Several days had passed since Iono's outdoor stream.
Jason—the star of that broadcast—was now moving low-key through the mountains and wilds.
His current form: Nymble.
Pitch black from head to toe, he was the perfect camouflage when crouched in a rock's shadow.
"Haah…"
Hopping forward like a real grasshopper, he let out a heavy sigh in his heart.
Yeah, messing around that day was fun—but he knew tons of people were probably looking for him now.
A Ditto that can design its own tactics and talk? There's only one of those—him.
He could've escaped another way back then… but for some reason he felt like being flashy in front of Iono, making sure she noticed him. Teasing Iono a little.
Maybe, once he got stronger, something could happen between them later.
He wasn't panicked, though. With more Dex entries unlocked, he could keep morphing into other Pokémon—no need to worry about being recognized.
In a hidden cave, he finally wrapped up the day's Dex grind, dropped the transformation, and slumped back into a wobbling purple jelly, starting his daily "review."
He'd made big gains lately: more forms, stronger battle instincts.
To push his adaptability further, he set his sights on Tinkaton.
Tinkaton is also extremely practical. And Fairy + Steel—exactly the typing he lacked.
Fairy + Steel is near perfect: immune to Dragon and Poison, resists nine types, weak only to Ground and Fire. That would massively boost his defensive spread.
More important—their Mold-Breaker-like craftsmanship: if he unlocked their entry, he could craft on his own, DIY infrastructure included. Throwing up a little shelter in the wild to keep out wind and rain? Way more useful than plain transformations.
That typing, plus the utility, would supercharge both his survivability and tactics.
Tinkaton's overall stats aren't huge—only 75 Attack—but the signature Gigaton Hammer hits. If not for the mediocre base Attack, the damage with that move would be overtuned.
Their downside: only Swords Dance for boosting, no Speed control—easy to be outsped and targeted.
But for Jason, that wasn't a problem. He could freely switch forms, grab windows to buff with something else, then snap back to Tinkaton for a hammer time finisher.
"Alright! You're next."
…
With a plan in mind, he moved.
Using what he'd learned, he tracked habitats where the Tinkatink line might appear.
He finally locked onto the ruins of an old, long-abandoned mining site deep in the mountains.
Remote, nearly cut off from the world—and according to other Pokémon, once a large metal mine. Abandoned tunnels, rails, and machine parts everywhere—the perfect paradise for the Tinkatink line.
By the time he arrived, dusk was falling.
Sunset gilded the rust and desolation with a sheet of gold.
He didn't rush in. After a short meditation, his body writhed and became a rust-spotted, ordinary round gear. Click—he slotted himself onto an abandoned conveyor and began to observe.
Safer to become something inanimate.
After all, the Tinkatink family is known as "violent little smiths." Who knew if they'd see a foreign Pokémon and start swinging hammers?
Ding ding… clang clang…
Before long, rhythmic metal tapping rang from deeper in the ruins.
He looked. By a little mountain of scrap metal, several small pink figures were swinging teeny hammers, pounding away at metal with all their might.
Tinkatink.
Beside them stood a slightly larger, also-pink figure with a single ponytail—gripping an enormous hammer.
Tinkatuff.
Like a strict foreman, it was overseeing the Tinkatink at work.
"Found them." Jason's heart leapt.
Then he realized it was more complicated than he thought.
The instant he started observing, the Tinkatuff's ponytail snapped up.
It turned sharply, eyes like searchlights sweeping toward his position.
Jason held his breath and played the lifeless gear.
After a long stare, the Tinkatuff seemed to find nothing off and turned away.
But Jason's heart sank.
"So sensitive… looks strong."
It was hyper-alert to any metallic scent or shift within its territory. If his "intent to observe" sharpened even a little, it noticed immediately.
Unsure of its exact battle power—and with several Tinkatink nearby—he shelved the idea of speeding progress by fighting. A pile of hammers at once? He'd be flattened.
Which made his Tinkatink Dex crawl forward painfully slowly.
[Nymble—er—Tinkatink Dex completion: 0.1%… 0.5%…]
"At this rate I'll be here till the end of time." He grimaced.
While he was puzzling out a breakthrough, he realized the ruins were livelier than expected.
From behind a heap of junk drifted a translucent, grinning sphere wreathed in purple gas.
A Gastly.
It looked lonely—and bored.
It wandered aimlessly through the site, then its gaze fell on the clanging Tinkatink.
A mischievous smile crept across its face.
When the Tinkatuff stepped aside to gather metal, Gastly silently floated behind one Tinkatink.
Then its long tongue whipped out and—splat—licked the freshly forged, still-warm tiny hammer.
Ding?
The Tinkatink froze, looked down at its now slobber-soaked hammer—then let out an ear-splitting screech!
Ding ding ding!
"Tink!"
The foreman Tinkatuff exploded the moment it heard the cry.
It snatched up its giant hammer and, without a word, charged the Gastly.
Gastly cackled—"keh-keh-keh!"—and dissolved into purple vapor, vanishing into the shadows of the ruins.
"Well now… there's even a Ghost Pokémon here."