We walked in a calm silence until he decided to speak "How about I tell you about how I know your sister first and then a little about myself hmm?" I nodded quickly and he continued "The best way to describe our retionship is to say she is my rival and one of the most reliable training partners I have ever had. When we first met, I was struggling to find trainers of comparable skill who were willing to battle with me. Yet, she stepped forward and challenged me daily, nearly every day for an entire month. Her dedication was truly remarkable."

  That was odd, I can't imagine why she would be willing to do that. Luckily for me, Rio was willing to continue "Over the course of a week, I had grown familiar with her strategies and was enjoying a rather successful streak. However, she vanished from Luxom for several days, and upon her return, it was as though the very essence of Yveltal had taken hold of her. I found myself utterly unable to secure a single victory against her until she departed once more. It was a profoundly humbling and bewildering experience." He took a deep breath, fingering something around his neck that I realized was a golden tree attached to a neckce.

  "She is definitely among the strongest people I know" I stated. There were some real crazy strong people who showed up from time to time at Forestree, plus the three vilge guardians. Every time I was able to witness her training or battling, it made me feel optimistic about myself.

  "That she certainly is. As proof of that, she is training out in the Dragon Cliffs at this moment" his voice was filled with respect but I could only focus on the fact that he knew where she was too. We turned down a side street next to a house with an impressive overgrown floral thing going, a grass type specialist surely lived there and there were a number of baby Gossifleur pying on the table sized flowers that entwined the home.

  Hesitantly, I asked "Do you know exactly where? I would like to find her when I get farther west."

  If he was surprised that I wanted to roam one of the most well-known danger zones in the region, he didn't show it "Sadly no, I am not one to venture out to such pces and therefore I did not pry further." He paused, either happy with the silence that was created or considering something. "I do have other information that I could offer, a hint if you will, to help with your search."

  He plucked a pokeball from his belt, one that I saw read 'Creation favors those who think.' I could almost see my campsite now, and that sweet scent was permeating the area. "It would be ...irresponsible of me to give such encouragement to such a venture without first battling you Max. Prove yourself to me-"

  "Yes" I dug my hand into my pocket to get a pokeball only to realize I didn't have a single Pokemon on me. The well-spoken trainer continued as if I hadn't said anything.

  "-and I will tell you what I know. I do not have any new teammates but even so, there is a chance you can win against this Pokemon."

  "Yes" I repeated. My eyes flicked back to the direction Spritzee's sweet scent was coming from. I saw a glimpse of Fly zooming into an alley alongside a log cabin and a glint of steel clip through the wall and miss a jab.

  "You seem eager to head into the wilds, I will not fault you for that but as someone capable of earning 6 badges my time is valuable. Given this, I also admit that my purpose in speaking with you was two-fold. Do you happen to remember someone by the name Isabel Greene?" he lowered his hand holding the pokeball to his side absentmindedly and gave me an intriguing smile.

  I did not and it seemed like he expected that "A bug type specialist maybe?"

  "Oh yeah, the entitled city girl, I remember her" his eyes hesitated.

  "Chrysolis is a town actually, one that sits between the Searing Lands and Hexagone" Rio decided to add as we reached my campsite. Ian and Fly were gone, still running around but the others were here. Looking over them I really only had one choice unless I wanted to wait for the two goofs running around. My Machop was standing, hunched over his fist as he practiced forming his 'punch' quickly.

  I had added upon the original design and he had progressed under my explicit and incremental improvements. I was thinking that when I reached the creative ceiling of this throw away project then I would adapt his elemental punches to naturally align with the core structure. I had sketched out some of these alignments but I hadn't done more than wrapped the original punch design in the casing of different types of TE so the result was sure to ck some of the power Sin had accumuted over the years in his quest to understand the single strike style.

  The source of the candied fragrance was looking over his fellow bird with worry as he did something with a faint pink cloud that I recognized as misty terrain but I was sure there was more to it. Now wasn't the time to figure it out, so I walked over to tap the one armed Pokemon on the shoulder.

  "Will you be battling me with that Machop?" Rio questioned, no concern or dismissal noticeable in his tone.

  After a quick internal discussion and hesitation surrounding my grandmother's advice should he not prove talented enough, I nodded. "He will be strong enough."

  "I am certain that is the case" Rio smiled and released his Pokemon from the pokeball he had been holding. From the red light formed a Combee of all things. It had faces that dispyed different emotions, happy, angry, and sleeping all at the same time. Given Rio's hair color and what I remember of the city girl, there was a chance that their entire family specialized in bug types.

  My campsite was right next to a battlefield, so we found our pces and Rio enlisted his Castform to referee the battle even though it was wholly unnecessary. She was very exited to be out and stirred the wind around her to zip around. Under Rio's instruction she prepared the countdown, a trio of weather balls.

  In sequence from left to right they exploded and when the st of them dispersed, Castform shouted "CASSSSSSTFORMMMMMM!"

  While I would have immediately ordered an attack, the Combee did not react much. Sure the happy and angry one shouted a little, but it didn't move from its spot. Rio seemed content with watching me, so I needed to figure out what to do against a much more experienced trainer. What would he expect? A full on charge or would a more spread-out assault over time be better?

  In that moment I took time I normally didn't to think about my decisions. Sin gnced over his shoulder at me when it seemed apparent that I wasn't giving a order to do ...anything. He did it once more, but I was caught in some sort of trance while trying to figure out what to do against this threat. He took it upon himself to move forward and watch Combee, walking forwards in a guarded stance with his handless arm guarding his front like normal. When he got within striking distance I made my move "Fire punch!"

  His fist ignited and shot forwards as he twisted his torso. When he was a few feet away from Combee I saw it move, wings accelerating and pushing it with too much force for what their size logically intended. In seconds Combee had maneuvered around the punch and buzzed away from Sin after spitting some honey on him. Sin brushed at the honey but it stuck to his hand and didn't slide off. "Fire punch again!" The honey burned away albeit slowly, the inherent defense mechanism in the move preventing him from burning himself around his forearm but he made sure not to let any of the liquid sugar flick off onto his feet as he went in for a faster strike.

  I watched as Combee burst away in the st moment with some freaky move and spit more honey at Sin. The bottom face didn't even open its eyes to deal with such a weak opponent it seemed. For a Pokemon that hadn't even evolved yet, she (who would even bother catching a male I realized) was doing a fabulous job at showing me up when I was trying to impress her trainer. Rio was still watching me, looking neither impressed nor unimpressed, merely patience.

  That speed seemed to come from bursts of exerted flying type energy underneath her wings. "Focus energy, build it up" if he was going to do nothing then I was going to take advantage of it while I figured out how to deal with this. Bursts of energy, with a speed like that it was eating a good chunk of power. I had been training my Pokémon's endurance for awhile now, so let's do that. "Keep following her, RUN!"

  While Sin wasn't exactly a fast Pokemon he still closed the distance to the bug quickly. Another burst, this time with a glob that missed Sin as she fled further than before. The process repeated, and then again. Soon enough, it had been a minute since I said anything important. Sin had taken to swinging his arm wide in an attempt to catch her with a wider hit radius but it was no use.

  "Napoleon, please don't make too big of a mess" Rio smiled at his Pokemon. The field had been sthered in honey although not enough to cause Sin trouble when running after him. The bigger thing I realized was that this madman had caught a male Combee. I thought back to what I knew about Combees in general: flying and bug typed, common moves in gust and bug bite. Honey seemed like a big part of this particur one's strategy so I bent over to get a finger of the stuff. Careful not to get it all over myself I found that it would only let my finger bend slowly. The stickiness was over the top but I noticed that when it dripped from my finger it spttered. Yes, I've got it!

  (Author's song recommendation: Dangerous by NEFFEX) "Sin, pick up the honey globs and start chucking them at Napoleon, make sure it spreads out" Sin's eyes opened wide in understanding and so did Napoleon's. At that comment, the sleeping face awakened and it started beating its wings at a higher frequency. It was so fast in fact that it didn't even look like he was moving them at all. Rio's smile changed, widening. Sin started slinging the globs, along with whatever rocks that had stuck to them.

  The gold liquor spttered as he swung his arm like he was skipping a stone, spilling honey in an arc. When it reached Napoleon I saw him move and it blew my mind. He caught rge globs, using the beat of his wings to push the rest away before blitzing above the spread. He made a dramatic spin, two air sshes slicing through the air.

  "THROW AND SLIDE" I yelled as they raced towards him. They weren't fast enough, Sin's muscles bulging as he threw the rger glob, accelerating towards the lower of the two. The wind caused the honey to burst apart, droplets falling on me and more importantly Napoleon. Castform did something, a thin barrier of air separating me from the field.

  Sin slid below the attacks but was given a shave to his head fins. This time Napoleon fought back, air sshes ripping through the air towards my Pokemon as he continued trying to get his wings stuck. The third face went back to sleep soon after and that infuriated me "Sin, he's slowing down. Get close and fire punch!"

  Indeed he had been slowing down. Napoleon's wings had settled into a rhythm slower than the start, his bursts more forced than skill. As Sin sprinted towards him, stepping around air sshes until he arrived right in front of the bug. A fire punch wound up, coming across and narrowly missing Napoleon as he buzzed backwards.

  "Good job, but I believe that’s the end of this fight" Rio motioned to Castform started using water gun to clean up the honey. Starting with the darker glob that Sin had stepped on and locked his left foot to the ground.