Bo felt his leg thrumming with anxious energy as he lay on the pile of pillows Princess called a bed. Why it was his leg or why even that leg in particular, he had no idea, but Bo knew what was driving it. The past few weeks had flown by and he was both eager and worried for the challenges to come. He and his family steadily worked themselves back into top shape, honing their senses and instincts to a keen edge once more. Bo was ecstatic to see the feverish burn of readiness that had settled over all of them. It was like watching a pack of house Persians return to the wild to hunt their prey once more. Even the proverbial Meowth kittens he’d taken under his wing had steadily grown some fangs of their own. Alice and her team still had far to go, but their progress so far had been more than he could have dreamed of. And now…

Beep! Beep!

Rising slowly to not wake the slumbering Baron or snoring Princess next to him, Bo glanced over at Rotobi’s flashing screen.

12:00 AM

…Officially two days away from the tournament. Giving up on getting to sleep, Bo slid out of the makeshift bed and grabbed a pair of shoes. He froze as Baron stirred slightly, but kept going when he felt his partner simply flex his spirit tiredly before rolling over with a huff. Smiling at the sight, Bo slipped out of his dragon’s cave and started jogging. He had barely gotten to the edge of the reserve when a faint feeling inside himself made Bo look up and spot the silent shadow gliding just over head.

“Sup Fang,” Bo greeted, getting a toothy smile in return. “Baron call for a babysitter or you just enjoying a nighttime stroll?”

“Gli!” The winged scorpion replied cheekily, causing Bo to roll his eyes.

“Both then. I’ll still take the company as long as you can keep up.”

Snickering at his trainer’s taunt, Fang swooped ahead to perform a few aerial loops before gliding right back into place over Bo’s head, just to prove who exactly was the slow one there. Together, the two of them went deep into the nearby forest, enjoying the distinct buzz of the wooded area at night, and Bo could only chuckle as the various nocturnal pokemon of the forest popped up to chat with Fang. The Gliscor really did have a way of making friends anywhere.

Only returning once the sun started to rise and drive the local Murkrows back to sleep, the sweaty but now relaxed Bo thanked Fang for the company and waved him off to rejoin Honor before she woke. On his way back to the compound, Bo was surprised to find his grandfather waiting for him with Rotobi next to him.

For better or worse, Old Man Moon was direct, no matter the time of day. “Heard back from the Kalos League. Took a look, an this offers probably bout as good as it’s going to get. I still don’t like it kid,” he finished with a scowl, gesturing for Rotobi to show Bo the latest contract that had been sent over. “You’re basically agreeing to let a bunch of Ekans into our beds.”

“Well, if they’re cute and have those flexible tongues, I don’t see a problem,” Bo joked, causing Old Man’s scowl to deepen. “I mean, I wouldn't, but it’s been a while for you Old Man.”

“Less than it’s been for you, you brat. There are plenty of women in Carmine who appreciate finely aged goods.”

Bo’s smirk soured at those blunt words. “…Thank you Gramps. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go have Doc sear that image from my brain.”

This at least, finally got the Old Man to stop scowling and snort with laughter. “Just read the damn contract. The changes are already highlighted.”

Bo shrugged before scrolling through Rotobi’s screen and sighing. Negotiations with Kalos had gone better and worse than Bo had expected. On the plus side, the new leadership of the Kalos League had been surprisingly sympathetic towards him once they’d heard the full extent of what he’d gone through, and they were definitely eager to keep any further mention of the corruption that had recently infested the Kalos League out of the news. On the downside, what he and the Old Man were asking for was ludicrously valuable and even a sympathetic government wasn’t going to hand out such favors lightly.

In exchange for Kalos handing over the item he wanted, they were insisting on a chance to properly study the “artifact,” as they insisted on calling his lucky charm. They wanted the Moon clan to host a team of researchers, give them access to the charm, and allow a team of their ACE trainers to stay on their compound to “supervise.” The fact that the researchers would want to study him along with the charm and that the foreign agents would undoubtedly do more than supervise went unsaid. The idea of allowing a team of enforcers from any government poke around his home made him want to snarl, but, well, Bo also really, desperately wanted this particular prize. His friends might not hold him responsible for everything that had happened back then, but there were still some losses he wanted to make whole.

Bo had talked it over with the Old Man and Yuzu, and, whether they’d guessed his motivations or not, they’d ultimately decided to accept it with some provisions. After much back and forth, they’d finally gotten Kalos to agree to limit the research study to a six month period in exchange for agreeing to let them keep the charm if they could actually manage to move it. Truthfully, it wasn't a big concession on Bo's part. Instinct developed by years of some truly bizarre experiences told him that his favorite charm wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. That just left the last negotiating point.

“Ok,” Bo muttered once he was done reading. “Apparently, I’m still obligated to make any reasonable effort to ensure that the researchers don’t die, but they will no longer directly hold me responsible for any deaths as long as a third party investigation doesn’t find me, you, or just about anyone else in Carmine Village to be directly responsible for said deaths. Should I be offended that they actually felt the need to put that I’m not allowed to murder their people in writing?”

“Bah, I’m more offended they think we’d be sloppy enough to get caught.”

Bo opened his mouth to retort, but then his mind flashed back to his last experience with Kalos. Quite a few so-called scientists had been involved back then, and he wouldn’t be surprised if some of those same ones were still employed by the League. “Fair point.”

Seeing no further issues, Bo shoved any lingering doubts back into the corner of his mind where he kept all his other problems and signed the e-doc, causing Rotobi to giggle slightly from the ticklish feeling.

Old Man peered at the signature with reluctant acceptance. “Alright then, but yer responsible for these fuckers. Keep them and their attack Growlithes out of the way and away from anything important,” he sighed. Patting his grandson on the shoulder, Old Man Moon made to walk away before pausing. “To be clear, that’s only in regards to following the contract. If they do happen to need to die mysteriously…”

“I’ll go to Yuzu.”

“You go to Yuzu,” Old Man nodded with satisfaction before leaving.

Smiling as his grandfather lumbered away, Bo stretched his arms out and turned to face the fog-riddled sky. Whether he could see the sun or not, there was no reason he couldn’t embrace the joy emanating from the world as a whole.

‘Ahh, time to get the day started.’

*

“Defog!” Alice cried out as a flurry of ice flew toward her Screeching Murkrow. The bird immediately slashed forward with his wings, sending out a sharp gust of wind into the oncoming Blizzard. For a move normally used to clear debris, it did an admiral job of parting the icy attack, giving the flying type just enough room to dodge.

‘Huh, that’s new. On the other hand…’

Watching the small path through the blizzard form, Bo easily tracked where the Murkrow would go and directed his pokemon to that opening. Quick as thought, razor sharp Ice Shards blurred through the air toward the flying type. Eyes widening, the bird once more tried to brush the attack aside with Defog, but the frozen blades slid right through the gusts of wind, and Sora’s Screech momentarily transformed into a pained caw as one shard slashed across his left wing. He quickly straightened and resumed his Screech, but the bird was clearly moving slower now.

“Icy Wind,” Bo followed up, calling out into the rime-riddled battlefield before him over the harsh cry that filled the air. In response, Saber’s next breath came out as a howling gale, the air visibly cooling as it flew towards their opponent. Their lithe form shook with excitement, even as they endured the ear-splitting cry.

“Hop Haze,” Alice shouts loudly over the noise, signaling her frantically flying & shrieking Murkrow. After a month of non-stop training, the little guy immediately plummeted toward the ground and slowed a moment before his landing even as he kept his Screech going. Tucking in his wings and lowering his capped head, Sora shone a dim, frosty light as the Icy Wind blew around him.

Bo smiled as he saw the same Roost trick they’d borrowed from Carter come into play, dulling the effects of the ice type move on the Murkrow. Better yet, as the Icy Wind cut off and Sora shot from the ground again. The little bird took off even faster than he’d landed, a trail of haze following in his wake and obscuring his movements. Despite the chilling cold of Saber’s move, Sora’s own Haze kept it from slowing him down, though Bo did note that it also deadened the sound the Murkrow emitted.

Seeing their prey once again escape unscathed, Saber rattled furiously before leaping after the bird. Glittering spikes of ice grew from their claws as Saber charged forward, trying to catch the flying type before he flew too far away instead of launching another quick hail of Ice Shards from a distance like Bo would have preferred. Sighing at his Legendary running into battle without a plan, Bo reached out through their still tenuous connection to nudge them back in the right direction.

Their opponent had long since run out of energy needed for Protect or Detect, meaning they’d have to evade by other means. Sora still couldn’t pull off a move like Thunder Wave or Confuse Ray against Saber quick enough without relying on Prankster, so those were out as well. That only left a few options for dodging a giant, charging cat-blade. Plus, judging by the fast but still slightly off-kilter flight he was showing, Bo was certain that some damage from Saber’s Ice Shard still remained. With that in mind, it was obvious which wing Sora would favor when dodging a critical blow. Taking in his opponent’s forced stillness and razor focus in mind though, Bo decided to go in the opposite direction.

‘Come on pal,’ Bo thought. ‘Dive straight in, then juke right.’

Despite his fervent directive, Bo sighed as Saber, whether simply too eager to get their prey to listen or still not fully trusting him, followed their own instinct and lanced straight towards the low flying Murkrow before leaping to the left in anticipation of Sora’s dodge. Unfortunately, Sora surprised the cat-blade, diving towards Saber, shrouded in mottled green bug type energy, then whipping around to the right a hairs-breadth before contact, his feathery body shifting fully into energy and blurring away from the ice type. Sora reappeared over a dozen yards away, still screaming at the top of his lungs.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Despite the attack missing, pride surged in Bo’s chest at Sora’s dodge. The feeling was subdued by an irritated Saber blocking him out even further as they charged once again, but didn’t die completely. Sora had definitely been favoring his right side and the initial turn towards his own right using his bad wing had definitely been slower than turning the other way would have been. Alice had been relying on that fact though, and had used her apparent disadvantage to fool Saber. Bo couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t think she could have displayed such planning or quick reactions just a month ago.

While Saber steadfastly pounced after their nimble foe and ignored him, Bo turned to look at the stopwatch steadily ticking on his phone. Sora danced and twirled out of the way of attacks for another handful of seconds before his dinged wing caught up with him. He was a second to slow in gaining altitude, and Saber crashed into him with a powerful Icicle Crash. As Sora slammed into the ground with a huff, Bo grinned before stopping Rotobi’s counter with a click.

“Time!” he hollered out over the din. Not feeling any change coming from where Saber stood over their quarry, he quickly followed up with a “rubs & snackies!” before the ice type could keep attacking.

That, at least caught their attention. Freezing in place, Saber quickly spun and sprang towards him in one giant leap while Sora stayed spread-wing to the ground, panting. Bo barely had a second to whoop out a laugh as over three hundred pounds of frozen pokemon leapt on top of him, pushing him to the ground. Used to this by now, Bo simply held up the large hondew berry he’d brought in one hand while fishing a small, everstone block out of his pocket with the other.

Bo had learned early on that, when it came to physical affection, Saber wasn’t like other feline pokemon he’d met over the years. Scratching behind their ears or rubbing their chin didn’t really do anything for them. So, even as their tongue lapped at the juice now covering their face and his hand, Bo took the whetstone and began running it smoothly up and down the frozen blade he had pegged as Saber’s ‘real’ body. Sure, his fingers inevitably bled from close contact with their blades, but he wasn’t too worried. It turned out that the blood acted like a kind of oil for Saber’s blades, letting a little rub into them every so often just helped keep them clean. Bo paid close attention to each half of the blade, even the hilt portion, and Saber was soon purring up a storm, all annoyance from the battle forgotten.

“Thanks for the help today, Sabs,” he crooned affectionately for a few seconds before stopping his hand and tilting his head to look them in the eyes. “I do want to talk about you blocking me out though. You would have caught him on that last U-Turn dodge if you’d listened to me. More importantly, missing that attack wasn’t a reason for you to shut me out completely after that. Mistakes and little losses are always going to happen during battles. It’s how you and I deal with them together that will determine the ultimate winner. Even if you’re frustrated, you and I need to work together, kay?”

Saber nodded slightly, as a teeny wave of what Bo was tempted to call remorse flickered through their bond. They immediately followed this up by bumping their large head into his chest, sniffing around for any more berries he might be keeping on him. Chuckling, Bo let them discover a few more pokeblocks in his pockets before giving them a kiss on the forehead and reaching out with aura to jingle the soothe bell nestling within Saber’s spirit before pushing them away. Getting up himself and smacking at his slightly bloodied lips from where they’d touched the Legendary, he walked over to where Alice was happily congratulating her exhausted Murkrow.

“So,” Bo quirked a brow as she looked up. “Any thoughts?”

Happy face twisting into serious contemplation, the teen gnawed at her lower lip for a few seconds before speaking. By now used to going over their spars, she spoke slowly but confidently. “Defog worked well against Blizzard, but not against Ice Shard. If I had to guess, it’s because Saber doesn’t really use attacks like Blizzard often, which means I can’t rely on it against opponents that are actually good at wide-range attacks, especially if they have beneficial weather up. At least not yet. Also… that U-turn dodge at the end… you saw it coming.”

“Oh? What makes you say that?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes at her question. “I could just tell. Your face got, like, proud happy instead of surprised happy like when we had bubblegum ice cream for dessert last week.”

Bo grunted in mild shock at her observation. He hadn’t really tried to hide any body language from her, but experience had taught him that most people outside his little circle had trouble reading him regardless. He apparently had what some particularly annoying reporters had once dubbed resting Mr. Mime face.

“You were too focused on the dodge leading up to it,” he eventually replied, much to her apparent confusion. “Being that still and focused made it obvious you were telling Sora to do something, but if you were fine with Sora pivoting off his unhurt wing, you wouldn’t have needed to coach him through it. He’d have just done it by instinct while you thought ahead to next steps. Having you’re pokemon do something that’s against their instincts or commonsense to them is a great way to catch people off guard, but only if you remain relaxed leading up to it. Act like you’re on autopilot and just going with the flow.”

She nodded, a look of realization crossing her face. As was usual, Bo caught a worrying split second of self-flagellation cross her face before being replaced by determination. “What else did I do wrong?” she asked seriously.

“…Wrong probably isn’t the word I’d use,” Bo said as gently as he could. “There’s always going to be room for improvement, that’s just true for everyone, but you did really good. If I had to say, the biggest mistake you made is missing something really obvious in your analysis.”

“What?”

Alice’s face twisted with nerves at his words only to relax a little as he smiled. “You missed the fact that you have a new record! How about that, Alice?” Bo asked jovially as he showed her Rotobi’s stopwatch feature. Slowly, her worried face transformed into a wide smile “Five minutes, thirty-two point four seconds and only three hits taken! That is a far cry from the three-point-two seconds we started out with and something you both should be very proud of.”

“Thanks,” she responded gleefully while Sora cawed out his own tired but happy response. “Saber is an amazing training partner. I know you mentioned they’re not as strong as the rest of your team yet, but that weird murder aura of theirs is really damn motivating when it comes to dodging. Sora’s probably done for today, but I can switch over to Tama or Kamu?”

Bo pondered the idea for a bit as he hummed to himself in thought. It had taken most of the month, but they had gotten to the point where he thought Alice might be able to surprise some people at the tournament. She had actually made a lot more progress than he thought she would have. Originally, he’d only expected her to last up to maybe three minutes, but her and her team had thrown themselves into the training despite any complaints. Sora and Tama in particular had come impressively far in stringing together Protects and Detects. Most pokemon practically collapsed from exhaustion if they tried to use both moves back-to-back repeatedly, but they'd put in the work. Now, not even counting Sora’s latest records, both he & Tama could consistently evade Saber’s attacks for at least four minutes, more than enough time for what they had planned. They’d have to run a few final tests of the strategy with some of his other pokemon as opponents, but that could wait until tomorrow.

Right now, he thought it might just be time to start Alice on the next steps in growing as a trainer. A shiver of excitement passed through him. He’d been practicing a lot for this particular lesson. “Let’s hold off on that,” he said cheerfully, causing her to look up curiously. “For now, let’s go for a walk.”

She raised an eyebrow at that. “Back to the woods where nobody can hear me?” she joked.

“Ha-hah,” he laughed indulgently. “Don’t worry, I learned my lesson. I’ve got a different spot in mind.”

*

“C’mon, pop a squat” Bo called out, patting the space next to him on the ledge beyond the roof railing overlooking the rest of the Moon compound where he and his friends had stood his first night back.

“Here?” she asked, her face taking on that nervous quality that she had recently explained to him wasn’t social anxiety. Apparently, Bo had a habit of saying things that could scare people without him realizing it. Thankfully, over the last month, Alice had gotten a lot more comfortable with telling him when he said odd things, though occasionally it was hard to tell whether or not she was just messing with him. The girl had a real comedic streak once she got to know people. Just the other day, she had joked that she was actually a little afraid of Princess of all things. She’d even kept her face straight as he stared at her in horror for a forty-seven-point-twenty-three-and-a-half seconds before she broke down and admitted that she was just kidding! “Why up here?”

Bo shrugged lightly in response as his feet dangled below him. “Well, you said taking you out to isolated locations away from others could be alarming, so I figured we’d try someplace where everyone can see us. See, look,” Bo pointed towards where a few of the Kahale had paused below to look up at them. Bo gave them a quick wave before turning over his shoulder to smile back at his hesitant apprentice. The teen mumbled something too low for him to hear with a shake of her head, but nevertheless hoisted herself over the railing and onto the ledge next to him.

“So,” he began. “I’m thinking that now that you’ve got the moves down for the tournament, it might be time to start talking next steps.”

“Really? I mean, are you sure you don’t want me practicing more while we can? I’ve barely even practiced the actual battle strategy.”

“Nah. You know what you need to do and have improved even more than I thought you would have by now. We’ll do another run through tomorrow with some of my other pokemon out in the forest, just to work out the last few kinks, but that can wait. Tonight,” he continued. “We are all taking a break and doing some team bonding before the big day. Besides, this will give you something to reflect on during the tournament. That will help you long term more than just training a little more.”

“But the tournament-”

“-is a great opportunity for you,” Bo cut her off. “Just like pokemon, trainers also grow best in the face of adversity, especially if they know what to focus on.”

Seeing the teen still wasn’t entirely convinced, Bo pointed a thumb towards himself, throwing on a reassuring smile. “C’mon, can’t you trust this face?”

“I’m pretty sure I saw a similar face as a kid and ended up walking into an invisible wall,” Alice joked half-heartedly. She still looked a little hesitant, but eventually she nodded. “Alright, so what is the next step, then?”

“I told you before that cultivating and training aura differs from trainer to trainer, and that’s true, but there are some short cuts for finding out what works for you. That’s why, for starters, we’re going to go over… pokemon types!” Bo finished dramatically only for Alice to shoot him a blank stare.

“Types?”

“Exactly,” Bo nodded. “And don’t worry, I’m not talking about type match-ups. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you have those down already. See, types and type energy are really just specific shades of aura, stained glass parts of the whole mural as it were. This helps us, because instead of trying to get you tuned into the whole spectrum of aura right from the start, we can instead focus on just one or two types.

Individual types give trainers a kind of target to focus on and visualize when they’re cultivating aura. Sure, it means that their aura isn’t as compatible with other types of pokemon, but it’s perfect if you only have a few types of pokemon. In comparison, non-typed aura is just too vast and all-encompassing for amateurs to get a feel for. Think of it like learning to play music,” Bo suggested, noting with interest that Alice perked up slightly at the idea. “When you’re just starting out, you don’t attempt to learn how to play every instrument there is at the same time. Instead, you focus on one instrument, get a feel for the various notes and rhythms, and then, if you want to play other instruments, you utilize that experience to get a feel for the other instruments. That’s why you see so many type specialists at the upper levels rather than generalists. Narrowing your focus to a few types might make you less flexible at the start, but trying to master everything all at once usually winds up leaving you half-baked overall.”

Checking her eyes for understanding, Bo internally pumped his fist before continuing.

“Personally, I’m confident in being able to teach you about dark, fairy, ghost, and psychic types. If you do want to learn more afterwards, Carter and Dani should be able to fill in any blanks when it comes to poison, fire, or fighting types. For now, we’ll start with the four I know and the dark type in particular. Now, the trick to truly understanding a type is to understand that each type has an underlying concept behind them and those concepts are the foundations that each types’ power is built from,” Bo spoke smoothly, getting into the rhythm of his lesson. Pulling out Rotobi and expanding the phone to tablet size, Bo pulled up a slide showing four blank squares. As he continued to speak, he tapped the screen, causing labeled images to appear in the four squares as he went. “For psychic, ghost, fairy, and dark types, those underlying concepts are Knowledge, Desire, Belief and-”

“That’s fighting type,” Alice interrupted.

“Huh?” Bo grunted, turning to look at his student’s befuddled face.

“You drew the symbol for fighting types,” Alice said, pointing towards the small fist he’d labeled fairy on the screen.

“The fist stands for Belief. It’s the fist of Belief,” Bo stated, earning himself a dubious look.

“What about the electric type symbol that says psychic?”

“That’s a light bulb for Knowledge. When you understand something, it’s like a light bulb going off in your head.”

“So the little picture of fire doesn’t mean fire?”

“No, that is for Desire, like a burning desire,” Bo corrected patiently, only to spot the teenager trying to hide her amusement at his reasoning. “Ok, ok, forget about the pictures!”

Pulling his phone back into his pocket and eliciting an aggrieved beep, Bo held up his hands.

“Let’s start from the top.

Psychic types draw their power from Knowledge. Once a psychic type fully understands something, whether it’s definitive like the laws of physics or nebulous like dreams, they can control it. That’s why they struggle with more illogical or irrational types like bug, ghost, and dark. In theory though, the only limits on their power are time and comprehension.

Ghost types on the other hand draw their power from Desire, most specifically, the desire to be alive, to be recognized. By their very natures, ghosts are very ethereal and otherworldly, but they absolutely crave to exist in the world of the living with the rest of us. The hauntings they do and the pranks they play are usually, at their core, driven by the desire to be a bigger part of the world. Their powers are all about taking something ethereal like shadows or emotions and manifesting them into reality.

Then there’s fairy types. Fairies’ power comes entirely from Belief. Fairies like Angel or Witch could care less about what most people consider reality. Instead, they believe in something so much that that Belief actually becomes reality. And trust me, reality according to fairies can get really, really weird. Just look at Mt. Moon. My families been here for generations and we still don’t really understand everything that the Clefairies have done to it. We know that the mountain’s a lot larger than it really should be according to any maps, but we’re still finding caverns and passageways that just seem to have appeared overnight.

And last but certainly not least,” Bo said with relish. “We have the dark type. Tell me Alice, what concept do you think lies at the core of what it means to be a dark type pokemon; what it means to be a dark type specialist?”

At his question, the teenager squirmed slightly. Bo knew that she loved her dark type pokemon and he had seen her happily interact with other dark types once she had gotten to know them, but the general stigma around the type was undoubtedly swirling around her mind. He couldn’t even blame her really. Throughout history, dark types, both wild and trained, had more than earned their dangerous reputation. To this day, they were still the most widely used type of pokemon by criminals across the world. Still, Bo was interested in what answer she’d ultimately arrive at herself.

“Is it… violence?” Alice eventually guessed, and Bo fought not to laugh while imagining her picturing her Persian to answer.

“Not quite,” Bo replied. “Most people do guess that, for dark types, for ‘evil’ types as it were, the core of their beings is violence, or cunning, or even just cruelty, but I’ve come to find that none of those are truly right.”

“What is their ‘core’ then,” Alice asked with another eye-roll when it became clear that Bo would hold his dramatic pause until prompted.

“The true, fundamental essence behind every dark type and dark type specialist,” Bo spoke with a truly happy, feral grin spreading across his face. “Is Joy.”