Hideo heard something flying above them - not the average bird Pokemon.

"Looks like a Salamence just flew in," his Rotomdex stated unprompted. Hideo still had to limit the amount of Psychic communication going to his head, so in the absence of a Pokemon's Telepathy, his Rotomdex would talk to him. "Think it's a Rocket?"

"If it is, they're gonna get swarmed."

And true to his word, by the time Andrea had touched ground, there was no less than six Pokemon hiding in the shadows, assessing her and her Pokemon. But the sight of Ogerpon stopped them from approaching with hostile intent; they'd already been told Ogerpon had helped Hideo during the battle in Petalburg.

Nothing stopped Andrea from searching around Littleroot - and eventually finding Hideo. The boy's Rotomdex was quick to tell him such; "Loooooooks like it's an Ogerpon and I'm guessing its trainer?"

Once Hideo heard said trainer's voice, he knew who it was talking about. He raised his unslung hand, waving to her. "Yeah, it's me," he answered. "I'm here 'cause…well, I'm the Gym Leader here. And I don't like sitting around in a hospital all the time."

Spending a week in that bed was, above all else, extremely boring.

"What about you? What's brought you to Littleroot?"

Floating behind him and his Rotomdex was said cause - Uxie, who waved to the new arrivals.

Without telling Hideo. Or his Rotomdex.

Andrea Vaneau

"Well…that was my Minor League Gym. I'm a proper Gym Leader now…been here for over a year."

It was strange to think how much time had gone by since he took up the mantle. It felt like it'd only been a few months ago.

"Their friend?" Hideo parroted, clueless to who she was talking about. That was the moment that Uxie made its presence known to him, its foot tapping against the back of his head as it flew ahead, waving back to Ogerpon.

"Oh, Uxie." Hideo let out a sigh. He shouldn't be surprised that Uxie was getting up to shenanigans like…

The realization slowly dawned on him; Uxie had just outed him as being connected to him. In front of someone he didn't know all too well. He'd put so much work into keeping that a secret, and it was soiling it all by-

A pat on the head stopped that line of thinking. It'd be hard to think as he heard his Rotomdex start making noise; Uxie had floated over to it and grabbed it. "Hey, get off of me you chunky pixie! Stop touching-"

A swipe up, and the Rotom within was expelled. Though its words were now incomprehensible to the humans, it was clear from its tone that it was not happy Uxie was messing with its Rotomdex.

But Uxie paid it no mind, tapping away on the screen.

The pantomiming went unnoticed by Hideo, but he got the gist of what was going on from what Andrea said. "Lousy Three…wait, you talking about those three guys with those Toxic Chains on'em? Like that dog?"

Uxie had to have known he was looking around for their effigies - so it must have called Ogerpon and Andrea here for that reason; Uxie never did stuff like this without a reason.

With another tap of the Rotomdex, the device read out what Uxie had typed.

I DO NOT KNOW IF THEY ARE HERE.

BUT WE HAVE A MUTUAL GOAL.

WE WANT TO END THEM AS MUCH AS YOU DO.

AND I BELIEVE WE HAVE A LEAD TO STOP THEM FROM COMING BACK.

IT'S WHAT HIDEO IS LOOKING FOR.

Hideo let out a sigh. "...yeah. Uxie thinks they're putting effigies around the place that can help them come back to life. I'm trying to find any that I can around Littleroot…'cause, you know, I don't want them popping up at a time like this."

Andrea Vaneau

"Uxie can talk normally," Hideo said. "Well, Psychically. But I think it's just trying to give my head time to heal. I, uh, got a bit roughed up by something at Petalburg, and I'm not supposed to have any Psychics poking around for a while. It's why I was using my Rotomdex in the first place."

Even Telepathy was forbidden - so he was well and truly running blind here.

As for how they'd find the effigies?

"I already got my Pokemon looking all over Littleroot for'em. Got'em checking from the ground and from the air…might even have them check the water too at some point. They at least know what their statues look like."

Other than that? Hideo could only answer with a shrug. He could root them out of Littleroot, but the entirety of Hoenn? He didn't know.

At which point, Uxie stepped in, tapping away at the Rotomdex.

THE MAIN REASON I HAD YOU COME HERE WAS TO ESTABLISH THAT WE CAN WORK TOGETHER ON THIS.

IT IS BETTER THAN WORKING ALONE.

AND WE HAVE AN INTEREST IN STOPPING THE LOUSY THREE AS WELL.

Hideo nodded along. "If we can stop those from popping out of nowhere like in Petalburg, we'll have a better shot at keeping Littleroot safe in case Rocket attacks again…"

He trailed off, trying to remember what'd happened on that day. It was still mostly a blur, but he could still remember hearing that dog's chains swinging about.

And Uxie appearing out in the open…

…

"I, uh, also got a favor to ask. Don't tell anyone I got Uxie. I've been trying to keep closed-lip about it do I don't draw too much attention."

Not that it didn't stop Rocket from targeting him anyway, but he didn't want to give them more reason.

Andrea Vaneau

"Yeah. It's even clearer than my Telepathic Pokemon. Think I could chalk that up to them just being such strong Psychics." Even the Beheeyem he'd had for six years couldn't talk to him that clearly. "It's usually just feelings or sensations with other Pokemon, but Uxie's words are clear."

"And, uh, thanks for keeping Uxie a secret. It hasn't been easy finding people I can talk to about'em." Even opening up to the League got him to a bit of trouble with some people - he even felt a bit of relief that he could open up to someone outside of it.

He nodded as Andrea spoke. "Of course. We gotta keep Hoenn safe. From Rocket, and from whatever Legendary Pokemon's got a rock in its shoe and makes it our problem."

It didn't take a Gym Leader or Champion to keep Hoenn safe; he'd been doing it long since he took up the role of the former.

The Rotom by his side wasn't happy to let someone else use its Rotomdex; it was already miffed that Uxie took it, and it made it clear to the Ogerpon it objected to such.

But the Rotom wasn't the one with the Rotomdex.

Uxie was.

And Uxie handed the Rotomdex over to Ogerpon.

"Oh, uh, sure." Did Ogerpon know how to type on a Rotomdex?

Time to find out.

Andrea Vaneau

The Rotom looked on in horror as Ogerpon tapped away at random, realizing the ogre did not, in fact, know what she was doing there.

Uxie, however, was clearly amused, a smile on its face as it held back laughter.

Fortunately, Ogerpon had found a more suitable way to communicate, with Andrea translating it properly for Hideo.

"Makes sense they'd be around Petalburg," Hideo said, "since that's where we fought'em. But I guess that means we're on a bit of a wild goose chase just looking around Littleroot then. 'Least it means we can make sure they don't come in the first place."

"...just hope they aren't trying to help Rocket or something. Got no idea what they're up to." They were proving to be very unpleasant wildcards lately, and as far as he was aware, they hadn't been acting against Rocket.

Though nothing said they were outright helping Rocket either.

Uxie tapped away at the Rotomdex once more, the Rotom only able to hover around the pixie; at least it was with someone that knew what they were typing.

I HAVE SPOKEN WITH MESPRIT AND AZELF REGARDING THE LOUSY THREE

THEY HAVE SHOWN THE ABILITY TO CORRUPT THE RED CHAIN

REMOVING THEM IS A PRIORITY

Hideo looked over to Uxie, stunned. "They…they can really do that?"

He pinched his fingers together - that meant the chain he could create would be useless against them. Worse yet, what could happen if they got their hands on one of the Lake Trio again?

Andrea Vaneau

"True that it'll get rid of them," Hideo said, "but the real chase is finding all the statues. They can be pretty small…and if they're as crafty as I think, they could be anywhere." Any nook or cranny could hide a statue; they had to look everywhere for them.

He didn't want to play cat and dog-monkey-bird. Not when Rocket itself was probably gonna reach his doorstep in the next few months.

"At this point," he said, letting out a sight, "Rocket'll ally with anyone. If they'll invade cities with Megalopolans, they'll ally with that Lousy Three. All they want to do is destroy as much as they can, and we gotta give them as few chances as we can."

For that was all he saw Rocket as now, after doing their damnedest to let that meteor come down and destroy everything.

But then came the matter of what Uxie had just said - the red chain.

Right. She might know he had Uxie, but she probably didn't know any more than that.

"It's, uh…it's a chain the Lake Trio can make. It's strong enough to bind something as strong as Necrozma. It did bind Necrozma when it attacked the Tree of Life…but it got broken when the Lake Trio were attacked and their gems got broken."

Uxie pointed to the gem on its forehead; still cracked.

"We've tried a lot to try and fix it, and we've gotten a bit of its power back. But…sounds like trying to bind the Lousy Three with it's a no-go. No idea how they can corrupt the chain like that…last thing we need is them stopping us from stopping Necrozma."

An unfortunate conundrum - and an even stronger incentive to get rid of those three.

And fortunately for him, there was some progress on that front: a group of five Joltiks emerged from the nearby woods, jumping with joy; following behind them was a Galvantula, with a statue sitting on its back.

A Loyal Three statue.

Andrea Vaneau