Unbroken Disguise

N cautiously walked up to the now seemingly dormant keystone, only feeling a faint whisper of the Pressure that had been all but drowning them mere moments ago.

“Is it… okay? That looked like a pretty powerful attack, but I’m not sure what’s normal for a Spiritomb…”

While the spirits would likely haunt his nightmares for some time to come, they were still a Pokemon and he wanted the best for them. Just… far, far away from him and anyone else they might attack? Perhaps on a remote island they could have all for themselves. Outside of the League.

Yes, that might be far enough…

“There is no need to worry about the abomination, my Moonblast shall leave it fragmented for some time.” Rotom’s… timely assistant informed him, her voice deep and regal.

“That’s not what I meant, I’m asking if they will recover properly. They attacked us, but they still deserve proper-” His words were cut off with a sneeze. N shivered, his clothes starting to feel damp from the constant snowfall.

“Could you please do something about this weather?” One of the Shadows asked her. “Our lord is not dressed for it, and the danger has seemingly passed.”

It felt strange, having them ask for things on his behalf, but it wasn’t like he would complain about warming up. Winter was still some time away, and he didn’t have a proper coat available.

The Pokemon only looked at the Shadow oddly, though, before turning to Mimikyu. “Are these humans trying to talk to me?”

“Is this some sorta snobby class thing or do ya not understan’ what they’re sayin’?” Mimikyu adorably asked.

Her eyes narrowed. “You would dare accuse me of such impropriety?”

“The latter, then. Huh. That’s a new one, ain’ it N?” His false head tilted back as the cute little ghost tried to look up at him.

N hummed. “Not necessarily…” Testing his hypothesis, N tried speaking to the Pokemon in both League and Unovan, and one of the Shadows surprised him by breaking out a bit of Kalosian upon picking up what he was doing.

She didn’t react to any of it.

“Could you ask her what region she’s from?” It had been quite some time since he’d experienced a problem like this. Speaking Unovan and League meant that he was able to communicate with just about every Pokemon he came across, even if his League was much weaker. Even Fantina’s Pokemon, who undoubtedly spent a lot of time with their trainer speaking Kalosian, understood him without problem since they were around Sinnohians quite often.

Mimikyu repeated the question for him, and the Pokemon held her head high. “I have lived for the last 600 years on the islands of Alola.”

That couldn’t be right. He turned towards the Shadows for confirmation. “Alola has spoken Unovan as its common language for quite some time now, has it not?”

They responded affirmatively, but before N could begin puzzling out how a Pokemon from Alola wouldn’t know Unovan, Rotom chimed in.

“Which island are you from?”

The Pokemon stiffened. “Pardon?”

Mimikyu seemed to catch on. “Ya said yer from Alola, right? Which island are ya from?”

“Well, I… that is… the big island, of course.”

“You don’t know the name of the island you live on?” Rotom pressed.

“Well, she ain’ exactly wrong,” Mimikyu waved the concern aside, “Alolan Ninetales do come from the big island, an’ some people call it that colloquially. But uh… remind me, miss, which guardian deity protects yer island?”

“Deity…?” She hesitantly repeated. “Ah, you refer to the Moon!”

“The Moon? I see, thank you for reminding me. Now, would you mind telling us where you’re really from?”

The Ninetales growled at him. “Of all the indignities! You pester me for questions after I save you from this foul creature and then have the gall to suggest that I presented a falsehood?!”

“Look, we appreciate ya savin’ us from Spiritomb, thank ya for that. But ya ain’ pullin’ the wool over my eyes ‘ere. Ya expect me ta believe ya’ve been on Alola for 600 years when ya don’ speak a lick of Unovan, don’ know the name of yer island, and ya try tellin’ me that Lunala is yer guardian deity? I don’ even remember the right answer! I would’ve given it to ya if ya had at least listed off one of the Tapus, but this is just too many things that ain’ addin’ up!”

Mimikyu really was enchanting when he broke down flaws in-

Hold on, he didn’t know the answer? He had presented the question as if it should be common knowledge, and hadn’t he once said that he was from Alola himself?

“That is… I…” Ninetales' eyes darted around the group, looking for something to latch onto.

She came up empty.

“Fine! I lied, alright?! You tripped me up and caught me!” She let out a sigh, dropping her attempt at a more regal pose as she started speaking with a hint of an accent he wasn’t familiar with. “I’m from Paldea, alright?”

Rotom hummed with electricity. “But why would you lie about that? Rotom doesn’t understand.”

Ninetales grumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it. Can we just go back to whatever these stupid humans wanted?”

N felt vaguely offended, but if she didn’t want to talk about it…

What followed was a rather unfun game of telephone. N or the Shadows would ask questions, Rotom or Mimikyu would translate for Ninetales, Ninetales would ask a question, Rotom would translate for him and the Shadows, and of course, as usual, Mimikyu seemed to be a bundle of strange and eclectic knowledge.

By the end of it, they had reached a couple conclusions. First, that Ninetales was incapable of turning off the snowstorm for whatever reason, not that she was very forthcoming with answers. Secondly, that while taking a Moonblast to the face would have been quite unpleasant for Spiritomb, they should be fine given enough time to recover.

That left the question of what to do with them next, and opinions were… varied.

“Well we have to do something!” N shouted, his anger getting the best of him. “I’m not just going to abandon a Pokemon in need!”

“And if you actually had a plan, we would follow it faithfully, lord N,” a Shadow argued, “but as it stands, we cannot accept you endangering yourself any further with the presence of such a violent Pokemon.”

“We could take it back to lord Ghetsis…” another suggested, not for the first time. Mimikyu and Rotom had been strangely against the idea though, and when they’d brought up the possibility of it wreaking havoc back home if they couldn’t figure out a proper care routine, N had ultimately agreed with them. This was obviously a rather unique case, and they couldn’t just throw ideas at the wall for treatment when a bad mood could result in a repeat of today’s performance. The other Pokemon in Plasma’s care would be put in danger, and N couldn’t allow that.

“We should just destroy the creature and be done with it, nothing good ever comes out of being near a Spiritomb,” Ninetales demanded. “Stupid things always end up ruining my visits to Glaseado…”

“Enough!” Mimikyu ordered. “Rotom, tell the Shadows ta leave for now. They ain’ gonna wanna be here in a minute. Then yer gonna get ahold of Cynthia ‘n’ ‘ave her come sort this out. She’s the only one in Sinnoh who’s gonna ‘ave any clue of how ta deal with a Spiritomb.”

N scowled. “Cynthia? Mimikyu, when I said that I-”

“No, N,” Mimikyu cut him off. “I tried ta warn ya beforehand, and ya didn’t listen ta me. See where that got us? Nobody ‘as any better ideas, so we’re doin’ this.”

That made N pause.

Mimikyu… wasn’t exactly wrong. His and Lucas’ rush to save Spiritomb had gone poorly, and perhaps if he had been… less stubborn, perhaps, this could have been handled in a more proper manner.

“...fine. How are we going to call Cynthia, though? I don’t exactly have her number.”

“Bzzrt! Rotom does!”

…he wasn’t even going to ask.

“...and I just don’t get it! We’ve got enough problems as it is right now, and his little temper tantrum needs to stop already, Flint.” Cynthia demanded, having cornered the Elite Four member in his League office.

“What do you want me to do? Huh, Cynthia?” The red haired buffoon asked. His afro bounced as he threw his head back. “I get that he’s my best friend and all, but I can’t just wave a magic wand and get him back into things! You’ve gone through slumps before, haven’t you?”

Cynthia sighed, taking a moment to look the man up and down. He always wore yellow collared shirts that were obviously a size too small, quite a contrast with his big, baggy, black pants. And that ridiculous red belt with the stupid hoops and the honest to Arceus sandals he refused to get rid of. Sometimes she wanted to force him into a makeover, but…

“Flint. I respect you as a trainer. Please do not make me doubt that respect by saying such stupid things. When I am in a slump… no, when anyone else is in a slump, you or Bertha or whoever else, we take a bit of time off, reevaluate things, and then get back into it. We don’t shut a Gym down for weeks at a time and decide that instead we should cause rolling blackouts with extensive and unnecessary Gym renovations!”

“He just wants a real challenge! Can you blame him? I mean look at some of the kids who are getting passed along to him these days, they’re jokes!”

“If he wants a challenge then he can be the one investigating everything. Alamos was a real challenge, maybe he-”

She cut herself off when her phone started to ring.

Deep breath. In, then out.

Holding a finger up to remind Flint to shut his mouth, she answered the call. “Hello?”

“Err… is this Cynthia?” a familiar voice responded, but not one that she expected.

“N? How did you- No, that can wait. Where do I need to be?”

It wasn’t a question of is there a problem. If he was involved, that was a sure thing. He didn’t sound panicked, so it probably wasn’t something she needed to rush for, but if this was going to end up being another huge mess she swore that she was going to-

“Do you know where the Hallowed Tower is? East of Hearthome?”

A Pokeball shook on her belt.

Deep breath. In, then out.

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

She ended the call.

That was probably rude, but she was not in the mood right now. She had half a mind to make good on her half complaint, half threat from a moment ago, but if this really was an issue with the Hallowed Tower… well, she wasn’t sure that she trusted anyone other than herself to handle it properly.

Flint stood patiently before her, an awkward look on his face.

“You will fix the Volkner situation. This is not a time where we can coddle one of our strongest.”

He sighed. “I’ll swing by and see what I can do.”

With a nod, she walked out of his office, finding that the Gallade currently assigned to her was still waiting by the door.

“I need a Teleport to the Hallowed Tower. Be prepared for hostilities.”

There was no acknowledgement, no warning. One second she was standing in the hall of one of the League’s buildings, the next she was on the sandy ground a short distance from the Hallowed Tower.

Or at least, it should have been sandy. Instead, her shoes touched down on a thin layer of snow.

She felt the pokeballs on her belt twitch, each and every one of them ready for action, but there didn’t seem to be a need for it. She quickly took in the situation, assessing possible threats. N and his Mimikyu were present, as was quickly becoming usual for these sorts of things. A boy… no, was that Lucas? It really was a small world. Lucas was sat on the back of his Torterra, his team surrounding him. The egg she gifted him seemed to have hatched, and while Togepi looked healthy at a distance, she had concerns if he was hanging around N and Mimikyu.

And then there were the more concerning members of the group.

A keystone was laying on the ground, not active, but judging by the Pressure in the air, not dormant either. That would explain the lack of panic, though managing to subdue a freshly awakened Spiritomb was quite a feat.

The only way she could explain it was the last Pokemon she could see. At the center of this extremely localized snowstorm was an Alolan Ninetales. This was her first time seeing one in person, and she had questions. But those would have to wait.

“Stand by, Gallade.”

“Gal,” the Psychic type replied.

Lucas waved at her with a nervous smile, and she acknowledged the boy with a small nod as she walked over to the keystone.

“How long has Spiritomb been unconscious?” she started with, skipping over greetings and pleasantries.

“Not long? I’m not sure I could give you an accurate estimate, given all the adrenaline…” N answered.

Unfortunate, but understandable she supposed. Kneeling down in the snow next to the keystone, she brushed off any snowflakes that had accumulated on top of it.

She was no geology expert like Steven, but she was very familiar with one other keystone. It looked like this one was roughly cut into the same shape, although there was far less wear on it and the crack was a bit less pronounced. It was a lighter colored stone as well, but she didn’t listen to enough of Steven’s rambles to identify it properly. Where she had grown used to a brush of her fingertips over the crack resulting in the spirits trapped within oozing up around her, there was no reaction here.

A pokeball on her belt shook rather violently, but she ignored it.

“Are there any injuries I need to be aware of?” she asked as she continued to inspect the keystone.

“No, we’re… we’re fine, I think.”

N was more subdued than usual. Must have been quite the scare when they woke Spiritomb, so she supposed she could skip the lecture that she wanted to give. Being on the receiving end of a Spiritomb’s aggression and Pressure was punishment enough. They wouldn’t do it again.

“If you called for me, I assume you’re not planning on catching Spiritomb?”

As foolhardy as such an endeavor would be, it wasn’t like she hadn’t done the same exact thing herself. The difference was that she had been a much more experienced trainer when she had caught her own.

Surprisingly, Lucas’ head perked up when she said that, but he didn’t make any move to catch them. He had the right sort of drive, but something was holding him back. She made the right choice in giving him that egg. Lucas would go far.

“Mi-kyu.”

“Nine!”

N frowned at the two Pokemon, but answered her question. “No, I’m not really a trainer… I just want to make sure that Spiritomb gets a good outcome, and apparently you’re the only one who knows anything about them, so…”

Cynthia found her evaluation of the young man improving. Knowing when he’s out of his depth, contacting an authority that he knows has the relevant experience necessary, trying to ensure proper care for a Pokemon in need…

It didn’t improve by much, not when paired with all the messes he’d been responsible for or involved in, but it was something to remember.

“You do know how to deal with Spiritomb, right?” A hint of suspicion shone through. “I’ve never seen you with one, and if you don’t really know…”

Cynthia almost laughed. It wasn’t often that she was challenged on anything that wasn’t a Pokemon battle. N had guts. “I’ve had a Spiritomb on my team for… what has it been, eight years maybe? I know how to handle them. I’ll take these guys with me, get them adjusted to living in modernity, and make sure they end up somewhere they’ll be taken care of. I don’t have the time to care for two of them, but maybe an Elite Four member… Karen has expressed interest…” She brushed those idle thoughts away by pulling out an empty pokeball, capturing the unconscious Spiritomb and ensuring it wouldn’t run amok in an uncontrolled environment.

Slipping the ball onto her belt, she almost relaxed. This had likely been the extent of what N wanted her for, and for once it was a relatively tame situation. Or rather, it had been tame by the time she showed up.

But that didn’t mean her little outing was over. An unfamiliar Fairy had taken out a Spiritomb. Even with the type advantage, that was quite the feat.

N looked uncomfortable with the situation. “If you’re certain that Spiritomb will be cared for properly…”

Something seemed off about that. The wariness, how quick he was to make sure he wasn’t labeled as a trainer… maybe something to look into later.

“I promise you, Spiritomb will get the care they need. Now, with that said… I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your other friend.”

Cynthia stood, brushing the snow off of herself, though her pants were still a bit wet from the knee down. “This is my first time seeing an Alolan Ninetales in person, you know.”

Tucked away in N’s pocket, Rotom made sure to keep quiet. It was possible, no, probable that Cynthia already knew about Rotom’s presence in N’s group, but on the off chance that that wasn’t the case, Rotom didn’t want to be the one to inform her.

The Gallade she’d come with, and any other Psychics that might be hiding, would be unable to detect Rotom’s presence with all of the latent Ghost type energy leftover from the Spiritomb. Or at least, Rotom hoped so. Even if Rotom had done some snooping into League files, Rotom didn’t know everything they had up their sleeves.

No, Rotom had been sure to use Rotom’s limited time on the important things. Their files pertaining to his current travelling partners, their files on Galactic, their files on any recent major incidents, which had led to the whole Fairy thing…

Rotom probably could have gotten a lot more information out of them that was more directly useful to Rotom, but the Fairy situation had been so interesting that Rotom couldn’t help it!

The League knew so little about them it was almost sad. But what little they did know…

If the files Rotom had accessed were accurate, there had been forty-two confirmed cases of Fairy types from other regions being teleported randomly into the wilds of League territory. Their current estimates stated that with that number discovered in the relatively short time that had passed, they could be looking at anywhere from a small handful, assuming they’d found most of them, to several dozen, assuming they’d found few of them, still out in the wilds, spreading their so-called “infection”.

Of course, their Psychics and data analysts had put together maps of League territory, marking which areas were most likely to still hold these foreign Fairies. Never one to not sate Rotom’s curiosity, Rotom had been comparing what Rotom expected Rotom’s current group’s routing to be against said maps, fully expecting to slip away from them here or there to do some investigation for Rotom’s self.

Had Rotom expected for it to be necessary quite so soon? Not at all. But when comparing Rotom’s type chart calculations against what the League knew of the Fairy type, Rotom had quickly reached the conclusion that the only way out of the Spiritomb mess would be to fetch one of these fae hiding nearby.

With a sixty percent confidence that there was at least one Fairy in the Hearthome Forest according to the map data, cross referenced with reports of unusual weather activity in the area that would be very uncharacteristic of the Snover and Abomasnow of Sinnoh given the distance from the mountain peaks…

Rotom wouldn’t say that Rotom wasn’t lucky in finding the Alolan Ninetales in time, but it was not blind luck. Rotom’s diligent planning had played a big part in it! Not that Rotom was willing to admit to or discuss most of that. N and the others were interesting, but Rotom couldn’t trust them. Not yet, or possibly ever. Especially when N and his Shadows reminded Rotom all too much of Galactic, even if their aesthetic and goals were quite far apart.

And they thought Rotom would let them take the Spiritomb? What a joke.

“...first time seeing an Alolan Ninetales in person, you know,” Cynthia’s muffled voice reached Rotom through N’s pocket. “Although you’re not from Alola at all, are you? Snow instead of Hail… Paldea maybe?”

Interesting. Cynthia was more clever than Rotom had made her out to be. Rotom hadn’t pieced together that clue, and neither had Mimikyu… though given how hard it is to get information from outside the League, perhaps it was simply a matter of an advantage from the start. This was the first time Rotom was hearing of that sort of difference, not that Rotom knew anything about Paldea at all.

“That seems to be correct,” N agreed. “She doesn’t understand any language I can speak, so communicating has been… trying.”

“I see… Do you know where in Paldea? We’ve been trying to return all the Teleported Fairies to where they came from, and the more information we have the better.”

“No, we didn’t-”

“I am not going back to Paldea.” The Ninetales cut N off.

Cynthia sighed. “Gallade? Translate please? Just be sure to stay out of the Mimikyu’s mind, he doesn’t take kindly to it.”

Stupid Psychics. How was Rotom supposed to secretly gather information if they did it in the one way that Rotom couldn’t listen in to?

“Is it jus’ me, or is this super awkward? Actin’ like we ain’ even ‘ere…” Mimikyu whispered.

“Be quiet,” N whispered back.

Eventually the awkward silence was broken by the Gallade speaking for the first time, a stern voice making clear that he was annoyed with whatever had been said so far. “You seem to misunderstand. You do not have a choice in the matter. You are a foreign Pokemon, deposited here by unknown forces. Allowing you to stay in the wilds of Sinnoh is not an option. You are to be returned to your place of origin at once. We are giving you the courtesy of allowing you to change your mind and come along willingly because it’s bound to be a tedious process given Paldea’s distance from Sinnoh.”

“And I am telling you,” Ninetales growled, “that I am not returning to Paldea.”

“What if she wasn’ wild?” Mimikyu suddenly chimed in. “What if she ‘ad a trainer? Would it matter then? ‘Cuz, ‘n’ I know ya don’ like this fact, Fairy types bein’ ‘round humans ain’ exactly unheard of in Sinnoh anymore.”

There was a silence again, presumably so some translation could occur.

“And who would be the trainer?” Cynthia finally asked. “Unless N is volunteering?”

N stiffened. “I… if Ninetales wanted to travel with us, I wouldn’t mind, but I’m no trainer, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.”

A pause as the translations went through.

“No,” Ninetales instantly shot the idea down. “I wouldn’t want to travel with you, not if you travel in places like this and hold sympathy for abominations like that Spiritomb.”

“You’re not exactly flush with options right now,” the Gallade reminded her. “I would suggest you accept the… generosity of these fools before they change their minds.”

“First of all, you can get bent,” Mimikyu snarked back. “Secondly, there are still other options. Sinnoh ‘as an Ice type Gym Leader, right? Up in Snowpoint? There ain’ any Pokemon up in that area that can be Fairy types, ‘n’ I ‘magin’ she’d like the place. Right?”

Ninetales hummed. “Is it safe to assume that with a name like that, it has a climate more suitable for me?”

“Snowpoint City and the surrounding area sees year round snowfall. Even in the middle of Sinnoh’s summer the temperature of the air does not reach above freezing,” Gallade grumbled.

“Then that would be acceptable,” Ninetales agreed. “A Gym Leader’s Pokemon…”

N’s hand came into his pocket alongside Rotom, but seemingly only to clench in frustration. He was not a fan of that idea, but did not speak up.

“Joining Candice’s team?” Cynthia thought it over. “Having a Fairy…” Eventually she sighed. “Very well. We’ll see if Candice is willing to take her on, and if not… I suppose the other residents of Snowpoint are also an option.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” N said through clenched teeth.

“You’re welcome. I’m going to suggest you not do anything stupid again, but I have a feeling it will fall on deaf ears with you two.” There were a few steps, her shoes crunching the snow. “Lucas! I highly suggest that you get better traveling companions than these two. I have high hopes for you!”

After a moment, N and Mimikyu let out a sigh of relief. Cynthia must have Teleported away.

“What a mess…” N complained.

“That Paul sure is a jerk…” Ash complained. “But if he wants to give up his Soothe Bell, then that’s more for us!”

“Pika Pika!”

“Chim!”

“Hmm. What are Soothe Bells for, anyway?”

“Rumor has it that they can deepen the bond between trainer and Pokemon, ensuring that they become the best of friends even faster than normal,” Brock informed him.

“That’s awesome! Here, Chimchar, why don’t you carry both then! We’ll be best buddies before Paul sees us again!”

“Char!” Chimchar eagerly grabbed the ribbons attached to them, dancing around and causing the bells to jingle with every step.

Brock quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He’d been worried, and that had only gotten worse upon their arrival to Hearthome where they discovered that the Gym was closed until further notice.

Luckily, Ash’s mood had only improved from there. With a few minor exceptions, but that seemed to come part and parcel with Paul being around.

The two polar opposites had ended up as partners in a tag battle tournament, and part way through the purple haired boy had abandoned his Fire type. But Ash being Ash…

Well, after that, was there any possible outcome other than his friend adopting the poor thing and using it to win the tournament? Brock didn’t think so.

He just hoped Charizard wouldn’t get jealous now that Ash had another Pokemon with a similar background.

“So where to next, Ash?” Brock asked, eager to keep the boy in good spirits.

“To the next Gym!” Ash laughed.

“Pika!”

Brock laughed along with him. “I figured as much, but Sinnoh isn’t exactly very linear. If we head East then the next Gym would be Veilstone which uses Fighting types. If we head South then the next Gym would be Pastoria, which uses Water types.”

“Hmmmm… what do you think, Chimchar?”

“Chimchar!”

“Then I guess we’ll go that way!”

Ash and his Pokemon laughed as they walked down the streets of Hearthome with not a care in the world.

It was good to have him back.