Chapter 24: Gym of the Carefree! Hibiki vs Skyle!
The next day dawned and the group was in their room, making preparations for the day, that is mainly Hibiki and Echo making preparations for their gym battle today. As for Cherry and Sigma, they were busy thinking about the legend that Melody had told Hibiki and Echo the night before. "God, that is some legend. Do they always have to be so prophetic?" Sigma questioned.
"That would be what Prophecies are for. Though with that being said, are you sure Melody didn't misspeak when she said that she was telling you a legend and meant to say prophecy?" Cherry asked Hibiki.
"I'm positive she said legend, though I could see her misinterpreting the two. Maybe the legend in question was really a prophecy or maybe it really was about an event from long ago and it just has some scary coincidences for our situation." Hibiki responded.
"... That second thing you said sounds crazy, but I could also believe it. The Alaria Region is vast and not much is known about its past before the first settlers arrived." Cherry responded.
"While it is true that any of this legend could be related to another region, there's one line of this legend that makes me worry. If what Melody said is true, that could have a lot of implications considering Neo Cypher." Echo commented as she got her bag in order.
" 'Ten years after this disaster, one of the Twin Moons will fall to darkness and turn the region to dust.' If I'm remembering my Legendary Pokemon correctly, the only two that could possibly fit into that category that we know of are Darkrai and Cresellia. Aren't those two native to Sinnoh?" Sigma said, pondering various ideas in his head.
"While it is commonly believed that they did live there, there have also been reports that the Full Moon and New Moon Islands in Sinnoh are merely a place where they stay. Further evidence of that is an island called Crescent Isle that is located in the Alaria Region, just northeast of this place actually. Not many expeditions have been made there as the waters around the island make it almost impossible to approach, there has been mention of a temple seemingly dedicated to the Twin Moons that is also their resting place." Cherry told Sigma. The group talked back and forth about possible ideas and scenarios about the legend for a bit until Hibiki stopped them all.
"As much as I would love to continue this conversation, there are probably better times to do it and I feel like if we say too much, someone we don't want knowing this info might hear." Hibiki told the group.
"You make a good point sis, with Team Noice being chased away, they might try to spy on us to see if we say anything that might pique their interest. Alternatively, Neo Cypher might take notice since we did defeat one of the people that they gave a Shadow Pokemon to and I don't think we want them hearing anything." Echo said.
"Good point, we will continue this later then. Now, shall we get going to the gym?" Cherry asked. The other all nodded and headed out to the gym, taking care to make sure no one was listening in on them. As they walked through the town, they noticed the various parts of the festivities being cleaned up, things being put away, banners being taken down, ect.
"Man, last night was fun." Hibiki comments with a smile as they walked.
"Yeah, that was one of the best festivals I've been a part of. Just a pretty chill gathering that had some nice activities. Also helps that the ocean view was beautiful at Sunset." Sigma responded.
"It's why they have the festival, to remind people that nature is an important part of our region too. Even if it might seem like Alaria is technologically advanced, and while we do have a lot of big tech innovations that make us stand out, we also do care about nature and understand that there are some limits not meant to be pushed." Cherry told Sigma.
"Wow, sounds like you know a lot about that." Sigma said.
"Considering Cherry was one of the ones behind that whole respecting nature idea, I would say she knows the most about that topic." Echo told Sigma. Sigma simply nodded as the group arrived in front of the gym, which looked like a big island hut with steel reinforcements, an opening at the top, and a wooden sign out front. As they entered, they saw Skyle out in the center of the field spinning in a circle and looking up before taking notice of their arrival.
"Hey Amigos, two of you are here for a gym battle correct?" Skyle asked.
"Me and Hibiki are." Echo told Skyle.
"Perfect, now then, which of you will be going first?" Skyle questioned.
"I will, I would rather get it out of the way first." Hibiki responded, a confident smile on her face.
"All right then, I have my team prepared, so I'll wait over on my side." Skyle said as he walked over to the far side of the arena. Echo gave Hibiki a thumbs up as she, Sigma, and Cherry all walked over to the stands and sat down as the Drome Rotom flew into place.
"This battle will be a Gym Match between Gym Leader Myth and Challenger Echo. The first combatant to have their three Pokemon faint loses. Let the Match Begin!"
"Come out Venemy!" Hibiki said as she threw out her Pokeball.
"Let's give them a performance, Araquanid!" Skyle declared as he threw out his Pokeball. On their respective sides appeared Venemy, who had evolved into a Whirlpede during the festival, and an Araquanid. "Araquanid, use Aqua Ring!" Araquanid nodded as it surrounded itself in a ring of water that rotated around it.
"Venemy use Poison Tail." Venemy rolled up to Araquanid as they set up the Aqua Ring and unrolled to smack it with his tail before rolling away. As he did, Skyle's Araquanid revolved a bit from the Aqua Ring.
"A primarily physical attacker that's a poison type huh? In that case, use Iron Defense Araquanid." Aruaqanid shook off the damage and hardened his body, his bubble taking on a slight metallic sheen.
"Oh boy, thai will take a bit. Venemy, Use Defense Curl and follow it up with Rollout. If it feels like you're in too deep, dodge and get back here." Venemy nodded at the order, tightening his body and rolling at Araquanid.
"Dodge and use Bubble Beam." Araquanid nodded and dodged the first pass of Venemy's attack before launching a stream of bubbles at Venemy, which hit and caused him to stop the attack.
"Use Agility and follow it up with another Poison Tail." Veenmy nodded, dashing towards Araquanid at high speed before hitting him with another and skidding back to HIbiki's side. Araquanid turned to look at Venemy before it stumbled a bit as it realized that it was poisoned, causing Venemy to look a little smug.
"Oh, we should see about ending this quickly. In that case, use Rain Dance!" Araquanid nodded as he screeched and called forth clouds that made it rain over the arena. "Now, use Bubble Beam!"
"Dodge it!" Venemy tried to follow the order, but was caught off guard by how muddy the ground was becoming and wasn't able to dodge in time, getting hit with a powerful Bubble Beam. "You ok Venemy?" Hibiki asked. Venemy nodded yes, though he was shaking a bit from exhaustion as Hibiki thought of a plan. "In that case, let's try that one maneuver we've been talking about. Use Agility and follow it up with a Gyro Ball." Venemy nodded and once more dashed towards Araquanid, this time spinning in a circle and causing a steel ball to be formed around him.
"I don't like this, use Bubble Beam now." Arauanid did as it was told and prepared to fire a Bubble Beam at Venemy, who didn't seem to be moving.
"Poison Tail now!" The bottom of the steel ball glowed purple before Venemy hit the ground and launched into the air, causing Araquanids' attack to miss. "Rollout now!" Venemy to began to rev up in mid air before hitting the ground and ramming into Araquanid, knocking the pokemon unconscious.
"Leader Skyle's Araquanid is unable to battle." The Drone Rotom said.
"Wow, that was a nice play. Using Gyro Ball to move through the field quickly, following it up with Poison Tail to launch Venemy into the air, and using the momentum to prepare a Rollout. I didn't even see that coming." Skyle said with a joyful laugh.
"Doing those kinds of maneuvers is something that me and my Pokemon train for, though I do make sure they're ok with the idea of doing it because it can be a little… intense at times." Hibiki told Skyle as she made sure that Venemy was ok.
"Well then, looks like I'm going with this one. Let's go, Trumbeak." Skyle called as he threw out his next Pokemon. As Trumbeak appeared, Hibiki looked nervously at Venemy, who looked ready to give what he had despite being on his last legs.
"Since you seem so adamant about staying around for this one, we'll do what we can. Use Iron Defense." Venemy nodded as his shell took on an iron sheen, ready to hopefully survive an attack.
"Trumbeak, use Rock Blast!" Tumbeak dug its beak into the ground before coming up and launching rocks at Venemy, who managed to dodge most of the incoming attacks.
"Use Screech!" Venemy let out an ear piercing cry as it dodged Trumbreak's attacks, causing the pokemon to get disoriented and stop its assault.
"Use Aerial Ace!" Trumbeak sped towards Venemy as a white trail appeared behind it and its beak glowed a bright blue.
"Protect!" Venemy quickly surrounded itself in a green bubble, causing the Aerial Ace to bounce off. "Now use Sludge Bomb!" Venemy quickly dropped the Protect and launched a ball of poison at Trumbeak, which found its mark and caused Trumbeak to feel a bit ill.
"Double Team, and follow it up with Supersonic." Trumbeak nodded as it split into multiple clones and turned around to let out a high pitched cry that made Venemy confused. "Aerial Ace now!" The clones all rushed towards Venemy, who tried to put up another protection but was unable to as the attack connected and knocked Venemy out.
"Challenger Storm's Whirlpede is unable to battle."
"Thank you Venemy, you did good!" Hibiki said as she returned Venemy to her Pokeball. Hibiki looked at her other two Pokemon and looked at Trumbeak before quickly grabbing Melody's Pokeball. "Probably not the smart move, but I feel like this is the right one." Hibiki thought as she got ready.
"Let's go Melody!" Hibiki said as she called out Melody. As Melody appeared, she scanned the field for a moment before looking back at Hibiki.
"You think Ralts can handle his last pokemon?" Melody asked mentally.
"Not entirely, but I can't have you take the spotlight all the time." Hibiki told her. Melody simply shrugged before turning her attention back to the battle.
"Trumbeak, use Roost and follow it up with Protect!" Trumbeak nodded and landed on the ground to recover while surrounding itself with a green barrier.
"If he's taking the time to heal, then I see no reason to buff ourselves. Use Calm Mind." Melody nodded as closed her eyes and concentrated, honing her mind as she waited for the attack.
"Quick Attack!" Trumbeak quickly dropped its barrier before speeding towards Melody, who heard the attack coming and dodged.
"Psybeam now!" Melody concentrated and fired a beam of psychic energy which managed to hit the Trumbeak, causing it to wince in pain. "Use Thunderbolt!" Melody smiled as she charged electricity before letting out a bolt of thunder that Trumbeak barely managed to dodge.
"Use Double Team and follow it up with Substitute." Trumbeak nodded as he split into clones and all the clones turned into dolls.
"Ok, this one will be a thing. Use Focus Blast on the ground." Melody paused at that command before realizing what Hibiki was planning and did as she was told, jumping as the attack created a large dust cloud around her.
"Had a feeling you would try something like that, Supersonic now!" From amidst the closed, a high pitched cry was launched at Melody, who was affected by the attack.
"Melody, if you can hear me, try to use Psyshock directly ahead of you." Melody nodded who attempted to follow the command, but felt her head pound and misfired the attack, though it did hit some of the clones.
"Nice, now use Aerial Ace." The real Trumbeak quickly dashed into the air before hitting Melody, who was still recovering from her confusion.
"Come on Melody, I know you can recover." As Hibiki said that, Melody attempted to concentrate and get rid of the confusion, taking the time to listen to her surroundings.
"Use Aerial Ace again!" As Trumbreak followed the Order, Melody regained her senses and felt the incoming attack, deciding to quickly turn around and catch Trumbeak as it went to attack.
"All Right, Use Thunderbolt now." Melody gave a quick smirk before she let the attack loose and shocked Trumbeak before placing his unconscious body on the ground.,
"Leader Sklye's Trumbeak is unable to battle."
"Nice job Melody." Hibiki told her partner. Melody gave a smile before she shook her head and winced in pain, realizing how much damage she took.
"I can see why you two are partners, you both have excellent synergy." Skyle commended. This caused Hibiki to smile and blush at the comment, with Melody just sighing at Hibiki's reaction. "That being said, let me show you my partner. Let's turn the tables Swanna!" Skye said as he called out his last pokemon.
"All right then Melody, use Light Screen and follow it up with Psychock." Melody nodded as she put up a light barrier around before sending out severely psychic masses at Swanna.
"Dodge them and use Bubble Beam!" Swanna nodded as she took to the sky before launching a beam of bubbles at Melody, who took the attack and felt next to nothing thanks to the Light Screen. "Follow it up with Aerial Ace!" Swanna proceeded to dive towards Melody, who dodged the attack before turning to track her opponent, Swanna staying a good distance away and flying out an easy reach.
"Melody, use Psychic." Melody took a moment before focussing and catching Swanna in a psychic field, managing to inflict some damage via slamming her into the ground before Swanna managed to free herself.
"Not bad, but let me show you a few tricks of mine. Swanna, use Feather Barrage!" Hibiki was a bit confused about that before seeing Swanna fly up into the air and creating several feathers, before they were shot in groups towards Melody.
"Dodge!" Melody, who was entranced by the spectacle, quickly snapped out it and attempted to dodge, but wasn't able to and got hit by the whole attack, causing a smoke cloud to form around her. When the cloud cleared, Melody was barely standing, panting as she felt pain over her body before falling to one knee.
"I can still fight." Melody told Hibiki, her mental voice clearly strained.
"Maybe you can, but I'm bringing you back either way. Get some rest and I'll call on you if needed." Hibiki said as she brought out Melody's Pokeball. Melody did nothing before nodding and passing out from exhaustion.
"Challenger Hibiki's Meloetta is unable to battle."
"Ok, I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. That a move you two have worked on yourself?" Hibiki asked as she called back Melody.
"Yep, It's a barrage of feathers that's meant to strike the opponent multiple times. It's something we've practiced, and I will say, it's not the only original Move that I that I have up my sleeve." Skyle said with a wink.
"Interesting, then I'm going to have to give it my all with what I have. I'm counting on you Ralts!" Hibiki said as she called out her last Pokemon. As Ralts appeared, she looked around and understood the situation before taking out her sword.
"Ho, so this is the Shadow Valgardian Ralts you were telling me about? This should be interesting. Swanna, use Aqua Ring." Swanna nodded as she surrounded herself in a ring of water, surrounded her and was slightly healing her.
"Ralts, use Agility and follow it up with Slash." Ralts nodded as she concentrated and felt herself get lighter before dashing at Swanna, who dodged Ralts' attack by flying into the air.
"Seems like you're Ralts is mainly a ground fighter, so this should be simple. Swana, use Bubble Beam." Swana opened its mouth as it flew around and lanchead a beam of bubbles at Ralts, who used her enhanced speed to dodge. As this was going on, Hibiki put a hand to her chin and thought about what to do in this situation before coming up with a crazy idea.
"Ralts, toss your sword towards Swana!" Ralts was confused about the order before realizing something and doing as she was told, tossing the sword at Swanna. Thinking this was an odd move, Swanna stopped her attack to dodge the attack, catching the sword in her mouth. "Now Teleport up to it and hit her with Shadow Slash." Ralts nodded as it teleported to the handle of the sword before grabbing it and channeling her shadow Aura through it.
"Let go of the sword!" Swanna did as she was told, letting Ralts fall to the ground, but not before letting lose her attack and staggering Swanna enough to get her to fall out of the sky, The two were about to hit the ground before Ralts used Teleport and appeared safely on the ground while Swanna wasn't able to recover, making a small impact as she landed.
"Not bad. You're still good to go, Swanna?" Swanna slowly got up and nodded as she panted, the watering around her giving her a bit of energy. "Perfect, then use Feather Barrage." As Swanna got ready with her attack, Ralts held her sword and waited to dodge.
"Concentrate, dodge the attack, and follow it up with Quick Attack." Ralts nodded and closed her eyes as the attack came towards her before using her sword to slash the feathers out of the air. Ralts quickly followed up with a quick attack that she used to slash Swanna with her sword, causing her to flinch in pain.
"Use Aqua Tower." Swanna nodded before her wings turned blue and she slammed them into the ground, causing a tower of water to appear under Ralts and damaging her. As the tower faded, Ralts kneeled in pain as she panted before her Shadow Aura started to turn a dark red, making both Hibiki and Skyle nervous.
"Oh that's not good. Do you need me to knock her out?" Skyle asked Hibiki. Hibiki thought for a moment as she saw Ralts struggling not to fully give in to the Shadow instincts.
"Give me a sec. Ralts are you still in there?" Hibiki responded. Ralts slowly turned and walked towards Hibiki, sword dragging along the ground. Hibiki heard movement behind her and held out a hant to tell Echo to stop. "I know you're stronger than this stupid Shadow curse you have. Even if it takes a while to cure it, we will find a way." Hibiki said. Ralts didn't respond and kept moving slowly, causing Hibiki to look Skyle in the eyes and pointed a thumb at herself. Skyle thought about that for a moment before his eyes went wide as he realized what Hibiki wanted him to do
"Swanna… we're going for a risky play here. Fire a Bubblebeam at Hibiki." Skyle ordered, hesitating on his command for a moment. Everyone, except Hibiki and Ralts, looked at Skyle in shock, Echo in particular looking between the two trainers. "You can punch me if this goes through or after the battle if this idea succeeds, I just feel like extreme action is needed." Skyle told the group, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. Echo got up and went to do what Skyle offered, but was stopped with Cherry putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Let them deal with it." Cherry said. Echo stayed silent as she sat back down, silently praying that this would work. Swanna, in the meantime, had charged the attack and was ready to launch it.
"Do it." Skyle said, before closing his eyes and praying. Swanna did as she was told, letting loose the attack at Hibiki who simply stood still. As the attack was about to hit her, Ralts jumped in front of Hibiki and put a Protect up, blocking the attack as Hibiki smiled. The others silently cheered as Ralts looked back at Hibiki, the aura around her dissipating.
"Sorry about that Ralts." Hibiki said. Ralts simply smiled and nodded in understanding before turning back to Swanna, who looked ready to continue, holding her sword. "Sorry about that interruption, let's continue the battle." Hibiki told Skyle.
"You know… I would be more mad at you, but I'm just glad this turned out alright." Skyle said, wiping a bit of sweat off his brow. The two stayed quiet before Ralts looked at Hibiki once again, a bit of an unsure look on her face.
"I know… don't worry, I meant what I said. We will find a way to cure you of this, of that you have my promise." Hibiki said, putting a hand to her chest. Ralts nodded before she breathed and pointed her sword at Swanna, before Ralts began to glow a bright white, surprising all present. Ralts' form then began to change, growing a bit taller, getting a skirt that looked like a flower along with two gauntlets on her hands with a small shield appearing on her left gauntlet, her helmet becoming more rounded and the wings on it growing a bit bigger, her sword getting a bit longer, and from her back also sprouted small, feathery wings. As the light faded, Hibiki stared in awe as Kirlia looked over her new form.
"How did… no, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Just roll with it." Hibiki said to herself.
"Looks like this got a bit more interesting." Skyle said, a smile appearing on his face.
"All right Kirlia, let's see what you can do. Use Quick Attack!" Kirlia nodded before quickly dashing up to Swanna and slashing at her, causing some damage that Swanna didn't expect.
"Take to the sky and use Aqua Ring." Swanna nodded before quickly taking off and surrounding herself in the curative ring again. "Now use Bubblebeam!" Swanna quickly turned her head to face Kirlia before firing more attacks at her, which Kirla dodged with a new sense of awareness.
"This might be asking a lot since you just evolved, but see if you can chase after Swanna." Kirlia nodded before proceeding to flap her wings and fly, albeit a bit slowly as she got used to the sensation of flight. Kirlia dodged attacks from Swanna as she slowly caught up to her, using her boosted speed to close the gap.
"Use Wing Attack Swanna." Swanna quickly turned around and dashed at Kirlia with her wings glowing. Kirlia, thinking quickly, dodged the attack at the last moment and slashed at Swanna, causing her to drop the attack.
"Sword Dance and follow it up with Slash." Kirlia quickly ran her sword over her shield, causing it to get sharper, and quickly flew after Swanna.
"Dodge and see about preparing a Rain Dance." Swana acknowledged as she flew away from Kirlia, launching a cloud in a bubble as she did so and made storm clouds which began to create rain. The rain threw Kirlia off as she wasn't used to flying in the weather yet, which gave Swanna enough room to get out of her range. "Time for another trick of ours. Swanna, use Torrential Downpour." Swanna, upon hearing the command, launched a ball of water into the rain clouds, causing the rain to get fiercer and actually was hurting Kirlia due to the intensity.
"Land and rest, we can do something about this." Kirlia nodded before quickly landing and using her shield to block some of the downpour.
"What do you think? This move makes it so that any rain is fiercer, to the point that only Water-Type Pokemon can handle the intensity." Skyle told Hibiki.
"Not bad, but we'll find a way to beat you." Hibiki said as she looked at the scene.
"Best of luck to that. Swanna, use Bubble Beam." Swanna did as she was told, quickly bombarding Kirlia with an attack that she was barely able to dodge. As this was going on, Hibiki was looking for something to do when she noticed some thunder forming in the clouds. Remembering what Skyle had done twice now, Hibiki thought of an idea and looked at Kirlia, who simply nodded at her as she understood what her plan was.
"Use Quick Attack to get into the clouds." Kirlia quickly did as she was told, dashing past Swanna and entering the storm clouds.
"That won't do a lot for you now. Attack into the clouds and see if you can hit her." Swanna nodded before firing Bubble Beams into the clouds, not seeming to hit Kirlia. A minute had passed and just as Swanna was about to fire again when Kirlia came out from the clouds directly above Swanna, her sword crackling with electricity.
"Do it, Lightning Slash!" Kirlia dived down and quickly slashed at Swanna with her sword, the slash creating a thunderclap and leaving an electric slash on Swanna, who screamed and fell out of the sky, crashing to the ground. As Kirlia landed and sheathed her sword, the electricity fading from it as Swanna laid on the ground unable to continue.
"Leader Skyle's Swanna is Unable to battle. The winner of this Gym Battle is Challenger Hibiki."
As the battle ended, Hibiki screamed in happiness before running over to Kirlia and hugging her. "You did great!" Hibiki said happily.
"Well done, that was some quick thinking on that move you pulled off. Surprised you figured out the little downside to Torrential Downpour." Skyle said as he recalled Swanna to his Pokeball.
"Truth be told, it was only by chance that I noticed the lightning in the clouds. I figured that I could take a page out of your book and came up with an original move." Hibiki said, which made Kirlia smile proudly.
"That was pretty cool, an elemental version of Slash. Anyway, since you have beaten me, I hereby give you the Open Skye's Badge." Skyle said as he held out a round badge with a sun shimmering in the ocean. Hibiki took the badge with a smile and returned Kirlia to her Pokeball to rest as Echo walked up to the two, a smile on her face.
"You know, I may have a smile on my face right now and I'm happy for you sis, I am furious inside." Echo said as she walked in front of her sister.
"H-Hey now… ok not even going to bother on this one." Hibiki said as she breached for a scolding. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Echo just hugged Hibiki, who returned the hug in kind.
"You are the craziest sister one can have, you know that right?" Echo asked, a look of sadness on her face.
"Yeah… sorry about that plan, it was dumb and risky." Hibiki told Echo.
"It's fine, everything did end up working out in the end. That being said…" Echo said before trailing off. Hibiki raised her eyebrow before getting punched in the gut by Echo and kneeling to the ground clutching her stomach. "...Was that too much?" Echo asked in a bit of an awkward tone, rubbing the back of her head.
"No, I deserve it. Damn, you back a mean punch sis." Hibiki said in a strained voice.
"Ok then, we battle in a few minutes?" Echo questioned, speaking to Skyle. Skyle nodded, looking more than a little scared, and walked to go heal up his Pokemon. As he did that, Echo helped her sister up slowly and took her back to the stands with Sigma and Cherry.
"Wow, you got some mean punches." Sigma told Echo.
"Thank you, I hope you're not on end of one of them." Echo responded. As Sigma was a bit flattered and somewhat terrified of what Echo said as Cherry coughed.
"Do you think we could take the time to address the elephant in the room of Ralts' evolution?" Cherry questioned.
"At least a little bit as I think I have a theory for why it happened." Hibiki said, a look of concern on her face.
"What do you think is going on then?" Sigma asked.
"Before I ask, I have a question for Sigma and Cherry. What exactly were your experiences with Shadow Pokemon?" Hibiki inquired. Cherry was silent as she thought about the question while Sigma brought out two Pokeballs.
"My experience is like any Neo Cypher grunt, we get our Shadow Pokemon and we use them for however long we want to. Depending on your rank, you get more Shadow Pokemon, though you don't have to use them." Sigma replied.
"Wait, did you ever have to Reseal your Shadow Pokemon?" Cherry asked.
"Reseal?" Sigma replied, a look of confusion on his face.
"It's a procedure we used to do back in old Cypher, basically making it so we keep the Shadow Pokemon in a comfortable state where we don't have to worry about them breaking free of the Shadow State, because that is a thing that happened." Cherry explained.
"I've… never had to go through that. In fact, I don't think anyone in Neo Cypher, that I know of anyway, actually has done that process." Sigma told Cherry.
"If that is the case, then something must have happened to the process to make it so that this Resealing procedure is never used." Echo said after hearing the info. At this point the group went quiet before looking at Hibiki, who was processing the information herself.
"Based on what I've heard, let me throw something out there. What if Neo Cypher found a way to either freeze the unlocking process in place, making it so that the Pokemon don't get to a point where they can break free or find a way that they can make normal Pokemon have aspects of Shadow Pokemon?" HIbiki suggested. The others let that information sit for a moment before Echo turned around and saw Skyle waiting for her.
"Fill me in on what you discuss after we get back to our room, I have to do a gym battle." Echo said as she walked over to the field. Hibiki nodded as she thought about things that she had done.
"Well, we may as well talk a bit more in that case. What made you think of those theories, Hibiki?" Cherry said.
"Like you said it's only theories, but I've had my suspicions ever since the mission on the base and what we talked about in the debriefing. Remember how you told me that Shades were a way of keeping? Something about that has been bothering me for a while." Hibiki responded, going through mental notes.
"What exactly is bothering you about it? Again I don't know too much about the process myself, but it seems pretty simple." Sigma asked.
"You might be right, but something about it has been nagging at me to , I did that along with training both Kirlia and the Lucario I got off of Strong. From what I've seen, while Kirlia's Shadow Aura has been going down, if a little slower than what I expected, Lucario's seems to not be moving at all." HIbiki said.
"Interesting, how does this relate to your theories?" Cherry questioned.
"There was one other thing that I'm pretty sure you've noticed with that battle, Kirlia can use all her moves and even learn new ones. So think about it like this; if a Shade is just a Shadow Pokemon, but more obedient to their trainer, what could they do if they just gave a regular Pokemon the aspects of a Shadow Pokemon?" Hibiki told the two. Sigma and Cherry took a moment to process that info before they realized what Hibiki was suggesting.
"You mean to say that they can probably just apply a Shadow Pokemon's Aura with moves and all to a regular Pokemon, with the Pokemon being unaffected?" Sigma asked.
"Potentially that might be the case, but I'm not 100% sure that they've realized it yet. Remember, Strong said that she was a 'failed Shade experiment', meaning they might have tried to further the Shade aspects but ended up with what Kirlia is now." Hibiki expanded. Cherry was going to say something but realized that there was probably more to the picture.
"I say we wait for Echo before we talk more." Cherry told Hibiki. Hibiki simply nodded before turning to the battle in front of her, Sigma doing the same. After a few minutes and a few close calls, Echo came out on top and earned her badge, smiling before quickly punching Skyle in the gut.
"Damn, she really did it. Where did she learn to punch like that?" Sigma said.
"When you live with a Gym Leader for a mom and a Champion for a grandmother, you learn to be strong pretty quick." Hibiki responded with a smile. Hibiki quickly got up and ran over to give her sister a hug, with the two being elated at their victories. After a few minutes of casual chatting and waiting for Skyle to recover, the group exited the gym and headed back to the hotel.