It was already late in the afternoon, so Adriano opted to spend the night and wake up early before returning to the Dreamyard. Camping in the forest felt familiar as usual, though when brushing the frigid morning dew off his body. Shivering, Adriano missed the warm tropical sands of Golden Island. It didn’t always used to be like this. In the past, the Pokemon League rules were set up so that children would begin their journey in the spring and finish in the spring next year. Estimating typical travel speeds, the league could predict where to build facilities and place other amenities in the right spot for challengers at that time of year. The Winter Festival in Icirrus in particular was a sight to behold. Brycen’s sense of style and elegance extended to his city as well. These days thought, the old ways were rarely followed. Following complaints of unfairness, the league implemented new rules to allow a full two year cycle, starting from the date of receiving their first badge, and the challenger could begin at whatever point they wanted. This led to many situations where challengers would delay their journey in favor of power leveling their Pokemon, or avoiding being in the same batch as better trainers. Power leveling rarely worked however, since the gyms would simply step up their own team to match the challengers’.

‘Still, those first few years were magical. I doubt we’ll make the Winter Festival this year but if Edward is fast maybe we can participate in the Driftveil Mining Excursion.’

Wrapped in Alto’s fluff, Adriano nestled just below the canopy, safe from the prying eyes of flying Pokemon. The cocoon shook as wind rustled the leaves, but inside was safe and warm.

As the sun rose, Adriano landed in the Dreamyard, having made the quick trip under cover of the pre-dawn shadows. Before he even hit the ground, Adriano knew something was wrong. The camp was eerily silent, with not even the hint of breath to be found. Several tents had collapsed into piles of canvas, gashes torn through them. On high guard, he released Ace. With a cry, Ace landed on the ground, beady eyes darting around and taking in the scene with unusual seriousness before looking back to Adriano for instructions.

“Unknown threat. Scan the area and find Edward and then get out.”

With a curt nod, Ace tensed his legs, fur softly shining white, before dashing away, rapidly scouring the area for any clues.

“Alto, cotton guard. Keep close to me and keep me safe.”

Alto squawked and puffed up, hovering just behind Adriano’s right shoulder as he made his way to the former campsite.

The tent was collapsed here too, Adriano poked around the pile for a few moments before he was satisfied. With a skitter, Ace returned to his side, shaking his head. Feeling his legs growing soft, Adriano firmed his will. ‘This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Stay calm and figure out where they went.’

A glint on the ground caught his eye and Adriano bent down, picking up what appeared to be a white porcelain chip. ‘No.’ He thought with a sinking feeling. ‘It’s a piece of a tooth.’ Searching the area around the tooth led to the discovery of a few scraps of purple fur and a darkened blood trail, almost completely soaked into the dirt, leading deeper into the ruins. Purrloin clearly had not gone quietly.

“Ace, stay on high alert. We’re following this trail.”

With a curt nod, Ace raised his staff and advanced, keeping a sharp eye out. The sun began to rise, casting the decrepit building in deep shadows and creating a glaring contrast. Adriano hurriedly shaded his eyes, ducking away. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a shifting shadow, but when he focused it was gone. Advancing through one ruined building after another, Adriano finally reached the depths of the Dreamyard, a small grove surrounded by broken concrete and rusted rebar. The sight was especially memorable for the small pile of trainers crumpled against the far wall, heaped into a limp pile. Scanning the area for danger, Adriano began to approach, only for Ace to suddenly shove him out of the way.

“Confarigus?”

Adriano froze, looking at the four shadowy hands reaching up from the ground where he was standing. Slowly, the rest of Confarigus’ body began to rise through the dirt, red eyes blinking with malevolence from under the lip of a golden mummy’s coffin. Had Ace not pushed him out of the way he would most likely have been pulled underground to suffocate to death. The ghost Pokemon looked at Adriano and grinned widely.

“Alto, blast it!”

The Confarigus avoided the dragon pulse easily, sliding through a concrete wall and disappearing. Adriano frowned, Alto should have been much faster than it was. Glancing back, Adriano found Alto shivering, its muscles cramping and locking up. ‘Shit! Did it hit Alto with an attack I didn’t see?’

Adriano’s musings were interrupted when Confarigus phased behind Ace and released a barrage of attack, a mixture of night slashes, shadow claws, and sucker punches. Ducking and weaving, Ace made his way through the storm mostly unscathed, before landing a devastating counter on the right side of Confarigus’ body, leaving a crack on it’s golden carapace. With a cry, it retreated behind a wall again, preventing Ace from capitalizing on its weakness. Ace took another step forward before falling to one knee, turning a sickly shade of purple. The Confarigus must have snuck in a poison jab or two that landed.

Adriano hated fighting ghost type Pokemon. With a few exceptions, they all trended towards sneaky ambush masters, with the ability to inflict devastating status ailments. Crippling an opponent before slowly wearing them down. Naturally, he had prepared some precautions over the years.

“Ella, aromatherapy!”

The Lilligant twirled elegantly, throwing out pink mist that settled slowly over Alto and Ace, who relaxed slightly as their paralysis and poison disappeared. The two of them glanced at each other before slowly maneuvering into position, ready to catch the ghost from whichever angle it appeared from. ‘Your move, Confarigus. What’ll it be?’

Confarigus appeared from underground again, this time hitting Ella with a charged fire punch, throwing her into the air and instantly knocking her out. Returning her before she hit the ground, Ace and Alto both charged Confarigus but it once again faded away.

“A splendid show!”

Adriano and his team were taken aback by the sound of clapping.

Looking towards the sound, they saw someone standing on top of the back wall marking the end of the Dreamyard.

“Unfortunately, we’ve wasted enough time here as it is. Time to end things!”

The figure crouched down before jumping, landing in the center of the grove between Adriano and the pile of trainers. The strange man’s muscles rippled as he slowly rose to his full height. Built like a mountain, he was shirtless, with two thick leather belts holding dozens of pokeballs in bandoliers around his waist. Adriano stared at his face, but was disappointed to find it covered by a rough cloth sack, with crude eyeholes torn into it. Darkness seemed to radiate from them, making him shiver. Confarigus rose slowly from the ground next to him, and the strange man pulled another pokeball from his belt.

“Two on two should make things a little fairer, wouldn’t you say?”

Adriano grimaced. Confarigus was challenging enough. As the white light died down and he saw the second Pokemon, his heart fell.

Appearing to be a giant mushroom with a cap that looked like a pokeball, Amoonguss appeared on the field brandishing its shield arms.

Adriano grimaced. Amoonguss was known for its immense tanking ability, as well as being even more annoying than Confarigus when it came to status effects, with any contact resulting in a random ailment. To make matters worse, it instantly rooted itself into the ground, drawing power and healing from the earth.

“Who are you? What do you want with these kids?”

“Bah,” The strange man waved his hand. “There’s no such thing as kids. These are all challengers. It’s their own damn fault for being too weak.”

Adriano couldn’t see under the sack but he could feel the mans toothy grin.

“You can call me Obscuro, bounty hunter extraordinaire. ‘Like a shade in the night, I relentlessly hunt my prey’ that’s my motto! If you make it out of this I might even give you my business card.”

Adriano shifted, raising his hands in a fighting stance.

“You still haven’t said what you want from me.”

Obscuro barked out another mocking laugh.

“Relax, you’re not my prey tonight. If you were…”

He let the sentence trail off and Adriano jumped as a spike erupted from the ground, barely missing his leg.

“I followed a lead here but it seems like it was a red herring. So now I’ll just blow off some steam by beating you up.”

“Any chance I can ask for a rematch sometime later?”

“Nope!” Obscuro replied cheerfully. “But maybe you’ll have the chance if you ever make it to the Star Field. Now enough talk, let’s begin!”

Without any time to think, roots erupt from underneath Ace, firmly tying down his legs. Before Adriano could open his mouth to call out an order, Confarigus appeared behind Alto clutching a massive shadow ball in each of its four hands. Slamming them down in quick succession, they bypassed cotton guard completely before impacting and rending the Altaria unconscious. On the other side, Ace was using its walking stick to frantically bat away the seeds Amoonguss was spitting faster than a machine gun.

“Ace!” Adriano screamed. “Use bounce and escape from the roots!”

Flicking an ear in acknowledgement, Ace crouched slightly, gathering strength in its legs before exploding upwards, tearing through and disappearing into the sky. The Amoonguss paused, glancing around for its quarry before settling in and raising the shields on its hands into the sky. With a flicker, Ace appeared again, falling so fast Adriano didn’t even see him until he impacted the mushroom… Which promptly exploded into a shower of multicolored spores as the real Amoonguss appeared a ways away as its substitute was destroyed. Suffering recoil damage from hitting the ground as well as having his system bombarded by every nasty effect that existed, Ace stiffened before falling softly to the ground.

“No…”

Adriano whispered.

“Well, that’s it then. Nighty-night!”

The last thing Adriano saw was Confarigus plunging a shadowy hand through his head and rooting around until his vision went black.