A Negative Influence

## Anticipations

Chargestone Cave. A magnetic challenge that will electrify lot of braincells but watch out from the black out! Shock and suspense will be at max voltage.

## Prologue

The **Victini Venturers**  couldn’t believe to be in the V-Class for the second time in a row. This brought some peace and quiet in the general mood of the team after so many negative facts, even Seviper quickly forgot about her anger towards Aurorus, Tropius, and Beheeyem and enjoyed the new situation. Furthermore, the last two victories proved that her leadership was what Venturers needed from the beginning to shine, she was really proud about and decided she deserved to relax at the spa. Where she found Anorith and Gorebyss already in the thermal bath. “So, Seviper, what do you think of my methods of manipulation? Attractiveness is a weapon of mass distraction if properly used.” the pink eel giggled with fanciness “In fact, it was the key of our success, yesterday.” Seviper stiffed  “Yesss, I hate to admit but your sneaky sickening strategy worked. That didn’t change my opinion on you.” and coiled up for the sauna treatment.

Anorith spoke in the middle “Can’t you see, Seviper? Gorebyss is able to be more than simply the hottest beauty seen in over 1 thousand million of years, she has something we miss and could be the perfect fourth member of the alliance. C’mon! You can’t hide the fact she has what you miss, beauty and kindness, yet she uses it the way you use cruelty and mischievousness  to force pokèmon do what you want.” Gorebyss winked to confirm making Seviper to ponder about.

Her ally finished the speech “This is the reason why I have always told you to keep her in the game, she’s a precious source of sneakiness, if you finally accept her. We could be the S4 instead of S3.”

“Fine. She can join BUT I want her to struggle more ssssince now.” Seviper glowered at Gorebyss “Meaning that if she’s idle again, *she will become my dinner of the month*.”

“Ewww!!” Gorebyss hid underwater in disgust.

“Also, Anorith, the idea is yoursss….remember that.”

Anorith answered unimpressed  “I dare you try to digest an old armoured rock bug like me and tell how you feel after.” To which Seviper kind of agreed. “Right. Fair point.” Suddenly Inkay, who had put the cucumber slices on the ass instead of the eyes, purposed “Can I separate from your alliance, too? I’m not interested about.” Seviper twitched until she realized and refused at first, but later changed idea. “Fine, you can join, too, invertible. Only because in this way we have the majority.”

Inkay cheered “Hoora-ahem-noooo!” and sobbed soon after. “Sorry, I get confused sometimes. Whatever, I’m part of the 3S then, see you before. Eyb eyb!”

“Seviper….Are you sure we need that thing?”

.......

Tropius arrived at the bar, waving happily to Dunsparce and shyly to Aurorus.  Beheeyem? Nowhere to  be seen. “Hello there.”

“H-How are you, Tropius?” Dunsparce asked in worry.

“I’m perfectly fine.” He replied meanwhile a leaf of his body dropped dead on the floor. The floor of the V-Class was covered of Tropius’s leaves, he resembled a naked tree in the middle of January “Brrr, ops. Just got a little cold.” Shivered. Aurorus felt the guilt burning inside her frozen body “I apologise. I knew you can’t suffer the cold but I touched you uncarefully, thinking only about my good. I think I overreacted at the passion.”

Tropius prevented her from contiinuing “No, no need to apologise! I mean, cough, I liked the kiss, Chimecho I-I like you, no, I mean, Chimecho healed me the best possible and I LIKE YOU, AURORUS.” blushing, panting he confessed “Therefore don’t worry at all, I love you too, that was what I wished for since the first time I layed my eyes on you!” he blushed more with a derp smile “It happened. I’m happy. Oh-oh, did I say something idiotic in order to harass a pretty girl again?”

Aurorus blushed and shook the head, rubbing her neck on his in sign of love. Dunsparce gazed in commotion and asked if he could dare to leave them some time alone…she nodded. Left alone, the sauropodes ordered a drink and had another important occasion to talk seriously. Tropius was fully immersed  in the beauty of her, didn’t matter about his chillblained neck or his falling leaves, meanwhile Aurorus spoke “Now that we’re a thing I would like you answer a question:  how much you would be ready to have a future together?”

“Uh? A \*future together\*?” his heart jumped off the chest. “Ahem, I mean, I’m totally ready.”

“Good. Next. Even if I hid you a terrible secret, you would still love me?”

“Of course, chillbaby!” Tropius tried to slap himself soon after “Urgh, forgive my lack of manners here. Anyway, I will always be loyal to you in any case.”

“Hm-hmmm.”

The tropical pokèmon tilted the neck “Anything else?”

Aurorus eventually shook the head and shared her drink with the straw  “More ice?”

“No, I think I got enough.” Both laughed out for his joke.

.....

**Jigglers** and **Leviathans** were of a different mood, and not only because they had spent the night **all on the Tail of Losers** with only 10 safety seats for 13 pokèmon to fight for. Piplup and Lucario refused any social contact, Bagon prayed Ninjask once more again to teach him the art of flight and this one finally agreed, Oshawott flirted with Squirtle until the turtle remembered “The goggly thingies of Brogon! I was about to forget to ask Chimechanga if she found ‘em, man.” Squirtle rushed to the girl bathroom indoor where he had just seen Chimecho enter in  “Chimechanga? Can I enter or you’re naked???” the chime limited to grumble in agree meanwhile she was washing up her face, trying to washing up her tiredom. “I’m always naked, as you are, and all us are as part of the nature. Only humans dress clothes.” Squirtle stared thinkin’ about it “Luckily I have always a shell where I can cover my private stuff. Anyway, did you find the goggles of my bro?”

“Not yet, I have searched all the night meanwhile I took care of Tropius’s illness all over the plane but no avail.” Chimecho explained struggling to keep awake “I suppose they’re definitely lost or someone picked them. I don’t know…”

But Squirtle didn’t take it good “What? No, no, please, Chimechanga, you cannot disappoint me in this way! I counted on you as on a sister! Please, you have to save me, I’m desperate, the hot water is becoming cold WATER (=WC) for the guiltness.” He kneeled down in front of her, begging and keening “Don’t give up. My friendship with Brogon is in dange. You’re my only ray of light, can you save it? Can you? Can you? Can you?”

The wind bell got frustrated but granted his request eventually “I will keep with the research, actually I didn’t check the ventilation implant neither the Vip Class section.”

“A-ahhh! See? There’s still an hope.” Squirtle glomped her and smugged “Thank you, Chimichanga, really thank you, I knew you were the best. I can’t wait for this evening when you’ll give me back those goggles.” He zoomed away “Get to go prepare for the new day, this spyral tail needs to be greased every morning to be the chick-magnet, blink. Just remember: you’re da best!!! Leighter!”

Chimecho was glad to be finally alone, looked at herself in the mirror and sighed deeply: she was acting too kind for her health. The headache caused by Squirtle’s rants forced her to wash again her face and even take a long long shower.

Minun was couching in the seat, depressed. Rummaging over the events happened during his temporary leadership: the burning sense of failure, the guiltiness to have brought bad luck to the team with his pessimist approach, the sense of responsibility of Drifloon’s departure! The more he rummaged, the more his depression raised. “A-ah!” Lester exclaimed suddenly “I discovered the truth. \*EPIC POSE\* Drifloon’s accident wasn’t a fatality, her strap is damaged. This means only one thing: sabotage!”

“Sa-bot-age? Vrrzf.” Repeated Porygon 2 with a confused expression.

“Sabotage, really my quirky friends.” Rotom deducted  “Somebody must have planned to eliminate Drifloon. So did the worst mistake ever, because Drifloon wasn’t just my second best friend but a loyal Ghostbastards member: this soon-not-so-unknown pokèmon  will get soon the payback, ah!” continuing meanwhile looking for a table lamp for the interrogatories “I will separately blast each one of the Leviathans (even myself) with a series of burning questions until I’ll wreck the resistance of the culprit, and I warn you from the beginning that I can be more frightening than a truth machine with my ghostly electricity. Said this, Minun, you’re the first I put under the interrogatory. *Answer honestly to not get zapped*.”

“Oh, no, please..not now…really, I ain’t in the mood for these odds, Lester… argh, too late.“

“By the way I couldn’t find any lamp so I’m using Lampent.” Lester attempted to direct the ray of light right in front of his face like in a true interrogatory, but there was another problem “By the way, Lampent, how I can light you on more? Because this dim gloomy ray of light barely illuminates his eyes….”

The ghost lamp shrugged “I can’t be brighter than this, I’m supposed to be a ghost lamp that announces a slow consuming death.” Minun lost the patience “By the way it’s morning and we’re outside on the edge of the tail of a plane! You don’t need any additional light, Lester!!!” The chaos plasma shrugged saying “Clearly you have never practised this profession. The ray of light is an efficient system to increase the pressure on a criminal. Anyway I’ll renounce to it. First question: where you were when the turbulence started? Second question: where you were when it ended? Third question: when was the lasti time you talked with the victim?” Minun twitched much for Lester to raise the tension way more “I have solid suspects on you because it was Drifloon to address you all the fault of the defeat, she dismayed you as a negativity magnet who attracted the bad luck and that’s when you decided to take your revenge. I figured the whole scene and I reproduced it with the help of my best friend: Pory will be Drifloon, I will be you. Pay attention.”

Porygon 2, recolored in purple and yellow, simulated the anger of Drifloon and accused Lester “the Minun”:

“It was all your fault.exe! (FILE NOT FOUND) You brought bad luck to the team  (ERROR “”?””) Minun.”

“What? This makes no sense, by the way it’s cool, oh, wait, I’m Minun so forget the last part of the line. Ahem!” Lester Minun assumed a mad sinister look as soon as Poryfloon left the scene, resembling a psycho “*Therefore Mrs PokèDory thinks I will accept her critiques without any consequence? Muahahahah! How wrong. When I will finish with her, Drifloon won’t even manage to inflate anymore after having been bursted to death and hell. Zap zot kazam!Minun destroys Drifloon’s seat and with the power of his negativity casts out a turbulence from nothing!”* he then returned in himself “End of the reconstruction, special thanks to my invisible girlfriend Latias for the special effect of the turbulence. More or less this is what happened yesterday, impressive, eh?”

“AAAAAAAH! YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY!!”

“Uhm, not really. Maybe I’m driving you QUIRKY, but not crazy. Not yet at least.”

**// Vent  //**

**Minun escaped in the vent checking if Lester was after him, possessing the ventilation system, lurking in the air-conditioner, or possessing Minun’s body without his knowdlege “Do I have still the control of my paws and tails or it’s HIM who’s moving them? Anf, seems everything normal. Phew, finally some peace and quiet.”**

**“I can’t still believe Ninjask eventually agreed to train me.” Bagon didn’t pay much attention to him for the eagerness “The lessons start tomorrow!” The flux of contestants in and out the confessional was continuous but Minun prefered to stay anyway.  “A relative form of peace and quiet.”**

Plusle returned from the bath and immediately asked where was Minun, to which Lester and Porygon 2 both answered with an awkarding silence, especially after Lester had realized there was a big flaw in his theory: *Minun was never alone a minute to have the occasion to sneak on the Tail of Losers and do the sabotage!*

“Ah ah ahem! The case Drifloon is temporary postponed, I have also another mystery to solve. Zooom!”

“Vrrzz, I am the assistant!” Porygon 2 zoomed away too.

“What’s going on?” Plusle turned to Lampent.

“They depressed him even more than before with their stupid antics and he refuged in the Vent.”

The dry answer of Lampent hit Plusle “What?! My little brother, noo! I must do something to cheer him up, think about something, thanky wanky tanky you to have told me!” that darted indoor to organize a solution. A smirk appeared on the mouth of the wicked lamp, it turned into an open grin very soon and at the end became a jerky laughter: she was Ditto. . .

“She was all: oh, nooo, my little brothy was broken!? What? I was… better than the original for sure. The perfect intonation with extreme indifference and uncare. Ah, am I really this awesome imitator? Yes, I am, ladies and gentlemons. Are there still any doubts about? I’m a natural born actor soon going to Pokèwood, ah ah ah ah ah ah!”

Ditto returned to the pink liquid form and hid again before the next imitation.

## Episode

For once Jirachi did a decent land and the plane stopped by the airport. Victini was surprised “Ji, my valiant co-host, you seem a different pokèmon today! Way to go, continue in this way. I like this vividness.”

“Thanks, but it’s not a positive sign, I should always be…..zzzzzz.”

“The miracle sent by Arceus finished, I guess. Anyway, vvelcome all to the new episode of the **v**ibrant **v**ivid **v**ital and **v**ictinilicious Victini Victory Tour!” Victini started the introduction. Beheeyem was the last contestant he waited for and apologised “I didn’t figure the plane had arrived at destination because I didn’t hear the alarm of IMMINENT CRASHLANDING.” sarcastically of course.

“You also didn’t figure that….Whatever, I have no time to waste on a spacious head. The journal challenge is pretty difficult to understand and tests your cleverness and ability. Listen to me with extreme attention.” Victini led the three groups inside the cave known for the unique minerals that discharged the electricity permeating the area with a powerful magnetic energy. “Chargestone Cave is the daily settlement: this place emanates energy out of every rock, especially the giant rocks you see floating. The cave connects the airport city I can’t figure the name out at the moment (aka: blame the writer) to Driftveil City. It has three levels of depth that can be reached only using three suitable lifters.”

“Lifters in a cave? Pure Pokèlogic.”

“You’re a pokèmon too, alien.”

Victini paused to reflect if it was better to continue or roast Beheeyem on the V-cue. Eventually the professionality won over the istinct “These lifters are activated by a particular system of gears: Klink, Klang, and Klinklang. As you’re supposed to know they’re the Gear Pokèmon made of clock gears that rotate in a perpetuum motus.”

Lester amazed “Really? Let’s consultate the Rotomdéx to check: Klinklang, the Gear Pokèmon, one of the infinite quirks introducted by the 5th generation like sentient icecreams, deadly chandels, strange big headed egyptian aliens.”but a snarky Beheeyem interrupted him  to say “Nothing in the déx about a ghost fridge, a ghost fan, a ghost mow, wash machine or oven?”

“Hem.” Victini continued stoically “Pieces of Klink & company have been spread everywhere in the area, your task is collect all the necessary gears and assemble them exactly as in the origin, also keep them in perpetual movement, then bring them to the lifters and activate correctly: the first lifter requires Klink, the second requires Klang, the third and last needs the full power of Klinklang to activate. At the end the first team to get outside from the exit for Driftveil City wins. The last goes to nomination.”

“Obvious. Wow, this seems huge….ciaff! Again.” Minun smacked his back and removed a little yellow bug “What are these things? They keep attaching to my back and not only since I have entered..”

“Have you never seen a Joltik before?” Victini glimpsed two times “They’re spiders attracted to electricity that is their favorite food. Watch out from them, because they could suck the energy out of your Klink (& EVOs) stopping their rotation forever, and a non-rotating  gear is useless for the challenge.” He explained. “And they’re not the only potential harm: this is the habitat of the Tynamo family, Tynamo, Eelektrik and Eelektross.”

**// Vent //**

**“Electric bugs and leeches. Therefore we’ll need a repellent or an isolator?!?” exclaimed the negative rodent.**

**Anorith was more perplexed “Back to the Hoenn Era, I remember Electrike used to be a dog not a fish!”**

‘’’LEVIATHANS’’’

“Alright, the challenge looks really complicated this time.” Minun gave a dull look around and shrugged underwhelmed “But I guess  you have already a quirky idea to apply, so…go..for…it..I’m ready to follow your directives, Lester.” Rotom was about to sneak away at the first occasion and was dumbfounded when everyone turned to him  “Wait? I’m the leader again? Didn’t see that coming (this soon). So you’re giving up the leadership  already?” the rodent confirmed in annoyance “Yes, Lester. Don’t pretend to be surprised, at least. I know you have already a strange plan darting, fizzling, bouncing inside your braincells so go for it and stop. I give back the Leviathans under your control.”

“Ok, wow! Ehm… by the way can you give me some time to elaborate the idea?” Lester grinned the widest possible to hinder his akwardment.

**// Vent  //**

**He panicked out once have the certainty to be alone “I have no quirky idea this time, I can’t think anything yet I don’t want to kill their legit expectations on me. To be honest I didn’t even listen the topic of the challenge because I was too mentally busy collecting and linking clues about the Lampent and the Drifloon cases! Who dares to tell them at the moment?” laughed histerically and assumed a plastic smile “I’ll pose to know exactly what to do and ‘glom’ hope.”**

Meanwhile they waited for the journal Lestrange Idea, the other Lester Latias Leviathans scooted around  at the search of the gears, but they seemed to be lost and aimless without the overwhelming presence of  the leader.  “This search is pointless. Sigh. I’m doing this only for the delightment of all the Joltik of the cave, actually.” Minun removed one attached to the cheek and passed it to Lampent. “Here another one.”

“Got it.” The black o’ lantern took care of the bug showing it the flames of death “*YOUR CHOICE: FLEE OR DIE FOREVER*.”

“Iiik!”

“Another that chose FLEE..” Lampent tried to hid her delusion with a shrug, but failed. Creeping out her friend a little. “A-Anyway, thank you very much. Uh? What’s that? Can you help me?” Lampent illuminated the area a little better “Thanks. I found a g-ulp. No way, it’s a bag. Some adventurer maybe lost it.” Minun thought a minute, opened it and picked some items “Look! I have found a map, a compass, a…rgh..moulded sandwich, a shaver, a jigglypuff yodels compilation and torches for everyone. And more important a dozen of repellents! Fssst.”

“Sniff-sniff, STINK SOURCE: DETECTED.” Porygon 2 randomly pointed his nose at him “Deactivating all the sensorial systems in 3, 2…”

“Pffft. Ah ah ah!” Plusle bursted in laughters even rolling on the floor. Minun glared unamused.“Thanks for the support, sister.I really appreciate.” Plusle didn’t get the sarcastic tone and replied “You’re welcome, brothy! Ahahah! Anyway, see? You have done something good for the team! I’m so proud of you!!!” then glomped. The other twin blushed for both the satisfaction and the akwardment. She glomped more and more strictly “Ouch, okay, I’m cheered now. Plusle? You can let the hold. Please, this is getting choking, k-kay?”

“Not until you won’t admit you’re the best and get back the leadership!”

“What? No, no, I’m no more interested in that. Actually Lester is the suitable leader for us, because we’re special cases.” Plusle was strangling him with her bear hug at this point. “Agk! I’m the leader again! Okay!”

“I know I would have convinced you.” She winked.

“Like always..” Minun was just glad to be able to breath again “Aaaanf. Puff. Okay, okay, only a second…aaaaaaaaaanf. Ready. Okay, ehm, let’s go. If  none has nothing against it.” Lampent, Metang and Porygon 2 shook the head firmly. “Wow, I had no idea to be liked so much. Thanks for the appreciation. ”He dried off a tear and assumed the attitude of a leader “Since we’re in inferiority, I suggest to split in 2 mini groups by now. Me, Metang and Lampent go to explore the west area, the remaining group explores the opposite side.”

Plusle stared.

“….oh-oh.”

Plusle then was “?”

Minun was “!”

Plusle finally reacted “Whaaaaaat?!!”

“Urgh, it’s just temporary. Don’t overreact.”

“OVERREACT? We’re un-se-pa-ra-ble! Minun!! Forgot?”

“Absolutely noo. (*I could never have the chance, anyway*) My idea is to duplicate our possibilities with the split and whatever happens, we’ll communicate each others immediately!”

“How? With the walkie-talkie?”

“I meant our twinning bond of electricity…you know. We are able to communicate also through it, in a form of telepathy.”

“Ooh, I forgot that. Still…”

Minun had enough of that discussion “Still nothing. See you later with the gears, hopefully!”

“Announcement for the Leviathans: I finally planned my quirky strategy for this challenge! Remember the trick of the electric compass in the Ilex Forest? This will be similar, ah! I need again the main collaboration of + and – twins.” When Lester stopped to do the epic pose then realized there was none, and facepalmed at the end. “I knew I should have never let my oddmons alone. Yu-uuuh? Where are youuuu?Sniff*. A Repellent N° 51 scent mixed with electrons*. Terrible mix but Minun sure headed to the west zone.”

‘’’VENTURERS’’’

“Umpf, we lost Inkay already. If you look under the definition of useless you don’t find anymore Lunatone, you find her. Baaah.” Seeing Dunsparce getting soon depressed at the name Lunatone, Aurorus and Tropius were ready to punish Anorith for his insensibility. “Glom. Remember I’m the only one with handliness here.”

The same Dunsparce saved him “I-It’s fine, I wish to forget Lunatone forever but I can’t.”

Tropius backed up “You should not feel guilty for his disappeareance, it was an accident. I guess.”

Anorith phewed but he felt the eyes of the sauropodes on the back all the time. *Better think better before to talk.*

“A-ah! I found a piece finally.”

Dunsparce: “Q-Question: how many gears we’ll need in total?”

Beheeyem: “This the greatest mystery of the Universe. Klink is made of two single gears, Klang of a main gear and a minor , and Klinklang of three gears. 2 +2 + 3= elementary mathematic. Mystery solved.”

Dunsparce: “S-So seven?”

Beheeyem: “I can quit my mission here. There’s definitely cleverness on the Earth. Hooray.”

Seviper: “Cut this out or I ssslash you. Anorith, hurry up. What are you doing this difficult to pick a simple gear?”

Anorith grabbed the discoidal gear but this dragged him up with itself “What’s going on? Heeey!” an invisible force envelopped the pokèmon that floated in mid air “I’m flying?! Finally my feathers evolved into wings!  Eat this, Aerodactyl.” happy but  unaware of the Magnezone above him. Beheeyem explained “This is a magnetic zone, or a magnezone if you prefer. The natural electrostaticity generated by the minerals attracts the Magnezone that generate on their own the electromagneticity. They’re not usually here, I guess Victini sent an invitation to them in order to add more “”vividness”” to the challenge.”

Seviper scolded him and rushed “This iss uselessss knowledge, alienerd. Gimme back my gear and my tool, instead you basssstard!” but Magnezone ignored her and continued on his way.

“It’s useless until you don’t realize that they attract any metallic object. Gears are made of metal. Can you follow me?”

“**You’re saying that every Magnezone in the Cave could SSSTEAL the gears in the sssame way**.” Hissed loudly. “But I absolutely need that idiot and his pinchers most of all. Tropius, to the pursuit right now!”

“I’d like to but I can’t fly anymore without my leaves. I’ll have to wait they grow back.”

“SSSERIOUSSSLY?!!”

“Ehm. Unfortunately yes.”

“I-I can do little flights for about 3-4 minutes, Seviper.” Dunsparce purposed all of sudden “At least this is reported in the description of my species.”

“Ssseriously? You’re a snake and you can fly?”

“I-I have wings, little wings…”

“Right.” Seviper strangely smiled  “Then go!”

Dunsparce didn’t say this was the first time he used his wings, tough. He struggled to make them flap and eventually succeeded, taking off the ground. At the height of 5mm. “Flap, flap. I-I did it! S-Seviper, see?”

“Yes, and I ssswear this iss the most pathetic scene I have ever seen in my whole life.”

....

She shouted soon after “ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I need a true high-flyer, not thisss scum.  Shame on you!”

“S-S-So sorry.”

“He tried his best.” Said Aurorus. “Stop blame him in this way, you’re exaggerating with your rudeness!”

“Alright, Mommy Aury.”

Aurorus blanked out. “Sssorry if I hurted the feelings of your baby.” Dunsparce blushed in ashame. “Seriously, Dunsparce? When you’ll be able to fend for yourself?! Too pathetic, I ssskip forward. You can both stop here as much I care.” Tropius said he prefered to stay with them instead with her, too.

Dunsparce cried for her forgiveness  “No, p-please, I want to go with you, Seviper! I’m a true snake.”

“Show me that once for all.”

“H-How? I don’t know. Sob.”

“Sure not in thisss pathetic way.” The viper crept away do not turning back.

**‘’’JIGGLERS’’’**

Oshawott unofficially took the lead of the group. “Since Piplup is temporary undisposed, I will substitute her. You may not believe but I know how to assemblate gears very well, because my shell is also a carrillon and I regularly check and change the gears inside by myself.” She played on a little lullaby on her shell to give a demonstration.

“Wow, this is an \*adorkable\* trick, Oshahot!” Squirtle made her blush in pleasement, and pumped her belly. “I know really. I’m a full pack of surprises, afterall. Oshahahah! But let’s focus on the challenge and less on myself now. I know Unova as my shells, there’s not a single angle of my region I don’t know. So I know exactly where to go.”

Bagon agreed “That’s good to know, we trust you. Then lead us to the right direction.”

“Of course I will. Follow me.” Oshawott walked immediately into an electric web, getting shocked  “Bzzt! I-I’m kidding. Now seriously…!” she slipped on a mudpole and banged against one of the giant rocks, but found a Klink gear in return of the second shock received. “@shawhoopee I found one! I’m totally doing this on purpose for the sake of the team.”

“You’re my hero, baybey!”

“The female is heroine, Squirtle.”

“Oh you’re right, man. You’re my hero, heroine! Go on!”

In the meanwhile Ninjask decided to go search on his own without saying anything to them.  Only Bagon realized his absence and he also realized  “Where is Chimecho?”

Squirtle quicky answered “She got lost, bro.”

“But if we’re just entered how we could have already lost her?”

“Bah, I don’t care.” Drawled Lucario.

“None asked your opinion, in fact.”

Oshawott called her remained teammates together  “Over there. I found a true goldmine of gears, or better a **gear**mine!” Squirtle looked blank at her  “Gearmine? I thought it was called Germinie or Gearmany, and is it actually inside Unova? Wow, what a shock. I always believed it was in Urope!!” Oshawott faceshelled herself “In fact it is but I didn’t mean Germany! I meant  gear mine, a pun way to call a mine of GEARS! Can’t you really understand this simple concept?” The turtle replied  with a negative answer “Nope. But I can understand how **ott** you are when you get angry, my **hottie**.”

“Oh, YOU…..\*lovable moron\*. Ah. I love you.”

“Anyway, I don’t see any gear mine here.” Bagon pointed out in worry  “Only a mine of pain and thorns. How sadic from Victini to put the gears in between  a colony of Ferroseed. Ok. Oshawott, what’s the plan?” when he turned  Oshawott and Squirtle were focused kissing each others. In the background, Piplup was focused eating her liver instead.

**// VENT //**

**“Wow.” Bagon confessed his opinion about the current situation “I don’t want to be unfair with Squirtle and Oshawott because they usually rock, but I feel more certain to win when Ninjask is looking over the team, cuz he’s our secret weapon and the best of all. Without him, we aren’t the same therefore I hope he joins the group back soonest possible.” Shrugged. “ I know he’s looking for the gears on his own, but I prefer to have him next to my back. That’s it.”**

**Piplup frowned “They will soon realize how much they need me, it’s only a matter of time. Tsk-tsk.”**

“Ahem, Oshawott?”  Oshawott pushed Squirtle away immediately, swept off the awkardment of the moment and replied “The plan is simple: we sneak through them and collect the gears until they sleep. Easy.” Oshawott, Bagon, Squirtle and Piplup walked through the seeds  colony with extreme carefulness like they were in the middle of a barbed wire, trying to dodge the most thorns they could or to suffer in silence to not awake the spiky dummies: Oshawott did that from the beginning since she was the first to touch a Ferroseed. “We’re proud of you , Oshawott, you provided for another gear and you’re resisiting to the urge of scream!” complimented Piplup, hoping for an opposite reaction from Oshawott but didn’t happen. Bagon wanted to be of example and provided for the next pieces, without getting harmed thanks to his armoured skin.

“Osha-what? You are immune to the thorns??” Oshawott held the rage inside after having been thorned multiple times.

“Yes, because my scales are very resistant. Ops.” Bagon smiled akwardly “Sorry.”

“Grrr.. Ok, let’s recap. I think we already got enough gears to make a Klink together. Give all to me. Gnn..acc..why, WHY???GRRRRR. They don’t match at all!!!” she turned all red for the anger, much for the preoccupation of the teammates, well, of Bagon and Squirtle at least… “Uh-uh-uh. And this is only **two** gears, I wonder how much more difficult will be to make Klinklang for her.”

“WHAT ARE YOU SAYING, PIPLUP?”

“Nothing, darling. Only making a prediction on your leadership results.”

If they continued with this a little more they would have soon woken the whole colony or bad, so Bagon decided to save the situation “Lemme try. I do have some mechanical skills to back up, too. Hmm Klink ’re made of six dented gears…”

“How do you know?” wondered Oshawott.

“In order to achieve my dream of flying I have used plenty of machines and contraptions build by myself, like the mechanical wings or the steam jet pack powered by volcanic steam (so it worked only at Mt. Cimmer.) or else… a-ah!”

“Nooo, maaan! Don’t tell me you’re a **STEAM PUNK**!”

“A…?”

“Oh, man. I should have guessed that from the old styled pilot goggles, typical signal of steam punk status.” Squirtle blamed and slapped himself “It’s so uncool, old fashioned, the opposite of my gangsta modern style but I can accept it as an exception for our friendship. Yes, I can, bro.”

Bagon twitched  “Anyway, I discovered the matter of the problem: we don’t have 2 exactly six dented gears but only one so far. That’s why they don’t match together. The other gears we collected are problably fake or just useless.”

“**Fake?** USELESS?” Oshawott couldn’t held herself anymore “Rrrgh VICTIII-MPF!”

“Sssht!”

“Let’s just keep on the collection. Afterall, there are thousands of these ferroseed still to be checked. And the competitors are beginning to profile at the horizon.” Anorith flew quickly over their heads. “Ah Ah Ah! Whohoo! Screw evolution, I’m  flying without it! In your face, microdragon.” Bagon greeneyed.

Soon after Seviper and her team followed. “Sssstupid fossil, come back here. Snarl. Where did he go? Beheeyem, you ssslowpoke, get useful and find him with your mind…psycho…whatever… mental powersss. Hurry up or…”

“…I ssslash you! You mean this kind of mental powers?”

“Yesss. . .”

“Hey, you! You can’t cause mess somewhere else?” Oshawott snapped at Seviper “We’re trying seriously to get some gears here, so get away before I get angry!”

“Ssshut up or…”

“I ssslash you. Again.” Beheeyem read again her thoughts with more sarcasm. He missed a blow of her poisoned tail for a finger. “Anyway, you may be interested to know that I tracked the mental path left behind by our beloved hero Anorith. Maybe. Unless there are other pokèmon who wish to get Gorebyss in the *bed of the ocean* here.” Dunsparce and Tropius both shook the head (not so firmly) making Gorebyss amused.

“Finally. About time.” Seviper turned to Oshawott again and attacked her treacherously sending her KO. “If you jiggling suckers dare to disturb me again, I will tear you apart. Alssso, enjoy the little lesson I’m going to give you.” She used Screech and awoke the sleeping inhabitants, laughing evily and going.

“Yeah, you better creep away before I avenge my girl, snakey bitch!” Squirtle shouted and the colony attacked.

Piplup panicked “Idiot you. Who cared for the health of the psychopott when we had the priority to avoid this to happen?!? Ahhh! This would have never happened  under my leadership!” She bounced in the middle of the spinning seeds that sent her against the wall. 2nd KO.

“Enough.” Squirtle made his shades shining with the attitude“Let’s show ‘em how it’s a true spin.”

Bagon and Squirtle repeated their spinning number for the contest and knocked courageously against Ferroseed  which were unaffected and rebounded the hit. “Wowowowoooo.Too much spin@@@” “It clearly didn’t work...these things are DARN HARD. Oh-oh, incoming another attack.” A Ferroseed sped up at max spinning making a whistling noise in the air and launched himself in their direction.

Meanwhile the Venturers proceeded at the search of Magnezone, Anorith, and  the gears, if possible. Seviper’s satisfaction for her mischievousness was evident on her smile, but she was nonetheless nervous to have not found any of them yet. “Beheeyem, if this is another of your smartass jokes…you know how the quote finishes.”

“Totally. No jokes this time, you have to be patient.”

…

“I have been way too much patient! With you slow sslow ssslow- Wait a minute, where are Dunsssparce and the sneaky byss?” Everyone looked around frantically. However, they heard a shrill from the underground “I-I’m here! Anf. S-Sorry for the late, but I had difficulties to drag Gorebyss all alone. Pushing. And pushing. And pushing her tank.” Seviper hissed at the last part “B-B-But I have something to show you, S-Seviper. If I can.” The land snake put down the two gears collected with his drill tail and explained proudly. “I could steal them from the Jigglers because none notices me usually and that’s what I did for you. To show that I can be a true snake.”

However, Seviper was of a different opinion and snickered “Sssimply stealing two little gears doesn’t make you a true sssnake, so slow down your pride, land worm. But this isss a beginning, keep up in this way and maybe there will be an hope.” and her speech was enough to make him satisfied “Y-Yay! I promise I will continue on this way by now. I won’t disappoint you next time, I ssswear.”

**“I’m actually impresssssed.” Was Seviper’s Confessional Cut in the vent.**

Aurorus whispered to get the attention of her little pal “*You stole? You shouldn’t be proud. Seviper is a bitch, in a far worse way than Gorebyss, she’s manipulative, liar, merciless, something you’re not nearly alike. Are you sure you want to become like her, Dunsparce*?” asked with a serious look on the face. Dunsparce flailed but did not reply.

**‘’’LEVIATHANS’’’**

Minun stopped at the entrance of the first lifter “Alright, let’s count how many gears we have found so far: zero.” Sighed. “I’m such a terrible leader not only compared to Lester, in generally. Anyway, maybe Plusle and Porygon and…Lester (?) were more lucky and collected all the gears! Yes, and I am a Pikachu in blue. But, maybe, they did slightly better than us, that would still mean something. Plusle, can you hear me?”

“High and clear.” Answered her.

“Phew, what a relief. Ahem, I mean, good. How’s going there? We’re by the lifters, what about you 2 or 3?”

“I think we are nea…aaargh!”

Minun gasped “Plusle! Plusle? What happened? Oh, no, I knew that. I’m not only the worst leader on Earth but also the worst brother, I let my sister alone! Anf, gasp, whatcanIdonow???!!” Lampent shrugged “Stay calm.”

“Calm??? I-I try but I can’t! Sob, my..”

“She’s fine.”

“How you know?”

“Ta-dah!”

“Aaaah, a ghost!”

“Not really.” Lampent shrugged again “I can confirm  She’s fine and ALIVE.” Minun changed color and Plusle outbursted “I knew you would have regretted to have split, ahah! You can’t live normally without your bigger twin sister looking for you.”

“PLUSLE! Sister, don’t do that again anymore. P-lease.” The male twin held the breath and expired it gravely “I was sincerely believeing you could have been in a big trouble, this isn’t nice. Come on!”

“This little prank was meant to cheer you up, to be honest. Don’t you feel alive more than ever now? I want you to turn this adrenaline in positiveness, otherwise I’ll keep finding other ways…”

“No-no-no! I’m motivated now. Motivated sooo much, I want really to continue this, hooray! Groan.” Minun hugged her and then sat on the ground exhausted “Just….don’t…do…that…never..again…p.l.e.a.s.e.”  then all of sudden jolted up “Wait, what about Porygon 2? And the gears? Did you find any? AND LESTER?!! You let Porygon alone? With Lester around?? I feel an imminent panic attack but answer me.”

Plusle answered happily “I abandoned Porygon 2, found no gears, and didn’t meet Lester anywhere :P”

“O.o OK.”

“What’s the next plan, brothy?”

“Ehm, *probably crying over the misery of my life*... K-Kidding! Ehm, what about redoing  the search a little better?”

“Yes! Yuppi! I like your strategy. Going to search at my best!” she dashed backward. He let out a big sigh. “She’s really a nuisance.”

“Eh? No, no, my sister is just a little over the top sometimes.” Minun replied to Metang  struggling to feel certain of his words.  “All she wants is the best for me, I appreciate always her dedication. She’s made in this way: sweet and sticky like a candy. Haha. J—Just she shows it in a way that…ahem.. ahem..how to say? Crazy? Yes, my sister is a little crazy but who isn’t here? Hahah.. No, seriously, forgive her here, please. I’m sure to do the best with her in every challenge.”

“That’s the point.” Metang analyzed “She screwed our probabilities in every challenge with her obsessiveness for you.”

“That’s absolutely not true, Metang.”

“Right. 99%. She did correctly in the yesterday challenge.”

“Only…? No, there was also the first day, where we did pretty well together. In the second episode she forced us be statues, *in the third she forced me to do twice of the effort in the race because she couldn’t accept the idea to be separated for some ridiculous minutes*, then the 4th day….hmm-hmm.” Minun changed quickly topic. “It’s better to think at the current challenge. So let’s try again from the beginning! I promise to settle everything better this time. First of-“ a familiar voice interrupted him.

“A-AH! I have finally spotted my mazed and confused Leviathans! Don’t worry, I’ll fix and save the day with my new idea.” “As always.” Added Minun with resignment. “Exactly, ah!” Rotom epic posed proudly “Here’s the idea. Remember the electromagnetic compass trick? We’re going to do a variation of it: the electromagnetic detector! I’ll need again both the + and - twins plus an electric parabola and a detector that will be Porygon with his detector mode. By the way…where is he? And Plusle?”

“Ahem, about her..” Minun answered sheepishly “I sent her back to exploration and away from us. But I can bring her here in a second with the telepathic bond.”

Lester amazed “Telepathy? Wow, it’s like using the brain like a remot control, how many mental channels you get in generally?” continued “I would like to watch AnoriTV, Chimechannel, Inkaylodeon, but most of all Jirachi Network! In addition, not only just watch but be able to take the CONTROL OF THEM!! That would be freaking quirky!!! Ah.”

“…hem. I can communicate only with my sister, first of all. Second, please, quiet, I’m trying to link. But I can’t reach her electric charges anymore. Gaaaasp! What happened? Maybe this means she fell in a trouble!” Metang held Minun back to rationality “Don’t forget where you are. You are not in the open space where the charges can flow freely in the neutral air but inside a cave with a pitched magnet zone that traps and englobes your electrones.” Minun istantly relieved.  “Right, silly me. *It could also be one of her pranks again, afterall.* Anyway, I don’t know how you can really hope to find a parabola or a metal detector here.” Lester snapped in answer “Really? Hope?! Nothing is impossible and possibilities are limitless for me. ***I break the 4th wall every evening when I get into a pokèmon TV and exit out an human one***, for example. I’ll think about a variation of the variation.”

“So…”

Lester took the bag found by Minun and speculated on the inventory “Mumble…mumble…impossible mumble…”

“Ouff, Lester, deal with it.” Minun lost the patience “Not everything is possible to be realized at this world. Sometimes our plans are determined to fail, simple. You have to renounce to your quirky idea for once and focus on the easy solution: search again. Okay? I left you back the leadership, and this time forever, but follow my advise.”

The plasma poltergeist laughed histerically and shook the head “Shut up! You don’t know what you say! I see an interesting Jigglypuff Yodel CD with a player, a set of torches and repellents, a rotten sandwich, sure I and we can do something with these stuff! AHAHAHAHAHAH!” Lester zigzagged randomly for the craziness, making it clear that he had lost the rest of his sanity. “There’s always a quirky solutiooooon!)))”

Lampent, Metang and Minun sneaked far away from his sight. “Wait, wait for your ultimate leader! You cannot abandon me after all I did for you. Seriously! Really!! I can solve the problem! I am the definition of IMPOSSIBLE, got it? Leviathans, come back here!”

**//Minun: ditching Lester was the only reasonable thing to do. We’re probably doomed and things can only get worse and worst by now, but he has really passed the limit of insanity this time.**

“Then what we do?” Lampent questioned with her usual depression. “We’re three desperate souls wandering in the darkness of the cave in the wait of the END. . .of the episode…”

Minun touched Metang and scratched the back of the head  “Keep searching the gears, we can’t be this unlucky to find anything, right?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.”

“Lampent, I’m actually looking for some solace at the moment and you don’t really help in this direction.”

“What a view.” From the cabin of control Victini could see all the three teams and their misadventures, and commented “At the beginning they seemed to have a good alkemy but now all the teams seem three dysfunctional families and even none of them managed to get down the  lifter n°1 yet! I’m disappointed, I can’t see any shadow of true victors in this cast. Maybe it was a mistake to do this experiment with *common pokèmon*.”

….

“You can’t see me, dummies!” Bagon and Squirtle managed to escape from further attacks thanks to the lack of mobility of their enemies. “I would have really liked to count on Ninjask’s help.” Complained Bagon, ticking off some thorns. “But he’s justified being away, instead of Lucario that didn’t move a finger the whole time he was here. Selfish bastard.”

“Sgrunt, as I should. You caused the mess, then you solve that by your own. I had already warned last time that I would have not been your babysitter anymore, so leave me ALONE.”

“Hey, Bag, I can’t manage to wake up the gals! Back me up, I’m trying everything but they are still knocked out like kuckoos.”

“Have you tried with some water, too?”

“Dude.” Squirtle frowned “No time for joking. Where’s the water, here?”

“Ciaff. Seriously, man?”

“Of course I’m serious in this situation, buddy! My baby is fighting against the coma, same for Piplup.”

“Use your Water Gun, Water Pulse, Water Jet or waterever you have, I don’t care, idiot!”

 “Of course! Thanks for the suggestion, Luke!”

“DON’T THANK ME.” Lucario drawled in reply “NEVER. AND DON’T CALL ME “LUKE” NEVER AGAIN.”

“Grglgorgogorl ptù!” Squirtle used Water Jet on the girls and they finally woke up. “Did you spit on me? Oh my dear lord! This is so unpolite and GROSS. Piiiiiiplup! Piplup piplup piiiiiiplaaaap!”

“Ouch, it hurts. I WILL KILL SEVIPER FOR THIS!Tell me where she is, tell me!”

Bagon struggled to keep both the starters into themselves “We have another problem more important to solve: we lost all the gears collected.”

“Osha-WHAT?” the ott opened eyes wide “They also stole us. Those Venturers.” and growled. “Let’s go pick them up!”

“No. We’re wasting too much time for the challenge. Instead of getting revenge on Seviper and her Venturers, we must get advantage on them. I think to have realized they’re too busy with a Magnezone, better to leave them distracted and exploit their distraction to win.” Bagon encouraged the group with his speech and they returned to search and work with a better organization. Oshawott put back to sleep the Ferroseed with her carrillon allowing them to check for the gears in almost perfect safety (Oshawott’s klumsiness didn’t spare her neither this time) and they found two equal gears for Klink. Finally assembled Klink with the help of the more technic Bagon, Oshawott directed the team to the lifter with the help of the more clever Piplup and they unlocked the access to the second level.

“It works! Vrrrrr.”

“Finally. We are a level deeper than before, this means we’re in the lead. Eat that, Seviper!”

“Ops, but we forgot Ninjask upstairs in this way. However, he’s able to stand by himself. Ninjask is the least I expect bad surprises from.”

Squirtle looked over the glass : the walls disappeared progressively during the descent until it was utterly black. “This is like a scuba diving in the abyss, man, I can’t see anymore anything.” Then Bagon suggested him to take off the sunglasses because “It’s less illuminated, but not completely dark.”

“Diving? Abyss?” Piplup rattled. “I thought we were underground not underwater.” A strange source of light passed quickly by them floating in the air. “This cave is actually an abyss where only the strangest creatures live and swim. So it’s contemporary underground and underwater! Are you afraid for this?” Oshawott smirked at Piplup who dried the sweat quickly assuming her fancy attitude “If I dare to contraddict you, your statement is wrong: I’m not afraid, I am concerned.”

“What’s the difference, uh?”

“Tsk, there’s an huge difference, but you aren’t enough clever to understand it U.U”

“I understand that this fear of depth is the reason why you’re a sucky diver. ADMIT IT!”

“Never! B-Because I have nothing to admit, I’m flawless unlike you.”

“**ADMIT IT**.”

“….”

The penguin refused to talk more, sealing her beak.

“You’re not perfect. None is. I just want you to admit it but NOO! This is very mature but I guess this is what a true lady does.” Oshawott gave up “Fine, we’re arrived.”

“And we are arrived. Seviper, here’s your Magnet Zone. My job is finished.” That part of the cave was dominated by the magnetism pokèmon family at all: Magnemite, Magneton and Magnezone. Their magnetic activity generated a pitched gravitational zone that attracted every rock, gear, or other metal in the vicinance. Anorith featured the cathegory. He was trapped in the middle yet he couldn’t be happier “I’m floating, yahoo! I didn’t feel this alive and powerful by ages.”

Predicting Seviper’s words, Beheeyem explained “He can’t get out. It’s impossible he frees from there, even for the little cerebral cortex of a chtonian predator shouldn’t be difficult to understand that an abnormal concentration of magneticity is like a black hole and what do we know first about a black hole? Everything enters, never exits.” shrugged “I suggest to accept the idea that Anorith will stay with them forever and leave, there’s no force which beats the law of attraction of a gravity force. It’s science.”

“What about the law of attractivenessss?” Seviper grabbed and dragged Gorebyss out of the tank “Eek! I was doing my privacy, and don’t touch my smooth scales with your rough skin or you’ll ruin them.”

“It’s time you become useful, Gorebytch. Do what you’re made for. NOW!” hissed spitting on the face of the eel.

“You mean Attraction? Okay. *You could have asked with more politeness*.” Gorebyss wiped the face and  started to seduce using her siren voice. “Come to me, come to me, blink.”

“Pity they’re a genderless species that cannot be affected by your move.” He pointed out.

“Same you are supposed to be yet you gushed on Lampent, yesterday.” She replied with a little wink of malice “Also, I’m using Attraction on Anorith.” Smooched  “*My favorite Anorith.*” Anorith’s goggly eyes goggled to the edge of the explosion, he felt attracted by an even more powerful force than magnetic and struggled epically to reach it “Gnnngh, I don’t want to fly anymore, I prefer \*THAT.\* So out of my way floating cucumbers, if you don’t leave me with the goods, I’ll free my self with the bads: **Smack Down**!” His hit caused Magnezone to nosedive down the ground  breaking through the magnet zone. “Gorebyss, I’m here, my lov-!” but Seviper splatched him under a rock before he could get to his love “Welcome back in the Victini Venturersss. Now assemble the gears, you have no excuses, you have *all the pieces you need now*, move it!” the pieces she referred were of Magnezone, that she promptly finished.

**// Vent  //**

**Dunsparce: “S-Seviper…you killed.”**

**Seviper: “It wasn’t a contestant, so? This fact give you problemsss?”**

**Dunsparce: “But it was an innocent, in fact he had nothing to do with the show.”**

**Seviper:  “It chose the wrong day to be on my way: I was seeking for gears and the thing had them. Ssstop the complaints, you’re such a fake snake and I’m dissssgussssted.”**

**Beheeyem: “What a news Seviper that killed off some random pokèmon for her own pleasure! Now to the serious topic, how could they break a phisic law of science in that way? Mmmh. I don’t find a rational explanation for the event. As I can’t for many other events I’m assisiting since I am on this mud sphere. (The Earth for those viewers not clever enough to get the metaphore) ”**

Anorith unwillingly accomplished the orders of the boss and disassembled Magnezone, sort of. He didn’t obtain any gear suitable for Klink but lot of pieces for the evos, especially the very important horizontal disc for Klinklang that was of the right dimension. Of course, he did this under the instructions of an expert. Beheeyem: “Guess who?”

Eventually a Klink was assembled using the gear found by Anorith and the gear stolen by Dunsparce that matched perfectly. They took the lifter soon after  “Maximum capacity: 100 kg.” Anorith read on the target “So scram, sauropodes. Your heavy weight together is certainly over the limit and I don’t want to risk. Vrrr.”

“T-They could always take the lifter after us.”

“Nah. They’re useless and I want to bring Klink with me when we’re arrived downstairs so I recycle it for Klinklang later. With the fossilization I kept my grey matter perfectly intact for ages, afterall.”

“Together the sassiness.”  Dunsparce added in a whisper.

“Là. Whew.” Minun put the Klink inside the machinery with relief “I can’t believe we did it. I mean, we captured a real Klink and only needed Lampent to “convince” it to help us for the cause: so easy! Then Plusle is right when she says there’s always a chance to achieve the target. Speaking of Plusle, I wish she would be here….ahahahah! Joking. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s nice to have some time on my own. I can have all the time to reflect in peace and quiet without her. Ah\*. Lampent and Metang, thank you, you’re so silent and calm for my chordes. I’m appreciating your company.”

Lampent shrugged while Metang studied a floating rock. Minun harassed “Ops, I wasted time with my blabs. Let’s go finally down.”

“Vrrrr. Welcome on the lefter. Where the music is not the usual boring kind.”

“Cool, even if I like the lounge relaxing music they play on the lifters.”

“That’s why I’m a *lefter*.”

“The right word is lifter….wait a minute, I’m talking to an inanimate object! That replies me?!”

“It’s lester, I mean, lefter! Ah, okay, let’s redo it properly. I’m a lifter possessed by Lester!” Minun screamed in terror “Sigh, I couldn’t find any other original idea to find the gears. Therefore I decided to activate the lifter personally! You forced me when you backstabbed.” Lester explained shutting the doors automatically “By the way, I forgive you. Let’s say that we had some quirky incomprehensions and I return to be happily your leader by now. Get ready , I’m nothing alike a normal lifter, cuz I descend at the speed of plasmaaaa!”

“No-no-no. Lesteeeeeeeeeer!!! Why? Why? Why!”

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

“Don’t worry, Minun.” Lampent  solaced “You get habited once you have died for the first time.”

“O-Ok, Lampent, if you’re my friend, don’t solace me anymore.”

“….I tried.”

Back on the V-Plane, Chimecho was still looking for the missing goggles. “Goggles…goggles…where are you? Yawn! Mmmh. I searched everywhere, even inside the luggages of the contestants, but I couldn’t find them. But I did a promise to Squirtle and I never break a promise. Zzz…eh? Who’s in there?” a shadow appeared on the wall and sauntered away, she rubbed her swollen eyes “Mmmh. I’m too tired that I’m starting to have visions. *Even if I perceived a presence before.*” Chimecho continued the research but again she was certain to not be alone. “Ninjask, I recognized you now.”

Ninjask immediately blimped near her “Remarkable. Only a pure soul is able to see through the misfit of a ninja.”

“Only a pure soul can see through a dark one.” Chimecho retailed back coldly. “Why are you here?”

“Why you are. It’s the second challenge in a row you skip.”

“Because I’m too kind.” Chimecho yawned in annoyance “I mean this is not your business.”

“Why so aggressive? Why on defensive? I’m just doing some questions, the same questions the majority of the teammates are doing at the moment.” The ninja fly whispered in her ears “*They don’t trust you anymore.*”

The wind bell stopped. “Then they’re wrong. They shouldn’t trust YOU.”

“I know already what you’re looking for, Chimecho.” Ninjask tossed her the goggles of Bagon “I found them yesterday when I saved Bagon from falling, they were officially outside the plane, pending on the wing. Bring them back to the owner, you have sacrificed enough of yourself for their research.” Chimecho didn’t trust him and checked carefully the goggles before to accept them.

**LEVEL II OF THE CAVE**

The second floor of the cave was of a darker blue and even the electric sparks sauntering between the minerals were blue, making the place kind of strange, alien. . Piplup was frightened inside but she limited her shivers  in order to keep her dignity safe outside. The dim light made it difficult to have the necessary visuality, they were maybe wandering in circle but they couldn’t know. “We can’t continue this task without a proper light.” She lamented. “It’s too dangerous. Ah, if only one of you could know the use of Flash.”

“You keep repeating that since we’re arrived, sgrunt. You’re seriously getting on my nerves.”

“Then find a solution, Lucario, if you’re able instead to complaint by your own AS USUAL.”

“Bah.”

“Have an idea.” Oshawott collected some rocks and rubbed them to cast a spark, but instead of fire she obtained a shock “ZAM! Not fair, I watched this trick on TV and it always worked in the movies! What did different?”

“You explained before this cave is made of special minerals that absorb the electric charges. Maybe this is why they cannot be used to light on a fireplace and instead they discharge electricity.” Oshawott listened and followed the speech of Bagon trying to fix her jolted hair using the shell like a comb “Got it. Then, what can we do? Uhm. I know! Capture a Tynamo.”

Victini put the screen on stand by. Shocked. “Capture a Tynamo? Did they realize they have a complete other pokèmon to find or make? This is getting ridiculous, what a bunch of losers unable to focus on the victory!” The host lied on the chaiselongue for the desperation “This will get forever. I’ll eat my macarones for consolation. Munch, crunch. Mmmmh, macarones, you are my only source of satisfaction.. I should make you contestants in a future season instead of these pokèmorons.” Vulpix hopped on him licking his face with affection. “Ah ah! Vic, let’s say you’re my second satisfaction in life. Okay, time to see the rest of the episode.”

“Capture a Tynamo?” Bagon repeated “How to do that?”

The ott smiled with confidence “Like fishing, but without the water.”

“Sounds coolio.”

“Of course, I always fish with my bare paws so it’s only a matter of tempistic.  As soon a Tynamo appears we catch it and trap it inside….inside…inside..” Oshawott glanced all around “Inside anything made of glass and we’ll have our personal lightbulb. I know Imma a genius but clap the same, don’t be akward. …**WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR THIS CLAPPING**?!!”

“Clap clap clap!”

“Thank you, oshahah, thanks so much I’m almost blushing.” She returned serious soon after “Go find a glass made object!”

**//Oshawott: “Ohhh I love to give orders! They’re following my directions for today, that means I’m naturally born to be a leader and I didn’t know until now because I have never been given the opportunity. Grrr. It was always my big sister to lead. But she’s not here this time, I’m free to shine, I’m the one who takes the claps and cheers for once. Mwahahahah!”**

“I found it, ottie!” Squirtle returned with an old can of *Poke*.

After a bit, it was again Squirtle to find something, or better, to think about something  “The bowl  of Gorebyss! I’ll conquer and bring it to my ottness at the cost of my same blood and sweat.” He lurked the Venturers at the exit of their lifter, then.

They arrived a minute later. Anorith was the first to get out and was striked down easily with a single blow, Beheeyem was the next target but teleported before Squirtle could do his move “Yes, flee, genderless buddy. This is the best thing to do when Berserk Squirtle is in da house! Ouch.” He was slashed out by Seviper, the third in order who had assisted to the previous attacks and waited the right moment to hit. The black reptilian came out the lifter and trapped him in her spires, preparing her poisonous bite but he protected his sensible parts inside the shell right in time “Crunch. Noo! I had already lost a tooth in the first episode.” The turtle slipped from her grip exploiting this distraction and lifted up Gorebyss “Excuse me Miss Byss, but I gotta borrow ya’ home for a bit. Out, quick.”

“Hey, put her down immediately!” Anorith striked back revived by the jealousy.

“I only want the bowl.”

Anorith was about to attack when Seviper shouted to stop! “Ssso you want only the bowl? Which is the aim of this sssuicidal attack?”

“If I can’t revenge my girl I want at least to satisfy her desires.” He answered proudly, explaining “Oshawott wants to catch a Tynamo to have all the light we need, but she needs a can where to keep it lika a lightbulb. That’s the plan: using the bowl of Gorebyss.” Everyone was confused by this explanation, however Seviper agreed  “You can have it in exchange of the gears you have found otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“Eh?”

“The gearsss you usssed to activate your lifter, I sssuppose. I want them.”

“Ah, right. Wait, you think imma an idiot?” Squirtle smugged “First gimme the bowl.” Gorebyss shrilled “No! No! How I can survive without my water? Also this place is full of electricity, supereffective against my type. Don’t dare, agh, Anorith my dear, do something!”

The viper ignored both her and Anorith and poured out all the water together Gorebyss, with infinite pleasure. Squirtle nodded “A deal is a deal. Take the gears. Oshawott, Bagon, gang, look what I got!”

“Eek.” Gorebyss gasped starting to have convulsions like a Magikarp “How could you, bitch! I’m dying, I’m dying! Here so dies the beauty and the dauntiness of TDVVT and the whole world.”

“No, Gorebyss, look at me! Remember? Evolution: I born in the water, I survived on the ground. You can do the same!” With bloody eyes and the first sympthoms of dehydration, the pink eel grabbed the anomalocaris and let out a big shriek “I caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan’t! I NEED WATER. Got it?! Then go find me another tank before I die if you love me!” Anorith blink-blinked  feeling  clueless. “Urgh, you’re asking me to do something impossible.”

“I beg to differ. Actually, you could live here in tranquillity.”

“Save your sarcasm for the time after my death, alien.” Gorebyss huffed and puffed angrily.

The Brain Pokèmon shrugged “The abyss of Hoenn is the habitat of your and Huntail species and it’s deep about 5-6 metres. At this depth the percent of oxygen is minimal at max pressure. Unlike in the ocean, this pressure is exercised on your body from every direction in a perfect balance, therefore you’re in a condition that makes you swim in the air more than in the water. Very fascinating.”

“S-So?”

“Consequentially Gorebyss and Huntail can survive in a habitat with no water if it has the same condition.

The Chargestone Cave reaches a depth of 6 metres and the magnetic activity increases the gravity but this gravity force comes from left, right, down, everywhere : that’s the reason why there are floating boulders. They receive the push of the pressure from each direction at the same time and this causes the levitation. This is also the reason why a fish called Tynamo and his evolution family found here their ideal habitat despite the lack of water, and  eventually mutated until to become a pokèlogic oddity.”

“Therefore Gorebyss can ssshut up and ssstart to move her pink ass. End of the speech.”

“Still…pant. Uff. Gggn. This is soooo unfair. If I get zapped I will burn my splendid fin, if I get scorched I will ruin my smooth skin.”

“And if I get tired of this, I will have my dinner.”

**LEVEL III OF THE CAVE**

Breaking through the second floor the “Lefter” landed directly on the bottom of the cave with a terrible impact. Minun heartbroke soon after. “Din-din! The last floor of Chargestone Cave is reached, thanks for your choice to descend with my quirky company instead of the normal ones.”

“C-C-Choice?” the negative mouse was attached to the anti-panic lever of emergency and refused to leave it “I didn’t choose it, none did! Lester, it was only a choice of you and you skipped on our opinion. Where did you bring us? It’s utterly black.” Trembled.

“I brought you directly to the bottom part of the cave without the need of Klang, Leviathans. This means we’re ahead the rivals, we have only to assemble a Klinklang, and we’re going to win, ah! \*EPIC POSE\*” the red ghost got out the control panel  and tossed him the bag of the adventurer “By the way, my initial idea is still realizable if you collaborate, and trust me, this is the best thing to do.”

“Ah, fine. We have no other choice.” Minun checked “Where this magnet comes from? I don’t remember there was one in the inventory.”

“I lent one from the corpse of a Magnezone. Long story.”

“Okay…”

“I’d like to know the details.” Lampent almost smiled while speaking but quickly resumed her original attitude, shrugging with indifference. Lester mimicked to her “I’ll tell you later.” Then he finally explained the idea.

“Remember the electromagnetic compass? This will be similar…but I have already said that, let’s skip on the new part then. We’ll build up an electromagnetic metal detector! Minun will be magnetized with the bipolar magnet and attached to Metang with a wire: the electrones attracted by the positive polar of the U-magnet will flow out and travel  to the metallic body of Mr. Bionicrab charging it of negative energy, and this energy combined with mine will attract every piece of gear, Klink, Klang, METAL, IRON, ALUMINIUM like a vacuuuum!!!”  span “Isn’t that majestic, eh? Modestly, none has my unique kind of thinking.”

“And ego.” Minun scratched the back of the head “Ehm, so… How many vote NO for this idea?” he raised the paw together the other members.

“What the quirk? Come on, you can’t really be serious! This is the best plan I ever planned and you say a platitudinous NO?”

“More like a democratic no. Lester, the fact you’re the leader doesn’t mean this team is ruled by a monarchy.” Minun explained rolling eyes “We’re all equals. I understand you want to be always the different, the most original one, and you really put yourself always in the challenges but, seriously, an electromagnetic metal detector? This is sci-fi. We have already followed one of your ideas and didn’t go well.” Lester glowered at him “It’s not SCI-FI, by the way.” And left. “I’ll show you, lord of the normality and the skepticism!”

“Lord of the normality…and the skepticism?”

“And of the platitudinous! I almost forgot. Now, arrivederci. Zoom.”

“Actually, the idea of a metal attractor wasn’t  useless.” Metang took the word “However, Lester was his usual overthinker convoluted and came out with this oddity. I purpose an efficient alternative: minerals. I did an accurated search and discovered that the true source of the electromagnetism are the minerals that compose this cave: magnetite, nichel, cobalt and iron. These materials capture the magnet zones of the ground (leys) and gets magnetized permanently because of the cold temperature, their magneticity enters in contact with the bodies of the iron pokèmon inhabitants and their electric zones causing the discharges.” Minun listened to in awe, doing his best to not squeal  “Getting to the core of the matter, my idea is to use your electric zone to individuate a suitable mineral and link it to our magnet in order to make it way more POWERFUL.”

Minun eventually squealed with a little voice. “Miiiiiiin! He is the \*perfection.\*”

“Thanks.”

“Woah ops! Ehehehe. Ignore the last quote, I mean, I am too akward.”

“It’s fine. I have two electronic brains: the perfect cleverness. Therefore your compliment is correct.” Meanwhile Lester spied the whole scene shifting the eyelids for the envy  “Also, Minun, you maybe never realized that the telepathy you have with your sister is just a matter of electric camps and not a true telepathy, you’re not “bonded” because you’re twin, you’re bonded by your electricity and species. You are both electric mice, a normal mouse perceives every movement and is capable to project a mental map of the surround, an electric mouse not only should do that but also is advantaged by the ability to perceive the electric zones emenated by the other beings surrounding it. **But only the electrones flow in and out the zones, that means you’re the only one who can do that.  You must exploit this immense power in this occasion!**” The other twitched  in shock “I didn’t know to have this potential. I never tried. Repeat me, Plusle doesn’t have it? I’m the only? Not even Pikachu, Pichu, Emolga or I don’t know, Dedenne? Wow.”

“Your species has endless possibilities none else has on this world, Minun. The Pokèdex never told you anything than your ability to match with Plusle and be the team supporter. There’s a lot more for you alone.”

“Oooh. Ahem, okay, no more delays. I’m trying it immediately!” the yellow and blue mouse focused all his senses on the electric zones spotting several minerals in the darkness. But also spotted something else, something huge. He opened the eyes again, smiling “Double wow. It was a sort of mystic experience. I felt one on one with the background and I could see my negative charges mirroring on the walls all around and on the body of Metang and somebody else.…”

“You did enough. Excellent work. I tracked the path of the electric charges directly from your mind and I know where are the minerals and the exit.”

“The exit, too? I haven’t notice it.”

“I did because I have the fastest learning process that makes me able to analyze and save every detail at contemporary.”

“Metang, you’re a super genius. I wish to become like you one day.”

**Meanwhile, the Jirachi Jigglers…**

“Almost there…almost there…”

“Tynamo.o?”

“Catched!”

Oshawott exhibited the tiny fish with the pride of a predator that has just catched the prey of the day.

“Wohoo, this is ma’ girl, maaan!”

“We have a lightbulb now.” Tynamo suddenly accelerated slipping from her hands “HEY!!” she ran to it and caught it again but the eel this time didn’t simply flee and dragged her with itself “How a tiny thing like that is able to do such a thing? Oshaaaaa! But I won’t let you go, do your worst.” Challenge accepted. Tynamo boosted away rocketing and zigzagging pulling the ott through a series of obstacle and her friends that she couldn’t miss “Bonk! Cronk!” Skronk!!! Stop it! Oh-no.” Tynamo jolted in the middle of two Ferrothorn without getting harmed by their thorns thanks to his size, on the contrary Oshawott remained stuck.

“Uuuh. That hurts like hell.”

“Worse for her.”

“Lucario excluded, let’s help her immediately.”

“Sniff, would you like to quicken, please?” she whined “**This is the most painful experience I lived in my own life, and the most embarassing! I can figure out my sister Dewott watching me on TV and laughing…**”

Bagon, Squirtle and Piplup pulled her by the tail all together but they didn’t obtain anything than annoy Ferrothorn that whipped them away.

“Auch. Didn’t see that coming.”

“Let’s try again.” Squirtle was the first to stand up, the eyes on fire “Leave my girlfriend, spikydummies!” He launched himself as a bullet and rammed against the iron barbs using Hydro Pump, Oshawott at the same time used her Water Jet and the two moves combined gave her the necessary push to free herself. She hugged Squirtle soon after and  kissed him passionally. “Thanks thanks thanks!”

The Tynamo idea was eventually discarded after that episode.

Since that the four Jigglers focused on the true challenge: they explored the area, collected the gears they found in the way and Bagon and Oshawott collaborated at the making of Klang. “We have a little Klink gear and a big one, but they don’t match without the third gear. It presumably goes in this fissure with the sign of six dents.”

“So it’s another Klink gear. But, Bagon, once we have assembled the full gear, how we make it have a perpetuum motum?”

“Good question. It should activate by itself in my opinion. Otherwise a little spark of electricity will be necessary, and once the main gear starts to move it will start the perpetuum motum, still in my opinion.” The dragon hesitated “But, I don’t really know, it’s the first time I work with living gears.” The other nodded in agreement. “Squirtle or Piplup, go back to the lifter and take the Klink we used for the first time.”

“About that klinky gear…ooopsie. I think I gave it away to the Venturers. In exchange of the bowl.”

Oshawott changed expression “WHAT DID YOU DO?!!”

“Hurry up, Anorith.” Seviper pressured on the ally that was having lot of difficulties with the making of Klang “You have all the piecesss. How much difficult it can be?!”

Anorith replied immediately “Hey, snake. Do you remember I have been blocked in my fossil for ages and ages and I passed directly from  the Cenozoic to the XXI century? They had yet to discover the fire when I fossilized and you pretend I know how a clock gear works? Fool. Why don’t you make the alien Noah do that? Oh, wait, maybe because he ditched us at the first right occasion! Then, shut up and give me the time to understand how to assemble this.” Seviper simply gave him a death glare but waited. “BEM will pay for thisss delay.”

Dunsparce helped Gorebyss carrying her for little traits AGAINST SEVIPER’S WILL  AND AWARENESS. They had been sent together by Seviper with the task to explore the new level and find the second lifter. “Thanks, Dunspy, you deserve a kiss for your kindness.”

“U-Uh it’s not really necess….! \*\*\*” he turned all red.

“Just a little reward, don’t take it with seriousness.” Gorebyss giggled.

Akward, Dunsparce fastened the pace and knocked on something metallic: the lifter n°2! “S-Sevipeeeer! S-Sevipeeer! I-I found it!”

“Excsssellent.” As he eagered Seviper quickly rolled eyes “You just did the task I assssigned you. Tone down.”

“Y-Yes, Seviper…sorry.”

Anorith seemed to have finally understood how to make Klang and he, Seviper and the others went in the lifter. Before they could activate it, the Jigglers striked back attacking all together. “IT’S PAYBACK TIME, SEVIPER! YOU AND YOUR CRONIES WILL REGRET EVERYTHING YOU DID SO FAR, GRRR.”

“Do you wanna your bowl back, miss?”

“Give me my bowl back. I hope you didn’t crack it, it’s very expensive.”

“Thanks for the lend, none can say that Squirtle doesn’t pay a pawn.” He tossed the bowl to Gorebyss but in a way that she was trapped inside it, upside down. “!”

Bagon and Oshawott ganged up on Seviper while Squirtle easily defeated Dunsparce.

“I warned you already, jiggling losssersss. Now no more lessons, after I’ll finish with you, you won’t be able to learn anymore.” Seviper used her Glare to immobilize the opponents.  Then examined them one by one rummaging “Who to eat first? Maybe the psycho ott, or the old penguin, or the dumb turtle, or the tiny dragon, or all together? Ssslurp. Fine, I’ll ssswallow all of you in a single bite.” The dark viper enlarged the big mouth with an hungry look on the eyes. That was the prey of the month, or better, the PREYS.

“Lucario, help, do something! Bah, useless to count on him.”

Seviper launched on her preys but an invisible shield bounced her away. *Protection*. “Chimecho!” Ninjask flew after her and casted out a Shadow Ball “And there’s Ninjask, too! Where have you been, guys?” Chimecho didn’t answer and used the sound of her chime to heal the group from the paralysis.

Victini was cheering in the video-room  “Finally some vibrancy, some valiancy! It was about time to have a true fight. There are gonna be true fireworks, gnam.”

Seviper spat with rage “You did the worst missstake of your life. Ninjask, I’m sssick of you at this point!” used Sludge Bomb aiming at Ninjask but he was too fast and dodged all her hits, she seethed for the rage and tried with her best attack “Poison Tail!” and succeeded. But soon realized to have aimed at a substitute. “Sssshit. Where are you, coward? I’m also sick of your ninja games. FACE ME!”

“Agreed.”

Ninjask showed up on her face, teasing her. He used Buzz all of sudden forcing the viper to coil up in pain, retiring in herself “My earssssss, noooo, ssstop it! I can’t stand this sound.” Everyone was astonished.

**“First time since the competition has started I saw Seviper in serious difficulty.” Commented Dunsparce in his Confessional cut scene. Before he could say more Seviper appeared  in bad conditions but still flaming on fury “I never forgot my fights with Zangoose and the scars I keep are an excellent memorial. I got many new scars after this fight and *I won’t forget any of them when I will take my revenge.*”**

“She’s harmless. It’s our unique occasion!” Oshawott scallop bladed the viper followed by Squirtle, Bagon and Piplup’s attacks, Ninjask harmed more with a combo of Shadow Ball and X-Scissor and Chimecho finished with her psychic powers supereffective on her poison type.

“I barely believe we beated Seviper! Yahoo!”

“Ah! Congratulations. Celebrate as much you want but I have actually activated the lifter.” Anorith swayed exhibiting Klang and putting it into the mechanism, descending down. “Anorith saved the day of the Venturers again.”

“I don’t agree, sgrunt.”

“Lucario? What the hell are you doing here, mutt?” Anorith looked for the escape door then resigned to his fate and retreated into the armour plated shell “Don’t hit too hard, I’m a living fossil, afterall.” The opponent looked at him with dismay then glanced at Chimecho and muttered, calling the lifter back to the 1st floor and waiting for the entire team to get in. “I have nothing to say, just make this thing descend because I don’t know even how I managed to get it up, grunt.” Anorith was then simply tossed out with a kick by him.

Oshawott gained back the lead “Come on, Jigglers, let’s go to the last level!”

“Yeeeees!”

**LEVEL III**

Metang said everyone to stop in front of a big mineral at the bottom of the cave that sparkled in the darkness for the high voltage “This is what I was looking for all this time. Lampent, overheats it with your fire, when the mineral is red hot it will be your turn, Minun.”

“Okay. Sure!”

“The negative charges will penetrate and generate the supreme rho (resistance) that at the contact with the U-Magnet will generate a chain reaction of gravity. GET READY.” As Metang approached the magnet to the rock this emanated a powerful energy that resucked to itself everything metallic in the nearby: Klink, Klang, all the iron pokèmon around were captured by the magnetivity, and the same Metang was attracted. His body melted down at the contact with the mineral and all that metal fused together in the process and mutated progressively, the surface became more steady, the arms were duplicated, the color changed being bleached by the heat getting silver metalized and a big cross grew on the head giving him a grimer look.

“Gasp, M-Metang?!” Minun panicked, but the hollow laughter of Metagross reassured him about his liveliness “What happened exactly? Double gasp, you evolved! Ehm, can I ask how do you feel?”

“I feel  more powerful, I feel more clever, I feel  ALMOST INVINCIBLE. To answer your question.”

**// Vent //**

**“RAH AH AHR! The plan worked perfectly as calculated. I accelerated the evolution successfully. ” White Metagross destroyed a tube of the vent with a single claw and used the brain waves to twist it “This is not yet the power I want to unlock, it’s the beginning. When I will be ready to unleash my true inner power at full none will stop me and after the victory I will make the wish to become the most powerful pokèmon ever. More powerful than a legendary, being the cleverest mind of the world, I’ll be unstoppable, unshreaddable and the next Arceus at the head of the Universe.”**

“I test my new powers right now.” Metagross suddenly turned back and  used Earthquake scaring the hell out of Minun and Lampent  “Argh. Metagross what are you doing?!!” the levitation saved Lester in the nearby of the quake but the true target was IT. A giant exemplar of Eelektross that dodged that terrible blow thanks to the special ability. He carried a bunch  of gears in the mouth, presumably the rests of his recent  preys. Minun jaw-dropped seeing the super eel fish “I-Is that the extra presence I perceived before? I didn’t expect such a thing.” Eelektross took his turn to attack, discharging out the electricity while tackling down Metagross, but the mecha-spidercrab blocked him with easy. It was now again his turn to attack and he increased the gravity forcing the abysmal lamprey to walk on the ground. After a rapid calculation of the effects of the next move, Metagross loaded his full energy and casted out an Hyper Beam against the minerals that reflected it on the ground causing a giant fissure that trapped Eelektross in the abyss. But Metagross grabbed the neck of the eel and forcily opened his mouth to get the gears before letting go to his doom.

Minun and Lester stared in shock.

Metagross’s full plan was almost done. The 4 Leviathans directed to the last lifter with a Klinklang perfectly assembled and revived by the electricity of the two electric monsters. But all of sudden they were all reached  by Porygon 2…

“SOS. Bip biribip! I finally found you. This is a red code.”

“Porygon 2, my quirky friend, what happened? And where have you been all this time?” questioned Lester.

“No time to explain. This is an e-MERGENCY, Lester. Plusle is..”

“PLUSLE?!?!?” Minun jolted on Porygon 2 “What happened to her? Did she put herself into something dangerous? Speak!”

“Better, don’t speak, directly bring us to her.” Said Metagross.

“Right. Follow me.”

Porygon 2 led the team to an isolated part of the cave where Plusle lied utterly lifeless. The twin brother fell in despair at that vision, he stayed in shock “M-My sister…it’s all my fault, I’m so selfish! Noooo! Nooo! Nooo! I don’t want to believe it. Porygon 2, tell me how this happened!”

“One second, I need to download the memory saved. . .”

“This is another case for Detective-”

“LESTER, SHUT UP! THIS IS NOT THE MOMENT, CAN’T YOU BE SERIOUS EVEN IN THIS DRAMATIC SITUATION?”

Lester zipped the mouth in ashame.

“Memory found.” Porygon 2 narrated the encounter with Plusle in the middle of the cave and the sudden attack of a swarm of Galvantula that had no mercy in sucking out the electricity of Plusle once they defeated and captured her. “They sucked out the electricity only? Then m-maybe if I share mine, she…sigh..can’t work. But I want to try the same. Sniff, ok.” Minun focused his electric waves in the cheeks and rubbed on the cheeks of Plusle multiple times “Come on….please….Plusle…” cried “Sob, nothing.” Suddenly he saw one eye opened and then the other until she was fully reanimated  “This is a flash mob. One, two, three, four!” The positive twin jumped in the air and danced together Porygon 2 and a bunch of unknown pokèmon, Lester joined the dances immediately and span crazily differently did the other 3 members that stared in unbelief. At the end of the flash mob, the pokèmon left the scene quickly returning to their wilderness, Porygon 2 turned off the music, only Lester continued to dance at an inexistent rythm, and Plusle ended with a mortal triple flip opening the hands “Ta-dah! This flash mob is dedicated to Minun to make him understand that life is full of surprises, continuosly, but there’s always an happy end if you want it for real.”

Minun turned into a statue, heartbroken.

Plusle smiled akwardly “I hope you will be able to appreciate it later, now it’s better I..eheheh…go.” and fleed leaving him more astonished.

“Ahem.” Metagross pointed at the lifters: one had been already taken by another team. “Either Jigglers or Venturers already won, this is something there’s no need of 4 brains to be understood. We should assure the second place.”

“A-Alright (sigh) let’s put the gears of Klinklang at the right place and…sigh. Can you do that in my place? I’m too helpless at the moment.” Minun sat idle down the ground and tossed the gears to Metagross but Inkay bursted into out of nothing and picked them “And Inkay was the one who saved the day. You get awake, instead. Hypn@sis. Eyb-eyb!”

They were all put to sleep by the sneaky inkfish that had only to get inside the lifter and reach the exit to save her team.

…zzz

…..zzz

…zzz

…zzz

…..zzz

“Yawn?”

Victini woke them up a bit later “Laser Latias Leviathans? You LOST. AGAIN. Get out there using hate last lifter and prepare for the nominations.”

“By the way it’s LESTER Latias Leviat…rooonf…fiii…zzzap!”

## Ceremony of the Voltorb of Victimization

Back on the plane, Minun found another surprise “Ta-daaaah! THIS IS THE PARTY FOR THE BEST BROTHER AND POKEMON OF THE WORLD! It took the whole day to organize it all but it was totally zappy zotty worthy!!!”

“……”

“Don’t you like it, Minnie?”

“Don’t call me Minnie, how many times I said you?! Sob, I have enough of this day. See you all at the ceremony.”

“Hey!!!” Plusle ran after him but he shut the door and refuged in the restroom. “W-What’s up? I don’t understand, you didn’t like the idea? I wanted to…”

“Plusle, please, I need a long time-out. From you.”

“We’re unseparable, Minun! Let me enter, gnnn…nnn..”

“Eh, no, this is for male only!” Anorith shouted from indoor.

“*Not that I care, but who are you voting off tonight?”* Lampent asked to the fellow ghost Lester “*Metagross, of course! I’m sure he had a specific drawing for all the events happened today, he’s the master puppet of the season and I want him to pay for Drifloon’s end, ah.”*  The red rotom smirked wearing the shades with epicness “*With Plusle and Porygon 2’s votes plus mine and yours Mr. Bionikrab will be sent directly to the Hoenn bottom he comes from*.” Lampent shrugged motionless. “Ok, I’ll do the same.”

“VVelcome back on the Tail of Losers for the third time!” the host appeared in a burst of light and fireworks like a celebrity “Leviathans, you were foreigners in the ceremony at the beginning and became journal inhabitants nowadays. **V**ery **v**ery **v**ery **v**apid.” Once tallied the 6 votes, Victini tossed the three macarones at Lampent, Porygon 2 and Minun, and the three pokèballs at the remaining Lester, Metagross and Plusle.

Lester kept with his stepford grin on the face.

Metagross gave him a death sentence glare.

Plusle continued to look at Minun suspiciously. “We did vote together as usual, then?”

“Stop the vacillation, the countdown starts: 3,2, 1… Voltage!”

Lester was swept away by the explosion. Plusle directly off the plane. “Ahhhhhh!”

“Noo, what did I do?” Minun rushed to look down the skyfall but he could see only the streak of positive electricity lost by her. “The right thing. She went too far.” Lampent pat-patted him but he shook off trembling  “**No, I should have voted Lester for the sake of this team**.”

“Next time if he screws up again.” Ended Metagross signing off. Lester made an EPIC FACE of shock at the end.

**// Vent //**

**“Another successful victim of the Master of Transformations.” Ditto lied in the Confessional  for the first time alone smoking lika a boss “Mr. Mastermind would be honestly nothing without me: imitate Plusle, Inkay and many other pokèmon at contemporary for his plans? A piece of cake for an expert. I took lot of fun, too. Especially Minun’s reactions at all my odds were utterly priceless!” The Jelly Jerk didn’t realize to have been recorded by the camera the whole time…**

Later, Jirachi checked briefly the confessional cuts as usual and found this “Should I inform Victini about this or return to sleep in peace and quiet? Yawwwn, decision taken.” And he returned to sleep.

## Epilogue

Aurorus woke up at midnight and silently walked to the restroom for the usual check. “I’m here. Gnieeek. Where is it?” She checked frantically around and was, rare for her, sweating for the panic.

“Are you looking for sssomething?”

Aurorus heard the unmistakable hiss of  “Seviper, this is not your business. I have my issues, you know.”

“I know really. You dodged 8/9 challenges with this excuse, mommy Aurorusss.”

“What did you call me?”

The whole restroom was frozen by her for the anger. She looked horrified at Seviper when the snake finally showed the egg inside her mouth “I eventually found a sssuitable dinner as you can see. It’s time to drop down the mask: you were pregnant from the beginning and hatched this egg in secret to not be eliminated. *Dunsparce was finally a true sssnake and told me everything*.” She encouraged the fellow land snake to step forward with a sneer, that vision killed her inside: Dunsparce crept sheepishly in front to the friend and she asked how he could tell her secret. “I’m a sssnake. You should never trust a snake.” After this cold speech he crawled outside without saying anything else, leaving the girls alone in the semi-darkness.

Then Aurorus turned at Seviper with a cold voice.

“What do you want from me?”

“Sssimple. Everything. You will obey at all my ordersss by now until you are here or I’ll ssswallow down your delicious egg forever.”

“Deal.”

Seviper ate up the egg with a sadic smile on her scarface “Don’t worry, I have a slow digestion and I can spit it out whenever I want , it’s just a memo for you to do not try anything to take it back. Sssee you tomorrow.”

The ice sauropode waited for the departure of the snake to cry, she didn’t know if she was more sad for the egg or for having been betrayed by her main confident and friend. **This was the end.**