Scizor, use Metal Claw, Sebastian imparted to his partner. The gleaming red bug flitted in and out of the reach of the colossal wild Onix that it was currently up against and readied its red pincers to strike. They turned to silver as Scizor skillfully wove his way around Onix’s tail, the dense snow all around not hampering his movements in the least. Scizor walloped Onix in the face as hard as he could but that only served to enrage the great bouldered snake even further than it already was. Sebastian had never seen a wild Pokémon so angry before—

He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end and he dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding being clipped by a newly provoked Geodude’s jagged fists. He grumbled as he took a step back, trying to keep all three of the irate Geodude that he was now squaring off against in his field of vision, while Scizor tried to put Onix down quickly so he could come over and help.

The first Geodude flung itself forward with reckless abandon and Sebastian only just managed to raise his staff up and deflect it’s heavy charge to the side. He grunted and took a few steps backwards despite the fact that it was merely a glancing blow; ten years ago he could have taken that attack almost head on despite the earlier warnings he had given to his son about never facing a Pokémon in a contest of strength. He didn’t have the opportunity to give it more than a moment’s thought though as the other two Pokémon began to hurl loose rock and stone at him as hard as they could. He desperately deflected them with his weapon, all the while trying to reach out with his senses for the first Geodude or heavens forbid, a fourth one.

I can’t hold them back anymore Scizor, Sebastian desperately called out to his friend. Either wrap up your fight and help me or I’m going to need to call out another Pokémon.

Sebastian heard Onix bellow at the top of his lungs and he almost lost his footing when the giant stone beast came toppling down all around him, shaking the snowy hillside. Scizor leapt over the Pokémon he had just knocked unconscious and charged forward to engage the trio of Geodude that were currently harassing his trainer. Sebastian didn’t dare relax for a moment though; despite being out of practice for the last decade he still knew to expect the unexpected at any moment.

Scizor easily cleaned up the enraged Geodude, knocking them unconscious, and Sebastian finally allowed the tension to leave his body. He glanced around, admiring his Pokémon’s handiwork, pleased that his oldest friend hadn’t lost a step. Training with Tommy had really helped Scizor knock some of the rust off, though Sebastian knew his friend would never admit to that.

You are getting slow and fat in your old age. You would have easily been able to handle those three without me back in your prime, Sebastian cracked a smile as Scizor spoke into his mind. He had missed speaking to his friend, but despite all the time that had lapsed since Sebastian retired, the two of them seemed to pick up right where they left off all those years ago without missing a beat.

So I’ve packed on a few pounds, Sebastian rubbed his belly as he longed for a home cooked meal from his wife. How many days had it been since he set out? He looked into Scizor’s piercing orange eyes and lost himself for a moment as his friend brought forward thousands of memories and images of the two of them together. He smiled to himself until he realized that Scizor was upset; there were no memories of the two of them over the last decade and a half. I should have introduced you to everyone sooner, I know. You deserved to meet Tommy and Tori and grow up with them. I was wrong to keep you from my family, you must have been lonely in your Pokéball all of these years. Can you forgive me?

What is done is done, and I will always forgive you, but Sebastian winced internally at the sadness in his friend’s voice. I would like to be included from now on though. Once we have finished with our business and returned to your home I would like to be able to roam free and interact with everyone.

I’ll work something out with the wife, Sebastian promised his partner. You and everyone else deserve to be in our lives from now on.

That’s all that I’ve ever wanted, Scizor said. He closed his eyes and buzzed happily.

What do you think has got all of these wild Pokémon in such a frenzy? Sebastian asked. He gazed around at the unconscious forms of the wild Pokémon that he and his partner had just defeated. I’ve rarely seen weaker Pokémon like Geodude go out of their way to attack passerby. It’s a good thing that Arthur sent us to the area to investigate.

Scizor shook his head from side to side. I don’t know what it is… but I can feel it and I’m sure that they can too. There has been a change, it is only a feeling though and not something that I can put into words.

Sebastian shuddered as Scizor fully opened their connection. His very being was flooded with an indescribable sense of wrongness, as if something that had long been waiting patiently was nearing the time where it would finally be able to make its move. He recalled the journal that Abraham had long made off with all those years ago and wondered how much more the man had been able to piece together on his own.

We should never have included that one in our research, Scizor said as he read Sebastian’s thoughts. Sebastian thought back to all the good times and adventures that he, Abraham, and Arthur had shared growing up in school together. The three of them were inseparable, until Arthur’s coronation at least. I never liked the way that he treated his partner Pokémon, he believed that they were tools, not valued companions.

‘What’s done is done,’ Sebastian took no small amount of pleasure in throwing his friend’s words back in his face, smiling as Scizor rumbled in his mind ominously. But you’re probably right… The friendship between Abraham and I blinded me to his ambitions. I never truly believed that he would take the diary and forsake us, forsake our dreams. I should have known that all he cared about was power though.

We must find him, Scizor said. He cannot be left to his own devices any longer. He is surely the one behind all of this, it cannot be coincidence that his daughter is part of this ‘Team Rocket’ that assaulted your son.

The handful of lackeys that we’ve managed to capture so far have been surprisingly loyal and resilient to our persuasion attempts though, Sebastian lamented. Arthur has not been able to extract any useful information from any of them.

It is only a matter of time, Scizor reassured him. Sooner or later we will capture one that will–

Sebastian turned to look at his friend who had gone eerily still and quiet. Scizor’s piercing orange eyes scanned the barren hillside, eventually coming to rest on a copse of trees a short way down the hill’s embankment. A whistling noise was all Sebastian heard before Scizor shot his arm out, stopping the barbed head of a crossbow bolt centimeters short of striking Sebastian between the eyes.

A dark-skinned man with short cropped hair and no shirt stepped out from the shadows, holding his hands aloft, crossbow hanging loosely from the belt loops on his waist.

“Sorry about that!” The man called out, making his way slowly and deliberately up the snowy hillside. Something about him immediately put Sebastian on edge and he felt Scizor tense up right beside him. “No harm meant! I thought that you were in danger, that Scizor was attacking you! My hand must have slipped when I pulled the trigger.”

Sebastian didn’t believe for one second that the man had missed; he would have been dead before he could have even reacted had Scizor not been there to protect him.

“Leave,” Sebastian threatened. Scizor flexed his claws ominously from the side of his trainer, but if the man was unnerved by the Pokémon he didn’t show it.

“Maybe you can point me in the right direction then?” The man asked innocently. “You see I’m not from around these parts and I’ve gotten myself all out of sorts now.”

“That’s close enough,” Sebastian warned the man as he continued to eye the stranger. His shirtless torso was marred by thousands of cuts, all of which looked old and time worn. “You’re going to get sick out here.”

“Appreciate the concern, but I’ll be fine,” The man held his hands out as light snow flurries began to slowly drift down. “This almost feels like summer compared to where I lived these last few years.”

“So what is it that you want?” Sebastian was growing tired of speaking to this man. “What is it that you’re doing all the way out here?”

“I want what any father wants,” The man reached down to his tattered belt loops and unclipped a Pokéball. “To check on my daughter and make sure that she’s safe.”

Sebastian gripped his staff so tightly that the skin on his knuckles turned white. “And why are you looking for your daughter all of the way out here? Is she lost? Do you need help?”

“You’re a nice man, just like Abraham said,” The man sighed. “But I learned long ago that playing nice gets you nowhere in this life.”

He tossed the Pokéball he was holding out and a Vanilluxe appeared. The temperature on the hillside dropped even further and Sebastian watched ice slowly begin to creep along the edges of his staff.

“You don’t know who you’re tangling with,” Sebastian warned the man ominously. “You can still walk away now before it’s too late.”

“Don’t worry I know exactly what I’m getting myself into. Abraham told me all about you, and I like my chances,” The man stuck his hands in his pockets and let out a yawn. “It’s you who doesn’t have any idea who you’re up against.”

A cloud of freezing ice and hail was expelled from the dual mouths of Vanilluxe. Scizor stepped in the way, taking the brunt of the damage and allowed Sebastian a moment to retreat outside of the ice Pokémon’s range.

That was more damage than I expected, Scizor flexed his muscles and the ice that had begun to grow on his coat shattered. He eyed the cone Pokémon warily as it floated in front of him.

That’s not the worst of it either, Sebastian grimaced. He kept his attention focused squarely on the dark skinned stranger who hadn’t pressed his advantage or done anything else yet. Vanilluxe used that move with no vocal command from its trainer.

You think that they are like us? Scizor asked him. Sebastian reached out with his senses to try and feel Vanilluxe. He shook with fury as he was met with an empty void, the husk of a creature that once had feelings and emotions; they had been stripped long ago.

“You shouldn’t be snooping around,” the stranger laughed at Sebastian. “It’s not nice to poke your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

“What did you do to your companion?” Sebastian spat, his words dripping with hatred. He watched Vanilluxe stare forward with dead eyes, little puffs of ice floating into the air every time it exhaled. “I feel nothing from it, I would believe it to be dead if my eyes didn’t clearly see it floating and breathing in front of me.”

“There’s more than one way to bond with your partner,” the man shrugged. “Or did you not know that?”

“What you have is not a bond,” Sebastian growled at the man. “You have tainted and corrupted what was meant to be pure and filled with love.”

“I care not for you or your ideals,” he said. “Now come and show me your strength, or fall under the heel of my boot.”

Swords Dance then follow up with Bullet Punch, Sebastian told his partner. Test the waters.

Scizor let out a piercing metallic shriek as the silhouettes of orange swords danced all around him. He darted forward with fury in his eyes and Vanilluxe breathed another cloud of frost in front of it. Scizor disappeared, his initial charge a feint, and slammed into the cone Pokémon’s exposed back with his gleaming red claws. Vanilluxe made no sound, ignoring the damage and a beam of ice shot out from the straw tip on its head. Scizor wailed as his left arm was struck by the edge of the beam and immediately froze into a chunk of solid ice.

Vanilluxe opened its mouth and screamed and a hailstorm whipped across the hillside, plunging the already freezing temperature even lower and obscuring Sebastian’s visibility of the fight.

Sebastian closed his eyes. It’s been a while, Scizor. Do you still trust me?

Always, and then Sebastian became Scizor. They created thousands of clones of themselves with Double Team, each weaving expertly around the falling ice and hail. Vanilluxe was overwhelmed in an instant as they used X-Scissor, dragging their wicked claws and carving a deep X into the Pokémon’s frozen cone.

It screeched in fury, and the wind and hail turned into an unstoppable Blizzard. They screamed over the howling of the wind and charged their heated claws to orange, pummeling the frozen Pokémon in Close Combat and launching it down the hillside where it collapsed into unconsciousness.

They gasped for breath as the hailstorm subsided and winced in pain as the damage began to set in. Their left arm was still frozen solid from the Ice Beam and the wings on their back suffered the same fate. They turned their gaze all around the field not spying the dark skinned man anywhere.

Sebastian shuddered as he blinked his eyes open again. He raced over to his injured Pokémon that looked like it was about to collapse at any moment. Before he could take three steps an explosion of pain erupted in his stomach.

He looked down and saw a crossbow bolt had pierced the right side of his abdomen.

The last thing he heard was Scizor screech in unbridled rage and then he collapsed to unconsciousness.