Adrien almost couldn't believe the search for the mega pokemon. They had started with a grand total of four leads for only three different megas. It struck him hard and fast just how few they've really stopped. Not even two a week for only about a month. Not counting Aggron, we've only had to fight five. It felt like so much more.

He kicked the ground as he walked. Abomasnow is a possibility. Heracross was a bust. Without more information from Chloé, the only thing to pursue are those houndoom. He pulled out his phone to check the time. It's getting late. We've been walking around here for hours. I should probably call it, try again tomorrow.

AA: Alya, I don't think we're going to find it tonight.
AC: nonsense dont b pessimistic
AC: weve got at least 10 minutes of sun left
AA: exactly?
AC: where r u
AA: alleys behind restaurant le wow.
AC: can u loop through rogue plaza before heading home
AC: like plaza, centrico, then down ur street
AA: rouge sure I guess. thats the way I came though.
AA: the others?
AC: ill tell em were stopping
AC: if thats how u came go down hibernal instead
AA: sure. no one got anything?
AC: still waiting on bee
AC: chloe that is
AC: the abomasnow is still there but shes tryin 2 confirm its the right 1
AC: jules mentioned people around hibernal were talking about a wild houndoom
AC: but u and her are both looking around there so :/
AC: and nino already told u how our end w heracross went
AA: yeah.
AC: so no not really
AC: well get em soon tho
AA: maybe.
AC: we will! go on get some sleep u deserve it
AA: so do you. you did well today with pidgeot.
AC: u 1 the battle tho
AC: i still have a lot to learn
AC: but ill get em next time
AA: hah I'm sure you will.
AA: I'll message you if I find something omw home
AA: otherwise, good night 3
AC: night night lil kitty 3333

Adrien pocketed his phone, turning around once more. He stood at the edge of that alley several times during the search. It opened much further up Hibernal Avenue than where the houndoom attacked, but just knowing it was around the corner put Adrien on edge. Surely, he thought, the scars would still be visible. Glass would have been cleaned up, but he might happen across some reminder. Buildings with dark wounds sealed with plywood. Maybe the asphalt would be uneven and warped, perhaps it might even have their footprints in it, a choreograph of a battle Adrien performed the encore for in his dreams. Maybe a newspaper stand or a light pole would retain the black char, or the vestiges of it.

Most of the other locations, their school, Autumnal Avenue, the riverside on his path from home to school, he was fine at. He hadn't had any reason to try Northern Avenue since the steelix, but the thought of checking it out didn't frighten him as much as Hibernal Avenue did.

He closed his eyes. Walking back onto that street, with the memory as fresh as only the previous night, or whenever he actually managed to sleep last, was like walking straight back into hell. It wasn't that the houndoom was any worse than the others, not particularly. True, his arm still prickled and the ugly scar from the burn would probably stay with him all his life, but he came much closer to death in almost every other fight. Falling, freezing, crushed. Yikes. Makes me wonder if burning really is how I'm supposed to go. It was mostly that the scene, lines of fire crawling up buildings, snaking across the ground. His shoes sinking into the tar, slowing him down, making him vulnerable. The houndoom, who looked like it belonged, the piercing, haunting howl that echoed in his ears even then. But worst of all, the houndoom curled up unnaturally, stiff and crying and writhing because even it didn't truly belong there. How Rocco looked with rage in his eye, embers floating up and meeting the rain that flattened his fur to make him look so scrawny and wild, less like a pokémon and more like a wraith.

His arm stung, his throat burned. If hell is real, I can't imagine it's so different from that. He rubbed at his neck to remind himself that it was just a relatively warm October evening and not anything more. Not even particularly warm in the first place. Chilly, if anything. He tugged at his overshirt, adjusting the sleeves and wrapping it around himself with a little hug. Think about Juleka instead. You've gone down this street a thousand times visiting her.

I wonder if it bothers her. She can't miss this place. She didn't fight, but she saw the worst of the carnage.

He sighed, shaking his head and taking a step forward. I don't think that's what you meant when you said to think about her. Arceus, I'm a mess. He stepped onto the street. He looked left, caught sight of Juleka's apartment building, looked right, saw the familiar path he'd tread so many times. Cars lined the street, buildings towered on either side of him. No houndoom. No flames. Not too bad.

Hurrying down the street, he kept careful watch around him. The houndoom was a ghost. He passed the scene of the battle, saw the dents in the asphalt and the scorch marks. Fresh, clean cars lingered in the area, breaking the illusion that the battle was anything but long done. People still worked to repair some of the damage to the buildings. Construction equipment lay abandoned, its work done for the day, to resume some other time. But nothing but those echoes gave any clue as to whether the houndoom was in the area.

Adrien turned away from the scene, continuing home to go rest. Flames continued to lick the dark whenever he closed his eyes, though.

The next day, Chloé had news on the abomasnow. It was definitely the one that mega evolved, but its trainer doesn't think it's a good idea to talk with it. He wants to get it back to Sinnoh, back to the cold and the snow.

Everyone agreed that talking to the trainer would do well enough. They didn't want to push the issue. He was clearly stressed, he pulled at his collar and fanned himself as if the climate was as warm for him as his abomasnow. He shook his head and told them that abomasnow still hadn't recovered.

"That's why I need to get him back to Sinnoh." He said. "Being at home will help."

"But what happened exactly?" They had asked. "What did it feel like for him?"

"It hurt him. A lot. We've done league battling, but I've never seen anything like this." He shook his head, helpless. "Not like a 'bam' kind of thing, not like what he did to that poor zoroark." Adrien had closed his eyes and grit his teeth and had to remind himself that the trainer didn't know "that poor zoroark" was in a pokéball in Adrien's pocket at that very moment. "Like the worst migraine you've ever had multiplied, and it never goes away. I told the police, too, but it seemed like it got worse over a couple hours or so. He didn't think anything was really wrong until he couldn't think straight anymore. He just needed it to stop."

They all had looked at each other and considered what they learned. Something new about how the devices worked. Nothing new on mega evolution.

"Hey, kids, remember to keep me anonymous, okay? I really don't want Abomasnow to get swamped, especially not now."

"Of course." Alya had said. "We're sorry for digging you up. I know you don't want to talk to reporters."

"It's okay. More for his sake than mine, anyway. Is that all?"

Alya licked her lips and examined her notes. "Truth is, we're here for more than just your testimonial."

"Really? What are you here for, then?"

"We hoped that your abomasnow might help us figure out how to use mega evolution."

The trainer furrowed his brow, the brain behind his eyes working like a machine, piecing together their motivations. Who they were. "Oh." He had said. "I'm sorry, I don't think we can help you. I don't think I'd let him mega evolve if we could, and all I could understand out of him when we were talking about it is that he felt powerful. That's why he fought. You know. Why have that power if it couldn't stop the hurting? Or something like that. He's still kind of uncomfortable with it, so I'm not sure how well I interpreted him."

Everyone's eyes turned to Adrien. His turned to the ground. Powerful. That's a bit self-evident, too. At least it's an insight into the mind of the pokémon we're fighting. It might make it harder to do it, but it still feels right to try to understand them.

They had left the man after a few more questions without asking again to see the abomasnow. So much learned, but not for what they needed.

"That leaves Houndoom." Alya said.

"Hibernal Avenue." Chloé said.

"It's our only clue. The location that website gave us is right on Hibernal too, so there's a good chance it's the same one."

"There was that other houndoom, though."

"Of course we need to look into that one, too. Adrien, Juleka, and I should go to Hibernal and look for it, since it seems like the most likely one. You take Nino and check out the other one."

"Why should I go for the unlikely one?"

"Chloé, girl. Adrien, obviously, Juleka lives there so she's obviously the best one to have, and I can get the rundown reporter-style if we actually find it. If you have a prepared list of questions and follow-up questions then be my guest, go with them."

Chloé considered Alya's reasoning and begrudgingly conceded, sweeping Nino away as she set off to finish her task before Alya's team could.

Returning to Hibernal Avenue was easier that time. Maybe it was because he'd seen it already and knew what to expect, or maybe it was because Juleka intertwined their hands and he had her and Alya to lean on. Either way, the search continued once more and once more progress evaded them.

"It's actually pretty likely that it avoids people when it can." Juleka said, when they met at their rendezvous for the fourth time. "Especially after the incident."

Adrien dragged his hands down his face. "I would too. But what can we do about it?"

"If searching for it doesn't work, we let it come to us." Alya said.

"Would it do that?"

"I don't know." She frowned, thinking. "We'd need some way to attract it."

"If it avoids people, how did it get such a record for its behavior?" Adrien asked. "It must be forced to contact us at some point, right?"

"You're exactly right. Most likely, it's food. But how could we convince it to come to us instead of rooting in dumpsters or something?"

Adrien bit his lip. "Special pokémon food."

"What?" Alya tilted her head, furrowed her brow.

Juleka smiled. "That's right. You have some on you, don't you?"

"Always."

"Specially made for dark types." Juleka explained to Alya. "It won't necessarily attract it, but its definitely a more appetizing meal than anything it'd find in a dumpster."

"Pretty pungent, too. I have to keep it sealed up tight when it's not meal time. But all pokémon have their own tastes, too. It's made to be good for dark types, and they generally like it, but there's still the chance the houndoom will run for the hills at a whiff of the stuff."

Alya tapped her chin. "Bunker down in Rouge Plaza and try it. There aren't many people there, right?"

"None, last we passed."

"Good. Juleka and I will keep searching. Sound good?"

For a brief moment, a panic of "what do I do if it actually comes and you're not there" passed through Adrien, but he pushed it down. "Cool with me."

Juleka agreed, and they parted once more. He found his way to the empty plaza, found a nice place to sit on the closer side, and pulled the food out of his pack. "If this works, I'll either kiss you or kill you, Plagg." He opened the bag, pulled out the tin. "Depends how this turns out." He uncapped the tin.

The worst part of sitting alone in the plaza with a tin of pokemon food? All the wild pokémon he wasn't looking for. Poochyena and alolan rattata and meowth and a few purrloin all showed up for a bite. By the time the sun went down, he hardly even noticed because he was too busy with them to focus on anything else.

He did enjoy it. A lot. I'm going to have to do this later with a lot more food. It's too bad I can't give them much. If it all gets eaten, then there's no chance of attracting the houndoom. Every once in a while, he had to close the tin completely, but for the most part the pokémon were content with a few scraps and a bit of play. His phone buzzed, and he had to push a particularly friendly stunky off of him to reach it.

JC: We're getting ready to go home for the night. You done?
AA: I'll sit here a bit longer.

He sent her a picture of the small crowd of pokemon around him and climbing on top of him and waited for her teasing reply. He looked up, seeing the moon shining bright overhead. It is late. Dad might get worried if I stay out too much longer. I'll text him just to be safe.

When Juleka texted him back, he confirmed with her that he was just going to finish handing out the food and then let his dad know where he was and that he might be late coming home, sending the picture for good measure. His dad, for all his faults, wouldn't get angry at him for this. He might insist on a bath the moment he got home, warn against it because who knows what diseases those street-dwellers have, but he wouldn't get angry.

With that done, Adrien put his phone away and started to let the pokémon have access to the last of the food. And then, creeping out of the shadows, was a houndoom.

Adrien froze. A litten tumbled off his shoulder. He swallowed the lump in this throat and watched closely as the houndoom approached. Slowly. Cautiously. It slinked closer, its horns and white stripes glowed eerily in the moonlight. Like its bones were outside of its body. Its nose twitched. It got closer.

Adrien was afraid to move, equally of scaring the creature off and scared of the creature. But its eyes were not angry, not hurting. Its eyes were curious, probing. Hungry, but not for anything more than its next meal.

Slowly, slower than Adrien thought he even could move, he took a bit of the food from the tin and reached out, toward the houndoom. It shrunk back. He got to his knees, placed the food as far from him as he could, watched the other pokémon avoid it. Avoid the houndoom. It looked like they were as afraid of it as he was.

The houndoom stayed low, unthreatening or maybe ready to pounce, and crawled towards the food. It sniffed it once, twice, and scarfed it down. It licked its chops, looking eager for more. Sniffing, searching.

Adrien took some more and held it out, waiting still as a statue for the houndoom to approach him. All the other pokémon seemed to have the same thought.

It did approach, slowly. It seemed an eternity before its wet nose nudged Adrien's fingers. He swore his heart stopped beating. The houndoom sniffed a little more, hesitated, passed up the food to sniff at Adrien's arm, where his sleeve and some bandages covered his burn. The houndoom whined, high pitch and quiet, and licked his arm gently. Adrien smiled. He set down the tin in front of him and used his free hand to reach for the houndoom. Slowly as ever, he touched the houndoom's head and ran his hand along it. "It's okay." He said. "It wasn't your fault."

The houndoom licked once more at his sleeve, and then took the offered food from Adrien's hand. That seemed to be the breaking point, as all the other pokémon started pestering him again, dragging his attention in all directions as they all vied for the last bit of the food.

He laughed. "Okay, okay. But share, please?" Finally, he offered the whole tin. To their credit, the pokemon did divvy up the last of the food pretty fairly. He shook his head. With that managed, he focused on the houndoom.

I'm not sure if I should try tonight. Introducing Rocco to it might not be good for either of them right now. I'll come back soon, maybe tomorrow, and try again. It's too wary of me right now to try anything like that.

He grinned when the houndoom got a little more of the food and laid down within reach of him to eat it. Carefully, Adrien pet it, and looked it over more closely. Not so scary now. Seems like a good boy, actually. Minutes passed, and Adrien allowed himself to pet the houndoom a bit more roughly. "Yeah, you're a good boy, aren't you?" Houndoom's tongue lolled out of his mouth and he licked Adrien's hand. His tail wagged. "Yes you are. You are a good boy."