Tinkatuff was like a child experiencing Christmas morning for the first time. Each swing of her hammer was accompanied by giggles, and she kept moving it around in different ways to try out new techniques.

With her larger body, she didn’t need to struggle to attack; she wielded her hammer with ease. Even more, she had torn off roughly half its extraneous parts to make it even more lightweight and aerodynamic, most likely no longer needing them to support a smaller form.

Tinkatuff didn’t stop working on her weapon, however. If anything, her evolution motivated her even more. Right now she was in the process of refitting her weapon to allow more attachments. Soon, I could tell it would increase in power and weight tenfold.

I took advantage of her absolute enthusiasm and threw her into battle. She attacked with glee, taking on anyone who came her way. With Togepi and Eevee’s victory in the rock climbing competition, my temporary title as King of Route 3 had been confirmed, and I was facing at least one challenger each day.

My challengers had a choice: either take on Eevee and Togepi in a double battle or attempt to take on Tinkatuff in a “boss fight,” inspired by my battle against Flannery all the way back in Hoenn.

Unsurprisingly, most of my opponents chose to face Tinkatuff even though she was stronger, as it tended to be easier to plan for one target instead of two.

Tinkatuff was a pure offensive terror. Her attacks carried the full weight of her hammer behind them, and she had an expansive moveset to support that. In her first match, against an Alolan Rattata and a Litten, the Rattata hadn’t expected to take a four-times effective Rock Smash, and it had fainted immediately. As for the Litten, it tried to make up for the early faint, but even with its Fire Type, Astonish let Tinkatuff flinch it and keep it in place while she wound up for a bigger attack.

Our “Boss Fights” were only a viable strategy to maintain our role thanks to most low level Pokémon having limited movesets. Once trained, Pokémon often learned utility moves that could weaken or limit their opponents. If we were competing in a tier higher, even if Tinkatuff evolved into Tinkaton, most opponents could shut her down in only a few moves.

As for now, her moveset was limited, but I did plan to expand it, eventually. Tinkatuff would be able to learn both Encore and Thunder Wave, two incredible incapacitating moves. However, Whimsicott was our only option to tutor her for Encore, and Dedenne was our best option to tutor her for anything related to the Electric Type.

Somehow, the two Pokémon on our team that had the potential to help Tinkatuff happened to be absent during this time. For now, we stuck to raw offense.

Our challenges came and passed with all of them coming out to our victory. There were close calls, of course—at one point, a burn on Tinkatuff meant her offensive power was cut in half, and another time, Togepi almost took a final blow if it wasn't for the inherent sturdiness of her shell. We had two days left until our right to challenge Hala was confirmed when Hope approached us in the Pokémon Center.

It was night out, and this building on the edge of the Route was positioned right on the edge of a cliff. Stars sparkled over the dark, vast ocean, and underneath, the water shifted and stirred from the remnant Pokémon swimming around and playing. Eevee was in my lap, his fur being brushed smooth with a grooming kit (still courtesy of Steven, of course). Ninetales was asleep next to me, and the rest of my team were either in their balls or relaxing upstairs.

I was enjoying the peace created by the quiet atmosphere and great view until Hope suddenly slapped down a newspaper on the desk next to me.

"What’s this?" I asked.

"Research." Her grin was wide and excited.

The slap had disturbed Eevee, who shifted around in my lap. I ended up moving him to another chair to make room for me to lean forward, then when Ninetales tried to replace him with her head, I had to apologetically push her back.

The paper she gave me had an interesting title. "Aether Cancels Fossil Restoration." I skimmed through, focusing on only the basics, getting a summary of what had gone on.

"So the Aether Foundation had a project to reintroduce Fossil Pokémon to natural environments?" I asked.

"Yeah, and it was canceled. The article states that they recovered the Pokémon and placed them in captivity, but..."

Hope leaned in. She had a mischievous smirk on her face.

"I heard a rumor that there are still some still around. Specifically, Lileep."

I raised an eyebrow. Lileep were a fossil Pokémon previously found in ancient Hoenn, so I hadn't expected the possibility of seeing one here. Though, considering the species tended to be ocean-based, I wasn’t surprised the Aether Foundation tried to introduce them to the island Alola.

Hope went on to explain how there was a secret cavern nearby, hidden in the depths of a secret meadow. She'd been asking around while she was waiting for my week as a Route King to end, and she managed to obtain two different first hand accounts of people seeing them.

When her explanation ended, I placed the newspaper on the table and looked Hope in the eye.

"So you want to catch them. You're confident they’re actually there.”

"No doubt. This is definitely my best chance to expand a team."

I could have pointed out she was all but guaranteed to catch a new Pokémon on the next island, but Hope wanted a new team member now. I shrugged, signaling my consent, and Hope cheered in excitement.

“Look out, Lileep of the world! Mama’s coming for you!”

After my final two days as Route King were up, earning me the right to challenge Kahuna Hala, we went to the meadow. The cave we were searching for was hardly secret; practically everyone knew it was there.

For this trip, I switched up my team, choosing Pokémon I knew would enjoy the sights. I would have brought Whimsicott if I had the chance, but he was still out protecting Lillie.

Lillie might come here, at least. I hope she does so he can see this.

Melemele Meadow was nestled in a valley between the cliffs of the center of the island. It was a space absolutely covered with bright yellow petals, filled to the brim in flowers of all forms.

Caterpie crawled over the flower's heads. A few Butterfree flew through the air and nestled in the depths of the larger varieties of the plants. I noticed a group of Cottonee floating over the field, almost serving as a low-lying cloud for the area.

Hope held back a gasp at the sight, and the same was true for the Pokémon I brought with me. Florges almost immediately floated forward, and she bent down to cup a flower in her hand.

A buzz—a small insect flew upwards. It had a yellow, furry body not unlike a bee, except this creature had a proboscis, almost like a butterfly.

The Cutiefly flew upwards in front of Florges’s face, and she smiled, holding a hand forward. It easily and willingly perched on her offered finger, then behind it, more left the flowers. Within seconds, Florges was swarmed by the bugs, surprisingly, to her pleasure. Dozens of them flew in and out of the flower on her head, and she giggled to herself, pleased.

"Yeah, I can tell Florges isn't a Grass Type," Hope mumbled.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't get me wrong, Bug Types can be useful when it comes to ensuring plant growth, but a lot of them feed on plants. Florges isn't actually her flowers,she’s just symbiotically connected to them. I know if Venusaur was out right now, all of those Bug Types would make him deeply uncomfortable."

Florges was now tinted yellow by the sheer number of Cutiefly around her. I saw a few tiny Flabébé on yellow flowers poke their heads up, but none directly approached.

Hope moved down into the flowers, and I followed after her. There wasn’t a cleared road through here, which meant our human feet unintentionally crushed some of the flowers under our weight. I disliked damaging the environment like this, but I watched in amazement as hidden Pokémon behind me caused any fallen flowers to stand right back up.

Actually, when I looked up, I saw that Florges was actually responsible for a lot of the recovery from her presence alone. She trailed behind us, healing the crushed flowers with raw Type energy control by itself, and a cloud of Cutiefly buzzed above her head.

“The entrance to the cave should be hidden among the back wall.” Hope hummed. “Look for shadows or any obvious openings. The people I talked to said it was kind of hard to find.”

“I have an idea. Give me a moment.”

I had two Pokémon with me who wanted to enter this cave—Carbink, and, of course, Altaria. I sent both of them out and gave them instructions. We walked with Carbink over to the wall, and Altaria took to the air.

With their help, we managed to find the entrance to the cave easily enough. Altaria squawked out an alert where he saw a suspicious extrusion, and Carbink went over to inspect the area. Disguised as a shadow made by a noon sun, a dark splash on the wall was soon revealed as the darkness of the cave. We slowed our pace to approach it with caution.

Florges said goodbye to her cloud of friends before I returned her to her ball. Unlike everyone else, she wasn’t excited to enter such a dark and damp space.

“Sunflora,” Hope said, sending out her Pokémon.

"Carbink, you too," I said.

With our commands, our Pokémon lit up. Sunflora’s sunflower face glowed, and Carbink let their crystals shine with a weak Dazzling Gleam. Their presence let us stare into a twisting path that curved down into the earth. Minerals in the walls caused the place to sparkle slightly, and after exchanging a look, Hope and I headed down.

"You know, it is pretty impressive you’ve managed to get Dazzling Gleam to imitate Flash,” Hope mumbled as we walked, keeping an eye out for anything that might reveal what we were searching for.

"It is?"

"Yeah. It takes a lot of control to use an offensive move like that. You must have spent a long time practicing with your team.”

I smiled and placed a hand on Carbink’s head in pride. Previously focused, they jolted at the unexpected touch, but when they realized what was going on, Carbink shifted upwards in the air to push closer against my palm.

Fun fact about Carbink: their ears are actually rather soft. While there was a crystal chunk in the center of their head, the more biological parts of their body almost felt like velvet.

Eventually, the path we followed opened up, and we entered the caverns known as “Seaward Cave.” It was a series of slopes and curved, stone paths that extended out over pools of water that connected to the ocean itself. The pools rose and fell with the tides, though not to the same extent as Shoal Cave in Hoenn. It was more like Meteor Falls, than anything else, especially with its massive size and perpetual dampness.

Carbink and Sunflora led the way with their light, and Altaria happily hopped around behind them. Next to me, Hope walked with a spring in her step, and we took in the sights.

With how open this space was, we saw wild Pokémon easily enough. Zubat kept near the stalactites on the ceiling, and a few groups of Psyduck were standing around the lowered pools. At one point, I saw a Delibird waddling along. The Pokémon wasn’t waterbound, but the area was chilly enough to support Ice Types.

“How exactly do we want to tackle exploration?”

“Hm.” Hope brought up a hand and looked around. “These paths curve everywhere, but I don’t see any obvious Lileep. I think we should try to check the pools, if not, maybe behind a wall?”

“Like another secret entrance.”

She nodded, not speaking, deep in thought. I watched her beckon Sunflora over, and she kneeled down to lean over the edge and stare down into one of the pools.

I heard a “Dig?” then some rumbling, and an Alolan Diglett with a few strands of yellow hair popped up beside her. The pair stared for a few seconds, before Diglett retreated and Hope stood back up.

“Might take a bit,” she mumbled.

“It’s fine. We have days to spare.”

She nodded, and our search continued.

My comment of “days to spare” was prophetic in the worst way possible. Seaward cave was both larger than we expected while also feeling surprisingly cramped. In order to not deal with constant underground living, we ended up camping on a raised, clear section of the meadow, and we limited our delves to be only a few hours at a time.

I was pretty confident Hope had stared into the depths of every single pool. A few times, she even jumped in and dived down underneath. Every time she did that, she came up shivering, and we had to take a break just to let her warm up.

It took genuine effort to search for the apparent secret fossil Pokémon within these walls. By the end of it, I was starting to doubt there were any Lileep here at all. But, Hope was determined, and she didn’t want to give up. Desperate for some kind of hint, on the fourth day, Hope took a stick and tapped on the cavern’s outer walls.

She meandered around the edge, mostly checking to see if anything was fake. At this point, we only had Carbink out to give off light, as the chill of the space would harm Sunflora if she stayed in here for too long, and Carbink had an easier time following us since they could float.

“Wait, hold on,” Hope said. “I think I hear something.”

I thought she meant she heard an echo with her taps, but she ended up dropping her stick. She jogged forward to one wall in particular, then she stood on her toes and glanced upwards.

“There! Carbink, can you move up?”

Carbink easily floated upwards to reach where she was pointing, and their light illuminated a few inch wide crack. Not only that, but it was clear the crack went deep enough to go all the way through. Straining my ears, I could hear a sound on the other side that almost sounded like... buzzing?

“I think there’s something behind there,” Hope said.

“I agree. I’d say it’s the meadow if we weren’t so far underground.”

Hope frowned, then she resumed tapping the wall, this time, with her hand. The thunks that came off had a clear echo behind them, as if there was a space behind this section of stone.

The volume of the faint buzz suddenly spiked, sounding almost panicked. Carbink made a few hurried noises, and Hope’s lips pressed together in a thin line.

“We need to get behind this. The wall's thin. Someone could probably break it down," she said.

"And ruin part of the cavern just like that?"

I wanted to help whatever was making the noise, but I was also worried about damaging the local environment. Though, when I voiced, Hope simply scoffed at my comment. As if to emphasize her exasperation, she also made a show of rolling her eyes.

"Alex, I trained under a man who spent his entire life protecting natural environments. Breaking one wall in a cave isn't a big deal—most Rock Types would end up being able to fix it. If this was an issue, Rock Smash would be a more restricted move. You only need three badges to legally use it in the wild as it stands."

She waved me forward, and I sent out Tinkatuff with a sigh.

"Can you use Rock Smash to break down the wall?" I asked, getting a hint.

Tinkatuff didn't even wait. Her hammer was brought forward for a Rock Smash. Enhanced by fighting Type energy, her hammer shattered the wall like glass, and an entire, smaller cave was exposed on the other side.

Hope gasped out of surprise.

"Lileep," she breathed.

While it was nice we finally found them, I was more focused on the scene as a whole.

Just like Hope had implied, the room was filled with Lileep, but the issue was that there wasn’t just Lileep. The ancient Pokémon sat with their lower bodies stuck to rocks and gravel around the shallow edge of a deep pond, and their anemone-heads had extended upwards, with their pink tendrils reaching up to grab what was in the air.

Their attempts to grab were aimed at a single Pokémon responsible for that buzzing sound. It was panicked, wide eyed, and desperately using all of its energy to stay in their air. At a few points, it tried to land, but the perpetually wet stone meant it slipped, and the wild Cutiefly was becoming more and more exhausted by the second.

It only had inches to stay safe between the ceiling and the end of the Lileep’s tendrils. With their position around the edge of the pond, it was like an eldritch ring was doing its best to drag the poor bug into its mouth.

The Cutiefly barely had any room to move, and I could tell it was close to falling unconscious. Hope had talked a lot about Lileep as we explored these caverns, and she had mentioned Lileep ambushed prey whenever something moved too close.

Unfortunately for this Cutiefly, it was too close to at least three dozen different living fossils.

“We have to save it,” I said.

“Huh? Wait— shit! How did a Cutiefly get here?”

“It doesn’t matter. Carbink, protect it with screens! Altaria, distract!”

Carbink rushed to set up a Reflect under the Cutiefly and pushed the barrier downwards. Tendrils made audible smacks against it as Carbink put in everything they had to keep it solid.

At the same time, I sent out Altaria, and he opened his mouth to exhale a Dragon Breath. All the extended Lileep were seared, and a decent chunk caught in the flames became paralyzed by the chaotic, draconic energies.

With Altaria’s Dragon Breath, most of the wild Lileep had retracted their head from the pain. A few were still reaching upwards, but their tendrils failed to get past the Reflect. However, by announcing ourselves with aggression, the smarter ones turned our way, and their yellow eyes glowed in the darkness of the center of their heads.

“They don’t look too happy. Hope?”

“I’m on it.”

Hope quickly sent out her Vileplume. The Grass Type bounced it place before holding up its stubby arms and shouting its name.

“Petal Blizzard!” Hope yelled.

From the center of its flower, razor sharp petals burst out in a flurry of an attack. They careened into the Lileep’s hardened bodies and cut into their rocky surface. Lileep were Grass Types, but they were also Rock Types, so the move was a decently effective attack. Several of them whined in pain, and that let us grab all of the wild Pokémon’s attention. None were paying Cutiefly any mind.

“Now! Cutiefly! Come over to us!”

The bug, flying in the air, wavered in place. It had a bruise on the side of its body where it seemed to have been struck earlier. Seeing us here, it closed its eyes. For a moment, it smiled, but then it simply had no more energy to continue.

Cutiefly plummeted towards the Lileep.

“Catch it, Carbink!”

Carbink did their best to try to reshape Reflect into a solid cup, but they weren’t a Psychic Type, and the move wasn’t made to hold, only temporarily block. As a result, Cutiefly passed right through, and a few of the Lileep looked up.

Altaria tried to rush forward, but he was forced to fluff up with Cotton Guard as tendrils lashed forward in an attempt to Constrict. It really seemed like we had failed and that Cutiefly was doomed.

Then, a flash. A Pokémon released themself at my side.

“FLOOOOOR—” A stream of petals rushed forward. They flooded the room. “GEESSS!!!”

Petal Dance, Florges’s favored move, rushed out of her mane. Thousands upon thousands of petals filled the air, far more than what Vileplume’s Petal Blizzard had produced moments earlier. The Lileep recoiled back from the damage, and Florges swung her arms to command the petals to condense in the center.

As part of a spiraling dance, she formed a padded nest, and Cutiefly was caught within it.

“Alex—”

“I’m taking out a Full Heal.”

Rather than bring medicine out for Cutiefly, when the bug was deposited in front of us, I used a Full Heal to cure Florges from the confusion caused by Petal Dance. With all the training she had received from Sophie, Sycamore’s assistant, she was a far better medic than me, which meant Cutiefly could be healed far better than anything I could do with potions.

A Wish would take too long to be formed and sent into Cutiefly, so Florges puffed out yellow pollen that she collected into a sphere. From there, the Pollen Puff was placed in front of Cutiefly’s face, and Florges started to extremely gently massage the Pokémon’s side.

A tense moment passed where nothing happened. Then, Cutirefly unconsciously extended its proboscis and started to suck. The Pollen Puff was reduced in size as the wild Pokémon drank its healing energy.

“Alex!”

My head shot upwards to return to staring at the room. Vileplume had been fending off what attacks the Lileep had been throwing our way, and Carbink had been giving it support with their screens and conjured rocks. However, it seemed like the Lileep were now backing off. Except...

The pool was bubbling. Something large was coming up.

I saw its eyes first. Yellow and glowing, just like the Lileep’s, but they were far larger than the rest. A mass of green broke through the surface, and like a serpent, a head extended up. However, this wasn’t a serpent, it was an anemone, just bigger. The evolved form of Lileep, a Cradily, glared at us with hatred clear in its eyes.

“It doesn’t like that we disturbed its hideout,” Hope whispered.

Carbink created a new screen to block off the new entrance. Altaria shifted back to more directly protect Florges and the rest of us. I grabbed my last Pokéball for Ninetales, but Hope interrupted me by holding out her hand.

“No, let me.”

She took a confident step forward, and her Vileplume did the same. Moving through Carbink’s barrier, Vileplume puffed up its chest. The wild Cradily glared at Hope’s Pokémon, and it was clear a battle was about to start.

“Toxic!” Hope yelled.

Cradily acted at the same time.

More pink tendrils shot out, these ones much thicker than the Lileep’s. They moved with speed and power, yet Vileplume easily jumped up and spun. The tendrils hit the ground and the walls around it, easily missing, and, in exchange, Vileplume landed back on the ground.

With one foot bracing it on the floor, Vileplume twisted and leaned forward, aiming its flower right at Cradily. From the yellow center of the growth, thick globs of oily tar were spat out, and they stuck to Cradily’s skin. With Toxic in place, the Cradily groaned, but the wild Pokémon still continued its attack. This time, rocks turned purple with geokinesis, and an Ancient Power threatened to crush Cradily’s opponent.

“Bullet Seed!”

Hope wasn’t rated to have a nine-star team for nothing. Each cannonball-sized seed shot from Vileplume knocked a boulder out of the way. Cradily then tried for a Brine, spitting up water and splashing the pool’s liquid forward, but Vileplume willingly took the resisted attack in order to release a critical Venoshock.

It was like thick daggers full of venom pierced Cradily from the air. Where Poison Sting resembled needles, this move resembled full-fledged swords. The super effective attack caused Cradily to flail from pain.

And Venoshock dealt more damage thanks to the poison from Toxic, too.

“And now Moonblast to finish it off!”

I blinked, turning towards Hope when she ordered the unexpected move. She winked, saying “Learning goes both ways, Fairy Specialist.” Above Vileplume, an image of the moon appeared, and the Pokémon coalesced Fairy Type energy to create a glowing sphere that blasted right at Cradily.

The attack struck it right in its face. Briefly, the pink burst lit up its usually darkened face, and I got a rare glance of what was inside the Cradily’s darkness.

It looked like more plant, except it was dripping. Discolorations resembled veins, causing it to appear like the inside of a toothless mouth. Its two eyes, which were bright yellow protrusions, slammed shut in pain as Cradily reared back, and the Pokémon started to sink back into the water, where it would need to stay to recover from this battle.

With that final attack, the ceiling rumbled, and Vileplume was forced to run and jump to avoid a falling boulder. Hope’s expression fell as the Lileep used what little control they had over their Rock Type to block the room back up. Boulder after boulder moved into the wall, blocking off the room, and soon enough, they were sealed away, this time, their space being covered by much more than just a thin layer of stone.

Hope fell to her knees, expression aghast.

“No. No!” She slammed her hands to the ground. “I was supposed to catch one of them!”

Vileplume walked over to try to comfort Hope, patting her on her back. She let out a strangled sob.

I turned away to give her some privacy.

“How is Cutiefly doing?” I asked Florges.

The Bug Type was still unconscious on a bed of petals, but it looked to be in less pain. With Cutiefly stabilized, Florges had summoned a Wish when I wasn’t looking, and she was in the process of putting it into Cutiefly’s body.

When the glowing star entered its form, there was a shift, and Cutiefly slowly opened its eyes. It stared at Florges, eyes wide. Florges gave it a gentle smile in response.

That was enough to finally let it relax. Instead of falling unconscious from pain, it slumped down, falling asleep out of pure exhaustion.

“I’m glad Cutiefly is okay,” I said. “We should bring it back to the meadow, Hope.”

Hope let out a moan before pushing to her feet. She slowly swiped her arms across one another to wipe off any gravel that had stuck to them from the floor.

“Yeah, I guess,” she sighed.

With Cutiefly in Florges’s careful hands, we moved back up to the surface.

We returned to the spot where we had been camping these past few days, where we set up our tents and released our Pokémon. I started to build a campfire, as the sun was setting overhead, and, soon enough, the area was plunged into the deep orange of an incoming dusk.

Our Pokémon came out. Eevee hopped around and chased Togepi with glee. Hope’s own expansive team was released, with her Venusaur lumbering forward to go rest in the flowers.

It grumbled when wild Cutiefly and Butterfree approached the flower on its back. Off to the side, Hope’s Sunflora and Bellossom made the worthy sacrifice to distract the bugs with their own flowers.

“Honestly, I should have brought more repels,” Hope commented.

Florges was still out, and she was still focusing on the Pokémon in her care. She didn't leave Cutiefly's side as it rested, and I took this time to cook.

Sweet smells filled the air. The scent of Pokémon food berries was carried over our camp. As I prepared a meal for everyone, I made sure to grill the Aspear berries just the way Ninetales liked. I also made sure to set aside some of the food in case any wild Pokémon was interested enough to come our way.

By the time the food was almost done, Florges gasped, and Cutiefly woke up. With a squeak, it rolled over to its side to stand on its set of small feet. It wobbled for a moment, but a few rapid flaps of its fragile wings kept it upright.

"You're welcome to join us," I offered.

Cutiefly actually looked up to Florges for permission, but then I clarified.

"Not just for the meal, I mean. If you want, you should join our team in general. Don’t worry, you'll still get a meal even if you decline. I’m just giving you this offer so you have a safe way to explore the world and avoid what happened before.”

Cutiefly was extremely small and hard to see from a distance, but I could still tell it was staring at me in shock. I plated a bit of food in a small amount perfect for its size, then I walked forward and set it on the ground in front of it.

I kneeled, lowering myself as low as I could without pressing myself to the ground. I was trying to bring myself to eye level, but it was hard given Cutiefly’s small size.

"Cutiefly don't just wander into caves randomly," I said. The Pokémon froze. "You wanted to leave the meadow, didn't you? See the world. Prove your stuff."

The clearing was silent. Cutiefly was still staring at me. It stared at me in disbelief at my words.

It buzzed slightly before leaning side to side. I could tell it was acknowledging my words as correct.

I tapped the plate, reminding it that its food was still there.

"So, what do you say? Do you want to travel with us? Florges can show you around."

I could have sworn I saw a slight blush before it squeezed its eyes shut. Then, after a moment, Cutiefly nodded its head.

The clearing erupted into cheers.

"Welcome aboard, Cutiefly! I'm Alex, I'm training to be a Fairy Type specialist. Over there is Ninetales, then Altaria, then Carbink..."

I continued to introduce my team as Hope grumbled about how unfair it was that I was the one who ended up expanding my team in the end. Cutiefly used what little energy they had to flap up into Florges's mane, and Florges picked up their small meal to allow it to feed. Cutiefly basically had a throne of flowers to look over everyone from higher up, and I could see them smile as everyone excitedly greeted the Pokémon.

Cutiefly sighed, content, and I could already tell they would easily fit into the team.