"NEBBY!" Izzy half screamed into the trees surrounding the route clearing. Her voice echoed through the area without a pew in response. 

"I should've been more watchful of Nebby!" Lillie squeaked with worry at Izzy's side. "Now its all alone and it could be attacked or worse!"

"But Nebby is smart!" Izzy commented without worry. "It doesn't seem smart but it is! It's run off with me loads of times!"

"Nebby listens to you? How is that possible, it never listens to me!"

"Well, look at it this way," Hau started as he jumped down from one of the trees. "Strict parents make rebellious kids! You make Nebby stay in that bag a lot, and don't give any time to play! Now Nebby has to sneak out and get it!"

Lillie looked hurt and a little shocked at this statement and stammered, "You...you think so?" 

"It's something my granddad taught me! I mean, look at Izzy! She's got to be the most rebellious person I know, and you've seen her dad!"

"Omoiyari isn't that strict," Izzy corrected swiftly. "I just know my own strengths, and he does too! Besides, I have him...um..."

"Wrapped around your finger?"

"Yeah! Whatever that means!" 

"If you're that confident, why don't you tell him Nebby went poof, that it disappeared?" 

Izzy opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. After a small pause she replied irritability, "Well... you got me there."

"Still, you should be the one to tell him!" Hau continued. "I mean, he hates me, can't imagine why but it's how it is!"

"Why don't we just go off and look for him ourselves?" Izzy asked the two insistently, not liking the current plan at all. "Come on, Nebby can't have gone too far! It's too small and all it does is levitate!"

Lillie bit her bottom lip nervously before voicing, "I don't know... Omoiyari wasn't going to be long, I think we should-"

"Izzy's right, it couldn't have gotten far!" Hau agreed as he began to move into the trees. "I don't want to get in trouble with Omoiyari any way, you know how protective he gets of it! Iris can stall him, she's great at that!"

At the sound of her own name, the Oricorio that had been resting on a tree branch stirred and looked down at the humans. There was a mischievous look in her eye as she repeated, "Stall? Hun, you don't need to ask for me to get under Grumpykin's scales."

"See, Iris has it covered!" Izzy translated happily. "Come on, Lillie! The sooner we find Nebby, the better!"

"I... oh, very well," Lillie finally caved in. "But I feel like we should just tell him! He could find Nebby faster!"

"Better make up your mind kiddos, Dad's here already," Iris chirped as she bushes and tree branches shook behind them.

"Iris, please stall for us!" Izzy hissed to the Oricorio desperately, the three humans quickly running into the trees without a second glance.

As they ran through the trees, Izzy at least could hear Iris conversing with Omoiyari, who had returned from gathering berries. Iris seemed to be persuading him that the trainers and Lillie went out to train while the two of them worked on the Ultra Beast's social skills.

"So how far can Nebby move, Lillie?" Hau asked Lillie as they skidded down the path together. "Surely it couldn't have gone far!"

"That's just it though," Lillie began with worry. "Nebby doesn't just levitate everywhere! It knows how to teleport too!"

"Nebby can teleport, and you didn't bother to tell us?!" Izzy interrupted, surprise and annoyance showing in her tone. "Now that is a problem! How far can it go then?"

"I'm not sure how far, but over a great distance for sure! The thing is, it sacrifices a lot of power to do so, so once Nebby teleports, it can't come back until it recovers!"

"Nebby wouldn't be stupid enough to do that then! He probably just wandered off by itself! You'll see!"

"Even if he just wandered off, it will be hard to find it because of it's small size," Hau reminded them earnestly. "If only we had a Pokemon that could help the search more easily, but... wait, of course!"

The girls both made squeaks of surprise as Hau stopped where he was, and the two collided into him. Fortunately Hau caught himself before tipping over, but Izzy had fallen on the ground backwards. She winced as her backside stung and snapped, "Hey, what gives?!"

"Sorry, but I just realized! We do have a Pokémon that can help!" Hau told them excitedly before pointing to Lillie and continuing, "Lillie, we can use Rowlet! Rowlet can fly above the trees and search the area for any sign of Nebby! Rowlets are quiet flyers, so he could even sneak up on Nebby and catch it if he finds it!"

"S-Send Rowlet?" Lillie stammered, her eyes widening in horror. "But...but he's too small to go on his own! I haven't trained him o-or anything!"

"Lillie, you need to stop being afraid of letting your Pokemon stretch wings, literally!" the boy argued firmly. "Coddling them won't help them! Nebby is out there, and Rowlet can help find it! You need to let your Pokémon have experiences like this!"

"You know, he's kinda right, Lillie," Izzy admitted quietly as Lillie looked desperately around. "I know you all think I didn't grow up in the best place, but even Omoiyari gave me space to learn on my own."

Lillie once again looked hurt that both her friends were criticizing her way of caring for the only two Pokémon she had. However she finally sighed and agreed heavily, "Ok, I'll do it, but I don't like it..."
The older girl opened her duffel bag and took out a pokeball from inside. She took a deep breath before throwing it into the air and calling, "Rowlet, please help us!"

The little owl-like Pokémon appeared on the ground in a beam of white light. It hooted happily as it saw the three humans and turned its head all the way around.

"Rowlet, we need you to fly up and try and look for Nebby," Lillie told Rowlet softly. "He got away, and we could really use your help looking for him. Is that ok?"

Rowlet looked greatly surprised at this request, but quickly hooted excitedly and pushed off  swiftly into the air. After vanishing over the trees after a few seconds. Izzy was already getting slightly impatient with Rowlet after just a few short minutes, but the Pokémon then reappeared over the trees, hooting profusely at them, as if giving a warning.

"Did you find it, Rowlet?" Hau shouted up to the Pokémon. "Where is it?!"

The Pokémon suddenly dived down toward them, causing the three humans to gasp and duck, but Rowlet missed and dove into the trees once more. The three of them exchanged looks before the three pelted into the trees, each of them calling out the little mischievous Pokémon's name.

After a minute, they finally caught up to Rowlet to find a huge berry tree. It was so tall that it blocked sunlight from the forest flow or. In the trees tangled roots was Nebby, chirping away to a Pokémon Izzy had never yet encountered. It was a tiny pale pink Pokémon with a turban and necklace of green leaves. It had huge magenta eyes and leafy scythe-like arms, similar to Omoiyari's appearance when transformed. Both Pokémon, which were cheerfully communicating between each other, froze at the sight of the humans.

"Nebby!" Lillie cried as she ran to her Pokémon knelt on the grass in front of it. "Nebby, you shouldn't run off like that! You had us all worried! You could've gotten hurt, or worse!"

The gaseous Pokémon puffed up with annoyance and huffed irritability, "Pew pew pew!"

"And who are you?" Izzy piped up as she bent down to observe the little pink Pokémon while Lillie scolded Nebby about its attitude. "You're kinda cute!"

"Its a Fomantis!" Hau exclaimed as he too got closer to the bug-like Pokémon. "They're common Pokémon around here! They're the pre-evolved form of Lurantis!"

The Fomantis hopped up and down gleefully before hopping in the palm of Izzy's hand. Izzy giggled at the hyperactive creature and voiced aloud, "Its so cute! I would like to catch one! What do you think Fomantis? Do you have a name? I'm Izzy! It's ok, you can talk to me!"

The Fomantis stopped jumping and said in a very high pitched squeak of a voice, "I'm Orchid! Ooooh, I'd really like to have a human, I've always wanted one of my own, but I don't think my friend would be happy if I left!"

The Fomantis, Orchid, climbed up on Izzy's shoulder and whispered in her ear, "He's a bit of grumpy fruitcake if you ask anyone else, but he's very sweet under all that misplaced limbs and helmet!"

"What's it saying?" Hau piped up, moving his own ear closer to the Fomantis as if hopefully he could catch the words of the Pokémon language.

"She says she'd like to come, but her friend is a fruit...cake," Izzy finished blankly, confused. "What's a fruitcake?"

"A fruitcake is a dessert with nuts and fruit in it, is she really friends with a cake?"

A low growl rumbled behind them as well as a shriek from Rowlet, causing all three humans to turn. To Izzy's horror, a familiar creature was stalking into the small area, the axe on its head glimmering in the sunlight. The Type: Null was bent low to the ground, snarling at the humans as it clawed the ground with its strange front legs.

"Toby!" Orchid cried happily as she leapt off Izzy's shoulder and pounced over to the Type: Null. "Tobias, Fruitcake, I made some friends! I found a human, can I keep it?!"

"Shut up!" the Null snarled in a rough, croaky voice to the Fomantis. "I'm giving them five bloody seconds to run before I-"

The chimera creature suddenly froze, it's gaze landing on Lillie, who had picked up Nebby and held it tightly in her arms. A frightening noise came from the monster's throat as it bellowed, "YOU! You're one of them! YOU DID THIS TO ME! COME TO HAVE A LAUGH, OR TO TAKE ME BACK TO THAT HELLHOLE?!"The

"Fruitcake--"

"I SAID SHUT IT!"

Despite Lillie not understanding a word the Null was shrieking, Izzy could tell she knew that the Type: Null was angry at her mere presence by the way she was frozen in place. Without thinking, Izzy stood up and shouted at the creature, "HEY! You don't talk to my friends like that, mister! You're being nothing but a big bully! You should be ashamed of yourself, yelling at Orchid and Lillie like that!"

The Type: Null froze in its place. From what Izzy could see of the creature's eyes in the mask, he seemed... surprised. As the Pokemon straightened up, the creature growled, "Well, well... you're not what I was expecting at all. You've wasted my bloody time, girl. Searching for an Ultra Beast, to find it's just a freaking child. Gutsy, you are."

"Actually, I'm the beast you're looking for."

The Type: Null suddenly levitated off the ground, revealing the towering form of Omoiyari in the shadows behind the chimera. The Ultra Beast roared as he used his aura to toss his opponent aside, leaving the creature to crumple on the ground.

"Omoiyari!" Izzy gasped, her face flushing with embarrassment and fear as she gazed up into her father's large yellow eyes. "How did you find us?!"

"Seriously? Do you have any idea how loud this particular Null is? Lillie, are you alright?"

"I think she's just freaked out," Hau answered for Lillie, who seemed stunned by the Null. "What are the chances of seeing two Type: Nulls in one week?"

"It depends," Omoiyari answered seriously as he slowly approached the now unconscious Type: Null. "As you've guessed, this isn't the same one we encountered earlier. This one is wild, while the other is tamed. My knowledge of this Pokemon is limited, but I do know that if these species are wild, they would do best to stay under the radar."

"That Pokemon said it was looking for me," Izzy told her father figure with worry. "It said it thought it was looking for an Ultra Beast, not me. What did it mean?"

"Its species are attracted to ultra radiation, something we both radiate. I told you, it was bred to kill Ultra Beasts. Chances are, both Nulls were looking for us through the radiation the two of us give us."

"So you're saying it came to kill you?" Lillie suddenly spoke up, her voice quivering with fear as she hugged Nebby more tightly, causing it to pew angrily. "And what do you mean when you say this is the second one you've met this week?"

"Well--" Izzy began, but she was suddenly interrupted by the flapping of wings.

Iris soared from the trees while shrieking, "Well I must say, I'm absolutely appalled that you didn't bother to invite me to this little get together! You invited complete strangers but didn't bother with-"

She suddenly paused as she landed in front of the unconscious Null and its tiny Fomantis companion, who was hiding fearfully behind her friend's hind leg. The Oricorio took a minute to stare at the Null before voicing aloud in shock, "Tobias? What in Tapu Bulu's good name is he doing here?"

"You know him?" Omoiyari repeated in English with shock. "He tried to kill the humans!"

"So that's where he's at these days. He always was a bit of a sociopath." Iris told them rather calmly. "Well, it's a long story. Just give him a few minutes, he'll be up in no time. I'm assuming you're going to want to talk to him, right?"

"What's happening right now?" Hau asked Izzy as Omoiyari and Iris spoke together.

"I guess Iris knows the Null, and I think we're stuck getting to know him," Izzy translated, though she did not voice that she thought this was a very bad idea, despite the curiosity nagging inside her.

~~~

I'm just gonna be honest, the last part reminded me of a scene from my new favorite movie. Hopefully nobody kills me over adding it here.

Also, I'm gonna apologize right now for Tobias's harsh language. Unlike previous characters I've had, he's going to be slightly more foul mouthed than others, but I still have my usual standards of staying out of ultimate curse word territory.

So how long has it been since I updated this book? No, don't tell me, I'll just feel worse. I wrote like half of this chapter within the past two hours. School has just been nuts, I spent my Spring Break last month doing school, so that shows how bad its been. The good news is that a part from being behind in my French and English class (English is my best class so I kinda have a habit of putting it off) I've gotten my grades up, so I'm getting a bit more free time. Also, I finish school in just less than a month, so soon I'll be on break with WAY more free time to write.

I'll make this short, but one of my other reasons for slow updates have been because I'm working on a new original story on my backup account, @CosmoWriter. I'm nearly ten chapters in already, but my hope is to release it for the Wattys this summer. You can follow that account to make sure you catch it when I release it, otherwise I will still announce the release on this account.

I'm hoping that the next chapters of SWS3 and TDOBH will be out shortly, but as I said in SWS3, I can't guarantee they'll follow the schedule with all the school hassle. Again, I'm hopeful that after school ends on May 28th, updates will become more frequent, so please bear with me!