Once again stepping into the skating ring slash gym in Shalour City was always an oddly jarring experience. None of the other gyms seemed this popular as far as I had seen. Valerie’s gym had a lot of people in it, but this was on another level. The mixture of recreation center and battle arena was odd.

  And I meant that literally. The main battle arena in the gym was literally part of the skate rink.

  There were grinding rails, ramps, jumps, half pipes, and all those other things scattered about the room. Sure there were probably private battle areas, but judging from the fact I could already see Korrina waiting impatiently in the arena I wasn’t about to get out of this without being made a spectacle.

  I wasn’t late. In fact, I was ten minutes early. Even after stopping at the Pokecenter and having a long discussion with everyone about how things would go, and who would fight, I was still early.

  Walking up to the side of the area, just before entering what would be considered the actual skate park of the gym, I locked eyes with Korrina.

  Her impatient look morphed into a grin and she made a sort of ‘bring it on’ gesture towards me.

  Hopefully she wasn’t expecting me to skate over there, or something, because I had never been good at that. So instead I took a moment to survey my surroundings to make sure no one would be heading in my direction or blocking my path, before sliding down the ramp in front of me.

  The way the rooms focus locked onto me as I walked towards the stairs leading to the battle field was a bit odd.

  It was even weirder when everyone started chanting.

  Someone in the crowd started it, and it just slowly grew and grew until everyone was either stomping their feet, or snapping their fingers and chanting, “Fight. Fight. Fight.”

  When I finally got up the stairs I gave Korrina a quizzical look. “What’s all this?”

  She still had that grin on her face. “I hardly ever get challenged to Elite Battles. This is the first one of the season.”

  Before I had a chance to respond, there was a sudden noise that drew everyone’s attention. From the side, rather expertly sliding across a rail on a skateboard was the referee. “This is an official gym battle between the Gym Leader Korrina, and Pokemon Expert Jason for the Elite Rumble badge!” He had to pause as the room erupted in cheers, and he took the moment to change direction towards the arena. “This will be a one on one battle!” He flew up, performing a three sixty heel-flip before landing and coming to a stop in the referee box.

  “That old guy is pretty spry,” I muttered.

  “Mega Evolution is encouraged!” This caught me a bit off guard, but it made sense. Korrina probably wanted that line in there to warn me that she would be using the new Key Stone I could see on the back of her glove . The people around seemed to love the idea considering how loud they were being. “I or the Trainer will determine if a Pokemon is unable to continue battling,” he continued, looking over the crowd that had gathered. This was probably the largest audience I had had for a battle. “A Pokemon that leaves the battlefield must return as quickly as possible, or be counted as knocked out. The Gym Leader will reveal their Pokemon first. Gym Leader! If you are ready, please release your first Pokemon!”

  “Go, Lucario!” Korrina suddenly shouted as she tossed her ball, and as she said her Lucario popped into existence.

  I reached into my coat, but I hesitated. This being one on one changed things, as did introducing Mega Evolutions. The only one who had experience with fighting while Mega Evolved was Rio. That was my fault. I should have been training to see who was most compatible. It was considered bad form to use it in gym battles without warning, another mark against Wulfdick.

  But who should I use? The obvious choice? Someone who would have a clear advantage? Rio would be at a slight disadvantage since she was so focused on steel energy. Goodra and Keo recently evolved, so I couldn’t push them so soon. Scoly would be a good choice. So would Primarina…

  “Challenger! Please send out your Pokemon,” the referee’s call broke me from my musings.

  “Alright. Let’s be mean,” I decided as I grabbed a particular ball.

  When I released the Pokemon within, a rather large doll flopped over before picking herself up. She looked back at me, tilting her head to the side. I had asked Banette if she wanted to battle and she had been really eager to agree. Of course, I had warned her that I might call her out for a fight, but she still seemed surprised.

  From my bag I pulled a pink marble, looking for a moment at the dark gray, yellow and orange cats-eye. “You’re the one who wanted to fight, right?” She nodded. “Then show me what you’ve got,” I said before tossing the marble to her.

  She snapped it up in her mouth and in the quiet everyone heard the audible gulp.

  “I uh… was expecting your Lucario?” Korrina said aloud, clearly a bit unnerved as the little marionette turned its grin towards her.

  “I have no doubt it would have been a good fight, but I have quite a few Pokemon,” I replied with a shrug. I wasn’t about to explain the logic of why I didn’t want to send Rio out at her, since there was a large audience and this was being recorded.

  This would be a good debut for Bannette, and would really give me a good idea of where she was strength wise. Like most of the others I had learned what Banette’s moves were, and she had been joining in more on training when she wasn’t helping Mikyu. And what I had learned is Banette mostly only knew status moves. That’s why she always seemed so passive in large scale battles.

  Her only real attacks were Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Shadow Ball, and Lick. Rio had learned the hard way that Lick was a rather annoying move to deal with.

  Korrina was frowning at me. This was clearly not going the way she had thought, especially because Bannette was straight up immune to normal and fighting moves, which was most of Lucario’s arsenal. But several of the observers seemed to approve. I even heard someone say to the person next to them, “They have matching coats. That’s so cute.”

  The referee suddenly stepped in, “Gym Leader, are you ready?”

  With a sigh, Korrina nodded and her Lucario suddenly flashed into his Mega Evolved form. The rules on Mega Evolution when it came to battles were kind of odd. You could do it at any time, including before the match actually started. That seemed to be the best time to do it, as doing it mid-battle left your Pokemon open for a second or two.

  Bannette immediately followed suit and I felt the slight tug of energy. It was subtle, and reminded me of how she had reached out and taken my hand the day we met. There was no malice, just the feeling of longing and twinge of loneliness, chased away by the warmth of a hand.

  However where Lucario’s had been like a snap, Banette’s was smooth. Her cloth darkened as she grew in size, zippers slowly formed on her hands, another down her chest, and another extended from her eye up her head and down her dangling facsimile of hair. The body zipper opened, revealing a purplish body and legs. The hands did the same, revealing long claw like purple fingers.

  The entire room seemed to get darker, and several lights on my side of the arena flickered as the temperature dropped. Quite a number of members of the audience stepped back. The long coat that had made her look even more adorable now just added to her apparent menacing appearance.

  I really didn’t understand all the fear and unease. She was absolutely adorable.

  “Ch-challenger? Are you ready?” the referee asked, clearly even he was a bit unnerved by the little plush’s appearance.

  “Yes,” I said with a simple nod.

  He looked between the two of us and then nodded. “Begin!”

  “Will-O-Wisp,” I called immediately.

  Purple flame immediately rushed from inside Bannette, forming into little balls that rocketed towards the Lucario who didn’t even seem to register that a move was used before they were being struck.

  Mega Banette’s ability was Prankster, which in the game gave status moves increased priority. I had wondered how that would translate into the real world and now I had my answer; it made the move ridiculously fast.

  Bits of the crackling purple flames clung to the Lucario as he rushed forward. His palm flashed forward and seemed to pass through Banette as if she wasn’t there. Surprisingly it also didn’t punch a hole through her coat, so it seemed her immunity somehow applied to her clothing? That was odd, but also a good thing to know. “Brava! Don’t use fighting or normal moves!” Korrina called, and I had a feeling she was going to have to do that a lot.

  But now that he had come this close. “Lick.”

  The wet noise of tongue striking out and slurping up the canine was oddly loud in the room. He shuddered before leaping back, the fur on part of his chest, shoulder and the side of his face now facing upwards. But from his movements it had failed to paralyze.

  Thinking about it for a moment, with Banette I should really teach her Hex since she was so focused on status moves. Not only would it be able to take advantage of them, it would also be another good attack move in her arsenal.

  Brava - which now that I thought about it, was a pretty good name for a Lucario - had barely even managed to land when he was struck by a colorful beam that caused him to stagger a bit. It hadn’t done any damage, but his eyes now seemed to be unfocused and he was struggling to stay upright as the Confuse Ray struck him.

  I had said it as a joke earlier, but this was actually starting to seem mean. Like I was bullying Korrina.

  However when Banette tried to follow up with Shadow Ball it was easily dodged. And I could tell why, as it wasn’t very fast. And Brava had taken the time to put out the lingering effects of Will-O-Wisp, leaving only a few patches of singed fur.

  Brava burst forward, claws of silver blue light forming around his paw and he swiped out. But it hit nothing as Banette melted into her opponent's own shadow, appearing behind him and slashing her claws across his back.

  That surprised me a bit. I knew she had Shadow Sneak but it definitely hadn’t worked like that when she was in her base form. She had only become shadowed in darkness and slipped around her target. Had Mega Evolving made Shadow Sneak that much stronger? Or maybe she had learned how to enter shadows?

  When Lucario spun around he was met by a horrifying visage of shadows and glowing red eyes. He let out a yipe and struck out, hitting nothing. And then a tongue extended from the darkness and slobbered all over his face.

  He staggered backwards, and flinched, an odd sort of electricity running over his body. Lick had managed to apply paralyzation this time. And judging from the way his eyes still looked unfocused and he was staggering, it had stacked with his confusion. Maybe that was why Lick didn’t apply paralyzation last time? Because he was already afflicted with burn and those don’t stack?

  “Dark Pulse!” Korrina shouted, and Brava exploded in black and red energy.

  Bannette let out a pained shriek, and several bulbs above the arena shattered as she staggered back, looking like a marionette that lost a few strings keeping her up. She fell over, melting into shadows and retreating further away. That definitely looked like it hurt. It took a few seconds before her head poked out from a particularly dark area on the arena floor, glaring at the other Pokemon.

  Brava spotted her, and tried to move towards her before his body locked up for a few seconds. The little doll was quick to capitalize on this and nailed him with a Shadow Ball. Followed by a second, and a third. The third he managed to barely dodge, and leapt forward. However he slammed his paw into the ground several feet away from the now fully emerged ghost.

  “Nasty Plot,” I said, taking advantage of the Lucario’s confusion to have her buff and make those Shadow Balls even more dangerous. Heavy shadows seemed to cover her face as her eyes gleamed from the move.

  Korrina frowned. “Swords Dance,” she called. Brava attempted but tripped over his own feet. That confusion was really managing to do a number on him. But as he stood up, he finally seemed to shake it off. He had to quickly move to the side to avoid another Shadow Ball.

  Bannette made a soft what I assumed to be a sort of “Tsk” noise, though it sounded a bit like a zipper getting snagged, and she glared at the canine. Brava was now clearly a lot more wary of the doll. And this was shown as his paw glowed in bright metallic energy, which he pointed and then shot the bright orb towards her.

  Her eyes widened a bit and she sunk down, disappearing into the shadows again. The shadow rushed towards him and went into his own. He turned, striking out at where he assumed she would appear with Shadow Sneak. His prediction was flawless, however what he struck wasn’t Banette. It was instead a facsimile of a doll that popped into stuffing from the strike.

  She had made a Substitute while in the shadow?

  The marionette appeared several paces away and nailed him with a Shadow Ball while his back was turned. He tried to spin around, but his body locked up again as he was once again halted by the paralyzation. And now for the next second he was at her mercy.

  Rather than attack, shadows once again covered her face as she gained a wicked expression. She had used Nasty Plot again.

  Brava leapt away, making distance and spending a moment to shake the paralysis.

  As Bannette rushed towards him, her movements were odd, as if she was still missing a few strings. Brava attempted another Flash Cannon, but it was met and overpowered by a Shadow Ball. The ghost’s special attack was boosted by four times now, so if she managed to hit it was really going to hurt. The Lucario seemed very aware of this as well as he moved out of the way quickly from the remnants.

  He really looked like he was struggling. He had been battered so much so far that I was surprised he was still standing. Not like Rio was much different. But it was clear he really needed to turn things around.

  As I was watching it was clear neither Pokemon had much practice with their Mega forms. It gave them a huge boost, but neither really knew how to truly take advantage of it. I would have to train everyone quite a lot to make sure that they could reach their full potential.

  Both Pokemon were just staring each other down at this point. Banette had used a lot of energy and looked a bit tired, but she was still more than ready to go with quite a few boosts. The only real hit she had taken was that Dark Pulse. Brava on the other hand was tired, battered, and debuffed. He might not be paralyzed or confused anymore, but status effects were his opponents specialty, and it wouldn’t be long before he had more. Add in that one more Shadow Ball would definitely knock him out…

  He looked back at Korinna, a rather pleading look on his face.

  She sighed. “Fine. I yield.”

  Brava slumped, dropping his Mega form, and his legs nearly buckled as the referee announced, “Pokemon Expert Jason is the victor!”

  It was silent for a moment before Eevee suddenly cheered. “Yeah!” And then the room practically exploded in noise as everyone was suddenly cheering. But Bannette seemed confused, looking back at me with her head tilted.

  I walked over, crouching down in front of her. “You won,” I said with a smile. “You beat him.”

  It took a moment for what I said to register before she shrunk slightly, zippers closing before seemingly sinking into her fabric like body. Then she held up her hands towards me, clearly asking to be picked up.

  Happily I obliged, wrapping my arms around her and scooping her up before standing. “You did a good job,” I said softly.

  “Very good. That shadow stuff is cool,” Eevee added excitedly. I wasn’t sure when the little fox had woken up, but I was glad she got to see it.

  I glanced at movement and watched as Korrina skated over. “Well, that was a thing,” she said with a slight huff. “I didn’t even know you had any ghost Pokemon.”

  “Hm…” I tilted my head slightly as I made a thoughtful noise. “I only have three, and the other two don’t like fighting. At least, I think. I know Mikyu doesn’t, but Bit might wanna fight at some point,” I mused, thinking about the little lightbulb.

  “You have too many Pokemon,” Korrina responded flatly. Brava stepped over as well, giving Bannette a rather wary look.

  In response to his gaze, the little doll tilted her head and reached out her hand towards him. He hesitated for a moment before reaching out and grasping her hand. They shook for a moment, which seemed to calm the little tension between them.

  Korrina giggled and I arched an eyebrow at her. She gestured towards me. “With your matching coats, she looks like your kid.”

  I looked down at Banette, who looked back up at me. We both shrugged. Suddenly I held out my hand towards her. “I believe you owe the two of us something.”

  She blinked and simply stared at me for a moment before startling. “Oh! Right!” She took a moment to fish around her outfit before pulling out a badge, shaped like two boxing gloves being pressed together, one of them silver with a star on it. “Here it is.”

  A bit of a huff escaped me as I took the badge, taking note of how the little doll’s eyes were locked onto it. After thinking about it, I smiled as I pinned it onto her coat. Immediately the Pokemon seemed to beam up at me. “Good job,” I said with a smile.

  Banette focused down at her coat, holding it out slightly so she could look at the badge pinned to it.

  “So what’s your plan now?” Korrina asked, looking around for a moment at the crowd that was starting to disperse, most of them discussing the battle.

  “Well, I have one more badge to get,” I replied, rubbing my chin. “Gonna get that tomorrow.”

  She scoffed. “Such confidence.”

  “Do you think Clemont can beat me?” I asked as I looked at her.

  Korrina hesitated for a moment and then shrugged slightly. “I don't really know much about him. His Elite Team is really strong. Definitely one of the better Gym Leaders from what I've heard, and probably could be an Elite Four member if he put more effort into it rather than his inventions.”

  “Not everyone wants to climb.” A sigh escaped me as I shook my head. “But I have been debating how to go about tomorrow’s battle,” I mused. “He’s focused on electric types. Two of my Pokemon recently evolved. Half of them I’m unsure how they would do in battle. Several have a type disadvantage.”

  “Well you don’t have to just one sweep him,” Korrina said with a scoff, folding her arms.

  I snorted. “That’s true, I guess. Cara would be my go to, but… she is months from recovering…” I thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “I’ll just throw Rio at him and see how she does when all her opponents are resistant to her bread and butter.” Vaguely I remembered a long time ago being told that I would have to register which Pokemon I would be using for a gym battle, but I was fairly certain I hadn’t done that for any of them. Probably just some made up rule?

  “Brava was really hoping to have a fight against Rio…” Korrina grumbled.

  I laughed. “Well, they can have a bit of a spar if you’d like?”

  Brava looked down at his battered body before his head shot back up and he shook it rapidly. Korrina giggled a bit. “Maybe some other time, I guess. I need to take Brava to the Pokecenter.”

  “Right.” I looked around a moment, and then back at her. “Why is your arena in the middle of a skatepark, by the way?”

  She stared at me for a moment, her expression rather sheepish. And rather than answering she quickly returned Brava to his pokeball and skated away.

  “You can’t just roll away from your problems!” I called out to her, and was mildly amused as that just made her skate faster. With a laugh and a shake of my head, I made my way towards the exit of the gym, still carrying Bannette. The little plush was still marveling at her new badge.

  When I opened the door I frowned. It was still raining, and judging from the looks of the raindrops and puddles it had picked up quite a lot since I arrived.

  I sighed. “I’m gonna need to buy an umbrella or something, aren’t I?” I asked Bannette, looking down at her.

  Her head tilted to the side for a moment before her hands reached upwards. My brow furrowed slightly but before I had a chance to ask what she was doing, long shadowy limbs extended out, creating a nice wide cover for me.

  “Oh.” I smiled at her. “Thank you, Bannette.”

  She smiled back at me before leaning her head into my chest. Clearly she was really enjoying the physical closeness. I really couldn’t wait to finally have all my gym badges and spend more time with everyone. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any major incidents before the League, although just thinking that probably jinxed me.

  With Bannette providing cover from the rain, the two of us made our way to the train station. I wanted to take the little doll to a Pokecenter, but I would settle for having Dee look her over when we got back.

  All I wanted to do right now was take a hot shower. Then drink something warm and hope I haven't caught a cold.

  Opening the door to the training room after taking that long hot shower, I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw.

  There in the pile of pillows and blankets was Cara, sitting up and talking with Mikyu. That wasn’t what gave me pause. No, it was the stylish silvery coat that she was wearing.

  After releasing everyone, Dee and I made our way over. “Looking good, Cara,” I commented as I looked over her coat. It was large, but didn’t look oversized on her. The little seamstress had done a wonderful job at fitting it correctly to the canine's proportions. It seemed like it was layered, reminding me sort of like one of those ruffled coats but this one definitely had a lot more insulation and padding.

  At my words, Cara’s face went a bit red and she locked eyes with Dee for a moment before looking away. “It is… really warm,” she said as she sort of curled in on herself a bit.

  “Good,” I said with a nod. “Good job, Mikyu. Wonderful as always.”

  The little ghost wiggled happily at the praise before launching herself at me. If I hadn’t been expecting it she definitely would have bowled me over. It had been a while since I had gotten one of her cocoon hugs. All I could really do was laugh as I tried to pat her.

  It took a few minutes before Mikyu finally let me go, moving up to sit on my shoulder. As I had been waiting I was watching Dee check over Cara. She was actually starting to look much better. It was mostly in her face. Her expression and the look in her eyes that really told that some life was coming back to her. She still didn’t move around much, and her hands still shook, but she was getting better.

  Which was a relief. I knew she would get better. I had been told that she would. But being told something and seeing that it was true were very different things.

  Later that evening I was sitting in the pile of pillows, Mikyu having claimed my lap for the moment. Cara and Dee were sitting in the rest area as the nurse was changing her bandages and helping her to eat. The poor dog didn’t have full motor control of her hands yet.

  As I sat I was going through some messages on my phone. There was nothing really urgent, mostly it was about how Emma was settling into a sort of administration role for New Hope. There was also the transfer of the wolf pack that needed to happen soon now that the facility was almost ready to open. Then it would be the struggle of integrating over ten thousand Pokemon.

  Oh, yeah the number had passed ten thousand now.

  Lusamine was making good on her promise though, and had given us fifty temporary employees that would help us until we got the number down to a more reasonable degree.

  But I was still annoyed. This wasn’t what I wanted to do. When I had first come to terms with where I was there was so much that I wanted to do. Now I was stuck. I had an organization to work on that I didn’t want. An organization that shouldn’t be needed, but it was. And here I was, shoulder deep in the muck and trying to pull out as many Pokemon that I could.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  And it really felt I had so little to show for it. I didn’t fund anything. I didn’t build anything. I just kept pushing other people, asking for them to do things. It was giving me a headache and I wanted it all to just be someone else's problem.

  Could I do that?

  That certainly was a question, wasn’t it.

  Could I just shove all the responsibility onto someone else? Not like I had very much hanging over my head. It was probably detrimental for me to be the head of New Hope. Two of the three major government bodies in the region didn’t like me.

  That was another good question that came to mind.

  What did the Kalos Government think about me?

  Probably nothing good. Lysandre was probably making them a ton of money and I probably caused quite a number of officials to get arrested, or at least lose their cash cow. It was probably safe to assume that I was three for three on that.

  The Association was still paying me though, which was amusing. I had a hundred and thirty thousand in my account right now, which was about to have another hard dip considering I was going to go shopping eventually. And most of that money was from gym battles, anyways.

  There were so many mouths to feed.

  Too many if I was being honest.

  I had thought that I would want to gather as many Pokemon as I could, and go on grand adventures. Explore the wild. Meet people.

  But instead I got roped into all this nonsense because I refused to see a few Pokemon die for no reason.

  Of course I didn’t regret it in the slightest. But I felt like I didn’t have enough time for everyone. I wanted to spend time with them. But I was so busy that I barely got to do more than eat and spend the night with them. I hadn’t even really gotten to talk with Absol since she came along. And I didn't even know her move set yet.

  There were a few ways to fix that, but most of them made me feel sick. Maybe I had attached too much emotion to them all. Thinking of them all as my precious family, I didn’t want to part with any of them. Just having them around was comforting. Even if I hardly interacted with some of them, others did. All I had to do is look up and see the way they played.

  It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have all this other nonsense to deal with. If all I had to worry about was them.

  But I had to spite myself.

  I had to reach. I had to grab. I had to climb and pull them all up.

  Once again I threw myself into the fire with no regard to myself.

  Movement caught my attention and I looked up as a rather contemplative looking Rio approached. “We are allowed to own things?” she asked suddenly.

  I blinked at her. “What? Yes? Of course?” The more I thought about her question the more confused I was. “Why would you think you weren’t allowed to own things?”

  She shrugged a bit sheepishly. “I mean… I’ve never really owned anything. Everything is either mama’s or yours. But like, mama has a new coat. And Bannette has a coat. So I wanted to know if like… I could have something?”

  A huff of a laugh escaped me as I reached over and ruffled the top of her head. “Of course you can. What do you want?”

  She immediately perked up, her tail wagging. “Well, at first I wanted a coat like mama, but that would get in the way of fights, right? So then Scoly and I were thinking and we realized we should get bandanas!”

  “Like Rescue Teams?” I asked, amused.

  Her head bobbed up and down rapidly. “Exactly!” She posed, standing straight and putting her hands on her hips.

  I nodded. “Well, Mikyu? Think you can do that?” I asked as I looked down at the little lump of cloth sitting in my lap.

  All I got in response was a questioning noise, “Mnng?”

  I pat her a few times. “Rio wants a bandana. And I’m guessing Scoly and Primarina want one, too?” I asked as I looked back up at Rio. “And the rest of Team Speed Shell?”

  The canine's response was a big grin and an enthusiastic, “I dunno!”

  I snorted. “Okay. Well. You all can talk to Mikyu about it then.”

  “I need more thread…” the little lump grumbled.

  “We can do that after the battle tomorrow,” I said with a nod. “There’s a few things that I want to buy, and stock up on food.”

  “Yes!” Rio threw her arms up into the air, laughing before snatching Mikyu up out of my lap. “I’ll go talk with everyone!” And then she sprinted away with a squealing mess of cloth. Whether it was a squeal of delight or of fear, I couldn’t really tell.

  The next day came rather quickly, and I made my way to Prism Tower. It was an interesting structure, though I was curious about it. There was a certain beauty to it, but it also put me on edge for some reason. It was tall, old, and a huge tourist attraction. But there was definitely something about it. The thing was too large of a center piece for the whole region.

  I guess it wasn’t my problem to worry about.

  The area around the base was absolutely packed with people for some reason, mostly touristy looking folks from what I could see. Probably because of the time of day? I also noticed a few Jennys acting as security. Annoyingly it actually took a few minutes just to get in the building because I had to avoid so many people. Interestingly I noticed at least two pickpockets. That put me a bit more on guard, although everything valuable was in my bag, and all the pokeballs were in a strange place. The rough state of my clothing also probably made me seem like a poor target.

  Whatever the case I made it into the building without having anything stolen.

  It was a bit before noon, so I had some time to look around. There weren’t a lot of people inside and unfortunately there wasn’t a lot to look at. So instead I made my way over to the secretary. “I’m here for my Elite Battle,” I said as he looked up.

  Again he gave me a bit of a funny look, and now that I wasn’t in a hurry and took a good look at him I realized that there was something off about him. Without saying anything he pointed over towards a pair of double doors.

  The jerkiness of his movements were off-putting, and I was sure that I was forgetting something rather important. Pushing open the doors I was met with a large and completely empty arena. It was a rather basic battle area, made of compacted dirt.

  Well, it wasn’t completely empty, and I immediately remembered what it was that I had forgotten. Not far in front of me stood what was clearly a robot. It was mostly a blue grey in color, with rather stocky limbs. It was also very short.

  “Pokemon Expert Jason,” it stated with unblinking eyes. “Seven Kalos Elite Badges. I am Clembot, Lumiose Cities Gym Leader.”

  “No you are not. You are an imposter,” I said flatly.

  That actually seemed to confuse it slightly. “I am the Lumiose City Gym Leader.”

  “You cannot be the Gym Leader, as you have not been recognized by the Association,” I responded as I folded my arms. I wasn’t about to deal with this sadistic little robot. “You are not authorized to act as Gym Leader, nor are you authorized to accept challenges or give out gym badges.”

  It didn’t seem to have a response to that and was clearly trying to calculate a response.

  So I continued, “The official Gym Leader is Clemont, recognized by the Association and given the authority to operate this gym. Without his explicit permission, you are not allowed to be in this gym, let alone battle in it.”

  “I was created for the sole purpose of being the ideal Gym Leader,” it defended, finally seeming to have come out of its stupor. “Clemont put me in charge of this gym.”

  How the hell was this allowed to go on for this long? This problem gets solved by Ash, I remembered that part, but he wasn’t due to be in Kalos for another year, maybe even two depending on things. That meant Clembot was just running amok for years. Or maybe I had just mucked up the timeline so badly that things are happening out of order? Or the timeline was already scuffed and I’m just seeing the results. So many unanswerable questions.

  “And where is Clemont? I am officially disputing your claim, as an Association Pokemon Expert, and demand that you contact Clemont to confirm if you are allowed to operate this gym in his stead.”

  Claiming that left a rather bitter taste in my mouth, but it was true. I was technically an official of the Association; it was in the contract I had signed so long ago. While I didn’t have much authority, this was actually something that fell under what I guess could be considered my jurisdiction.

  But in all honesty I had no idea if I had that kind of authority, or the validity of everything I was saying. Sure it had been there on paper, but it wasn’t like I had some sort of badge of office. All I had was a special line on my ID saying that I was a Pokemon Expert. But it was clearly close enough to the truth that it was causing Clembot to think about his position.

  “I am unable to do so as Clemont is not in the building,” Clembot said, the reply coming quite fast all things considered. “That is why I am acting as Gym Leader in his absence.”

  “You are not a viable subject for being an acting Gym Leader,” I quipped back. “Even if you did have his permission - which I very much doubt you do have - you still must be recognized by the Association, which you have not been.”

  He stared at me, clearly struggling. “I…” He paused and his hand twitched. “I am the Gym Leader.”

  I grabbed the edge of my coat. As far as I was concerned, this was not an official battle and I was not about to fight fair. “You will stand down and relinquish the Pokemon you have stolen, or I will be forced to put you down.”

  “You will not threaten a Gym Leader,” Clembot responded, his hand retracting and being replaced with what looked to be a cannon.

  Okay so plan A had failed. Plan B, “This statement is false.”

  The robot's entire body seemed to seize up. It was a bit of a long shot to hope his AI was complex enough to get trapped in a paradox, but it seemed to have worked to some degree. Once again my knowledge of video games was coming in clutch. I could also vaguely remember there was some sort of passcode to have Clembot shut down or something, but I had completely forgotten the robot existed, so there was no way I was going to remember some random phrase.

  Slowly I pulled out my phone before calling Adria. I didn’t trust the robot to not suddenly spring back to life and attempt to electrocute me. Annoyingly it took quite a while before she finally picked up. “Jace? What’s up?”

  “Do you know where Clemont is?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the robot.

  Out of the corner of my eye I could see her confused expression. “No? Is he not at the gym? Probably caught up in one of his projects or-”

  I cut her off. “No. There’s some sort of high tech robot claiming to be the Gym Leader,” I explained. “I’ve temporarily incapacitated it, or… killed it? I’m actually not sure, but it isn’t moving now.”

  There was a moment of silence. “Shit. I’m putting out a bulletin for Clemont, and heading your way.” She hung up before I could respond.

  With a sigh, I opened my coat. “Everyone out.”

  With several flashes there was a rather formidable looking group in front of me. Rio, Scoly, Primarina, Diancie, Goodra, Banette, and Keo. All of whom were ready for a fight.

  “The heck is that?” Rio asked, drawing everyone's focus to Clembot.

  “A robot,” I said simply as I approached it slowly. “Bit? Can you make sure this thing is disabled and have it open wherever it’s keeping the pokeballs?” I hadn’t even finished speaking before an arch of electricity jumped from my phone and into the machine.

  It jerked violently, seeming to put up some sort of resistance before going still. After a moment a panel opened on the arm that had transformed, revealing two dozen pokeballs.

  I frowned a bit as I took them. I hadn’t realized Clemont had this many Pokemon. He had even more than me, which was impressive. Checking them over quickly, they all seemed to be a bit malnourished. I was glad that my knowledge thing seemed to work through the pokeballs. They wouldn’t starve, but it was clear that Clembot was doing the bare minimum.

  Moving away from the robot, I looked back at the group. “Primarina, Goodra, watch the robot. Everyone else come with me. I don’t know how they’re going to react.”

  Once away I started slow, releasing one Pokemon at a time, starting with one of the Pikachu. I was crouched down in front of him, noting the shape of his tail. Immediately he was in a defensive position. “Who are you?” he demanded.

  “Pokemon Expert Jason, although I prefer to be called Jace. You were confiscated from the robot over there who stole you from Clemont,” I explained.

  Immediately the little mouse’s entire demeanor changed. “Clemont? Where is he? Is he here?” He started to look around, and clearly wanted to rush somewhere but didn’t dare move when he saw all the Pokemon.

  I shook my head. “He’s currently missing. Officer Jenny and her colleagues are looking for him,” I said softly, trying to keep him calm.

  He stared for a moment before nodding and sitting down. “Okay. So… He’ll be here soon?”

  “I hope so,” I said with a sigh. “When’s the last time you saw him?”

  His brow furrowed slightly as his head tilted to the side. Damn, Pikachu were cute. “I think it’s been… a few months?”

  I nodded slowly and pulled out a pokebean. “I see. Hungry?” I offered it to him.

  His eyes lit up as he nodded rapidly, taking the large treat. He was clearly on the younger side. I moved onto the other Pikachu, another little fella. I introduced myself and gave the explanation again, and also gave him a pokebean.

  “Why does Clemont have so many Pokemon?” I asked the two of them, gesturing at the pile of pokeballs.

  “Oh, we’re supposed to be powering the tower and Lumiose,” the left Pikachu said.

  “The…city?” I questioned, confused. There was a power plant not far away that powered pretty much all of Kalos, so it was interesting to hear this.

  “The tower takes a lot of power when it’s on,” the one on the right said. “And we’re the…” He paused, his brow furrowed before looking towards the other. “What’s the word?”

  His brow furrowed. “Redundasy?”

  “Redundancy?” I questioned.

  They both nodded. “Yeah, that’s it. We usually hang out in the generator room.”

  “More like being trapped there. That robot doesn’t let us do anything but charge the generators and eat before locking us back in the balls."

  So the tower was a sort of backup for the city? That was a bit interesting to know. Having everything relying on one power station was a bad idea, so having two systems working together to keep the place powered was good. But that also meant that most of these Pokemon were probably noncombatant.

  I decided to release them all, and quickly give them an explanation of what was going on and a pokebean. There was an Emolga, a Magneton and four magnemite, two Electrike, four Mareep, a Stunfisk, two Dedenne, four Voltorb, two Pachirisu, and a Heliolisk.

  The Heliolisk immediately seemed to get a hold of the situation and started to order the other Pokemon around. “Full sweep. We need a damage report.” He looked at me to see if I was going to argue, but I just gestured for him to continue. “That stupid robot wasn’t maintaining systems, and we need to know what he fucked up.”

  I was trying to follow along with all the instructions he was giving, but my phone suddenly started ringing. Once I noticed it was Adria, I sighed slightly in relief. “Please tell me you found Clemont,” I said as soon as I picked up, taking note that she seemed to be driving somewhere. This got the attention of all of the Pokemon.

  “Unfortunately not, but we’re combing the city,” she said with a sigh. That definitely soured the mood of all the Pokemon. “I was just calling to check things on your end.”

  I looked over at the Heliolisk. “Clemont’s Pokemon are assisting me in securing the building and they are checking for problems. From what I’ve gathered Clemont's been missing for months, probably since the start of this year's Journey. And the robot was only doing the bare minimum to keep the lights on, so…”

  “So we don’t know the damage yet,” she said with a sigh.

  “Can you let me see the report once you’ve collected it?” I asked the Pokemon in charge.

  He nodded. “Can do,” he said and then turned back to the others. They had all stopped when Clemont was mentioned and he went to work on getting them all back on task. It seemed the frilled lizard was used to taking charge of the others.

  Honestly that gave me a lot of hope for New Hope. While there would be a lot of people running it, I knew most of it was going to be done by Pokemon. I didn’t advertise it much, but part of being a permanent resident was helping to keep the place going. Sure it was only going to be volunteer based, and a lot of them wouldn’t, but there was going to be a lot of responsibility on the Pokemon.

  I really was not looking forward to all the work that was going to take.

  “Alright,” I said to Adria as I turned my attention back to the phone. “We’ve got everything handled here.”

  She nodded. “Right.” She let out a long sigh, rubbing the side of her face. It looked like she had stopped somewhere. “I’ll let you know.”

  “And don’t forget to extend the search to his sister. Bonnie might be easier to find and know where her brother is,” I suggested.

  “I’m at Meyer’s residence now,” she said as she got out of the car. “Hopefully he’s here.”

  I nodded. “Right. Okay, I’ll let you get back to your investigation. Keep me posted.”

  With a nod of her own she hung up and I looked up to find that almost all of Clemont’s Pokemon had left. The only one left was the Magneton, which was apparently checking this room over.

  Making my way back over to Clembot, I held out my phone and Bit immediately jumped out in a bolt of electricity. “Don’t like that…” they mumbled a bit.

  “Sorry,” I said softly as I looked over the robot. “But you’re the only one who could have done anything. Hopefully you won’t have to do it again…” I nudged the robot slightly with my foot and it toppled over, slamming into the ground.

  “Okay, so… This is a bad guy, right?” Scoly asked as she looked down at the thing.

  “Not really? More like… It misinterpreted badly given orders and was doing its best to follow them,” I replied with a bit of a shrug. “It’s hard to say that it was really bad when it didn’t have a full understanding of right and wrong.”

  “So it can be… fixed?” Rio asked, crouching down beside it as she looked it over.

  “Probably. Clemont will probably be in trouble for attempting to shirk his duties as a Gym Leader, but I doubt that’ll stop him,” I said with a sigh. Those kinds of mad sciency types were never easily discouraged. At least Clemont wasn’t psychotic. Or at least I hoped he wasn’t. I hadn’t met him yet.

  It was a few hours before the Heliolisk approached with a clipboard. “It’s not as bad as I thought, but it’s still bad,” he started, funnily deferring to me as the one with authority in the building. “A few more months like this and we would have started seeing some errors, but Clemont built enough fail-safes it would have taken years before anything actually broke. Although the power station would have seen a slow increase of strain.”

  I blinked at the little lizard. This little guy was apparently quite smart. “Do you think anyone at the station would have noticed?”

  He shrugged. “Probably not. The increase could have been chalked up to simple error, or build up with population. Definitely would have been noticed when this place finally shut down in three years.”

  “Is there anything that could have failed catastrophically and damaged the city or building?” I asked as I looked up at the ceiling. There wasn’t terribly much to look at in this room.

  “Not without specific tampering, or…” He paused for a moment, his brow furrowing. “Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe? There’s a lot about this tower that we don’t understand.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean you don’t know about it?”

  He shrugged. “The tower is ancient. It existed before Lumiose City.”

  That was something I wasn’t aware of. “I see. So some facet of the tower could have done something to interfere?”

  “Maybe. Although I doubt it. Whatever the main purpose of the tower is doesn’t require maintenance as far as we can tell, but we’re also not allowed to investigate it,” he said, sounding quite a bit annoyed. From the way he talked, I could definitely see this lizard adjusting a pair of large glasses.

  “Why aren’t you allowed?” I asked.

  “We were told by the Association, the League that Lysandre Labs was in charge of the research. Which I guess is understandable since we are relatively new to the whole research stuff. Clemont is brilliant, but he’s still a kid.” He looked back down at the clipboard. “Maybe now that Lysandre Labs is closed we would be allowed,” he mused to himself.

  “Right. So, there’s nothing of immediate concern regarding the building?” I asked, wanting to get back on track to any immediate problems.

  “Nothing that we can’t fix within the next few days,” he assured. “The only problem is going to be long term. We have resources available, but if Clemont doesn’t come back soon, I don’t think the Association is going to fund a bunch of Pokemon to maintain one of the region's major power infrastructures.” That was definitely a bitter tone.

  “Probably not. But I’m sure they’ll find him soon,” I said with a bit of a smile, but it was clear that my words didn’t help with how he was feeling.

  And it was a very real possibility that they wouldn’t find him. He had no Pokemon, and the world was dangerous. Team Flare could have gotten him before they got taken down. He could have tried to catch Pokemon and gotten hurt or something. So many bad things could have happened. I just hoped that he had the good sense to get help.

  Before I got too into my own spiral of bad thoughts my phone rang again. Again it was Adria and I answered it, giving her an expectant look.

  She shook her head, frowning. She was sitting in her car again. “His father hasn’t seen him in months. Bonnie has been staying with him. I had to wait until she got home from the Academy, and she hasn’t seen him either. It took a bit of coaxing to actually find out what happened from her. But apparently Clembot - that’s what it’s called apparently - went crazy and kicked both of them out of the building and wouldn’t let them back in. He wanted to find a way in, but disappeared without a word a few days later.”

  I frowned as I thought about what I could remember. Again I was regretting not writing things down. My memory was good, but after so long I was really forgetting a lot of things. “Does she have any Pokemon?” I suddenly asked, trying to jog my memory. There was something important I was forgetting.

  “She had a Bunnelby that she said belongs to Clemont,” she said, frowning as well.

  The fact he left the Pokemon was definitely not good. “Was that the only one?” I asked, my brow furrowing. There was definitely another one. What was it?

  Adria gave a nod. “Just that one. All of his other registered Pokemon were in the gym.”

  Registered. That was it. He hadn’t gotten that Pokemon yet. Suddenly I stood up straighter. “Okay, I think I have a lead. I need someone to come and monitor the gym and make sure that all the Pokemon get looked at and not interrupted. They’re the only ones right now who know how to keep the tower going.”

  “Right. I’ll get some Jennys on scene.” She hit a few things on her phone. "Do you need a lift somewhere?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I’ll need a ride to the Lumiose Academy.”

  A few minutes later I was explaining the situation to a small group of Jennys, going over that the Pokemon were in the middle of repairing systems. Thankfully they were more than receptive to letting them be and doing their own thing. They knew better than most that Pokemon were more than capable of doing the jobs of people, usually better than actual people.

  Just before I left I shoved Clembot into my spacial satchel, since I didn’t want it possibly causing problems. I really didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I didn’t want to just leave it there on the floor. It clearly made the Pokemon uncomfortable.

  Getting into Adria’s car I immediately slumped into the seat, covering my face with my hands. “Rough day?” she asked, slightly amused.

  “Worst case scenario, Clemont is dead,” I said bluntly.

  She frowned and then sighed before beginning to drive. “It’s always the worst when it’s kids,” she mutters. “He’s not even old enough to start his Journey, and they put him in charge of a gym.”

  “Well, from his Pokemon he definitely seemed qualified…” I replied with a shrug. “It’s his inventions that were his downfall…” Which was typical, since if I was remembering correctly, most of his inventions didn’t work.

  She sighed again. “With him missing for months, it’s really not looking good. We have nothing. No one has seen him for months. Nothing. We don’t even have the exact day he went missing. Only a vague few days after he was locked out of Prism Tower.” She was rambling a bit, and I wondered if she was aware that she was repeating herself, or even cared.

  “Do you think I’m cursed?” I suddenly asked, staring blankly out the window.

  She gave me a puzzled look. “What do you mean?”

  “Things keep happening to me and around me,” I said as I gestured vaguely around.

  “Most of those things are your own fault,” she said with an amused expression on her face. “You keep sticking your nose into stuff.”

  With a sigh I looked at the roof of the car. “Okay, yeah. A lot of it is my fault. But stuff keeps happening around me and I can’t help myself, okay?”

  “It’s admirable,” she admitted. “You’d make a great Detective.”

  My brow furrowed a bit. “Not with my problems with authority I wouldn’t,” I said with a scoff.

  A soft snort escaped her. “Okay, yeah. That’s fair. You’d probably do one or two cases and then get suspended for insubordination, come back, flawlessly do a few more and then bam, suspended again. Repeat forever.”

  “At least I’d have consistent vacations,” I said with a bit of a smile. “Right now I feel like I’m going to have to flee into the woods just to properly spend time with my Pokemon.”

  “Probably,” she said with a laugh, and turned into a parking lot. The large building ahead just had the large word Academy printed on the front. “So, why are we here?”

  “Looking for a Shinx. Or it might be a Luxio at this point,” I said as I got out and looked around for a blue, black, and yellow Pokemon.

  Adria got out as well, joining me in surveying the area. “You think this Luxio will know where Clemont is?”

  I shrugged. “No idea, but unless I want to start searching ditches and alleys, this is the best lead I’ve got.”

  A bit of a frown formed on her face. “He wouldn’t be there. We would have found the body after so long.”

  That caused quite a heavy sigh to escape me. “I’m just going to search on the assumption that he’s still alive. Gotta stay optimistic, you know?”

  She nodded slightly as the two of us began to search around the campus.

  It took a bit to find the Electric Department of the school as neither of us had a map, and it was unlike any campus I had ever been on. Apparently it was the same for Adria. Jennys went to a special school that taught them about Pokemon as well as law and all that stuff.

  But eventually we found it, looking out at the area nearby. As luck would have it, the Luxio actually wasn’t that hard to find. Adria was the first to spot it, pointing it out laying on top of a nearby building.

  The two of us made our way over, and the Luxio spotted us almost immediately. Now came the slightly awkward part of trying to get his cooperation. “Hey,” I called up to him and decided to just be blunt. “Need your help with something. Clemont is missing.”

  His eyes narrowed at me when I began addressing him but quickly I had his attention when I mentioned Clemont. “Missing?” he asked back, getting to his feet.

  I nodded. “I need to know if you’ve seen him.” If he had been trying to get Pokemon to build a team to challenge Clembot then this Luxio would be a good choice.

  He shook his head. “No… How long has he been missing?”

  “Several months.”

  He suddenly leaped down, growling at the two of us. “And why are you only looking for him now?”

  “Because I just found out a few hours ago,” I said, putting my hands up to show I meant no harm, although Adria’s hand had gone to her belt and I had to slap her shoulder to get her to relax. “I have no idea why no one else has reported it.”

  The Jenny shook her head as well. “This is the first the police have heard of it as well. When we find him we’ll be looking into why his family or friends never reported it.”

  That seemed to be a good enough answer for the feline as he slumped a bit. “I… see…”

  I crouched down in front of him. “I know it’s none of my business, and you definitely don’t want to hear it from me. But he didn’t forget about you. He was just late.”

  Immediately he tensed and looked like he was about to shout something at me, or maybe even attack me, before the fight slowly leaked from him and he slumped again. “And how do you know that?”

  “I know a lot of things. And I know he hasn’t forgotten about you. Because he came here, didn’t he? Looking for you?” I said softly.

  He stared at his paws a moment before nodding. “He did… Quite a few times. And… And the last time, there was this car. It pulled up over there.” He pointed towards a nearby area. “There were some guys that got out, and he got in the car with them.”

  I frowned a bit and looked around, spotting what I had hoped. “Adria, can we get access to the Academy's security footage?” I asked as I pointed at a camera.

  She nodded. “I can ask. Although, we don’t know the specific day so it might take some searching.”

  “Right.” I stood up and looked down at the Luxio. “Thanks. This might actually be a really big help.”

  He hesitated for a moment before he nodded and quickly meandered away from us. With a sigh I straightened up, watching him leave. “What was that about?” she asked softly as the two of us made our way towards what I figured was the administration building.

  “They had a falling out because Clemont promised to meet them, but the mayor dragged them to dinner,” I said with a glance back, not seeing the Pokemon. “So he was late and the Luxio didn’t forgive him for breaking his promise.”

  “And why did you think that Clemont would come here? Just for him?” she asked, her brow furrowing.

  “He needed a team to challenge the robot to take back the gym. It’s not that big a leap to figure he’d try to find Pokemon that he was familiar with,” I explained with a shrug. “He came without Pokemon to show that he was seriously trying to apologize, but he underestimated how stubborn that cat would be.”

  She mulled this over for a moment before scowling. “Who do you think picked him up?”

  “I have an idea, but I really hope I’m wrong,” I muttered.

  “Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asked, looking a bit nervous at Adria.

  “How long do you keep the recordings?” she asked, suddenly all business.

  “O-oh. We keep them for five years. Is- is something the matter?” Clearly she was a bit rattled.

  “We need to see footage aimed towards the west road, from the Electric Center building,” she explained.

  “Sometime around the start of this year's Journey,” I added.

  She typed a few things on her monitor, nodding. “Right… I can… I can do that.” She hurriedly lead the two of us down a hall to a sort of cramped little security room. There were dozens of server racks as well as a computer. “A-anything else?”

  “No, thank you,” Adria said with a smile.

  I went to the computer immediately, setting my phone down on the tower. As soon as the door clicked closed, I spoke, “Bit, can you go through the footage? It’ll be early in the morning. We’re looking for someone young. Short. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. Glasses. Wearing blue coveralls with a few yellow accents, with a white backpack.”

  As I spoke, several of the server racks seemed to spark and electricity was snaking through the room. The computer screen was flickering as dozens of files seemed to open and close rapidly. “I’m really glad they’re on our side,” Adria commented as she watched Bit work.

  “Bit is a wonderful little thing,” I said with a smile, noting how some of the sparks seemed to stutter at the compliment. “And very good at what they do.”

  After a moment everything stopped and my brow furrowed as I watched a spark of electricity jump into the phone, Bit nowhere to be seen. I looked at the phone for a moment before looking at the screen.

  There on the display was Clemont being forced into a black vehicle by three men with red hair, dressed in red suits, and wearing red sunglasses. “Shit.”

  Lucario - The group mom, battered and out of action

  Lucario - This dog wants to own things.

  Scolipede - Pokemon transport unit

  Primarina - Doing big seal things

  Audino - Trained Nurse Pokemon

  Diancie - Big sparkly that just wants to throw rocks at people

  Eevee - Living that sleepy hood life

  Goodra - Big slug

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but powerful.

  Ninetales (Alolan) - Big fox

  Espurr - Little cat that likes pokebeans.

  Liepard - Big hungry cat

  Houndour - Just a little pup

  Houndoom - Bit of a space case

  Mightyena - Super serious

  Fennekin) - Not up to too much yet.

  Rotom - Shy little zappy

  Absol - Future problems

  Houndour

  Guff

  Bleak

  Rascal

  Dilly

  Fret

  False

  Grubby

  Muddle

  Gabby

  Dwindle

  Crass

  Houndoom

  Poochyena

  Mightyena

  Sneasel