hatched into an Eevee. "Luxuria", or "Lux" is Ava's baby. Jay was hardly even allowed to hold her. Jay beat the Unova champion with just three pokemon, a record that still holds. For three years, Jay has won every battle that he's used Ava in. He was forced to allow trainers to battle him without Ava because there was some bad publicity after a challenger had a mental breakdown from what Ava showed him with her illusions, but a few weeks passed and still no one had beaten him.
One day as the champion was taking a walk through the same forested moors that he had explored as a child, Jay was challenged to a battle by a man seeking his title, and Jay couldn't refuse a battle. The man sent out a Gardevoir against the legendary Ava, and Jay forfeited the battle. He instead chose to beat the man's face in. Jay's sharp eye saw the signs. For what he had done to that pokemon, the man had deserved so much more than he had gotten. Jay was forced to resign from his position, and his advisors had him go to work at a pokemon rehabilitation center to wipe away some of the red marks on his record. The Gardevoir followed him, not willing to leave the man that had saved her. Jay renamed her "Solitaire" or "Sol". Besides Ava, she's the closest out of his pokemon to Jay's heart.
He's been working in the center for a few years now, just keeping his head down and acting like a model of good behavior. Two more have joined his ranks in that time: "Acedia" or "Ace" the Talonflame was the first of them. It was dropped off anonymously to a pokemon center, severely injured, one wing broken in three places, the other in two, and a gash across its head. The nurses at the center let Jay, or rather, Solitaire, heal the injured bird's injuries, and when it was fully healed, Jay asked it if it would like to take revenge on those who had done such a thing. That set Jay's team at five.
The other is a similar, if sadder, story. A Garchomp came in, carrying injuries unlike anything a pokemon battle could produce. It's side was completely shredded, as if it had taken the blast of a powerful explosive. What sort of person would have done something like this? He didn't know, and the Garchomp couldn't tell him. Jay asked the Garchomp if it hated the person who had hurt it, and it told him that it did. That was all Jay needed to hear. "Ira" became his sixth pokemon, and a day later, he died. Working at the center was suppoed to cool him down, stop him from lashing out, but it had the exact opposite effect. Jay saw what pokemon were forced to endure at the hands of their trainers, and now he'll punish anyone who mistreats a pokemon. All it took was one incident, an attack on an "innocent" trainer, and Jay was forced to leave Unova.
He's changed a lot from that lonely, happy, naive, little boy that Ava met so long ago. She will be with him to the end, no matter what he does with his life.
Pokemon:
Pokemon Name: Zoroark
Nickname: Ave Dominus Nox (Only she calls herself that though, everyone else just calls her Ava, or Ave if they want to be really polite.)
Gender: F
 
Any other notable distinction:
Jay's first pokemon, and his lifelong partner. She passes for human most of the time. Ava is an absolute monster to cross. Her awesome physical strength strikes terror into the hearts of her partner's opponents, only second to the terror beheld in her illusions. She's usually fun-loving and kind, but that changes suddenly and without warning. Ava speaks and acts like a human when she uses her illusion to look like one. She acts as a translator between pokemon and Jay.
Ability: Illusion
Moves: Night Daze, Night Slash, Foul Play, Dark Pulse, Double Team, Scary Face, Taunt, Hone Claws, Snarl, Fake Tears, Copycat, Captivate
Pokemon Name: Tyranitar
Nickname: Gula
Gender: M
Any other notable distinction:
Gula doesn't care about doing anything. Nonsense and frivolity pisses him off. So basically, his emotions range from apathy to homicide and back again. He is the only one capable of matching Ava in brute strength, but he has none of her speed or planning. His normal strategy is to tank everything and end battles in one attack. You do not want to be on the receiving end of one of his Hyper Beam. You will die.
Ability: Sand Stream
Moves: Stone Edge, Dig, Surf, Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Earthquake, Strength, Roar, Sandstorm, Rock Polish
Pokemon Name: Vaporeon
Nickname: Luxuria "Lux"
Gender: F
 Any other notable distinction:
Lux is a spoiled little brat. It's totally Ava's fault. She may be the weakest out of Jay's pokemon, but underestimate her and you lose. Jay developed the strategy she uses in battle, which he's dubbed "mist armor". Lux holds considerable power of Jay's other pokemon, as she is the only one who doesn't have to fear Ava's wrath.
Ability: Water Absorb
Moves: Mist, Acid Armor, Hydro Pump, Scald, Ice Beam, Aqua Ring, Rain Dance, Baby-Doll Eyes, Charm, Attract, Rest, Refresh
Pokemon Name: Gardevoir
Nickname: Solitaire "Sol"
Gender: F
 Any other notable distinction:
That image does not convey the crazy that is inside Solitaire. Sol is obsessed with Jay. She kind of got her original trainer, the person who bred and hatched and evolved her, nearly killed, and she felt all of his thoughts and emotions as it happened. And she enjoyed it. She could have stopped Jay, should have, but she didn't want to. Solitaire is good friends with Ava, but sees her as a romantic rival for Jay. Sol has only ever known love by what her old trainer taught her, so that's what she thinks will happen with Jay. Ava knows this but hasn't said anything to Jay. She wants to see what he does.
Ability: Trace
Moves: Psychic, Psyshock, Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam, Hypnosis, Teleport, Ally Switch, Wish, Healing Wish, Calm Mind, Captivate, Misty Terrain, Protect
Pokemon Name: Talonflame
Nickname: Acedia "Ace"
Gender: M
 Any other notable distinction:
Yes, Jay has a flyer. Ace is his name, and speed is his game. Ace burns his opponents first, then uses his blinding speed to accumulate thousands of tiny attacks in seconds, there and gone before the opponent even has a chance to react. Instead of the normal way, Jay rides Ace by standing on his back in a way similar to a snowboard. A flaming, flying snowboard.
Ability: Gale Wings
Moves: Flame Charge, Flare Blitz, Brave Bird, Acrobatics, Aerial Ace, Steel Wing, Me First, Roost, Tailwind, Swords Dance Fly