Bibarel entered the field, looking back at him with that ever blank expression of hers. Lucas couldn’t afford to waste time in this battle, but with what had just happened to Torterra, maybe going directly into hard hitting moves wasn’t a great idea….

  Clap, OK symbol with his left hand, snap, snap, clap. Bibarel gave him the barest of nods before curling herself up into a ball, her tail meeting her face as a white sheen overtook her.

  Byron laughed heartily. “While I applaud you trying to boost your defense, as every good trainer should, I think you’ll find that a measly Defense Curl won’t do much against a team like mine! They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, though, so I can’t get on your case too much! If only everyone realized how amazing a good defense was!”

  The Gym Leader didn’t do anything in retaliation, though, waiting to see where Lucas was going with this. Good. That gave Lucas time to consider his options and eye up that Bastiodon of his.

  Clap, left hand into a fist, snap, clap. Bibarel, still curled up, quickly shifted that white sheen to more of a light brown as she started rolling forward over the ground, slowly gaining speed and maneuvering around the battlefield. Bastiodon slowly turned with every move she made, trying to ensure that its giant head would be what took the brunt of the incoming Rollout.

  Byron just smirked. “Not just going to blast us with a Water Gun or something, kid? I’m not sure when you last looked at a type chart, but a Rock type move like Rollout isn’t going to do much to us.”

  Bibarel propelled herself at Bastiodon, going in for the first hit, but the Steel typed tilted its head back, causing Lucas’ Pokemon to run up its face like a ramp, launching her into the air in a glancing blow that didn't’ seem to affect Bastiodon at all.

  “Stone Edge!”

  Lucas grit his teeth as huge chunks of the arena suddenly got launched into the air, boulders making their way towards the airborne Bibarel. The first sailed right past her, hitting the roof of the gym in a way that made everyone but Byron wince. The second struck her in a glancing blow, sending her out of the way of the rest of the attack and causing her to cry out.

  Despite the pain she must be in from having been hit like that, she powered through, the Rollout still going strong and picking up speed as she bounced off the ground and rolled herself around to come in for another attempt.

  Getting hit like that hadn’t been Lucas’ plan, but maybe it would help sell this more. He waited as long as he could, hoping that despite Bibarel’s dimwittedness and inability to directly observe his commands she’d be able to get this one through hearing it alone.

  Clap, closed fist striking an open palm, snap, clap. Byron cast him a wary look, but there was little Bastiodon could do about the Bibarel rolling towards it at speed as the light brown glow turned into a deeper, darker shade and she unfurled, letting all the built up momentum go into this one hit.

  With a grunt of effort, Bibarel’s tail smacked Bastiodon's face with a Rock Smash.

  Bastiodon cried out in pain as it stumbled back, a crack appearing in its metal face which stretched from just above its right eye to nearly the top of the left side of its shield, a spiderweb of fractures splintering off from that main break. The wound quickly started seeping blood which blinded it as it flowed down the surface of its shield and dripped down onto the floor.

  Byron seemed shocked that it had done so much damage to his Pokemon, and Lucas wasn’t about to let him mentally recover and order the use of Metal Burst again.

  Clap, two fingers up on his left hand, snap, clap. Bibarel opened her mouth and a torrent of water shot out as she put her all into the Water Gun.

  Bastiodon’s form was obscured in the mist it created when it splashed against the Steel type’s shield, but when it came to an end the Pokemon was knocked out.

  Byron sighed as he recalled his Pokemon. “That goes to show that even a mighty defense can be toppled by a critical hit. I’ll admit, that stings a little, but don’t think it’s over yet!” As he grabbed his next Pokeball, he gave Lucas a calculating look. “Part of me wants to crush you in return for that, but with the number of badges you have… come on out, Bronzor!”

  Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. Bronzor he was somewhat familiar with, given how common they seemed to be in the caves of Sinnoh. There shouldn’t be anything to catch him off guard this time.

  But of course, that was when he really took a good look at Bibarel. She was putting her weight on her right side, and though there was no obvious damage on the surface, it was clear that the Stone Edge had done more damage to her than first appeared.

  This could be bad. Bronzor was a tricky one for his team to go up against. So much of his team’s moveset was resisted by the Steel and Psychic combo, and on top of that Levitate made it immune to Earthquake. Not that it really mattered with Torterra already out of the picture… Water Gun would at least do neutral damage…? It would have to do.

  Clap, two fingers up on his left hand, snap, clap. Bibarel spat out a Water Gun, noticeably weaker than the last, and while it pushed Bronzor back a bit through the air, Lucas knew it wouldn’t be enough.

  “Confuse Ray!”

  A ball of eerie light appeared before the Bronzor, and Lucas felt his heart rate jump. Was the Steel type Gym Leader really about to pull out the same nonsense that had turned Fantina’s gym into such a close call?

  Thankfully Bronzor didn’t have the advantage that Mismagius had held in the speed department. There was no sudden rush to close the distance and prevent escape, so Bibarel managed to jump out of the way, though the landing had her wincing in pain.

  He wasn’t sure how long his Water type could go on like this. He ordered another Water Gun, and the jet of water managed to put a small dent into the Bronzor’s metal plating, but it wasn’t enough to take it out.

  “Extrasensory into Flash Cannon!”

  Bronzor’s eyes glowed, and a sweeping beam of wavering, flickering purple energy caught Bibarel as she tried and failed to dodge out of the way. She flinched back in pain, which made her easy pickings for the follow up of the steely grey light beam. Her fur was a burnt mess wherever it traced a path, and when the light show died down she huffed out a grunt of defiance, attempted to regain her footing, and promptly collapsed.

  Lucas recalled her. It sucked that she had gone down, but at least it wasn’t to some garbage tactic…

  Now he had a dilemma, though.

  Eevee had been getting more training recently, but he wasn’t sure that Quick Attack and Bite would do much if Bibarel’s Water Gun had been so ineffective. Togepi…. Well, using Togepi would just be taking a chance on Metronome again. High risk and a high reward.

  And then there was the empty pokeball mixed in with the others that held his team. Why was that there again? He should probably look into that at some point.

  None of his options were very enticing at the moment, but… well, if Veilstone had taught him anything, it was that when it came to gambling, he was a pro!

  “Toge-priiii!” His youngest team member chirped when he got released onto the field. Though with a new egg in his possession, Togepi would soon be an older brother… guess it was time for the little guy to spread his metaphorical wings!

  Gym battles were good for growth, anyway, right? Besides, Togepi had won his very first battle against Fantina, which basically meant that his specialty was taking on Gym Leaders!

  “A Togepi?” Byron sounded surprised. “Are you the one…. Man, did I really underestimate someone like you?! I knew your name sounded familiar!”

  Lucas had no clue what the man was going on about, but it didn’t really matter. Togepi was a little brat who would do as he pleased, and what pleased him was Metronome. His stubby little fingers waggled for a moment before the screeching of steel and a cloud of sparks and smoke appeared right in front of him.

  Lucas had no idea what was going on as a ghostly anchor of all things shot forth, looking like a green tinted apparition but seemingly having all the weight of the real thing. Heavy chains followed behind as the giant hunk of metal smashed into Bronzor’s face. The little Psychic’s Levitate kept it from falling to the ground, but then the chain started wrapping around it, obstructing most of its body from view. The end of the chain had apparently come out at some point, as Togepi was dancing around like he was none the wiser, but it was hard to tell where the chain ended and began with the mess that was tangled around Bronzor and weighing it down with the links that were dragging across the field’s surface.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Byron laughed. “Well that’s a new one on me! I might have to look into a move like that, though, if my suspicions are correct! But don’t think that because you can wrap Bronzor up that you’ve won! Flash Cannon!”

  The harsh beam of light melted right through some of the chain links, but blinded as it was, the Bronzor came nowhere near actually hitting Togepi, instead hitting a rock several meters to the right of him.

  Togepi’s finger waggled again, and this time it was… spectral Combee? It was like the ghosts of a swarm of Combee had shown up and decided to just obstruct the combatants' view of each other. That seemed like less of a move and more… well, he wasn’t sure what it would be.

  Another Flash Cannon shot out as Bronzor struggled to free itself, and some of the Combee intercepted the attack, being destroyed in a puff of spectral smoke but preventing the beam from getting near Togepi.

  Togepi called another move… and it was over. Even from across the stadium, Lucas could see Byron’s frown as Togepi’s mouth opened with the red hot licks of a flame which he spat towards Bronzor as the Steel type managed to shrug off some of the chains. It didn’t look like much at first, but upon contact the flames burst apart, instantly welding some of those links to Bronzor’s body in a mess of molten metal that caused it to finally collapse.

  Byron sighed. “I don’t suppose you know any moves that can fix that? It’s been years since I had to fix something like this… Joy is gonna kill me….”

  He’d take the win.

  “How can you be bad at using moves? You’re a Pokemon.” Mawile drew the word out like he was particularly slow.

  “I don’ need yer sass, I already know how strange that is.”

  N watched with a bit of amusement as Mimikyu tried leading someone else through using a move for once. One that he didn’t know himself, at that.

  It wasn’t going very well.

  “If you say so. Just hurry up and tell me how to use Fairy moves!”

  “Well… can ya sense the new Fairy stuff in yer Source? I dunno how that works when a new type gets introduced…”

  Mawile hummed, closing her eyes. “Hmmmmm, I think so? I definitely feel different somehow, so I guess it must be Fairy.”

  The three of them had moved a bit closer to the water, wanting to avoid any potential property damage with Mawile’s interest in testing out her new abilities. Mimikyu’s Mime Jr. Disguise was becoming a sandy mess, but N wasn’t going to point that out just yet.

  “That’s… good, I think. Mawile should natch’rally be able ta use Play Rough an’… I think it was Fairy Wind? Though Play Rough seems kinda advanced so maybe we can learn that one together later on…”

  One of Mawile’s eyes peeked open. “You’re bad at this teaching stuff.”

  “Do ya want me ta teach ya or not?!” Mimikyu all but growled the words. “I’m doin’ my best ‘ere!”

  “Fine, fine.”

  “Hmmm. Fairy Wind… that sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Jus’ gotta infuse that Fairy energy inta some wind or somethin’.... How would a Mawile make wind? I think ya can learn Icy Wind too, but that’s a TM or somethin’... maybe…. How does Sweet Scent work for ya?”

  She tilted her head in confusion. “I make my mouth smell sweet?” The giant maw moved to drape over her shoulder, indicating clearly which mouth she meant.

  “Well yeah, I got that much,” Mimikyu waved the poor explanation away, “but if ya jus’ make yer mouth smell sweet, nobody is gonna smell that. It won’t do anythin’ unless ya got their head halfway down yer throat already. How do ya draw ‘em in? Do ya like, waft it or somethin’?”

  “Oh!” Mawile perked up with a smile. “Yeah! I wave my mouth around a bit so that the smell drifts towards my food!”

  “Perfect! So Fairy Wind must be something like that but… more intense maybe? And obviously yer using that Fairy energy instead of using Sweet Scent.”

  N could see the train of logic that Mimikyu was using, but given his aversion to battles, he hadn’t exactly come across many examples of Pokemon trying to learn new moves. The two tended to go hand in hand, at least in the wild. He couldn’t say whether or not trying to logic your way into a move would work.

  “I see….” Mawile muttered. Her cute little face tightened in focus, and her giant maw started to wave back and forth, stirring up a slight breeze. She stayed like that for a little while, leaving N and Mimikyu to observe the process silently lest they disturb her, until she finally did a spin with a bit of a flourish, her maw flaring out with a slight pink glow. As she came to a stop, with her mouth stretched out, a very slight wind shot forward with barely visible sparkles fluttering along with it.

  She giggled. “I almost had it there!”

  N could feel Mimikyu frown. “So you just became a Fairy and yer already gettin’ a hang of it, but I’ve been workin’ all this time ta eventually get Shadow Sneak right and I only got Shadow Claw out of a TM. Perfect.”

  She smirked at him. “You’re right! I am perfect!”

  Mimikyu turned towards him. “N, what are yer thoughts on corporal punishments for brats? No reason in particular, I jus’ wanna know.”

  N rolled his eyes. “Mimikyu, you can’t get all grumpy just because someone progresses faster than you.”

  “I can an’ will, thank you very much.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” Mawile teased.

  Mimikyu put on a mocking voice. “Oh look at me! I’m so special!” He started spinning around, extending a shadowy limb in a crude mockery of Mawile’s extra jaw. “I can mega evolve, an’ act like a brat, an’ use moves like Fairy Wind!”

  Whatever rebuttal might have come to the mockery was instantly silenced as Mimikyu did, in fact, use Fairy Wind. The sparkly gust even looked stronger than Mawile’s, for that matter.

  There was silence, for a moment, as they processed that.

  “...huh.” Mimikyu seemed just as dumbfounded as N felt.

  “...what did you mean by mega evolve?” Mawile asked, deciding to ignore the anomaly.

  N couldn’t blame her.

  “At this rate I’m starting to genuinely think they aren’t in Sinnoh anymore,” a Shadow bemoaned.

  “Relax, there are still a few routes for us to check,” another assured.

  “We must hold faith that we will find him, no matter how unlikely it seems that they somehow managed to make it to the other side of the region,” the third declared.

  “Is it possible that the twisting caves of Coronet are somehow hiding their presence?”

  “I’ve never heard of such a thing, but if there’s something special in the mountains…”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” The Shadow marked their location off on the map. Mark after mark filled the paper, the entire eastern half of the region having been thoroughly checked along with the far reaches of Snowpoint and now the area around Eterna. “Let’s check east of Jubilife next.” He pointed it out to Banette, who nodded with a strained smile.

  They really were running out of places to check. Twinleaf, Sandgem…. should they check that route to the South? There didn’t seem to be much there, but it couldn’t hurt… then there was Canalave of course, but it made sense to do this methodically instead of just jumping from population center to population center.

  They descended into shadows momentarily, and then the Shadows rose once more.

  There was a marked change in Banette’s attitude upon their return. Their Ghost perked up, his smile seeming more genuine. “Ba-nette!” He didn’t wait for any confirmation from them, pulling them into shadows once more, again and again and again as he tried to pinpoint their target.

  When they finally came to a stop, though, there was some confusion.

  Deep in the woods, away from the normal paths, a gigantic tree loomed in the distance. Despite Banette’s excitement just a moment ago, however, N and his Mimikyu friend were nowhere in sight.

  “Banette?” This clearly frustrated the Ghost, leaving him frowning and looking around in disbelief.

  “A false trail?”

  “This makes no sense, there hasn’t been one all this time despite how many Ghosts reside in Sinnoh.”

  “Banette can differentiate between Mimikyu and Sinnoh’s native Ghosts. Which means… there has to be something here, even if it isn’t quite our Lord. Spread out, look around.”

  In the blink of an eye, the Shadows began canvassing the area, looking for any sort of clue as to what had drawn Banette’s attention.

  The forest hid some Grass types, some Flying types, a few food wrappers from a careless trainer, a broken pokeball…

  “Ah. Now there’s something that doesn’t look like it belongs.”

  White bone. Dark purple, almost black skin. Eerie green flames.

  “Now, what can you tell me about your relation to our Lord N?”

  Would you look at that? It only took 55 chapters for those green flames to come up again.

  As always, feedback is appreciated. (If you’re actually looking for a response, discord is the place to be)