Evolution. It is a mysterious phenomenon that occurs with a combination of age and experience, causing pokemon to take on new forms that boast greater strength. It also seemed to be infectious amongst everyone but Ava.

  Theo's poliwag was the first to be affected. It was only a week and a half after their fight with the weepinbell that one of their morning training sessions was interrupted by a bright glow. It was unlike anything Ava had ever seen before. Savage grew taller, lost her tail, and sprouted arms. The light soon faded away, and what was left was a whole new pokemon. The sheer possibility was astounding, and Ava fell into a fever looking up the evolutions for her pokemon and when they could expect it. Ava was a little frustrated to realize her bellsprout, Snappy, wouldn't be able to evolve to his final form without a leaf stone. She would need to start saving now if she had a chance at getting one of those.

  Soon another pokemon evolved, and it came from the same team in the form of Theo’s metapod. While it passed the D-Rank exam, it was limited in what it could do in shifts besides trap pokemon. Ava wasn't there to see it, but after trapping some wild pokemon the metapod shone, and a butterfree escaped from the shell. Ava wasn't sure why this evolution left behind a hard shell, but the first one she witnessed didn't leave anything behind. Theo's excited showings of the hard carapace didn't improve her feelings towards the seemingly lifeless remains.

  It was a slight frustration when Amiyra’s pidgey evolved. She had Diana for a much shorter time frame than Ava had Lucky, and despite the similar growth efforts, it didn't take long until she became a pidgeotto. Ava wasn't the only one this annoyed, as Diana's weird fixation on Lucky only increased as she got bigger.

  It was absolutely aggravating when she was on a guard mission and the fellow trainer on her shift had his electrike evolve after beating a group of ledyba.

  After talking with Mary in the poke center, Ava started to take photos of her pokemon daily. She wanted to know when her pokemon could evolve, and while the main physical transformation happened instantly, there were some small signs that a pokemon was preparing to evolve. Theo had mentioned how his poliwhirl had developed little nubs that grew to be arms during evolution, and Amirya told her about a red color appearing in Diana's head feathers. By taking a photo, she could track any physical changes they were going through easily.

  Progress was made, mainly with Lucky. He grew taller, his feathers lengthened, and his beak started to turn yellow. Confirming with the poke center these are the changes she wanted to be seeing, Ava knew he was getting close to evolution. Bellsprout has grown slightly darker but remained mostly the same, indicating it would be a while before he evolved.

  Change was not limited to just the pokemon. Soon, the hot summer days transitioned to cool fall ones. The once overwhelmingly hot uniform now kept Ava warm as the temperatures fell.

  In time with the seasons is the yearly harvest festival. At the end of the crop season, there would be a festival held that let the people know if this year's harvest was a success. When there was a bad year, the festival was smaller, where the hopes and prayers of the citizens of Taluda were the only parts of it. In good years it became an actual festival with events, food stalls, and even the rare guest from other cities.

  This year was a good year. After a couple average harvests in previous years, new plots of land being turned into farms have led to greater boons. That success is apparent as the streets start to get shut down to prepare for the long weekend of festivities.

  The festival will start on a Thursday afternoon and go well into Sunday night. Ava was preparing differently from most of the people by putting on her trainers uniform and strapping on her belt containing two poke balls. She had signed up earlier in the month to assist. While Ava had always enjoyed the festivals when she had gone, the desire for the holiday pay drew her in. Her future expenses loomed over her, she would eventually have to buy a leaf stone for Snappy, additional food once Lucky evolved, and more immediately her and Amiyra have been talking about renting an apartment together. So she wanted to get a head start of payment for that.

  Signing up was a little different from usual, where you just accept a mission. There was a faux interview component where she had to show off what her Pokémon could do and how well she could get them to listen to orders. It was a more grueling version of the D-Rank exam that she was told existed to make sure the pokemon were ready to potentially be near large groups of people. For three times the pay of a normal shift, she put up with it while smiling.

  Ava didn’t get to choose what shifts she wanted. Every trainer who was working the harvest festival would work for three days with one day off. This would also count for their weekly mandatory shifts. Ava’s day off was on Sunday, which would be saved to hang out with her family.

  Amiyra had also applied to work at the festival but was rejected. Apparently it was a highly coveted job, especially amongst D-Rankers. Ava doesn’t know why she was chosen over others and Amiyra wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to take it for granted. Even Amiyra’s midnight mumbling about not getting the job wouldn’t dampen her spirit. With the extra precautions there were rarely many issues and the job let them walk around the festival and enjoy many of the offerings available.

  Seeing the festival get set up was a wonderful experience. She helped people set up stands and even used Snappy to lift a sign of an archway. The streets started getting crowded with people and stalls opened up. In addition to a wide variety of foods, there were people selling handmade jewelry, clothes, wood figurines, and trinkets of all kinds. There were even spots of unexpected pokemon memorabilia.

  Ava was dragged through the thick of it all by her assigned partner. Estelle was a bubbly girl whose large curly hair and pink highlights matched her larger personality. Talking a thousand miles a minute, Estelle pulled Ava into the crowd before she was able to protest.

  It was only after they had visited three stalls and listened to someone strumming and guitar and singing in the corner that Ava was able to catch her breath. “We're still on duty. I'm not sure if we should actually be taking part in the festival.”

  Estelle barely finished chewing the food she just bought. “Chillax, newbie! We're still technically patrolling. Let's just say we are checking some suspicious activity near some stalls.” Ava didn't need to see the quotes Estelle’s fingers made to know she was being facetious. “Besides, what better way to protect people by being where the action is?” That was all the response she gave before taking off to explore another booth.

  Ava would never describe herself as someone who goes above and beyond. She's never been a go-getter at jobs or in school. However, she prides herself on keeping her word. That meant if she had a job, she would do what needed to be done. She might try to find easier ways to do the work, but no matter what, the work gets done as expected. So it was frustration working with Estelle, who right now seemed to be the exact opposite of her. She deviated from the patrol route and doesn't seem to have any inclination of coming back. Ava would have been fine with taking a stop at a stall or two, but Estelle kept moving towards every single one. When Estelle disappeared into the large crowd, Ava chose not to bother following and course corrected to the patrol paths. Even though they were supposed to travel in pairs, she wouldn't let herself get in trouble for not doing her job.

  She did start to understand why Estelle left as she went on. The festival was very enticing, and being adjacent to it with no action proved for a very boring shift. Still, she remained focused on sticking to her route and keeping her eye out for danger.

  She maintained this course until the end of the night, when the parade started rolling through. The first days of the festival are nights of joy and partying to celebrate the successful season. The last day focuses on reflection and hope for continued blessings throughout the coming months. The parade consists of floats and performances that signal the true kick-off of celebration, which usually leads to a night of debauchery and drinking. Ava herself spent last year's festival with her friends, and they played a game where they took a drink for every float they enjoyed. Ava ended that night vomiting in a trashcan. Her friends may not be in contact with her anymore, but she still looks on that night with fond memories.

  Seeing the parade from the outskirts of the crowd, she slowed her pace to gaze upon the traveling floats. The one that was passing by was circus themed, with beautiful men and women doing acrobatics across the stage. The one behind it was an unusual one, consisting of only one person. One of the eight S-Rank trainers in the city, Isabelle Addams. While Ava had never been into pokemon trainers that much, even she knew about the strongest trainers in their city. Isabelle became an S-Rank when Ava was a little girl and has maintained a stronghold on her spot for the past 15 years. That combined with the advertisements with her face on it made her easily recognizable.

  The woman on the float has strawberry blond hair, of average height with a slightly stocky build. While she would never win beauty pageants, she was by no means unattractive, and she carried herself with the confidence of someone who earned her title of protector of the city. The float also stood out because it was one of the few that had living pokemon. Currently on the stage were a pachirisu, a vivillion, and a snorunt. They seemed to be performing moves that had a stunning effect. The snorunt produced daggers of ice which the pachirisu shocked apart into a glittering dust fall which rained across the audience. Then the vivillion used psychic power to pick up the leftover shaved ice to create an image of a smiling piece of corn.

  Ava was deeply engaged in the performance until a voice over her shoulder shocked her, “Aww, was a cute facade!”

  “Holy fuck,” Ava twirled around heart pounding before realizing it was just Estelle, “Why did you do that? And where have you been?” Ava hissed.

  Estelle looked confused, “What do you mean I've been here the whole time?”

  “What? No you haven't, you ditched me go too…” seeing the small smirk on her face, Ava realized she was being messed with and took a deep breath, “Whatever. What do you mean facade?”

  Estelle moved on in the conversation with her, “I mean, obviously those aren't pokemon on her real team. Look how weak they are.” Now that she mentioned it, Ava could see what she meant, but hadn't really thought much off it. The woman on the float continued to call out commands, crafting stunning visuals as the float moved further away before disappearing from sight. Three pokemon from one of the strongest trainers in their city, and two of them were not evolved and only performed basic moves? It was a little suspicious.

  “How can she have pokemon that aren't hers, though? I was told that even S-Rank trainers are limited to six pokemon?”

  “Yeah, that's usually the case, but they do something like this every once in a while where the S Rankers come out to try to show people that pokemon are actually pretty cool and can do pretty things too. I'm guessing they are given certain leniencies for that.” Estelle shrugged, “Idk though, I think it's just a marketing tactic to get more people to sign up and to get people to move past the murders.”

  Having the bubbly girl next to her start casually talking about murders threw Ava for a loop, and she must have misheard, so she asked for a little clarity into that.

  It was Estelle's turn to look confused, “you don't know about the murders, seriously?” Ava in fact did not know about the murders. “Okay, wow backstory time. Well, 30ish years ago there were a bunch of murders. Like, think over 70. And it all seemed to be coming from one person, as they all had something carved in their forehead. I think it was a circle with a P in it,” Estelle mused before getting back on track, “But whatever. Eventually they find out how was doing it, and it is this trainer dude who was using his pokemon to kill people and hide his tracks. When they tried to catch him, he sent his pokemon on a rampage across the city, killing a bunch of people in the process. The big kicker is that he was only a C-Rank trainer.”

  “So pretty large scandal at the time and ever since then people have been totally freaked out about trainers. Now, whenever a trainer kills a civilian, the league tries to do something to get people to move past it. It's wild, though, I heard civilians used to actually respect us before.” Estelle continued to ramble on, talking about how she wished people still treated them like that.

  Ava was too shocked to say anything for a little bit as she was trying to comprehend the murders she had no idea existed that now played such a big part into how she's treated. “Wait, how have I never heard of this before? And were they able to eventually catch the guy?” she questioned.

  “Well, they try to keep it hush hush by not allowing it to be talked about on tv, but it's basically a non-secret secret. My mom told me when I was younger, her best friend was actually one of the people that got killed. Officially he's dead, apparently he exploded his own electrode, destroying a poke center and dying in the process.” She conspiratorially looked around before whispering, “Although my mom thinks he faked his death, escaped, and is one day going to come back to finish what he started.” She wiggled her fingers spookily before saying in her normal voice, “But she's crazy, so I wouldn't trust her on that”.

  The tail of the parade had moved past them while Estelle explained what she knew, and the people had followed along, leaving behind those going around the stalls. The rest of the night for them would be drinking and partying till dawn breaks, while Ava spent it picking up on her patrol and pondering what her unusual partner had told her. So far, being a trainer has come with the weight that death existed right around the corner of one bad step. But that has always come from the natural threat of pokemon. The idea of the ferociousness of nature coming from a person with the intent to kill did little to provide comfort as the night darkened upon the streets, she wandered alone once again.

  …

  After some rest and food, Ava was back to work at the festival. The afternoon was filled with families and the sun inched closer to night. Every day had a larger event that people could attend in addition to the general merriment and shopping. The first day was the parade kicking off the festival. Today’s main attraction was a large corn maze set up near the festival grounds. It was a normal maze throughout the day, and at night it became a haunted corn maze.

  Once night fell, there were multiple false claims that Ava heard over the radio. They came from people who thought they saw pokemon floating in the grass. After the third claim, Ava just thought that people were scared and imagining things. Either way, she was told to patrol the maze and be on the lookout for anything suspicious and report back. Estelle was supposed to be with her but within the first hour Ava had lost track of her so she was alone.

  Even if the reports were fake, Ava was starting to understand how they came to be. In the dark, with the moon casting little light, there was a creepiness that hung in the air. The bustle and sounds of the festival faded away as she made her way through the maze. The only sounds were her footsteps and the occasional screams from people going through the maze. She briefly saw workers of the maze, who knew that she was not taking part in the attraction because she had her pokemon out. With a report of a pokemon being seen, she had been given permission to have her pokemon out just in case.

  Lucky stayed close to her not flying too high above her head while he scouted and Snappy remained near Ava's walking on his thin feet, occasionally using his vines to propel himself when he got too far behind.

  Moving deeper in the maze, Ava started to feel the night air get colder, causing goosebumps to pop up on her arms. It really was fall if the nights were starting to get this cold. It was only when she saw her breath in front of her that Ava realized it wasn't just a normal cold. She stopped moving and looked around, trying to find the source.

  “Be on your guard,” Ava whispered to her team.

  A pregnant silence hung in the air before being broken by a heavy thump from right behind her. Ava twisted around ready to fight, only to find nothing behind her. Confused, she looked around. The only thing that stood out from the corn stalks around her was a large wooden cross. At its base lay a scarecrow that seems to have fallen down. Ava relaxed a little at finding the source of the sound. She moved closer to the fallen scarecrow made of hay with a pumpkin head. She looked past it trying to see into the maze if there was anything that would have caused it to fall when the prone bodies head snapped to look right out her

  She cursed, jumping back from the now shaking scarecrow. Its unstable body stood up in an obviously non-human way, and the smiling pumpkin head lit up from the inside with a sinister pale blue flame. A cackling sound started to emanate from the body, but Ava wasn't going to let it go further without taking action.

  “Hidden power,” she commanded, of which both her pokemon listened, shooting a black and green ball of energy towards the scarecrow. It had taken over two weeks of dedicated attention for Lucky to teach Snappy how to use hidden power. It was tempting to just buy the TM to save time, but she wanted Lucky to practice teaching it to make the process easier in the future. Ava was also a little disappointed once Snappy got the hang of the move since it was a grass type. However, she eventually came to be grateful for the long distance grass move when they had to face an aggressive geodude during a wall shift.

  An unholy shriek came from the scarecrow as it was hit, causing something to be pushed out of the back. The scarecrow crumbled to the ground, and what was left behind was obviously a pokemon. Its body floated, moving like a sheet in the wind. Its piercing eyes stood out against its dark body with a horn.

  It was a shuppet. Ava had seen this while conducting her research, so she knew what it was, but didn't know much about its attack patterns and moves. It must have been possessing the scarecrow but got knocked free once hit by Lucky’s dark move.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Ava pulled out her walkie talkie. “Ava Stanton D-Rank. I am engaging with a ghost pokemon in the corn maze that I believe is a shuppet,” and then commanded her pokemon to repeat their moves.

  “Affirmative, we will work on evacuating the civilians, can you two hold them off until then?” An unfamiliar male voice sounded.

  Ava winced, this is why she had wanted to stick to the patrol route and not get sidetracked, “It’s just me at the moment I don’t know where my partner is.”

  “What?” His voice sounded sharper. “Never mind how many shuppet there are.” Ava relayed that there was just one. “Be careful they usually appear in groups, so I doubt there will be just one, we will send someone over to help you, can you give a signal?”

  “Yes, I will send a green Hidden Power into the sky.” Ava waited until Snappy shot his recent attack toward the pokemon before telling him to send the next one to the sky.

  “Confirmed we saw that. Someone should be on their way over, keep us updated if the situation changes.”

  Shoving the device back on her waist, she focused on the battle in front of her. The shuppet had used the relief from Snappy to fade into its own shadow before popping up behind Lucky to hit him with a sneak attack. It seemed surprised that Lucky didn’t appear to take any damage. Ava was glad for his normal type right about now. A retaliatory peck from the bird made the shuppet retreat back to get some distance, shooting light balls of flames out as it moved out. Lucky was able to evade with ease, but Snappy was looking at her for an order, not seeing the flames before it was too late to dodge.

  Snappy screeched as his head took the flame and got burnt. Ava felt bad, but her focus got caught by the residual flames that hit the ground. She stomped out any flames that were starting to catch fire. After little rain recently, The corn was dry, and the entire field could easily catch fire, and then she would be in a far worse situation than a couple of burns.

  Knowing she had no time to spare, she said “Lucky be aggressive, don't let up, focus on using those hidden powers.” She also directed Snappy to support him from behind. He had learned all the powder moves, but the semi aerial battle and lack of things to grab onto with vines made it harder for the plant to get close. So Ava had him focus on shooting hidden powers when possible.

  The aggressive stance was the right call because after a quick sky battle and a little Snappy support, the rags that made up the ghost lay on the floor as dead as a ghost could be.

  “Good job guys!” Ava praised while using her potion on her belt to spray Snappy, she didn’t have a burn heal, but this should tide him over. Once finished, she grabbed her walkie talkie to report the situation when a cackle came from the corn. Her guard instantly got back up as three more ghosts appeared from between the stalls. Their eerie floating caused goosebumps to rise on her skin.

  Her walkie talkie flared to life in her hands, causing her to jump. She hadn’t pressed a button. “Multiple groups of ghost pokemon have been reported at the corn maze, all trainers on duty report to the field for assistance. Report to the ticket tent for further instruction” That wasn’t a private channel between her and the person she had talked to, there seemed to be more going on than the one incident she was experiencing.

  More than likely she wasn’t getting any help for a little bit. She was on her own. Multiple other remarks came from her wallow talkie, but she had to ignore them as the battle in front of her took off. Dealing with three wild shuppet was a much harder experience. Lucky kept the battle in the air, so their attacks fizzed in the sky. The annoying thing is they seemed to realize that their will o wisps were one of the few moves that could affect Lucky, besides a body tackle of dark energy she thinks is a knock off. That meant Ava had to keep busy stopping any embers that fell down from turning into a full-fledged flame. She had to rip a couple stalks that had gone up in flames and smother them with her jacket.

  Occasionally some wild ghosts tried to come directly for her, but Snappy was able to keep them busy until Lucky could re-engage them. He used his hidden power to shoot three energy balls at once. Splitting them cost him in both power and accuracy, but was enough to keep the attention back on him. One by one the ghosts fell to a mix of air cutters and hidden powers until the third and final one turned to rags.

  Ava could see the toll this has taken on Lucky. He was taking deep breaths and had burns all over his body. This was the first battle that he was outnumbered while in the sky. Dodging was much easier when the opponent was on the ground. This was also Ava's first aerial battle where they were outnumbered, and she made some bad calls. Lucky rested against the ground once the last one fell, trying to catch his breath. Ava ran over and used the second dose of the potion. This definitely seemed to help and alleviated some pain, but Ava knew it wasn’t a final solution.

  Exhilaration filled Ava’s veins when she once again heard a cackle from the corn. They really were not ready for more to come out, but that didn't stop the shuppet from appearing. One, two, crap. This time there were five shuppet.

  Despite his exhaustion, Lucky threw himself back into the fray. His tenacity kept him going, but Ava knew that wouldn’t last forever. She racked her brain, trying to find the best path forward. She had one more trick up her sleeve.

  “Snappy use sleep power then coat your vines in it.” He quickly worked to follow her order. She had taken inspiration from her fight with the weepingbell all those months ago. The only option they had was to knock out the shuppet so Lucky could deliver the final blow.

  Ava made sure to be more cautious though, she hadn’t wanted to do this before because she had unfortunately found out that the powder when interacting with fire burned so quickly it was almost a mini explosion. If they burnt Snappy’s vines, it would be enough to seriously injure him. So she waited until she saw one of the ones Lucky was battling get fully distracted before siccing Snappy on it. The vines quickly pulled the ghost to the ground and shoved their way into its mouth to make the powder act quickly.

  One temporarily down they moved on to their next target which was almost able to dodge out of the way but Snappy quickly re-adjusted his aim making this one fall asleep as well. It was when they were prepping for the third that something went wrong. Lucky shot off a hidden power that one of the shuppet dodged, and she saw him rear back to fire another, but nothing came out. Confusion spread across his face, and the momentary lapse in focus gave the three shuppet enough time to launch three large will o wisps at him.

  Ava made eye contact with him right before all three hit. Alone these attacks shouldn’t have been able to do much damage, however, all three at the same time combined with his previous exhaustion did enough to cause him to fall from the sky. Ava threw caution to the wind, yelling at Snappy to try to put the rest of them to sleep.

  The pidove continued to fall, and Ava reached for her belt to grab Lucky’s poke ball. Snappy had just caught the attention of the ghost and Ava’s was about to return when he caught the air and glided right above the corn. Ava almost couldn't believe what had happened. From what she saw, it almost looked like he had juked them out. But if that was the case, he must have known that they would get distracted instead of finishing the attack on him. Ava remembered their brief eye contact, realizing that no, he didn’t know that they wouldn't attack him. He trusted that she would protect him if he were to fall.

  Snappy was able to put one to sleep, but the other two had dodged and seared burning flames into his vines. A loud screech came from the grass type and Ava quickly returned him. But that was all the distraction that Lucky needed, and he popped up behind the final two and sent a barrage of air cutters that brought them to the ground. Landing on his downed opponents, Lucky puffed out his wings and shrieked before being engulfed in a blinding light.

  Ava couldn’t believe the sight before her. From the light her starter started to grow, doubling in size, gaining a neck and thick talons. A spread of his newly larger wings dispersed the light and before her stood her first pokemon, now a tranquil. In a field of corn and bodies, Ava saw beauty beyond compare.

  Ava went towards Lucky with a beaming smile on her face. That quickly dropped as a deeper, more sinister laugh came from the corn. Following the voice from the dark emerged a doll like pokemon with a metal zipper where it’s mouthy should be. Ava couldn’t remember this pokemon, but her educated guess was that it was the evolved form of the Shuppet.

  Again? Ava knew that she couldn’t fight another group of shuppet, let alone the stronger evolved one, but she was going to try. The corners of her mouth twitched. A command was on the tip of her tongue when another beast wrapped in bones emerged from the corn and tore into the wild pokemon with fangs alternating between flames and darkness.

  Estelle popped out from behind the beast, eyes twinkling, and said, “Didya miss me!” If asked, Ava would deny it, but she was grateful to see her.

  …

  It turns out Estelle had been not as far away as Ava had thought. She was nearby when she heard the radio and was making her way over when she got ganged up by more shuppet and a couple banette.

  Estelle’s houndoom was the one who helped Ava. The dead pokemon was in its mouth and Estelle grabbed it. The dog growled menacingly, a deep rumbling sound from the back of his throat. “Awwww he loves me. What a cutie!” Estelle said while wrestling her pokemon who keept baring his teeth and growling. Ava didn't know what pokemon she was talking about but chose not to say anything to the stronger trainer.

  Ava wished she had a poke ball. Getting another flyer that wasn’t a flying type would have been helpful, despite the supposed difficulty of training a ghost type. Estelle didn’t have any either, so they ended up killing all the shuppet put to sleep by Snappy. The houndoom wasn't the only helper, Estelle had a wooper that put out the remaining flames.

  Along the way back, Ava saw what looked like remains of a battle, and that's when she learned Estelle had been fighting against wild pokemon too. From the corpses, it looked like well over 20 shuppet were killed by her alone. Ava gained a newfound respect for the seemingly ditzy girl.

  After finding the exit they walked into a busy scene with people yelling and pokemon all around. There were more trainers mobilized than Ava had ever seen, some were in uniform while others looked like they had come from the festival, their only identifier being their arm bands and poke belts. While she was able to stomp out at flames, during her fight it doesn’t look like everyone was able to do the same and parts of the corn field were consumed by a growing flame that lit up the night sky. There were shouts from multiple head trainers giving directions. Estelle led the way to one with a blue arm band indicating he was B-Rank,

  “C-Rank reporting for duty”, Estelle said, more serious than Ava has ever seen her.

  “Pokemon,” the trainer barked.

  “Houndoom, wooper, and pidgeotto”

  Ava followed her lead, “and injured p-tranquil and bellsprout,” almost stumbling over the change of her starter.

  “You go speak to her, tell her you have a water type and dark type attacker” he told Estelle and pointed to another head trainer. He looked at Ava next, “are both injured or just the tranquil?”

  “Both”

  “Head to the medical tent and get them checked out, then help out there.”

  He moved to leave, but Ava reached out before he left, “I had asked for assistance while being attacked, and they said they sent someone. Can you let them know I’m safe so they don’t waste your time looking for me?”

  “Name?”

  “Ava Stanton”

  “Done.” Ava didn’t get a chance to respond before he walked away, already speaking into his wallow talkie.

  She split from Estelle and headed to the medical tent, where both a human and pokemon nurse were working to treat the patients. There were wounded pokemon with their trainers hovering nearby, and a couple of wounded people that the nurse was working to patch up.

  She caught the eye of the poke nurse who asked her while spraying a potion on a pidgey “What you got?”

  “Um two injured pokemon, a tranquil and a bellsprout, I was told to get them checked out and then assist you.”

  “Oh perfect, we need another set up hands” he said before returning the pidgey and passing it back to its trainer. “What injuries do they have?”

  “The bellsprout has some bad burns, and same with the tranquil.”

  The nurse indicated to release them one at a time. She released Snappy. That’s when she noticed an oddish that was at the side of the nurse. Once snappy appeared, it sprinkled some sleep powder over him. Ava reacted quickly, returning Snappy. “Wild Pokémon watch out!” While pointing next to him.

  “Calm down, that's my pokemon, look it has a sash” he said pointing towards the band with a pink cross wrapped around its dark stomach.

  “Oh, sorry,” Ava felt herself flush red. It’s not often she’s embarrassed, but this was one of those moments. She hadn’t been quiet either and could feel other people in the tent shift away from looking over at her. She returned the now sleeping bellsprout to the table, where the nurse did a quick look and feel over.

  In no time he had classified the wounds as manageable, applied a burn heal and a potion, and recommended keeping him in his ball till she could reach a healing machine. With his go ahead, she returned Snappy and repeated the same process with Lucky. This time he explained that he would be the one identifying the issues and if superficial like Snappy’s she would be the one applying the drugs he prescribed.

  Lucky also had some superficial burns that had started to heal, according to the nurse. Ava wasn’t sure if this was due to the evolution and asked which he replied it has probably helped as evolution can heal a lot of previous injuries. He sprayed a potion on him to be safe, and she recalled him.

  Stepping into the roll was more difficult than expected. Apparently she had come in during a lull because no sooner than he had finished a new wave of trainers came in with injured pokemon or injuries themselves who were treated by the other nurse.

  It was mainly a churn and burn. The nurse diagnosed if they needed any potions, super potions, antidotes, ethers, etc. and she got them and applied them, so the trainer could go back out and fight. Occasionally he told trainers to bench a certain pokemon as they were in no condition to fight. She quickly got into a groove of him quickly putting the pokemon to sleep and telling her what was needed.

  The seriously injured pokemon either had to be immediately returned or the nurse had to do some emergency work to get them stable before returning them to the semi stasis of the poke balls. Bones were reset, deep gashes were given quick stitches, and Ava even helped lift a rhyhorns dislocated arm while he popped it back in place.

  Ava briefly marvels at the fact she hasn’t seen any dead ones yet but then sobered up once remembering they wouldn't be able to be returned to their poke ball if dead and were probably littered within the corn.

  There were less injured trainers, but when they came, their wounds were worse than the quick fix a lot of pokemon needed. Long gashes across chests, trainers who have been mentally attacked, and large burns. One trainer had boiled skin across the left side of his face. From what they could tell, a mental attack had caused him to pass out right on top of some burning corn husks. In situations like these, both nurses had to be there while Ava was left on her own at the station for pokemon.

  She had no training for this and was wildly out of her depth, during the first time left alone she had tried to fill in the role of the nurse and applied a potion and other medications when needed. After he got back, Ava got chewed out because she was just supposed to sort trainers by general need while their pokemon remained in the balls. She didn’t have the expertise to diagnose whether a wound simply required a potion or should be put to rest until they could be seen at an actual poke center.

  So she simply listened to what situations the trainers described that led to the injury and organized them by high, medium, and low priority to the best of her ability.

  The rush started to slow down. There were fewer injuries to deal with and wounded people were being carted off to the hospital. Three stretchers with bodies covered by a white cloth left the tent. Ava had only seen one of them. A civilian who had been caught up in the initial attack had been swarmed by ghost types and fed on until she had a heart attack. Ava didn’t know what happened to the other two.

  The nurse came back and dismissed her. They received word that an S-Rank had arrived to stop the flames and the incident had been moved from a level three down to a level two.

  Once everyone had become D-Rank trainers, they were all required to take a class to learn about emergency systems and the basic ranking’s of pokemon incidents. There was more nuance that went into that class, but generally it went in order of danger to people and infrastructure. A level 1 was what appeared on most of Ava’s shifts, a solitary or small group of pokemon that somehow made it across the wall. These are easily resolved by 1-2 trainers without issue. A level two is a larger mob or more dangerous single pokemon but could be dealt with by multiple trainers on duty, like some instances of the farm shift she had covered. A level three left unattended could cause loss of multiple lives and damage to multiple buildings or existing infrastructure, and required assistance from more or higher rank trainers not on duty. This incident had both the risk of damage to people and the city due to the fire. A level 4 is when there is a capacity of damage to a large part of the city. This would be if a wall is breached, leading swarms of pokemon to enter. Loss of life is guaranteed at this level and high rank trainers are required to resolve the issue. A level five is when there is a risk of total city destruction. There has never been an incident of this level in the last 100 years. Only the strongest of trainers stand a chance against this threat. All everyone else can do is help civilians and pray.

  Leaving the tent, Ava saw a localized storm over the entire area. Rain combined with efforts of water pokemon on the ground beat back the flames until only smoke filled the air. Ava could vaguely see a figure in the sky but didn’t know who or what it could be. Her walk is talkie led her to a location near the medical tent, where the trainers not able to assist with the final aspects were gathered for a debrief.

  From a head trainer's description, there was an attack by a multitude of ghost type pokemon. Wild shuppet, vastly, duskull and their respective lines had attacked. There were the occasional other pokemon that were stirred up by the commotion and added to the wave. The running theory was that they have been building up in the city for years. Ghost pokemon not only are much rarer, their ability to turn intangible and eat emotions makes it harder to know when one has breached the wall. They can hide and grow their number without a single clue besides the occasional scare of a passerby.

  The haunted corn maze was what brought them out. With fear in abundance, they couldn’t stay away and descended with a vengeance. One of the head trainers said an A or S-Rank will probably be dispatched after tonight to make sure there are no other large collections of ghosts nestled within the city. Ava and those still physically capable were tasked with clean up of the dead bodies of both wild and trained pokemon. Extrapolating the amount from the few she had killed, Ava knew she was in for a long night.

  When Ava returned, she stopped by a poke center, dragged herself into the shower, and tossed herself onto her bed. As she wanted to see Lucky in his new form, she was exhausted, and quickly passed out from the eventful day.

  She made sure to wake up early enough before her second shift to feed them and pamper Lucky with all of his favorite food. She let him out of his ball for as long as she could before her shift as he tried to get acclimated to his bigger body. It was weird to see her starter so drastically different, and this helped her get more used to it as well.

  Civilians were a bit more wary this day and there were fewer people who showed up, but the day passed without a hitch and no other pokemon sightings.

  On Sunday, she met up with her dad and her younger siblings to take advantage of the last day of the festivals. Despite the muted tone of the rest of the festival-goers, Ava felt no shame in chasing her siblings around to hear the sound of their laughter.

  As the sun fell below the horizon, the lighting of the floating lanterns commenced. Ava was able to get a spot on a hill overlooking the edge of the city. After working with her dad to help the twins write their wish, Ava wrote her own. Looking around at her family, she smiled and all together they gently sent their lanterns toward the heavens. A wave of the city's wishes followed, and the night sky was lit with purpose.

  It wasn't until the last lantern faded in the distance that the Stanton’s made their way home. Ava carried the sleeping Noah while her dad carried Olive. It almost felt like nothing had changed as they gently tucked them in.

  The night only ended when she got on the train back to her place, alone.