Sobble

Though the circumstances behind his odd predicament are a mystery not even he remembers, A baby Sobble was found by Phantom, clinging to a Manaphy egg. Though Phantom was only looking for the egg, he kept the Sobble, hoping that it's rarity and unusually shiny crest would make it worth selling. However, Phantom's plans were soon thwarted when Jackie, a Pokemon Ranger tasked with keeping the egg safe, also rescued the Sobble. Sobble stayed with Jackie and Lissia's family through the duration of the mission, growing especially attached to Jackie, Ash, and May as he began to see them as his caretakers. He also became particularly protective of Manaphy, and would cry ceaselessly if separated from any of them. Of course, when the journey came to an end, Sobble was taken to the Fiore region by Jackie, where he was to be rehabilitated at the Summerland Ranger Base, then taken to an adoption shelter in Galar.

However, when time for release came, Sobble refused to leave Vuren, having grown attached to him, and too frightened to leave, the decision was made to keep Sobble as his partner Pokemon, hoping that he could assist Vuren on missions when he grew old enough, and he was given the name Dazzle, after his golden crest. Though Dazzle was too young to go on missions, it became clear that leaving him at the ranger base wasn't a viable option either, as he would only cry until he either grew exhausted or until Vuren came back, reducing the rest of the base to tears in the meantime.

Much to the humor but also relief of the other rangers, Vuren solved the issue by taking Dazzle with him in a baby carrier.

Ranger Missions

When Dazzle grew big enough to begin helping Vuren on missions, he still remained particularly fearful, even for a Sobble. Despite this, he was grateful for Vuren's love and protection, and resolved early on to repay him by helping and protecting him and the other rangers.

Slowly but surely, both Dazzle and Vuren grew stronger, rising through the ranks and gaining confidence, meeting new and interesting faces such as the Go-Rock Quads, Spencer, Solana, Elita and even reuniting with Jackie whenever he returned from missions. Now about three years old, Dazzle had become brave and curious enough to venture outside the baby carrier and had even begun to assist Vuren, though this mostly consisted of trying to 'protect' Vuren from Pokemon much larger than himself.

Drizzile

Eventually, Dazzle evolved into a Drizzile, and with his newfound  strength came a confidence boost that transformed him from a timid  Sobble, to a more competent but distant Drizzile. Now a teen, he hated  the idea of having to rely on others for protection, and instead wanted  to prove that he could protect himself and others on his own, especially  as he looked back on the events that took place in the Jungle Relic and  Go-Rock Quad Base, wishing he could have been of more assistance during  one of Vuren's greatest trials yet.

During this time Vuren began  to wonder if Dazzle still loved him, as he was no longer the clingy  Sobble he used to be, instead preferring to spend time alone, usually  asleep or tinkering with old electronics, and beginning to shy away from  Vuren's affection. Despite this change, Dazzle still showed his love in  his own way. He remained fiercely protective and highly dedicated to  his job, and could often be found curling up to Vuren after he fell asleep.

Now a full-fledged top ranger, Vuren and Dazzle spent the following months recovering from their mission, vacationing with Jackie in Oblivia until they were called in for another mission, this time in Almia. Mere weeks into this next mission to stop Team Dim Sun, Vuren and Dazzle's new mission was cut short when Vuren was headbutted in the chest by Team Dim Sun's hypnotized Rampardos, resulting in several broken ribs, leaving him unable to continue the mission. Despite his injuries, if it hadn't been for Dazzle forcing himself to evolve to protect Vuren, he likely would have died. Dazzle didn't escape the incident unscathed either. Though his own injuries were minor he was unable to work for a few weeks, though he insisted on using that time to care for Vuren despite the insistence from doctors and other rangers that he should be resting as well.

Inteleon

Though Dazzle had always been the type to worry, it wasn't particularly  noticeable by others until Vuren was injured. He became snappy and  irritable at the thought of leaving Vuren's side, but still kept his  love for serving as a ranger, leading to a rather unusual situation in  which Dazzle took it upon himself to continue Vuren's missions, but  would often return to check on him as his worry wouldn't let him stay  away for too long. Of course, being a Pokemon in the position of a human  comes with its own unique struggles, such as dealing with captures and  communicating with people, leading Dazzle to pursue learning sign  language and how to use a capture styler despite the insistence from  Professor Hastings that he be paired with another ranger.

During this period Dazzle grappled with both feelings of pride and guilt; pride that he was able to save his partner's life, but guilt that he couldn't do more. Eventually, Dazzle grew more confident in his abilities, both due to Vuren's recovery and his role in the missions he took over for his partner. Of course, due to the extent of Vuren's injuries, he was left with a breathing and heart problems that would have disqualified him from serving as a ranger, but Vuren refused to leave his position and faked his medical records.

Vuren never told Dazzle about his health conditions, fearing that he would grow overprotective, but it was obvious to him that something was wrong regardless. Though he and Vuren had returned to taking on full missions, Vuren had trouble keeping up with Dazzle and the other rangers as he easily grew out of breath and fatigued. Often Dazzle would be left to take care of a mission while Vuren took time to rest, often in dangerous situations. This of course, worried Dazzle but he tried to deny anything was wrong, as he was being torn between caring for Vuren and being a ranger. He adjusted his pace to help Vuren keep up, but refused to take breaks, often overworking himself physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Oblivia

Text mission they were assigned was in Oblivia to investigate the activity of the Pokemon Pinchers. 

The two would continue on their mission without issue for many months until they were assigned to infiltrate the Pokemon Pincher's submarine, where Blue Eyes purposefully sunk the sub to escape the rangers. In the crash Dazzle and Vuren attempted to guide all of the trapped Pokemon to rescue, separating from one another in the process. Though all of the Pokemon Dazzle had guided made it to the surface, and most of Vuren's had as well, Vuren had yet to appear, so Dazzle went back to search for him. Though Dazzle had no issue navigating the dark and flooded passageways of the sub, unbeknownst to him Vuren had grown exhausted, unable to continue the rescue, and by the time Dazzle found him, Vuren had drowned.

Though Dazzle tried to carry his body to the surface, he was forced to leave it behind, and took only his styler back. Wracked with the pain of his partner's death, Dazzle did not return to the ranger base for several days until both had been reported missing. When he returned Dazzle refused to take a leave of absence to grieve his partner's death, instead throwing himself completely into once again taking Vuren's place as a ranger as a means to distract himself from the pain and vowing to never let such a tragedy happen again.

Paired with his overworking, Dazzle also became extremely fearful of water, to the extent that he was unable to use any of his water-type attacks.

The first few months after Vuren's death were tough for Dazzle; he became distant and somewhat aggressive as he dealt with the guilt and grief, and he had even become fearful of the ocean as well. In the following years Dazzle was diagnosed with PTSD and began therapy to heal from the loss, and would continue to teach himself how to read, write, and sign so that he could more easily communicate with humans in place of Vuren, becoming somewhat of an ambassador between humans and Pokemon.

 Vuren's death left Dazzle with an even stronger drive to protect, and he began to wear Vuren's capture disc around his neck to remember him by.

Sinnoh/Unova missions

His next missions would take him to Sinnoh and Unova to investigate the aftermath of Team Galactic and the missing Adamant, Lustrous, and Griseous Orbs, stolen by the Shadow Triad of Team Plasma.

Galar

Though those missions often saw him outside of the action, a new mission would soon throw him right back into the fast paced action he was used to when Dazzle was called in to assist when mass reports of exhausted and overworked Pokemon within Galar's mines began surfacing. Through his investigations he found that the activity of the mines had become much more active in recent years, and that focus had shifted from harvesting gemstones to Wishing Stars. Wondering what caused the shift in activity, Dazzle went to Professor Magnolia to learn about Wishing Stars and Pieces, where he also met Armani, an interpol agent tasked with investigating uncovered funds that had been sent from the Pokemon League to the Aether Foundation who had come to Galar after discovering that the money was being spent on researching and experimentation on Wishing Stars. Together they found that Wishing Stars and Pieces were used for both Dynamaxing, a popular battle tactic in the region, and also to power Galar.

Despite their knowledge of the Wishing Stars' use, the two had no idea how it was used to power Galar, as the research behind it was a secret, patented and closely guarded by Macro Cosmos, one of the largest companies in the world. With their limited knowledge, the two decided the best way to find out more was to take on the gym challenge to better understand how Wishing Stars were used and what they did. The two were now tasked to challenge the league undercover, posing as a young trainer and their parent's overprotective Pokemon to accompany them, respectively.

The challege was simple at first; Armani breezed through the first two gyms, even impressing Chairman Rose with their prowess enough for him to invite them to dinner. During the occasion Armani picked up a little bit more information about Dynamaxing, and was even recommended to tour to Hammerlocke's vault. Having previously been in conversation with Milo and Nessa, Armani already knew that there was a shortage of Wishing Stars, but Dazzle's own investigation contradicted that information, since the mining of Wishing Stars had almost tripled in the past few years.

As they continued forward the League challenge became much more difficult for Dazzle and Armani after they obtained their second gym badge as neither of them had any experience in professional battling, paired with Dazzle's hatred of battling, fearing that he would hurt the other Pokemon. The first two battles were fairly easy, but after defeating Nessa Armani found that their team simply couldn't hold up to the pressure, and they were nearly defeated by Kabu. All of Armani's Pokemon had fainted, but because Armani didn't have a full team of six, if Dazzle agreed to battle, Armani would still have one fighting chance to win. Reluctantly, Dazzle agreed to battle, but refused to obey Armani's instruction, preferring to use Protect rather than using any damage-dealing moves. Dazzle and Armani only won when Kabu's Centiscorch grew too tired to continue it's ineffective attacks on Dazzle.

After their grueling battle the duo made their way to Hammerlocke, where Chairman Rose introduced them to Bede, a gym challenger who also assisted Rose in collecting Wishing Stars. Dazzle had met him before, while doing his investigations within the mines, but only now understood the connections. During their tour of the vault. Despite the valuable information about the origins of Galar's energy, the tour still didn't give them any information that could help them find out how Rose's company, Macro Cosmos was involved with the Aether Foundation, or what was happening to the missing Wishing Stars. Even Professor Magnolia's own statistics agreed that the number of Stars being mined far exceeded Galar's energy demands. However, the two did not have time to continue to ponder in place. They still had many more gyms to take on.

A couple weeks passed since their visit to the vault, and they still hadn't determined the cause of the strange activity regarding the League and Macro Cosmos. Once again they returned to Professor Magnolia to discuss the issue and she pointed them towards Cara Liss, another researcher who had previously worked at Macro Cosmos but had opened up her own lab in recent years, dedicated to reconstructing and reviving fossil Pokemon. She told them that she was fired from Macro Cosmos after she refused to go through with unethical experiments on Pokemon, and believed that the funds being sent to the Aether Foundation was related to those experiments, as they too had done similar work on a Pokemon called Type: Null.

Even after gaining first hand information from Cara, the two had their doubts that her experience was related to the case, so they continued on to Stow-on-Side, where their next gym battle awaited.

Though Armani would not admit their disappointment in Dazzle's previous gym performance, they were still grateful he had become more willing to battle, but similarly to the struggles they had previously faced, Armani's regular team was once again defeated by the next gym leader, Allister. When Dazzle's turn to attempt victory arrived he was quickly overwhelmed by Allister's Gigantamax Gengar, luring him into it's deadly mouth with hallucinations of Vuren calling to him. Fully captivated, Dazzle began to walk closer and closer which forced Armani to run onto the battlefield, grabbing him to snap him from his trance and finish the battle. Though they won, it Armani did not notice how shaken the experience left Dazzle until he collapsed suddenly, having overworked himself over the previous few days to cope.

The two took a break from the gym challenges so that Dazzle could recover, and during this time, Armani and Dazzle spent time getting to know each other better, eventually leading Dazzle to tell Armani about his past with Vuren. Armani, not understanding his hatred of battling and his intense anxiety before then felt rather guilty for expecting more of him, but the experience as a whole would help the two grow closer.

Their hope that they would find the connection between Macro Cosmos, the Aether Foundation, and the Wishing Stars was once again ignited when Bede was caught destroying Stow-on-Side's historic mural. Though the collapse of the mural itself revealed no new information or stars, Armani decided that Bede's disqualification could serve as motivation to get information from him. They returned to Hammerlocke, but when questioned Bede refused to give up any information, whether that be due to his pride, loyalty, or simply not knowing, Armani wasn't sure. They decided to wait in the city for a few more weeks, hoping that he would eventually come around to giving them any information, but as two weeks of waiting shifted to three, then four, the two began to give up hope once again, that is, until news had gotten around that the Ballonlea gym leader, Opal had suddenely taken in Bede as her successor. Their next stop became Ballonlea for one last attempt to talk to Bede, but he refused to give them any information until after they defeated the gym.

Armani was now more reluctant to involve Dazzle in battles, but Dazzle himself offered to fight. He knew that other Pokemon enjoyed battling, so he figured that he would perhaps begin to understand its appeal after trying it on his own terms. Though the battle was still tough, Dazzle didn't find himself hating it, but he didn't particularly enjoy it either. Even though they had won, Bede still refused to talk to them, and demanded he battle them even after defeating Opal. Their subsequent victory still yielded nothing of substance, and so, irritated that Bede had wasted so much of their time, Armani and Dazzle planned to set off to Circhester for another badge.

On their way back through Hammerlocke, the duo heard a loud explosion coming from its power plant. The two grew concerned and rushed in, but were stopped from further investigating when Champion Leon came in to handle the situation. They instead decided to help evacuate the city in case the presence of Wishing Stars made Pokemon Dynamax, presenting any danger to civilians. During the process, Armani ran into an old friend and fellow gym challenger, Hop, who also wished to assist with the process, but Armani was forced to tell him without breaking cover that he could not help because he didn't have the proper experience to assist. This left Hop somewhat suspicious of Armani, though he tried not to dwell on it.

After the evacuation, they headed onward to Circhester, where the next leader they would challenge was Melony, an Ice-type user. Though Dazzle wanted to battle for himself once more, he found himself growing sluggish and tired in the frigid city and gym, but thankfully the rest of Armani's team pulled through.

Their next stop was Spikemuth, but their journey took a sudden diversion when yet another explosion went off, this time on Route 9. The pair rushed over, fearing another Dynamax Pokemon had gone wild, and along the way to the site of the commotion they noticed Leon making his way towards the scene as well. Knowing that he wouldn't want them to put themselves in danger and would be turned away from helping if Leon saw them, Armani and Dazzle carefully followed him from a distance, but even Armani's best efforts couldn't stop them from being noticed. Armani knew that they weren't supposed to break cover, but fearing being unable to assist again, Armani told Leon of their true identities and mission, convincing him that they were willing and able to help.

On Route 9, the three of them found an odd-looking Glalie; not quite Gigantamaxed, but not quite normal either. Obviously enranged and in pain due to it's partially unhinged jaw, even Leon had seen nothing quite like it before. Though Dazzle had never seen the phenomenon in person, he reconized that the Pokemon had mega evolved, but even, so it's massive size and immense power still shared similarities with Dynamaxing, as if this Glalie had become a strange combination of the two. Leon defeated the Glalie using his own Inteleon, and Dazzle later captured it, calming it from its pain. After all of the commotion, Hop caught up to Leon, Armani, and Dazzle, confused that the latter two were at the scene while he was turned away from helping by his own brother. Armani lied, saying that they had already been on the route at the time, and quickly left, hoping to take the Glalie to a nearby Pokemon Center, but also to avoid further questioning from Hop.

Now returned to Hammerlocke once again for their final badge, many things were beginning to cloud Dazzle and Armani's thoughts. For Dazzle, he seemed to confuse himself. He had never seen another Inteleon before, and his own stockier build, shining crest, and misplaced 'wings' made him self conscious. Even though he knew that worrying about it was useless, he couldn't seem to shake the idea that something was wrong.

On the other hand, Armani found themselves stuck on the Glalie. Why had it looked so strange? How could it have partially mega evolved with no mega stone in sight? Unsure of what to do, Armani reached out to Professor Magnolia and Cara Liss, though the two researchers came to vastly different conclusions about the occurrence. Magnolia believing that such a transformation was unnatural, while Cara suspected it was a new evolution. Still Armani and Dazzle were conflicted on who to believe. The Glalie was in so much pain that it was clear that whatever had happened to it was unusual, but at the same time Dynamaxing and mega evolution at the same time should be impossible, especially when scouring the area yielded no mega stones, and the nearest power spots were several miles away.

Armani, Dazzle, and the two scientists periodically returned to the Pokemon Center to check on the Glalie's recovery and continue speculation on the cause of the strange event until the day they encountered the Pokemon's trainer, relieved to see her Pokemon had been found and was making a sound recovery. Despite their relief, there was a clear anger in her demeanor, directed at Cara, blaming her for the suffering she had caused Glalie. Armani later confronted the trainer, Sophie, wondering why she was so distraught at Cara's presence. She explained that she was a Macro Cosmos employee who, like many of her coworkers, despised Cara for her disturbing work practices that lead to the injury and even death of some of their Pokemon, and was eventually fired. This explanation confused Armani. Cara had originally told them that she was fired for Macro Cosmos' own lack of ethical concerns, but neither Armani nor Dazzle could doubt possible cases of mistreatment just in case Sophie was telling the truth. They would continue to talk to Sophie and a few of her coworkers to further understand the events, and devised a plan to get to the bottom of Cara's actions.

Back on Route 6, this time in the dead of night, Armani and Dazzle broke into Cara's lab, and found some particularly interesting files regarding multiple species of strange, chimera-like Pokemon, Dynamaxing, Gigantamaxing, Z-Moves, Mega Evolution, artificial Pokemon, fossil restoration, and more. Though much of the information had been blacked out, they knew right away that something was wrong. It was rare to find a scientist who researched more than one of these fields, and yet Cara seemed to be hoarding many specific, almost instruction-like documents, and mentioning a Pokemon called "the Aether Collaboration."

Armed with this evidence, Armani and Dazzle promptly told Professor Magnolia and Leon what they had suspected; Cara Liss, the previous Macro Cosmos scientist was the link between Aether and Macro Cosmos, pouring the funds from the Pokemon League into research on experimentation on Pokemon. Though Professor Magnolia was shocked at this information, Leon was less so, confirming that Chairman Rose had recently asked him if he would be willing to raise a new Pokemon that Macro Cosmos had developed, as Rose feared that it was too powerful to handle himself. Leon had little information about what the Pokemon was, but he knew that its purpose was to guard and combat Eternatus, the source of Galar's energy. Despite the knowledge he already had on the subject, Leon was appalled to learn that the Pokemon Rose asked him to raise was created from such shady circumstances.

Still, a few mysteries remained. Why was Rose using the league's funds for a Macro Cosmos project? And why did he feel that the creation of this Aether Collaboration Pokemon was necessary, if nothing, to anyone's knowledge warranted its existence? These questions were beyond Armani, Dazzle, and everyone else involved, and all they could really do is turn in the evidence to further investigate both Cara and Macro Cosmos. In the meantime, the League Tournament was nearing.

Despite the massive breakthrough, Armani and Dazzle were discouraged. Neither of them understanding the true nature of Macro Cosmos, and Dazzle distraught over his own body. This turmoil, paired with the fact that they were were hardly taking the gym challenge for its intended purpose made them wonder if they should retire from the challenge before the semi-finals started up. They had a few weeks to decide, they figured, and in the meantime, they may as well help Dazzle ease his concerns. Large Pokemon meetups were a common tradition in Wyndon in the weeks leading up to the semi-finals, as many trainers with the same Pokemon gathered in the city both to spectate and battle, and wanting to learn more about other Inteleons, Dazzle and Armani decided to attend a meetup for the Sobble evolution line.

At the event Dazzle was unusually skittish and awkward, as he realized he had no idea how other Inteleons socialized, and though there were a few who looked down upon him, most were polite and understanding, offering to help him learn what he had been missing all his life. Not only did the event help him feel more connected to his own species socially, but physically as well. Sobbles, Drizziles, and Inteleons of all shapes and sizes were present, many of them confirming that their own appearances were the result of them being crossbreed Pokemon.

Though the Pokemon that he was a crossbreed of still remained a mystery, and he certainly had a lot more to learn, the experience did quell Dazzle's insecurities, and with his newfound confidence, decided to challenge the semi-finals.

The semi-finals finally rolled around and Armani and Dazzle rose through the ranks of the competition, their own skills being tested even against some of the trainers from the Inteleon meetup. Though many of their battles were tough, they made it to the finals, where their own rivals, Hop and Marnie awaited. Armani battled Hop first, and while they knew they could win if they gave it their all, Armani purposefully hindered themselves. It seemed unfair of them to take Hop's lifelong dream from him when they were simply challenging the league for their investigation. Despite his win however, Hop would go on to challenge Marnie and lose, meaning that she would go on to challenge Leon for the champion title, but not before Bede interrupts the match despite his disqualification to battle Marnie. Still, Marnie would defeat him, but the final match would have to wait until the next day.

That evening, Leon invited the semi-finalists to dinner, but never showed up himself. Though the party was beginning to grow worried, everyone stayed put, hoping that Leon was only perhaps caught in traffic or only experiencing a minor delay. That is, until Armani got a text from Leon telling them to head to Rose Tower immediately. The brief, to the point manner of the message caught Armani's eye as unusual, and just as quickly as the message had told them to arrive, Armani and Dazzle excused themselves under the guise of having forgotten a previous arrangement at Wyndon Stadium, hoping that the excuse would throw them off their trail.

Of course, making their way to the tower was much easier said than done. Aside from Wyndon's already claustrophobic traffic only made worse by the championship rounds, the monorail, usually bustling with tours to and from Rose Tower was dead silent, having been shut down. Armani wondered if the rail had been shut down due to the championships, but Dazzle quickly realized that it was unlikely that Rose Tower's rail would have impacted the stadium's traffic, and nothing within the news pointed to any scheduled maintenance or even unexpected delays despite what the rail employees said. This worried the duo, as they began to grasp that something was seriously wrong.

Back at the hotel Piers had arrived, and took a moment to catch up with Hop and Marnie, briefly mentioning that he passed Armani by the Rose Tower monorail station. Marnie, and especially Hop were confused by this -- the stadium they had claimed to be at wasn't anywhere near Rose Tower, and now, fearing the worst for both them and Leon after hours of tense worry, Hop persuaded Marnie and Piers to help look for them. The three split up to search across the city, with Hop searching the monorail station for Armani.

When Hop caught up with Armani, Dazzle was locked in a tense battle with a league staff member after having questioned them too many times about the suspicious activity of the rail system. Upon setting eyes on him, Armani demanded Hop to leave, but he refused, citing how he had seen Armani conveniently disappear, and explicitly tell him he couldn't help during the first rouge Dynamax incident in Hammerlocke, then enter the blocked off route despite having said that they were already there when the second incident on Route 9 happened. Hop knew Armani had been lying for the past few months, and he wasn't about to leave before discovering why. Armani knew they had to get him to leave one way or another, so they challenged him to a battle, knowing that if he lost, he would have to return to a Pokemon Center. Yet even with their plan to get rid of Hop, an idea occurred to them that made them forfeit the match Over two hours had passed since Leon's text, and they feared that their desperation to keep their cover would only prolong the mission and possibly endanger Leon further, and so Armani, though reluctant, told Hop everything and asked that even if he did not forgive them for their lies, to at least let them use his Corviknight to fly to Rose Tower. Though Hop initially felt a tinge of betrayal, he understood why things turned out the way they did, but agreed to let Armani use his Corviknight, so long as he could come along. After all, his own brother's life may be at stake.

Though Armani couldn't convince Hop to stay while they made their way to the tower, they told Hop to wait outside for them, promising that whatever was to follow wouldn't take long. This of course, was an uncertainty and both Armani and Hop knew it. Armani simply wanted to keep Hop out of harm's way, but Armani's excuses didn't phase him anymore and though Armani had thought they were alone after having broken into the building, Dazzle soon found that Hop was attempting to discreetly follow. With no time to try to convince him to turn back, Armani and Dazzle reluctantly let him tag along.

Upon noticing the intruders, Macro Cosmos' guards stormed the massive elevator in an attempt to stop the trio, but after defeating them all in battle Armani tasked Dazzle with accompanying Hop to the top of the tower, while they used the opportunity to search for further clues in their investigation, fearing they may never get the opportunity again, despite the dire situation.

Dazzle and Hop battled their way up the elevator as far as they could until the elevator stopped completely. Though Macro Cosmos had tried to ambush the intruders by deploying their guards, it was clear that Dazzle and Hop could not be defeated so easily, so they shut down the elevator completely, forcing the two to a standstill. The two decided their best way of getting to the top was to use the building's interior elevators, breaking through the steel doors with Hop's [Dubwool] to get inside, but it wasn't long before Macro Cosmos got word that they had escaped from the elevator. Again they battled their way through hordes of grunts before almost miraculously, running into Armani within the vast building.

Armani, in their time within the building had been able to download information from one of the computers within a lab detailing more information about Macro Cosmos' connection to Cara Liss and the Aether Collaboration, though they admitted that in their hurry they didn't know what or how much information they had obtained; hoping only that the information would be enough to be incriminating and provide clues to what the Collaboration was, and where it was located. With the information collected, Dazzle let Armani know that the elevator was no longer an option, but by this point Macro Cosmos had also shut down the interior elevators, and having made it not even halfway up the massive, 500 foot tall tower, the stairwells weren't an option, leaving only the main elevator as their only means of getting to the top once again. With Hop's Corviknight fainted and unable to take Armani and Hop up with him, Dazzle figured that if he could reach the top of the elevator shaft, he would be able to slip through one of the doors to reach Oleana, where he would then be able to take whatever mechanism she was using to control the elevator to get it working again.

Though the long climb was taxing, his ability to scale walls meant that their success depended on his ability to make it to the top, and though too weak to break through the door, Dazzle was able to slip through a vent and into the interior of the building, confronting Oleana.

When he reached the top she was waiting with a strange Pokemon; it was massive, its body seeming to be a mix of different species of Pokemon, and its head encased in some sort of shell. It immediately pounced, attacking Dazzle just as his eyes met its, but his objective wasn't to defeat it. He simply had to hold it off long enough to get the elevator remote.

With the remote in hand, Dazzle started the elevator, knowing that Armani and Hop would be at his side in a few moments, but that he still had to fight a little longer. Using the walls to stay out of its range, and firing Snipe Shots at it from a distance, Dazzle was able to keep the battle of attrition going until Armani and Hop made it to the top, where Hop used his remaining Pokemon to combat the beast, allowing Dazzle and Armani to continue into the next room, where Leon was waiting.

Knowing that Leon's message had been sent hours ago, Armani and Dazzle feared the worst, wondering perhaps, if Leon had been seriously injured or worse, killed. when the door to the tower's other arena opened, the two set their eyes upon Leon and Rose... the two perfectly unharmed, though the champion's face was clearly slick with sweat and reddened, as if by intense heat, and he seemed somewhat frazzled. He clutched a Poke Ball firmly in his hand. Hop, having defeated Oleana and her strange Pokemon entered the room next. Leon cracked a small smile at him and simply told the trio that he had simply had a long disagreement with Rose. The chairman nodded in agreement, and suggested that the four of them ought to return to the hotel and rest for the championship battle.

Back at the hotel, Hop, Armani, and Dazzle, knew something didn't add up, and though he had been itching to ask his brother ever since they exited the tower, he figured that asking in Rose's pretense would be ill-advised. Leon told him once again that they had just had a disagreement; one that they had settled with a particularly tense battle, but that the issue at hand didn't concern him, or Armani and Dazzle either, for that matter. Like Hop, Armani was suspicious, and they later messaged him, wondering if he was too afraid to say it aloud for one reason or another. Still Leon repeated his words.

After the events, both Armani and Dazzle had a sleepless night, to the point where they stayed up, trading ideas back and fourth about what Leon was hiding, but never coming to a sound conclusion. They didn't quite believe it, but in the end, the two told themselves that he was telling the truth, if only to get the situation off their minds long enough to sleep.

Armani and Dazzle would return to the stadium for the finals matches the next afternoon, this time cheering for Marnie rather than battling themselves. They were legitimately happy for her, having made it this far, though they both knew they were mostly cheering to distract themselves from events of the previous night, fearing that something larger than they knew was looming before them.

Their dread was in fact, correct, as Marnie entered the pitch for her final battle against the champion, when Pokemon within the stadium suddenly began to Dynamax out of control before a beam of Dynamax energy pierced the stadium pitch. The two quickly rushed to the pitch to meet Marnie and Leon and amidst the chaos, came up with a plan of action. Leon decided that Armani, Dazzle, and Hop should accompany him to Hammerlocke's power plant, as his suspicions told him that the incident was related to Eternatus and its Dynamax Energy. Marnie, Bede, and the semi-finalists would stay at the stadium to assist with evacuations. Hop objected to the plan however, bringing up the research he had been doing alongside Sonia during his journey, figuring that he should go to the Slumbering Weald to find the strange Pokemon who saved Galar from the Darkest Day, if the situation had truly come to that.

Now in Hammerlocke, Leon immediately rushed to it's tower, where a turbulent, dark cloud swirled, obscuring anything beyond its view, and Dazzle and Armani followed, but couldn't catch up to him before chairman Rose, in the basement of the plant, ambushed the duo, forcing them into a battle. Though he was a tough opponent, Armani was able to defeat him and make their way to the top of the tower, where Leon awaited. He was accompanied with the strange Pokemon that had attacked Dazzle and Hop back in Rose Tower, and a massive skeletal beast that floated above the tower. Armani hardly had to open their mouth before Leon came forward with an explanation.

The beast before them was Eternatus, a Pokemon that Rose had captured and fed vast quantities of Wishing Stars to create energy for Galar, however when the beast began to show signs of awakening, Rose grew concerned and rushed to find a solution to combat Eternatus if it awoke. This solution was the Aether Collaberation, Leon gestured to the strange Pokemon standing beside him and introduced it by it's formal name, Type: Null. The Pokemon was said to be specially created for the purpose of subduing Eternatus. However, even with Type: Null and the rest of Leon's Pokemon able to weaken Eternatus, he was unable to capture it as it only grew more enraged. Leon was blown back by the force of its escape from a Poke Ball while its body morphed and twisted grotesquely in a new, hand-like form that prevented it from being damaged, even by Type: Null.

Unable to capture it securely, Dazzle figured the only thing that could be done was to capture it with his styler, in an attempt to calm it from it's rampage. However, even with his powerful styler and experience with other legendaries, Eternatus resisted his attempts at capture and the two feared that nothing could be done to control the massive Pokemon, but their hope was shattered further when Hop appeared at the top of the tower with and old sword and shield. Armani knew the legend and the Darkest Day, but they had their doubts that the sword and shield alone would make a difference; they weren't warriors after all. However, the almost sudden arrival of two large, wolf-like Pokemon quelled their fears when Hop told them that these Pokemon were Zacian and Zamazenta, the same heroes that had saved Galar so long ago. Now it was Armani, Dazzle, Hop, Type: Null, and Zacian and Zamazenta against Eternatus, and with their combined power, they were able to weaken it enough for Dazzle to be able to capture and calm it. Leon was also beginning to regain his strength and decided he should be the one to capture Eternatus, as he was most likely to be able to control it, Especially with Type: Null at his side.

When they returned from the top of the tower, Rose and Oleana were no where to be found. Exausted, Armani simply arranged a search be set for them, and the group retired to a nearby hotel. After settling down, Leon came to Armani's room, saying he wanted to clear up the events that had happened in Rose Tower. He explained that he had been invited to the tower to discuss Rose handing over ownership of Type: Null to him, but when he arrived, Rose had used a strange device that filled the arena with Dynamax energy, forcing his Charizard to Gigantamax and go mad with the overabundance of energy, to the point that it threatened to hurt its own trainer. Rose said he had originally objected to using such force, but through the use of his own surveillance, learned Armani's true identity and that they had told Leon about the cruelty used to create Type: Null. Fearing that this information would get out, or worse, sway Leon from taking ownership of Type: Null and refusing to aid him in his plan to guard Eternatus, Rose was threatning him with his own Charizard. Though Leon was able to keep his Pokemon at bay for an excruciating several hours, he finally backed down and agreed to help Rose once he knew Charizard's self control was slipping beyond Leon's abilities. It was only then had Armani made it to the top of the tower and seen Leon so distraught and unkempt, but he refused to tell Armani that anything had happened because he feared that Rose could still be surveiling them. Finally, all the pieces had clicked, but neither Armani nor Dazzle had the energy to care much. They were simply relieved that the most challenging part of their mission was now behind them.

The championship battle was rescheduled to take place three days after the incident, and though Armani and Dazzle weren't participating, they felt that seeing Marnie take on Leon was a fitting ending to the journey they had endured for the past half-year. Marnie would go on to win the battle, being crowned champion by Leon. Her success, while sweet, wasn't what made her happy however; she was far happier that the attention her own journey and eventual win had garnered her would bring visitors and challengers from all over the world to Spikemuth.

Post-Champion Cup

With the championships now over, Armani and Dazzle simply decided to vacation together, taking their time to settle down or sightsee around the region as they wished. Though the two were from seperate agencies, they had grown incredibly close and didn't want to part ways, even going as far as deciding to stay together beyond Galar.

Despite this, their work wasn't quite done yet. Reports came in a few months later that Rose had been found frequenting the Slumbering Weald, alongside cases of Pokemon suddenly Dynamaxing, even outside of Power Spots. Though police, gym leaders, and other agencies would go on to investigate the Dynamax phenonemon, Hop had been pondering the idea of studying under the now full-time professor Sonia, and spent much of his time in the Slumbering Weald as well, knowing that Zacian and Zamazenta resided there. Though Armani didn't particularly like relying on him due to the fact that he was still a child, Hop had proven he was quite competent, and so they asked him for his help in navigating the Slumbering Weald, hoping to catch Rose. The stakeout would last for several days, but eventually Rose entered the calm forests once again. He made his way to the heart of the forest, using a Wishing Star to alert Zacian and Zamazenta, tricking them into appearing when they sensed what they thought was Eternatus. But before the trio, hidden in the bushes could react, he captured the two Pokemon in master balls, leaving as quickly as he had entered. The three followed behind quietly, knowing that they had to take the two Pokemon from Rose, fearing what he was planning to do with them.

They tracked him down to the former Rose Tower, now the Battle Tower, but instead of battling his way to the top as rules mandated, it was clear that Rose knew how to exploit the familiar building, using it's interior elevators to reach the top, where Leon awaited. Here, he unleashed both Zacian and Zamazenta, who similarly to Leon's Charizard before them, grew agitated with all the excess Dynamax energy, though this time they weren't simply being driven mad with power. They were agitated by such large quantities of Dynamax energy, able to sense that Eternatus was near, and seeking to destroy it at any cost. Without intervention, the two Pokemon would tear Leon to shreds, or unleash Eternatus, hoping to defeat it once and for all.

It took a bit longer than they had hoped, but Armani eventually found the exploit Rose had used to reach the top of the tower, where Armani, Dazzle, and Hop were able to confront Rose. Now less occupied with saving his own life, Leon was able to battle Rose, while Armani and Dazzle calmed Zamazenta, and Hop calmed Zacian. Unfortunately their methods seemed to be ineffective, and though he hated to be forced to this point, Hop took the two master balls and recalled the two Pokemon, convinced that they would never be able to calm down in a place like the Battle Tower. The three hopped on his Corviknight and made their way back to the Slumbering Weald as Leon, having defeated Rose, took him to the authorities.

After the long flight back, hop released Zacian and Zamazenta, even going as far as to crush the master balls so that they were no longer bound to them. He then waited by their sides as they calmed, now in their familiar home, and though Armani and Dazzle watched from afar, it was clear that they shouldn't intervene unless necessary. Though Hop managed to calm the Pokemon, he still returned to the Slumbering Weald periodically to check on them, until the point that he had befriended both and allowed themselves to be captured by Hop for gaining their trust.

Armani and Dazzle would stay in Galar for a few more months until late December, when they would leave Galar for Fiore. Hop, though he loved studying under Sonia, he was inspired by Dazzle and Armani's work and asked them if he could come to Fiore with them, interested in learning more about becoming a ranger, as it offered both much of the excitement of being a trainer, and the ability to help others. Together the three traveled to Fiore, looking forward to their next mission.