It got really quiet as I looked at Lusamine. There was a frown on her face and she was staring at me. Studying me. There was this look in her eyes that immediately made me regret the way that I had broached the subject. I was really starting to think Valerie’s guess of ‘stab you in your sleep’ crazy might have been right. “I don’t think I would believe you,” she said after a moment.

  I nodded and turned my gaze back to my phone so that I didn’t have to look at her for a moment. Sophia probably wouldn’t get back to me for some time, but it wasn’t like I really needed her help. “Galar. Crown Tundra,” I said as I put my phone away. “If the information that I have is correct, he should be there.”

  Her brow furrowed slightly and she narrowed her eyes. “And why do you think that?”

  Of course she wouldn’t believe me. But that was fine, I was really good at bullshitting my way through things. That was part of being a teacher. Lying could be considered an artform. And the first thing you have to do if you want to be a good liar is be completely confident in what you’re saying. Sprinkle in some truths and half truths, and sway information with sources that the other person would not easily get.

  I didn’t like lying.

  So all I needed to do was be believable and say it all with confidence. And I had the perfect group to pull this false information from. “You’re not the only one who was studying the wormhole phenomenon. Team Flare had a division devoted to it, though their information was limited. They had reports of a wormhole in the Crown Tundra that someone came out of.” This was partially true. Team Flare had information on the wormholes, and I had seen it while looking through some of their files.

  “I…” Her fists clenched as she glanced over at Faba before looking back at me. It looked like she couldn’t decide if she wanted to express rage, annoyance, or some sort of manic look. But I did notice there was this flicker of hope. “Why have I never heard about this?”

  “I doubt your sensors reach this far, let alone to Galar,” I said simply. “If this isn’t your husband, then it’s someone else that has been through the wormholes and come back. Flare lost track of him.”

  “Can I see this report?” she asked, glancing at the pocket I put the phone into.

  “That’s what I was texting about. I don’t have them, and Lysandre Labs is locked down, so I was asking for permission to get it and give you a copy.” I should probably feel bad about lying to Lusamine like this, but if I was right it would all work out.

  “What exactly did the report say?” was her next question.

  “They picked up the energy of the wormhole, and when they went to investigate they found evidence of a man having appeared there. An eye witness said they saw a disheveled, overweight blonde man in the area with a jellyfish like Pokemon that they had never seen before,” I continued to spin my little false story. Again, I didn’t like lying but I was good at it. You have to be good at lying in order to be able to catch others in a lie.

  Her eyes went a bit wide when I described Mohn. As far as she knew, I shouldn’t know what he looks like. Now her gaze became calculative and lost a lot of the anger that had been there a moment ago, though it still looked a bit manic. “Alright… Thank you. If you can, please get me a copy of that report. In the meantime, I’ll send some people to investigate and see-”

  All of our attention was suddenly drawn to a very fancy sports car fly into the parking lot. It skidded to a halt after sliding several feet and nearly crashed into a pole before it finally stopped. After a moment Diantha stepped out of the driver's side, smoothing out her coat.

  Quickly the passenger door opened, and Valerie stumbled out. Her costume wings were wrapped around the door as if it was the only thing keeping her standing. Even from here she looked a bit pale and was shaking slightly.

  I made a mental note to never get into a car when Diantha was driving.

  Diantha walked over rather quickly, a big smile on her face. “Hello! You must be Lusamine,” she held out her hand. “I’m Diantha, one of the co-founders of New Hope. My apologies for being late. Someone didn’t inform me you were coming.” That last statement was definitely aimed at me.

  I snapped my fingers. “Oh, right. I knew there was someone I forgot to tell,” I said with a grin.

  Lusamine was clearly amused as she accepted the handshake. “No big deal.”

  “It’s not like we gave proper notice for our visit,” Wicke suddenly added, appearing beside her boss now that it seemed we were back to business.

  “Right,” Lusamine agreed, though sounded completely unapologetic.

  “Have you already had a tour?” she asked as she looked around, clearly taking note of all the equipment that was still set up.

  “Oh yes. Jace and the Joys gave a lovely tour. It’s quite an impressive facility,” she said quite excitedly as she looked at the building. The fact that she could just flip in personalities like that was quite jarring.

  “We were just doing a little study of a special Pokemon that Lusamine brought,” I explained when Diantha turned a questioning gaze towards me.

  “Yes!” Lusamine said quite excitedly. “Jace was most helpful, and we learned quite a few interesting things!” She gestured enthusiastically with the clipboard like it held all the answers. “Just that simple interaction has given us so much data.” She devolved into a rather complex retelling of what happened, and I tuned her out in favor of focusing on the Pokemon.

  All of them had somehow mingled together, and I realized that Rio was attempting to explain how the strength challenge game worked to Sil. The artificial Pokemon seemed confused, though also a bit intrigued by the idea. “Oh that’s not good,” I muttered, which got the attention of all three women, who followed my gaze.

  Rio was getting more and more enthusiastic when she realized she had the other Pokemon’s interest. “What isn’t?” Diantha asked.

  “Oh, that is interesting. Usually the Type: Full are not very sociable,” Lusamine mused, a grin on her face.

  I took a step towards them, but Lusamine stepped in my way, blocking me. “I don’t think-”

  “No, please, I want to see where this goes, and-” the rest of her sentence was cut off by an explosion.

  With a sigh, I looked past her at the now two engaged Pokemon. Sil had stood up, locking its claws with Rio’s paws. They had met in a literal explosion of energy. Rio was crackling with silver lightning, and Sil’s front legs were shining white as they both pressed firmly against each other.

  The show of force between the two clearly startled several scientists, and all the other Pokemon were now just silently observing the clash. “Jeez,” Diantha said with a slight frown. “What happened? Why are they fighting?”

  “They’re not,” I said with another sigh and all of them looked at me. “It’s more of a contest. They’re just… testing each other's strength. Like a game.”

  “A game?” Wicke asked, her eyes darting back and forth.

  “Fascinating,” Lusamine said with a grin as she focused on the two. “How do they determine a winner?”

  “By sheer brute force and overpowering your opponent,” I said flatly. “Usually the winner tosses the loser.”

  That seemed to get an appropriate amount of alarm from Diantha and Wicke, but Lusamine just grinned. “How interesting. It doesn’t look like your Lucario is winning.”

  Looking at the two, it was true. The Silvally was definitely overpowering Rio, and also didn’t seem to be struggling in doing so. “I tried warning her. But this will be good in taking her down a few pegs. Despite my best efforts, all of her wins have gone to her head.” Even from this distance I could see her getting excited as her opponent wasn’t even really struggling.

  “You don’t think she’ll win?” Diantha asked.

  I snorted, watching Rio try to talk to the other Pokemon, probably trying to goad them. “An Elite Pokemon versus an artificial Legendary? Not a chance.” As if to demonstrate my words, Sil seemed to realize that they had won and proceeded to… lift Rio from the ground and slam her down with enough force to leave a slight crater in the parking lot.

  To her credit, she was quick to get up and dust herself off. She started to boast about how fun that was, and how strong Sil was, but I could see the tenseness in her posture. That had bruised a lot more than just her ego, but she honestly seemed to like the challenge.

  “Alright, I need to get her to a Pokecenter,” I said with a sigh.

  “Yeah that looked like a really bad hit,” Wicke commented.

  Quickly I left the four women to discuss whatever they were going to as I planned to use this opportunity to escape. “Okay, I think that’s enough,” I said with a bit of a smile at the group of Pokemon.

  They all turned to me, and I noted how Rio winced slightly when she turned. “We were just playing,” she said, clearly trying to defend her new really strong friend.

  “I know,” I replied as I gently pet her head. “But I’m sick of dealing with people and want to get out of here.” There were a few snickers from the Pokemon as I turned to Sil. “It was really nice meeting you. Hopefully when I come back to Alola we can see each other again.”

  They didn’t respond verbally but nodded.

  “Alola…” Mewtwo muttered, clearly thinking about something.

  My attention turned to the feline Pokemon as I returned everyone. “Mewtwo. Do you mind a quick trip back to the gym?”

  Their eyes focused on me for a moment, those pale blue orbs seeming to try and figure out what I meant. Rather than asking for clarification I knew they were skimming my thoughts. Eventually they nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Thank you,” I said with a slight nod.

  Out of the corner of my eye it looked like someone was about to say something to me before the world seemed to tilt and I was standing in the training room. There were quite a few startled Pokemon who immediately calmed down when they realized it was just me.

  Looking around the room I spotted Cara, laying with Dee on the pile of pillows. A bit of a frown pulled at the corner of my mouth as I noticed the way the canine was bundled up in blankets. It wasn’t cold in here, and for a moment I worried she might have gotten sick.

  Walking over, I sat down into the fluff as I looked at the two of them, slightly amused that their conversation abruptly cut off when I got close. “How are you feeling?” I asked.

  Cara made a sort of thoughtful hum noise, “Hmm. Better.”

  “What’s all this?” I continued, gesturing to the way she was wrapped up.

  The dog looked away, but thankfully Dee wasn’t shy about filling me in. “The damage to her energy channels is constraining her blood flow, so she’s cold.”

  That’s right. Energy travels along the veins, so of course that would mean she was having poor circulation. It’s also why Eevee seemed to be cold all the time. My mind went back to when I gave Cara my coat because the cold was making her ache. “I see. Alright, is that the only problem?” I pointedly aimed my question at Dee since Cara was clearly not going to answer.

  The dog huffed at my question.

  “She’s recovering well,” Dee said, a note of relief in her voice. “A bit more than two months and she should be fine enough to do some light training. Still going to be about a month before she can really move around too much, but constant bed rest is really helping speed things up.”

  I nodded. “Good. So she just needs to stay immobile as much as possible.”

  “Unfortunately,” Cara grumbled.

  With a chuckle and another nod, I stood back up. “Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. Do either of you need anything?”

  They looked at each other for a moment before both shaking their heads.

  Once that was done I made my way over to a certain blanket covered table. I tapped a few times on it and waited for a moment before the fuzzy costumed Pokemon made their appearance. “Y-yes?” they asked, looking up at me.

  I knelt down, smiling at them. It always kind of hurt that she looked at me sometimes like she wasn’t sure if she was in trouble. “I was wondering if you could make something for Cara?” I asked softly, pulling the large fluffy coat from my bag. “With her injuries she’s really cold, so she needs warm things.”

  Mikyu thought about it for a moment before her head started rapidly nodding. “Yes. I can do that,” she said as she reached out for the coat.

  My smile widened as I gave it to her. “Thank you. I’m sure she will very much appreciate it.” She just nodded several times and took the coat under the table.

  The next several days passed surprisingly quickly. Valerie was pissed at me that I just teleported away and left them to deal with Lusamine, but she did eventually agree that it was a good thing we were getting her help.

  And wasn’t that a thing.

  The Aether Foundation was in full support of New Hope. We didn’t need more funding at the moment but she had called in a ton of resources, and then vanished.

  I did manage to get in touch with Sophia and warn her she had a Lusamine incoming, which confused her greatly until I explained why. And I did make some fake documentation. Well, okay my little Rotom made them. They were scarily good, too. Filled with so much scientific jargon that it was actually difficult for me to understand some bits of it.

  When I had asked where they got some of the information, like what readings for wormholes were supposed to look like, they explained that they simply got the data from the equipment the Aether Foundation brought. Then they used that to extrapolate what the data should look like and gave reasonable figures. After that all they had to do was mimic how Team Flare wrote their reports and splice them together.

  I hadn’t even realized they had gotten into Lusamine’s systems.

  And apparently neither did they.

  My little lightbulb was oddly terrifying.

  And so eager to please. So eager to go above and beyond. I was sure to praise them and tell them how much of a genius they were. It was sad how much they enjoyed even the most simple of praises. It was heart wrenching how much they lit up and got so happy by just being told they did a good job.

  Not for the first time I hoped that someday I could get Xerosic in front of me. I just wanted to talk, I swear. Just talk to him. Just for a little bit. Just five or ten minutes.

  Something mildly entertaining that happened was Absol being treated to the Gravity Trial, as Rio called it. And boy did she not have fun. It took a few hours before she was able to actually start doing laps. There was an interesting amount of determination in her, but I wasn’t sure about what. I made a mental note to talk to her more about what sort of things she wanted to do in the future.

  Essy had also gotten serious about training. I still wasn’t entirely sure where that had come from until I talked with Cara and Dee about it. They explained that the cat was still very young, and had probably recently exited her infant stage before meeting me. Which meant when I had first seen her in the woods she was probably still not mature.

  So apparently now she was entering her preteen sort of stage, which is when most Pokemon really start figuring out what they want to do with their lives. Essy had been heavily influenced by those around her like the members of Team Speed Shell, so it was extremely likely she was going to want to battle.

  Of course she was still an adorable thing. She was really struggling with the Gravity Trial, but she seemed very determined. Although she took a lot of really long breaks and stepped out of the effect when she did so, I did notice that she never tried to take a shortcut and walk outside. Thankfully, she demanded pokebeans every time she took a break, and also demanded that I step out as well so she can sit in my lap.

  It was clear that I was spoiling her a bit, but I did the same for anyone that made such demands. A fact that Primarina figured out really quick and was demanding more and more pets and praises every day. And so did Diancie.

  I made sure to praise everyone, but those three in particular were doing it more than anyone else. Sliggoo was trying as well, but she was too timid to be as pushy about it. So of course I had to spoil the little slug as well, and give her lots of little squishes.

  On the morning of that Thursday, I knelt down and picked up my little slug- or should it be snail now that she has that shell? Either way, I wanted to give her a bit of a pep talk.

  “I think you’re ready to face Grant,” I said confidently, still smiling at her.

  Her face squished a bit, head tilting to the side and looking at me questioningly.

  “The Gym Leader that we’ll be facing on Thursday,” I explained as I placed her down in my lap.

  She just stared at me, unblinking. Although I actually wasn’t sure if she needed to blink.

  “What? Did you think that Keo was the only one I wanted to have fight some Gym Leaders?” I squished her a bit as I teased. “It’s a good match up for you.” Even if she was weak to both of Grant's Pokemon’s secondary energy, I didn’t think it would be much of a factor. And she needed more battle experience. This was just too good of an opportunity to see what she could handle.

  She audibly gulped in response, but nodded after a moment. “Okay…” she said softly.

  With that done, I talked a bit of strategy with her on what she could expect, what to do, and how she should go about things. When I was finally done and returned her to her pokeball I was a bit surprised to see Dee standing there.

  The pink nurse looked a bit nervous, and took a deep breath before speaking, “You’re going near Geosenge, right?”

  I nodded as I stood up. “Yeah.”

  “Can…” She hesitated, as if trying to figure out the proper way to word it. “Can we visit my family?” asked softly.

  “Sure,” I replied with a bit of a shrug. “As long as it’s okay to leave Cara alone.” I looked over at the dog.

  “I do not need constant monitoring,” she grumbled.

  Dee seemed to sag a bit in relief as she nodded. “She is fine enough to leave alone for most of the day.”

  That made me frown a bit as I looked the Audino up and down. “So you’ve been avoiding training for no reason?”

  She jolted slightly, her eyes widening a bit as she apparently didn’t mean to reveal that. “Uh…no?”

  I snorted and rubbed the top of her head. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your little break, because once we’re done with the gym battles, we’re going back into serious training mode.”

  She deflated a bit but nodded. “Okay…”

  After that I did a quick round, gathering the Pokemon that I would be taking with me on my now impromptu travel and scheduled gym battle day, before heading out. As I got onto the train, I sent Farm Joy a quick text, ‘I’ll be visiting later today. Dee wants to see her family since I’ll be in the area.’

  All I got was a simple ‘Okay’ in response.

  After a quick stop at the Pokecenter I eventually found myself entering the Cyllage City cave- I mean Gym. I was pretty early for my match, and it seemed like there was no one else around. Glancing up at the climbing wall I could see a figure making the climb. Darker skin, rather lean but clearly muscular, with an odd hairdo that reminded me of the climbing wall he was currently using.

  Rather than draw attention to myself I made my way over to the elevator and pressed the button. Having the arena on top of a massive boulder was cool, but so impractical. But also very cool.

  As far as I could tell there were three ways to the top: climbing, stairs, and the elevator. I wasn’t confident that I could actually make that climb, and the stairs just seemed annoying, so the elevator was the obvious choice.

  Stepping inside, I was greeted by an odd little room. It was a rather basic elevator but instead of mirrors, it had pictures of Grant. So many pictures of Grant. Doing all sorts of sports, though most of them were of him rock climbing.

  For a moment as I pressed the upper button, I wondered if he was narcissistic or something. But as I looked more at the pictures, many of them looked staged, and the more candid ones he looked… annoyed. Bothered that he was having his picture taken. I had seen that look a lot in school yearbooks. But that might just be his face.

  I tried to not look at the pictures and just wait to get to the top. It was kind of odd that there wasn’t any elevator music. It made the little room oddly uncomfortable. That was a weird thing to think.

  There was a ding when it got to the top, and the doors opened. Now I was at the top of the rock in a sort of small viewing area overlooking the battle arena. I walked to the edge, looking to either side to see if I could figure out where Grant would come up.

  My thoughts were interrupted when something wet hit my face.

  I blinked and looked up. The sky was dark with clouds, and little drops left little marks on the arena. Rain? That was extremely convenient. I had been waiting for it to rain to try and see if I could get Sliggoo to evolve, but it was still winter so it was mostly little snow flurries. This was the first rain in a while.

  It also meant that it was extremely cold rain.

  Hopping over the fence into the arena - I didn’t feel like walking around to enter it properly - and made my way to the center.

  A bit of noise drew my attention and I watched as Grant started to pull himself over the edge. He paused when he saw me before climbing up the rest of the way. He spent a moment to wipe his hands and unhook himself from some safety ropes before heading towards me.

  “Sorry I’m a bit early,” I said with a slight smile.

  He waved off my apologies. “It’s fine. How’d you get up so fast? I didn’t see you.”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  I pointed back at the elevator.

  “Ah. Right…” He rubbed his face and sighed. “The elevator…” He shook his head and reached out his hand. “You’re Jason, right?”

  “That’s me,” I replied as I took his hand. “Though I prefer Jace.”

  He nodded. “Well, let’s get this battle started. We’re not going to beat the rain, so it should make for quite a dramatic looking battle,” he said with a rather big smile as he headed towards his part of the battlefield.

  I did the same.

  Just before I turned around, movement caught my eye as a rope extended down to the side of the arena from somewhere above. I looked up to see a rather interesting sight. There was the referee, sliding down the rope. Before he even landed, the mustached man began his speech. “This is an official gym battle between the Gym Leader Grant, and Pokemon Expert Jason! Two versus two.” He landed on the ground, dusting off his uniform.

  My eyes tried to follow the rope to see where it went. “Was he on top of the mountain?” I questioned as the rope disappeared out of the hole in the ceiling.

  “Both sides may swap Pokemon freely. I or the Trainer will determine if a Pokemon is unable to continue battling. 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.” He gestured at Grant. “Gym Leader, if you are ready, please release your first Pokemon.”

  Grant gave a nod and tossed a rather large quadrupedal blue Pokemon. It had gems along its side, and massive yellow frills extending from its head and very long neck. An Aurorus. I should have expected that since this was an Elite battle, he would use the evolution of Amaura…

  I was hoping for Tyrunt, or I guess I should expect Tyrantrum. This would go a lot better if the first opponent was also a dragon type.

  Again before the referee prompted I released Sliggoo.

  The silence I was met with was almost suffocating.

  A little two foot tall snail standing against a nine foot brontosaurus did not feel like an even fight. Grant clearly looked hesitant. He was clearly expecting something else.

  “Uh…begin?” the referee called, also quite caught off guard.

  Time to ruin all those perceived weaknesses about Sliggoo and her line. “Opening salvo!” I called with a grin, pointing towards the little snail's opponent.

  Sliggoo complied immediately, already knowing the plan. She burst into purple-blue light, mouth open as the massive purple flaming rocks formed in the air above her.

  Everyone’s eyes widened. Even the referee’s jaw dropped slightly as the little slug unleashed Draco Meteor as the first move. She had been working so hard on increasing her energy, though she was still lacking. She could only use this move once before needing a break, but it didn’t completely deplete her now.

  “Light Screen!” Grant shouted just before the meteors launched.

  A dozen shimmering walls flashed into existence in front of Aurorus just in time to be shattered by half a dozen flaming rocks. It wouldn’t block it, but it would take off some of the damage.

  “Armor up,” I followed up and the slime covering Sliggoo became more viscous and thicker. It was honestly interesting how Acid Armor just made her more slimy. She got the move off easily, since the dino across the field from her was still reeling from getting blasted like that.

  When the smoke cleared and I could actually see Grant again, he had a much more serious look on his face. He had paid the price for underestimating the little snail.

  The rain was starting to pick up now. “Ice Beam!” he called. His Aurorus lowered their head, mouth open as a beam shot out, only to be met with an identical beam of similar strength. Again he seemed completely caught off guard. He probably didn’t know she could use ice moves.

  Of course, she couldn’t keep it up and just used the momentary clash to bounce out of the way. She continued to use her momentum, rolling quickly towards the larger Pokemon. Scoly had been trying to teach the snail her special move, but she couldn’t tuck enough to get enough momentum.

  Didn’t mean she couldn’t use it to maneuver.

  She bounced back to normal, now just a few feet away from the dinosaur and fired a violet beam from her mouth. The Dragon Pulse slammed into them, though it barely made them flinch.

  They suddenly reared up onto their hind legs and their legs burst into white light before they slammed down.

  The arena shook from the force of the blow. That had been Giga Impact.

  It was silent for a moment aside from the falling rain as everyone looked around, trying to see where the little snail had gone. Well, everyone but me. I knew exactly where she was. And eventually so did the Aurorus. They went a bit pale as they slowly lifted their foot to reveal a perfectly fine little snail.

  Now everyone was looking at the small crater containing a seemingly uninjured Sliggoo.

  Taking advantage of the stupor, Sliggoo unleashed a point blank Water Gun directly into the Aurorus’ face.

  In response, they slammed down again instinctively. Then as if realizing what they had done they quickly lifted their foot, just to get Water Gunned again.

  They shook their head, their confusion clearly turning into annoyance. Their feet lifted again and shone white before slamming down.

  However this time the little snail was able to get out of the way. Her Gooey ability had been activated twice and now the two Pokemon were much more even in speed.

  The Aurorus had clearly been expecting the snail to be under foot again, so it was caught off guard when she slammed into her side with a rather firm Tackle. Their head whipped around in response, a slight pink sheen covering their forehead before it made contact and sent Sliggoo bouncing away.

  They went to take a step and paused, taking note of the way their body felt…sluggish. And of course it would. Their legs were covered in splatterings of goo, and now their head and neck had similar muck on them.

  Sliggoo shook her head a bit as she pat herself down with her little hands. Judging from her expression she was surprised she was doing so well. Sure, she hadn’t really hurt the massive dino, but she also hadn’t really been hurt.

  Her opponent looked quite confused. This was probably unlike any fight she had ever had before. A battle of attrition. A battle of chip damage. And the large dinosaur didn’t have the defense or health that the little slug did. I still wasn’t sure if stats were a thing or not, but if they did it wasn’t hard to make them better.

  Suddenly she started rolling just before another ice beam slammed into the spot she had been. The Aurorus tried to track her movement, but she was faster now and could outpace her. Even Grant was confused, and I could see him trying to wrack his brain for what was going on. As far as he could see, Sliggoo hadn’t done any buff or debuff moves aside from Acid Armor.

  The rain was keeping him from seeing the slime. Honestly I could barely see it and that was only because I knew what to look for.

  The moment the Ice Beam stopped, Sliggoo changed course and flashed into white before haphazardly flinging themselves forward and slamming straight into their chest. The blow actually caused them to stagger several feet backwards. Body Slam was one of her stronger moves.

  In retaliation they used Zen Headbutt again, and while the snail could have dodged, I had told her to only worry about ice and dragon type moves and just tank everything else. So again she was batted away, and the dinosaur got another scoop of goop.

  “Icy Wind!” Grant suddenly called. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was clear that he needed to lower Sliggoo’s speed somehow otherwise his Pokemon was never going to be able to hit her.

  It was a repeat of the situation with the Ice Beam; Sliggoo just rolling out of the way and then using Body Slam again.

  And judging from the way Aurorus was now twitching, their moves seemed a bit halting, and the odd little crackles of electricity, this time they had been paralyzed.

  There was a moment of silence before suddenly Aurorus disappeared in a flash of red. The referee and Grant shared a look, and the latter shook his head. The referee raised a hand upwards. “Gym Leader Grant has decided that Aurorus is unable to keep battling and is knocked out!”

  Probably a good choice considering his Pokemon was heavily damaged, slowed, and paralyzed. It would be difficult to pull that back into an advantageous situation. He could wear out Sliggoo more for his next Pokemon, but I guess that wasn’t his style. And the little snail already looked dead tired.

  “I don’t know what that was, but it was very interesting,” Grant called out to me. “I’m actually not sure what to do.” He chuckled a bit, shaking his head as he drew out another pokeball.

  However, before he could release it, there was a bright shining light in the center of the arena. I blinked for a moment before I realized what it was. The snail form of Sliggoo slowly shifted, growing three times larger, the horns on her head extending, as her arms extended and she grew legs.

  She staggered a bit, suddenly much taller and now having legs must be jarring, but her new large tail helped to keep her balance.

  Had she really been that close to evolving that all she needed to do was fight a bit in the rain? I guess it sort of made sense from what I knew about evolution and how energy worked. She had been struggling to increase her energy, which is a sign of a Pokemon being close to their next stage.

  The new Goodra looked down at her hands, examining the fact that it now had two finger-like appendages. Slowly she looked back at me, a big smile on her face.

  I chuckled a bit. “Congrats. Do you still want to fight?”

  She seemed to think about it for a moment before nodding, turning back to face Grant.

  He sighed and then chuckled. “Well that’s definitely not fair. I was already struggling when it was a snail.” But he sent out his next Pokemon, one that was just as big as his previous. It was bipedal, and looked pretty blatantly like a red tyrannosaurus rex with a feather collar.

  The Tyrantrum let out a roar that seemed to shake the entire mountain. Goodra nearly fell over from how the ground shook. It didn’t hesitate as it charged forward, jaws open and their mouth bursting into flames.

  Goodra let out a squeak before the jaws clamped down on her shoulder and chest. If she hadn’t just evolved, the massive dino could have probably swallowed her.

  She panicked a bit, and I watched as her massive horns burst into light, coated with dragon energy. I had no idea what move she used but they slammed into the dinosaur’s head and practically plastered them into the ground.

  There were a few teeth still visible stuck into the big slug's shoulder as the Tyrantrum apparently hadn't had time to loosen its jaws.

  For some reason she looked pissed off, and slammed her horns into them again. And then again. Pounding their head into the ground like they were a stake.

  For a moment it was silent as she staggered back, and from the way she was wobbling I realized she was confused for some reason. And then I realized what move she had just used: Outrage. Probably not the best move to open with like that, but the fact that all three hit had to be devastating, even if she was struggling even more on her new legs.

  The Tyrantrum slowly started to get up, pulling its head out of the hole it had been pounded into. It was missing quite a few teeth, and blood was trickling from its mouth and quite visible marks on its head, it honestly looked like it was barely standing. It must have really high defense and health to take three hits from Outrage when its weak to dragon type moves.

  It took a moment for them to get their bearings and focus on the wobbling Goodra that was nearby. With visible effort it took a single step forward before slumping and hitting the ground.

  Once more the only sound that could be heard was the pattering of rain. And then Goodra fell back, hitting the ground with a wet plap.

  It took a moment before the referee raised a hand. “Double knock out! As Gym Leader Grant has no Pokemon remaining, and Pokemon Expert Jason has one remaining, Jason is the victor!”

  I quickly returned Goodra, sighing slightly. “Whoa,” Eevee whispered and I startled at her sudden voice. “That was cool.” She had a big smile on her face.

  With a chuckle, I reached up and rubbed the top of her wet head. “Goodra is cool.”

  Grant was coming over, having checked on his Tyrantrum before returning them. “Well, that was a good match. Really caught me off guard,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck, a rather frustrated look on his face. “Sorry for underestimating you.” He held out his hand, a small badge in his hand depicting three different cliffs staggered with a star in the middle.

  I took it with a smile. “No worries. Most people do.”

  “Can’t imagine why,” he commented as he looked me up and down.

  With a snort I shrugged, walking towards the elevator. I was pretty soaked now and wanted to get out of the rain and to the Pokecenter. “As cliche as it is, looks can be deceiving.” I gave him a wave as I got into the elevator, leaving him in the arena. I wasn’t sure why he hadn’t come with, I would have expected him to want to go to the Pokecenter.

  And then I saw the interior and realized he probably wanted to avoid an awkward conversation about why his likeness was plastered floor to ceiling.

  I jogged from the gym to the Pokecenter, wanting to get out of the rain as soon as possible. “Yeah! Faster!” Eevee declared, patting my shoulder enthusiastically.

  I just rolled my eyes, ignoring her comments and urging for me to go faster. She would probably really like to evolve into something fast. Which would mean Espeon or Jolteon. Both would be good options, especially Jolteon. My family didn’t have an electric battler.

  Stepping into the Pokecenter I was met with the same Nurse Joy that I had seen before heading to the gym.

  “Oh? Well, how did it go?” she asked, a smile on her face.

  “Good,” I said as I put Goodra’s pokeball down. “My little snail evolved into a big slug.”

  She blinked at me, trying to figure out what I was talking about. “Ah, the Sliggoo? You mean you used her to fight?”

  I did my best to not frown at that kind of response. “Of course. She’s strong and works hard.”

  “Okay,” she said as she looked at the Pokeball before picking up the tray. “I’ll be right back. Do you need some towels?”

  “Yes, please,” I said with a slight bow. I had towels, but I wouldn’t turn down free use towels.

  It wasn’t long before a Wigglytuff came with a big stack of towels and helped by toweling Eevee as I worked on drying my hair. While my coat was waterproof, I couldn’t put my hood up due to a certain little fuzzball occupying it. Dee was quick to jump out and help, getting into a rather rapid fire discussion with the Wigglytuff as they worked. They were discussing some sort of medical stuff, and I realized that Dee was trying to find out new techniques and procedures.

  Did she do that every time she disappeared in a Pokecenter? It made sense. She definitely prioritized her nursing over everything else. I would have to ask her how I could help out with that in the future.

  The two of them left once Eevee and I were thoroughly dried, Dee helping to carry the used towels to wherever they were supposed to go. For a moment I wondered if she would be happier just working in a Pokecenter… That was something I didn’t want to think about, but I knew I would have to talk to her about it.

  It wasn’t much longer before Dee returned with Goodra’s pokeball.

  Before I had a chance to take it, it popped open and the new Goodra appeared, beaming down. “I won,” she said softly.

  I nodded and was about to say anything before I was suddenly lifted off the ground. For a moment all I could do was laugh as Goodra held me up, swinging me back and forth. “You did great,” I managed to say, struggling a bit to return her hug because she had pinned my arms.

  She was just giggling, a big smile on her face. That must have been such a huge boost to her confidence. I know she had struggled with it, always so apprehensive when I tried to get her to do things. But she always listened and it had paid off.

  “We’re going to show the world what a powerhouse a Goodra can be,” I said with a smile.

  She was still giggling as she put me down, wiggling and shifting from foot to foot. “I’m so big!” she announced. And that was probably the loudest I had ever heard her voice get. Her face got red as she realized she was being loud and quickly returned to her pokeball.

  I chuckled a bit as I picked up the ball. While her confidence had definitely gone up several notches, she was still pretty shy.

  With a deep breath, I returned Dee and tucked Eevee back into my hood before heading off towards the train station. My next stop was Geosenge. Since my battle with Korrina wasn’t until three, and it was barely past ten, that left a good five hours for Dee, and if she needed more I wouldn’t have a problem leaving her there and picking her up after the battle.

  As I stepped out of the train station I released Scoly, who grumbled a bit at the rain. I just chuckled a bit and rubbed her shell as I struggled a little to get onto her back. “We’re going to the Ranch. Just following that road,” I said as I gestured.

  Without another word she just nodded and took off. Despite her complaints, she really loved to run. And Eevee loved it when she ran, too. The little fox was feeling quite good today apparently, eager to feel the wind and rain against her face.

  I wasn’t really a fan, but I had to admit that I enjoyed the speed. Even after so long there was just something about the sheer speed that Scoly could display that caught me off guard. She was just so fast, and I wondered if it would actually be faster to ride her than go on the trains. Definitely more direct, that’s for sure. Eevee would probably like that a lot more, too. Although she also liked the trains.

  It wasn’t long before we got to the gate and the massive bug horse didn’t even waste time and simply leaped over the gate. My heart leapt into my throat as we became airborne, and for the first time in a while I really regretted not having a saddle and something to grab onto.

  Thankfully I didn’t fall off when we landed, though I had to reach up to grab Eevee as she lost her footing and nearly went tumbling off. However, rather than be scared she just cheered happily, laughing at the situation.

  As we rapidly approached the building, a few Pokemon peeked out the windows and the front door opened, a very unamused Joy standing there.

  Scoly hit the brakes, or at least tried to. She slid several meters and nearly slammed into the wall of the building before she managed to stop. “Oops. Ground's slippery,” she said rather sheepishly.

  I sighed a bit as I got down, my legs still a bit wobbly from the excitement. “Yes, Scoly. Wet ground slippery,” I deadpanned.

  Joy snorted from the doorway. “Well… Long time no see.” She made a gesture for me to come inside, and I did so, followed by Scoly. Inside there were two Audino and a Wigglytuff already holding towels.

  “It has,” I agreed. For the second time that day I spent time drying myself, unceremoniously handing Eevee to the Wigglytuff as one of the Audino handed me a towel. Before I started to dry my hair again, I released Dee.

  Immediately both Audino were on her and they began to chatter away. There was definitely a relaxed look on Dee’s face when seeing the two. It was clear that she had missed them, and even more Audino showed up, all talking excitedly and I had a rather worrying thought.

  How many of these were hers?

  It had never come up. I knew she had multiple, but I couldn’t tell if they were all hers, or if they were all just good friends and excited to see her. Considering how easy it would be to mass breed a Pokemon it was a possibility. That also raised the question of who the father was.

  I had so many questions and things to discuss with Dee. I guess I really did need to have a sit down talk with our resident nurse.

  “You’ve been really busy,” Joy commented.

  A soft hum escaped me as I nodded. “Yeah. Busy busy busy.” I undid my hair so that I could dry it better, wrapping the tie with my Key Stone around my wrist.

  “I…” She paused and then sighed. “I’m sorry that I didn’t really give you support.”

  I paused and looked over at her before shrugging. “It’s fine. I more than anyone understand how impossible the feat looked.” I started to gently work out my hair with the towel.

  “But you did it,” she said with another sigh.

  “With a lot of help,” I added with a bit of a laugh. “You don’t have to be so down about it. It’s a thing that’s happening, and all you have to do is show your support for it in the future, right?”

  She was quiet for a moment before she nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  “Could definitely use some Pokemon nurses,” I prompted.

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have that kind of authority.” She paused. “But… I can ask about it.”

  “We’d all really appreciate that,” I said with a smile, grabbing another dry towel. Drying my hair was such a pain. Especially because I was going to have to dry it again later, so I decided after the second towel I would leave it alone. A nice hot shower sounded like a good way to end today, whenever that came about.

  As I looked around I realized that all of the Pokemon had gone off somewhere. “Can I ask you something?” Joy suddenly asked.

  My attention turned to her. “Sure.”

  “Why?”

  I stared at her for a moment. “Why what?”

  She frowned a bit, trying to think of the correct words. “Why go through all this?”

  A snort escaped me. “Might as well question why you’re training nurses.”

  Her mouth opened to say something, but then she paused, closing it as she thought about it. “Well, I mean it’s just what was expected of me.”

  “And do you like it? Doing what you do?” I questioned.

  She nodded. “Of course. I might not be able to do much, but I like to think I make the world a little better.”

  “Exactly. You do what you can. I’m just doing what I can.” I tied my hair back, a bit annoyed it was still damp but mostly ignoring it. “Whether it’s a single Pokemon. Ten. Twenty. A hundred. A thousand. Ten thousand. Hundreds of thousands. I just have this urge to do whatever I can, and I got lucky in that I can do a lot.”

  A sigh escaped her as she nodded. She sure was sighing a lot. “Right. Okay, I get that. I guess it’s just… Impressive that you’ve managed to do so much.”

  “I mean, I’ve hardly done anything. Most of it was Diantha,” I said with a soft laugh. As if knowing she was being talked about, my phone buzzed.

  Pulling it out there was a text from Diantha. ‘When do you want to move the wolf pack to New Hope?’

  That was a good question. ‘How about this weekend?’

  ‘Sounds good.’

  “It’s like she knew I was talking about her,” I said with a chuckle.

  “You have a Rotom, right?” Joy asked.

  I couldn’t help but wince as I got a small shock. “Yeah. I do, but they don’t like being called that.”

  She frowned a bit. “May I… see them?”

  Looking at the phone, I could see the little thing peeking out from the side, clearly feeling bad about shocking me again. “Is that okay little one? Can this Joy look at you?”

  “They don’t have to exit the phone,” she assured.

  They thought it over for a moment before nodding. I held out the phone to Joy and she took it, getting a small shock as she did, though she didn’t even flinch. Which was impressive.

  She spent some time softly talking to them, asking them how they were feeling and a few other little things. They hadn’t really had a proper medical checkup in a while as far as I knew. They just spent most of their time in my phone.

  Clearly Joy knew that I had gotten it, but the fact that it hadn’t taken control of the phone was very telling. It was still just hiding in there and hardly ever came out unless it was to eat. Even trying to use pokebeans to coax them out didn’t work.

  “Jace?” she suddenly asked flatly, looking up at me with an extremely unamused face. “Why am I in your contacts as Farm Joy?”

  I blinked a few times at her. “Because I don’t know your name?”

  She just stared at me for several moments before shaking her head and looking back at the phone.

  “Better question, why are you going through my contacts?” I asked suspiciously.

  “Your little ghost was showing me how well they control your device and I noticed it,” she said with a vague wave of her hand to dismiss me.

  I frowned a bit and just sighed before sitting down in a nearby sitting area. It wasn’t long before Joy gave me back my phone, suggesting that I definitely get them a proper examination when they’re feeling up to it. She had looked at their file and it had some long term injuries listed that, while not detrimental, should be looked at occasionally.

  That was something I wasn’t told about. I guess they didn’t think it was important enough.

  The little Rotom peeked out of the phone once Joy excused herself to get back to work. “J-Jace?” they said softly.

  Immediately they had my full attention. “Yes, little one?”

  “I… Can I…” they seemed to trail off, looking down at the phone they were partially out of. “Can I be called Bit?”

  I smiled softly down at them. “Like bits and bytes?”

  They nodded slightly.

  I smiled a little more. “Well of course you can. So, little Bit. How does that sound?”

  There was a smile on their face as they nodded. “I like that.”

  Without another word they sank back into the phone and disappeared. I wondered how long they had been thinking about that. This was one of the rare times that we were alone, so it might have been quite a long time.

  While I was waiting I had another idea for a conversation that I wanted to have and pulled a pokeball from my coat before releasing Keo onto the couch beside me.

  She blinked up at me, a bit confused.

  All I did was smile down at her. “So, how do you feel?”

  Her brow furrowed a bit and she got comfortable on the couch. “Okay? I actually feel pretty good since the checkup after the battle with the bugs.”

  “Good. Because there are some things I wanted to talk to you about.” I saw the way that she tensed and I reached over, gently petting her back. “It’s nothing bad,” I assured.

  “Okay…” She didn’t seem to relax.

  I really messed up when I had threatened her like that. That was going to be something I regretted for a really long time, and would really have to show her that I didn’t mean it. So to start that process, I reached into my bag and pulled out the ice stone. “You’ve worked really hard, and you’ve proven that you’re ready. I want you to know that anytime you want to, you can evolve.”

  She was suddenly on her feet. “Now! Right now! I wanna evolve right now!”

  A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “Alright, alright. I get it. You’ve more than earned it, so here.” I held the stone out to her.

  She stared at it for a moment, the excitement that had been coursing through her dwindling rather quickly. “Are you sure I’m… ready?”

  “You are,” I assured with a smile.

  Slowly she reached out, taking the stone in her teeth and then backing away. I had expected it to be instant, but it seemed that it actually took a moment before it took effect. The stone shattered and Keo was immediately enveloped in light.

  Slowly I watched as her form morphed. Her tails split into more, her hair elongating and becoming longer and flowy. She gained quite a bit of height, and eventually it settled and her form solidified. Her leg was still missing, as were two of her tails, but most of the scarring had faded quite drastically and there didn’t seem to be any damage to her eye.

  “Whoa…” she muttered, looking down at herself. I saw the way that her eyes lingered on the little stump of a leg before wandering over the rest of her. “I feel so much stronger. And all the pain is gone…”

  “Pain?” I immediately questioned.

  She winced slightly, looking away. “Well… I mean it kinda ached a bit…”

  I sighed, dragging a hand down my face. “I swear. You and Cara…”

  “Sorry…” she mumbled.

  “It’s fine. There’s actually something else I wanted to discuss with you. If you want, there might be a way to help with… that,” I said as I gestured at her missing leg. While I would do anything to try and help her, I hadn’t actually asked her what she wanted. So before I forced- I mean asked Clemont, I should get her opinion.

  She looked at me for a moment and then down at her missing leg, her brow furrowing. “My leg?”

  I nodded. “We could get a prosthetic. A fake leg that you could use.”

  There was a frown on her face as she stared at the space that her leg should be. It took several minutes before she shook her head. “No. I… I want to prove I can do it. This isn’t going to slow me down,” she practically growled.

  Slowly I reached out, running my fingers through her mane. “Okay. That’s fine. You don’t have to, but it’s an option, okay?”

  She nodded a bit, surprising me a bit as she leaned into my hand. “Thank you for keeping your promise… and… I’m sorry…”

  A bit of a smile pulled at my mouth. “Sorry for what?”

  It really looked like she didn’t want to respond but eventually she huffed. “For being a brat.”

  That got a bit of a laugh out of me. “A brat? Who said that?”

  “That’s… That’s what everyone calls Fiertula…” she mumbled.

  Ah so she had finally accepted that he wasn’t a good role model at some point. Although, I had never heard anyone on the show call him a brat, so it was probably Rio or someone who said it. “It’s alright,” I said softly, rubbing and scratching at her jaw. “We’ll both just have to do better, right?”

  She nodded and then settled down on the couch beside me, laying her head in my lap. I pulled out one of the brushes I had and began to go through her fur, being sure to collect it since it had such a soft texture. It would make good stuffing or maybe Mikyu could make it into cloth.

  It was a few hours before Dee finally returned, still followed by a rather impressive entourage of Pokemon who were all clearly upset that she was leaving. However Dee seemed quite satisfied with the visit, and expressed that we should get going so that I wouldn’t be late for the battle.

  I agreed and we all said our goodbyes before I had to ask where Scoly went. And it took quite a while for her to be found, as she had apparently made a bunch of friends with some of the younger Pokemon.

  After another round of goodbyes, I had Scoly run us back to the train station. While I wanted to see how fast the bug horse could get somewhere, I wasn’t too keen on testing while it was raining so much. And the rain had picked up quite a bit while we had been sitting.

  But now, it was time to head to Shalour and give Korrina that battle she seemed so excited for.

  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 - - EVOLVED Goodra - - Big slug

  Mimikyu - Very skilled seamstress

  Banette - Silent but persuasive?

  - - EVOLVED - - 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