The first twenty minutes of the new route passed without issue. We saw several pokemon passing by in the distance – a nidoran♂️, a couple of beedrill, and even a hoot-hoot flying overhead – but none of them gave us a second look. Either they weren’t interested in the human intruding in their territory, or Hobbes was enough of a deterrent that challenging me wasn’t worth it.

That all changed, however, when we came across a large ekans-weedle fusion draped from a large branch that extended over the road. Before I could even step close, it was hissing its displeasure, leaning forward as purple liquid dripped from the tip of the horn on its forehead. I tried to lead Hobbes around on the edge of the road, but the ekeedle just hissed louder as we attempted to pass, raising its head in preparation for a strike.

This, of course, riled up Hobbes in my defense, dark energy pulsing around his rag. And then, before I knew it, we were in a pokemon battle.

Wild pokemon battles were different from trainer battles. The concept was the same, but out here in the wild the cost was potentially so much higher. A loss wouldn’t just mean the loss of some of my pocket change – a loss here could mean serious injury or even my death if I’m not fast enough to escape after Hobbes faints. It's why so many trainers, unless they were specifically looking for another pokemon to add to their party, tended to stay out of the ‘tall grass’, so to speak.

Sometimes, though, it was unavoidable. And while Hobbes and I hadn’t had much experience with wild pokemon battles, we’d trained for this exact scenario. And Hobbes didn’t disappoint.

“Mii!” Hobbes called his challenge at the wild ekeedle. In response, the ekeedle’s hiss intensified as its glare turned from me to my pokemon, embracing the challenge that Hobbes offered.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a real glare, at least not one with any power, and Hobbes wasn’t the least bit paralyzed.

“Hobbes! Astonish into shadow sneak!” I called, and Hobbes obeyed instantly. Darkness swirled around him, obscuring his form to any save his opponent, as he lifted his rag and revealed his ‘true’ form to the ekeedle, which flinched back in response. Hobbes took advantage of the vulnerability, and the darkness flowed into claws extending from under his rag as he scaled the trunk of the ekeedle’s tree like a mankey. With deceptive speed, a tendril of darkness shot from him and stabbed into the opposing pokemon, which let out a hiss of pain.

But for all that it had been caught by surprise, the ekeedle was a fused pokemon on its home turf – it wouldn’t go down easily. It surged forward, head down and leading with its needle in a poison sting.

“Hobbes, dodge! Go up!” I called, heart thumping in my chest and hoping for Hobbes to take advantage of the ekeedle’s limited range of vision with the way it was forced to contort to attack with its needle. But Hobbes was already moving to the right, my call coming out too late for him to adjust as his shadowy claws pulled him from the path of the ekeedle’s attack.

The ekeedle hissed in triumph at Hobbes’ mistake, opening its mouth and transitioning to a bite mid-lunge as the tail-end of Hobbes’ rag caught on one of its fangs.

There was a loud ripping sound, and a flutter of torn cloth drifted down from the ekeedle’s mouth to land gently on the road below. A beat of silence passed as the ekeedle looked at Hobbes in smug satisfaction, who stared down at the torn piece of his covering in silence. Slowly, gravity grabbed hold of the suddenly-less solid head of the rag-puppet that hid Hobbes’ true body, and the smiling, drawn-on face tilted to the side.

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Knowing what was coming, I sighed.

“Hobbes…rage,” I said, unnecessarily.

I didn’t think rage was normally in a mimikyu’s move pool, one of the first signs of reality not quite matching up to my game knowledge. But it was a move Hobbes was particularly proficient at, and thirty seconds later, the ekeedle fled away into the forest with repeated cries of “ekee!”

I could’ve probably caught the pokemon if I’d wanted, as it had been more than sufficiently cowed by Hobbes’ assault for a pokeball to have been effective, but I let it flee. While a pre-fused pokemon would be a boon to many starting trainers’ parties, I had greater aspirations than the first random fusion I came across. And besides, raising multiple pokemon that got along was already hard enough; attempting to play peacemaker after the grudge Hobbes would inevitably hold toward the ekeedle for tearing his rag did not sound like a fun time.

“Don’t worry, I brought plenty of supplies, you’ll be able to fix it,” I said in an attempt to comfort my forlorn pokemon, who picked up the torn piece of its rag and stared at it in sadness.

“Mii, mii?”

“No, we’ve got a long way yet to go,” I said, feeling bad to be denying my pokemon his request, but knowing it was necessary. If Hobbes was going to battle for me like he’d insisted he wanted to, he’d have to get used to having his rag damaged. “You’ll have to wait until we stop later tonight.”

“Mi, kyu…” Hobbes nodded sadly, and I almost broke my resolve then and there from the plaintive sound of his voice, only barely managing to maintain my conviction.

“I’m sorry, that one was my fault,” I said instead. “I was too slow in my orders. If you’d had dodged upward, I don’t think it would’ve been able to adjust to bite you. That’s a move we'll need to watch out for. 'Bite's' really common for pokemon around our level, and though your fairy typing makes it not super effective, it’ll be dangerous if you ever lose that in a fusion.”

“Mi mii,” Hobbes responded with a floppy nod, but I could tell he was only half-listening, still somewhat distraught about the damage to his rag, but I chose not to push it. It was already a tough experience for him, forcing him to wait for hours before fixing his disguise, and he didn’t need my admonishment on top of it.

Mimikyu were a somewhat unique pokemon, even more so than the way all pokemon were ‘unique’. They had one of the sadder pokedex entries back in my old world, enough that I was able to remember it all these years later.

Any human who saw a mimickyu’s true body would die a mysterious, horrible death within the next twenty-four hours, leading mimikyu to isolate themselves for the sake of others. This isolation was difficult for the lonely pokemon, and as a solution they would craft a new ‘body’ for themselves, one of cloth and whatever other materials they could find. In an attempt to receive the same love that trainers gave to pikachu, that most popular and adorable of pokemon, mimikyus attempted to fashion their bodies as facsimiles of the yellow rodent pokemon, and fought using tendrils of their ‘true’ bodies extending out from under the disguise.

While unbelievably sad, the backstory of mimikyus did result in one advantage: the unique ability ‘disguise’. In the games, this allowed their disguise to take the first hit of battles, mitigating or even preventing entirely the damage the move would otherwise cause. And while many things in this world didn't function quite like the games, this was not one of them.

As long as Hobbes had a chance to fully repair his disguise, the first attack of each battle that hit wouldn’t harm him, instead damaging his disguise. Unfortunately, this also left him practically inconsolable in his worry that I or someone else he cared for might accidentally see his true body, but I was hopeful we might be able to find a solution for that soon.

We just needed to get through this route first.