Iono nudged the Rotom Drone into a perfect top-down, god's-eye angle. Excitement flashed in her lively eyes; she even licked her slightly dry lips.
"Heehee—eyes up, fam!" she whispered into the mic, voice dripping with suspense. "The real battle… is about to start!"
Before her words even finished, the "harmless" little Nymble struck first!
Its hind legs kicked like springs and its whole body shot forward like a black cannonball, rocketing at the Ditto Jason had been—blindingly fast!
[Here we go! Classic Bug-type opener: Tackle!]
[Nymble's burst is nuts—feels like this Ditto's in trouble!]
[Transform, transform! Ditto, turn into Nymble and make it a fair Nymble-vs-Nymble!]
Everyone in chat—and Iono herself—instinctively assumed we were about to see a classic mirror match: purple jelly turns into the exact same Nymble, and the copy and the original go toe-to-toe.
Jason slapped that expectation to the floor.
A heartbeat before Nymble hit, his body did light up for a transformation…
…but when the glow faded, it wasn't a Nymble standing there.
It was a sharp-eyed, red-and-black—
Fletchling?!
"Eh? D-did I… see that right?"
Iono's big pretty eyes went wide. She rubbed them hard, thinking she'd stared too long and was hallucinating.
Chat detonated in the single second that followed.
[??????????]
[Wait, wasn't that a Ditto right there? Where'd my big Ditto go?!]
[What just happened—turn-into-a-bird magic?]
[Streamer, your background Pokémon are bugged! Don't tell me you're at home on a green screen "doing outdoors"!]
[Frame drop! I swear it was a frame drop—we missed the swap! That's gotta be it!]
Watching the stream, Nemona suddenly pictured that talking Ditto from before.
"Huh? Are Dittos this weird now? Either they talk, or they turn into… other Pokémon."
Does that even make sense?
While everyone reeled, Jason never skipped a beat. In Fletchling form, he flashed a cold look at the equally stunned Nymble, snapped his wings, and blurred—late start, still first to land—passing Nymble in a white arc.
Aerial Ace.
"Look—! The Ditto—no, the Fletchling—just used Aerial Ace!"
Professional that she is, Iono recovered first, wrestled her thousand questions down, and kept commentating. As for how a Ditto could become a Pokémon that wasn't even present…
Table that for later. Call the fight now.
Except it barely deserved to be called a "fight."
It ended the moment it began.
Plop.
The Nymble that had been charging so fiercely went eyes-up and toppled the instant that white slash traced across it—completely unable to battle.
One move.
Just one.
Iono froze again. She was impressed; Flying moves hit Bug types for double damage, sure—but to drop it that cleanly in one shot meant this "Fletchling" was no slouch.
After a beat of dead air, chat exploded even harder—with a "most reasonable" explanation:
[I've GOT it. Fam, I fully get it now! That wasn't a Ditto at all! It's a Fletchling that somehow found a Ditto skinsuit to fake people out! Show weak at the start, let 'em close in, then rip off the disguise and one-tap! Peak rat strat!!]
[Not gonna lie… that kinda tracks.]
[Right? Otherwise it makes no sense! How could a Ditto turn into other Pokémon?]
[Lmao it's a cheater! No wonder it looked off—reported for hacks!]
Iono's delicate face showed wavering belief. It sounded plausible… but she'd seen it clearly on-site—that wasn't a "skinsuit." And that transformation glow? That's the unique effect for Transform.
While Iono and tens of thousands of viewers sat in confusion, Jason just grinned at the downed Nymble.
…
"Handled."
He looked, satisfied, at the Nymble lying there merely knocked out—he'd pulled the punch. The familiar chime rang in his ear.
[Defeated Nymble…]
[Nymble Dex completion +7%! ]
[Nymble Dex current completion: 100%! ]
[Locust Pokémon "Nymble" entry complete!]
No blood feud here—he'd started the fight to fill the Dex—so he didn't go lethal, just lined up Aerial Ace to a weak point and dumped enough impact to KO. It'd be back on its feet soon.
"Another +1 base stat. Lovely."
He slotted the precious point straight into HP. He was up to 59 base HP now. Since leaving the Maushold colony a month ago, his growth had been blistering. With some real combat chops, he was filling entries ten times faster. No more tiptoeing and shadowing—most of the time he just found a target, morphed into a favorable typing, won the fight, and bam—Dex done.
In the last month he'd collected Hoppip, Bellibolt, Yungoos, Sunkern, and—just earlier—Fletchling. Add Nymble, and he'd hit a new tier again.
"At this pace, scoop a few more base-form entries, push HP to 70–80, then I can start working on evolved heavy hitters."
He mapped out the path in his head, then took to the air to hunt the next "lucky winner."
…
"It moved—it moved! The Fletchling moved!"
Iono snapped to attention and tailed from afar with the Rotom drone. Curiosity fully hooked, she had to see what this thing really was.
Jason found his next mark quickly: a little olive grove. Under the trees lounged several cute Pokémon that looked like tiny green olives with a single ahoge sprouting from their heads—Smoliv.
Not just one—six.
Jason nearly whooped. "No way—did I just stumble on a Smoliv nest? If I clean out all six, that Dex bar's gonna skyrocket!"
By the time Iono crept up with the drone, she saw this: the Fletchling crouched motionless behind a rock, watching the Smoliv herd.
She resumed her play-by-play at once. "Family, observe! Our 'skinsuit bird' has a new target! …But he's stopped?"
Puzzled, she guessed aloud: "Oh—I get it. Six is a lot. Even for a strong fighter, a 1v6 calls for caution. Our 'skinsuit bird' is waiting for the perfect moment to break the formation!"
[Ahhh, tactical stalking—got it!]
[Smart analysis, streamer! So the 'skinsuit bird' has a brain and brawn!]
[Speaking of—where's the Ditto skinsuit? One-time use?]
Their expectations lasted… maybe three seconds.
Because the instant her sentence ended, the "skinsuit bird" moved.
He stepped out from behind the rock and, in full view, lit up with evolution-like glow again.
When it faded, the haughty Fletchling was gone.
In its place stood… a pitch-black, power-legged Nymble?!
And then the Nymble strode off like it owned the place, charging the oblivious Smoliv.
"…"
Iono was done.
The cheeks that had been flushed from hype and commentary went suddenly pale. Her bright eyes screamed, "Who am I, where am I, what am I seeing?"
Was she trapped in some kind of illusion?
She turned, painfully stiff, to the camera. Her voice wobbled with a hint of tears:
"Family… Iono is lost."
"Did I… get Gengar'd?"
"That Ditto—no, that Fletchling—how did it turn into Nymble again?"
"It— it actually broke the Transform limits!!!"