Unbroken Disguise

Letting a Chansey take her place at the counter, Nurse Joy wheeled Mimikyu into the part of the Pokemon Center not open to the public. The tiny Pokemon looked so cute in its little outfit! She just wanted to squeeze it like a plushie all day! The two of them passed by a whole team of Chansey working on other patients as she brought him to an open spot, and she took the opportunity to check over their progress.

A Growlithe is in for a nasty case of poison after reportedly fighting with a Nidoran, though with how he was looking as they passed by, she had high hopes for a quick recovery. The Pecha solution seemed to be doing its job.

A Cherubi is in after being “mistaken” for food by the trainer’s Munchlax. That was going to be a tough one. Getting the grass type healed up from the bite marks would be a piece of cake, but explaining the situation to the trainer… Younger trainers were often naive to the realities of the world, and she hated being the one to break that worldview for them. As things stood though, the poor kid was going to be down a teammate, whether that meant Munchlax getting its way and a meal, or the Normal type being traded off or even released.

There was a spot open next to the Kirlia. The electrical burns left behind by “some brute’s Elekid” weren’t looking great, but it was only a matter of time and a few more rounds of healing from the Chansey would see her out of the Pokemon Center good as new. She took a step towards the open bed when a shadowy hand reached out in front of her. She was experienced enough that it didn’t make her jump, but if Mimikyu wanted her attention, it certainly had it now.

“Is something wrong?” She asked. She had been shocked by the cute little display by the counter, but she wasn’t going to look a gift Ponyta in the mouth. Even if what she had seen was at the level of an adorable child, being able to communicate directly through writing would make her job much easier. And without the potential invasions of privacy that came with talking to Psychic types! Though she was going to have to pull up some resources on the little thing, she’d never had to treat one before. Mimikyu were found under the Alolan notes, weren’t they…?

“キルリアのとなりがわるいです。ファイ フェアリータイプですよね。” the cute little thing wrote. Having to strike through the incorrect spelling was so adorable! The way that it didn’t use any Kanji sent her heart fluttering as well, even if it made reading it a bit harder. She better read it aloud to make sure that there wasn’t any miscommunication. Children sometimes had a bad habit of using words incorrectly, after all.

“Next to Kirlia is bad. I’m a Fairy type, you know. Did I read that right?” she said with a smile. But then the words actually registered, and she quickly pulled the cart as far away from the Kirlia as she could.

Moving into an entirely different room, this one much smaller and designed for “problem” Pokemon, she reached for the Pokeball that the League had just sent her yesterday. With a flash of light, a Bronzor appeared in front of them.

Directive? The little Steel type queried in her mind.

“Bronzor, Fairy influence protocol, please. Level 1.”

Acknowledged.

The strange, but not completely unfamiliar, feeling of having a Psychic type in her mind overtook her, and her thoughts became more clear. Bronzor turned towards Mimikyu, not making any threats, but ready to act if things got out of control.

“Mimikyu, I’m going to ask that you not do that here. I can’t do my job effectively if you’re influencing me.” She told it politely, yet firmly.

The false Pikachu head tilted, and she got a new line from it. “何？わかるない。Also, can you understand this? My Sinnohian is not very good."

That took her aback.

“You know Galarian better than Sinnohian?” It had been a while since she’d had to speak it outside of practicing with her family, hopefully she still had it in her. “I suppose the Alolan dialect makes sense… but what is this about not understanding? You must have known.”

“Trying to communicate with humans here has been taxing, and in my case it’s actually the Unovan dialect. But in any case, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m not sure if the problem is due to my poor vocabulary or if you’re actually discussing a concept I’m unfamiliar with.”

In either case, that was a problem, bringing a frown to her face. “I’m talking about your Fairy influence, buster. You were enchanting me! I know we were warned, but feeling it for the first time is really something else… that could have been really bad though! What am I supposed to do when a trainer comes to pick up their Kirlia and discovers its type match ups have changed? Shoot, was that even the only one susceptible?” She bit her lip in worry.

Current patients known to be susceptible to Fairy infection include:

Kirlia.

Mr. Mime.

Mr. Mime is currently in stasis and thus was not exposed.

Kirlia was exposed at a minimum distance of three point zero one four meters for one point two seconds and lesser exposure for a total duration of fifteen point eight seconds. Infection is highly unlikely, though due to the limited information on the subject, such an outcome can not be ruled out.

Mimikyu spoke to Bronzor, its cry sounding a bit like a Pikachu, but also sending a shiver down her spine. Bronzor’s deep, bell-like voice answered back.

Mimikyu has requested minimal psychic contact.

Some sort of past trauma with Psychic types? As she pondered the implications, Mimikyu had written something else out. “I don’t know the exact mechanics behind this so-called infection, but that’s why I warned you. I genuinely don’t know what you mean about this influence and enchantment stuff you’re talking about though.”

She supposed that Mimikyu had warned her quickly enough to be reasonable…

“You’ve never noticed the enchantment before? It was pretty strong on me, it seems unlikely that you wouldn’t have…”

“Well what is it, exactly?” the little fairy wrote back.

“Admittedly you’re the first case I’ve seen in person, but according to the documents the League sent out… hmm, I think I have them somewhere in here…” Digging through her paperwork, she pulled out the memo sent to her by the League. “Let’s see… due to recent events… containment untenable…Unova… ah! Here it is.” Bronzor’s eyes glowed. She cleared her throat before reading it off.

“It has been found that, similar to other types such as Ghost and Dark, Fairy type Pokemon with little control and/or ill intent may exude some of their energy into their surroundings.This may result in the so called ‘enchantment’ of people and Pokemon around them.

Victims of enchantment/Fairy type influence may find themselves holding powerful feelings towards the source of the energy. Many report finding the source ‘extremely cute’, ‘overwhelmingly adorable’, and other such similar things. This is believed to be a method of forcing others to lower their guard, whether that be in hunting situations, trying to escape predators, or attempting to spread the infection.

It should be noted that this effect is wholly separate from the status condition known as Infatuation, and in fact the effects can stack.

If you find yourself under enchantment, it is advised that you…”

Bronzor’s eyes glowed. The rest of the info on the memo probably wasn’t meant to be shared with outsiders, so she cut herself off there. “You’ve really never enchanted someone before?” she asked once more.

“Nope. I’ve had one or two people call me cute,” Mimikyu wrote for her, “but I think that says more about them than me. The consensus seems to be that I’m very creepy if the way everyone shudders and has their hair stand on end is any indication. I guess my Ghost typing overrides the Fairy typing in that regard? You said Dark types are similar right? How does it work in a Spiritomb? Does one type overpower the other?”

Just reading the name Spiritomb was enough to make her break out in a cold sweat, even with Bronzor having some influence over her. Though as a Psychic she wouldn’t be surprised if it felt similarly. She had had the displeasure of being within Cynthia’s Spiritomb’s radius of influence once…

Shaking herself out of it, she responded with “I’m not sure, but I’ve seen a Sableye or two and from what I’ve seen their types are pretty balanced. Of course, with those types being what they are, the whole experience is pretty unpleasant, so maybe it’s just harder to tell them apart than with Ghost and Fairy.”

“Then I guess the question is why my Fairy type is suddenly overpowering the Ghost. Any ideas?”

“Not off the top of my head. We could run a few tests I suppose…” She flipped through the notes on reported Fairy types within the League attached to the memo, stopping once she found the entry for Mimikyu. Looking underneath the disguise has been reported to result in the deaths of researchers? Bronzor’s eyes glowed. “Or maybe not. Let’s just do a routine checkup and healing. How does that sound?”

Mimikyu took a moment to respond, just staring at her for a moment before writing “I suppose that’s fine.”

“Great, great, if you could step on this scale for me?” She pulled out the scale intended for small Pokemon, recording his weight as it settled before comparing it to the data on Mimikyu she was sent. “Weight seems to be perfectly average.” She noted it down before pulling out a ruler. “Hmmm. How exactly is your height meant to be measured? I’m not sure how far up your body goes underneath there…” She consulted the data, holding the ruler up next to Mimikyu and comparing the numbers. “Looks like they only count up to the neck of the disguise… and you’re shorter than average. You’re not slouching are you? Standing up as straight as you can?”

“No.” Mimikyu wrote out. “But I was practicing Shadow Sneak earlier, and since then I’ve felt… smaller? I was told this level of exhaustion isn’t normal either, that’s why I came.”

“You think using a move made you physically shrink? I suppose that’s possible in some cases, but Shadow Sneak isn’t exactly the same as Minimize…” She flipped through the notes again, looking for any indication that the League was familiar with such a thing, because she certainly hadn’t heard of anything like it. Mimikyu’s trainer had gotten a room for the night, so maybe she could contact some of her family outside of the League and find out-

Bronzor’s eyes glowed.

“Strange. I’ll have a Chansey come in to give you some Heal Pulse treatment, hopefully that will set things straight for you.”

“Thanks.”

Once Mimikyu had been returned to him, the duo made their way up to their room for the night, N claiming a bottom bunk for himself. Mimikyu seemed… off, still.

“If it’s bothering you that much, maybe you should tell me about this Lucas guy. Is he going to be a problem?”

“Eh? Lucas? I mean he might be someone ta watch out for, but I don’... I was probably jus’ mistakin’ ‘im for someone else. Nah, I’m worried about somethin’ else right now. Did anythin’ seem off about Nurse Joy? When she returned me to ya, I mean.”

“Nurse Joy? Not that I had noticed, why?”

“Well, I learned a bit more abou’ the Fairy type while I was back there, an’ well… I think she’s got a League Psychic controllin’ ‘er. Not completely or anythin, but like… stoppin’ her from talkin’ about certain things, maybe even from thinkin’ ‘em.”

“Are you certain? For them to go so far with the Joy family would be…” While he had many problems with the League, nobody messed with the Joy family. They were prominent throughout the world for a reason, and if the League thought they could just control one of them with a Psychic…

“Well, I can’t be cer’ain about it, no. She didn’ up an’ say ‘I got this Bronzor from the League’ or nothin’ like that. But apparen’ly I was leakin’ Fairy whatsit like I do with the Ghost stuff sometimes, an’ she released it an’ said somethin’ about a Level 1 Fairy protocol or somethin’ of the sort. I s’pose that could be somethin’ that Nurse Joys just came up with on their own, but based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m more inclined ta think it’s a Pokemon the League gave ‘er. She kep’ ‘avin’ ta look at documents about Fairy types the whole time, I don’ think that’s the behavior of someone who has a whole protocol for dealin’ with ‘em.”

“Leaking Fairy…” A whole other thing to worry about on top of everything and Mimikyu was just brushing over it. The little ghost had a bad habit of doing that… “We’re coming back to that part later. If they’re distributing League Psychics… You said it was a Bronzor?”

“Yep. Creepy little thing. Was more like a robot than somethin’ with a personality.”

“Why would they send a Bronzor… could they be stretched thin? I suppose they must be, otherwise they’d have sent at least a Bronzong.”

“Does it matter? I get that a Bronzong would be stronger an’ all, but if they ain’ battlin’ then wouldn’ just about any Psychic be able ta influence people?”

“They all can, yes, as you’ve just seen, but the effect is stronger in Pokemon that have further developed Psychic abilities, and that typically comes with evolution if they’re capable of it. A Gothita would probably be able to hold influence over a child for a long duration of time, but it might struggle with an adult who has dealt with mind probes before. Shorter durations might be doable, depending on the individual. But a Gothitelle? If you don’t have a Pokemon on your side helping you fight it, you’re doomed.”

“I see… an’ if the League are the ones responsible then we need ta worry about it ourselves…”

“Probably. They did release us, so I doubt they care enough to do anything too overt, and you being a Ghost type probably helps, but around unfamiliar Psychic types… well, I would ask that you help me fight off their influence once you notice.”

“You think I know how ta do that?”

“You said Nurse Joy released the Bronzor because your influence on her was too strong, didn’t you? Just do what you normally do.”

“That’s… fair.”

Travelling with Mimikyu was going to send him to an early grave, wasn’t it? “Let’s go. If Ash is as much of a Legend magnet as you say he is, he might run into one while we’re away.”

“Honestly, ya might be right.”

Days went by without much incident, and slowly N and Mimikyu had “integrated” themselves into the group. Given the fact that outside of Pikachu, Ash, Brock, and some of Brock’s Pokemon, the whole group had only known the others for a few days at most, one might think that merging the two groups together would be a rather simple task. But that wasn’t quite the case. Ash, as they were all quickly finding out, was very… well, Ash. He got along well enough with everyone, even if being a Trainer doing the League circuit made him the type of person N had a predisposition to dislike, if not hate.

The others though… while nobody had said anything thus far, there was a very clear divide in the group. Brock seemed to be getting along swimmingly with Dawn, having no problem with taking on a sort of parental/mentor role with her. The girl was calling up her mother every day and clearly having some issues with being away from home for the first time, but Brock was apparently experienced enough with children to comfort her properly.

N and Mimikyu, though? They were still being treated like outsiders. Nothing overt, and it’s not like anyone was being rude about it, but still… Of course, the blame wasn’t entirely on Brock and Dawn. While the two of them clearly held reservations about the Unovan duo being in their midst, N was apparently “not helping the situation.”

He had thought he did a good job of hiding it, but Mimikyu called him out. “They can tell that you’re not being true to yourself,” he said. “They can tell you hate trainers even if you don’t say it,” he said. “Stop glaring at anyone who holds a Pokeball,” he said.

What did Mimikyu know? N had spent years being instructed on how to hide his true intentions. If Plasma wasn’t capable of that, then how were they still being allowed to scurry around under everyone’s noses? As their king, he was clearly one of the best they had to offer, so it stood to reason that he would be excellent at hiding his true intentions. So long as he and Mimikyu were… reasonably honest with each other, because he knew that the little ghost was definitely still hiding things from him, then what did these other people matter?

Nonetheless, Mimikyu had somehow convinced him to give a “show of good faith”, which was why today he was going to, somewhat willingly, subject himself to something he personally found abhorrent.

N tried very hard not to look like he had just bitten into a lemon as the opening ceremony wrapped up. “I’m surprised that Ash is participating in this. We don’t really have a contest crowd in Unova, but I’m told that there’s very little overlap between the people who normally participate in them and those who challenge the League circuit.” N pointed out to Brock.

“That’s generally true,” the ex Gym Leader answered. “I don’t think Ash would have participated in this one if Aipom hadn’t shown interest. But he has won a contest before.”

“Really?”

“Well, technically it was a tie for first, but he got half the ribbon. Ash isn’t your typical Gym junkie.”

It would take more than empty words and promises to truly convince him of that, and N had yet to see what the boy was really like once things got serious.

“Pay attention, N.” Mimikyu said from his lap. “If there’s one performance ya should watch, it’s this one.”

N wasn’t sure how Mimikyu could sound so confident when it was the first performance of the day, and from a girl they didn’t know at that, but if he was going to suffer through this he might as well see what the cream of the crop looked like.

The smoke that came out alongside the Pokemon was eye-catching at least. Something like that could work well in more tactical situations if applied correctly. “I’m unfamiliar with Misdreavus, anything I should know?”

“Pure Ghost type with the Levitate ability that evolves with a Dusk Stone.” Mimikyu answered.

“A Dusk Stone? That’s pretty rare.” Both in the number of Pokemon that used them and how difficult they were to find. He had once known a Lampent that had been searching for a Dusk Stone for years to no avail. He wondered how she was doing now…

But the Misdreavus and four doubles emerged from the smoke using Confuse Ray, drawing his attention back to the show. “Use Shock Wave!” he heard the ginger trainer shout, and then the world was bathed in yellow light.

“Impressive!” Brock remarked. “Flashy and a good way to show how powerful her Pokemon is.”

“Cer’ainly has more flare to it than the stuff Pikachu ‘as been showin’ off, though I doubt the power is anywhere close.”

N could admit that even he was drawn in. The Misdreavus seemed to be enjoying itself, and at least it wasn’t a battle… but then the audience started to cheer and the announcer took back over.

“Wait, that’s it?”

“Well, yeah.” Brock answered. “This is only the first stage, they have to save their energy for the rest of the contest. Plus there’s the fact that it’s so early in the season. Lots of trainers will give it a try and realize contests aren’t for them, while those who plan to go far aren’t going to show off the very best they have so early on. The judges like to see improvement between contests from repeat performers, so some of them will try sandbagging.”

It would figure that the one time a trainer had shown him something he could maybe respect, it had been over as soon as it started.

Oh well, maybe the other performances will make up for it.

The other performances had not made up for it.

Mimikyu had been right about that first performance being the one he should watch. Though how had he known…

The rest of them had been mediocre at best, though he would never say so to Dawn and Ash. And even worse, they had quickly switched it into a tournament of battles. Yes, it was more performative than it was a real fight, but he didn’t understand why they had to go and ruin it like that. He supposed it only made sense that the rot which permeated trainer culture would reach everywhere it could get its filthy tendrils.

He tried to keep his grumbling to a minimum as the group saw Zoey off. Apparently the rest of them had befriended her at some point? He didn’t know her at all, so he just congratulated her on her victory and spoke with Mimikyu at a respectable distance.

“So what did ya think of that? It was yer first time watchin’ a contest, right?” the little ghost asked him.

“For the most part, I found it unbearable,” he said dryly.

“For the most part? That there sounds like progress!”

“Progress towards what?”

“Eh, you’ll see.”

N let out a tired sigh. “I just don’t see why they had to add the battle portion. Sure it wasn’t nearly as brutal as a Gym Battle, but still.”

“Don’ ya think callin’ ‘em brutal is a bit much?” Mimikyu questioned.

“Have you ever seen a Gym battle in person, Mimikyu?”

“Well, no?”

“Hmm. Oreburgh is supposedly the first Gym most trainers go to, and it isn’t far from here according to the map. We’ll see if you feel the same way after you’ve watched one for yourself.”

“I’m jus’ sayin’, ya seem ta be exaggeratin’ a tad.”

If only that were true. But Mimikyu would see. According to the guide he had found, Oreburgh housed a Rock type gym, and based on his past experiences…

It wasn’t going to be pretty.