Leo awoke to loud knocking on the door to his room in the pokémon center. With a groan he rolled over and glanced at the clock, blanching at the time. It read 8:13. He'd only been asleep for forty minutes since he got back to the Center, after the Spiritomb covered his head with the cheap Center pillow, burrowing his way deeper into the mattress as if to escape the knocking that was slowly becoming louder.
Eventually, though, he had to give up. There was only so much noise he could take so, groggy as all get out and dressed solely in the shirt he'd forgotten to take off before crashing in bed and his underpants, he yanked open the door to stare at the offending person.
He was greeted by the sight of an equally disgruntled Morty, the Ecruteak gym leader only recognizable to Leo thanks to him having been at his gym yesterday and seen him on TV. The leader's blonde hair was a mess, skewed in all placed with his trademark headband nowhere to be seen. The look in his eyes was borderline manic, and with a sudden motion he seized Leo's shoulders and brought his face way too close for comfort.
"Did you -" the leader's words were cut off by Leo's knee jerk reaction to suddenly being grabbed and yelled at; he punched Morty in the stomach as hard as he could. Purely as a reaction he pulled away and slid into a defensive stance, stopping himself from following up the strike with another punch by sheer force of will.
It took only a moment of watching Morty wheeze, doubled over as he was, for Leo to realize what he'd done.
"I am so sorry," he gushed, his exhausted haze vanishing as he reached forward to pat Morty's shoulder, only to freeze when he spotted the silver pokémon behind him. Ninetails – more specifically, the same Ninetails from last night. Regular Ninetails didn't have silver fur, after all. And there it was, just staring at him blankly with its shining red eyes, watching him silently and closely.
"Ow, I – guh," Morty groaned, standing upright and wincing, placing a hand on Leo's shoulder and taking a deep breath. This time, Leo didn't punch him for touching him. "Kid, where is Spiritomb?" he asked, the same manic intensity as before sparking in his eyes. Leo blinked at him, glanced at Ninetails, then looked over to the tiny nightstand that sat next to the equally small Center bed, where Spiritomb's keystone sat. Diana lay beneath the table, curled up in a small ball of brown rock, snoozing away peacefully.
"Lemme see it," Morty said, bursting into the room, shoving Leo aside with a 'hey!' and snatching the stone from the table.
"I wouldn't -" Leo began but was cut off by Spiritomb, who burst out of its keystone in a blur of purple and green so sudden Morty yelped in an undignified manner and dropped the keystone. The swirling purple ectoplasm that was Spiritomb hissed in a dozen different voices, one ghastly green eye fixing itself on Morty while the other watched Leo. "It's still upset, I wouldn't touch it," Leo said, walking over and plucking up the keystone without hesitation. Touching Spiritomb's ghost body was weird, it felt cold and warm, sticky and smooth, all in borderline unpleasant manners. Almost as soon as Leo picked up the stone two dozen voices started whispering in his ears even as the ghost retreated into its stone cube, forcing him to shake his head and push away the…temptations of the spirits.
At least five of them wanted Leo to punch Morty again. They had thought that was great, and didn't like him touching their home-body-cell either.
"It's really here," Morty breathed, glancing over at Ninetails as it entered the room, pushing the door shut behind it with its tails.
"I'm feeling a little out of the loop here," Leo said, though he had his suspicions. "Clearly, you already know what this thing is,"
"How did you find it? How did you calm it?" Morty demanded, desperation clear in his voice. Leo hesitated, wanting more than anything to question Morty himself, but at the same time the crazy way he was looking at him made Leo second-guess himself.
"Froslass – er, a Froslass led me to it. Asked me to return this cube to the burned tower, and when I did the ghost appeared and I sort of…well, melded into its mindscape for a bit? I promised to help bring it peace," Leo explained slowly. While in the mindscape he hadn't said those exact words, that was his intent. He wasn't going to help Spiritomb do just anything – what if it wanted to commit mass murder? Not that Spiritomb struck him as that malicious, but the point still stood. He would help Spiritomb his way, whatever that meant, and hoped that whatever was left of Froslass in there understood what that meant. Even if Leo didn't exactly understand it himself.
Morty shot him an incredulous look, and Leo sat down on his bed, suddenly becoming acutely aware that he wasn't wearing any pants. A problem he quickly set about rectifying, carefully maneuvering so he didn't wake the still-sleeping Diana.
"Bring it peace," Morty repeated, running a hand through his hair and falling into a sitting position on the bed. He looked exhausted, and hopeful, and tired, and…just about everything in between.
"Um…are you ok?" Leo asked slowly, struggling into a pair of jeans.
"No," Morty admitted, placing his face in his hands. "You have no idea what you just did, do you?" he asked. Leo shook his head, realized Morty couldn't see him as he was still resting his face in his palms, and verbalized his negative answer.
Ninetails chuffed and flicked its tails, earning itself a dangerous hiss from Spiritomb, still held in Leo's hand, and a glare from Leo. Stupid fox, he thought acidly, then blinked. Whoa. Where had that thought come from? Morty and Ninetails shared a look with each other, and Morty threw his hands into the air in exasperation.
"Alright, alright, I get it! Fine. Kid, have you told anyone about Spiritomb yet?" Morty asked.
"Uh, no. Should I not?" Leo asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I'm not going to get in trouble with the League for carrying it with me, am I? It's not some super rare and dangerous pokémon, is it?" Morty snorted and shook his head, relaxing ever so slightly.
"It is a Spiritomb, and it's probably no more dangerous than an average ghost. On the flip side, there's not a single person in the Indigo League besides myself that actually knows what a Spiritomb is – not even Agatha or the esteemed Pokémon Professors. If anything you'll be credited with the discovery of a new pokémon," Morty said. "There are maybe, maybe, five people in the entire world that know of the existence of Spiritomb as a species, and four of them are from Sinnoh. I don't think there's ever been anyone who's ever actually caught or trained one either. Not in the conventional sense," Morty explained. Leo blinked in surprise at that – he figured Spiritomb would be rare, but that rare? That's technically even rarer than Articuno – at least people know about Articuno. And didn't Cynthia have a Spiritomb? Or had she not caught it yet?
For that matter, was she a Champion yet? Interregional news was sparse, sure, but Leo should probably look into that. If she had a Spiritomb he might try reaching out to her for advice.
"Okaaaay, so what is a Spiritomb then, exactly?" Leo asked, glancing down at the stone. Morty huffed out a laugh.
"I'm not exactly sure. All I have to go off of is a few dusty old records of my family – who were tasked with keeping an eye on the Burned Tower after it, y'know, burned down. My best guess? An artificial pokémon, not unlike Claydoll or Golurk. Ah – do you know what those are?" Morty asked. Leo nodded, recalling some vague pokedex information on those particular species. They were considered to have been created by humans, right? "Right, well they basically started as artificial pokémon some hundreds of years ago, created for war of course, but eventually became able to procreate somehow. That's how they spread from their native regions. Spiritomb was Sinnoh's attempt at duplicating the process, albeit less successful."
"Less successful?" Leo asked, frowning and setting Spiritomb's keystone on the nightstand. He didn't know much about Spiritomb's strength, but he guessed it was easily his strongest pokémon right now – and he called that unsuccessful?
"Yes, less successful. They're not able to naturally form, so far as I'm aware, which makes them not nearly as successful as the Golurk or Claydoll line – as rare as they are, themselves, they've still somehow managed to reproduce in the wild. I need you to understand what, exactly, it is that you're carrying with you right now," Morty said.
"I…see," Leo said, speaking through a yawn. Man, he was tired.
"And because, quite frankly, you happened to end a curse that was laid on my family, however unwittingly you did so," Morty said, dropping yet another bomb on Leo. At his surprised look, Morty continued. "My family, while not wholly implicated in the creation of Spiritomb and the subsequent Burning of the Tower, was cursed by this here fox to watch over the Burned Tower until such a time that Spiritomb was released. In other words, until the Froslass of the Silver Mountains brought someone who she felt capable of taming Spiritomb to Ecruteak, and completed Spiritomb's creation. I didn't ask to be loved by ghosts, nor did the rest of my family,"
Leo rubbed his face, wholly unsure how to take that information and ignoring the scathing look Ninetails shot at Morty. He was at a loss as to what to say, or do, with this information. Probably nothing, but he felt like he should say something, at least.
"So now what?" Leo asked after a moment, staring down at the still-sleeping Diana.
"Now? I don't know, that's on you. You're the one who has to deal with Spiritomb now, whatever that entails. Spiritomb is attached to you now, and Ninetails seems to think you're adequate for the job, if not the first choice. My job is almost done, all I need to do is test you and make sure you're capable of controlling the ghost. Then you're on your own," Morty said bluntly. Leo blinked at him in surprise, then frowned.
"That seems very…irresponsible of you," he said, feeling a little hypocritical the moment he said irresponsible. Morty bared his teeth in a sharp grin, laughing and shaking his head.
"No one can tell you how to train ghosts, boy! Oh sure, you'll hear plenty of theories and plenty of people will want to tell you there is absolutely one single way to earn their trust – after all, it worked for them! But it's all a load of Tauros dung. Ghosts are as varied and whimsical as psychics and fairies, and as fierce and dangerous as dragons and dark types. There is nothing to stop them from just up and leaving their trainers, not even pokeballs can contain them, not really, not completely. It's all on you to earn their trust, get them to stay, and figure out what they want," Morty said, getting a little heated at the end.
Leo stared at him for a moment. That made…a lot of sense, actually. For example, with Karen, he didn't think he ever saw her Haunter go inside its pokeball. And Froslass was too wild to ever want to be caught, she had stuck around only because she wanted something from him. Spiritomb may be different, as it had a physical keystone keeping it bound, but the fundamentals of that would stay the same most likely.
"Ok, so I'm on my own for training, and I can tell people about Spiritomb but it's likely that I won't receive any help in figuring anything out. Mostly because nobody will know what Spiritomb is. Did I get that right?" Leo asked.
"Just about. Oh, and you can expect me to want to battle Spiritomb in your gym challenge later this week. I'm not going to move the date or anything to give you some time to bond with it, but I need to make sure you're going to be ok with it around. After a week I should be able to tell whether Spiritomb is trying to manipulate you or if you can't control it," Morty said rapid-fire.
"Uh, ok," Leo said bluntly. "That makes more sense, but I think I'll be fine with the manipulating part. It already tried that, and failed," he said, recalling how Spiritomb initially tried to tear his mind apart, or whatever that was. Morty grinned and shook his head.
"We'll see," he said cryptically, standing up and stretching. "As it stands, I'll be keeping an eye on you. Don't be surprised if you see ghosts in the corner of your eyes," he said, and headed towards the door. Ninetails let him leave, leaving Leo utterly baffled as to the whirlwind of an experience meeting him had been, and the fox continued to stare at him. Spiritomb hissed, another spectral eye appearing out of its keystone.
"What do you want?" Leo asked suspiciously. It tossed its head and fanned out its tails, rubbing opposite ends of the small room with the tips, Spiritomb's hissing only growing louder. Whispers sounded out in Leo's ear, which he ignored in favor of staring at Ninetails. It nodded its head, slowly, then vanished altogether in a shimmer of light. Leo stared, and stared, and promptly turned and fell face first onto his bed.
He was too tired to deal with any of this right now.
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True to his word, Leo found that Morty did, in fact, send a ghost to watch over him in the form of a Dusknoir – he'd seen it staring at him creepily from the shadows once he woke up, having only been able to sleep for a few hours. Then he'd promptly scanned Spiritomb with his pokedex, confirming Morty's statement about it being unknown, thanks to the pokedex having no information on it whatsoever other than it was a ghost type pokémon, and promptly gave Professor Oak a call.
"A new species?!" Oak practically yelled into the video phone, making Leo wince. The Center-provided headphones were awfully loud, so he turned down the volume a bit.
"Yeah, something like that. Gym Leader Morty seemed to know what it was, but at the same time, he had no idea what it was." Leo said, recalling how Morty had given him few actual answers as to what Spiritomb actually was, beyond it being artificial.
"That's…that's amazing!" the Professor gushed, excitement clear on his features. "You have to send me the data on your pokedex – and oh, I'll have to run a few tests! You said it's a ghost type? And that Froslass not only led you to it, but merged with it? Fascinating!" Oak said, the researcher in him showing.
Leo nodded, surprised at Oak's reaction but not adverse to it. He half expected him to start yelling at Leo again, with how much trouble he thought he caused. Maybe this wasn't as serious an event as he thought?
"Yeah, I'll give you the full story and all the data I can later, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like Spiritomb wants to go into a pokeball," Leo grumbled, showing off two broken halves of a pokeball, the metal still warm from when Spiritomb violently burst free, hissing and spitting like a cornered cat. It had calmed down afterwards, having only panicked from being "sealed away" again (or at least, that's what Leo deduced from the whispers that he had come to associate with Spiritomb speaking), but it wanted nothing to do with pokeballs now.
"Worry not, pokeballs are useful tools but ultimately we can only learn so much from pokémon inside of them. As much as I would love for you to transfer it over now so I can study it, ghosts are notoriously hard to handle by people other than their chosen trainers – I would know, I deal with Agatha's ghosts all the time. That said, I will ask you to study, scan and routinely check in with me regarding the…Spiritomb, was it? Spiritomb's development. Write down observations – treat this like an experiment. If we want to learn all we can about Spiritomb, you need to be on top of things," Oak said, rattling off instructions and clearly excited. "Where are you, Ecruteak? I can't leave the lab for the next few days, there's a bit going on here that I need to be present for, but I will send over some equipment for you to use that may help with your studies. So exciting! You should be very proud, you could go down in history for a discovery such as this! Assuming, of course, that Sinnoh hasn't officially discovered them either like you're suggesting,"
Leo chuckled at the Professor's enthusiasm, scratching Zuko's head as the Quilava poked his head up over the desk edge, sniffing at the screen curiously. He doubted he'd go down as the person who discovered Spiritomb, after all, Morty had known about them, but it was hard to deny the Professor's excitement.
"I'll see what I can do. There are a few things I remember about the species from home – they were rare, but some information was available about them – but again it sounds mostly like hearsay. Something about them being formed from one hundred and eight spirits, bound into a keystone? And there was one who was sealed in a tower by an aura guardian, I think," Leo mused, vaguely recalling something like that from the anime, not that he watched it much. Really he'd just looked up Spiritomb on the internet back home because he used one on an Alpha Sapphire nuzlocke run once. That story had popped up in his searching.
"So mostly folklore," Oak mused. "A connection to aura guardians is not all that common, but they're warriors of myth. Perhaps it, in fact, refers to a Lucario tribe that sealed it away? We'll discuss this later. I unfortunately have to run, but this is exciting, Leo!"
"Ah, two more things," Leo said, catching the Professor's attention once more. "First off, will this affect my carry limit? I haven't technically caught Spiritomb after all."
"No, it won't. Not officially. You still can't use seven pokémon in a battle, but there's no reason a wild pokémon can't follow you around." Oak explained impatiently, glancing off screen for a second.
"Neat. Second; I think I may be psychic. I'll have to tell you the story later, but the gist was that I was floating Spiritomb's keystone between my hands and levitating while calming it. I don't know if that was Spiritomb's influence or not though,"
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"…that is news. It would be wonderful if you were psychic, truly. Psychics are given far more liberties at a younger age than regular children. But we will have to discuss this later, I truly need to go," Oak said, pulling himself away from the screen.
"Yeah, sorry to keep you. Bye, Professor," Leo said. Oak smiled and waved farewell, then pressed a button and the screen cut out. "That went far better than I expected, bud," Leo said, scratching Zuko's head. The Quilava squeaked and pressed his head further into Leo's hand, urging Leo to scratch more even as he pushed him off his lap and stood up, taking off the headphones and freeing the video phone for whoever might want to use it next.
With a groan Leo stretched, popping his back and yawning loudly as he headed into the Center lobby, looking around at all the trainers. Most walked around with their smaller pokémon out – one boy had a Pikachu, a girl cradled a Nidoran in her arms, and one older trainer walked with a Totodile hopping about happily at his heels. What really caught Leo's eye, however, was the fishing pole the older man carried in the crook of one arm, and the tackle box in his other hand.
"Y'know what, Zuko? I think I could use a bit of a break. How about we go fishing tomorrow? Santiago will appreciate it, and I'm sure Diana will want to explore. What do you say, should I splurge and buy a fishing rod?" Leo asked rhetorically, glancing down at Zuko as he passed through the lobby and headed out the main door. The sun was still setting, and after a brief glance at the passing crowds Leo recalled Zuko.
He didn't want to get separated from him after all, and he figured finding a fishing shop would take some time. With that in mind, Leo set off, thumbing Spiritomb's keystone and looking for a fishing store.
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Dawn rose over Route 42, brining with it a burning sunrise and the rising calls of pidgey and spearow. Leo breathed in the fresh air as he hiked down the beaten path, carrying a cheap, thirty-dollar child's fishing rod over one shoulder and a small tacklebox in his other hand. Zuko scampered about in the bushes next to him, all too happy to be out of his pokeball and running around, no matter how early in the morning it was.
"Don't stray too far, bud," Leo called, shifting his backpack on his shoulders and watching a Sentret out of the corner of his eye.
Zuko didn't pay him much heed, however, darting in-between the tall pine trees chasing after a grasshopper. Leo shook his head and looked forward, where the trees opened up to reveal a small lake. There were plenty of these things surrounding Mount Mortar, at least that's what Leo thought the mountain was called, and Leo had intentionally chosen one that was a little off the beaten path when he looked at the map last night so he had little chance of running into any other people.
That, and the kind older fisherman who had helped him at the fishing shop – which was more like an outdoor recreation store – had suggested this very fishing hole. Said it was an excellent spot, and Leo wanted to test it out.
"Sssssss," Spiritomb whispered in his ear, and Leo rolled his eyes. Though the ghost's keystone was in his pocket it had this funny ability to project its voice anywhere within a certain distance, which meant it always sounded next to his ears. He didn't know how far it was, as he had no way to test it though. It was at least ten feet however, as Spiritomb had given him quite the scare last night. For reasons unknown it had decided the mimicking Persian growls coming from his closet would be hilarious. Oh yes, it got quite a kick out of watching him wake up in a cold sweat, wide-eyed and staring fearfully at the small Center closet that could have, in no universe, held a full grown Persian.
It had laughed until Leo threatened to throw its keystone out the window, or flush it down the toilet. That experience, combined with his dreams being plagued with images of the Spiritomb mindscape, meant he didn't get much sleep last night - which left him here. Already at the lake, which was a two hour hike from the outskirts of the city, and the sun just rising.
"I'm going to introduce you to the team today, Spiritomb," Leo announced. "Officially, at least. I realized on the way up here that I never actually introduced Diana, Zuko, and Santiago to you – even if you have already seen them. Be nice, will you? They're friends," Spiritomb didn't reply, which Leo expected, so he fell silent and approached the water's edge, admiring the cool blue color and the rippling water glittering in the sun. Zuko crashed through some bushes to his right, chasing after a Rattata, but after a sharp whistle from Leo he came scampering back.
"Leave the local wildlife alone, Zuko. You know better than that," he admonished, personally not wanting to piss off a Raticate or something bigger, but Zuko just panted and looked up at him innocently, paws squishing in the muddy ground. Leo shook his head and, after glancing around to make sure there were no other people, he released Santiago and Diana.
Santiago was still sleeping as he materialized in the waters of the lake, water now splashing against his side, and Diana appeared with a yawn. The little Larvitar rubbed her eyes and blinked, looking around a bit before spotting Leo and ambling up to him to press her forehead against his shin. Leo chuckled and bent down, scratching the back of her head and pulling Spiritomb's keystone out of his pocket with his free hand.
"Diana, Zuko, come here. There's someone I want you to meet," he said, holding the suspiciously silent keystone out for them to sniff.
Santiago was still sleeping and Leo knew from experience he wouldn't be able to wake him up, so he didn't get to participate yet. That, and he'd already met Spiritomb. Technically.
"Taaaar," Diana cooed, leaning forward and sniffing the stone. Zuko glanced at it disinterestedly, then turned away to watch Santiago as he lay in the shallow waters. Leo tensed when Diana opened her mouth, gently reaching forward like Leo had trained her, as if to accept a treat.
"No, no eating the -" Leo started, but was cut off by Spiritomb suddenly bursting from the stone, purple and green lights flashing as it created two gaping mouths and shrieked in both Leo's and Diana's faces simultaneously.
"For god's sake!" Leo yelped, dropping the keystone and leaping back while Diana tumbled over backwards with a startled yelp. Zuko shot a solid foot into the air in surprise, whirling on the new – and loud – threat with back-fires flaring, while Santiago slept soundly. "Spiritomb, I swear to god!" Leo all but shouted, taking a deep breath to calm his beating heart while Spiritomb cackled madly in its multi-layered voice.
The ghost reformed its face but allowed its eyes to split apart, one eye twisting around to watch Zuko and the other focusing on Diana, who pushed herself up and stepped forward hesitantly, looking from Spiritomb to Leo, then back to Spiritomb, then back to Leo again.
"Spiritomb is a jerk, Diana, you can be mean to him," Leo said softly, nodding his head and taking a bit of pleasure out of the look Spiritomb shot him. It was very clearly unamused by his joke, but Diana wasn't listening anyway. She was too busy eyeing Spiritomb's keystone which, Leo realized, might be a problem.
"Diana, just…don't eat the stone," Leo said with a sigh, though the little Larvitar showed no signs of actually having heard him. She did stop moving toward it though, so he took that as a win.
Shaking his head Leo turned toward the lake, intent on actually getting to fish today even if he would mostly be catching domestic Magikarp – in other words, pokémon that were as close to animals as it could get in this world. These lakes were chock full of domestic-type Magikarp and goldeen, though Leo was hoping to be able to catch a feral version of either. Not to keep by any means – feral magikarp could be sold for a small chunk of change, usually about five hundred dollars from what Leo figured, and that might add some leeway to his admittedly tight funds.
"I can't even imagine trying to train a Gyarados. I'm pretty sure they're even more aggressive than Tyranitar," Leo muttered, sitting down to attach the lure to his line. Out of the corner of his eyes he watched Zuko as he sniffed about the lake, digging into the ground at random, and kept an eye on Diana and Spiritomb, who were still interacting.
Diana looked about ready to munch on the keystone again, but a mouthful of snow shot from Spiritomb's own mouth stopped her, the cold substance making her sneeze and shake her head fiercely. I'm pretty sure Spiritomb can't learn any real ice moves, I remember their move pool being rather limited. Leo thought with a frown, tying off the fishing line and tugging on the lure to ensure it was properly secured. Is the reason Spiritomb can use an ice move now, whatever move that may be, be because of Froslass being sucked into it? I'm pretty sure Froslass' personality is dominant since it's pretty lax around me all things considered, so it'd be reasonable to assume her powers were transferred over somehow. I'd probably make a note of this, Oak did ask me to study Spiritomb. Leo mused, putting aside his fishing rod and pulling out his pokedex, typing his observation into the notes section he had started for Spiritomb.
There weren't many observations or anything yet, just a few memories Leo had of the pokemon, his thoughts on the "creation process," and Morty's own limited insight, but it was a start. The most interesting thing was the training potential Spiritomb's natural Pressure might provide – much like training with physical weights, Leo theorized that training under the effects of the "mental weight" of Pressure might speed up growth of the more…esoteric variety. Meaning, not physical attributes, but the…well, Special attributes.
It might even push Santiago to train his psychic abilities more. Though, as Leo glanced at the still sleeping Slowpoke as he lay in the lake waters, a small, palm-sized Magikarp splashing about in the shallows trying to nibble on his tail, Leo doubted it. He was as stubborn as he was battle-hungry.
Pushing all further thoughts out of his head, Leo stood on the bank of the lake and cast his fishing line out into the water. He came out here to relax and possibly lightly train after that intense experience one – er, two days ago. And what better way than to fish?
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Leo severely underestimated the trouble his team could get into in a short amount of time. Or, more specifically, how much trouble they could give him. In just the few hours that he'd got to the lake, Zuko had managed to start three separate fires chasing after wild pokémon, Diana had tried to eat Spiritomb at least twenty five times before realizing that the ghost was alive and not for eating – then proceed to go and chew through a tree that nearly fell on Leo! And she didn't even like the taste of wood! Not only that, but Spiritomb seemed all too happy to scare all the fish away from his lure using its ghostly powers – and had even convinced Morty's Dusknoir, who was still following them, to eat the one Magikarp Leo had managed to catch before cutting his line altogether. Then it picked a fight with Zuko, which was how the third fire got started. And top it all off, even with all the commotion going on Santiago slept through almost all of it then, when he did wake up, managed to catch fifteen Magikarp in under forty-five minutes with his tail.
It was borderline humiliating for Leo to toss the ones Santiago didn't eat – or more specifically Leo wouldn't let him eat, because if he had his way he'd gorge himself until he burst – back into the pond.
What had started out as a relaxing adventure had turned into Leo corralling his team. And he was livid.
"If you all can't control yourselves, you're going back into your balls!" Leo shouted, glaring at each of his pokémon in turn. Zuko looked suitably chastised, wilting under Leo's glare and letting out a low whine that went ignored by Leo. He should feel bad, he nearly burnt the forest down! As for Diana, she was still working on scraping sap off of her tongue, the little moron whining pitifully as she tried to scrape the sticky substance off. Santiago predictably ignored him, tail still in the water as he lay next to his two newest prizes, the Magikarp still flopping about, but he was also the only one Leo wasn't genuinely mad at.
Spiritomb, on the other hand, glared at him testily, hissing angrily. Zuko turned to regard it as the ghost type flared up, its stone glowing purple and rising into the air as its ectoplasmic body puffed up, doubling in size and releasing its Pressure. Zuko growled, legs trembling, and Diana whined, clutching her head. Santiago whipped his head around and shot a jet of water at Spiritomb, hitting its stone directly and only serving to enrage it further.
Pure anger flooded Leo's mind, filled with the whispers of ghosts and memories, urging him to act. And act Leo did, but not at all in the way Spiritomb seemed to expect. Instead of lashing out, trying to punch it or throw the stone away or whatever, Leo forcibly shoved those emotions down and stomped forward, each step renewing his purpose as he reached out and snatched Spiritomb's keystone out of the air.
"You will listen to me," he hissed, glaring directly into Spiritomb's narrowed green eyes. It looked…different than before. The green color had darkened, its eyes a different shape, and from the sound of the whispers…it sounded different. But that was a thought for later.
"Fight, fight, FIGHT!" Spiritomb shrieked, and Leo winced in pain from the noise.
"SHUT UP!" Leo roared, startling Spiritomb into silence. Before it was just doing harmless pranks, things he was used to from Froslass, no matter how irritating. When it had picked a fight with Zuko it had just been malicious. "Stop being a pain for half a second and listen!" he growled. Spiritomb hissed, retracting its form into the stone slightly and increasing the intensity of its whispers, a familiar pressure pressing down on Leo's head. Leo grinned savagely. "We've done the battle of wills before, Spiritomb. The odds are stacked in my favor. You sure you want to do this again? Because I will beat you into submission if I have to," Leo said with such firmness that it gave the ghost pause, the pressure receding.
"Good. Now, you need to learn to control yourself. I get that Zuko was being nosy and not leaving you alone, but he was just being curious. I'm okay with you smacking him around when you've had enough – he has to learn somehow – but I saw you getting malicious about it. No trying to intentionally, seriously harm teammates – hell, don't do that to anyone. Are we clear?" Leo ground out. Spiritomb hesitated, the pressure in Leo's head increasing once more. He steeled his will, doing the mental equivalent of putting his foot down, and restated himself. "Are. We. Clear?"
After a brief moment of silence Spiritomb averted its eyes and retracted itself back into its stone, all of its pressure vanishing instantly. Leo huffed and pocketed the keystone, glancing back at the rest of his team who was watching him warily. Even Morty's Dusknoir made itself known, its single red eye gleaming from the shadow of a tree.
"As for you two, Zuko, Diana, if you've got that much extra energy to burn off I think we should do some extra hard training," Leo said firmly. Zuko whined and Leo shot him a look. "You're going to work on rollout. You've already got flame wheel going, so I figure it's high time you add some variety to your arsenal. Rollout should be simple from there," Leo said, fixing Zuko with a stare and knowing the truth was opposite what he said. The rock move was supposedly very difficult for the Cyndaquil line to learn, albeit possible, so it would be perfect for punishment. Especially since the training required actually seemed very difficult to pull off.
"Diana, you're going to have to pay attention for once, because we're doing dodging practice," Leo said, and those words alone had Diana pausing and staring at him in fear. They'd tried dodging practice once before, and it ended horribly. Dodging was not her strong suit. That, however, was the point. "Santiago here will fire weak water guns at you, and you're going to try to dodge. Got it?" Leo said, and Diana just stared at him as he clapped his hands together, looking at Santiago.
"Practice gun," Leo commanded, pointing at Diana, and Santiago squirted a weak, easily-dodgable line of water at Diana. It splashed against her belly and she squealed uncomfortably, taking a few steps back. Leo raised his eyebrows at her. "Dodge," Leo commanded and, to his surprise, Diana scrambled out of the way of another water gun from Santiago. Guess she really didn't like that.
And that was how Leo spent the next hour, working his team ragged. Zuko spent most of his time rolling about in a mimicry of flame wheel – just minus the fire – and slamming into objects by accident occasionally. Leo would let him take breaks whenever he got too dizzy which was, admittedly, kind of funny to watch him stumble around drunkenly. Diana got switched to basic command training after a few minutes of dodging practice, as she was getting pretty frustrated with it. It was obvious with the way she would stomp her feet and throw a little fit every time she got struck with water gun, so Leo didn't push his luck and adjusted the training.
She appreciated it, if the way she followed the orders she understood to the letter was any indication.
After that, and Leo was satisfied that both Zuko and Diana had settled down, he went back to fishing peacefully while those two napped in a pile. Zuko lay atop a sprawled-out Diana, who hardly seemed to notice his weight, in the midday sun. Leo chuckled and shook his head as he fished, he himself having calmed down as well.
He hadn't caught a single fish today, but that was ok. This was just for fun anyway.
"Think you'll want to evolve sometime, Santiago?" Leo asked suddenly, his thoughts wandering as he fished. Santiago, who had finished with his own fishing and instead lay basking in the mid-afternoon sunlight, blinked at him. "I mean, you've got some options to choose from. You could be a Slowbro or a Slowking – I'll help you get there either way – or you could stay a Slowpoke," Leo said, frowning.
Technically speaking Slowpoke could evolve into Slowbro and Slowking without the aid of a shellder, but the process was strange and varied. For Slowking that other, non-Shellder process was a King's Rock. For Slowbro…well, Leo didn't actually know for that one. All his research into the subject was cagey at best – which was fair, most of the more esoteric evolution methods were hidden. Evolving a Pidgey into a Pidgeot took training and effort, but evolving a Haunter into a Gengar? Who knew how that worked, because it certainly wasn't the same as the pokémon games.
"Sloooow," Santiago answered. Leo snorted and shook his head, jerking his fishing rod to try and entice any fish. This time of day, he was doubtful there'd be any takers.
"True, true, evolution is a ways off for you. You're still growing as a Slowpoke, I'm not trying to rush you," Leo replied.
"Pooooke," Santiago called, standing up and wagging his head side to side.
"You think so? I have to agree. But you have to decide whether you're a King or not, not me," Leo said, cocking his head to the side and cracking a grin. It'd been a while since he'd had a conversation like this with any of his pokémon. One sided as it was, since he couldn't actually understand Santiago, it was fun.
Spiritomb chose that moment to speak up, hissing and rattling in his pocket.
"Really? All that? That's amazing, Spiritomb," Leo said absently, shaking his head to clear the whispers away. Spiritomb cackled, then fell silent again. And Leo fished the rest of the day away, deciding at random to spend the night in the great outdoors.
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The fire crackled merrily as Leo stared into it, one hand absently rubbing Diana's head as she lay curled up next to him. She wasn't sleeping yet, going by the occasional crunch of stone that came from her, but she'd been almost completely still for the past half an hour so it was only a matter of time. As it were, she was pressed up as close as she could be to Leo's leg, not just content to be touching him but one of her small stone hands pressed firmly onto his shoe as if to keep him in place.
Sparks flew into the air, dancing like fireflies as the floated up into the starry night sky as Leo stirred the coals with a long stick, his belly full of roasted Magikarp and the cool, fall air reminding him that he didn't have much time left before the League Season ended on the winter solstice. Not that it mattered at the moment, he was content to just sit here and enjoy the night.
"Quiiil," Zuko called, emerging from the forest in a rustle of leaves, glancing at Leo before pressing his face fully into the fire, the flames licking at his snout. A comfortable squeal escaped him as he, once again, glanced at Leo to make sure it was ok.
"Go ahead," Leo said, and Zuko happily laid atop the fire, sending a cloud of sparks and smoke flying skyward as he draped himself over the burning wood, rolling about happily. His flame-proof fur made the experience pleasant, Leo supposed.
Santiago was back at the pond, sleeping in the water most likely. It wasn't too far away, just past a few trees and nearly hidden by brush despite the light, moonlit night. A Noctowl hooted somewhere in the distance, and Leo hooed back, disappointed when he received no answer. After enjoying the silence a bit more Leo began to hum and sing a little to himself, remembering the tune, if not all the words, of one of the songs of his home world.
It was nostalgic in a comforting way, even when Spiritomb interrupted with some irritated hissing.
"What's your problem, huh?" Leo muttered. It hissed again, one glowing green eye appearing in the shadows across the fire Zuko was laying on, this time a bit louder. Leo frowned at it until it hissed again, swaying back and forth. "Wait, are you…singing along?" Leo asked, barely recognizing the butchered tune. Spiritomb always sounded like a hundred different voices speaking at once, even the hisses were like a hundred snakes, and it was all discordant, disjointed, and lacked any rhythm at all. But still, the hissing did follow the general beat of the tune…
So Leo sung a little louder this time, bad as he was at singing, and Spiritomb reciprocated, hissing alongside him. It was…nice, in a word, and was truly funny to see the ghost trying to dance to the tune, its ectoplasmic body twisting and swaying oddly and keystone bouncing around randomly. He was glad to have found something Spiritomb liked, at least.
But he was tired from the day's events and quickly faded, putting out the fire while half asleep – much to Zuko's dismay – and curling up in his sleeping bag with Diana pressed firmly against his side, Zuko settling down to lay on his legs, and fell into a deep, dreamless slumber the moment his head hit the pillow. And so he slept, under the watchful eye of his new ghostly friend.