The park was quiet as the sun slowly sunk behind the horizon, the half-circle of light slowly becoming a brilliant orange. As a light breeze faded from the tree branches, a curious nose poked out of the bushes before a Zigzagoon snuck out of the foliage.

“Alright, I think the location should be close now,” Derek said as he followed Indiana down the hill. Taking a moment to look around, Derek pulled his phone out before he checked the GPS coordinates listed on it. As he compared the coordinates with his Maps app, he cursed at the differences before he pointed northeast, near the small creek in the middle. “Correction, it seems to be down by the river there,” he clarified. How the hell was it that it had been nearly four days of searching, but they still had two pages of locations to check out?

Indiana let out a yip at the correction, and scampered over to the designated area, while Eve ran behind him. The two Normal-type Pokemon began to investigate the area, poking their noses into every crook and cranny. Derek gingerly followed, and looked up at the branches, as he tried to notice any problems. When Indiana began to bark though, Derek turned to find the raccoon Pokemon pawing at the gravel creekside.

Indiana dug into the creekside for a few seconds, before he shoved his nose into the hole. The bristly Pokemon lifted his head high, and trotted back over to Derek, before he dropped a glittering scale at Derek’s feet. Derek gave the Pokemon eager scratches between the ears as he picked the scale up, and examined it before he let out a noise of surprise at how it projected a rainbow of colors. “Huh, I didn’t expect to find a Prism Scale, of all things,” he commented, and pocketed the scale. It wouldn’t be valuable without a Feebas, but it helped to have it on hand…

As Indiana’s leg began to thump the floor, Derek started when he heard the sound of footsteps drawing close. Stifling a curse, Derek pulled out the Normal-types’ Pokeballs and recalled them a few seconds before a familiar ginger stepped into view uphill. He didn’t seem to notice Derek at first, and Derek paused, before he shouted out, “Hey, Jim, down here!”

His lanky friend turned at the exclamation, and lowered his phone before he waved back. “Hey, Derek!” Jim replied, stumbled down the hillside, and glanced around before he asked, “So, what are you doing down here? Don’t normally see you wandering in the brush like this.”

“That’s because you only see me when we’re at the table,” Derek shot back, earning a snort from Jim as Derek tried to think of a solid excuse, “You see, my cousin over in South Dakota likes collecting gems, so I wanted to get him some Montana gemstones.”

“Oh, really? Neat!” Jim commented, and began to look around the riverbank himself, “What have you managed to find so far?”

Derek paused at the question, before he pulled out the scale Indiana had found. “Honestly, I hadn’t found much so far, but I found this cool rainbow-colored imitation scale,” he said, and held it out to the red-head.

Jin looked the scale up and down, before he slowly nodded. “Yeah, I suppose that’s neat,” he responded, and looked back at the shore before he picked up some select blue stones before he held them out. “Here, I think these will interest your cousin some more.”

Derek nodded in thanks, and looked at the stones with curiosity before he asked, “What kind of stones are these?”

“Oh, just some Montana agates and sapphires,” Jim told him, and Derek nodded along before he squawked in shock. Seeing his friend be confused, Jim shrugged before he added, “Granted, they’re poor-grade ones, so you can’t even sell them. They’ll be neat souvenirs, though.”

Derek let out a faint noise of surprise as he re-examined the gems, trying to see how Jim could even tell, before he pocketed them and began to look around for similar gems. “Well, hopefully, he’ll be happy with these,” he mused. As he began to hunt for blue pebbles along the riverbank though, he glanced over at Jim and cautiously asked, “So, how’s your teacher doing?”

Jim paused at the question, before he let out a sigh. “Well, the good news is that he’s managed to recover, once he got to the hospital,” he told Derek, and Derek looked over at him as Jim picked at a small rock-pile, “Unfortunately, between losing some muscle control and his heart needing to recover, Mr. Buchanan likely won’t be back before the semester’s up.”

Derek winced at the statement, before he examined a light blue gemstone the size of his pinky nail, “Well, at least he’s still alive, right?”

Jim nodded reluctantly, and he set a glittering rock on the ground before he sat down. “Yeah, I suppose so,” he muttered, seeming lifeless for a moment before he added, “Still, I can’t believe Mr. Buchanan was electrocuted like that. He’s been in the business for over 30 years.”

Derek paused at the comment, and patted the pocket that held his Pokeballs. For all he knew of Jim, he knew the red-haired friend wasn’t adverse to Pokemon. Honestly, he’d probably be ecstatic about being able to see an Eevee or even a Burmy in real-life. But with how Jim tended to talk plenty about Mr. Buchanan though, it was hard to tell how he’d react to the revelation that a creature from his favorite series harmed his favorite teacher…

Before Derek could come to a decision, he paused when he heard Jim ask him, “By the way Derek, how’s your monthly paper coming along?” Derek struggled to remember the details, but as his face slightly paled, Jim turned and gave a faint smirk. “Lemme guess, you forgot it’s due next week?” Jim asked, but Derek didn’t respond as he began to tromp back up the hill.

“Sorry, Jim, but I’m afraid I gotta get going back to work on that paper,” Derek shouted as he pushed his way through the bushes, “Thanks for the help, though!” Stumbling out of the bushes, Derek stepped back onto the beaten public path and trotted down to the parking lot. For all he enjoyed being outside, he’d be buried in homework within the week!

The moon shone dimly on the Montana wilderness, as a truck trundled along the dirt road, with only a few clouds marred the sky. As a cloud passed in front of the moon, making the light speckled, the truck came to a stop on the roadside, before a portly man stepped out of it.

“Stupid garbage taxes. Stupid service cancellation,” he muttered as he pulled the backdoor open, and pulled out two garbage bags stuffed tight with waste. Slamming the door shut with his forearm, the man waddled off the public road and into the woods. His wheezes and stumbles were the loudest noises around as he crawled deeper, before he soon reached a large chain fence. Standing nearly ten feet tall, the fence barricaded the lands from a small dump, with piles of junk strewn about the place. However, despite being a county dump, it was surprisingly still semi-clean, with bare ground still visible and the occasional plastic bag caught in the links.

The obese man looked at the chain fence in disdain, before he took a few unsteady steps back. His breath grew louder as he began to spin the bags around, the bags whirring in the air, and he finally threw the bags up in the air. The bags flew high, rising over the fence by a few feet, then finally landed on the other side. As the second bag bounced off the fence though, it tore open on a broken bin of chemicals, spilling rotten food and ripped bags about.

The man’s face contorted at the smell of composting food and oozing chemicals, and staggered back before he began to rush back to his truck. “Fackin’ filth!” he spat out, covering his nose. As a blue light began to grow behind him, he sped up his pace, hiding the back of his head with a meaty hand. When he soon reached his truck, he scrambled inside, before he sped down the county roads. Like hell he was getting fined again for tossing his trash away during off-hours!

As the man sped away from the dump, the Ultra Wormhole continued to grow larger over the trash piles. The portal hung in the air for nearly five minutes, illuminating the dump in a changing array of colors, before a small figure dropped out of the portal. With its goal seemingly complete, the portal began to close while the figure dug into the debris. As the portal vanished though, some of the piles began to shudder. The torn bag twitched, gaining a new vibrancy it had lacked a short while ago, before it opened new eyes and looked around.

“Trub?”

Overall, while the 13th South Dakota Mounted Regiment is not well-mentioned in the annals of the Civil War, it had surprising…

Derek stared at the screen for several seconds, before he let out a groan and deleted the paragraph. “Damn it, why the hell can’t I finish this?!” He muttered aloud, and leaned back as he tried to think things through. He had no problem writing most of it, so why the hell was it a pain to think of something nice to finish the paper?

A sudden croon caused him to look down at Eve, who was sitting next to him with mixed interest, on a bundle of blankets. Derek gave the Pokemon a scratch on the back, followed with some headpats to Indiana when the Zigzagoon nuzzled his way under his hand.

As Derek took a sip of Code Red, trying to brainstorm a way to summarize it, a sudden trill made him look at his phone. Derek picked it up and took a look at the screen, before he cautiously accepted the phone call. “Hello, this is Derek?” he asked, unsure who could be calling him so late.

“Derek, good to hear you’re still up,” Professor Titania’s voice chimed, causing him to sit up at her tone, “I was worried you’d be asleep by now.”

Derek looked confused at the comment, mind scrambling for something to say. “How the heck did you manage to get my phone number?!” he eventually asked, and looked out his window in suspicion.

“Please, your phone’s on the campus directory for professors to contact you or your parents, in case of emergency,” Titania said, and an engine suddenly started in the background, “Anyways, if you’re still up, I need you to join me in Western Iron Springs. The systems have detected another Ultra Wormhole.”

Derek cursed at the revelation, before he spun away from the keyboard. “Alright, I’ll be heading out soon,” he said, earning looks from the two Pokemon when he grabbed their PokeBalls, “Where is the Wormhole located at?”

“According to the radar, it’s just a half-mile west of the public library,” she told him as he struggled to shove his foot into his shoe, “Just follow Allanson Street, and you’ll end up seeing my car parked nearby.”

“Got it. I’ll be over there shortly,” Derek said, and hung up the phone before he looked over at Eve and Indiana. “Well, it seems that we’ve got another visitor from the Pokemon world. Hope you guys are up for a late-night hunt,” he told them, causing Eve to perk up as he enlarged their PokeBalls. Derek quietly recalled them into the capsules, and began to fill his backpack with PokeBalls and Great Balls from the bin.

As he dropped a Super Potion and a Revive in the backpack, Derek paused when he saw a certain Pokeball marked with a firefly sticker on top. He had tried to work with Grubbin since he returned from Professor Titania’s. However, whenever he tried to connect with the Bug-type, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. After a moment of thought though, he eventually grabbed the giant grub’s PokeBall and dropped it in a pocket. It wouldn’t hurt to have an extra hand on deck.

After a few last-minute preparations, Derek was soon driving down the highway. He took a quick sip of Mt. Dew as he tried to think about what could’ve shown up. If god-forbid it was a fighting-type, he’d be practically useless against it… He mainly drove in silence for the next few minutes, the buildings slowly being spaced out until it was only roadway. As Derek crested over the hill though, he began to slow down when he spotted a violet car pulled on the side of the road.

Derek came to a stop behind the car, and cautiously stepped out. As he looked around for the Professor though, a sudden hiss caused him to turn, eventually spotting Titania crouched low, behind a fallen tree. When she waved him over, Derek bent down and skittered over to Titania. Derek poked his head around the tree, but when he saw only some lights shining over a fenced-off area, he glanced over at Titania and asked, “So, do you see what came out of the Ultra Wormhole?”

“From the looks of things, there seems to be multiple Pokemon who came through this time,” Titania said, and gave him a brief glance, before she handed him a pair of binoculars. “Thankfully, it seems that the lighting at this dump is good enough to let us see them. Care to identify who they are?”

Derek took the offered binoculars, and at first, he didn’t see anything outside of tipped boxes and piles of debris. As he turned his gaze to the right though, a broken chair shuddered before a moving trash bag waddled out. Its comically large hands waved in the air as it approached a junk pile, and it sniffed at a rotten squash, before it pulled it close and began to chomp into it.

As a small group of other Trubbish ran up to the debris, Derek let out a chuckle, before he lowered the binoculars. “Well, the good news is they aren’t actively hostile,” he told her as he pointed at the pile of Trubbish, “Trubbish are only a threat to garbage and trash.” When a loud belch erupted from the dump, he grimaced before he added, “Granted, their belches are rather noxious. They knock you out at best, but can hospitalize children. Surprised to see so many of them at once, though.” He looked at the dump contemplatively, so he asked her, “So, how will we be catching them?”

“Unfortunately, we can’t just go through the main entrance,” Titania said, and pointed at the gateway. Derek looked through the binoculars, only to wince when he saw the security camera watching over the entrance, while a lock and chain kept the gates locked up. “Unless we can disable the camera, we can’t even get in by the main entrance,” she commented, and began to look for any other entrance.

As Derek lowered the binoculars again, he hummed in thought, as he looked at where the camera was pointed, before he glanced over at Titania. “Titania, you have your Bronzor or Munna with you, right?” he asked her. When Titania nodded, he pointed to the area left of the camera before he suggested, “If you come from the left, you could have them use Confusion to twist them. That way, we can get in without trouble.”

Titania nodded in thought as she considered it, before she eventually stood up. “Stay here for a minute,” she told him, and walked back to the road. Derek watched in curiosity as she circled around the cars, and crept through the forest, before she eventually reached the fence. Out of sight from the camera, Titania let out Bronzor. She whispered something to the Steel-type, and the Bronzor visibly nodded, before it began to glow blue.

The camera lit up in the same shade, and it twitched twice before the camera snapped off violently. Derek winced at the audible break, but stood up when Titania waved him over. As he ran over to the gate, the group of Trubbish turned to look when he finally reached her. “Well, I guess that takes care of the camera,” he said, tapping the fallen camera with his foot, before he looked at the chain and asked, “Do you have any idea for how to break the lock open, though?”

Titania lifted the chain up, and examined the lock for a few seconds before she let out a snort. With a twist of her hand, the ‘link’ the lock was attached to opened up, and the chain fell to the ground. “It’s not too hard when they don’t have a real chain,” Titania snarked. Derek snorted at this, before he pushed the gates open.

The Trubbish looked cautiously at them as Derek and Titania entered the dump, but didn’t run when the two humans entered the field. Derek looked around with trepidation as the Trubbish watched him, before he turned to Titania and asked, “So, how do you want to handle it, now that we’re in here?”

“Leave that to me,” she told him. Titania looked around for a moment, before she slipped a rubber glove on and grabbed a black bunch of bananas. The largest Trubbish cautiously stepped forward, and sniffed at the bunch when she knelt down and presented it to them. “Here ya go, little guy,” she said with surprising gentleness, and nudged him with the bananas, “Hope you enjoy them.” The Trubbish sniffed at her hand, and let out an ‘Ub-ish?’ before it lunged forward and swallowed the batch whole. Titania pulled her hand away, but Trubbish happily munched on the rotten fruit, as the other Poison-type Pokemon approached them.

As two Trubbish approached Derek, the brunette knelt down and grabbed a bag of rotten apples. Nose wrinkling in disgust, Derek took an offered glove before he began to feed the Trubbish by hand. As the smell filled the air with a sickly sweet stench, Derek began to chuckle at how they ate. Despite being literal living trash bags, Trubbish tended to eat in a rather comedic fashion, with over exaggerated chewing and wiggling ears.

After they each got an apple, the group of Trubbish was calmed down, with most Trubbish munching on rubbish while a couple waved at Bronzor, trying to touch him. Derek glanced over at Titania before he reached into his pocket. “Well, if they’re all calmed down, I think maybe Eve would be able to tell them what’s going on,” he said. When Titania nodded in agreement, he pulled out the Eevee’s Pokeball, before he released her a short distance away.

Eve shook herself as she manifested, and looked at Derek in confusion. As the Trubbish turned to look at her, the Eevee’s face scrunched up at the stench of the area. When she looked at Derek in shock, he told her, “Hey, Eve, I need you to just talk to them about what’s going on for a bit, then I’ll catch them, okay?” Eve hesitantly nodded, and began to talk to the Trubbish.

While Derek couldn’t understand what she was saying, the Trubbish listened attentively as she spoke. As some of them began to nod though, Eve suddenly froze, causing the rest to freeze. Feeling that something was off, Derek began to stand up, when Eve lunged at him. The Pokemon tackled him away, just before a blur erupted from a trash pile. Derek rolled from the blow, trying to right himself.

As he stood up, he looked at where the blur had landed to find a violet scorpion, the size of a shoebox, snapping its claws at them. “Skor, Skor-RU!” the giant scorpion snapped, and clashed its claws together, before it began to stalk forward.

“Derek, give a description, now!” Titania barked up, watching the Pokemon warily, as she pulled out her phone. Derek sputtered as he tried to say something, before Titania’s Bronzor let out a chime that centered his thoughts.

“Skorupi, Poison-Bug type, mainly a physical attacker, ambush hunter,” he rattled off, shoving a hand in his pocket for the other Pokeballs. As he glanced at Bronzor, he added, “Have Bronzor or Munna use Confusion and other Psychic moves for extra damage!” Bronzor let out a chime, and began to glow blue. However, Skorupi was quick on the draw, and drew its tail back, before it blasted a rain of needles at the Steel-type Pokemon.

Derek let out a yelp as he scampered away, before he pointed at the Skorupi as it peppered the Bronzor. “Eve, distract him with a Quick Attack!” He snapped out. Eve bent down, and rushed at the Skorupi with blinding speed. Skorupi could only change direction slightly before Eve slammed into it, pushing it back and interrupting the Skorupi’s attack. When she tried to jump away though, Skorupi latched on with startling speed. As it bit and pinched into Eve, Derek’s heart clenched at the screams and yelps she let out.

As purple lines began to spread across Eve’s body, Derek grabbed both Pokeballs before he held them out. “Eve, return!” he shouted as he activated both Indiana and Eve’s Pokeballs, “Indiana, you’re tagging in. Hit him with a Headbutt!” Skorupi froze when its prey vanished into a beam of red light. This gave Indiana the time to charge at the Bug-type and slam its head into him. Skorupi was stunned by the impact, and Indiana headbutted him a second time. Before he could hit the Skorupi a third time though, the scorpion’s tail came up and smacked him into the air.

Derek moved to catch Indiana, but Skorupi flipped itself back up before it blasted him with a barrage of green needles. Indiana let out an agonizing yelp when he was propelled into the fence, and fell down to the ground. Derek’s heart froze when he spun around, but as he saw the Zigzagoon not moving at all, he could only recall the Normal-type before he grabbed both of the unused Pokeballs.

“Alright, everyone, we need all hands on deck!” he exclaimed, letting out both Eve and Grubbin without hesitation, “He’s already downed, so we’ll need to go all out!” Eve and Grubbin looked back in shock at the statement. Grubbin was the first to react, and let out a scream before it charged at Skorupi. The Poison-type prepared to strike Grubbin, but Grubbin let out a blast of electricity that made the Skorupi spasm. With an attack landed, Grubbin dove into the ground, dodging a flurry of darts before Eve slammed into him.

Skorupi tried to lash out, but froze as a stray pulse of electricity ran through it. As the ground shook around it, it shook the paralysis off and tried to scurry away. However, a blue glow suddenly took hold. Derek glanced over at Titania to find her holding Bronzor up. The Steel-type mirror let out a chime, and Derek turned back to see Skorupi be slammed back into the ground as Grubbin shot out.

The Poison-type flipped in the air from the vertical pincer attack, and spun around before it fell on its back. As the Pokemon struggled to get back up, Derek pulled out an unclaimed Pokeball before he tossed it at the Bug-type. The Pokeball quickly captured the Scorpion Pokemon, and it fell to the ground, as it began to shake back and forth. Derek held his breath as it shook once… twice… thrice… four ti-

“Sonuvabitch!” Derek cursed when the Pokeball burst open. Skorupi quickly shook itself, and prepared to dive into a nearby trash pile. Before Derek could grab another Pokeball though, a Great Ball flew at it and recaptured the Poison-type. As the capsule shook back and forth, Derek turned to find Titania with her arm stretched out. “What? I assumed that these were meant to be used for the whole group,” she responded. Derek opened his mouth to respond, but ended up clicking his mouth shut as he turned back to look at the Great Ball.

When the ball finally pinged with a successful capture, Titania walked over to the Great Ball and tossed it up and down. “It looks like we’re tied three to three on captures now,” she chimed, which earned a snort from Derek.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s two to three with how I’ve been the main fighter,” he shot back. As he turned to look at the group of Trubbish though, he froze when he saw the group staring at them with wide, eager eyes. With the Skorupi captured, the crowd of living trash bags gave cheers before they swarmed the victors. Eve let out a yelp when two Trubbish hugged her, and jumped on Derek’s shoulders for safety. “Well, I guess that if you want to start counting catches, we might as well catch these guys,” Derek said as he comforted Eve with head-scratches, and reached into his bag for a Full Heal.

As he began to spray the bite spot with the medicine, Titania nodded along as she pulled some Pokeballs from her coat. “I can think of plenty of spots around my place where they would be a great help,” she said, and knelt down before she asked them, “So, how many of you would like to join me? I’ve got plenty of space for you to wander about, and have plenty of loose trash near my place you can eat!” The majority of Trubbish perked up at this, and began to clamor over to her, as she caught them one by one.

However, one turkey-sized Trubbish remained persistent at Derek’s feet, looking up at him. Derek hummed in thought before he pulled out a Pokeball of his own. “Are you sure you want to join me? You won’t see the others as often,” he told the Trubbish. When they nodded eagerly, Derek tapped them on the head, before they vanished into the Pokeball.

Derek stood back up to see Titania catch the last Trubbish that joined her. She pocketed the claimed Pokeballs in an empty pocket, then pulled out her scanner. “Well, it seems that the majority of the cosmic radiation is gone now,” she said as she waved the device around. When it let out a faint beep though, she paused before she stepped further into the dump. Derek watched as she looked around, before she lifted up a white scarf in surprisingly pristine condition. “This seems to be the last thing giving off the radiation,” she commented, and looked it over before she folded it up and added, “It’s hard to believe that a scarf can give off radiation, though…”

Derek hummed in thought before he asked, “Does it feel like it’s made of silk, by any chance?”

Titania perked up in surprise at this, then said, “Yeah, it is. How could you tell?”

“Well, if it’s made of silk, it’s likely the Silk Scarf held item,” Derek said, and walked over to her as he continued. “In the games, it was an item that boosted the power of Normal-type moves. Not sure how it could work in real life…” Derek paused in thought, then added, “However, I guess that if it gives off radiation, maybe it synchronizes with Normal-types to boost the hitting power? I can’t say for certain, though.” He looked at the scarf for a moment, before he asked her, “Any chance I could have it for Eve? It’d help her hit harder.”

“Maybe in the near future,” Titania said as she pocketed the Silk Scarf, “If it can work by being held, I’d like to test it some.” Derek frowned at this, but a sudden cry from his legs made him look down. Seeing Grubbin look at him expectantly, Derek crouched down and gave the large Bug-type half-hearted headpats. As Grubbin crooned, Derek paused when he spotted a broken half-barrel. With how Grubbin had helped a lot, it wouldn’t hurt to give Grubbin a reward…

Derek grunted as he sanded the opening, before he finally stood up and admired his work. While it took a bit of work to get the barrel in his car, he had managed to cut the break into a low ledge, then sanded into a smooth opening. With the edges now removed, Derek tore open a bag of mulch and poured it into the bin, before he mixed three gallons of dirt in. “There you go, your own dirt-bed,” he told Grubbin, and the Bug-type let out a cry of delight before he jumped in. Small piles of dirt were thrown out, before Grubbin finally poked his head out and gave a blissful cry.

“Heh, glad to hear you like it, Sparkplug,” Derek said, only to flinch back when Sparkplug let out a trill with spread pincers at his new nickname. With the Bug-type happy, Derek set some dry branches and sweet potatoes in front of him before turning away. Indiana sat up from his bundle as Derek walked over, and let out a soft growl when Derek gave him scratches. With Eve fast asleep, Derek cracked open a new can of soda, before he began to type away on the computer.