Epilogue

The True-Myth Club had rented out the entire Lilycove convention hall.

No one made fun of Lane's costume as she glided through the dealer room, tablet under one arm. Her outfit was as pink as the tail trailing behind her.

Keeping the damn thing while she was human amounted to nearly six feet of furry, mischievous fluff, but at least she'd cut a hole for it this time.

Maybe the leader of one of the world's largest teams should dress with a little more dignity, but that word had barely even survived in Lane's vocabulary. If she cared what other people thought of her, she never would've dressed up as a bright pink cat in the first place.

She stopped in front of a costume stall, pushing the tablet gently up into the air to hover out of human reach while she walked inside. The stall was smaller than most, attracting far less traffic. But each of the fake ears and dresses were handmade, no two quite alike.

Lane picked a hoodie off the rack, walking it up to the front. A middle-aged woman sat behind the counter, sewing supplies scattered all around her.

"Doing convention commissions now, Sadie?" She settled the jacket onto the table between them, removed the hanger, and turned up the tag.

"You should come to my class. You're one of our old members, you don't even have to ask."

Sadie looked up from her sewing. She was putting together a pair of victini ears, though the blue flames were entirely out of place. "I never joined to fly, Lane. I joined to make costumes. You do what you love, I do what I love."

She scanned the jacket, eyes narrowing. "You don't need to buy this. Isn't that, uh… aren't you…" Her face reddened. "Aren't you wearing a human suit right now?"

Lane stifled a laugh, unsuccessfully. "That's not how it works. We're meeting on the hour if you want to see the specifics.”

Sadie thrust the jacket towards her. "Stop it. Just take the jacket. Not sure why you'd want it, anyhow."

In answer, Lane twisted her tail around, holding it up beside the fabric.

"It's for my mom, actually. She's very particular about these things. You got the fur right."

It wasn't for her, but Lane pulled it on anyway. She flipped up the hood for a second, feeling the silly little ears, the feline nose that hung over her hair.

She flopped it back down—she hadn't worked for two hours to get her hair styled just right so she could cover it with a jacket. She used her old Bandanna to manage the braid, still not returned to Mewtwo. And likely never would be, at this point.

Before she could object, Lane removed a wad of bills from her pocket, pressing them into Sadie's hand. "If you're allowed not to come, then I'm allowed to insist on paying full price."

She emerged from the booth a few minutes later, catching her floating tablet out of the air and mostly walking towards the exit. Doing things like that had a way of drawing a crowd—but she sped up, and her costume helped her vanish into the throng of visitors.

After all, why would a legendary Pokémon dress up as herself?

She slipped into line at a fried-food stall in back, filling her stomach with something that wasn't seaweed, but probably wasn't half as good for her. Then it was past the rear conference rooms, where scientific teams from all over the world gathered to present their findings. Incredible things had been reverse-engineered from even the smallest scraps of the Starfall. But they'd been very careful, sharing only with groups they trusted, only small pieces at a time.

But Korina insisted Lane owed her a starship after blowing up her old one. She'd make good on that promise, very eventually.

The crowds thinned as she reached the stairs, leading up to a few smaller meeting rooms. The True-Myth Club insisted that their conventions had no secret meetings—they certainly didn't recruit for a species of ancient, nearly-extinct Pokémon.

Elisa was waiting in the powder room, just one door down the hall. She was he today, big enough to strut around the convention with confidence. Or, more likely, he had plans for Lane when the day was done. Lopunny fussed around beside him, occasionally spritzing him with a bottle of water.

"Thought you weren't gonna make it," he said, climbing out of a portable planter-box about three feet across. It was filled with rich black soil, and a single kind of bright red flower. "What were you doing downstairs?"

Then he noticed the jacket, and he started laughing. "Arceus, you're joking. You are not going to wear that tonight."

"I am!" She tossed her fried-food wrapper into the bin, then hesitated in front of the mirror.

She could make this human body look however she wanted—but this was how she wanted to look. Old enough to get a little respect, but with enough in common with her real self that she didn't feel like she was lying to everyone. It had taken months of practice to get the ears and tail just right.

"I plan on slipping in late, seeing if anyone notices. Korina wants us to be observant, doesn't she?"

Elisa rolled her eyes. "That sounds like a great plan, except that you're going to be the one presenting. You'll just make them think you're an idiot."

"I am, kinda," she said. Then she lifted, levitating the jacket over to a hanger. "I might get it dirty or something. I probably shouldn't wear it if it's not mine."

Elisa flew past her, nuzzling posessively at her as she passed. It strengthened his scent. "They know I'm yours," she said, rolling her eyes. "I can't smell myself through all the gracidea."

"I can't time travel," Elisa said. "I can't be whatever I want. But I can at least make sure our new recruits learn real early who they can have, and who they can't."

Maybe that should've bothered Lane. It didn't.

She scooped the fox into her arms, running a hand through that soft white fur as no human would dare. "Don't scare any of this batch, please.

They're already screened to hell before they get here. I can't rebuild our species if we can't even get one volunteer per convention."

"No promises," Elisa said noncommittally. "Unless you want to promise to do the league next month. I'd trade."

That single word was enough to make Lane tense all over again. No matter how many ways she tried to distract him, he always came back to that.

"One gym," she said. "And that's if they give me a license. We'll try one gym.

And you have to tell my mom about it."

"Psh." Elisa zipped past her, towards the door. "Showtime, kitty. See how many kittens you can find."