Unfortunately, it was as if someone had decided to throw a monkey wrench in his face not too far from where he’d started searching.

He’d made his way towards the rockier part of the area, where he hoped that at least one of the two he was searching for would be spotted—when a familiar flash of blue and black caught his eye.

“Really?” was the first word that escaped his lips as he sighed and massaged his forehead. Why in the hell did a Riolu decide to make an appearance before him…right at the time he already had one? Shaking his head, he crouched down for a few moments and sighed, before looking again over at where he’d spotted the Jackal Pokémon.

“Look, I really, really like you, but… I already have a friend of yours… I’m sorry. Maybe you can find a nice girl to go home with?” he suggested, gently shooing the Fighting-type away as he stood up; as the Riolu had looked hopefully in his direction. From the way the Riolu read his aura, the Fighting-type knew he was telling the truth, and then nodded respectfully before breaking a dash back in the direction it had come from.

“Okay, keep going, keep going…” he muttered to himself, hoping that he’d be able to hit the jackpot as fast as possible.

He’d eventually left the rocky part of the Safari behind and had decided to poke around near the heavily-forested area when he didn’t realize his center of gravity had shifted—and in a few seconds he was very much alarmed to see that the dirt ground was inches away from his face!

A muffled yelp of shock escaped him before he felt his entire 6’1” form crash unceremoniously in the ground—to be fair he wasn’t watching where the hell he was going, but he heard an annoyed grunt coming from whatever had tripped him over. Oww, that really hurt! He thought as he painfully pulled himself up and did a quick check for any injuries.

Asides from a bruised ego and a throbbing nose, he then caught sight of another Unova-native snapping its teeny-tiny pincers in his direction—a Dwebble. “Whoa, hey! I’m sorry! I didn’t see you there!” he began as he backed away—while the dual-type advanced forward. Doing a quick rundown of his options he realized that he was at a distinct disadvantage here—none of his companions were capable of taking on this thing!

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” he yelped as he quickly brushed the leaves and dirt off his clothes and scarf before continuing to crash through the area, putting as much distance between himself and the pretty angry Dwebble.

Fortunately, once he was sure he put more than enough distance between himself and the angry, angry Dwebble he’d come to lean against a tree as he caught his breath. Dang it, how much had be sprinted in the past few minutes? He definitely didn’t like the burning sensation he felt in his legs—he should really get some more exercise down…maybe he could ask Mike how the fuck he could run for what looked like forever without breaking a damned sweat!

That was when he thought he felt a heat haze nearby—wait a second, a heat haze? Looking up hopefully, he thought he saw a flash of orange that had darted away, chuckling mischievously.

“Well that’s not nice…” he began, searching through his coat pocket and summoning Loki forward, watching as the Sableye unfolded from the flash of red light he’d sent forward. As the dual-type landed on the ground with not a sound, the chuckling noise echoed around them again.

“Can you…find and deal with that… I’m pretty sure it’s one of the two I’m looking for… maybe I should tell Mike how much of a little shit Torchics are when I get the chance,” he added a few moments later as he sank to his knees while taking deep breaths; the better to calm his body down.

With a nod, the Sableye then sank into one of the nearby shadows to await its prey—not realizing that the Torchic had decided to walk right past where he’d just hidden himself in! A loud, cackling noise then made its presence known and the Fire-type had a split-second to look behind it before the Sableye emerged from the shadows beneath its feet and opened fire with a Confuse Ray status change!

The sinister ray of light was the last thing the Torchic could remember, as it had walked right into the Sableye’s trap. Now that it was confounded, the dual-type then opened fire with another flash of light—this time it was a Power Gem attack, catching it right in the face once again before it was sent backwards and was knocked right into the trunk of a tree not too far away from where it had flown.

A loud smacking noise echoed around the clearing, and the Sableye closed the distance before knocking the Torchic back in Damian’s direction with a Shadow Claw attack, seemingly juggling the Fire-type for a few seconds before batting it into the air—and opening fire once again with another Power Gem attack and forcing it to crash not too far away from where Damian had forced himself to calm down so his body would stop shaking from running too fast, too soon.

“Oof,” he groaned as he looked up right on time to see a Torchic come to a crash-landing mere feet from where he was at the moment. “Gee, Loki, overkill much?” he said with a drawl, and the Sableye could only cackle as a red flash of light then sailed towards the Fire-type, catching it in the Safari Ball he was holding…

As the Safari Ball in his hand wiggled shut only once—wow, how long had it been since he’d scored a critical capture like that out of the gate—another loud scuffling noise drew both his and the Sableye’s attention, who was seemingly making faces at the undergrowth.

“Loki, stop that,” he said with a grin as he then saw… a bunch of what appeared to be sentient eggs emerge from the bush. Looking disinterested, he then pocketed the Safari Ball that had the exhausted Torchic in it before waving his hand in the Sableye’s direction.

“You can take care of that one, I don’t mind how you do it, just lemme catch my breath a bit more… my legs are cramping up too, ugh,” he continued a few moments later, hissing as he tried to stretch out his right leg—he could feel an electric sensation race through it before he locked it back into the folded position he’d assumed with it as he’d sunk down to the dirt.

The pile of eggs, seeing the Sableye leering at them, quickly opened fire with a Barrage attack, sending random objects flying at the dual-type. Apparently, that was a bad idea—for the Exeggcute at least. Seeing that all the projectiles were literally phasing through the Sableye, the Exeggcute panicked—before the other dual-type had sunk into the shadows via Shadow Sneak, slithering along the ground and coming up behind the Exeggcute a few moments later and startling the hell out of them.

Hearing the bunch of eggs let out a cry of shock, Damian then looked up from where he was still trying to get his body back into some kind of working order and took out his Pokédex and pointed it at said pile of eggs. As he read the information on it, he then sighed, before the Sableye looked in his direction.

“No, Loki, we’re not after that one. I’ll let you know what it is when I see it…” he said, waving his hand in the dual-type’s direction again, which caused the Sableye to leer rather evilly at the Exeggcute before the dual-type let loose with a Shadow Claw, knowing that he was safe against retaliation due to his dual-typing. Now here’s to hoping that the damned thing didn’t have a Psychic-type move in its arsenal, because despite the fact that the Sableye was a Dark-type, he was also a Ghost-type so that made it rather hairy…

The Exeggcute, not too amused with the sudden attack that had rammed into it, countered with a loud, noisy Uproar that shook the area—Damian then had to hide a groan as he was pretty sure that due to all the noise the Exeggcute was making, it would attract all sorts of Pokémon to it and cause even more trouble… until he realized something. Wait, maybe I can use that to me advantage… he thought idly to himself as he watched Loki now ‘juggling’ the Exeggcute with another Shadow Claw as he batted it high into the air and waited for it to come crashing down.

A Power Gem attack then sent the bunch of living eggs flying, crying out even more and continuing to cause an Uproar as the pile of six crashed somewhere not too far away—and the Sableye gave chase, eventually following it down and batting it away with another Shadow Claw before returning to his companion.

Thankfully their last encounter was the one he was hoping to find—and then he was extremely surprised to find out that the little one, bless its soul, was a female!

Exactly what I was looking for! He thought with a look of glee on his face, watching as the Cutiefly circled around a patch of flowers before slowly coming in for a landing—he knew that just like him, the little thing was capable of picking up aura. While not as powerful enough as a Riolu could, the telltale signs were there.

Hell, even its Pokédex entry said something about being able to pick up which flowers were about to bloom, hence the reason for it having some vestige of auric power…

Anyway, the Sableye cackled and grinned, before Damian shook his head—he didn’t want Loki to traumatize the poor thing; and while it sulked for all of five seconds, the Sableye then leaned against a tree to watch just how his companion was going to approach this one without even hurting it. Sometimes Loki couldn’t understand Damian’s train of thought…

The little flying Bug-type then circled around a particularly large flower that had its petals about to open before it looked up and saw the strange human. Frightened, it made to flee, but Damian quickly held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa… I’m not going to hurt you. Neither’s Loki. Right?” he called out to the Sableye, who shrugged in his direction before leaning back against the tree again; intent to see how the hell this was all going to play out.

“Okay, well, there’s that. Loki’s not so trusting of other Pokémon… well, most of my companions he’s fine with, but… yeah, he’s not that scary now. I mean, you can tell, right?” he asked the Cutiefly; and for a few moments Damian let his own aura flare around him; having been so used to the sensation by now.

The little thing flitted around before eventually making to tickle him by the ear; which made the much-larger 6’1” suddenly squirm around and break out into a fit of laughter. “Whoa, hey—you’re so small I might accidentally squish you! But that tickles!” he continued a few moments later, raising his hands in an attempt to gently nudge the Cutiefly so that the other would land on his nose instead of by his ear. A few moments later, the little Pokémon then eventually perched atop his nose, almost causing him to get cross-eyed in an attempt to get a better look at it.

“Okay, you’re really tiny. But can you tell? I told you, I mean nothing but the truth!” he added a few seconds later before the Cutiefly made to tickle his nose this time, flitting around before gently poking him in the forehead and then flying off towards the flower it had meant to drink some honey from.

“What? You want me to… oh, no, I can’t do that!” he said, holding out his hands in an embarrassed motion, gesturing at the flowers. “I don’t pluck flowers so needlessly…” he added a few moments later, before the Cutiefly flew back and perched right on his nose again—and this time refused to leave it.

“What, you like my nose?” he asked, before hearing a soft skittering—and for a few moments the Cutiefly shook its head, “No, not my nose then? What is it?” he tried again; and this time the little one flew around him a few times before decidedly landing on his nose again.

“You… you want to come with me?”

While running the risk of getting cross-eyed, he focused on the teeny one on his nose, who then hummed something that sounded like approval, before Damian fished out his last Safari Ball and gently poked it on the Pokémon that had decided to claim his nose as its favorite place to perch.