Chapter 40

"That's one slippery pokemon." Chris commented.

Daniel didn't respond. His mind was still hung up on the banette's distraction during the fight. Its stats were also strange. However, he did not have the means to catch the banette meaning that the mystery was going to remain unsolved, especially since the banette was likely to rank up to elemental rank by the time they found it again.

He checked the mission details properly and found something that caught his eye.

"Elwood Sinclair, I've heard that name before." Daniel pointed out the name of the mission issuer.

"Doesn't ring a bell." Chris replied.

"I think I know who that is." Dyson said. "It's our classmate Clare's father."

"Oh. Let's call her and ask her for some hints. Maybe she'll help her former classmates with some clues."

Meanwhile, somewhere deeper in the forest.

Banette was pondering over its encounter with the trio. As it gathered its fire energy during the fight, it was drawn to Daniel for some reason. Suddenly, the banette stopped moving and looked in a certain direction. Wisps of fire formed as banette shot them under a nearby tree, attacking its shadow. A burnt and enraged gengar emerged from the shadow, only to find banette missing from its previous position. Wisps of ghost energy suddenly attacked the gengars back, causing it to get knocked out. The banette fled the scene.

Soon after, a man that looked like any typical butler emerged from the shadows. The man had a clean face with narrow eyes and neat blonde hair and mustache.

"Quite slippery. But there's definitely something special about you." The man said as he recalled his gengar and left the forest.

In the pokemon center.

Chris got off the phone after speaking to Clair.

"She called us at her place tomorrow. She didn't seem to know about the misson."

"That's weird. Shouldn't she be the entire point of the mission? The banette is supposed to be her pokedoll." Dyson pointed out.

"We'll find out tomorrow. Let's call it a day." Daniel said.

The next day, 28th March 1021, Sinclair mansion.

Daniel along with Chris and Dyson stood in front a gate of a large mansion. Daniel went ahead and rung a bell. As the gate was opened, they were greeted by a butler with a clean face with narrow eyes and neat blonde hair and mustache. Daniel was drawn to the man's shadow.

Pokemon: Gengar

Ability: Cursed body

Stage: Pseudo-elemental

Mastery: Ghost 100%, Poison 68%, Psychic 49%, Dark 27%, Normal 21%

Energy integration (move): Shadow ball

Energy integration (type): Ghost 12%

Within the butler's shadow rested a well concealed pokemon that was easily discovered by his ability.

The butler led them to Clare's room and left.

Clare: "Well, to be honest, before you called, I wasn't even aware of the mission. My father might have issued the mission to get me a pseudo-elemental pokemon."

Chris: "Won't forming a bond be difficult if you're still a rookie trainer?"

Dyson: "Sometimes when pokemon are close to you, they can form a bond even if you do not train them."

Daniel: "A pseudo-elemental pokemon would directly make you an intermediate trainer."

Clare: "That might be my father's goal. He wanted me to start a journey by now. Unfortunately, my starter Charmander had a bad matchup against the first two gyms."

As she said that, she called charmander from its pokeball. As someone from a wealthy family, she had a choice among the best starters available.

Pokemon: Charmander

Ability: Blaze

Stage: Rookie

Mastery: Fire 49%, Normal 32%, Dragon 3%

Clare: "I always wanted a charizard so I picked Charmander as my starter. As for the banette, the pokedoll it was born from was a toy from my childhood that I took to Pallet town when I moved there to attend the pokemon school. I heard that the moving truck that brought my stuff back had caught fire due to a recent incident in the forest. I had heard about the banette but didn't bother with it as I had stopped playing with the pokedoll long ago. I have told this to my father but he does not plan to withdraw he mission."

Chris: "What do you plan to do when someone finishes the mission?"

Clare: "I haven't decided yet. Anyways as former classmates, let's keep in touch. I'll update you guys if there's a development.

After receiving information, they headed back to the pokecenter. They planned to camp in the forest hoping to encounter the banette again. However, as they received news that the banette had broken through and was now an elemental ranked pokemon, they decided to give up on the mission.