Unbroken Disguise

N followed Lucas just outside of the city, stepping into a field of route 208 that was bordered by forest on two sides. To his right, just at the forest’s edge, was a building surrounded by small berry fields. Not too far in the distance, the Coronet Mountain range loomed over them. A rushing river fed by the melting snow caps and glaciers near the peak created a dull roar in the background, but it wasn’t so loud as to drown out the sound of wild Pokemon around them.

Lucas stopped just before the tall grass, releasing his Grotle. When the red light faded, the Grass type looked around and promptly rolled his eyes. “Really? Again?”

“Somethin’ wrong?” Mimikyu asked from his ever present spot on N’s shoulder.

“Wants a Ralts…” Grotle grumbled out, running his front right foot back and forth through the grass idly.

A Ralts? N had yet to see any of the evolutionary line living in the wild so far, but with how many of their kind he’d seen with trainers so far, they must be somewhat common in Sinnoh. Maria with her Kirlia and Gardevoir, and he’d seen a Gallade with Alice, Lucian, and Cynthia each… really, with how many he had seen in the hands of humans, he was shocked that he’d yet to run into any free Pokemon from the line yet..

He didn’t say as much to the boy, but if Lucas was seeking to capture one, N hoped that he failed. Even beyond his general dislike of the capture of Pokemon, Mimikyu had infected enough of them to annoy the League already. Leaving Ash and the others behind was meant to be a respite from all the nonsense, there was no point in inviting more of it upon themselves.

“After a Psychic, eh?” Mimikyu muttered. “Is ‘e tryna round out ‘is team coverage wise? Or is it more a matter of practicality? If he could train it right he migh’ be able ta use Telepathy to communicate with ‘is team better… though I s’pose we ‘aven’t seen how good it is yet. Though goin’ after a Ralts specifically is interestin’ when Psychic types aren’ exactly rare in Sinnoh.”

N didn’t have the answers to those questions, though they fell to the back of his mind when Lucas began his demonstration.

He pointed to a tree in the distance and nodded.

Grotle looked between them and his trainer, tilting his head. “Oh. Training?” He settled his feet into a more proper stance, facing toward the tree in question. N focused in on Lucas’ hands as the boy rapidly clapped a few times with a snap somewhere in the middle. Before he could process the string of commands himself, Grotle was already in action, a Razor Leaf forming and shooting off towards the tree with commendable precision. Several of the sharpened leaves embedded themselves into the bark before going limp as the energy faded from them.

“That was… faster than I was expectin’...” Mimikyu commented.

“Indeed it was…” N agreed. While the sounds had been spaced far enough apart that they could be heard distinctly, it was only just enough to not be considered a complete jumbled mess. The smile on Lucas’ face indicated that Grotle had followed the order correctly as well.

“Could you do that again, but perhaps slower this time?” N requested of the boy and what he assumed was his starter.

Lucas nodded, though at this point N wasn’t sure if that was an acknowledgement of his request or part of the order for Grotle. He had done the same just a moment ago, after all.

At a much slower pace, he repeated the series of movements. First was a clap. Then, in a move he hadn’t picked up the first time, he paused to hold up three fingers. He followed that with a snap, and then two more claps.

Grotle acknowledged the command with another Razor Leaf, assaulting the same poor tree.

“Obviously it works, but I dunno ‘ow he got Razor Leaf out of that…” Mimikyu jumped down off of N’s shoulder, scurrying over to the much larger Pokemon. “Ya mind explanin’?”

Grotle looked down, staring Mimikyu in the eyes. His false eyes, anyway, seemingly not having caught on to the truth of the disguise yet. “Yes. I mind.”

Mimikyu faltered, clearly not having expected that response.

“Might fight later,” Grotle explained.

“Ah,” Mimikyu’s false head nodded along, “Ya don’ gotta worry about that with me, I ain’ really a fighter at all.”

Grotle grunted, but didn’t seem to budge on the subject at all.

Dejected, Mimikyu retreated back to N’s side.

Grotle’s rejection didn’t mean that they couldn’t figure it out themselves, though. They just needed more data to analyze. “Could you demonstrate another move for us?”

Lucas didn’t hesitate to agree, nodding to Grotle once more, who took up his stance again.

This time, Lucas started with the slower variant from the beginning. A clap, a… a peace sign? What a strange thing to include… but N couldn’t think on it too long, because Lucas didn’t stop, following it up with a snap and another clap.

Grotle responded by drawing his limbs in towards his body, curling in on himself as much as he could before a thin sheen of water formed a protective shell over him.

“Is that s’posed ta be Withdraw maybe?” Mimikyu hummed from near his feet, and they watched Grotle dispel the technique, the water running off of his body and falling to the grass below.

“Yes,” Grotle answered tersely. A trend, it would seem. Part of him wondered the cause of that behavior, but he didn’t want to assume when it could be as simple as the Pokemon not liking him or Mimikyu.

Besides, he was distracting himself from the reason for this outing.

“Some sort of code, and the gesture after the first clap seems particularly important…” N found himself muttering as he went over the possibilities.

Lucas nodded along, presumably affirming that he was on the right path.

“Yeah, but I dunno what three fingers an’ then two are supposed ta signify.”

“Could their moves have been numbered?”

“But then what’d be tha poin’ of all the other stuff?”

“A distraction maybe?”

Lucas looked like he was holding back laughter at their confusion, but instead of offering to write out an actual explanation, which they’d have questionable luck understanding anyway, he grabbed the other pokeballs on his belt, releasing another member of his team.

It was familiar enough that he was certain he’d seen a pre-evolution. Those buck teeth and the fuzzy brown fur around the face were pretty distinct after all.

“Biiiii.” the Pokemon chittered.

Grotle sighed.

“Uh, N?” Mimikyu looked at him incredulously. “Didn’ ya say somethin’ about Pokemon like this gainin’ intelligence over time with a trainer?”

“He has.” Grotle rolled his eyes.

Far be it from N to think poorly of Pokemon, but he couldn’t help but doubt Grotle’s claim. “Are you certain? I’m not sure how long he’s been with you, but…” That sounded much closer to the nonsense that most humans claimed to hear than the understanding he was used to.

Lucas watched on with curiosity in his eyes as Grotle turned towards his teammate. “Bibarel.”

The Pokemon’s dull eyes focused on the Grass type as it recognized its name.

“Water Gun.”

A jet of water shot between Bibarel’s buck teeth and straight into Grotle’s face, leaving him sputtering. “Not at me!”

When the stream stopped, Bibarel was looking blankly at the agitated Pokemon before him, but Grotle just let out a defeated sigh before giving his body a shake to rid himself of the water.

Lucas was smiling at the two of them, but instead of launching into a demonstration with Bibarel, he followed up by releasing the other Pokemon he had.

At first, N was confused as to how the boy had managed to get a pokeball to accept an unhatched egg as an occupant. But then, the top of it unfolded like a flower, and two beady eyes opened. “Toge-priii!”

Unintelligible. However, in this case N thought it safe to assume that rather than the Pokemon being too simple minded to understand language properly throughout its development, that it was simply too young. Humans took years to develop language, and while Pokemon matured at a much faster rate, this one was still partially in its egg?

So wrapped up in his inspection of the newcomer, he hadn’t noticed that Mimikyu had left his side until he heard his friend’s voice far behind him.

“Togepi is on the Fairy list!”

Lucas was looking back towards Mimikyu with concern, but Grotle was the one to speak up, for obvious reasons. “Fairy list?” He took a spot between Togepi and the two of them, intent on defending his teammate even if he didn’t quite understand.

“Um, Lucas? I would suggest you recall Togepi,” N hurriedly urged the boy. “There are… some things we need to talk about, and Mimikyu’s proximity might have unwanted effects.”

Lucas frowned, but obliged.

N cursed his luck. Lucas hadn’t even needed to manage a fresh capture to get tangled up in this mess.

But… was he really? It was just a brief moment. Surely the Fairy typing couldn’t have spread that quickly, and if they weren’t travel partners… Perhaps it wasn’t necessary to explain. They could just part ways.

But Mimikyu seemed to think the confused boy before him was of some importance. Even if N didn’t understand how Mimikyu knew these things, he had successfully managed to line up an interaction with several Legends in Alamos. The things he mentioned, even offhand, were not to be so easily dismissed.

Grotle glared at them. “Explain.”

N wiped his hand over his face, not really wanting to do this, but accepting that it was happening anyway.

“I don’t suppose you’ve heard any whisperings about the Fairy type?”

The discussion on Fairy types had gone on long enough that the sun was setting and people were heading home for the day, Lucas and N among them. Or, well, the Pokemon Center, not home, but still! Home base? Eh, close enough.

Lucas’ thoughts weren’t going to get any more clear, not with the way that his mind was racing with this new information.

He knew his type chart. Even Barry knew his type chart, and you could barely get Barry to stop for long enough to look at one, let alone memorize it. Type charts were important though, if you planned on making any serious progress as a trainer. Super effective moves made a big difference! And sure, there were a few odd exceptions to the normal chart, like if a Pokemon had Levitate or Water Absorb…. He hadn’t seen those in the field yet, but he’d done his studying before venturing out into the world… but they were just that!

Exceptions!

There wasn’t supposed to be some hidden eighteenth type that he had never even heard rumors of getting sprung on him in the middle of his journey!

Is it the middle of his journey? He only has two badges out of eight, so maybe it should still count as the beginning…

His eye caught on a potion sitting on the ground outside the Pokemart. He hadn’t really spent much time investigating Hearthome yet, there were probably all sorts of goodies around here still! He took a step toward the Pokemart, but his heart fell when a hiker picked it up before him.

The hiker frowned, as if he was disappointed with the potion. The nerve! Taking Lucas’ potential potion and not even being happy with it! Though it might have been the hiker’s in the first place, now that he thought about it…

But Fairy types! That was more important right now. An immunity to Dragon type moves would be… well, probably not all that useful, honestly. Not anytime soon, anyway. Dragons were way too powerful to be hanging around the areas he’d been to so far, and trainers strong enough to handle them would probably have better things to do than hang around the edges of western routes and taking money from chumps with only a badge or two.

Not that he was a chump! He was gonna be the best!

But that was… still a long way off.

And was it really his decision to make, anyway?

Togepi was the one who would be changing types. Might be changing types. Lucas had never had a type, but if he did and there was a chance it could suddenly change, he would want to have some say in the matter!

But Togepi was also a baby. Togepi could barely keep from tripping over his own feet with how much he hustled everywhere. And on top of that, his Pokedex said that he would learn Metronome soon, and that would be a mess of its own… assuming he could still trust his Pokedex.

He glanced over to his walking buddies, N saying something to Mimikyu in Galarian that he couldn’t understand.

He still couldn’t get over the fact that N could talk to Pokemon. How cool was that?! Lucas couldn’t even handle talking to people, let alone Pokemon!

Where was he? Oh, Mimikyu! A Ghost and Fairy type. The Fairy type stuff was a big deal, but if he was a Ghost too, then maybe he could get some help with his definitely not broken Pokedex. If a Ghost had broken it, then a Ghost should be able to fix it, right?

He really didn’t want Professor Rowan to find out what had happened to it.

A blonde girl in some workout gear stole his attention. N-not the girl, that is, but the Pokemon next to her! It looked like a Fire type, but he didn’t recognize it. He pulled out his Pokedex, but the stupid thing just gave him static again, so he shoved it back in his bag with a frown.

Togepi. Fairy types. Focus, Lucas!

Togepi was a baby, the little guy couldn’t do anything on his own besides get into trouble. It would be a bit much to spring a question like “Do you want to change your type” and expect a well thought out answer.

As Togepi’s trainer… that sort of fell on his shoulders, didn’t it?

It was his responsibility to decide whether or not it should happen. That made him feel… uneasy.

He supposed he would have to do what he always did in situations like this. Put it off for later! He could just make sure Togepi and Mimikyu didn’t spend time together until he was sure about the answer one way or the other.

Yeah, that sounded good. Barry won’t let him get a word out? Just stop talking! Don’t know whether Togepi should become a Fairy type? Just stop all interaction with a potential new friend!

What was the point about worrying about things like that when he could be focused on collecting more items for his hoa- er, recycling project! That was always a good distraction.

As he and N approached the Pokemon Center, he glanced at the open door of the building next to it. Most places that welcomed strangers had signs out front, but that wasn’t always true!

Probably.

He hadn’t run into any serious problems yet, so it might as well be true!

Peeking inside the gap of the door frame, his eyes fell on all sorts of technology that was far beyond his understanding. A science lab, then? Maybe they had some goodies laying around… or, um, maybe they needed help with their experiments! Yeah, that was a good cover…

He walked up to the building without a hint of hesitation, making his presence known before the door could be closed.

“Wha- Lucas? What are you doing, that’s just a house!” N called out from behind him, but Lucas ignored his cries. N clearly didn’t know the joy of recycling!

The woman just inside the building jumped a bit in surprise when she noticed him. Long blonde hair was tied back messily, a sleeveless orange top hugged her body, and some jean shorts ended mid thigh. Lucas’ definitely focused on her face, he didn’t want to get cooties. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t notice you there. Hiya!” Her eyes roamed him with a calculating look. “Oh, you’re a trainer! That means you’re using Pokemon Boxes! I love meeting end users!”

N had caught up to him by that point, looking ready to reprimand him, but paused upon hearing those words. “End users?”

“Mimikyu-kyu.”

Lucas was just as confused. He hadn’t actually used the Pokemon Boxes himself yet, not with how small his team was, but he knew what they were and how they worked. They were the system that allowed Pokeballs to be sent large distances almost instantly. If he really needed to, he could get his Pokemon sent back to Sandgem so Professor Rowan could take a look at them, or vice versa. There was also some sort of long term storage mixed in there, but he had never been interested in that aspect of it, so he didn’t know the details.

“Oh, what’s up?” The woman took N’s joining them in stride. “What’s with the astonishment?” She focused back on Lucas before her eyes widened.

“Oh! Right, sorry! There I go running my mouth again!” She smiled and stepped out of the doorway, gesturing for them to enter. “My name’s Bebe! You know the PC Pokemon Boxes? I’m the system admin!”

Lucas followed her inside without missing a beat, hoping that this would be a situation similar to the Underground Man’s house.

Well, the getting free stuff part, not so much the getting hurl trapped and barely escaping multiple cave ins after trying to use said free stuff.

N hemmed and hawed at the door, but after a moment, and some encouragement from Mimikyu, he stepped inside as well, looking around the building they had entered. “You’re the system admin for the Pokemon Boxes?” The green haired man had a frown on his face, but didn’t voice whatever was bothering him about that, too busy taking in the giant computer shoved into the corner. There was lots of techy stuff all over, but that one was obviously the most important.

“Kyu.” It sounded like Mimikyu was judging his trainer.

“Yep! That’s me!” Bebe agreed. While he and N had been looking around her… office? House? She had been looking at him. Squinting, judging, evaluating. “I know this is out of the blue…” she started, stepping a bit too close into Lucas’ personal space to stare into his eyes, “but do you want a Pokemon named Eevee?”

Eevee? That sounded familiar… hadn’t that been a name in a book about rare Pokemon that Barry had showed him?

“What is that supposed to-” N started, but Lucas wasn’t one to waste an opportunity like this, quickly nodding in agreement with a smile on his face.

“Here you go!” Bebe cut N off, shoving a Pokeball into Lucas’ hand. “That Eevee, I got it from a good friend in Johto who has a whole lot of them. Who knows how many Eevee he’s raised over the years.”

He heard a sound of disgust from behind him, and a chastisement from Mimikyu.

“Sorry, that probably doesn’t mean anything to you,” Bebe continued. “Please be good to it!”

Eager to meet his new teammate, Lucas released Eevee in front of him. It was a cute little thing, with fluffy brown fur and a lighter patch around its neck. Big eyes, big ears, and a huge fluffy tail that was about the size of the rest of its body. He pulled out his Pokedex to learn more about his new friend. Hopefully it would work this time.

Kneeling down, he held a hand out to Eevee, letting it sniff his hand with a smile as he activated the device.

A synthetic voice rang out from the speaker. “Eevee, the Evolution Pokemon. Because its genetic makeup is ir-ir-ir-ir-ir-ir-ir-”

Eevee started to growl at his Pokedex. Just a normal growl, not the move, but it was still weird…

Bebe frowned down at him. “Well that doesn’t seem right. That’s one of Professor Rowan’s, right?”

Lucas nodded, but at the same time desperately tried to think up ways to get Bebe not to inform the professor about this!

“...Mi-kyu?”

“Who cares about the Pokedex, Mimikyu? Shouldn’t we be more concerned about what sounds like a breeder-”

Whatever N had been trying to say went in one ear and out the other as the Pokedex in Lucas’ hand suddenly grew eyes and a smile, the whole thing buzzing with electricity that had him tossing it in the air from the surprise of the shock.

It crashed to the ground, and to Lucas’ relief it didn't break apart on impact, but the weirdness hadn’t ended either. Eevee took up a spot between him and the Pokedex, as if trying to protect him from it.

“Bzzrt! T-t-testing!” The synthetic voice of the Pokedex came out distorted, a crackly static overlaying it.

“Mimi-kyu!”

“T-t-the whole time, of c-c-course!”

“That’s what a Rotom is?” N asked the ghost on his shoulder.

Bebe squealed. “You have a Rotom and you didn’t tell me?!”

Lucas looked between Bebe and his Pokedex.

What in the world is a Rotom?