I tried to wait a while to relax before going to Thomas, but ended up leaving to meet him after only a few minutes’ break. I wanted to decompress after encountering that Ghost, but I was too uncomfortable since I knew that the Drowzee had been in my tent. I searched through all the stuff I left behind and couldn’t find anything missing or out of place, so it seemed it had only waited for me to show up and nothing else. Whatever its motives were, I couldn’t tell and that made me nervous.

It was about mid-afternoon when I went to Thomas. One of the expedition teams had already returned with the scientists they escorted, so we weren’t alone. I purposely acted like I was just going to him for a casual conversation to not draw anyone’s attention. I knew the Drowzee was paying attention to me, but I wasn’t sure how much its trainer was doing the same.

Thomas was relaxing on a small chair outside of his tent. At his feet was an Umbreon that opened its eyes to stare at me as I got close. His Murkrow was perched on his tent nearby, and stared at me as well.

“Thomas, I need your help,” I said seriously as soon as I neared.

He sat up a little straighter.

“Alright, what’s this about? Wild Pokémon causing you troubles? Having difficulties with the watch schedules? Need help learning a Dark Type move?” He paused. “Or are you asking the Ace Trainer Thomas, and not the Group Leader Thomas?”

“I need the Ace Trainer Thomas.”

He stood up from his chair and stretched, disguising a brief glance around the area to make sure we were alone. He smiled and motioned for me to follow him into his black tent while he quietly commanded his Umbreon to sit outside to keep watch. I was impressed at how quickly he picked up on my seriousness and how adept he was at subtle movements.

I followed him into his tent without complaint, and sat down on the floor of it. The only thing within it was his sleeping bag, which he sat on himself.

“Umbreon will make sure no one will listen in. What is it that you need to talk to me about?” Thomas asked.

I hesitated for a moment before describing what was making me so nervous.

“I’m worried about a specific researcher’s Drowzee. It seems to have taken an interest in me, and when I returned to the camp earlier today, I found it in my tent. I can’t go into details, but I have something in place to protect my mind, and I’m scared that it or its trainer will find a way to get around that protection and learn my secrets.”

I had revealed the basic details about the protection on my mind since I couldn’t hide it from Psychics anyway and I might get better advice if he knew about it. I was a bit nervous about telling Thomas, but I didn’t want to keep minor secrets like that again after stressing about my Mega Evolution knowledge for so long, only to have nothing major come of it. Luckily, it seemed that he was relatively unbothered with that knowledge and was more focused on solving my problem. Something like what I had might not have been too uncommon, but if he realized how strong it was like Oranguru had, he might have raised more questions.

Thomas lifted up his hands to rest his head on them, and took a few moments to think before responding.

“Have you heard the rumors of the scientists’ personalities? Or is it just a worry after seeing how they’ve been acting as leadership here?”

I frowned when I heard that. I knew the Aether Foundation might have troublesome elements, but no one had ever told me rumors about them. I knew that the Aether Foundation was potentially led by a corrupt trainer in the games, and Faba, the branch chief and head researcher of the foundation, wasn't a great person no matter what media he appeared in. If there were rumors around, I needed to know what they were now before something worse happened to me later.

“I’m sorry, rumors? I’ve heard some stuff about the Aether Foundation, but I’m not sure if it’s the same thing,” I asked.

"Well, Aether Foundation researchers have a bit of a... bad reputation,” Thomas explained. “Unlike the helpful and kind hands-on workers of the Foundation, the researchers tend to be strange and poke their noses in places that shouldn't be poked. They’ve been known to harass certain trainers they deem suspicious, and there have been reports of attacks by Ghost Type Pokémon around them in those circumstances. Initially, the League chalked it up to mere coincidence, but it’s happened too often to be the case. It’s one of the reasons I was allowed time off to participate in this expedition, to make sure no Ghosts attack trainers. I wasn’t allowed to tell you earlier since I was supposed to keep panic down on this key expedition. Sorry.”

The information he gave me solidified my negative opinion of Faba and everyone underneath him. I wasn’t sure about the validity of Ghost attacks, but knowing something like that happened around the researchers let me make some unfavorable connections in my mind.

“So what should I do?" I asked. "If his Drowzee was already in my tent, they might be planning something. What I have in place will stop them from reading my mind, but I’m worried I might end up revealing secrets I know if they threaten or hypnotize me. I’m pretty sure my mental protection doesn’t work on hypnotism, especially since I was subjected to a random haunting in a Pokémon Center a few nights ago, but-”

“Stop. You were haunted in a Pokémon Center?” Thomas asked, interrupting my rambling.

“Um, yeah. I didn’t realize I had been until today. I went to explore the lower levels of Sea Mauville and encountered a Banette. I recognized it as a member of the same species from a nightmare I had a few nights ago back in Dewford. I had initially brushed the nightmare off as a dream since I was so disoriented when it happened, but seeing a different Banette in person made me realize that my dream might not have just been a dream.”

Thomas paused and was lost in thought before mumbling something under his breath.

“...that’s not something someone should remember...”

He continued to think and frowned while I sat there nervously and worried that there would be long lasting effects from whatever happened to me in the Pokémon Center.

At least he might be able to help me with the Ghost, too. It would've been nice if I had figured it out sooner.

Thomas noticed me fidgeting uncomfortably before he finally spoke.

“The Ghost is probably Phoebe’s.”

I furrowed my brows.

“You mean Elite Four member and Ghost Type specialist, Phoebe?”

He nodded and seemed to debate whether or not to say something. I patiently waited, expecting to hear an explanation.

“I shouldn’t be going into details about this, but if one’s been assigned to you, I won’t get in trouble,” Thomas said. “For background, you weren’t randomly haunted, all Pokémon Centers have Ghosts living inside them to prevent random hauntings from happening.”

I silently filed that detail away in my mind to never think about again as Thomas continued.

“If you encountered a haunting in a Pokémon Center, it was probably done by a League-controlled Pokémon. If you remember it, you probably saw something entering your shadow, right?” I nodded. “Well, essentially, most regions have a Psychic, Ghost, or Dark Type trainer responsible for raising Pokémon to secretly protect trainers of importance. Phoebe is Hoenn’s. The Banette you saw in your dreams is probably still in your shadow right now, protecting you from mental influences and those who would do you harm.”

A chill went down my spine when he mentioned a Ghost in my shadow. From what he was describing, I knew it would be beneficial to me, but I wasn’t able to get past that first step of not being nervous. I had read too many stories on the Ghost Type forums to be comfortable around them.

“As worrying as the Drowzee’s interest might be, you should be safe,” Thomas said, continuing. “A Ghost’s influence causes Psychics to instinctually recoil at its touch. The Banette in your shadow can stop Pokémon from touching your mind, and even exit it to protect you in times of intense danger. I doubt it would reveal itself any time soon, but with everything you told me, it should be able to protect you just fine. I would recommend staying away from any Ghost-sealing talismans made by Channelers, but a Channeler should have no reason to interact with you at all. Actually, now that I’m thinking of Ghosts, I’m pretty sure the presence of that Banette probably stopped the wild one you encountered from going after you.”

It was nerve-wracking to find out I would have been subjected to a Ghost attack without the Banette in my shadow, but I at least managed to reduce my stress with the knowledge it was there to protect me. Psychic, Ghost, and Dark Type Pokémon could be used to protect the mind, so it was a relief to know that I would have a Pokémon already trained and specialized in that protection always nearby. I was still caught up on one detail regarding the Banette, however.

“Was it responsible for the TM that was placed in my backpack?” I asked.

“There was a TM placed in your backpack?” Thomas asked back.

I explained to him the story of my encounter with the suspiciously clean room and the TM on display, as well as my subsequent discovery of it within my backpack.

“Ah,” Thomas said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “The two Banette probably worked together to play that prank on you. You didn’t notice when it placed the TM in your backpack, and you got scared when you found the TM there, right? Since it wasn’t directly harmful and didn’t reveal its presence, the Banette in your shadow was able to get away with that without going against its orders.”

A cool breeze blew over my feet where the shadow was currently resting, and a faint laughter echoed within the tent.

“...ette ette ette ette...”

Thomas and I shivered.

I got up to leave and Thomas stood up as well.

“If you need any assistance, I will help,” he said to me. “As an Ace Trainer in training it’s my duty to protect trainers within the region.”

I thanked him and shook his hand, then left to return to my tent. After thinking about it, I felt slightly better about having a Ghost near me at all times, especially if it was one trained by an Elite Four member. Its protection combined with the Psychic block on my mind should ensure I would have little to worry about from the scientist and his Drowzee.

The next several days of the expedition went by mostly uneventfully. I trained with my Pokémon while protecting the camp, and explored the ruins when I had the day off. The most that happened during my days on watch was a Volbeat of all things trying to get closer to the camp in curiosity. It was easily scared away when I tried to talk to it, so I didn’t even need to fight it to get it to leave.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but to notice that the Drowzee kept watching me from a distance. However, whenever I made eye contact with it, it would immediately walk away. I was uncomfortable with its continued attention, but I was satisfied knowing there would be little it could do against me thanks to the Banette.

As for my exploration trips, I never went as deep down as I did before. Knowing the Banette in my shadow would protect me from other Ghosts did mean that fear was reduced, but its orders were solely to protect me and not my Pokémon. I didn't want to put my team at risk. We stuck to the upper floors to search, and didn’t descend that far down to avoid entering Ghost territory.

The upper floors mostly contained Zubat and a few Pokémon that could live on both land and water like Corsola and Corphish. There were actually a surprising number of Corphish in the area, so my team got pretty adept at fighting them.

I also searched through the surface just to make sure not to miss anything. It was less exciting than the interior of Sea Mauville, but there were a lot of little things that were easy to look over. The biggest gains were a few berry trees growing here and there, which I picked and stored for later.

What caught the most attention, from both me and other trainers, was that in one corner of the surface of Sea Mauville was a massive mangrove with a Beedrill nest in it. It was strange to see since Beedrill shouldn’t be so far out in the ocean, or even in Hoenn, and also because the Beedrill were unusually aggressive. I ended up talking to a nearby trainer who was using his day off to observe the nest. His friend was a Bug Type specialist, and from what small tips and tricks he picked up from them, he figured out the Bug Types’ behavior was far more protective than usual, as if there was something secret within their nest. What exactly they were protecting was unknown, and the amount of Beedrill meant it would be near suicidal to actually approach. No one wanted to take such a big risk for such a big unknown.

Outside of spending my free days exploring, I spent one of my days while I was still on watch duty sitting around and celebrating with my Pokémon instead of training. They didn’t understand why we were celebrating, but I made sure to dip into my berry stores to let everyone have a bit of extra food as a treat. I’m ashamed to say I missed the exact date, but a full year had passed since I first entered the world. It was late August when I first awoke in the trash in Olivine, and considering that the end of August was only a few days away, I felt the need to celebrate. My team and I only passively kept watch while hanging out and chatting rather than doing anything intensive.

Since I couldn’t understand my Pokémon, I just sat around and reminisced about my old world. I left my stories vague to not reveal anything dangerous, but my Pokémon listened intently. Marill didn’t even bother to pretend it wasn’t worth her time to pay attention. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but my Pokémon were most impressed at the sheer number of people that lived in my old city. Apparently a few million people in one place was a lot compared to this world.

I was a little upset that I didn’t have much to tell them about myself. I just told stories about history and society rather than anything specific to me. The life story of someone going through school like everyone else, only to end up working in a convenience store wasn’t that interesting when Pokémon weren’t involved.

What days off the assistants had were decided randomly and rotated every four days. The intention was to not always pair the same two trainers to let everyone meet new people. Unfortunately for me, it meant what I had been waiting to happen occurred on the fourth break day I had, on the thirteenth day of the expedition.

"I've tolerated you long enough,” Winston said as he approached me. “I challenge you to a Pokémon battle. I will show you your place, bug."

"Three-thousand Pokédollars," I stated as soon as he said his challenge.

"Done."

I snapped my head to face him.

He agreed to that bet so quickly. How much money does he have?!

…Wait, could I have asked for more?

I was willing to risk so much on this battle since I was pretty sure I would win. The kind of confidence I had was the same confidence that generally meant a loss, but he challenged Wattson with only a Zigzagoon. How tough of a trainer could he possibly be?

We walked a ways away from the camp, but stayed within line of sight of Thomas. Since we were having a battle as assistants, we had to make sure an experienced trainer was nearby to interrupt if we were needed or if one of our Pokémon became too damaged.

"I say a three-on-three would be good enough for the likes of you. You are capable enough to have three Pokémon, right?" Winston asked me.

I nodded to accept and didn’t say anything else. I didn't want to bother interacting with him more than I had to. It would be best to get this over with as quickly as possible.

"Very well," he said, "then let us send out our Pokémon. Have at you!"

Both of us sent out our first team member, and both of our starters appeared in the large empty space between us.

A Linoone coalesced from a burst of light in front of Winston, while Vulpix walked onto the field from next to me and plunged a large area around her into a light snow.

Without a referee, there was no one to tell us to begin so we each issued our commands.

“Slow it down with Icy Wind!”

“Linoone, Belly Drum!”

I felt my eye twitch as he commanded his Linoone to use an extremely difficult move to learn for its species.

Did he hire someone to teach that to his Pokémon, or did he somehow manage to do that himself? Either way, I need to be careful if his Pokémon knows another rare move, like Extreme Speed.

Linoone sat up on its hind legs and used its front paws to beat on its stomach. Like Brawly’s Hariyama, the move caused Linoone to suffer internal damage and expend a significant amount of energy, but its physical capabilities were maxed out as a result. Vulpix breathed out and a gust of Icy Wind hit Linoone’s body and stuck to its fur, weighing it down and slowing its speed.

But that slow down effect didn’t matter, since Winston used the exact rare move I was dreading.

“Extreme Speed!”

In the time it took me to blink, Linoone had already slammed Vulpix into the ground with its body. Its enhanced strength allowed it to deal massive damage as Vulpix struggled to get up. In that one move, Vulpix was already barely clinging to consciousness.

“How do you like that! My father paid more money to Linoone’s tutors than you’ll ever make in your life.”

Of course he didn’t bother training his own Pokémon. Why bother doing it himself when he can pay someone else to do it for him?

“So I guess we’re fighting whoever trained Linoone, not you, in this battle,” I taunted. “You might be giving it orders, but you're not the one training it.”

Winston's face turned red in rage and I took advantage of his adverse reaction to my trash talk to have Vulpix attack.

“Ice Beam!”

Vulpix climbed to her feet and skipped back into her snow as a freezing cold beam of Ice Type energy struck the side of Linoone. The cold penetrated its body and it immediately shivered in response to the drop in temperature.

“Argh! Linoone, you’re close enough, finish it off with Slash!”

Linoone looked around for Vulpix. It found her pretty quickly, but her attempt to hide in the snow was good practice for her next ability, Snow Cloak. Linoone charged at her, ready to Slash with its claws. However, the brief delay it took to find Vulpix in the snow let her prepare Baby-Doll Eyes to slow Linoone’s attack and then she followed that up by tripping it with a Tail Whip.

Linoone fell forward onto the ground and Vulpix took advantage of its loss in balance to send an Ice Beam right at its head.

To my surprise, Linoone fainted from that move. It seemed that despite knowing extremely rare and powerful moves, it was nowhere near as strong as Norman’s Linoone, who Vulpix had experience fighting.

Winston returned Linoone to its Luxury Ball and tried his best to hide his unhappy grumbling from me. He failed.

He reached into his suit pocket to pull out a different minimized Luxury Ball which returned to full size in his hands.

“Let’s see how you like this! Litleo! Melt its snow!”

A small black lion with a tiny red mohawk on its head appeared on the battlefield. It narrowed its eyes and growled at Vulpix, but the cold from the snow caused it to start shivering, despite its secondary Fire Type. Vulpix’s Snow Warning ability wasn’t developed enough to generate damaging hail, but still created a freezing storm of snow over the battlefield to affect her opponents.

“Flamethrower, Litleo!”

Before using Flamethrower, Litleo actually used a different move. It roared the best roar a young lion could muster and Vulpix unconsciously took a step back. I wasn’t able to recognize the move, but it reduced Vulpix’s willingness to attack and therefore the damage of her special moves.

After it roared, it started to gather fire in its mouth to use a Flamethrower, but it took longer to ready the move than it should have.

I smirked.

Seems like he’s been relying too much on tutors and hasn’t been practicing his moves.

Before Litleo could finish setting up Flamethrower, Vulpix attacked without me needing to give her a command. She sat on the ground and her eyes glowed the familiar blue of Psychic Type energy, causing the space around Litleo to shift and twist with her Extrasensory attack. Litleo cried out, and its Flamethrower stopped due to the pain.

Winston grimaced, and returned Litleo.

“I’m recalling my Pokémon. He doesn’t have enough battle experience for this fight.”

At least he has the sense to prevent unnecessary pain to his Pokémon.

Maintaining the same grimace, Winston reached into a different pocket in his jacket and pulled out an Ultra Ball.

“I need to warn you about my next Pokémon. He was a gift from my brother, and will far outclass any member of your team. I am required by law to ask you to return your Pokémon if you do not think you can win, and even if you can, please think again.”

At first I thought Winston was saying that just to intimidate me, but I realized that was only partially true. He really was warning me about his next Pokémon, even though he slipped in a few insinuations he was better than me. The look on his face was a strange combination of excitement and fear, which made me worry about what exactly he would send out.

The light from the Ultra Ball coalesced on the field and grew into a figure that reached the bottom of my chin despite it standing hunched over. It was just over five feet tall and was covered in rough, blue scales. It was bipedal, spiked, and had large, dangerous claws. Its face extended into a set of massive red jaws and had a set of too-small blue wings on its back. It was a pure Dragon Type Pokémon, and one extremely hard to find at that.

I glanced over at the Druddigon he sent out to the field. Honestly, it was pretty intimidating. Outside of Drake’s Salamence I had seen at a distance in Meteor Falls, this was the first time I had been so close to a Dragon Type in a battle. I may have had the advantage as a Fairy Type trainer, but Dragon Types would always be a threat due to the raw power they wielded.

Of course, that didn’t mean I would let my wariness get in the way of trash-talking.

I returned Vulpix to her Premier Ball before I shouted out at Winston.

“You know I’m a Fairy Type specialist, right?”

Winston grimaced harder.

Oh my god, he actually didn’t know.

“I’ll go easy on you, I’ll send out a Pokémon that isn’t a Fairy Type so that way your Druddigon can actually deal damage,” I lied, pretending that I wasn’t already planning on sending out Swablu next.

I sent out Swablu here for two reasons. The first was to let him experience fighting a Dragon Type. This kind of experience would be invaluable for evolving him into an Altaria. Dragon Types were strong and proud, so beating one would contribute to becoming one himself.

The second reason was that Swablu had a significant advantage over Druddigon in that Swablu could fly but Druddigon couldn't. The Dragon Type may have had wings, but it was a solely land-based creature. Swablu could stay out of its range to avoid getting instantly knocked out by its powerful melee attacks.

Swablu appeared out of his Love Ball and the battle began.

He started by flying as high as possible, to maintain his distance. Winston didn't give any commands, but merely stood back and watched.

Flames licked the sides of Druddigon's mouth and it shot a burst of flame towards Swablu.

I internally cursed.

Druddigon can’t learn Flamethrower on its own, but it can from a TM. I should have known Winston had a TM for Flamethrower. Litleo looked far too weak to learn that move.

Swablu had to take immediate evasive maneuvers midair to avoid the flames. Unlike Flannery's Torkoal, Druddigon was able to properly track Swablu with its attack, causing Swablu to perform feats of advanced flying he wouldn’t have been able to do without our training back in Dewford.

Druddigon took a moment to breathe in between attacks, and Swablu used that pause to finally let loose an attack of his own. He screeched his name as a Disarming Voice shot out, hitting Druddigon and penetrating its body with the super effective sound.

I found it mildly amusing that the first Pokémon on my team to deal super-effective damage to a Dragon Type wasn't a Fairy Type.

Despite the damage, Druddigon just looked mad. It raised its massive clawed hands into fists and slammed them into the ground. Jagged white energy appeared in them as it lifted its hands back up, and the energy quickly turned dark and solidified into... rocks?

Well I guess if Pokémon can convert Water Type energy into water, they can also convert Rock Type energy into rocks.

The newly formed gray boulders were thrown towards Swablu as he desperately tried to dodge. However, they were too large for him to move out of the way and he was clipped in the wing by one and fell to the ground.

Unable to fly from his injury, Swablu tried to heal himself with Roost. Unfortunately, we had not been able to make progress with that move, and Druddigon smirked while taking several thundering steps to get closer to him. Not one to give up, Swablu breathed out a Dragon Breath to try to inflict paralysis, but the condition didn’t come into effect.

It didn't take long for Druddigon to reach Swablu. It picked the bird off the ground while Swablu tried to resist by flailing and attacking with Fury Attack. Unfortunately, the contact of Swablu’s move only hurt himself thanks to Druddigon's Rough Skin ability.

The Dragon Type lifted his free claw to ready an attack against Swablu, before suddenly dropping the bird and jumping back.

A black blur slammed into the field right where Druddigon once was, revealing the form of a Thomas’s Murkrow.

Having interrupted the battle, it spread its wings and squawked, before jumping up and flying away. It glanced over its wings at us and tilted its head towards camp in “follow me” motion.

I returned Swablu and Winston returned the very unhappy Druddigon. I looked over to where Thomas was watching the battle, only to see he was gone.

I shouted out to Winston. "Something's going on. We need to get back to camp."

"Please, I can make my own deductions. I don't need you to tell me what I should do."

I rolled my eyes and started to jog back. Winston, not one to jog himself, simply walked back as I left him behind. There was no need to continue speaking to each other now that the battle had been interrupted.

Shame the battle had to end early. His Druddigon might have caught Swablu, but Marill would have been able to show that Dragon its place.

I arrived back at the campsite to see that it was mostly empty. The two teams that were in charge of escorting the Aether Researchers were still out, and the single researcher who had been left behind wasn't here either. Neither Thomas nor his Murkrow were here, and the only members of our group I could see were two of the trainers who were supposed to be on watch.

"What's going on?" I asked, "Where is everyone?"

The younger of the two, a girl around the age of seventeen, answered my question.

"The scientist did something and a swarm of Pokémon started charging at this place. Everyone is off fighting them back and we stuck around to make sure nothing was destroyed while they're gone. You should go, Thomas asked for you specifically."

Thomas asked for me? Why would an Ace Trainer in training need someone with only four badges?

I thanked them and ran off to the direction they pointed me towards. It was the same direction that we first arrived here, where the top of Sea Mauville ended and the sea began. As I approached the edge of the metal platform we were on, I saw a large swarm of crustacean Pokémon climbing over the side and attempting to reach the camp. It was mostly Corphish and a few Krabby, but I also saw a Kingler or two mixed in. The assistants were fighting them off while Thomas stood in the back, flanked by a Mightyena and Houndoom, watching the fight.

I ran up to him and hunched forward to catch my breath. I didn't notice them initially, but an Aether Scientist stood next to him with a familiar Drowzee at his side. I straightened myself to show I was ready, but mentally groaned when the Drowzee turned and stared at me.

"What's with the crabs?" I asked.

Thomas didn't answer, but faced the researcher who huffed before responding.

"The result of a simple technological mishap. Due to a calculation error, one of our machines sent out an electromagnetic pulse at ten times the normal strength and irritated nearby wild Pokémon. A few individuals lured in would have been fine, but it seems a swarm was passing through, and now they're here to ruin my research."

I blanched.

"Are you sure we can handle that many Pokémon with just us? There has to be at least a hundred of them!"

"A swarm like this is bound to have a leader,” Thomas said. “Take it out and it's likely to disband. We just need to have everyone else stall while you and I find it."

"What!" I yelled, "I've only earned four badges! What makes you think I can assist you, who’s practically a full-on Ace Trainer?"

Thomas put his hands in his pocket and smiled.

"You're our backup healer since our current healer is occupied with keeping the attacking crustaceans at bay. I’ll need Floette's healing after I take out their leader. It’ll be important since I'm not planning to just faint it. If the leader of such a large swarm of Corphish is what I think it is, I'm going to catch it."

I sighed and agreed to his plan. I did sign Floette up as the backup healer, and since the main healer, a Cherrim from a Grass Type specialist, was actively participating in holding back the swarm, I would need to help.

Thomas and I ran around the edge of the crab incursion. We had to ensure we stayed at a distance to avoid drawing attention while the other members of our group fought. If it was later in the day Thomas could have used his Umbreon to manipulate the shadows to hide us, but since this was right at noon, covering us in shadow would have just made us stand out more.

All of our Pokémon other than Murkrow and Swablu had been recalled, and the two birds were flying far above to scout for safe paths for us to follow and were working to find the swarm's leader.

A large roar echoed from the battlefield and I glanced back to see that Winston had finally arrived and his Druddigon was tearing through the Corphish. It pushed another trainer's Gloom out of the way and grappled a Kingler's massive claw. The Gloom used a targeted cloud of Stun Spore to paralyze the weaker Pokémon around the battle to give the two behemoths room to duke it out.

I turned back and we continued to run. Our birds led us to the edge of Sea Mauville, where I saw the origin of the crabs.

A massive amount of Corphish, supplemented by a few Krabby and Kingler, were climbing out of the water and up the side of the platform. I was amazed by the sheer number of the Water Types until Thomas grabbed my shoulder and silently pointed towards the ocean.

Floating behind the swarm right on the surface was an absolutely massive Crawdaunt. It would shout occasionally and snap its claws whenever it looked like the swarm faltered. Its red shell was discolored with scars, marking it as an experienced combatant.

Thomas brought me down lower to the floor and whispered a few commands.

"Change in plans. I need you to lure the Crawdaunt in close with your Marill. None of my Pokémon can swim as well as yours, and Murkrow is too strong for the Crawdaunt to want to chase. Bring it onto land and I can take care of it from there."

I nodded, nervous that my role was now expanded to be far more than just support. I sent Vulpix so I could heal her with potions after he injuries from Winston’s battle, then sent Marill out soon after that. We had a difficult task ahead of us, so we needed to create a proper plan.