Humilau was a sprawling seaside city with rows of palm trees, low buildings, and a large port full of boats. A large section of the city was made up of an organized maze of houses and bridges that floated atop the crystal blue and turquoise water.
Despite Humilau being to the north of Unova, the weather was still warm enough for there to be a decent amount of people and Pokemon out sunbathing or walking or playing on the beach or in the water.
The only time I’d ever seen water like this was in pictures and videos online. I took a deep breath of the fresh ocean air. Man, this is the perfect place for a vacation.
I never really liked beaches, partially because the water was too cold and suspiciously dark to comfortably swim in back where I came from, but this place? I could see why someone would want to live by the beach here.
“Psst psst psst psst psst.” There was a barely audible whisper in my ear. Despite the warmth of the sun, a sudden cold chill ran up my back and I shivered, glancing around. What was that?
Winnie hopped up onto my head from his place in my hood to get a better look at everything, distracted from that weird event, I smiled as Winnie looked at the boat docks with wide eyes. This was probably his first time seeing a city. “what’s that big thing floating in the water?”
“That’s a boat. Humans and non aquatic Pokemon usually use that to get around large bodies of water.”
We walked through the city, continuing the pointing game. Winnie would point to something and ask what that was, I’d answer to the best of my ability, and he’d either think it was boring or ask more questions about it until he spotted something else he wanted to know about.
Kaiju participated in the game for a short while before he was returned to his ball. The first thing he did after spotting a Wingull was to try to eat it.
Sahara also had to be returned after she began growling and glaring at a Druddigon that was relaxing on the beach with its trainer. The Druddigon–which was half buried in the sand–gave us a disapproving glance before closing its eyes to doze off again.
It was easy enough to find a Pokemon center, it was the large blue building with a bright red roof and a Pokeball symbol. This particular one was near Humilau city’s town hall.
I wanted my entire team to get a check up to make sure they were in good health, though I was kind of worried about if I’d have to pay for it.
A quick scan of my bank account showed that I only had a few hundred dollars to my name, but Rotom did a search on the Pokenet and showed me that Pokemon health care was free across all regions that were members of the Pokemon league. Does everything have to start with ‘Poke’? I get Pokemon are important but that probably gets confusing, right?
The inside of the Pokemon center had a typical sterile hospital smell. There was a large lobby with a waiting room to the right were there were a few people waiting for their Pokemon to finish getting check up or being healed.
To the left was a small section with a bunch of cubbies, PCs, and more chairs. There were posters with Nurse Joy and Audino plastered all over the walls featuring blurbs and puns about Pokemon health and promoting certain brands.
The front desk had two ladies in standard nurse outfits typing away at their computers and an Audino doing some paperwork.
It seemed that ‘Nurse Joy’ in this world was more of a mascot for Pokemon centers, though Audino was still the main healer Pokemon used in Unovan Pokemon centers from looking at the posters.
There was no line so no wait time, yay! I kind of expected for a Pokemon center near town hall to be busier, but maybe it was just a quiet day.
With a bit of nervousness, I approached the front desk and waited until one of the nurses finished what they were doing.
The nurse with dark violet hair tied up in a neat bun looked up from her computer. “Hi there! What can I help you with?”
“Hi, um, I’d like to get my Pokemon a health check.”
“Okay, scan your Trainer ID here,” the nurse pointed at a little white flat cube on the countertop with a Pokeball symbol on it.
“i got it!” Winnie hopped down into my hood and dug around in my bag before proudly handing me the card.
“Thanks Winnie.” I took the ID and scanned it.
The nurse smiled at our little interaction, “I’ve never seen a Zorua like that before, is it a regional variant?”
I nodded, “Yeah, he’s a regional variant from Sinnoh called a Hisuan Zorua. They’re normal-ghost types instead of dark types like the ones from Unova.”
This nurse seemed particularly interested in regional variants, she ended up telling me all about this one Alolan Ninetales that she got to take care of a few months back. I patiently listened as the nurse praised the Nintales’s trainer for taking such good care of its coat as it looked ethereal, etc.
The other lady at the desk rolled her eyes, I got the feeling that this was a common occurrence. Well, I’d probably be telling everyone about a cool Pokemon that I got to take care of.
Finally, we got back on track when an Audino came over to me with a rolling cart. It motioned for me to place my Pokeballs, Winnie, and Rotom on it. I made sure to inform Audino about Kaiju’s tendency to try to eat anything and everything.
Rotom floated upwards with a displeased “Bzzt!” It didn’t want to go with Audino.
Audino smiled and nodded at Rotom, “Audino!” Then the healer Pokemon carted the others away to the back.
“You have something against doctors?” I asked Rotom. The plasma Pokemon’s entire body vibrated with fury as it let out another, “BZZT!” Its screen flashed an angry Skitty meme.
“Okay okay! I won’t ask.”
After that, I registered all four Pokemon with me to my Trainer ID. I was surprised to learn that there was a way to register Pokemon without using a Pokeball, that way Winnie and Rotom could both be registered.
According to the nurses, it was very common for ghost types to prefer staying in their trainers shadow instead of a Pokeball. Most ghosts had the ability to phase through their Pokeball and basically destroy the ball in the process.
Quite a few psychic type species also had the ability to teleport out of their balls with a similar effect.
So the league ended up creating a new registration system specifically for Pokemon that preferred to not be kept in a ball, though this was mostly reserved for ghosts and psychics.
Does that mean that ghost type specialists don’t have to use Pokeballs for most of their team? They wouldn’t have to worry about a team limit then. That sounds a bit overpowered.
While I waited for my team to finish their check ups, I went to one of the PCs and used some of my money to rent a Pokemon center room for the night.
Normal trainers got a huge discount during gym season–a big plus for me, while people like Ace Trainers and Rangers had free rooms no matter the area or season.
Unova was currently beginning its annual conference at Vertress city, so the rent prices would lose their discount in less than two weeks, once break season started and I wouldn’t be able to afford a room at all.
Taking another look at the dwindling money in my bank account, I sighed. I have to find a source of income asap.
Of course there was always the option of betting money on a battle with another trainer.
Some basic research on the Pokenet yielded me pretty decent solutions to my money problems. The league had an official website specifically for posting jobs that trainers could take to earn some money, and Pokemon centers had bulletin boards with a similar system.
From a quick glance, most of the jobs from Humilau had to do with driving away water types causing issues with the city.
Pokemarts also had areas for appraising and selling items, and the prices they’d buy things at were lower but consistent. Most people recommended saving certain items and selling them on collectors forums for a lot more money instead.
Well, selling stuff to collectors would take too long. I’d have to settle with the Pokemart. I smiled and I silently thanked by past self for forgetting to sell treasure items. It should at least be enough to last us all a while.
After retrieving my Pokeballs, Winnie took up his usual position on my shoulder.
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There was a Pokemart just a street over from the Pokemon Center. It had a section in the back labeled ‘Appraisal Office’.
After a quick look at my trainer profile, the clerk handling the appraisals didn’t even bat an eye at the large pile of pearls, comet shards, star pieces, and stardust that I slid across the table. Honestly, he looked like he was ready to end his shift and go home, the sun had just begun to set at that point.
It took a bit over half an hour for him and his Reuniclus to appraise and calculate the total amount they’d buy the items for.
A six figure deposit into my account later, I stepped out into the main area of the Pokemart to buy all the necessities I needed. My budget was just under ₽250,000, so I had more than enough money to spend. Hehehe! I’m rich!
Winnie had no concept of money so I gave him a summary of how currency worked while we shopped for essential items.
A large chunk of the items we needed were for camping, like an awesome tent that used Pokeball technology to fold up into a cube small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, a sleeping bag, and a large assortment of cooking items.
Winnie was insistent on getting the best brush for his fur after hearing about that one Alolan Nintales’s luscious coat, which I had no problem with.
Kaiju and Sahara got their own care items too, and Rotom got a high quality power bank and charger, though I made it promise to stop zapping me for no reason.
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I spent the most time deciding on what type of Pokemon food to buy, the Pokenet forum opinions varied a lot on which was the best brand, but they all generally agreed on which one was the worst.
Some directions from the Pokemart’s Morpeko–and Winnie’s translation–taught me that I could just buy Pokemon foods for one specific type and mix it with food for another type for dual type Pokemon.
Then I could do some research and supplement it with whatever extra stuff my Pokemon needed in their diet and change the ingredients until I found something that worked for me. It was a pretty common practice for most Pokemon trainers and especially breeders and trainers that participated in contests.
It was almost time for dinner anyways, so it would be a good opportunity to learn what flavors my team liked.
The rented Pokemon center rooms came with a small but nice complete kitchen that trainers could cook food with.
I already knew that Winnie enjoyed sweets, so I added some Pecha berries to his food. I set out some different flavored berries for Kaiju and Sahara to test. Sahara liked savory food, specifically stuff that was extra spicy. Kaiju ate everything regardless of taste, he’d eat anything that was remotely edible.
One thing I made sure to add to their food were vitamins. Adding too many in one dish threw off its taste, so I just added two for each mon based on their request.
Pretty sure either Kaiju or Winnie were sneaking extra berries, I had taken out about ten different berries, but three of them went missing the moment I took my eyes off of them. Neither owned up to it but I was too tired to care, I was struggling to keep my eyes open at this point.
I yawned, I was planning on trying out the grooming items I’d just bought but I’d probably have to do it sometime tomorrow.
One sandwich and the best shower ever later, I collapsed into bed and was out like a light.
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Winnie’s ear twitched. The deep and even breathing of the others sleeping let him know that the coast was clear.
Sneakily wriggling out of Azalea’s arms and avoiding Kaiju’s wide open and drooling mouth, the fox yawned and stretched before a tricky smile split his face. The night was still young and he wanted to train his control over illusions.
During their hike, Azalea had described his species as masters of illusions, the ultimate tricksters. There was once a Zoroark that was powerful enough to fool an entire city AND three legendaries into believing that its illusions were reality.
Master of Illusions, he wanted that title. It would be a long road, but he was willing to work for it. He would become THE Master of Illusions, the KING of Illusions! Winnie chuckled to himself as he imagined himself as a bigger more muscled version of his current self with a golden crown.
First, some pre-workout snacks! Winnie rummaged through Azalea’s bag and pulled out a handful of blue candies. These candies were the best sweets he’d ever tasted, and Winnie always felt energized after eating them.
Rotom peeked out of one of the bag’s side pockets, softly buzzing in a questioning tone.
“i’m going outside to train for a bit. go back to sleep.” Winnie whispered, shoving the possessed phone back into the bag.
Double checking that everyone was asleep, Winnie merged into the shadows of the room before reappearing outside the Pokemon center. His smile reappeared, jumpscare time!
The Zorua darted into a bush next to a sidewalk, he would practice creating illusions until his first victim came along.
Azalea had pointed out Winnie’s inability to create a full illusion of another Pokemon and had given him some suggestions on how to improve.
He was able to copy Gabite’s complete form only after a few tries, but attempts at copying Hydreigon were unsuccessful. The illusion was too big for him to properly control, it just didn’t click with him like the others.
He gave up on Hydreigon for the time being and switched to copying the various Pokemon he’d seen throughout the city and during their hike. There was the Druddigon at the beach, a Pidove, a Jellicent, a Seviper…The closer they were to his size, the easier they were to create an illusion of.
The sound of someone humming a merry tune caught Winnie’s attention. It was a lone human walking down the sidewalk with a knee high brown and navy dog Pokemon following close at his heels. Perfect.
This was his chance to test out his new illusions.
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Martin loved late night walks, it was quiet and the beaches would be empty at this time of night. He and Herdier would be able to have a nice relaxing walk by the beach after a long day of dealing with his in laws.
Herdier stopped and began growling at a clump of bushes next to the sidewalk, it hackles were raised.
Martin whistled, “Herdier, get away from the bushes.” The last time Herdier had done something like this it had gotten shocked and paralyzed by a Parchirisu hiding in the bushes. And before that, it was an angry Tranquil that nearly pecked the dog’s eye out.
Herdier didn’t listen and began furiously barking at the bushes. Martin sighed, muttering under his breath, “Julie was right about getting a leash.”
He was about to grab his unruly dog, but a low hissing sound made him freeze and look at the bushes again. A pair of red eyes stared at him from the bushes, and gleaming blood red fangs shone under the light of the streetlamps.
Martin audibly gulped. Screw relaxing midnight walks by the beach, they were going home.
Grabbing Herdier by the collar, Martin pulled his Pokemon a safe distance back just as the Seviper struck where Herdier had just been standing.
Herdier didn’t need any orders from Martin, it whined, tail between its legs and they both booked it straight back home.
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The illusion of Seviper dissipated and Winnie rolled around on the ground laughing his ass off, that human should’ve seen his face!
Sensing another human approaching, the fox jumped back into the bushes, this time preparing an illusion of an angry Zangoose.
This time he was gonna chase the human down the street! Before he could enact his plan, an outburst of giggles echoed behind him. Victim number two stood still for a second before booking it in the opposite direction, not even bothering to looks back.
Winnie whipped around and came face to face with a floating navy-purple rag ghost with a single spike in it’s head cloth. The ghost grinned before floating back to give Winnie some space.
“Hiyyya hahaha!” The ghost giggled.
Winnie raised an eyebrow, “who are you?”
“The forest lord says that the humans call my type of ghost Shuppet.” Shuppet said somewhat proudly, like a little kid who had earned a golden star sticker from the teacher.
The rag ghost leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, “I’m the one who stole the black and yellow Pokeball from your human.”
Then it turned back and nodded at the cluster of ghosts swirling in the shadows behind it. Their forms were too rough to make out what type of ghost Pokemon they were. “There are also a few others here too. Say hi guys!”
A bunch of childish voiced echoed off of each other in a chorus of hi’s and hellos.
Winnie’s eyebrow now raised even higher as he tilted his head,
“what are you guys doing here? are you gonna steal stuff from az again?” The last part he said with a slight snarl, attempting to imitate of Sahara’s snarl and piercing death glare.
“HAH! Naaaahhhh, now that we’re not in the forest lord’s domain, there are plenty of humans and Pokemon we can mess around with.”
Shuppet twirled around, “We left the forest because weEEee wanted to! We’re not gonna stay with the lord for the rest of eternity! I’d go CrAaaAaaazY if I had to do that!”
One of the other ghosts piped up, half whispering, half yelling, “Dusknoir suggested we come with you guys cause it would be safer to go in a group.”
With an eye roll to the moon, Winnie sighed, “well just because dusknoir told you guys you come tag along doesn’t mean that you can. you guys were the ones who stole the berries from az weren’t you?”
Shuppet dramatically gasped, letting its mouth fall comically wide open, “Us? Steal? No way! I told you that there were other humans we could steal from you know.”
Winnie looked over at the small cluster of ghosts still sitting in the shadows behind Shuppet. Some of them looked away with clear guilt. “Hmmmm, i see.”
Shuppet blocked Winnie’s view of the ghosts, “Fiiiiine, I guess someone could’ve taken a berry or two, but it’s no big deal okay? It’s not like we’re taking anything important.”
“az told me about this today. those berries cost money that we have to earn by doing jobs which take time and energy. and you guys are basically trying to freeload off of us. dusknoir and the forest lord probably wouldn’t approve of that would they?” Winnie retorted,
“go find someone else to freeload off of, freeeeloaders.” Winnie made sure to emphasize freeloaders.
Shuppet at least had the sense to look a bit ashamed, “Ummmm… Fine, I guess you’re right.”
The rag ghost then perked up, “Why don’t we help you guys then? We didn’t leave the forest to be caught by some human, but we can help with jobs. We won’t be freeloaders then.”
Winnie turned his nose up and gave the other ghosts a judging look, “hmmmm,” he pretended to think hard about it.
“fine, but you guys have to behave, and no more stealing unless i say so.”
Shuppet frowned, “Unless you say so? IIII get to be leader because I’m the strongest ghost here. You’re not even the strongest member of your team, why should we listen to you? ”
“i’m not the strongest on my team but i sure am stronger than you are!” Winnie growled, getting nose to nose with Shuppet.
Shuppet floated up a bit to tower over Winnie, its cloth fluttering as it got more agitated and growled, “Bet.”
“alright, you win you guys get to freeload and i help you guys out, i win, you guys have to listen to me as your new boss and call me the strongest.”
“DEAL!” Shuppet roared, sending a sudden burst of ghostly soundwaves at Winnie. A spinning ray of ghostly energies followed Shuppet’s Astonish before the rag puppet flew backwards and disappeared into the shadows.
The ghost type energy had no effect on Winnie but he still flinched from the sudden sound, letting the slow moving Confuse Ray hit him.
Winnie shook his head and looked around. The small wooded area they were in was now foggy and densely packed with gnarled trees as far as he could see. Was I teleported somewhere?
Shadows jumped out at Winnie and he dodged the first few times before realizing that they weren’t real. The trees weren’t exactly tree shaped or textured, and the shapes jumping out at him were simple dark circles with no substance, Detect wasn’t triggered by any of them.
Detect suddenly went off like an alarm in his head. Winnie jumped and rolled to the side, narrowly dodging a ball of ghostly energy.
Shaking his head again, the confusion began to wear off and the lightly wooded area by the bushes they had started in slowly faded back into reality.
Looking up, Winnie spotted the rag ghost circling the air high above him. Shuppet cackled and created another Shadow Ball, shooting it at Winnie.
Rolling to the side to dodge, Winnie closed his eyes and concentrated hard. As he got up, two copies of himself sprung up with him and began running around the clearing.
None of Winnie’s moves were long ranged enough to reach where Shuppet was flying, and he couldn’t reach up that high either.
Winnie’s eyes glowed as he focused ghost type energy into a ball and fired back at Shuppet.
The rag ghost spun like a ballerina and easily dodged.
“HAHAHAHA! Is that all you can do? All bark and no bite!” Shuppet stuck out its tongue as its eyes gleamed.
Winnie shuddered and frowned as he tried to use Shadow Ball again and found that he couldn’t. It’s like he’d never learned how to use it.
“Take this foxy boy!” A ring of darkness exploded from Shuppet and scattered ghost type energy all over the place, dispelling the fake Winnies and sending the real one sprawling.
“I got you now!” Shuppet crowed. It dived into the shadows and reappeared next to Winnie, grabbing at the fox claws made of shadows. Winnie turned, with wide eyes of surprise much to Shuppet’s delight.
The attack phased straight through and Winnie’s scared expression turned into a a look of utter contempt as the illusion Shuppet had just clawed through disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Shuppet let out a squeak of surprised as it felt itself caught by strands of shadows. The battle scarred, violet crowned, dark blue head of a monstrous dragon instantly formed and roared in Shuppets face and licked its lips as the rest of the dragon crawled out of the shadow.
Shuppet could hear a commotion from the spectating ghosts as the three headed dragon revealed itself in it’s full horrifying glory. The thing was MASSIVE!
The rag ghost’s eyes widened as it felt its nonexistent stomach drop. The dragon opened its mouth, revealing its rows of sharp teeth coated in dark type energy.
“I-I SURRENDER!” Shuppet screamed as it struggled like a trapped fish to get out of the dragon’s grasp.
Suddenly the entire dragon was gone and Shuppet was let go.
The rag ghost fell to the ground with a soft thump, its blue and yellow eyes met Winnie’s cheerful golden eyes and wide grin. Shuppet’s mouth gaped open as it realized that Winnie was completely unscathed.
The white fox puffed out his chest and chuckled as it propped Shuppet up with Extrasensory, “i win! say it.”
Shuppet scowled and looked away.
“say it. you bet and lost.”
One dramatic sigh later, Shuppet spoke. “You’re the strongest.”
“yes i am!”
Winnie grinned widely, his eyes gleaming with excitement. He trotted around to the rest of the ghosts, head held high.
The other ghosts bubbled in anticipation and slowly emerged from the shadows they’d previously been hiding in to get a loser look at their new boss.
“greetings hench-ghosts! there’s been a change in leadership.”
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The crinkling of papers being shuffled around and the soft scratch of a pen working were the only sounds in the otherwise silent office of Professor Rowan. He was looking through applicants for next gym seasons sponsors.
There were thousands of applicants each year, but only three of them would get the sponsorship each season.
Rowan liked to get these done early during the break season once the initial thousand had been filtered down by his assistants. He was currently in the process of narrowing down which of the last hundred applicants were able to meet his standards.
Usually he would’ve spread out the work over a few weeks in between other things he had to attend to, but he wouldn’t have the time for his usual methods this year.
Rowan leaned back, rubbing his stiff back and looking out the window. The sun had long since set and the crescent moon was already past its zenith. Feeling his back crack, the professor let out a heavy sigh, he was getting a bit too old to be pulling all nighters like this.
The thump of frantic footsteps running down the hall to his office took his attention. The door swung open and a tall man with messy lavender hair and a wrinkled and stained lab coat burst into his office, he bent over and panted as he tried to recover his breath.
“Professor! You have t-to see this!” The man proclaimed while waving his tablet in the air.
Rowan patiently waited for the researcher to catch his breath before prompting him, “I guess I do. What’s got you so excited Marcus?”
Marcus adjusted his glasses and excitedly shoved the tablet in the professors face.
“It’s a Hisuan Zorua! One was just registered to a trainer in Unova! This, t-this is wonderful!”
The professor calmly took the tablet from Marcus and took a better look at the pictures and information on the tablet.
It indeed was an hours old picture of a Hisuan Zorua, taken by one of the nurses at one of the Pokemon centers in Humilau to create documentation for the Pokemon.
Marcus pointed at the description of the fox Pokemon’s typing, “See? I-it was scanned as a normal-ghost type, not a dark type! This could be a major advancement for studying Hisuan variants!”
Slowly nodding, Rowan handed the tablet back to Marcus, “Hmm, I’d also like to know where this trainer, what’s their name?”
“Azalea Lang, sir.”
The professor cleared his throat before continuing, “Yes, I’d like to know where Azalea was able to find a species that’s both not native to Unova and been extinct for more than two hundred years.”
“Actually sir, they’re technically not extinct, there’s that massive illusion at Alabaster Mountain that’s most likely the work of a Hisuan Zoroark.” Marcus said as he tapped away at his tablet, showing the professor a rather complicated looking graph of energy readings.
“It could also just be multiple powerful ghosts creating a mass illusion.”
Marcus vehemently shook his head and readjusted the glasses he just shook loose, “N-no, I doubt it, we measured the type energy and compared it with other mass illusions, it wasn’t a match. If we get data from an actual member of the Hisuan Zoroark line, then we would be able to confirm it.”
Marcus paused as another train of though came to him, “Actually, it probably could help us with figuring out the illusion maze at Alabaster mountain.”
Nodding, Rowan stacked the application folders together and placed them into a drawer to work on later, “I will contact Aurea to help get in contact with this trainer and Zorua. In the meantime, prepare plane tickets for them to Jubilife.”
“Yes sir! I-I have to go tell the others!” Marcus grinned as he rushed out of the professor’s office.
Sighing, Rowan got up and closed the door before checking the time. 2 AM, Unova was a few hours behind, so Professor Juniper or one of her assistants should still be up.
He pulled out his laptop, “Porygon, please call Professor Juniper’s office.”