Shadow blinked herself to consciousness and immediately settled into annoyance.

  Fat Cow.

  The last thing she remembered was a fat cow — an exceedingly fast fat cow — barreling down the field.

  Judging by the fact she remembered nothing after said cow, and was now waking in a Poké Center, she had lost.

  Which meant she had failed her Trainer and her MunchMunch.

  Failed.

  That annoyed her very much.

  “You look happy to be awake,” Nurse Chansey commented dryly from the other side of the room, where she was busily typing away on her computer.

  Shadow just glared at her.

  How am I supposed to face MunchMunch after this, Shadow deflated. Teddy would understand. He would be sad, but he would understand. She would probably have to coax him out of himself, truth be told.

  “Goodness save us from the moping of Ghosts,” Chansey sighed, sliding off her chair and waddling over to Gastly.

  Moping?!

  “I am not —“

  “Stick out your tongue,” Chansey ordered.

  Shadow refused.

  “Do you want to leave or not?” Chansey rolled her eyes.

  Shadow narrowed hers, but slowly stuck out her tongue.

  “Hmm, still a bit transparent,” she sighed. “But I suspect you won’t allow yourself to be kept here for the extra day you need to heal,” she finished, more a statement of fact than a question.

  Shadow nodded. One point for Chansey; she was right.

  “Well, your Trainer and Munchlax are waiting for you in the waiting room.”

  Shadow melted into the floor and skulked into a corner. Great. MunchMunch had woken up before her.

  There was just no way she could face her team. It just wasn’t going to happen.

  They had been counting on her, and she had lost.

  She didn’t even remember losing.

  Pathetic.

  Chansey just sighed, waddling back to her computer and mumbling more quips about ghosts.

  ____

  “That’s it. You’ve been in that corner staring at me for three hours now,” Chansey slammed down her clipboard and shouted at Gastly.

  “I’ve had quite enough. I’ve never seen that corner of my treatment room home to so many shadows before! If you are not going to let me treat you, then you can just pick yourself up and leave. This is a treatment facility, not a haunted basement!” She lambasted, her tiny feet slowly floating off the floor as her tirade crescendoed.

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  Shadow narrowed her eyes. Ok, what was the problem with shadows? It looked nicer now that she had brought them in.

  She liked shadows. They made her happy. They were safe and let her watch without being watched. Why couldn’t she have shadows?

  “Ghosts! I am never treating another Ghost!” Chansey bellowed. “If you do not leave that corner right now, I am putting you in your Pokéball and throwing you into that waiting room,” she finished, hands on her hips.

  Shadow considered ignoring her, but the thought of being tossed into the waiting room, where MunchMunch might see her, was appalling.

  Embarrassment. She had absolutely no idea what to do with that one.

  So she ignored it.

  “Thank you for taking care of MunchMunch,” Shadow sighed, floating out of her chosen shadow. “And myself as well.”

  Chansey blinked, her mouth stuck in a perfect “O”.

  “Ah, oh. Well —“

  “Yes, yes, I’m going,” Shadow mumbled.

  Chansey nodded and drifted back to the ground, turning her attention back to the computer.

  “I would have liked to see you try to get me in a Pokéball,” Shadow snarked quietly as she floated past.

  “You know, you might think you are the baddest Ghost around,” Chansey monologued sweetly at her screen.

  Then, she let out a sigh.

  The sigh was so wistful it offended Shadow.

  “But I assure you, what Miltank did to you is tame compared to what I will do to you, should you ever be so foolish,” she finished sweetly, happily typing away on her keyboard.

  It was Shadow’s turn to blink.

  Okay. Maybe Chansey wasn’t so bad after all, Shadow thought, grinning.

  As she drifted through the door, her thoughts turned to Leader Morty.

  And power.

  ____

  When Shadow seeped into the waiting room, the look of devastation on Teddy’s face instantly sent her into the nearest shadow.

  “Hey Shadow,” he whispered.

  She quietly drifted forward.

  “Is… is Munchlax’s nickname really MunchMunch?” He asked.

  Shadow blinked. Ahh.

  “I didn’t know,” he finished. He sounded so sad. The sadness would normally taste delicious, but coming from her Teddy, it just broke her heart instead.

  Or what she imagined to be her ghostly heart.

  She nodded.

  Teddy sighed and looked down at MunchMunch. Shadow joined him.

  “I know I haven’t been a bad trainer, but maybe I haven’t been as good as I thought,” he replied as they both watched him.

  Shadow vehemently disagreed, but now wasn’t the time to get into that.

  Their little guy was sitting quietly on the ground, staring gently into space.

  He still had bruises covering his face, and his left eye was swollen shut.

  Oh Arceus, Shadow moaned, drifting down next to him.

  MunchMunch didn’t respond, even when their Teddy gently patted his head.

  Shadow and Teddy both looked at each other, their gaze sharing the same thought.

  How are we going to fix this for our little baby.

  “Hey Sweetie?” Shadow whispered, but MunchMunch just sighed deeply, his eyes unfocused.

  Shadow drifted sadly to the floor where her Teddy joined her. Behind them, Nurse Joy and Chansey both watched.

  “Mama Shadow?” MunchMunch whispered after some time.

  “Yes dear?” she responded instantly, floating up and to attention. Teddy perked up as well.

  He was still gazing at a wall, his eyes slightly unfocused. When Shadow got her second go at that Miltank —

  “Do you think… if I ate two Chocolate Cakes at the same time… do you think would it taste twice as good?” he gasped, staring up at her with his huge eyes and both paws in his mouth.

  His beseeching look seemed as if this was the most important question in the world.

  Shadow smiled. Then she burst out cackling.

  “Sweetie, I have absolutely no idea. What do you say we go and try?” she asked.

  MunchMunch bounded to his feet with a shout of “Munch!”, waddling towards the door, windmilling his arms and screeching his name repeatedly in excitement.

  Teddy looked flummoxed. Chansey and Joy were equally bewildered.

  Shadow just smiled.

  “Chocolate Cake,” she laughed. Teddy paused, then laughed with her, scooping up the Egg.

  “To Chocolate Cake it is!” he cried, much to the growing delight of their little food gremlin.

  They both followed their little MunchMunch off on his next adventure.

  ____

  Later that evening, Shadow watched over her team as they slept, MunchMunch still covered in the chocolate crumbs that had sent him into his current food coma.

  He still giggled as he slept though. And she was happy to see the worry line between Teddy’s brows fade as he slept.

  She smiled.

  They had lost.

  That was ok, because one day? One day, she would bring back a Snorlax and it would be Miltank’s turn.

  Gastly cackled deliciously, sinking comfortably into her corner’s shadow.