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"Mauville City."

Steph suddenly sat up.

"What are we doing?! The police---we can't be distracted---" Steph lowered her voice. "Team Lotus, remember?"

Steph laid a large sum of dollars---forty-five---on the table, hoping it would cover the expense. She didn't have time to make an exact count. She ran down the paths to the door, Sableye scampering behind her.

Steph, waiting by the bus stop, closed her eyes and shook her head. "It's like you don't even remember how demented Lepida was." Once Seth had caught up with her, she looked at the bus schedule.

"Excellent. The next bus will arrive in five minutes. I have to wonder: isn't this convenience a little contrived? If this were a book, it would seem unrealistic..."

The bus drove up, and the door promptly opened. "A Nurse Joy?"

"GIRL POWER!" exclaimed the Nurse Joy in the driver's seat.

Steph, astonished, declined to comment and stepped in.

(Not a dream sequence. With all the Joys in the world, surely one of them isn't a Nurse. One of them should defy tradition.)

The Nurse Joy in the front seat glared at Seth. "Are you saying I can't do a job men normally do because I'm a woman? Well---" at this point, the Nurse Joy started to chew Seth out. A few passengers groaned.

Steph was too astonished (and fearful of the Nurse Joy's indignant wrath) to interrupt the driver or defend Seth. She took a seat next to the front so she could look at the waiting Seth and give a shrug.

"I have to get home to my wife!" shouted a passenger, daring to interrupt the Nurse Joy, after some time passed. "An example! An example of the patrician society undermining women!" shouted the Nurse Joy at the passenger. Then she realized what the passenger said, cleared her throat, and tersely apologized. Steph subtly indicated Seth should get on the bus.

By now, the bus was moving. The Nurse---er, Bus Driver---Joy did have a job to do.

"There is no Bus Driver Joy. Just Joys, which tradition states must always become nurses and adopt the professional title of Nurse. But I didn't want to be a nurse. My sisters were nurses, my cousins were nurses, my aunts are nurses, and one of my brothers is technically a doctor, but he wanted to become a nurse."

"Ronnie Joy, Bus Driver! Yes! GIRL POWER! FIGHT THE POWER!"

The man who needed to get home to his wife turned to Seth. "It's best you don't try to talk to her," he said quietly. "She'll go on forever about 'the system' and 'patriarchs.'"

"Lepida's part of a criminal organization not above kidnapping Trainers---us. Ronnie Joy is a mere bus driver. Even if the two are equally crazy, Lepida is indisputably more dangerous."

The bus stopped by the police department. "What---? We didn't even tell---"

"That's my stop." said the man who needed to get home to his wife. "My wife's a police officer," he said for Steph's convenience, "I walk her home. The house is nearby."

Steph followed the man out of the bus.

"Maybe we weren't gone for as long as I thought. Or maybe..." Steph, trying to be inconspicuous, looked around the police station suspiciously. "Team Lotus has a hand in police affairs."
Steph looked at Seth. "Do you think that's plausible?"

"It would be pointless to report ourselves as missing if we're here, so we might as well tell them where the Team Lotus hideout is."

Steph walked up to the nearest police officer, who sported bluish hair. "Ms. Jenny, we're---"

The police officer turned around.

"Mr. Jay, actually. What, you thought all police officers were female?" he chuckled. "There's a long history behind why that is, but...family secret. Are you here to report something?"

"Yes. We---that boy and I---" at this, she gestured in Seth's direction---"know where one of Team Lotus's hideouts is. Approximately, at least. It's big."

At this point, Steph described the distinct features of the area, as well as the berry juice marking she made on the door.