I lay in bed. I couldn't sleep. I tossed and turned all night but couldn't drift off. My bed didn't seem as comfortable as it did normally. I sat up and looked out the window above the side of my bed, onto the farmland beyond my house. I stood up and rubbed my eyes. I took a look at my clock. It was 1:36 in the morning. I put on my jacket but remained in my pajamas.

I walked into the kitchen, and turned on the light and set it to a dim setting. I pulled up a chair and sat down, my face buried in my hands, elbows on the table.

"Why can't I sleep?" I asked myself. I let out a heavy sigh and I heard some rattling, then a bright light emerged from behind me, and Charizard bent his head down to me.

"Char." he said. He nudged my arm with his head. I looked up at him. I smiled.

"Hey, buddy. Can't sleep?" I ask, rubbing his head. He nods and spreads his wings. He sighs and looks back at me.

"I don't know. I just feel like something is off tonight." I say. Charizard took his massive claw and carefully rubbed my back. "Thanks, pal. Hey, you wanna take a quick fly around Galar?" I ask him. He nods and grunts. I get up from the chair and unlock my front door, and Charizard and I walk out. I climb onto his back and we take into the night sky. I observe the land below.

"Why don't we head to Wyndon, buddy?" I ask Charizard, patting his shoulder. He looks back at me and nods, and gains a bit of speed as we head toward the city. We arrived in the city plaza. Charizard lands and I climb off of him.

"Its beautiful, isn't it?" I ask the fire type. He nods and gazed at the Corviknight statue. It reminded him of my Corviknight. Suddenly I hear some trash cans fall over. Charizard and I look to the alley.

"Who's there?" I ask.

I hear faint voices.

"That's the Champion!"

"We better scram with this catch!"

I take the situation into my hands.

"Charizard, cut them off at the end of that alley!" I tell him. He nods and flies around the buildings. I ran into the alley and followed the voices. I finally find them cornered by Charizard next to a wall.

"What are we doing out here so late at night?" I ask the two figures. They both had bland hoodies, track pants, and beanies.

"N-Nothing, Champion! Just grabbing some late night groceries!" one says nervously. He has a sack with something in it behind him.

"Groceries done move, my friend. What's in the bag?" I ask him, crossing my arms.

Suddenly I hear a familiar whimper, and suddenly a white ribbon with pink and blue accents comes out the small hole in the top of the bag. The ribbon retracts and I see the bright blue eyes of my Sylveon. She has a terrified look in her eyes.

"Sylveon!" I yell, throwing my arms up.

Sylveon squeals at the sight of me and the boy with the bag smack her from outside.

"Shut up!" he yells at her.

"Hey, put that bag down and open it up! She could suffocate in there!" I tell the boys.

"No way! Toxtricity, let's go!" the boy yelled, throwing out a amped up Toxtricity. It used Overdrive and sends Charizard and I stumbling back.

"Charizard, Earthquake!"

Charizard smacks the ground with his tail and the ground shakes, knocking Toxtricity everywhere, making it faint. The boy returns his Pokémon and the other boy has a terrified look on his face. Suddenly they both run away with the sack.

"Hey! Get back here! Charizard, cut them off!"

Charizard bolts after them and lands straight in front of them. I come up behind them and grab the sack and let Sylveon out. She buried her head in my chest and I heard her crying. She looked back at the thugs.

"Pokémon kidnapping is a serious crime, boys." I say, firmly. I stand up and Charizard snarls at them.

"We're sorry! Please don't hurt us!" one says, dropping to his knees.

"What did you do to Sylveon? She's trembling."

"We started calling her names because she wouldn't give us that!" the other boy said, pointing at Sylveon's bow on her head.

"That bow is part of her!" I yell at them. "You can't rip her bow off of her!"

I take out my Rotom phone and hit the police button, and within two minutes, several cop cars come and Growlithe and Arcanine emerge from the officers pokeballs. They take the boys into custody and I kneel down to Sylveon. She sits on the ground and I wrap my arms around her.

"It's okay, Sylveon. You're okay." I tell her. She stops trembling and looks me in the eyes. Her smile returns. Charizard comes up and wraps his wings around us.

Charizard and I let go and Sylveon emits a Dazzling Gleam and lights up the area. An officer comes up to me.

"Thank you, Champion. We've been trying to apprehend these boys for a while. They've been kidnapping youngsters' Pokémon."

"No, problem, officer. Charizard gives a real intimidating look to people, so it was likely that that's what stopped them." I say.

"Your Sylveon has a real nice aura around her. You should consider letting her join the Pokémon Trainer and Partner Dance Competition. One trainer and one of their Pokémon get to put on a series of dances in the stadium." the officer says, handing me a flyer for the competition. I take the flyer and say thanks to the officer. Charizard flies Sylveon and I back to my house and we enter, and thank goodness my mother isn't awake. I sit down on my bed and Charizard returns to his pokeball, and Sylveon lay next to me on the bed. She looks at the flyer and smiles.

"We both know how good you are at performing, right?" I ask her. She nods and I pat her head. "Let's go check it out tomorrow. Tryouts apparently are in a week, so we have time to prepare. Let's get some sleep." Sylveon nods and I return her to her ball. I lie down in my bed and finally fall asleep.

I wake up in the morning with the sun shining on my face. I sit up and yawn, and I hear my mother in the other room, making breakfast. I get up and get dressed, and grab my belt with all my pokeballs and put it on. I walk into the kitchen.

"Morning, Champion. How'd you sleep?" my mother ask.

"Fine. I was up in the night. Couldn't get to sleep." I say, taking a seat at the table.

"I have the food ready for your team outside. I packed lunch for you in case you get hungry." she said. I ate breakfast and my Pokémon did as well. I then grabbed the bag, and said goodbye to my mother and take the train to Wyndon. I release Sylveon and we walk into the stadium. As usual, people are there to greet me and ask for autographs and pictures. I walk past them into the stadium. I see a bunch of people. I just about made it out there when a very familiar Hatterene teleports in front of me. I jump back slightly and Sylveon takes her battle stance. I turn around.

"Bede. Why is your Hatterene playing roadblock?" I ask the fairy gym leader. He has a head of white hair and pink and blue clothes on. He has his pink coat on.

"I am proving that I am better than you in every way." he says, coming up to me.

"Do you remember the finals? You illegally charged onto the pitch and challenged me. You might not be better than me at battling, but you sure are better than me at trash talking." I tell him.

He scrunched his face at that comment and walks away, Hatterene teleporting after him.

Sylveon scoffs and we walk toward the area with all the trainers. We're told to line up and introduce ourselves.

There are five participants. The first one is Shirley, a bright girl with a pink dress on, and a Clefable was by her side.

The next person was Jace. He was a confident guy with an Espeon by his side.

Next was Alexa. She had a goth look and had an Altaria floating above her.

Of course, next is Bede and his Hatterene.

When the coaches came up to Sylveon and I, they started getting all excited. They were a boy and a girl. Johnson and CJ.

"I didn't think the Champion would participate in our tournament!" CJ said, clutching her clipboard and slightly jumping up and down.

"Excuse CJ's behavior. It's an honor to meet you in person, Champion." Johnson says, holding out his hand. I take it and we shake.

"The honor is all mine. It always makes my day seeing people happy. And please, call me Isaac. There's no Champion business to go down here." I say, as I take my hand back.

They back up and tell all of us that they want to see what we all have in store, and we'd have fifteen minutes to plan. Sylveon and I were led to a wall next to the entrance gate. I knelt down to Sylveon and rubbed her back. Her legs were shaking.

"Sylveon?" I ask her. She looks at me with the big, beautiful blue eyes. "We'll do our best. I promise you won't regret this." I tell her. She stops shaking and chirps up happily. She wraps her feeler around my wrist and leads me to a more open area. She closes her eyes and stands in a focused stance, then opens her eyes, emitting a Dazzling Gleam.

"Start off with what you think is best!" I tell her. I back up and she does her thing. She uses Magical Leaf to make a aroma of nature around her, then leaps into the air and uses Dazzling Gleam, making the leaves glow a magnificent pink. She uses Fairy Wind to push me toward her and she starts jumping around. I get what she's trying to do. She'll use her feelers as hands, mimicking what I do. I start with making myself into a 't', spreading my arms out, and Sylveon does the same with her feelers. I spin around and kneel down while twirling, and hold my hand up in the air, catching a leaf and blowing it into the leaf storm, standing up and doing more moves with Sylveon. Suddenly I hear clapping, and Sylveon and I turn around and see CJ and Johnson clapping.

"That was awesome! I've never seen a performance like that!" Johnson laughs.

"That was absolutely amazing! You and Sylveon were totally in sync!" CJ squeals.

"My Sylveon is one for dancing, so she'll do anything to put on her best performance." I say. Sylveon agrees and looks over to Bede and Hatterene, who are eyeing us mysteriously.

We continue training and then it ends. CJ and Johnson thank us for our time and dismiss us. I walk out of the stadium, and I see Hop with his back turned to me, and he's leaning against the railing. I sneak up behind him and put my hand on his shoulder and yelled. He jumps forward and nearly falls over. He looks at me and scowls.

"Mate, come on! I could've fallen!" he laughed. We gave each other the bro hug and he said hi to Sylveon. "I never knew my rival would be into a dancing competition!"

"Sylveon wanted to check it out. So what're you doing here? Sonia have some more errands for you?" I chuckle.

"Nah, I'm actually off today. I saw Bede come through here earlier, and he told me I was still weak. I just ignored him." he said. "Can't believe he's participating in that tournament."

"You'll get over it, dude." I say, rolling my eyes.

"Anyways, how about a race to the train station! Bet I'm still faster than you!" he laughs, taking off. I look at Sylveon and she nods, determined. We rush after Hop but we lose the race.

"Ha! So I am better than you at racing! Let's head home!" Hop says. We board the train after buying tickets and sit in one of the booths. I return Sylveon to her ball. Hop whips out his phone and scrolls through the latest news, most of which saying how I'm in the dance contest.

"Keep this up and you'll easily be the most famous person in Galar." he says, laughing. My phone buzzed and I took a look at the notification o got. It was from an unknown number.

Meet me in the Wyndon alleys tonight, if you dare.

I ignore the message and go to the news, where I see Bede and his Hatterene on a newscast. I look at Hop and he sees the same thing. He scoffs and we keep scrolling. We eventually arrive at Wedgehurst and head to the lab. Sonia isn't there, and Hop said he's had the place to himself for a few days. He pulls a book out from the shelves and opens to a page, obviously studying. I think back to the message I got. Who would want to meet in the alleys?

"Eh, earth to Isaac!" Hop yells. I snap back to reality and Hop is waving his hand in front of my face.

"Sorry, lost in thought. What's up?" I ask.

"Just wanted for make sure you weren't in Neverland again." he chuckled.

"I gotta get back to my house. Don't stay up too late studying, okay? I'm sure Sonia isn't this strict with it." I say. I walk out of the lab and once the door is closed and I'm a safe enough distance away from the lab, I summon Charizard and fly back to Wyndon. It was nearly nine in the evening. We landed in the alleyway and I heard a distorted voice.

"So you decided to come? Wise choice, Champion." the voice sounded like it was coming in every direction.

I dismount Charizard and look around.

"Who are you and why am I here?" I ask into the darkness.

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

"Go on." I ask, crossing my arms. Charizard snarls at the darkness.

Suddenly smoke comes out of nowhere and the second I breath it in, I feel sleepy.

"Charizard.... get.... to Hop." I tell my buddy. I hear him grunt and he flies off.

"There goes your bodyguard. You're all mine now." the voice says. I sink to my knees and do my best to stay awake, but I can't resist it. My eyes shut and I fall to the ground.

I wake up in the same alleyway, a few hours later. It's about midnight.

I get up and brushed off my jacket and pants, when I realized a pokeball from my belt was missing. I release each of my Pokémon that were on the belt. Lucario, Cinderace, Corviknight and Boltund. I sent Charizard back to get Hop. That person took Sylveon.

"Lucario, see if that persons aura is still around. Boltund, sniff around to see if you can find where they went. Corviknight, patrol the skies, and Cinderace, you're on foot with me." I tell my Pokémon. They all nod and take off. Cinderace and I race across the streets to find the person.

We search for over an hour, and I finally give up. I run to the fountain and kneel down. Cinderace comes over and kneels next to me, putting his (paw? hand?) on my shoulder.

"Where could that person have taken her?" I ask myself. Cinderace puts his other arm around me and hugs me from behind.

"Thanks, Cinderace. You always find a way to make me happy." I say to my partner.

Lucario and Boltund come up to us.

No sign of them, Isaac.

Boltund whimpers and lies down, and Corviknight caws from above. Charizard lands next to us with Hop.

"Isaac!" Hop says, dismounting Charizard. He comes up to me and asks what's wrong. I tell him the situation.

"Aw, man. If I knew your Charizards moves, I would've been here earlier..." Hop mumbles.

"Hop, it's okay. We'll find her. Have your Pokémon search for her tomorrow. Let's get back to Postwick." I say. I return my Pokémon except Corviknight and Charizard. We fly back home and I go inside my house. My mother was out on a trip. I collapse into my bed and think about nothing other then how I let Sylveon get kidnapped.

I wake up in the morning with one thing and one thing only on my mind. Finding Sylveon. I get out of bed and call Hop. He's been awake for about an hour now.

I tell him to wait at the stadium for me.

I head outside and summon Charizard. He nods at me and I climb onto his back, and we take off into the air, headed for Wyndon. I meet Hop at the stadium, where people are coming in for the special event. I release Lucario.

"Read as many auras as you can, but don't push yourself. If you find whoever that person was, tell us."

Yes, Isaac. Anything to find Sylveon.

Lucario runs into the Champion box seats.

"Hop, stay with me and have Corviknight out to patrol the skies, and Charizard will accompany him." I say. Hop nods and releases his Corviknight and it flies above the stadium along with Charizard. We head to our seats and await this secret event.

"I wonder who's gonna be down there if it's not gonna be you, mate." Hop says.

"Looks like we're about to find out." I say. There's smoke coming from one of the ways to the center of the stadium. It's pink. Suddenly Bede and his Hatterene show up.

"Welcome to my superior display of fairy type Pokémon!" he says enthusiastically. The crowd cheers but Hop and I simply scoff.

"I am truly sorry the Champion could not make it today, I certainly hope I can live up to his expectations."

That caught me off guard. I wasn't gone and I definitely wouldn't ask Bede to take over for me. He's the last person I would ask.

"Allow me to present my new partner, Sylveon!" Bede says, throwing up a pokeball, a Sylveon emerging from it. My eyes lit up with rage. I stood up and Hop followed my anger. I heard Lucario from across the stadium. Sylveons eyes were purple instead of their usual blue.

Bede has her! Get down there!

Hop and I run out of our seats and I whistle into the air. Charizard lands in front of me and I climb onto his back.

"Get us down onto the pitch!" I tell Charizard. He nods and flies into the air, Hop behind me on Corviknight.

We land on the arena and the crowd gasps. I get off Charizard and glare at Bede.

"Where did the Champion come from?" the commemorator asks.

"Bede, give me the microphone." I say, holding out my hand.

Bede stepped back and Sylveon, MY Sylveon stood in front of him.

"Well, Champion. I thought you were on a trip." Bede said nervously.

"Change of plans. Especially since you kidnapped my Sylveon!" I yell, the outburst reaching the microphone.

Hop hands me a microphone.

"Bede, it was you in the alley last night. You doused me with sleeping gas and when I passed out, you took Sylveon!" I say.

"That is a false accusation!" Bede says.

"Then how does this security footage of Wyndon prove you wrong?" Hop says. He takes out his phone and casts it to the big screen, showing Bede running away with Sylveons pokeball and teleporting to the park, where he released Hatterene and hypnotizes Sylveon.

"Being a professors assistant has its advantages!" Hop energetically exclaims. Bede's face goes bright red and he turns back to me.

"That is edited footage! I caught this Sylveon myself!" he said.

"That is footage from the very cameras of Wyndon!" Hop argues back.

I whistle and Lucario leaps from the seats to the stadium, landing behind Hatterene. It tried using Psychic on him but he was quicker. He countered with Psychic and he was stronger, temporarily immobilizing Hatterene.

I whistle again and Sylveon stares at me, her eyes returning to normal. She looks at me and then prances up to Hop and I, wrapping her feelers around both of us.

"Bede, might I ask why you kidnapped Sylveon?" Hop asked.

Bede looked like he was about to faint. His body was shaking and his knees were locked.

"And here I thought he said he never lost his cool around me." I say.

"I demand a battle! If I win, I keep Sylveon!" Bede suddenly screams. "Hatterene, Mystical Fire!"

Hatterene gets up and fired its attack at Sylveon. Too bad she already knew how to dodge moves like these. Sylveon leaped into the air and used Shadow Ball, straight to Hatterene's face. One shot was all it took.

Bede was shook. He returned Hatterene and ran out of the stadium.

"Everyone, I apologize for that scene." I say into the microphone. "A few nights ago, Bede put me to sleep in an alleyway and took my Sylveon. Anything Bede said was false. I was never away on any sort of trip. I hope you all have a good day." I conclude. Hop, my Pokémon and I walk out of the stadium.

As soon as I step outside the stadium, the press bombards me with questions. I climb upon Charizard and Hop climbs onto Corviknight and we take off. We land next to the Battle Tower and Leon is waiting for us.

"I saw the news, boys. I'll make sure Bede won't be attending gym battles anytime soon. Ms. Opal will take over." Leon says.

"Thanks, Leon." I say, shaking his hand.

"You guys are all business now, no fun!" Hop laughs. "We should get back home. I left a mess back at the lab, and Sonia is going to be upset if I leave it that way."

"Agreed. Isaac, I'm surprised you've reached Master Ball Tier at the Battle Tower. Your strategic battle style never fails to amaze me." Leon says.

"It's nothing, really. A lot goes into it, I just have to have the right mindset. See you." I say. Hop and I fly back to Postwick and he heads for the lab, and I let Sylveon out of her ball. She sat down and looked up at me.

"Thanks for recognizing me, Sylveon. I don't know what the team would do without you, you make us all feel better." I say. She smiles and wraps a feeler around my wrist and we walk home. I enter my house and close the door. My mother still was not home. I return Sylveon to her ball. I hung up my belt and put all my pokeballs on the six slot table I got from Leon. I had put name tags on all of their slots so I knew who was who.

"Thank you for sticking with me through my entire adventure, guys." I say to the pokeballs. There's a mechanic where if you press a button on the machine, it displays a holographic live feed of what they were all doing. They were all asleep. I changed into my pajamas and got into bed.

Each Pokémon on my team had their own unique trait, and I wasn't going to change that. I love them through and through