Alex and Clarissa arrived in a familiar room centered around a 3-meter-tall teleportation crystal with its only exit blocked by a holopad. As they approached, they were prompted to sign Kalos’s conditions of entry, which were much the same as every other region’s. Play nice and don’t poke around where you shouldn’t.

Lumiose City did have one additional screening process, however. Clarissa had to present her Master rank certification and declare Alex as her dependent. Once they produced their marriage license, they were finally cleared to enter.

Beyond the checkpoint, instead of the police station they had expected, they found themselves in a grand hall that was completely empty except for a lone reception desk at the far end. A rather bored Jenny sat behind it with a sleeping Manectric curled up beside her. Like every Jenny, she was just as pretty as the rest, with the only real difference being her uniform. She wore a blue cap, a white shirt with a navy tie, a long blue vest, brown leggings, and navy boots.

The pair briefly considered heading straight outside, but with a map hanging directly behind the receptionist, they decided they might as well get some general information before moving on.

"Hello, Officer Jenny," Alex greeted as they approached.

"Alex?" she asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yes. I’m sorry, but have we met?"

"Oh, no. I, um... I just recognized you," she said with a light blush and the unmistakable smile of an excited fangirl.

"Please don’t tell me you recognized me from that one video when I was, like, 12 or something," Alex asked with dismay.

He had been young, naïve, and incredibly presumptuous at the time. Maybe it had been the hormones of a young boy teasing an older girl, but he somewhat regretted how smug he’d acted simply because he knew more about guns than the people in this world. In truth, he had absolutely no right to be so proud of himself, and now his past had come back to haunt him.

"There’s some resemblance, but no. We Jennys get full access to the database once we reach Champion rank, so we were able to view your profile after you registered at headquarters. We were all so shocked by how young you were when you reached Champion rank, and honestly a little proud," she said, genuine pride shining through her smile. "Our sweet summer child."

"I remember being the one who called you that," Alex said, doing his best to hide his embarrassment behind a kind smile.

"What video?" Clarissa asked.

’Oh, no,’ Alex thought as Jenny eagerly projected it onto a hologram above her desk.

There he was, little Alex acting smug in front of every Jenny in the world, fully aware there was a good chance the recording would end up on the internet.

"Oh, Jenny. My sweet summer child. You may have been catching criminals, but I’ve been swimming with them. I think like them, and nothing says ’do as I say or else’ than destroying the city holding the very thing they hate." Young Alex said with a sweet, caring smile.

"Kyaaa~ You’re so adorable!" Clarissa squealed. "You look just like I remember you from Pokémon Academy! Please send me a copy of the video."

"Sure!" Jenny said excitedly, having found a kindred spirit.

Alex kept smiling from the sidelines as the ache of embarrassment washed over him. It was fortunate he was a stone-blooded killer. Otherwise, he would have been blushing furiously.

"Anyway, how can I help you today?" Jenny finally asked.

"We’re new here and could use some general information. Before that, though, why is the police station set up like this?" Alex asked with genuine curiosity.

Jenny sighed. "Decades ago, during the Mega Evolution incident, Lumiose City was devastated as powerful Pokémon kept appearing throughout the city. Strong trainers came to stop them, but every Master ranked battle caused even more destruction and mass casualties, so the entire city had to be evacuated and was classified as a Master ranked danger zone for a time.

"After the crisis ended, with the city razed to the ground and the teleportation network established, people tried moving back in. The problem was that Master ranked trainers got there first. They bought up entire city blocks, often paying prices no landowner could refuse. Before long, almost the entire city belonged to Masters.

"On top of that, Lumiose sits above a dimensional portal, much like Sendoff Spring in Sinnoh leads to the Distortion World. If anything ever comes through, only Master ranked trainers have any hope of dealing with it. So the city was eventually restricted to Master ranked residents, leaving little need for a conventional police force. We still maintain this teleportation checkpoint for the International Police, though, so it’s just little old me looking after an otherwise empty building."

"What happened to the residents?" Clarissa asked.

"You’d know if you’d visited Kalos at all, but basically the population skyrocketed everywhere else, turning every town into a metropolis. With that massive injection of money into the economy, however, the people prospered and have ever since."

"Isn’t Lumiose City a major hub, though? What about all the traffic that used to pass through here?"

"It was rerouted around the city. There’s now a network of roads running along the city’s defensive walls."

Had they visited Kalos at all, they would have already known. Instead, they had only done some surface-level research online and looked over maps of the region, which, like Unova, had been heavily modernized.

"Anyway, unless you’re planning to buy property for a stupid amount of credits and contribution points, I suggest you head here," Jenny said, pointing to the center of the map. "It’s the only part of the city that isn’t privately owned. Everywhere else is made up of private institutions that require background checks to enter."

"Thanks, Jenny," Alex said with a smile. "We aren’t planning on buying property, so I guess you’ll be seeing a lot more of us from now on."

"Please take care of me," she replied with a blooming smile of her own.

Alex and Clarissa stepped outside and were immediately greeted by absurdly tall walls enclosing entire city blocks, making the immediate area feel more like a sprawling prison than a place people actually lived. The streets beneath their feet were spotless and eerily empty, with only the occasional automated delivery vehicle gliding silently.

As they walked, they noticed that not every block had been sealed behind towering walls. Some were left open, revealing the private estates hidden within. One housed a traditional Johtonian compound of polished wood and tiled roofs. Another contained a cluster of empty office buildings. There was a shopping complex the size of a mall, an enclosed jungle, a massive lake with an underwater facility visible beneath its crystal-clear surface, a mountain with caves dotting different elevations, towering evergreen trees connected by huts built high above the forest floor, a volcano radiating enough heat that a battleground-grade forcefield was required to contain it, a Galarian castle, sleek futuristic structures of steel and glass in different designs, and countless other architectural styles. Every open block belonged to someone unimaginably wealthy.

The farther they walked, the more Lumiose City resembled an abandoned theme park. It felt as though someone had gathered a piece of every culture and architectural style in the world and scattered them across a single empty metropolis.

That wasn’t quite right either as they soon came upon architectural styles that didn’t belong in this world. There were blood-red thorned metal buildings, empty grass land with a hovering disc above it, spheroid shapes, giant mushrooms, spiraling crystal towers that seemed to bend light around themselves, colossal floating rings linked by bridges of shimmering energy, and upside-down pyramids suspended motionless in the air, among other high science fiction designs. It hammered in the fact that this city had access to countless different dimensions, and each had left its mark on the skyline.

The city center was only a short walk from the International Police Station, relatively speaking. There, Prism Tower, looking every bit as majestic as it did in the photos online, stood alone at the heart of an expanse spanning at least 7 city blocks. It was ringed by broad, imposing buildings whose sheer scale gave the area the feel of an international airport. So much space had been set aside for services reserved exclusively for the most powerful people in the world.

Among the buildings were the Pokémon Center, where both Pokémon and humans were treated, healed, rehabilitated, and monitored before being cleared to return to the public. The facility handled everything from battle injuries and emergency surgery to disease screening, parasite removal, and long-term recovery.

The Research Center cataloged, analyzed, and tested every discovery brought back from other dimensions. It served as the central repository for dimensional intelligence, maintaining maps, hazard reports, species records, and environmental data while identifying artifacts and developing new technologies from recovered materials.

The Commercial Center allowed trainers to outfit themselves with everything from weapons and armor to survival gear, camping supplies, and the latest technology. It also housed engineers, craftsmen, and fabricators who produced custom equipment, repaired damaged gear, and transformed rare materials into specialized tools tailored to each trainer’s needs.

The Recreation Center was filled with hotels, restaurants, spas, theaters, grooming salons, enhancement clinics, and countless other attractions where trainers and their Pokémon could enjoy some well-earned rest and relaxation, along with luxury treatments, supplements, and performance-enhancing therapies.

Finally, the largest of them all was the Training Center, where trainers and Pokémon honed their skills in state-of-the-art facilities, sparred against one another, and competed in multiple Master ranked arenas that would put even the Pokémon League in every region to shame.

It was the only place in the world that catered exclusively to its strongest trainers, at least as far as Alex knew. Then again, given Clarissa’s background and rank, she might know of a few other places that could rival it.

"Which place do you want to check out first?" Clarissa asked, leaning against Alex with an excited smile, eager for their date.

"We might as well start with the Recreation Center," Alex said. "We’ll need a hotel anyway, and I want to check out their enhancement services."

"Okay!"

Alex had expected luxury and thought himself prepared, but what he found surpassed even his imagination. Every storefront seemed to offer another premium service or cutting-edge treatment, each carrying a price tag that could bankrupt an Elite ranked trainer.

By the time they reached the hotel floor, he had already compiled a mental list long enough to empty his wallet several times over. Lumiose City had wasted no time reminding him that, despite everything he had accomplished, he was still just a Magikarp in an ocean full of Gyarados.