Chapter 159 (Rewrite) (Patreon)

Author Note: After I published the last chapter, I slowly realized I wasn’t too happy with it. As a consequence, I took the original Chapter 159 and completely rewrote it. It hits a few similar topics, but some events have been completely eliminated (like Steven). This version is a lot better in my opinion, so it’ll replace the Chapter 159 I posted on Thursday.

If you don’t want to reread this, I’ll be posting a summary of its contents at the start of the next chapter. The schedule will remain unimpacted, and I’ll see you all on Monday.
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"It's Zinnia," I panted.

Phoebe took one look up from where she was brushing Ninetales on the hotel room bed before turning back to her grooming. She was positioned in a chair next to the bed while Ninetales's head was hanging over the edge. Phoebe had a small smirk on her face, and Ninetales was relaxing with her eyes closed, letting out small noises of pleasure with every brush.

"Zinnia? I'm not sure who that is," Phoebe said, bringing the brush through Ninetales’s mane.

"I— what? Aren't you supposed to be in charge of Hoenn's information security? Shouldn't you know someone as important as her?"

"I am," she huffed. "And I will. You can't give me a random name and expect me to know who they are. 'Zinnia' is probably from the Draconid tribe, that much is obvious, but I know of three different people with the name. If this is someone you'd mentioned before, I'd need to check my notes on this. I don't have perfect recall. Even day to day I have to constantly refer to what I have written."

"Huh."

I expected Phoebe to recall Zinnia right off the bat. But, when compared to the countless, more dangerous criminals I'd shared information about, I wasn't surprised she had been relegated to nothing more than a footnote.

"You remember what Steven told you about how I got my information?" I started.

"That our world is presented as a series of games and television shows in yours?"

"Yes, that." I paused. "Zinnia was a minor antagonist of one of the games set in Hoenn. I only recognized her when she mentioned her Whismur. She had the same Pokémon in the game, though I genuinely can't remember much about what happened. I think she led the player to Mega Evolve Rayquaza?"

"That's..."

Phoebe narrowed her eyes. The brush she was holding was brought back, much to Ninetales's displeasure, and Phoebe tapped it against her forearm unconsciously as she thought.

"Zinnia," she repeated. "I remember."

"You do?"

"I think so. You claimed she was the lorekeeper of the Draconid Tribe, but I brushed that off as a difference between worlds. We know for a fact it's currently Aster."

I'd been called dumb before. Heck, Ninetales said that to my face directly. However, when it came to clues like this, I felt I was pretty good at putting them together.

I didn't remember Aster from the games. I only remembered that Zinnia called her Whismur that thanks to hearing the name being called out in front of me.

However, what I did remember was the human Aster, an old woman who opened the door to Sky Pillar. When Team Magma brought Primal Kyogre to Mossdeep, it was her presence that allowed Steven to access Rayquaza and plead it for help.

Aster was the loremaster back then, but she had also implied she was dying. Given that it'd been a year and a half since then...

"Zinnia's the current Lorekeeper. Aster is dead."

Phoebe frowned.

"If Aster died, the League would have been informed. A major passing of that role wouldn't go unnoticed."

"But who would have shared that information?" I inquired.

At that question, Phoebe's eyes went wide. She immediately stood up from her chair and began to pace, pulling out a PokéNav from her sweatshirt's pocket and rapidly checking through its screen.

"...The Lorekeeper," Phoebe mumbled.

She quickly finished whatever she was doing on her device and shoved it back into its place. Phoebe then kneeled down, whispered silently into her shadow, and dozens of shapes crawled over the walls and out the door, window, and vents of the hotel room.

"This is bigger than I thought." Phoebe's head snapped up to face me as she rose from the floor. Her expression was much more serious now, and, with the way her eyes were flicking about, I could tell she was rapidly considering dozens of plans. "Alex, keep on with your infiltration. Prioritize finding out why Zinnia is there. I'm going to spread out my feelers to see why the Draconid Tribe is suddenly so resistant to sharing information with the League, and if Zinnia really is the current Lorekeeper..."

Phoebe ran a hand through her hair. She pushed past me to get to the door.

"I need to go. Alex, good luck."

The door opened up, shadow encompassed it, and Phoebe stepped into blackness.

"Well," I said. "Guess it's time to continue my job."

All I received in response was a whine from Ninetales begging me to continue to brush her from where Phoebe left off.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I was in the lobby of the Devon Corporation's mansion-like main building the next day. I did indeed get the call informing me I had been hired, but I had also received several emails regarding information and contracts.

I had to forward those to Phoebe, as signing a contract to work for the company would be legally binding. I got a terse "I'll take care of it," and then I received a confirmation of my acceptance soon after.

A few other trainers were already present, and I noticed the majority were the more casually dressed people from yesterday. The ones that had come dressed up in business suits were mostly absent. Out of the thirty trainers overall, only about ten remained.

A few couches and short tables had been set up to allow guests to wait. Most of the trainers were standing around and chatting, wearing lanyards with IDs around their necks. I received mine that said "Avery" before sitting down on the couch. Clutching a Pokéball, I sent out Tinkatink next to me.

"Hey, Tinkatink. Ready for our job?"

My newest team member only grunted in exchange, and she hopped off the couch to reach the table where a cup of pens had been set up. Before I could stop her, she had already grabbed one and taken it apart. Her permanently worried eyes grew excited when she saw a spring, and quickly began work to add it to her hammer.

The receptionist glanced up to give me a dirty look. To keep in line with my disguise, I shrugged my shoulders and mouthed "What can you do?"

Inside, I felt a little guilty. I mean, it was only a pen, but it wasn't technically our property.

"Avery!"

A happy shout called out to me, and I strained my neck to see Sam striding into the building. At first glance, he looked like an experienced trainer with the way his Shiftry was loyally following him, but it was clear that he didn't walk with the confidence of someone who had braved a region’s more dangerous routes.

"Sam. I see you were offered the job as well. Congratulations."

I was met with a grin of blinding white teeth. Sam brought up an arm to rub the back of his head and laughed.

"I know, I know! You too, too! Oh man, I really didn't expect this to go so well. With the pay they're giving us, I'll be able to train far more than just Seedot, no problem at all!"

He grinned again, and upon noticing my lanyard, he suddenly snapped forward with realization and rushed to the front counter. Tinkatink finished her modification in the time he left: she had carved down the bottom of Mawile's tooth and stretched out the spring to use as a better grip.

That meant there was tooth dust on the table. I awkwardly leaned forward to collect it and bring it to the trash.

"It's good that you're finding upgrades, but you need to be more aware of what's yours and what's other's. It's not polite to take so greedily," I said.

She rolled her eyes and gave her weapon a few swings. It seemed the slight increase in power was more convincing than the words of her trainer.

I need to get a handle on that, soon. Maybe Florges can convince her?

Or, I could sic Whimsicott on her as a guard. He'd get a kick out of that.

Sam came back to me with his shiny identification badge, and we chatted as the newly hired group waited. The time we were supposed to be here for had already passed. All of us were just waiting for directions.

"New hires?"

A voice spoke up to grab our attention. A woman in a pantsuit stood at a hallway entrance.

"Hi! Welcome to Devon. We pride ourselves on only hiring the best, and,  this time, that means you. Your experience from all walks of life will help us develop the absolute best products we can create. If you follow me, I'll give you the tour before your training gets started."

The group filed in behind her as she moved forward, and for a moment I hesitated on whether or not to leave Tinkatink out.

On one hand, she would absolutely love being able to see all the cool inventions Devon had to offer. On the other hand, she hadn't demonstrated a reason for me to trust her to not run away and steal what she could from wherever we went.

If I didn't have to lay low, I might have risked it. Instead, she was returned to her Pokéball, surprisingly, without complaint.

She at least seemed satisfied she had scavenged one upgrade today.

The hallways were a bit cramped due to so many trainers and Pokémon being around, but we made it work on our guided tour. We were led through office spaces, meeting rooms, dedicated testing chambers, and displays. Our guide was giving us a complete overview of the company, including things that the public couldn't see.

"Our test room for internally expanded backpacks and containers was one of the most expensive expansions to this building, but what I'm about to show you comes at a close second," the employee said. "Not many get to see this, and I only get the chance because I'm giving you the tour! But, this next room is one of the most secure sites in this entire facility."

We approached a set of wide, metal doors in a ground-floor hallways. After our guide entered a passcode, they automatically opened.

A few gasps rang out in our group. I was surprised as well.

I recognized what this machine was.

"Behold! Devon Corp's personal Infinity Energy device!"

The machine was a larger version of what I had seen in Sycamore's lab. The center of it was like a lathe; it was designed to hold something in place and rotate it rapidly. However, instead of hanging from the ceiling, a large metal structure had been constructed around it, with numerous tesla coil-like inventions sticking off its sides and pointing at its center.

I could tell the group was impressed by the machine as a whole. For me, my eyes lingered on the iridescent stones embedded in glass containers on its side.

"This is Devon's Infinity Energy machine," our tour guide explained. "As part of a collaboration with Kalos Labs," (Kalos Labs being what Lysandre Labs was renamed to after Team Flare's dissolution), "we’re one of the leading contributors to the study of Infinity Energy. This machine helps us research the energy's potential as a power source while also allowing us to duplicate Mega Stones, if needed."

I heard about half the group suck in a gasp. Even with all of Sycamore’s efforts to normalize the phenomenon, it was still mostly out of reach.

"Eventually, we want to have a set of trusted trainers testing experiments involving Mega Evolution for us. But that's an end goal for far down the line as of right now. Instead, you all will be primarily working in a separate room right next door. I wanted you to keep this in mind as you work for the company in the future."

Most of the people in this group couldn't stop themselves from whispering between themselves about the potential of having a Mega team member. I could tell this would serve as a motivation for them, both to train their teams but also to stick with the company. Sam was almost vibrating with excitement as we walked through. Even though I had only recently just met him, I could tell he wasn't speaking solely due to his wish to look like a good employee.

Our guide told us we needed to reach the next room. What she didn't mention was that our destination was outside and across a courtyard.

We tread a path through a small decorative garden and over the fields we had battled on yesterday. We were brought into what looked like another part of the building, but the windows were nothing more than a facade, and the interior was large and spacious like a warehouse.

"This is where you’ll be helping us test our inventions. It was initially made to provide an area to test new forms of Pokéballs, but in recent years—"

"We'll take it from here."

A yawn punctuated that statement as a man pushed towards our group, bringing a cart laden with boxes with him. He was dressed like most of the other people in this building; a lab coat covered his body, and a mask covered his face.

It took a bit of maneuvering on his part to get past a few long tables set around the edges of the room. However, it wasn't him or his luggage that caught my attention.

Zinnia was with him. Or, according to her name tag, "Rina" was. She had the same faux smile on her face as I had seen the day prior. After seeing how Phoebe reacted last night, I couldn't take my eyes off of her.

"Everyone take one," the man suddenly said.

Our guide bit her lip as we funneled forward. Breaths of surprise rang out as everyone recovered identical items from the box.

They were PokéNavs, but they were obviously experimental. Lacking any paint that made it stand out, they were small, handheld devices with a screen and a few buttons on its side.

I broke my vision away from Zinnia as I recovered mine. Thankfully, it proved to be a decent distraction, as, amusingly, the shape of the PokéNav almost resembled the bottom half of the original, bulky DS.

"These need to be tested as soon as possible," the man ordered. "I've already submitted the required forms, so you have permission to head to Route 116 and test them out. I expect proper reports to be presented regarding these, as it’s crucial that we have feedback on them by the end of the day.

People ooh'd and ahh'd at what they held in their hands. It didn't seem like anyone here had previously used one before. A few experimental button taps turned mine on, and I quickly recognized this device lacked the functionality of a normal PokéNav.

"Um, excuse me? How does this work, exactly?" someone from our group asked.

The tired man yawned again. "Figure it out," he said.

While everyone was distracted by the prototypes, our guide started to complain about this being against regulation as none of us had any training. Zinnia’s voice shot back in response, quickly shutting that down by telling her “It’s fine,” and handing her a form. My eyebrow went up as I saw that. Zinnia was playing her part quite well.

She was as much of an employee of Devon as anyone else. I wasn't sure to what ends, however.

"What are you still doing here? You have a task. Chop chop!" Zinnia shouted at our group.

Trainers' eyes went wide, and they all scurried out. I gave Zinnia one last look over my shoulder before I was gone, watching her step back into the lab and closing the doors behind her.

"Um, Avery? I don't suppose I could get some help?"

I turned back to Sam and gave him a smile. I'd have opportunities to find out more about Zinnia later. For now, I still had a role to properly establish and keep up.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The PokéNavs turned out to have a camera that displayed what it saw on its screen. Panning it around caused everything to tint black and white, and silhouettes suddenly began to pop out.

Route 116 was located to the northeast of Rustboro. It was a popular route for those just starting out due to the weaker Pokémon present. Even still, I stuck with Sam as he kept his face glued to his own screen, looking absolutely enthralled by what he saw.

"I think that's a Skitty!" he whispered as loud as a shout.

I picked up my device and aimed it where he was pointing. There, underneath a bush, the silhouette of a Skitty lay prone and curled up, asleep and hidden from the world if our PokéNav hadn't given it up.

"One star," I said. "Seems like it's a weaker one. Do you want to battle it to check, or should I?"

"Seedot is still injured from his Bide earlier, so you go ahead, Avery."

"Got it," I replied.

I figured out how the experimental PokéNav worked right away. It was straight from the game, operating as a clone of a feature of the Hoenn remakes.

In the games, the DexNav was a way to search out specific species of Pokémon and catch individuals that had rare abilities or stronger innate power. Here, it served as a way to reveal hidden Pokémon and rate their strength.

By my guess, it measured the amount of Type energy Pokémon had. I wasn't sure if the stars that popped up after each scan matched the Gym tiering or not, but they only went up to three, unlike the teens I was familiar with.

"Togepi, if you could do the honors," I said.

I had "all three" of my Pokémon with me: Togepi, Tinkatink, and Banette. Banette was in my shadow while the other two were out and about. For these battles, I had a system I put to good use.

First, Togepi greeted the wild Pokémon. Here, she shouted out to the Skitty to wake it up. For a moment, it seemed the Pokémon was about to run away, but Togepi’s friendly attitude convinced it to stay.

Next, I displayed a pack of berries I bought at a Pokémart along the way. I promised the wild Pokémon its choice from them if it agreed to the battle. I purposefully held up one rather ripe Sitrus for Skitty to inspect.

Finally, the wild Pokémon either accepted, or it left. Guaranteed and safe berries were rare in the woods like this, so most accepted. In this case, Skitty agreed, and the match was set.

"Alright Tinkatink, it's go time."

Tinkatink was swinging her hammer before I was even done talking.

Skitty avoided Tinkatink's infused Metal Claw, but it couldn't avoid the Rock Smash on the upswing. It was knocked to its back, but its tail whipped out to catch Tinkatink  on her side.

Tinkatink, being a small Pokémon, was swept off her feet by the Tail Whip, and Skitty used its whole body to hit her with a Tackle.

"So Skitty is a Fairy Type, right?" Sam asked cautiously.

"No, but I can see why you'd think that. Covet!"

Tinkatink popped forward and spread out her arms. That move wasn't meant to be frightening, but it was done fast enough to catch Skitty off guard.

The battle was practically sealed from here.

Definitely one star. Another piece of evidence the rating is accurate.

"Skitty is small and pink, which generally denotes a Fairy Type, but the species are completely and utterly Normal,” I said. “Not only does its ability, Normalize, turn its moves into its base Type, but they don't develop the tricky mindsets most Fairies eventually develop on their own."

Skitty tried for another Tackle, but that Covet had given Tinkatink time to prepare. Her hammer was raised up, coated with ice, and an Ice Hammer swung down with a thud.

I took this opportunity to move forward and spray Skitty with a Potion to bring it back to consciousness. As I did, it snatched the offered berry from my hand and darted back into the woods.

Sam watched that entire exchange in silence.

"You're really good with Pokémon," he said.

I stood up and brushed my hands together.

"It's from experience," I said.

"I know, but I want that experience, too! Seedot is great, but he doesn't have anyone to spar with other than Shiftry, and Shiftry is too strong for me to really understand how he's fighting. I want to train a Fairy Type, but there's none around. You know Alex, right? A Pokémon like one from their team would be so cool!"

Sam looked up at the sky, all dreamy-eyed. From my feet, Banette snickered, and Togepi patted my thigh.

"Hey Sam. Quick question."

"Yeah?"

Sam brought his head back down from his day dream to glance my way inquisitively.

"You received the upfront bonus for accepting this job, right?"

"...Yeah?"

"And do you have a free Pokéball?"

"I do."

"Then why not catch a Pokémon right now?"

Sam's eyes widened as if he hadn't considered the possibility, but his expression dropped without too much more time passing after.

"I could, but I don't even know where to begin. Seedot was given to me as an egg. I know I can battle and capture a wild Pokémon, but even if I did that, I’m not sure how I could convince it to stay on my team."

I nodded, acting as if I was considering this and didn't already have a plan.

I wanted to help Sam. He was a nice kid who happened to like Fairy Types. I admit, I was partially motivated by learning he was my fan, but I also thought doing this would be a good use of my time outside of just doing my hired job.

"I'll help. Don't worry. I have experience catching Pokémon, even if I don't look like it."

Sam glanced to my team, which only had three team members. Considering I had said both Togepi and Tinkatink were gifts, the doubt in his eyes was obvious.

"Trust me," I said. "We'll stick with the basics, at least. To start, what's the first rule about catching a Pokémon?"

"Bringing it to low health?"

"Wrong. You have to find a Pokémon to catch it. Let's begin."

For the next few hours, Sam and I searched the woods for the Fairy in question. We had all day to finish our task, literally being told not to return until the very end of our schedule. It was ridiculously unprofessional to have people on their first day out like this, but it seemed that the Devon researchers had their own quirks.

The DexNav was pushed to its full use as we did this. We stopped testing if the star rating was accurate and started pushing just how far its search feature could take us.

Skitty, Nincada, Whismur, and even a few sleeping Zubat were on this route. Skitty tended to hide in the brush, Nincada buried themselves in the ground, Whismur wandered around aimlessly, and Zubat slept in the trees. When it came to Fairy Types, none were common to this area, but I knew there had to be at least one nearby. Something in my gut told me it would be the case.

It wasn't until after we broke for lunch that Sam found something of interest. A sloped ledge blocked our path, and he pointed his PokéNav downwards ahead.

"There's something there," he said. "It's a perfect sphere."

"What? Really?"

I aimed my PokéNav down, and I saw what Sam was looking at. Behind a tree, there was a perfectly round silhouette doing nothing but dozing off.

"Is it a Voltorb?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. Voltorb shouldn't be found around these parts, and the only other round species I can think of isn't native to Hoenn."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. It’s not a Solosis. They can float."

Sam frowned and he stared harder at the silhouette. I used this moment to walk to the side, pacing along the edge to get another angle.

As I did, more details became apparent on the creature. Two ears stuck up, a wisp of hair puffed up between them, and a pair of floppy feet sat under its form.

I recognized what it was, now. I called out to Sam with the good news.

"Now's your chance! It's a Fairy Type!"

"What? You know its species? How can you tell?"

"Please. It's obvious that that rounded shape was a Jigglypuff seen from above."

Jigglypuff weren't commonly found on this route, but it wasn't too unlikely to find one here, given that its species tended to live not too far north. This one had likely roamed from up there to down here, but if we hadn’t found it today, we would have needed to spend days before finding another one.

In response to my surprise identification, Sam rolled his eyes before sliding down the slope. I followed, all my Pokémon outside of Banette currently in their balls.

Sam skidded around the side of the tree to face a pink, puffy balloon. In its rest, Jigglypuff inflated and deflated with every soft snore.

"So, what do I do?" he whispered.

"Challenge it to a battle," I said.

"While it's asleep?"

"What? No, wake it up."

Sam gulped and sent out Seedot. He sent me a nervous glance before opening his mouth to shout.

"Jigglypuff!"

A pair of wide, blue eyes opened up to stare at Sam curiously.

"I... I challenge you to a battle! I want to be your trainer, so... so I'm going to prove my might!"

Jigglypuff blinked before glancing my way, for some reason. I nodded lightly, and the wild Pokémon puffed itself up and gained a bit of confidence.

"What now?" Sam asked.

"Now, you battle and hope I have enough Chesto Berries."

"Chesto Berries?" he asked.

I didn’t respond. Jigglypuff was already off.

Poor Seedot was out and only half ready for this battle to begin. He used Harden—which was a decent reflexive defense—and Jigglyluff brought up an arm.

Seedot rattled as Jigglypuff rapidly slapped it back and forth. Hit after hit came forward, making Seedot turn from every impact.

It was a nasty use of Double Slap.

"Bide!" Sam yelled.

If this was against a trainer, most Pokémon would have been taught to stop attacking. It was my mistake before and Tinkatink's lack of experience that had caused her to fall to this strategy, but it should have been decent against something wild.

Except, Jigglypuff pulled back. It wasn't acting from a trainer instinct, but it seemed to recognize the move from experience. Bide was commonly used by wild Seedot, after all. It might have fought one before.

Seedot braced himself, but without any attacks coming his way, Bide failed to gather any Type energy. Seedot relaxed with a breath, the move failing without any critical attack.

Jigglypuff smirked, and then it leaped forward to Double Slap again.

"Bide!" Sam yelled.

Jigglypuff changed direction and sailed overhead.

The Double Slap never landed. Instead, the wild Pokémon chose to abort its attack at the last second. Seedot was left standing there, doing nothing just like he had only moments ago.

"You're in a deadlock," I said. "Does Seedot know any other moves?"

Sam bit his lip.

"No," he said.

"Then you better figure something out, and soon. Jigglypuff is preparing something."

The wild Pokémon used this moment to pace around Seedot. Seedot stuck to one place, relying on an unchanging strategy that relied only on defense.

Coming to a conclusion, Jigglypuff started to breathe in. Its elastic body expanded from the influx of air, and it readied itself to Sing.

Seeing that, I quickly reached into my bag and pulled out two Chesto berries. I took one, gave Sam another, and prepared to take a bite. Banette didn't need one since his ability, Insomnia, prevented him from unwillingly falling asleep. We needed these berries to wake us up from Jigglypuff’s Sing.

"Seedot! Rollout!"

I blinked at the sudden command, and Seedot did too. He didn't know the move, and I didn't even realize he could learn the move at all.

Unfortunately, Sam's confident shout meant nothing to Jigglypuff. Its melodic voice hummed before shifting into a song. My eyes felt heavy, but the sharp taste of the Chesto snapped me out of the feeling.

Then, something flew through the air.

Rather than eat the berry I gave him, Sam chose to give it to Seedot instead. The Pokémon didn't have a mouth, but he jumped up to smash the berry in the air and let its juices coat his body to keep him awake.

Jigglypuff kept singing. Sam crumpled to the floor. Seedot, doing his best to follow the command of his trainer, moved forward and launched itself at Jigglypuff.

It wasn't a Rollout. Instead, it was nothing more than a basic Tackle that slammed him into Jigglypuff.

The attack caused Sing to stop, but Jigglypuff was still healthy. A solid Pound from its arms knocked Seedot back, and, unfortunately, the attack knocked him out, too.

Jigglypuff huffed, but it didn't leave. I walked over to Sam and nudged him to wake him up.

"Hey. The battle is over."

"...Did we win?"

He groaned and rubbed his eyes. He was only asleep for a few moments, but his hair was a mess, and his eyes were unfocused as if he had just woken up from an hours-long nap.

Rolling to his side, he faced the battlefield. His expression dropped when he saw Seedot unconscious on its back.

"No," Sam whispered. "We failed."

"Not yet."

Jigglypuff was staring at Sam. The Pokémon had curiosity clear in its eyes as it did. Something Sam had done had piqued its interest, and all he needed to do was capitalize on that to convince it.

"It's a Fairy Type. There's something specific it wants. Either promise it something related or work out a deal, and Jigglypuff is likely to join your team."

Sam nodded, and he pushed up into a sitting position. He still didn't seem to have the energy to stand. Facing Jigglypuff, he returned his fainted Pokémon, then he took a deep breath to speak.

"I'll buy your choice of berries each day if you come with me," he called out.

I blinked.

That was surprisingly direct.

Jigglyluff looked at where the crumpled Chesto berry laid on the ground, looked back to Sam, then the Pokémon nodded excitedly. Its lightweight body meant Jigglypuff went through a mixture of floating and skipping to reach its target.

Soon enough, Jigglypuff stopped in front of Sam and held out a hand.

Sam then held out a hand to me in response. I silently placed an Oran berry in it. He then placed the Oran berry in Jigglypuff’s hand.

"Here," Sam said. "For you."

Jigglypuff took the Oran berry and started to gnaw on its flesh. Without Jigglypuff stopping him, Sam pulled out a reduced Pokéball from his pocket, returned it to full size, and tapped the button to its head.

Jigglypuff turned into red light and disappeared. In Sam's hand, the Pokéball shook, and then after a few moments, it stopped.

A deafening click rang out.

"I caught... a Jigglypuff," Sam whispered. He looked up to me. "I caught a Jigglypuff!"

Sam held the ball up in the air with a cheer, and Jigglypuff released itself with its berry still in hand. It cheered alongside Sam, and I let out an amused sigh.

Somehow, he managed to catch a Pokémon that's just right for him. Congratulations, Sam.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The last few hours of our day was spent having Jigglypuff face the Pokémon we tracked down. It was strong for a wild Pokémon, and I got the sense it purposefully came down here, where humans were plenty, specifically to be caught.

Sam was ecstatic for his new team member, though Shiftry seemed indifferent, and Seedot seemed jealous. I gave Sam a speech about trusting his team and treating them equally. He nodded as if he understood, but I wasn't sure how in depth he actually did.

I was honestly still bothered by my first battle with Norman. I disliked how much pressure I had placed on Azumarill back then, and I hoped Sam wouldn’t do the same.

We returned to the Devon Corporation building as the last members of our group. The prototype DexNavs were handed back over, and Sam gave a verbal report.

For me, I handed over a document I wrote.

"What is this?" the same tired man from before asked.

"I took the liberty to write down my observations from my time with the device. I included feedback on how it felt to be used as well as a few quirks I liked and disliked. I also tracked the approximate level of the Pokémon we faced and wrote down the results of the battle. Nine times out of ten it seemed the wild Pokémon really was one star, but it didn't account for personal experience or efficient use of energy."

I paused briefly as the man stared at me, mouth open.

"Oh. I also would say you should make it go higher than three stars. That would make it more useful for gauging threats."

For a long time, I thought the man would get mad or annoyed at my presumptuous overwork. I went so in depth due to my guilt about not being a “true” employee of the company as well as the fact I spent so long helping Sam catch a Pokémon.

For this report, I leaned heavily on the techniques I learned from Ace Trainer training, purposefully keeping what I wrote professional and to the point. The document wasn’t too unlike a report an Ace Trainer would hand to their superiors, and the man glanced between me and the paper before breaking out into a smile. He soon began to laugh.

"This is perfect! The exact feedback I needed! Combined with the rest of your comments, I know exactly what I need to fix next!"

His hand pushed his hair back as he started to bring the cart away, but I called out to him before he left.

"Wait! Where's Rina?"

"Rina?" he asked.

"The woman that was with you earlier."

"Oh, her! She's out doing... hm. Something, probably. I imagine she has her own task. Strange. I could have sworn she said she'd help me unload."

As he said that, my heart started to pound as I moved away. Sam offered to buy me a meal as thanks, but I turned him down.

Zinnia was doing something, but what was unknown.

It's only the second day of this mission, but could Zinnia be pulling something right now? Did we start our search too late?

The building was already mostly empty as people left their work. After returning to the lobby, I saw that the street outside was full of workers returning to their homes. The foot traffic was heavy past the glass doors of the lobby, but something cold brushed against my foot, and I stopped.

"Sorry, Sam. I forgot something inside. You go on ahead. I have to go and pick it up."

"You sure? You want me to come with?"

"It's fine. It's just a quick task. I'll be in and out before you know it."

Sam nodded, a little concerned, but I gave him a wave and rushed back deeper into the building.

Banette left my shadow and urged me ahead. I pulled out my Holo Caster and made a call.

Whatever he detected confirmed it. It was only my second day on this mission, but Zinnia was already up to no good.

====================================================
Author Note:

For Context, Seedot's original learnset in Gen 3 saw it only knowing Bide and Explosion for offense (with a bit of Nature Power for support). It wasn't until Gen 8 that it received a proper learnset, now being capable of naturally learning attacks like Tackle, Absorb, and Rollout.

Pokémon and people mentioned in this chapter (contains spoilers):
Jigglypuff
Nincada
Seedot / Shiftry
Skitty
Solosis
Whismur
Zubat

Zinnia

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