Armani

Early life

Armani was born and raised in Driftveil City, Unova where they got their first Pokémon, a Patrat named Kam when they were 12 years old as a gift from their mom after their dad passed away, hoping the Pokemon would provide emotional support. Though Kam provided Armani with that support in the early stages of their grief, a long depression still lingered in their life, making it particularly difficult for Armani to find the motivation to clean. At age 17, they got their second Pokémon, a Minccino named Florence they captured themselves after hearing that Minccinos were great for keeping things clean. Together, Kam and Florence helped Armani cope, especially by motivating Armani to take pride in things they found aesthetically pleasing.

As they grew older, Armani had no idea what they wanted to do in life, but when the Pokemon World Tournament became a new major attraction for Driftveil City, Armani found themselves spending a lot of time watching the intense matches between famous trainers there. They wondered what it would be like to be the one battling there, though they only considered it a self-indulgent daydream at most, knowing that they didn't really want to go through the grueling years of training to be able to challenge the Tournament. Though the PWT was only a fantasy, Armani's mom suggested they travel to Pasio, where a similar tournament, the Pokemon Masters League was being held, hoping that traveling to the island inhabited by such strong trainers would inspire them, even if it wasn't for the sake of battling in the league.

Armani obliged, not out of any particular inspiration, but because they were sure the high-class island would offer a decent paying job that would pay well enough to allow them to continue buying new clothes and other things that satisfied their hunger for making their life as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Before leaving for Pasio, Armani knew that their ability to battle would have to be far greater, and with only Kam and Florence at their side, Armani took it upon themselves to travel Unova for stronger team members and they began to take the Unova gym challenge. Though they only collected 4 badges before growing too frustrated with the difficulty to continue, Armani caught an Absol and a Klang, Isle and Platnuim. Due to Pasio's custom of using Sync Pairs, Armani could be found primarily using Isle, though they also used Florence.

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When Armani arrived on Pasio they took up a job as a battlefield tech -- helping research what kinds of terrains suited the artificial island's battlefields. Though the initially took the job only because it seemed more interesting than being a store clerk, they quickly became engrossed in and very passionate about the work, even considering the work they did for the Master's League battlefield their ultimate pride and joy. After finishing their contract on the island, Armani decided to stay on Pasio as they loved its air of sophistication and beautiful landscapes, especially its beaches. In this time Armani decided to challenge the PML Leaders to enter the League.

After one particularly intense battle where Armani only barely secured a victory against a much stronger opponent by using their knowledge of the PML's battlefield to their advantage, the victory caught the eye of the founder of the PML, Lear, who was curious to learn more about their use of terrain to give them an advantage, hoping it would give him an edge in his own battles. The two would continue to talk and teach one another, and they eventually began dating. Lear promoted Armani to a Battle Villa Trainer, then a Batle Villa Boss. He showered Armani in gifts, usually clothes or rare Pokémon, but after about a year or so after they began dating, Armani realized that he wasn't quite the philanthropist he had claimed.

Lear became much colder and more focused on work. Many of the Pokémon he gave them had been stolen from other, loving trainers who desperately missed their companions by a Hoopa he had captured. And fearing Lear's reaction, Armani felt they had no where to turn; that is, until they were approached by a lady named Anabel, working undercover in Team Break after having a lead that the villainous team could be linked to Lear. Though she had been undercover within the team for months, Armani's high ranking position and wavering loyalty proved to be the break Anabel needed. She approached Armani, promising them a chance to escape Lear and anything else far beyond what the team could offer if they helped her take down Team Break, and Armani agreed.

The two were able to successfully gather enough information on Team Break to begin a criminal investigation on the team, and after Armani was compensated with a fair amount of money, the two split paths.

Armani would leave Pasio having never told Lear that they were part of the reason why he and Team Break would be investigated, simply saying that they needed to return home. Though Armani had their doubts that they truly loved Lear, part of them deeply missed him and felt an irreparable guilt.

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Armani spent roughly a year and a half coasting off the money they had earned, traveling Sinnoh, where they spent their time traveling the region, catching Pokemon, collecting badges, watching matches at the Battle Frontier, and buying new clothes, in an attempt to fill the void that leaving Pasio and Lear had left. While at the Battle Frontier, Armani found themselves drawn to Hall Matron Argenta. Though Armani initially thought they were only drawn to her fashion sense, they soon realized they reminded them of Anabel. This memory was the final straw in getting them to realize that their travels had still left them unfulfilled, and began to wonder if perhaps their calling was within interpol like her. This lead Armani to apply, and once accepted they moved to Castelia City, where the interpol headquarters was located.

This started Armani's relationship with two more Pokemon: Mombasa the Gumshoos and Digit the Porygon-Z. These two Pokemon were given to Armani to help them with cases, though Armani's other Pokemon also went through training to work alongside them.

Armani spent their first few months in training before becoming a technician, then later a field agent where their first mission tasked them with a strange case that had continually alluded other officers for years when the champion of Kanto suddenly went missing, followed by the champion of Sinnoh, then Unova a few years later. All of these cases had one thing in common: the champions had all gone missing without their Pokemon, and they all owned the Pokemon of the champion that had gone missing before them, before again being given to the next champion to go missing. Each champion even left cryptic notes of some sort of "sisterhood" speaking of passing down their legacy before they left.

The most obvious place to start was of course, the champions' Pokemon. Using a new device that could translate the speech of Pokemon using only the bond between the human and Pokemon, Armani and the other agents were able to find that strangely, none of the champions' Pokemon were distraught at the sudden disappearance of their trainers, stating that they didn't know where their trainers went or why, but that they were at peace with what needed to happen. All agents involved were of course, stumped, but felt that the Pokemon still proved to be useful witnesses in the case and teamed up with them, each agent assigned a group of Pokemon that they worked and bonded with.

Armani was assigned to nearly 30 Pokemon over the course of a year, and though they and the others were being cared for by daycare workers specifically tasked to assist with rehoming such a large amount of strong Pokemon, by virtue of having no owners but not being wild either, the agent assigned to them legally became their trainer. In fact, some of these Pokemon, all of them as former Pokemon of champions were not content with having nothing to do, and many joined the agency to be formally trained and adopted. Armani eventually went on to adopt all of the ones they were assigned to, and many of them became agents as well.

The investigation into the missing champions would go on for another two years, but after countless amounts of money had been spent with no leads, the investigation was closed with no conclusion.

Armani's next assignment took them to Alola, after following leads on money laundering took them to the islands where they were tasked with looking into the Aether Foundation after suspicious use and transfer of the funds was discovered.

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While in Alola, Armani discovered that the inconsistently large amounts of money that the Aether Foundation was making could be traced back to Galar's Pokemon Leauge, and once again, Armani was off to uncover the truth while other agents were tasked with looking into Aether's actions.

Armani was stationed in Wyndon, where the Pokemon League's headquarters resided, and through posing as a Macro Cosmos member, was able to determine that the money coming from the league was funding research on Wishing Stars, leading them to Professor Magnolia, the leading expert on the strange stones in the region. While visiting Armani met Dazzle, an Inteleon working for Oblivia's Ranger Union tasked with discovering the cause of overworked Pokemon in the Galar mines, forced to mine 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 challenge 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 his previous Ranger partner, Vuren who had died years ago, leaving Dazzle with lasting scars. 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 suddenly 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.

Armani searched the labs of the building, scaling multiple flights and stories to gain the information they were searching for. Bank records, lab reports, anything they could find, hoping that it would be enough. After downloading this information, though they admit 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.

After tense minutes of waiting for Dazzle to activate the elevator, they finally began to move again, signalling that Dazzle had gotten the remote. When they reached the top of the tower they found Dazzle locked in a battle of attrition against a strange chimera-like Pokemon wearing some sort of helmet. Hop used the rest of his Pokemon to fight it off while Armani continued onto 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 separate agencies, they had grown incredibly close and didn't want to part ways, even going as far as deciding to stay together beyond Galar.

aesthetic

TBA