The hairs standing up on the back of my neck was the only warning I got before there was a massive flash of light that blinded me. The rolling sound of thunder immediately followed. I heard some cries of annoyance from around me as I was apparently not the only one caught off guard. Rio let out numerous expletives and I had to wonder where she’d learned them all from.

  But considering Scoly was also cussing up a storm, I figured it was probably from Cara or someone they knew. And now Primarina was probably going to start swearing like that, too.

  As I rubbed my eyes and blinked, trying to get my sight to return, I looked around. After doing a quick headcount and confirming everyone was still around, I tried to figure out what that was. Well, clearly it was lightning, but I couldn’t figure out where it came from. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. And yet, as I watched the sky, there was another flash and my curses were drowned out by the sound of thunder.

  There were several other bolts as we moved forward, and I had a bit more of an idea as to the cause when we finally broke through the treeline.

  Metallic pillars were scattered throughout the area, and I immediately recognized the area. This was where Ash found his Lucarionite.

  I was tempted.

  I could easily find it and take it for myself.

  How bad would that be? With Gurkinn dead and now a ghost, the timeline was already scuffed beyond belief. The immediate problem with that was the size of the area. The ground was blackened and scorched as far as I could see, with metallic pillars everywhere.

  Of course that problem paled in comparison to the fact that the entire area appeared to be charged with an absurd amount of electricity. Bolts of lightning were constantly arching between pillars. Sometimes it even raced up between two like a Jacob’s Ladder. And every now and then there was a sudden burst from several that all seemed to aim at one that was particularly high and then burst with a bolt of lightning.

  This was definitely not what the place looked like in the anime. And considering the fact that I hadn’t heard any thunder until just a bit ago, meant this was probably something that started happening as we approached.

  “Well. This looks like a natural disaster if I’ve ever seen one,” I mumbled, thinking back to the Absol’s warning.

  Mentally I quickly went over what I was wearing, wondering if I was wearing anything metal or conductive, which wasn’t a lot. I took a few steps forward, scuffing the ground a bit with my boot. It was absolutely covered in soot and bits of…obsidian and molten glass. When I looked over my shoulder to ask a question, I was aware that everyone else had backed away.

  A snort escaped me as I looked back out. Strands of my hair that had escaped my ponytail were floating slightly from just how charged the air was.

  Reaching into my pocket, I flinched as I was shocked just by touching my phone. “Owch…” Pulling it out, I noticed Rotom looking a bit curious. “Would you mind helping me out, little one?”

  Hesitantly, the Rotom slowly emerged from my phone and I felt the charge in the air practically disappear immediately. They did spark a whole bunch, but other than that they didn’t seem to react and were looking around curiously.

  “Thank you.” Turning away from them I looked back at the group who were discussing something. “Okay,” I said with a clap to get their attention. “Primarina, you’re going back in your ball. Anyone else that wants to can as well. We have to get through this area.” The sudden flash and crack of thunder emphasized my words.

  “Uh… Can we go another way?” Rio asked, glancing around.

  “Nope!” I said with a smile. Sure, there was the Scolipede forest that was mentioned, but I would honestly rather try my luck with this area than risk going that way.

  Scoly was the first one to speak up. “I’m going back in my ball. If we get into a fight, I won’t be able to use my Venom Steel Ball effectively with all those metal things all shocky.”

  “You have other moves,” Rio said as she folded her arms. “I’m not very effective either, since most of my moves aren’t effective against electrics.”

  “I won’t be able to keep up,” Sliggoo said with a frown. “I would have to ride on someone… And I’m getting too big to ride on Jace…”

  Diancie suddenly picked up the slug, a big grin on her face. “Then we shall venture forth together,” she said.

  That got Sliggoo to smile in return. “Oh, okay. If you’re okay with it.”

  The large rock nodded, placing the slug on her… I guess it could be called her hip? Or, I guess it’s too low, so thigh maybe? It’s difficult since the mythic’s torso is sitting on just a big rock. Technically the entire Pokemon was a rock, just parts of her could move. Like a Geodude, I suppose. Thinking of Diancie as a pretty Geodude made me laugh a bit for some reason.

  I was brought out of my thoughts when Rio approached me. Apparently I missed the rest of the discussion. “Okay, so it’s just me, Diancie and Sliggoo staying out.”

  With a nod, I returned the others. Primarina and Eevee were both annoyed, but I couldn’t have the large seal out, especially without her large bug mount. And there was no way I was letting the little brown fox be in this sort of environment.

  Her hair would get absolutely frizzed.

  “You’re such a big help,” I said softly to Rotom, who was easily mitigating all of the electricity that came towards us. There was still static, but it was easy to deal with.

  Rotom looked completely embarrassed and couldn’t look at me, but had a smile on their face.

  The five of us began to make our way slowly through the pillars, Rotom leading the way. It was rather slow progress, because we had to avoid the more volatile sections. It was nearly an hour before Rio suddenly gripped my coat, looking around. For a moment I wondered if she had detected a Mega Stone, but she had a frown. “We’re surrounded,” she muttered.

  I raised a hand up in front of Rotom to stop them from continuing forward. “Come closer, little one,” I said with a smile. “Everyone, guards up.”

  Looking over at Diancie and Sliggoo, the slug wore a nervous look, but the rock had a near feral grin on her face. That was a bit concerning, but she was probably just excited.

  “Who’s there?” I called out.

  From around the pillars came Manectric’s. One of which was Mega Evolved. They were keeping a large distance, and I realized that’s why Rio hadn’t managed to sense them until one must have gotten within her range. “Why are you in our territory?” the Mega growled. The growling was echoed by several of the others.

  “We’re just trying to get to the mountain,” I said simply. “We’re going to see Mayma-”

  Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, as several of them launched themselves forward. Vaguely I remembered that Gurkinn mentioned people would get upset about me going to see Mayma.

  I took several steps back. “Diancie!”

  Her hand was already raised, a grin still plastered on her face. “Kneel!” she demanded as she brought her hand down. My legs nearly buckled from the force of the Gravity, even though I had been ready for it.

  Rio and the mega twitched in response, both of them clearly putting in effort to remain standing. The rest of Manectric weren’t so lucky and immediately hit the ground. I had to catch the poor little Rotom who had yet to experience Diancie. It felt like I was trying to hold up a fifty pound weight. I should look into a way of figuring out what Diancie’s maximum was with Gravity.

  The Mega Manectric began growling even more, lightning crackling around them as they glared at Diancie. However their attention was quickly redirected as Rio flared up, crackling with her own silver energy as she moved into a fighting stance.

  Part of me wanted to interject. But I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to talk this out, especially now. This Manectric was clearly looking for a fight, and Rio was more than ready to oblige. She probably wanted this fight as well.

  The large lightning bolt of a dog flashed into a ball of electricity and launched forward, leaving a streak of visible light in its wake as it slammed into Rio, the two of them skidding back until Rio was pressed against a pillar which cracked from the force of the impact. I couldn’t keep up at all, but that had clearly been Wild Charge.

  Rio twisted, paw crackling with orange energy as she used Counter. The paw connected as the Manectric tried to retreat, and was sent flying, pinging off two pillars before grinding to a halt. It shook itself, and fired several Thunderbolts at Rio.

  Thankfully she managed to dash between pillars, breaking line of sight. And the Manectric followed, flashing around faster than I could see. I hated to admit that in this dog fight, Rio was at a disadvantage. The Manectric was much faster than her, and if they realized that and started keeping their distance it would go bad. But judging from how the two were fighting, by what I could see between the pillars, they were both close range fighters.

  “I didn’t get all of them,” Diancie said with a pout.

  I glanced at her, chuckling softly as I tried to keep track of what was happening. “They’re a strong one.”

  “Our leader…is the strongest…” one of the Manectric growled. There was a sort of growl of agreement among several of the others.

  I counted the Manectric that were down, coming up with sixteen. This would have been really bad if Diancie wasn’t here. Gravity was a surprisingly good crowd control move, but there was clearly some sort of threshold that let some Pokemon move and others not. Was it strength, or energy that did it? Hala had seemed completely unbothered by it back in Alola.

  My focus was returned to the battle as a blue streak shot through a nearby pillar, causing it to shatter, and Rio slammed into another. When she pulled herself out, falling to the ground, there was a clear imprint of her in the pillar.

  “I…” She panted softly, slowly getting back to her feat. “I think… This one’s tough,” she managed.

  The Mega Manectric appeared on what remains of the pillar she had flown through. They were breathing hard, covered in soot. The two of them stared at each other, catching their breath. There was clearly some sort of mutual understanding between the two.

  But where the lightning dog was scowling, Rio was grinning.

  She was loving this.

  Both of them suddenly flared up, energy bursting from them before they shot towards each other, colliding in the air. Rio apparently lost the exchange and the two of them shot off past the pillar with a Lucario imprint.

  While she was having fun, I knew she was struggling. She was losing. Almost every exchange ended with her loss, and while she was dealing out just as much as she was taking, her opponent was clearly tougher.

  The fact that it could naturally Mega Evolve was clearly giving them some sort of advantage. I really hoped that I could ask Mayma questions and see what she knew. Maybe I could get Gurkinn to answer questions as well.

  But the problem right now was the current fight. I couldn’t get Diancie or Sliggoo to help. There would be ways, and if the Manectric did win, Diancie would cream them. But that would mean Rio would go down, and without Dee here, she could be seriously injured. Of course, there are some bigger problems than that. Diancie doesn’t know the meaning of friendly fire or restraint, and Sliggoo isn’t fast enough. Maybe if she was a Goodra, we could try out her Mega-

  My hand snapped back and grabbed hold of my key stone. It vibrated, and was continuing to do so. Their fight had broken several pillars… Maybe…

  I started to look around. This was about the area where Ash’s Lucario would fight Gurkinn’s Alakazam, after all. It wasn’t the only chance to win, but…

  And then, I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. Everyone looked at me. Diancie and Sliggoo looked confused. Even so, those two were still locked in combat. They were far too focused on each other to worry about anything else.

  “Fate seems more than a little fickle,” I said as I took a few steps. “Who’s to say who is more important in the grand scheme of the universe?” I crouched down, brushing away some of the bits of rock as I picked up the small marble. Standing back up, I tossed it up and down a few times. “Sometimes things are planned. And sometimes… It all comes down to pure dumb luck.” Turning to the two fighting, I called out. “Rio!”

  Her ear twitched and I saw the way she glanced over out of the corner of her eye.

  “Catch!” I said as I pitched the little orange marble, with its blue and red swirl.

  She caught it without looking. Her eyes glanced down towards it, and the grin on her face became far more manic and she began to cackle. She actually cackled. “Now you’re fucked!” she shouted before she exploded in light.

  I was going to have to talk to her about toning down on the cussing. And ask her mother where she learned them all, because it sure wasn’t from me.

  When the light faded, she was completely different. The bit of fur around her neck had spiked up into more of a collar, she’d gained forward spikes on her hands that were now red as if she were wearing gloves, and had matching boots. The markings on her face had gained spiky protruding marks down her cheeks. Those tufts out the back of her head had lengthened as well, gaining red tips. She’d also gained nearly a foot in height.

  However, the strangest part was I had hardly felt anything. My key stone had done nothing but warm up.

  She had a massive, almost manic grin on her face. Showing off teeth too big. Too sharp. Silver energy sparked off her, striking the ground around her, matching the electrical sparks arcing off the Manectric in front of her.

  She shot towards them, kicking up bits of rock and nearly disappearing with the increase in her speed. In response, the Manectric shot forward as a bolt towards her. Her foot slammed into the ground, halting all of her momentum as she pivoted and stepped backwards to the side.

  Her fist was already bursting with silver and orange energy, letting loose chaotic sparks. When the lightning bolt reformed into a canine, the target of whatever move it was going to use no longer in position, Rio was already mid swing. She had predicted her opponent's attack with such accuracy that she was attacking the space that they were going to be in before they got there.

  And that grin never left her face. “Iron Hammer!” And it seemed she was unveiling another one of her Iron moves. I really needed to ask her when she had come up with these moves, and how many there were.

  All of my questioning thoughts halted abruptly when the Manectric hit the ground so hard they bounced, forming a small crater from the impact. Almost immediately they dropped their transformation, turning back into a simple Manectric.

  Rio was panting, a bit of froth at the corner of her mouth. Her transformation dropped almost immediately after, and she collapsed to her knees. There was a vacant look in her eyes as she stared down at her unconscious foe, the Mega Stone slipping from her hand and rolling into the crater she’d just made.

  “Good job,” I said as I stepped beside her, kneeling down to retrieve the Lucarionite. Her eyes tracked the small marble, or at least tried to. “Are you okay?” I asked as I put a hand on her shoulder.

  “That was… One hell of a thing…” she mumbled.

  I snorted. “Can you stand?”

  She nodded slowly, and I helped her back to her feet. “Tired…” she admitted after standing for a moment. “But that was fun. Kinda… Hard to control, actually.” Her brow furrowed a bit as she seemed to think over things.

  “Did it hurt?” I asked, remembering theories from my old life.

  “No,” she responded with a shake of her head. She spent a moment thinking it over. “It was like trying to hold water in a bucket full of holes.”

  Diancie and Sliggoo had come over. “Yeah,” Diancie agreed, nodding. “It feels weird.”

  Rio nodded. “Very. But also… Damn it was a good kind of weird.”

  “Alright. Well, if you’re good to go, let's get going. I don’t want to stay around here.” I looked back at all the other Manectric who were still being pinned by Diancie’s Gravity. “And you can let them get up, I guess.”

  With a giggle, she did so as we started to leave. I considered taking the Manectite from that Pokemon, but I figured that would just be adding theft to insult and injury. And they did sort of help us find that Lucarionite.

  It took almost an hour to finally get out of the lightning-bathed area. Rotom immediately returning to the phone when I told them that we were good now. They really had not liked being out that long.

  I released everyone, and Rio immediately got into telling the story as I tucked Eevee back into my hood, though she stayed poked out to listen to the story. “And then I hit him with Iron Hammer, and bam! Knocked out!” she finished, making an exaggerated movement to replay the strike.

  “I’m so mad we missed that,” Scoly grumbled, while Primarina and Eevee made noises of agreement.

  “Which reminds me. How many of those Iron moves do you have, Rio?” I asked, turning my focus to her.

  She seemed to go stiff for a moment, looking around as if distracted. “Uh… A few?”

  I raised an eyebrow at her. “And what are they?”

  For some reason she looked rather sheepish. Which was funny to me, since she was a canine. “Well, there’s Iron Cannon, and Iron Hammer. You’ve seen those.” I nodded and encouraged her to continue. “Well, there’s also Iron Axe, that’s a sort of drop kick. Iron Spear is like Iron Hammer, but a forward strike rather than downward. Iron Cannon is the only one that I’ve been struggling with.”

  “I see…” I said slowly, thinking things over. “And when do you practice these?”

  “Well…uh… you get uh… distracted a lot when we train,” she said, kicking a small rock as she refused to look at me. I just gave her a look, which I knew she could see out of the corner of her eye. “I-it’s not like I’m the only one making moves! Mamma-” She clapped her hand around her muzzle to keep herself from talking.

  I gave her a questioning look. “Cara has been working on things as well?”

  She nodded slowly. “She also helps me, and Scoly. And Dee. And Primarina. And sometimes Sliggoo.” Everyone looked fairly well abashed, as Rio threw them all under the bus.

  A snort escaped me as I looked back at the mountain we were heading to. “I don’t mind, but I’m also pretty good at helping, you know? So if you have any problems you should come to me. Like with your Iron Cannon. You’re holding the energy wrong.”

  Rio shifted a bit so that she was walking backwards in front of me. “What do you mean?”

  “Think of it more like your Vacuum Wave, or Aura Sphere. What you’re doing is gathering the energy inside and then trying to shoot it out all at once, but what you should do is gather it in front of you and then punch it to launch it.” I threw a punch vaguely into the air for emphasis.

  Immediately she looked thoughtful, her eyes looking off into the distance as she thought over my suggestion.

  Our pace towards the mountain had slowed, and I realized that I didn’t really have any reason to seek out this Mayma. I had initially only come here for Lucarionite. But I had already found so many stones, and three of them were for some of my combatants. If I got one more, I would have the possibility of a full six team of Mega Evolutions.

  Should I try to get another one for Lucario’s? That would possibly be extremely powerful. Two Mega Evolved Lucario’s could probably do an insane amount of damage.

  But there was also the fact that there were stones for Pokemon that I didn’t know about. There were probably more. So many more. Hundreds more? Thousands more? It brought me back to thinking about all the Pokemon that I might know about. Would my knowledge ability fill in that gap?

  “Can we stop?” Rio suddenly asked, and when I looked at her I realized she was practically draped over Scoly, unable to walk.

  I chuckled as I nodded.

  After a bit, we had camp set up and I started to make dinner. My mind wandered back to Cara, and I wondered how she was doing. I was out of service range, so I couldn’t check in. Which was bothersome.

  Briefly my eyes wandered upwards to the sky. How difficult would it be to set up a space program? If I got the chance, I should pitch the idea to some big company. If Lysandre wasn’t a complete psychopath I could have gone to him about it.

  Celesteela.

  That Ultra Beast was pretty much a space ship. Could I get the Aether Foundation to get on board with some sort of space stuff? From what I could tell, Ash wouldn’t get to Alola for a few years. I needed to get to Lusamine as soon as possible and figure out-

  Damn it, I have a phone. I can just call her. Why did I not think of that earlier? With my Pokemon Reserve getting going, the Aether Foundation would be a completely logical entity to reach out to. That would be the perfect chance to see if she is mentally stable enough for cooperation.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Shaking my head, I turned back to the curry, and the Pokemon that were waiting.

  And then I had to do a double take.

  “Is it just me, or are there more of you here than when I last looked?” I asked, a bit amused.

  There were two new Pokemon mingling with my group. Two Absol, one of which I recognized as the one from the previous day. They both looked a bit sheepish.

  I just laughed a bit as I started to plate for everyone, including our guests.

  They merged rather seamlessly into my group, which was interesting. “As my child had said, there was great danger, but also great reward,” the older Absol was saying, expanding on the apparent vision that the younger one had tried to warn me of. “My daughter has only recently awakened her ability to sense disaster.”

  I just nodded, eating across from them on the ground. “Makes sense. It was still nice to get even that slight bit of warning. Though it was definitely more than I was expecting.”

  She nodded. She hesitated for a moment before asking, “You are…going to see Mayma, yes?”

  “Yes. Though, since I found the stone I was looking for, it’s not really a requirement now,” I explained. “More so just something that I want to do. I want to ask them some questions and see if they have any other stones that I want.”

  Again she nodded, though slowly. “Your Pokemon are quite strong.”

  I had the feeling that this Absol wasn’t the best at conversation, since she had zero ability to smoothly change between subjects. But, I nodded in response to her statement. “My family is strong.”

  “Family?” she questioned, her head tilting.

  “Technically I am not a Pokemon Trainer. These are members of my family, and the only reason they have pokeballs is for convenience,” I explained before turning back to my food and focusing on eating for a moment before she inevitably asked another question.

  “If…” she paused, seemingly mulling over what she wanted to say for several moments. “If she went with you, you could make her strong?”

  All of the conversations that were going on around came to a stop as everyone’s attention turned to us. I looked over at the smaller of the two Pokemon in front of me. She shifted a bit under my gaze, clearly nervous. “That would depend,” I said slowly. “On if that was what she wanted.”

  “She-”

  I held up my hand to stop the older one. “She has to want to be strong. There are a lot of reasons for becoming strong, and a lot of those in my family want to be stronger mostly just for the sake of being stronger. Some would think that a shallow reason, but it’s still a reason.” My gaze shifted to the small Absol. “So, do you want to be strong?”

  She fidgeted under my gaze, glancing at her mother.

  “Don’t look at her,” I said, shaking my head a bit. “She can’t answer this for you. This is a question for you, and only you. You can be strong. Anyone can be strong. But they have to want it. So answer me. Do you want to be strong?”

  Her face scrunched a bit as she thought it over. I was glad that her mother had gone quiet, understanding that this was an important thing for her to figure out. “I…” She paused, searching for the right words. “I want… I want to be strong. Strong so that I can prevent the disasters I see,” she said, gaining more confidence the more she spoke.

  I smiled a bit and nodded. “Well, I can help, if you want. My family is big, and… has a few little hangups. But you’re welcome to join. Just be aware that the training will not be easy, and you’re going to struggle forever.”

  She gulped, but gave a hesitant nod.

  “And I’m not exaggerating. Right, Rio?” I looked over at her.

  Rio frowned at me. “I can’t say it isn’t effective. But every time he gets serious and increases the difficulty, I end up more bruise than fur.”

  I snorted. “Pushing is how you get stronger. And as you get stronger, you will find that there’s always someone stronger.”

  “Are you strong?” the Absol suddenly asked.

  “Nope. But, I don’t want to be strong,” I said easily.

  “Yeah right. You’re probably stronger than all of us,” Rio said with a scoff. “All of us saw you fight mamma, and you didn’t get hit once.”

  “I got thrown into a wall,” I deadpanned.

  She waved vaguely in the air. “That was clearly just for positioning. That’s how you got Mewtwo’s ball, after all.”

  “Why are you so adamant about that?” I asked, unable to help myself from chuckling. “No matter what she says, she was holding back. She wasn’t even using energy.”

  Rio folded her arms, narrowing her eyes at me. “I don’t buy it,” she said with a huff.

  I really wasn’t sure why all of them thought I was strong. As if I was just hiding my strength for some reason. At this rate, I was worried one of them was going to try and fight me to prove themselves right or something.

  I shook my head, turning my attention back to the Absols. “Anyways. If you want to come with me, and become part of my family, I will accept you.”

  Her eyes darted towards her mother. “This is your choice,” the older Absol said, apparently finding logic in the way that I was going about things.

  She took a deep breath and then nodded. “Yes.”

  I jumped a bit as several Pokemon around me cheered. Before I could really register what was going on, Rio snatched up the Absol and immediately brought her over to the others. “Welcome to Team Speed Shell!” she announced and started to introduce everyone.

  “Thank you,” the mother Absol said, a bit of a smile on her face. “She was getting to the point I was struggling to raise her and do my duties on the island.” My attention focused on her. “If things kept going, I would have had to start to make decisions on whether to spend the last years I have on the tasks assigned to me, or to help my daughter and… And I know what I would have chosen, which would have been bad for the island.”

  My eyes swept over the Absol, who suddenly looked a lot more tired than she had in the presence of her daughter. “Those sorts of decisions are always so difficult.

  She let out a long sigh, closing her eyes. “At least I know with you, she will thrive.”

  “What makes you say that?” I asked, watching as Team Speed Shell showed off some of their less destructive moves.

  “A feeling,” she said with a bit of a smile. “You are important, but even I can’t interpret the feeling of why.”

  I paused as I thought over her words. “Do you know why I would be called the Bridge?”

  Her head tilted a bit as she thought it over. Eventually she shook her head. “I’ve never heard of that title.”

  “Apparently either Arceus or the Mother gave it to me,” I explained.

  She nodded slowly. “An interesting thing.” After a moment she shifted, and dropped a small stone between us. “A gift of thanks for taking in my daughter.”

  I reached down, picking up the pale blue marble, with its blue and white swirl. “Absolite,” I said with a bit of a smile.

  “She won’t be able to use it till she’s a bit older, and stronger, but I am sure she will be great,” she said as she looked over at the group, her red eyes becoming a bit distant.

  “I don’t know enough about Mega Stones to really be the judge,” I said honestly. “That’s actually why I am going to see Mayma. From what I have heard, they are knowledgeable."

  “Mayma is the ruler of the island,” the Absol explained as her gaze drifted up to the mountain. “She has ruled for centuries. Unfortunately, knowing her, she will only tell you things that you need to know.”

  I laughed softly, leaning back on my hands. “Yeah, that figures.”

  Both of us fell into silence for a few moments, watching as the Pokemon began to play. Scoly and Rio were showing off their strength by doing their little pushing fight. “Do you… know how long you have?” I asked softly.

  Her eyes closed for a moment as she took a deep breath. “I am old. I thought I was too old for children, to be honest.” A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. “But it seems the Mother allows even those of us near the end of our lives to enjoy the gift of children.”

  She fell silent for a moment, and I did as well. I wasn’t really expecting an answer, but I still wanted to know.

  “A few years,” she said eventually.

  That felt like a lie. And I understood why she was so insistent that I take her daughter. “I see,” I said softly.

  It was truly odd that I was meeting so many different Pokemon near the end of their life. This felt on purpose. But the reason why completely escaped me. What sort of thing would I come against in the future that would need this many Pokemon? Or was I just some convenient place to put all these Pokemon so that they wouldn’t be alone? Thinking about it so much was giving me a headache.

  The next day, the two Absol’s were discussing things softly. “Just remember that I love you,” The older said, pressing her head against her daughters. “And I always will. No matter the distance or time that passes. Even if we never see each other again.”

  She was crying, but nodded before pressing against her mother. “I know,” she said softly. “I love you, too.”

  They spent several minutes like that as the rest of us went about packing up the camping equipment.

  After she was gone, I knelt down, pulling a pokeball from my bag. “Alright. Now for the final thing,” I said as I placed the ball down. “Unfortunately, human laws require Pokemon to have pokeballs. But it also prevents anyone else from capturing you.”

  Her eyes were focused on the ball, and her eyes were still a bit wet from the crying she had been doing. But this was important and I didn’t want to put it off. “Okay,” she said as she pressed the button, disappearing a red flash.

  I picked up the ball, releasing her. “I’ll try and keep you out of the ball as often as I can,” I explained as I put it into my coat. I was really running out of room in this inner pocket.

  She nodded a bit, shaking herself out. “That felt… Kinda weird. But it’s also nice in there?”

  “Good.” I spent a moment checking the pocket and all the pokeballs in there. It was interesting that I knew who everyone’s ball was just by touch. The only one that really stood out was Primarina’s luxury ball. Liar, Bungle, Disaster, and Immodest’s balls were rough and banged up. Should I get them new pokeballs? Was there a difference in comfort quality? I felt like I was going to ask someone about that at some point but forgot.

  For now, it didn’t matter. We had a mountain to climb.

  And it was an extremely annoying climb.

  I ended up having to ride on Scoly, just because it was too difficult for me to do on foot. There wasn’t an actual path, so it was all just cliffs and big rocks.

  At one point we came across some Aggron who gave us some curious looks, but seemed fine with letting us past. Probably because they saw that we had a Lucario in the group.

  Rio was still a bit tired from her battle yesterday. She complained that her body was a bit stiff, but we weren’t sure if that was because of the battle itself or the Mega Evolution.

  Eventually we came to a cave, a cave that was utterly impossible to miss. The entrance reached up to twenty feet high, and probably around forty wide.

  It was a bit intimidating.

  Or it would have been, if it didn’t have a big WELCOME mat the size of a bus. It was so thick that I actually had to step up onto it. There was also a sign that said ‘Mayma’s Home’ on one side. And looking in the cavern was massive, and furnished with immaculate pieces of furniture. It looked like some kind of rich person's living room, but for someone who was clearly over ten feet tall.

  There were two equally sized passageways further in, one leading to the right while the other went straight back.

  I cleared my throat, standing on the welcome mat. “Hello? Excuse me?” I called out.

  “Oh! Company!” came a rather pleasant voice that was somehow both melodious but booming at the same time. “Please! Make yourself at home!” The voice was coming from the hallway to the right.

  As we all walked in, I could see that it looked like that room was probably a kitchen. And there was something massive moving about.

  “This couch is huge!” Scoly announced, having crawled up onto it. It wasn’t necessary for her to point it out, as everything in this room was obviously huge.

  Everyone had crawled onto the couch, some of them hopping up and down, while others just got comfortable. The only one who didn’t was Absol. “I’ve never met Mayma before,” she whispered to me.

  I rubbed her back a bit. “It’ll be fine. Go and join them.”

  She hesitated, but eventually nodded and dashed towards the couch, leaping up onto it in a single bound.

  The temptation to join them was there, but I was far more interested in other things, so I made my way towards what I was fairly sure was a kitchen. My guess was confirmed when I actually looked inside and saw a well-supplied kitchen.

  But it was the Pokemon inside that caused me to pause. They were well over twelve feet tall, mostly light orange in color with a tan chest and stomach, and rather small wings with teal membrane. It was impossible to not recognize a Dragonite.

  They turned to look back as I entered the doorway and gave me a smile. “My my. Been so long since I had visitors.” As I took in more of their appearance, their left eye was completely white and they had a series of scars on that part of their face.

  “You’re Mayma, yes?” I asked.

  She nodded, her smile never leaving her face. “Yes. And you are?”

  “Jason. But I prefer Jace,” I said, returning her smile and giving her a slight bow.

  “Pleasure,” she said as she returned my bow before turning back to what she was doing. “What do I owe to this visit?”

  I hesitated a moment but decided to explain truthfully, “Honestly, I was hoping to trade for some Mega Stones, and some information on Mega Evolution.”

  She nodded slowly, but then seemed to pause. “Trade, hm? Yes trading is the proper way to do things. Stones must be found, traded, or given freely. Those taken by force tend to hold a grudge.”

  “Grudge?” I asked, blinking. “You mean they are sentient?”

  Her movements paused for a few seconds as she mulled over the question. “Not…exactly. It’s more like every stone has a will. And they can, to some extent, choose to reveal themselves.”

  I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. That was why I happened to find the Lucarionite like I did. “Where do the stones come from?”

  “Here. This island,” she said with a wave of her hand. “Those who die under the island's influence may become stones. The soul moves on, while the body feeds the environment, and the energy within crystalizes. Your Kalos is within the influence of the island, and so stones occasionally come to exist there as well.”

  There was a sudden tightness in my chest. That would imply that the fake Mega Stones that Lysandre sold were made out of Pokemon. “I see.”

  “Of course, only particularly powerful Pokemon can become stones. Otherwise we’d have thousands of Caterpie stones,” she said with a bit of a giggle.

  I sighed a bit and nodded. “Yeah that would be a bit of a problem…”

  She turned, and slid what she was making into the oven. I realized it was a pie of some kind. Then she turned to face me, looking down at me with her good eye, a smile on her face. I realized that she was wearing an apron that had dozens of Dratini painted on. “You are full of sympathy, unlike most humans.” She reached over to the side, grabbing a cane, before she started to move towards me. “Come. We shall trade stones.”

  When we re-entered the living room, my group was all lounging on the couch. From what I could hear of their conversation, Rio, Scoly, and Primarina were explaining what Mystery Dungeon was to Absol. And she looked absolutely entranced. Diancie was sprawled out and looked to be asleep while Sliggoo was resting on top of her.

  I reached back to check on Eevee, who was asleep. Typical.

  “You are very interesting, Jace,” Mayma said as she led me down the other hallway.

  “What makes you say that?” I asked with another look back at the Pokemon on the couch.

  “It is rare that I hear Mother. Even rarer when She makes requests,” she explained, a smile on her face.

  I blinked. “So you knew I was coming?”

  “I knew someone was coming,” she acknowledged. “Who was not said. Only that I had to get something for the one who comes. One who would be able to speak to me, even though by logic they should not.”

  My brow furrowed. “I’m sorry if it was something inconvenient.”

  She laughed, loud enough that I swear it rattled the walls. “Not at all.” She moved into a side room, which wasn’t actually that far from the living room I realized. She was just...rather slow.

  What was inside caused my entire body to go rigid. The walls were covered in shelves, to the point you couldn’t even see the walls themselves. And those shelves were nearly overflowing with Mega Stones.

  “I… Why do you have so many?” I asked, unable to think of anything else to say.

  Again she laughed, though this one was much more subdued. “I have lived long, and many have requested favors of me. Now, come. Let me see what stones you have to trade.” She gestured to a small table in the middle of the room as she moved to stand on the other side of it.

  I pulled out the nine stones for Pokemon that I didn’t have in my family, as well as the extra key stone.

  Her eyes immediately locked onto that one in particular. “I see… That will be a fair trade for what the Mother requested me to get.” She turned, moving to one of the shelves and grabbing a stone. She turned back and placed down a dark purple stone with red, yellow, and white catseye. “Key stones are particularly rare.” Beside the purple one, she also placed down a pale purple marble, with black, cyan, and purple swirls. “So I shall trade these. I am not sure why the Mother wanted to go to the mainland and retrieve this Delphoxite for you, but I saw that you have a Scolipede, so I shall give you this Scolipite.”

  Just looking at the purple stone I knew. It wouldn’t have made much sense to me previously, but knowing what I do about Mega Stones now, that was most likely the one formed from Alma’s mother. “I see… Thank you…”

  “What other sort of stones did you want?” she asked, a bit eagerly but she also seemed to understand the somber mood that I was in when I saw the Delphoxite.

  “Banettite. Two Houndoominite. Maybe a second Lucarionite. Those are the only ones that I know for sure have stones,” I explained.

  She nodded as she turned around, spending a moment to look through the shelves. “I understand. What Pokemon are you looking to possibly have stones?”

  “Any for an Eevee?” I asked.

  She shook her head as she turned back, placing the four stones down. “No, nor any of their evolutions.”

  “I see… Mimikyu?” I tried, and she shook her head slowly, as if a bit confused. “Yeah, long shot on that one considering it was newly discovered.” I thought about Keo, my brow furrowing a bit. “Ninetales?”

  Much to my surprise, she actually nodded. “Yes, that is one,” she said as she stood up and turned around.

  “How about Meowstic?” That got a nod of her head as she turned around and placed down a golden-white marble, with an orange and red swirl, and a second marble that was white with blue swirls. I looked at the marbles for a moment. Specifically for the one for Ninetales. “Would this work on one with a different regional form?”

  Her brow furrowed a bit, and I realized at that moment that she had quite a few wrinkles. “I am…not sure?”

  “Worth a shot. Okay, last three, Liepard, Mightyena, or Rotom?” I felt a slight buzz from my pocket, the Pokemon in my phone clearly startled that I brought them up.

  Again I was surprised when she nodded and stood up. She turned around and placed them down. “This trade isn't in my favor,” she said as she looked at the table. “Some of your stones are very common, while you have some rare ones, you have requested some very rare ones.”

  I nodded slowly, looking at the seven stones on her side of the table. “I don’t expect that you would accept beans?” I asked with a bit of a smile on my face.

  Her head tilted to the side slightly. “Beans?”

  I tried to keep my smile under control as I reached down to my bag, pulling out a pokebean and holding it out to her.

  She looked even more confused but slowly reached out to take it, and bit into it. Immediately her eyes sparkled. “Oh! This is very good!” She ate the rest of the bean in a single bite and happily chewed it.

  “I traded for some of the stones I had with the beans, since they were all I had. I use them for treats, and snacks,” I explained as I watched her savor the taste.

  “Mmm I think… Mmm that it would be fair,” she said, clearly greatly enjoying the taste. Again I felt a bit bad that I was essentially cheating a Pokemon out of their stones with something that I got for free. But at the same time, she had so many of them that it had to be fine.

  “How about fifty beans on top of my Mega Stones, for what you are offering,” I suggested.

  Her expression became thoughtful, clearly eyeing my side of the table and mentally calculating how much a pokebean would be worth. “One hundred,” she countered.

  I hid my smile behind a slight frown and pretended to think it over for a moment, staring at the stones on the table. Eventually, I nodded. “Okay, that seems fair.”

  She jolted slightly, eyes going wide. Clearly she hadn’t thought I would agree. As I pulled out the beans, I could see her trying to recalculate and rethink how valuable the beans should be. Eventually, she just sighed. She’d already accepted the deal. With a flourish, she spun the table so that all the stones and beans that were on my side were now on hers and vice versa.

  I took a moment to look at all the Mega Stones in front of me. There was a certain realization that I was having. “I… I might actually be a really strong Trainer.” It was an oddly sobering thought.

  Mayma let out a snort. “The stones are a tool. A temporary boost in power. Do not rely on them,” she warned.

  “Of course,” I said with a nod as I collected the stones, putting them into my bag. “Got so many marbles now.” Getting all of these had been honestly really easy, all things considered. But then again, they were also pretty easy to get in the game.

  She started to make her way out of the room. “Come, we shall have pie.”

  As we made our way out into the living room, I was immediately struck with the smell. And just from that I was immediately looking forward to it. I wasn’t the only one, either. Everyone was crowded around the entrance, questioning where the smell was.

  “Yes, yes. Out of the way little ones,” Mayma said with a bit of a giggle as she ushered them out of her way. They did so quickly, and I joined them in watching as she pulled out a large pie, placing it on the counter. “Now then,” she moved over and then pulled another pie out, this one already cooled.

  For some reason I found that amusing. “Is baking what you do all day?” I asked as we all watched her slice the pie.

  “I like baking,” she replied with a smile. “Eating tasty things is an important part of life.”

  I nodded. “I very much agree with you.”

  “Me too!” Rio said, putting her hand in the air and waving it around. “And papa makes the best food!”

  That got her to pause in her pie cutting as she looked over. However, she didn’t question it. “I see, perhaps we could share recipes.”

  “Uh… well, the only thing I can really make is curry,” I said a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck. “And I guess pasta, but I don’t have a pasta maker.”

  “Ohh!” She clapped a few times. “That sounds delightful. Is there a chance you could show me?”

  With a bit of a nod. “Sure.” I looked around the kitchen. “Although, I will need some help considering all this uh… I am too small for it, you know?”

  She giggled a bit and nodded. “Yes. I can see that. I shall assist.”

  It was a bit awkward, as Mayma practically carried me the entire time as I gave her instructions on what I needed. It would have been embarrassing if it wasn’t actually really funny. While we ate, everyone else enjoyed pie. It was a berry pie, and she had done quite a number of impressive things.

  After we had made the curry, and she tasted it, she was more than eager to share her pie recipe. Which was just another thing that I was going to have to purchase some things to make that as well. Maybe I could make a graham cracker crust? There’s graham crackers, right? Fairly sure I remember seeing those. They did smores in the anime, right?

  Also, she ate so much curry. She ate more curry than my entire pokefamily combined. Twice. I was really glad that I didn’t have any massive Pokemon like her in my group or I would really be struggling with having to buy more food. I’d probably have to get an entire bag just for food at that point.

  “We shall have to get you off the island soon,” she said suddenly.

  I blinked up at her. “Hm? Why?”

  “It’s not that I don’t like your company, but I can already feel others getting restless,” she said with a slight huff as she stared out the entrance to her cave. “I can return you to the mainland easily, so Oby will not have to ferry you again.”

  “Oh. Well, that would be… Quite good,” I admitted. I really had not been looking forward to that. “Thank you.”

  She nodded as she stood up, having been lounging on the couch. Her wings flexed a bit, and then flapped once. The amount of wind pressure that shot through the room with that simple movement actually startled me. Of course someone who had been around this long and was considered the ruler of the island would be strong.

  “Whoa!” There were a bunch of exclamations from everyone, cheering from just that little display of strength.

  “I can’t carry all of you, so you’ll have to return them,” Mayma said as she gave me a smile.

  “Aw… I wanted to fly,” Primarina said with a bit of a frown.

  “That would have been cool,” Rio added with a shrug.

  “Alright everyone,” I called out as I opened my coat. There were a bunch of bursts of light, until it was just Absol left, looking around confused. “Oh, right.” I reached in and retrieved her ball. “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it,” I said before returning her. Not like I really understood how they could do that.

  Mayma took a look around before nodding. “Okay. Time for a long flight,” she said as she suddenly picked me up.

  “Ah- Wait a moment, where exactly-” my words caught as we shot from the cave. Immediately I was pressed up against her as from the force of her speed. What was worse, once we were clear of the cave, she increased speed. She had definitely broken the sound barrier, as I couldn’t hear a damn thing. I wondered if that whole thing about being able to circle the globe in sixteen hours was true.

  When we finally stopped, I felt like I was going to throw up. The g-forces nearly caused me to pass out. “Oh, sorry about that,” she said, trying to keep me steady on my feet. “I forget at times that others aren’t used to going that fast.” From the way she was giggling, I was pretty sure she did that on purpose.

  “That was… mean…” I managed, trying to catch my breath.

  There was a soft thud as Eevee fell from my hood into a heap on the ground. “So fast…” she murmured, her eyes swimming as she tried to focus on anything. I had forgotten she was in my hood.

  Mayma just giggled even more and gave me a few pats on the back. “Take care, Jace.”

  The force of her takeoff knocked me off my feet, and I just laid there on the ground for a moment, staring up at the sky. I guess she was a bit upset at the bean trade.

  “Are you alright?” came a familiar voice from the side.

  It took a moment before I could focus, and found an Officer Jenny standing nearby. “Ah… Yes… Sorry…” I rolled over onto my side as I tried to get up, realizing that I was on the side of a road near the outskirts of a town.

  Jenny was quick to move to assist me. “Was that your Dragonite?” she asked.

  “No,” I said with a shake of my head. “I… I bribed them with food to bring me to the closest town. And they- oof…“ I shook my head, trying to get rid of the dizziness. “And they decided to play a bit of a prank on me, it seems.”

  “Ah, I see.” She watched as I retrieved Eevee, cradling in my arm for a moment. “Can I see your Trainer ID?” she asked.

  I fumbled with my bag for a moment, my hands were shaking pretty bad, but eventually I managed to get it and hand it to her. Then I started to look around, trying to figure out where I was.

  “Oh! You’re Expert Jason!” she exclaimed, reaching to her side and pulling out one of those fancy police phones that I’d seen Jenny’s have. “You’ve been missing for several days.”

  “Missing?” I asked incredulously. “I told people I would be gone and probably out of service range.”

  She seemed to hesitate as she looked from the ID, to the phone, to me, and then back. “I… Uh… I mean, that’s just what we were told.” She offered my card back to me.

  I shrugged as I accepted it. “I don’t blame you. Just wondering who did that.” I reached into my pocket, and noticed I had quite a few new messages. Mostly from Gaston. “Oh. Okay, yeah that explains it,” I grumbled.

  I am going to be so annoyed if/when I have to come back and edit the Solipedite. Dangit I got the name and colors wrong. And I really hope that the Mega Scolipede doesn't look bad. I do like the design, tho. Most Mega's pretty meh in my book. From what's been leaked so far, I'm hopeful.

  Lucario - The group mom, battered and out of action

  Lucario - This dog wants violence.

  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

  Sliggoo - Deadly chew toy

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but persuasive?

  Vulpix (Alolan) - A bit too battle hungry

  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