Why Iono? If you want to know, look at the title.
There are some minor spoilers here. Although I took creative liberties, these are mostly actual honest to goodness game glitches you can find! What are your favorite/worst glitches?
There were a number of strange things occurring around the region. At first, people attributed the oddities to the Great Crater and left it at that. Tera Powers were a bit strange. Geeta decided it was more than some psychics having a laugh that morning as she was walking to work. She looked around at the plaza. The strange stuttering movement people were making was, frankly, giving her a headache. She approached Rika.
"So have you noticed, how shall I put this... when people are further away from me there is a really weird optical illusion..."
"I thought at first it was someone using Trick Room outside a designated battle area, but no dice. You were really jittery when I saw you over there." Rika pointed. This was news to Geeta.
"I have not been walking any different than my normal, uh, walk. to me it looked like you were the one with odd behavior."
Geeta and Rika watched a child float by on an invisible cyclizar.
Geeta turned back to Rika. "We should probably have someone check this out." Geeta started her 'I have work for you' smile. Somewhere in the Academy halls, Penny shuddered and looked around before continuing to binge anime.
Rika quickly corrected the chairwoman. "I have to finish reviewing the resumes you gave me?"
Geeta considered her options as she and Rika finished walking to the League building. She needed someone who was good at keeping track of rumors and information. Of her contact list, several possible candidates stood out.
Her decision was made as Iono was in the lobby. She had cornered Larry and was making furious gestures at her Rotom Phone. It seemed to be playing a staticky mess of footage. "Are you guys gonna do anything about this? Look, this is my living! My watchers are being deprived of my quality content! The issues have been getting worse too. Like, all the other loser-I mean fellow streamers out there are seeing this stuff too! I swears I saw a Rookidee walkin' sideways outside a minute ago!"
"Just the Gym Leader I was looking for." Geeta said with the smile.
Iono started to back off and hope it was Larry being addressed. It was not. Geeta was looking right to her. Iono cursed the internet.
"You are the perfect person to investigate these rumors. You have a keen eye for details in your livestreaming and are very good at finding rumors on the internet, correct?"
"Well, uh..."
"Great! We will issue you a Master Ball as it seems likely a Pokemon is causing at least some of the phenomena we have witnessed. Good luck! I expect you to report back to me on Friday." Geeta left to return to her office.
Rika shrugged apologetically. "Better luck next time, Iono." Rika slipped away.
"I don't have time for this! I have compilations to edit and my Mewtube page needed moderating! Oh noes, this is gonna be so much work..." Iono looked over to Larry's cubicle to see him taking a sip of coffee. Hm. "Well, Larry, you heard Geeta. You have gots to help me. You are an expert on what is normal!"br /
Larry stopped mid-sip. "I don't think this is the same thing as my battle type specialty."
"Laaaaarrrry. I will give your kids another shoutout on my livestream." Seeing no reaction from Larry to this offer, she added more to the deal. "I'll visit Medali too for my next subscriber special if ya do the forms!"
Larry finished his sip. "Okay. We can start by seeing if there is a pattern from incident reports." Iono pulled up a search tab as he grabbed a laptop. He put down his coffee mug on the desk. Both Larry and Iono watched the coffee mug drop through the desk and into the depths of the earth. "I will start with this incident."
"So, great peanut butter sandwiches can break the laws of physics?" Larry asked as his Dundunsparce licked away peanut butter on its snout
"Yep! It sounds stupid, but this poster is a guy I know is eighty percent reliable! He checks facts out." Iono confirmed the picnic basket was
"Eighty percent?"
"That's really reliable for Redditto," said Iono. Iono wanted to show the man's face, but Larry was insistent on keeping his face unknown. He wasn't completely lacking in personality and Iono would not deprive the guy of the simple things in life. In this case, the simple thing was the look every kid got when they realized he was the gym leader.
To that end, she got creative with the blindfolding. Larry was seated at a picnic table with a bag over his head. The tablecloth was barely visible underneath a sea of plates. Every sandwich topping imaginable sat in rows. Staraptor stared at the fish filet with longing while the Luxray fixated on the strawberries. "...So why do I have this bag on my head?"
"This is the perfect opportunity to do a collab with a fellow gym leader! This is how I can blindfold you and make sure your face remains unknown. We're live in five seconds!"
"I fail to see how this is doing our job." Larry wondered if the sandy environment was for a pun.
"Ladies aaand gentlemens! It's time for the Iono Zone!" Iono launched an intro for the challenge. People would vote for sandwich ingredients in the chat and Larry would assemble it blindfolded. Simple enough, except these viewers were sadists and he was having to do things by touch/memory. They favored the least stackable ingredients. Spilled ingredients were snapped up by enthusiastic Pokemon. A wild Meowth simply appeared, not from a glitch, but because there was food. Larry's Komala abandoned the favorite log in favor of hugging Larry's ankle. (The business suit did not look like it, but he made sure to buy realllly sturdy suits in case of claws.)
Unknown to Iono, a mass of static drifted up behind her. As the skyscraping monstrosity sandwich had another hunk of fruit piled on, Iono's feed blurred. Iono's screech of dismay as it cut out startled the wild Meowth which yanked at the tablecloth. Ingredients, Pokemon, and tableware scattered to the sand. Star pieces tumbled out of the picnic basket as Larry sat calmly in his blindfold.
"Larry! Tell yer Meowth to cut it out!"
"I don't have a Meowth."
Iono frantically checked the Rotom Phone to make sure it was all right as Larry peeked at the wreckage. He opted to wait to document the rumor until his hands were clear of potato salad residue.
The next day Geeta fiddled with the remote. She called tech support. She called Penny. She gave up and accepted that the sound system for the Elite Four battle room was never going to play the music correctly. She hoped there would be no challengers today.
She then tried to turn off the music since that might be better than an annoying loop and found that it continued to wondered if other Champions had similar issues.
Rotom had been just fine until it tried playing back Larry's own evidence of MissingNo. Then it started to get dizzy. Larry bolted directly to the Pokemon center. He consulted the manual again as the former resident of the Rotom-phone complained more about its headache. Larry inspected the Rotom's pillows, bowl of berries, and toys to make sure everything was in order. The nurse assured Larry things were going to be fine as he left the Pokecenter.
Larry messaged Iono from his currently un-haunted phone to see if she had more advice for the care of an electric type. He got an immediate phone call back.
"This means WAR, Larry! That...thing!" Larry turned the volume down as Iono ranted away for a minute. "...My poor little Rotom..." Larry heard some noises that sounded very much like a Rotom eating his favorite crepe flavor. "Your Rotom is out of commission too?!"
"Yeah. Got tips for making sure he's okay? I went through the manual. And the nurse has him. But I wondered if there was anything else."
"Nah, the Pokecenter nurses are the bestest and the manual practically covers everything up to Slowpoke jokes. Meet me outside the gym when you get here. We only gots our eyewitness account of yesterday's glitch since my footage got all corrupted. Even other people's recordings." It occurred to Iono she should probably be a little mad about that. She'd settle for the inevitable rumors of a lost cursed episode. She stopped by the store to grab a stand for her phone, an official Iono Zone notebook, a pen, and a new case her Rotom had been admiring last week. Early birthday presents were in order for the little guy. Larry went to a thrift store and found an actual film camera. With film. Iono was suitably impressed.
Larry was waiting by the gym of Levincia, already scribbling away. Iono did not ask about the laptop. (Larry's Laptop was duplicating files at random today. It was bothersome.) They scoured the place for new glitches. They chased a guy sprinting at lightspeed at one point. An old man showed them how he ended up trapped between a bench and a bush. Many pictures and videos they took had patches of static here and there, even the film camera. At lunchtime, they walked past the eateries.
There was a child with his eyes on the grill menu.
Literally.
Larry scribbled away a report and Iono tried not to stare at the incredibly long eyeballs.
Cynthia isn't telling Geeta about the kid that snuck in with a level 5 Turtwig and entered the Hall of Fame. No sir.
I also find my favorite gym leader... HiLarryous. He is the best with his aggressive blandness. 10/10 boring character design. Beautiful.