Chapter 255: Shiny Metagross
"What—you had a nightmare too?"
"I thought I was the only one."
Rio had just stepped out of his room when he heard his four attendants discussing last night’s events. Hearing the topic, he joined in: "What—you all had nightmares too?"
"Mr. Rio—you had one as well?!" The four of them looked at him in surprise.
"What’s going on? How did all of us end up having nightmares?" one of them asked in confusion.
"Could someone have done something to us last night? Otherwise, why would we all have nightmares?" another whispered.
As soon as he said it, the other three all looked at Rio. If someone had deliberately used a Pokémon to give them all nightmares, that was no small matter.
"Mr. Rio—did you lose anything?" Ace asked worriedly.
Hearing that, Rio paused, then stood up with a serious expression and went back to his room. A few minutes later, he returned.
"No—nothing is missing."
The four attendants breathed a sigh of relief. Whether they lost something didn’t matter—as long as Rio hadn’t lost anything. Otherwise, there’d be trouble. After all, he was the League Champion—if he lost something, it could cause friction between regions. The less trouble, the better—it would save them a lot of extra work.
But then they grew confused again. Their most distinguished guest hadn’t lost a thing—he’d just had the same nightmare as the rest of them. That was strange. Could it really be coincidence, that all four of them had nightmares at the same time? The odds of that were...
"Everyone—let’s go have breakfast together," Cynthia said, walking in. She looked a bit worn out—clearly, she hadn’t slept well either.
"Miss Cynthia—how did you sleep last night?" the sole woman among the four attendants asked tentatively.
"Don’t even mention it—I had a nightmare that someone used a Munchlax with Metronome to beat me in the Lily of the Valley finals. I nearly woke up furious—thankfully, it was just a dream," Cynthia said, shooting a glare at Rio. She would never forget the day she first arrived in Lavender Town, when her Gabite was defeated twice by Rio’s Munchlax’s Metronome. That was her eternal nightmare.
Rio scratched his nose. Even her nightmare is about Munchlax’s Metronome.
"Miss Cynthia—you had one too? All four of us and Mr. Rio had nightmares as well," one of the attendants said.
"You all did too?" Cynthia was surprised. "How is that possible—all of us had nightmares?"
As they walked to breakfast, Cynthia asked a few locals along the way—every single one of them had also had nightmares. When they found Professor Carolina and Professor Yanase, they both confirmed they’d had nightmares too.
"This is really strange—how could the entire town have had nightmares?"
"It can’t be coincidence—I think it was caused by a Pokémon."
"But what kind of Pokémon could put the whole town to sleep without any of our Pokémon even noticing?"
Everyone started speculating, feeling uneasy. Rio joined in, feigning concern.
"I think I know," Professor Carolina finally offered a useful theory. "Darkrai—the Nightmare Pokémon."
"Darkrai? The legendary Pokémon?" Cynthia asked. "It could put our whole town to sleep?"
"Yes—it’s a mythical Pokémon," Professor Yanase explained. "It can lure people into deep sleep and trap them in nightmares. What happened last night was likely Darkrai passing through and putting the entire town to sleep."
Hearing that, everyone nodded in understanding. Rio nodded too. Yes, yes—that’s exactly it. Great explanation. Very good.
"But does Darkrai hate surveillance cameras?" Cynthia suddenly had another question. On the way over, she’d noticed that all the town’s cameras had been destroyed.
"Darkrai hates cameras..." Professor Yanase was stumped. She looked at Professor Carolina, who was equally baffled. She studied Sinnoh’s history—the records of Darkrai only mentioned that it appeared on moonless nights, causing nightmares for nearby people and Pokémon—but nothing about it destroying cameras. Cameras shouldn’t bother a Nightmare Pokémon.
Stumped, the group exchanged blank looks. Eventually, they gave up and went to breakfast. The Lily of the Valley Conference was about to start—dwelling on this would only waste time and energy. Besides, nothing was missing.
An hour later, Rio, Cynthia, and the four attendants got into the car and headed for Lily of the Valley Island—the venue for the Sinnoh Conference. But the journey wasn’t smooth. On the way, they ran into a small incident.
While passing through a mountain range, they were stopped.
"You’re saying this mountain is called Metagross Mountain, and there are a lot of Beldum inside?"
"And recently, a shiny Metagross has appeared—it’s aggressive, and several people have already been injured. The Pokémon Police recommend taking a detour?"
Rio listened to Ace’s report, and his eyes lit up. Hello—do you remember who I am? I’m the League Champion, not some ordinary citizen. A wild Metagross blocking the road? You’re thinking of taking a detour instead of catching it? A regular Metagross, he could accept—but a shiny one? That was a must-have.
Sensing Rio’s peculiar look, Ace quickly explained: "Mr. Rio, it’s not that we doubt you—but the Lily of the Valley Conference starts tomorrow. If we get delayed here, it wouldn’t look good. If you’re interested in this Metagross, you could always come back after the conference."
"Don’t worry—I’m fast. I mean, my capture speed is fast." Rio waved him off and got out of the car. "Besides, as a League Champion, how can I ignore a situation like this? Consider it me doing some pest control here in Sinnoh—and I’m also catching that shiny Metagross."
He remembered now—in the original Sinnoh arc, there was a Metagross Mountain. A shiny Metagross did live there. In the original story, Team Rocket’s James had tried to catch it to present to Giovanni, but got thoroughly beaten. Rio hadn’t expected to run into it himself—and he wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip.