Quirky House

'*"It was all dainty here, now it's all ashed and messed. (....) everything it's black thanks to you. I did it what you suggested me (....) I feel happy now when I wake and I don't see you, Darkrai, my lonely friend."*

## Overview

A strange house in the middle of the desert where all the dreams and all the nightmares take a true shape, will they stay enough focused to solve the riddles and find the escape?

## Prologue

Oshawott was having a full relaxation at the spa, to which she wasn’t used, together her fellow friends. Vulpix’s massage was making a new Oshawott of her “Oshaah. I’m swimming over a rainbow in this moment thanks to this pet and its magic paws.”

Squirtle agreed “This is a true vip treatment, girl, I can get habited to it forever.”

“It’s awesome to receive such a treatment” said Bagon “but I feel a little uneasy that a fellow pokèmon like me acts like a domestic pet and servant. I’m the only one?” both Oshawott and Squirtle shrugged at the question.

“Don’t judge me.”

“Woah! So it talks?!”

“I’m a she, first of all. And yes, I can talk, genius.” Vulpix rolled eyes “*I have my good reasons but this is not your business*.”

“Hey! Continue with my massage!” Oshawott brought the firefox back to duty “\*I want to do another swim on that rainbow.\*”

“Sure, how could I interrupt your dream, at your order…” Vulpix warmed up her paws and continued.

“Hmmmm.” Lucario narrowed eyes on Vulpix for a second  “Bah, not my business.”

The sliding doors of the V-Class opened and Chimecho fluttered inside, visibly tired.

“Good morning, Chimecho!” everyone than Lucario saluted.

“’Morning, yawn.”

“You look awful.” Was the only thing Lucario had to say, before to turn back at his silence.

“Just ignore him, Chimecho.” Bagon kindly invited her “Wanna join us? I think this will help your fit.” But Squirtle claimed her attention so she was forced to decline “Chimechanga, here! Tell me you finally found the missing stuff.” She barely nodded  much for his joy “Yuhuu! Thanks sooo much, man! I mean, gal, sorry, it’s a lisp. Anyway, I’ve a pawn with you. Dune Baggy, here you back your goggly glasses! Sorry if I borrowed them for so much time, I don’t even remember why.”

“It’s all okay, Squirtdude.” Bagon dressed them on immediately “My time is now. Going to take some flight lessons. Ninjask? Ninjaaaask? Has anybody seen Ninjask? Groan, wasted occasion.”

“Just stay chillin’ in the hot tub with me, Brogon. You’ll have another occasion tomorrow.”

“Right.”

Chimecho had finally accomplished her task. She sat exhausted next to Lucario and asked “What’s wrong with you? I noticed some changes in your aura yesterday, and it has turned full black as I entered in. If you want to be confident…”

“No, I don’t.” snorted. “What’s wrong with YOU. Why you have always to be kind with everyone? **Don’t you realize they only exploit you in this way**? Sgrunt. Now leave me alone, p-p-lle—aas-baaah you know the word I can’t pronunciate correctly.” The dog walked off continuing to mutter until he reached the rest room, and even continued while doing his shower.

Chimecho sighed and took a quick rest.

….

The pitched (and annoying) voice of Piplup interrupted everyone “Jirachi Jigglers, I claim your gentle attention because I have a very important announcement to do: we are going to have elections!”

**:::THEME SONG::: (S.S. Aqua remix)**

*Victini flips into the scene doing his V-signature with epicness, Jirachi follows doing the same with a far less vitality until to fall asleep much for Victini’s frustration. The V-Plane takes off. On the Tail of Losers Piplup is seen sipping tea together Vivillon, Chimecho, and Lucario flirting fancily with Squirtle until Oshawott strikes into and kicks her off the plane! Bagon attemps to fly like Swellow using a steam jet pack of his invention but fails and he’s caught right in time by Ninjask. The camera shoots briefly over Kanto stopping at Celadon City where Drifloon and Castform are having troubles with shopping, Minun and Plusle are doing their acrobatic numbers at the fountain plaza, and Lester  & Porygon 2  are testing the 4DS casting out a virtual legendary monsters that destroys everything in a couple of minutes. Lester celebrates with the \*EPIC POSE\* in front of a dumbfounded Minun. Metagross appears briefly after.*

*Pictures of more locations follows…*

*The original S3 members Seviper and Dunsparce are seen discussing in the vent while Ditto imitates Seviper  at her shoulder for fun and Dunsparce does his best to hold the snickers. Sylveon is seen visiting Vileplume against his will because of his allergies. Beheeyem and Lampent watch the starry sky meanwhile the moon (Lunatone) stares creepily at them….from the height of the sky we pass to the bottom of the ocean where Gorebyss is singing and dancing daintfully attracting all the fishes, Anorith listens her voice and swims faster to reach her but he’s trapped in a ice cube by Vanillite. Anorith frowns in resignement floating to the surface of the water and he merges in the drink of Tropius that was about to kiss with Aurorus! The songs end with the picture of the whole cast flying on the airplane.*

“Elections? What do you mean?”

“Thanks for the question. Then, since it looks like my leadership is generally unwanted and a certain pokèmon in particular thinks she would do better than me I offer a democratic possibility: elections. Me and this pokèmon” Piplup paused seeing Squirtle with a blanked expression “referring to Oshawott of course, will do today our politic campaign each one providing for an electoral schedule and alternating our leadership every hour. Therefore, at the end of the day, the team will vote the favorite candidate and who receives the most votes wins the *permanent leadership*.”

“PERMANENT LEADERSHIP!?!” Oshawott’s eyes shone in interest “I accept. But no more twists this time, OKAY?” Piplup nodded firmly. “Don’t worry, my dear, this is not a bet, it’s a serious campaign. I would never cheat in politique!” the other had difficulty to trust her but decided to give the full trust to the penguin. “Alright, the competition-

“Campaign, dear. Mind the difference in the vocabulary.”

“-or campaign as you want has started.”

“Therefore. The first step is writing our respective electoral programms.” Piplup enjoyed the dumbfounded expression depicted on the face of her rival “I explain: it’s a list of the things you would do if you were nominated leader. Uhuhuh, you’re so simpleton.”

“Grrr…but I’m more attituded to practice instead of your BLAH BLAH BLAH, QUE QUE QUE’, PIP PIP PIP.”

“Very unpolite and not diplomatic at all. Then I suggest you to practice on your social skills because the second step is to speak to convince the electors, that are the other Jirachi Jigglers. Good luck.” In the general  silence the two water starters walked away in different directions for the organization of their respective campaigns.

**// Vent  //**

**“Mumble, mumble.” The wotter pokèmon rummaged with a note book in the shell“If you vote me I promise I won’t pick up anymore anybody that angers me! Uhm..I feel it misses something… except Piplup! Perfect. So, this is the first point of my program. Now, the 2nd.”**

**“If Oshawott wants my vote she should write down in her list: more kisses for Squirtle. And if she gets further more than kisses I’ll vote two times for her! Oh, yeah, man.”**

The Laser, wops, the Lester Latias Leviathans had spent again their night on the Tail of Losers. Minun didn’t sleep a minute since Plusle had left  and every attempt of Lampent to cheer him up like Plusle would only increased his negative mood.

“Come on, at least she didn’t die because of you.”

“Look at the bright side!….it’s not raining.”

“Not that I care, but, are you still alive or deadpanned?”

Eventually Lampent gave up, shrugging and leaving him alone.

“Sigh. I feel so guilty. The guiltiness of a monster.” Minun slapped himself “Metagross, answer me. How could I do such a thing to my twin sister, the blood of my blood? Is this because of some mysterious neural process? I’m the ultimate jerk. I should have voted off **the true responsible of my insanity and the insanity that’s killing this team**, and instead, I GAVE HER THE FAULT AND VOTED PLUSLE! Only because she wanted to do me a surprise! Argh, I’m so stupid sometimes.”

“No, you are not.” Metagross blocked Minun from his self-punishment. “Plusle was limiting your potential despite her good intentions. Plus she was acting too dangerously for the team. It was common sense that pushed you voting her. However, I have to do something important since the 12th hours of nightime are passed by the rules.”

“Okay, ehm, see you and thanks. At least it’s good to know I can still count on someone sane. Sorry if I bothered you.”

“No problem.” Metagross went indoor and directed to the hold. He had the strange feeling to be observed…but there was only random stuff in the alley.

“*The stake out has started.*” A red fan camouflaged in the vent followed the iron crab with the eyes and lurked outside  “Wait, I forgot the music. Pink Panther or Veilstone City theme? Which could be the most suitable? A-ah! I know it. *Beverly Hills Cop*.” Rotom abandoned the elecric fan and possessed a broken oven for a bit, then abandoned it for a random washing machine, and continued to baton pass himself through the series of electric objects disposed accurately chaotically among the hall. In this way he could follow Metagross like a shadow totally undercovered. Eventually Metagross entered in the hold, apparently waiting for someone.

Lester couldn’t resist to the curiosity and “checked” every luggage and its charge: the water phon of Squirtle, the vacuum machine of Piplup, the electric toothbrush of Seviper…”Gotta possess ‘em all, ah!” Ops. Was he discovered? Lester was really lucky this time. The ally of Metagross arrived in late, joking.

“Sorry if I’m too early, ahahah! Got it? Because I- wow, serious serious as always, prrt. You should be called Metagrouch.”

Lester possessed the photo camera of Vanillite (whose luggage was never restituted to the legit owner)  and waited the right moment to bust the 2 villains together.

“Anyway, what’s the next victim I have to imitate, when and how? I had fun last time but I’m looking for an oscar interpretation, so I need a very important character! Okay, Mr. Metagrave?” Ditto grinned “Surprise me.”

“As I said, the next target will be Lester.”

“Eeeeh?! You want a really surprise? Ah!” Lester bursted out all of sudden “I BUSTED YOU! How dare you even think to imitate the aweso-quirky-me? I have the proof: you’re the bastards who eliminated Drifloon and Plusle.  Get ready to go to prison, or better, to orbit. MUAH AH AH!” Rotom laughed out maniacally and sauntered away before they could even blink an eye.

Back on the Tail of Losers  Lester did his epic announcement preannouncing it with an appropriated epic pose “The mystery is solved. Minun, Lampent, Porygon 2, quick come here! Prepare for the shock.”

“Let’s see.” Minun unimpressed was the first to check the photo “Oh my Groudon. Gorebyss in a speedo bikini!” and blushed all over. “Come on, Lester, this is sooo ahem akward.”

“What the quirk? No, look at the last photo saved! See? See? Metagross is talking to the last pokèmon we would have expected to see. . . D.I.T-T.O.” his voice echoed in slow motion to add more emphasis.

“Ulp. Lester?”

“What’s up?”

“All I see is some luggages…opened…presumably…by yourself.” Minun widened eyes focusing better on the details “You also opened my personal bag and maybe used my…??? Ggggggnnnnn. You don’t know the concept of privacy, right?!! Worse than my sister! *In fact, I should have voted you yesterday not her. Argh,I hate you.*”

“This is impossible! I saw everything with my eyes and captured them in action. I’m sure.” He facepalmed “I knew I should have used a recorder instead, aaaargh! I have to redo everything!” and zigzagged crazily all over the plane.

"And I'm already here." added Metagross sternly.

**//Minun: “Groan, seriously, the return of Ditto? Metagross evil? Lester is not the Chaos Pokèmon, he’s the chaos, the crazyness, and the madness alltogether pokèmonified. I’m utterly sick of him after only 10 days and all the disasters he caused. I’m sure that another day with him and I’ll go straight to an asylum.”**

**//Metagross: “Rotom fell in my trap as calculated. Ditto imitated me perfectly. The new plan is only at the beginning.”**

Jirachi landed the plane in safety…

“Another example of unovian cleverness: an airport built in the middle of the desert. Because lot of tourists die for a walk under the boiling sun with a percent of chances to find water inferior than on Mars.”

….and Beheeyem commented on his extraterrestrial point of view as usual.

## Episode

Accustomed to Beheeyem’s sarcasm at this point Victini skipped to the challenge, pointing at an abandoned mansion “Settlement of the new episode is the Strange House. They say it’s haunted, they say it’s spooky, they say it’s just a poor rip off of Old Chateau. The only thing I’m certain is that this place is the quirkest and creepiest spot of Unova: perfect for the challenge I created! Your aim is to find Jirachi and the 4 keys of the mansion. Jirachi carries with himself 4 riddles instead of his wish tickets and he’ll do everything in the sleep to prevent you reading them, hiding inside the mansion and teleporting away in another spot of the house whenever someone manages to read a riddle. The solution of each of the 4 riddles leads to the secret spot where a key has been hidden. Collect all the keys to open the escape door and  win!" pointed at the four locks in the door. "Also better to leave the mansion before Jirachi fully awakes. Trust me, Ji becomes a true nightmare when he’s fully awoken. . .” Many contestants exchanged perplexed skeptical glances. “Sssure, he must be ssso frightening. Easy challenge.”

Victini hushed the snake “You will see later. Also, whenever you give a wrong solution to a riddle you will lose a teammate and the number of contestants remaining will determine the 2nd or the last placed team.”

“Got it.Wait.” Minun objected “But with this rule we’re heavily disadvantaged compared to the others. And nobody cares so why I should bother right?!?”

Everyone entered inside and Jirachi teleported himself indoor. “They don’t even know what expects them, duuuh. Today I will test how deserving of **my** prize they are, zzz…” And locked the mansion from inside using psychic waves.

The mansion seemed abandoned for ages but the vestiges had not removed the luxury and noble atmosphere. The furnitures rattled for the powerful wind of the desert storm that passed through the shattered windows and the temperature indoor was double hotter than the temperature outside. Tropius tried to fan the already overheated Aurorus but his wings weren’t totally grown back, Oshawott recurred to her scallop (again forgetting she could have simply watered herself) and everyone looked with envy at the Leviathans because of Fan Rotom, that of course didn’t waste the occasion to boast “Now you’re glad to have me still in the game, ah! Right, Minun?”

“Anf, just keep fanning us, please.” Lester turned off.

“Only if you beg me. Ah ah ah!”

“Ohhh, Lester! You can’t be serious…yes, you can’t and will never.” Sighed and begged in front of the red ghost. “Impossible and Majestic Lester, let me benefit of your freshing powers, I beg on my knees!”

“Eheh, okay, better.” Lester turned on the fan machine again. “Here comes the flurryyy! Woooosh.”

**“I can’t stand him. Just I try with all my patience but I can’t.” Minun banged his head on the ventilation tube at the end of the confessional. “Aaah, at least it’s really fresh inside here. I think I will use the Vent often today just for this freshness.”**

“This place is bigger than I expected. Jirachi can be everywhere. I advise to split in three groups and take different rooms in order to have more possibilities to bust him.” Tropius spoke first “The groups can be: me, Aurorus and Dunsparce; Seviper, Anorith and Gorebyss; Beheeyem & Inkay. What do you think, guys?”

“I like it but I prefer that Dunsparce goes with someone else.” Aurorus was rather ice cold in the voice leaving him a little startled. Tropius also noticed that Dunsparce struggle to don’ meet eyes with her freezing glance. “Okay, then Beheeyem, me and Aurorus?”

“Inssstead Aurorus will go with me and Dunsparce.” Seviper ordered with a snide smile “*If she wants her future to be asssured*.”

“Eh?”

Aurorus nodded “Right.”

“Why?”

“I have to go with Seviper because….because…”

“This is a order: Aurorus is in my mini-group. Because I’m the leader and I take all the decisions here. Stop.” The poison pokèmon then decided to put Tropius with Anorith and Gorebyss and Beheeyem with Inkay (not that she cared much about them). Both Aurorus and Dunsparce were the most upset by this decision.

**-// Tropius was the most confused “Is there anything I missed about my friends and my team? Sometimes I feel like because of my height many things happen right under my nose.”/-**

“Aurorusss, Dunsssparce, behind me. NOW!”

“Ah, for once I’m free. Without her I am the boss.” Anorith said with satisfaction.

“No Seviper, no stress.” Beheeyem added exchanging a five with the anomalocaris, and turned. “3,2,1…and Inkay has gone. Perfect, everything in the normality.”

…

“That means I’m finally alone. . .” smirked.

“Here we are, Oshawott, the first turn of leadership is yours. Enjoy it.” Piplup and the other Jigglers waited that Oshawott decided her strategy. “Ehm…mumble-mumble…I know what to do…PICK JIRACHI UP. No! No! Eheheh. Mmmh…mumble,mumble…”

“Cough, cough.”

“GIMME MORE TIME TO DECIDE, OKAY?! Thanks.” Piplup shrugged the shoulders with an air of superiority. “Take your time, Oshy, take all your time.”

The Leviathans didn’t have any problem to decide, due to their number, Lester started to look inside the furnitures of the hall appearing and disappearing through the objects “By the way, remember: if you see another me then that isn’t me. There can be only one and majestic Lester! Anybody else is just Ditto.”

“Agreed.” Minun whispered to himself “*Because one Lester is enough for this world…*”

Lester suddenly used Discharge on everyone. “ZAP!”

“L-L-Lester what was that for?!!”

“A check. *If you don’t get paralyzed then you’re already replaced by Ditto*…Kongratulations! You’re still the original members. FOR NOW. I’ll check every 51 minutes about your true identities, you’re warned.”

“Lester, your paranoid is getting over the limits. I warn you.”

“Shhht, I’m asking to the closet if it saw a little floating sleepwalker recently. But he doesn’t want to collaborate, I need your help, Lampent!” the lamp cracked her arms.

“Let’s see what can I do.”

She lighted on fire the old sofà reducing it in ash. “You’re next.” The closet trembled way more than before. “Still not collaborating?”

“Tsk, nope! This witness is of the stubborn type, Lampent. Give it another lesson.”

“I could burn it slowly until it confesses. What do you think?”

“Totally agree.”

Minun stared at Lampent. He never expected her to join an initiative of Lester, and she seemed to take immense pleasure while torturing those furnitures. “. . . Guys? I mean, those are furnitures, I don’t think you will get any information from them. They tremble not because you’re scaring them (that’s the reason why I AM trembling) but because of the wind, I guess.”

Lester annhilated him immediately “How do you know exactly? By the way, I’m not interrogating the furnitures but the spirits that live inside them. You’re too normal to understand this simple ghost logic.”

“This logic makes no sense!!!”

“Obviously. Why would they call it PARANORMAL  ACTIVITY then? There’s nothing normal about.” To the burning closet  “Now, I won’t ask you anymore,  if  you were Jirachi, what would be the first place to hide inside? This is your last chan-” but the closet burned down completely. “By the way.”

“He would hide in the bed room. All the datas saved on Jirachi are about his intense sleeping activity.”

“Good think. But where’s the bed room? We would need the plant of the house.”

“There’s one in the library.”

“You have been already here?”

Lampent shrugged  “More or less. I know simply a few things of this place. Don’t follow me.”

“What? You want to go there alone?”

“Yes. I’m already dead, afterall. Don’t worry, whatever happens, I don’t have to care anymore.”

“Uh, okay.”

“I’ll be right back very soon.” Lampent crossed the walls with tranquillity and disappeared.

“Wait a minute, what if she was Ditto? I discovered your strategy: you hypnotized Lampent this morning and now she’s acting exactly how you planned, in this way your minion Ditto will be able to substitute her for the rest of the day, then sabotage and betray! No way! I’m going to stop her and ruin your plan. Shock N’ Roll!” Lester flipped the lightnings at Metagross and sauntered away, useless was the attempt of Minun to stop him as he passed through his body “Lester, don’t gGFRRRHJJJJGGGHhh.” and the wall. “Sorry my **only not** quirky friend, I’m unstoppable.”

“Great. Now there’s a possibility that the impossible happens: that Lampent dies a second time.”

“Any sign of Jirachi yet?” The Venturers met again at the main hall. “Not in the kitchen, in the lavandery, or in the living, I think we checked all the rooms of the ground floor. Well, all the rooms accessible.” Strange things in fact happened in the Strange House: everytime the pokèmon enter or leave a room the disposition of the furnitures changed locking and unlocking other rooms randomly.

Lester was enthusiastic “Wow, this Quirky House is really well done! I thought nothing could beat the Old Chateau by the way, instead I admit that this place is probably the best haunted mansion visited. I want to move in here!” Lampent appeared behind him but he wasn’t caught unprepared “Discharge! Surrend to the evidence, Ditto, I’m too much for you and this is the proof. Oh, it’s the original you, Lampent. This is quirky because I followed you the whole time.”

“………..”

“Aaa. I got it. You camouflaged perfectly as an unsuspicious lamp of the ceiling, that’s why I didn’t see you at the beginning! Really all my kongratulations!!!” Fan Lester celebrated throwing sand in the air “By the way no reaction? This is the best thing to throw in mid air I found here, sorry. . . .Silence.” A second Lampent  went on his way from nowhere “Totally too late, Ditto! Eat my electric ass (little but there is). ZAM!”

“Zot. Lester, it’s me. Zap.”

“What the quirk? And then who is…”

Lampent abandoned her apathy and flamed on the plasmageist “Why you have followed me against my will? You don’t trust me*? I underlined I wanted to be alone*.” Her creepy voice caught him totally unprepared but he continued to smile widely “Glom. Hey, this is the first time I manage to spice up some liveliness on you, this must be definitely celebrated with an epic pose! By the way, why?”at this question the lantern ghost quickly returned apathetic and sarcastic. “Because I like the loneliness. Loneliness is my favorite hobby and I rarely have the possibility to cultivate it with people around.”

The other arched the brows “This is a very quirky answer.” span “And I respect it! Then enjoy your hobby, by my side I solemnly promise I won’t make you avert my presence at all. Go to the library, I’ll stay around and keep out any outsider until you have finished.”

Anorith stopped at the hall. “Enough. If Jirachi isn’t here, he must be upstairs. Therefore, let’s go upstairs!”

“The stairs are blocked by the objects. They are from the beginning and they still are careless how many times we keep going in and out the rooms.” Objected Tropius. “And I can see from here they are shaky.They would certainly shatter if I walked on them.”

“Wake up, dinosaur! Your long neck makes you a living ladder: so stretch it.” The anomalocaris also added

“No suprise if the dinosaurs are extincted…”

“Anomalocaridi extinted too. I remind you are regenerated from a fossil, while my species doesn’t need because it still exists nowadays.”

“Good for you. *Idiot that doesn’t see the truth even if it’s hanging under his nose.*”

The tropical dino arched a brow “Said something?”

“Nope. Stretch your neck, now, so we can reach the 2nd floor. Can you?”

Tropius did what asked, placed vertically in front of the stairs and knotted the neck among the **spiral staircase** “This floor is higher than I expected, this is the most I can stretch. There’s a little gap between me and the end of the stairs but you should have no problems doing it.”

Tropius smiled at the end, do not resisting to the taunt “Afterall, you evolved your wings now. Right?”

“Shut up. I don’t want to talk about yesterday.”

“Then hurry up, this position isn’t the best for my neck.”

Anorith climbed on him bringing the bowl of Gorebyss with an extreme effort and barely managed to grab the board. “Anf, arrived, in your face. Jeez, in moments like this I wish to be a fossil again. To be carried all over the region without moving a single pincher.”

Tropius had the strange feeling someone else was walking over him  and the sensation was confirmed when the Leviathans appeared at the end of the staircase, Minun did a mortal jump down of his head while Metagross crawled like an arachnide, Porygon2 was the last.

“Porygon 2 present. My configuration allows me to walk everywhere and I walked over the banister.”

“Wow.” Minun exclaimed “The idea to exploit Tropius was brilliant. Anyway, I hope Lampent doesn’t think we ditched her but we couldn’t really waste this occasion and actually the map isn’t that necessary. We’ll find the bed room easily hopefully.”

“Hey!” Tropius shouted at them but they quickly fleed, and he frowned. “I said many times I don’t want to be climbed without permission.”

“Don-don-don!” The pendulum clock signed off the first hour. Oshawott was still rummaging on her first decision. “Switch time, dear ott. Rules are rules.”

“Osha-what?! So soon?”

“Your hour has just passed but let me congratulate. You were better than I expected, at least you didn’t harm anybody.” Piplup giggled and took back the leadership “My first statement is…uhm..mumble…”

“Oh, no, tell me this is a joke.”

“Ah-ah! You’re experiencing my same issue.”

“Tsk, fake assumption. I’m only considering all the strategies and doing an accurate selection of them, because I’m TIDY in my mind, unlike YOU.U”

Lucario bursted out “Shortening, I have to waste another our standing here to listen to your mumblings? No, sgrunt. I have better stuff to do out of here, and I want to return soon as possible to my bonsai plants.”

“A question, Lucario, if you care only for your bonsai, why YOU BOTHERED TO SIGN FOR THIS REALITY SHOW?”

“As I have to answer you.  My business.” He took a separate alley.

Bagon reflected “If both Venturers and Leviathans went upstairs it means Jirachi is not in this floor! They spared us the fatigue to check.” Squirtle and Oshawott agreed “Quick, before he goes let’s use Tropius as a ladder, too!”

“Wait.”

“Let’s grab all to his tail! Piplup, hurry do the same.”

“No, wait. Wait! I’m the official leader for this hour, this is pure anarchy. I have yet to ponder on my decis-cough- you didn’t let me the time to explain my imminent decision because you’re all so…Pipluuup!” Ninjask pushed her “Maybe you need a boost.” Everyone let quickly the way free for the passage of the ninja.

“This is not the way to treat a ladyyyy! In addition you just overtook Bagon from the right.”

“HEY! About it: I’m not an highway.” Tropius scrolled his neck in the attempt to sweep them off his back: Ninjask was literally the equivalent of an annoying buzzing fly for him. He took advantage of this. He flew to the head of Tropius and used Buzz right in his ears. “Acc. The damnation to not have limbs as long as my neck..!”

“Go, Ninjask, yuhuuh!”

Everyone exploited the occasion to run all over the giant pokèmon to the top.

“We did it.”

“Munch, crunk, you can say it LOUD, MAAAN!!” Squirtle was eating a chest of bananas. “I also picked the necessary for a break, you want some?”

“I want for sure!” the gluttonous Oshawott launched on the food “Mmmh, delicious. GNAM! CHOMP! SLURP!”

“You can’t eat my bananas in this way in front of me!” Tropius enraged and tried to whip them with the big tail making the whole house to tremble “Woah, big guy, chill out!” “Sorry for the fruits, buddy, we were hungry.” “You can’t do much for now because you would destroy the house with a single wrong move.”

The tropical giant soon calmed down “Alright. Then don’t give me a reason to do that next time.”

Careless of Piplup’s rants, the Jigglers left and spliced to explore the new floor in search of the wishmaker.

“The highway staircase is finally CLOSED. Auch, this will give me an huge neckache tonight.”

In the meanwhile Anorith (and Gorebyss) opened the door of the bed room. The room was dominated by a rococò bed where Jirachi was sleeping in mid-air. “Already found! Seviper was right saying this is an easy challenge. He didn’t even find an original hideout.”

Anorith approached silently to the target that remained asleep all the time. Easily picked a ticket “Done. First riddle: *If opened it tells you a story, if closed it doesn’t, it’s little but contains anything you imagine.*”

Gorebyss stared in confusion but Anorith quick gave the answer: “Cloyster. I know one kind of a blabber whenever he opens and starts a chat…uuuh…I get an AGE older. Plus, it’s common opinion that there can be anything inside the shell of a Cloyster.”

Gorebyss facefinned. “…ehm, Cloyster isn’t a piece of furniture or else related to this place.”

“In fact your answer is totally wrong. Zzzz.” Anorith prepared to counterfight the attack of the legend the best he could but Jirachi teleported away taking back the ticket and changed location.

“Oh, no, we arrived in late.” Minun moaned.

“Urgh, how could I waste an occasion like this? Stupid riddle.”

“What was the riddle anyway?” Minun tried to ask.

“I’m this guillible to reveal it to you. Nope. I ain’t born yesterday, kid.” Anorith left the room together the companion.

“So, Jirachi was in that room?” Tropius reached them curious to know.

“Yes,  in a very easy hideout but his riddle wasn’t easy at all. I failed to solve it.”

“Ah, pity. Any idea where Jirachi fleed?”

“The bastard teleported.”

“So it’s a no. Fine..”

All of sudden the three heard a familiar noise: “Zzz.” Lucky coincidence was that Jirachi had randomly teleported in a spot of the alley they were walking in “Shhht all. He’s here. Brrr, where this wind comes from? There are no windows open.”

“You’re the only one to feel it, I feel only the heat, and it’s…..anf…heavy. Too heavy.” Anorith stopped to walk. “I need a pause, certainly.”

“I feel thirsty, instead, very thirsty.” Said Gorebyss. The level of water in her bowl belowed progressively.

“Where he is hiding this time?”

The snoozer sound increased.

“There’s a curtain at the end of the alley, he must be behind it.”

Quietly, Anorith and Tropius lurked according to attack Jirachi from opposite sides, but….

“I’m always asleep but also always aware of what happens around me, more so than everyone else when I want.” Jirachi rejected the double attack in the sleep and opened the eye of the belly.

Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwooooosh!

Victini watched everything on his VT like at the cinema  “Here we go. Ji has opened the dances! I’m really curious to see his power in full action. Afterall, he created and purposed this challenge all alone.”

## Part 2

#### VENTURERS

"What an hell of attack is this?" Anorith sorted in his shell against his will "But I didn't want to do this, now!! What's happening to my body? Urgh. Argh. I don't want to retreat but, but" he kept to put the arms out and fold them back, he struggled to stay outside the shielding shell "I can't control. Anyway I don't care this, let's just charge that sleepy sass, c'mon! It's our second occasion and cannot be wasted!" Tropius strove against the strange cool wind and attempted to catch a ticket from Jirachi using the mouth but the legend was faster "What are you doing, tropical pennant? Do a true attack. Bahhh, I have always to do everything for this team! Then eat this- oh?-"

Jirachi yawned and dwindled a few, meanwhile the alley was being progressively swallowed by the sand and Anorith being englobed in himself. "Careful what you wish for next time you're next to my ears."

"E-eh? W-What? Why I can't move anymore? And worse why I can't feel anymore. . . " Anorith felt only a sensation now: tiredom. An extreme overwhelming flattening sense of motionless was getting overall him, and worst of all, he had already experienced that before. "No, no, no. NO NO NO! No way this is happening again: I can't return to be a fossil, it's scientifically impossible. Oh no.. nooo...it's exactly like that day..." the alley turned from desertic to artic and he petrified definitely. Jirachi tossed the Claw Fossil in the tank of Gorebyss who fainted. Calmly he asked in front of Tropius's eye  "One is over. Who wants to try for the third time?"

"I want." Tropius finally found the nerves to attack the co-host properly and managed to snatch a wish ticket "Uhm...it tells when opens and doesn't when closed and it's little and contain anything."

"If you want to give the solution I'm here. If you want to solve your problem, I'm here too. Yawn, just don't take too much time."

"Yes, I want to give the solution...and therefore solve my problem."

Jirachi shook the head "Nope, you can't do both at the same time. I know what I'm talking about."

Tropius shook the head vehemently and knocked against the ceiling but didn't care "I'm not falling in the trap. The solution is..."

"*You wish to know what's the secret of Aurorus, duuh."*

Tropius stopped as he heard this. Altough he tried to stay focused and rummaged if the solution he was going to give was actually the right one. "....woooooooooosh! Brrr. Stop this trick now, Jirachi." The wind suddenly became really powerful and the whole alley was covered in ice "I said you to stop NOW." a little voice inside Tropius knew that he was going to be defeated and wished that he could write the solution somewhere so Gorebyss could give it in his place but for obvious reasons... "Ice Age. Long long time ago, back in the past, this was the life of Amaura and Aurorus. Yaaawn, isn't that interesting? Make your wish, Tropius, to discover way more details."

Victini followed the scene with a bit of unbelief "Playing mind games? Wow, I never imagined Ji could be so twisted. Munch, chomp, very passionating." eating in the meantime his favorite macarones stuffing his mouth.

"I don't want. I refuse! I want Aurorus to tell me when she feels to and WOOOOOOOOSH the solution WOOOOOOSH is WOOOOOOSH t-t-the l-l-l WOOOSH" the icy stream was too powerful to continue and he actually figured the shape of Aurorus for a second "l-l-love I have for her! Nooo, wrong word. I meant to say li-" Too late. "Too late. You can't change your answer. You lost the chance to give the solution and you lost the chance to solve your own riddle. Pity. But a part of your wish will be eventually realized." Jirachi disappeared and his words proved to be prophetic: Tropius could only realize his giant mistake before he was ibernated in the ice. The snowstorm ceased from nothing in the same way it had come. "Ow, what happened? Hello Tropius? Anorith?" Gorebyss woke up but nobody answered.

Meanwhile Dunsparce was walking alone, he didn't realize it at first but he had taken a different path than his companions and had lost the way  purposedly leaving Seviper...and Aurorus behind. "I simply don't know what to do, what I want, who I am now. I'm a snake because I betrayed a secret of my friend to revenge another? Then, why I don't feel happy at all? I-I should! Seviper would." the land snake repeated waiting for a smile to appear upon his face "Seviper is so proud of me now. While I hate myself even more. Why? Ah. Sigh." Dunsparce let out a feeble wheeze and continued to wander aimlessly. "I don't even know where I am." He seemed to feel Jirachi's presence at a certain point.

The halls looked all the same to him, only the pictures changed. This detail gave him a renewed hope, strange enough for him. He decided to return to Seviper and Aurorus following his memory of the pictures seen during his wandering. It was then he noticed a script: "I CEE YOU. Oh, No." The light turned off all of sudden. "No, p-please, not another nightmare. I had enough in these days! Pace off, Jirachi, I don't need this to give up. I'll give up!" Dunsparce wished that Jirachi was listening but his wish sounded against the empty walls. The light turned on again and relieved him. "Thanks. Sorry, team, I'm a weak."

"So you already know what you are..or."

Dunsparce turned to the voice but what he could see was just the wall, and the scripts on it. He approached more as he could distinguish...some...shape...formed by the letters. He regretted soon after this decision:

Lunatone.

That's what the letters formed, an half moon with an eye, once known by that name and now reduced into a living icon. Dunsparce had it right in front of his pathetic eyes. Weeped something unclear and wiped the tears with the wings. The script spoke for the second time "Yes, it's me, long time we don't cee. I think..." silence again, then continued but was promptly interrupted "I'm sorry for what happened to you, I don't know what went wrong just I couldn't deal with your same project, I mean, as I said, I'm a weak and I'm not ready to....change the world in my shape? I wish I could but I can't, I can't! I'm scaredy, coward, and still I have feelings for those that are around me. That treat me pathetically all the time, despite they treat me..pathetically...all the time." Stuttered. "How are you? I mean, I thought you have been lost forever so how have you been? It's more important than me. How do you feel?"

"I feel endless. Without a beginning or an end of my existence, I'm finally suspended."

"I'm afraid I don't understand if it's good or no. I-I apology."

"Remind me. My plan was to make the world into my shape instead it's the world that shapes me now. Infinite shapes, endless possibilities, this is the power of the Unowns." Lunatone moved to the opposite wall, as a shadow. "I have no phisique form to be called at as ugly and creepy, I have no soul more to feel the fear and hate of the people, I feel to be nothing and everything at the same time I want." Dunsparce followed it and its continuous traslations, like hypnotized "How do I feel at the end? Definitely endless, Dunsparce. You should try it. . ."

"Eh?"

"Come with me. Discover the truth."

"I don't feel like I can at the moment." Dunsparce retreated but Lunatone dragged him away. "Noo, leave me alone!"

"Uh, okay, as you wish..." Beheeyem passed by and moved forward.

"B-Beheeyem? You here? Help me!" Too late, the alien was already vanished and the shadow of Lunatone was under him. "Why are you doing this to me? DIDN'T SUFFER ENOUGH?!?"

"No, you have not. You havn't barely *opened your eyes*." Lunatone's voice was fading as Dunsparce fell asleep.

"Jirachi, you sssson of a... I'll make you spit those tickets with the blood!" Seviper was really angry and fed up. The situation was ridiculous: three members disappeared already, no tickets earned by them,  what was doing Dunsparce alone and fainted in a random hall!? And Aurorus, oh Aurorus! Completely useless for the alliance in this first day. Aurorus had been a ghost with little to no efforts pulled in the challenge that far. "Curse you! Dunsparce, wake up right now and justify yourself for thisss, thisss failure!" Seviper repeated the word with way more dismay "Failure!" shouted "Do you want to wake up? Hurry! I don't want to waste more time than I did already for you!"

"...s-seviper?"

"Finally."

"You did nothing for me."

"What are you talking about?"

Dunsparce fully woke up. "Nothing, like always."

Seviper nodded "At least. Shame on you once for having lost me and twice for having lost the wishmaker! I'm so disappointed but I should have known that yesterday was just a miracle. I don't care what happened to you, but where is Jirachi? I'm sure to have heard you screamin his name so tell me and don't stay outspoken and useless."

Dunsparce wasn't listening any of the harsh lines of Seviper, he already expected them soon he had woken up alive, again. There was much more interesting issue in his mind: what happened exactly? He didn't know if that was only a dream of him, a wish of Jirachi or reality. Whatever, he had *ceen*. He saw things on the proper light now: Aurorus mean and ungrateful to Sylveon, Tropius pitying on him, Seviper his master and torture chamber at the same time... He had seen them with his eyes when Lunatone brought him on the other side of the existence. This only happens in dreams, usually, but Dunsparce could feel while dreaming and that means he wasn't dreaming at all. Too deep for a LAND SNAKE. His mark in the pokèdex perfectly described how he wasn't a real snake neither how he wasn't another different being and just crawled on the surface of the things while hiding underground the world.

"Are you listening to me?!!" the viper turned to Aurorus for a second meeting with her icy look once more. "Dunsparce, I made you an order clear: answer me."

"I apology, I don't know where Jirachi is but I've seen Beheeyem before, maybe he knows."

"....." BEHEEYEM. If there was someone able to be even less useful to her than Gorebyss and Aurorus it was him. "I hate you." Dunsparce didn't waste more time in replies and simply followed her along with the other.

#### LIBRARY

Been a long Lampent was in the library. Lester was getting bored to patrol without any true menace showing up at the horizon. You know what happens when Lester gets bored: he screws it! He had to find a way to rid off the boredom, he started trembling, sweating, changing forms! But the boredom was still inside him. And the curiosity seemed his only option and it raised, raised, raised! It was increasing and increasing, he couldn't pick any other solution than "I get in the library, I don't care if Lampent doesn't want me to, I'm too curious to know what she's doing!!!"

The electric poltergeist sauntered through the keyhole and found himself in the library, it was an huge place but tight at the same time: the shelves full of old manucripts and books seemed to embrace the visitor as he progressed, maybe it was just an illusion given by the half moon shape they formed. "This place is strange for sure. But not strange in the way I'm used, it's even better. I love it already! This creepy sensation..."

"Ah, I knew it. Lampent and Lester. I know what happened, I knew it would have happened." the blue twin had started to move again leading what's left of the Leviathans: Metagross, Porygon 2 and himself. "Just, j-just! Siiiigh. Anf, pant."

"Calm down."

"I can't be calm since Lester entered in my life! He cursed me, I'm usually skeptical of supernatural but how to be skeptical when you deal with such an element?! He destroyed all my certainties in logic and knowledge.Just look at me now."

"Calm down, bip." Porygon 2 repeated "I'm trying to understand E-motions but you're streaming yours too much now. By what I learned so far, the e-motions are the opposite of logics, the two can cooperate or obliterate each others. The second option is what describes you know." Minun looked at him a little strangely but nodded in agree. "If you restart your e-motions and reboot your logic you will see a bright light in the situation. I tracked Jirachi in my database so I know where he is, 99% approximatively."

"That's,that's enough. Sniff." Minun finally found his confidence back "Thank you. Then I trust you to guide us to Jirachi by now. And about Lester...and Lampent, well, they're both ghosts afterall. Ah ah. If this is not an homeplace for them..." he shrugged at his own attempt of joking and took the way for the library tracked by Porygon 2.

"By the way, Lampent where are you uuuuh?" Lester checked every single book in the shelves, sometimes stopping more than necessary to read an entire chapter out of curiosity, others skipping pages instantly just to discover the end and suddenly a key dropped down a book. "Could be? Ahahahah! AH! \*EPIC POSE\* First to find a key, without even knowing the riddle! This is epicness, people." swagged playing with the key.

"Congratulations! Clap, clap, clap!" Jirachi popped out the next book leaving Lester astonished. The astonishing part for him wasn't the "effect surprise" to see Jirachi out of nowhere but it was the first time he saw him all this happy and loud. "You found the first key, Lester! You did it without having to read my riddle, that's really impressive. I rarely get impressed when I'm still half-sleep."

Lester grinned nervously but didn't dislike those compliments at all. "Really thank you, Jirachi! So, what now...I have a key but you're here and this mean I could take another one from you, first the second ticket and then the second key!!" He quickly possessed the fan chandelier above in the assumption the wishmaker would have attacked him "in theme" with the library, maybe flapping the pages of the books against him or...much more excitingly unleashing the content of the books all around! "You did a fatal mistake to teleport in the lair of the wolf. This is literally like Old Chateau for me." but Jirachi acted unlikely of his expectations. "Ooops, maybe that isn't the key you meant before. My mistake." the other twitched "That key opens something else! And not, it isn't **V Room**."

"I don't need the key to enter inside it by the way but continue." Victini choked an entire macarone for the shock. "V-Vulpix! Ahk! K-K-K!"

"Actually you were so close, too close to find the right book yet you didn't, so wanna see which prize have you won in replace?" Jirachi playfully dashed between the shelves "Not here, not here, not even here...ah, right! On the desk" only to take a book from a complete different place, Lester thought he was really twisted but also liked the way he made everything so convoluted and mysterious. Plus the curiosity was devouring him now. "Sorry for the wait, here you are, ta-dah!"

Lester kept a suspicious look on the wishmaker meanwhile he approached to the object: another book, slighter and littler thant the others, severly burned with continous scorches on the angles of each page. Lester used the key to unlock it, it fit the little locker put upon it perfectly afterall. "*Title: My life diary. Day 1: Today was another sad of my average, no wonder they call me Ghastly then at school. My white, open-lucid skin is so thin that every words of them literally hurts me, give me cuts. I wish they cut my life directly one day. If they manage to wound my skin why they cannot end me directly yet? I'm tired to suffer."* Lester felt a sudden sadness he rarely experienced since he had memory, but scrolled it apart immediately with a renewed grin "Okay...continuing. Wow by the way. *Ahem! They hate me at all. Because I come from a noble family, maybe. If they only would know the truth behind: my noble family is invisible to me. They don't love me, they show no emotions for me, they're just pictures of upperclass that wanted me only to continue the tree of the family album. No wonder I'm montionless myself, you can't have emotions if you're not raised to use them ever. Instead I was given rules, many rules, codes of mannerism and gentlemanry, dressing certain outfits and imprisoning my soul in a dainty look and room. It's all dainty here, perfection is everywhere except inside me and out of the windows: the moon is not a perfect round disc of light, it has craters and a shadow. No shadow is accepted here, I'm forced to be exactly what I'm forced to look. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE WHITE FOR MY FAMILY. I wish for the day it will be finally all black. I want darkness. I feel happy only when I sleep and I see Darkrai, you, my lonely friend."* he stopped reading "This is getting more and more intense, so this diary was written for Darkrai or maybe this diary was Darkrai! It's so convoluted." Jirachi invited him to turn the book on the opposite side "The best part is here."

"Wow! An invertible two-faced book! This is a quirkness with capital LK. *Title: My death diary. Night 1 : Today was...scorch...more scorches...''* *My dark, open lucid skin is so thick that every words of them literally slips on me, give me nothing. I cut my life directly yesterday. If they cannot manage to wound my skin anymore how they could end me directly now? I stopped to suffer. They still hate me at all at the county. Because I come from a cursed family. They learned the truth eventually when I burned down all those pictures of upperclass cutting the tree of my family forever.* **''***No wonder I'm montionless myself, you can't have emotions if you're not raised to use them ever."* Lester stared noticing how those words were the same of the life part of the diary *'"It was all dainty here, now it's all ashed and messed. Only shadow is accepted here, everything it's black thanks to you. I did it what you suggested me. So where are you now? You disappeared. I feel happy now when I wake and I don't see you, Darkrai, so let me thank you for the last time for having existed only in my somber mind. I'm alone in the darkness now like I wanted. I should be happy but I'm motionless so \*shrug\*"* Gasped. He then changed the page and the pages were all blank but slightly scorched like someone was about to write them recently. "This is, this is the diary of Lampent! It's all clear now. This is the place where she has committed suicide, burning her house: the mystery is solved, ah!"

Jirachi bowed down in sign of respect "Correct. I guess you would wish to know Drfloon's as well but it will be for another time."

"Drifloon? My friend Drifloon has a secret like this too?"

"Maybe even better." the legendary smirked in reply.

"Aaaa tell me, tell me! You can't leave me with the curiosity in this way." the ghost chidlishly complained.

"I have other victims in my wishlist, no time to waste." teleported.

"By the way, heeey, you owe me the other tickets! You distracted me." Lester grinned soon after "By the way it was really worth it, wow, I still can't believe what I read. Wait for Beheeyem to know that...! By the way..."victims"? I wasn't victimized at all before."

"In fact, I was the designated victim." said Lampent with a stern look.

"Oh-oh. Heylà! Lampyyy!" he tried to hide the diary inside himself forgetting he was Rotom Fan in that situation and the pages were razored everywhere in the air "OPS. By the way I'm sure with some glue...or wax! since you have it as combustile...eheheheh. Ehm. Mhh." The other shrugged as the pieces of her diary floated above her and fired them in ashes "I wished to Jirachi to feel back my emotions and he realized it, I'm crying again, I'm hating again." Rotom felt an awful sensation inside "Like before. SO THANK YOU, LESTER!" threw some spilled tears that melted the floor like wax "I thank you for having given me back what I felt when I wrote that diary long time ago, exactly the same emotions of sorrow and hate, this means also I lost to Jirachi's temptation and I have to be eliminated." She shrugged again and disappeared.

"No, wait, Lampent, I can explain all! In a quirky way or another less quirky doesn't really matter." Lester tried to grab her hand "By the way I'm sorry, really sorry!"

He remained alone in the room. Silently searching for the correct key.

Another Lampent was hiding in the darkness mimicking a common oil lamp on the desk "Ih ih ih. Interesting outcome of dramatic proportions. Metagross will sure make a full plot out of this, I can't wait to see which role I will get assigned next time." The pokèmon melted down in his pink form and slithered outside, assuming another identity. "I will be given an oscar at the end of this play for sure."

"Scannerin area...update...bibibibip! Bibibibibip! Jirachi teleported right here."

"Finally a positive outcome for us!" Minun cheered.

The three entered in what was the dinining room of the mansion in its past and surprisingly met with three members of the Jirachi Jigglers. Lucario, Ninjask and Chimecho had decided to split from the group meanwhile Oshawott and Piplup continued switching their leadership aimlessly. Minun's confidence disappeared again. "It seemed too positive in fact..."

#### DINING ROOM

"Where is Jirachi?" asked Metagross to Porygon 2. Porygon 2 didn't answer.

"Sgrunt, this is my territory of research, now. Get away!"

"Tut-tut, politeness please when you place at my table." Jirachi appeared sitting at the chair at the head, inviting the six to take their places. "Welcome at the wishing feast! Please take a sit. There's everything you can desire at the table." Lot of delicacies floated on the dishes perfectly settled up in the general unbelief. "What a paradoxal situation..." "Are we sleeping already, this is one of your dreams a collective dream?" "100% genuine food, all the values are perfect, no conservants or additives, it's impossible."

"Start with the external cutlery, kid!" Lucario abruptly scolded Minun "Sgrunt, unbelievable." Minun quickly obeyed a little akwardly. Chimecho stuffed her face in the dish soon after "Chimecho, not you! Raise up. Bah. Why bother myself? Oh." she had fallen asleep for exhaustion. "Ah, sgrunt. So, what's the deal, Jirachi? What game are you playing here!"

"Munch. A very funny one I thought." Jirachi cleaned with a velvet handkerchief with the royal icon of the Strange House "As you can notice, I don't have my wish tickets anymore on myself. I hid them inside the fortune cookies!" Jirachi pointed at the bowl at the centre of the table "Eat them, read them and then let's see what wish you win, but this is only at the end of the feast.

"You don't force us to eat, epsecially I eat how much and what I want."

Jirachi kept his smile even in front of that provokation "Tonight I expressed a **Doom Desire** on everyone of you and if you don't follow the rules it will destroy the entire mansion that Victini's V Generator in comparison will seem a little tiny stamp. Enjoy your meal!"

"I dare you-"

"To not do that, please!" Minun patched up the phrase istantly. "*Please, Lucario, shht*." The pokèmon then eat all together except Chimecho and Ninjask that didn't touch any food. "First to finish!" Lucario shouted and grabbed the bowl of cookies directly "This is mine, then."

"No, this unfair, we finished too. Burp. Sorry." Minun stepped upon hoping that Metagross and Porygon 2 were right after him or he would have been doomed. "This is MINE!" repeated the cranky dog showing the fist "And I hate kidz in generally."

"Glom, then.You a bully."

"Gnam munch chomp. Ptù. I read.." before he could see the content of the ticket he was hit by Minun with an electric ball. "You doomed yourself." Lucario turned for a moment to Chimecho as checking if she was still asleep then turned front "GROAR!" He punched Minun away with red eyes. Minun could feel the flavor of the metal in his mouth now, luckily his type halved steel damages but the hit had been hard though. "RARR, you're going to regret to have made me MAD! I don't care if you're a kid. Life is hard for everyone and lessons have to be given with no distinctions of age. Prepare to learn this right now!"

Metagross put himself between the two and absorbed perfectly the next attack with his armoured body, then attacked on his turn giving a zen headbutt in the stomach of Lucario. "I hate MORE when someone else intrude. You did it twice, crab. SGROOOAR!" He casted a Z Aura Sphere and tossed it through the entire length of the table sending Metagross against the wall. Minun stood speechless at this. Lucario returned over him, that wasn't enough yet. Lifted Minun with a paw and prepared another aura sphere with the other "This is a life lesson: NEVER EVER ANGER ME." Suddenly an earthquake broke into and he lost balance and grip: Metagross was back. "Grrr. Not again!" Minun remembered about his ankle and kicked it with a rapid attack followed by a meteor punch of Metagross in the same area "Aaargh! NOT AGAIN. Damn you, I twisted my ankle again." Metagross landed on him for the final hit.

"It's not necessary, Metagross.." Minun hesitated meanwhile he took a fortune cookie and read it "He's already defeated afterall, no? Otherwise...sigh, I don't know sincerely." He eventually decided to leave to Metagross the decision and the same Metagross was calculating which was the most convenient outcome when Ninjask launched a Shadow Ball out of nowhere. It was supereffective. "Woah! It sent him knockout. Oh no...oh no..what I do...what I do?"

"About time. Grunf." moaned the wounded Jiggler.

Ninjask prepared for the fighting with Minun, knowing the rodent was slightly advantaged on the type chart. Minun, however, was for a different approach to the situation.

"Funny! I like how everything is going as I wished." commented Jirachi, jiggling and joustering with a carambola fruit macedonia.

Minun quickly stuffed half of the amount of cookies in the cheeks and slid at the head of the table, certain that Ninjask wouldn't take the risk to hit Jirachi, too. At least he hoped so. "Sneaky move." Ninjask commented creating multiple copycats of himself. Minun enjoyed that compliment and triumphally ate up the cookies, and read the tickets: "I wish to disappear, I wish to disappear, I wish to disappear..." all the same. He had fallen in the trick fair and square. "Sob, I lost."

"Ah." exclaimed Ninjask.

"Thanks for playing, Minun! Jihihihihraachi."

"So you lied the whole time."

"I said there were my wish tickets in the cookies that was true, not the riddle tickets you're looking for." Jirachi snickered "Here's the difference."

"Eating...99%...100% completed. BURP! Digestive function in background." Porygon 2 pointed at Ninjask "Target acquired. Zap Cannon!"

Despite the double team copycats the correct Ninjask was hit perfectly and collapsed on the ground, disappearing: Substitute. "BIP! Substitute spotted! I need to do a new scansion of the area...is this e-motion I'm feeling PANIC? Panic is odd! I can't focus. I can't elaborate anymore!" the virtual pokèmon tilted completely. Meanwhile the same Jirachi wondered where was the real Ninjask, and... "Behind me! My riddles are all here. Uhm."

"I needed just to know this." one of the copycats talked and dashed out of the swarm: none would have thought to check the remaining copycats after Porygon 2's Zap Cannon! "Duh? I fell in the trick." Jirachi kind of resigned to leave that Ninjask snatched a ticket "Only one at time. Yawn, let's proceed then." Ninjask read carefully "*​Spoons, forks, knives and dishes. The key of this riddle is in the middle."*

"Ouch. That makes no sense!" Lucario argued "At all."

"Zzz." Chimecho continued to sleep.

"Uhm... it says four things but there's no middle in a 4." Ninjask reflected looking at the disposition of the cutleries. "2 forks, 1 knife, 1 dish, 1 spoon. It's a knife."

"Correct. Now find the correct one and you're done." Jirachi teleported away for later encounters. Ninjask also helped by Lucario checked every knife on the table but didn' find any key, things were more convoluted than he thought. "He bribed us, I knew it that made no sense! Sgrunt, how could you trust him. Hey!" Ninjask flew away to the kitchen. Jirachi reappeared "Oh, yawn, almost forgot: since you are injured and she's asleep, you're both out of the game."

Later Metagross was woken up by Porygon 2 "I recorded the riddle in my database." "The key is in a knife, then." "What if it's the knife someone used to stab himself so we have to search inside an old skeleton somewhere?" The metal crab stared at Porygon 2 that explained "I tried to make a lateral thought like my friend Lester.exe." "*Impressive, you downloaded his thoughts too when...nevermind."* ​Porygon 2 continued then "By my database about Strange House it looks like a girl stabbed herself after having burned the whole house, but could be just voices."

"Voices? Oh, not really."

The two turned at the voice of Lester, the shiny Rotom didn't look the same of always, despite he smiled "First of all, I found a key! Secundary, I know where the knife could be, inside L...Library, that's where I just come from. After...ehm...veey deep researches of the clues and investigations and intuitions I can adfirm that the culprit is the girl, self killed himself, with a knife, in the Library! Follow me."

"But" Porygon 2 objected "Have you found the skeleton of the corpse?"

"O-Of course! It was very well hidden in the darkness. So much we'll probably struggle again to find it since I just realized it was another spot of a key and so I didn't collect this detail in my memory discarding this as "interesting but not useful quirkness discovered" and...here we are."

"Then, let's go to the library with no more doubts." said Metagross. A shadow followed the remaining Leviathans.

riddle 1: book

riddle 2: knife

riddle 3: unknown

riddle 4: unknown

#### ATTIC

"Jirachi is pursuing donwstairs to the attic, I didn't see her." Inkay met halfway with Seviper and informed them that Jirachi was escaping upstairs to the attic room. "Slow! If you take it calmly we can escape (is that the contrary of capture right?) from him. We have not a chance!"

"Thanks you at opposite, weirdo." Seviper ordered the Venturers to converge all to the attic. All..she missed 4 mons. "Aurorus, Dunsparce, Inkay, catch me that wishmaker!"

Jirachi was sleeping in mid air and everyone could see that two tickets already missed "Ratsss! Only two riddles left, pathetic already but as soon I'll find the other teams I'll slay them down for those tickets. Now, attack! Aurorus, Ice Beam, Dunsparce use Glare and Inkay...do nothing you want I don't care. Seviper stayed aside knowing her poison moves didn't work on a steel/psychic type. Aurorus was tempted to leave her to the deserved fate but Seviper reminded her once again pointing at her mouth and at the lump at the end of her tail. "My future." Then she was the first to attack with a blizzard that covered the floor with snow.

"I told you to Ice Beam, not drop snowflakes around!"

Dunsparce used Glare but was uneffective since Jirachi was in sleep status. Seviper had enough already and coiled around "Give me thesssse riddlesss and the solutionsss or I eat you."

"Yawn, as you wish." Jirachi opened eyes "So you wished both the riddles and the solutions. Sounds a sneaky move."

"A snake move, exactly."

"Fine. *​Up and down the stairs, low and hard, slow and fast, piano and forte: the key is behind the glance of Cresselia.* ​Here's the solution to both the riddles at contemporary." His tone betrayed amusement, Seviper didn't like it. "Enough with games!" She prepared to swallow the co-host but she watched in horror the hole in his belly opening and resucking her in himself, she shrieked and shook all over but Jirachi wrapped her in the embrace of his starry wings. "Dunsparce! Aurorus! Do sssomething immediately, ssstop it! Nooo!" but they weren't there anymore, she felt fearful for the first time since she had memory back, she started to feel her body surrend to be swallowed in the mysterious stomach of Jirachi "Ahhhhhh!" and she was swallowed asleep. "Where I am? Where issss everyone? Hiss. I wish for an ansssswer!" Seviper realized how bigger the world around her seemed all of sudden, the attic was gigantic now. She felt uneasy, rushed to an old mirror and blacked out. Who was that pathetic little black sort of spring shaped worm coming to her? She was herself, reflected by the mirror. "No! I'm not that pathetic! It's an illusion, I know it! I ain't this anymore by a long ti-gasp- " suddenly a scream of woman broke "Ihhh! A snake, a snake! Disgusting! Call the police, Lorence! What a disgusting creature. It's impossible to love such a thing." and almost stomped her with her big boot. Seviper quickly crawled at safe in an hole. Where many red eyes were waiting just for her. "I'm not s-s-ssscared yet. I ssswear!" the eyes became claws and scratched her multiple times with no mercy, and bites that crunched her body infinitely. It seemed neverending pain to her."SSsssstooooooooooop!" she cried out her lungs, tearful and tore. "Please, please, finish this all now."

"Make your wish."

Seviper had convulsions and barely was able to move the tounge "My wish issss to awake out of here."

#### ​LIBRARY

​"So, where is the skeleton?" Lester exhibited a wide cheerish grin at the question, Porygon 2 approached more so much to press the plasma of his body with the long beak and repeated "WHERE IS THE SKELETON, MH?"

"It was hidden!" Lester didn't know what else think "By the real culprit that is....Ditto."

Porygon 2 tilted the neck down. "Sigh. . ."

"Ehm, otherwise..."  he bit the key for the nerves "*​if only Lampent was still here I could...*​By the way! By the way, uhm. by the way what. Ah! The diary said she cut herself but also cut the tree of her family."

"Which diary?"

"The genealogic tree of her family...ding! The second key is in the genealogic tree album."

"The genelogic tree album? Let me scan. Bip...bip....bip....."

"......"

Lester prayed that is intuition was once again the correct solution. Even Porygon seemed to have resents against him today.

"Found. Let's see if you didn't lie. BIIIP!" as opened the family album rip in halves with a long key sharped as a knife in the middle. "Scanning...emoglobine..red globes...piastrines....ewww! So this is the disgust. I keep learning new e-motions, yu-uhh!" Fainted. Rotom took the key "What a double crime scene. The (ehm) most important thing is that I solved another mystery today, ah! \*EPIC nevermind, we have still to find the other two keys so let's leave this room."

"Nossofast"

Some whisper came from nowhere.

"?" ... "Maybe the wind."

"Thasismine"

Lester and Metagross saw a shadow moving in the air, it didn't resemble any shape of the already known pokèmon contestants. It was new. "DARKRAI!" Lester screamed but soon after "Right YOU. How could you leave Lampent alone in that way?! Ahem, this...ehp-... was intended to be a..ah..telepathic message ahahah. But something went wrong in the process. Glom." paused "If you aren't Darkrai then who you are, ghost?"

"Imashadowfthepast"

"Eh? I barely understand this whisperish you're using." the shadow attacked then aiming at the keys "But I understand the language of a battle. Let's match!" Lester answered with Discharge but didn't hit the target  "Quirky! Ok, maybe you prefer Typhoon!" casted out a tornado that made the books fly to the ceiling but again he didn't hit the target pokèmon. Metagross tried Meteor Punch, Earth Quake and Zen Butt on his turn, meanwhile the mysterious shadow had stolen the keys from Lester. Who didn't accept this "Porygon, I urge your Silph Scope (in italiano: la Spettrosonda): activate!"

"BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!"

"So?"

"@"

"Porygon, my quirky virtual friend? Grrr. Take this Shadow Ball!" he threw the ghostly sphere when the shadow was about to cross the wall and it let drop the keys at the last fading away "Thistimeilostnextimeillrevenge."

"And I will be still here next time. Ah ah!"

"Mmmh."

"Auff, another victory is scored. By the way It's time to return at the search of Jirachi. This day is really a neverending quirkness."
"In all fairness I'm getting tired, too." Jirachi appeared  like he had been waiting for them to get out the room. "Yaaawn, duhm. So I decided to go to my left victims directly by now." Yawned once more and smirked "We meet for the second time tonight, Lester, and I have yet to realize **your** wish."

"That means I..." Lester slapped himself with the remind that METAGROSS was next to him listening all. The red Rotom was tempted but somewhat the events discovered about Lampent made him less curious to also discover Drifloon's secret right now. "Let's kontinue, ah!"

"Ayawwn. Then, catch me!" Jirachi dashed between the two pokèmon at the speed of light but was clenched by the comet tail by Metagross "Hold it until I read what's written in the tickets! So: *Up and down the stairs, low and hard, slow and fast, where is the key?* and *​"The key is beyond the glance of the moonlight.*​ Any ideas?" Metagross was forced to leave the grip as Ninjask hit him from behind, this time definitely. "An enemy!" Ninjask double teamed "Many enemies!" Rotom fleed, the original Ninjask read quickly the riddles, the others pursued him for the keys.

"Trick Room." suddenly the dimension was distorced by a psychic unknown energy. Everyone moved at inverted speed and Beheeyem could easily take the keys, the riddles and solve them "Pianoforte...and the picture of Cresselia in the attic. Simple."

Rotom, Jirachi, Ninjask and the copycats were all outspeeded by him and couldn't do nothing than watch the alien collect all the four keys in all tranquillity. Then the distorced dimension returned at normality. Lester and Ninjask dashed immediately to reach Beheeyem that shrugged "I tried." He was promptly knocked out by them and they unlocked the mansion together but Lester in a second closed the door as Ninjask was about to exit slamming it against him and resulted to be the first and only to leave the Strange House from the entrance. "I'm the only winner! AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" He celebrated with a victory spin and let out a maniacal laughter as he wanted to discharge all the tension overloaded. "Illavengeforthistoo."

"Uh? By the way I continue to celebrate."

Jirachi teleported outside and announced "Game over, yawn, Leviathans are the winners. Duuuh, it's time to awake all, and sleep me."

Seviper woke up immediately after, her tail still trembled but the rest of the body was fine. Everyone woke up with her: Dunsparce, Tropius, Aurorus, Anorith, Gorebyss, Inkay...

"Urgh, so it was all a nightmare? It was terribly realistic, that sensation of eternal paralysis, being a fossile again..brr...awful." Anorith shivered but couldn't be happier to move his body again.

"Woah, I can feel the chillblains of how much that seemed all real, instead it was only a dream all the time? Crazy."

Gorebyss was the most perplexed "I thought to have been awoken at a certain time."

But the most surprised and unaffected at the same time were Dunsparce and Aurorus who was literally stone cold "What did you wish, Seviper? I'm sure we two weren't sleep at all, not that I care, to be honest I'm fine if this torture has finished for today. Furthermore, I was about to solve the riddles if you're interested." Seviper spat poison in reply and coiled around Dunsparce, or at least tried as he dug quickly underground "Hiss?" then she coiled up Anorith in replace. "What did I do to deserve this this time?!" "It's not a punishment. J-Just ssshut up!"

**// Vent //**

**"Then what was it?" Anorith questioned to the audience very confused.**
Minun barely opened eyes and Rotom announced loudly "I won! We won, Leviathans! Once again I led you to the win, ah! \*EPIC POSE\* C'mon! It's time to wake up and celebrate another victoryyy! In addition, it was all a dream, nothing really happened and that means I can win even when sleeping!" "No, it wasn't if you were still awake the whole time."

He froze down hearing that from Lampent. "Ah. Right, maybe for me. B-By the way past is past and game over is OVER. The Lester Latias Leviathans are the winners, thanks to me, again." He discharged electric sparkles everywhere "Last to the Vip Room will repeat the mantra: Lest is the Best 51 times! Zooooom!"

**// Vent //**

**"Phew. I got off by a whisker, without have any moustache." Lester joked, and eventually pondered "Seriously, I should get a pair to keep on for the stake outs in undercover."**

"Gasp. No way I'm gonna be the one." Minun dashed after, imitated by Porygon 2 and Metagross.

"So, duh, they won, but who lost? Rules said that the team with less members left at the end would have gone to elimination and 1-5 that team is the Victini Venturers! Ronf, zzz." Jirachi closed the eyes and fluttered to the V-plane "It was an exciting night. Prepare your best wishes for the next sleep-over time! Uh uh uh."

"Ah, sssscrew you."

Lucario kicked a cactus "Sgrunt, and he also lied about the Doom Desire expressed." An explosion of mystic power coming from above the clouds proceeded to obliterate the Strange House. "I was a little late, duuuh."

#### **TAIL OF LOSERS**

Both the teams were sitting at the Tail of Losers, Venturers on a side, Jigglers on the other. Someone asked a legit question "Why?"

"It's the widest place where we can tally the results of the elections, simply and square." Piplup explained with a white smile "In all fairness these are not true elections since I will get reconfirmed, but sometimes a democratic queen has to give her fellows some satisfactions in exchange of their eternal loyalty." Oshawott mimicked her from behind making everyone to snigger then took the word "You're not a queen, you're just a more superior than you critical case that thinks to dictate her team, us! Drop off your throne before to get slayed by your same teammates and most of all shut up the beak."

Piplup did a long breath inhaling the anger all inside and announced "Allright, I will exploit this rude interruption of you to announce that there's going to be a final speech as the enclosure of our campaign. Of course I come first."

"Oshawhy you and not me?"

The two started to get on the nerves of Seviper. "Where issss Victini, where he has gone? Otherwisssse I'm sure to do a slaying here."

"Please, audience, quiet." Piplup ignoring the wind hopped on the palk appositively assembled for the occasion "If the Jirachi Jigglers will reconfirm me I promise I'll be even more finicky and careful during the challenges, giving everyone exactly the role and orders they need situation by situation thanks to my critic value over people that makes me..."

"Pip pip piplup. Insert lot of piplup verses and excetera here because everything coming out that beak is just USELESS." Oshawott pushed Piplup down the palk using her scallop as a microphone "Unless her, I don't pose to be perfect, heck, I don't promise anyone I will be always a good leader but I will not give orders to anyone, mine will be advises because you're all buddies for me, not fellows. But most of all, I'm a pokèmon of facts. FACTS! This Piplup is able only to talk and talk and talk and costs us ton of time and energies when we listen, we're forced to listen her useless redundant neverending neveroutcoming speeches. Everytime! Vote for me and I'll change the pace, stopping her beak once for all and giving facts instead of words to all of us. Thany you ^O^" Ended waving all and tripped off the palk akwardly. Piplup laughed at her and returned on the palk "It's a waste of time to continue this confront."

"You finally realized that!"

"No, Neanderthalucario, I mean that based on facts Oshawott can't even porevent herself from tripping, imagine her at the lead of the group? Ahahahah! Oh, dear. For this reason I won't say anything more by my side and let the elections finally begin: vote!"

"Forgot to say: free kiss for every male voting for me, too!" added Oshawott at the end, tossing a kiss in the air.

"Unpolite and unfair, yet useless."

"WHERE ISSSS VICTINI?!? HISS."

**// Vent //**

**"My vote is all for you, Oshahot." Squirtle blinked at the camera "But keep the french kisses only for me, baby. Smooch!"**

**Ninjask signed for Piplup instead "I prefer to keep the lowest profile possible in this situation. We have many better things to take care about."**

**Obviously Oshawott and Piplup rigged voting for themselves.**

**"Seviper. Ops, wrong nomination." Beheeyem cancelled his vote then.**

Piplup and Oshawott waited until all the Jigglers, and only them, voted, and tallied the votes alternatively.

Piplup: "Piplup. Of course."

Oshawott: "Oshawott! Aww, there's also a kiss...thanks!" Squirtle aimed at her with his watergun and winked in a cool fashion.

Piplup: "Oshawott, indeed, I expected a desperate attempt of rigging."

Oshawott: "Piplup. Don't play the saint of the situation since you aren't!"

Bagon: "Ahem."

Piplup: "Right, continuing the tally with democracy I read the name of...Ninjask?"

Oshawott: "Ninjask?!"

Piplup: "And Ninjask!!! How is it possible?"

Oshawott: "Three votes against two and two. The new leader of the Jigglers is Ninjask!!"

Piplup: "But this is not acceptable. How could you? He wasn't even a candidate! This cannot work."

"You made us waste lot of time today with the pantomime of the politica campaigns. What did you expect?" Bagon stepped forward "We all decided to vote for the only one in my and their opinion that should have the rights and has all the requires to lead the team successfully, and that is Ninjask for all the times he made the difference for us and even today he did it all." Lucario clapped behind, making the sleepy Chimecho to do the same, Bagon and Oshawott clapped on their own "This is why he deserves to become our new leader."

Ninjask didn't like the idea at all but accepted the new role in front of everyone. "I will be honoured." Piplup similarly didn't accept it but she also  didn't hide that at all "Unacceptable, unfair, a complete anti-democratic decision. Oshawott, don't you agree?" The other answered with tranquillity crossing her arms "I'm fine to lose as much you lose, too. I just wanted you down the throne and my wish has been granted finally." Squirtle rushed to her "So you're not angry to have lost? This is odd, I swear I did everything to make you win, I would have rigged if you asked me but you didn't..." Oshawott put a finger on his mouth and smiled "Don't worry, I will cover you of kisses the same."

"Maybe even further?"

Oshawott licked his cheek playfully and dragged him indoor.

"Uuuuhhh, man! It's your lucky day, today." Bagon cheered in the direction of Squirtle "Tell me all tomorrow!" The Jirachi Jigglers finally left the Venturers alone. Still no signs of Victini. "Dududuuuu, attention please: Victini had a little accident with a macarone and was brought at the nearest Pokècenter, that is on the opposite side of the region. I will be the host until his return. Yawn. Sounds tiring but yaaaaaawn I am officially the co-host and we decided together to make this reality, so... that's it." Jirachi eyes closed reached the Tail of Losers's palk and took the position "The working is the same as usual: vote, I cast votes, distributes macarones and last three will get the voltorbs ov victimization. Nothing changes for now, I will ...zzz...try to find something new for tomorrow but it's unrelevant. So, dyawoon, go in the vent. I'll wait."

**// Vent //**

**Tropius was the first to enter as usual with the neck only "There are about three pokèmon in this team that don't do anything useful, they're just there, so I have to pick a choice between them. This time I vote Gorebyss, I was with her and I could see how she didn't give any contribute while me and Anorith faced Jirachi: she just fainted. She's cute but this is about the competition and competition wise she's a deadlock. That's why I'm voting her."**

**"Seviper." Beheeyem said his vote again. "I have many good reasons I want her out of here." Gorebyss joined after with the same opinion.**

**Inkay on the contrary had no ideas on who to vote "Then I will go randomly and pick Gorebyss."**

**The S3 entered, voted and waited in the vent for Aurorus to show up. The amargasaurus longed her neck through the long tube of the vent and her breath lowered down the temperature like an A/C conditioner. Her icy eyes met with the eyes of the viper for the first time at the same height "Where is my egg? I want to see it before to make my vote." Seviper stayed silent and opened her mouth showing an oval between her fangs, Aurorus recognized her egg clearly, then Dunsparce spoke for her "If you don't follow the plan immediately she will crush it." Aurorus moved like she wanted to stomp them but held her nerves knowing her paws couldn't get through the flits of the vent and nodded "Congratulations for your progresses, you act exactly like her now. You managed it eventually. Anyway."**

Jirachi counted the votes, yawning a little, and proceeded with the tally: "Zzz..first macarone goes to Anorith."

"Munch, crunk, delicious. Finally some prize after all I suffered today."After Anorith, Jirachi called Dunsparce for the macarone. The land snake didn't feel in the mood to eat so passed it to Anorith "Seriously? Thank you, gnam!" The next call was for Aurorus, that did the same, however Anorith couldn't enjoy the macarone frozen in that way by her touch "Ouch, this is not tasty at all. Did you save it directly from the ice age? Ah ah. Very funny."

"Two left. Duhnque, this goes to Beheeyem."

"To Beheeyem? Uhm."

"Last macarone is signed for.....yawn I apology... zzzzz."

"Hey, wake up." Tropius flapped air with the wing. "Come on, please."

"Z. Yes, okay. I mean Inkay. 3-2-"

"Inkay? Wow."

Jirachi tossed the three pokè balls to Tropius, Gorebyss and a very unnerved Seviper. "*Whoever voted me hisss dead."* Beheeyem and Gorebyss exchanged a glance of complicity behind her. Jirachi shook himself to stay awake and finished the countdown "1. Boom!" Tropius didn't even see the explosion. "So, who was eliminated between Seviper and Gorebyss?" He looked down and saw the two females perfectly clean unlike his paws covered in cimmer. "I'm honest, I would have never expected this result."

"You got 4 votes against 2 and... 2."

"Even four? Wow, totally unexpected." Tropius lowered the neck down to the floor "Mumble..nevermind, I have a good time here, especially with you, Dunsparce, and you, Aurorus, I would have liked to find the courage before this happened" extended the neck to kiss Aurorus, that dodged him "I know to sound cold but I don't want your kiss. Because I voted for you." She said only this. The gleamy glare of Seviper said it all. Tropius retired the neck feeling the blizzard in the heart and stone cold proceeded to fly over the plane. Nothing to say. He opened the wings and went away with the stream, fading in the wet pupils of her.

**// Vent //**

**"The alliance strikes again." Beheeyem commented calmly writing on his note book "At least the figure of Seviper isn't solid anymore and this opens a certain possibility to change the wind in this team. Also, I know you're in the vent somewhere, crying but also listening, Dunsparce..." and he teleported away.**

"One question." Anorith broke the silence created after the departure of Tropius "If you're here, Jirachi, who is driving the plane?!!"

"Deh, Vulpix of course."

"Fossil me."