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[attr="class","euterpeicon"][attr="class","ion-leaf"]

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Normality used to bore her.[break][break]

The Champion walked the urban sprawl. As seconds dripped away, she watched the transition to night as the surrounding stores dimmed their lights. Employees hustled to lock their doors, and the mall slowly bled its occupants as last-minute shoppers sought the exit; the dying of the day as everything prepared to close.[break][break]

In her hand, she nursed her cup of coffee.[break][break]

This mall was still standing. It was further down, by the Cycling Road, that repairs were still being conducted.[break][break]

The miles of cables, still coiled and recollected, sometimes materialized in her mind with a thought of their reanimation. Xurkitree could have made short work of this place.[break][break]

She could close her eyes and reconstruct the scenario with vivid detail; how one stomp could have leveled the very foundation of the buildings surrounding her.[break][break]

But, that had never happened.[break][break]

This place still stood, and it was because it was allowed to exist that the Champion could allow her shoulders to unwind... if only for a moment.[break][break]

She blew on her black coffee, trying to coax it down from scalding as she approached the fountain in the center of this place.[break][break]

And, with her arrival, she sought the eyes of the lone trainer.[break][break]

“Yo,” because Bailey had figured that the normalcy of this job could be just what she needed. “I'm late.”

[attr="class","euterpeline"]

[attr="class","euterpetag"]BERNICE ALBERS

[attr="class","euterpenotes"]

. . .