Author's note: My my, time flies. I missed this week this time; but I'll hopefully not miss the next one!

Chapter 13

"Here I come!" Nemona cried.

Nemona's flaming flying kick landed directly on Kai's head. While both trainers were protected by his already-engaged invoker armor, it didn't stop him from being sent flying like an arrow right past Tinkatink.

Kai's body slid across the ground, as Tinkatink took one look at Nemona, then back at Kai. The Pokémon then ran toward Kai, squealing like an angry 2-year-old toddler. Then, after reaching her trainer, Tinkatink started whacking Kai's forehead.

Kai sighed deeply as Nemona and her Pokémon, Fuecoco, followed with a bounce in his step and an agape mouth. Nemona returned the little Fire type into his Pokeball, and her armor disengaged and disappeared.

"That's the third time your Tinkatink ran over to hit you instead of me," Nemona said, putting her hands on her hips.

Kai lied on the ground, his hands outstretched and narrowed his eyes in slight annoyance as his head tilted to the side every time Tinkatink whacked him. The sound of metal clashing rang in his ear with every bonk.

"...How did you convince me to use Tinkatink again...?"

"I said, 'Pleaaaase'?'

"Oh. Right. Puppy-dog eyes. My literal weakness. Ugh. By the way. Tinkatink being this agressive...Is this normal?"

"Well, no. How'd you catch her?"

"I caught her when she was running after Klawf."

"Did you ask her if she wanted be caught?"

"Well I did, but she ran after klawf."

"Ohhhh!" Nemona said. She raised a fist and pounded it on her other open hand. "I know! She didn't want to be caught! So now she's letting out her frustration on you! You're gonna have to earn her trust before she stops!"

"So that means… I have to endure this for longer?" Kai asked as he kept getting bonked.

"Yeaaaahh- Sorry."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"It isn't all bad!" Nemona cried. "I know a perfect way for you two to bond!"

"Nemona, if you say battling, I'm going to Suplex you."

"Battling!"

"...You only said that because you want me to suplex you!"

"I'd love it if you tried!" Nemona cried.

"...Why are you like this? Why do I keep you around? What is wrong with me?"

Nemona grinned widely as she took several steps back. She kept walking back until the two of them were considerably far apart. Then, she cupped her hands around her mouth before yelling, "Ready for round four?!"

"Lemme use Quaxly this time…!" Kai grumbled.

"No! You have to bond with Tinkatink!"

"I swear- I'm going to have your face bond with my FIST if you don't-"

"Ooooh! I'm down* for that!"

Kai put his hands on his face all while Tinkatink kept bonking him, and screamed into it.

"Hey!"

A third person's voice came to Kai's and Nemona's ears, and the two of them looked toward a Team Star grunt walking up to Kai.. "We can hear your screaming from our base! Stop it!" The grunt cried.

"Oooh, a team star member!" Nemona cried. "Maybe you can fight this guy, Kai!"

"With Quaxly…?"

"Nope."

"Ugh… Y'know-" Kai raised his legs and then flipped onto his feet. The moment he did this, Tinkatink moved on to whacking Kai's ankles. Kai's invoker armor shined as it disengaged- disappearing from sight the moment the light faded. Kai then pulled out his Quaxly's Pokeball as he turned to the grunt. "I'll use Quaxly anyway! Go-"

The moment Kai thrust his arm forward to throw, was the moment he realized he wasn't holding anything in his hand. Kai's eyes widened as he saw his empty hand.

"Sorry!" Nemona cried. Kai looked up to see Nemona standing in front of him with Quaxly's Pokeball in her hand. "I was serious when I said that! No using Quaxly! Only Tinkatink!"

How did she move so fast?! She was several meters away from him earlier- and in a blink of an eye, she came to him and took his Pokeball before he could throw it...!

How!?

Kai turned around to see a trail of burning footsteps behind Nemona.

She had never moved that fast in their battles. Kai knew that Nemona was holding back from the start… but how powerful was she?!

Nemona turned his head over to the team star grunt and raised her eyebrows.

"Oh- sorry-" She said. "Don't mind me, I'm-"

"AIEEEEEEEE!~" The grunt spun and ran away.

"Oh boy." Nemona said with a sigh. "Not again,"

Kai was in complete and utter shock. Nemona frowned and lowered the hand she was using to hold Quaxly's Pokeball. Kai blinked and shook his head. For the first time ever, he was seeing Nemona actually being sad.

"Wh-What? Wh-What's wrong?" Kai asked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Nemona said. "It's just-... seeing him run away… gave me bad memories."

"...Oh." Kai said.

The silence that followed was decorated by Tinkatink's grunts as she kept whacking away but doing no damage to her trainer. Tinkatink's tiny hammer suddenly cracked and broke to pieces, causing the little Pokemon to yelp, and turn to start repairing it. All the while, Kai looked at the grassy floor, watching the wind pass by the grass like a comb through long hair.

Suddenly, Kai's phone flew out of his pocket and in front of him, and immediately turned on. Kai's head shifted to the phone.

"Hello-" The phone said. "This is Cassiopeia."

"Oh- Hi Cassiopeia." Kai said.

"Huh?" Nemona tilted her head to the side. "Cassiopeia? Is this a friend of yours?"

Nemona inched close to Kai's side so she could see his phone. "Where are they? Why aren't they using a video call?"

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe they want to hide their face. None of our business."

"Eh, fair."

"I see that you have the Champion ranked trainer, Nemona with you. Hello, Nemona. Nice to meet you. I would like to ask you to keep everything we speak of confidential."

"Sure," Nemona said. She gestured zipping her lips with her fingers. "I won't say a word!" She cried.

"I suppose since she is not a part of our operation that she doesn't need to know context. Kai," Cassiopeia continued, "I'm seeing that you're near a team star base. Let me know if you're planning to approach it."

"Uh…" Kai took a hold of his floating phone. "Well, I kind of forgot the reason why we were doing this in the first place..?"

"...I asked you to participate in Operation Starfall and bring down Team Star."

"Bring down team star?!" Nemona cried. "Whoaaa!"

"Oh- right! Right. Okay, so, I remember saying no to you earlier, because it wasn't my issue."

"And I remember saying that I'd send ghost type Pokémon your way."

Kai's eyes widened in fear.

"Jokes on you!" Nemona cried. "Ghost types are his favorite!"

"No they're not!" Kai said, turning to Nemona. "I hate ghost types! They all creep me out!"

Nemona raised both eyebrows and tilted her head again."I thought you said ghost type Pokemon were your favorite?"

"I was kidding! I was trying to be a smart aleck, making the joke about ghosting you!"

"OHHHHH! That makes sense!"

Kai narrowed his eyes in annoyance at Nemona.

"Are you kidding m- Nemona," Kai said his friend's name in an annoyed tone. "I think it's time for you to go. Gimme Quaxly's ball so I can tell him to send you flying."

"Guys?" Cassiopeia chimed.

"I wanna see what's going on!" Nemona cried. "I'm way too invested now!"

"Guys…?" Cassiopiea chimed again.

"You've literally only heard her speak for about five seconds, and you're saying you're too invested!?" Kai cried.

"Well, yeah! I wanna know who this person is! The suspense and mystery is killing m-"

"GUYS!" Cassiopiea shouted and caught the attention of both trainers. Cassiopea sighed to themselves. "I don't like raising my voice, but if I have to do it to get your attention, then…"

"Sorry-" Kai said.

"Yeah, sorry, sorry!" Nemona said.

Cassiopiea sighed again.

"Anyway…You're near a Team Star base. Get to it….Please?"

"All right- fine," Kai said. "But you'd better call off the ghosts."

"I'll think about that."

Kai's phone flew right into his pocket. Kai turned to Nemona.

"Well," Nemona said. "What're we waiting for?"

"Well, I'm waiting for you to give me back my Quaxly's Pokeball."

"Hm…Nope. Not yet."

"Why not!?"

"Cause you'll definitely use him more than Tinkatink! You've gotta learn how to partner up with her!"

"But she's literally-"

The sound of Tinkatink growling could be heard the second Kai felt the little Pokémon's tooth bite into his leg. He looked down and raised his ankle to see the little Pokémon hanging like a flag biting onto Kai due to not having a hammer to smack him with.

Kai the motioned with his hands as though he were presenting the Tinkatink to Nemona.

Nemona crossed her arms and nodded to herself. "Well, you can fix that!"

"I wish I could fix your brain, but I can't always win."

"Well joke's on you, my brain doesn't need any fixing!"

Kai grumbled.

"And just for that rude comment," Nemona continued, "I'm definitely not giving you Quaxly's ball until you finish the task Cassiopiea asked about!"

"You know what!? Fine! The faster we get this over with, the better. Let's get going."

The two started walking ahead. At first there was nothing but fields of green and a dirt road ahead. Suddenly, Kai's phone flew out of his pocket and in front of him.

"Huh?" Kai said, noticing his phone.

"I almost forgot- I should mention two things," Cassiopeia said. "One, we've gained a new member for Operation Starfall."

"Oh?" Nemona said. "New friends?"

"Okay," Kai said, "And?"

"I'll explain the rest once he gets there."

"Oooh," Nemona said. "I hope he looks strong!"

"Of course you do," Kai grumbled. Nemona showed her brightest most carefree grin, even showing her teeth as she did.

"Why do I deal with you…?" Kai grumbled. Nemona put her arm over Kai's shoulder and pulled him close.

"Cause we're besties!" She cried.

Kai grumbled, his cheeks slightly became red as he looked away.

"He should be right behind you guys," Cassiopeia said.

"Oooh!" Nemona said. She moved her arm off of Kai and spun around in excitement "Hey there-...oh.." Nemona blinked.

In front of them was an older gentleman with a very interesting wavy bobbed haircut, purple glasses, a Uva academy vest, and red shorts.

"PFFF-" Nemona's cheeks puffed up as she put her hand on her mouth. "PHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

Nemona fell to the ground and started laughing on the ground.

"Hey-!" Kai cried. "just because this new guy's hair is weird doesn't mean you should laugh, that's rude, Nemona!" Kai shook his head.

"OH MY- OH MY- NO WAY! NO WA- AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!"

Both the man and Kai just watched Nemona continue to laugh on the ground.

"Sorry about her," Kai said. "She's just… i dunno, weird."

The old man shook his head.

"That's quite alright," He said, pushing in his glasses.

"What's your name?" Kai asked.

"Let me chime in for this," Cassiopiea said. "This is Clive. Clive apparently overheard us and managed to contact me while incognito. I could relate to him saying he wanted to stay anonymous, and he said he had some unfinished business with Team Star. So I let him join us in our affairs. He was also a back up plan, in case you were to not go through with team starfall.

"So you don't have any ghosts."

"I do, and they're ready and waiting."

"Ugh…"

"OH MY…I CAN'T BREATHE!" Nemona cried. "I CAN'T BREATHE! I CAN'T- AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH…"

"Huh." Kai said. "She uh, really thinks your hairstyle is funny."

"I think it's quite nice!" Clive said, brushing his hands over his hair. "Maybe I should have a word with her alone."

"Perfect," Cassiopeia said. "In the meantime, I can talk to Kai."

"SOMEONE- SOMEONE HELP ME- I CAN'T STOP LAUGH- OH MY- AHAHAHAHAH-."

Clive motioned for Kai to shoo, and Kai nodded, leaving him behind with Nemona.

"Okay," Cassiopeia said. Once the two were a considerable distance away. "Are you ready? I'm going to talk to you about Team Star's bosses and warn you."

"Warn me about what?"

"Team star's bosses aren't ordinary Trainers. They're trainers with invoker armor that have been amplified. They say that their leader was a hacker who was able to access the code of Invokers and increase certain attributes of their powers, giving them unique abilities. They're called Shining Star Abilities."

"Shining Star Abilities..?"

"For example, the leader of team star's Caph Squad, Eri- Her Shining Star Ability is this: if she decides at any point to use a combat breed Taruos, She will fly into an uncontrollable rage, increasing her strength and speed tenfold. That's her Shining Star Ability: She transforms into the Berserker of Team Star."

"Oh… Jeez."

"These abilities come with no weaknesses, so I'm afraid you'll have to work around it. For now, I'll tell you about the Shining Star Ability of the leader of Team Star's Schedar Squad, Mela. During the fight, her entire body will erupt into inextinguishable flames. Water type attacks will not affect her. Not only that, water will fuel her flames. She transforms into the Inferno of Team Star."

"Oh jeez- they've even got cool names too..." Kai cried.

"That's right. So if you planned to bring a Water Type, that'd be a bad idea."

"S'not like I had a choice… Nemona has my Quaxly."

"Let her have it for safekeeping."

"I'd be fine with that if the only other Pokémon I could use wasn't biting my ankle."

"Huh?"

Kai lifted his ankle and pointed at the Tinkatink, nibbling angrily on him.

"Oh." Cassiopeia said. "Maybe find and catch more Pokémon that are more trustworthy? Or set that Tinkatink free?"

"...Nah." Kai said, shaking his head.

"Why?"

"Because one, Nemona won't let me hear the end of it. When she believes in me, she doesn't stop bugging me until I achieve whatever goal she says I can do... It's a good thing and a bad thing at the same time."

"Good thing and a bad thing?"

"Good thing, because she encourages me and pushes me to do things I never thought possible, bad thing, because I swear she'll never let me give up even if I want to." Kai said. "Even if I ignore Tinkatink anyway, this thing'll keep annoying me till' the end If I don't start earning her trust. Plus, she knows how to get out of her ball."

"Again, you could set her free."

Kai narrowed his eyes and looked down at the Tinkatink who shot a glare his way.

"I don't think that'd stop her." Kai said.

Tinkatink made angry noises.

"All right," Cassiopeia said. "I understand your decision. Regroup with the others, and let's discuss our strategy."

"Okay. One problem."

"What's that?"

"I can't feel my ankle."

Tinkatink made angrier noises.

*I'm down: Being okay with something or agreeing to an invitation.