As it turns out, flying on the back of a Pokemon is a bit more nerve wracking than N had expected.

  He’d done more dangerous things in the past. His infiltration onto Hunter J’s ship came to mind, as well as how he’d gotten off the thing. And of course, the future would be far more dangerous. He fully planned to ride on the Dragon’s back after all, even with the opposition they would face. It would be a necessary symbol, and, practically speaking, probably the only way he’d be able to keep up with the Dragon.

  But having his arms wrapped around what felt like a slightly more fleshy tree trunk as the marsh’s sparse canopy was spread out below them was seriously getting his adrenaline pumping.

  “How exciting!” the Looker called out from the back of another Tropius. “Normally I fly by plane, but after this?! I may have to look into gaining a companion who can carry me through the air!”

  “Would you stop your yelling? We aren’t moving that fast and the wind is slow, they can hear you just fine!” The Grass type supporting him had eagerly taken N’s offered berries when called upon by the first Tropius, but he seemed less than pleased with the passenger he’d been given.

  “Hey, hey, Mimikyu!” Mawile excitedly tried for the fae’s attention from behind him. “Do you think I can gain the Flying type too?! This is awesome! I wanna fly all the time!”

  “‘Ow many times do I gotta tell ya? That was a one time thing! Yer not gonna become a Fire type, yer not gonna become a Flyin’ type, yer not gonna become any other type! Steel ‘n’ Fairy, that’s you from ‘ere on out!”

  She huffed. “Just you wait!”

  N had concerns about how she thought gaining another type was going to happen, but that could wait for the moment. He spared another glance towards the one member of their little party not currently on the back of a Tropius, being instead supported by a Quagsire who was managing to keep up with the slow speed of the Flying types as it swam through the swampy water.

  Marowak waved up at him, and he waved back.

  Did he feel bad about Marowak missing out on something the others found so exciting? Yes. But there was little he could do when the Tropius pair refused to let him board.

  “I know you said you were looking for a criminal of some sort,” the female Tropius supporting him started, “but there tends to be a decent number of humans in the marsh. Is there anything in particular I should be watching for?”

  “Blue hair, grey clothing,” N responded. “Possibly carrying something dangerous, though I couldn’t tell you how large it might be.”

  “Blue? That should be easy enough to spot. Assuming Tangrowth’s spawn aren’t wandering around, but I think they moved further north recently…”

  “So! N!” Looker called out.

  N rolled his eyes. “You don’t need to yell.”

  The man blinked. “Ah, my apologies.” The Tropius gave him a grateful nod. “I was merely thinking, you and I should share some information, no? Like I was trying to before?”

  He cast a wary look towards the interpol officer. “What sort of information?”

  “Oh, simple things! When did you first encounter Galactic, for instance. Was it back in Unova?”

  N still found himself a bit wary of the man, but that made sense. In the Looker’s eyes, he must seem like a potentially valuable source of information on a target his organization had been after for a while. “No, I’d never heard of them until travelling through Sinnoh. It was…” part of him wasn’t sure if he should mention the incident they’d gotten involved in, given the League’s and specifically Lucian’s part in it all, but at the same time it would be an odd look to not mention it when Galactic had their logo plastered on the side of the biggest building in the city, “...back in Veilstone, I believe. Or at least, that’s the first time I saw any in uniform.” He couldn’t discount the possibility that they’d been doing things in plain clothes before that, acting in other roles to blend in. It wasn’t like he himself went around in Plasma branded clothing.

  “Veilstone? I see.” Looker had a contemplative expression on his face. “You seem like a well travelled young man, have you run into any similar organizations?”

  N frowned. “What makes you think I would have?” Hadn’t the man mentioned something about specifically investigating Galactic? Why would other groups matter?

  Looker shrugged. “I am only asking. In my experience, comparing to other cases gives me a more solid understanding of what people are after. You, who my intuition called out for, well…” He trailed off a bit.

  “I mean we ‘ave run into Team Rocket, even if it’s jus’ the one group,” Mimikyu pointed out.

  And so N told Looker a bit about Jessie and James and their talking Meowth.

  “Interesting… I believe I’ve read reports on that unit before, them being in Sinnoh…” Looker shook his head. “But what about in Unova? You have not seen anything back home?”

  N didn’t like this line of questioning. Working with Looker on the Galactic issue was one thing, but the more this went on the more it felt like the man was probing for something specific. The more it felt like his so-called “intuition” was better than N would have thought.

  Did he know? How could he? Yes, Looker had seen the Shadows, which, sure, N could admit would draw curious eyes, but…

  Was this interpol group looking into Plasma?

  He could feel Looker’s eyes on him as he waited for an answer. What should he do? Straight denial felt like the most obvious choice, but if the man had some sort of curiosity in him already, would that heighten his suspicions?

  “Is that the one you’re looking for?”

  Tropius’ words broke him from his thoughts.

  There, down in the muck, was a Galactic grunt, clear as day. He looked to be struggling to make his way through the marsh, his boots getting stuck in the mud beneath the water, and even at height N could faintly hear the man cursing.

  “I probably should have asked this sooner,” N called over to Looker, “but you do know how to handle explosives, right?”

  Looker laughed. “Me? Not at all! However, I can assure you that it will be fine!”

  “...somehow that doesn’t inspire confidence,” N muttered.

  “It’ll be fine,” Mimikyu reassured him. “Looker knows what he’s doin’.”

  N would have to trust in those words. It’s not like he could just turn back now and allow the marsh to be blown up.

  Looker didn’t give him time to hesitate, either. Before N could really prepare himself for the confrontation, Looker and the Tropius he was riding on were diving down towards ground level, a no nonsense look on the agent’s face.

  There was a flash of red light, and in the swampy water right behind the Galactic grunt, a Croagunk appeared. Its fist lit up with a purple glow, one that N was actually familiar with thanks to Brock’s Pokemon being quite fond of the move. The grunt spun around in a panic, clearly not having expected the surprise attack, even if the Poison Jab was only being threatened instead of burying itself in his gut at this point.

  “Hands where I can see them.” The Croagunk rasped.

  “What the-”

  “The International Police cordially requests your cooperation! You are outnumbered, so I do not suggest resisting arrest!” Looker yelled at the man as he hopped off of Tropius, landing right next to the grunt with a splash that had the Galactic member spluttering.

  “Ugh, it went in my mouth!” He hastily wiped away at it with his one available hand. “What do you mean outnumbered? It’s one on one, I can take you!”

  “These grunts really aren’t the brightest,” Croagunk sighed.

  That was when N landed behind Looker, taking care to step on solid ground rather than into the muck he’d been avoiding. He could feel Mimikyu shifting on his shoulder, and Mawile waved her giant maw at the man. Back the way they’d come from, he could see Quagsire approaching with Marowak, not bothering to speed up to meet them for the conflict.

  The two Tropius took off into the air at that point, not wanting to be caught up in any ensuing battle.

  The grunt staggered back. “I… uh… I can still take you!”

  “We’ve got more backup in the marsh at this very moment! You can’t win this, so just give it up!” Looker refuted.

  “I don’t like holding this for so long, hurry up before I decide to use it on you anyway,” Croagunk threatened.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  As the three were caught in a stand off, Mimikyu continued to shift around on his shoulder, seemingly agitated.

  “What’s-” N started to ask.

  “N, where’s the bomb?!” Mimikyu hissed.

  N blinked. He stole a glance at the grunt. There was some small black thing in his hand, but surely that couldn’t be it. It was smaller than grenades he’d seen in old war photos, at worst it would ruin the grunt’s hand, not blow up the marsh.

  Had the bomb already been set? N felt the blood drain from his face.

  Looker stepped forward, pulling out a set of handcuffs.

  “Not another step or this whole place goes up!” the grunt shouted, thrusting the small black object forward. There was a red button on the top of it.

  “Are you insane?!” N found himself shouting. “Think of how many Pokemon will be caught in that!”

  The grunt gave him a confused look. “Why would I care about that? The new world is more important than silly stuff like that!”

  N felt his blood pressure skyrocket at that comment, but before he could respond, Looker cut in. “And yet, I assume, you care about making it to this new world yourself, no? If you have not set it off yet, I assume that we are currently within the blast radius, no? You would not want to blow yourself up.”

  “I… that…” The grunt looked around, panicked. “You can’t stop Galactic! Even if you stop me here, the bomb will still explode!”

  “He’s bluffin’,” Mimikyu muttered.

  “I like to take things one step at a time. Give yourself up now, or you’ll be facing additional charges.”

  The grunt looked at the button in his hand. Looked at the Looker. After a moment though, he sagged, holding out his hands.

  “This guy is kind of lame,” Mawile complained. N tried to ignore her comment and focus on the fact that the marsh wasn’t about to explode. This was a good thing. He could calm down, now…

  Looker cuffed him in an instant, taking the button from him. “A wise decision! Now, where is the bomb?”

  “It’s over in those trees,” the grunt gestured with his head, “but, listen, can you get me out of here? It really will explode still!”

  “...excuse me?”

  “The button was just a back up plan, if someone was on my tail! There’s a timer on it, too, and it’s already activated!”

  “An’ he decided ta wade through all the muck on ‘is way out? Is this guy really that dumb?” Mimikyu asked, bewildered.

  N didn’t wait for an answer to those questions, he rushed straight towards where the grunt had gestured, no longer caring about the muck trying to suck him in. From the sound of splashing water, Looker was the same.

  “Croagunk, make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid!”

  “Already on it…” he croaked back.

  Looker was surprisingly agile, catching up with N as he made it to the trees. There, pressed up against them and just out of the water, was a black box sticking out of a backpack. It looked to be made of some sort of plastic, but… well, it didn’t look like any bomb N had seen in a movie, and he’d never seen one outside of a movie. He didn’t know what to make of it.

  He turned to Looker. “What do we do?!”

  “I could eat it!” Mawile cried out, apparently having followed behind him.

  “No, be quiet ‘n’ let ‘em think.” Mimikyu rebuked her.

  “Um, I could-” Marowak, also having caught up, went quiet when eyes turned to him. The Quagsire beneath him stayed silent, staring at them blankly with its beady eyes.

  Looker clicked his tongue. “Not to worry, N. I told you it would be fine, did I not?”

  “You also told me you don’t know how to handle bombs!” N hissed back.

  “Yes, I did say that…” Looker replied, far too relaxed in N’s opinion, and pulled out his phone.

  Before anyone could question the move, he had already dialed the number, putting it up to his ear.

  N shared a look with Mimikyu, but the little fae did his best approximation of a shrug.

  “Yes.” Looker said into the phone. “Yes. Yes, I-” He frowned. “I am quite aware. Yes! How many times must I say it?!” He gave N an… apologetic look? “I need you to send Gaston to my current location immediately! Yes it’s a code-” He sighed as the person on the other end apparently hung up on him.

  “Apologies,” he said as he pocketed his phone. “Apparently there is some other crisis that Interpol is dealing with at the moment, so my call was untimely. Gaston should-”

  He was interrupted by a flash of light.

  “Ah. You are not Gaston…” Looker said, a bit off put.

  Not that N could blame him.

  In front of them now was an Alakazam, ignoring them completely as it focused on the bomb. Perhaps of more note was the woman standing next to the Pokemon, with her long blonde hair running down her back and her expensive black shoes and pant legs now soaked with marsh water and muck.

  Cynthia gave the two of them a once over, and sighed.

  “You,” she glared at Looker, “should involve me before it becomes an emergency. I do not appreciate finding out about situations like this because Interpol’s Psychics are too busy for an immediate bomb defusal.”

  Looker nodded. “Noted.”

  She didn’t look like she believed him.

  Then the Champion of Sinnoh turned on him.

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “It really does always involve you these days, doesn’t it?”

  Mimikyu gave her an awkward wave and N cleared his throat. “Um, hello again?”

  The explosive has been defused. The words were projected into his mind, and he felt Mimikyu wince on his shoulder.

  “Woah! That was cool! Teach me to do that!” Mawile jumped towards the Alakazam, splashing all of them with even more of the marsh’s filth.

  Cynthia looked down at the Steel type. Glanced over at the Fire type standing on a Quagsire.

  She sighed once more.

  “So, why don’t we go over what led us to this situation, hm?”

  The bomb had been defused, but for some reason N felt like he was in more danger now than before.

  Books were scattered around the room, many of them opened up to seemingly random pages, every last one bookmarked to an extreme degree. It certainly gave the air of a maniac of a sort, though it’s also what led him to actually trusting that this would go somewhere. Well, that and having asked around a bit to certify the authenticity of the claims.

  “Oh! That’s it! Those are honest-to-goodness Heart Scales! Let me guess, you want me to teach one of your Pokemon some moves? Which Pokemon needs tutoring?”

  Lucas gave the self-proclaimed “Move Tutor” a deadpan look, not even bothering to gesture to the pink fur winding itself around his wrist.

  His newly evolved Pokemon huffed in annoyance.

  The tutor cleared his throat. “Ah, right, of course! Just one second then!”

  Though the books were scattered, he seemed to know exactly what one he was looking for, snatching it out of a pile behind him in a quick movement, flipping open to the desired page with ease. “If you look here, you’ll see a list of moves that your Pokemon should be able to learn. But, need I remind you, that the process I use reminds Pokemon of things they should be capable of. If they are not yet at a level at which it’s feasible for them to have learned something, it simply isn’t possible with my skill set. Don’t go expecting something like Last Resort. Now, which move should I teach?”

  Lucas took the offered book, pulling his hand away from his companion’s tail as he considered his options. Swift was a move known for its accuracy, and it would provide a much needed ranged option. Not a bad idea to go with something like that. However, he also needed to consider the fact that it would no longer be enhanced by his Pokemon sharing the move’s type. With the skill level that they’d reached so far…

  He pointed at his choices and reluctantly handed over some of his treasure. This was for the good of his team, he needed to do this.

  Though, truthfully, the only reason he could bring himself to part with the scales was the fact that they were apparently quite common throughout the region. He’d gathered quite a few already, and he figured it wouldn’t be that difficult to get more of them.

  “I see… well, that should be no problem at all! If you would just step outside for a moment?”

  Lucas narrowed his eyes.

  “What?! This is a business I’m running! If I let people watch my techniques, they’ll become competition and then I’d have to go and find Heart Scales myself!”

  “Eon!”

  Hm. He could probably handle himself if this guy had any funny business in mind.

  Lucas stepped out of the lunatic’s house, leaning against the siding next to the door as he waited.

  “Swift and Psybeam should be solid choices for Espeon,” Porygon2 decided to comment. “As a species, they are lacking when it comes to the physical side of battle, so moves used up to this point won’t be as effective as your new choices. He’ll have me beat when it comes to speed and raw combat ability thanks to his new Psychic powers, but you should keep in mind that he’s now built to dish out hits rather than tank them.”

  Lucas wasn’t sure why he was getting the crash course. Did Porygon2 think he hadn’t read up on Eevee’s potential evolutions?

  Oh well. He was just excited to finally have some type diversity. And a Psychic type at that! Sure, his attempts to get a Ralts had failed earlier in his journey, but now that didn’t matter!

  Telepathy! Telekenesis! And, perhaps most importantly, he’d be able to teleport all over the region!

  He’d be able to go back and pick up any treasure he’d missed along his journey in the blink of an eye!

  The door beside him opened, and Espeon walked out.

  “I look forward to future business with you!” the move tutor called out before shutting the door.

  Hm. What a weirdo.

  He looked down to his newly evolved friend, a smile on his face.

  Espeon looked up at him, split tail waving back and forth behind him as he concentrated.

  Lucas waited.

  And waited.

  Espeon sagged.

  Lucas sagged too.

  “No luck?” Porygon2 quietly asked. “I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it in no time, you’re quite the go-getter. It can’t be easy to pick up something like telepathy when you’ve only just become a Psychic type.”

  Porygon2 had the right of it. Lucas was super excited to test out all the new powers Espeon should have… but he couldn’t expect it all to happen at the drop of a hat.

  They just needed a bit of time. A bit of practice.

  And then Crasher Wake wouldn’t know what hit him.

  IMPORTANT NOTE: Well, depending on whether you like my work or just Pokemon fanfics specifically. The short version is that I’m finally getting around to properly publishing Garden of Yesteryore! Fantasy, some sci-fi, all the secretive nonsense you’ve no doubt come to expect from me. Think Re; Zero (without the constant death) meets Pendragon (a 00s Young Adult fantasy series)? That seems like a fitting description, not that many of you will be familiar with Pendragon. I think it’s gonna be fun, and I hope you’ll give it a chance. Note that this is ORIGINAL FICTION. It will NOT be going up on FNN. I am considering Ao3, but idk yet. The Prologue is currently up on RoyalRoad with (you can also just go to my profile)and my plan is to publish a chapter of it on the weeks that Unbroken Disguise doesn’t get an update (so one chapter every 4 weeks)

  Given the fact that Eevee’s limited movepool was a hindrance in battle, I’m surprised by the number of people who assumed he would evolve into a Sylveon since you need to know a Fairy type move. Though I did keep it intentionally vague.

  As always, feedback is appreciated. (If you’re actually looking for a response, discord is the place to be)