Chapter 167 (Patreon)

The sound of feet shuffling across the auditorium floor rang out as people ambled along to find a place to sit. Groups of children laughed as they engaged in friendly conversation, and a few young adults talked among themselves as well but were much more reserved. A handful of teens were present in the room, but half of them were purposefully pretending to look uninterested and bored. Teachers and staff kept everyone in order, and I had to suppress a proud grin when I saw the single pair of attending tourists point at me excitedly.

Though, while some of these people were entering the room for the first time, most were the remnants of Hope's lecture, which had just been before mine. Fairy Type still proved to be less popular than other common Types, and now that the Grass Type had been given its go, most people had left.

Right now, the only person I truly recognized was Hope, who had retired to the front row once her presentation was over. She had mostly shown new ways to use Grass Type moves either by themselves or in combination, and a few people were asking her questions before they headed out.

While the room was mostly full, and the people here seemed enthused to listen to what I would say, I was a little disappointed that more people had not showed up.

At least, this is being streamed and recorded.

Behind me, I had sent out my team. Ninetales sat beside me like some sort of imperial guardsman, letting her tails wave back and forth in the air. Florges stayed at her side, mostly out of nerves than anything else. Everyone else was a lot more calm, with Gardevoir and Rapidash standing at the back, and then with Carbink and Azumarill doing their best to not doze off—for two completely different reasons.

I had intended for these six to be my sole Pokémon for this presentation, but the sound of a giggling shout from above suddenly drew my gaze. Whimsicott floated downwards, his hands held up to grab my shoulder, and he hung there on the side of my back. Smiling, I reached up to rub the space between the horns.

"Thanks for showing up, Whimsicott. I know it’s only been a few days, but it feels like it's been longer. How have you enjoyed traveling with Lillie?"

Whimsicott shrugged then chattered on and on in my ear. I nodded as if I understood.

As I listened in, trying to make sense of the sounds of the Pokémon language, I scanned the crowd to search for any familiar faces, and I was disappointed to not see either Hau or Elio. However, while they were absent, I soon laid my eyes on Lillie, who was all the way in the back, doing her best to remain inconspicuous with her hat tugged down tight with her hands.

She had Popplio in her lap, and the Water Type seal locked eyes with my own. I gave it a wave, and it waved back, but Lillie was too focused on staring at the floor to pay me any mind.

After a few more minutes, I checked the time: eleven-nineteen. I waited for the minute-hand to tick up, and, at a gesture, Whimsicott left my shoulder to join the rest of my team.

"Hello everyone!"

I spoke in time when a red light turned on at the top that signaled the camera had been activated. A painful whining noise rang out as I did, and everyone in the room winced. I hastily adjusted the volume of the microphone on my neck, then chuckled nervously at the sudden start.

“That’s one way to get everyone’s attention. Hello, again!”

I received a scattered mass of "Hi"'s and "Alola"'s in exchange.

"As you probably heard, I’m Alex, a Fairy Type specialist of some note, according to others. My team and I have taken on two League Conferences and won one of them, with the added achievement of being a finalist in Sinnoh's last Grand Festival. Your Principal asked me to be here today, and I gladly accepted to give a talk at his request. Anything Fairy Type, I'm an expert on, but I've picked up some general tips along the way I plan to share."

I eyed the doors. One last straggler entered, but only one. A glance upwards confirmed the camera to the room was properly recording, and I continued on.

"To start, I'd like to start with the obvious question: What is a Fairy Type?”

I had to hold the grin off my face. I really enjoyed how cliched and generic that was. Everyone else didn’t.

"Oh, come on now! Don't groan! I'm sure you've heard a similar question before, but I have a point to get to. Can anyone give me a proper answer?"

I waited a few seconds to see who would volunteer, but only one person raised their hand: a girl in a pink dress decorated with yellow tropical flowers. She sat in the front row with an eager look on her face, and her hand had snapped upwards as fast as it could.

"Yes, you," I said, pointing her out.

"A Fairy Type is a Pokémon that demonstrates the qualities of being a Fairy Type: they are intrinsically imbued with Fairy Type energy."

I blinked.

"That's a very textbook answer, albeit, a little autological. You must be a very dedicated student." The girl blushed at my praise. "But, to clarify, what specific qualities do they have?"

The girl opened and closed her mouth without forming an answer. A boy soon shouted out exactly what I wanted; he had taken the bait.

"They're pink and they're cute!"

The children laughed. I waved my hand.

"Well yes, but actually no," I said. "You're only half correct. True, all of the Fairy Type Pokémon I’ve brought here are cute, but none of them are pink. A lot of people make a similar assumption as you, but I’m here to fix that. To answer my own question, Fairy Types exhibit a few different traits, which I've narrowed down to three for ease of explanation: Deception, Nature, and Emotion."

This, of course, left out the entire category of "sweets," but considering I only had Dachsbun and Fidough back home to make examples of, I decided to skip that for now.

I had a lot to talk about when it came to this subject, as, in a way, this lecture was almost like a thesis on my understanding of the Type over the years. I had a slowly evolving definition that I’d shared with some, but I’d never presented it so clearly to the world.

Fairy Types were surprisingly specific in what they could do. Some of them had inherent trickery as part of their physiology, like how Mawile was relatively unassuming before she revealed her second mouth. Others had that trickery built closer into their instincts, like how Whimsicott was naturally skilled at pulling pranks.

At the same time, many Fairy Types had close ties to nature and specific environments they protected, with Ninetales’s snowstorms and Florges's mastery over flowers being specific examples.

Finally, when it came to emotions, this one took me the longest to figure out. It wasn’t until I trained with Gardevoir that I could really put it into words. Fairy Types had the potential to be tied closely to positive emotions, like how Gardevoir could detect them, and like how Togepi could promote them.

Actually, now that I think about it, Ghost Types are probably the same with emotions, just with negative emotions rather than positive. Maybe that’s why I’m still bothered by them?

As I spoke, I went into specific examples, asking my team members to show off a carefully controlled move or two, and I talked about how these three traits were used in battle. Deception corresponded to any trickery used in a match, their connection to nature let them develop powerful, themed moves, and the aspect of emotion was perfect for both affecting morale, predicting strategy, and influencing their foe.

After all, in the case of Togepi, it was hard to fight her when everyone she encountered grew to like her so much.

(Charm helped with that, too.)

"Now, a decent number of you, I noticed, happen to have  a Popplio with you, which has the potential to evolve into a Fairy Type,” I said, shifting into a primary reason I was here. “Primarina is the sole starter Pokémon out of all major League regions that has this secondary Type. My question to you is this: based on what I said, how can I use this information I’ve shared when it comes to training a Primarina?

"Rather than have one of you answer this question, I'd like a volunteer."

Many hands shot up at my statement. A good portion of the people here were people with Popplio in their arms or in a marked ball. I specifically looked through the ones that made it obvious they had the Pokémon, searching for someone that would be the best to call up.

Then, a slow movement in the back caught my eye.

Lillie raised her hand, but she wasn't doing so quickly or deliberately. She did so while she stared at the raising appendage, as if she didn’t believe what she was doing. It was obvious that it was taking a good chunk of effort just to go through with the act, and, seeing that, I knew this was a chance to both continue my lecture and give Lillie some helpful, private tutoring. Well, as private as being in front of a crowd was.

"Hmm," I hummed, drawing the choice out. "How about you, all the way in—"

The door to the room opened. Most didn’t notice, but I did. Hope suddenly stiffened in response as well when Rapidash’s head suddenly snapped up, and Gardevoir’s gaze followed.

Entering the room was a strange pair, looking as if neither of them didn't quite belong. The first I didn't recognize, but something nagged me in the back of my head about her styled purple ponytail and neatly pressed, black suit. She wore a pair of gloves in her hands and almost had an amused look in her eyes. She sat down with a polite smile on her face.

For all of the red flags that woman’s appearance was raising in my mind, I couldn’t help but to focus on her companion. Next to her was a man who strode into the room as if he owned the building itself, and his white coat was wrinkle-free with its collar popped out around his neck. He wore a chartreuse turtleneck with a pair of highlights on his gloves of the same color. Noticing my gaze, he adjusted a pair of lenses that wrapped around his head, and he smirked at my attention.

I kept my expression perfectly level as the pair sat down, and I purposefully didn’t react when I saw them relax only a few seats over from Lillie. No one else was making any comments, though I was getting a few strange looks for having become quiet for so long.

I had reason to be worried about their presence. After all, the man in particular was an issue. He wasn’t just anyone, he was one of the leaders of the Aether Foundation.

Faba.

Also known as a man too overfocused on his own achievements to think about ethics, and also known as the man who would definitely try to nab Nebby if given the chance.

I took a breath. There was no point in panicking here. This lecture had suddenly taken a turn from a presentation to a cause for distraction. I had to figure out a way to get Lillie out, and I couldn’t let the pair know she was here.

"—the front,” I eventually said. “You, in the pink dress.”

Rather than choose Lillie, like I planned, I called up that same girl who had initially raised her hand at my first question. She looked extremely smug to have been picked, and a few quiet groans came from the audience.

A teacher shushed them. The girl happily ran up onto the stage.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Hiromi,” she said.

"And do you have a Popplio?"

"I do. We’ve been training for the past week.”

I smiled.

"Congratulations. Can you send them out?"

She nodded her head and tossed a marked Pokéball upwards. A red hemisphere marked with a blue droplet opened in the air, and a beam shot coalesced into the blue seal on the floor.

Her Popplio was laying down as it appeared, and it slowly pushed up to a standing position—or  at least the closest thing a body consisting of two flippers and a tail had to standing. It let out a yawn as it did.

"If you’re willing, please demonstrate the moves Popplio knows."

"Gladly. Popplio, use Pound!"

The Pokémon started to move to use its moves, and the audience watched it do so. I took a step back, pulling myself away from the center of attention, and I prayed this weak misdirection would work.

Faba stared at me from the very top of the seats, but everyone else was focused on the girl and her Popplio. Lillie was a bit more slumped in her seat, clearly being disappointed that she hadn’t been called. I hoped that it was for the best.

With Hope already alerted to something going on, I needed to send her a message. Still continuing the lecture, I gave her a look—which she noticed—and I prepared myself to speak.

“...and that was Aqua Jet,” the girl finished.

The stage was a bit wet, but it wasn’t anything a Fire Type couldn’t fix within seconds. The girl had a lot of confidence, but I could tell a lot of it was forced.

"Impressive list of moves,” I said as casually as I could, “but I didn't hear you say Disarming Voice."

Her expression fell.

"N-no. Poppy can't use Fairy Type energy."

I had something prepared for this: a tutorial on how to teach a Pokémon Fairy Type moves. I wanted to use Popplio for this in particular, as it was a starter most trainers here likely came to learn about. I wanted to give a lesson that was specific to Popplio but could still be extrapolated out. For now, however, I stuck to my plan, but I modified it to hopefully let Hope figure out what I wanted.

“You’ve made good progress despite that. Water Type moves are strong, Azumarill can attest to that, but Fairy Type moves have a certain finesse to them. Disarming Voice is a low-level Fairy Type move that’s exceptionally useful as a quick, unavoidable attack in battle. I hope I can help you learn it here quickly, if not, I might as well march myself right out of the room out of shame!”

I laughed as if what I said was a joke, and thankfully, a few people laughed. Hope gave me a slight nod, and after a few more moments of me speaking, she stood up to move to the back.

Hope knew what an Aether Foundation member looked like, and I had already given her the rundown of Lusamine and Faba. While she hadn’t personally seen Faba before, she did pause slightly with the outfit. Eying her closely as I continued to speak, I held back a smile as she started to hide her beeline to Lillie.

Good. I’m glad that worked.

I called Gardevoir forward, as he knew Disarming Voice, and I asked for Florges’s help, too. They demonstrated how they channeled Fairy Type energy, and I talked about my observations about how moves of the Type worked.

As I did, the pair helped Popplio with Disarming Voice as part of the presentation, but my attention was only half there. Hope’s slow exit of the room wasn’t going unnoticed, as the suspicious pair sitting in the back were looking at her questioningly.

“Gardevoir, can you demonstrate a Disarming Voice?” I asked quickly.

Gardevoir didn’t even hesitate before he did.

Immediately, a loud shout echoed across the room, causing my hair to stand on its end and causing everyone to wince in their seats. A few of the younger children laughed when it ended, and my ears were ringing from being so close to him, but it seemed to be enough of a distraction that Hope had moved all the way to the back, and Faba was now glaring at me, annoyed.

Sorry, everyone.

With everyone’s focus turned away, Hope managed to whisper something in Lillie’s ear and subtly escort her out afterwards.

I continued on from there.

The rest of my presentation ended easily enough after that. Carbink’s screens let Popplio practice Disarming Voice without deafening the audience like I had, and I went into more detail about training moves with a few more tricks. A point I really wanted to hammer in was to not neglect the “weak” moves a Pokémon could learn. After all, Florges still frequently relied on Fairy Wind.

At the end of it, Carbink dropped their screens, and I asked Popplio to demonstrate its Disarming Voice. The move wasn’t completed—it was only a shout—but it created enough pink energy in the air that the start of the move had clearly been partially formed.

"Wow," my temporary assistant breathed.

"Keep up the practice, and I’m sure your Popplio will have the move down in no time. The same goes for the rest of you, too.” People clapped as Florges escorted the girl and her Popplio off the stage. “Now, remember what I talked about here, and, to finish this off, I have a story to tell.”

I schooled my expression. Now wasn’t the time to worry about Lillie or anything going wrong in the future. I wanted to leave on a message, and if there was one thing I wanted everyone listening to remember, it was the story I was about to share.

“A few years ago, I had the chance to teach Florges Energy Ball,” I started. “The issue was, the move is great! It’s speedy, has decent power behind it, and it’s easy enough to use that once she learned it, most other Grass Type moves wouldn’t be as necessary.”

Hope would have scoffed if she heard me say that.

“However, that’s a problem. I knew myself and I knew Energy Ball. If she learned it, I would have little reason to ever call for something else in battle. Well, to add some context, Florges already knew Petal Dance, a Grass Type move of similar power, but it’s slower and can result in confusion. She spent ages training and working to master it, and I didn’t want to take it away from her. Florges loved the move.”

I took a deep breath. Florges sent me a small smile.

“I didn’t demand she learn Energy Ball. I didn’t tell her to stop fighting the way she wanted to fight. Instead, I talked to her, I asked her what she wanted to do. She chose to keep using Petal Dance, so we never once practiced the ‘better’ Grass Type move together.

“And now? Now, Florges has won Contests, Battles, and got us all the way through the Grand Festival thanks to Petal Dance. Her control of the move far outpaces any other Petal Dance I’ve seen, and Hope herself has complimented it on several occasions.” A few people murmured among themselves at the revelation. “What I'm trying to say is: talk to your Pokémon. Don’t just demand them to follow whatever orders you have. They’re Pokémon Teams, not Pokémon minions. You’d be surprised just how far good communication can get you.”

And with that, I finished. I bowed my head to mark the end of my lecture, and my Pokémon did as well.

“That’s all I have to say for today. Thanks for listening in, and good luck with your journeys.”

The audience clapped, bringing a smile to my face. Some of the kids started to talk excitedly once more. What I saw that filled my heart with warmth were the questioning looks on some of the adults’ faces.

I could tell they were trainers, but maybe they hadn’t considered my perspective before. Paul had this problem back in Sinnoh, as well as that one guy I didn’t want to think about. The strongest trainers were always the ones closest to their team. I hoped that anyone who listened in, either in person or to the recording, took something from what I had said here.

Some people stayed, and some people left. I returned my Pokémon with the intention of heading out. One or two people started to head up to talk, but then a teen burst through the doors of the room and began to shout.

"The Masked Royal! He's about to start a lecture on Fire Types in the next room!"

I'd never seen a place clear out so fast. Hope was swept up in the crowd and pushed out the main door.

I genuinely hadn’t realized just how popular the Masked Royal was in Alola.

With the crowd of people rushing to leave, I started to exit as well to move outside. There was a door on the wall next to the stage that led to the school’s inner courtyard. I maneuvered myself over to that in hopes of leaving before the pair from before reached me.

Unfortunately, I was too slow. Faba and the suited woman easily caught up with me.

"Ah, Alex! Wonderful presentation! I’m glad I caught it. I'm Branch Chief Faba, of the Aether Foundation. I'm sure you've heard of me."

The man who had given me so much worry during the lecture raced towards me from behind. He reached me right when I had exited the building, and he held out a gloved hand, giving me a smile that would have fit on a used car salesman’s face.

Unhappily, I shook it. The purple-haired woman stumbled briefly when she approached, and she cocked her head at me in surprise.

"I know you," I said to Faba. His smile deepened with pride. "One of your employees attacked me with a Psychic Type back on Sea Mauville."

Faba’s expression dropped almost immediately. Any follow-ups he had planned were now reduced to panicked sputtering. Shakily, he brought up a hand to smooth out his balding hair. He managed to choke out some words.

"Yes! T-that! I was h-hoping you had forgotten, but clearly, my employee had m-misbehaved more than I expected! I was sent here to apologize, of course. Of course! On behalf of the Aether Foundation, we're deeply sorry!"

He pressed his hands together and closed his eyes. It looked more like a silent prayer rather than a gesture of apology.

"Sure," I said. "Were they fired?"

He looked over my shoulder, where someone was passing us by.

"...Yes.”

There was a moment of awkward silence as I raised an eyebrow, daring him to continue, but all he did was bring his head back and laugh.

"W-well enough about that! How about what I actually came here for? I have on record that you know quite the eclectic sum of information, and I wanted to ask if you—"

"That's enough, Faba."

The woman next to him spoke with finality. Her voice was firm and commanding, yet it was surprisingly soft-spoken. It said a lot about their relationship when Faba actually shut up.

He moved behind her as she stepped up and offered her own gloved hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Alex,” she said.

"I would say the same, but I’m afraid you haven’t told me your name."

She chuckled to herself softly before tilting her head down in a greeting that fit that of someone from Kanto or Johto rather than Alola.

"Anabel,” she said.

I frowned. Again, something about that was familiar, but I still couldn’t put her to any character I knew.

"I came here as a representative just like you," she started, "but where you represent the League, I represent the International Police. We have some questions for you if you have the time. We can't make you come in, so we'd like to see if we could work something out."

"What? Why would you ever admit you would try to force me to come in?”

"Because we won’t. We only do that to criminals. We know you won't talk to us if you have the chance, and we want to make it clear that we’d really rather not force you into this.”

A pause. Silence hung in the air between us as she easily met my suspicious gaze. Faba was still nervous, but he was now eyeing me with a questioning look.

"So you work for the International Police," I said.

"That I do. I have a certain set of skills that they desperately require.” She released my hand to brush the side of her hair. “You have remarkably skilled Psychic Types. I've never seen a defense so clean."

That reveal sealed it. I knew who she was.

The woman was Salon Maiden Anabel, or in other words, one of the heads of Kanto’s Battle Frontier.

Though, I wasn’t sure why she was here instead of managing her role.

Not only did Anabel have a team of Pokémon comparable to the toughest of the toughest Elite, but she had the power and influence to land that role in the first place. Additionally, she was a Psychic Type specialist, but she was more specifically also partially psychic herself. Mentioning my near-perfect mental protection wasn't a threat, it was a way to reveal an aspect of herself in a sign of good faith.

I didn’t want to take that at face value.

"I don't mean to be rude, but my schedule is a bit cramped,” I said. “Unless you have something pressing to talk about, I have a job to do and a team to train."

She politely bowed her head again, but she didn’t take a step back as if to give me space to leave. Instead, she continued to stand only a few feet away, intent on saying one last thing.

"Before you go, Alex, I was wondering if you'd be willing to listen to a story of my own? You shared such an interesting tale at the end of your lecture that I want to share one too.”

“Go ahead.”

Her smile remained utterly placid as she went ahead to begin.

"Two years ago," she started, "a certain scientist decided to commit a felony of the highest degree and attempt to mentally manipulate a Pokémon trainer."

Yeah, that trainer was me.

"Normally, the International Police would handle such an incident, but the League stepped in since it involved one of their own. That made sense, so no one batted an eye.

"Then the years passed," Anabel continued, "and a certain trainer repeatedly popped up in the most interesting of places. Not much is thought of that—these things are not without precedent—but then the League announces a new Elite role.

"So, in the name of good cooperation, we did a few background checks," she said, as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "We looked into the trainers that would belong to the new Elite role to prepare ourselves for future interactions. Most of them had the expected amount of trouble in the past, but one stood out.”

She tilted her head to the side ever so slightly, and her eyes ran up and down my body.

"You see, Alex, we have records of our own, and those records remain independent of any outside interference. For some reason, yours don't begin until two and a half years in the past."

Faba opened his mouth to say something. Anabel held a finger up, encouraging him to be quiet.

I paid him no mind. My eyes did not leave Anabel’s own.

"With that suspicion," she continued, "we did some digging. Allies at the Aether Foundation passed over some files, and, interestingly, a certain criminal perpetrator had revealed specific topics being shared. Do you know what those words included?"

My expression hardened. Anabel continued.

"Solgaleo. Lunala. Ultra Space. Ultra Necrozma. Type: Null."

Faba's sputtering started back up, whining that Anabel "wasn't supposed to know about Type: Null!” I purposefully did not respond. I could see Anabel rapidly take in every feature of my face, her eyes darting around to analyze even the smallest of microexpressions. I had to hope my practice with Phoebe was paying off.

Finally, Anabel closed her eyes and stepped back, giving me space to leave. A certain tension faded from the air, but it didn’t completely go away.

"We'll talk again, Alex," Anabel said. "I'm glad we could have this conversation. There are things in the works you'll need to help us with. Unfortunately, neither of us will get a choice in the matter."

I half-wanted to reply with a snarky comment, but I held my mouth shut. Anabel walked off, with Faba hurriedly following, asking question after question about everything that just occurred.

That left me on my own to turn, leave, and stew in my thoughts.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

"I managed to get Lillie out of the building pretty easily,” Hope said. “I told her to go back to Kukui’s place just in case.”

“Should we be worried that he’s not at home? He gave the lecture right after us.”

Hope paused on the stairs up to Professor Oak’s office.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Kukui’s the Masked—” I sighed. “Nevermind. Whimsicott caught up, yeah?”

“Yup. He met us outside and went with her when she left.”

As we ascended up the stairs, I could feel my hands clenching and unclenching at my side. My mind was firmly on Anabel’s presence and any mistake I might have made.

When she first showed up with Faba, I had focused on the wrong person entirely. I had been worried about Lillie when I should have been worried about myself.

Even with all of the hints Anabel tried to drop, I didn’t know what was going on in the background, and I didn’t like it. The Aether Foundation was now a complete mystery to me, especially with their apparent ties to the International Police.

Did I really screw up way back when by shouting out meta-knowledge to distract the Aether Foundation employee? He shared what I said? What’s all of that going to mean?

There was so much I wanted to discuss with Hope, but I didn’t have a chance. This was a private discussion to take place in a private space, and we weren’t exactly in one just yet.

For now, we would receive our payment for the lectures then head out. I’d need to figure out what to make of all of this later.

Eventually, when we reached the top floor, the door to the lone office opened before we could knock. The smiling face of the tanned Professor Oak greeted us with a hearty “Alola!”

"Marvelous, simply marvelous!” he said. “I know for a fact that your talks today will go down in school history! Come in, come in!"

He waved us forward and hurried to sit behind his desk, chuckling as he did.

"Hope, you're going to be responsible for quite the number of burgeoning young Grass Type specialists. I've never seen such a clever combination of Vine Whip and Bullet Seed!"

Hope blushed.

"Thank you."

"And you, Alex." He turned to face me. "You had such a way with words! Fairies are oft a vastly underestimated Type. I can tell many of my students will use that to their advantage."

"Thank you?" I guessed.

"But! My praise is not why you're here. I promised to make this worth your time, didn't I?"

He leaned over to open up a drawer that he began to hastily rummage through. A few stacks of paper were temporarily placed on the desk—all of which were yellowed and dated several years in the past—and he eventually pulled out a lidded box that opened up in such a way to block our view.

"I've realized something about your plans,” he said. “An issue that I don't believe the two of you have noticed. Would you like to take a guess?"

"The International Police is going to be a thorn in our sides?"

"I'm never going to catch another Grass Type?"

The school principal blinked.

"What? No. Both of your relevant trials aren't until the latter half of your journey."

He punctuated this by placing two jeweled bracelets on the table.

"On Akala, Mallow runs our Grass Type Trial, which I know that you, Hope, will be quite interested in. As for you, Alex, Mina's Fairy Type Trial is all the way on Poni Island, and it's traditionally one of the last!" He clicked his tongue. "No, no, no. This won't do. You deserve a chance to work with this phenomenon earlier rather than later."

Professor Oak continued to speak, but I was too focused on the bracelets he set on the table. Both of them were adjustable; they could fit either an adult's or a child's hand, and they were made of sparkling, monochrome crystal.

"These are Z-Rings, accessories that allow a trainer to perform a Z-move," Professor Oak explained. "Normally, trainers competing in the Island Challenge receive one once they prove they can handle it, but Z-Rings tend to require Z-Crystals to use certain moves. As Z-Crystals are rewarded for beating the appropriate Trial, you can see why this might be an issue with your current planned journey."

Both Hope and I were staring at Professor Oak with an awestruck gaze. Professor Oak didn’t look up; he started to search through the box with a quiet "Where are they?"

"Aha! Found them!"

He picked up the two rings with one hand and nimbly slotted a pair of sparkling objects into their center. In one, he placed a pure green crystal whose color reminded me of a palm tree's leaves, and in the other, he placed a bright pink crystal whose color reminded me of the very edge of a rainbow after a heavy storm.

"Z-Crystals: a Grass Type one for you, Hope, and a Fairy Type one for you, Alex. Simply wearing these on your wrist will allow you to perform the relevant Z-move with a Pokémon that knows a move of the same Type."

Both of us picked up the bracelets and stared at them wordlessly. Hope rotated hers around in her hand, while I stared at the crystal itself.

Then I froze. My gaze snapped up to meet Professor Oak.

"Wait a second. The Z-Crystal. It just needs to be slotted in, not held by a Pokémon?"

Professor Oak blinked.

"Humans don't normally use Pokémon moves, Alex. The crystals act as a conduit to support your Pokémon to empower a single attack. All you need to do is wear the Z-Ring, and you’ll be able to personally enhance a Pokémon’s attacks."

Eyes as wide as dinner plates, I returned to staring at the Z-Ring with a newfound understanding.

In the games, Z-Crystals had to be held by a Pokémon you wanted to use a Z-move. Here, since I was the one to wear it, a Pokémon would be able to hold a held item at the same time—which included a Mega Stone.

While I didn't know how the two different energies would react, imagining the sheer potential of the combination warranted only one thought.

"Absolutely broken," I breathed.

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

Hello, it's me: a plot detail laid out over a hundred chapters ago. (See: Chapter 28)

Also, I have a minor confession: I didn’t realize Sheer Force worked with special attacks. Mawile’s Shadow Ball and Dark Pulse should have been more powerful in the past, and they'll be boosted from here on out.

Pokémon mentioned in this chapter (contains spoilers):
Popplio
Type: Null

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