Meet the Characters:

Harvey Caspian (he/him) - 18

No Pokémon

Melic Haban (she/her) - 17

Freddy

Cordelia Caspian (she/her) - 49

Angel Yanmega Fletchling Indeedee

Chapter One - Impidimp Invasion!

Spikemuth

Harvey's bedroom was a mess. Posters were half falling off the walls, the bed hadn't been made in weeks and empty cans of Harvey's favourite energy drink had overflowed the bins and were now scattered around the room. Angel was curled up snoozing on the end of the bed, he was the family's pet Litten of only one year but he quickly settled in.

Downstairs, there was a sharp knock on the door, muffled by Harvey blasting the newest album by Roxie and the Raikous.

"HARVEY!" called his Mum, Cordelia from the bottom of the stairs. "Melic's here!"

Melic was Harvey's best friend. They had known each other since the first year of primary school, she was a very shy girl around most people but not Harvey. There had never been a shy moment between them. Though Melic had a passion for Pokémon, her family had raised many Pokémon since she was a kid, she only just recently got her first ever Pokémon; Freddy, a very adventurous Farfetch'd. Freddy bolted up the stairs to see Harvey as Melic was stopped by Cordelia.

"How are you Melic? I love your hair today, gorgeous," she blabbered. Melic was always dying her hair different colours, for any reason too. This time, it was for Harvey's goodbye drinks. He was starting university soon in Circester; not too far but still a big change from how close his friends have always been.

"Thank you. Cherrim Purple," Melic awkwardly explained.

"Did you want a drink or anything?" asked Cordelia.

"Oh… no thank you. I've got a few cans in my bag."

"Right, well help yourself to anything in the fridge. I'll let you pop upstairs." Cordelia said as Melic just gave a polite smile and headed up to Harvey's room.

Freddy had immediately initiated a battle with Angel. As soon as he saw the Litten sleeping, he went straight up to him and smacked him over the head with his leek. Angel sprung up out of his sleep and scratched Freddy right on his face. By the time Melic had walked into Harvey's room, her beloved Farfetch'd was sulking in the corner.

"Blimey Freddy, what happened?" she asked, with a tone of annoyance in her voice. Harvey was sitting cross-legged on his bed.

"He wanted a battle with Angel… you know how Angel is," Harvey giggled. Hearing this, Angel meowed and stormed off. His paws pitter-pattered down the stairs, scorching them slightly in his anger.

"What did you bring me?" Harvey was suddenly filled with energy, excited to see his friend. Though, he hadn't yet gotten out of bed. His hair was frazzled in every which way, not even slightly in the usual mullet style he'd keep it in and he was wearing pyjamas covered in a pattern resembling prehistoric Pokémon.

"I've just got loads," as Melic sat on Harvey's bed, she poured out about ten different cans of different pre-mixed cocktails as well as a can of Red Berry and Mango Paradox Energy, Harvey's favourite. "I thought that could go with your vodka?"

"Oh my Arceus, you legend."

"I'll pour it out for you, go get ready."

Cordelia was downstairs, watching whatever crime TV show was on at the time, her Yanmega was perched on her lap as she mindlessly stroked the giant bug type. Her mind was swept away on the plot she was watching unfold when it was quickly taken away by a loud shuffling coming from the kitchen behind her. She sighed and tried to ignore it until she heard a frying pan crash onto the floor. Yanmega flew up off her partner's lap and into the kitchen, the indistinguishable sound of an X-Scissor hit something in the kitchen and Cordelia jumped from the sofa and ran into the kitchen.

Standing in a now-messy kitchen was a group of three Impidimp. They looked guilty as anything and one of them was holding a wooden spoon and the other a saucepan.

"Goodness sake," Cordelia muttered. "Yanmega - keep an eye on them. I'm going to get Harvey… and the broom."

The Impidimp didn't know what to do, they all bolted their large eyes around the room trying to see an exit. There was an open window, just above the sink that they could climb up through - except for the fact Angel was sitting outside the window, staring in. They could go back through where they came from, the catflap. In fact, the Impidimp looked at each other and nodded. That's exactly what they'd do. They all held hands and bolted underneath the hovering Yanmega but Impidimp aren't the smartest Pokémon; Yanmega zoomed right in front of the Impidimp, managing to block them. The Impidimp kept trying to outsmart Cordelia's Yanmega but she was too quick, blocking them every time.

After a while of this, the Impidimp were growing more and more exhausted. The reason Impidimp are home invader Pokémon in the Galar region is not their fault (depending on who you ask). Impidimp are creatures that feed on annoyance and hatred, they steal to upset the victim but that's how they eat. They sniff the essence of irritation through their singular nostril and that's what they're trying to do here.

Harvey, Melic and Freddy ran into the kitchen. Cordelia hadn't told them yet, she had made it up to be a lot more dramatic than it really was - she was good at that. Harvey wasn't even done getting ready yet, he was standing in the kitchen wrapped in a towel and soaking wet hair.

"Blimey Mum. What do you want me to do?" Harvey complained.

"Are you drunk?" Cordelia was suddenly standoffish.

"No! I've not even had anything to drink yet," he was now annoyed, the Impidimp started jumping up and down with big grins on each of their faces, in delight.

"Get my pan and spoon back!" Cordelia demanded to Harvey and Melic, "I put up some of those silver talismans to stop them coming in but it clearly ain't working."

Harvey and Melic looked at each other, dazed. Yanmega had successfully cornered the Impidimp, though they were still failing to wind up the stone cold Yanmega.

"Can I go put on clothes first?" Harvey was struggling to keep his towel on. His mum just gave him a sternful glance yet Harvey continued on,"We're gonna be late."

Melic and Freddy slowly creeped toward the Impidimp who were still poking and whacking Yanmega with the spoon and pan. Slowly crouching, Melic tiptoed underneath Yanmega and towards the Impidimp with Freddy slightly ahead. The oblivious Impidimp didn't notice this, they also didn't notice the leek being raised above them… SMACK! Freddy had whacked the one with the spoon over the head as Melic went in and grabbed him up, snatching the spoon in the process.

The Impidimp was wriggling around in Melics arms but she was managing to keep it firmly in her arms.

"Three of us. Three Impidimp," explained Melic.

"How am I supposed to grab one when I'm struggling to keep up my towel?" Harvey had whispered to Melic.

"I don't know. Could you grab one Cordelia?"

"Not with my back like this," Cordelia mumbled.

"Come on, Mum." Harvey complained. "Just grab the saucepan."

Cordelia sighed, her son was right.

"It's fine. But if you could do it before I drop this one and he steals something else," Melic politely explained.

Cordelia tried to reenact what Melic had just done, she struggled to crouch down and then waddled toward the Impidimp - but this time the remaining two dark fairies were aware of what was going on. Cordelia tried to reach out to grab the saucepan as the Impidimp jumped up and grabbed the emerald necklace dangling from her neck. He snatched it right off and then the two Impidimp grabbed the top of Cordelia's head and pulled themselves up and before anyone could stop what was happening, they had slipped out of the catflap - sniffing up Cordelia's upset.

The Impidimp wriggling in Melic's arms had also escaped in her shock and also managed to slip away, following its two pink accomplices. Angel had been watching this whole debacle through the window, he didn't even really care what was going on.

"It took my necklace. My nan gave me that," Cordelia fought back the tears.

"I'm sorry, Mum." Harvey and Melic stood back awkwardly, neither really knowing how to comfort someone.

"It's okay. Go get changed," the deflated Cordelia and Yanmega went back into the living room.

"You'll get it back, Ziggy always comes in. He'll be back," Melic explained as she followed Cordelia.

"Who's Ziggy?" asked a baffled Harvey.

"The Impidimp who stole the necklace," said Melic, like it was obvious. "He runs in a zigzag pattern, so he's Ziggy. I've got names for all of them."

Cordelia laughed at this, "What other names do you have for them then?"

"Well the one I was holding is Molly because his arms are covered in moles and the one who took your saucepan is Fluffball because of those gross little stray hairs he has all over his head."

Cordelia chuckled and nodded in approval and she sank into the sofa, Yanmega was now perched on the armchair beside her.

"Right, I wanna finish what I was watching now," Cordelia suddenly seemed calm despite what had just happened.

"You sure?" Harvey asked, "we can always find you another necklace and saucepan."

"I'm not worried about the saucepan," she insisted "I've just got to hope Melic's theory is right. We'll catch that little Ziggy bastard and force him to bring my necklace back to me."

Freddy followed as Harvey and Melic left the room to head back upstairs. In reality, Cordelia was deeply upset about the loss of her necklace but she had always lived her life ignoring things she couldn't do anything about.

Back in Harvey's room, Harvey was holding his glass of vodka and Paradox energy while Melic was on her second can of Woo Loo. Taking his first sip of the drink that Melic had poured for him, Harvey spat it immediately back into the glass.

"I asked you for a double," he cried.

"And I poured you a double!"

"You taste it. That's a quadruple… a fifth..uple…"

"I'm alright," giggled Melic.

For some strange reason, that no one in the room even knew the answer to, Harvey kept slowly sipping his drink until he was comfortable with the taste. Freddy was on the floor, laying down and using his leek as a pillow, he enjoyed listening to Melic chat about whatever thing she was thinking about that day and her conversations with Harvey were always the most weird and interesting. They jumped from laughing about the weird kids from their primary school and what they were doing now to music and Harvey's CD collection and then finally to the question that Harvey was just so sick of at this point.

"When are you going to get a Pokémon of your own?" Melic had sprung it into the conversation like it was nothing. She knew Harvey loved Pokémon and she just couldn't grasp why at 18 years of age, he didn't want a Pokémon partner. "Everyone else later will be with their Pokémon, I just think it would do you good."

"I don't need one, I've got Angel," Harvey wanted this conversation to end.

"Well you're about to move two hours away from him!"

"You know that Toto will ask as well," Melic mumbled.

Toto was just one of the friends they were meeting at the pub later, intelligent, conventionally attractive and talented in literally everything he tries and even worse… he's also a really good person. It's also technically his leavers drinks as he and his Snivy were soon leaving to the prestigious Motostoke University to study mathematics. Aard is another friend who would be joining them, she would be leaving for Zapapico University in the Paldea region. She had just received her partner Pokémon, Wooper, the Paldean form in fact. There was also Rookie who was staying in Spikemuth with her grandparents, she was training to be a school teacher but practised fashion and clothes-making on the side. She had two partner Pokémon, a Litten named Rio and a Ponyta named Farrow. Lastly, Harvey's friend Bee would be attending. Harvey and Bee met during college and they had a Morpeko as their partner Pokémon. Bee was taking a gap-year but had plans to go to Wyndon to study theatre.

It was then time for Harvey and Melic to head off to the pub, they were comfortably tipsy at this point and were super excited to see everyone.

After waving goodbye to Cordelia and Yanmega, Harvey, Melic and Freddy were waiting outside their house on a typical Spikemuth street. Cloudy sky, everything is grimy and clearly hasn't been cleaned in a very long time - this was contrasted by the red, blue and pink neon lights that were displayed all over Spikemuth. There is a rumour in other regions that the entirety of Spikemuth is a singular long hallway with a black ceiling which clearly isn't true but it is a just comparison to the town.

"I'll call the taxi," said Melic as she tapped away on her Rotom phone.

"Cheers, I'll buy you a drink," as Harvey said this, he picked up his old, dusty phone that was far from the modern Rotom-embedded phones. He pondered about it for a moment when Melic butted in.

"Oh he's only a minute away-" the sound of large metallic wings, swooping in and clashing together was heard from above. This was a Flying Taxi - being carried by a large Corviknight. As the taxi landed on the street in front of them, the cabbie called out.

"Name?"

"Melic!" she yelled.

"And you're heading to… The Cufants Head, yeah?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Up in the air, Melic was on her phone, texting the group chat that they were on their way. Freddy sat in the middle, observing the leek that he adored, feeling proud of himself for owning such an impressive leek. Harvey was staring outside the window, you could see so much from up in the sky; far past Spikemuth. On the horizon, moving gracefully along the sea was a Lapras, a Gigantamax one in fact. A large, blue beast with a gigantic shell that was now being used to transport the people of Galar around the region. This was only made possible a few years ago, Gigantamax Pokémon were only able to be used in specific "power spots" and their power could not be truly tamed. Since then though, technology and research on this power has developed. Now, Gigantamax Pokémon are used to safely guide and benefit the region.

Harvey was just so blown away by this Pokémon, it only made him more excited to move out and finally see more of what this region has to offer. He could barely even understand the true wonder that was soon to come.