《Broken Things》


 Normal 1: Rachel

    Content Warning


    This is a story about not being okay. There will be attempts to recreate the language of downward spirals, suicidal ideation, eating disorders, internalized homophobia, anxiety, and possibly other things. I will do my best to provide chapter warnings for chapters dealing explicitly with suicidal ideation. If there are other notices you would like me to add, feel free to ask.


    Arc One: Normal


    "Times of transition are strenuous, but I love them. They are an opportunity to purge, rethink priorities, and be intentional about new habits. We can make our new normal any way we want."


    -Kristin Armstrong


    Normal 1.1: Prologue


    Rachel


    August 1, 2019


    It¡¯s always fascinating watching your espeon eat, even after seventeen years. He nudges a treat into place with the tip of his claw, steps back, and lifts the treat just a little bit into the air. Then he pulls back his whiskers and brings his mouth around it before swallowing it whole. No crumbs ever touch his fur.


    With his food eaten, Espy levitates the crumbs off the desk and into the wastebasket. Then he stretches out, walks in a circle, and gracefully sits down with his tail outstretched and a paw on your hand.


    {You¡¯re tired.} he says.


    ¡°I could use a nap.¡±


    {Mind tired.}


    You pull up your schedule instead of giving him an answer.


    Interview with The Battler at ten. That one shouldn¡¯t be too much trouble; just gauge if they¡¯re planning to play hardball are not, and if they aren¡¯t send them up to Chris.


    New journey group initiation today. You should stop by that, scan for potential problems before they blow up in your face.


    The governor¡¯s having a fundraiser tonight and you¡¯ll be there. He¡¯s a nice man. Genuinely likes you. Has a tendency to talk a little too much when he¡¯s lonely and just a little bit tipsy and thinks he can trust someone. And given the way that things seem to be going at home and in the polls, well, he¡¯s very lonely and probably drinking a little more than he should. And it¡¯s your job to be likeable and trustworthy. When the public thinks of your company, they should think of their beloved sports star and hero. When the investors, reporters and politicians do, they should think of the pretty blond girl who either kind-of-flirted with them in just the way they liked or who gave them the kind of compliments they needed. Put a pretty face on your operation so no one ever wants to peel off the surface and look beneath.


    Between the meetings? Email. Hours of email. And maybe a quick nap, if you¡¯re lucky.


    <hr>


    Your intercom rings.


    ¡°Miss Bell? Mr. Sanchez is here.¡±


    ¡°Send him in, Sheryl.¡±


    The door opens and a tall, tanned man in an ill-fitting suit walks in. His eyes briefly glance around the office. You take note of what he pays attention to¡ªthe bed where Espy is sleeping, the bag of expensive food underneath, and the map of Alola with nearly three dozen pins in it¡ªand to what he doesn¡¯t: your framed degrees, the busy-but-not-sloppy amount of clutter on your desk, and the half-hidden cot in the back corner. A battler through and through. Probably disappointed that you don¡¯t have trophies or a framed badge case.


    ¡°Hey. Manuel Sanchez. With The Battler.¡±


    You stand up and shake his hand. His grip is a little too firm, but you¡¯re just mature enough not to crush him back. As soon as you make eye contact a feeling flashes in the back of your mind and you know that he¡¯s cheating on his pregnant wife.


    Eh. Could be worse.


    ¡°Rachel Bell. Vice President of VStar.¡±


    You both sit and he flicks out a notepad and a recorder. He turns the latter on without asking permission.


    ¡°Alright, so VStar.¡±


    You smile, a little too wide, and tilt your head. ¡°VStar,¡± you repeat in a high pitch. He¡¯s a cheating bastard who doesn¡¯t really care about the professional world. You can spin that to your advantage easily enough.


    ¡°So, uh, Rachel¡ªcan I call you Rachel?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Right. What does VStar do? Just to make sure that I¡¯m on base.¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± You never stop smiling. ¡°VStar helps fund trainers who might not have the means to complete an island challenge, or trainers who just finished an island challenge but can¡¯t afford to keep all of their partners. We help them get rid of excess pok¨¦mon and give them to people who want them but can¡¯t get one. Busy professionals and parents, the disabled, or just people who don¡¯t have a team strong enough to go into the species¡¯ natural habitat. Everyone wins.¡±


    ¡°Right, right. And how many users do you have?¡±


    Not even bothering to follow up on that. Less diligent than even you were expecting.


    ¡°Depends on how you define ¡®users,¡¯ Manuel. Right now we have 166 trainers currently on their journey with the app. Not all of them are active users. Several hundred trainers traded their pok¨¦mon in last year, a few thousand purchased a pok¨¦mon through the app.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    More notes. He doesn¡¯t press into what your vague numbers mean. He¡¯s not normally on the business beat, usually just does puff pieces on trainers in the Americas. Whatever excuse he has, he¡¯s making this almost embarrassingly easy for you.


    ¡°So, Rachel, are you a trainer?¡±


    ¡°Espy,¡± you call.


    Your espeon gently rises to his paws before moving from his climbing structure in the corner to your desk in a single, elegant leap. He walks over to you and nuzzles your hand.


    ¡°I know the name¡¯s basic, but come on, I was ten.¡±


    Manuel laughs in a way that might be flirtatious appeasement or genuine amusement. Just on the border of being genuine. ¡°I named my growlithe ¡®Fuego¡¯ back in the day, so I can¡¯t really talk.¡±


    {Espy, can you pay attention to him?} you ask telepathically.


    {Treat?} he shoots back, mentally.


    {Later. You just had one.}


    Satisfied, Espy walks across the desk and looks at Manuel expectantly. He starts to rub Espy¡¯s ears without asking permission. Espy recoils slightly and his tail flicks in disgust. Espeon aren¡¯t that fragile, but they¡¯re masters at feigning injury if it gets them more treats.


    ¡°You bring your pok¨¦mon to the office?¡±


    ¡°Of course. We are a pok¨¦mon company, after all.¡±


    Espy starts to turn away. Manuel rubs a hand over the pok¨¦mon¡¯s back as he leaves.


    {Two treats,} you signal.


    Espy turns back around.


    ¡°How long have you had her?¡± he asks.


    You don¡¯t bother to correct the gender. Espy doesn¡¯t really care, and most people think of all espeon as female. ¡°Since I was ten.¡±


    ¡°I meant how many years?¡±


    You crack your smile a little wider. ¡°Since I was ten.¡±


    It takes him a half second, but he starts to laugh and you join. You¡¯re pretty sure he¡¯s more interested in you and your body than the company right now.


    ¡°Is she your only pok¨¦mon?¡±


    You shake your head. ¡°I also raise an alakazam. But he¡¯s moving up in the years and doesn¡¯t really like coming to the office.¡±


    His eyes widen. Any half decent pok¨¦mon journalist know what alakazam ownership means. It¡¯s why you aren¡¯t going to replace Allen when he dies.


    ¡°So, you¡¯re psychic?¡±


    You nod. ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°You in my mind right now?¡± he asks with a raised eyebrow.


    ¡°I¡¯m not that kind of psychic,¡± you say. Even though you essentially are that kind of psychic. But you really don¡¯t think he¡¯d appreciate it if you went into the details of the SIPAA, General and Specific Forms.


    He relaxes. A lot. So much that he consciously corrects it by stiffening a little.


    ¡°What kind of psychic are you?¡± he asks.


    You really doubt this is returning to the company, which is probably for the best. He clearly doesn¡¯t have an interest in it anyway.


    ¡°Precognition. Get about a half second warning before I get physically hurt.¡±


    ¡°Huh. Take it you¡¯ve never been in a car crash?¡±


    You raise an eyebrow as if telling him off. ¡°No, but that¡¯s because I¡¯m an excellent driver. Not because I¡¯m a psychic. Really just means that I never stub my toe.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± He half-frowns. The kind that¡¯s more unconscious than not. ¡°Thought it¡¯d be more useful.¡±


    ¡°It lets me train my alakazam,¡± you suggest.


    ¡°Yeah. I guess. You battle with them?¡±


    ¡°On the weekends. Chris likes his lieutenants to be halfway decent in a fight.¡±


    He perks up at the casual mention of your boss. Because of course he does. You¡¯re a pretty girl with a brain quirk and an espeon. Chris Foster? He¡¯s the eight-time-running United States champion, highest ranked trainer in the world, tamer of Victini, and at least the third biggest pain in the ass in Alola.


    Yeah. Seeing that light in his eyes, you doubt Chris can mess things up too much. Maybe Manuel would even be impressed by the man behind the curtain.


    ¡°You know, I think I can set up an interview with him.¡±


    ¡°Really? I had been told that he¡¯s too busy.¡±


    ¡°Of course, but you¡¯re The Battler. I¡¯m sure he can find the time.¡±


    You don¡¯t doubt that. Journalists build up the trainers into semi-divine heroes in the public eye and then revel in the attention they get from the celebrities they created. No one benefits from the cycle breaking. You still have to screen these interviews, just in case hell freezes over and The Battler decides to blaspheme their gods.


    You¡¯re still reeling from a Hau¡¯oli Tribune letter to the editor last month calling VStar ¡°Evil Incorporated.¡± It had taken you two hours on the phone with Chris to talk him down from making that the official name of the company.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    <hr>


    It¡¯s an hour into orientation. Sometimes you¡¯ll stay to watch the full thing, make sure that you know what¡¯s being taught and how. Saves you time when the wrong person leaks the wrong thing (that they remembered wrong) and you have to figure out what really happened before you can tell the press what pretty much happened.


    First few hours are nothing important, anyway. Here¡¯s a little about Alola and the island challenge. What are tents and why should you use one. Like your food? Try not to get it stolen. Budgeting could maybe be helpful. This predator lives in these places and here is how you avoid it. The basics of life on the trail, with or without VStar.


    The sensitive stuff¡ªpayment methods and tables, how to stay within the letter of capture limit laws, corporate facilities and affiliates, mortality rates, advancement paths, mission assignments, legal duties to the company¡ªthat all gets crammed in at the end.


    The room¡¯s emptier than usual. Only eight initiates, most mid- to late-teens. It¡¯s to be expected. October is a garbage month for starting a journey since it¡¯s in the middle of a semester and right at the start of the rainy season. Most of your new trainers come to the April, May, and June sessions. The people who come in October are the over-eager ten-year-olds who can¡¯t wait to get on the trail or teenagers who can¡¯t stay in their home a second longer.


    Group isn¡¯t bored yet. Doesn¡¯t pay you too much mind when you sit down in a corner chair. Half of them look at you for a moment before glancing back to the presentation. One girl¡¯s eyes linger for a little until she makes eye contact and immediately turns away.


    Okay. Time to start scanning.


    A lot of telepaths just read minds like a book. Or as a monitor with code shifting faster than you could ever hope to read. Your talent doesn¡¯t work that way. It¡¯s more akin to sonar. Send out a wave, wait to see what image you get back. It usually just dredges up a secret or two: the thing that there¡¯s the most resistance to you knowing. If you really focus you can get a basic overview of their personality.


    Theoretically you could have your scan bring everything back, but it¡¯d probably take you a week to process and land you in a hospital bed for a few months. If you were lucky. If you weren¡¯t lucky it would land you in a coffin.


    The first two are boring. A ten-year-old kid whose biggest secret is that his parents wanted him to wait, a teenager who got a girl pregnant and is running from the consequences.


    Third kid. White girl, mid-teens, dressed a little too formally for this sort of meeting. Why is she even here? VStar gives structure, but it¡¯s not the most efficient way to go on a journey. And the money can¡¯t possibly matter to her unless she¡¯s a runaway. A quick scan gives you the start of a headache, and not from the strain of your powers: her family is really, really rich. Big Six Families rich. Again, why is she here? She must¡¯ve been cut off from her money, somehow. Was she exiled or did she run away?


    Exile is unproblematic, although it¡¯s the type of gossip you¡¯d like to be aware of. You would have already heard about it if the girl did something bad enough that her family would bring hell down upon you for sheltering her. If she¡¯s a runaway her family might give you endless PR and legal hell until you give their daughter back.


    Supplemental scan doesn¡¯t dig up much. Kid¡¯s kind of flighty, kind of lonely. Kind at her core. Very recent trauma with a trail of shame trailing after it. And maybe something buried. Supports either theory, but her temperament makes you think she¡¯s not a runaway. Minds like hers are allergic to rebellion.


    Fourth and fifth are an addict and a kleptomaniac. You¡¯ll consider kicking them out before the sensitive part of the meeting.


    Sixth. Young girl. Probably ten, maybe eleven. Abuse. You¡¯d bet she¡¯s getting away from it as soon as possible. Smart kid. You¡¯ll look the parents up so you have blackmail at the ready if they try and take their kid back. Low security risk.


    Seventh is¡­ familiar? You try to never forget a face, but it still just eludes you. By the second minute of staring he¡¯s (she¡¯s?) definitely noticed and you avert your gaze. Secret dredging time, then. See what you missed¡­ Trans. Your power doesn¡¯t tell you if they¡¯re female, male, or non-binary, but it explains the just-unfamiliar face: you probably knew them before, but hormones or style changes are throwing you off your game.


    The eighth is in her mid-teens? Early teens? Very short and still rather thin, but her features make her look a little older. Deep set eyes, angular face. Native if you had to guess. Jade green hair. If it¡¯s natural, it¡¯s rare but not unheard of. If it¡¯s dyed then you need to ask her where she got it done. Kind of weird colorful dress. Probably wool. Might be handmade. Big thing? She¡¯s blind. Clouded eyes, white cane, whole deal. Can she really do this? You aren¡¯t going to send a kid out into the woods knowing that she¡¯ll get killed by the first predator she can¡¯t see coming.


    Still, in case you don¡¯t rule her out, a secret scan can¡¯t hurt.


    A moment later alarm bells of panic and despair and random memories and pain rock your mind. The thoughts came back to you after the scan but it¡¯s like they were cut up in a blender, sharpened into daggers and then launched straight back into your brain. An attack? How? She¡¯s¡­


    Your eyes open wider as it dawns on you. She¡¯s psychic. Probably another telepath. Strong. And not trained in any style you¡¯re familiar with. This definitely shouldn¡¯t be the first you¡¯ve heard of her. You like to think that you¡¯ve met every other psychic in the commonwealth and not a one has ever brought her up.


    You got her attention. She¡¯s slowly rotating her head to survey the room with either sound or some remaining vision, her foot tapping nervously the whole time.


    How do you salvage this? It¡¯s literally never happened before, and that¡¯s not something you can say very often these days. Thought process isn¡¯t helped by the thrum of pain in your head, alternating sharp and dull so you never quite get used to it. You breathe deeply and make your way to the door. You¡¯ll have someone pull her aside later and direct her to your office. Gives you time to figure out how you¡¯re going to approach this.


    <hr>


    Your alarm goes off at 3:00 P.M. and you swear at the ceiling before awkwardly rolling over in cot and turning it off. You still feel miserable after a ninety-minute nap. How does that work?


    Well¡­ part of that¡¯s the mental bruising. A cold and empty memory that keeps resurfacing, feelings of panic when looking at random objects, a slight fog over everything, and random sights and sounds getting turned into metal walls and tinny echoes. And then there¡¯s the absolutely brutal headache. You make a point of taking an aspirin, knowing that it won¡¯t really help but hoping the placebo effect does enough to make you comfortable. Which might negate the placebo effect. Is there a placebo effect where you know what the placebo effect is, so you expect the placebo to make you feel better, which means that it does make you feel better? A placebo placebo effect.


    The line of thought definitely isn¡¯t making your headache any better.


    First things first. You text the instructor to make sure that the possible Skull defectors gets kicked out before the mortality tables come up. VStar¡¯s mortality rates are lower than the general journey-goer rates, but dead kids are dead kids and it never feels like there¡¯s anything to say, much less anything good. At the end you add a note to send the blind girl up to your office when orientation is over. The room is cold and clean and empty. Deep breaths. The third ceiling tile diagonal from the corner does not want to kill you. You¡¯re in your office, the year is 2019, and are texting. The metal¡ªnot metal¡ªwalls have light blue wallpaper.


    Second: the daughter of Ernest Gage, the spider silk magnate. That one you might have to deal with in person, or at least at the fundraiser tonight. He and his wife will probably be there. It would be rude to get the information directly on such a sensitive subject, but there will be other attendees who love nothing more than swapping secrets. The room is cold and clean and


    Third: You pull up the new trainer¡¯s files. Abused girl is Aiko Katou. Mother is a barber, dad is a plumber. Good news is that they can¡¯t really go after the company¡ªthe men will never believe you¡ªBad news is that if the family¡¯s got nothing, they¡¯ve got nothing to lose. Blackmail won¡¯t do much. It might only succeed in letting them know where their daughter went. Still might try and get your hands on Why does the ceiling have teeth? By the kings this headache sucks.


    Fourth: Blind girl is Cuicatl Ichtaca. From Anahuac. Fifteen years old. Here on a challenge visa. Explains how you¡¯ve never heard of her. Didn¡¯t report any pok¨¦mon at customs. You¡¯ll need to start her off slow or put her with some strong teammates for her protection, but if she¡¯s psychic then she might be worth keeping around. If your interview checks out. Moles can be annoying; a telepathic mole could be a catastrophe of the highest order. The room is cold and. Stop. Breathe. You can¡¯t find anything online about her and it will take you a few days to get anything to leak from immigration services, so that¡¯s the end of that investigation. For now.


    Fifth¡ªsomething brushes against your leg. You look down to see Espy looking up at you, holding his leash in his mouth.


    Fifth: Go outside. Take your friend on a walk. Stop thinking about work for a minute. Make new memories. Be calm. Outside is warm and dirty and open.


    <hr>


    You pull two water bottles and two packets from the refrigerator and place them on the table. ¡°Water, if you¡¯re thirsty. I know those meetings last a while. And I put some gummies there, too. Good to eat every two hours or so. Good for your brain.¡±


    Her hand freezes in midair right before taking the water. It¡¯s only for a moment, and she proceeds on like nothing had happened.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s fine. You can¡¯t be responsible for things you didn¡¯t know to do.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t answer that. Natural shyness? Nervousness? Poor English? You never realize how much your scans are a crutch until you find yourself without them.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± she asks.


    You smile. Uselessly. Doesn¡¯t matter either way.


    ¡°Right. I¡¯m Rachel Bell. I¡¯m one of the Vice Presidents for VStar. I handle new recruits, among other things.¡±


    ¡°¡­and I¡¯m not in trouble?¡±


    ¡°No. No, not at all. Just don¡¯t get many psychics passing through. I try to meet with them individually.¡±


    ¡°I meant for the, um. Did I hurt you?¡±


    Yes. Yes, you did.


    ¡°Not very much,¡± you lie, bringing a smile into your voice. ¡°Napped, took a walk, cleared my head. It¡¯s fine now.¡± And it mostly is. Espy could help you out a little once he had some sunlight to power him up.


    Her head dips a little. Shame, probably. ¡°Okay. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°No, no. Don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯m the one who¡­¡± Yoo take a drink of water and figure out how to finish that sentence without coming off wrong. ¡°¡­reached out to your mind first. Should have asked. Standard for new psychics.¡± What¡¯s a polite way to ask her about her English skills? Because you don¡¯t actually have a Nahuatl speaker in the building. That you know of. Might be a good idea to check. ¡°You don¡¯t have much training with your powers, do you?¡±


    She gently shakes her head. ¡°No. My mom¡¯s reuniclus taught me a little. I figured some of the rest out. Never met a psychic but my brother.¡±


    ¡°You grew up around pok¨¦mon, then?¡±


    Her lips curl into a smile and she makes (near) eye contact as a hundred tiny things change in her expression. She goes from sullen and afraid to absolutely adorable in the blink of an eye.


    ¡°Yes. My mom¡¯s team lived near the house. I took care of them. She had a reuniclus, a heatmor, a swanna, a ferrothorn, a conkeldurr,¡± she really is infectiously cute when she¡¯s excited, with her high-pitched voice and its rapid pace, ¡°and a hydreigon.¡±


    Your heart skips a beat. Her face is the exact same, but all of the cuteness gone.


    ¡°A hydreigon?¡±


    ¡°Yes! Her names are Alice, Dorothy, and Ilsa. Alice was first and is in the center so that¡¯s her one name. But she prefers her three names.¡±


    A wild hydreigon flew within twenty miles of the academy once and they shut down classes for three days. Parents accused them of underreacting.


    ¡°Uh huh. And, um, you took care of her? Them?¡±


    ¡°She likes ¡®ellas.¡¯ She doesn¡¯t know that there¡¯s more than one language and they have different words,¡± she says. As if this is just a normal thing.


    ¡°I see.¡±


    You are very, very glad that she can¡¯t see the color of your face right now. You know full well that your alakazam is a telepathic monster that can fry a man¡¯s mind in seconds, but you will never, ever be comfortable with dragons. And why should you? You¡¯ve seen footage of one shredding a tank without breaking a sweat. Do dragons sweat? You have no desire to look that up.


    Focus. You need to change the subject a little. Useful information in those statements? She has a brother, but he¡¯s presumably not here. If Cuicatl cared for her mom¡¯s hydreigon, her mom also can¡¯t be in the picture anymore. Or she was horribly irresponsible. Either way? Dangerous topic. She speaks Spanish and seems to have a decent grasp on English. Cuicatl said she doesn¡¯t have any pok¨¦mon on the form. How did that happen? Did it happen? She wouldn¡¯t be the first kid to tell a lie on their paperwork. Okay. Alice. Ellas. How did she find out that Alice liked ellas?


    ¡°Can you speak to pok¨¦mon?¡±


    ¡°Sometimes. Not with Alice. In her mind, at least. But we understand each other.¡±


    ¡°I see. What all can you do with your mind? I can tell secrets and foresee pain.¡±


    ¡°¡­secrets?¡±


    She runs a shade paler and you can hear her foot tap against the side of the chair. Nervous tic that you share.


    ¡°Not yours. Your shielding is very good. Not trained, but effective.¡±


    ¡°Thank you. Renfield¡ªreuniclus taught me that.¡±


    That wasn¡¯t an answer. But it does explain why it felt so much like the headaches Espy can give you when he¡¯s really, really angry.


    ¡°Talking to pok¨¦mon is usually telepathy, then. Projecting and reading thoughts. Empathy is sensing emotions. There¡¯s usually some overlap, but not always.¡±


    She frowns. ¡°I think I just have telepathy. Do people usually only have one thing?¡±


    You shake your head. Right. She can¡¯t see that. ¡°Sometimes. You don¡¯t see things before they happen? See things you shouldn¡¯t? Move things with your mind?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t see anything.¡±


    Poor wording. Anne would¡¯ve torn you a new one if she¡¯d heard. But Cuicatl doesn¡¯t look too offended. She¡¯s even smiling, just a little. But not nearly as brightly as before.


    ¡°But you can¡¯t do any of those things?¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    You give her a chance to follow up. She doesn¡¯t. Just shifts in her seat and idly taps a foot on the floor, soft enough that she probably doesn¡¯t even know she¡¯s doing it. Whatever rapport you built talking about her pok¨¦mon, it¡¯s gone now. Time for another subject change.


    ¡°What brings you to Alola, then?¡±


    ¡°I wanted, um, to go on a journey? And Unova didn¡¯t want to take me. I don¡¯t have much money so a girl in the Pok¨¦mon Center said I should come here.¡±


    There¡¯s a shred of truth in there, but she¡¯s an awful liar. Don¡¯t even need your telepathy to see through that. New topic options: SIPAA scoring seems a little too close to the last question and she doesn¡¯t want to talk about why she¡¯s here so¡­ old pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°Did you bring any of your mom¡¯s team with you?¡±


    She freezes up. Full deerling in headlights. Shit shit shit shit abort abort abort.


    ¡°Hey it¡¯s¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, I didn¡¯t.¡± Speech is off. Breathing is erratic. Approach and escalate? Keep quiet and seem callous? Response depends on the type of breakdown you¡¯re seeing.


    ¡­the kid has to be alone here. Half an ocean from home, at least one parent out of the picture, apart from her pok¨¦mon for maybe the first time¡­


    She shouldn¡¯t have to have panic attacks alone.


    You get up from your seat and move around the desk to kneel beside her. Then you put a hand on her shoulder and press down a little bit. ¡°It¡¯s alright,¡± you whisper, ¡°we can get you new friends and a new pok¨¦mon.¡±


    The waterworks open in full. Before you can decide if you should hug or not, Espy jumps into her lap. Kid didn¡¯t mention owning a dog, fox, or cat, but she¡¯s still a gentle petter. Holds out her hand for a second for Espy to sniff. Then gently pets the ears and runs her hand back in slow, light strokes.


    You take the moment to think as Cuicatl¡¯s breaths get steadier. You remove your hand from her shoulder to avoid smothering her. Homesickness? Trauma? Other mental illness? Kid needs emotional support in any case. Ideally something intelligent enough for her to talk to, social enough to cuddle, and fluffy enough to pet. Difficulty of care and bonding shouldn¡¯t be problems if she kept herself and a hydreigon alive. Maybe something a little difficult to distract her. Eevee would work. Not big enough to be a good guide, though, even when fully evolved.


    ¡­


    There is a pok¨¦mon that fits all of those criteria, but she¡¯s trouble. She¡¯d either be a silver bullet for Cuicatl¡¯s problems or a lead bullet straight to her heart.


    You put your hand back on Cuicatl¡¯s shoulder and she flinches from the touch.

 Normal 2: Pixie

    Normal 1.2: Firemane


    Pixie


    They¡¯re talking about you again.


    You don¡¯t understand many of the words, but you know the tone. Talking more in breath than sound, trying to sound quieter than they really are. The same fake concern they take on the moment they turn away from your table, like you aren¡¯t still in the room.


    But you don¡¯t care. You don¡¯t really care about anything anymore, except maybe for Avalanche. You wonder if she¡¯s thought of you in the last few¡­ days? Moons? Between the ball and the trailer you haven¡¯t had many chances to be outside and count the changing skies and you aren¡¯t sure how often the humans leave and make it dark.


    No, as much as you¡¯d like to believe it you can¡¯t imagine Avalanche cares about you anymore. The nine-tails only keep two vulpix to train. It lets them keep the territories intact. When the unchosen become three-tails they set off on their own. Your body and mind and comfort are your problems now, not hers.


    And, because you don¡¯t care, those things are now the problems of the people in white falsefur.


    They keep you alive. They try to coax you into eating things that help with the bruises and scars. You won¡¯t because it¡¯s your mouth and you eat what you want. Which is nothing. They took you ball out once and you bit them. After that they¡¯ve let you sleep on the table instead of in a cage like the others, and you¡¯ve learned to sleep in the dark while the humans are away and rest on the table in daylight, keeping an eye open for more balls.


    There¡¯s a new human today. Young and female. Like you. You catch a glimpse of her mane when she walks in. Thick, curly and went a little past her shoulder-blades. Light-yellowish, like the fire-tails in the stories Avalanche told you. It has leaves in it, some dirt. Even from a distance it smells unclean, although humans seemed to have a higher tolerance for that. It would be pretty if cared for and you want to run your paws and tongue through it to clean it up like you would for your own coat. Like Avalanche did for you.


    You suppose you still care that you look like a fox should. But presentation is sort of like breathing, so you aren¡¯t sure that counts.


    New human approaches you again, with the other humans behind her. She walks up to your table, looking away like this isn¡¯t premeditated, and stops at the edge. You cast her the sort of wary, frigid look that only an ice-type can manage.


    ¡°Hey,¡± she says. ¡°Can I pet you?¡±


    You don¡¯t understand the words, but she offers her paw, keeping it head-length away from your snout. She doesn¡¯t smell nervous. Is this how humans offer scent exchange? You hadn¡¯t thought they marked each other at all.


    It takes you a few seconds to decide, but you eventually do move to push your face against their paw, rubbing your scent glands against it. Her paw is warm, but not unpleasantly so. You sneeze and a burst of cold air radiates from your body. The human pulls away for a second, probably on reflex, but puts her paw back up to your head when you look at her expectantly.


    *


    She¡¯s back the next day.


    This time she opens up the door and looks at you.


    ¡°You want to go outside?¡±


    The words are mostly unfamiliar, but you think you know the meaning. Yes, you decide, wind and flower smell would be nice. Rising on your paws is painful as you feel the muscles and skin ripple around your scars and bruises, but nothing tears. One of the humans picks you up gently and cradles you in his arms, like Avalanche would in her jaws when you were a kit. Insulting. The humans are not nine-tails. They have no right to handle you like that.


    They set you down in the grass outside. The sun and air are much warmer near the sea, but your body quickly begins cooling itself to adjust. You can still feel the sunlight striking your fur. And you can smell the plants. There are different flowers here than you have on the mountain and there are far more of them. You absent-mindedly walk up to one and wrap your jaws around it to get a better feel for its taste and texture. The young human pulls you away.


    ¡°If you want food, they have more vulpix-friendly stuff in there.¡±


    Her tone is cheerful, but you recognize the pleading edge and the ¡®food¡¯ sound. You turn away and walk closer to the big black human-trail, puffing up your tails behind you in a show of defiance. Before you reach it, a much larger pokemon cuts you off. He¡¯s quadrupedal, red-and-black-colored and you can feel radiated heat enter your personal blizzard. Fire-type. Big fire-type.


    He notes your reaction and adjusts quickly, holding his tail still and lowering himself to the ground before rolling on to his side.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t mean to scare you. Just want to play.¡±


    It¡¯s a feline dialect. Close enough to your native vulpine to understand, even if you aren¡¯t sure you got all the meaning.


    You tilt your head. ¡°Play?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Chase each other around or¡ª¡± He stops short and rises to his paws before slowly walking towards you, head down. You allow him to brush his face against yours. ¡°You¡¯re sick?¡± He asks. ¡°You should get that fixed.¡±


    You slowly lay down and show him your stomach. ¡°How do you heal this?¡±


    His eyes narrow. ¡°Do you have a ball? Or have they tried potions? Those look old and improperly healed. You¡¯ll need to get those looked at before we can play. And eat. You look underfed. Are they feeding you?¡±


    You tuck your tails between your legs, turn around and head back inside. You don¡¯t want to talk about it. What happened. What happened after. Why you don¡¯t care. He seems well-meaning, and he shouts after you that he¡¯ll be back to play later, but there are things that a healthy fire cat with a gentle human mother can¡¯t understand.


    Still. The human seems to like you, and she at least takes care of her cat. She¡¯s not like¡­ like they were. You wonder why she came back, why she cares about you, and you realize that maybe she wants to put you on your team. You¡¯d leave the room. She¡¯d stuff you in a ball, sometimes.


    But it¡¯s something to hope for. And you¡¯ll take it.


    *


    You eat that night. The food is dry and bland, but you get some down your throat before your stomach gets upset. Then you let them spray things on you (which sting and hurt) and put you into another capsule. They keep you in it until it¡¯s bright out again.


    You stretch out with your front paws and feel your belly react. It hurts less than it did when you went into the ball. You roll onto your side and move to scout out the area with your tongue, but you¡¯re met with a spray of water when you do so. You uncurl, climb to your paws and hiss blindly in the water¡¯s direction, kicking up a frozen mist around you in the process.


    A human forepaw reaches down to your arched back and you bite the air around it before even seeing whose it is. It¡¯s the young female human. Firemane. You¡¯ll call her Firemane. She seems a bit startled, but not angry. You calm down a bit and let her stroke your back, but you won¡¯t warm up the air for her while she does it.


    After a few strokes she reaches down to pick you up, doing so by wrapping her arms around your side and hugging you to her chest. Won¡¯t touch your underside. But she¡¯s less gentle when she drops you down on the table. You still land, perfectly of course.


    ¡°She¡¯s doing much better,¡± one of the humans says. ¡°We¡¯re very thankful for your help in this.¡±


    Firemane¡¯s voice sings and rumbles. Humans do that sometimes when they bare their teeth. You know that sound well enough, but it doesn¡¯t seem to be threatening. The last times you heard it were followed by violence. This one is only followed by a chunk of delicious smelling food the size of your head being dumped in front of you.


    ¡°Not all at once,¡± Firemane says. You can guess the meaning, and it¡¯s unnecessary. You couldn¡¯t eat this much if you wanted to.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    You end up getting much closer than you would have thought, but half of it¡¯s still left. That goes to the cat, who devours in three bites what took you dozens. Firemane talks to the other humans for a bit while the fire cat tries to make conversation with you. But he¡¯s very large and his voice is always approximating a growl, even when he seems to be happy.


    Firemane leaves you a while later with a thorough head scratching.


    *


    They aren¡¯t back the next day. Or the next week. Or the next month. You let them spray you with nasty liquids and put you in a capsule and cut you open (while you¡¯re asleep, but still) but Firemane never comes back.


    And with every day you sit on a table doing nothing, watching the humans care for sicker creatures until they leave you start to feel a little bit more like you did before you were healed.


    Eventually your stomach is fine. They let you lick it again and you can only feel the scar if you really press your tongue down and weave it between all the tufts of fur. You still don¡¯t know what comes next but that¡¯s fine.


    You don¡¯t care.


    *


    Many moons later¡­


    You wake up to the sound of your kennel being unlocked. Odd. You¡¯re usually awake by walk time. Without opening your eyes, you stretch out and fluff up your six-and-a-half tails. When you look up you reflexively freeze the air around you. The woman staring at you is the matriarch of the facility, the one that all of the other humans submit to. She almost never comes down. Why is she here? Why is she here for you?


    Matriarch steps back and waves her paw. ¡°Come on, Pixie. We have things to discuss.¡±


    You gracefully leap from the kennel to the ground and trail after her as she walks. She opens the door to the visiting room and you follow, leaping onto the table as she sits down.


    You immediately puff your fur up and hiss. There¡¯s another fox here. A short-furred, hideous pink fox with one good tail and a pathetic growth of a second. Eevee. You don¡¯t know what gimmick this one has, but they¡¯re all just eevee to you.


    ¡°Pixie, play nice,¡± Matriarch scolds. Even though that disgraceful asshole is on your table.


    You generously let it go with a single huff and look back at Matriarch.


    ¡°Good, now that you¡¯re paying attention, let me be brief. I¡¯m giving you your sixth and final second chance with a trainer. Are we clear?¡±


    You blink. She¡¯s threatening you. Can you growl at her? Or should you submit? You don¡¯t want to submit in front of the imposter fox. Or to someone threatening you.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a no. What I¡¯m saying is, your shit stops now. No more peeing on pillows, hiding pok¨¦balls in the woods, freezing the ground your trainer is about to step on, letting all hell break loose when you see another eevee, or trying to hurt teammates. Again, are we clear?¡±


    That is a very unfair assessment. You only did the first three things because your trainer was already going to abandon you and your window for revenge was very limited. And every eevee deserves it, with their tangled manes and their insufferable pleading eyes and their ¡°look at me, I can pretend to be a guardian of the peaks or a firetails or a fish or anything I want¡± nonsense like that makes them better than you. It doesn¡¯t. And you obviously weren¡¯t trying to hurt that rabbit: you were trying to kill it.


    Matriarch sighs and cradles her head in her forepaws. ¡°Pixie. I like this one. I think you can help her and she can help you. She¡¯s probably the best trainer you¡¯re going to get. If you¡¯re just incompatible, fine. I¡¯ll sell you off to a zoo on the mainland. But if you hurt her, I will personally haul you back to Mt. Lanakila and see how long it takes for the weavile to get you.¡± With that she stands up and walks towards the exit, her eevee trailing behind her. ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a few minutes. You had best prepare yourself to make a good impression.¡±


    Then she shuts the door and leaves you alone. The gall she has. You never even did anything to her and she¡¯s acting like you already killed her kit. Fine. If this goes downhill, she¡¯s given you no incentive to hold back. She wants a fight, you¡¯ll give her one.


    When Matriarch reenters her foreleg is gently wrapped around another human¡¯s. Other human has a strange white stick. A weapon? It wouldn¡¯t be very effective against you. Foolish to even try. Matriarch walks the smaller human to a seat and gently helps her down before shooting you a wicked glare. She leaves you alone with your last-chance-trainer.


    She¡¯s very small. Her whole frame is delicate. Her skin tone is a little too in the middle. Humans are least hideous when they are very pale or very dark. She¡¯s on the darker end, but not quite far enough to be visually pleasant. Her mane is green, which is a strange and somewhat disturbing color, but it is very shiny and well cared for. Her falsefur is white, which is the best color. Then her eyes¡­ they¡¯re only half moving. And something is off in them. Shimmers over the surface like a barely frozen pond.


    The care that Matriarch took, the eye shimmers: she¡¯s blind. What a cruel joke. Sticking you with a tiny, frail human who cannot even appreciate your majesty.


    ¡°Hello, Pixie,¡± she says. Her voice soft and kind of high pitched and it flows well. Like the sound of slow winds running along the mountain rocks. Except more human. Still not enough to make you like her. She extends a paw out for you to smell or rub or whatever but you don¡¯t stand up to go to it and she eventually sticks it down flat on the table. ¡°My name is Cuicatl Ichtaca. I¡¯m from Anachuac. I hope you will be friends with me.¡±


    Nope. You will not give Matriarch the satisfaction. The human does not get the obvious hint and keeps talking.


    ¡°I¡¯ve haven¡¯t met many ice-types before. My home was warm. There were mountains nearby with snow on top, but they were very dangerous so my father and sister rarely let me go.¡±


    Her family sound terrible. if she is too weak to climb mountains you do not want to associate with her.


    ¡°I read about vulpix once. It was a long time ago so I forget some things. You¡¯re nocturnal, right?¡±


    Obviously. What creature would ever want to go outside in the sunlight?


    ¡°If you are, then you probably won¡¯t want to be outside in the day when I go places. I am okay with that. I can get around well enough with my cane. We can play and train around dusk and dawn. But I usually try to sleep at night, so not then.¡±


    It is a better offer than most trainers make. But no. Not for the blind kit of an eevee trainer.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what your other trainers taught you. But I have ideas for battle. You could be a really good arena controller and zoner. Using hail and frozen patches to make it harder to get to you, and then hit them with from far away. Or just put them to sleep or trap them and then set up. You¡¯re probably fast enough to be a sweeper. Or will be fast enough when you evolve.¡±


    You are fast enough now to ¡®sweep¡¯ anything, whatever that means.


    ¡°Do you know roar?¡± she asks.


    You do, just to show her how good your roaring is and maybe make her run away. She smiles, which is not the proper reaction. The proper reaction is terror and awe. Worse, she giggles.


    ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m not laughing at you. You¡¯re just really cute.¡±


    You bark to scold her. It¡¯s very annoying that she can¡¯t just understand your glares and know when to shut up and fall in line. The bark does silence her and she stops baring her teeth for just a second. Good.


    ¡°Oh. I¡¯m sorry if I hurt your feelings.¡± You fluff up your tails. Her? Hurt you? Impossible. The most she could do is annoy you. ¡°I think that I went at this wrong. Can we start over?¡±


    ¡­what?


    ¡°Hello, Pixie. My name is Cuicatl Ichtaca. I want you to be my friend. If you don¡¯t want to, that¡¯s fine. You can stay here. But if there¡¯s anything I can help you with¡­¡±


    You hiss and sit down. What could she possibly help you with?


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, Pixie. I was hoping you could tell me.¡± What? ¡°I want friends. And money. And I thought you could help. But if there¡¯s nothing I can do for you, then you should stay here. Maybe someone else will be able to help you later.¡±


    You growl softly and menacingly and the human¡¯s half-smile is just her baring her teeth because she is very afraid of your wrath. You aren¡¯t actually sure about everything Matriarch said with her nonsense ¡°zoo,¡± but it was still clearly a threat. No one will help you later and she knows that. So now this human is also threatening you.


    ¡°Oh. A zoo is a place where you¡¯d have a big outdoor cage and humans would come to look at you.¡±


    Your tails flex out reflexively in shock¡ªin a temporary blip in your perfect composure. You bark-hiss, ¡°You really understand me?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but it¡¯s much easier if you vocalize somehow.¡± As you think about that, she continues, ¡°Why did she threaten to send you to one?¡±


    You flick a tail down and growl, ¡°No reason at all. I am a very good fox. She is a very bad human with a worse fox.¡±


    The human bares a little more of her teeth at the injustice. ¡°The horror.¡±


    ¡°Exactly!¡± This one may be much smarter than the average human.


    ¡°I can take you if you want. And then either keep you, give you to another trainer, or release you to the wild. Whatever you want. Or I can leave you to the zoo.¡±


    You flick a tail down on the table. This was not a set of options you were expecting. You weren¡¯t really expecting options at all.


    ¡°What do you want, Pixie? What kinds of things make you happy?¡±


    ¡°Cold. Prey. Grooming. Toys. Proper respect.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. The wild would probably have cold and prey. No one else would groom you and there wouldn¡¯t be toys. Don¡¯t know about respect. The zoo would have grooming and toys. Maybe cold. No prey, definitely not respect. I could give you grooming and toys. I¡¯d try to give you respect and you can tell me if I¡¯m not. No cold, though, sorry. Other trainers couldn¡¯t talk to you but if you don¡¯t like me they could give you the toys and grooming.¡±


    Many words. Good breakdown of options. You were going to just pick the one that sounded best, and probably will, but she is good at thinking. Rare in her species.


    ¡°What do you mean by respect, anyway?¡±


    This is not an easy concept to express. It¡¯s just respect. Every vulpix understands it. You aren¡¯t even sure how much she understands of your language, but you try to express it.


    ¡°I am prettier and stronger and smarter than everyone else and they should recognize it and submit to me.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re very pretty, strong, and smart,¡± she correctly says. ¡°I would try to help you. Give you food and love and try to make you even stronger. But I can¡¯t promise I¡¯ll do everything you say. You would have to help me sometimes. And sometimes that help would be taking ¡®no¡¯ for an answer.¡±


    ¡°I do not need help,¡± you say.


    ¡°Then you¡¯re best off alone.¡±


    Alone.


    A shiver wracks your body.


    You are not afraid of alone.


    The human sighs. ¡°Do you want love?¡±


    You bark, yes, of course, you deserve love.


    ¡°I can give you that.¡± You stare into her awful, foggy eyes. There¡¯s brown somewhere in them. The dullest, worst color. ¡°Do you want me to hold you?¡±


    Your legs rise up and move towards her and you hate your limbs for it. She extends her forelegs, slowly at first, and then she flips you over and moves you towards her chest all at once. It¡¯s not unpleasant, just unexpected. You yip in surprise and she whispers an apology. Then you¡¯re cradled in her forelegs, pressed against her body. She¡¯s warm. Not too warm, though. And it¡¯s nice to feel a heartbeat.


    She is a trickster with clever words and whatever she says, someday, maybe even today, she will hate you and leave you like Firemane and all the others.


    But for now, Skysong is yours.

 Normal 3: Genesis

    Normal 1.3: Almost Natural


    Genesis


    July 27, 2019


    It¡¯s raining.


    That means it¡¯s good weather for catching poliwag. You said that you¡¯d wanted a water-type because you were in shock and don¡¯t even remember why and Father strictly forbade you from getting a popplio. That leaves poliwag and the rain. Even if you sort of asked for this, you wish it wasn¡¯t raining. The day is more than miserable enough.


    Stefan stands to the side under an umbrella, watching as you cast the lure again and again. Sometimes he critiques your form. Mostly he doesn¡¯t bother. The first few bites are magikarp. He does come forward and help you take those of the line before throwing them back. Then he steps away and takes the umbrella with him, leaving you out in the rain.


    You finally reel in a blur of blue sticking to the top of the pond. It doesn¡¯t struggle too much on the line or in its lure ball. And then it¡¯s yours. Stefan walks back to the car before you can let the frog out for bonding time. It¡¯s okay. You¡¯ll have time for that later. When you¡¯re alone. You grab a stick on the way back to the car. Stefan gives you a funny look, but it¡¯s important. You just don¡¯t want to explain right now.


    It¡¯s a quiet ride into the city, only the sound of rain on the windshield and the occasional car sloshing by to distract you. That¡¯s fine: you don¡¯t feel like talking, anyway. You¡¯ve already reasoned, begged, prayed, and cried to no effect. Father won¡¯t be moved, and Stefan is on Father¡¯s payroll. There will be no moving him.


    The car comes to a stop outside the Pok¨¦mon Center. Stefan walks around to open your door.


    ¡°You can register in there,¡± he says. ¡°Then I¡¯d take a ferry to Hau¡¯oli. VStar is having orientation in a few days, and they can help you get money.¡±


    Implying that you could be away for long enough that you¡¯ll need to make money of your own. You stare straight at the door and nod. He leaves without either of you saying goodbye.


    *


    The nurse says that the poliwag is a boy. She politely doesn¡¯t mention the damp stick you¡¯re carrying, even when you take the multiple choice test on the computer so you can be a trainer. It¡¯s all really basic stuff. She told you all of this many, many times over and you remembered enough to ace the thing.


    When the rain clears up you go around to the pools out back and let the poliwag out. He looks up at you unblinking and ribbits. You kneel down and brandish the stick. He runs. ¡°Wait! Come back!¡± Too late. He¡¯s already in the middle of the pool, glancing at you from the surface of the water. Fine. You can break your plans. You very visibly throw the stick into the trash before walking back, hands raised in surrender. ¡°I, um, dub thee Sir Bubbles? I had a whole ceremony planned, but¡­¡±


    He dives underwater.


    Looks like you dragged the stick here for nothing.


    *


    October 1, 2019


    The sanctuary is dead silent when you enter. You step through the rows of pews, descending towards the altar. The head of Xerneas greets you at the far wall, shifting rainbow antlers illuminating lifeless wooden eyes. Probably for the best. It can already be unsettling, having your creator and god staring down at you. If it blinked¡­ that would be too far.


    You needed to come here. Today is a big day, after all, and Xerneas is one of the few beings left that will listen to you. Maybe the only one who knows you aren¡¯t lying. But it takes you ages to think of something to say.


    ¡°Lord Xerneas, my creator¡­¡±


    Always a good start. Now more stuff.


    ¡°Thank you for giving me life. And please help Mother and Father understand what happened. And¡­ maybe luck is too much to ask, but I would like to keep living and¡­ I¡¯m very thankful for everything.¡±


    The eyes stare back, unblinking, as the rainbow lights shimmer above them.


    ¡°May my words and deeds bring honor to thy name.¡±


    *


    You should pay attention to orientation.


    You want to pay attention to orientation.


    You are not paying attention to orientation.


    Partially because she already told you most of this and you remember some of it, despite you being you. You¡¯re thinking about things that don¡¯t matter. You¡¯ve already read every scrap of writing in this room a bunch of times. There¡¯s not much to read, anyway. Just a few notices and inspirational quotes. It¡¯s like a sparsely decorated school room. Even the chairs are similar, as you¡¯re painfully reminded every time someone drags their chair forward or back.


    And there¡¯s a girl in front of you, just at the edge of her peripheral vision. She has nice hair. It falls down to her shoulders a lot of loose, shiny spirals. Green but not the bright, ugly, obviously dyed green. Almost natural. Maybe it is. Not the weirdest thing about her. That¡¯s the colorful, maybe home-made dress. Might be a thing in her culture. Whatever that is. She has dark skin. You didn¡¯t get a good look at her eyes since, well, they¡¯re milky white. That was a lot bit distracting. Like staring into the dead eyes of Xerneas with color swirling throughout.


    The intimidation is a little undercut by her height. Her feet don¡¯t even reach the ground when she¡¯s seated. At first glance you thought that she was a tween kid eager to rush onto her island challenge, but her face¡ªthe parts you remember apart from the eyes and hair¡ªseemed older. Nice cheekbones. And there¡¯s some muscle on her arms that you wouldn¡¯t expect from a kid. Between her size and blindness, she¡¯s still delicate. Maybe too delicate to go into the wild.


    You wonder if she¡¯s in the same boat as you, going along with the least bad option.


    A woman in a very nice suit walks in midway through. Odd. Everyone else you¡¯ve dealt with here was dressed in business casual or casual casual. Her eyes wander around the room, settling on each person in turn. You squirm and go back to looking at the series of stars and triangles you¡¯ve wrote down in your notebook. Just one look from her makes you deeply uncomfortable. It feels like she¡¯s staring right into your soul and judging you based on what she sees.


    You can feel it when she moves on. You glance up in time to see the woman recoil as if in pain and bring a hand to head. What? What happened. The girl in front of you must feel it, too, because she¡¯s looking around now. The woman quickly exits the room and the girl eventually goes back to resting her head on an arm and staring forward.


    The girl probably doesn¡¯t see the point of taking notes. Maybe you should for her. It would get you to pay attention, maybe. You can at least try it.


    *


    There¡¯s a breakout session at the end where you finally get to meet your traveling companions. Girls, probably. It would be inappropriate to put you with boys.


    You¡¯re the first to arrive at the meeting room because you finished your lunch quickly, without talking to anyone. You don¡¯t know any of them and what are you even supposed to say? Best to stay quiet and not ruin things. Although now that you¡¯re in a room with nothing but you and a ticking clock you¡¯re starting to wonder if you should have stayed. Was that expected? Were you being rude?


    You glance at the clock. No, you¡¯re a little early to the meeting but still on time.


    The door opens and a boy enters. (A boy! Why are they letting you travel with a boy?) He lets the door slam shut behind him with a loud noise somewhere between a click and a clack.


    ¡°¡¯sup,¡± he ¡®sups. Then he plops down into one of the firmer chairs, letting his back sink in and his legs sprawl out.


    You squirm in your seat. What was his name? He was a few rows over, but you didn¡¯t think you would be with him because he¡¯s a boy and you¡¯re a girl and this is really inappropriate. Should you offer to share your name? That seems like a good idea. And he¡¯s been quiet long enough that it¡¯s awkward.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    ¡°I¡¯m Genesis.¡±


    He glances at you before rolling his shoulders back and somehow sinking even deeper into his chair. ¡°Kekoa. Nice to meet you, Jennifer.¡±


    ¡°Genesis, actually¡ª¡±


    ¡°Jennifer.¡±


    He stares at you as if daring you to challenge him again. You break eye contact first. Fine. Guess you¡¯re stuck with him. That¡¯s just how your month has been going.


    ¡°We¡¯re supposed to have a third person, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what they said.¡±


    The clock keeps ticking.


    ¡°You have a pok¨¦ball on your belt¡­¡±


    ¡°A pikipek.¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡± Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. ¡°I have a poliwag.¡±


    ¡°Cool.¡± It does not sound like he thinks it¡¯s cool.


    ¡°So why are you here?¡±


    ¡°Why are you?¡±


    You don¡¯t want to answer that, so you don¡¯t. And he doesn¡¯t want to talk, so that¡¯s that. He goes back to looking at an old flip phone.


    There are footsteps outside and a strange grating noise. The door opens and the blind girl walks in, the woman in the suit behind her. ¡°See you tomorrow,¡± the woman says before walking away. The girl just stands in the doorway. There¡¯s something almost sad about her expression, but she shakes her head and starts to smile. Maybe you just imagined the earlier look: you¡¯ve never been great at reading emotions.


    ¡°Is there a chair somewhere?¡± she asks.


    You give her directions.


    It turns out that you are not very good at giving her directions, but she does eventually sit down.


    ¡°Hello. I¡¯m Cuicatl Ichtaca.¡±


    ¡°Hi! I¡¯m Genesis.¡±


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± the boy says. You finally realize that you never got his name before. ¡°Good to meet you, Kiwi.¡±


    Her smile falters before coming back stronger than before. ¡°That¡¯s not even close and you know it.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t give a shit.¡±


    You think Cuicatl rolls her eyes but it¡¯s¡­ unsettling to look at. She won¡¯t know if you¡¯re making eye contact or not, so you look away from her face. ¡°She like this to you, Genesis?¡± she asks.


    ¡°He, thank you very much.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Sorry. You just have such a girly voice, you know?¡±


    His voice is a little high. The rest of his body is maybe just on the masculine side of androgynous. Normal enough for a guy your age. Ditto for his face. Still chubby but not unusually so. Maybe with longer hair and different clothes he could pass for a girl.


    ¡°Fuck off.¡±


    You flinch at the profanity. He didn¡¯t sound serious, almost joking, but the words themselves paint a different story.


    ¡°Where are you from?¡± you ask Cuicatl. Crap that was probably not the right question. She¡¯s going to think you¡¯re some kind of a racist, which you¡¯re not¡ª


    ¡°Anahuac.¡±


    ¡°Oh. I know about it. A lot of your people come here. Not here specifically, I actually haven¡¯t met many, but on the mainland. Um.¡± You stop before you can dig deeper.


    She puffs up a little. Which is bad. She¡¯s angry. But it¡¯s also kind of cute.


    ¡°My mom was Unovan,¡± Cuicatl interjects.


    Oh. Definitely here legally. That¡¯s good.


    ¡°Then you¡¯re a citizen?¡±.


    ¡°¡­no. Here on challenge visa.¡±


    Maybe not legally. You¡¯ll have to do the talking if any cops show up. Which they shouldn¡¯t, because you aren¡¯t going to do any crimes. Except for the crime she already did.


    *


    VStar gave you an advance to buy boots and you know just the place to go.


    Princess Square Mall is easily the best place to shop in the entire commonwealth. It¡¯s got everything from the Gracidea flagship to the usual big box stores, plus literal miles of halls lined with their own quirky shops. You make¡­ made a point of coming here most weekends to try and look through at least three new stores knowing full well that by the time you visited them all some would¡¯ve closed and others opened in their place and you¡¯d have to do it again. You got some good stuff out of it, though, like a stuffed altitlama made with real altitlama wool and a blue snow globe with a faintly glowing horseshoe on the side. No idea why the latter cost as much as it did.


    Kekoa powerwalks ahead and ordinarily you¡¯d match him but you have to stay back and help Cuicatl along. He sometimes glances back and slows down a little bit, which clashes with his aloof meanie vibe. Eventually you get to Shaft¡¯s Outdoor Supplies and Kekoa finally stops to turn towards you.


    ¡°I¡¯m just going to go ahead and get this done on my own. Leave you girls to do your shoe shopping.¡±


    ¡°Then why are you going alone?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Letting you two have your estrogen party in peace.¡±


    ¡°So why aren¡¯t you coming with us?¡± Cuicatl asks. ¡°If it¡¯s a girls thing¡­¡±


    Kekoa shoots her an absolutely murderous glare. ¡°I¡¯m flipping you off,¡± he says before turning around and storming off. He is not actually flipping her off. Cuicatl just has a cute, dumb smile plastered on her face.


    ¡°Asshole,¡± she says.


    You shouldn¡¯t giggle but you do.


    ¡°So, um, what are you looking for? In boots? I can look for you.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t even take a full second to think it over. ¡°Waterproof, well-fitting, don¡¯t make me look too stupid.¡±


    Okay. You can work with that.


    ¡°Do you have a personal style? What clothes do you ordinarily wear?¡±


    It occurs to you too late that she might not know that. Thankfully, she does.


    ¡°I guess you would call them dresses, like what I¡¯m wearing now. Sometimes more athletic clothing. Pick whatever colors you want.¡± Hmm. She has long hair that¡¯s clearly well cared for. Isn¡¯t wearing much makeup, but that might just be because she can¡¯t apply it. In any case, definitely not a tomboy. Some outdoorsy-but-still-femme look, then. Hiking boots and whatever she¡¯ll be wearing on the trail probably satisfies the outdoorsy bit, so you¡¯re mostly concerned with the femme half. Ideally, you¡¯d get something dark green or very dark blue to go with her hair, but a quick talk with an employee (a talk that Cuicatl seems oddly despondent during) reveals that you¡¯re really color and style limited at her size in the kids section. You settle on a pink pair without laces so that she doesn¡¯t have to fumble around to tie them.


    ¡°They sound nice,¡± she says when you tell her the description. Her face is guarded so it¡¯s hard to tell if it really does sound nice. Or if she cares about style at all. She rises up on the balls of her feet and then settles down and tilts her shoes to the sides. ¡°Fit well enough. Should be fine after a little breaking in.¡±


    And that¡¯s that. Even before the two-thirds discount new trainers get on supplies, hers are just barely over fifty dollars. Yours are about three times as much, but after the discount they still fit within budget with some money left over. Black, kind of shiny, waterproof because Cuicatl thought that was a big deal. A size up from your old shoes, too. Apparently, you¡¯ve grown. You¡¯d be comfortable wearing your boots in a city, which is kind of a must because you¡¯re going to have to break them in before going out on the trail. Orientation made a very, very big deal about that, up to showing some blister photos that look like they came right out of a presentation on a disease that requires genital amputation.


    *


    You decide to have a movie night for your first night sharing a Pok¨¦mon Center room. You¡¯re doing your best to ignore that you¡¯re sharing a bedroom and bathroom with a boy but at least Cuicatl¡¯s here so he¡¯s outnumbered.


    Kekoa fiddles with the screen of your phone for a second before putting it on the pile of stuff he haphazardly threw together. Then the movie starts to play on the small screen. Not really big enough for three people to crowd around, but Cuicatl¡¯s sitting a little farther away since she he doesn¡¯t really need to watch.


    ¡°You have your own account?¡± you ask to kill time as the company logos roll.


    He snorts. ¡°Yeah, no. I¡¯m sure someone pays for this, but I don¡¯t know them and no one I know knows them.¡±


    That¡¯s kind of theft, isn¡¯t it? At least, not using it as intended. Are you doing something wrong by watching.


    The logos stop and the screen shifts to a cage being moved in the rain by a bunch of men with guns. Then something goes wrong and the thing in the cage kills some of the men with guns before getting shot itself. What. This is violent. You definitely aren¡¯t supposed to be watching it.


    ¡°What kind of movie is this?¡± you ask.


    ¡°A damn good one,¡± he answers.


    Again with the vulgarity.


    ¡°Seconding,¡± she adds.


    You frown. ¡°Your parents let you watch this kind of thing?¡±


    He looks at you like you¡¯d just asked whether water was wet. ¡°No. My brother let me watch it once while my parents were out since I was going through a dinosaur phase. Now, I, uh, kind of watch what I want now.¡±


    ¡°People don¡¯t really care about sex and violence in movies in Anahuac? They¡¯re a part of life. No reason to keep kids from knowing real things exist. And do you want to talk about the dinosaur phase?¡± She¡¯s absolutely beaming now. ¡°Because I had a dinosaur phase. Never really left it either.¡±


    Kekoa snorts. ¡°You would, dragon girl.¡±


    They¡¯d talked about trainers at dinner. You didn¡¯t have much to say, but they got into a long argument about what type was most reliable on the battlefield. Cuicatl had gone all in for dragons. You¡¯d mentioned water-types because she had thought they were the best. You couldn¡¯t really defend the point, though, when Cuicatl started arguing with you. When she realized that she¡¯d gone back to arguing with Kekoa.


    ¡°Hey,¡± Cuicatl answers Kekoa. ¡°it¡¯s not my fault that we used to have birds that were four meters tall, then we didn¡¯t, then we brought them back, and now no one seems to care that we have four-meter-tall birds again! Oh, Genesis, the dinosaurs in this movie shouldn¡¯t have as many scales as they do. Except the aurorus, which should have spines and frills. But the dilatosaur shouldn¡¯t have frills. Or venom. They were grass-types. And the pyroclaptors should be half the size. And none of them are actually from the Jurassic. Other than that, perfect film.¡±


    Kekoa leans forward and makes a show of turning the volume up, even though it¡¯s already as high as it goes.


    ¡°Fucking nerd.¡±


    ¡°Please watch your language.¡±


    He flips you off. Cuicatl just ignores you. Okay, then.


    She folds her arms and leans back into the wall. ¡°I don¡¯t see what the problem is with liking things. Especially cool things.¡±


    ¡°Well, you missed the flaw that actually matters: tyrantrum were scavengers.¡±


    ¡°You shut up!¡± Cuicatl practically screams. ¡°That is one scientist¡¯s theory based on snorlax of all things. Sure, tyrantrum could have scared off smaller predators, but then why would they need the neck muscles if they weren¡¯t going to hunt? And what was killing all the prey they ate? Claptors weren¡¯t big enough in most of their home range and the crocodiles would¡¯ve just dragged the food into the water. Maybe other tyrannosaurs, but if smaller tyrannosaurs were killing giant armored herbivores then why couldn¡¯t tyrantrum do it?¡± She huffs and crosses her legs before glaring in Kekoa¡¯s general direction. ¡°Such bullshit.¡±


    They continue like that for hour, with Kekoa asking short dumb questions and setting Cuicatl off on adorably angry tirades about tyrantrum¡¯s typing (maybe a dragon-type, but definitely not a dragon), tyrantrum-pyroclaptor nest arrangements (the raptors didn¡¯t eat the tyrantrum eggs, they ate the mammals that came for the eggs, duh), and whether blaziken would beat a pyroclaptor in a fight (blaziken one-on-one, but a pyroclaptor would never fight alone so that doesn¡¯t matter). He immediately changes the subject whenever she gives a substantive answer, so he¡¯s always winning the conversation with very little effort. Like Mom. Except Cuicatl doesn¡¯t seem to hate it?


    You stopped paying attention to the actual movie almost immediately. It would be rude to leave the room, but that doesn¡¯t mean you should watch something like it. At some point you fell asleep entirely. You don¡¯t know if your new partners ever stopped their bickering.

 Normal 4: Kekoa

    Normal 1.4: Period


    Kekoa


    October 2, 2019


    ¡°Go, Whiskers!¡±


    You don¡¯t say anything as you send Hekili onto the field. What¡¯s the point? She knows her name and what¡¯s about to happen.


    ¡°Now, Fake Out!¡± Just as you see what Whiskers is doing, a shockwave ripples across the field and smacks Hekili head-on. ¡°Great! Get in close and bite the wing!¡±


    ¡°Retreating peck,¡± you calmly answer.


    The meowth rushes across the field but it¡¯s too slow. By the time that he reaches your pikipek she¡¯s already ascending and gives the cat a nasty peck on the head for its trouble. A few wingbeats later she¡¯s up in the air circling the field.


    Perfect.


    ¡°Echoed voice.¡±


    The air around you ripples, first towards Hekili and then away. It¡¯s barely noticeable but you know that¡¯ll change soon enough.


    ¡°Hey! No fair, that¡¯s cheating!¡±


    You glare at the kid. Some young haole brat. He ever heard ¡°no¡± before? What does ¡°fair¡± mean to him? The deck stacked in his favor, but subtly enough that he can deny it? Even odds must feel so unbearably unfair. And to top it all off you definitely aren¡¯t cheating. It¡¯s a perfectly valid, very common strategy that if he¡¯d ever watched a damn match he would know he needed a counter for. But, nope, he¡¯s entitled to win, however little work he puts in.


    ¡°Louder,¡± you respond. And Hekili answers with a cacophony of sound and a blast of wind. You definitely felt that one and from the meowth¡¯s disheveled fur you¡¯re guessing it felt it as well. ¡°And keep it up.¡±


    ¡°UGH!¡± The kid actually stomps his foot like it¡¯ll get you to roll over and give you what he wants. ¡°Jump up and use scratch!¡±


    The cat¡¯s legs bend down and it pounces in one fluid motion. Before you can even order a spiking peck, Hekeli lifts up and the claws only hit feathers. She knows what ¡°up¡± means, even when other people say it. Clever girl.


    Unless the kid¡¯s pulling a spectacular con on you, that¡¯s about as much thought as you¡¯re going to have to put into this. Meowth are frail and devastating up close, but it can¡¯t get a hit in and will go down to echoed voice soon. Battle¡¯s over even if he doesn¡¯t want to admit it yet. And you hope he doesn¡¯t concede until the bitter end. You want to see him crushed until he cries for his mommy. Keep people off the trails who don¡¯t need to be there.


    ¡°Fake Out!¡±


    ¡°Steady.¡±


    Meowth sends off another shockwave, but by now the echoed voices are hitting it five times harder than anything it could use. The blast wasn¡¯t even powerful enough to disrupt Hekili. You look up in admiration. Your starter¡¯s getting pretty big now. Almost the meowth¡¯s size. And her echoed voice has more sounds in it, more little ripples that draw a little more power in than the last and send a little more out. Not quite ready to evolve but she¡¯s made progress.


    ¡°Work up! We can do this!¡±


    Hmm. The meowth is gathering a little double helix of rising energy around itself. Give it a minute or two and it¡¯ll probably be strong and fast enough to get hits in on Hekili. It won¡¯t last that long. Probably. Persian are glass cannons so you imagine meowth are, too. You could rush in with a rock smash, disrupt the charging, and maybe score a knockout at the same time. But if you fail, you¡¯re in close quarters. Exactly where you shouldn¡¯t be.


    You¡¯ll give it a little bit. Then go in for the kill.


    In the meantime, you take a quick glance at the adjacent battlefield to see how Kiwi¡¯s doing. Her vulpix against a pyukumuku. The fox is firing off ice shards but the water-type barely even seems to notice. Weak, resisted ice attacks against a bulky ¡®mon? It won¡¯t be nearly enough.


    ¡°Rock smash,¡± you call without even bothering to look back at the field.


    ¡°Now¡¯s our chance! Whiskers, use¡ª¡±


    There¡¯s a crack sound as Hekeli¡¯s beak collides right with the meowth¡¯s face and the cat is flung back onto its ass. You almost feel bad for it. Not its fault that its trainer gives pep talks in a do or die situation. A flash of light washes over the field. You compliment it with your own withdrawal. Hekeli can be thanked later; for now you have an image to project.


    ¡°You owe me six bucks.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah, I know,¡± the kid huffs as he crosses the field. You hold out your hand and he slaps the bills into it. ¡°Someday, I¡¯m going to fight you again and I¡¯m going to win.¡± He looks at you with an intense gleaming in his eyes, like he not only believes his words are true but knows they are.


    You turn away from him and walk towards Kiwi¡¯s battlefield. ¡°I¡¯ll take more of your money any time you want.¡±


    Your match was a one-sided slugfest. Kiwi¡¯s is decidedly more stallish. Her keokeo has the faint purple aura of toxic poisoning around it, which means that Kiwi¡¯s opponent bought or borrowed the TM at some point. The fox is panting from poison and heat. The pyukumuku has some shallow cuts from the ice shards but nothing managed to get past the outer layers. Not surprising. Those things are damn hard to hurt.


    You get your first glance at the pyukumuku¡¯s trainer. She¡¯s female. Asian. Her dress looks expensive, she¡¯s wearing shades that obviously aren¡¯t the cheap kind, and you think she¡¯s got a designer purse. Not that you¡¯d be able to tell the brand or anything, but it looks like something you¡¯d see on TV. Add in the TM and, well, honestly you¡¯re just shocked that a rich bitch uses a pyukumuku of all things. Good taste in pok¨¦mon in spite of everything. Rather have her along than Jennifer.


    ¡°Ice shard,¡± Kiwi calls just a little too loudly. You don¡¯t think she¡¯s deaf and her fox has good hearing. No need to signal things like that. Not that you¡¯re going to tell her that. If she¡¯s smart she¡¯ll figure it out on her own.


    Ice rises up around the keokeo and flies towards her opponent. The pyukumuku takes it like a champ and its trainer¡¯s smirk deepens. Fuck her. She¡¯s an asshole like you, but she¡¯s not actually justified in her assholery.


    ¡°Spite,¡± she says. In the same calm ¡°I already know I¡¯m going to win¡± voice you¡¯d been using three minutes ago.


    ¡°Now,¡± Kiwi commands with the exact same tone as her opponent.


    Once the ice shards land, pyukumuku¡¯s mouth opens and its tongue comes out to flip the fox off. Just when its innards are out a dozen sharp ice crystals come out of nowhere to impale themselves in its tongue. The water-type bloats up for a second, its entire body growing a little bit bigger before it hastily pulls everything back inside.


    It was a good play. Doesn¡¯t matter. So long as the pyukumuku never inverts itself again there¡¯s nothing Kiwi can do. Eventually her pok¨¦mon will go down to poison or spite, which you didn¡¯t even know pyukumuku could learn. And it was a ¡®mon you were hoping to pick up later on, so you¡¯d think you¡¯d know what it can and can¡¯t do.


    ¡°Kiwi, you might want to spare your fox some pain,¡± you tell her. She recoils, either from hearing your voice unexpectedly or the weight of your words. But she slowly nods her head in agreement.


    ¡°Good job, Pixie.¡± Two flashes of red cross the battlefield. The pyukumuku¡¯s trainer crosses the field, smirking the whole time.


    ¡°And that¡¯ll be six dollars, if you¡¯d be so kind,¡± she says with the kind of over-affected false innocence you¡¯d never been able to get away with. Kiwi doesn¡¯t react, just pulling the money out (how does she know which bills are which?) and handing it over. ¡°Thank you kindly, miss,¡± the girl says before sauntering off.


    You¡¯re about to call after her to ask for a battle of your own when you feel something shift, bringing your mood plummeting down with it.


    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± you say through gritted teeth.


    *


    ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± Jennifer asks as the door opens and Kiwi shuffles in. Jenny¡¯s still in her pajamas and rubbing sleep out of her eyes. It¡¯s a good thing because otherwise she¡¯d probably be chipper.


    ¡°Fine,¡± you grunt. Kiwi just slides into her bed before spreading out on top of the sheets.


    ¡°Okay, well, um, if you don¡¯t need it, I¡¯m going to get ready in the bathroom?¡±


    Neither of you answers so she rummages through her bag and picks out some things before stopping by the closet to take a top out. She closes the washroom door behind her.


    It¡¯s not too bad yet. Soon you¡¯ll need to lie down for at least a day but for now you can awkwardly stand in the middle of the room. You glance at Kiwi. Worth talking? Nah. You can wait a few minutes and call someone you actually like. Not that she¡¯s that bad. Maybe someday you¡¯ll like her. But that day wasn¡¯t yesterday and it sure as shit isn¡¯t today.


    By the grace of the tapus Jennifer doesn¡¯t take a shower. She shuffles out after a time that feels both too long and too short, makeup and hair immaculate and sleep either gone or hidden. Her t-shirt and jeans look like they cost more than everything in your bag combined.


    ¡°Alright. You ready to go?¡±


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Kiwi rises and picks up her cane without a word.


    ¡°I¡¯m staying,¡± you say.


    ¡°Tutor¡¯s free,¡± Kiwi says.


    ¡°And I don¡¯t need it.¡±


    Jennifer looks at you funny before you dismissively wave her away. Less than a minute later you¡¯re blissfully, finally, totally alone.


    You go into the bathroom and let your pants drop before looking down. No stains. Pad¡¯s still holding. You¡¯d wondered if it wasn¡¯t coming even though deep down you knew damn well it was gearing up. So you hoped for the best, planned for the worst. And the worst came. You don¡¯t know how long you stand there staring down at your too-flat boxers before your gaze lifts to the mirror.


    Turn around. You don¡¯t. You should but fuck you you¡¯re a hormonal bitch and you keep looking. There¡¯s a curve under your shirt. You love your binder more than any other thing you own but you¡¯re big and there¡¯s only so much a piece of fabric can do. Below that, well, your torso curves in before your hips flare out and none of it makes you any less of a man but damn it some part of you feels ridiculous even asserting that you could ever be male with your body as it is. And you know your voice is still high. Kiwi said as much. Her world is sound and people are voices and your voice is female so you are too. And. She. Just. Can. Not. Stop. Rubbing. It. In. Your. Cute. Rounded. Face.


    You turn around without thinking and leave the bathroom. Then you slide into bed and fold half of a messed-up sheet over your body. You can still see your fucking tiny toes so you have to actually push yourself up a little to get everything covered up by a blanket. Except for the little bulge on your chest that still perks the fabric up, reminding you that it¡¯s there and will be until you¡¯re eighteen and have real money in your wallet. There¡¯s a phantom pain in your arms and legs like something under your skin is trying to press itself out. You can massage it or hit it or scream or cry or try to ignore it but the feeling will never, ever go away.


    It gets better. It¡¯s getting better. In three days there¡¯s another shot and then another a week after that and on and on forever. This could be your last period. And your voice is going to change and you¡¯ll have hair and smell different and have almost everything you need to be you. But there¡¯s nothing you can do about that right now. Just lie here and pray that your body turns out okay. It feels like you should be doing something even if you know there¡¯s nothing to be done.


    You pick up your phone to call one of the three people you know and like but stop when you see your reflection in the black screen. You should press the button. Ignore the truth. Move on.


    You don¡¯t.


    You won¡¯t.


    You let it fall down to your lap.


    This had better be the last time you have to deal with this.


    *


    October 5, 2019


    ¡°You may begin.¡±


    The sound of rustling papers fills the room before abruptly dying out.


    Class III Exam. Let¡¯s see if this is more of a challenge than Class II or Class I.


    ¡°Rank the following ten pok¨¦balls based on the quality of life they would give a misdreavus.¡± Awkward wording aside, that¡¯s dusk at the top and dive at the bottom. Wonder if some poor kid believes that luxury balls are always the answer. Or gets caught up in wondering if misdreavus are made of water (they aren¡¯t¡­ right¡­ no, not second guessing yourself).


    ¡°Briefly describe the laws around vikavolt capture and sale.¡± That¡¯s easy enough. Buggers are nearly extinct in the wild due to over-capture so they let trainers capture one but only sell it if they actually complete the entire challenge.


    ¡°Which of the following are True Psychics?¡± Hypno and mr. mime. Alakazam is the trick answer.


    On and on. ¡°How do you treat hyperthermia in ice-types? What islands do tsareena live on? What happens if a z-move hits a mega evolved pok¨¦mon? Briefly explain how oricorio form changes work. Which of the following are invasive? How do you get a pok¨¦mon registered as a ride pok¨¦mon?¡± Some of it¡¯s practical, most of it isn¡¯t. Just meant to make sure you know a few things about a lot of pok¨¦mon. That you actually care about this shit.


    You¡¯re the first to finish. Out of the 100 questions there are maybe six you¡¯re uncertain on. You can miss twenty and still pass.


    All in all? Good day.


    You step outside and see Kiwi on the bench. Why did she show up? Special needs tests aren¡¯t until tomorrow. You consider just slipping past her and being on your way since you really aren¡¯t in the mood to get misgendered now. Not when you¡¯re coming down from the high of probably victory.


    She stretches and stands up. Her keokeo stirs beside her. ¡°This Room 202?¡± she asks.


    Shit. No dodging this one. ¡°Yes, Kiwi.¡±


    A frown flashes across her face before quickly fading. ¡°Well, how¡¯d it go?¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± You start walking down the hall. She follows.


    ¡°I went back to Lilypad Square today. I won.¡±


    You glance down at her. She seems very proud of that. Is that her first win ever? ¡°Against what?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Rattata.¡±


    You snort. ¡°Wait, was it held by some preschooler or something?¡±


    She purses her lips and looks away as her footsteps slow down for a moment. You keep plowing on.


    ¡°She sounded young. I don¡¯t know how young. Ten to twelve?¡±


    Holy shit. You have to try really hard not to laugh. Girl beats up some kid¡¯s pet mouse and feels on top of the fucking world.


    She doesn¡¯t say anything else to you on the way back to the Center.


    *


    ¡°We should celebrate,¡± Jennifer says.


    ¡°No money,¡± you answer.


    She honest to gods puts her hands on her hips and pouts. ¡°Don¡¯t need money to go to the beach.¡±


    ¡°No swimsuit,¡± Kiwi answers.


    ¡°Same.¡±


    You do have one. But other people seeing your body is blech. Even if you weren¡¯t trying (and failing) to go stealth.


    ¡°Well, what else are you going to do?¡±


    ¡°Movies. Inside. Where it¡¯s not hot as shit.¡±


    ¡°Chirlov¡¯s battling. There will be a radio broadcast. In Galarian.¡±


    ¡°Oh, come on!¡± Jennifer huffs. ¡°It doesn¡¯t feel like we¡¯ve even done anything fun together. Can¡¯t we just do one thing?¡±


    Ugh. Fine. Maybe this will get her off your back.


    ¡°I¡¯ll go, but I¡¯m not getting in the water.¡±


    ¡°Great! Cuicatl?¡±


    She groans. ¡°I¡¯m staying on land with Kekoa.¡±


    Jennifer claps her hands and you see Kiwi flinch in your peripheral vision.


    *


    ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want to come in with me?¡± Kiwi shakes her head. You don¡¯t respond at all. ¡°Come on, Kekoa, you¡¯re just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Nothing that can¡¯t get wet.¡±


    Also wearing a binder. And you¡¯d really prefer not to have your clothing vacuum-sealed and showing all your curves to the world.


    ¡°I¡¯ll pass.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. Whatever.¡± Jennifer turns around and slips her shorts and shirt off, leaving her surprisingly modest swimsuit behind. She turns around and kicks the shorts towards the bench you¡¯re sharing with Kiwi.


    For a moment you¡¯re facing her head on and, ah shit she¡¯s hot. Like you kind of always knew that from the legs and general face but seeing her exposed makes all the things click. She throws the t-shirt at you, although it flies a little bit to the side. ¡°Don¡¯t be gross.¡± With that she pivots and walks towards the surf.


    Kiwi leans back into the bench and crosses her legs. ¡°What¡¯s she like, scale of one to ten?¡±


    ¡°Eight.¡±


    She snorts. ¡°Can¡¯t tell if she¡¯d be more insulted that you answered or that you ranked her so low.¡±


    ¡°I have very high standards,¡± you respond. As deadpan as possible. You like some substance under the surface.


    That just earns a wicked smirk. ¡°Really, then? So what am I on your scale?¡±


    She¡¯s not ugly. Her hair is nice. The rest is uh. Too short to pull off anything other than cute, and some of her features aren¡¯t really cute enough for cute-cute or ugly enough for ugly-cute. A couple lighter lines on her skin from old scars, eyebrows that are a little too heavy, a gauntness over everything that brings her muscles into contrast but makes her face look really sharp.


    ¡°Four.¡±


    She very lightly punches you. Probably aiming for the shoulder, hits near your elbow instead.


    ¡°Well, my voice is a ten and that¡¯s all that matters.¡±


    ¡°Really? Well, what¡¯s my voice?¡±


    ¡°Hmm. Three. Too manly for a girl.¡±


    That sends a stone straight into the center of your feelings. The emotions ripple to the edge of your heart and rebound in and pretty soon there are ripples clashing with ripples as the whole thing threatens to spill over into¡­ into what you don¡¯t know. A lot of something.


    She moves on before you can find out. ¡°Very windy today.¡±


    You grunt to test the waters. No emotion bleeds through. It¡¯s safe to speak.


    ¡°That¡¯s just the sea breeze.¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    You sigh. Is this a cultural thing or no? And should you tell her if it is? Ah, fuck it. She could figure it out online in a minute.


    ¡°Wind rushes onshore in the day, offshore at night.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡±


    There¡¯s silence aside from the wind. Jennifer is out there somewhere but you can¡¯t really pick her out in the offshore crowd. As your eyes scan they settle on something else down the beach. A metal framework with the first bits of a proper building being grafted on. Another resort to bring more tourists and take your kingdom just a little bit further away.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t grow up near the sea, I take it.¡±


    ¡°No. Foothills of the mountains. Never been to the ocean until last week.¡±


    Oh. That¡¯s depressing. Although her people are more desert and lake dwellers so maybe being cut off from the sea didn¡¯t even matter to her.


    She goes silent for long enough that you suspect that she¡¯s probably drifted off. Not a bad place to do it, on the beach with the tropical sun beating down. You¡¯re thinking about dozing off yourself. And then out of the blue: ¡°We¡¯ve never battled.¡±


    You glance over at her. She¡¯s sort of half-lying on her side, facing you.


    ¡°Because you have type advantage. Wouldn¡¯t be fair.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, you don¡¯t suck at this. So maybe it would be.¡±


    You think about correcting her. But fuck it you aren¡¯t going to pump up her ego for her. She can beat up rattata if she needs the boost. You press yourself up and put your hands in your pockets.


    ¡°Okay. You¡¯re on. There¡¯s a battlefield near the surf, looks like that match is about to finish up.¡±


    *


    ¡°The one-on-one battle between Kekoa of Ak/ala,¡± the kid you roped into announcing has an awful voice break and stands looking stunned for a second before he decides to power through, ¡°and Kiwi of Anahuac is about to begin. You can, um, I don¡¯t really¡­ send out now?¡±


    Someone¡¯s going to need to teach this kid confidence but it¡¯s not going to be you.


    Kiwi actually has to release her keokeo from its pok¨¦ball since it¡¯s not out with her. Guess the beach is too hot for an ice-type.


    ¡°Pixie, battle time!¡±


    The fox growls as soon as she materializes, ears slicked back and tails pressed down. Does she do that every time she comes out? You¡¯ve barely seen her use the ball.


    You toss your ball into the air and catch it. When you release this is all going to go to hell and you need a moment to think. Toss. Catch. No time to set up echoed voice. You¡¯d just get knocked out of the sky by ice shards. Toss. Catch. She doesn¡¯t seem to have anything to hit up close. Just roar for zoning. Toss. Catch. Hekeli¡¯s fast enough that roar doesn¡¯t matter. No reason not to get in close and never let up. Toss. Catc¡ªshit. The ball slips right off the edge of your finger and crashes into the sand. Kiwi smiles. ¡°You going to keep me waiting?¡±


    No. You reach down, flick the ball into the air and catch it before releasing. Need to practice that more. Hekeli materializes and seems to get what¡¯s going on pretty quickly. You glance at the referee and glare to wipe the smile off his face.


    ¡°And, uh, begin.¡±


    ¡°Up,¡± you command. Hekili rises higher as a blast of ice crystals flies right beneath her.


    Kiwi¡¯s face is inscrutable. Maybe she doesn¡¯t even know if that hit or missed. ¡°Baby-doll eyes.¡±


    Weird choice but holy shit that is the cutest fucking fox you¡¯ve ever seen. Were her eyes always that big? Like, does she physically make her eyes bigger or is


    Shit closing window of attack.


    ¡°HEKILI, ROCK SMASH!¡± you shout. The pikipek quickly snaps out of the trance she was in before cawing and diving straight down. Kiwi starts to speak and a small flurry of ice rises around vulpix in the fraction of a second Hekili needs to descend. It doesn¡¯t matter. There¡¯s a crack in the air for a moment before a very cute fox with very big eyes is flung up herself.


    You whistle and Hekili moves. When the vulpix finally comes to earth and stops rolling through the sand it gets another nasty peck on its side. There are shouted orders and little glimmers of ice digging into Hekeli¡¯s side. It doesn¡¯t matter. Too much damage too quickly for the vulpix to cope with.


    Kiwi had the better part a week and she hasn¡¯t even figured out how to counter your pikipek? What a loser.


    A red flash shines on your smirk. After it fades Kiwi just stands still as a wave crashes into the beach. And another. And another. Then she starts walking across the field towards you as her hand slips into her purse. She drops two bills as she walks by you without stopping. You watch her walk up the beach without any words spoken.


    For a moment you want to follow, tell her that it¡¯s alright and she¡¯s a special snowflake just like everyone else. Then there¡¯s anger. She¡¯s just doing this for pity points, to make you feel bad that you won. Fuck her. Manipulative bitch. Using her size and disability to take away your win from you and make you give her what she wants. Well, she¡¯s going to learn right here and now that emotionally abusive bullshit will get her nowhere. She wants a win? She can take it from you over Hekili¡¯s unconscious body.


    You reach down to pick up the money before it blows away.

 Normal 5: Cuicatl

    Normal 1.5: Until The World Moves On


    Cuicatl


    May 2019


    Achcauhtli dismisses his friends and walks up to you.


    {Hi.}


    He sits down and you lean against him, letting your mind fully intertwine with his.


    {Hi.}


    There¡¯s more kept in his personal sphere than usual. Typically he lets you see about 70% of it, and you let him see almost 90% of yours (pretty much everything except for the feminine and romantic stuff that grosses him out a little). Now you can see maybe 40%.


    {Something wrong?}


    He groans, physically and mentally.


    {Headache. Like yours.}


    {Share?} you reply.


    {No.}


    You get to your feet and give him telepathic and physical kicks.


    {You always take mine.}


    {I always take one-third of yours. This is my first, so I will keep all of it. Owe you that much. And more.}


    You roll your eyes. It took you forever to get the eye roll just right. You send him a quick, compressed guide to migraine survival. He already knows all of it, of course. He¡¯s had one-third of a lot of migraines. It¡¯s more of a passive aggressive thing. You pain share, so can he.


    He stands up and takes your elbow to guide you. You immediately recoil.


    {You¡¯re really hot.}


    {Am I?}


    {Yes. Let me share.}


    {No.}


    You could force it. You¡¯re the stronger sibling by far because all that brain mass he wasted on vision went straight to your third eye. But you don¡¯t. It makes him really upset whenever you do and then the connection makes you really upset and then it takes months for everything to get back to normal.


    Also it¡¯s wrong and stuff.


    {I¡¯ll tell Dad you¡¯re sick.}


    He actually, physically snorts.


    {I just have a fever and a headache. What¡¯s he going to do?}


    Nothing. Nothing is what he¡¯ll do. So you shut up for a little bit, making sure that some of your displeasure bleeds into his mind for the rest of the walk.


    You know you¡¯re almost at the house long before he tells you. But you let him chivalrously say that it¡¯s approaching and then let you in the door. He does it partially because of his annoying masculinity, partially to keep appearances, partially to ease his anxiety from that one time that you took his sight away for two days to teach him a lesson. Gods, he was so adorably helpless.


    ¡°We¡¯re home,¡± you call to the house so that he doesn¡¯t have to. Neck and jaw movements can sometimes be a pain during migraines.


    There¡¯s a fairly long pause.


    ¡°Cuicatl, are you still going out tonight?¡±


    You turn towards your stubborn brother.


    {Am I?}


    {I¡¯m fine. You can go.}


    {Do you want me to stay?}


    {I¡¯m not going to pain share and I won¡¯t be good company.}


    {We can talk. I can distract you.}


    {You know I won¡¯t be in a talking mood.}


    {But I will be.}


    He gives you a mental shove. ¡°She is.¡±


    ¡°Okay. I have a box for heatmor by the door. Bring it out to her.¡±


    ¡°Of course,¡± you say.


    A few seconds later you realize that¡¯s all you¡¯re going to get from Dad so you generously let your brother guide you to your shared room. He leaves you standing in the doorway, then stumbles forward and loudly crashes into his bed. Which probably doesn¡¯t help the headache.


    He grumbles something incoherent aloud and you smile in spite of everything. On your way out the door you slip your mind out of his. With one final gesture you point towards your love for him and he belatedly points you towards his for you. Then you shut the door and walk back through the house. You find Searah¡¯s box easily enough by shuffling around near the doorway. You bend down and¡ªmokuitl this is heavy¡ªimmediately set it back down. You take a few steps and open the door. Then you bend down again, properly brace yourself, and haul it up, ignoring the burning in your arms. Next it¡¯s a few awkward waddling steps out the door where the arm pain starts to nestle into your back. You¡¯re strong but you¡¯re small and even Dad might struggle with this one. At long last you can feel the sunlight on all of your body. You bend down and let the box go. Maybe ten centimeters higher than you should¡¯ve given the crash. Oops.


    ¡°Alice! Dorothy! Ilsa!¡± you call. There¡¯s a familiar wingbeat and then warm, dry air rustles your smiling face. Alice cries out her greetings and you take a few steps forward for a hug. Ellas dutifully complies. Ellas is warm which reminds you of your annoying overly macho twin brother. ¡°I know girls, it¡¯s been too long.¡±


    Ten days, actually, which really isn¡¯t bad. Alice¡¯s territory is almost four thousand square kilometers so she can be gone for a while if food is scarce or she has a boundary dispute to attend to.


    Alice grunts her agreement. You slowly step back, making sure to stroke each head in the process. You point in the general direction of the package. ¡°Mind carrying that for¡ª¡±


    There¡¯s a giant rush of wind that almost knocks you off your feet. A moment later you feel Alice¡¯s breathing beside you where the package should be. Ellas barks out a ¡°yes.¡±


    ¡°Good girls,¡± you whisper as you extend a hand. One of the minor heads reaches out to nuzzle it. As you scratch the cheek you run your fingers across a ridge where the scales don¡¯t quite mesh right. Dorothy. ¡°Now let¡¯s go out back to see your friends.¡±


    You gently wrap your hand around the base of Dorothy¡¯s head and start walking towards the gate to the back lot. Alice glides along, subtly pulling you away from a rock (that you knew was there). Then you get to the rusty old gate, open it up with an awful screech, and slip inside. Alice just slides out of your grip and floats over the fence. Her wings beat and stir the wind less often and with less power than you¡¯d expect. However ellas stays airborne, mechanical flight is only a small part of it. You¡¯ve never been able to find out how that works in all of your reading and you¡¯ve read everything the library could find on hydreigon so you¡¯re pretty sure if there was an answer you would¡¯ve found it.


    You close the gate and walk deeper into the lot. ¡°Anyone here?¡±


    Searah squeals and you hear her light, rapid footsteps as she races over. You brace yourself before she practically flings herself on you, standing on her hindlegs as her clawed hands rest on your shoulders and her snout presses against your neck. ¡°Hey girl,¡± you say, before returning the hug. If Alice is warm, Searah is almost uncomfortably so. Comes with her typing. More importantly, she has a wonderful layer of thick fur just long enough to submerge your fingers in. ¡°Brought you a toy.¡±


    She squeaks again, much closer this time, and the meaning flashes into your head. ¡°Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!¡± Searah lowers herself to the ground and shuffles towards the box, a steadily quieter string of thanks echoing in your head. Then you hear her shred the cardboard followed by the faint sound of her tongue licking her food. Probably a durant carcass given the weight. There aren¡¯t any down here and heatmor are literally built to eat them. Naturally they¡¯re her favorite treat.


    {Hello, child.}


    This voice appears directly and exclusively in your mind. It¡¯s distinctly male and very deep and almost echoey. Not threatening just¡­ comforting. Like a warm blanket of words. You could easily fall asleep listening to him. You have several times.


    {Hello, Renfield.}


    He doesn¡¯t physically embrace you. His body is weird. Squishy. He doesn¡¯t like being squished. Not that it hurts him. You¡¯re pretty sure that even Searah would struggle to burst him open. Alice, well, all bets are off there.


    {Is your brother not here today?} he asks, even though he could easily just get that information from your mind. He taught you all of your tricks and he¡¯s way stronger than you are.


    ¡°Achcauhtli¡¯s sick,¡± you respond. Aloud. So that Searah can hear as well. Not that she reacts. Her tongue is probably three feet deep in a giant ant right now.


    {Unfortunate.}


    Alice growls. Quiet and high, descending in volume and pitch at the end. Jealousy. She¡¯s the only one who doesn¡¯t instantly understand what you say, language barrier be damned. It takes you a second to come up with the words, though. Words that she¡¯d understand. Sickness isn¡¯t really a thing that hydreigon deal with. Their only concept of it is in reference to prey. The same growl can mean very old, very young, sick, reckless, or disabled. Anything easy to kill. You replicate the growl (a little bit too high pitch but you can¡¯t really rumble like ellas can), followed up with your brother¡¯s name in human tongue.


    She growls again. This time with a whine at the end from both minor heads.


    ¡°No, not like Danielle.¡±


    Alice snorts. Skepticism. Or a request for clarification. Or both.


    ¡°Not¡­¡± you gesture towards your tummy as you perform the hiss for child. Not pregnant, you mean. Not about to die and be replaced by two helpless infants.


    She chuffs understanding.


    {Did I do that right?} you ask Renfield.


    {You would know better than I.}


    {Okay.}


    ¡°Anyone else here?¡± you ask. There¡¯s a faint shifting in the dirt a few meters away followed by a metallic clang. The closest thing to a greeting that he ever does. And even that¡¯s unusually social for a ferrothorn. ¡°Good to see you too, Spike.¡± No answer. You weren¡¯t really expecting one.


    {Charles and ¡®chovsky here?}


    {No.}


    Also not surprising. They stayed nearby after Mom died out of loyalty or convenience, but they don¡¯t make a habit of being out back when you get home from school. You¡¯re a curiosity because you can talk to them like Mom did, but you aren¡¯t their trainer and never will be.


    {Well, greet them for me.}


    {I will do so.}


    You take a step towards Alice and ellas swoops up to meet you. When you stand up on your tiptoes ellas presses right up against you and you can feel her low, constant growl of affection through the wall of her belly.


    ¡°Ready to go?¡± you ask.


    She responds by yanking you up into the air and soaring off.


    *


    October 5, 2019


    The nurse is quiet for way longer than they usually are. Fuck.


    ¡°Fought a pikipek, did you?¡± she finally asks.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Did you catch the trainer¡¯s name? Or did you exchange bets electronically?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ yeah. He¡¯s my traveling partner. How bad is it?¡±


    She sighs. ¡°She¡¯ll make a full recovery within twenty-four hours. Could¡¯ve been much worse. Pikipek have a hard time controlling their attacks and I want to talk to the trainer before he gets an excessive force ticket.¡±


    You half-smile in spite of everything. Full recovery. You¡¯re a bad trainer, but you didn¡¯t break anyone forever. Not this time.


    ¡°Can I have his name, please? Again, he¡¯s not going to get punished. Just talked to.¡±


    Heh. No need to worry. He wants people to rise and fall by their own hand, fine. He can take his own falls.


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Kekoa. I don¡¯t remember his last name. He¡¯s about sixteen.¡±


    ¡°Has he gone by this center?¡±


    You nod. ¡°He¡¯s staying here. Same room as me.¡±


    The nurse makes a few clicks and keystrokes.


    ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll talk with him tomorrow.¡±


    You lower your head and feel one of your shoes pressing hard enough into the back of your leg that there will be a print for a few hours. Weird. Didn¡¯t even notice that you¡¯d started. You press the shoe in a little harder and sigh.


    ¡°Take good care of her, please.¡±


    ¡°I will,¡± she says in a way that sounds like a smile. ¡°I¡¯ll see you tomorrow.¡±


    You can¡¯t bring yourself to answer that. Only nod and turn around.


    Hau¡¯oli is a really friendly city for the blind. Much better than Tenochtitlan was. Every curb has the bumpy pavement to tell you to stop and all the crossing buttons have a voice telling you to wait or go.


    You ignore it all. There¡¯s a wind on your face and you¡¯re going to walk towards it until you hit the ocean. If someone hits you, well, fuck it. At least your Dad gets some more money to piss away. You get honked at a few times or feel a rush of wind uncomfortably close to your body. At the busiest intersections you even stop until the nice robovoice tells you to go. If you get hit by chance, then that¡¯s fate. You¡¯re fine leaving yourself to fate, to the gods. But you can¡¯t just walk into a car and let the gawkers see your limp body flung across the street. That¡¯s not fate, that¡¯s a choice. And there¡¯s no dignity in it.


    Everything¡¯s numb. No, not numb. The opposite. You¡¯re feeling everything at once and your feelings haven¡¯t quite decided what to tell your brain. But there¡¯s definitely shame. Maybe anger. Fear? No, not fear. Not much anyway. Hunger, of course, because there¡¯s almost always hunger clawing at your insides and tempting you to give in, to break and stuff yourself and become even fatter and less loveable. But it¡¯s a numb pain right now, the kind that settles in after a couple hours.


    By the time you can hear the waves over the cars, you¡¯ve settled on a single thought.


    This wasn¡¯t how things were supposed to go.


    Your mom was a professional battler. You spent hundreds of hours listening to battles on the radio and hundreds more ignoring lectures and daydreaming about teams and routes and strategies. Hundreds more practicing knots and fire and first aid with your brother. You were never popular, sure, but you cuddled with a dragon. Someday you¡¯d leave town and be someone. Everything was looking up until it wasn¡¯t.


    Your dad never blamed you in words, but you¡¯re a telepath and you hear when people think about you like you hear people saying your name from the other end of the room. You should¡¯ve known, should¡¯ve pressed, should¡¯ve stayed, should¡¯ve told him.


    You should¡¯ve been enough.


    Or at least, it should¡¯ve been you that went instead. He had eyes, a future. He never put his hands on his hips and pouted in a way that reminded him far too much of a long-buried woman, never had stupid unobtainable dreams, never got held back a grade because he couldn¡¯t read the books.


    You should¡¯ve been enough. But you weren¡¯t when your brother needed it, which shouldn¡¯t have been a surprise because you¡¯d never been enough before.


    There¡¯s another feeling now. Concern, apprehension. A quiet, trembling voice asking, Where¡¯s this going? even though it already knows the answer. Because it¡¯s your voice. The one you use when someone¡¯s yelling at you. Which, yeah, you¡¯re yelling at yourself now.


    You don¡¯t know when the tears started. Crying in public again. Other people, the ones with eyes, can see you.


    ¡­not that you care about the eyes¡­


    You take a deep, steady breath to beat down the ugly sobs. Keep some dignity, at least.


    The ocean¡¯s below you. Three to five meters, probably. What would happen if you fell? Probably nothing. Unless there were rocks. It¡¯d just be one of those tall diving boards you¡¯ve heard about on television. If there were rocks, if you fell the right way, maybe there¡¯d be nothing at all. Just the feel of the wind and then silence forever. Or maybe you¡¯d screw it up like everything else and wind up a damn cripple too. Then you¡¯d deal with three times the pity. One for the jump, one for the eyes, one for the wheelchair. Like you¡¯re not even human. Just some poor sick infant everyone else is supposed to accommodate. And maybe you are.


    The only battles you¡¯ve won are the ones you felt bad about winning. Baby humans with baby pok¨¦mon. You lost to your partner who you had a type advantage against. If you ever thought you were going to be a good battler you¡¯re definitely don¡¯t anymore. What else are you good for? Emotional support? You shared a damn mind with someone and then left them alone to die of meningitis.


    ¡­


    Please don¡¯t do this.


    ¡­


    What if you did?


    ¡­


    You don¡¯t want to die. You just want things to get better.


    ¡­


    Well, when¡¯s that going to happen?


    ¡­


    How long will it be until someone thinks about you for the last time? Your dad''s probably already written you off as an idiot child who decided to throw herself to the dogs. Kekoa won''t care. Might even be glad. Genesis will be sad for like three days until she realizes that she''s much better off with whoever replaces you. Pixie will be upset until she finds some new trainer to disappoint her. Rachel might show up to the funeral (if anyone even bothers to hold one), but she''s a busy woman and you give her two weeks before she realizes how much of a waste of time you were.


    Alice, Renfield, and Searah would care.


    No. They¡¯ve already found new homes and trainers who won''t fail them when it matters most. Maybe they''ll think about you in pity or scorn a little bit in the upcoming years, but less and less until not at all.


    Three years. You give it three years until the world moves on entirely like you were never here at all.


    ¡­


    That narrative demands to continue, to be finished. But everything around it is screaming in fear and concern and¡­ and¡­ the narrative isn¡¯t you. Not all of you. You sit down and the anger breaks and the narrative isn¡¯t the loudest voice anymore.


    You sob and choke up and make a scene and don¡¯t care.


    People would miss you. The whole town came to¡­ to his service. People you don¡¯t think your brother ever thought much of. And their minds were broken by it, scarred in a way that you¡¯d never seen before. If you could see your own mind¡­


    Well, you weren¡¯t like this before.


    You miss before. You miss Achi. You miss sitting next to him on the hill behind the house as the sun went down and watching his terrible telenovelas while teasing him in your minds. You miss having someone in your head who loved you more than you ever loved yourself. Someone who could take the narrative, shred it, and banish it away.


    ¡­


    Minds are fragile and you¡¯ve seen scars that cut right down to the core and turn normal, happy people into people like you. Oh gods above it hurts. It hurts and you want it to stop and you don¡¯t know how to make it go away and maybe it never will.


    Footsteps approach and you don¡¯t care because there¡¯s a void inside you pulling everything into it that it can and it will never be satisfied.


    Someone bends down beside you. ¡°Hey,¡± she says. It¡¯s quiet and soft and resolute. Like Mom in the memories that Renfield showed you. ¡°I¡¯m Rachel, if you don¡¯t remember,¡± the voice says.


    And then it doesn¡¯t say anything else. But you can still feel her presence. The vague touch of her mind on yours, shying away from the turmoil just inside the surface. It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s a lot. After what you did to her.


    You stick out a hand and she holds it and you keep sobbing but it doesn¡¯t even matter.


    *


    She keeps reading through the menu like you care. A dish name, a description, no price. It¡¯s drowned out by the dozens of conversations and the sounds of the wind and waves and the wingull fighting on the shore and the little whispers of thoughts all around you.


    Eventually she stops talking and gently but audibly sets the menu down.


    ¡°Anything sound good?¡±


    You should respond. Make small talk. Or just give a one-word answer. But it feels like you¡¯re lying down half asleep at the bottom of a pit and the answer is so high above you and you can¡¯t make yourself get up and reach it.


    ¡°Okay. Mind if I pick?¡±


    ¡­


    Do you?


    ¡­


    ¡°Allergies? Dietary restrictions? Things you just don¡¯t like?¡±


    ¡­


    That¡¯s very considerate of her to ask. It¡¯s very inconsiderate of you to just drown in your despair like no one else is hurting. Just give her an answer.


    ¡­


    Now.


    ¡­


    You worthless atlikauitl.


    ¡­


    ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a ¡®no.¡¯ You eat much for breakfast?¡±


    ¡­


    You ate half a muffin before it became a ball of mush in your mouth that just got bigger with every bite so you spit it out into a napkin and threw it all away like a toddler.


    ¡­


    ¡°Hmm. Fried magikarp sandwich fine? It comes with stuff on the side that you can put on if you want it, but otherwise it¡¯s just fish. Natural fish, probably. Not lab.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sounds good.¡±


    Rachel shifts her arms. ¡°Perfect. Congratulations on your Class III, by the way.¡± She sounds like she actually cares.


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    You pick up on more of the whispers and sounds from the minds around you as you slowly pull yourself out of the pit. It takes you a few seconds to banish them again.


    ¡°How¡¯s Pixie?¡±


    ¡°Unconscious. In the Pok¨¦mon Center. For the third time this week.¡±


    Well. It¡¯s out there now and you¡¯re only crying a little bit.


    The waitress comes back and sets down a bowl and says some kind but meaningless words and takes Rachel¡¯s orders before walking away. It doesn¡¯t reach her voice, but her mind has words of confusion and concern and pity bubbling up near the surface.


    Rachel pushes the bowl closer to you and then slides some small objects across the table.


    ¡°Plastic knife. Rawst butter. Little balls of fried dough in the basket. Best if you cut them in half and put the butter in.¡±


    Your arms are heavy. Your mouth is free from he pit but your body hasn¡¯t quite been dragged out yet. Takes a few seconds just to convince your body that, no, really we¡¯re being alive again. You have to very deliberately take control of your arm and take it off autopilot. Then lift it up even though it just wants to stop and rest. Next step: pick up a ball. It¡¯s rough, none of the crumbs really come off, even if you rub a finger along it). Set the ball down. Steel yourself and lift the arm, fingertips reaching down almost to the tablecloth. Find the butter packet and cut some bread in half. By the time you¡¯ve buttered it you feel like you¡¯ve just done twenty pull ups.


    Look at you. Eating food. So accomplished.


    ¡­


    The food is good though. The butter has the taste of preserved fruit. Deeper and richer and almost bitter. Not the vaguely sweet water of fresh fruit. Or the fruit snacks she gave you that tasted like how soft plastic feels.  The bread is probably too dry in the way that fried dough usually is if it¡¯s not fluffy. The hint of food turns the hunger from a quiet ache in the background to a ravenous beast that will not be ignored.


    Whatever. You reach for another one.


    You can just skip dinner. Fake being sick. But then Genesis would bring you food, because she¡¯s like that. Nevermind. Go on a walk alone at dinner time. Sit on a bench for a few hours. Come back, say that you got food on your way back.


    Rachel doesn¡¯t say anything for a while. You don¡¯t think she¡¯s eating, either. Just watching you. Weird.


    ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± she asks.


    It takes you an awkwardly long time to finish chewing and swallow and speak. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± You reach for a third before she can follow up. She does anyway. ¡°You know where you¡¯re starting your journey at?¡±


    You shake your head.


    ¡°Oh. Akala. You¡¯ll get the full details at the briefing tomorrow. While you¡¯re there, there¡¯s someone I think you should meet.¡±


    You reach your hand in the basket but there¡¯s nothing left. Did you really eat all of that? How many? At least five balls three centimeters across. That¡¯s maybe a full centimeter of fat spread across your stomach. Your skin will swell in size as the blubber grows, becomes obvious and hideous and unable to just hide beneath your shirt like it should. They¡¯ll laugh. Leave you. They should.


    ¡°I can ask for more if you¡ª¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Probably a good idea. Your sandwich should be here soon. Anyway, Akala. There¡¯s a person there. They¡¯re sort of the boss of people like us on the islands, even if they like to say that they¡¯re less of a boss and more of a preschool teacher trying to get the entire class through the day without anyone sticking their finger in a socket.¡±


    You give a ¡°heh¡± because it sounds like a joke and you don¡¯t have a laugh in you right now. Your mind is still whizzing away in the background, revising your earlier plan from a walk and sitting on a bench to a run. And then figuring out the logistics of going for a run without Pixie in unfamiliar territory. Maybe go to another center and use a treadmill?


    ¡°It¡¯s sort of a formality. Meeting them. But we don¡¯t have a school on the island and they¡¯re in the best position to talk about options and¡­¡± She sighs. ¡°I don¡¯t know everything that you¡¯re going through, but I think it might be good for you to wait a few months and get some training before you start out.¡±


    You frown. Response. Response that needs thought. ¡°Can¡¯t. Time limit.¡±


    ¡°Visa time limit? Because she could get you transferred to the mainland with an educational visa in hand within a day.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not the visa.¡±


    ¡°Mission from Xerneas? World to save?¡±


    You don¡¯t like the tone. It¡¯s closer to mocking than anything she¡¯s ever taken. Like she saw what you just did with the bread. And you don¡¯t want to explain why there¡¯s a time limit. Not now. Not here. Not when both the hunger and the narrative are feeding off of each other. Not when you feel like this.


    The waitress comes back and sets down your food. Words are said. You don¡¯t really pay attention.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. That was rude. I know the last thing you want right now is probably more school, but trust me: it helps. I wasn¡¯t doing too well before I went. Life sucked, didn¡¯t understand who I was. A few years at the academy turned me around. I like to imagine I¡¯m doing pretty well right now.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad it helped you.¡±


    There¡¯s a sandwich in front of you. It would be awkward to explain why you¡¯re not eating this and she was very, very nice to buy it for you. You take a bite. It¡¯s actually pretty good. Perks of being on the sea. The magikarp was probably swimming this morning. It¡¯s still fried and you can imagine the shape of the fish stuck on top of your stomach. Doesn¡¯t sound like Rachel¡¯s moved to touch her food, though.


    ¡°Look. I know that you don¡¯t want to talk about it but¡ª¡±


    {If we¡¯re going to do this, and I¡¯d really rather not, let¡¯s not do it where people can hear.}


    She sighs, aloud. ¡°I¡¯m not as good at that as you are, but I¡¯ll try.¡± {You¡¯re not doing well. Second time this week. At least. Can get help before leave. Therapy. Training. Battle practice. Friends. Scared to send you into wild now.}


    You take another bite to hide your scowl.


    {You going to stop me?}


    ¡°Cuicatl, I am worried. Am I wrong to be?¡±


    That is patently unfair. What are you supposed to say to that? Say yes and you¡¯re saying she¡¯s crazy. No and you¡¯re admitting she¡¯s right.


    ¡°Worried about what?¡±


    You hear her eat a little of her sandwich. Probably buying some time.


    ¡°It¡¯s lonely out there. I know. I lasted for all of three weeks in the woods before I decided it wasn¡¯t for me. If you don¡¯t have a support network and aren¡¯t in a good place going in, you¡¯re not going to be able to handle bad feelings well when they come. And they will come.¡±


    ¡®Will come.¡¯ Like they¡¯re not here. Like they haven¡¯t been here. Like they aren¡¯t the core of who you are.


    ¡°I have Pixie.¡±


    She groans. ¡°Your entire emotional support system is a narcissistic fox? That¡¯s your argument?¡±


    And her. And kind of Kekoa when he isn¡¯t being a dick. Not that you can blame him. Pixie started panicking about a male human bleeding from the crotch and now you understand that the dick was you all along. No wonder he hates you.


    Rachel has a point. In a better, fairer world you¡¯d even agree with her. But in this one you can¡¯t.


    ¡°Compromise: I meet with your friend at the end of the first island. When I know what I¡¯m in for.¡±


    Your phone buzzes in your pocket.


    ¡°Deal. Just sent you my number. Feel free to message me when you have signal if you need to talk.¡±


    You start to pick at your fries. They¡¯re decent. Not as good as the bread or fish. And you aren¡¯t obligated to eat them. But your traitorous fingers start wandering and looking for something to do. You¡¯re quiet for long enough that your phone buzzes again, a reminder that you¡¯ve ignored the message for two minutes.


    ¡°Why are you doing this?¡±


    ¡°Doing what?¡±


    That takes a second. What is she doing, in normal people words?


    ¡°Food. Talking. You¡¯re busy, you don¡¯t have to¡ª¡±


    ¡°Obviously.¡± If she was condescending before, now she¡¯s biting. Like she wants you to shut up and go away even if her words say the opposite. ¡°If I didn¡¯t want to do this I could just put it at the bottom of my long, long to-do list. But this is important to me. You¡¯re important to me.¡±


    You only really hear ¡®long, long to-do list¡¯ as a spear of guilt impales you right through your overstuffed guts. Right. You¡¯re not only wasting someone¡¯s time, you¡¯re wasting the time of someone important.


    You stand up and pull out your cane. She rises to meet you can hear the faint sound bills landing on the table. ¡°Thank you, then. I¡¯ll be on my way.¡±


    You start to walk and she keeps pace. ¡°Where are you going?¡±


    ¡°Pok¨¦mon Center.¡± Probably not a lie. Unless you decide to go somewhere else.


    ¡°Good, it¡¯s on my way. Let me come with you.¡±


    How do you say no? How do you say no so that she¡¯ll let you just walk away and give fate a few more chances to take you away? You don¡¯t think you can. She¡¯s perceptive and oddly committed. You let her guide you and obey all the traffic laws in silence. Because there¡¯s nothing you can say that will get you what you want. That will get her to leave you alone.


    You take the time to put your happy face back on. Physical things. Rolling your shoulders back. Smiling as much as you can manage. Trying to take lighter steps even though your legs still feel like lead. Singing a nursery rhyme in your head and then quietly humming it, even though Rachel might notice. Trying to spread the smile throughout your whole body. Breathing different. You¡¯ve had practice. Years of it.


    Your happy face likes things. Dreams about things. Laughs spontaneously. Thinks she¡¯ll survive the New Fire. Hopes she¡¯ll survive the New Fire. She has friends. Used to have family, but she honestly doesn¡¯t dwell on that. Likes her showers as cold as she can stand them. Cuddles dragons. Sometimes she even thinks people like her.


    She isn¡¯t a fat, useless atlikauitl one day away from killing herself.


    You don¡¯t know if she¡¯s real. You read once that ¡°we are what we pretend to be.¡± You¡¯d like to think that¡¯s true. Because you like her. She¡¯s what you should have been. Someday you might even be her. But, no, you think the quote was wrong. There¡¯s what we pretend to be and what we are.


    The doors open in front of you and you walk in. Rachel¡¯s footsteps don¡¯t follow. You turn your head just enough that the woman will know she¡¯s being acknowledged.


    ¡°You going to be alright?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± you say.


    You almost mean it.

 Normal 6: Pixie

    Normal 1.6: Through the City of Fire


    Pixie


    October 7<sup>th</sup>, 2019


    You hear one of the humans talking to everyone and no one. She turns towards your cage and unlocks it before reaching in to pull you out. After she runs a forepaw along your side she seems to decide that you¡¯re okay. Reality disappears in a flash of red.


    What is this?


    ¡­


    Is this place a place or not?


    ¡­


    How would you know?


    ¡­


    Who is you?


    ¡­


    There were just thoughts.


    ¡­


    What are thoughts?


    ¡­


    This.


    ¡­


    There was something before.


    ¡­


    What is ¡®befor


    Reality reappears. You shake yourself off and breathe before pulling yourself in.


    This is.


    You are.


    Skysong moves to pick you up and you let her. Her grip misses the mark a little bit before you correct it and it feels like it could slip at any moment, but it¡¯s warm and pleasant while it lasts.


    ¡°Hey, Pix,¡± she says. The words come from her chest beside you and her mouth above you at about the same time.


    She doesn¡¯t sound angry. She smells like almost all of the feelings at once, but anger is not the main one.


    You don¡¯t quite know why, but it doesn¡¯t seem like she hates you.


    ¡°They feed you yet today?¡±


    Did they? You aren¡¯t sure. That depends on how long you weren¡¯t.


    ¡°Not hungry,¡± you answer.


    Skysong hums and the noise reverberates through her and into you. ¡°Alright. I¡¯m going to eat some toast or something. Then I¡¯ve got a meeting at the VStar building. We¡¯re getting our first assignment today. Should be on the trail in three, maybe four more days.¡± She resumes humming. You aren¡¯t sure if you¡¯re supposed to speak over it or not. ¡°I was thinking, maybe instead of battling we could take a few days to teach you to be a better guide fox. You don¡¯t have to if you don¡¯t want to, of course.¡±


    ¡°Want to,¡± you yip.


    ¡°Good,¡± she says. Then she bends down slowly before relaxing her grip. You take the hint and jump to the ground. ¡°We¡¯ll start on the way back from the meeting.¡±


    *


    ¡°Toast,¡± Skysong explains between bites, is the result of humans grinding up strange berries that are always dry, tossing small sick animals in, throwing it all in a fire, taking it out and letting it cool, and then throwing it all in a fire again. It seems like far too much effort for something that doesn¡¯t look or smell good. But then she puts on a paste that comes out of milk when you attack it. It is odd that even adult humans keep drinking milk. Then again, they are very weak and probably need all of the help they can get. And the paste smells good, too. Even if you are too strong and adult to want any.


    *


    Reality resumes in the blessed cold of inside. You could have walked with Skysong through the metal forest with burning air and hard black rivers, but she wants help later and you can¡¯t do any good if you are literally melted.


    The other two humans in her pack are present, the still-wounded Bloodrage and the annoying frog owner Growlsleeper. There is also a new and as-yet-nameless adult male human. Before you can crawl up on the big flat climbing structure to get a good look at Nameless, Skysong pulls you back towards her and starts petting you. Her heart doesn¡¯t sound like Nameless is a threat, so you can put off your exploration until after the petting stops.


    ¡°Looks like you¡¯ve had a busy week. Kekoa and Cuicatl, congrats on your Class III. Most trainers stop there, but if you want to go higher, we¡¯ll gladly help you,¡± Nameless says in a way that makes it sound like teeth are bared. Not in the ¡°threat¡± or ¡°happy¡± sense, but in the ¡°I want to make you think I am not a threat¡± one humans sometimes use. The scent is always the giveaway. It is strange that humans express so much through their glands but then are not able to smell it. Like they were designed to not understand each other.


    Humans must be very lonely.


    ¡°Genesis, good job on the Class II. Enjoy your time off from studying, but I would try to get the Class III when you¡¯re back. It will let you take better paying missions later on.¡±


    ¡°I, um, okay,¡± Growlsleeper stammers out. ¡°Thank you?¡±


    Sometimes you think Growlsleeper is almost smart enough to not understand human communications. Like Skysong! She told you that humans make no sense and she can¡¯t explain them to you because she just cheats and uses her mind. She¡¯s nice so she did try to answer a few questions before she finally had to give up.


    ¡°No problemo,¡± Nameless responds before clapping his hands together to create a weak shockwave attack. Your ears flick back and Skysong flinches under you. She should work on that. It makes her very easy to take out at the start of a fight. You will help her fix this problem. Maybe roar in her ear at random times until she stops reacting. ¡°Now! I have an important announcement to make, drumroll please,¡± he starts banging his forepaws on the board really quickly. You glance up to Skysong and inquiry growl. Is the climbing structure a threat? You know some wood that smells dead is actually alive and moves and should be killed so that it is dead for real.


    {Not a threat.}


    Oh. Just another inexplicable human thing.


    ¡°At the break of dawn Wednesday we¡¯ll pick you up and take you to a secret journey starting ritual¡ª¡±


    ¡°Mantine ride.¡± Bloodrage yawns and makes no effort to slow or quiet it. ¡°It¡¯s a mantine ride. All over the forums.¡±


    ¡°Well. We¡¯ll see on Wednesday¡ª¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s actually the problem,¡± Bloodrage interjects. ¡°Because one of us won¡¯t be seeing anything and I want to make sure that you¡¯ve at least thought about that before dawn Wednesday.¡±


    Skysong¡¯s hand stops and she moves to cross her legs under you, forcing you to move to the edge of the seat before she abruptly stops. {Sorry.} Then she moves her legs back to how they were. You take a second to make sure that everything has settled again before you quietly yawn an apology and curl back up. She resumes petting you. As she should.


    ¡°¡­I will look into it. If there is a problem with our secret journey starter we¡¯ll find something else for her to do.¡±


    Your trainer¡¯s paw lifts just a bit, one claw curled back and pointed down like a snake about to strike down. ¡°Thank you,¡± she says, and her claw falls back in line with the rest and ruffles your headfur.


    ¡°No problem. We¡¯re going to drop you off in Heahea around noon. Pick you up thirty-five days later at North Shores. We¡¯ll text you more info on that when the date comes closer.¡±


    Bloodrage leans forward and you can hear his hands pressing down on the table, causing the whole thing to creak and shift. ¡°Anything else we need to here or could this have just been a five line email?¡±


    ¡°You want to know what you¡¯ll be catching, right?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Growlsleeper says.


    ¡°Your main goal is paras. They can be caught in Brooklet Hill and Alolan Rainforests NPP after you¡¯ve beaten the trial there. Invasive little buggers, but they¡¯re useful in medicine. Catch limit is five a trainer and you should each be able to catch five. You can sell them to us at twenty each.¡±


    ¡°Not as much money as orientation implied,¡± Bloodrage says.


    ¡°Well, that brings me to your secondary mission: castform. There are a few in the Alolan Rainforests preserve and the season on them just opened up. We¡¯ll buy them from you for $1000. Limit¡¯s one a trainer but don¡¯t be too worried if you can¡¯t reach that. I¡¯d be impressed if you got one between you.¡±


    ¡°Now we¡¯re talking.¡±


    ¡°Glad to hear it. Between the two, you can either go straight north and take on the normal trial in Kuahiwi or loop east and try to take on the fire trial and grass trials as well, maybe even face off with the Kahuna at the end. It¡¯s ambitious, but it¡¯s been done before.¡±


    They say more words. It¡¯s boring. You decide to ask Skysong a question you thought of earlier. ¡°What¡¯s a mantine?¡±.


    ¡°Pixie,¡± Skysong hisses. Her heart is beating faster. Threat? Is the mantine a threat?


    ¡°There a problem, miss?¡± Nameless asks.


    ¡°No, sir. Pixie just got a little excited. Can I go into the hall to calm her down?¡±


    ¡°A-OK with me. I¡¯m sure Kekoa or Genesis can fill you in later.¡±


    ¡°I will!¡± Growlsleeper chimes in.


    Skysong bares her teeth and nods. ¡°Thank you.¡± She starts to stand so you jump up and follow her out.


    ¡°What¡¯s a mantine?¡± you bark again as soon as the door is closed.


    Skysong sighs. ¡°After we finish guide training, we¡¯re going to work harder on telepathy.¡±


    You hop up into her lap as she sits down on a long climbing structure that¡¯s only a little bit taller than you are.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because people don¡¯t like it when pok¨¦mon are loud when people¡ªwhen humans are talking. And if you¡¯re wearing a guide harness it¡¯s really important that you¡¯re quiet when humans are talking.¡±


    You swat your tails at her. ¡°Humans are boring.¡±


    ¡°I know.¡± She ruffles your headfur before really scratching your cheek and you lean into the wonderful petting. ¡°Humans also have good things that we both want. We have to be nice to them.¡±


    ¡°I can hunt,¡± you offer.


    Skysong laughs in her high pitch windy way. ¡°Great. Now, can you make blankets?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m better than blankets.¡±


    ¡°Clothing?¡±


    You stretch out before curling into a ball on her lap. She¡¯s clearly trying to drag this out, so you can afford to get comfortable.


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Falsefur is unnecessary. Sea level is already hot.¡±


    She stops petting you, leaving her forepaw awkwardly hovering above your neck, a finger in striking position again.


    ¡°I¡¯m thinking that¡­ well, you might be getting some teammates on Akala. But only for maybe two weeks! Then I¡¯ll let them go and you can be my only pok¨¦mon again.¡±


    You lift your head and make eye contact. Challenging her. Even if she can¡¯t see it. ¡°Why?¡±


    She leans back onto her forelegs and her head droops until her chin brushes against the base of her neck.


    ¡°I have to catch the paras anyway. I could immediately hand them over to VStar, but I think they might be useful in the trial. Assuming we go straight north. I can¡¯t see why we wouldn¡¯t. If we go the long way then, uh, how do you feel about getting lit on fire?¡±


    You huff, ¡°I¡¯d like to see someone try.¡±


    She bares her teeth in either absolute fear or joyous recognition of your power. ¡°Right. I, um, it would make me feel better if we got a water-type friend for that one.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± you whine. ¡°Fire turns ice into water and then water hurts fire. I win.¡±


    Why is she already trying to replace you? You¡¯ve been a good fox! She¡¯s not going to leave you. She can¡¯t. You¡¯re being nice and everything! Ice foxes are better than fish (they can¡¯t even breathe on land, much less fight there!) and she¡¯s smart for a human so she has to know that, right? Why is she acting like she doesn¡¯t get it. Like she doesn¡¯t love you.


    ¡°Just think about it, okay? I will pick up pok¨¦mon for two, three weeks at a time if I need them. If you treat them well, I¡¯ll let you veto any permanent teammates you want.¡± She starts to get up before you can figure out a response. ¡°And you know what bats are, right?¡±


    Yes. You used to sit at the edge of a hole in the mountain and wait for thinwings to fly out in a giant swarm and then you would fire up sharp icicles and sometimes you¡¯d knock one down and eat it.


    ¡°Well, mantine are like giant bats that live in the water. Since you wanted to know.¡±


    *


    You still aren¡¯t entirely sure if Skysong is going to abandon you for a fish, but she has started treating you properly. First, she took you to a store that smelled like many, many other pok¨¦mon and got you a harness. You didn¡¯t think you wanted falsefur, but the harness is sky blue with white curvy lettering and it matches your eyes and fur and it is perfect. You will wear it until it breaks and then scream until you are given one that is even better.


    Then there was practice inside of a giant building with lots of humans that was thankfully kept cool. And then more practice on a road that was not cool. It took you some time to catch on, but now you are an almost perfect guide fox pretty much all of the time. Even if Skysong did reprimand you when there was this big black moon ring eevee and you had to protect your trainer. Apparently, you are not supposed to protect her when you are wearing the harness. Even from eevee. And you are not supposed to roar at the giant metal boxes humans send down the hard black rivers, even if they are going very fast and being very loud near your very vulnerable human. And one time people were walking very close to your trainer and you almost got stepped on so you jumped in front of Skysong and then she kicked you. She apologized. You weren¡¯t hurt: no human could hurt you. It was fine.


    Now you are being rewarded for the excellent job that you did!


    Rewarded outside. Which is bad. But there is at least something to hide from the sun under, even if for some utterly unknowable reason Skysong is only keeping her legs in the shade.


    Growlsleeper walks back up to you and sets some things down on the structure you¡¯re resting under. ¡°That¡¯s your chocolate, my leppa and,¡± she bends down under the table and places a small cup down beside you. ¡°Pixie¡¯s vanilla.¡±


    Growsleeper sits down, also only putting her legs in the shade. You approach the cup and sniff it. It feels cold. Smells strange. A little like the paste on Skysong¡¯s toast. Food?


    {Yes, food.} Skysong messages. You hadn¡¯t even meant to ask her.


    Okay. Food. You stick your tongue out and let the very tip of it sink into the paste. It doesn¡¯t taste like snow. Thicker. A little more solid. It¡¯s familiar, like¡ªoh like the strange floating icicles that showed up right before Thirdborn and Fifthborn got lost. The icicles tasted very good. They were very mean but pretty weak. You start taking very big licks out of the icicle corpse in front of you before it starts melting in the unbearable heat. Pretty soon there is nothing left to lick up and you sit down, your mouth and throat and belly suitably cold. Skysong loves you! Probably.


    ¡°Leppa?¡± Skysong asks. It takes you a second to realize that she isn¡¯t talking to you.


    ¡°Oh, yeah, they¡¯re these really sweet berries. Kind of small¡ª¡±


    ¡°I know what leppa berries are. Never heard of them on ice cream.¡±


    There¡¯s a moment of silence above you. Growsleeper crosses her legs and you have to duck to avoid getting hit by her paw.


    ¡°Right. It¡¯s actually super common? Like, leppa, chocolate, and vanilla. Except no one actually gets leppa¡­¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± Skysong scrapes her hollowed-out-claw against the edge of the wood pulp. ¡°Only one place in the village that had ice cream. Owner made it from scratch. Don¡¯t think she sold leppa, but I could¡¯ve just missed it. Never liked the berries¡¯ taste, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Chocolate?¡± Growlsleeper asks.


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°Sorry. Just. You led by stating my flavor as a question and uh. Yeah. Kinda thought that. Nevermind.¡±


    Skysong laughs. Was there something funny? A threat? Humans are very strange.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Honestly just wanted to see how American chocolate holds up.¡± Growlsleeper¡¯s legs uncross and again you have to dodge a paw.


    ¡°How does it?¡±


    Skysong laughs again. Shorter this time. ¡°It doesn¡¯t. As for the vanilla, I read online that vulpix like white foods and I also wasn¡¯t sure what flavors she can and can¡¯t eat. Dog stomach, you know?¡±


    You are not a dog. You do not have a ¡°dog stomach.¡± You have a fox stomach. But you are wearing the collar so you should not point this out now. No. You will wait and then make your grievances known. Probably by hiding her white stick while she¡¯s asleep. She hates it when you do that.


    ¡°How did you know that vanilla ice cream is white?¡± Growlsleeper asks? Accuses? Both?


    ¡°You know most blind people weren¡¯t born blind, right?¡±


    Another swinging kick from Growlsleeper! How dare she?


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that.¡±


    There are a few more desperate scrapings of a claw on wood pulp above you before something gets pushed across the structure.


    ¡°I was, though. It¡¯s not the cataracts. I just leave those because my brother said they make me look like a wizard.¡±


    Growlsleeper giggles. Skysong joins in. It¡¯s short but you¡¯re not sure if they¡¯re arguing or not anymore.


    ¡°Anyway. Colors. I don¡¯t see them, but other people think they¡¯re important. That means that they¡¯re important for me to know.¡±


    ¡°Okay. But how do you figure out what color things are?¡±


    ¡°I ask people. Or read it in books.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± You think about asking what books are. But then you remember earlier and how Skysong doesn¡¯t like you interrupting so you don¡¯t. Like a very good fox she should love. ¡°I can tell you what color clothes are, if you need help now.¡±


    Skysong¡¯s legs start to shift and you stand up to get out of the way. She abruptly pauses. {Crossing legs.} And then she finishes, legs crossed just above the paws. Nice gesture but it would be better if it came earlier. {It¡¯s reflex. Sorry. Don¡¯t think about it in advance.}


    ¡°Thank you. I don¡¯t think I will be buying clothes for a while, though.¡±


    It is very, very warm in the shade. You puff out air and shake yourself off, sending shards of ice clattering to the ground. You get down and roll in them, relieved to feel cold outside of your body.


    ¡°Oh. Yeah. I, uh, I meant when clothes break.¡±


    ¡°Break?¡±


    ¡°Y¡¯know? Tears and stains and stuff.¡±


    ¡°I can sew small ones back together.¡±


    Your gorgeous fur is a prison of fire. But you are a good fox wearing a beautiful harness. You will not misbehave until the harness comes off.


    ¡°You can sew?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t?¡±


    This is boring. What even is sewing? And your ice shards are almost all melted. Now you¡¯re hot and wet and this is maybe the worst thing to ever happen to you.


    ¡°You really can¡¯t sew? No one ever taught you?¡±


    ¡°No. That¡¯s not ¡­ okay I guess there are a lot of girls who know how, but it¡¯s not really expected or anything?¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡± There¡¯s a long-bodied mammal at the edge of the clearing. Yungoos! That¡¯s what Grasseyes called it. Should you tell Skysong about it? You will if it gets closer. They¡¯re known to steal food from the bowls of very good foxes. ¡°It¡¯s one of the first things girls are taught in Anahuac. I just assumed¡­¡±


    Growlsleeper¡¯s voice gets quiet. ¡°Bad for girls over there?¡±


    ¡°Sort of. Girls have options.¡± You see Skysong¡¯s leg twitch at the edge of your vision, but she stops herself before it moves. ¡°But boys have better ones.¡±


    Interesting. Humans are patriarchal. That makes Bloodrage the leader of the pack. Does that mean you have to take orders from him? You hope not.


    ¡°That¡¯s sort of how it works here. Well, same opportunities. But boys get the best ones because xerneas made them stronger and smarter than us.¡±


    The heat has almost fully evaporated the water on you. Now you are only very, very hot. You accidentally flick a tail against Skysong. She ignores it.


    ¡°Kekoa¡¯s smarter than me?¡±


    You flick another tail on accident.


    {Yes?}


    You whimper in heat-related pain and Skysong seems to get your meaning. She fiddles with her belt and takes your pok¨¦ball out.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say¡ª¡±


    ¡°Yeah. You did. If boys are all smarter than girls.¡±


    Growlsleeper doesn¡¯t respond as Skysong leans down and reaches out to you. She runs her hands through your fur more than is probably needed to take the harness off. Not that you¡¯re complaining.


    ¡°I like to think I¡¯m smart. Smarter than him.¡± She finishes unhooking the last strap and pulls the harness off in one motion. Maybe a little too roughly. Then she reaches for the sweet nothingness of your pok¨¦ball. ¡°But everyone keeps telling me I¡¯m not. Maybe I¡¯m wrong.¡±


    {You can tell me aloud if you¡¯re hot. Even in your harness.}


    You bristle and start to growl right before you un-become.


    Now she tells you.


    *


    You reform on Skysong¡¯s bed. A quick sniff and glance confirms that both of the other pack members are present, but neither of their pok¨¦mon are. Interesting scent though. You turn towards it and take a few small steps forward, nose to the ground. There it is! On Skysong¡¯s pillow. It¡¯s¡­ salt? Like the ocean? Why did she throw her pillow into the sea? Even by human standards that is very strange.


    Bloodrage makes harsh throat air. ¡°Well, now that you girls are done with your shopping spree, can we get back to business?¡±


    ¡°Just bought a harness¡­¡± Growlsleeper mumbles.


    Bloodrage ignores her and Skysong doesn¡¯t say anything at all. ¡°Any objections to just heading up Routes 4 and 5 to North Point? Sure, we could go a little out of the way to Royale Avenue but then we¡¯d be cutting it close for castform catching.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine going straight north,¡± Skysong says before baring her teeth and tilting her head. Uh oh. ¡°How was your excessive force lecture, by the way?¡±


    Bloodrage glares. ¡°Next time you want to be a sore loser, please don¡¯t drag me into it.¡±


    ¡°Or what? You¡¯ll beat me up. And get another talk? Almost worth it.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re right.¡± Bloodrage puts his paws together and there¡¯s a sharp breaking sound. ¡°It almost would be.¡±


    There¡¯s a fit of coughing from right above you. Growlsleeper.


    ¡°I¡¯m also fine going north. We want to talk about tents and stuff tonight?¡±


    Bloodrage lifts his glare a little bit and crosses his arms. Skysong frowns. Did she want to challenge him? Even though she is female and would lose, since male humans are smarter and stronger? The stalemate breaks. Bloodrage kicks his hindlegs up into his bed and lies down in it, staring at the platform above him.


    ¡°Still more road shit to discuss. One night in Heahea. Anyone insist on staying longer?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± Growlsleeper says quickly enough that the words blend into each other.


    Skysong shrugs. You flick a tail at her to remind her that she is within petting distance of you and is not petting you. She reacts incorrectly by reaching into the harness bag.


    ¡°Okay. With that settled, three nights on Route 4.¡±


    ¡°Why,¡± Skysong asks as she rummages around the bag. ¡°We could do it in one day and not sleep on the trail at all.¡±


    She finally finds what she¡¯s looking for and pulls out¡ªa brush! Not a human one but one for very beautiful fur. Like yours! You hop up on her lap and she takes a second to feel where you are before she starts brushing.


    ¡°Says the¡ª¡± Bloodrage sighs and says nothing as Skysong brushes your mane. ¡°I want to know if the gear works. It¡¯s also a chance to train and maybe capture some pok¨¦mon before the trial gets too close. I¡¯ve thought this through. Trust me.¡±


    You press your cheek into the bristles and feel them slide past you and down your neck and side. You immediately turn around and press your other cheek against the brush before she has a chance to take it away.


    ¡°Is there still enough time if we do that?¡±


    Bloodrage shifts onto his side to look at your trainer. ¡°Yeah. Thirty-five nights. One in Heahea. Three on Route 4. Three in Paniola. Four on the lower part of Route 5. Three at Brooklet Hill. Six on the upper part of Route 5. Up to fourteen for training, trial, and castform catching. Whatever¡¯s left at North Shores.¡±


    Skysong sets the brush down and you reflexively rush towards her hand and snap your teeth down a hair away from her skin. The betrayal! She looks at you like she¡¯s annoyed and. Oh no. Maybe she thinks you¡¯re going to bite and kill her and now she hates you and is going to get rid of you as soon as she can.


    Your trainer sighs and stands up. ¡°More brushing later, Pix. And Kekoa? Your plan¡¯s good enough for now. We can talk more after my shower.¡±


    *


    When humans lick themselves clean they insist on being surrounded by very hot water that makes all the air around the grooming site get very hot as well. You¡¯ve learned to keep your distance and wait on Skysong¡¯s soft bed for her return. She vocalizes under the water. Something about a ¡°witch¡± and a sky snake. You could easily kill sky snakes. Snakes hate cold. Birds hate cold. They would run the second they saw you but they wouldn¡¯t because you would sneak up on them so stealthily that they wouldn¡¯t see you so they¡¯d die and you would eat them.


    She comes out a little bit later hair damp and her body smelling odd (humans apparently lick something with a very strong scent before licking themselves clean). When she sits down you note that she¡¯s cold. Not embraced by lingering heat. Very strange.


    ¡°Now,¡± Skysong says. ¡°Logistics. Let¡¯s start with food.¡±


    ¡°I have a list,¡± Bloodrage responds. ¡°Mostly freeze-dried and canned stuff that lasts a long time and can be cooked on a camp stove. Ideally it wouldn¡¯t require cooking at all.¡±


    Skysong shakes her head. ¡°No. Too expensive.¡±


    ¡°Two-thirds discount on camping gear for the first month. Applies to most camping food.¡±


    Skysong leans back and folds her arms. ¡°And the discount gets cut in half later. Besides, preservation isn¡¯t an issue.¡±


    Bloodrage rolls his eyes. ¡°Now, if you don¡¯t remember you agreed to a seven-day segment on the trail. No refrigerators there.¡±


    ¡°Depends on your definition of refrigerator.¡± You get pulled up rather aggressively onto your trainer¡¯s lap.


    Yes. You are a refrigerator. The cutest refrigerator. Also, hiding inside of refrigerators is very fun.


    Bloodrage crosses his arms to match Skysong. ¡°By the time you get to the end of a day of hiking you won¡¯t want to cook.¡±


    ¡°All I¡¯d have to do is warm stuff up. Not very hard.¡±


    ¡°Like?¡±


    ¡°Beans, cheese, and vegetables on a tortilla. Cooked in advance and warmed up when needed.¡±


    ¡°Can I jump in?¡± Growlsleeper asks.


    ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    ¡°I think I vote for Kekoa¡¯s plan? I don¡¯t want to eat the same thing everyday. And backpacking food sounds exciting.¡±


    Skysong practically hisses as she exhales air. ¡°Fine. See if I care.¡±


    *


    ¡°What are the stars like?¡±


    You look up at Skysong.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°My¡ªmy brother used to tell me what stars were out, and what he¡¯d learned about them in school. Then I¡¯d share any songs I¡¯d learned about the stars and their stories and we¡¯d just sit there for a while. Sometimes talking about life. Sometimes not. I was hoping¡­ forget it.¡±


    You don¡¯t understand. But you¡¯ll do it if it will make her love you.


    ¡°Not many stars. Human lights are too bright.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± She sounds disappointed.


    ¡°There are lots and lots of stars on the mountain.¡±


    She lowers a hand and you press your muzzle into it. ¡°Do you have stories about the stars?¡±


    ¡°When the ninetales were stolen by the moon, the rainbow kept sending stars to win us back. And then the moon added some of her own¡­ now there are a lot of them.¡±


    Another hand drops down and she presses both against you, one on each side of your face. A finger from each rubs against your ears. ¡°Do the individual stars have stories? Or the groups of them?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°When we get away from the city, can you tell me some of them? I¡¯d love that.¡±


    Love!


    ¡°Yes!¡±

 Normal 7: Genesis

    Normal 1.7: A White Muk


    Genesis


    October 11, 2019


    You aren¡¯t sure what you were expecting to feel. But calm? That never occurred to you.


    There¡¯s wind in your hair and you know that your locks are only held in place by the weight of the water in them. You closed your eyes a long time ago because water droplets kept flying into them. And you¡¯re standing up on the back of a pok¨¦mon on the high seas with giant waves beside you and you feel nothing at all. You almost want to laugh but that would break the moment. So you¡¯re just grinning like a madwoman as water rushes by beneath you and wind beside you. Hours in the temple every week of your life and somehow? Somehow this is the closest you¡¯ve ever been to Xerneas.


    ¡°FUCK!¡±


    The peace shatters. You turn around and the mantine beneath you groans. ¡°Oh. No! Not a command. Stay forward.¡± The mantine purrs again and you keep moving at a noticeably slower pace. You glance back over your shoulder without shifting your weight and accidentally giving an order. Kekoa¡¯s in the water, a receding splotch of orange with his mantine and the guide beside him. The guide looks at you and whistles; your mantine swerves away from the biggest waves and comes to a stop.


    Kekoa struggles to get back on his pok¨¦mon and then slips off again while trying to get into the harness. It¡¯s mean but you giggle. He can¡¯t hear you anyway. A thought comes to you, a meaner one, and your smile starts to strain your muscles. You practice the line in your head, refining it and thinking of all the variations for when he finally gets on his mantine and comes over towards you with the guide.


    He stops right beside you, the guide drifting in somewhere behind. Kekoa frowns. ¡°What are you so happy about?¡±


    ¡°I just love this time of year, y¡¯know?¡±


    He glances up at you. While he¡¯s really hooked up to the harness and you¡¯re standing you absolutely tower above him. More than usual, anyway. ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I like watching the fall.¡±


    Kekoa just stares at you. For long enough that your mantine gets a little restless and raises a flipper up before splashing it down. The impact sends water straight into his face. He blinks and reaches up to wipe the seaspray off.


    ¡°At least I¡¯m trying to do tricks. You¡¯re just gliding along like an idiot.¡±


    Something wells up in you. Something so foreign you don¡¯t quite have a word for it. ¡°Oh yeah?¡± You get down and start pulling the straps onto your legs until you match his position. ¡°I was just warming up.¡± This is dangerous. You know it¡¯s dangerous. And yet you¡¯re too calm, too¡­ something to care.


    Kekoa taps twice on the harness and his mantine takes off. You follow suit and then go back to gripping the harness¡¯s handlebars for dear life as you quickly reach your comfortable speed. Kekoa¡¯s going much faster ahead of you and starting to head up the slopes. Two more knocks on the pok¨¦mon¡¯s back; your hand flies back to the grips right before you go faster than you¡¯ve gone before. Kekoa does a short jump off the slope in front of you and starts rushing back down. Can you do better? Another two knocks says yes. A slap of water in your face makes you realize that you totally forgot to close your eyes. Your hand rises and you almost knock once¡ªslow down¡ªbut it quickly flies back to the grip. No. No slowing down. You don¡¯t want to accelerate like that again. You blink rapidly, holding your head down and letting your hair fall in front of it in like a solid wet curtain in a vain attempt to keep more water from coming in. It works okay. You¡¯re probably good to go.


    The speed is really something. Every time there¡¯s a crease on the surface your body lifts up and then comes crashing down. Your hands are already getting tired and you haven¡¯t even tried to jump yet. You smile. If you¡¯re going to do this, you¡¯d better do it soon. A hard lean to the side sends you sailing right onto the face of the wave. It takes you most of the way there to realize that you¡¯re screaming out some sort of primal war cry. Right as you start to process that there¡¯s a moment of stillness and you realize that you¡¯re entirely out of the water.


    You come crashing back down a second later, another jolt coursing through your body. But you hold on even though you can barely feel your hands anymore, just some generalized pain at the end of your arms. You lean left and mantine follows. A tilt right sends you back up the slope¡ªand you tilt left. No. time to push your limits. You take a deep breath. And then another one. Then you lean right for a fraction of a second, long enough for the mantine to react. Then you shut your eyes and start yelling, yelling to scare the sea or Kekoa or your fears. You feel weightless for a little longer this time before gravity reasserts itself.


    Your reaction is faster. One down. One up. One down. One up. One down. One up, roaring again to make sure the wave knows who conquers it. This time you keep your eyes open. It seems you went higher this time. Whether that¡¯s real or it just looks higher because you saw it, who knows? Does it matter?


    You can feel the bones in your hand and their lock on the grip. You think your feet are slipping in the harness¡¯s boots. Your knees have taken far more impacts than they¡¯re used too. It doesn¡¯t matter. You lean left and ride on.


    *


    Everything is sore, your hands most of all. Yet for some utterly baffling reason you¡¯re still smiling like a kid at a candy store by the time you get to land. It almost feels bad to take the ugly and awkward-fitting life jacket off, and not just because your fingers struggle with the buckles way more than they did a few hours ago.


    Kekoa takes his off rather quickly and gets his phone and sandals from the waterproof bag. Without talking to you. Probably still mad that he fell five times and you only fell once (and honestly it was kind of fun once the shock wore off). You stagger back towards the guide¡¯s mantine to return the life jacket and pick up your stuff. He hasn¡¯t actually taken his jacket off yet. And he¡¯s watching you as you approach. Which. Attention. Why? Why attention? Can he not?


    ¡°Hey, um, just dropping this off.¡± Which he knows. Of course.


    He takes it as a cue to start talking. ¡°You were pretty great out there.¡±


    ¡°I. What? I just did a flip and fell off.¡±


    The guide laughs. ¡°Okay, maybe not great. But it looked like you were having fun. Sounded like it too.¡±


    You glance aside. Kekoa¡¯s face is buried in his phone. No help. Or hurt. What should you do?


    Your choice is made for you: ¡°We could give you a job if you wanted it.¡± What. ¡°Twelve bucks an hour. On the surf almost every day. Could be way worse.¡±


    You have to consciously close your mouth. Your toes shift in the sand and you don¡¯t bother to stop that. ¡°But I¡¯m not good at it.¡± Wait should you be arguing against it? Would it be lying if you didn¡¯t point it out or.


    ¡°Oh, we can teach you how to do it. Can¡¯t teach you how to love it. We can give you a stipend as you learn if money¡¯s a problem right now.¡±


    You almost keep arguing. But you don¡¯t. If it takes Mom time to come around a job could be good. And it¡¯s fun. But maybe you shouldn¡¯t drop out of your journey without thinking about it?


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s fine if you can¡¯t take it now. Just give us a call if you want it. Tell them Eric rec¡¯d you.¡±


    ¡°Thanks,¡± you tell Eric. Because you don¡¯t know what else to say. You pick up your phone and flip flops and drop the jacket before heading to Kekoa.


    He glances up at you and then goes back to his phone. ¡°Kiwi¡¯s already at the Pok¨¦mon Center. Let¡¯s get lunch there and then split up for the afternoon.


    Under the tight shirt his pecs are way bigger than you were expecting. He¡¯s not that buff anywhere else; his arms are actually kind of skinny. Kekoa looks up and glares at you. Oh. Yeah. You kind of are being gross. ¡°Yeah, sure, sounds good.¡±


    There¡¯s a bit of silence. Right up until the concrete stairs rising out of the sand. ¡°You taking the job?¡± Kekoa asks.


    The streets are pretty enough. Cobblestone roads with clean concrete sidewalks. A mix of upscale boutiques and smaller touristy stores with surfboards and leis and inflatable sharpedo in the windows. You know he asked you a question but you still take a moment to look at the world before you answer.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe?¡±


    You come to a stop at a crosswalk. The red hand is up but there¡¯s not traffic. Kekoa looks at you with an unreadable face and then keeps walking into the street.


    *


    You peed an hour ago but you¡¯re still staring at the ceiling. The phone clock says it¡¯s only 1:47. You¡¯ve barely had three hours of sleep and you should get more because tomorrow is going to be a long, long day and you¡¯re tired now.


    Not that the tiredness is helping you actually get rest. You¡¯ve snuggled up under the covers, counted 120 wooloo rolling down the hill, closed your eyes and focused on the darkness, said the Resurrection Plea fifty times¡­ nothing¡¯s worked. And now you¡¯re getting worked up because nothing¡¯s worked.


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Maybe you need fresh air? Is it safe, though? You know you¡¯re near the beach, near Tidesong, but this isn¡¯t your side of town. You really only came over this far to visit Aunt Diana and you never walked here. Or never went too far outside at night. Was that because it was unsafe? Or because you just didn¡¯t want to?


    Well. You also didn¡¯t have a pok¨¦mon then. Maybe you should take Sir Bubbles out on a walk. He is nocturnal after all. Yeah. Yeah, you¡¯ll do that. Just for a little bit. Then it¡¯s right back to sleep for you and right back to the pool for Sir Bubbles. You slowly roll out, wincing at the creaking noises the bed makes. Right above Cuicatl. And she¡¯s probably really sensitive to that. Your feet hit the ground with a thud after you leave the ladder a step early you glance at her in a panic. She¡¯s somehow still asleep. But her vulpix is very much awake and looking at you like you just killed her entire family. ¡°Sorry,¡± you whisper.


    Thankfully you¡¯re already in a t-shirt, skirt, and leggings since you¡¯re sleeping near a boy. You really just have to grab your purse on the way out the door. And then the door booms shut behind you. Of course.


    *


    The streets are as dead as the halls and pool were. There¡¯s one restaurant¡ªa bar maybe¡ªtwo blocks down with lights shining from it and a few people milling outside. Nobody between you and the water. You pull Sir Bubbles a little tighter to your chest and start walking to the coast. There¡¯s a faint breeze, enough to make you a little bit cold. You glance up: the skies are cloudy and you can¡¯t see any stars. Oh. Not great weather for a night walk. At least it¡¯s not rain¡ªyou aren¡¯t going to finish that thought. No wood to knock on.


    Alright. Quick walk. Just the couple blocks to the edge of the beach. The same shops look almost ominous when the light only reaches into the display shelves with rope necklaces and tombstones and sharpedo silhouettes in the place of leis and surfboards and pool toys. You find yourself picking up the pace reflexively. It¡¯s still fine. One car rolls past and turns on to a side street in front of you. It keeps moving so you relax. It¡¯s too quiet. There should be birdsong or people or something beyond the rolling of the waves.


    By the time you¡¯ve worked yourself up enough that you don¡¯t feel even a little bit tired you¡¯ve made it to the plaza by the beach. There¡¯s a short concrete wall to lean on and it¡¯s wide enough to set Sir Bubbles down on. Let him look at the water. Not fresh water but he might not know that. And you can always withdraw him if he does make a run for it.


    He doesn¡¯t. He does look at you with his wide, expressive eyes for a fraction of a second before turning back to the ocean. After a second he wiggles and deflates a little bit as he lowers himself down to the railing. You giggle to yourself. He¡¯s so cute. Wouldn¡¯t have thought a frog could be but here you are.


    Here. You. Are.


    The thought isn¡¯t depressing. Calming, maybe. Takes the anxiety and giddiness away in an instant.


    Here you are halfway across town and a world away from where you were a month ago. For now. Your mother can be moody but she loves you. She¡¯ll realize it was all a misunderstanding and come around. If she can find it in herself to visit Exodus once a month, she can find it in herself to forgive you. Still. Being with Sir Bubbles. The mantine riding. The job offer. You giggle again. It¡¯s hard to imagine telling Mom that you¡¯re going to be a surfer girl from now on. Would she even know what to say?


    No. You couldn¡¯t accept it. They¡¯d spend all that time training you and then you¡¯d just go back to the other side of town. But it was fun. Might be worth trying to get lessons once everything goes back to normal. It is exercise. At least your body feels like it was exercise. And it¡¯s not manly like basketball or corrupting like cheerleading so Mom shouldn¡¯t have a problem with it.


    The wind picks up enough that you can hear it. Nope nope nope. Time to go back to your warm bed. After dropping Sir Bubbles off in the¨Cis it a heated pool? Should it be? You didn¡¯t catch him in a heated pond. Huh. You should do some more reading. Probably need to know it for your Class III anyway.


    Oh. Right. Your Class III. That test that Cuicatl spent almost a week studying for. You should probably research for that on the trail but. You didn¡¯t bring a guidebook. Were you supposed to? Can Cuicatl and Kekoa just fill you in on the important stuff? Is that cheating?


    No. Not now. These are tomorrow thoughts. Or at least bed thoughts. You scoop Sir Bubbles back into your arms and turn around.


    *


    ¡°You been in it?¡±


    You do your best to blink the sleep out of your eyes before turning to Kekoa. Why did you agree to leave before dawn? ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°The hotel? You been in it?¡± Kekoa asks.


    Oh. Right. The Tidesong. Big white building made of limestone or marble or whatever. Even the pavement¡¯s made of something similar. It¡¯s right in front of you, can¡¯t miss it. Unless you¡¯re asleep.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°And is it just as pretty on the inside?¡±


    It is. The lobby is six or seven stories high and has a series of beautiful waterfall-type fountains curving around it with canals and bridges on the floor. Always some lovely music echoing through it too. Grand Hano¡¯s bigger but Tidesong¡¯s probably prettier. Even if you¡¯d never say that to Dad¡¯s face.


    You turn around and see Cuicatl¡¯s vulpix staring ahead. She¡¯s about five feet in front of her trainer facing the big white building with her tails drooping.


    It probably reminds her of home.


    *


    It¡¯s not that much farther to the gate of Route 4. And it is a very literal gate, ten feet tall and made of sticks and rope with a wooden sign dangling from the top. Is this how all routes start?


    Kekoa just keeps walking through with no fanfare. You say a silent prayer for luck as you pass through. You might need it.


    The start of the route is classic Alola with palm trees and broad-leaf rainforest plants. Then once you¡¯re¡­ five minutes? Ten minutes? A half hour? Honestly you¡¯re too tired to think about much more than putting one foot in front of the other. Once you¡¯re some ways in the plants just die. There¡¯s grass on the forest floor, a few shrubs, even a small fern tree or two. But the tall trees bigger around than you are dead, their bark coated in black, charred ruin.


    It¡¯s quieter than you thought a forest would be. Or a route. And in the first however long it is until Kekoa steps off the path to take a break you only see a couple hoot-hoot flying home for the day and a few rattata scurrying along the path. It¡¯s light now so maybe that will wake more stuff up?


    *


    Daylight does not wake much more stuff up. A few pikipek, especially around dawn. But as the day wears on and your eyelids get heavier there just isn¡¯t that much going on around you. Cuicatl¡¯s going kind of slow but she¡¯s blind and you don¡¯t really want to go fast so it¡¯s all fine with you.


    ¡°What¡¯s it like around us?¡± she asks from up front.


    ¡°Burnt as shit.¡±


    ¡°Controlled burn? Forest fire?¡±


    ¡°Blacephalon attack six weeks ago,¡± he answers.


    You hear Cuicatl almost trip over something¡ªagain¡ªbefore she steadies herself and moves on. ¡°What¡¯s a blacephalon?¡±


    Kekoa sighs. In the dramatic way. ¡°Oh, where to start¡­ so three years back this billionaire chick broke a hole in reality and a bunch of monsters came through. And kept coming through. The bitch is safe in Japan, if you¡¯re wondering. Never going to get at trial. Thousands of deaths and she gets off with less punishment than I¡¯d get for walking past her house.¡±


    You¡¯re pretty sure it hasn¡¯t been thousands. High hundreds maybe. But that¡¯s a bad fight to pick. ¡°Lusamine was sick,¡± you say instead. ¡°Maybe even possessed.¡±


    Kekoa whirls around to face you. Cuicatl keeps walking for a few seconds before she realizes that the footsteps have stopped. ¡°Who says that? The psychologists she hired?¡± A step forward. ¡°The politicians she bribed?¡± A step forward. ¡°Grow up.¡± He¡¯s staring up at you now, close enough that you can see the sweat rivers on his face and feel his breath. ¡°She was no more fucked in the head than any other asshole with a billion dollars and no real work to do.¡±


    You never met Lusamine. Or her kids (although they¡¯re supposedly nice). His tone still stirs something inside of you. Like you¡¯re the one being attacked. ¡°I choose to see the best in people.¡±


    He actually laughs. Not real laughter. A quick, mocking ¡°hah!¡±


    ¡°Oh man, must be nice being the kid of millionaires, huh?¡±


    Billionaire, actually. Again, not the fight to pick.


    ¡°You don¡¯t know me.¡± Your voice is flat. And¡­ colder than you knew you could make it. You should stop. Draw in someone else to tell Kekoa he¡¯s being rude again. ¡°Cuicatl, you have anything to add?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know the details but I will side with Kekoa here.¡±


    ¡°Eyy, high five¡ªuh, I mean¡­ can I just touch your hand?¡± Cuicatl holds her hand out and Kekoa slaps it. You¡¯re still registering that she¡¯s on his side? Why? You thought she disliked him?


    ¡°I¡¯ve never understood why you let your merchants get away with so much,¡± Cuicatl answers your unspoken question. ¡°We have businessmen in Anahuac. No billionaires. If someone did that well they¡¯d give the money to the community or the priests or the treasury. The rich serve the people. Not the other way around.¡± She sounds very proud. Like she built the system herself.


    ¡°Yeah, well, that¡¯s why you don¡¯t have any food.¡±


    Crap. Shouldn¡¯t have said that. Couldn¡¯t have. You. You wouldn¡¯t. You¡¯re a good person. And you¡¯re not a racist!


    Kekoa stares at you, mouth hanging open a little. Crap. You were mean enough that he¡¯s shocked. Eventually Cuicatl kicks one foot behind the other and spins around in one fluid motion before she starts walking down the trail in silence.


    *


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me.¡±


    Kekoa grins. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t worry. Kiwi won¡¯t peek.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Kiw¡ªCuicatl asks.


    ¡°Oh, the only toilet in camp is just a seat on the hillside. No outhouse or anything. Hell, not even a back.¡±


    You make eye contact with him for a second before glancing away. ¡°You sound way too happy about this.¡±


    He sticks out his hand. ¡°Hey, you don¡¯t look at mine, I don¡¯t look at yours. Deal?¡±


    ¡°Deal¡ª¡± he pulls his hand away right before you can shake it.


    ¡°Psyche.¡±


    ¡°Girls,¡± Cuicatl says, ¡°I know you love each other but if you can keep your hands to yourselves while I¡¯m around¡ª¡±


    Kekoa crosses his arms and takes a step back so he can properly glare at. Glare at the blind girl. He turns on you. ¡°What are you giggling about?¡±


    ¡°Nothing,¡± you answer. Right before an idea hits you! You start walking up the hill to the toilet, letting Sir Bubbles out as you walk. ¡°Sir Bubbles! Use hypnosis on anyone who looks this way!¡± He croaks, which honestly could mean anything, and you keep on moving, basking in your brilliance.


    *


    There¡¯s a row of stumps arranged around a weird metal ring half-buried in the ground. Cuicatl and Kekoa are sitting on two of them when you arrive so you sit on a third that forms a roughly equidistant triangle for optimal socialization. That is how you¡¯re supposed to sit, right? Or were you supposed to sit between them?


    Kekoa tosses you a white bag. You aren¡¯t good at catching things so it sails right past you. You stand up, pick up the bag, and sit back down. Thankfully he doesn¡¯t throw anything else at you.


    ¡°Freeze-dried potato salad. Just pour in some water, shake and, voila, instant haole food.¡±


    You follow his lead. Pour in about a third¡ªabout half of your water bottle and shake it for about thirty seconds. Then you pull out the spoon in your mess kit. The smell hits you before you even see it. It¡¯s not rotten. Just¡­ it¡¯s hard to describe. And the looks. A few clumps of white powder in a soupy liquid. You take another thirty seconds to shake that out and at the end it¡¯s better, but not good. The smell only got worse. You take a moment to look at the other two. Kekoa has a look on his face that you¡¯ve never seen before. Cuicatl is negotiating with her vulpix; the fox has her fur fluffed up in alarm and her eyes are wide open in shock.


    ¡°It¡¯s okay,¡± Cuicatl whispers. ¡°You don¡¯t have to do it.¡± She stands up and starts walking to you before dropping her sealed white bag in your lap. ¡°Here. Wouldn¡¯t want you to starve or anything.¡±


    ¡°You know,¡± Kekoa follows up a bit too loudly, ¡°we have to pack out what we don¡¯t eat. If you don¡¯t want that to explode all over the inside of your backpack¡­¡±


    You look down at the bag. The bags. This is fine. You can do this. You put a spoon in and take it out with your eyes closed. It goes into your mouth and. The taste is bad. Like chugging a white muk. Not that you¡¯ve done that. You can still guess how it would taste since smell and taste are linked. It is those two, right? Might be touch and taste. And if the taste is bad the texture is somehow worse. Grains of sand in a watery goop.


    You swallow it down and vow to never do a racism again.

 Normal 8: Cuicatl

    Normal 1.8: The Rules


    Cuicatl


    2012


    Achcauhtli is staying after for some sports game, your dad is out of town, and your godmother will want help making tortillas or doing laundry so you walk over to her house alone. Not that it bothers you as much as your brother and everyone else seem to think it does. It¡¯s just a certain number of steps. A number you don¡¯t even count anymore. Your feet just know the path. The heat and humidity and the rough stone roads and the hills bother you more.


    You¡¯re interrupted halfway through by a burst of wind behind you. ¡°Hello?¡± Adult? Pok¨¦mon? Car? What are you dealing with here?


    There¡¯s a low hiss and a deep grumble in response. You wait for the translation to pop into your mind.


    It never does.


    A dark-type. Like mandibuzz. Except far, far bigger. You can feel hot breath hitting your face, the left side of your abdomen, your right elbow. The breath smells like meat. Carnivore. Big carnivore. Big carnivore that approached a small disabled target while she was alone. Does this count as a combat death? Would it count if you hit it? Somehow the thought brings you out of paralysis and you ram your small fist into the belly of the giant beast.


    You manage to bust open your knuckles. The carnivore doesn¡¯t make any noise at all. Oh well. You tried. It was a battle. Now you get to meet Mom. It could be worse. Even if part of your gut is still clenched up and you¡¯re crying for reasons you don¡¯t quite understand.


    Two rough, scaly limbs rap themselves around you and you can feel two streams of breath on your back. Its chest pushes against you. The warm, rough chest that you tried to punch. Probably has your blood on it mixed in with the creature¡¯s other prey.


    Then you fly. Your stomach drops and you almost vomit. You reflexively hug the giant monster. Maybe you scream. For a moment you don¡¯t exist; there¡¯s just panic and awe where a girl¡¯s mind used to be.


    She¡¯s bringing you somewhere else. Why? Where? Is she afraid someone would see? Are there even any pok¨¦mon in the village that could fight something like this? You¡¯ve heard rumors that a great warrior lived here once, but you¡¯ve never met him. Some of the kids in school don¡¯t even believe he was real.


    The dragon lowers and your stomach lurches up. This time you do puke. And then dry heave when you hit the ground. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯re probably in the nest of a giant beast but it¡¯s fine. It¡¯ll all be over soon. Just keep it together and you¡¯ll be fine.


    {Why is she bleeding?}


    The voice is in your head. Only in your head. Your brother can do that but then you both kind of blur together for a bit. You can do it with a slightly smaller headache and less blurring. You¡¯ve never met anyone else who could do it.


    There¡¯s a noise that sounds like metal rubbing on metal and the soft thud of something crashing into the dirt. You cover your ears on reflex.


    Even with your ears covered you can hear the low groan followed by a long whine. You don¡¯t know exactly what it¡¯s saying, but you can guess. ¡°That¡¯s not my fault, she punched me.¡± Were you supposed to be intact for this? Whatever this is? Why? Do the pok¨¦mon predators have rituals like the humans do?


    {You can stop shaking. You aren¡¯t being hunted. We just wanted to talk.}


    ¡°A-about what?¡± you stammer out. Your voice is shaking. You realize a moment later that your body is too.


    {How much have you been told about your mother?}


    You blink on reflex. ¡°I¡­ not much? She died when I was born. And she was from...¡± The enemy. The northern cowards. The bloodbags. Whatever the playground calls them this week. ¡°Not here,¡± you settle on. Wait. You forgot, ¡°She had green hair.¡±


    You can feel and smell and hear the predator¡¯s breath coming down on you but the voice is silent. {That¡¯s less than we had hoped.} He sounds sad. Why? {Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Renfield. Your mother captured and raised me. Your¡­ escort is Alice. I can assure you that she¡¯s harmless.}


    Harmless? She¡¯s giant, tough, powerful, and clearly a carnivore.


    Renfield sighs inside of your mind. {Correction: While Alice is very much not harmless, she won¡¯t hurt you or your brother.} The beast¡ªAlice¡ªwhines again. Renfield ignores her and continues on. {If that tangent is over, we did wish to speak with you. Your father has kept you very isolated. We did not know if you had even inherited your mother¡¯s powers until today.}


    ¡°She was¡­?¡± A witch? Is there a better term?


    {Americans call you psychics. And yes, she was. Your telepathy is almost identical to hers.}


    Wait. ¡°My what?¡±


    There¡¯s another pause in the conversation. Alice fills it by leaning closer and running one of her scaly arms along yours. You freeze up and let it happen. Better than being eaten.


    {Perhaps we should start from the beginning.}


    *


    October 13, 2019


    You never sleep well your first night in a new place. Your godmother¡¯s home, hotel rooms, impromptu shelters in the mountains¡ªdoesn¡¯t matter. Achci¡ªhe was always better at that than you.


    The rain isn¡¯t helping tonight. Ordinarily it¡¯s soothing; you love it when you can time your naps so they line up with rain showers. As a young girl you loved rain naps so much your father disciplined you with a cactus spike for being lazy. Even though it wasn¡¯t your fault you had an entire rainy season! You quickly got the point¡ªheh¡ªof the punishment: you should only take rain naps when he¡¯s really busy or out of town.


    Rain is good for sleeping. But someone (Kekoa) laid the tarp wrong and now you¡¯re lying down in a centimeter or two of water on the edge of the tent. Maybe Genesis is dry, snoring away on her inflatable mat. Kekoa said you¡¯d only need two mats for the tent. He sounded certain of it. And you¡¯d let him have his way because he talked down to you when you tried to dispute it. Anyway. Genesis is lying down, arms spread out a little to the sides on a mat. Kekoa probably has one. You got pushed to the edge of the crowded tent, lying on your side pressed against the wet fabric but still sometimes touching Genesis¡¯s arm. Your only consolation is that Pix doesn¡¯t seem to mind as she purrs away on top of you. Kekoa isn¡¯t sleeping either. You can tell. Enough years sharing a room with¡ªit taught you the signs.


    You take stock. This sucks. Nothing to be done. How do you minimize the suck that future Cuicatl has to deal with? Start with clothes. Kekoa whined ¡°I¡¯m the one carrying this, y¡¯know,¡± when you were packing and maybe you got a bit too prideful. You have three sets of clothes: sleepwear for sleep; a quechquemitl, tank top, and thin trousers for hiking; and a tunic and leggings for formal occasions. The sleepwear is going to be wet and unless the rain stops and you can talk Kekoa into staying in camp for a while you won¡¯t have a good chance to dry it. That probably means mildew if you stuff it into a plastic bag and leave it in a dark pack all day. You don¡¯t want to sleep in mildew. You aren¡¯t tracking in the trail scents of the hiking clothes into your tent because that¡¯s how you end up sharing a bed with a rattata. You could just sleep in your more formal stuff. It¡¯s still reasonably comfy but the tunic was a gift from your godmother so you don¡¯t want to ruin it if it rains again. Or get vulpix fur on it. You don¡¯t deserve Pix but there are some things you don¡¯t want taken from you, even by her.


    A yawn escapes your lips. Tired. Solutions later. Try to sleep.


    You relax and meditate.


    At some point it works.


    *


    ¡°Get out.¡±


    You yawn and stretch your body out, loving the feeling. ¡°Won¡¯t look. Promise,¡± you grumble.


    ¡°Out. Not big enough to change in here with you,¡± Genesis says.


    ¡°Yeah, fine.¡± Another, slightly less nice yawn that still leaves you with a grin. ¡°Whatever.¡±


    The tent isn¡¯t familiar yet. Your fingers still struggle to find the zipper out to the rain fly, your boots, the first zipper again so you can close it, the zipper out of the rain fly, and then the rain fly zipper again. Maybe it would be easier if you were fully awake.


    Pixie follows at some point, noticeable as a wave of cold air sometimes sliding by your ankle. ¡°Good morning, friend.¡± She huffs in response. You smile when you get the translation. ¡°Oh, come on, it¡¯s not even that hot out.¡± You get one good stretch in and then settle, pressing your weight down as far into the earth as it can go. She doesn¡¯t answer in that time. ¡°You want to take me to the toilet?¡±


    The air currents start moving a little. She¡¯s difficult to follow without the leash because her footsteps are nearly silent. Your only saving grace is that she doesn¡¯t try particularly hard to avoid stepping on fallen leaves and twigs. She might even be making a game out of dominating as many as she can. It wouldn¡¯t be out of character. Got to show the icky leaves who¡¯s boss.


    Eventually Pix stops moving and your boots fall on concrete. ¡°Thanks, girl.¡± She barks. You hold out your arms and feel for the door. Is there more than one door? Like, girl and boy doors? There¡¯s only one toilet inside with a metallic sink outside and you feel a lock, so it doesn¡¯t matter much.


    What does matter is that this latrine smells awful. And it feels so cramped. It¡¯s hard to explain it to sighted people but you can tell when you¡¯re in a very tight spice. You hate it. Always have. Especially if all the textures are either cold metal or wood so rough that you¡¯re worried about splinters.


    You finish your business as quickly as possible, thoroughly wash your hands, and walk a comfortable distance in the direction of camp. Then you stop and crouch down, holding a hand outstretched. ¡°I think a very good guide fox has earned some scratches.¡±


    Pixie practically teleports to you and starts rubbing her scent glands against your palm while you dig your fingers into her chin. She pushes her head down and you move on to cupping her cheek with one hand and scratching her ears with the other.  Then she starts moving in circles and you just hold a hand unmoving, letting her continuously scratch her back, head, and tails in an endless loop. You¡¯d think she¡¯d get dizzy but she goes for a full minute or two before slowing down and collapsing in a heap.


    You gently scoop her up into your arms and hug her to your chest. She¡¯s relaxed, occasionally twitching a tail or pressing one of her legs against you and squirming for a better view. Close enough you can feel her heartbeat and so much of her glorious fur pressed against your arms. She¡¯s a lot like Searah, but cold.


    A pause and a flood of panic.


    No. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯ll see her soon. Even a trained heatmor is 250,000 Quatchli, or $10,000, tops. Today is a decent day. Don¡¯t ruin it.


    You squeeze Pix tight enough that she whines a little before relaxing. Right. Is not a stress ball. Is a fox.


    *


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Dried pink apricorns aren¡¯t terrible. You get the whole pack down before Pixie finishes her bowl.


    ¡°You like those things?¡± Kekoa asks.


    ¡°Yeah. Used to love them as a kid. Haven¡¯t had them in years. Not as good as I remember.¡±


    He walks over to you and shoves something into your hand. Genesis belatedly follows. Your muscles tighten and your breathing picks up a little. It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s fine. Just apricorns. Fills your belly. Almost no fat at all. Keeps you from overeating later. Wins all around. It¡¯s fine. It¡¯s fine. You can relax. Slowly. Breathe. Slowly. Eat. The. Apricorns. You. Sad. Excuse. For. A. Human. Being.


    You reach into Kekoa¡¯s bag and pull a few out while the narrative starts stirring into gear in the background. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯re in nature. It¡¯s fine. Seven years from now when the world ends you¡¯ll barely remember this at all.


    *


    ¡°Okay, so if neither of you two wants to capture a mudbray then¡ª¡±


    Kekoa clears his throat. He then continues to speak with what you¡¯re pretty sure is an exaggerated Galarian accent. Even your mental translation adds the bad accent. ¡°I hereby establish The Rules Of The Trail. Rule #1: Shut up, Jennifer.¡±


    There¡¯s a period of silence. The footsteps continue. You really hate it when they just stop without telling you. They¡¯re much faster than you are since they can just look down and see if there are rocks or tree roots and you have to use a hiking stick to feel that out so you do need the chances to catch up but the exclusion bothers you.


    ¡°Rule #2,¡± Genesis says in a fake Galarian accent. ¡°Shut up, Kekoa.¡± The accent drops abruptly. ¡°See, I can do that too.¡±


    ¡°Rule #3: Shut up Kiwi.¡± Kekoa proclaims.


    You make a show of groaning. ¡°What did I do?¡±


    ¡°Nothing personal, just needed to complete the set.¡± You open your mouth and he cuts you off. ¡°Unless, I¡¯m invoking Rule #3, in which case, yeah, it is personal.¡±


    You sigh, bite your tongue, and count down. Not worth pressing this. It¡¯ll just make you upset. ¡°Okay. Fine. Whatever. And Genesis? I¡¯d rather we not get a mudsdale. You ever walked on a horse trail?¡±


    She¡¯s quiet for long enough that you accept that she isn¡¯t one of the ¡°horse girls¡± that upper class American girls were often stereotyped as being. Fascinating to discover what is and isn¡¯t true about this country after years of hearing the Anahuac view on it (i.e. degenerate misogynist racist genocidal madmen who crush their lower classes) and the American film version (pretty much the same thing).


    ¡°No, never been on a horse trail. Why?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± you start. ¡°If it¡¯s rained recently mudsdale turn the entire trail into mud. And they are big enough that I mean the entire trail.¡± Your foot catches on a rock and you hold in a curse. It¡¯s fine. Get over it. Barely even hurts. Kekoa snickers behind you so it must have been a visible stumble. Asshole. ¡°Now, that wouldn¡¯t be so bad. Everyone steps in mud eventually¡ª¡±


    ¡°That what your mommy told you?¡± Kekoa asks.


    Your blood goes cold. No. Don¡¯t dignify him with a physical reaction. ¡°No. But I heard your mom shoved you in mud to make you cleaner.¡± Does that joke even make sense? He doesn¡¯t respond so it either does or really, really doesn¡¯t. Time to plow on regardless. ¡°Horses shit. A lot. All of them. Rapidash, zebstrika, mudsdale¡ªdoesn¡¯t matter. They shit. Everywhere. In large amounts. Then they mix that shit in with the mud that, again, is the entire trail.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Genesis responds. ¡°That¡¯s, uh.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. So let¡¯s not. Not everyone here grew up bathing in that shit, right?¡±


    ¡°Rule #3, Kiwi,¡± Kekoa finally responds.


    ¡°Aw, is someone mommy¡¯s little girl?¡± It¡¯s a low blow and he¡¯ll hate you for it. But he already hates you and if he wants to drag your dead mother into this, he can deal with the consequences.


    ¡°Rule #4: Get new jokes.¡±


    ¡°Because ¡®Kiwi¡¯ is still a laugh every time, right?¡±


    He doesn¡¯t answer that.


    *


    Lunch is decent. Small trail mix bags. Nuts and dried fruit. A lot of dried fruit. No chocolate, either. Not that you need chocolate, but it does give more of an incentive to eat it. But those pinap berries, right? Those are good. Sort of. Texture¡¯s weird when dry. Not like the fresh ones at home. Ugh. It¡¯s decent. That¡¯s what you mean. The nuts have a lot of fat but even if you stuck the whole bag right on your stomach it¡¯s not too much of an addition.


    ¡°Hey, Cuicatl?¡± Genesis asks.


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°Could I borrow, I mean, could I take some kibble at meals? Just a few pieces. I can, um, I can help pay for it once you need some more.¡±


    You take the bag back out from your pack. Pixie¡¯s feet pitter over and you pour her a few more pieces out of guilt. ¡°Yeah, come get it.¡±


    She does and walks away. Is it for Sir Bubbles? Is she going to eat it?


    Doesn¡¯t really matter. Just add it to the list of weird American things.


    *


    Your voice dances and you want to move your body with it. How long has it been since you were in the cuicacalli? Would¡¯ve been right before THIS. IS. A. GOOD. DAY. How many times is he going to come up on your good day? You correct your pitch back up and move back through the wordless song. Does that translate?


    ¡°Rule #5: No singing,¡± Kekoa says.


    You keep on singing. It is good music. And it¡¯s upbeat enough that it can almost silence your feelings.


    ¡°Going to throw in a Rule #3 for good measure now.¡±


    You break off the song. ¡°Well, you brought it up.¡±


    ¡°Yes, I started it. And I¡¯m ending it. Keep singing and I will trip you.¡±


    Well, screw him. You have a very pretty voice. And nice hair. And maybe you¡¯re a fat disgusting waste of humanity but you¡¯re very proud of those two things.


    A foot catches yours and you start to fall.


    ¡°Shit!¡±


    You catch yourself on the way down and your pack isn¡¯t heavy enough to cause serious problems. You can still feel a cut on your thigh and your hands aren¡¯t feeling too good either. Can¡¯t tell if that¡¯s just the shock of hitting the rocks on the trail or something worse. More than that, it had rained last night. The whole trail is coated in mud and now you are too. Pixie won¡¯t want to cuddle you and damn him you need her.


    But you deserved it. For the mama¡¯s girl dig. And just in general you deserve a few trips here and there. Remind you of your place. Might make you prettier. You almost just drop down and collapse into the mud and let your face hit the earth and wallow there forever. They could just hike faster and


    ¡°Kekoa, what was that?¡±


    You hear Genesis move towards you and throw her pack off before bending down. At least, you hear her knees crack and feel the moving wind so you assume she bent down. She should probably get her knees checked out. She¡¯s, what, fifteen?


    ¡°Rule. Fucking. Four,¡± he answers.


    You feel a hand brush against your elbow. ¡°Need help?


    Yeah. More than she can give. You swallow it down. The cuicacalli taught you acting alongside song and dance and legends. Time to act. Not happy. Indignant? Scowl a little. Show no real pain.


    ¡°Nah, I¡¯m fine.¡± You push yourself up and make a show of brushing your hands off on your equally muddy shorts. You glance over your shoulder and deepen your scowl. ¡°And Kekoa? Bad joke. Two out of ten.¡± That¡¯s the end of that. Now you can go in silence. Manage your steps. Maybe hum a little bit; you doubt he tries that again if Genesis is on your side. He has to have some shame, right? Eventually you let the humming rise up in pitch. You¡¯re happy. Still a little annoyed, but happy. That¡¯s what a normal person would feel in this situation, right?


    Keep your face on. Don¡¯t cry. You¡¯ll spiral downward if you cry. No one wants to see that.


    *


    Dinner is supposedly eggs and potatoes. You don¡¯t remember either having sand in them. Definitely more tolerable than the ¡°potato salad¡± or ¡°spaghetti marinara¡± from yesterday. Getting food into your mouth is usually an uphill battle and you count on your stomach showing up to fight for what your muscles need. Even its turned traitor now.


    Fine. Whatever. You let Kekoa pick this garbage because the man had a plan and you¡¯re some blind kid but now you¡¯re putting your foot down. And since the self-loathing rose back to anger when Pix wouldn¡¯t cuddle you until a very awkward shower under a sixty-centimeter-tall, low pressure water spicket, well, he¡¯s in for it.


    ¡°We aren¡¯t doing this again.¡±


    ¡°Agreed,¡± Genesis adds. Lovely. Starts with Kekoa cornered.


    ¡°In Paniola we pick up rice, noodles, whatever. Find seasoning if we can. Keep dried fruit if you two want it. Cut and cook vegetables ahead of time. Toss in nuts or beans or canned meat or whatever for protein.¡±


    Kekoa doesn¡¯t challenge it. Instead, he takes another bite of food and carefully chews it for far too long before swallowing. Power move. Ugh. Men. Him. ¡°First, this is why I insisted on spending two nights on the trail. So we could detect problems like this in advance.¡± Is he really taking credit for this? Why is he being such an asshole, anyway? Do you care? ¡°Second, I can probably bet on a battle or two and get cheap lunches in town. Take way more condiment and seasoning packets than I should. Helps if Jennifer gives me cover here. There, spice problem solved.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you agree¡ª¡±


    ¡°Third,¡± he interrupts. ¡°How do you plan on keeping your vegetables cold? Ice packs are heavy as fuck and melt in a day.¡±


    {Pix, shoot an ice shard at him. Keep it a little weak.}


    You can hear the attack and Kekoa¡¯s surprisingly muted swearing. ¡°I told you before,¡± you answer with a low, measured voice, ¡°that Pixie is a very good fox and can take care of that.


    ¡°Still heavier than I want to deal with.¡±


    ¡°Then I can keep it in my pack,¡± you say.


    He laughs. ¡°Oh, like hell you will. You¡¯re, what, ninety pounds sopping wet?¡± You don¡¯t actually know how heavy a pound is. ¡°No,¡± he continues, ¡°you¡¯ll carry it for half a day, complain about your back breaking, and then put it in my pack.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take it,¡± Genesis says. ¡°I¡¯m bigger than you and I¡¯m not carrying much so it shouldn¡¯t be too hard.¡±


    Kekoa doesn¡¯t answer. He just gets up and walks away. The water turns on. He¡¯s washing his dishes. Which reminds you that you still have way, way too much left to eat.


    *


    There¡¯s another ¡®thunk¡¯ sound behind you followed by a short roll. Fourth this morning. You hate it but you really need to do something about it for your sanity¡¯s sake.


    ¡°Rule #5: Keep your water bottle in your pack when you aren¡¯t drinking. Sorry, Gen.¡±


    She sighs. ¡°That annoying?¡±


    ¡°Kind of. Sorry. You¡¯re tossing it up and trying to catch it, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± she responds. Kekoa is being mercifully quiet.


    ¡°Maybe you could use a rock or twig or something less loud?¡±


    ¡°Oh. Yeah! That would work. Thanks.¡±


    Why is she thanking you? You told her off.


    ¡°What¡¯s it like out there, anyway?¡±


    ¡°Uh. Still kind of burnt? A little more greenery, though. I think there¡¯s a highway nearby.¡±


    You¡¯d heard the road. Not busy enough that you¡¯d call it a highway. There¡¯s also a river somewhere near the trail. More pok¨¦mon sounds, too. So that description is about what you¡¯d expected. ¡°Getting close to Paniola, then?¡±


    ¡°Should be another or hour or two,¡± Kekoa answers. You decide to kill the conversation now that he¡¯s joined. You¡¯re in a decent mood today.


    *


    Your lunch is interrupted by a long, howling whine going up and down in pitch like a passing ambulance.


    ¡°Pix!¡±


    There are loud, rushed footsteps and a ¡°Crap!¡± said like a curse beside you.


    ¡°Jennifer, what the hell!¡± Kekoa yells.


    Pixie keeps screaming.


    ¡°Pix!¡± you yell louder just to be heard. That seems to shut her up, although she grumbles afterward.


    {Was helping!]


    {I¡¯m sure you were.} ¡°Kekoa, what just happened?¡±


    He stands up and starts pacing. ¡°An eevee showed up to eat the kibble Jennifer put out, your vulpix started screaming bloody murder, the eevee ran away, Jennifer picked up her poliwag and ran into the forest after it.¡±


    It¡¯s not a good idea to run off into unfamiliar woods, even if there aren¡¯t any predators worth worrying about.


    ¡°I¡¯m going after her. If I call to you, call back.¡± And then he¡¯s gone. Into the woods. Without asking permission.


    Hypocrite.


    ¡°Hey, Pix. Want some food?¡±


    She dutifully trots over, her surface thoughts full of rage words and eevee. You scoop out some of the spam. The flavor¡¯s okay. Interesting, even. Texture isn¡¯t the best. Maybe it¡¯d be better if you had a chance to cook it. In any case, Pixie seems to like it.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to catch the eevee, you know?¡±


    She hisses between bites. {No eevee allowed.}


    ¡°Why, though? Even if I don¡¯t own it?¡±


    Her surface thoughts are a jumble of unrelated words. Not useful. Jealousy, maybe?


    ¡°I agree. They aren¡¯t the best. One of the teachers at my school had one and¡­¡± How much self-awareness does she have? You think it¡¯s safe to bet on ¡®none at all.¡¯ ¡°She was very pretty, but incredibly stuck-up. Only wanted to talk about herself and make everyone appreciate how cute she was. Thought she owned the world. But she wasn¡¯t even that pretty so she was just silly. I¡¯d never want to train one.¡± That seems to calm her. She even purrs a little. ¡°Besides, vulpix are the best foxes and I am very smart for a human so I know not to leave one for an eevee.¡± You try to pour as much disgust as possible into those words. She seems to buy it. And having a clear job to do as a trained guide fox and portable ice-maker down the line should calm her down a bit. Hopefully even make her willing to have teammates.


    It¡¯s taking your partners a while to come back. Was there any predator you forgot about? You¡¯d thought stoutland usually didn¡¯t attack humans. Any bewear by the trail would be willing to tolerate humans. Otherwise they would¡¯ve been removed. Sylveon, maybe? Do they hunt people? Genesis would know better than to tug on pretty ribbons, right?


    ¡­right?


    No. No she wouldn¡¯t. Kekoa probably would, though.


    You¡¯re pretty sure that Pix fell asleep on your lap at some point. You keep gently stroking her fur. She¡¯s so soft. And even if she¡¯s sometimes a literal and figurative bitch at least she has a personality. Besides, your mom¡¯s starter was also kind of a pain in her later years. At least to you. And Renfield. Maybe swanna are only kind to the people they imprint on? No. He was probably always like that.


    Still, it might hint at a strategy: Find a bird egg, when it hatches make sure it imprints on you. Emphasize to Pixie how unkind it would be to take a child away from its mother. Profit?


    It¡¯s definitely not your worst idea. Way better than the ¡°coat a grimer in flour, put it in a refrigerator for a few hours, tell Pix it¡¯s another vulpix¡± plan you toyed with back in Hau¡¯oli.


    There¡¯s a distant ¡°marco.¡± You nudge Pix awake and move to put your pack on.


    ¡°Hey, can you go to the tree line and use roar for as long as you can?¡±


    She clearly pours everything she has into it and it¡¯s very adorable and you already love her more than you love yourself, even if that¡¯s not a very high bar to clear.


    *


    It hasn¡¯t rained in the half-day since you got to Paniola. When you take Pixie out for her midnight pee you figure that there might be stars in the sky. ¡°Can you tell me about a star tonight?¡±


    She huffs before a trickle streams onto something offending her.


    ¡°Glistening¡¯s Star. Many new stars recently. Ancestors. The brightest is Glistening¡¯s. The star appeared after she died.¡±


    That¡¯s probably the space station. Not that she needs to know that. Might not believe it. If ninetales can¡¯t go to space, then mere humans definitely couldn¡¯t figure it out.


    ¡°Did it now? Can you tell me about Glistening?¡±


    ¡°My mother¡¯s mother¡¯s sibling. Died before I was born. Never met her. Had the prettiest coat on the mountain. So pretty the Moon had to put it in the sky.¡±


    ¡°Wow.¡±


    ¡°I got mine from her.¡±


    ¡°Except yours is prettier, right?¡±


    ¡°Probably.¡±


    ¡°Way prettier than an eevee¡¯s.¡± She hisses, offended that you even compared them. ¡°Come over here.¡± She trots over and you scoop her into your arms. ¡°I¡¯m never going to leave you. Ever.¡±


    Pixie huffs but doesn¡¯t call you a liar. It¡¯s progress. You¡¯ll take it.

 Normal 9: Kekoa

    Normal 1.9: Did It Hurt?


    Kekoa


    2015


    It¡¯s kinda boring outside the window. Going into Minamo you either wind up on the land side (like your brother is two rows up and across the aisle) or just staring at water and the occasional island until the very, very end. None of the fun of watching big things go from tiny back to big. It¡¯s probably why Mom¡¯s ignoring it entirely and reading something on her phone.


    Eventually there are ships, then rainforest, and then buildings. That¡¯s the other kind of boring thing about Minamo: it¡¯s a lot like Heahea or Konikoni. Just bigger. Maybe even bigger than Hau¡¯oli. Your grandmother says that Hoenn is maybe the closest thing in the world to Alola so it must be really boring being stationed there. Nothing new to explore.


    The plane touches down with a slight jolt and slows to a stop. Then it spends forever waiting to go to the airport. Then you have to stay in your seat for forever as everyone in front of you (which is pretty much the entire plane) gets out. And then you can finally walk down the aisle and through the weird tunnel and then go to the bathroom and then go through the rest of the airport to the exit. To Dad.


    You beat Jabari to him. By a lot. Like he isn¡¯t even trying. Dad wraps you into a hug and picks you up. You were wondering if he could still do that since you¡¯re pretty big now.


    ¡°There¡¯s my darling little girl.¡±


    ¡°Dad¡­¡± you whine. He knows you hate being called that. Too old.


    ¡°Right,¡± he says while setting you down. He walks over to Jabari. ¡°I suppose now that you¡¯re an adult you just want a handshake, right?¡±


    He smiles weakly. ¡°I¡¯ll, uh, take a hug.¡±


    He gets one.


    *


    Less than two days after you arrived, Dad gets called away. He said it was an emergency. Hopefully it¡¯ll be over before you have to go home on Sunday. You barely got to see him at all.


    ¡°There¡¯s enough money on the shelf for lunch and dinner. I should be back by nine if the ferries are on time. You shouldn¡¯t be out then¡ªthat¡¯s pushing Allana¡¯s bedtime. If there¡¯s an emergency¡ª¡±


    ¡°Call you. I know,¡± Jabari says while rolling his eyes.


    Hine steps towards him and reaches up to put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯ll just be in Tokusane. I can take the first ferry back if anything comes up. Promise you¡¯ll call?¡±


    Jabari nods. ¡°Promise.¡±


    Hine gives some final pointers, hugs you, and finally steps outside.


    Jabari closes the door and slowly turns back to you. ¡°Want to watch something you probably shouldn¡¯t?¡± You nod. Of course you do! ¡°Good. Don¡¯t tell mom.¡± He digs through his bag, pulls out a VCR, and puts it into the player beneath the hotel room¡¯s TV.


    The movie starts with a bunch of men with guns watching a cage. With something alive in it. Something with big claws that pulls one of the men in. Then there¡¯s awful screaming (human and pok¨¦mon) and yelling and gunfire.


    The screen pauses. Jabari turns to you. ¡°Sure you can handle this?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± Wait, when did the blanket get pulled up to your neck?


    ¡°Alright¡­¡±


    The rest of the movie isn¡¯t as scary. Until the end. And some of the fossil pok¨¦mon look really, really cool! You¡¯d read about them in books and some books even had pictures but it¡¯s really great to actually see all of your favorites moving. And hunting. Tyrantrum is incredible! And the aurorus are super, super pretty. Tyrantrum¡¯s still your favorite, though. Always has been. Always will be.


    No feathers though. That¡¯s kind of weird. And weren¡¯t tyrantrum scavengers?


    At some point it starts raining really hard but Jabari just turns the volume up and everything¡¯s fine again. Except when the tyrantrum kills the pyroclaptors and roars at the end, an alarm goes off. At first you think it¡¯s just in the movie but then Jabari turns the screen off and it¡¯s still going.


    You turn to your brother. He stands up and starts walking to the door. ¡°Stay here. I¡¯ll figure out what¡¯s happening.¡±


    *


    Jabari comes back a few very long minutes later. He rushes to the counter, stuffs the cash in his pocket and then moves to his bag. ¡°Something¡¯s up. They¡¯re moving everyone to a shelter. Put your shoes on. We¡¯re going.¡±


    ¡°You called Mom?¡± This sounds like an emergency.


    He shakes his head. ¡°Tried. Phones are down. Probably best that she doesn¡¯t come here if they¡¯re sending everyone to a bomb shelter.¡±


    ¡°Bomb?¡±


    ¡°Not a bomb. Something else. They wouldn¡¯t say.¡± Jabari stuffs some more money from his bag into his pocket and speedwalks to the door. ¡°Put your shoes on. Follow me.¡±


    The entire hotel is in the halls. Many people, especially the old ones, are waiting in a massive clump of bodies by the elevator. Jabari presses through them and you follow close behind to avoid getting cut off as the parted crowd smushes back together. The staircase is also busy, but less so. Not so crowded that you¡¯re being crushed but definitely crowded enough that the echoes through the cold, plain shaft are almost as loud as your heart.


    Darkness. You almost fall on the steps as you figure out where your feet should go. Then some light comes back. It¡¯s not as bright but it¡¯ll do. Jabari keeps going without so much as a glance back and you struggle to keep up as he goes two or even three steps at a time on his stupid long grownup legs.


    The emergency exit leads outside. There are cars on the streets but they¡¯re all stuck in place. Some have angry drivers adding their honks to the blaring alarms and shouts and sound of footsteps and nervous people. Others just sit abandoned, the owners deciding that it was worth trying to walk through the mass of hundreds¡ªthousands?¡ª millions?¡ªbillions?¡ªof people. More people than you¡¯ve ever seen.


    None of that¡¯s what really catches your attention, though. That¡¯s the heat and the light. It¡¯s blinding from above and you have to bring a hand over your eyes just to see anything. The heat is like the feeling of burning sun on your skin at the beach except it pierces past the skin and it also feels like your hair is on fire and your blood is boiling. Jabari presses on and you have to almost run to catch up. At first you can do it, but soon you¡¯re soaked sweat and you¡¯re panting like you just ran for an entire recess in the heat.


    A small tremor comes through the ground like when the mining company sets off dynamite down in the valley. Something crashes to the ground in the distance. It joins the sounds of moving earth and alarms and pok¨¦mon and people and cars. You see Jabari mouth a word with an expression that you¡¯ve never seen before on his face. ¡°What?¡± you shout.


    That catches his attention. He looks at you, shakes his head, and grabs your arm. Then he ducks into a side street and starts running. Except that there are too many people on the streets. Some are still in shock as the second, bigger earthquake passes by. But some are moving. With you, against you, perpendicular, everything. It slows you down until Jabari¡¯s not running so much as slipping through people at varying speeds and jerking you along.


    It¡¯s not just sweat and heat anymore. You feel¡­ less. Like there should be more you in you. And you want to sit down and drink water and nap. But he keeps pulling with a slightly weaker grip. Eventually the pavement beneath your feet starts to actually burn your soles through your shoes and Jabari rushes to the strips of green at the edge of the street along with everyone else.


    You finally see the shelter. Or what you think is the shelter. Big and gray. What you can¡¯t see are the gates behind the crowd of people pressing in. All in the same situation as you. Or worse. An old woman collapses a few feet away and you move to help before Jabari pulls you in.


    She isn¡¯t the last person to collapse in the heat as you slowly get closer to the shade and cold. One woman¡¯s scarf catches on fire. So do a few buildings. Maybe. It could¡¯ve been a dream. Sometimes you shut your eyes and open them again when Jabari pulls you or the earth moves a little bit stronger than the last time. At some point you stop sweating. That¡¯s probably good, right?


    There¡¯s another quake. Far, far stronger than anything that came before it. Some of the taller towers tremble and there are crashing sounds and fire hydrants and pipes spewing water across the entire road. It hisses like oil in a frying pan. Another rumble matches the last, this time above you right before the sky bursts open and quenches the heat. It isn¡¯t welcome. The raindrops feel like bullets as they hit your skin and it only barely wakes you up. The rain leaves actual ripples in the pavement because the asphalt is that soft and the water¡¯s impact that hard.


    A loud voice comes from the shelter. Looping over and over again. Your Japanese is only good enough to catch the word ¡°rain¡± and ¡°closed.¡± Jabari pulls you tighter and he¡¯s shaking or you¡¯re shaking or the ground is. Maybe all three.


    He strokes his hand through your hair and you almost tell him off. But it¡¯s just so hard to care. ¡°It¡¯s going to be okay,¡± he whispers over and over again like he believes it. You know he¡¯s lying; you¡¯re eleven and you¡¯re smarter than you were when you were ten. You close your eyes and breathe, aware of the trembling and the roars and the burns and the bullets but not really feeling any of them.


    This is the end.


    It¡¯s time to go to sleep.


    ¡°Good night, Jabari.¡±


    *


    There was a dream. You know there was a dream but you just miss it as your eyes open. White. The world is white. The room is white, at least. Almost blindingly so. You try to sit up but can¡¯t quite find the energy. Because as everything in your body starts responding to you again you realize that everything in your body, inside and out, hurts.


    You don¡¯t know how long you spend alone. Thoughtless. Existing. Staring at the white ceiling. Eventually you must fall back asleep because you wake up again with a nurse over you. She shines a light over your eyes, feels your heartbeat, asks you in heavily accented Galarian if you can speak. You try and a dry croak comes out. You shake your head instead.


    There are more questions. You fall asleep. There are more nurses. You fall asleep. Eventually you wake up and there¡¯s not a nurse there present. But Jabari is. Badly sunburnt. An arm in a sling. Alive.


    You push yourself up to the very limited extent that you can and he rapidly stands and waves an arm. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t push yourself.¡±


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Jabari¡¯s here. Alive. Alone. A thought crashes into your heart. Two thoughts. ¡°Mom? Dad?¡± you whisper, ignoring the pain in your throat.


    He freezes and breaks eye contact, arms crossed. ¡°Tokusane was hit pretty bad. The island¡¯s built on an old reef. Parts of it collapsed into the sea. We don¡¯t know yet. But Mom¡¯s smart so I¡¯m sure she found a way through...¡± He sounds like he believes it. He looks like he doesn¡¯t. ¡°Dad¡¯s ship went down. He still could¡¯ve survived. There are stories about wild pok¨¦mon bringing people to shore.¡±


    You hear it. You understand it. You don¡¯t quite feel it. Not yet.


    He seems to notice and moves to reassure you, voice low and comforting. ¡°Phone lines aren¡¯t working in most places. The rest are emergency only. And there are still a lot of emergencies popping up. Even after¡­¡±


    You would later learn what happened. Volcanic eruptions. Rogue waves. Sunstroke. Hail and lightning. Fires. Entire islands sinking into the sea. Landsides swallowing towns. Jabari didn¡¯t tell you that then. You didn¡¯t need to know. He just sat down on the edge of your bed and stroked your hair when the feelings came and you finally started to cry.


    *


    The house feels so much emptier with only two people in it. Quieter too. Jabari cooks, cleans, and does the adult stuff. Sometimes he¡¯s at work. It¡¯s still the summer. No school. Sometimes Kanoa comes over but you never want to play.


    Jabari¡¯s here now. You aren¡¯t alone. Might as well be. He reads the paper and drinks his coffee and you finish up your toast and eggs in silence. They¡¯re not as good as Mom made them. And she usually talked to you about your day or fussed with your hair even when you¡¯d rather she didn¡¯t.


    Now you¡¯d rather she did.


    Two weeks since you got home. Five since the burning light and piercing rain. The longest and shortest weeks of your life.


    Jabari puts the paper down and looks at you. He doesn¡¯t talk. For ages. You finally put your toast down and clasp your hands. Meeting his gaze. Waiting for something. You aren¡¯t sure what.


    ¡°I¡¯m joining the army,¡± he says. And the silence shatters. You hear the words. You repeat them to yourself over and over again, figuring out what they mean. What they mean for you. ¡°What happened in Hoenn? Bad people did that. Woke up some gods. Killed hundreds of thousands. Killed Mom. Killed Dad. And there are other bad people like them all over the place. Remember that blizzard in Unova? Or that cruise ship that got lost near California? All bad people. Bad people trying to control gods. And they¡¯ll just keep doing it unless someone stops them.¡±


    You don¡¯t know if any of that¡¯s true. You vaguely remember Mom watching a video of some snowstorm on the TV. He says it like it¡¯s true. It¡¯s not what you care about.


    ¡°What about me?¡± you ask so quietly you¡¯re not sure you said it at all.


    He breaks eye contact and looks at the refrigerator magnets behind you. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but this was never going to work. I¡¯m eighteen!¡± His voice cracks and his eyes hide fear and for a moment he doesn¡¯t look much older than you. ¡°I don¡¯t know how to raise a kid. I¡¯d just screw it up and leave you worse off for it.¡±


    ¡°Then what happens now?¡±


    He stops looking at the refrigerator and pushes his seat back to stand. ¡°The government will find an adult who can take care of you. It¡¯ll be better that way. Trust me.¡±


    You want to hug him. You want to hit him. Say goodbye before he leaves. Make sure he never does.


    In the end you just sit in silence until he goes upstairs.


    *


    October 14, 2019


    It¡¯s not the same Paniola you knew, but it¡¯s pretty close. The grocery store Miss Smith probably still runs if she hasn¡¯t died or retired. The arts store Mr. Palakiko owned. You tried to learn the ukulele there one summer until you both admitted that it wasn¡¯t to be. You¡¯re almost tempted to step into that one. You stop yourself at the door. You don¡¯t want to talk about who you¡¯ve become or find out if he still runs it and, if not, what that means. At least you could seek out Kanoa. See if she still lives in the same house when she isn¡¯t up giving trials in the jungle. Ask her all about her new life. But then they¡¯d ask you about yours.


    No. You won¡¯t seek anyone out. The Paniola in your memories can stay just the way it is.


    The butcher shop on the corner of Puna and Ekolu is still there but it has a new name. The playground down Ekolu Avenue is similar enough that if you close your eyes and think with your arms and legs you can almost remember how to get from one end of the playset to the other as quickly as possible if you¡¯re being chased. Or chasing. Sometimes both. You¡¯d always thought of it as its own island and ocean. Now it¡¯s some cramped little boat on a tiny puddle of wood chips.


    The Pok¨¦mon Center finally updated to a more modern design from its old wooden exterior, the unofficial theme of the town. You learned in school that it was to preserve the paniola heritage of this part of Akala. Now you¡¯re pretty certain it¡¯s a tourist thing. An effective one, too, judging by the kind of people on the streets.


    The neighborhood has some differences. The yards and spaces between houses used to be much bigger. Probably. Maybe that¡¯s just a consequence of growing up. Or maybe there are more houses.


    You reach the end of the road and see it. Is it the same? The same as it was when your parents brought a baby home? The same as it was when the same child walked out of the door with a strange haole man in a suit? You don¡¯t know. Can¡¯t tell. There¡¯s a fence out back. That¡¯s new. The walls are the general color of what you remembered and the driveway is on the right side. But if you were shown ten random houses in Paniola you¡¯re not entirely sure you¡¯d have been able to pick this one out as your own.


    What does it mean if you can¡¯t?


    The silence is shattered. ¡°Thought I¡¯d find you here.¡±


    You grimace and turn. There he is. Like he was, but different. Crew cut. Muscles. A sleeveless jacket like a fucking prick.


    ¡°Jabari.¡± You try to keep your tone neutral. For your own benefit. You don¡¯t want your homecoming ruined.


    ¡°Allana,¡± he replies. Smiling. Like he¡¯s a fucking genius. Grow up. ¡°You cut your hair.¡±


    ¡°So did you.¡±


    You half expect an actual tumbleweed to blow by. It is Paniola Town, after all, and it¡¯s close enough to high noon.


    ¡°Heard you were on a journey,¡± he says. The smile is still there. Gods he can¡¯t read the room.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    The smile falters. ¡°And, I, uh, I heard it from a coworker. Wish you would¡¯ve called me. I could¡¯ve helped.¡±


    ¡°You definitely could¡¯ve helped,¡± you agree in as deadpan a voice as you can manage.


    ¡°So, uh,¡± he¡¯s finally caught the nervousness. It¡¯s almost humorous, seeing some ripped vet looking like a schoolboy asking if his crush likes him. ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°Forgot about it.¡± Not entirely a lie. He had slipped your mind until you were in VStar orientation and almost shit yourself when you remembered he took a job there after he left the army. He offered to adopt you then but you had found friends in your new home. And you¡¯d never be able to trust him again. Or forgive him.


    The smile sort of returns and he uncrosses his arms for the first time and sticks his hands into his pockets. ¡°Oh. Well, I got you a gift. Sort of. It¡¯s an egg right now and I thought it would be easier to give it to you once you reach the trial site¡¯s center. Probably won¡¯t be ready to really put in work for a few trials but I think you¡¯ll like it.¡±


    ¡°Already have a team planned out.¡±


    He shakes his head and chuckles. ¡°Oh, I think this will convince you to change your plans.¡± You step to the side and walk past him. He falls in step. ¡°Want to get lunch or something? Heroes Caf¨¦ is still open. My treat.¡±


    You honestly don¡¯t remember Jabari being this dense. You do remember him being fucking giant but you¡¯d hoped that he would¡¯ve shrunk like everything else in this town. But he didn¡¯t. Even when you¡¯re halfway to powerwalking he¡¯s just going a little bit faster than normal. Damn him. ¡°My name is Kekoa. Not Allana.¡±


    He stumbles. You plow on without so much as looking at him. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because Allana is a girl¡¯s name.¡±


    Your head is angled down towards your feet but you can guess what his face looks like. Mouth slightly open and eyes a little wide at first before the mouth closes and the eyes go much, much wider. ¡°Oh.¡± Mouth tilts back and the tongue tests out a dozen words before it finally settles. ¡°You could¡¯ve told me I had a brother, y¡¯know?¡± You ignore him. ¡°Hey, can we stop walking and talk? This seems¡ª¡±


    You stop. But you don¡¯t turn around. He doesn¡¯t deserve that. ¡°Did it hurt?¡±


    ¡°What¡ª¡±


    ¡°Did it hurt? To give the egg? Was there sacrifice?¡±


    ¡°Kekoa, trust me I¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, then.¡± You take a deep breath and turn around to look him in the eye. ¡°I¡¯m going to be blunt because you can¡¯t catch a hint. You had a chance to give me the best gift I¡¯d ever been given. You blew it. Went off an ocean away to kill anyone and everyone if it would make you feel better. Maybe it did. I didn¡¯t get that chance. No one gave a shit about how I was feeling.¡±


    You keep looking up to his eyes and do your best to ignore the horrible blurs at the periphery of yours. And the height difference. Is that what you would¡¯ve been like? Would that be your height, your face, your body if the universe hadn¡¯t shit on you?


    He breaks your gaze and looks at his feet. Is that shame? It should be. ¡°Al¡ªKekoa. I know. I was¡­ young. Reckless. Immature. I did the wrong thing. But I¡¯m back now. You¡¯re on the trail and I was hoping¡­ that¡­¡±


    Now you¡¯ve seen it. A man drown on dry land.


    You won¡¯t throw him a line.


    ¡°No,¡± you cut him off ¡°Maybe someday when you¡¯ve given enough that you feel a fraction of what you¡¯ve put me through, then we can talk. But right now¡­¡± you try to swallow and realize that he¡¯s not the only one drowning. ¡°Right now you don¡¯t have a brother.¡±


    At least, that¡¯s what you meant to say. The knife you meant to stab right into his heart. But it missed. The words were whispered under sobs and the blade slipped and stabbed you instead.


    You start running. He doesn¡¯t follow.


    Damn him.


    Eventually you stop. Not at the Center but at the playground. It¡¯s a school day and there¡¯s no one there but you.


    You find your way to a tire swing you remember curling up inside of, your back curved along the bottom and your legs were pressed out so that your shoes dug into the top. Jabari once ran into the swing going as fast as he could. It knocked you into the air but you pressed your back into the tread and braced your legs and you didn¡¯t fall out. Didn¡¯t even get sick. Your parents¡ªplural, Dad was home¡ªchewed him out.


    Both of you snuck out that night so he could do it again and again and again until you finally did get knocked out and ripped your skin open on the woodchips. He didn¡¯t take you back, just stayed there and pulled out a first aid kit and pulled out the chips that remained, swabbed down the wound, and covered as much as he could before he ran out of bandages. Then he sat down and told you stories about past wars and heroes and kingdoms and he listened to your stories about dinosaurs and princesses. At some point you fell asleep or he took you back or something. You can¡¯t remember how it ended or even how your parents reacted. It¡¯s just an island of memory in a sea of moments lost to time.


    How many moments? For every hour you remember how many have you lost? How many slip away every day? Every month? Every year? There was a moment back in August when you realized that you didn¡¯t remember your preschool teachers name and you couldn¡¯t ask your parents because they were dead and you didn¡¯t have the number of anyone who still lived here and Jabari¡ª


    Jabari was gone. Not dead, just gone. You had his number, sure. You could never call it. Still can¡¯t. Because you relied on him and he broke your trust. Broke you. He doesn¡¯t deserve another chance.


    And you lied to him back there. It doesn¡¯t matter what he gives. How much he hurts. He could blast his fucking brains out in front of you for all you care. It wouldn¡¯t undo what he did. He¡¯s not your brother anymore. He never will be again.


    But you hope he tries. You hope he suffers. You hope he¡¯s filled with shame for every waking hour of every day until his soul ascends Lanakila. Because he deserves it.


    Damn. Him.


    *


    You drag yourself into the Pok¨¦mon Center cafeteria hunched down and walking with short, heavy steps.


    ¡°Hey,¡± Jennifer calls and waves. ¡°Where have you been?¡±


    You get your chili and sit down at the table in silence. Near silence. You don¡¯t bother putting the bowl down gently and a little sloshes out.


    ¡°Who pissed you off today?¡± Kiwi asks.


    You take a deep breath. Is she trying to help? Or is she mocking you while you¡¯re down and can¡¯t retaliate because you¡¯re in public and she¡¯s a sympathetic blind girl?


    You go neutral. ¡°You have any older siblings?¡±


    Jennifer shakes her head even though the question wasn¡¯t even aimed at her. ¡°Two younger. One brother, one sister. Why?¡±


    You ignore that question.


    Kiwi feels around for her napkin and wipes her lips. ¡°One brother. A few minutes older than me. Does that count?¡±


    Something clicks. You smile and start to speak, even though some desperate part of your mind knows you shouldn¡¯t. ¡°Can he see?¡±


    Kiwi fidgets. ¡°He¡¯s sighted, yeah.¡±


    You pause and take a breath, emotional pain swelling and subsiding all at once. Sometimes you need to push your head above the surface and breathe. Sometimes you need to push someone else down to do that. Everyone else does it when they need to. Hell, she does it to you non-stop with her girl jokes. Can''t say she doesn''t deserve it.


    ¡°Well, that explains a lot. Let me guess: your brother was the darling child your mom mentored in her trade while you just had to learn shit from the radio. Eventually you got fed up and fled to Alola to show that, hey, you could make it too. Except you get here and you suck ass just like everyone thought and now you¡¯re too embarrassed to go home and tell everyone they were right.¡±


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± Genesis hisses.


    Kiwi just looks down and folds her hands in her lap. When she speaks her voice is low and even. ¡°You should stop talking now.¡±


    A threat? You raise an eyebrow. ¡°Or what? You¡¯ll cry because you can¡¯t handle the truth?¡±


    She closes her eyes. And taps a finger on her thigh. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Deep breath. Her mouth opens partway and closes.


    ¡°Hey, uh, let¡¯s maybe calm down?¡± Genesis pleads. ¡°I saw that the fast food place down the street has $1.50 ice cream. Surely the wallet can take that, right?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not hungry, Genesis.¡± Kiwi opens her eyes and looks just past your shoulder. Damn. For being blind her glare game is good. ¡°No, Kekoa. Let me clarify: You need to stop talking before I shove my foot all the way up your little trans vagina.¡±


    The wound in your heart explodes and you lose your breath. How did she know? Was it just that obvious? Does she know? Is this another ¡®you¡¯re a girl¡¯ ¡®joke?¡¯ Do you care? No. No, she doesn¡¯t get to hit you in a weak point like that when she knows you¡¯re upset.


    ¡°I bet no one even cares that you¡¯re gone. Probably glad that someone else is burdened with you.¡±


    Kiwi scowls. ¡°Have I told you about Alice?¡±


    Genesis finally snaps out of her stupor and stands up. She wraps a hand around Kiwi¡¯s shoulder and gently pulls. ¡°Let¡¯s not keep doing this. Cuicatl, let¡¯s go upstairs. Kekoa? You started this. Don¡¯t be back before midnight.¡±


    You don¡¯t bother pressing. You already told the damn tourist off. With any luck she¡¯ll go back to her own country and only literally rip hearts open.

 Normal 10: Cuicatl

    Normal 1.10: Negotiations


    Cuicatl


    October 18, 2019


    You were only on Route 5 for three days but after a mix of freeze dried, dehydrated, and canned foods you¡¯re perfectly happy to wolf down whatever the Brooklet Hill Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s serving. Even if it¡¯s stir fry that you could probably do better. Doesn¡¯t matter. You aren¡¯t cooking it. Hiking brings more hunger than usual and tomorrow you have work to do.


    ¡°Has Kiwi¡¯s vulpix smelled a paras?¡± Kekoa asks.


    The food was labeled as ¡®spicy¡¯ and it barely counts as flavorful. Might be a little habanero, definitely no ghost peppers. To say nothing of the pok¨¦mon-derived spices your dad sometimes brought home on special occasions. And you know you aren¡¯t too abnormal on this because Achi had a way higher tolerance than you.


    ¡°Has your vulpix smelled a paras?¡± Genesis asks.


    It takes you a few seconds to drink some water, swirl food around and swallow. ¡°Sort of. Took her to an herbal medicine shop in Heahea. They had paras mushrooms.¡± The shopkeeper had said they¡¯d buy a mushroom for fifty. Not twenty for the whole pok¨¦mon. VStar¡¯s ripping you off. It¡¯s infuriating but at least it explains why Rachel pretended to care about you. And you do owe her for the meal. And for Pixie. You¡¯ll suck it up and turn in your paras for twenty apiece at the end of Akala.


    ¡°She says yes,¡± Genesis says.


    ¡°Good,¡± Kekoa responds. ¡°She going to lead us out into the great unknown tomorrow?¡±


    Genesis sighs. ¡°Are we really doing this?¡±


    Neither of you answer.


    ¡°Okay, fine. You going to help find paras?¡±


    You shake your head. And chew. And swallow. ¡°I¡¯ll see if Pixie is fine helping you on Wednesday. Tomorrow I have things I need to do alone.¡±


    *


    You wake up before your alarm. That doesn¡¯t tell you what time it is. Midnight, 7:29, could be anything. You grab your phone and roll out of bed. Pixie¡¯s footsteps dutifully pitter patter after you. Once you¡¯re in the bathroom you shut the door, get on the toilet, and press the home button on the phone. ¡°What time is it?¡± you whisper.


    ¡°3:43 A.M.¡± it responds in not a whisper. Great. Just great. You thought you¡¯d figured out how to turn the volume down but apparently not.


    Tomorrow is Acatl. A pretty good day for what you need to do. Acatl is ruled by Chalchihuitlicue, goddess of lakes and streams and shaper of your soul. You¡¯ll be rooting around in a spring all day. It¡¯s great timing.


    Should you give the goddess an offering? You don¡¯t think Chalchihuitlicue takes blood; at least, her live sacrifices are drowned. And usually younger than you which is kind of messed up. You want the sun to rise and the rains to come as much as anyone else, but that can be done with volunteers and war captives, right? And Chalchihuitlicue is maybe the best goddess; she can¡¯t actually require that. Someone got it wrong somewhere along the line. Probably explains the drought.


    Offerings.


    No blood.


    You could get in the water and hold your breath for a very long time. Problem is that you¡¯re not a particularly good swimmer. You can tread water for a bit, but you¡¯ve never spent much time in pools or ponds. If you die you wouldn¡¯t catch any paras; at most you¡¯d get a single ghost-type out of it. Not worth it.


    Cloth? You haven¡¯t sewed anything since you got here. No money for fabric, no time to do it. Well, you¡¯d thought there wouldn¡¯t be time. Turns out that when you get to a campsite in the afternoon there¡¯s usually a block of time that Pixie won¡¯t fill. Late-day sun is hard on her. Poor girl. As if on cue you hear a soft thump on the counter beside you and a chirrup as she settles down. Probably into the sink. In a few minutes she¡¯ll inevitably pretend not to understand you when you ask her to get out so that you can wash your hands. You¡¯ll just turn the water on a tiny bit and wait for her to hiss and scamper away.


    Sacrifice, right?


    You yawn and stretch until your soul reenters your body. Meh. You¡¯ll figure that out in the morning. Now you need to wash your hands. You stand up and idly hope that Pix has caught on to what you¡¯re about to do.


    She hasn¡¯t.


    *


    There¡¯s the sound of splashing beneath you as you walk out of the shallows. You rub your feet in the grass until they¡¯re dry enough they probably won¡¯t blister before putting your shoes back. No blood this morning. Just prayer and fasting in the Western, self-starvation sense. Maybe some of the food at breakfast was unseasoned enough to count as fasting to the gods. You¡¯ve heard the jokes about American cuisine and they aren¡¯t really wrong. But the fasting isn¡¯t for the gods, is it?


    Shut up. Today is a lucky day. Don¡¯t waste it.


    ¡°Come on, Pix. Let¡¯s find us a paras.¡± She¡¯s been quiet. No complaints or questions at all. It¡¯s not like her.


    The weather is pretty nice. The morning sun warms without burning and there are fewer insects than you¡¯d thought there would be. Hopefully that doesn¡¯t apply to the one insect you want to find. More than anything the sound of waterfalls in every direction reminds you of Alice¡¯s home when the snowbanks started to melt and the water all ran down the slopes into the valley below. There¡¯s so little you miss about home and yet it always seems to reach out and snag you back.


    It takes Pixie a long time to smell anything. Over an hour for sure. Long enough that combined with the silence it could make a girl start to wonder. ¡°I really hope we find all five,¡± you say to no one in particular. ¡°Because otherwise I¡¯ll have to find another bug for the next trial. And if I can¡¯t sell that one I¡¯ll probably just keep it on the team. Wouldn¡¯t be so bad having more friends, no?¡±


    Pixie¡¯s tracking skills immediately improve.


    *


    ¡°Harrumph.¡± {Stop.} You stop in your tracks.


    ¡°Sure this is the one?¡±


    A sneeze. {Of course.}


    ¡°Thank you, Pixie. Baby doll eyes for a second, if you will.¡±


    The attack doesn¡¯t make a sound. You can¡¯t be sure if she¡¯s doing it or not but it¡¯s not too important to the capture. You crouch down.


    ¡°Hello there, little guy.¡±. You push the thought into the whisper and try to bring some of the tone with it. There¡¯s no response. ¡°Yes, I can let you understand me. And I can understand you.¡±


    There¡¯s a high pitched chitter and a hiss. {We will fight!} rings in your head in a feminine voice.


    Your smile fades for a moment before you bring it back into place, behind your spore-blocking facemask. Where she can¡¯t see it. But the cuicalli taught you to act how you want to sound and you¡¯ll take any possible advantage you can get. ¡°Why?¡±


    {You¡¯re going to eat us!}


    You sigh. ¡°No, I¡¯m not. And I can prove it.¡± You switch to telepathic messaging to Pixie. {Ice shard. Be very gentle.} The attack doesn¡¯t sound gentle and there¡¯s a screech of pain from the bushes. Wouldn¡¯t put it past Pix to go for the kill here. Whenever you get a second permanent team member capture is going to get so much easier. Focus. Clear thoughts. Clear feelings. Acting time. Stern with a hint of compassion. ¡°Now that I¡¯ve shown that I could kill you, I won¡¯t. I have medicine for your wounds here if you want to come out.¡±


    Nothing. Nothing for long enough that you start to think the bug died. Then there¡¯s an audible rustling and the clattering of spindly legs on the ground as the paras comes right up to you. Very carefully, making sure to keep your eyes locked shut in case the paras tries to shoot out spores in your face, you pull out a potion and spray it at the paras.


    {What is that?} the paras asks. Her voice is much more upbeat than before despite being hurt.


    ¡°Healing potion. We have better medicine back in our nests. That¡¯s actually why I¡¯m here,¡± you say.


    {Go on.}


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to eat you. But I do want one of your mushrooms. Just one. In return, I will spend several nights protecting you, feeding you, healing you, and making sure that you know how to fight. I will also give you the chance to battle a much stronger opponent than you¡¯re used to, one that won¡¯t ever kill or eat you and just wants to see how strong you are. Then I¡¯ll drop you back off here or in a forest up north or, if you want, with another human. That way you come back stronger, closer to evolution, and with some great stories to tell the other paras.¡±


    {Are you human?} the bug asks.


    ¡°Yes,¡± you respond. ¡°Why?¡±


    {We did not think humans could talk with their minds.}


    ¡°Some of us can. Also, I¡¯m sorry if this is rude, but why do you call yourself ¡®we?¡¯¡± Alice never really went that route.


    {Because there is an insect and two mushrooms in us!} the paras explains.


    You process that. ¡°And you¡¯re still willing to part with a mushroom?¡±


    {Yes! Especially if we grow stronger! There can only be one mushroom and one insect when we grow.}


    ¡°That makes sense.¡± Sort of like Alice. Although ellas kept ellas¡¯s other self. Sort of. ¡°Is there anything else you would like to know?¡±


    {What is your cold mammal? We¡¯ve never seen one!}


    ¡°She¡¯s a vulpix.¡± You reach down to scratch her and she accepts. Would¡¯ve been awkward if she shut you down. It does show that however upset she is she¡¯s still not mad enough to reject scratches. ¡°They live high up on mountains where all of the water is frozen into snow. She is my other pok¨¦mon. I am going to keep her forever.¡±


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    The last part is more for Pix¡¯s benefit than the paras¡¯s.


    {Are you going to put me in one of those strange circles?}


    You nod. ¡°Sometimes. When I¡¯m walking long distances and I don¡¯t think you could keep up. I do have very long legs, after all.¡± Hah. Never thought that you¡¯d say that. ¡°And I¡¯ll let you sleep in the circle at night so predators can¡¯t get you. The rest of the time I will let you out to eat, explore, train, and learn.¡±


    She pauses to consider that. {And will you give us a name?}


    You smile. You aren¡¯t entirely sure why she¡¯s so on board with this. She probably isn¡¯t smart enough to pull a long con to kill you. And if you do die to a mouthful of stun spores, well, at least you¡¯ll have some idea how Achcauhtli felt. Except getting betrayed by a paras has to hurt less than being abandoned by your sister and mental roommate when you needed her the most. So, no, you still won¡¯t have any clue what you put him through you despicable piece of shit.


    You press the feelings aside and smile. ¡°Of course. Let¡¯s go with¡­¡± you swallow and try really, really hard to make sure that the Nahuatl word comes through and not its meaning. ¡°¡­Ce.¡±


    The paras screeches. In your head. Outside of your head it¡¯s more of a weird bubbling sound. You feel her move up onto your shoe and wrap her pincers around your ankle in an insect hug. {So cool! Pok¨¦mon-human with ice mammal and healing potions gave us a name!}


    Wasn¡¯t she worried about you eating her a second ago? Gods above and below, pok¨¦mon are weird. ¡°Do you have any friends who might want to come with us? I¡¯m looking for up to four more¡­ insects.¡± Insects. Not ¡®of you¡¯ because who knows what that means to her.


    {¡­four¡­ more¡­} There¡¯s a long silence. {Yes! There¡¯s one down the river in a sharp bush and one in a big-tooth mammal burrow and one in some tall grass up the river and one behind a vertical river!}


    Even your gift isn¡¯t quite sure what to make of that.


    *


    Kekoa and Genesis are downstairs eating dinner. It was surprisingly easy to convince them to leave you up here; Genesis backed off immediately when you said you were fasting. She didn¡¯t even ¡°translate¡± Kekoa¡¯s mocking question-answers. An utterly irrational part of your brain, the one that made you fat, is disappointed that she didn¡¯t put up more of a fight.


    While you may not be eating today, you still have pok¨¦mon to feed. Moss mix and lettuce leaves were much cheaper than Pixie¡¯s kibble had led you to expect. Judging by the happy bubbling noises below your bed the paras seem very pleased with your purchase. A cheap mat and some slightly damp newspaper make up your impromptu paras shelter, which also seems to be oddly beloved.


    At least, beloved by most. The fox in your lap isn¡¯t pleased with it, even after a very thorough brushing. You even offered to give her a bath with your shampoo but she hasn¡¯t yet decided if she¡¯s okay with that. Since you could talk Seerah into taking baths and heatmor are less vain (and more drownable) than vulpix you¡¯d figured it would be an easy sell. Honestly, you¡¯re half convinced that she really does want it but she¡¯s just denying everything to spite you.


    Foolish girl. Mimicking her trainer in all the worst ways.


    Dry shampoo. Once you have the money and need to buy a new bottle you¡¯ll take that approach. She might agree more readily. Assuming you ever have the money. VStar¡¯s ripping you off and you aren¡¯t sure if shampoo is covered by the league subsidy.


    There¡¯s a task at hand and you really don¡¯t want to spiral out on the trail. Not now, at least. It might make Kekoa think you care about his petty bullshit. Fine, sure, whatever, you should¡¯ve told him that you were going to kick his nuts so hard they popped out his asshole. Really, you just can¡¯t find it in yourself to feel sorry for him. Maybe he¡¯s been through some shit. Maybe he wakes up everyday and hates his own body. Tough. You¡¯ve been through the same and don¡¯t rip into anyone who tries to help. Not when it¡¯s so much easier to just shake your head and run away and leave the pain on the girl who deserves it.


    Plan. You had a plan not to spiral. Heh. Dumb enough that you can¡¯t even stick to your own plan to convince yourself that you aren¡¯t stupid. So, yeah, grand idea. Psychic linkage. Let your pok¨¦mon understand each other. Might help Pixie actually grow to like her companions. Or at least humble her a little. Maybe. A girl can hope. And you might as well do it when you can tank a couple days of headaches.


    You start to sing. The words don¡¯t matter so long as they¡¯re words. For some reason your subconscious went with country. Not usually your style but they were playing it downstairs yesterday and it got stuck in your head. It¡¯ll do. Even if it confuses your pok¨¦mon as they try to figure out why you¡¯re telling them about the time you destroyed some boy¡¯s car.


    You lie down, close your eyes, and reach out. Every word makes links between you and anything that can hear it. Six pings. Five below, one right on top of you. With a little bit of effort you reach out to the one on top and hold a link. Then you scan the ones below. One connection is easier than the others. More open, more experience in using that link. You reach out and feel a triangle of energy linking you, Ce, and Pixie. One verse and a chorus left to do. As the song winds down you try and relax, loosening up physically and mentally. It¡¯s what you¡¯re supposed to do to make shots hurt less and maybe that applies here.


    You drag out the final word, take a quick breath, and snap the triangle into place. It immediately feels like something massive struck you right on the forehead and the pain comes in steady waves, front to back. Back to front. Front to back. Back to front. You try to focus on the rhythm and not the substance. Because holy fuck why did you do this to yourself? Even with his help you were still bedridden for a week when you did your last team connection.


    Front to back. Back to front. Front to back. Back to front. You¡¯re aware of Pixie and Ce talking. To you. to each other. You ignore it. You¡¯re a tiny boat on the waves. Front to back. Back to front. Front to back. It¡¯s not getting better. Maybe even worse with every wave.


    At some point the pain becomes too much and you fall into the depths of rest and silence.


    In your dreams you drown as your sister watches on.


    *


    By morning the rocking has broken into a thousand tiny waves whizzing around your skull. It¡¯s not at all better. You tell Genesis that, no, you can¡¯t eat because you¡¯re pretty sure that you¡¯re going to vomit if you try to do anything and, yes, she¡¯s welcome to borrow Pixie to find paras to her own.


    You could really use someone taking half of your dumb psychic headaches now, but you went and let half your brain die so that¡¯s on you. As usual.


    Genesis comes back and sets down something with a small but unbearably large clattering sound. ¡°I got you water and a banana and some crackers,¡± she whispers. ¡°Kekoa¡¯s heading out today but I¡¯m going to stay back and watch over you. Make sure that everything¡¯s alright.¡±


    You really want to tell her to go straight to hell. Delaying an adventure to look after a sick friend? Does she think she¡¯s better than you? Because she¡¯s right. She¡¯s normal, even. Most people would do this. Almost everyone. You¡¯re the tiny, hideous exception to the rule.


    Eventually she coaxes you into eating a banana. You immediately stumble into the bathroom and throw it up. Between this and yesterday she¡¯d be justified in thinking you were bulimic. Which you aren¡¯t. You want to be pretty. Or at least less ugly. But even you can tell that there¡¯s absolutely nothing beautiful about the act of upchucking your partially digested food.


    Genesis tries again in the afternoon. Or what¡¯s probably in the afternoon. Impossible to tell with how much you¡¯ve been in and out of consciousness. You get a few sips of water and a cracker down. That just tells your stomach that it¡¯s eating time again and suddenly you have raging hunger complimenting the shootout in your head.


    Kekoa slams the door open because of course he does. Has it been that long already? Wait, how long would it even take Pixie to find some paras if she knew that they wouldn¡¯t be teammates of hers and success meant getting out of the heat faster. You had been very clear that Kekoa and Genesis were ditching their bugs.


    The fox jumps up onto the bed and curls up on your chest. Ugh. She¡¯s heavy enough that it¡¯s noticeable and her tails are in your face and make breathing a little harder. It would still be wrong to kick her off. You¡¯re lucky to have her and you¡¯re not going to hate her for being annoying while she¡¯s here because then maybe you¡¯ll be a bitch and she¡¯ll die and, bam, congrats, that¡¯s how you¡¯ll remember her forever.


    At least she¡¯s cold. That¡¯s nice. And with the food and soda that Genesis eventually got you to choke down you¡¯re less miserable than you were this morning. Still overwhelmed by pain and you want to cry but better.


    You¡¯ve shut out other minds to spare you even more pain. You don¡¯t bother telling Pixie as she yaps on, no doubt about the many injustices she¡¯s suffered since you last saw each other. You smile and whisper ¡°Poor, poor girl.¡± She huffs in satisfaction and turns around so that her nose rests on your neck.


    *


    When you wake up there are long, spindly legs wrapped around your head.


    Something primal takes over. You don¡¯t scream. You don¡¯t even breathe. Or move. You just stay still and silent like the spider might think you¡¯re a rock. Slap it? Another part of your brain wakes up. Wait, don¡¯t you have Pix for this? Where is¡ª


    You open up the psychic link and feel the pain of ripped-off duct tape. (A feeling you got second hand from your brother. Still aren¡¯t entirely sure of the context there.) A quick location ping tells you that both Ce and Pixie are very, very close to you. You reach up and gently move Ce from your face to your chest.


    ¡°Hello, friends,¡± you whisper.


    {Hello! Did that help?!} Ce very loudly answers through the link. Second order of business once you get better is teaching that girl (those girls?) how to use her (their? ellas¡¯s?) inside-the-head voice.


    ¡°A little,¡± you lie. ¡°But it messes with my breathing.¡±


    {Eep! We¡¯re so sorry¡ª}


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. How¡¯d you get the idea anyway?¡±


    Apology words flash through the surface of Pix¡¯s mind. Dammit. Should¡¯ve known.


    You run a finger along Ce¡¯s head. Hard enough to be an effective scratch, not so hard that she¡¯s likely to be hurt by it. Screw this, you¡¯ll figure things out tomorrow. She might move your cane in the morning but you doubt Pix comes up with anything worse over the course of a few hours.


    *


    Someone jostles you awake. Pix hisses at them and Ce starts clicking her mandibles together. ¡°Stand down. It¡¯s fine,¡± you groan. Probably fine, anyway.


    ¡°Hey,¡± Genesis says. ¡°How are you feeling?¡±


    You take stock. ¡°Okay-ish. Probably won¡¯t leave the room this morning. Might later.¡±


    ¡°Good!¡± She pauses. You hear her feet shift. What¡¯s the bad news? ¡°So, um, the nurse does want to talk to you¡ª.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± you reply. You know damn well why you have a headache. No need to bring in some doctor to tell you that, shocker, you¡¯re blind and fat. And you really don¡¯t want the authorities to know about your gift. Your father thought would be very bad. You smile to change topics and deflect. ¡°Thank you for yesterday, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Oh, no problem. But I will need Pixie today?¡± She states like it¡¯s a question.


    {Pixie, you up for it?}


    She barks. Yes, she is. Probably desperate to redeem herself. You¡¯ll tell her that you¡¯ll always love her no matter what once she comes back. For now the guilt and fear might increase her performance. She deserves some of it anyway.


    ¡°Yes, she¡¯s ready to help.¡±


    Genesis must¡¯ve already been dressed and ready to go because she rolls out just a few minutes later.


    You steadily get to your feet so you can at least brush your teeth. Once you take the first step the vertigo hits. Both arms fly out and you steadily crouch down. The world is rocking around you and if you just balance a little bit better you might hand on. The sloshing steadily slows. You sit back in bed. Your mouth feels gross but you¡¯ll have to wait to fix that.


    *


    You¡¯re very rudely woken up for the third time. Gunshots. Before you can properly panic you notice that there¡¯s music between the shots. Very loud music.


    Just an action movie. Being played very loudly. In your room. While you have a headache.


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± you growl. ¡°Turn that down.¡±


    ¡°Hmm? Sorry can¡¯t hear you,¡± he answers.


    {Hey, Ce, mind chasing him around?}


    {Of course!}


    You can¡¯t actually hear her move but you can hear Kekoa¡¯s footsteps and swearing before the television turns back off and you¡¯re left alone with a worsened headache.


    ¡°Come back, Ce.¡± You hear her dutifully scuttle over. You lay an arm down so she can crawl up it and lie on your chest because she was a very brave and good girl(s(?)). Kekoa crashes down onto the bed across from you a second later. Now to deal with the thing that needs dealt with, even though you¡¯d rather not until your headache is just a little bit calmer. ¡°Kekoa, what the fuck?¡±


    He huffs. ¡°If I¡¯m stuck inside watching your ass, I at least want to have some fun.¡±


    ¡°Not what I¡¯m talking about.¡± You gently move Ce from your chest to your lap and sit up. Bottom bunk is low enough that your feet can touch the ground while you sit. ¡°I meant, ¡®Kekoa, why the fuck have you been an asshole to me the entire time we¡¯ve known each other?¡¯¡±


    ¡°Because you¡¯ve been outing me and poking at my dysphoria, apparently knowingly, the whole damn time.¡±


    It¡¯s very difficult to keep your voice level as your mind and soul rock on the waves. ¡°Kekoa, I only did that because you were already being an asshole.¡± You can hear him open his mouth so you move right on to cut him off. ¡°De-escalation.¡± You take a deep breath and miraculously he doesn¡¯t but in. ¡°If we¡¯re trapped in a loop of hurting each other more and more, we should just stop hurting each other.¡±


    You hear him shift around. ¡°Explain.¡±


    You release part of the deep breath you took. Then you take another. ¡°You¡ª¡± No, start with what he gains. ¡°I stop misgendering you and don¡¯t out you to anyone else. I don¡¯t sic my pok¨¦mon on you. In exchange, you don¡¯t physically hurt me¡ªand that includes what you just did¡ªand you don¡¯t bring up my family. Ever.¡± Ideally, you¡¯d take care of the Kiwi thing but it¡¯s honestly rather hard to be hurt by it when it¡¯s just so childish. Besides, you doubt he¡¯d agree to everything and you¡¯d rather have the physical things stop.


    He doesn¡¯t answer. You stroke Ce between the mushrooms because you get the most bubbling when you scratch there. One paras reaches out from under the bed and pokes your ankle. You aren¡¯t about to ask aloud if he wants anything so you¡¯ll just wait for him to speak.


    ¡°Okay,¡± he finally says. ¡°I¡¯ll take the deal.¡±

 Normal 11: Kekoa

    Normal 1.11: Local, I Hope


    Kekoa


    2018


    ¡°Should¡¯ve brought a jacket,¡± you mutter.


    Manollo scoffs. ¡°Fucking told you. Colder here than anywhere else in the islands.¡±


    Certainly colder than anywhere on Akala. And you would know. You went to six different schools there ranging from North Point to Konikoni. You thought it was tolerable here. Turns out that daytime on the coast is different from night at the base of Mauna Lanakila.


    ¡°What are you even taking me to?¡± You leave unsaid: ¡®And why is it worth sneaking out and maybe getting kicked out of yet another home?¡¯


    ¡°Almost there. You¡¯ll see.¡±


    True to his word, you do see once you get to the top of the next hill. A gathering of maybe a hundred people holding flickering lights in front of the mountain¡¯s lift system. As you get closer you realize something else: a lot of those people are wearing black and red clothing. Most are covering part of their face, even the ones who aren¡¯t wearing skull colors. Shit. You glare at Manollo. It¡¯s not that you oppose the skulls on principle, you¡¯ve just had some bad run-ins. Being kanaka won¡¯t necessarily save you from a rowdy teenager who¡¯s heard one side of a story and wanted to kick someone¡¯s ass.


    Manollo waves you off and comes to a halt at the edge of the group. You reluctantly stop and stand beside him. Just look like you belong here. Someone in a full, old-school skull uniform comes up to you and hands you a candle. You reach out your hand and take it so that you don¡¯t look too unsure of what you¡¯re doing. The man lights it and moves onto Manollo.


    Before you can whisper-ask what you just walked into the few hushed voices in the crowd are silenced. You can see someone climb up the steps towards the lift at the front of the crowd. Black crop top, short shorts, and long multicolor hair. Yeah, you recognize her. Hard not to.


    Plumeria turns to face the crowd. Then she just sits down on the top step. When she speaks, her voice carries very well. ¡°Once Pele and N¨¡maka had shaped the world, the Sun and Moon looked down and found it empty and themselves lonely. Together in their divine knowledge and power they created man. But the Sun grew fearful as his creation multiplied and innovated. He cast them down the slope of Mauna Lanakila until they arrived on the earth. That was still too close for the Sun and he refused to shine on the islands so that the humans would die in the darkness.


    ¡°Nu¡¯u, ancestor of our people, appealed to the masses and calmed their fears. They used what little they had to build altars and provide sacrifices to the gods. Five gods answered. Tapu Bulu provided the wood for a fleet of canoes. Tapu Lele provided knowledge of how to build them. Tapu Fini provided knowledge of the seas. Tapu Koko provided the courage and resolve to make the long voyage ahead of them. As for the Moon, she provided a map to guide mankind across the waters.


    ¡°In time, the Moon could no longer stand to see her children living in exile. She provided the descendants of Nu¡¯u with a path back across the sea to the seat of the heavens. When the Sun saw mankind return he was outraged and the Moon grew distraught. But clever Tapu Lele had a plan. As the Sun descended the slopes of the Mauna to smite his children, they offered him a gift, not of gold or fruit or blood, but of song and dance. They told the Sun of their lives in exile. They told the Sun of their journeys across the waters. They told the Sun of their love for him, the Moon, the Tapus, and the earth itself. They told of sorrow and joy, war and peace, love and hate. The Sun was moved. Without a word he turned around and rose back up the mauna.¡±


    ¡°The Sun entrusted the earth into our care. The Moon gave us a future in the heavens. Her oracle birds guide our souls to this point. The children of Poli¡¯ahu take us the rest of the way so that the Moon may take us into her wings and usher us into our next adventure.¡±


    Plumeria pauses and rises to her feet. You blink in surprise. You¡¯ve heard the story enough but her charisma and the mauna behind her added new meaning and sucked you into the story until the cold and skulls ceased to exist. ¡°So it was.¡± The words hang over the assembly until the faint echoes stop and silence reigns. No one dares break it until she does. You don¡¯t even breathe.


    ¡°The rest of mankind came to our garden. They poisoned the roots of our plants and our spirits. They conquered our kingdom. They subjugated our proud people and made us strangers in our own lands. That did not satisfy them. They built telescopes on Pele¡¯s mountain to study our stars. That did not satisfy them. They built a throne above our ancient altar, at the point where the heavens meet the earth. Where our father banished us and our mother welcomes us. They installed an ali¡¯i of their own. That did not satisfy them. No, they could not merely have our mother¡¯s home. They had to subjugate our mother as well. This will not satisfy them. They will take and take and take to fill the void in their hearts where alola should be.¡± She pauses again and inhales. ¡°WILL WE LET THEM TAKE MORE?¡±


    A cry of cheers, ¡°NO!¡±s, swears, and seemingly pointless screaming rises from the crowd. You¡¯re pretty sure that you get caught up in it but you can¡¯t even hear what you¡¯re saying.


    Plumeria raises her hand and the noise abruptly stops. ¡°Damn right we won¡¯t.¡±


    *


    October 25<sup>th</sup>, 2019


    The Route 5 Trainer¡¯s Stop doesn¡¯t have the uniformity of a Pok¨¦mon Center.  It¡¯s just a long, wooden building with a wooden porch running the distance. There¡¯s a normal-looking house across from it made of brick and wood and a few tiny cabins are down the hill out back. Much better than a doctor¡¯s office with some bedrooms.


    You walk into the main building. It¡¯s split into three parts. Something like a dining room to the left and a small shop through the right. There¡¯s only one attendant, female, haole, probably early 20s, staffing the desk.


    ¡°Welcome to the Trainer¡¯s Stop. You looking to spend the night?¡±


    You step up because Kiwi can¡¯t read paperwork and Jennifer will just idle forever and shift nervously and pretend like she¡¯s got no social power at all. Plus sometimes you feel like you¡¯re the only one with a clue what¡¯s going on. ¡°Yeah. Looking to stay two nights.¡±


    The receptionist starts typing. ¡°Just the three of you?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± She stops typing and gives you a smile that looks more fake than not. ¡°May I see your trainer cards?¡± You hesitate but then hand yours over. The name isn¡¯t yours anymore. The picture has longer hair. Maybe she¡¯ll reject it. Hopefully she¡¯ll reject it. Can¡¯t be this boy in front of her.


    She doesn¡¯t.


    ¡°You¡¯ll be in Cabins 3 and 4.  Shower tokens are good for about five minutes. Cleaning supplies are in the closet, make sure to clean up your cabins before you leave. Are any of you willing to help cook?¡±


    Kiwi raises her hand like a preschooler. ¡°I am.¡±


    The receptionist looks at her for a long time. ¡°Are you sure?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve done all of my family¡¯s cooking for years. Yes, I¡¯m sure.¡± Huh. She has a decent glare game. Cataracts probably help a little since it¡¯s damn hard to keep eye contact with her. Not that you¡¯d give her the satisfaction of knowing that.


    ¡°Alright. Uh, report here at 4 P.M., 6 A.M. and 11 A.M.¡± Her cheeriness returns as she speaks. ¡°Anyone willing to clean up before or after meals?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take after. Genesis can take before.¡± Not interested in getting up early.


    ¡°Alright. Genesis, please come up a half hour before meals. Breakfast is at eight, lunch at one, dinner at 6. There¡¯s usually something around the fire pit at 9 P.M if you¡¯re interested. I¡¯ll let Uffe and Eleanor explain more at dinner.¡±


    *


    The cabin¡¯s small, just a six-by-six entry area with a desk and a sink and then a tight bedroom with two small beds. Perks of being a boy: you get the place to yourself for two days while Jenny and Kiwi have to share a bedroom not much bigger than the tent.


    You set your stuff down and pull a towel off the rack. Now that you¡¯re in civilization your first priorities are getting a shower and washing your clothes. Yeah, you¡¯re a guy now but you aren¡¯t in a rush to give up basic hygiene.


    There are trumbeak singing nearby. Should you let Hekeli out while you shower? There are talonflame here and she never had to deal with those on Ula¡¯Ula. Would she know what to do? No, you¡¯ll let her out later when you can watch her uninterrupted. You aren¡¯t going to lose your only pok¨¦mon.


    Shower time. Now, the eternal question: which shower to use? Are your clothes too tight? Would anyone notice if you went in the men¡¯s side? Are you willing to risk getting caught alone and feminine in a room full of stronger guys? Girl¡¯s side isn¡¯t much better. You hate it but if you raised your voice up a little you could 100% pass as a butch lesbian. No, the problem there is the aftermath. The little validation to dysphoria. The reminder that even on your best day you still look like a girl and you know it. If you got caught you have no idea how you¡¯d start explaining the choice to Jennifer. You probably wouldn¡¯t. Might punch her. And you¡¯ve agreed to stop doing that sort of thing. Or maybe you haven¡¯t. The agreement was only between you and Cuicatl.


    You step into the men¡¯s room and dart back towards the showers. No one here. No need to panic. You still close the curtain, strip, turn the shower on, get in as fast as you possibly can. You take a quicker shower than you want. Partially out of fear, partially because it¡¯s really not the best idea to dwell under water as it runs over your many curves.


    *


    An older kanaka couple come around to the table. You stop eating and Genesis follows. Kiwi very belatedly does as well. ¡°New faces in camp, I see,¡± the man says.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± you answer before Jenny can fuck it up. ¡°Just got here this afternoon. My name¡¯s Kekoa, that¡¯s Genesis, and that¡¯s Cuicatl.¡±


    The woman smiles. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve already met Miss Ichtaca. She has some wonderful recipes she¡¯s offered to show me tomorrow.¡±


    Kiwi awkwardly shifts. ¡°Right. Thank you again for letting me cook. Sorry if I slowed it down¡­¡±


    ¡°Hush dear. The pleasure was all mine. Oh, I forgot my manners! My name is Eleanor and this is my husband Uffe. We¡¯re the hosts of the camp.¡±


    ¡°Hi, nice to meet you,¡± Jennifer says. ¡°Is the dining room usually this, um, empty or¡­?¡±


    Uffe sighs. ¡°No. Usually this is peak season. But there was the blacepholon back in August when a lot of the kids who started after the school year in Hau¡¯oli finished up Melemele and would¡¯ve come to Akala. Scared ¡®em off to Ula¡¯Ula. Couple of trainers at the end of their challenge, a handful of VStar folks, and a few late starters but it¡¯s been a quiet month.


    You move on before Jennifer can fuck up and dig into the VStar point. ¡°That¡¯s a shame. Always liked Akala.¡±


    He smiles. ¡°Well, you¡¯ve got good taste then. So, what¡¯cha planning to do tomorrow? We like to make sure that everyone¡¯s doing something productive while they¡¯re here. Your friend¡¯s gonna be in the kitchen but I don¡¯t reckon¡¯ you two are going to join her.¡±


    Jennifer shakes her head. ¡°No. Um. I can, um. I don¡¯t know. What needs done?¡±


    ¡°Oh, bathhouse always needs cleaned. Or dishes. Or laundry. Or any number of things. Work just keeps piling up around here,¡± Eleanor answers.


    You interrupt before that conversation can spiral into a million rounds of ¡®oh, no, I couldn¡¯t possibly, please, you pick.¡¯


    ¡°I heard that there were grubbin nearby. I would like to look for one, if you would let me.¡±


    Uffe smiles. ¡°Of course. Darn bugs keep eating the roots in the garden. Now, you have a way to find a grubbin or are we going to have to do this the old way?¡±


    You inhale. Moment of faith. How closely is Kiwi going to hew to the spirit of the agreement. ¡°Kiwi¡¯s vulpix fought a grubbin back in Hau¡¯oli, right?¡± You remember. You watched it. She got her ass kicked and continued a long, inglorious tradition.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Kiwi responds.


    ¡°Can I borrow her tomorrow?¡±


    She shakes her head. ¡°No.¡± Wait. What? Is she going to fucking fight you on this?


    ¡°Why not?¡±


    She grins. Her dumb sly grin that says she¡¯s about to do something. In front of adults? Really?


    ¡°Because Kiwi doesn¡¯t own a vulpix. Cuicatl does and she might if you ask real nicely.¡±


    Why? Why does she have to bring that up, context free, in front of fucking authority figures? They¡¯ll get the wrong idea and she knows it. So much for the goddamn truce. But you need the grubbin. You¡¯ll figure out how to get revenge later.


    ¡°Cuicatl, can I borrow your vulpix tomorrow?¡±


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Her unbearable smile gets even wider and she rapidly shakes her head. ¡°See, that wasn¡¯t too hard, was it?¡±


    You almost flip her off, adults be damned.


    *


    ¡°How¡¯d your friend get a keokeo?¡± Uffe asks. His voice is gruff but there¡¯s a kindness underneath it. Like your grandfather before he passed.


    ¡°Starter. Gift from some rich breeder.¡±


    Pixie¡ªand isn¡¯t that a shitty name¡ªknows she¡¯s being talked about and occasionally pulls her nose up from the ground to make sure that only nice things are being said about her. Uffe always shoots a smile her way and she purrs and looks back down.


    ¡°Local, I¡¯d hope?¡±


    You shake your head. ¡°No. She¡¯s some tourist from Anahuac here because her Mom was some bigshot back in the day and she has dreams of glory or whatever.¡±


    He gives you a strange look. Not quite sympathy. ¡°I meant ¡®did she get it from a local breeder.¡¯ As a joke.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Pixie paused for a moment and you almost trip over her by accident. She looks at you like apologies are demanded and you offer them profusely because you¡¯re not a monster. ¡°Wait. Do they even breed keokeo here?¡±


    Uffe shrugs and starts walking again when Pixie does. ¡°One breeder down the road has a male ninetales paired with a glaceon. Don¡¯t think anyone¡¯s got a female on Akala.¡± Pixie lowers her tails and sniffs the ground and for a second you think that maybe she¡¯s found something. Then she props a leg up, pees, and moves on.


    ¡°Mr. Radcliffe, right? He¡¯s the ice-type trainer?¡±


    You get a smile in response. ¡°Yes. You live around here?¡±


    ¡°Sort of. Grew up in Paniola Town. He came down sometimes around the solstice. Seemed nice enough.¡±


    His smile grows wider. ¡°He absolutely is. Gentlest soul in these parts.¡± Uffe stops walking and turns to you. ¡°Sorry if this is too personal, but it doesn¡¯t sound like you like your partner much.¡± You shake your head. ¡°Then why travel with her? It¡¯s a big commitment to spend months in close quarters with somebody.¡±


    You don¡¯t want to tell him you work for VStar. He seems cool and you don¡¯t regret your path¡ªyou did what you had to do to break another system¡ªbut maybe he wouldn¡¯t get it. ¡°Weird coincidences. Might ditch her at the end of the island. We¡¯ll see.¡±


    ¡°Alright, then.¡± You meet his gaze and find that he¡¯s looking you over. For a second you wonder if he read you but then he looks away. Not angry. Or disgusted. But intrigued. ¡°Tell me more about your partner then. You said she¡¯s got a famous mom?¡±


    ¡°Sort of.¡± She had mentioned that her mom was a trainer. Maybe. Pretty sure you wouldn¡¯t have just made that up. And it explains why Miss Bell gives a solitary shit about her.


    ¡°You catch her last name?¡±


    ¡°Ichtaca. Her mom¡¯s Unovan though so it could be anything.¡±


    He nods. ¡°Makes sense. Rare starter and all. I take it she has all the other advantages her mom could give. TMs, a pok¨¦dex, top-tier camping gear, personal training in battle strategy?¡±


    You laugh. And then catch yourself. He seems to like this tourist bitch for some reason. And you want him to like you. ¡°No. None of that. Apparently. Didn¡¯t have any gear. Sucks at battling.¡±


    Pixie barks and wags her tails. She points her snout down before glancing up at you and then pointing her snout down again.


    ¡°Well, that¡¯s your cue. Send out your pok¨¦mon and dig.¡±


    It¡¯s hard to tell if you¡¯re shoveling too fast or not fast enough. You don¡¯t want to let the grubbin get away but you also don¡¯t want to accidentally push a shovel through its shell and kill it. Not that you¡¯re sure you could. Pok¨¦mon are tough. ¡°Slow down a bit,¡± Uffe eventually says. ¡°You¡¯re at the depth they usually hang out. Just scrape a little off.¡±


    You see yellow. That¡¯s good enough for you. in one motion you jump backwards and cast the shovel aside. ¡°Hekeli, echoed voice!¡±


    Your pikipek stirs to life and fires a shockwave into the hole. Rather than dig deeper the grubbin slowly unburies itself and lifts its head to the sky just in time to take the second hit right to the face. It doesn¡¯t seem to care and a cloud of dirt rockets into the sky a moment later. Hekeli dodges the earth and throws out another shockwave. This time the grubbin really seems to feel it and you think you can see it retreating a little bit into the ground. That won¡¯t do.


    You reach into your pocket, prime the pok¨¦ball, and throw it. There¡¯s a flash of red light as it connects and the grubbin is sucked in. A small ¡®thud¡¯ as it falls deeper into the hard earth. Then shaking. And a click. You caught your second pok¨¦mon!


    Uffe claps. Too fast to be ironic. ¡°Congratulations.¡± And that feels good. Being praised for something by an adult. A k¨¡naka maoli adult. How long has it been? Two years? Three? Probably Mr. Perkins. Seventh grade at whatever middle school you were in that semester.


    ¡°Just a grubbin.¡± You say. Can¡¯t let your ego get too big over a bug. However much you want it.


    ¡°Yeah. But someday it¡¯ll be a vikavolt. And I¡¯ve never heard anyone say ¡®just a vikavolt.¡¯ Congrats on the first step to an awesome insect.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± You¡¯re beaming. You shouldn¡¯t be but it feels nice. Hekeli warbles and lands on your shoulder. You give her headpats. She did a good job. She can stay out on the walk back to the shop. And you¡¯ll see if you can find her some worms at a decent price. Although maybe you shouldn¡¯t be rewarding her with bugs right now. That could end badly.


    Uffe starts walking back to his home. You follow. ¡°Now, not to rain on your parade or anything, because that was great and you should be proud, but there¡¯s something else we should talk about.¡±


    You frown but keep pace. ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°Your partner. Now, I might be off base, but,¡± he waves his hands in front of him, ¡°just hear me out. Teenage girl comes from Anahuac. Unstable, theocratic, impoverished country that people have been streaming out of sense the 80s. She comes alone with no money. Or experience. Or resources. Says that her mom is someone famous from The States. Won¡¯t specify who her mom is and the rest of the story doesn¡¯t check out. Now, she could be telling the truth. Or.¡± He looks at you and gauges your expression for a moment. ¡°Or she¡¯s a refugee who just got out of hell, knows no one here, and is telling stories to impress the only people she¡¯s met.¡±


    You grimace. Yeah. Maybe. It wouldn¡¯t change anything. ¡°She still came to our country when she has her own.¡±


    He hums for a moment. Not quite answering but still conveying disapproval. ¡°What causes a person to get up and move across an ocean to a strange place with strange people and no guarantee of food, shelter, or safety? How bad does your life have to be when that¡¯s your best option?¡± Uffe sighs. ¡°I get it. I was a radical when I was your age. Still am. But she doesn¡¯t sound like a monster. Just sounds like she needs Alola. Lower and uppercase.¡±


    ¡°Not obligated to give that to tourists,¡± you mutter. Radical? He claims to be a radical? While coddling settlers he¡¯s never even met?


    ¡°You¡¯re not obligated to,¡± he responds, somewhat exasperated. ¡°But I think you¡¯re looking at a potential friend and automatically thinking the worst of her.¡± You¡¯ve finally reach Uffe¡¯s home. He extends a hand to you and you shake it. Reflexively. Not sure if you would¡¯ve still done it if you¡¯d had time to think about it. ¡°Just some advice from a man who¡¯s been there. You don¡¯t need to take it. Congratulations again on the grubbin.¡±


    He¡¯s holding the shovel. You forgot about the shovel. Why¡¯d you let him carry it when you were the one using it? ¡°Thank you for your help.¡±


    Uffe laughs. ¡°Oh, I don¡¯t think I did much of anything but go on a walk through the garden. But thank you for the thanks.¡±


    *


    You pass by the girls¡¯ cabin on the way back to yours. Kiwi¡¯s out front in a patch of sunlight with Pixie curled up in the shade, four paras around her, and one sitting on her head like a hat. You have to stop and make sure that, yes, she really does have a paras on her head. Isn¡¯t she worried about spores and shit?


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± you finally ask.


    ¡°Meditating,¡± she answers.


    ¡°No, I meant what are you doing with the paras on your head.¡±


    ¡°Meditating. With a paras on my head.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    She frowns. ¡°It¡¯s good for focusing. Don¡¯t you do it?¡±


    Of course you meditate. Sometimes. When you remember. And someone makes you. ¡°But why is the paras on your head?¡±


    ¡°Because she wanted to be closer to the sun.¡±


    The head-paras chirps in response.


    Well. There¡¯s your answer. How did she know the paras wanted to be closer to the sun? Why did she agree? Who knows? Certainly not you. And at this point you¡¯d rather not ask.


    *


    You settle down in a secluded area near the cabins. After taking a deep breath, you hold out your arm and whistle. Hekeli flies in from gods know where and perches on you a moment later. Alright. Taming time. You prime, aim, and release the pok¨¦ball.


    The grubbin forms a second later. You deliberately puff yourself up to make yourself larger and throw your voice down in pitch. ¡°Hello, I¡¯m your new¡ª¡± A string shot hits you right in the face. Hekeli moves and you can hear a fight break out. You half-consciously withdraw the bug and bring a hand to your mouth to assess the damage. Damn it. Webbing everywhere. Is it water soluble? It had better fucking be.


    *


    It isn¡¯t. You still to get most of it scrubbed off before the water stops flowing.


    *


    ¡°You have something on your mouth,¡± Jenny says as soon as you sit down. You ignore her bar a simple ¡°mmm-hmm¡± and look down at your plate. Tacos, rice, and beans. Definitely Kiwi¡¯s thing. You take a testing bite. It¡¯s actually pretty¡ªholy shit your fucking mouth is on fire. You quickly grab your glass and pour down as much water as you can.


    ¡°I labeled the ones without chili sauce.¡±


    Before your mouth cools enough that you can retort that, no, you labeled them as ¡°hot¡± and ¡°mild¡± not ¡°atomic¡± and ¡°mild,¡± Jennifer butts in. ¡°It¡¯s still there, Kekoa. Just little white strands around your mouth.¡±


    Kiwi snorts and almost chokes on her water. You consider flipping her the bird before catching a glimpse of Uffe in your peripheral vision. Blind or not it would¡¯ve been satisfying.


    Jenny blinks. ¡°Wait. What did I say?¡±


    Kiwi finishes coughing and waves her hand to dismiss the subject. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you when you¡¯re older.¡±


    *


    Something licks you on the forehead.


    You press yourself up and whirl around to find yourself face to face with a very cute white fox. She barks at you in response. Rather loudly.


    ¡°Pix, quiet down!¡± you hear whispered through the trees. A moment later you watch Kiwi¡¯s cane absolutely brutalize the plants on either side of the path. It¡¯s not that you think people like her should never go on the trail. Just, if they¡¯re going to do shit like that to nature then, yeah, they should stay home.


    Kiwi stops a few feet away from you, crouches, and holds out her arms. The ice fox turns around (hitting you in the face with her tails) and dutifully allows herself to be held. Then Kiwi just stands there. Right by you. For an uncomfortable amount of time. You hold your breath because you really don¡¯t want to deal with her right now.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re there, Kekoa,¡± she says. Shit. How? ¡°You know that blind people have super hearing, right?¡± Ugh. Shit. You¡¯d forgotten about that. She sits down cross-legged when you don¡¯t answer. Her keokeo curls up in her legs and glares at you. In the moonlight Kiwi¡¯s harshest features are softened a bit. Brings her up from a four to a five. ¡°What are you doing awake?¡± she asks.


    ¡°What are you?¡±


    She shakes her head and glares two feet to your right. ¡°I asked first. But I was just going to the bathroom when Pix found you.¡±


    You¡¯re tempted to tell her to fuck off because she has no right to know what you¡¯re doing, but you get the sense that it could get loud and wake up other people and maybe get you banned from these places in the future. ¡°Watching the stars.¡±


    She blinks. Surprise? Normal blinking? Do her blinks even mean anything? ¡°Looking for omens?¡±


    ¡°What? No. Just looking at them.¡± You hold up a hand and trace the sky even if she can¡¯t see it. ¡°The constellations form a curve and lines. A map. They led my ancestors here.¡± You press yourself up a little bit so your back isn¡¯t on the ground. ¡°You use them to tell the future and shit?¡±


    It¡¯s hard to tell with the light and the cataracts but you think she rolls her eyes. ¡°I don¡¯t use them. But the priests do.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± You keep your voice hard. ¡°Your priests use the stars in Anahuac. These are my stars. There¡¯s a difference.¡±


    And it sounds like a tiny difference but it matters. There are so many settlers now that you can barely see your stars on parts of the island. The settlers noticed that so they built telescopes so that they could still see the stars. And even if Kiwi doesn¡¯t plan to stay she¡¯ll still go home and tell her friends who will fucking swarm your home and poison your waters, burn your forests, build on your mountains, and banish your stars. Because they aren¡¯t their waters, their forests, their mountains, or their stars. And when your home is destroyed they¡¯ll just go back to theirs.


    Kiwi is silent for a second as she maybe finally gets it. But the moment passes and she shakes her head. ¡°Kekoa, I¡¯m not going to steal your stars.¡±


    You snort. ¡°You already have.¡± You don¡¯t bother waiting for her to answer. ¡°When Alolans die the murkrow guide them to the base of Mauna Lanakila. And then the ninetales meet with the soul and guide it to the top. To the stars. And then they navigate the stars to their next home. You took a vulpix. You¡¯ve made it harder for me to reach my stars.¡±


    For another moment you think that she finally understands. But then she just looks down and ruffles her keokeo¡¯s ears. ¡°I didn¡¯t take her. She was taken, abandoned, and then I adopted her.¡± She frowns and scrunches up her face. ¡°Would you rather she be alone, miserable, and off the mountain or loved and cared for off the mountain?¡±


    ¡­


    That¡¯s a half-decent point. But it ignores the big picture. ¡°Yeah, but you don¡¯t understand this place. You¡¯re just going to keep doing it over and over again and then go back home with a half dozen sacred pok¨¦mon.¡±


    She sighs. Like you¡¯re a child who needs appeased. ¡°I understand where you¡¯re coming from. Really. If you walked into Anahuac and walked out with a hawlucha, axlawful, and pantherma I¡¯d be, well, first off you¡¯d probably be dead.¡± She laughs nervously. ¡°Treason to take any of them without the tlatoani¡¯s say-so and treason¡¯s the fastest way to wind up staring down your still-beating heart.¡±


    ¡°Holy shit. TMI.¡±


    Kiwi frowns and slouches a little bit. ¡°Sorry. Gallows humor is a big thing in Anahuac. We don¡¯t really hide from death. No point. It won¡¯t just go away if you ignore it.¡± There¡¯s something there at the end. Real emotion. Sadness? Anger? Both? She moves on before you can fully process it. ¡°Anyway. Yes, I understand what you want. I think that we can make a deal here as well.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not compromising on that,¡± you say as sternly as you can so that she gets the point.


    ¡°I said deal. Not a compromise. Deal both people are happy. Compromise neither are.¡±


    You narrow your eyes and try to look into hers, but she¡¯s looking down and away from you. ¡°Go on.¡±


    She sighs again and moves her arms behind her so she can lean back on them. ¡°You can tell what nature¡¯s saying by the winds and stars, right?¡±


    ¡°Among other things.¡±


    {I can listen in a little more directly.}


    Holy. Fucking. Shit. Was that¡ª


    {In your head? Yeah.}


    You glance at her. ¡°Do that again.¡±


    {Again?}


    Her lips don¡¯t move. Whatever she¡¯s doing it¡¯s not ventriloquism.


    ¡°What is that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m psychic,¡± she says (mercifully aloud). ¡°Language based. I can understand what other people are saying and make myself understood.¡±


    ¡°And you can read my mind?¡± you ask.


    She shakes her head. ¡°Not really. I can tell what words are on the tip of your tongue but nothing deeper. Well. I guess I know what languages people speak. Or at least what language my words are getting translated into.¡±


    ¡°And how do I know that part is real?¡±


    Kiwi turns to look directly at you. ¡°Can you describe my accent, please?¡±


    Her accent? It¡¯s¡­ perfectly neutral. Utterly unremarkable. Nothing you¡¯d ever thought about at all. That¡¯s weird, right? If she grew up in another country.


    ¡°I actoly sond like tis.¡±


    You blink. And blink again. ¡°The fuck?¡±


    She laughs. It¡¯s a very good laugh. Is that also an illusion?


    ¡°I know, it¡¯s the difference between dirt and sand.¡± she says with a perfectly neutral accent again. ¡°I can speak a little better if I concentrate, but it never really matters so why bother? As for your other,¡± unspoken, ¡°question, yes, my voice is naturally like that. Years of music class and singing to myself.¡±


    The bigger picture pieces itself together as the shock wears off. That¡¯s not just a parlor trick. ¡°And you can talk to pok¨¦mon?¡±


    Her lips press together for a moment. ¡°Most pok¨¦mon. Dark-types give me trouble. Had to learn draconic to properly talk to my mom¡¯s hydreigon.¡±


    Somehow ¡®Hold up you can speak to dragons?¡± isn¡¯t the question you want to ask the most. ¡°That¡¯s how you get along so well with your pok¨¦mon. You¡¯re not a savant or anything, you can just talk to them.¡±


    ¡°Pretty much. Doesn¡¯t always help. Some pok¨¦mon are jerks. But it does give me an advantage.¡±


    Next follow-up: ¡°What does Hekeli say about me?¡±


    Kiwi shrugs. ¡°You¡¯re okay. She¡¯s very interested in my voice, though, and your battle practice is starting to bore her. Mix training up and play some music around her. Then you should be good. Otherwise, she might defect.¡± She says that so naturally that you aren¡¯t even sure if it¡¯s a threat. ¡°It isn¡¯t. Just an observation. Oh, I can talk to your grubbin if you want. Worked well enough for the paras.¡±


    ¡°Is that the deal? You get to walk out with whatever so long as I benefit?¡±


    ¡°No, it wasn¡¯t. The deal was that if I plan to put a pok¨¦mon on my team for longer than it takes to hand them off to VStar, I have to get the pok¨¦mon¡¯s consent before doing so. That way I won¡¯t just take anything from your home. Is that enough respect or¡­?¡±


    Part of you doesn¡¯t think that it is. She¡¯s an outsider. A tourist. She doesn¡¯t get to take your sacred pok¨¦mon. But if you really care about the pok¨¦mon you should also respect their choices. And she got a keokeo to trust her. And it¡¯s selfish but she could really, really help you with your own goals. If it breaks the entire damn colonial system you can tolerate one girl taking a few stars.


    You stand up. ¡°You said you had to go to the bathroom, right?¡±


    She smiles sheepishly and moves some hair off her forehead. Probably reflex. It was really long at orientation. ¡°Yeah. I was going to have to end this soon if you didn¡¯t.¡±


    You nod, even if she can¡¯t see it, and start walking back to your cabin.


    ¡°Good night, Pixie. Good night, Cuicatl.¡±

 Normal 12: Genesis

    Normal 1.12: Partners


    Genesis


    October 13, 2019


    Cuicatl pulls the kibble out of her bag and starts to pour it into her tiny collapsible fox food bowl. You walk up and she pours you a handful without missing a beat. ¡°Thank you,¡± you say. Then you take it to the edge of the clearing and leave it in a small pile.


    Wait. Do eevee even eat kibble? Mom never let you have one. You¡¯d assume they¡¯d eat the same thing as vulpix. But eevee also have weird DNA and look kind of like buneary so maybe they¡¯d prefer carrots?


    ¡°Do eevee actually like kibble?¡± you ask.


    ¡°How the fuck would I know,¡± Kekoa answers as he strolls back into the clearing.


    You glare at him. He didn¡¯t need to be mean about that. You take your pack off (its light enough you¡¯d honestly forgotten you were even wearing it) and take out your apricot sausage. It¡¯s basically just slices of apricots with little flakes of nuts and vegetables in it. You remember really liking apricots as a kid but now the taste is¡­ weird. Or maybe they¡¯re just over-processed. Still getting used to eating food that doesn¡¯t really taste like food. The Pok¨¦mon Centers are usually good about that and fake is better than inedible but sometimes it catches you. It just feels wrong to put junk into your body.


    Kekoa tosses you a packet of crackers. He and Cuicatl have small remoraid cans. You¡¯ll definitely pass on that. Even when you ate meat remoraid always just smelled bad. And that texture. And color. It¡¯s more like grey sludge than food. Even the lab stuff is gross. Apparently your companions disagree and Pixie isn¡¯t above slyly begging for some, even if he¡ªshe, even if she hasn¡¯t quite figured out how to slyly beg to a blind girl.


    Pixie. Vulpixes. Foxes. You glance back to the kibble pile and¡ªDeer. Of Life. There¡¯s a cute, furry, perfect little bunny fox. Right near you. Easy. Calm. Excitement later. You reach down to your belt and slowly unclip Sir Bubble¡¯s ball. You almost shout ¡°Let¡¯s go make a friend!¡± but wisely decide not to. Sir Bubbles appears in a flash of red light. And immediately starts yipping at you while thumping his tail on the ground. A finger flies to your lips and you point past him. Sir. Bubbles¡¯ eyes just open a little wider and he sinks a little closer to the ground in response, a faint ribbit accompanying the movement.


    Something roars. Well, not a roar exactly. More of a high pitch incessant screech that moves up and down like the world¡¯s worst fire alarm. You recoil and look at the¡ªthe vulpix causing it. No! Bad! You glance back. The eevee¡¯s running but not quite out of sight in the burned forest. You reach down and grab Sir Bubbles before taking off in pursuit. Eevee are pok¨¦mon, sure, but you¡¯ve got much longer legs. You can do this.


    ¡°Water gun, Sir Bubbles!¡± The frog tries to comply, but the shot goes very wide and the eevee just runs a little bit faster. ¡°No! Stop! I¡¯m trying to catch you.¡±


    You keep pace pretty well and even get close enough to think about tackling. But there¡¯s always a root you have to dodge or the eevee gets yet another second wind or something. You almost prefer it that way. With the wind in your hair, Sir Bubbles in your arms, and an eevee in front of you this is the most fun you¡¯ve had in weeks.


    Something catches your eye and you come screeching to a halt. Right into a tree root. Which turns the halt into a fall. You move to catch yourself and narrowly do but. Oh crap. You hastily stand back up and look down at your starter as he awkwardly pulls himself up and tries to recover from 135 pounds of girl falling directly onto him. Eventually he looks back up at you, tears in his wide eyes and¡ªthis is just a food ploy, isn¡¯t it? Evil bastard.


    There¡¯s another movement at the edge of your vision. You freeze up and reach down for Sir Bubble¡¯s ball. It¡¯s still there. Somehow didn¡¯t get knocked out of your belt. You withdraw him as soon as possible and take ten steps back, doing your best to avoid the roots while looking up.


    A giant spider floats between the trees, staring down at you with its almost-human eyes. It¡ªno, she, too big for a male¡ªstarts to sink ever lower on her thread. You slowly crouch down, keeping eye contact the whole time, and hold a hand out.


    ¡°There you are!¡± Kekoa shouts somewhere behind you. You almost break eye contact with the spider. ¡°Knew you were stupid, didn¡¯t know you were stupid enough to run right off the fucking trail. Now¡ªholy shit.¡± His voice drops to a whisper at the end.


    ¡°Shh!¡± He¡¯s being too loud. Might scare her. And she¡¯s almost made it to the ground.


    ¡°You¡¯re¡ªyou can¡¯t be serious. We need to go. Now.¡±


    You want to break eye contact. Glare back at him and tell him to shut up or leave. For once you know what you¡¯re doing.


    The ariados approaches with small, tepid steps. You move your arm just a little bit towards her to make sure she sees it.


    ¡°I¡¯m calling Hekeli,¡± Kekoa hisses.


    ¡°Hi, there,¡± you whisper. ¡°You want scratches?¡±


    The ariados chitters and walks right up to you, stinger close to your heart when you¡¯re crouched down at her level. You bend your arm and guide your hand to a small little chink in the spider¡¯s exoskeleton where the head meets the body. You press a fingernail in and scratch, running it up and down the groove. The spider clicks her mandibles together in contentment and you put a little bit more force into the petting.


    ¡°What the actual fuck,¡± Kekoa says at an appropriately low volume. The ariados takes a step to the side to look at him. He immediately hops back and keeps walking away, putting as much distance as possible between him and the man-sized spider. You suppress a sigh and pat the ariados on the back before rising to your feet.


    ¡°Had one as a pet. They¡¯re harmless to humans.¡±


    But not to¡ªyou glance out into the forest. It takes you a second to find it but there¡¯s a thin, almost invisible thread running from the web out into the burned woods. The eevee¡¯s on the other end. At night the ariados will follow the line and eat the fox and maybe its entire family. You need to save it.


    The ariados has already retreated back to her web and is steadily climbing up it, ignoring you as she rises. ¡°Follow me!¡± you whisper.


    You turn to follow the wire and save your furry future friend. A hand grabs your arm and pulls back. Hard. ¡°No,¡± Kekoa hisses back. ¡°The eevee¡¯s long gone and we are not going so far off the trail that we can¡¯t hear Kiwi shouting.¡±


    You pout. ¡°The ariados is going to eat it.¡±


    ¡°I thought you liked the things? What do you want to starve it for?¡±


    He¡¯s looking at you like you¡¯re an idiot and it¡¯s your fault and he really wants to be somewhere else right now. ¡°Yeah but¡­¡± The image of it. You¡¯re fine if the spider¡¯s eating kibble or even yungoos, but when it¡¯s something cute that feels different. Especially if you could have stopped the death and didn¡¯t. That¡¯s almost like you personally poisoned the eevee and slowly tore it apart.


    ¡°Yeah, but¡­¡± Kekoa smirks and tilts his head. ¡°Brilliant argument there.¡±


    Screw him. Smug, heartless jerk.


    ¡°Shut up.¡± You start walking back the way he came, sparing the ariados one last glance. She¡¯s already retreated into the chamber at the center of her web.


    Once you¡¯re far enough away that Kekoa stops glancing back every few seconds he turns to you with a particularly smug smile on his face. ¡°So. Pet ariados?¡±


    You lock up and almost trip. He snickers. Crap. You revealed something you shouldn¡¯t have. Now, um, play it cool. ¡°Yeah. I had one.¡±


    ¡°Any reason?¡±


    You shrug and do your best to keep your voice level. ¡°Not really.¡±


    For a moment you¡¯re absolutely certain that he knows and is going to hate you forever, but he never follows up. It¡¯s almost worse that way. He could still know and just be lording it over you until he has a better time to strike.


    No. Screw him. He doesn¡¯t get to ruin your journey. If only because the ever-present dirt and burned trees and over-processed food and dead eevee beat him to it.


    *


    November 2, 2019


    Of course it had to rain. Because if Kekoa and Cuicatl are going to play nice something else has to spoil the fun. Not that the hills weren¡¯t already doing that. You stare up at the last switchback. Or what Kekoa tells you is the last switchback. She could definitely be lying about that. You pull the straps on your pack tighter and take off as fast as you can. The surface of the path is slick, more mud than dirt in some places and once or twice you almost feel like you¡¯re going to trip and tumble all the way back down. The thought is sobering enough that you take the last two bends at just a brisk walk. You glance down. Cuicatl¡¯s slowly making her way up with the help of a long branch she found somewhere (she said she didn¡¯t want to get her cane dirty and it wasn¡¯t good for putting weight on anyway). Kekoa¡¯s trailing behind her. You hear wings beat nearby and you turn just in time to see Kekoa¡¯s pikipek land on your shoulder. Cheating little miss. Must be nice to skip the switchbacks and fly straight up.


    By the time Cuicatl and Kekoa catch up you¡¯re ready to move on. Cuicatl isn¡¯t. The moment you set off she tells you to stop. She¡¯s panting a little bit. Weird. Her arm and leg muscles are actually kind of distinct. Wouldn¡¯t peg her as an athlete but you¡¯d expected her to be in shape. ¡°You okay?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Asthma,¡± she huffs out. ¡°Only bad. On climbs. Legs. Are fine.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± you answer. Because what else were you going to say? ¡®No, we move right now young lady. You can breathe on your own time.¡¯ Mother actually might. You fight the urge to scrunch up your face and put your hands on your hips and lecture the wind in character. ¡®Disgusting. Real women don¡¯t pant like mere animals.¡¯ You actually do whisper that but neither Kekoa nor Cuicatl seems to notice.


    You wait in silence as your friend¡¯s breaths slow and deepen. Cuicatl didn¡¯t bother to tie back her hair and its plastered over her face with individual strands reaching down almost all the way to her mouth. You can¡¯t see her eyes at all. Her hair looks longer than usual with the weight of the water straightening out her curls. Kekoa just scowls at you when you look towards her. Right. Water. Clothing. Chest. It¡¯s embarrassing that you thought those were pecs. From what Reverend Patterson said you¡¯d kind of just expected that you¡¯d instantly know when you met someone like her. But you¡¯ve always been slow to figure people out. Lyra would have instantly known.


    Cuicatl finally sticks up a finger. ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡±


    You pivot and start walking. The pivot isn¡¯t anywhere nearly as smooth as hers are. She can turn 180 degrees in a single fluid motion and then start walking. You can sort of turn most of that distance in a spin and a step. You still aren¡¯t entirely sure what your back foot should be doing or how fast you¡¯re supposed to spin or when you put both feet down. Can you ask? Would she think it was weird? How did she even learn to do that? Boot camp? It would make sense. Her pivots seem kind of military-like.


    ¡°How early do they start military training in Anahuac?¡± you ask her. That¡¯s not inappropriate, right?


    ¡°Depends. Some stuff in early education when you¡¯re six or so. That¡¯s mostly just exercise and some basic pok¨¦mon stuff. Progressively more as the years go on. Proper training is at sixteen. Unless you go into the calmecac. Or you¡¯re a girl. Or disabled.¡±


    Oh. Right. Blind girls probably aren¡¯t on the front lines.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t even make sense,¡± Kekoa mutters. Well, the type of muttering that¡¯s meant for other people to hear. ¡°If pok¨¦mon and guns do all the work then why can¡¯t girls fight?¡±


    Cuicatl hums for a moment. ¡°You¡¯re right. It doesn¡¯t make sense. But it does get me out of the draft.¡±


    The right answer is that women were tainted more by Yveltal at the start. If they were to fight on the battlefield they would overflow with sin and corruption. If they survived the war they would only cause tragedy if they went home. Dead children, ruined families, burned homes. Sometimes they even start all new wars. But you can¡¯t really say that. Cuicatl believes in the evil spirits of her homeland and eventually you¡¯ll need to have a talk with her so that she isn¡¯t engulfed in the cocoon at the end of the universe. And Kekoa will need to get the whole crossdressing thing sorted out eventually. But you should probably wait until they like you more before you save their souls. Neither are likely to die in the next week.


    ¡­right?


    Did you just jinx it?


    You enter a forest and the rain dies down a little. Downside is that now there are tree roots in the trail. For you it¡¯s just kind of annoying. But it¡¯ll slow Cuicatl down a lot which also slows you down a lot. And she can¡¯t even use Pixie because it¡¯s raining and with her fur matted down the fox looks very small and extremely upset.


    ¡°You have a brother, right?¡± Kekoa asks.


    ¡°Yes,¡± Cuicatl says.


    ¡°Yes,¡± you say. Near simultaneously.


    ¡°Meant Cuicatl there. How old is he?¡±


    ¡°Fifteen. How far do we have to go?¡±


    ¡°Probably ten minutes,¡± Kekoa answers.


    Wait. She¡¯s fifteen. Holy crap. ¡°You¡¯re twins?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Wow. Brother-sister twins. Which one¡¯s older? Do they care? You kind of wish you were a twin so that you always had a sibling to play with and talk about things that you¡¯re interested in. You love Levi but he¡¯s way younger than you and Exodus¡ª


    Exodus is Exodus and this line of thought is over.


    *


    November 3, 2019


    ¡°You¡¯re vegetarian, right?¡± Kekoa asks between mouthfuls of chili. Why ask? He knows you are. It¡¯s come up at every trail meal planning session. You ignore the pointless question in favor of eating your own vegetable soup. ¡°And you want to get an¡­ a rainbowfish?¡±


    Pixie doesn¡¯t bark. She hasn¡¯t caught on to the code yet.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°But you know they eat meat, right?¡±


    This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    ¡°I do,¡± you respond.


    ¡°And that¡¯s fine with you?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s all lab meat anyway.¡±


    She scoffs. ¡°Can¡¯t be sure of that. Meat processing plants have been caught lying before.¡±


    You didn¡¯t know that. You do know that your parents tried to give you real meat claiming it was lab meat so many times that you just swore that off, too.


    ¡°Every time you¡¯d give your precious rainbowfish some kibble you¡¯d get flashes of a poor little fox on a string.¡±


    That¡¯s¡­


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± Cuicatl admonishes. She sets down her spoon and glares in his general direction. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on between you but we are not talking shit about foxes.¡± She glances down. ¡°Isn¡¯t that right, Pix?¡±


    She dutifully grunts at an acceptable indoor volume. Such a good girl.


    Kekoa takes a long drink of water and smiles at you in a way that is not at all pleasant. ¡°If you¡¯re going to train a carnivore you should at least be honest about what you¡¯re doing. Just saying.¡±


    She winks at you.


    You¡¯re starting to understand why Cuicatl hated her.


    *


    November 3, 2019


    Kekoa sets her package down on the desk at the back of the room and starts to unzip it.


    ¡°What is it?¡± you ask.


    ¡°An egg.¡±


    It¡¯s a darn big egg, then. A little bit bigger than Pixie is. Heavy, too, judging from the way Kekoa carried it.


    ¡°How big?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Big,¡± he answers.


    ¡°Yeah, but how big?¡±


    Kekoa sighs and walks over to grab her hand. ¡°You want to grope it?¡±


    ¡°You know it.¡± Once she reaches the egg Cuicatl slowly runs her fingers over it from middle to top to bottom. ¡°It is big.¡± She steadily presses down her palm and holds it still on the middle. ¡°Feels sturdy. Not too hot. Pretty smooth. Rules out the rocks.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s heavy but it didn¡¯t feel rock heavy,¡± Kekoa answers.


    Cuicatl nods. ¡°Fish, insects, and amphibians are out. Bird? Lizard? Maybe a dragon given the size. Maybe. Most don¡¯t lay eggs.¡±


    ¡°A mammal?¡± Both Kekoa and Cuicatl turn to look at you. Was that too stupid? ¡°Some lay eggs.¡±


    ¡°Some do.¡± Cuicatl goes back to facing the egg. ¡°It would be very big for one. Blissey eggs are about half the size.¡± Wait are those actual eggs. Fertilized eggs? How? They¡¯re all girls. When people eat them is that murder? Cuicatl holds her hand back out. ¡°Take me back?¡±


    Kekoa helps her get back to her seat. ¡°What¡¯s the judgment, doc?¡± he asks. Taunts? Praises? Hard to say. You¡¯d thought they¡¯d made up.


    ¡°No idea.¡± Cuicatl sighs. ¡°Druddigon, maybe? I¡¯ve never felt a druddigon egg before but the adults are big enough. Egg¡¯s not warm enough for charizard. I think goodra eggs are sticky but don¡¯t quote me on that. Don¡¯t know if flygon lay eggs. Braviary or mandibuzz maybe. Don¡¯t actually know what krookodile eggs feel like. Grew up too far south of the desert to know. If it¡¯s not from Alola it could be anything. Bunch of weird birds and giant lizards out there.¡±


    Wait hang on did she imply that if she was born further north she would¡¯ve tried to walk right up to a momma krookodile? She isn¡¯t serious, right?


    Right?


    ¡­right?


    Darn it she probably is. How are you supposed to keep everyone alive with stuff like this?


    *


    A tall teenage girl in overalls and a worn leather jacket walks into the lobby.


    ¡°Which ones of all y¡¯all are looking to challenge my trial?¡±


    She¡¯s the trial captain. It makes sense. She¡¯s dressed kind of outdoorsy. Like she lived on a ranch down in Paniola or something. That works for normal types, right?


    You look around. Two preteen kids in the corner raise your hands. You put yours up and your teammates follow. The girl nods her head and walks over to the younger trainers. Oh boy. First trial. It feels real all of a sudden. You¡¯re going to be fighting a¡ªwell, you know it¡¯s a normal trial but you¡¯ve honestly never bothered to look up what the totem is. That¡¯s a job for future Genesis. In any case you¡¯re going to fight a giant version of a pok¨¦mon with a poliwag.


    ¡­maybe you should¡¯ve thought this through earlier. Even if he is a very brave poliwag. Gallantly chickens out like the best. Not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways. Brave, brave Sir Bubbles.


    The captain walks over. ¡°Alright, how many official trails have y¡¯all cleared?¡±


    ¡°None,¡± Cuicatl answers.


    Is that a problem? The captain smiles. Probably not a problem, then.


    ¡°Alright. Any days work best for you?¡±


    You glance at your teammates. Do they have any they prefer? You really should¡¯ve talked this over in advance as a group.


    ¡°Can I have a few days? I think I need to prepare a little more.¡± It¡¯s an honest answer. Hopefully she doesn¡¯t hate you.


    ¡°Very self-aware.¡± Compliments? Fake compliments? Did you screw up? ¡°I¡¯ll schedule you for Friday. You two?¡± She moves on without answering your question.


    ¡°Can I do Wednesday?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Certainly. And you, sir?¡±


    Well at least you aren¡¯t the only person Kekoa can fool. Or does the captain already know in advance?


    ¡°Tomorrow,¡± Kekoa answers. ¡°And it¡¯s good to see you again, Kanoa.¡±


    The captain, Kanoa, blinks. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t think I remember you. Meet a lot of people as captain.¡±


    Kekoa tenses and raises up his shoulders before letting out a breath. ¡°I used to go by Allana.¡±


    ¡°Holy shit, Al¡ªwait, what do you go by now?¡±


    ¡°Kekoa.¡±


    ¡°Thanks. Holy shit, Kekoa. How have you been?¡± She¡¯s still smiling but there¡¯s a trace of something else¡ªsadness or concern, maybe¡ªin her eyes. ¡°You just stopped writing all of a sudden and¡ª¡± Her eyes narrow. ¡°What happened?¡±


    ¡°Foster care.¡± Kekoa¡ªAllana¡ªlooks up and makes eye contact with Kanoa. ¡°Can we talk about this later? Alone?¡±


    The captain nods. ¡°Lunch? There¡¯s a great Korean place a couple miles down the road. I can give you a ride.¡±


    ¡°Can you pay? I¡¯m broke right now.¡±


    Kanoa¡¯s smile returns.


    ¡°I can. You want to head out now?¡±


    Allana stands up. ¡°Don¡¯t see a reason not to.¡±


    They leave. Weird to think of her having friends. Maybe she was nicer in the past. Or maybe someone latched onto her even though she wasn¡¯t good with people. Like¡­ like her.


    You turn to Cuicatl.


    ¡°I think I need a second pok¨¦mon.¡±


    She nods. ¡°Do you know what you want?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Because of course you haven¡¯t planned anything. You¡¯d kind of expected that Father would¡¯ve told Mother off by now and invited you back. But here you are. Haven¡¯t received so much as a phone call. Not that they know your phone number. Wait, what if they can¡¯t contact you? Admittedly you haven¡¯t checked your old emails. Or social media. You don¡¯t really want to know what¡¯s being said about you.


    ¡°Maybe we should start at a shelter then. Can you check and see if there¡¯s one nearby?¡±


    There is one two miles away. Not a terrible walk all things considered.


    *


    It is, all things considered, a terrible walk. Unshaded roads in in the afternoon Alola sun are absolutely miserable. By the time you reach the shelter you¡¯ve probably sweated out all the water in your body. Cuicatl seems a little better, doesn¡¯t look like she¡¯s had an asthma attack or anything, but she¡¯s also drenched.


    Shelter looks like a nice enough place. Big fence around it that probably has some outside habitats. You can look into two: one is an aviary with two dartrix and the other is just a normal pen with a midday lycanroc. It looks at you with a regal gaze as you pass before sticking its tongue out and rolling over, apparently wanting you to come over and scratch it through the fence. You wish you could. Maybe you could adopt it? Seems like a good dog. But the meat thing. Or do they eat rocks?


    You walk in the door and a bell rings. The inside has sterile white walls with small cages lining them. You see a litten stand up and press his paws against the cage wall. What a cutie.


    ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    You turn to the desk. There¡¯s a twenty-something man there. Looking at you. Right.


    ¡°I want to adopt a pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°Certainly.¡± He smiles and looks at Cuicatl. ¡°And you?¡±


    There¡¯s no response. She¡¯s facing the far wall away from the receptionist. He can¡¯t see her closed or cloudy eyes.


    ¡°She¡¯s just tagging along,¡± you answer for her.


    ¡°Alright. Anything in particular you want?¡±


    You start to shake your head but then catch yourself. ¡°Is the lycanroc out there up for adoption?¡± Wait. It¡¯s at a shelter. Of course it is. So dumb of you.


    If he notices he doesn¡¯t seem to care. ¡°She is.¡± Yes! ¡°Now, what license do you have?¡± Oh¡­


    ¡°Class II.¡±


    The receptionist sighs and leans into the desk. ¡°Sorry. Need a IV. Edelgard¡¯s a big softy but most lycanroc don¡¯t take well to new trainers.¡± ¡­crap.


    You turn back to the receptionist. One more question. Even if the¡­ unfortunate meat problem remains you think it¡¯s okay to save one fox to make up for the one you killed. ¡°Any chance you¡¯ve got an eevee?¡±


    He shakes his head. ¡°Sorry. No eevee. We do have a leafeon, though.¡±


    Plant eevee. You would¡¯ve preferred water, fire, or fairy eevee. Wait? Do plant eevee eat meat? Or do they eat plants? Is that kind of cannibalism? Questions for later.


    ¡°Can I see it?¡±


    The receptionist smiles. ¡°Certainly. I¡¯ll just need some of your information¡­¡±


    *


    The leafeon is curled up on the table. It glances at you as you walk in and then quickly resumes licking its paw. Oh. You aren¡¯t too interesting, huh?


    ¡°What¡¯s its story?¡± you ask.


    ¡°His name¡¯s Inferno,¡± the receptionist¡ªhis nametag says Alan¡ªsays. ¡°Trainer wanted a flareon. His eevee evolved in the forest. He left him here with us.¡± He hesitates. ¡°That kind of thing happens a lot around the forest.¡±


    A beloved pet until he didn¡¯t turn out exactly how his parents wanted. You can almost hear Exodus spit the words out, taunting you from the sick comfort of her twisted worldview. You should call her eventually. Not today, though. Probably not this week. Or this month. Might get around to it on her birthday. If you remember when that is. You¡¯re pretty sure it¡¯s in May. The fifth? Sounds about right.


    You gently extend your hand towards Inferno. He stares at it for a moment before getting up and rubbing his cheek against it. When he moves you catch the scent of freshly cut grass. And he is a little plant doggo with a leaf tail and ears and little blades of grass sticking out everywhere. Kind of cute in his own way. You scratch him under the chin and you think you can hear her purr.


    ¡°How hard are leafeon to care for?¡± you ask.


    ¡°They need time in the sun, fruit and nuts. An egg once a week.¡± Eggs are fine! Nothing dies for them. ¡°Affectionate. But that means that their smell gets all over everything. Trainer included.¡± Was that a joke? Should you laugh. You do just in case you were supposed to. Wait, does that mean that he thinks you¡¯re laughing at him? ¡°They¡¯re easily housebroken. Reasonably intelligent. Great air filters. My personal favorite eeveelution. But,¡± he sighs and holds his hands up in (mock) surrender, ¡°I¡¯ve got two at home so I suppose I¡¯m biased.¡± You stop petting Inferno and he fixes his big red eyes on you. Aww. She¡¯s almost as cute as Pixie. ¡°Can say that they don¡¯t like to fight much. They¡¯ll participate in the big battles, but they won¡¯t really train.¡±


    Well, you don¡¯t really train either. Honestly, you¡¯re just looking for enough power to beat the trial and move on to the next one. You¡¯ll figure that one out when you get to it. ¡°Is he strong enough to take on the first trial?¡± you ask.


    Alan rolls his eyes. Did you mess up? Insult him? ¡°Oh, they¡¯re plenty powerful when they put their mind to it. Good enough to clear the early trials without much work. If you can get him to train then he¡¯ll be good for the later ones, too.¡±


    That¡¯s good enough for you. And he¡¯s very cute. And seems to like you. And you do feel bad for him. Not his fault that he¡¯s a plant instead of a fire fox.


    ¡°And they don¡¯t eat meat?¡±


    ¡°They need protein. Eggs or poultry, take your pick.¡±


    Well. He¡¯s close enough to perfect.


    *


    Pixie¡¯s buried in the blankets on Cuicatl¡¯s bed when you walk in. Her ears instantly perk up and she rises to her feet. Then she freezes (figuratively and sort of literally) in place, ears back down and tails tensed up. A sort-of-low and sort-of-intimidating growl rings out as she stares down Inferno. The leafeon just sits down and swishes her tail. Cuicatl steps forwards towards her bed, cane in front of her. You think that all Pok¨¦mon Center rooms are pretty much the same so someday she¡¯ll get pretty good at this.


    ¡°Pix.¡± It¡¯s not quite a reprimand. Maybe a warning? ¡°That¡¯s Inferno. She¡¯s going to be on Genesis¡¯s team. Not ours.¡± She sits down on the bed and Pixie stops growling to turn to pout at her trainer. Cuicatl extends a hand but Pixie doesn¡¯t accept the petting. Cuicatl just leans back against the wall, apparently unphased. ¡°You won¡¯t have to work with him or battle alongside him. I will not be caring for him or getting an eevee myself.¡±


    Pixie keeps staring Cuicatl down to no effect. The trainer closes her eyes and almost seems to nod off while sitting down. ¡°Hey, Genesis?¡±


    ¡°Um, yeah?¡±


    She opens her eyes and tilts her head. ¡°Any chance that you¡¯d let Pixie have a battle with your leafeon? No orders from either trainer?¡±


    Ice fox has a type advantage over grass fox. But Adam said that leafeon are really strong and Pixie¡­ isn¡¯t. Maybe it is fair? ¡°Why?¡± you ask.


    ¡°To give a demonstration.¡±


    Cryptic. She probably knows what she¡¯s doing though. Cuicatl¡¯s good with pok¨¦mon. Really good.


    *


    Inferno shakes himself off and the few ice crystals that hit him go flying away. The field is bathed in red light as Pixie is withdrawn. There are thin lines of blood on the field where the razor leaf attack hit. Cuicatl turns around and starts walking in the direction of the Center.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think Pix¡¯ll be much of a problem anymore. Congrats on the new pok¨¦mon.¡±


    *


    November 7, 2019


    Allana opens up the door and walks in with enough spring in her step that you can already tell what she has to say. ¡°Guess what I just got?¡± She flashes you her new Normalium-Z in case you had any doubt.


    ¡°Congratulations,¡± Cuicatl replies. She sits up and smirks. ¡°Now be a good lab rattata and tell me what to expect.¡± What. No. That¡¯s really, really rude. Why?


    Allana just rolls her eyes and sits down on her bed. ¡°What, you¡¯re Professor Slowking now?¡±


    ¡°Oh please,¡± Cuicatl turns up her nose and shuts her eyes. ¡°A dragon doesn¡¯t need a clam to rule.¡±


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a little small for a dragon?¡±


    ¡°For now.¡±


    Allana rolls her eyes. ¡°And someday you¡¯re going to force me to get off my ass and go on a great quest?¡±


    ¡°You may try to rescue the noble Princess Genesis.¡± Your heart flutters. Do they have daydreams, too? ¡°But I assure you that you will fail.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I be a knight?¡± you ask. You¡¯d always seen yourself as one in your daydreams. Being a princess¡­ was less of a fantasy. ¡°Or at least a knight and a princess.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I, the mighty dragon, am holding knight-slash-princess Genesis captive. And you, Sir Kekoa, will fall like all the rest.¡± She drops her arms and leans back against the wall. ¡°Seriously, how¡¯d it go?¡±


    ¡°Tell you when you win.¡±


    ¡°Ass.¡± Cuicatl crashes back down onto her bed and Pixie jumps up in surprise at her feet.


    Can you ask to keep¡­ playing? She seems done and you didn¡¯t really understand what was going on. Maybe sometime in the future you can see if you can bring it up.


    *


    ¡°You¡¯re seriously going alone?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Not alone,¡± Allana answers. ¡°I¡¯ll have my pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t you just wait two days until I can join you?¡±


    ¡°No. it¡¯s going to rain tonight and castform are rare enough that we need every chance to catch one we can get.¡±


    Cuicatl glares at her. ¡°You¡¯re going into unfamiliar woods alone, at night, in the rain.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Allana meets her glare. ¡°I am.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because I¡¯d like to know that we¡¯ll be able to eat on the next mission.¡±


    ¡°Already taken care of.¡± Cuicatl folds her arms and leans back. ¡°You both made $100 from your paras. Soon that will be $180 or $200.¡±


    ¡°Jenny just blew fifty bucks on an eevee.¡±


    ¡°Came from my personal funds.¡± If she¡¯s going to bash you, you¡¯re free to jump in. ¡°Still over $100 ahead after it.¡±


    Allana walks over to face you. ¡°There are no personal funds until food is secure.¡±


    ¡°In any case,¡± Cuicatl interjects, ¡°that covers rice, vegetables, pads, tampons, and purification tablets. And there will be more chances to make money next mission.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well. What about pok¨¦balls?¡± Allana starts pacing across the room. ¡°What about potions? What about kibble, insects, moss, birdseed and whatever else the pok¨¦mon need? What if the tent rips? What if we want a bigger one?¡± She stops and crouches down in front of Cuicatl¡¯s bed, hands on her thighs. ¡°I will take some risks if it keeps us from having to ask those questions.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go,¡± you add.


    ¡°No,¡± Allana and Cuicatl say in unison. Allana continues: ¡°You can¡¯t go until you clear the trial.¡±


    Oh. That¡¯s why Cuicatl isn¡¯t going. Not the blindness thing. Because blindness wouldn¡¯t really matter at night.


    Cuicatl sighs. ¡°At least take Inferno.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Allana asks.


    What? Why? Why take him? Why is Cuicatl dragging you back into this?


    ¡°Because Pixie will revolt if I send her into a tropical rainforest during a storm, but a leafeon will be comfortable and capable of guiding you around.¡±


    Oh. That actually does make a lot of sense. You nudge Inferno awake and she glances up at you with a look of absolute betrayal in her eyes. Yes. You should¡¯ve let her sleep. You¡¯re a monster. You stroke her cheek to see if that helps redeem you in his eyes.


    It does.


    ¡°You want to go help¡­¡± Her? Him? You don¡¯t want to offend Allana. You don¡¯t want to offend Xerneas. ¡°¡­my friend. In the rainforest. Tonight.¡± Inferno keeps staring at you with dull, sleepy eyes before he finally stands up and shakes himself off. His fresh grass scent becomes very powerful before he leaps down and gracefully trots over to Allana. You hear Pixie growl in response and see her ears perk up before her trainer presses them down and begins a thorough petting.


    ¡°Just try to stay safe, alright?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Heh. Not much point in getting the money if I¡¯m too dead to spend it, right?¡±


    ¡°¡­right.¡±


    Something in Cuicatl¡¯s expression tells you she¡¯s not entirely convinced.


    *


    November 9, 2019


    ¡°So¡­ you want to talk about it?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Cuicatl is sprawled out on her bed, one hand petting Pixie and the other hanging over the side. Ce¡¯s resting on her ankles while Pixie¡¯s curled up on her chest glaring at Inferno. Or you. Probably Inferno.


    You close your eyes and say a quick prayer for guidance so that you don¡¯t say the wrong thing here. ¡°You can always just retry later on.¡±


    Cuicatl turns her head to (not) look at you. ¡°I got the Z-crystal.¡±


    ¡°Then why are you sad?¡±


    ¡°Headache.¡±


    Again?! She just got one at Brooklet Hill? And is this in the same caliber? You really hope not. The last one looked absolutely miserable and she was hours away from having a nurse give her a checkup however much she insisted he was fine.


    ¡°You want an aspirin?¡± you politely ask as you move to get one.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t help,¡± she answers.


    She said that last time. At the time you bought the line but since then you realized that she was too poor to afford one before and she didn¡¯t actually know what they are. You¡¯re going to offer her a way to accept it with dignity. After fishing one out of the first aid kit you step into the bathroom to get her a cup of water to take it with. Once you have everything you set the cup down on the floor and slip the aspirin into her dangling hand.


    Cuicatl wraps her palm around it and smiles. ¡°Thank you.¡± She takes the pill. Praise to Xerneas. ¡°This is just a headache, though. Last time was a migraine. Give me a few hours and I¡¯ll be good enough to castform hunt.¡±


    *


    Allana walks in with Inferno trailing behind her. She stops at the door but your leafeon keeps trotting over until she reaches your bed. Then she tenses and jumps up to the top bunk in one movement. You scratch him at the base of his leaf because good jump. She smells like grass after the rain and there¡¯s no mud on her. Allana¡¯s getting better at giving him baths. Wait. ¡°Where¡¯s Cuicatl?¡±


    ¡°Slipped on some mud. Tripped and sprained her ankle.¡± Oh crap. ¡°Nurse says she should be able to walk on it in a few days. Fully healed in two weeks.¡±


    An unpleasant possibility flashes into your mind. ¡°Did you trip her again?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± She dips her head and looks away. ¡°I don¡¯t do that stuff anymore.¡±


    It¡¯s been less than three weeks. Is that really enough time to change?


    ¡°Uh huh.¡±


    She picks some clothes off of her bed and walks towards the bathroom door. ¡°I saw a castform. Once you clear your trial I know where we should look.¡± Already thinking about that when your friend is hurt? Allana stops with her hand on the doorknob and lets her fingers slide off as she turns back towards you. ¡°Her pride¡¯s hurt. I don¡¯t need to tell you to be nice but.¡± She sighs and turns back towards the door. ¡°If I¡¯m being a dick call me out.¡±


    She slides into the bathroom and turns on the shower before you can really process that.


    Huh.


    Maybe she has changed?

 Normal 13: Pixie

    Normal 1.13: Someday You Will Learn


    Pixie


    Cold air rushes over you as Avalanche stands. When you whine you¡¯re hardly the only one of your siblings to do so. Your mother ignores you all and trots closer to Aurora. Father. He steps back and reveals a strange creature with white fur and a black horn half-buried in the snow. It doesn¡¯t move. Asleep?


    Avalanche growls as she approaches Aurora. They press their heads against each other and sniff before she breaks off to look at the creature. She bends down and sniffs a few times before purring in contentment. Then she opens her jaws, lunges down, and rips her teeth into it. Red liquid stains both the creature and Avalanche¡¯s white fur. The smell strikes you a moment later. It¡¯s¡­ wonderful. Warmth in scent form.


    ¡°Blood,¡± Aurora hisses. ¡°It is life. Yours. Others. We take it to live.¡±


    ¡°Like milk?¡± Thirdborn mews.


    Aurora comes closer as Avalanche continues to violently rip into the creature¡¯s flank. Red comes to stain more than just her snout as she rips and pulls at the creature.


    ¡°Milk for adults. Not given. We take it. Take it from the dead.¡±


    ¡°Dead?¡± you ask. ¡°What¡¯s dead?¡±


    Aurora stares into your eyes. ¡°Someday you will learn.¡±


    He turns around and leaves you, your six siblings, the creature, and your bloodstained mother behind.


    *


    Avalanche roars and whirls around. You see and feel light move as she shoots a pulse into the darkness. Sharp ice comes back in retaliation. You hear it and duck into the snow and the smell of blood follows you. Yours? No. Not hurt. You dig deeper in defense as the sounds and smells of battle rage above. The snow moves around you as ice shards impale themselves in the snow and your other siblings bury deeper.


    The sounds die off. Eventually there is quiet and the deep smell of blood. You hesitantly dig closer to the surface and stick your head out. Avalanche is standing still. You sniffle on accident and she turns around to you. Before you can figure out what to do she presses her snout against yours and sniffs. Apparently satisfied she turns to something else.


    Someone else. Fourthborn has an ice shard sticking between her ribs. She¡¯s lying on the ground unmoving in a small puddle of red. Prey. Dead. Fifthborn has a trail of blood leading into her trail but her head surfaces soon after. When she joins you and your siblings on the surface you see that her paw is leaking red.


    Avalanche pokes Fourthborn with her snout a few times. No movement. Without a word she picks your brother up in her jaws and walks a few of her body lengths away. There she digs into the snow with her forepaws before depositing your brother, covering him up, and walking back to you. She lies down and looks at Fifthborn before pulling her closer and licking your sister¡¯s paw.


    Avalanche never mentions Fourthborn again.


    *


    Fifthborn¡¯s paw starts to smell. At first it just smells like blood. Later it starts to smell different. More like the dead bodies Avalanche eats. Eventually she can¡¯t walk on it without crying out in pain.


    One day she doesn¡¯t wake up. Avalanche buries her near Fourthborn. No one ever mentions Fifthborn again.


    *


    Your tail splits! Now you¡¯re more like Avalanche and Aurora than you were before. Soon all of your siblings¡¯ tails have split. On the day when both of your tails are equally long, Avalanche howls and Aurora comes to her territory. He has no food with him. Your parents nuzzle each other and then Avalanche brings Aurora to each of you in turn and shows him your tails. When they¡¯re done they both purr in pride and happiness.


    Aurora thumps his tails on the ground. ¡°Two-tails! Now you will hunt!¡±


    *


    Hunting is boring. You just sit beneath a hole in the rock that you really want to explore but Avalanche says no and she would just pick you up in her mouth if you tried so you don¡¯t. Eventually the sky goes dark. You¡¯re still waiting. Then the sky goes even darker and Avalanche barks and starts spraying cold air upwards. Small winged creatures fall down and Aurora dashes out to intercept and shake all of them in his jaws. By the time the cloud passes the ground is littered with bodies the same size as yours.


    Avalanche steps up to one and rips into it. As she chews she makes eye contact with you and gestures towards one of the corpses on the ground. You cautiously approach it and take a few sniffs. There¡¯s heat radiating from it. Very cautiously you sink your teeth into it and feel the warm metallic life flow into your mouth. You close your jaws, pull back, shake, and swallow.


    If this is what hunting feels for the predator you can understand why the redcrests took your siblings away.


    You drown the thought in another bite and the taste of blood.


    *


    When your third tail starts to bud Avalanche lets you split up to find prey. The pairs are new every time with Avalanche herself supervising one. Today she¡¯s with you. She keeps one tail wrapped around all of yours. Sometimes she moves a little too fast and you have to run as hard as you can to keep up and sometimes it doesn¡¯t matter because your tails still slip from hers anyway. That gets her attention and she skids to a stop before waiting on you to catch up. When she starts again she goes slow enough that you can match her pace and sometimes accidentally lean into her as you walk. Until she stops and it¡¯s your turn to abruptly break.


    Before you can protest she pushes you down into the snow. Redcrests? No. She pushes herself down lower a moment later. She¡¯s either hiding or stalking and the nine-tales don¡¯t hide. Why would they? Her heartbeat¡¯s calm, too. As yours slows in turn you dig a little closer to her and press into her side. She¡¯s projecting more cold than usual. Even inside her fur there¡¯s very little warmth to be had.


    She moves. You almost get kicked as she rushes out of the snow and starts blasting light out at something. Her departure kicks up enough snow that you can stand up and sort of watch as she fights a strange floating icicle. The prey blasts out shot after shot of ice but none of it makes a difference to Avalanche; she¡¯s the coldest thing on the entire mountain and nothing can touch her.


    Eventually the monster turns to flee. It doesn¡¯t matter. Avalanche takes it out with one well-aimed shot to the back. It slowly collapses piece by piece as gravity comes back to the corpse. When everything¡¯s done there¡¯s a pile of sludge left where the beast¡¯s shadow was. Avalanche sniffs it and then barks to summon you over. When you arrive you realize that there¡¯s no blood. The whole puddle is homogenous: no interesting sights or smells stand out. In your peripheral vision you see Avalanche bend down and lick from the body. You do the same.


    It¡¯s not blood. It¡¯s thicker. You can¡¯t taste as many minerals. More like fat than meat. It¡¯s very dense and it tastes very wonderful. You don¡¯t quite have a word for the taste. A little bit like the berries Aurora brought up once from a trip down to the base. Your tongue is too small. You want to lick it up faster. Avalanche¡¯s pace is almost casual compared to your tongue¡¯s rapid strokes. Why? Does she not¡ª


    Your head lights up in pain. Attack? No. No blood. Avalanche doesn¡¯t seem worried. As you bury your head in your paws she trots over and picks you up in her mouth. You feel a purr shake through her and into you. Why? She should be much more panicked. You¡¯re her best kit by far.


    When you return home she gently sets you down and you shake yourself off. At some point in the trip your headwound faded to something trivial. Was that her spit? Avalanche sets herself (and you) down and tucks her tails into the snow beneath her without answering. ¡°Those are new. Aurora thinks humans brought them.¡±


    You flick a tail out. ¡°Why?¡± You¡¯ve heard her thoughts on humans. They used to be a nuisance but a tolerable one. Then they started coming more and more frequently.


    ¡°They are easy to kill, high in fat, and taste very good. The assembly thinks they are an offering in exchange for their den on the peak.¡±


    Would that justify the den? You haven¡¯t seen it but it¡¯s supposedly very large and they¡¯ve had to bring lots of supply through the mountain to build it. Plus Avalanche thinks that humans do not belong in the presence of the nine-tails because they are smelly and hairless and stupid and gross. She is very smart so she is almost certainly right.


    ¡°Worth it?¡± you ask.


    She shakes herself off. ¡°We gave them a trail. If they stick to it we will not destroy them.¡±


    That seems generous and very reasonable. Exactly what you would expect from Avalanche and Aurora and the nine-tails.


    *


    Firstborn and Seventhborn return before dark. But when Avalanche would usually cover all of you up in her tails and pull you close for the night Secondborn and Thirdborn are nowhere to be seen. Avalanche paces back and forth with increasing fury as the sun sets and the moon rises on the horizon. Eventually she stops, stamps her feet and howls. She resumes pacing until Aurora arrives.


    Your parents have a very terse conversation. It¡¯s difficult to make out much of it over the typical mountain wind. When it¡¯s over Aurora sets off in a different direction than he came. Avalanche resumes pacing for much of the night. You try to stay awake. There¡¯s a sense of dread over you and your siblings and you need to know what¡¯s going on. But you¡¯re just a two-tails and at some point you dig a little deeper into the snow and sleep.


    *


    You wake up to the sound of something very large being dragged through the snow. Once you¡¯re out of your burrow you make out something furry and strange looking (and smelling) staring back at you. There are bloody wounds on its side and one of its arms seems to be entirely gone.


    Avalanche is cautiously circling it. ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡± she asks. Aurora barks with confidence.


    With bared teeth Avalanche turns from you and faces the body head on before unleashing the brightest and longest moonblast you¡¯ve ever seen. For a few seconds there¡¯s daylight on the mountain before the light fades and only a charred, bloody, remains. Without a sound Avalanche walks over, lifts a leg, and scent marks it.


    Aurora takes the creature away.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Firstborn quietly asks.


    ¡°A warning.¡±


    Avalanche walks back to you and your siblings and wraps you up in her tails. Is this it? Are you supposed to sleep now? Where are Secondborn and Thirdborn?


    Seventhborn makes your questions known and Avalanche growls before uncurling and going back to pacing in her rut in the snow. ¡°Dead. Avenged.¡± She stops and glares back at her children before coming forward and sitting down a body length away. After a long, mournful whine to the moon she pauses. When she speaks again it¡¯s in the tone of the ancient stories.


    ¡°The Mountain never changes. The Mountain never grows. There will never be more space than there was when I was born. Two nine-tails make a litter. The Mountain never changes. The Mountain never grows. When the nine-tails die they must leave behind one hair each so that there is enough food and space to go around.¡±


    She looks down from the moon and back at you. ¡°There are three of you now. I will allow only one more loss. The Mountain never changes. The Mountain never grows. I may only keep two.¡±


    ¡°What if none of us die?¡± you ask.


    Avalanche shakes her head and sweeps her tails around you before settling down and pressing you into the snow for the remainder of the night.


    *


    The next morning¡¯s excursion takes you past a snowy cavern. The day before you and your siblings would have walked as close to the edge as you could before Avalanche growled and pulled you back or fear of the yawning chasm finally won out. Today you all cling to the rock wall a few body lengths away, no one daring to put space between them and the firm surface.


    It would be very easy to get pushed down here.


    Accidents happen, after all.


    *


    You hear the footfalls and grunts of a strange creature long before you can see it through the storm. Avalanche stands tense with her tails over her children as the sounds gradually become louder. First you can see a strange outline between Avalanche¡¯s tails, a little bit like a redcrest but far larger and without any claws. Most of his body covered in black fur but you can sometimes see dark brown skin underneath.


    ¡°Holy shit,¡± it vocalizes once it sees Avalanche. The two stare at each other for a dozen breaths before Avalanche turns around and gently picks you up in her jaws. She whips a tail at the newcomer as she walks past and the creature belatedly staggers after her. What is he? What is this adventure for? Why did Avalanche choose you?


    The storm steadily dissipates and the air grows warmer. At first it¡¯s pleasant like being under Avalanche¡¯s tails. Then it starts to become very warm like blood. Eventually it is painfully warm in a way that you¡¯ve never experienced at all before.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    At this point Avalanche gently sets you down and watches as the strange bipedal creature staggers after her before crashing his hindquarters down on a rock and breathing deeply. ¡°Thanks,¡± he mutters.


    For a few heartbeats Avalanche stares at him in silence. Then she starts trotting back up the mountain, out of the terrible warm. You dutifully follow before she whirls around and growls at you with her teeth bared. You take a step back. What? What is she doing. When she starts moving again you follow with the same result.


    The creature slowly stands. ¡°Oh. You, uh, want me to catch it?¡±


    She barks in affirmation and starts bolting up the hill. You start running as a crashing sound echoes behind you but Avalanche turns and shakes her fur. A colorful barrier materializes in front of her and you crash right into it.


    ¡°Makuhita, use arm thrust!¡±


    Loud footfalls ring out behind you and you dart to the side while hugging the barrier. You glance behind you and see a large urine-colored creature lumbering after you. He¡¯s slow which buys you precious seconds. Behind the barrier Avalanche makes no further attempts to climb the mountain.


    ¡°Why?!¡± you scream at her. ¡°Help!¡±


    You break away from the barrier to avoid getting cornered between it and a rock. You¡¯re still outpacing the beast but you¡¯re starting to feel warm in your lungs and your fur and everywhere else. You catch a glance of Avalanche and see the dispassionate eyes of a predator staring back.


    Oh no.


    This is what happens when three vulpix remain.


    For a moment you pause in shock. You barely start walking in time to avoid a powerful punch sending up snow and earth behind you. Then you start running again. ¡°Seventhborn is the youngest! Firstborn is a terrible hunter! Leave one of them!¡± She doesn¡¯t answer. Her eyes don¡¯t change.


    Maybe this is a test. Yes, you have a chance to prove your worth by fighting two strange creatures at once and winning (although one doesn¡¯t seem to be doing much at all). You pivot and unleash as much snow as you can while you¡¯re tired and in burning air. It¡¯s too little. After it¡¯s all done the smaller creature just wipes its face off and resumes charging you.


    No. You¡¯ll need to weaken him. You turn around and rush the creature. It lunges, you dive, and as you sail past you slap all of your tails against him fast enough that the air cracks. Your eyes widen under the pain of the impact in your tails but you keep going. You have to. There¡¯s no time. With a furious growl you turn around and unleash a barrage of ice at the creature. This time there¡¯s so much less. He doesn¡¯t even flinch.


    No.


    You see the impact coming but between pain and despair you don¡¯t do anything to block it. Something cracks in your chest and there¡¯s warmth under the skin. Did he rupture something? Do you care? You glance up to Avalanche and give one last mewl pleading for help. For a moment her expression breaks and you see your mother, not a hunter. Then she turns around and slowly starts walking back up as the barrier falls.


    No.


    The creature descends again. You feel two, three more blows each followed by cracking and warmth in your body but none of it hurts more than what you just saw.


    Eventually the attacks stop and the world disappears in bloodstained light.


    *


    The rainforest is far hotter and wetter than anywhere else you¡¯ve been before and it¡¯s terrible and you hate it but Skysong insists on walking straight into an ambush by a very strong pok¨¦mon and you will do what you can to keep her from dying so that she owes you her life and can never abandon you.


    You still have the harness on when you, Skysong, and Snowhair walk into a clearing with a small set of platforms in it. Snowhair takes your trainer¡¯s hand and leads her to one of the small ones. ¡°Sit,¡± she says, and sit Skysong awkwardly does. Then she bends over and unclips your harness before bringing herself upright again.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine if you want into your ball, Pix. No fights for a bit.¡±


    You sit down and growl. An ambush predator will strike when she least expects it. It is very important for you to remain visible so that her enemies fear for their lives and stay away.


    Snowhair claps her hands. ¡°You ready to begin?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Skysong replies. Like she¡¯s not only ready to get attacked by a monster but looking forward to it.


    ¡°Now, for my trial we¡­¡± Snowhair¡¯s eyes go wide and you can hear her say a human anger expression quietly enough that maybe Skysong didn¡¯t catch it. ¡°Uh, you heard of chess?¡±


    ¡°Heard of it, never played.¡±


    Her opponent, the so-called-captain, drums her paw on the platform. ¡°Well, then I can¡¯t expect you to play it from memory. Shoot, should¡¯ve thought of this earlier.¡±


    ¡°We can just say that I won and no one will know the difference?¡± Skysong suggests in a higher pitch than usual, like she¡¯s appealing for special treatment from her mother. Except Snowhair isn¡¯t her mother. They smell very different from each other and this ¡°captain¡± is far too young.


    ¡°Tempting but no. Wait.¡± The captain bares her teeth. ¡°I might if you tell me what¡¯s up with Kekoa.¡±


    Skysong moves her shoulders in an act of submission. ¡°He was being a dick. He¡¯s slowly being less of a dick. What exactly do you want to know?¡±


    ¡°A lot,¡± Snowhair answers before breaking into a laugh. ¡°You might want to withdraw your vulpix. This could take a bit.¡±


    You roar. No! She will not use clever tricks to attack Skysong when she least expects it! You refuse to grant the underhanded monster what she¡ª


    *


    Where are you?


    What is you?


    Memories.


    What are memor¡ª


    *


    ¡°Confuse Ray!¡± Skysong yells. You blink and look around. There¡¯s a giant white human-like thing in the center of the clearing. Looks sick. The dumb mushroom bugs must have done their job and now you will strike the final blow. Just as soon as you can move your eyes. Why are you this slow? Did the pok¨¦ball do this? You can feel your head moving and the energy coming but the fluffman is terribly fast and has leaves spread out by his eyes before you can even fire off the attack. Why is it so, so fast?


    {Trick room. Also got in a nasty plot boost. Don¡¯t let him hit you.}


    Right as you get the message orange orbs appear in front of the fluffman. You desperately run away as fast as your very slow body can take you. Out of the corner of your eye you see the fluffman flinch right before the orbs start to fly. You dive down and put yourself as close to the ground as possible in case they fly high. They don¡¯t. One strikes right behind you and before you can think you¡¯re blasted through the air at normal speed.


    ¡°Pixie!¡± Skysong calls. No. No no no no no no no no no. You can¡¯t fail her and lose without getting a single hit in. With as much willpower as you can muster you pulse a spectral light from your body. Fluffman turns to look at you right as the attack launches. Yes! You remember what Skysong told you and puff up to cool the air. Then with a mighty scream you launch a barrage of icicles straight through fluffman¡¯s stupid leaves. Skysong makes little lightning with her fingers. ¡°Now roar!¡±


    Roar! You can do the roars! The sound takes longer to come but when it does you let as much out as you can to tell the fluffman that you are way scarier than it and honestly it should just run away before it gets eaten. It doesn¡¯t quite work. Fluffman does blink repeatedly and even stumbles over itself and crashes to the ground and you get a wonderful opportunity to pelt it with even more ice shards. You even hit fluffman right in the face as it glares up at you. Then¡ª


    Fire. Your head is on fire. No, your mind is on fire. Or broken. Or on fire and broken. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts so much and you want to die or at least curl up into a ball and stay still until¡ª


    Skysong screams. You slowly and shakily stand and find her curled up on the ground with her paws squeezing her head and her body curled up.


    ¡­


    You couldn¡¯t save her.


    ¡­


    What now?


    ¡­


    Should you put her down?


    ¡­


    You don¡¯t want her to slowly die from the rot.


    ¡­


    Is there even a wound?


    ¡­


    Matriarch¡¯s going to kill you.


    ¡­


    Do you let her?


    ¡­


    The fluffman walks over. For a moment you consider trying to get one last ice shard in its eye to spite it in the end. But your head hurts too much. Just thinking about it breaks you. No. Nothing to do. When your legs give out and you hit the ground your eyes are already closed.


    Just get it over with.


    No one ever loved you anyway.


    And why would they?


    You were never good for anything.


    The killing blow never comes. At some point Skysong stops screaming but her ragged, harsh breaths and the smell of saltwater tell you that she¡¯s still alive. You open an eye and turn to see the fluffman holding her head in its lap and gently stroking a paw through her hair.


    {Who taught you?} he finally asks. You get the message but it¡¯s distorted and echoey. Nothing like absolute clarity of Skysong¡¯s.


    Skysong pulls herself up and holds her upper body in the air with her arms. Her breaths are slowing but only barely.


    ¡°A.. reuniclus¡­¡± she eventually says between breaths. ¡°Sort¡­ of¡­ self¡­ taught.¡±


    The fluffman levitates a berry up to Skysong¡¯s mouth. {Eat it. Good for psychic pain.}


    She slowly lifts up a hand and presses the berry into her mouth. It¡¯s a messy process with juice leaking down to the ground and all over her face.


    {Inefficient link. Constantly sending signals. Should¡¯ve had a valve.}


    ¡°Valve?¡±


    Fluffman sighs. {May I access your powers and show you?}


    Skysong half-chokes and half-laughs. ¡°Couldn¡¯t stop you.¡±


    {But may I?}


    ¡°Go ahead,¡± she says before closing her eyes and lowering herself to the ground.


    {Is there another pok¨¦mon in the link.}


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Skysong mumbles. ¡°Give me a second.¡±


    Loudspore materializes beside you. She seems healthy. Why? You are her strongest team member and should have been trusted to finish the match.


    Something tugs at your mind. No, that¡¯s what the first attack felt like this. This time it feels like something is pushing into it. Not like an attack. Sort of like an attack? It¡¯s over very quickly. You blink. The mind pain is gone now. You blink again. What?


    ¡°Yeah, I did.¡± Skysong says to no one. To the fluffman? Why did you stop getting those messages. You inquiry growl and she turns her head a few degrees towards you. ¡°Try to push it into the link, Pix.¡±


    Into the link? To Loudspore. You think ¡°Why are you healthy?¡± and also think about Loudspore and Skysong.


    The former starts chittering and you belatedly get the answer. ¡°¡­fought yet!¡±


    Oh.


    She was the ace Skysong trusted to finish the match.


    You see something float through the air in your peripheral vision. A strange glowing stone. Your tails involuntarily tense like you¡¯re in the presence of a ghost.


    Fluffman takes the rock and presses it into Skysong¡¯s hand. Your trainer looks up with a startled expression on her face.


    ¡°But¡­ I lost. I didn¡¯t earn it.¡±


    The pok¨¦mon waves its hand. ¡°Would have if you weren¡¯t interrupted.¡±


    At last she shakily gets to her feet. You stand up and start to trot over when you see her reach for her pok¨¦balls. ¡°Good work, Pix. We¡¯ll talk more later.¡±


    *


    ¡°Now, which pok¨¦mon did you wish to transfer?¡± the healer asks.


    Skysong reaches down to her belt to fulfill her promise. She takes off one, two, three, four pok¨¦balls and hands them to the healer. ¡°These¡±


    WAIT.


    You growl in protest and she glances down on you. {Explain later} enters your mind. No! No! She promised to get rid of all the bugs when the trial was done.


    ¡°Alright, we¡¯re all set. Anything else you need from me?¡±


    Skysong shakes her head. ¡°No. Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Congrats on winning your first Z-Crystal,¡± the nurse says with teeth bared.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± For a moment your trainer. flashes her teeth before turning around and letting her face relax. ¡°Lead me outside, Pix?¡± Skysong asks/commands. You will so that you can properly berate her without any other humans becoming upset. Once you¡¯re outside she sits down on the steps.


    You yip, growl, and roar in rapid succession. She only sighs in response.


    ¡°You promised!¡±


    Skysong hangs her head low. ¡°I did.¡±


    ¡°You broke the promise!¡±


    She closes her eyes. ¡°Ce asked to stay with me.¡±


    You thump all of your tails on the ground. ¡°Unacceptable!¡± You thump them again. ¡°How dare you?!¡±


    Her expression hardens. ¡°Pix, I promised you that there would be no more friends if the trial went well. It didn¡¯t.¡±


    You glare at her and keep hissing. No. She¡¯s going to replace you imminently. Fine. You¡¯ll spite her back. See how the oath breaker likes it. Now, what revenge will you take? Obviously you¡¯ll kill Loudspore. Maybe pee in Skysong¡¯s mouth? It worked for Hummy.


    Skysong sighs and reaches for her belt. ¡°Don¡¯t kill her,¡± she mutters right before Loudspore appears.


    You turn and roar at her and she reflexively skitters back and protects her head with her pincers. {W-what did I do?}


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Skysong says. ¡°I told you that I¡¯d keep you if Pixie approved. She doesn¡¯t.¡±


    Loudspore lowers a claw and chitters nervously. {Please?} She finally asks. {I like her. I like you. I want to stay.}


    You growl as deeply as you can before shouting {No!} with the link open. She cannot stay. That brings Skysong to two pok¨¦mon. Two is far too close to three. And when Skysong has to leave someone behind she¡¯ll leave you.


    Just like everyone else.


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to replace you,¡± Skysong lies. ¡°Ce is very good at capturing things and she¡¯s very upbeat and makes me smile. You are more challenging.¡± You growl. You are not challenging. You are a very well-behaved fox. She just waves a paw. ¡°In a good way. You keep me on my toes. And you¡¯re very cute and soft and a great guide fox. I can¡¯t replace one of you with the other. That¡¯s not how it works.¡±


    That is exactly how it works. It¡¯s how it¡¯s always worked and how it will always work.


    Skysong lowers her gaze. ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± she whispers. As she should be. Breaking promises. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Ce, but I told Pix this would be temporary. If she doesn¡¯t want to change¡­¡±


    You bark despite not being sure exactly where this is going. You want the bug gone.


    ¡°¡­then I¡¯ll still do my best to get you a new trainer. But I can¡¯t let you stay.¡±


    Loudspore doesn¡¯t say anything for a long time. At last she shoots you a final wary look and walks over to Skysong¡¯s leg. She wraps her pincers around your trainer¡¯s ankles and receives gentle strokes between her mushrooms in return. Is this it? Did you win?


    No one answers you for long enough that outside becomes unbearably warm. At last Skysong stands up and withdraws Loudspore.


    ¡°I hope you¡¯re happy.¡±


    You are.


    *


    Skysong swallows for no apparent reason. ¡°And in the meantime she likes moist, dark places. And scratches between the mushrooms. And pop music. She loves her moss mixes but she thinks fallen leaves and cattails are almost as good.¡±


    The man on the screen nods sympathetically but he¡¯s been steadily less sympathetic as the conversation has worn on.


    ¡°We know,¡± he says. ¡°We¡¯ve cared for a lot of paras.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll get her a new trainer as soon as you can, right?¡± Skysong asks even though you¡¯re pretty sure that she¡¯s asked it at least once before.


    ¡°Yes,¡± the man responds. ¡°We will.¡±


    Skysong lowers her head and her icky grass-colored hair falls in her face. ¡°Okay,¡± she finally whispers-cries. ¡°I¡¯ll send the ball over.¡±


    There¡¯s some awkward fumbling but eventually the ball disappears in a flash of red. Did you do it? Is she finally gone?


    Skysong shuts off the monitor while the man is still speaking and walks away. You press against her leg and she gently pushes you away before walking on.


    *


    You trail behind Bloodrage and Skysong, periodically stopping to scent mark something so you can help lead them out later. You aren¡¯t talking to Skysong and she isn¡¯t talking to you. The forest is a little bit cooler at night, even if the air feels altogether too much like rain. Ugh. Your fur gets weighed down when it is wet and you look smaller and less intimidating and it is absolutely terrible. Just like the rest of your day.


    ¡°Genesis said you have a headache,¡± Bloodrage says.


    ¡°Already gone.¡±


    Several more steps are taken. Bloodrage flicks on a lightbeam to compensate for the darkening sky.


    ¡°You want to talk about the trial?¡± he asks.


    ¡°No.¡±


    The only sounds are those of the forest. Rustling trees, bigbeak songs, and the cries of dozens of pok¨¦mon you don¡¯t recognize. You feel a drop of water hit your tails. Clearly a fluke. You feel another. Just a shaking tree. A big droplet hits you right on the nose. You growl in frustration. You are far too lovely and powerful and important to stand in the rain!


    Bloodrage abruptly holds out an arm and Skysong walks right into it. Then he takes off running with a sharp whistle. His bigbeak soars down from the trees to join him.


    ¡°Kekoa, wait!¡± Skysong shouts before lifting her white stick and running after him. You take off in response. She moves rather well for being blind, even though there are a lot of tree roots on the¡ªyou see it happen but you¡¯re powerless to stop it. Her paw finally hit one of the roots and for a moment she stops entirely. Then her body keeps flying forward while her paw is stuck behind the root.


    She hits the ground with a thud and stays down.


    Bloodrage is still off ahead. You can hear him give commands and hear something else retaliate with bursts of something. You sit down and try to lick some of the water out of your fur. Skysong can take care of herself.


    She doesn¡¯t move but she¡¯s still breathing. Crying even.


    Should you help? She did betray you. But if you help her now she might realize how valuable you are and kick out Loudspore for good. Worth the risk. You steadily plod over and gently extend a paw to her back.


    She screams with intensity and anger you¡¯ve never heard from her before. She tells a crocodile (?) in the earth (?) exactly what procreative acts he needs to perform. Some involve defecation.


    Human reproduction is very disturbing.


    Bloodrage arrives around the time that Skysong¡¯s scream breaks into rapid, shallow breaths and occasional gasps and moans. Her eyes are overflowing with saltwater. Did you cause this? You step back. Best not to test your luck now.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Bloodrage asks. He doesn¡¯t receive an answer beyond an explosion of mucus from her nose and an absent-minded paw movement to wipe it off. Ew.


    She slowly calms down with progressively deeper and less frequent breaths. Then she¡¯s quiet for several heartbeats. ¡°I tripped,¡± she finally answers.


    ¡°Can you walk?¡± Bloodrage asks as he crouches down.


    ¡°Yes.¡± She sniffles. ¡°Not too bad. Just.¡±


    ¡°Let me help.¡± Bloodrage locks paws with Skysong and slowly pulls her up. For a moment she keeps one foot held above the ground while leaning into Bloodrage before she slowly lowers it and winces. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s¡ª¡±


    ¡°I can walk on it,¡± Skysong replies in a dull, low voice.


    For a second it looks like Bloodrage is going to argue with your idiot liar trainer before he just sighs and starts moving forward. You take the lead and track the familiar scents back out of the forest.

 Normal 14: Egg

    Normal 1.14: Mother and Sister


    Egg


    You awaken trapped and comfortable.


    Something in you knows that you should get out. Escape. Be free. Free from what? The liquid around you is very pleasant. You hear sounds outside. High pitched and soothing. Mother! She is why you must get out.


    You raise your head and bash your tooth against the wall. Then you do it again. And again. Mother is there. She will hear you and help. Eventually. She does not help but she does stop encouraging you. Odd. Your tooth strikes the wall again and the shell cracks. Another hit and it crumbles. You press your head out through the hole and into the


    You don¡¯t know what this is. A new sense!


    You survey your surroundings and find her. Two hers. They smell like hers. One is very big and adult colored. Mother! You rush towards her and squeak so she knows that you are here and hers and that you love her very much. She reaches down one of her absolutely massive arms and holds out her claws and you press your head into them Her claws feel very soft. Wait what do most claws feel like? You press a claw into your face. Yes, hers are much softer.


    ¡°Hello,¡± Mother says. ¡°Who are you?¡±


    ¡°Your daughter!¡± Obviously. ¡°I just hatched!¡±


    She extends her other claw down to scratch you because she loves you and will look out for you until you are as big as she is.


    ¡°And I¡¯m your Mother?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    She ruffles the feathers on your head. ¡°You¡¯re very soft,¡± she comments. Your sister huffs beside you. ¡°Just like you, Pixie,¡± Mother adds.


    Your sister¡¯s name is Pixie! ¡°What¡¯s my name?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Hmmmmm.¡± She hums/roars a little bit. It¡¯s very melodic and pretty and you¡¯re upset when she stops. ¡°Your Dad will be here later. I think he¡¯ll want to name you.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because¡­¡± She trails off and doesn¡¯t finish the thought. ¡°He wanted to raise you.¡±


    You thump your tail on the ground. ¡°But you¡¯re my Mother!¡±


    She shakes her head and her beautiful green feathers move with her. ¡°I¡¯ll still be around. But he¡¯ll do most of the work.¡±


    You hiss. ¡°Unfair! You¡¯re raising Pixie!¡±


    Pixie harrumphs in agreement. It¡¯s a very strange sound.


    ¡°Yes. Your Father is also caring for other pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯re taking care of my sister! Why not me? I¡¯m a girl. You¡¯re a girl. It makes sense.¡±


    Her claws twitch up and nearly out of reach. You can still press your head into them if you stand up as tall as you can. ¡°Why do you think Pixie¡¯s your sister?¡±


    ¡°Because she¡¯s the same color and size as me.¡±


    You notice that Mother¡¯s eyes are very pretty. Not like Pixie¡¯s. There¡¯s some color in them but it¡¯s hidden behind a white pattern. Mother presses her claw against your body and scratches you from your head to the tip of your tail. Then she brings the claw back up and flicks the egg liquid off.


    ¡°I should get you a bath and a checkup before your Dad gets here.¡± She bends down and picks you up before cradling you in her giant arms. It is very warm and safe and you love her and she loves you. ¡°Pix, can you guide me downstairs?¡±


    Your sister shakes herself off with a wave of¡ªcold air?¡ªand starts walking forward with one tail held back against Mother¡¯s leg. Huh. Pixie has multiple tails. Unfair! You only have one.


    Mother opens up a clever barrier from her cave into¡ªAnother cave?! Then she walks down the tunnel until she reaches¡ªAnother another cave??!! And this one feels weird and has strange sounds. You want to explore it but Mother tightens her grip on you. Then the cave stops and the wall slides open into¡ªAnother another another cave???!!! How deep underground were you? Or were you near the surface and you¡¯ve just been going deeper? Why does Mother live underground in the first place?


    ¡°Don¡¯t live here,¡± she whispers. ¡°Just staying here for a few days. Also, it¡¯s not a cave. Closer to a hollowed out tree.¡± Woah. That¡¯s a really, really big tree.


    Mother takes you into a big cavern with a female adult leaning on a big wooden ridge. Mother and Sister walk over to the other adult. ¡°Hi,¡± Mother says. ¡°She just hatched and I think she needs a checkup?¡±


    She gently places you down on the ridge. The other adult looks you over. ¡°No problem. Let me call a nurse.¡±


    Other adult picks up a strange shiny rock and vocalizes into it. Another adult female, a ¡°nurse,¡± comes over and frowns. Teeth have been shown! Challenge? Mother reaches out and gently runs a claw along your back. No challenge.


    ¡°Can I have a name, please?¡± Nurse asks.


    ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca.¡±


    It would be weird if other adults who she was not the mother of called her Mother. It was very clever of Mother to come up with something else to be called.


    ¡°Mmhmm. Do you know what this pok¨¦mon is?¡±


    Mother shakes her head. Is she dirty? Has an attacker latched onto her? Is she breaking the spine of prey? What is the head shake for? ¡°She speaks a language similar to Upper Draconic. Otherwise, no clue. Hatched from a mystery egg a friend was given.¡±


    There¡¯s a brief silence.


    ¡°Do you understand Draconic?¡±


    ¡°Lower and Upper Draconic. They¡¯re different languages.¡±


    Nurse bites her lip. Surrender? An attempt to draw her own blood so that other predators and scavengers come to her under the mistaken impression that she is wounded, thus allowing her to kill them without having to hunt them down? Provides food and reduces competition all at once. Genius. Almost on Mother¡¯s level.


    ¡°Can I put that in your file? Dragons are a pain to treat and I¡¯m sure nurses would appreciate it if they could talk to the pok¨¦mon and tell it what¡¯s going on.¡±


    ¡°Just because I can speak to dragons doesn¡¯t mean they listen to me,¡± Mother says. ¡°I can try but I make no promises.¡±


    ¡°I get it. Please wait here while I get a pok¨¦dex. I want to figure out what species she is before I do anything else.¡± Immediately after she starts walking away she turns around to look at Mother. ¡°Are you just guessing she¡¯s female or can you tell?¡±


    ¡°Upper Draconic is very gendered. She uses female pronouns.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Nurse smells distressed, deferential, confused. Attack? Mother puts a claw under your chin and scratches you really hard and it¡¯s wonderful. Wait, were you going to attack something? Nurse comes back with a strange flat rock. She points it towards you and a voice comes out.


    Tyrunt, the Royal Heir Pok¨¦mon. Unregistered. Rock-dragon type. Prone to angry outbursts. Approach with caution.


    The rock can talk! Should you attack it? Neither Mother nor Sister nor nurse move to fight it. You decide to simply watch for now.


    Nurse makes a strange grunting sound. Attack? Mother taps your head. Is strange. Probably means should not attack. ¡°What license do you have?¡±


    ¡°Class III.¡±


    She bites her lip again because no prey have shown up to be eaten.


    ¡°Has she imprinted on you?¡±


    ¡°I think so. She says I¡¯m her mother.¡± She is!


    ¡°Do you know what license Mr. Mahi¡¯ai has?¡±


    Mother blankly stares forward and slowly shakes her head. ¡°Who?¡±


    ¡°Kekoa?¡±


    Mother blinks very dramatically because sand or an insect attacked her only weak point like a coward. ¡°Class III. Sorry.¡±


    Nurse drives her claws onto a stone in a strange sequence. Eventually she nods her head and speaks while still looking down. ¡°Could you withdraw your vulpix and come back with me?¡±


    ¡°I didn¡¯t bring my cane¡­¡±


    That provokes a dramatic and prolonged exhale. ¡°Can you withdraw it once it guides you back? Vulpix have a reputation for causing trouble.¡±


    Pixie whines on the floor. You don¡¯t know why but there might be a threat so you also start roaring too and your sister almost immediately stops and stares at you with her tails pressed down and ears slicked back. Mother slowly and pointedly exhales like Nurse did. ¡°Do you think you can do that, Pix?¡±


    Your sister very softly barks.


    ¡°Perfect.¡±


    Nurse tries to pick you up and you move to bite her before she pulls back. ¡°Can you carry her?¡± she asks Mother. ¡°She¡¯s being aggressive.¡± Wow. She¡¯s scared of your bite and you only have one tooth. Soon you will be unstoppable.


    Mother gently cradles you and you go behind the dividing stone into Nurse¡¯s den. With the unneeded assistance of Nurse and Pixie, Mother sets you down on a large slab high in the air. She fumbles with something at her waste and there¡¯s a red flash of light. You stop hearing sister¡¯s heartbeat a moment later.


    Did Mother kill her?!


    {No.} Mother messages you. In your mind! How?! {She¡¯s just gone for a moment. I will bring her back later.}


    MOTHER CAN RAISE THE DEAD?!?!


    Nurse puts a wet and warm leaf over your head. It feels like the egg. You press into it and she brings it down your body. Then she rinses the leaf off and does it again. ¡°I asked about the licenses,¡± she says during her second rinse, ¡°because if she¡¯s imprinted on you she only requires a Class III. But if she hasn¡¯t she¡¯d require a Class IV.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re saying Kekoa can¡¯t own her?¡± Mother asks.


    Nurse nods right before she presses the leaf down on you. ¡°Not legally. You could still be her legal owner while letting Kekoa do most of the caregiving.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think she, I mean the pok¨¦mon, wants that,¡± Mother says. ¡°I asked her about that earlier and she got very upset.¡±


    It¡¯s hard to follow the conversation when only Mother makes sense and you can only sort of tell what Nurse means from her tone and actions. You think that Mother is laying out a case for claiming you from Father, though, which is very good. Mother is Mother. Father can help.


    Nurse moves the leaf away and takes out a strange shiny object. She flicks a claw against it and a stream of very warm air comes out. You lean into it and watch as it causes the feathers it hits to press down and ripple out. Very warm! Can you nap under this? Does Mother have one? Can she use it maybe every day several times a day?


    ¡°You can work that out later,¡± Nurse says over the hum of the air. ¡°Any questions on caring for her?¡±


    ¡°What does she eat?¡± Mother asks.


    That¡¯s silly! The same thing she eats, of course. Just regurgitated. Nurse turns the heavenly air off and you hiss at her. Mother presses her claws into your back and that shifts your attention because the pressure is really nice. Nurse bares her teeth. ¡°Good question. Can I go get the pok¨¦dex?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Mother says as she moves her claws to ruffle the feathers on your head. Is annoying! And maybe also kind of fun. Will decide after the scritches conclude.


    Nurse starts walking away. ¡°Raw or cooked meat is the short answer. Maybe the occasional insect mix or bone tossed in. She¡¯ll move on to full carcasses as she grows up.¡± She grabs the talking stone and walks back. ¡°Longer answer is that until she grows her first set of teeth it¡¯ll need to be ground up for her. I think. And she might only take it regurgitated. I¡¯m going to have to call someone off the islands to verify that. Hopefully the egg yolk will keep her full for a few more hours.¡±


    ¡°How often will she need fed?¡± Mother asks. ¡°I know hydreigon eat once a week but¡­¡±


    What is a hydreigon and will you get a chance to kill one? They might taste good.


    ¡°Again,¡± Nurse spreads her lips thin with just a little bit of teeth showing. ¡°Let me check with someone who¡¯s cared for a tyrunt before. With any luck I¡¯ll have the information in a few hours.¡±


    *


    The door to Mother¡¯s den slams open. ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca, I need you to tell Jennifer that we could use a fuckton of money right about now.¡±


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    You look up as two angry adults, both larger than Mother, walk in. Both are wet. One is walking in quick, heavy steps while the other stays back and moves delicately. Why are their three adults? There should only be two.


    Mother sighs and picks you up into the air. Your resurrected sister immediately rushes in to fill the space on Mother¡¯s lap you were occupying. ¡°Your egg hatched, Kekoa.¡±


    The angry one, Father, moves over and puts his face uncomfortably close to you. ¡°Some kind of a bird?¡±


    ¡°Sort of. The nurse¡¯s pok¨¦dex said she was a tyrunt.¡±


    Father closes his eyes and practically hisses before stomping off. ¡°Fuck me.¡±


    Mother coughs. ¡°She, um. They imprint. Like birds.¡±


    Father stops and looks back at you and Mother. ¡°She imprinted on you?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± You can feel Mother¡¯s pulse pick up as she lowers you down to the middle of her folded legs, ignoring your sister¡¯s hissing. She begrudgingly makes room but continues to glare at you. ¡°She did.¡±


    ¡°Fuck me.¡± Father¡¯s limbs are shaking and his breath is heavy. He turns to face the entry to the den where the third human stands. ¡°Jennifer, can you give us a minute here.¡±


    She slowly turns around. ¡°Yeah, um, I¡¯ll be out with Sir Bubbles if you need me.¡±


    When the portal closes Father slowly and deliberately sits down on a wooden platform with bedding on it. ¡°Keep her,¡± he says.


    ¡°What? That¡¯s¡­ a lot.¡±


    Father sighs. ¡°I owe you for the shit I did earlier.¡±


    Mother stops scratching you and places her hands on her legs. ¡°You don¡¯t owe me that much.¡±


    ¡°Cuicatl.¡± Father leans forward and looks at Mother with a terrifying intensity. ¡°I need you to swear to keep this secret.¡±


    Mother bares her teeth for a moment before leaning down, touching the ground with a claw, and bringing it back to her mouth. ¡°I swear in the name of Huitzilopochtili to never tell another soul without your permission.¡±


    Father slowly relaxes. ¡°I¡¯ve been lying about my parents. They¡¯re dead. I lived in an orphanage.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Mother instantly replies.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be.¡± Father snickers. ¡°You didn¡¯t kill them.¡±


    Mother exhales and runs a claw through her head feathers. ¡°I meant that I know what it¡¯s like.¡±


    Father tilts his head and looks intensely at Mother. Not out of rage but concern or wariness.


    ¡°You want to talk about it?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Mother says very quietly.


    ¡°Okay.¡± Father takes a deep breath. ¡°Anyways, my brother and I watched Jurassic Park right before everything went to shit. Then once the storm cleared and the death certificates were signed my brother fucked off to the mainland to punch a god or something. Left me behind.¡± Mother is silent. For a few heartbeats so is Father. ¡°I got a letter or a call once a week for a little bit. Then once a month. Then once a year. Then not at all.¡± His voice cracks. Is he injured? He looks down and shifts his legs. ¡°He came back a few months ago. Tracked me down in Paniola. Thinks everything¡¯s fucking fine and we can just go back to the way things were before.¡±


    ¡°But you can¡¯t,¡± Mother adds.


    Father nods. ¡°But we can¡¯t.¡± His face is already very wet but you swear that a little more flows down it. ¡°I can¡¯t take the tyrunt. That tells him the debt¡¯s paid and we can go back to the way things were before...¡± He trails off.


    Mother gently lifts herself up and pushes you and Pixie off of her legs. ¡°Hug?¡±


    Father walks across the room and embraces Mother in his very long arms. They stand still for several breaths in the center of the den before Father backs away with a muttered, ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°You want to cuddle? You can see Mother raise up her arms to her chest and tilt her head to the side.


    Father walks back to his bedding and sits down. ¡°Not now.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Mother steps back and slowly lowers herself onto the bedding. Pixie rushes onto her and you settle for leaning against her leg. It will be your turn later and you will move her then. ¡°I suppose she needs a name.¡±


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Father sighs and leans back onto his bedding. ¡°Just don¡¯t name her Chompy.¡±


    ¡°I was thinking Mitzcocotonaz, actually.¡±


    Father pops his head up a little. ¡°What¡¯s that mean.¡±


    ¡°She will dismember you.¡±


    He flops his head back down. ¡°Fucking metal.¡±


    ¡°Fucking metal,¡± Mother solemnly agrees.


    It is an excellent name. You will honor it by dismembering many things.


    Mother tilts her head and feathers spill onto her face ¡°Now, what were you saying about Genesis?¡±


    You perk up. This is your chance to find out more about the strange third human. The Genesis.


    ¡°We caught a castform. She wants to keep it,¡± Father says in a low and monotonous voice.


    Neither says anything for a moment. Father shifts in his nest and Mother starts petting your sister. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of money,¡± she finally says.


    What is money? Can it be killed? If so, why isn¡¯t she excited about an abundance of prey?


    ¡°Tell me about it.¡± Father sits back up and starts speaking louder. ¡°That¡¯s a new tent, a full resupply of potions and pok¨¦balls, a backpack, and as much food as we need.¡±


    Mother¡¯s face scrunches up. ¡°We have $180 in the bank, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    She stops petting your sister and starts scratching the side of your head with two of her claws. You lean into it and gently growl with affection. ¡°We definitely won¡¯t starve. Other supplies could stretch things.¡±


    Other supplies? Nest-building stuff? Water? Rocks that shoot out warm air? Those are very important.  Something rumbles in your gut. Time to poop. Where? You reach up and gently tug on Mother¡¯s arm. She starts and looks down at you. ¡°Hey. Uh, need anything?¡±


    ¡°Where do I poop?¡± you ask.


    She bares her teeth and stands. Your sister jumps down to the floor as she does. ¡°Kekoa, mind helping me outside? Coco needs to go.¡± Who is Coco¡ªoh, you are Coco!


    *


    Outside is warm and moist and absolutely wonderful and you don¡¯t know why Mother and Father live inside of a tree when they could be out here. And water is coming down from above you! How! You stare up to investigate it but no answers appear. What were you here for? Oh, right. ¡°Where do I poop?¡± you ask Mother.


    ¡°Anywhere on the green plants.¡±


    There are many green plants. So many places to poop! You walk forward and defecate on some green plants just like Mother told you to. Right after you step away Pixie steps up, pops a leg, and pees right where you just went before huffing and walking back to Mother near the tree and out of the water.


    Should you follow her? You glance up at the sky again and it lights up and roars in response. You rush back to Mother for protection and she brings you back inside the safety of the tree.


    *


    ¡°As it turns out not many places have hatched tyrunt,¡± Nurse says. ¡°A few hatchlings in Shanghai but they¡¯ve classified the details. The parks in San Diego and Panama are closed at this hour. Finally got ahold of a safari in Dubai.¡± Mother nods slowly and Nurse continues. ¡°They¡¯re hardier than I¡¯d feared and Alola¡¯s climate is good for them. Until she starts teething you should mainly feed her regurgitated poultry.¡±


    Mother¡¯s mouth twists and she tilts her head to the side. ¡°Teething?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡± Nurse starts rummaging through strange white leaves on her desk until she finally settles on one. ¡°Just like human babies. In a few weeks she¡¯ll start biting everything she can wrap her jaws around.¡±


    Neither party speaks for a while. You take the opportunity to look around at the strange cave. It takes you a few sweeps of the room but you finally find the warm air tablet. You tense up and prepare to run over to it when Mother resumes speaking. ¡°I guess I should have expected that.¡±


    Wait. Her tone is wrong. Are they talking about you? Is she disappointed in you? Why? You love her and she loves you. For a moment you wonder if you want the question answered but then you decide to ask it aloud anyway. Mother starts before calming down and pressing a few claws into your feathers. When she speaks again it¡¯s different somehow. Less clear. More like you talk. Except some of the sounds are wrong. You can¡¯t really explain it.  ¡°Not disappointed,¡± she says. ¡°Just working out some logistics.¡±


    ¡°What are logistics?¡±


    She pauses before answering in the same strange way. ¡°When and where to hunt.¡±


    That makes a lot of sense!


    Mother bares her teeth and switches back to her smooth way of talking. ¡°Sorry. She just wanted to know what we were talking about. Any advice on getting through teething?¡±


    Nurse grimaces and pushes her hands together so that the claws interlock. ¡°Thick gloves and a firm hand? I¡¯ve never worked with tyrunt but that¡¯s the answer I give for everything else.¡±


    ¡°Very, very thick gloves,¡± Mother says with the same solemnity with which she declared your name to be fucking metal. Whatever metal means.


    ¡°Well,¡± Nurse says. ¡°Maybe.¡± She ruffles through a few more leaves. ¡°Tyrunt have a strong bite but it¡¯s proportional to their size. A young tyrunt isn¡¯t exactly crushing steel.¡± She bares her teeth and leans back. ¡°Besides, being able to talk to her in a way she understands is a big deal. If she listens.¡±


    A claw runs through your headfeathers. ¡°She¡¯s been a very good listener so far.¡± You have been!


    Nurse gets up and walks over to a strange blocky object. She opens it and a wave of cool air shoots out. Just like Pixie. You jump down to investigate but Nurse closes it again and the air stops. Then she starts walking back and you jump back up to Mother and almost miss and fall because it¡¯s a big jump but she scoops you up and puts you on her lap because she loves you.


    ¡°The kitchen staff had some leftover pidove if you want to use it.¡±


    ¡°So¡­¡± Mother lowers her claws to the table and crosses her legs. ¡°I need to chew it and spit it out to her?¡±


    ¡°You could use a mortar and pestle for now. Or you could chew it if it helps her learn. We don¡¯t really know much about how that works.¡±


    ¡°But won¡¯t I pass on diseases or something?¡±


    Nurse shakes her head. ¡°The park in Dubai didn¡¯t think so. You¡¯re a modern non-pok¨¦mon mammal and she¡¯s a protobird pok¨¦mon from sixty-five million years ago. There¡¯s probably not many diseases you could communicate to her.¡±


    ¡°Okay¡­¡± Mother sounds reluctant but she does reach out and eventually take a small mass of something vaguely meat-scented. She manipulates the object and pulls out a smaller lump that is definitely meat. Mother slowly brings it to her mouth and chews it. You (successfully!) jump the small distance up onto the big flat surface and hold your mouth up and open so that she can drop the food in. After thoroughly digesting the meat Mother slowly leans forward and you start waving your tail back and forth in anticipation.


    ¡°You can spit it at any time,¡± Nurse says. Mother does. You immediately snap your jaws shut and swallow the food.


    It tastes a little strange. You aren¡¯t entirely sure what meat is supposed to taste like but not quite like that. It¡¯s still very good, though.


    ¡°Now, there¡¯s one last thing you¡¯ll need to take care of,¡± Nurse says as Mother stands up. Do you have a pok¨¦ball on you?¡±


    ¡°No. We have some upstairs.¡±


    Nurse moves to put the meat container back into the cold rock. ¡°You can do it there. Or you can bring her back down if you want help.¡±


    Mother shakes her head. ¡°I think I can do it.¡± She pauses. ¡°Will a nest ball work?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I would recommend you use,¡± Nurse says as she turns back around with bared teeth. ¡°It¡¯s the idea ball for most newborns and hatchlings. Just switch her to a more suitable one when she grows up a bit.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Mother freezes up. ¡°How quickly do they grow up?¡±


    ¡°Not so fast that we have to discuss it tonight.¡± Nurse walks over and puts a hand on Mother¡¯s shoulder. ¡°You¡¯ve had a long day. Go up and rest. Long term planning can wait for the morning.¡±


    *


    What?


    ¡­


    Is this


    ¡­


    This is an egg.


    ¡­


    Why are you in an egg again?


    *


    You hatch for the second today. Except this time your feathers are dry and Mother¡¯s looking down at you and you¡¯re both in the same places you were in before you were re-egged.


    ¡°Why was I in an egg again?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Not egg. More¡­ sleep.¡± Her face scrunches up and she keeps a single claw extended until she speaks again. ¡°Making you sleep is within my power.¡±


    Red light. Sleep. Returning later. ¡°That¡¯s how you raised Sister from the dead?¡± you ask.


    She negation growls. ¡°Not death. Sleep.¡±


    You think you understood her meaning. The phrases are simple even if she¡¯s pretending that she can¡¯t pronounce the words. They also make absolutely no sense. Not yet. Maybe they should? You¡¯ll think about it.


    Mother extends a hand and you rub your head into it. Being hatched is much better than being unhatched. She reaches down and slowly lowers the strange orb in her hands to the ground. Then she sits back up and pulls a giant leaf made of feathers over her. You avoid being swallowed by it before she finishes pulling it up and lies down. Pixie immediately lunges onto her chest and extends all of her tails over her abdomen. ¡°Let your sister sleep, Pix.¡±


    Oh. It is sleep time! Except not in the egg? You push your sister¡¯s tails aside and rest on Mother¡¯s abdomen. Pixie hisses and glares at you but ultimately just walks around in a tight circle and plops back down so that she¡¯s facing you and her tails are resting on top of her. Interesting. You walk in a tight circle but cannot get your tail on top of your body. Unfair!


    *


    Colorful moving images spring up on a rock on the other side of the nesting chamber. If Mother was not giving you and Pixie an abundance of scritches you would go and investigate it up close. For now you can watch from a distance.


    Father walks back from the rock and sits down in the middle of the nest. Genesis is on the opposite side with her strange round creature that you are not supposed to attack unless you want to go to sleep and wake up with all of your feathers soaked in water. She also has her Pixie-shaped-plant and a floating white thing that taunts you by staying just out of reach at all times. Someday you will catch it and you will be very satisfied.


    Water starts moving on the screen. You stare intently but nothing really changes so you relax a bit and sit down and press into Mother. Then a deep voice starts talking and you have to wildly look around to see where it¡¯s coming from.


    ¡°Who¡¯s the narrator?¡± Mother asks.


    ¡°No idea.¡± Father answers. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°He has a very good voice.¡±


    Red dot! There¡¯s a red dot on the stone. You tense to pounce and half-expect Mother to stop you. She doesn¡¯t! You jump off of the nest and charge the stone. Well, charge the tree the stone is on. It¡¯s higher up than you expected. Well, you can still jump¡ªred light everywhere.


    *


    This time Mother is staring right at you when you hatch. Same Mother. Same Sister. Same Father. Same extra adult on the nest. Was this¡ª


    ¡°Myth,¡± mother says in her broken, stilted speech. ¡°Story. Red prey is past.¡±


    It takes you a bit to process that. Well, it takes you a bit to figure out what the words even were. Then it takes you another bit to process. Two bits. ¡°Stone is myth-telling?¡± you finally ask. Mother nods. Okay. Story stone should not be attacked.


    The story resumes.


    A fish appears and starts chasing the red lights. Unfair! You want to chase them.


    There are scenes of prey. Big, proper prey. Adults, mostly. Too big to attack on your own. But then there¡¯s an egg. An egg that rolls all the way down a waterfall and a hill until it comes to rest and¡ªbaby prey! You tense up and eye the delicious small baby as adults comes back. You hiss at the adults. They need to stop blocking your hunts.


    Finally, thankfully, the baby wanders off on its own. You slowly rise up on your legs and crouch down, tail pressed straight back. Mother says that you can¡¯t attack the story stone but you still want to practice stalking your prey.


    ¡°Coco¡¯s about to pounce,¡± Father says. Mother picks your sleep egg up and holds it at her side, ready to use it. She won¡¯t have to because you¡¯re very good and won¡¯t actually attack the baby in the story. Mother should just be happy that you want to practice so much.


    Another baby appears! This one has a wide bony face and is stalking an insect, just like you¡¯re doing. But then it fails and gets peed on by the bug. Ew. Now it will taste gross when you eat it. Well, if you could eat it. Squarefaces are often covered in bug pee. That is the important lesson you will take away from this.


    The adults come back. Then the kids get lost again. You tense up and shake out your hips a little as you lower down. ¡°Coco¡¯s doing it again,¡± Kekoa says.


    ¡°And I¡¯m holding her ball.¡±


    She is but she won¡¯t need it. Pixie isn¡¯t stalking the prey but is looking at you with interest. Not that you can figure out what you¡ª


    An adult appears on screen. One of your adults! Without any feathers. Strange. You plop back down to watch a proper hunt play out. Except it doesn¡¯t. The babies are cowards who cheat and hide behind wood which an adult could totally get through but doesn¡¯t for some reason. It is very confusing. No, wait! It¡¯s working! The adult has the babies cornered and¡­ and the ground starts shaking as giant cracks open up in it. Adults and babies yell on screen but the sharptooth, you¡¯re called a sharptooth!, keeps pressing the attack like a proper predator until¡ªuntil the longneck mother whips her tail into the sharptooth and knocks it down into the earth.


    No! That¡¯s incredibly unrealistic. The sharptooth would have killed the Mother and all the babies and gone home to nap. Why are your parents watching lies? You turn around to voice your extreme displeasure to Mother.


    ¡°I know,¡± she responds in her rough language. ¡°Is warning. Bad hunting.¡±


    Oh. So the real story is that you shouldn¡¯t hunt near places you could fall. And that you shouldn¡¯t attack young threehorns because many of them have insect pee on them. And that longneck adults are cheaters who sometimes win even though they shouldn¡¯t but the babies are tiny and easy prey. And that you should just rip through roots and wood and kill prey as soon as you can. So many useful lessons!


    The adult dies shortly after. That¡¯s another lesson: just wait for the adult to die, then kill the babies.


    Your mother turns to face the other adults. ¡°So this is a kids movie, huh?¡±


    Father stares impassively ahead, curling his claws around his hands. Genesis starts at the question and shrugs. ¡°I guess? I, uh, I didn¡¯t really remember that.¡±


    ¡°Rule #12: Jennifer doesn¡¯t get to pick movie night,¡± Father commands.


    ¡°Agreed.¡±


    Genesis snorts and looks away. ¡°Well, sorry I guess.¡±


    The rock turns black. When color returns the baby encounters a giant armored beast with spikes on its back and a tail club. How would you kill that? Is the belly armored? You can¡¯t tell. As long as it is on the rock you will do your best to figure it out.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not your fault. It¡¯s not your mother¡¯s fault. Now, you pay attention to old Rooter. It is nobody¡¯s fault. The great circle of life has begun. But see, not all of us arrive at the same time.¡±


    You smell something behind you. A glance shows that there¡¯s strange water near Mother¡¯s eyes. She crosses her arms across her chest and takes long, distorted breaths. Is she under attack? Did more terrible sand strike her eye? Pixie stands up on her hind legs and presses her paws into Mother¡¯s chest. She unfolds an arm and pulls your sister closer. Out of the corner of your eye you see Father look over and immediately look away.


    Unsure of what to do, you turn back to look at the story stone. The baby is alone now. It appears to be weak and starving. Almost unconsciously you start to crouch again at the opportunity to¡ªa tail flicks your leg hard and you take off before you can even figure out why you¡¯re running.


    Red light engulfs you well before you reach the stone.

 Normal 15: Lila

    Normal 1.15: The Trainer and The Tower


    Lila


    Once upon a time a powerful trainer named Lila defended a tower in Hoenn.


    *


    {Sup¨±n.} The alakzam stands at attention. You wave a hand over the assembled crowd. {Start evacuating. Ask the mart staff in Ever Grande for ethers if you get tired.} He leaves.


    ¡°Shida, Hirune.¡± Your cradily and snorlax look towards you as they materialize. ¡°Shida, use vines to hold the foundation together. Hirune, start shoring up the building with boulders.¡± You have no idea if that will work. You make sure not to let your pok¨¦mon know.


    ¡°Den¡¯atsu.¡± The manectric barks. ¡°Go up the hill and try to draw the bolts towards you.¡±


    Finally you send out Mangur¨­bu and Opera. Your two first pok¨¦mon. ¡°Mangur¨­bu when you rematerialize push all of the water away from you and off the roof. Opera, I need you to take me up.¡± Neither object as you withdraw your starter and walk towards Opera. The altaria settles low enough for you to get onto her back before she starts ascending. She¡¯s slower than normal. It takes you a second to realize that altaria wings could get really, really heavy in the rain and you¡¯ve never felt a downpour like this in your life. ¡°Come on, keep going,¡± you mutter. She gives an adorable war cry and continues to ascend. Slowly ascend. Now she¡¯s not even breaking even. You prime your swampert¡¯s pok¨¦ball and lob it onto the roof. A flash of light tells you it was successful and you tell Opera to go down.


    There¡¯s a presence in your mind. Something impossibly big is looking right at you. ¡°Protect!¡± you scream. For a second the red light stands up against the rain. For a second it stands against a hydro pump. For a second you fly back into the wall as the shield breaks.


    You use every bit of telekinesis in your body to slow your fall.


    You take stock once you hit the ground. The presence is gone. The titans are focused on each other again. Your quick thinking and Opera¡¯s best efforts mean that only most of your ribs are broken. Opera is¡ªoh. A quick press of a button confirms what her neck already told you.


    *


    There¡¯s a knock at the door. You don¡¯t say anything. Don¡¯t move. Barely notice it. The door opens anyway and you see a white man in a suit enter. He walks over and sits down in a chair in front of you, between you and your pok¨¦balls.


    ¡°It takes guts to teleport into the midst of fighting gods.¡±


    You don¡¯t know where he¡¯s going with this. You let him continue.


    ¡°I should thank you. Two-hundred and thirty-six lives were saved.¡± And four were lost.


    No. Far, far more than four.


    ¡°So,¡± the man leans back and clasps his hands. ¡°What comes next for you?¡±


    You open your mouth but the reply dies in your throat. What does come next? It was going to be the League but with four pok¨¦mon down you have no chance. No desire. League matches are controlled but you¡¯d always be scared that two would become one.


    He smiles. ¡°Nothing?¡±


    Nothing.


    ¡°Then may I offer you a job? I believe the International Police could use a daring hero such as you.¡±


    ¡°Not a hero,¡± you croak out.


    He raises an eyebrow. ¡°You put your life at risk to save others.¡±


    You stare at him. He stares at you. Eventually he gets the hint, slides a business card into your hand, and leaves.


    It takes a while. Four months, in fact. But eventually you call the number and say yes.


    *


    If you¡¯d known seven years ago what you know now you wouldn¡¯t have accepted. Not because of the danger. Quite the opposite, in fact. You¡¯d much rather be fighting UBs than facing your most dreadful opponent of all: meetings.


    The other participants¡ªGladion, the kahunas, Admiral Wilford, and Governor Fisher¡ªare already present when you and Looker teleport in. Selene was probably invited but since she¡¯s always either very early or not attending at all you¡¯re willing to bet that she¡¯s not coming.


    Once you¡¯re seated the admiral clears his throat. ¡°Good morning and thank you for coming. I would like to begin this month¡¯s meeting by discussing the recent activity of the Skulls.¡±


    ¡°Must we?¡± Hapu asks. ¡°They¡¯re small time criminals. I would prefer that we stick to the UBs.¡±


    ¡°They were ¡®small time,¡¯¡± the governor says. ¡°That is no longer the case. Now they¡¯re revolutionaries.¡± You can¡¯t help but roll your eyes at the seriousness with which he says absurd things. ¡°We¡¯ve found pamphlets that say as much¡±.


    ¡°They¡¯re kids who are mad at the government.¡± Hapu crosses her arms. ¡°Do we need the military, the police, and the kahunas to go after them now?¡±


    Now, of course, is a time when aliens show up in Alola one to three times a month.


    ¡°Especially now,¡± Admiral Wilford answers while puffing himself up a little and glaring down at the teenage kahuna. The latter doesn¡¯t so much as blink. ¡°They¡¯re testing the waters. Burning buildings. Scaring off tourists. Stealing from trucks carrying construction materials. Who knows what they¡¯ll do if we don¡¯t show them that their actions have consequences?¡±


    ¡°I think we can all agree that no one wants a city taken over again,¡± Governor Fisher adds.


    ¡°You¡¯re playing into Plumeria¡¯s hands.¡± Oh boy. Gladion¡¯s defending Team Skull after you fought so hard to get him and his Silvally onto the council in the first place. You don¡¯t disagree with him. But he really needs to learn to read the room, manage his reputation, something. ¡°You crack down on them. People get hurt. People get killed. That gives her propaganda and reasons to escalate. You want to really piss off the natives? Kill a bunch of their kids because they broke some shit.¡±


    Red and teal flare around the table. Anger and conviction. You should step in. Or watch. They want to talk about the Skulls they can talk about the Skulls. Yeah. Watching is fine.


    ¡°If we let the rebels do whatever they want then we might as well just hurry up and surrender to them.¡±


    Is Plumeria¡¯s approval rating higher than the governor¡¯s? You don¡¯t actually know at this point. Probably not a good idea to ask. But you can quietly look it up under the table. He wins 27 to 23.


    The admiral and the governor keep blustering at Gladion and Hapu. The older kahunas stay out of it but from their emotional colors you¡¯re pretty sure that Nanu agrees with the governor and Olivia and Hala side with Hapu. Experience tells you that Looker¡¯s against the Skulls. Counting votes leaves you four to four. Time to tiebreak.


    ¡°Can we vote on taking direct and coordinated action against Plumeria as a council?¡± Formal. Maybe too formal for Hapu and Gladion. Glances are shared. Eventually Nanu shrugs and gives you a ¡®sure¡¯ of approval.


    Four votes for action, as you predicted. Four votes against plus your own. No need to waste time and resources on some kids with middling pok¨¦mon and no idea what they¡¯re doing.


    ¡°Well then,¡± the admiral crosses his arms and actually growls. ¡°Anything else we need to talk about?¡±


    ¡°VStar,¡± Olivia says in her distinctly kind-but-no-nonsense tone.


    ¡°What about them?¡± the governor asks. ¡°And why talk about them here and not at the ecology board?¡±


    Judging by his emotions you¡¯re pretty sure that Rachel has him wrapped around her finger. You¡¯ll need to have another talk with her. She¡¯s not actually a controller and you can¡¯t punish her just for being an effective lobbyist but sooner or later the wrong person will get too paranoid and you¡¯ll be left to clean up the mess.


    ¡°Tapu Lele¡¯s taken notice.¡±


    ¡°As has Tapu Koko,¡± Hala adds.


    ¡°And Fini.¡±


    For a long moment no one dares to speak. There¡¯s an interesting mix of anger and solemn acceptance around the table.


    ¡°So what,¡± the governor finally says. ¡°They¡¯re going to throw another hissy fit and destroy a city if our democratically elected government doesn¡¯t bow to their every whim?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s possible,¡± Olivia says in a neutral tone you couldn¡¯t have managed under the circumstances.


    ¡°Could they withhold assistance against the UBs?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Also possible.¡± The Akala kahuna looks towards you with a neutral face masking sadness and anger.


    That¡¯s bad. Even with the tapus you¡¯re barely eking out wins and every loss has the potential to snowball if defenders are killed or demoralized. ¡°I think it might be worth appeasing our allies, then.¡±


    ¡°Selene¡¯s beaten Tapu Koko, right?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve done what now?¡± The champion enters the room. Her emotions are a mess and you¡¯re pretty sure she¡¯s got a new scar or two from the last time you saw her. Definitely a little bit paler. Someone else follows her. A woman in a spacesuit with gray skin. You can sort of see her mind¡¯s colors but they¡¯re subtly wrong. Tones you usually don¡¯t see in configurations that don¡¯t make any sense.


    The woman outlines a square with her hands. ¡°Alola, people of Alola.¡±


    Selene sits and her guest follows. This is the first time that the champion¡¯s brought someone back from Ultra Space. ¡°Now,¡± Selene says as she sits down at the head of the table, ¡°I would like to hand off the discussion to my new friend, Soliera.¡±


    Hala starts but gets shut down by a glare from the champ. He takes the message. Whatever was being discussed before can wait for now. Soliera clears her throat. ¡°Good day. I am with the Ultra Recon Squad.¡± Multiple eyebrows are raised and heads are tiled. No one but Selene seems to actually know what that is. Thankfully the alien gets the hint. ¡°We monitor and police threats in Ultra Space. It gives me no pleasure to inform you that one is heading towards your planet.¡±


    ¡°On top of the UBs?¡± you ask.


    She makes a clicking sound with her tongue. ¡°This is far more serious. There are light-based beings that roam the void. When healthy they are benevolent and freely share their energy with others. They are called necrozma, blinding ones, guiding lights.¡± She closes her eyes and her voice drops lower. ¡°When they are wounded they seek out new worlds to drain the light from to heal themselves. They can drain countless worlds and still never be content. One took notice of yours after a strange spike in energy four years ago. It should arrive in less than one of your planet¡¯s orbits.¡±


    Of course it would. Because on top of everything else Alola needed a world-ending monster dropped right on top of it. The universe can¡¯t let you keep six pok¨¦mon for long.


    *


    A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Hey! Wait up a sec!¡± you turn around to see Nanu walking towards you. For once his inside is as grim as the outside. ¡°Molayne wanted to fix up your scanner. New model or whatever¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± you pull yours out of your pocket and hand it to him. ¡°Want a ride to his lab?¡±


    ¡°Whatever.¡±


    Sup¨±n ferries him over as you consider your schedule.


    *


    The North Point Pok¨¦mon Center is close enough to your condo that you can just walk. Might as well since it¡¯s a very nice day. Warm with a mild sea breeze. Gives you some time to glance over the files you have on the new girl. Cuicatl Ichtaca. Long green hair, dark skin, cataracts. Kind of gaunt. Citizen of Anahuac. Two pok¨¦mon registered. Vulpix, OT Raphiel Brooks. Tyrunt, OT Cuicatl Ihctaca.


    Tyrunt? Really? How? Why?


    She has an American mother but is not a citizen. Arrived on a challenge visa September 20, 2019. No official record of her powers. There are a few documents from Anahuac attached. Strange mix of terrible and stellar grades. Legally emancipated from her living father. Deceased mother and twin¡ªoh shit that was three months ago.


    You¡¯ve seen the statistics and the reality enough times to know that surviving psychic twins are more likely than not to die within the next year, often by their own hand. It¡¯s concerning to say the least. You¡¯ll need to do a full scan. You¡¯d need permission but as the semiofficial regulator of the Alolan psychic community you¡¯d be the one to semiofficially grant it so¡ªapproved. Full scan is semiofficially legal now.


    Your mind bushes against hers well before you reach the center. A quick glance shows that she¡¯s on a bench overlooking a golf course and the ocean. Well, if your mind has found hers, she¡¯s probably aware of you so there¡¯s no time to go back into the records.


    ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Lila.¡±


    She turns towards you and smiles at an invisible person to your left. ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca. Good to meet you, ma¡¯am.¡± Her Galarian is accented. To be expected from someone who arrived a little over a month ago.


    ¡°Sir,¡± you correct on reflex. Her expression wavers and her feelings, slightly obscured behind anti-telepath defenses, shift to shame. You wave off her concerns. She doesn¡¯t notice.


    ¡°Are you trans?¡± she asks.


    ¡°Sort of.¡± You sit down at the bench and glance at the two white pok¨¦mon¡ªdoes that tyrunt have fluffy white down feathers? Anyway. Gender. ¡°Non-binary, I think.¡± Haven¡¯t had another psychic outright confirm it to you. Not sure what the confirmation would even be worth since minds are internally inconsistent and can change by the minute.


    The girl doesn¡¯t say anything. The vulpix on her lap stares at you and the tyrunt behind her on the bench stands up tall to get a better look. Onus is on you to restart the conversation. ¡°Enough about that. You can call me Lila.¡±


    ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca.¡± Every time she speaks she sends you a psychic signal. You¡¯d been letting them bounce off your shield but maybe you should actually read one. A few thoughts set up a quarantine.


    Wait, did Rachel tell you about your formal job? Because if she only knew she was talking to a cop, well, in this climate you really couldn¡¯t blame her for being terrified. ¡°What were you told you about me?¡±


    ¡°You watch over the psychics on the islands. That¡¯s all.¡± She starts ruffling the fur on her vulpix¡¯s head. Nervousness? ¡°Did I do something wrong?¡±


    It sends out a signal for you to translate. Her words. In Japanese. No accent. Huh. That¡¯s probably her specialty. You leave up a few mental stopgaps but otherwise let yourself receive the messages. Kid¡¯s not attacking. Looks way more scared of you than you are of her.


    She¡¯s done a few things that weren¡¯t ideal. She should¡¯ve reported her powers right off the bat. Rachel might be able to get things smoothed out but in any event it would look too much like the community protecting its own from otherwise neutral laws. Not a great look. Unfortunately, you¡¯re in a position where the best thing for her, you, and the community is for her to just not report it.


    ¡°No.¡± No reason to tell her about all of that. It would scare her and kids can do dumb things when they¡¯re scared. As can adults. ¡°I just like to check in with new psychics on the islands. Welcome them to Alola, talk about options, lay down the rules, the usual.¡±


    She frowns. ¡°Miss Bell said you would talk to me about schools.¡±


    Makes sense. They¡¯d probably be good for her Having a structured, supportive environment is seldom a bad thing.


    ¡°Right. There are a few schools on the mainland. Probably one in Anahuac.¡±


    ¡°There is,¡± she mutters. ¡°They use us as spies.¡±


    Oh. Well. Tiny blind girl might not be the best spy. Too noticeable. But the language filter would help a lot.


    ¡°The government doesn¡¯t make psychics do anything here,¡± you lie. White lie. There¡¯s registration, occasional psych evals, semiofficial supervision, a few laws that Rachel likes to come dangerously close to breaking¡­ and annual talks with CIA and FBI recruiters. The recruitment talks are mandatory but accepting isn¡¯t. The distinction would probably be lost on her anyway.


    Wouldn¡¯t matter. She still doesn¡¯t seem to buy it.


    ¡°Any particular reason that you aren¡¯t interested?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Money.¡±


    Well. She¡¯ll get along fabulously with Rachel, then. Or they¡¯ll become business rivals and die cordial but mortal enemies.


    ¡°School would be free for you.¡± That one isn¡¯t even a white lie. The government would much rather have psychic kids in one place where they¡¯re easily supervised and sheltered from the worst of poverty during their formative years. Lessons learned from the empath defectors of the Cold War.


    ¡°No.¡± She shakes her head and green locks fall into her face. ¡°I need seven hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars.¡±


    It sounds like a joke but she¡¯s dead serious. You reflexively switch into cop mode. ¡°Why? You on the run from¡ª¡±


    American-born mother. Green hair. Language-based telepathy. Hell, you¡¯re pretty sure you heard somewhere that one of his cousins was blind. You take a deep breath. She has far darker skin than you¡¯d expect. You could still be wrong.


    ¡°Any of your ancestors Korean?¡±


    The girl blinks. ¡°My grandmother. Why?¡±


    ¡°My former boss might¡¯ve worked with a relative of yours.¡± Hard to even call that a white lie when ¡®worked with¡¯ means ¡®hunted.¡¯ Unsuccessfully hunted, but hunted nevertheless. Probably for the best there. You don¡¯t want to imagine his old boltund trying to take down Zekrom. Anyway, time to bring him into this.


    [Can I ask you a question about N?]


    [Yes.]


    His absurdly prompt responses stopped surprising you years back. He¡¯s probably slightly precognitive. Truth be told you were already typing your next message out.


    [He ever contact his birth relatives?]


    Something starts beeping incessantly beside you. Sup¨±n is standing there with the new Ultra Scanner in hand, lights blazing and sounds blaring. You snatch it away from the pok¨¦mon and shut it off. Supposedly there¡¯s a UB right on top of you. ¡°Excuse me for a second.¡±


    You get up and walk far enough away from the bench that even with the girl¡¯s blindness-enhanced hearing she won¡¯t be able to overhear you. Then you dial Molayne. He picks up on the third ring.


    ¡°Hello. Any problems?¡± He sounds cheery enough. Something deep inside of you wants to rip into him even more for it.


    ¡°I set it off.¡±


    You can hear the awkward swallow over the line. ¡°Okay. Uh, send it back and I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± He clearly wants permission to end the call. You won¡¯t give it to him.


    ¡°You know I hate it when this happens, right?¡±


    ¡°¡­I can imagine how you¡¯re feeling, yeah.¡±


    ¡°No. You can¡¯t.¡±


    The Kahunas lied to you. Looker lied to you. Sup¨±n lied to you.


    Everyone lied to your face for years and now he pretends to know how you feel.


    *


    On May 7, 2014 a wormhole opened near North Point. Two police officers showed up to investigate, prepared to fight whatever demon came through. They found a young woman covered in bruises. She was asked who she was. The asker isn¡¯t in the record. The woman answered in Japanese. A few minutes later she would be translated as saying:


    ¡°My name is Lila. I come from Hoenn. I was a powerful trainer who defended a tower.¡±


    There were six pok¨¦balls on her belt. Four were broken. One held a snorlax, the other an alakazam.


    The alakzam introduced himself as Sup¨±n. He told the men that his trainer was psychic and Ultra Space with its alien minds slowly eroded theirs. He only kept his sanity because his trainer decided to keep him in his ball as much as possible and rely only on themself and their other pok¨¦mon.


    Apparently, they found their way out.


    The alakzam translated his trainer¡¯s words. The words that they continued to mumble to no one in particular while picking up sand and letting it run through their fingers and onto their tattered, blood-stained clothes. He said they were true. He refused to provide more context. He¡¯d lost some of it himself. And he said then as he would say many more times in the future, ¡°Knowing what they had wouldn¡¯t make them any happier now.¡±


    The child was taken to Tapu Lele. She made them whole by shredding everything that was real and weaving a lie between the words said. A lie that the International Police supported with forged documents and even an actress claiming to be their mother. A lie that conveniently left behind a faller willing to do exactly what the lie¡¯s crafters wanted from them.


    Convenient how that worked out.


    At first you¡¯d accepted their explanation that you¡¯d fought enough UBs that the aura just rubbed off on you and drove more near. As you learned more and more about them you slowly realized that¡¯s not how things worked. Eventually everything fell apart after you really dug into your documentation.


    Now you keep living the lie because what else are you going to do? Abandon the people to alien ambushes because their leaders were manipulative? Doesn¡¯t mean you have to be happy about it. Doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯ll take it when someone rubs it in your face.


    *


    You end the call to find a text from Looker.


    [Sounds like something he would do. Why?]


    Deep breath. You didn¡¯t come here for N. You didn¡¯t come here for your own demons. You came here to do a wellness check on a child. Everything else can wait a few minutes. {Sup¨±n, I need help doing a silent scan.}


    Silent scans are one where the target doesn¡¯t notice. On a trained psychic they¡¯re next to impossible, even with pok¨¦mon help. She¡¯s not trained. Rather than smooth walls her defenses are ever moving chainsaws. Most of it will hurt if touched. It¡¯s good combat form. Not good standing form. Leaves holes. You point out one you¡¯d noticed to your alakazam and he forms the link. Alright time to look.


    While you have some telepathic power, you¡¯re fundamentally an empath. You don¡¯t look directly at the structure of her mind, just the impressions that things have left. Easiest to do for connections to other people.


    It¡¯s immediately obvious what parts used to directly connect to her twin. Differentiated personalities. That¡¯s good. Means they shared less. Makes it easier to cope. Not easy¡ªit still looks like her mind was messily sawed in half and error reports stack up every minute when an old routine doesn¡¯t work. Could¡¯ve been worse, though.


    A few slightly atrophied connections. A father figure, an older sister(s?), and a younger one. A mother figure grouped separately from that cluster. That one is particularly strange. Almost like hero worship. Very few meaningful connections but a very clearly felt absence.


    Then someone who was probably her actual father. Solid links to her and a bunch of the twin¡¯s old emotional pathways seem to lead there. Oh boy. Some love, a lot of distance, fair bit of pain, and a very serious break around the time of the twin¡¯s death. Then spite. It¡¯s new but it already deeply stains her perception of him.


    A few minor ones. Casual friends, teachers, distant pets, maybe a crush. None truly defining in her mental architecture. None terribly missed.


    New connections. Ones formed entirely after the loss of the other ones. None that span both periods. Strange. Not calling home at all? Two fairly advanced links to other minds. Her pok¨¦mon. Complicated but satisfactory relationships. They give her headaches but probably also cuddles. Good, but not enough to anchor a person with. There¡¯s a third recently broken link. More positive. Fewer headaches. Almost as much love as her starter. Relationship severed against her will. The connection¡¯s become linked to the parent-sister figure clusters. Loss. Less hope of recovery. Were the unknown old connections with pok¨¦mon? Possible with her powers.


    Two main human links. One has deep rings of annoyance and pain with a sheen of reliance and hope on top. Other is the opposite. Mostly positive with a level of fear and distrust at the surface. Neither is really deep enough to be sustaining.


    Rachel. Fear, disappointment, some feelings similar to her parental figures. Authority. Authority that¡¯s failed her a little and helped her a little.


    Well. That¡¯s all the new ones. Now for the biggest one. Her impressions of herself.


    Bad. Deeply, horribly bad. Years long trails of hate, disgust, disappointment. Small threads and spots of love. Of hope. Recently blunted hope. Feelings turned decidedly darker and dimmer with her twin¡¯s death. Close to ending things. You¡¯re not comfortable adding her to the list of the dead yet but if you were a betting person, well, you wouldn¡¯t bet against it. You¡¯ve seen happy people destroyed by their mind being shattered. She wasn¡¯t happy to begin with.


    You close the link and hand the scanner back to your alakazam. He teleports off without a word and you walk back to the bench. Kid¡¯s a little paranoid. Probably because a cop walked off to make a long call after a very odd exchange.


    ¡°Hey, sorry, work called. Anyway, I have one last thing to take care of.¡±


    ¡°Okay¡­¡±


    You really need to stop saying cryptic things and cutting off. Kid¡¯s going to be justifiably terrified of you.


    ¡°Tapu Lele,¡± fuck her, ¡°gives new psychics on the island a z-bracelet. Can I put it on you?¡±


    She smiles a little. Inside and outside. ¡°Okay.¡±


    Fits perfectly without adjustment. That¡¯s rare. Maybe the tapu had already scouted his new subject out herself. Wouldn¡¯t be the first time. ¡°Now, want to try it out?¡±


    ¡°I have a Normalium-Z,¡± she answers. ¡°Pixie knows roar.¡±


    Of course she already had a plan. Got her first Z-crystal and immediately thought about how she¡¯d use it if she could. Roar¡¯s a good testing move, too. Don¡¯t need to put a pok¨¦mon in the way of it. Might piss off some golfers and you¡¯d have to investigate yourself for a noise complaint. Nothing too serious.


    ¡°Alright, put the crystal in.¡± She takes out a smooth black case with one white crystal and seventeen empty spots. Heh. They¡¯re really giving kids full cases. Encouraging them to seek out the hard ones, too.


    You guide her hands through the (relatively simple) motions for the normal crystal. Her vulpix lights up and an instant later an ear-piercing shriek rumbles down the cliff. Some people start below. Let them. You remember the first time you used a crystal. Good memory. One of your first fond ones that was actually¡ªCuicatl collapses to her knees. Right. Shit. Rough on first time users.


    You kneel down to help her and when you take her wrist you notice that her pulse is going crazy. She bends over and pukes. Her tyrunt rushes over but you push her aside. Bit rougher than your first time. She got vomit in her hair so you go behind her and hold it back in case she has to throw up again. She does and¡ªseriously what is it with this dinosaur and vomit? At one point her arms give out and you catch her and oh wow you can really feel all of her ribs. Her heart is still trying to shake itself free of its constraints.


    Extreme thinness. Self-hatred. Possible poverty? Cause doesn¡¯t matter. You really shouldn¡¯t have given her a Z-crystal. Damn it. Should have noticed.


    ¡°Mind if my snorlax carries you?¡± A weak nod. You send her out and gives the order.


    Right after Cuicatl¡¯s safely in the bear¡¯s arms you feel her slip into unconsciousness.


    Fuck.


    *


    Her heart was still beating and she¡¯d regained consciousness when you dropped her off. A few hours of watching your police scanner and the Center¡¯s called for neither an ambulance nor the police. She¡¯s probably fine.


    As fine as a suicidal teenager living in the path of a wanted terrorist and a light-stealing abomination can be, anyway. No. Don¡¯t think about necrozma. Not now. Problem for future Lila. Focus. Good things.


    When Sup¨±n brought back the scanner back it didn¡¯t instantly flag you.


    That¡¯ll have to do for today.

 Recap 1

    Recap 1


    Genesis


    So, um, you already know all of this. You know everything. You¡¯re Xerneas. But I¡¯m also allowed to tell you anything, right, and I thought I should work through some stuff before we head off to Ula¡¯Ula.


    I guess this begins with Lyra but I would rather not talk about that. You already know it anyway. Maybe begin with VStar? Sounds good. There was a whole orientation thing and I got to meet a bunch of people and they went over stuff that I sort of remember. Pay is low but I suppose I shouldn¡¯t complain given the circumstances. Later got paired with Cuicatl and Allana.


    Should I describe them? I want to a little bit. Like I¡¯m talking to a friend. None of mine are talking with me. They don¡¯t have my new phone number. Maybe they wouldn¡¯t want to talk if they did. Most are Lyra¡¯s friends more than mine¡­ Anyways, Cuicatl¡¯s blind and she had really nice green hair but then she cut it and it¡¯s a little less nice. Her eyes still kind of creep me out but she¡¯s really nice and good with pok¨¦mon, like her adorable little holy vulpix.


    Allana¡¯s¡­ she was probably pretty. I think she¡¯s changing. I¡¯ve seen her inject herself and I think she¡¯s starting to get a little bit of stubble. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s reversible. I hope it is. Should I throw out her drugs to protect her? I know I¡¯m not supposed to steal things, but you can¡¯t be okay with what she¡¯s doing. I know how this happened, too. She¡¯s angry and kind of controlling so someone probably convinced her she had to be a guy.


    It¡¯s really sad.


    Then the journey happened. I¡¯m praying for her. Right now, in fact. May she find peace and guidance back onto the right path.


    Paths. Journey. Sir Bubbles and I set out to Akala to make money. Still not sure how much money we¡¯re going to need. Haven¡¯t heard from my parents yet. I pray that they accept my apologies soon. I think my punishment so far has been fair.


    Oh, I got to ride a mantine on the way to Akala! It was really, really fun. I felt you there. Thank you for creating mantine. And the oceans. And poliwag.


    Right. Sir Bubbles and I got attacked by Team Skull. Some nice bystander stepped in and saved us which is good because brave, brave Sir Bubbles boldly ran away right into danger. He¡¯s not very smart but I love him.


    I almost got to capture an eevee. But then an ariados got it. I¡¯m not sure how to feel about that. I know you created ariados and they need to eat but it still felt a little wrong seeing it. That¡¯s not insulting your creation, of course! I just don¡¯t understand it right now. I pray for wisdom on that.


    I won a trial! Father¡¯s chess games paid off and I got to skip right to fighting the boss, a giant oranguru. Sir Bubbles put it to sleep and then Inferno managed to damage it enough that it gave up and showed me a Z-crystal. That I can¡¯t use yet. I pray for a Z-Ring.


    Wait. Inferno! I forgot Inferno. He¡¯s just the cutest little leafeon. Smells like leaves. Loves cuddles. Doesn¡¯t actually do much. Anyway, her old owner was very mean and abandoned her when she didn¡¯t evolve into a flareon. I hope he believes in you so that he can be forgiven. Otherwise it¡¯s ironic. Going to an inferno for abandoning an Inferno.


    Which might not be funny. I¡¯m sorry to remind you of the people you can¡¯t save.


    Later on I caught my newest team member, Count Cloudy! She¡¯s just the cutest little castform. The best part is that I don¡¯t have to sleep in a tent that¡¯s getting rained on again. Allana¡¯s mad, though. We could have made a bunch of money if I¡¯d turned him over. Cuicatl says that we have enough for food and we already have a tent and clothes and stuff so I don¡¯t see the problem.


    So. Um. Yeah. I don¡¯t know how to end this.


    I pray for safety on Ula¡¯Ula and luck in catching pok¨¦mon and friendship and maybe healing for Cuicatl and insight for Allana?


    May my words and deeds bring honor to thy name.


    Kekoa


    I know this was for logging transition stuff. But. Don¡¯t want to take pics today. Not much different. Got my period last week. Cuicatl says that my voice is a little deeper, but I think she¡¯s just being nice. I guess I smell different? More pimples.


    That¡¯s it.


    I¡¯ll write about the journey here.


    Met Cuicatl and Jennifer. Jenny¡¯s a haole bitch. I treated Cuicatl like one. She¡¯s cool tho. More later.


    Went to Akala. Mantine riding sucks. Jenny seemed to like it. Made her more of a bitch. I fucked up on food and had to eat white sludge shit and gritty eggs and potatoes. Otherwise good gear picks.


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    I went home. To Paniola. Couldn¡¯t make myself talk to Kanoa. Did meet Jabari. He doesn¡¯t get it. Maybe never will. I was mad. Snapped at Cuicatl. She outed me. Met a cool kanaka man on Route 7. Cuicatl talked with me. We buried the hatchet.


    Still not entirely sure I should have. She definitely knew I was trans when she misgendered me. Outed me. But she¡¯s here alone and tried to be nice. I¡¯m trying to forgive her. To move on. Even if she doesn¡¯t deserve it. Oh, also she has her own secret. Rather not say in case the cops read this. Still not sure how I feel about it.


    Won a trial.


    It was hard. Kanoa beat me at chess. Hekeli took out her pikipek with two hits, no damage. Then totem oranguru. Hekeli hits hard. Maybe too hard. Got me a talk about force early on. Don¡¯t know what the nurse was thinking. Pikipek hit as hard as they want. Anyway. She didn¡¯t hit hard enough. Had to rely on Makani. But! The oranguru used trick room. Makani was super fast and bit the totem until it gave up.


    Kanoa and I talked some more. She gave me her number. Doesn¡¯t hate me for leaving. Seemed to pity me. Fuck that. I¡¯ll still text her. She seems happy. Trial captain and everything. I owe her a real match when I¡¯m stronger.


    I have two pok¨¦mon now. Hekeli is still a pikipek but I think she might evolve soon. ¡°Evolve.¡± Cross the arbitrary line. We don¡¯t really hang out much. I think she likes fights. Cuicatl says that she needs a reason to stay. I hope fighting works.


    Makani the grubbin doesn¡¯t really listen to me. Smart enough to bite at stuff attacking him. Prone to spitting string on my face.


    Cuicatl thinks it¡¯s fucking hilarious.


    ¡­it kind of is¡­


    Oh. Right. One last thing.


    My brother tried to give me a fucking tyrunt egg. Because last time we spoke I was in a dinosaur phase. Thing imprinted on Cuicatl. For the best. It¡¯ll piss Jabari off.


    God damn that girl is going to have a keokeo and a tyrantrum.


    I should tell Sis about her. Figure out if she can be used. Or how we¡¯ll fight her if she¡¯ll stand against us.


    Cuicatl


    I don¡¯t know if you can hear me. I hope you can.


    Please don¡¯t wait. I told you before but I¡¯m worried you ignored me. Go. Please. I could be a while.


    I¡¯m on my own journey. Boring compared to yours. No rivers of blood and jaguars. I¡¯m in Alola now. Tried to go to Unova but couldn¡¯t get the visa. It¡¯s tropical and humid here. There are even mountains. It feels more like home than I¡¯d like.


    I have a starter. Her name is Pixie. She¡¯s an ice-type vulpix. Incredibly soft, really prideful, less smart than she thinks she is. Reminds me of Alice, just not strong enough to back her words up. Yet. The people here worship ninetales as ice gods. Someday she¡¯ll be really powerful. Not quite hydreigon level but really what is?


    There are aliens here. They attack at least once a month. Really strong trainers are sent to catch or kill them. We went through a forest burned in one of those fights. I don¡¯t know if the trainers ¡°won¡± or ¡°lost.¡± There¡¯s a difference between knowing that the world may end in a few years and living in a place where it¡¯s happening now. One of my friends here was in Japan when Quetzlcoatl appeared. I wonder how he feels, seeing the wrath of gods and monsters twice in his short life.


    I guess I should tell you more about my friends. Kekoa is the one I was talking about. He has a pikipek and a grubbin that don¡¯t really like him. Maybe he can fix it. He was really rude to me for a while. I hit back. I don¡¯t want to talk about that. He¡¯s accepted me for now. I told him about my gifts. I know I shouldn¡¯t have but it felt right at the time. He really cares about his home. Wants the colonizers gone. Can¡¯t blame him. They ruined Anahuac with a treaty. Can you imagine what it would¡¯ve been like if they¡¯d actually taken over? Kekoa¡¯s angry. Hurt. I understand that. Maybe we can help each other.


    Then there¡¯s Genesis. She¡¯s kind of the opposite of Kekoa: really sweet seeming but mean at the core. Kekoa¡¯s trans. Genesis follows the deer cult. She¡¯s been misnaming him in her head. I can¡¯t really say anything about it but that¡¯s going to blow up. I¡¯m taking Kekoa¡¯s side when it does. Maybe she¡¯ll learn. Maybe we¡¯ll kick her out. I¡¯d feel a little bad. I don¡¯t think she wants to be here. There¡¯s just nowhere else to go. Hopefully she¡¯ll hate being alone more than she hates being nice.


    I had a little paras for a while. Five of them but I really only talked to one. She was kind. A little dull. Thought that everything she saw was the biggest, coolest thing ever. Pixie didn¡¯t like her. She¡¯s very jealous and I think she would¡¯ve killed the poor paras if I hadn¡¯t gotten rid of her. I wanted to make Pixie leave out of spite. But I need her power more than I needed the paras¡¯s.


    Power. Two more things I want to talk about.


    I got a tyrunt.


    Kekoa¡¯s brother¡­ details don¡¯t matter. Don¡¯t know them anyway. The egg was supposed to be Kekoa¡¯s, but the hatchling imprinted on me. Tyrunt imprint! Like birds! And she has super soft down feathers and, um, needs her food regurgitated. Like a bird! And she¡¯s also a dragon! Sort of. Her language is a little like Upper Draconic. How old is that, anyway? I know it¡¯s for myths and I always knew the gods were old but¡­ that¡¯s very, very old. Were they the same gods? Quetzlcoatl wouldn¡¯t have to change for the dinosaurs. Did the others?


    If I was at home I would ask a priest questions until he stopped answering. Maybe you can ask Xolotl for me.


    I named the tyrunt Mitzcocotonaz, or Coco for short. She¡¯s very smart for her age. Knows about hunting and what parents are supposed to raise her (although she still thinks either she¡¯s a human or I¡¯m a tyrantrum). Is that normal? Tyrantrum are supposed to have been smart and raised their young for a long time. Why would she need that much instinct? Did the people who made her put it there? Remember how in the book of Jurassic Park the pyroclaptors murdered everyone because they only had instinct, not learning? Maybe the scientists had read book and gave her more instincts.


    Why give her the murder instincts, though?


    Scientist were probably more concerned with whether or not they could give her murder instincts than if they should. Only explanation.


    I also got a Z-Ring. Knocked me out to use it. But the strange thing is that it felt¡­ familiar. Second-hand familiar. From someone else¡¯s memories. Couldn¡¯t have been you. Maybe Mom, but I don¡¯t think she ever used Z-Power. Maybe it¡¯s third-hand. Memories that Mom or Renfield took from someone and then gave to me on accident. But who? Who did she know here? Are they still here? Can I meet them?


    I guess you want to know how I¡¯m doing. I¡¯m holding on. Barely. Pixie and Coco help. I miss you. I miss Renfield, Alice, and Searah. I miss Mom even though I never got to meet her.


    I can¡¯t get you back. Or Mom. But her pok¨¦mon¡­


    I don¡¯t care what I have to do. I¡¯m getting them back.


    I swear it on your ashes.

 Electric 1: Pixie

    Mission Two: Electric


    It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants.


    -Henry Ward Beecher


    Electric 2.1: Six


    Pixie


    November 16, 2019| [-33:03:17]


    You jump into Skysong¡¯s lap as she sits down in front of Matriarch. You can feel the pink eevee¡¯s eyes boring into you but if you get into a fight now your trainer will be mad. So you won¡¯t. Because you¡¯re a very well-behaved fox. You still turn around and stick your tongue out at it before settling down. Let him be jealous of your perch. He isn¡¯t cuddling anyone.


    ¡°How was Akala?¡± Matriarch asks.


    ¡°Good. I won a trial.¡± She scratches your ear and you press your head into her paw with pride. ¡°Got a new pok¨¦mon.¡± You abruptly slink back down and suppress a hiss. ¡°We caught the pok¨¦mon we were supposed to.¡± She sounds a little angry. Why? You helped her find prey. Well, not her prey. Humans sometimes trade their prey with other humans for reasons that you still don¡¯t understand.


    Matriarch makes a low throat noise that humans sometimes use to respond to things without speaking. ¡°And how are you holding up?¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    ¡°You sure?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Skysong¡¯s heart rate is up and you can smell her stress responses start kicking in. Will you get to fight the eevee? Sure, the green eevee cheated so you narrowly lost but you can definitely take this one and show Skysong that you¡¯re much, much better.


    ¡°If you say so,¡± Matriarch concedes. ¡°By the way I don¡¯t think you ever told me why you¡¯re going on a journey.¡±


    ¡°Money.¡±


    Matriarch leans back and her voice shifts to something a touch quieter and softer. ¡°And what¡¯s the money for?¡±


    There¡¯s a pause of several shallow breaths as Skysong¡¯s face scrunches up and her paws clench.


    ¡°Some of my Mom¡¯s stuff.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Matriarch sighs and you can feel her body shift. ¡°If you want to tell me more you can.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to.¡±


    ¡°Well, if you want help finding things I do have friends in Unova.¡± Pause. ¡°And the Anahuac pok¨¦mon markets.¡±


    Your trainer¡¯s breath catches in her throat and you seize up, ready to blast out ice shards at the smug ugly fox in the corner. Skysong finally lowers her head and exhales.


    ¡°If a hydreigon gets sold in Anahuac, can you let me know?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡±


    Skysong¡¯s heart rate starts to slow a little. No eevee fight. What a shame.


    ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± Matriarch offers again.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    Someone drums a paw on the wood above you. Not entirely sure who.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to need a Class V license.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Matriarch says.


    ¡°Tyrunt require¡ª¡±


    ¡°Most pok¨¦mon grandfather into the license requirement you obtained them at. The exceptions are mostly just pok¨¦mon that don¡¯t recognize their old trainers. I¡¯ll see what I can do about getting the reqs changed, but in the meantime I¡¯m trying to find you a mentor for your IV. Just in case.¡± More drumming. ¡°You have an idea for your V paper?¡±


    ¡°A draconic dictionary.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I would recommend.¡±


    The rest is boring. The eevee never attacks you and you never get an excuse to attack it.


    It will live. For now.


    [-32:18:15]


    Pale red light rushes all around you before fading, leaving you intact.


    Mission accomplished.


    ¡°What was that?¡± Growlsleeper grumbles on the other end of the room.


    ¡°Pix and Coco were going at it again.¡± Skysong sounds tired. Not just because it is night and she is diurnal; you woke her from her sleep because Eggbreath was pressing against you and soiling your precious fur. Skysong gently presses you off and slowly gets to her feet before finding her hooves and stick. ¡°I¡¯ll take her out for a minute.¡±


    Yes! Eggbreath is gone and you get to go outside!


    You move a few steps ahead of her and make sure to have very loud steps so that she can follow you because you are a very good guide fox. Eventually you step out into the¡ªit¡¯s raining. Oh no. Thankfully there is sitting place under an overhang that you can lead Skysong to so she can sit down and pet you and only you for maybe the rest of the night.


    She sits down. You jump on her lap. The headscritches are very half-hearted. Disappointing. You press your head into her hand so that she knows to do better.


    ¡°You know,¡± she says while not petting you harder, ¡°She¡¯s going to be forty times bigger than you someday.¡±


    It takes you a second to convert from her terrible numbers into the correct ones. Forty is forty-four. A good, symmetrical number. ¡°And I¡¯ll be forty-four times stronger.¡± Or you could just kill her before she gets too much bigger than you. That¡¯s always an option.


    Skysong shakes her head. ¡°You¡¯ve seen the movies, right? You know what tyrantrum, sharpteeth, whatever, can do?¡±


    ¡°Fail to kill baby pok¨¦mon and then fall into a lake and die?¡±


    That does earn a muted giggle and an ear scratch. ¡°Or kill off a clan of pyroclaptors. Fire-types. She¡¯s good against fire-types.¡±


    ¡°Fire melts ice into water. Fire-types hate water.¡± How does she keep forgetting that?


    ¡°How about the sun? She loves heat and light. You don¡¯t. She can guide me in hot cities.¡±


    One paw wants to object. Badly. Your trainer spends more time in the warm than the cool and this is a chance for Eggbreath to persuade her to leave you. But. Being offered a reprieve from your worst duties is good. And someday you¡¯ll be cold enough that the heat won¡¯t bother you. You concede with a huff. Eggbreath can die after you evolve and command the blizzards.


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    Skysong switches to giving you long strokes from your head to the tips of your tails. This is also good petting. You purr so that she knows to do this more often. For a long time she continues. The sounds of the wind and rain are a little like those of snowstorms raging above your den.


    It ends right as you¡¯re about to fall asleep. You¡¯re too calm to complain until Skysong picks you up into her arms and stands up. ¡°Please be nice to your sister,¡± she whispers.


    No.


    You hiss and squirm out of her arms and start growling the moment you hit the ground.


    ¡°No. Not my sister. My sisters are on The Mountain.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± her face falters and her scent shifts. ¡°I didn¡¯t know you had family.¡±


    She says it like she¡¯s sad that you do. Why wouldn¡¯t you? You had to come from somewhere.


    ¡°Do you want to talk about it?¡± She crouches down and offers more scritches with her hand. You don¡¯t take the bait.


    ¡°No.¡± Of course you don¡¯t want to talk about your sisters. Especially the living one.


    The one that Avalanche thought was better than you.


    [-27:07:41]


    You reappear next to Eggbreath on a long metal strip jutting out into the water. Your trainer immediately bends down and starts putting your harness on. Eggbreath is already in the very short leash that Skysong uses because even she doesn¡¯t trust the demon bird. Once you¡¯re buckled in Skysong gently picks you up and turns you around to look at¡ª


    Oh.


    The Mountain is right there, looming on the horizon. A pillar of white in a landscape of red rocks and blue skies. ¡°Are we going there?¡±


    ¡°No. This is as close as we¡¯ll get.¡± She silently strokes your head. ¡°Do you want to?¡±


    Do you? Someday, yes. When you can go back and beat up a whole pack of redcrests and drag the corpses to Avalanche so she knows that she chose wrong. When you¡¯re sure she¡¯ll lick your head and send one of your siblings down in your place, that¡¯s when you¡¯ll return.


    Now¡­ you know you can¡¯t face The Mountain and win. Not after it killed so many of your siblings.


    ¡°No. Not yet.¡±


    Eggbreath starts wandering off while Skysong¡¯s holding you in one arm and petting you with the other. You shriek alarm to let your trainer know that there is misbehavior afoot. ¡°Thanks,¡± she mutters in a not-properly-thankful tone. She sets you down somewhat roughly into a patch of sand and calls Eggbreath over. The beast comes running back and nudges her head against Skysong¡¯s leg.


    Skysong ruffles her headfeathers before picking up the leash.


    The nerve she has.


    [-27:06:00]


    ¡°Behave yourselves¡± is what Skysong said before curling up and falling asleep on the sand.


    Eggbreath is not behaving herself. She¡¯s harassed an armored beach spider into its hole and is trying to dig down after it. You¡¯ll let her. When Skysong wakes up you¡¯ll have a long list of the demon¡¯s misbehavior ready to go. She¡¯ll be horrified and immediately send Eggbreath away and then you¡¯ll have time to get any new team members kicked out before she can decide to leave you for them.


    There¡¯s a pained cry and shaking sounds. You look over to see the beach spider pinched onto Eggbreath¡¯s nose as she slams her head into a rock to get it off. Your ears perk up. Maybe Eggbreath will get herself killed. Or at least get hurt so badly that Skysong realizes that she¡¯s way too weak to stand alongside you.


    The spider lets go and Eggbreath scurries off to find something else to murder.


    Your gaze falls upon the green eevee and you reflexively growl. He¡¯s just lying there on your beach. Menacingly. Like he owns it. Like he¡¯s better than you. He isn¡¯t! Eevee are beneath you. Hummy and Rocktosser were wrong to think otherwise. They probably failed their quest because they pushed you away and kept some pathetic little stupid weakling in your place. Maybe they died because the little asshole they kept couldn¡¯t save them from a monster.


    Serves them right.


    No. You can¡¯t allow the eevee to take naps so close to Skysong. He¡¯s a threat to you and your trainer. You slowly rise up and creep closer to the abomination. Your paws are built for walking silently on snow and sand is close enough. His chest rises and falls as he breathes in his sleep.


    You take a deep breath and unleash the most perfect of slushballs. A perfect hit to the face. The monster¡¯s ears stick straight up and he starts shaking to get it off of him. He turns and you see one eye covered in snow as the other narrows into a glare. The eevee steps forward and the earth falls away as you fly through the air. You skid to a halt as sand blasts into your fur. The eevee¡ªhow did it move so fast?¡ªsteps over your belly and lies down on top of you. Then his head dips and his eyes close again.


    No! You flex all of your muscles and squirm madly to escape. He¡¯s not much bigger than you, this shouldn¡¯t be hard! If only you weren¡¯t on your back. Then you could just press off the ground. And breathe normally without a fat eevee crushing your lungs. After a few glorious minutes of struggle you come to accept that the eevee has cheated too well. You will need to summon help.


    You scream.


    Just when you think that your mighty roar might go unanswered something rushes into your peripheral vision and slams into the eevee. As the smelly stupid fox gets knocked off you roll over and bare your fangs to meet it. You glance to the side and see¡ªEggbreath. Huh. The bird holds her mouth wide open and swishes her tail back and forth.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Skysong asks.


    ¡°The eevee attacked me!¡±


    ¡°Playtime!¡± Eggbreath says while slapping her tail into the ground.


    ¡°Is anyone hurt?¡±


    ¡°No!¡± Your traitorous ¡®sister¡¯ replies.


    ¡°Cool.¡±


    Skysong rolls over and puts her head back down on the sand.


    Eggbreath growls and lowers herself into a pouncing position. The eevee just stares before turning to look at something on the beach. It¡¯s a small bird. Not even a pok¨¦mon. Eevee¡¯s glance is enough to get Eggbreath to notice and she runs off to harass it. Leaving you alone. Which is fine. You can still defend your honor and protect your trainer from the deceptive fox in front of you.


    The monstrous plant sits down on his haunches. ¡°Why do you care so much?¡±


    You hiss in response.


    ¡°If I did anything to you¡­¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re trying to steal Skysong!¡±


    He blinks and swishes his leaf from side to side.


    ¡°Who?¡±


    You stamp a paw. How dare he play dumb!


    ¡°My trainer!¡±


    Slow blink. Leaf swish.


    ¡°Why would I want to?¡±


    Because she¡¯s your trainer and you¡¯re the best and that means that she¡¯s the best trainer! Your thoughts come out more as a irritated screech than proper language. He sits down and tucks his legs under him.


    ¡°Why would I steal her when I could just join your team?¡±


    ¡°She already has two! One would have to leave.¡± Obviously. He¡¯s just toying with you now. As he keeps staring at you with his big stupid eyes you start readying another attack.


    ¡°You know humans can have six pok¨¦mon, right?¡±


    Lies! Terrible lies! He¡¯s trying to get you to let your guard down so he can sneak onto the team and convince Skysong to make you leave. Just like every other eevee. You¡¯re smarter now than you were in the past. You¡¯ll stop him. Kill him if you must.


    Eggbreath leaps over and kicks up sand on impact. She immediately dips low to the ground and softly growls while the tip of her tail carves an arc in the sand.


    ¡°Play!¡±


    [-26:16:03]


    Skysong grabs her stick and you follow close behind. Eggbreath stirs as if she wants to follow before giving up and settling back into the blankets. Ugly diurnal baby bird. So much better than her. You help without being asked.


    Where is she going, anyway? There¡¯s a scent marking station inside of the room.


    Outside. She¡¯s going outside and sitting down on a bench. You hop up as she sits down.


    ¡°Why are you harassing Inferno?¡±


    Oh. Now you get to tell her everything that the eevee has done.


    ¡°He attacked me while I was trying to sleep and then he said mean things and tried to make me stop breathing and he also attacked Eggbreath and he¡¯s going to hurt you someday.¡±


    She presses your ear down before withdrawing her paws. Skysong sighs and folds her arms.


    ¡°Pixie, I don¡¯t like it when you try to hurt my other pok¨¦mon. Or Kekoa¡¯s. Or Genesis¡¯s.¡±


    ¡°You should. They¡¯re lying to you. Trying to steal you.¡±


    It¡¯s simple, really. How can she not get it? She picked you. That means she¡¯s smart.


    ¡°Pix, I¡¯ve told you this before.¡± She sounds irritated. At the eevee? Good! Skysong is finally getting it. ¡°If you want to stay on the team, then I won¡¯t kick you off. Promise.¡±


    Lies. The others all made promises. They all left you behind in the end.


    ¡°Did you get left right after you got jealous and attacked other pok¨¦mon?¡±


    You hiss. She may your trainer but she has no right to say those things. ¡°I am not jealous of eevee. I am much better.¡±


    Skysong gives you a thorough headscratching in apology. ¡°Maybe your people left you because you got scared they¡¯d leave you so you started acting out. Made them leave behind ¡®mons they cared about. Cost them sleep. They got fed up. Decided you weren¡¯t worth it.¡± She¡¯s wrong. It¡¯s not so simple. Besides, you tried being nice on The Mountain. Look where that got you. Her hand presses down and gives you a few gentle strokes down your back. ¡°I won¡¯t leave you,¡± she lies. ¡°Unless you want to be left. You don¡¯t have to fight to stay. Promise.¡±


    There is a way that the promise can hold. ¡°No more pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± She asks like an idiot.


    ¡°Won¡¯t have to leave anyone unless there¡¯s a third.¡±


    Her hand pauses in the middle of your back and gently presses down. ¡°But I can have six?¡± No. That¡¯s not possible. Two. Avalanche kept two. Hummy and Rocktosser and Lightstare and Lowgrowl all kept two. ¡°Genesis already has three, y¡¯know? She¡¯s not leaving any of them.¡±


    That¡¯s a¡ªthe green eevee, the spiralfrog, and the shapeshifter. Three. She has three and none of them are trying to kill each other. That¡¯s. No. That. They all had to leave you. Had to. Thought you were worse than eevee. If they could keep you then. Then. You were worse than nothing.


    You are worse than nothing.


    Skysong flips you onto your back and presses you into her chest. You barely notice. If she¡¯s lying than she¡¯ll leave you. If she¡¯s not then she¡¯ll hate you someday because. Because everyone else has. Why does she pretend to care? What is she planning? She drops you back onto her lap and leans back. Her pets grow slower. It doesn¡¯t matter. You have things to think about.


    When you finally look back up, she¡¯s asleep and the sun is awake.

 Electric 2: Cuicatl

    Electric 2.2: Worlds That Never Were


    Cuicatl


    2010


    A low hum of disapproval fills your mind.


    {You¡¯re hurt.}


    ¡°Yeah, I know.¡± You scout for your favorite spot with your feet and then sit down. ¡°Thanks for telling me.¡±


    {I warned you about overusing your powers.}


    ¡°You did.¡±


    Why does Renfield care? He doesn¡¯t have to deal with your headaches.


    {Ah, but I care about you. If you¡¯re hurt, I¡¯m upset.}


    ¡°Why care?¡± you grumble. ¡°Mom¡¯s been dead for years. You could¡¯ve left.¡±


    When Renfield laughs it sounds like bubbles floating to the surface in your mind. Somehow. Maybe he can teach you. {When Danielle found me I was a mere solosis. I cared for nothing. Did nothing. Just sat still in the sunlight and attacked anything that came near. She raised me. Taught me strategy, empathy, history, literature, and music.}


    ¡°You can sing?¡±


    More mind bubbles. {Well, she taught me how to appreciate music. She used to sing a lot.} Like you.


    ¡°Did she name me for that?¡± Cuicatl means song. Ichtaca Secret song. Or song of secrets.


    Something swishes from side to side at your mind¡¯s edge. No. {As I understand it your father named you. She would have picked¡­ I suppose it doesn¡¯t much matter.}


    Right after she died dad went against mom¡¯s wishes? Why? Did they each name one child? More swishing. {No. They could never agree on a name, or even what language the name should be in. I suspect that Danielle would have given names at birth and refused to accept others. As it were¡­ the chance did not present itself.}


    You pick up a pebble and roll it in your fingers. It helps you think. ¡°They fought?¡±


    {On occasion, yes.}


    Your finger slips and the pebble falls. ¡°Over what?¡± You reach down. Can¡¯t find the exact pebble. Pick up another one. Coins are better but you aren¡¯t allowed to have them unless you¡¯re going to the store.


    {They both loved you, even before you were born. They wanted the best for you but disagreed on what that entailed.}


    There¡¯s hesitation in his voice. Half-truths. You want to press him, but he knows what you¡¯re thinking and since he¡¯s not saying more he probably won¡¯t if you challenged him aloud.


    ¡°What was my name supposed to be?¡±


    {Child, you have nothing to gain by mourning worlds that never were.}


    Mourning worlds that¡ªnow he¡¯s just not making sense. On purpose. ¡°Don¡¯t care about worlds. Just want to know what my name was.¡± You wouldn¡¯t actually use it. Dad would be mad. And your classmates already think you¡¯re the enemy¡¯s child.


    Searah saves him with an excited squeal and the plodding of clawed feet. You smile and wave to her. The name can wait. She hugs you by gently placing her front claws onto your shoulders and pressing her warm, fuzzy body against your chest. She¡¯s pretty heavy for her size and you need to press your hands back behind you to stay sitting up. Easier to hug her when you¡¯re lying down.


    ¡°Hello, girl.¡± She backs away and sits down right in front of you before pressing her snout into you and sniffing all over. It¡¯s weird. Freaked you out the first time. Now you think it¡¯s cute. Her tongue flicks out and curls around your neck. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough.¡± You roll your eyes at the heatmor¡¯s angry huff and stick your legs out so she can lie on them. She does.


    Her fur is very warm. It¡¯s nice for a cool, cloudy day in the mountains. The moment is simple, perfect. Still just a moment. It must end. Laundry and cooking left to do.


    Searah protests as you try to move your legs out from under her. ¡°Noooooooooooo.¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I have work to do.¡±


    ¡°Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. More cuddles later?} You stroke her back as you slowly get to your feet. Legs aren¡¯t asleep. If you¡¯d stayed any longer they would¡¯ve been.


    ¡°Of course. Cuddles later.¡± Wait. Is Renfield still here?


    {Yes,} he thinks / says.


    ¡°You can move things with your mind, right?¡±


    {Yes.}


    ¡°Then you¡¯re helping me with laundry.¡±


    {Can I come, too?!} Searah asks.


    The thought of long claws cutting through cloth crosses your mind. ¡°Not now. I¡¯ll warm up some water later. You can light the fire for that. Or be the fire.¡±


    {Fire!}


    ¡°Yes, fire. You¡¯re very good at fire.¡±


    A surge of pride flows into your mind as the heatmor stands up on her hind legs to hug you goodbye. You return it and your sister wanders off to find more bugs to eat.


    [-23:03:00]


    You have a plan for surviving this mountain.


    First, keep track of your footsteps with a marching cadence. Second, match your breathing to it. Third, keep powering on whenever you trip. Fourth, think of nothing else but your breath and the cadence.


    It¡¯s not working very well but you¡¯re still not willing to call it a bad plan. Judging by the sound of Kekoa and Genesis¡¯s breathing they¡¯re doing even worse.


    ¡°Break,¡± Genesis cries out between steps. You hear her lumber off the trail moments before her pack crashes into the ground. You¡¯re happy to pull aside and gulp down water with her.


    None of you understood how bad Route 12 was going to be. No shade, constant sunlight, and even the earth itself burns. You¡¯re slowly being baked alive and the paths are all uphill and full of loose rocks. Pixie would help but you can¡¯t keep her out in the heat and Coco¡­ well, she¡¯s still a hatchling. Dragon or not she tires quickly.


    The last water bottle gets stowed away. Yet no one asks to end the break. ¡°Maybe we could hike at night,¡± you suggest. ¡°Less heat.¡±


    ¡°Too dark,¡± Genesis answers. You attempt to make eye contact, lids as far open as you can get them. ¡°And, um, predators,¡± she quickly adds.


    ¡°I¡¯d rather be awake when the houndoom come,¡± you reply in the best deadpan you can manage.


    She shuts up and Kekoa softly laughs. It reminds you of every other conversation you¡¯ve killed for being too dark, of everyone in town who feared the dragon girl too much to reach out. One day you were the stupid blind girl who kept getting held back or the child of the northern enemy. Then one day you were the baby sister of a hydreigon and everyone else stayed far away and hoped you forgot about everything that came before. Even the new kid who came to town was taught by your classmates to stay far away.


    Kekoa breaks the silence. ¡°Not at night. We¡¯d be tired, make mistakes. Early mornings are fine.¡±


    Funny. Right now you¡¯re so tired that you could collapse right now and sleep in the warm sunlight. Maybe never get up.


    That means you need to go. Now. Before you actually do stop moving and set up camp away from water.


    ¡°Ready to go?¡± you ask, even though you aren¡¯t ready yourself.


    Genesis groans but responds with a ¡°Ready.¡± Kekoa lifts up his pack and takes a few steps onto the path before saying as much himself.


    Breathing. Cadence. Breathing. Cadence. On and on and on.


    [-22:18:25]


    Kekoa and Genesis are setting up the tent and suspending the food bag. You¡¯re sitting on what Kekoa insists is the least uncomfortable rock in the campsite running one hand through Coco¡¯s feathers and the other through Pixie¡¯s fur. This isn¡¯t a bad place, all things considered. A stream runs nearby so there¡¯s a small forest with some shade. Sure, it¡¯ll draw predators and prey closer to camp, but most will leave the humans alone. Even the dragons have learned that humans are weak alone but will come back in bigger numbers and with stronger allies. Inferno will probably scare off the stupid and desperate. Not that you¡¯d ever say that aloud with Pixie in earshot.


    You¡¯re going to cook today. Or at least warm some stuff up on a tiny stove. Anyone could do it. You certainly don¡¯t want to. Not when your legs are dead and your arms also hurt for some reason. You will. The others are doing their chores. You won¡¯t be deadweight. Not while you¡¯re living out your dreams.


    Footsteps approach and someone sits down beside you. Coco, traitor that she is, jumps off your lap and demands pets from her dad. Pixie immediately flicks her tails out to cover the space Coco was sitting.


    ¡°You okay?¡± Kekoa asks. You process the words and belatedly nod. ¡°You don¡¯t look okay.¡±


    Rude.


    At least he shuts up before he overstays his welcome.


    For a while.


    "Can''t believe we''re doing all this for some rich mainlanders." You tilt your head and angle it in his direction. "Some videos went viral of a pet dedenne. Now all the influencers and wine moms want one."


    "Oh." It makes sense. Honestly you thought that people would just use them as generators or something.


    You hear Genesis crash down some distance away. "When''s dinner?"


    Rude.


    You stretch out and revel in the pain of a thousand aches. "Can you get me the stove and food?"


    [-22:18:17]


    Vegetables and rice are easy enough to warm up. What¡¯s harder is hearing Genesis scrape her bowl clean while you and Kekoa wait for the meat. Even with Pixie¡¯s cooler you still wouldn¡¯t have brought any if Coco didn¡¯t need it. Big health risk. You don¡¯t want to get diarrhea in a place where you have to dig your own toilets. And Coco makes you chew and spit. It¡¯s too close to something else. Having a Z-Ring that can make you puke doesn¡¯t help with that.


    You still do it for her. Coco breaks away from her father and thumps her tail on the ground to tell you that she¡¯s present and wants her meal. It¡¯s cute. Even if the rest is gross and makes you feel even grosser.


    Pixie flicks a tail against your ankle to tell you that she is also present and would like food. Jealous little shit. You give her about half of your portion of meat. She keeps it cool so it¡¯s her right. Besides, the vegetables are good.


    Dinner¡¯s quiet. As usual. Everyone¡¯s tired and hungry.


    You wouldn¡¯t mind going to sleep soon. Especially if you¡¯re going to get up early tomorrow.


    But you should train.


    It¡¯s pretty hot still. Not fair to make Pix exercise.


    Yeah. You¡¯ll get some sleep before the tent gets crowded.


    [-22:13:38]


    You have to pee but there¡¯s something outside. Somethings. Not talking. Just knocking pebbles around. Making quiet steps. One brushed by the tent a while back. Maybe you should wake Pix up. Maybe you shouldn¡¯t. She would growl. It would either scare away whatever¡¯s outside or start a fight you might not win.


    A pok¨¦mon makes a soft grunt. Another agrees. Neither gets translated. Dark types? Or was there just no meaning in the sounds? There¡¯s the soft trickling of water¡ªscent marking over Pixie and Inferno, probably¡ªand then the pok¨¦mon head out. Manectric? Houndoom? You wait another five, ten, maybe thirty minutes and hear nothing more. Gods you have to pee. Is it safe to go out? You want to wake up Genesis to have Inferno with you. She¡¯s on the opposite side of the tent so that would wake up Kekoa. He¡¯d give you shit.


    You slowly start to lift yourself up, earning a soft yip from Pixie as you do so. There¡¯s rustling next to you and you freeze up. Another shift. ¡°You goin¡¯ ow?¡± Kekoa drearily groans. Genesis starts moving as well.


    ¡°Yeah. Can Inferno come with?¡± The grass-type makes his distinctive leaf swish noise. Yes. You unzip the tent, awkwardly feel for your shoes, and step out into the surprisingly cool air with Coco and two foxes at your heels. After zipping the tent back up you reach for Pix and bring one of her tails to your leg. ¡°Bring me to a rock.¡±


    She starts walking off. Coco bounds away but you¡¯re too focused on peeing to scold her. She barks and starts running towards you, tail dragging behind her and stirring up the gravel.


    {New scent!} she says. {Like Sister. And fire!}


    Houndoom, then. Inferno won¡¯t do much good if they come back.


    Pix flicks your leg. You¡¯re far enough away from the tent and at a good enough place to pee on the rocks. Dry area. Pok¨¦mon look for the salt and moisture. If you peed on a plant it might get ripped up. Inferno would be sad. More sad, anyway. Still not sure what his deal is. If you ask you might get close and accidentally take him away from Genesis. It would be unfair.


    A small rock falls a few meters away. All three pok¨¦mon abruptly stop and look towards it.


    {Floating rock.} Pixie says.


    ¡°Arms?¡± you whisper.


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    {Two.}


    Oh. Could be worse. You start walking back to the tent and your pok¨¦mon reluctantly follow.


    Genesis passes by on the way out. For a moment you consider telling her about the houndoom. You don¡¯t. They¡¯re gone now and she would get scared and freak out and then you would be on edge the whole night for no reason.


    Plus, if they did come back and decided to attack, well, there¡¯s probably nothing to be done.


    [-22:09:14]


    A bead of sweat hits the bridge of your nose. The cadence and rough breaths continue. One hits your shoulder. Not sweat. Rain. Just a sprinkle. A fat drop hits the top of your head. Another on the shoulder again. Another on¡ªyour knee, your back, back again, thigh¡ªthey blend together too much to keep track. Thunder. Loud, fast, sharp. Close. Another bolt just a little bit further away. Electric types. Electric types everywhere. You¡¯re on a barren mountain ridge with electric types everywhere. And for once in your life, you¡¯re the tallest thing around.


    ¡°There¡¯s a valley to the side,¡± Kekoa says. ¡°We need to get down.¡±


    He¡¯s right. But. ¡°How steep?¡±


    ¡°Not too bad.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t want to trip and hurt my ankle again.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, you want to get electrocuted?¡±


    Genesis slides down¡ªroughly. If she¡¯s struggling while sighted and with long legs¡ªanother bolt. Frighteningly close. The roar almost deafens your right ear. The hair on your arms rises up and you run to the side. As if you could dodge lightning. You feel it when your feet hit the incline and you start to slide down on a wave of pebbles. Bend down like your surfing on rocks. Keep going¡ª


    The next strike is so close that for a second you can hear nothing but faint ringing.


    If you¡¯re fucking deaf on top of everything¡ªthe slide breaks as you reflexively twitch and you fall flat on your face. Again. For the second time in two weeks. Don¡¯t care. The rain intensifies and you¡¯re drenched and cold and there are scrapes on your face and you still can¡¯t hear much at all. No. You can hear the thunder again.


    Cold comfort.


    Maybe someone says something. Maybe they don¡¯t. For a long time you lie face-down as water streams down all around you and thunder continues to rock the mountain. When it finally stops it¡¯s just as fast as it came. A minute later you can count the drops again. Soon there are none at all.


    Sharp stone edges meet your hands when you press yourself upright. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯ve faced worse. Just a quick pivot and a small shift to be facing uphill. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Genesis asks. Voice full of concern.


    ¡°Yeah.¡± Sort of. You¡¯re stronger than you look. Sometimes. Are you? Yes. Not doing this now. ¡°How bad is the climb?¡±


    Gravel shifts as heavy footsteps bound upwards like a capricurl walking on a cliff face. Kekoa probably. He confirms it a moment later. ¡°Climb sucks. Jennifer and I can help you up.¡±


    More footsteps. Far more slips. Genesis finally makes it up with no serious falls but much less grace than Kekoa. You pull the straps on your pack tighter and prepare to climb.


    Kekoa does his best to guide you up the slope.


    ¡°Root to your right.¡±


    ¡°That patch looks loose. Half-step¡ªshit, are you alright?¡±


    You bite back a curse and steady yourself. The patch was loose and your left foot slipped at a bad angle. It pulses in pain within your boots. Bad, but not quite as bad as in the forest.


    ¡°How much left to go?¡± you demand.


    The words are more aggressive in the air than they were in your mind.


    ¡°Uh, Jenny, can you see if you can reach her?¡±


    She can. She does. The rest doesn¡¯t hurt too badly. Soon you¡¯re on mostly flat ground.


    ¡°¡¯m fine.¡± Mostly. Fine enough to walk. ¡°Thanks for the help.¡±


    ¡°You sure?¡± Kekoa¡¯s makes it sound closer to: ¡®You aren¡¯t.¡¯ ¡°Looked bad. And that¡¯s the ankle you hurt on Akala, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m fine. I can walk.¡±


    You aren¡¯t a burden whatever anyone says. The wilderness has always been your home. If you can hold your own anywhere it¡¯s here.


    ¡°We can stop at the next campsite. Don¡¯t have to go all the way to ours.¡±


    Can¡¯t he take a hint? You¡¯re fine.


    ¡°Whatever,¡± you respond. ¡°Ready to hike?¡±


    Genesis grunts and Kekoa speaks: ¡°Hike on.¡±


    Cadence and breath. Right foot. Left¡ªright foot. Long, quick strides and gentle steps. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯re fine. You¡¯ve powered through far worse. The humidity is worse. Hot, sticky air that hangs on your skin like a wet blanket you can¡¯t take off. That¡¯s worse. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯re fine. You¡¯re fine. You¡¯re fine.


    Kekoa¡¯s footsteps stop and you try to stop. No. You take a step forward and rest on your right foot. Much better.


    ¡°I¡¯m calling it here for the day.¡±


    Idiot. ¡°People will notice if we¡¯re late.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll be even later if you can¡¯t walk ¡®cause you hiked six miles on a bad foot to look tough.¡±


    You want to fight. Insist that you can keep up. Aren¡¯t the weak link. But he¡¯s right. You are. Useless. Might as well admit it.


    [-22:08:32]


    ¡°It¡¯s not too swollen,¡± Kekoa says. ¡°Just keep an ice pack on it.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t have¡ª" Pixie. Right.


    You reach into your pack and release your pok¨¦mon. Coco roars at the air and thumps her tail in case you sent her into a fight. Pixie just swishes a tail against your leg to tell you she¡¯s there. You reach back into the pack and pull out a rubber ball. Once Coco starts growling you toss it off for her to try and murder. Who knows how long it¡¯ll last once she gets real teeth but it¡¯s a nice distraction for now.


    ¡°Cool. Call me over if you need anything.¡±


    Kekoa trudges away and you gently pick Pixie up and move her next to your ankle. With another quick movement you drape one of her tails over it. ¡°Can you keep a tail there?¡±


    She grunts and settles down. No complaints about the heat or Coco. Nothing to say at all. You messed up and pressed her too hard too fast. Broke her. As usual. Ankles, brothers, starters, selves. You¡¯re a master at breaking things and a failure at fixing them.


    Coco¡¯s small but energetic footsteps come back and the ball drops with a ¡®thud¡¯ to the earth. You reach a hand out and hold it right over where you think the ball is. You shoot a finger down in a quick, teasing jab. Oh, this? This old thing? You want me to throw it, huh? Suddenly Coco leaps forward, bats your hand aside, and snatches the ball up in her jaws before running away. Odd. Usually, she just gets excited when you do that. For the best. Ball was coated in spit. Didn¡¯t really want to touch it.


    A cramp hits you right in the groin. You wince and awkwardly adjust your good leg in response. The trail hasn¡¯t been good for you. Started eating too much. Period came back. You¡¯d cut back but when you don¡¯t eat and hike too much the world starts rocking and you start making dumb mistakes.


    ¡°Mother! Why are¡ª" You silence her with headscritches. ¡°I¡¯m fine, Coco. Just laying an egg.¡±


    She drops down to the ground. ¡°New sister?¡± ¡­you walked right into that one.


    ¡°No. Just an egg. Won¡¯t hatch.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t get up but her tail starts swishing in the dirt. Doesn¡¯t matter. She¡¯ll get bored soon.


    ¡°Hey, Genesis!¡±


    It takes her a second before she trots over. And finally answers. Like she couldn¡¯t just call back from across the clearing like a normal person. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Can you get me a tampon?¡±


    ¡°I, um, uh, yeah. Sure.¡±


    Why is she embarrassed? She probably gets them most months, too. And she knows that Kekoa¡¯s trans so there aren¡¯t even any biological men here to get grossed out for no reason. Is she actually embarrassed or did you just catch her at a bad time? Ugh. Wish you could see blushes.


    Genesis drops the tampon and some new underwear in your lap rather than just handing them to you. ¡°Thanks.¡± Maybe you could lie down just a little bit longer? No. You like these shorts. Better take care of it now.


    *


    ¡°Hey, uh, this is our campsite?¡± Some kid announces his arrival while you¡¯re still getting changed under the rain fly. Coco reacts to the new voices by slipping under the fly and running out doing her best impression of Pixie¡¯s barks. The fox herself just sighs. {You can talk to me about anything,} you tell her for the third or thirteenth or thirtieth time.


    ¡°Sorry! One of us got hurt in the storm so we stopped early,¡± Genesis says.


    ¡°They okay?¡± Another kid. Female? Or maybe just very young. Or both.


    ¡°Just tripped. I¡¯m fine!¡± you announce as you leave the tent. It¡¯s not the best line for making an entrance but it works. ¡°I think there¡¯s still room for two groups.¡± Going by clearing echoes, anyway. Most sites seem big enough. It¡¯s a good guess. Satisfied that her mother can deal with the problem, Coco stops barking and runs back to you for praise. You bend down to give her scratches. Pixie butts in a second later for her share. You make sure to give her extra.


    Sometimes you swear that you can hear staring. Only question is if they¡¯re staring at you, Coco, or Kekoa. ¡°You blind?¡± You, then.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    You¡¯re blind and you hurt yourself (again) and he¡¯ll tie the one to the other and he won¡¯t be entirely wrong. Genesis didn¡¯t trip. Neither did Kekoa.


    ¡°Cool. Ice-type trainer?¡±


    What? Sure, you have Pix. But Coco¡¯s. Oh.


    ¡°No. She¡¯s not an ice-type. Just has white feathers.¡±


    ¡°We haven¡¯t introduced ourselves, have we?¡± Genesis interjects. ¡°I¡¯m Genesis, she¡¯s Cuicatl,¡± she says with mostly correct pronunciation, ¡°and¡­ that¡¯s¡­¡±


    By the suns. She set herself up. Kekoa¡¯s either too far away or too uninterested or too cruel to finish so for a few seconds it just hangs in the air. ¡°I¡¯m Kekoa.¡±


    He had to have noticed, right? Will he say anything? You¡¯d been hoping to push back the Genesis-Kekoa fight until Pix had returned to something close to normal. Gods. Not here. Not with kids watching.


    ¡°Cool. You want to battle?¡± one asks. ¡°I¡¯m Ty. I am an ice-trainer and I want to fight your vulpix.¡±


    Kekoa sighs. ¡°I¡¯ll ref.¡±


    *


    Pixie starts to growl. Eevee. Glaceon. You¡¯re fighting a glaceon. Time to stall and put together a plan.


    ¡°How far are you in the challenge, Ty?¡±


    ¡°Two grand trials. Beat Sophocles and heading on to the next. You?¡±


    If you ever had hopes of winning a slugfest they¡¯re gone now. ¡°One trial.¡±


    Ice shard¡¯s as good as useless. Left with three utility moves. Roar, baby-doll eyes, confuse ray. Stalemate? Good for a friendly match on the trail. ¡°Did you grow up near Lanakila, then? That how you got the vulpix?¡± He seems interested. You can stall. Maybe even get in some baby-doll eyes before the match starts. No. That affects humans, too. He¡¯d notice.


    ¡°I¡¯m from Anahuac. I adopted her in Hau¡¯oli.¡±


    Kekoa clears his throat. ¡°I lived near Tapu Village for a bit. Bunch of ice-types there even without climbing.¡±


    Pix has probably readied her opening moves. Time to get the show started. You stretch your mouth into a big, maybe fake-looking smile and clap your hands. ¡°Great! You two can talk about it in a minute. Ty, I accept your challenge!¡±


    Your heart pounds in your chest despite the low stakes. You can win this. Show Pix that she¡¯s better than an ice-type eevee. Or no worse than one. Maybe make her happy.


    ¡°Alright. One on one. Don¡¯t hurt each other too badly. Potions ain¡¯t cheap.¡±


    ¡°Snowflake, go for an ice beam!¡± Snowflake. Oh no. Did he get it as a glaceon? Or was he setting up an Inferno situation? Doesn¡¯t matter. You snap your fingers and think your command as cold air rushes past your feet. Shit. Big hit. Is Pix¡ª


    She growls and the cold air stops coming. The confuse ray landed. It givese you a moment to think. You could try baby-doll eyes. But if Snowflake knows ice beam, if that¡¯s its go-to move, then maybe it wouldn¡¯t do much. Two snaps. {Roar into ice shard.}


    Most roars are wordless as far as your gift is concerned. This one isn¡¯t. There¡¯s a lot of meaning in the scream. Most of it profane. All of it angry. You can practically feel Pixie baring her teeth and venting days, no, years, of rage at one frozen fox. No, not ¡®practically¡¯ feel it, you can feel all that. Connection is too wide. You close your eyes and draw your mind in. The link becomes quieter.


    ¡°Come on,¡± your opponent calls. ¡°Substitute!¡±


    Baby-doll eyes are useless. Confuse ray¡­ you¡¯ll need to break the sub first. {Don¡¯t need to lose your voice. Now,} ¡°Ice shard!¡±


    The scream becomes a hiss as the cold air whips back up. Another surge of cold joins it and Pixie rolls through the gravel. To the side. Not towards you. A dodge. {Keep it up until the fake is gone, then confuse ray.}


    You don¡¯t know what happens. Pixie keeps hammering away while cold air rushes to your side of the field. Feels stronger than any of Pixie¡¯s attacks. And through your connection you feel her get weaker and weaker.


    ¡°Calling it now,¡± Kekoa says. ¡°Ty wins.¡±


    Pixie growls in pain / anger but doesn¡¯t keep attacking. You can hear Ty walk over.


    ¡°Good play, there. Ordering confuse ray without a word.¡± If you had given a word he would have just shouted ¡®Close your eyes!¡¯ or something else simple and effective.


    ¡°Thank you.¡± You hear Pixie sulk off with dramatically loud steps. Should you praise his glaceon? You should. But Pix is here. How to word this¡­


    In the end, Kekoa saves you. ¡°You wanted to talk about the Mauna, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes! So, like, when you say there are a bunch of ice-types at the base, what are you counting as ¡®the base?¡¯¡± Their voices start drifting away and you take the chance to sit down. Pix immediately jumps on your lap and Coco comes running in from somewhere to lean against your side.


    ¡°You did good work, Pixie.¡± She doesn¡¯t answer. ¡°Need any healing?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± You hadn¡¯t felt any wounds on her, anyway. Her fur¡¯s just frozen together. Might not even be a bad thing given how hot everything is here.


    [-22:19:50]


    ¡°That, uh, looks really good.¡± You start and almost tip the stove over. That was the girl in the other group. Forgot her name. And she¡¯s very close to you. When did she get there? You¡¯re not easy to sneak up on.


    She starts to stammer out an apology before you cut her off. ¡°It¡¯s fine. Really.¡± Silence. Well, near-silence. Kekoa¡¯s playing fetch with Coco. The stove¡¯s sizzling. Genesis and the ice-trainer are talking. No. Not silence. Still awkward. ¡°What do you usually eat?¡±


    ¡°Freeze-dried crap.¡±


    ¡°What are you making tonight?¡±


    ¡°Freeze-dried crap.¡±


    Poor thing. ¡°Why? You have ice-types. You can keep real food.¡± Pixie grunts and plops down beside you. Snuck up on you. Again! At least she has padded feet.


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be super heavy?¡± The girl¡¯s voice is quiet and monotone. Difficult to find emotion in. Hard to tell if she genuinely wants to change or just wants your food for the night.


    ¡°Do you have any big pok¨¦mon to carry things?¡±


    ¡°Um. I have a trevenant. But she¡¯s really slow. Then Ty trains ice-types that don¡¯t like heat. And Matt has poison-types.¡± She pauses to find a way to say the obvious. ¡°I don¡¯t want poison on our food.¡±


    Fair complaints. ¡°You have a type as well?¡± Wait uh. That could be taken the wrong way.


    ¡°I train plants.¡± Okay good. Was thinking about battling and not romance. ¡°You have a theme?¡±


    You flip the vegetables. Or some of them. Hard to make sure you flip them all and that none fall off of the tiny stove. ¡°Sort of? Genesis is making a rain team.¡± Even if she doesn¡¯t know it yet. ¡°Kekoa¡¯s going for fliers. I like big predators.¡±


    Here comes the silence. The dragon girl silence. Hello, plant girl. Good riddance.


    ¡°That¡¯s so cool.¡± Um. ¡°I mean, dangerous.¡± What? ¡°But cool.¡±


    ¡°Thanks?¡± Seriously, what? That¡¯s not supposed to happen. Especially not from plant girl. You press your lips together and stir the pot while you think. ¡°Not as dangerous as you¡¯d think. Most mons could kill you. Some are nice enough to remind you.¡± You inch a hand towards the stove to feel the heat coming off. Feels like the food¡¯s probably done. Taking the vegetables off the stove gives your brain another moment to catch up. ¡°Plants are also cool I guess?¡±


    Plant girl gives a short, bitter laugh. ¡°They really aren¡¯t. Most of them. My decidueye just evolved and she¡¯s great. Distant. Protective. Still cuddly.¡±


    You rummage through the food bag to find the sliced pidove breasts. Or what passes for pidove breasts here. No idea why they shape it like that when it was all grown in a petri dish. ¡°Huh. Powerful, protective, and cuddly. Sounds like the ideal pok¨¦mon.¡± You make sure to reach out to Pix as you say it. She is powerful, protective, and cuddly. The ideal pok¨¦mon. And you love her very much and won¡¯t leave her. The fox presses her head into your hand and accepts the scratches but doesn¡¯t say anything.


    ¡°How¡¯d you learn to cook?¡± the girl asks. Still hungry, it seems.


    ¡°Godmother taught me. I did most of it at home. House full of boys, you know?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ no.¡± She awkwardly shifts. ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s normal? To make children do all the work?¡±


    You scowl and bring your hand away from Pix. Time to use hand sanitizer and put the meat on. ¡°I¡¯m not a child. I¡¯m fifteen.¡± Almost old enough to train for the army if you weren¡¯t useless.


    ¡°I see.¡± It¡¯s clear that she doesn¡¯t but she¡¯s letting it go because. Your shoulders are tense and your face is twisted. Americans. Judging you and your culture. You take some deep breaths and relax your body. Smile. Doesn¡¯t matter if its fake. She¡¯s just a kid. Don¡¯t lash out. talk about the meal instead.


    ¡°This food¡¯s better than what I usually made at home. Don¡¯t think the others would settle for maize gruel.¡± Even if ¨¡t¨­lli is great with a little honey and the right seasonings. And pinolli was a staple in the old days. Instant food, just add water. Never actually made it. Simple, though, you¡¯d just¡­ ugh can you even get good maize here?


    Plant girl coughs. ¡°Can I have your number? For cooking advice. Later.¡± The last parts are surprisingly quick. Is she embarrassed by something. A crush? Or she doesn¡¯t want you to think she has a crush? It¡¯s kind of adorable either way. Not that you would ever reciprocate. She¡¯s eleven at most and you¡¯re maybe straight? Still working that one out. Not as if anyone would ever court you.


    ¡°Yeah, sure. It¡¯s¡­¡±


    [-21:10:59]


    ¡°Break.¡± Odd. You¡¯ve barely been hiking ten minutes. And Kekoa usually isn¡¯t the one to call for it. ¡°Long break. Put your packs down.¡±


    Very odd. Not his period, he had that three weeks ago if you¡¯re remembering right. Pixie still found it unsettling. Also you¡¯re going to have to tell Coco why his father is laying an egg in a few weeks. Shit. Not looking forward to that. You were trying to avoid giving The Talk to a tyrannosaur. Still, you drop your pack and you can hear Genesis drop hers.


    ¡°Now, Jennifer, can you tell me my name?¡±


    Well. Not how you would¡¯ve handled it. You would¡¯ve waited until Blush Mountain. Not forced the issue when you had to stay close to her for a few days more. Too late now. Here we go.


    ¡°I¡­¡± Genesis takes a deep breath. ¡°I won¡¯t lie to Xerneas, Allana.¡±


    So much conviction in her tone. So much disrespect in her words. How¡¯d she even remember Kekoa¡¯s old name? You forgot about five minutes later. Not even on purpose.


    If the familiar sound of a fist hitting a face is anything to go by, Kekoa has a fantastic arm.


    Genesis reals back and sputters. ¡°The heck was that for?¡± she demands. ¡°I could¡¯ve broken a tooth.¡±


    No. The hit wasn¡¯t nearly strong enough. Or maybe it just sounds louder when you¡¯re the one getting hit?


    ¡°And you would have deserved it.¡± Kekoa doesn¡¯t even sound angry. Smug, yes, but not angry. You take a step back to stay off the battlefield.


    ¡°I wasn¡¯t going to use that name for you!¡± Genesis protests. ¡°You were the one who wanted to know. Not my fault if you don¡¯t like the answer.¡±


    ¡°I have the right to know how my teammates feel about me.¡± Still even while Genesis rages. Or tries to rage. Her voice is high enough that it¡¯s actually kind of adorable.


    ¡°And I have the right not to be judged for my religion! You liberals like tolerance, right?¡±


    Hmm. She may have a point. She¡¯s being an asshole, but you hate it when Americans judge your religion. Then again, if you were being an asshole to them it would be reasonable. You don¡¯t sacrifice non-believers unless they raise arms against your country.


    ¡°I don¡¯t tolerate bigots,¡± Kekoa sneers. He¡¯s getting emotional, too. Good chance this goes back to blows and someone gets hurt.


    ¡°Let¡¯s not hurt each other out here,¡± you ask. ¡°Get to Blush Mountain and then beat each other up?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not beating him up!¡± Genesis exclaims (screeches). ¡°He¡¯s the only one who got violent.¡±


    ¡°Deadnaming is violence.¡±


    As someone who¡¯s been hurt by fists and words, there really is a difference.


    ¡°Kekoa goes in front. I go in the middle. Then Genesis.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t we just leave her?¡± Kekoa asks. ¡°She¡¯s the one creating problems.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯d get in trouble for leaving someone alone in the mountains.¡±


    Kekoa pauses to consider it.


    ¡°Fine,¡± he concedes. ¡°I don¡¯t need to take any more shit on its behalf than I already have.¡±


    ¡°Its?¡± Genesis asks. ¡°I thought you wanted people to respect genders?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough.¡±


    ¡°Go fuck yourself.¡±


    You have a sinking feeling that things are only going to get worse from here.

 Electric 3: Genesis

    Electric 2.3: Gods and Kings


    Genesis


    [-28:07:15]


    There are two types of museums: the ones filled with dangerous lies spoken into the world by Yveltal and presented as fact, and the ones that actually present facts. The true ones are wonderful! This one has a bunch of pictures of the power plant under construction and a room with a really overly complicated steam-powered device that rings a bell.


    The museum says that the Blush Mountain Geothermal Plant is the largest of its kind in the country and third largest in the world. There¡¯s a giant hole in the ground and very hot air comes out and turns water into steam. That spins a rod which¡­ produces electricity somehow. You really tried to understand that part but half the words didn¡¯t make sense. Doesn¡¯t matter. This place makes most of Alola¡¯s energy. It¡¯s weird to think that when you turn a light on steam comes up in Blush Mountain and spins a wheel and then sends electricity down a wire on the ocean floor to another island where it goes into the room and makes... How did lightbulbs work? Internet time! Okay, the internet says that it makes some metal so hot that it starts glowing. Like a metal candle. Ugh. Such a better name. Metal candles and horseless carriages.


    Annoying that you had to come alone. Sure, Cuicatl can¡¯t read signs so she might not have liked it. But it¡¯s all renewable power and save the earth and everything so Allana would think it¡¯s cool. She¡¯s not talking to you and you aren¡¯t sure you¡¯d want her here anyways. She did hit you a few days ago. Hard. Just for your beliefs. Honestly, she¡¯s lucky that it stopped hurting by the time you got back to civilization.


    It doesn¡¯t matter. Really. Yveltal makes sure that the true believers will be persecuted. If you¡¯re getting attacked, you¡¯re doing something right. Not that it feels good. And then Cuicatl pretty much took his side! Even though he attacked you. Ooh, measured from the seafloor to peak Mt. Hokulani is the tallest mountain on earth. Wait if all of Ula¡¯Ula spreads out from Hokulani does that mean that the entire thing is a mountain? Even the flat parts? Are all of the islands actually mountains? And why is Lanakila the one capped in snow year-round if its shorter? Internet time. Oh. It¡¯s already noon. Lunch time.


    Then dedenne hunting.


    Here¡¯s hoping that Cuicatl¡¯s in a good mood.


    *


    ¡°Hello, Genesis.¡± You start and glance at Cuicatl. She¡¯s awake and sitting awkwardly on her bed, half-crouching with Coco leaning on her side and Pixie lying beneath her back so that she can¡¯t move.  ¡°You¡¯re back early.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I, um, wanted to see if you wanted to get lunch? And then maybe we could go dedenne hunting together.¡± Allana isn¡¯t present. Where is she? You shouldn¡¯t ask that. Not when you¡¯re trying to get Cuicatl to like you for a few hours.


    She twitches her leg and Pix moves to the side. Coco starts slipping and her trainer barely catches her in time. After pushing the dinosaur upright Cuicatl slips over the side of the bed and stands up. ¡°Sure. Let me just¡­¡± Her hand slips to her belt and Coco disappears in a flash of red. A sheepish grin creeps onto Cuicatl¡¯s face. ¡°I don¡¯t trust her table manners.¡±


    *


    The shrill cry of a kricketune sounds off beside you. Cuicatl wipes the sweat off of her brow and brings her phone to her ear. You can hear a woman¡¯s voice come through for almost a minute. Despite the call she never asks you to stop and you keep on going closer to the grassland. Closer to dedenne.


    There are three pok¨¦mon out to help you find one. Coco keeps bolting ahead, thumping her tail on the ground to tell her trainer to catch up, realizing that it won¡¯t happen, running back to you, and then running ahead again. Right now she¡¯s running back for the fourth time. Pixie and Inferno (better name TBD) keep pace with you, Pixie by Cuicatl¡¯s side and Inferno by yours. The foxes have good dog noses and Cuicatl says that tyrunt¡¯s are even better.


    Cuicatl lowers the phone and tucks it into her pocket. ¡°Who was it?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Miss Bell.¡±


    Miss¡­ Bell¡­ Hmm. You¡¯re not the best with names but. Wait. You remember her. ¡°The VStar person?¡±


    She nods. ¡°Yes.¡± Coco rushes off again. ¡°She gave me Pixie.¡± The fox perks up at the mention of her name but keeps quiet. Right. You vaguely remember that. It got buried in the memories of your first meeting. In fairness a lot of stuff came up and you were very nervous. ¡°What do you think about VStar?¡± Cuicatl asks you.


    ¡°Um.¡± To be honest you haven¡¯t thought much about them. ¡°It¡¯s cool that they let people like you¡± and Allana ¡°go on journeys. And give pok¨¦mon to people who want one. Like you and Pixie.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± Her face stays even and her voice is neutral. You still get the impression she disagrees. ¡°We get three hundred dollars for a dedenne. They sell for $1500. VStar gets most of the money. None of the danger.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, that¡¯s just how companies work. They need to make a profit so they can exist and pay us at all.¡±


    For a second a flash of¡­ something flashes across her face. Anger? Disappointment? It¡¯s gone in less than a second. ¡°My father was a merchant. Traded with the States. He gave money to the schools. The library. The doctors. When business was bad he¡¯d keep giving. Sometimes wasn¡¯t enough food in the house but he helped everyone else. That was his duty. Your merchants aren¡¯t like that.¡±


    That¡¯s insane. Actually insane. People look out for themselves because no one else will. Like life vests on planes. ¡°So he starved himself to buy a few books?¡±


    Cuicatl gently shakes his head. ¡°I don¡¯t think he ever starved,¡± she says softly. ¡°Or my brother. I took care of them. That was my duty.¡±


    Your eyes narrow automatically. ¡°So he starved his daughter to make himself look good to everyone else?¡± Inferno yips beside you. He¡¯s stopped moving, planted his butt down, and is staring at you with wide eyes. Why? Is he scared? ¡­how loud were you just then? A glance at Cuicatl shows that she¡¯s lowered her head. There¡¯s hair over her face but you¡¯re pretty sure you can see a scowl.


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk about something else,¡± she says. Her voice is still quiet. It somehow feels violent. Threatening. Like the tiny blind girl is going to murder you with words. You¡¯re not good with people. At all. But you¡¯re pretty sure that if you keep pressing her she¡¯ll hate you for trying to help her. Like Allana. Then you¡¯d have no one to talk to. Except maybe Exodus.


    You know that if you say anything you might say something wrong, so you don¡¯t say anything at all.


    *


    ¡°Well, we¡¯ve made it to the tall grass,¡± you announce. The plain stretches out in front of you with brown and yellow grasses covering a rugged plain bounded by cliffs on both sides. More grass stretches out below the cliff. Something like, oh, what¡¯s the word¡­ terraces? The things they use for farming in South America? Sounds right. Cuicatl reaches for her pok¨¦ball and withdraws Tyrunt. ¡°Uh, weren¡¯t you going to use her to find dedenne?¡±


    She shakes her head as she curls the leash up.. ¡°I was. But she¡¯s never smelled one. And she¡¯d probably scare them away.¡± As soon as the leash is in her pack and the pack is back on her back she nods with a look of quiet determination. ¡°Hike on.¡±


    Sometimes you can hear stuff rustle around you. Inferno or Pixie lets out a growl once or twice. Never bark to signal that an dedenne¡¯s close. The grass rubs against your arms and it¡¯s starting to get really irritating. Cuicatl¡¯s wearing her poncho and a long skirt and you¡¯re envious. And she gets to trail behind you after you press all the grass out of the way.


    ¡°Water break,¡± she calls. That¡¯s rare. She almost never calls for a break. You stop in acknowledgment and glance back at her as she slowly lowers herself to the ground and sits criss-cross applesauce. She still keeps a hand tightly gripping her dinosaur¡¯s tether. Pixie just curls up beside her.


    You slowly lower yourself and pull out a water bottle. Looks like you could be here a while. She doesn¡¯t drink. ¡°You read about primarina?¡± she asks.


    Primarina? The water starters. You¡¯ve definitely heard of them. Seen a few. Can¡¯t say you¡¯ve read that much about them. You shake your head and then catch yourself. ¡°Not really.¡±


    ¡°I thought about getting one,¡± she says. ¡°They like to sing. Live in groups called ¡®choirs.¡¯ I thought it would be fun to sing with a pok¨¦mon.¡± She reaches out and rubs a finger over Pix¡¯s ear. ¡°Didn¡¯t. Glad I didn¡¯t.¡±


    That would¡¯ve been cute. And would¡¯ve meant that Sir Bubbles could have a friend in the pools at night. But this way she has a guide fox so things worked out the way they were supposed to. But why does she want to talk about the seals?


    She presses on as if to answer your question. ¡°Now, there¡¯s something else interesting. Every choir has one girl and a lot of guys. The primarina¡¯s the girl. When she dies or leaves a brionne evolves.¡±


    ¡°So then there¡¯s a male primarina?¡± That is kind of weird. They look very feminine. Wait. She said that every choir has a female primarina. How does that¡­


    ¡°No. The brionne becomes a girl when it evolves. Organs change and everything.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re joking.¡± She has to be. That¡¯s impossible. How would it even work?


    Cuicatl just shrugs. ¡°Look it up if you want.¡± On the internet. Full of lies. ¡°Bunch of other ¡®mons do it. Basculin, axlawful¡­¡± You can see a faint smile form under her hair. ¡°You watched Jurassic Park, right?¡±


    ¡°Sort of. I was asleep where a lot of it.¡±


    She waves her hand through the air. ¡°Your loss. Anyway. In the movie they put poliwag DNA in the tyrantrum. Let it change sex and lay eggs. Because, y¡¯know, poliwag can do that if they want.¡±


    They can what. You reach down and let Sir Bubbles out. He looks up curiously and¡ªoh thank goodness you can¡¯t see eggs. Still a he. Cuicatl goes on, ¡°There was a zoo with a psychic working there. Had him ask some delibird what their sex was because they¡¯d need surgery to tell. Found out that the delibird themselves didn¡¯t know. Just kind of guessed.¡± That¡¯s an obvious lie. Way too ridiculous to be true. ¡°Then there¡¯s the Aztec gods. We have four big gods. One takes whatever form he wants. Male, female, pok¨¦mon, human¡ªdoesn¡¯t matter.¡±


    ¡°Well, they aren¡¯t even real,¡± you insist. Lies from Yveltal. Myths to lead her people astray. Drive them to murder.


    You just earn a slow head shake in response. ¡°They don¡¯t care if you believe in them.¡± Of course they don¡¯t. They aren¡¯t real. That¡¯s incredibly selfish, too. She gets to go to Aztec Heaven but doesn¡¯t want anyone else to go with her. ¡°You think Xerneas created everything right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Yveltal made evil. You don¡¯t think he actually made anything real though. No. Evil is real. Ugh. Doesn¡¯t matter. You know what it means.


    ¡°Then if Xerneas made primarina and axlawful and poliwag and delibird, why¡¯d He give humans the tools to do it and then tell them not to? Can¡¯t be wrong or He wouldn¡¯t have done it for pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s¡­¡± Wrong. Right? ¡°People aren¡¯t animals. Pok¨¦mon. Whatever. We aren¡¯t supposed to¡­ do a lot of things that pok¨¦mon do. Even if we can.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah.¡± For a second you can see her bite her lip. ¡°Although there is some Galarian who thinks humans should drink their piss like desert pok¨¦mon do.¡± You regret eating lunch before having this conversation. Has she really¡­ ¡°I¡¯m not convinced,¡± she says. Your worst fears dissolve. Well. Not your literal worst fears. Figurative worst fears. She sighs and uncrosses her legs. ¡°Just think on it, okay?


    ¡°Okay.¡± You can do that much. Will do that much. If nothing else you have to find an unbiased source to figure out if she¡¯s lying or not. Which she is. Probably. Not that it would matter if she wasn¡¯t. She¡¯s still wrong morally.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    ¡°Want to catch some dedenne?¡±


    Ugh. You really don¡¯t want to go back to walking through the grass. ¡°Do you think our pok¨¦mon will get the scent soon?¡±


    ¡°Probably already have. Just don¡¯t know what it is.¡± She grins and glances away. ¡°My fault. Tried to find one in the city. Ran out of time.¡± Huh. Well, not as if you were trying to find an dedenne. Honestly you were basking in the joys of indoor plumbing and air conditioning as long as you could before it was time to go back on the trail. ¡°But,¡± she dramatically flips a finger up and raises her voice, ¡°I do have an idea.¡± Cuicatl brings the finger back down and unlocks her phone before holding it out to you. ¡°Go to the videos. I have thunderstorm sounds saved.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± You still do as she asks, flicking into her stored videos. There are a surprising amount. Just from the blurry thumbnails of random objects you¡¯re pretty sure that she took them. ¡°And what are you filming so much?¡±


    ¡°One: dedenne love thunderstorms. Maybe it¡¯ll draw one out.¡± She pauses and purses her lips. ¡°Or a togedemaru. Or elekid. Or golem. Electabuzz if we¡¯re super unlucky.¡± Cuicatl starts petting Pixie like she isn¡¯t about to throw herself and the fox into danger. ¡°Two: I like having voices recorded. In case, um,¡± the darkness slips back onto her face and she turns away from you, ¡°in case something happens.¡±


    You don¡¯t know exactly what happened in her past. From what you¡¯ve heard about Anahuac you don¡¯t even want to imagine. Something bad. Whatever it was. ¡°Hey,¡± you nudge her shoulder, ¡°you want a hug?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, sure.¡± You lean in and wrap your arms around her and she gently leans her shoulder into you. Wait, how long should you hold a hug? If it was just a greeting hug you definitely would have let go by now. But this is a ¡®friend feels sad and I do not trust myself to say un-sad things¡¯ hug. Clearly longer. Is this good? She isn¡¯t leaning out. Okay. So. Still doing this. She¡¯s using the travel shampoo you recommended. Well, the same one you use. Saving space and all. You like it. Of course you do. It¡¯s yours. Uhhhhhhhh. She leans away and places her arms behind her. Smiling. Faintly but it still counts. Good job! ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome.¡± You stop yourself there before you can ruin it. In the distance a bird starts chirping. You have no idea what kind it is.


    Cuicatl turns to her ice fox. ¡°Tell me if anything gets close? Flick my ankle if it¡¯s a dedenne, hiss for other stuff.¡± He huffs in response and slowly gets up on all fours to stare intently into the grass. Cuicatl reaches into her skirt¡¯s pocket (it has pockets!) and pulls out a bag of seeds and nuts. She scatters them into the wind before sitting down. Then she turns to you and tilts her head. ¡°Play whenever.¡±


    ¡°I, uh, this is safe, right?¡±


    She shrugs. That really helps your nerves. ¡°We¡¯ve got Inferno for geodude, Count Cloudy and Sir Bubbles for togedemaru, Pix for dedenne and elekid.¡± Ah. So she¡¯s assigning everything but the tiny mouse and the actual baby to you. In fairness both of the bigger pok¨¦mon have a type advantage against her. And Pixie has all kinds of tricks for the capture. Okay, fine. it¡¯s fair enough. And she doesn¡¯t sound concerned. But¡ª


    ¡°Why Sir Bubbles? He¡¯s a water type.¡± However brave and strong he is he won¡¯t like dodging lightning.


    ¡°¡¯cause Count Cloudy will be using ember in dry grass. I want the whole thing watered down.¡±


    That makes a lot of sense. The Count¡¯s embers are still tiny in comparison to Sir Bubbles¡¯ bubbles so it should work out. You steel yourself and let the thunder roll.


    *


    The thunder keeps rolling. At some point the sun came out from behind the clouds and you really want to curl up and take a nice nap in the sun on an impromptu grass bad. Cuicatl¡¯s already half there, sprawled out with her head on her backpack and her eyes closed. Not that the eye thing actually matters to her. Why does she ever open them, anyway? It¡¯s weird.


    Something big moves the grass in front of you. Heavy, too, from the footsteps. Pixie starts a low hiss and Cuicatl bolts upright. ¡°Graveler or golem. Pixie, use baby doll eyes when it gets closer. Genesis, pelt it with razor leaf, bubble, and water gun once it¡¯s distracted. Be prepared to throw a ball and run.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡± You turn around to see Inferno already moving into position. You relay orders to Count Cloudy and Sir Bubbles¡ªSir Bubbles start to run away. You withdraw him for now. Don¡¯t want to deal with that and a battle at the same time. The graveler stops moving just as you can get a good look at it. Mostly gray. Little black and yellow stones jut out from the surface here and there. You can¡¯t see the face but you get the impression that it¡¯s really ugly.


    ¡°Any time,¡± Cuicatl whispers. Right. Dramatic shout or quiet whisper order.


    It comes out as a shout.


    Inferno flicks her head leaf and begins her assault. Water streams out from the sky, admittedly at a rate closer to a trickle than a torrent. How is this supposed to hurt a solid rock that comes up to your hips? It shouldn¡¯t. It seems to. The graveler makes a cry of pain that sounds like, that is, rocks grinding against each other before awkwardly turning around and lumbering away.


    Slowly.


    Doesn¡¯t look like its coming back.


    Victory!


    *


    When you wake up there¡¯s another battle going. Cuicatl¡¯s crouched down behind Pixie while the fox wrestles with a small yellow, with a dedenne! An adorable dedenne! You know you can¡¯t keep everything VStar sends you to get but you wish they didn¡¯t pick such tempting cuties. Inferno and Count Cloudy are currently watching the brawl. Just as you start to move the dedenne jerks and tosses Pixie out of the way. The pupper lands on her feet and starts prepping ice¡­ no. Her eyes are¡­ the dedenne halts and uneasily glances around. Confuse ray.


    A ball rolls into your knee. ¡°Can you toss it for me?¡±


    She would have troubles with that. Not that you have too much experience with this. You did it underhanded last time so let¡¯s try that. Just a gentle toss. The dedenne starts turning around and sparks fly around its hand as it sees the pok¨¦ball. Then they fade. It all fades to red. The ball shakes. Pixie raises her tails up and prepares an ice shard, probably for real this time. Another shake. You¡¯re holding your breath. Know you¡¯re holding your breath but can¡¯t bring yourself to exhale. Another ball rolls into your foot as Cuicatl prepares for. Click. Capture.


    You let out the breath you knew you were holding. The breath and the small shift in posture that comes with it calms you. Not to sleep. All exhaustion was driven out in the, what, forty seconds since you woke up?


    ¡°You¡¯re a really deep sleeper,¡± Cuicatl says, irritation and amusement mixed in her voice. ¡°We¡¯d been going for ages before you noticed.¡±


    ¡°Well, I did wake up when I was needed.¡±


    She rolls her eyes. You think she rolls her eyes? The frosted pattern moves. ¡°That was my third ball.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Thought your snoring might scare off the ¡®mons.¡± Her shoulders roll and she leans back on her hands. ¡°Worked out fine thanks to Pix.¡± The ice fox puffs up her fur and sits down, tails curled around her. Cuicatl¡¯s smile sinks a little. ¡°If you¡¯re tired we don¡¯t have to stay out. Always tomorrow.¡±


    Tomorrow¡­ Tuesday. Right. ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s a holiday.¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s about to rain¡­¡±


    Is it? There are a lot more clouds. And the sound of thunder. From beside you. Wait. You reach down and turn the phone off. The battery¡¯s almost dead. Looks like you¡¯re going back one way or another.


    ¡°Okay. Day after tomorrow? We¡¯ll still be here right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Heading out on the¡­ twenty-ninth? Sorry. Hard to remember three calendars.¡±


    ¡°Three¡­ The American one... The Aztec one¡­¡±


    ¡°We have two calendars. One for gods. One for farming and business and stuff.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but, couldn¡¯t you just¡­ adopt the one everyone else uses?¡±


    She sits up and starts getting her things together. ¡°Ours are better. Months have the same number of days.¡± That¡¯s actually pretty reasonable. You can never remember what days have 30 and which have 31. ¡°What¡¯s the holiday tomorrow?¡±


    ¡°Thanksgiving.¡± You mirror her and get your pack around. Thankfully there¡¯s not much. ¡°We get together with family and think about what we¡¯re thankful for. Then there¡¯s a parade in Castelia.¡±


    Cuicatl stands up and makes a broad sweeping motion around your impromptu clearing. ¡°Can you get the ball?¡± You pick it up and slip it into her hand as you stand. ¡°And that¡¯s the genocide one, right?¡±


    ¡°No. It¡¯s more about being thankful for the natives helping us out.¡±


    She gestures towards the rough direction of the Pok¨¦mon Center and you set out. Cuicatl follows behind. ¡°Right, then you killed all you could and stole half their land.¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯ve read a lot of propaganda.¡± Well, not read. Heard? You did manage to keep your voice very neutral. Good job. She¡¯s wrong but you don¡¯t have to be mean. If you are you might be actually alone on Thanksgiving. And then you¡¯d probably burn down some grass while fighting a togedemaru.


    ¡°Just because it¡¯s propaganda doesn¡¯t mean it¡¯s wrong.¡± You glance back at her. What was that supposed to mean? Of course it¡¯s all lies. That¡¯s what propaganda means. Doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s Anahuac or Yveltal herself saying it, all of it¡¯s lies. Well. Okay. The natives did give away a lot of land. And some of it was stolen. But that¡¯s not your fault. And you like being thankful for stuff. Can¡¯t you just do that without making everything political?


    *


    [-27:11:49]


    What do you have to be thankful for last year?


    In hindsight, way less. Should¡¯ve been thankful for a lot more in 2018. Your family, Lyra, good food, a place to stay every night. Sure you were thankful for all of that but¡­ not as much as you should¡¯ve been. You¡¯ll be better at that in 2020. But now you have pok¨¦mon to be thankful for! Sir Bubbles, Count Cloudy and Inferno. One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn¡¯t belong.


    The Green Knight! Yes! You¡¯ll tell her later. She will be ecstatic.


    Sir Bubbles, Count Cloudy, and The Green Knight. Then Cuicatl. She is away from her terrible father and has enough food now. For some reason she still seems sad. Sometimes. Other times she seems really energetic. She¡¯s confusing but you¡¯re thankful for her. Then¡­ well, Allana is a ministry opportunity. The silver lining in your bad situation. And your family¡¯s still alive so you should be thankful for that!


    Lyra¡­ no. Not this year. She is on a journey of her own. Maybe you¡¯ll cross paths and she¡¯ll apologize for what she did.


    Apologies. Family. You glance at the window and watch the water run down the glass. Another rainstorm. Even if it wasn¡¯t a holiday you couldn¡¯t go dedenne hunting. You turn back to the room. Well, not a room. The small area between sets of doors. Some volleyball courts and outdoor pools past one set, a hallway connecting the pools and lobby down the other. Allana¡¯s in your room and you don¡¯t want to do this with other people around.


    You take a deep breath and call your only relative who might listen.


    First ring. You can do this. Second ring. You need to do this. It¡¯s the point of the holiday. Third ring. What if they aren¡¯t taking calls today? Someone picks up. ¡°Pine Pass Programs. What can I do for you today?¡±


    Another deep breath. ¡°Hi, I was calling to see if Exodus Gage can talk. I¡¯m her sister, Genesis.¡±


    ¡°Alright, please hold.¡± Gentle piano and¡­ harp(?) music starts to play. You lean back on the wall and exhale. Exodus. Exodus, Exodus, Exodus. You visited on her birthday five months ago. Haven¡¯t called her since. It¡¯s fine. She¡¯s better now. Much better. You still tense up. Even though she¡¯s across the Pacific and younger than you.


    ¡°Hey, Gen.¡± Her voice comes through. Well, close enough to her voice. You don¡¯t have it memorized. But you still sort of recognize it. Puberty. Changing. Or maybe you just forgot. Bleh. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±


    You¡¯re alone in a cramped corner of a Pok¨¦mon Center because your mom kicked you out for something that isn¡¯t your fault. ¡°Nothing much. How are you?¡±


    ¡°Eh. Have the day off from classes. Decent lunch a while ago.¡± A while ago?


    ¡°What time is it on the mainland?¡±


    ¡°Two-thirty.¡± Right. Weren¡¯t sure exactly how many hours ahead they were. ¡°So, this a friendly family call or do you want something from me?¡±


    What help could she even give. You shake your head. Focus. Not the issue. ¡°I just wanted to wish you a happy Thanksgiving.¡±


    ¡°Aww, thanks.¡± You can sort of make out a quiet chuckle on the other end. ¡°¡¯course, probably helps that you got kicked out. What¡¯s the deal with that, by the way? No one¡¯s telling me.¡±


    Do you tell her the truth? Would it matter? There¡¯s nothing she could even do about it, right? Right? Nothing comes to mind. You try again. Darn it, you¡¯re doing this. ¡°Lyra kissed me. I didn¡¯t ask. I didn¡¯t like it. Mom still got mad. Didn¡¯t want Levi to get corrupted.¡±


    ¡°Hmm. That all there is?¡± She sounds smug. Definitely not supportive. And what¡¯s she getting at.


    ¡°Yes. That¡¯s it. I don¡¯t really get it either. Okay, like, I did for a few days but it¡¯s been over two months now.¡± You aren¡¯t crying. Your voice is breaking for other reasons. You will not cry in front of Exodus. You will not. ¡°Maybe they just think I want to journey or something?¡± You don¡¯t. It¡¯s sometimes not bad. You¡¯d rather be home.


    ¡°Oh, sweetie.¡± Somehow she sounds even smugger. Yeah. This sounds like Exodus again. ¡°You still don¡¯t get it, do you? It¡¯s almost sad.¡± She definitely does not sound sad.


    You can hang up at any time.


    ¡°Get what?¡±


    ¡°Well, for one¡­ no. That¡¯s not mine to tell you. But I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve told you why¡­¡±


    ¡°No. You haven¡¯t.¡± The voice cracks stop. You think you sound really cold. Good. She deserves it.


    ¡°Yeah, well, if Mom and Dad ever loved us they stopped when Levi was born. They had their heir. We¡¯re just decorations now. And if we don¡¯t act the part they¡¯ll throw us in the trash.¡±


    Delusional. Absolutely delusional. ¡°Exodus, they sent you to therapy for trying to choke their son. You can¡¯t justify that.¡±


    ¡°Heh, you didn¡¯t say I was wrong¡­¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯re wrong.¡± Your thumb drifts to the red button that will end the call. It stops just over it. ¡°They still love you. Why else would Mom go all the way to the mainland to visit you?¡±


    ¡°Love, first of all this ain¡¯t therapy. At best it¡¯s discount juvie. Second, it¡¯s been years, okay? I¡¯ve changed.¡± She sighs into the phone. ¡°I was eight. I made a mistake. I¡¯m sorry. Really. If they loved me, they¡¯d let me out. Give me a chance to make things better.¡± You can practically see her shaking her head through the phone, crocodile tears in her eyes. ¡°I was like you once. Thought they were just scaring me, heh, scaring me straight.¡± You don¡¯t get what the joke is. Wait. Ugh. Terrible joke. ¡°They weren¡¯t. I wasn¡¯t the decoration they wanted and they tossed me out of sight.¡±


    ¡°They visit.¡± Often. At least once a month. More than you¡¯re getting. Plus they call. ¡°Trust me, they do love you. They¡¯re just worried about¡­¡± Levi, mostly. Pets too. She probably killed a glameow and an ariados. Probably. You only really put it together after she was sent off. She¡¯s clever. Knows how to hide things. If the housekeeper hadn¡¯t overheard the struggle¡­


    She butts in before you can finish the thought. ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean anything. They only come because they think they¡¯re good parents and that¡¯s what good parents should do. When I talk they don¡¯t listen. Ever. Then they path themselves on the back and leave.¡± You don¡¯t know how to answer that. So you don¡¯t. ¡°Just be glad they didn¡¯t send you to conversion therapy, okay? A few kids here have been to that. Fucked them up something good.¡±


    ¡°Language.¡± There¡¯s somebody listening to her conversation, right? And she¡¯s only thirteen. She has no business talking like that.


    You fidget and your thumb presses the last quarter inch down onto the end call button. You could call back. You don¡¯t want to.


    Instead you slowly slouch down and sit on the radiator. So many lies. Primarina are transvestites. Blood sacrifices keep the sun moving. Your parents don¡¯t love you. Exodus was ever justified.


    You put the phone down next to you and lower your head into your hands. You don¡¯t scream. A convenient crack of lightning does it for you. As a kid you heard about temptation. You thought you¡¯d be strong enough to resist. That you would earn your afterlife.


    You still will.


    It¡¯ll just be harder than you¡¯d anticipated.

 Electric 4: Kekoa

    Electric 2.4: Spiderwebs and Lost Souls


    Kekoa


    [-24:08:40]


    Before you take out lunch you kick your boots off and stretch. Downhill was supposed to be easy. Instead it was a thousand controlled, halting steps to keep you from tumbling down. Did bring you to a damn nice lake, though. Perfectly clear water with a few wishiwashi darting below the surface. Mountains reflected in the water. The shit they put on postcards. There¡¯s another group sitting down for lunch about a third of the way around the lake but otherwise you¡¯re alone.


    Well, alone with Cuicatl, some Pok¨¦mon, and a transphobic piece of shit. Pixie and Coco have already curled up on their trainer as she lies down. Count Cloudy the Pretentious is hovering over the pond, the leafeon is curled up in a sunbeam, and Sir Fucking Bubbles is staring into the water and deciding if he¡¯s man enough to swim in it.


    You can see Hekeli flit between branches from time to time. Makani, your grubbin, thankfully ignored you when you sent him out and is busy rooting around in the dirt. Cuicatl told you that your ¡®mons would need a reason to stay. Thankfully, he found one on his own. Something changed on Blush Mountain. Not evolution. For the best. Don¡¯t want to deal with Makani the vikavolt quite yet. Might think it¡¯s funny to spit ten thousand volts in your face rather than string. But he seems to get why he should stay. The bug grew up on Akala. Never had a chance of evolving on his own. With you? He can become a terrifying murder bug. Will become a terrifying murder bug.


    And the people (and colonizer) are sprawled out in the shade, ignoring the hike the afternoon will bring. Food. You were supposed to pull out food. Canned meat and hummus, raisins that are somehow more dehydrated than usual, and crackers. Bland but cheap and nutritious. Maybe Cuicatl¡¯s thought of something better but she¡¯s never complained. You toss some at the haole thing and gently hand your friend her portion. Then silence. Near-silence. Eating sounds and spitting followed by happy dinosaur noises. Not quite as close to pikipek noises as you¡¯d expect from her feathers and build. Speaking of! You can hear Hekeli¡¯s songs and they¡¯re getting really complex. Plus, her beak is growing out. If she¡¯s not a trumbeak yet she will be soon. Damn shame she won¡¯t be useful in the next trial. Maybe she can come in with a rock smash if the crabrawler you¡¯ll catch later can¡¯t do the job.


    You hear barking noises and the sound of snapping twigs behind you. You glance back and¡ªpancham. Two of them bumbling towards you, tripping over tree roots and each other. That means there¡¯s a momma pangora nearby. ¡°Cuicatl,¡± you say as neutrally as possible, ¡°there are pancham here. Bears. Fighting-types. Momma¡¯s a dark-type.¡±


    The thing beside you makes a dumb ¡°aww¡± sound and, after a pause, ¡°We aren¡¯t allowed to feed them, right?¡±


    What? No. Gods, no. That¡¯s how you get killed. But if a pangoro¡¯s staring you down you¡¯ll gladly bribe her. Unless she decides she likes your food and wants to take the rest, plus three weak animals and some pok¨¦mon. Throw pok¨¦balls, run, and pray? Always an option. Maybe you could trip the asshole and make a break while the pangoro¡¯s eating. No. A bit too harsh. Just a little bit, though.


    Cuicatl sits up and gently smiles without showing any teeth. ¡°Hello. Can I help you with anything?¡±


    The pancham stand up on their hind legs and start adorably growling something out. Cuicatl¡¯s just nods and strokes Pixie¡¯s tails with one hand while physically restraining her tyrunt with the other. Girl¡¯s smart enough to know she doesn¡¯t want a fight. At best she loses and her pok¨¦mon get hurt. At worst she wins and gets killed by a confused pangoro.


    ¡°We¡¯re just passing through on our way north.¡±


    It turns out pancham can make a sound best described as an excited squeak.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but you can¡¯t have any. It would make you sick.¡±


    That earns a tiny roar. In the forest something a lot bigger than a twig snaps. For a second Cuicatl¡¯s composure breaks. Then she starts to open her eyes wide and slowly shake her head. ¡°Oh, no. We¡¯re very scared. Terrified. But we¡¯re¡ªpoison-types. We eat bad things. Bird shit. It would make you sick.¡± The sound of snapping branches keeps coming closer. ¡°Promise.¡±


    More squeaks and growls while Cuicatl slowly nods her head. ¡°Not all humans can. Just me. Can¡¯t talk to your¡ª¡± Heavy breathing at the forest¡¯s edge. A giant bear with a cape of black fur stares down at you. Fuck. Cuicatl recovers much faster than you do. Thank the gods. Her gods. Whichever get you through this. ¡°Well, that¡¯s rude of her. You scared me plenty on your own.¡± To your friend¡¯s immense credit, it turns out pancham can feel embarrassed by their parents. One of the cubs turns around with a pout and start garbling out something to her mom. The pangoro¡¯s stem twitches in her mouth for a second before her face settles into a smile.


    The mother barks at her children, shoots a half-hearted glare at Cuicatl, and heads back the way she came. The pancham clumsily run after her.


    No one, pok¨¦mon or human, dares to move for several long minutes. In the end Hekeli moves first by dropping down to a nearby branch and making a nervous trill. Cuicatl collapses back down, head hitting her pack, and mumbles some (untranslated) words in Nahuatl that are obviously swears.


    ¡°First time meeting a bear without a hydreigon at my back.¡±


    Wait.


    What?


    ¡°You had a hydreigon?¡±


    She awkwardly shrugs as best she can while lying down with her vulpix on top of her. The tyrunt is still standing where she was, glaring at the forest¡¯s edge. ¡°Mom did. Did I not tell¡­¡± She snaps. ¡°That¡¯s right. I was going to threaten to sic her on you in Paniola. You cut me off.¡± You can feel a little blood come back into your cheeks for the first time since the pangoro drained it out. Just how far did you press her back then? The whole conversation¡¯s a blur. Honestly you only remember her outing you. Sure, you knew that she was mad at you but you¡¯d figured it was just the name thing. Maybe you should apologize. But its damn hard to apologize if you don¡¯t even know what you did wrong. And she wasn¡¯t exactly blameless in that whole fuckup.


    Stop. You¡¯re going to say something you¡¯ll regret. Regret after forgetting what you said, anyway. Also, what kind of person just threatens to have their pet dragon eat someone? Cuicatl Ichtaca. Yeah. That¡¯s who. At least her new dragon thinks you¡¯re her father. Probably won¡¯t eat you.


    Probably.


    ¡°Were you, um, talking to the bears?¡±


    Right. It¡¯s here. And hasn¡¯t been told, apparently. Good call on Cuicatl¡¯s part.


    ¡°Yes, I was.¡±


    It awkwardly shifts as its castform drifts closer. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°I can talk to pok¨¦mon,¡± Cuicatl says like that¡¯s just a perfectly normal thing. Is she going to do the accent trick? Still haven¡¯t quite moved past that. After that you¡¯ve been able to hear a slight accent in your voice but that might just be because that¡¯s how you think she should sound.


    ¡°How long?¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°How long have you been able to do that?¡± There¡¯s a hint of betrayal in its voice. Couldn¡¯t have happened to a nicer person.


    ¡°Since I was seven. At least. Maybe earlier.¡±


    Coco shakes herself off and plods over to you. How much of this is she following? If it¡¯s just her trainer¡¯s part then does she even understand what the humans are talking about? ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell us?¡± the thing asks.


    ¡°She told me weeks ago.¡± It¡¯s rude to Cuicatl. You¡¯ll apologize later. But the look on Jenny¡¯s face makes it absolutely worth it. Even if your friend¡¯s half-snarl ruins the view.


    ¡°I don¡¯t tell people if I can help it. Had to tell him to end a dumb fight.¡±


    It wasn¡¯t a dumb fight. She outed you in front of a colossal jackass and you said something that made her think about murder. And if she really wanted to make peace she probably could¡¯ve found another way. Girl¡¯s smart, sometimes.


    ¡°Why not tell people?¡± Its mouth hangs open as she struggles to find words that aren¡¯t its usual level of stupid. ¡°I think it¡¯s cool. And it would help you make friends.¡±


    ¡°N,¡± you answer for her. ¡°That¡¯s why.¡±


    It¡¯s something you¡¯ve thought about in the last few weeks. Maybe Uffe was right and she¡¯s just another refugee from a collapsing fascist shithole. But she said her mom was from Unova. Someone important from Unova. And her hair has to be natural green. You would¡¯ve noticed her roots by now. Of course, N was Asian. Cuicatl isn¡¯t. Right? How do you do the loud thought thing?


    Hey, Cuicatl, was your mom Asian?


    {Second person to ask me that in a month.} You flinch more than you¡¯d like to admit. {Can this wait?}


    Yeah. It can.


    {Cool.}


    ¡°The terrorist?¡± Cuicatl asks, aloud. ¡°Sorry, that was a long time ago. Didn¡¯t follow it.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, the terrorist.¡± Or freedom fighter. Same difference. ¡®course, he went at it wrong. Tried to free the pok¨¦mon. Didn¡¯t realize that shitty humans would immediately take them back. You have to take care of the shitty humans first. ¡°They say he could talk to pok¨¦mon. Told him that fighting was hell, training is slavery, all that. So he tried to take over Unova.¡±


    ¡°As one does,¡± Cuicatl says. Her voice is flat but it sounds like a joke. You snort as a sign of support.


    ¡°As one does. He failed. Flew away on a fuckoff thunder dragon. Sometimes people spot him but he hasn¡¯t done anything big in years.¡±


    The thing slowly gets to its feet and starts pacing. ¡°But he was wrong. Pok¨¦mon benefit from the system. Hilda used her team¡¯s bonds of friendship to defeat him.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± You turn to Cuicatl and do your best to project your voice in her direction. ¡°Is that right?¡±


    She shrugs. ¡°Sometimes. Coco¡¯s staying close to her parents. Ce wanted food and shelter.¡± A grimace. Her pace picks up. ¡°Pix likes being appreciated. Pok¨¦mon don¡¯t always like it. The social ones like home. Some ¡®mons just don¡¯t want to get hurt. Guess neither were right. Not all the way.¡±


    Well, that¡¯s some centrist bullshit. You were expecting better from her. Wait. ¡°If you weren¡¯t staying mum over N, why don¡¯t you tell people?¡±


    Cuicatl pulls her pack to her and puts her arms through the straps. She¡¯s clearly trying to end the conversation by just getting on the trail. For its part the thing has stopped pacing and is just staring at your friend. ¡°Governments. Anahuac would¡¯ve made me a spy, U.S. might deport me and tell Anahuac why.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to tell anyone,¡± the transphobe lies.


    ¡°Even if you had a filter between your mouth and the place your brain should be, she wouldn¡¯t owe you shit.¡±


    It looks like you punched it again. Or killed a puppy in front of it. Good. You pull on your own pack and get up before withdrawing Makani.


    Cuicatl sighs rather loudly. ¡°Can we please be civil? Just for a little bit?¡±


    You snort. For real this time. ¡°Oh, please. Jenny won¡¯t even say my name and you want me to be civil?¡±


    Another sigh as Cuicatl slowly gets to her feet and flicks her cane out. ¡°He has a point, Genesis. If you want to bring him around and save his soul,¡± you can¡¯t tell if you¡¯re imagining Cuicatl¡¯s cringe or not, ¡°then he has to be willing to talk to you. If you insist on being rude then he¡¯ll never listen and never convert.¡± {Not that I care about that,} she adds to you alone.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Hey, missionaries fucked over Anahuac, right?


    {They tried. We kicked them out centuries ago.}


    Good call.


    {Thanks.} ¡°Let¡¯s just head out,¡± she mutters, aloud.


    [-24:01:12]


    Cuicatl slowly pivots to ¡®look¡¯ around the campsite. ¡°Smells like eucalyptus,¡± she says. And it does. Pretty strongly, in fact. There¡¯s a big clump of the trees at the edge the clearing. ¡°We could make bug repellant from that and water. Cheap.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not lugging more water around than I have to.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± she looks at you with¡­ disappointment? ¡°We just get the leaves now. Grind out the oil and put that in a bag. Mix with water when you need it.¡±


    That does make sense. Mostly. But. ¡°You know we¡¯re up $600, right? We can buy real bug spray. Even with Alola prices.¡±


    Cuicatl drops her pack and sits down. Her usual routine after arriving at campsites since she can¡¯t set up the tent or hang bags or anything so she¡¯s kind of useless until it¡¯s time to do a few minutes of cooking. ¡°Yes. But. We should also buy another pack or two. More balls and potions. Another tent. Human and pok¨¦mon food. Maybe a real pok¨¦dex. And I want to make money eventually.¡±


    You turn back to the tent. The poles and fabric that will soon be a tent. Your ugly assistant awkwardly hovers nearby but does move in once you start setting it up. At least its intelligent enough to do some menial labor. ¡°How much money do you really need? Payouts are supposed to increase later on.¡± Supposed to. Not that you trust VStar one bit. Yours is a marriage of convenience. You need power to save Alola from its false queen, they want you to help them plunder Alola for profit. But nature rebuilds.


    All will be well when the kingdom is free.


    ¡°Seven hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars.¡±


    The pole you were holding clatters to the ground and you stare at her dumbfounded. You can sort of see the other one doing the same. ¡°Holy shit.¡± Cuicatl¡¯s looking down at the ground, absently stroking Pixie¡¯s back. ¡°You¡¯re serious?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°In deep with the cartels?¡± Has to be it. You¡¯re pretty sure Anahuac has free healthcare so it can¡¯t be a ¡®my brother is dying of cancer¡¯ thing.


    That earns a lazy headshake in response. ¡°Nah. They¡¯re more to the north and east.¡±


    ¡°Then what the hell do you need it for?¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯d r-rather not say.¡± Is the stutter real? Just something she wanted to communicate? Intentionally or not? Everything she says about her power raises more questions than answers and she rarely gives answers when you ask. Her face tells you what you want to know. Push now and she¡¯ll burst into tears, threaten to murder you, or both. You reach down and pick the pole up. The thing does likewise and you set up camp in silence.


    *


    ¡°Can you help me gather the leaves?¡± Cuicatl finally asks, composed, after the food bag is hung up.


    ¡°Look¡­¡± A few dollars won¡¯t make a dent in the debt. She can¡¯t even make the money here anyway. At  best she walks away with maybe a tenth of it. How do you phrase that without being an asshole here? And since when did you start asking yourself that question? Baby doll eyes. The trick Pixie pulled on you in your first battle with her. She made herself small, vulnerable. Stirred up every damn bit of estrogen in your system. Her trainer¡¯s doing that now. Ugh. Fuck her.


    ¡°I know.¡± She sounds tired. Defeated. Manipulative. ¡°I know. But I¡¯m bored and I want something to do. Can I at least have the leaves?¡±


    *


    She¡¯s still harvesting eucalyptus. It¡¯s a slow process filled with trial, error, and lots of awkwardly moving her hands around in the general direction of the tree. Her pok¨¦mon are ignoring the tree she¡¯s groping and staring up another one. There¡¯s a komala sleeping probably ten feet up. The thing hasn¡¯t noticed it yet. Probably. It is being perfectly quiet, just staring down at the grass between its crossed legs.


    You¡¯re bored. You could have hekeli fight the komala. Seems cruel, though. Beating up something for just sleeping nearby. Nah. You¡¯ll save her energy for dumbass haole kids in Malie. Still bored. You could cook but that¡¯s literally the only thing Cuicatl does for anyone. And some translations. Maybe more of those now that the thing in on the secret. Eh. Fuck it. You¡¯ll help her. She turns her head a little bit when you approach. ¡°Kekoa, right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± You start picking leaves. She has a quart bag in one hand that she¡¯s putting them in. Once you¡¯ve got your first fistful you stick those in with hers.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    You grunt out something that was maybe supposed to be ¡°no problem¡± in your head. Wait. Can she understand that? ¡­


    Cuicatl, can you understand that?


    ¡°Understand what,¡± she mutters.


    ¡°That grunt?¡±


    She rolls her eyes. ¡°You have to at least try, Kekoa.¡± The bag is gently pressed into your hands and she starts walking back to the campsite. ¡°Going to make dinner now.¡±


    Did you say something wrong? Not say something you should have? Maybe she was just hungry. You turn back to the tree. You can hear footsteps behind you as Cuicatl¡¯s pok¨¦mon go to beg for food, the komala forgotten. Should you have told her about it? She does like cuddling her pok¨¦mon and komala would be into that. Then again, komala isn¡¯t exactly a killing machine. Might undercut her rep. Her pok¨¦mon would have told her about it, right? Seemed to be important to them. More as prey than a potential snuggle buddy. What will happen if or when she catches a prey pok¨¦mon? Or when Coco gets big enough to just snap up Pixie in a single gulp? Eh. You can trust her. She¡¯s probably already drilled into the little dino¡¯s heads that foxes are friends, not food.


    Komala, on the other hand¡­ definitely food.


    Your phone vibrates with a text. You glance at it.


    Kanoa.


    Your childhood friend. Current trial captain. She has more important things to be doing now. Yeah, you were really, really close years ago, but you¡¯re so different and. When you met back up outside Lush Jungle, she demanded to know where her brother had been. That. You¡¯re better than that. You were supposed to be better than that. Unlike Jabari, you don¡¯t just abandon family for years, whether or not you¡¯re related by blood. And yet.


    She should hate you. But she bought you lunch, gave you her number, even apologized to you when you gave her a brief version of where you¡¯d been. And it hurts, watching her repeatedly run back to someone she should hate. Like she just doesn¡¯t get it.


    ¡°How is Route 22 goin?¡±


    ¡°*Route 11¡±


    ¡°Finger slipped¡±


    How do you talk to someone you¡¯ve hurt if they don¡¯t want to acknowledge it? She would be better off without you. Right?


    ¡°good. signal / battery low. talk later.¡±


    She replies shortly after.


    ¡®kk ??¡±


    Before your stomach stops turning there are human footsteps behind you. Definitely the thing. Cuicatl would either have the swish of her cane or the patter of pok¨¦mon footsteps or both with her. You stand still and stare straight ahead. Maybe it can take a hint. Or at least not see motion. Wait can Coco actually see non-moving stuff? She has to, right? Something to pay more attention to in the future.


    ¡°I, um¡­ I wanted¡­¡± A deep sigh. You give it a glance over your shoulder. It¡¯s hunched over, staring at its shoes with its hands awkwardly fidgeting against each other at its waist. Like it¡¯s going to confess a middle school crush or some shit. ¡°I wanted to ask if we could meet halfway. Like, you don¡¯t call me by my name so, I dunno, maybe you could make up a nickname or something that isn¡¯t All¡ª that isn¡¯t your old name.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± You very deliberately go back to picking the leaves. It steps into your peripheral vision but you ignore it.


    ¡°I¡¯m just asking to be able to do what you¡¯ve been doing to me for months!¡± Gods, it¡¯s pouting. Like it¡¯s the victim here. ¡°Just, please¡­¡± What a great argument.


    Ugh. It won¡¯t go away if you don¡¯t give it anything. And right now you¡¯d rather have her go away than stay 1000% true to your principles. Fine, here goes. ¡°You¡¯ve got your name in Galar. Here? My kingdom. I call you what I want.¡±


    ¡°Your kingdom? Since when are you royalty?¡± You see her hesitate. ¡°Unless, um, you are¡­¡±


    You¡¯re not but you¡¯ve met the princess. Dresses in rags. Lives in the same orphanage you wound up in. Sure, she could probably afford better clothes but it¡¯s all the principle of it. Tattered robes on the princess of a tattered kingdom. The girl who spends more time with the dead than the living. Ghosts. The mournful and angry souls of an occupied nation. What was. What lingers. What stands ready for revenge.


    You opt to let the leaf bag fall from your hands and give her a real glare. You flick a hand back over your shoulder. ¡°See that? The mountain in the distance? I¡¯m gonna kick out that haole bitch you put on a throne on Mauna Fucking Lanakila. Then I¡¯m tearing the whole place down. Give the palace in Hau¡¯oli to the real queen. Take back my home from assholes like you.¡±


    That just earns a few slow blinks before it brushes a stray blonde hair off its face. ¡°No, you can¡¯t. That would take a vote or something. Not just a battle with an athlete.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. We can¡¯t take back the kingdom with a battle but we could lose it with one? That right?¡±


    It pointedly looks away from you. ¡°It wasn¡¯t a democracy. That was how things worked then.¡±


    You know that well.


    *


    In 1888 Elisha Gage strolled into the Palace and challenged the Queen for her throne. He didn¡¯t do it right. He was supposed to first be accepted into the island challenge and then complete it. That would¡¯ve required him being an actual citizen of the kingdom and not some haole leech. The Queen accepted. You don¡¯t know why. He faced the four kahunas and the Queen all in a row to take the throne.


    He did that all wrong, too. Bought himself five teams. Brought a different one in to each match, all tailor-made for the win. That wasn¡¯t supposed to happen. No one had ever used more than six pok¨¦mon for the royal challenge before. But the rulebook doesn¡¯t say anything about using thirty pok¨¦mon! You can imagine his smug face. Like he¡¯s a ref allowing a growlithe to play basketball with an entire country on the line. It also ignored the point. There were no rules in the first place. Just traditions. The people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it. You had a shred of decency.


    He won. Barely. Later came out that he¡¯d paid three-point-eight mil in that days¡¯ dollars for his final team. The Queen could¡¯ve told him to go to hell. She didn¡¯t. You don¡¯t know why. He sat on the throne and called in the marines and told them that Alola was part of the U.S. now. All so that some spiderweb dealer could pay less taxes.


    Hope he¡¯s happy in hell.


    *


    You don¡¯t say any of that. You just stare right into its icy eyes and cross your arms. Hope she¡¯ll be happy in hell with Old Man Gage.


    It rolls its shoulders and tries to almost look you in the eyes again. ¡°I¡­ fine. Sure. Not what I wanted to talk about.¡± You snort. Of course. It thinks its entitled to pick everything it talks about. ¡°I just wanted to say that I was mean to you and I¡¯m sorry¡­ Kekoa.¡±


    ¡°Dinner¡¯s ready!¡± You blink and turn towards Cuicatl. There¡¯s a half-empty bowl in her lap and she raises another spoonful of food to her lips as you watch. Dinner has clearly been ready for a while. She just wanted to sit back and watch the show. Listen to the show. Did she tell it to do that? Doesn¡¯t really matter. The thing has turned around and is walking over to the food with far too little weight on its shoulders.


    Her shoulders. Maybe. Ugh, fine. You¡¯ll at least need to pick another name for her. Jennifer is too close to her real one. Janette? Sounds good.


    [-23:16:49]


    It isn¡¯t raining when you step outside. In fact the sky is almost suspiciously clear for this time of the year. Full moon overhead and the clearing is remarkably bright for the middle of the night. Wings stir at the forest¡¯s edge and Hekeli glides over to perch on your shoulder. She¡¯d hear a pangoro coming and a rattata isn¡¯t enough to take her out anymore. It¡¯s safe to leave her out at night.


    As you walk away from the tent to pee movement catches your eye. A dark, slender shape rises up near the treeline. It¡¯s almost as tall as you. No, taller. You finally catch the shape of its¡ªher head and the red markings on her chest. Salazzle. You¡¯re being summoned. The salamander drops down on all fours and raises her tail into the air as a signal before slipping into the forest.


    It¡¯s hard to follow the fire-type. The trees block out much of the moonlight and there are way more shrubs in your way than there were on Route 12. If Cuicatl hasn¡¯t heard the noise herself her pok¨¦mon definitely have. You really hope she doesn¡¯t follow. She¡¯d understand, of course, but she might get sucked in deeper than you¡¯d like right now.


    The forest abruptly breaks into a clearing, another campsite from the looks of it, and you see the woman sitting on a log in the middle. Her hair¡¯s shorter and died black but the tank top, tattoos, and baggy pants let you know that you¡¯re dealing with Big Sis. As if the salazzle wasn¡¯t enough of a giveaway. She flicks her hand towards the ground and you sit. Probably too far away. Might have to raise your voice a little bit. Not that you were sounding stealthy before.


    ¡°I got your message a few weeks back,¡± she says. Like it¡¯s just a normal thing that Big Sis reads reports from someone who isn¡¯t even a grunt. Should you respond? She¡¯s supposed to be pretty casual. She¡¯s also the only one doing anything about the False Queen. A hero here in the flesh. One on one. What would you even say? ¡°The Nahua girl¡¯s interesting.¡± You know that you needed to tell her about Cuicatl. For a moment you still regret bringing Big Sis¡¯s attention to her. ¡°But not what I want to talk about.¡±


    That¡¯s¡­ not what you were expecting. What else did you even say? Damnit you were tired and a little angry when you emailed Manollo. You¡¯ve forgotten half of it. Running problem today. ¡°I almost have two Z-Crystals.¡± That can¡¯t be what she wanted to hear, it sounds almost pathetic when you say it aloud.


    She blinks twice and slouches a bit. ¡°You really don¡¯t know¡­?¡± Don¡¯t. Know. What? Plumeria shakes her head and smiles. ¡°Dummy. Genesis is a Gage.¡±


    Genesis is. Gage. Elisha. The Old Man. The Spiderweb Prince. The Kingdom Thief. She¡¯s his spawn.


    Holy. Fucking. Shit.


    You knew she had money before but billionaire heiress? To a family that¡¯s somehow worse than most billionaires? Fuck. Honestly, her being a transphobic piece of shit is now waaaaaay down on the list of things to hate about her. It. Hate about it. Definitely not ¡®her¡¯ anymore.


    Plumeria dismissively waves her hand through the air and brings you a little bit closer to reality. ¡°You aren¡¯t actually in Skull so I won¡¯t give you orders, but. A suggestion: do whatever you can to keep her on the trail and away from her family.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡± Everything still feels unreal. The words slip from your mouth before you realize how stupid they are. Big Sis has a reason. She always does.


    Her expression doesn¡¯t waver. If she thinks you¡¯re a dummy¡ªshe did call you a dummy didn¡¯t she¡ªthen she¡¯s not pressing it now. ¡°I don¡¯t need her now. There¡¯s some shit that¡¯s about to go down and we¡¯re laying low. Later?¡± The smile returns. Less friendly this time. ¡°Yeah, I can find a use for her. Much easier to get her if she isn¡¯t being guarded by daddy.¡±


    A kidnapping. You¡¯d have to gain its trust. Regain its trust. Pretend to be nice. Call it Genesis. Act like its human. A friend, even. It¡¯ll all suck so much. But in the end everything will have been worth it when you see the look on her face.


    You nod slowly. ¡°I can do that.¡±


    The Skull Boss slowly gets to her feet and looks¡ªup¡ªto meet you in the eye. Shorter than you¡¯d thought. Never been this close to her before. At the Mauna she always sat above everyone else. Her height¡¯s probably why. The shadows around her shoes move and a gengar rises up behind her. Hekeli cries out in shock and flutters into place in front of you. You call her back and she glides to a branch behind you.


    ¡°You¡¯re using one of VStar¡¯s phones, right?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    She slips her hand into her pocket and holds a flip phone out to you. Should you? Yes. You step closer to Plumeria, defender of Alola, and take it. Your hand almost touches hers. Stupid.


    The boss turns around and starts walking towards the edge of the clearing. It¡¯s almost. Heh. You¡¯ve gotten used to Cuicatl¡¯s dumb military-types pivots in place. Kind of weird seeing normal humans turn around. ¡°My number¡¯s saved in there. Tell me if things go to hell.¡±


    ¡°Wait, I.¡± She turns around and glances at you. Shit. What were you saying? ¡°Does this mean I¡¯m in Skull? For real?¡±


    Plumeria turns back around as her gengar¡¯s shadows rise up to engulf her. ¡°Whatever you want, kid.¡± When the unnatural blackness fades to normal night Big Sis is gone.


    You¡¯re left alone with a pikipek¡ªno, trumbeak, a phone, and a mission.

 Electric 5: Kekoa

    Electric 2.5: Life Goes On


    Cuicatl Ichtaca


    [-15:03:11]


    The air feels like rain again. You¡¯d hoped that being in the States would bring a real winter and summer and not just wet and dry seasons. Of course, you weren¡¯t so lucky.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, ma¡¯am, but pok¨¦mon aren¡¯t allowed in the library.¡±


    You stop and turn towards the voice. An employee? You gesture towards your cataracts. ¡°I need her to get around.¡±


    The wind picks up. For the time being it doesn¡¯t carry water with it. The woman is silent far longer than she needs to be. ¡°Do you have her service pok¨¦mon documents on you?¡± She sounds unimpressed. Almost aggressive. Coco would¡¯ve growled at her already. Pix is probably considering it.


    You don¡¯t have the papers. They don¡¯t exist. ¡°She¡¯s not registered.¡± You plow through to keep Pix from taking it personally. ¡°But she¡¯s smart. Won¡¯t cause trouble.¡± Last bit might be a lie. She¡¯s been behaving well recently. Well enough to gamble on.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry but we only allow registered service pok¨¦mon. An assistant can help you around if you need it.¡±


    Right. Because being jerked around by a stranger with no training is better than letting your (somewhat) trusted helper do it. Your heart rate¡¯s up and your shoulders are tensed. Pix flicks a tail to your ankle. Probably asking if she should fight. You make an effort to relax your shoulders and take a deep breath. You don¡¯t win this fight. This woman has the power and she¡¯s made up her mind. Experience tells you that all the facts and logic in the world won¡¯t change that. ¡°Fine,¡± you concede with a huff. ¡°You good going in your ball, Pix?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    You withdraw her and clip the ball to the second spot in your belt. Before you take your cane out you slide your hands back down to your skirt¡¯s pockets (making your own clothing has its advantages). ¡°Well, now what?¡±


    She hesitates. Figures she didn¡¯t have an actual procedure. Just saw a rule she could enforce on some kid and decided to be cruel. You could take out your cane and save her but a little bit of your own cruelty bubbles up and you let her solve the problem she made. ¡°One second,¡± she finally says. ¡°Let me get someone to help you.¡±


    It takes a lot longer than a second. By the time it starts to drizzle you¡¯re starting to doubt that she¡¯s coming back at all. When it starts to pour, you¡¯re certain that she isn¡¯t. With a sigh you pull out your cane and walk into the building itself. You consider letting Pix out and walking in anyway. If the same woman is still there you doubt she¡¯d complain again.


    She doesn¡¯t speak up when you step inside. You¡¯d half expected that she¡¯d just darted through the door and spent a half hour staring at you through the glass. ¡°Excuse me,¡± another woman calls out. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    There¡¯s no way to be sure she¡¯s talking to you. She probably is. You nod and turn in the voice¡¯s direction. ¡°Yes. Where are the computers?¡± In an ideal world you¡¯d ask for journals and in-depth guides in Nahuatl braille. Or at least American Braille. You doubt such things even exist.


    ¡°Certainly. They¡¯re just down¡­ actually, let me take you there.¡± You hear her approach and you feel her slip her hand into yours before she immediately starts moving. Not the best way to do it. It makes keeping pace awful. And you would have liked it if she asked you first. Or given you time to collapse the cane. Still, you do eventually find yourself in front of a computer. Then she powerwalks away before you can figure out how to log in, turn the screen reader on, access the internet¡­ anything.


    After many days and even more arguments on the trail you¡¯d wanted time alone. At least time away from other people. And you need to have a talk with Pix. So far, you¡¯ve managed to bring Kekoa around in two talks and tag-teamed Genesis in three. Hopefully this one¡¯s as easy. But you need information. Everything you can get on vulpix thought. Make some guesses on how she sees the world. That¡¯s why you¡¯re in the library. You¡¯re still no closer to the information.


    Even if you wanted to call Genesis or Kekoa there¡¯s another obstacle. You¡¯d have to talk in the library. You really aren¡¯t supposed to do that. Sure, you could find a bathroom or a door outside. But because Pix isn¡¯t here, you¡¯d have to ask someone. Talk to someone. Aloud.


    You slump forward in the seat and cross your arms, letting the cane clack to the floor.


    Why does this always happen?


    July 2019


    The gate creaks shut beneath you and you take a few steps forward. Your cane is out because Achcauhtli won¡¯t coddle you when you don¡¯t need it. No, not won¡¯t. Can¡¯t.


    Your mind is half gone and even the remaining half feels so empty these days. There¡¯s nothing to say. Your godmother has taken over your chores for the time being. It¡¯s more kindness than you deserve but it also deprives you of a simple, routine task to get lost in.


    Maybe you do deserve it, then.


    You hadn¡¯t told anyone about your brother¡¯s headache and neck pains. His meningitis. If you¡¯d forced him to seek care right then he wouldn¡¯t have died. You¡¯re sure of it.


    You killed him.


    You still haven¡¯t fully grasped what that means.


    Maybe you never will.


    With more care than your body deserves you lower it to the ground. Silence. Nothing approaches. Alice had been hanging around the house for a few days but apparently ellas needed to eat. Searah¡¯s probably exhausted all the ants in the area after staying put for so long. Renfield¡¯s mourning and you can¡¯t judge him for wanting distance. And Spike¡­


    ¡°Hey, Spike.¡±


    Spike doesn¡¯t answer. He wrapped you in a vine when you told him. It was the most affection he¡¯d ever shown you. Or your mother, according to Renfield. Seems he¡¯s back to normal now.


    Great. Just great.


    The wind is surprisingly chilly for the height of the summer. You take your arms out of your poncho to hug yourself underneath it. The sleeves whip around uselessly in the wind. There¡¯s homework to do. You should go inside. Should. You won¡¯t. You were failing anyway. Again. And he can¡¯t read your books to you anymore. What¡¯s even the point?


    If you ran off right now who would care? You could take Searah, Alice, and Renfield with you. Live in the woods. Escape cactus spikes and worksheets for good. Your godmother would understand. Father would have to step up around the house. Surely he could handle it. Someone had to be cooking and cleaning before you were old enough to do it.


    When Alice comes, back you¡¯ll go.


    There¡¯s nothing here for you anymore. Nothing but ghosts.


    You¡¯ve seen enough American films to know about their vengeful ghosts that haunt the living. Try to solve their own murders. All that stuff. It¡¯s not like there aren¡¯t ghosts in Anahuac but they¡¯re¡­ different. Forgetful. Destructive. Apocalyptic, even. You really want to believe in the American ghosts right now. He¡¯d come back and torment you for killing him but at least he would be around. And if he punished you then you wouldn¡¯t need to do it yourself. It would be perfectly just.


    The back door creaks opens and you hug yourself a little tighter. Speaking of punishments. Father¡¯s heavy footsteps come closer until he settles down beside you, probably staring off at¡­ whatever¡¯s in the distance.


    ¡°He was supposed to do so much more,¡± he says with terrible resignation. You let the words wash over you and turn your head in his direction. It sounded like he had more to say. Maybe he doesn¡¯t. You certainly don¡¯t. ¡°He had Danielle¡¯s powers and pok¨¦mon. He could have taken so many captives. Brought honor and resources to the village that I never could have.¡± You can almost feel the frown. ¡°But he never took to the pok¨¦mon.¡±


    You shake your head. ¡°He did. Searah and Renfield saw him as a brother. He even talked sense into ¡®chovsky once in a while.¡± All those years and you never figured out how. Knowing the swanna you never will. ¡°He just cared about humans, too.¡± You leave the ¡®I didn¡¯t¡¯ unspoken.


    ¡°Hmm. Doesn¡¯t matter anymore.¡± The wind picks up a bit more. This time you slip your arms back through the sleeves. Can¡¯t look like a child in front of Father. ¡°And you¡­ I had a plan for you.¡± A hint of passion bleeds through despair. ¡°Achcauhtli would gain money and status. You could care for his home and pok¨¦mon.  But now,¡± he takes a deep breath. You get a twinge of pain through your powers for some reason. ¡°Now that won¡¯t work.¡± And the passion is drowned as quickly as it came. ¡°I had to find a new plan. You aren¡¯t smart. Or strong. You would get captured on the battlefield in seconds. Your gifts could make you appealing to a noble family, but they would not want your deformities in their bloodline.¡±


    And there you were thinking you would escape punishment today. At least this is only verbal. Even if words can hurt more than cactus spines or chili fumes. ¡°You are decent at housework but unattractive. And high-class men want smart wives. Good marriage would be difficult.¡± You get it. You¡¯re a total failure. ¡°But¡­ between Danielle¡¯s gift and your blindness you might be able to convince a temple that you¡¯re close to the gods.¡± He doesn¡¯t scoff. That¡¯s left to your imagination. ¡°That would require sending you to a school for your kind so that you might learn something. Then tutoring on manners and religion before you could ever apply to an apprenticeship.¡±


    You like to think that you¡¯re good at astrology. Can¡¯t say you¡¯re an expert on the entire religion. More importantly¡­ ¡°Can I bring Searah and Renfield with me?¡± Alice is far too big an ask. But Renfield could help you mask your powers by having a translator pok¨¦mon and Searah¡¯s not too high maintenance.


    ¡°No.¡± Before you can argue he cuts you off. ¡°They would only distract you. Besides, I needed money for the school¡¯s tuition.¡± No. He can¡¯t¡ª ¡°I sold Nari¡¯s pok¨¦mon this morning.¡±


    You¡ª


    He¡ª


    You¡ª


    You never got to say goodbye.


    Again.


    ¡°You¡¯ll depart to Tenochtitlan tomorrow at¡ª¡± You swing a fist at his face. And miss, falling to the ground in the process. He stands up in an instant and pins your back to the ground with his boot. ¡°Cuicatl. Ichtaca.¡± Disappointment drips from his lips like venom from a snake¡¯s fangs. ¡°Your one virtue was obedience.¡± He presses down harder and you can feel the pressure on your spine and the metal tip on your back. ¡°Danielle¡¯s pok¨¦mon were never yours. They were mine. I did this to help you.¡±


    You scream. He¡¯ll have to back off if


    No.


    Alice isn¡¯t coming.


    Achcauhtli can¡¯t drag him off if he goes too far.


    But you scream anyw¡ªsomething hard strikes you on the cheek. Your jaw snaps down on your tongue. Not hard enough to break clean through but enough to hurt and bleed. He takes a few steps away as you spit out blood.


    ¡°You will apologize,¡± Father finally says as you start to pull yourself together. You will not. Not to him. Not after what he did. The pressure reappears on your back. ¡°You will apologize now.¡± No.


    ¡°Was it for tuition or Patolli debts?¡± you hiss. Blood sputters out of your mouth with the saliva.


    ¡°You will apologize for that remark, too.¡± He presses harder. Much harder. Your chest, such that it is, is smashed painfully against the ground. It¡¯s. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯ve dealt with worse. He thrusts the metal tip of his boot down and steps off. He starts walking away and the door opens. ¡°I¡¯m almost glad Danielle died when she did,¡± Father says. ¡°She would¡¯ve hated to see what became of her daughter.¡±


    The door slams shut and you slowly press yourself up to all fours. A simple flex of your spine brings pain but shows that nothing¡¯s broken. A quick stroke of your tongue shows the same for your mouth. No. Not quite. You spit out a shard of tooth. It was at the back. No one will notice. Doesn¡¯t hurt when your tongue touches it.


    Good. You¡¯re running away. You¡¯ll find your way to America and make good, valuable dollars. Then you¡¯ll buy back at least Alice, Renfield, and Searah.


    Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Before that¡­ Father is stronger than you but he must sleep. Even you could smother him and run away in the dark.


    No.


    It would be killing your own blood; the Eagle Warriors would hunt you down. And. And. No. You don¡¯t deserve to. You already killed his son and wife. He did everything he could for Achcauhtli and the village. Thought he was doing everything he could for you. He does care for you. Loves you. And Mom loved him. Gods, you killed your mother¡¯s son. If she ever would have liked you, she hates you now. If you killed Father, too¡­


    You bow your head in shame for ever considering it. If anything, you owe enough to your mother and brother that you need to come back to him once this wrong is righted.


    You can face Father again with a hydreigon at your side.


    [-15:02:28]


    You know that you¡¯re slipping to a bad place. Maybe as bad as the day by the water in Hau¡¯oli. Miss Bell pulled you out then. She¡¯s not here to do that again. Should you call her later? She hasn¡¯t messaged you since you saw her between missions. No leads on Alice, apparently. Not that you could even act on any right now. Cheapest you¡¯ve seen one auctioned for was $781,500. Then you¡¯d need a little more money for Searah and Renfield. Neither species seems that expensive but if their new owner realizes you¡¯re attached they might drive the price way up.


    Nothing is happening in here. You should go outside. You bought an audiobook rental account earlier. So long as you don¡¯t buy the books it¡¯s cheap to read them for a few days. Plus, you can make notes on the big stuff. At the very least you can sit outside under the overhang and listen. It¡¯s probably not the most up-to-date stuff but it will do.


    Your phone buzzes. ¡°Voice Message from Vana Iosua (Plant Girl). Read it: Yes or No?¡±


    You don¡¯t know why she¡¯s so interested in talking to you. Aside from Spike, who wasn¡¯t a typical plant, you don¡¯t have much experience with grass-types. Even your cooking advice doesn¡¯t always translate well to sighted people. But you should reply. It would be rude not to. And you can¡¯t do that in the library. Once your cane is in your grasp you extend it and start trying to map out your earlier steps.


    After accidentally hitting your cane against a wall enough times someone comes to help you out.


    [-14:22:59]


    You have to pee.


    Truth be told you¡¯ve had to be for over an hour, but now you¡¯re at a chapter break and someone just disturbed you by going out the door so it¡¯s time to take care of that. You put your phone back into your bag, stand up and whoa. You stand stock still as the wave of vertigo washes over you. When it leaves your legs are still weak. How long has it been since you ate a proper meal? You didn¡¯t eat breakfast and dinner was early yesterday so¡­ a long time. Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s lunch is closed. You can either wait a few hours or eat out.


    The latter takes money. And it¡¯ll have so many calories. Even if you give Pixie some it¡¯ll still make you fatter. Focus. Pee. Now. You slowly pivot and reenter the library.


    [-14:22:41]


    It¡¯s only misting outside. Pixie still wouldn¡¯t like being out in it. Her fur would get wet and even if she held on for your sake she would be upset. You could send Coco out but she¡¯s not good on a leash. Runs into your cane a lot. Sometimes tries to jerk you around even though you¡¯re much bigger (for now). Makes navigation hard. You elected not to eat out. No. Not quite. You elected to let fate decide. If there¡¯s something on the way to the park that smells too good to resist, well, then you can stuff your face and regret it later.


    You have to ask for directions a few times on the way but you steadily get closer to your destination. Supposedly a bunch of Japanese people came to live in Malie. They built a park themed around Johto. You¡¯ve never been to Asia. Probably never will. This might be as close as you ever get and you might as well enjoy it. Even if you can¡¯t really appreciate the theming.


    When you¡¯re maybe a block or two away your stomach finally makes you do something stupid. Something smells like dough. Kind of fresh dough. And fruit. Maybe meat? A sweetness to it. A lot of scents mixed together but it¡¯s not unpleasant. Smells close. You pull out Pixie¡¯s ball and let her out. The fox shakes herself off, hisses, and shoots out a wave of cold. Probably trying to freeze the water droplets in the air. Good girl. You bend down a little bit to get her attention. ¡°Can you take me to the food?¡±


    Food isn¡¯t far. Close enough that she just opts to tell you where to go and trail behind. ¡°A few steps forward. A few more. Thought your legs were longer.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for rubbing it in, Pix.¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    You force a smile and shake imaginary dirt off your top. ¡°Nothing. How much further?¡±


    When the food truck approaches you can vaguely sense it. Something ahead of you to the right. Hard to say how you know it¡¯s there but you do. Echoes, maybe? Like a palafin. Once you get close you slow down and start drifting towards the edge of the sidewalk.


    The window opens up and a man¡¯s voice comes out. ¡°Hello. Do you want to order?¡±


    With another forced smile you turn towards him and brush a few stray locks of hair out of your face. ¡°Yes. What do you sell?¡±


    ¡°Cr¨ºpes.¡±


    Your power can¡¯t translate it. That¡¯s just the name of the thing. At least, there¡¯s not a Nahuatl word for it that you know. The meaning in his mind can¡¯t match one in yours. Whatever they are they smell good. ¡°What do you recommend?¡± You don¡¯t want him to read the entire menu to you. It¡¯s a little embarrassing and you¡¯re out in the mist with an impatient fox.


    ¡°Sweet or savory?¡±


    Hmm. Ordinarily you¡¯d be mad that you asked for an opinion and you got a question. You¡¯re exhausted and thinking about food just wears you down more. But this is a decent question. Savory probably has more calories. More cost. Closer to a real meal. Sweet is immature. Childish. Irresponsible. It¡¯ll last for an hour or two at most.


    ¡°Sweet,¡± your stomach says before your brain can make a decision.


    ¡°Rawst, then.¡±


    He gives a price. Higher than you¡¯d like. Of course, you don¡¯t even know how much food you¡¯re getting. You don¡¯t want to ask. You might just walk away altogether. And you can afford it, even if it isn¡¯t wise. There¡¯s someone in line behind you and they don¡¯t object to the price so it¡¯s probably what¡¯s on the menu. You almost want to haggle it even if you know Americans hate it. In the end you just turn over a few bills and get some coins back in return.


    After a few minutes of waiting you finally get your order. It¡¯s big but thin. Kind of light. Still a reasonable price by American standards. You pivot and step further back onto the sidewalk. Pix follows by your side, a tail flick marking her location. ¡°You smell grass? Trees?¡± She yips. ¡°Can you lead me there?¡±


    She wordlessly passes by you, making sure to rub against your leg so that you know where she is. She occasionally grunts as you walk behind her, sweeping with your cane with one hand and trying to balance a kind of unwieldy cr¨ºpe in the other. You don¡¯t really know if it¡¯s sloppy or not but so far the shape seems to have held. By the time the faint whiff of gasoline and dull roar of humanity starts to get replaced by wet grass and birdsong your stomach¡¯s started to growl again. ¡°Food is here,¡± it says. ¡°Human is in eating mood. Must remind her she is hungry.¡± Bad stomach. You already knew all of that.


    Once you¡¯re into the park for real and feel the pavement shift from asphalt to gravel under your sandals you give Pix new orders: ¡°Can you find a shelter? Some place to sit out of the rain.¡± You¡¯re pretty sure she knows what a shelter is. Can¡¯t hurt to clarify. A puff of cool air hits your ankles and you can faintly hear her moving through the grass. The rain starts to pick up a little and you hear an angry yap in front of you when the first real raindrop hits Pix. You retract your cane and step off the path. The blades of grass reach through the sandals to tickle your feet and you know that you¡¯re going to have to wash off all the clippings stuck in your shoes later but for now you welcome it. Soft. Good length. Not like the dry, long grass by Blush Mountain. Once your shoes hit concrete again you almost trip. The shelter has a floor about two centimeters off the ground. Thankfully you don¡¯t faceplant. The cr¨ºpe doesn¡¯t even fall from your hands. You extend the cane again and find your way to a picnic table. Above you the rain picks up some more but strikes the roof instead of you.


    When your cane hits something hard you feel it out and discover a picnic table. You gently lower yourself down to sit and hear Pix jump¡ªtwice¡ªto get on top of the table. Your free hand slaps down beside you. ¡°Pix, please sit here.¡± She complies with a meaningless grumble.


    Cr¨ºpe time. You unwrap the aluminum foil and feel around the edges. Doesn¡¯t seem like too much got out. Just a little¡­ cream? You bring the tip of your finger to your mouth and taste it. Probably. Sweet. A little thick. Further fingertip inspection shows that it¡¯s a tortilla folded on itself with some filing in the middle. You gently hold it level and bring it up to bite.


    It¡¯s good. The cream(?) flows just enough that what you bit off flows a little inside your mouth while staying in the part of the tortilla you didn¡¯t eat. Kind of cold. Contrasts with the warm tortilla. Another bite brings the rawst berries in. Sweetened. Probably in a syrup of some kind. Do they even grow rawst here? It changes the texture. Not in a bad way.


    The filling and berries are sweet but feel like they have substance. Easy to eat. You smile despite yourself. You need to learn how to make these. What culture is it from anyway? Asia? Ugh. You¡¯ve done a lot of cooking but almost all of it was traditional.


    Father. The cream turns sour in your mouth and your smile fades. So little of the cr¨ºpe left. You let yourself go. Enjoy sweets like you have any right to after what you¡¯ve done. You put the rest down next to Pix and stew in your feelings while she devours it. How dare you? Your brother is dead by your hand and you let yourself act like nothing happened.


    Father is cruel. Blunt. Not always the best at business. Loses much on his games and keeps playing anyway. But he wasn¡¯t wrong about you.


    There¡¯s a content mewling beside you before Pixie stretches out, her front paws pressing into the side of your leg before she curls up and her tail casually rests on you. ¡°Where¡¯s Eggbreath?¡±


    Right. It¡¯s not about you. There¡¯s a call from deep inside to just be quiet and take the punishment. Throw up as penance. Whatever must be done. Maybe you will. Not now. You had a purpose.


    ¡°She¡¯s in her ball. I wanted to talk to you without your sister.¡±


    Her tail is very pointedly moved off your lap. ¡°Not my sister,¡± she growls.


    You shrug. Just keep raising it. Eventually she¡¯ll stop arguing. Maybe even accept it. Doesn¡¯t have to be now. ¡°I still want to talk.¡± No verbal answer. No flick of the tail. She¡¯s waiting on you to speak. Why can¡¯t you pull words from the pit in your stomach? Just. Try. You had a prepared speech and everything. Deep breath. You¡¯ve got this. Just get through this and then you can fall apart. ¡°Two moons ago I asked you what you wanted and if I could help.¡± A pause for dramatic effect. You really wish you could gauge her reaction. ¡°I want to ask it again. What do you want?¡±


    She doesn¡¯t answer for a long time. It takes everything you have to not spiral deeper in the silence.


    ¡°Everyone leaves,¡± she finally says. ¡°Parents. Humans. Everyone. You¡¯ll leave.¡±


    That¡¯s a lot more than you were expecting. You¡¯d been prepared, well, you¡¯d been planning to slowly drag the truth from her. Didn¡¯t think she¡¯d be that self-aware.


    ¡°And what do you want from me?¡±


    You hear her shift next to you. Still doesn¡¯t touch you. ¡°You¡¯ll leave.¡±


    Didn¡¯t answer your question. Doubt you¡¯ll get an answer if you ask again. Okay. Different track.


    ¡°If I say I won¡¯t you¡¯ll say that I¡¯m lying, right?¡± She doesn¡¯t answer. That¡¯s a yes. ¡°I get it. Words don¡¯t mean much. Someone else told you that they wouldn¡¯t leave you and they did?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Thought as much. One human lies about one thing, all humans lie about everything. It¡¯s a lonely thought but not all wrong.


    ¡°Well,¡± you take a deep breath and prepare to rip open some wounds for her sake. ¡°I already left Ce for you. Hated doing that. Tolerated a lot of nighttime screams. Let you move my cane over and over again. Watched you goad your sister into misbehaving a lot. And you told Ce to sleep on my face one night, right?¡± And, you, Pixie, are ugly, stupid, helpless, unmarriable, and a kin-killer. You swallow the thought and press on. You have to you¡¯re just like him. ¡°A-and you know what? I haven¡¯t left you. Didn¡¯t go through all of that to leave you now.¡±


    No. That wasn¡¯t right. It¡¯s still wrong. Tearing her down and saying that you¡¯ll sink down and stay with her. There¡¯s another part. One that your family never quite taught you. Deep breath. Stop crying. You can do this.


    ¡°And I still love you, okay? You¡¯re very soft and pretty and you have a lot of personality. Just¡­¡± Fine. You can¡¯t stop yourself from crying. You at least turn away so she can¡¯t see the tears. ¡°But this isn¡¯t working for either of us and we need to talk about where we go from here.¡±


    You¡¯ll cry but you won¡¯t sob. This is about her, not you.


    ¡°Damn it, Pix, say something.¡±


    A paw presses into your leg. ¡°You¡¯re sad?¡±


    Say something that isn¡¯t about that, damn it.


    ¡°I¡­ yes. Sometimes.¡± There are good hours. Days, even. Maybe. Right now you can¡¯t remember what they feel like or if they ever existed at all. ¡°It¡¯s not important.¡±


    Another paw joins the first. ¡°Because of me?¡±


    ¡°No. I-I killed my brother and I don¡¯t¡­¡± know how to feel. A lie. You do. You¡¯re feeling it right now and you very well should.


    ¡°Were there seven?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    The paws withdraw and you can faintly feel her weight shift through the bench. Standing up? ¡°There were seven. Six would be kept. You killed one.¡± She says it like it¡¯s simple. Justifiable, even. Common sense.


    ¡°Is that¡­ what happens when there are three vulpix?¡±


    ¡°I should have.¡±


    She¡¯s deadly serious. What the fuck? ¡°When there are three, even two pok¨¦mon, you try and¡­¡± You struggle to say the words that you know finishes the sentence. ¡­kill them.


    Pixie figures it out anyway. ¡°Sometimes.¡± Gods above, what do you even say to that? ¡°I don¡¯t like being left alone,¡± she says with a low, almost inaudible hiss. Shame, maybe. Or weakness. Rolling over and letting you take a shot at her organs. Metaphorically. ¡°Then why¡¯d you kill your brother?¡±


    And there she returns the shot in kind. A bullet straight to the heart.


    ¡°I¡­¡± You have to do this now. If you don¡¯t she might get scared and leave on her own. Doesn¡¯t make it easier. ¡°He was sick. I knew he was sick. Didn¡¯t think it was bad. He asked me not to tell. I went hunting. When I came back he was dead.¡±


    The rain continues to pound on the roof. Condemnation. The heavens themselves judging you for what you did.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t kill him?¡±


    Your scowl deepens and you growl from years of dragon bonding instincts. ¡°If I¡¯d told someone he could have been treated with¡­ potions and stuff. Wouldn¡¯t have died.¡±


    She shakes herself off and starts pacing on the narrow bench, the sounds of little footsteps barely audible over the pounding of the rain and your heart. ¡°Did you poison him?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Gods, no. You never could have.


    ¡°Hurt him? The wound got infected?¡±


    As if you could even hurt him if you wanted to. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then you didn¡¯t kill him?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not that simple.¡±


    ¡°Humans,¡± the word is loaded with disdain. ¡°Mistakes happen. Weavile attack. Sisters die. Life goes on.¡±


    Cold. Brutal. Draconic, even.


    And you thought you were a predator.


    Her pacing stops and she walks back towards you. ¡°Is that why you were kicked off your mountain?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s related to that.¡± You don¡¯t dare explain your mission to her. Not now. You¡¯ll need more than three teammates and you don¡¯t know how you could convince her if she knew. Before she asks for more information you need to move on. ¡°Details don¡¯t matter. I¡¯m going to stay with you, Pix. Promise. But I need you to at least try to be nice to other pok¨¦mon. Don¡¯t give me too much stress. A few games and pranks are fine but, this,¡± you spread our your arms. Not really sure what this shows to her. ¡°This needs to stop.¡±


    That didn¡¯t go at all how you planned it to. This was supposed to be a negotiation, not an ultimatum.


    She¡¯s silent for long enough that you begin to think you¡¯ve pushed her too far and made a terrible mistake. You love Coco. As long as she¡¯s toothless your team can¡¯t do anything. Both can be true.


    ¡°No eevee. No ice-types.¡±


    Nothing that could replace her.


    ¡°Deal.¡± You lower a hand to her and she tepidly sniffs it before slowly raising a paw onto your fingers.


    Your stomach roars and ruins the moment. She slips her paw off and backs away. Above you the rain¡¯s a little bit weaker. You could probably walk in it if you had to. And you have to. Eat now or you¡¯ll keep spiraling for at least another twelve hours. ¡°You don¡¯t have to walk in this weather if you don¡¯t want to. That¡¯s my part of the deal. I won¡¯t make you fight or work unless you agree.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m walking you.¡±


    Maybe she doesn¡¯t believe you. Took the wrong message. Thinks she has to earn your love. Maybe. Right now you don¡¯t really care. Just a sad, pathetic child who wants to stuff her face.


    Focus. There will be more food at the Center if you can wait.


    You slowly bend your face muscles into a smile while you take out Pix¡¯s harness. Calm your breathing. All you have to do for now.


    The rain will wash away the tears.

 Electric 6: Genesis

    Electric 2.6: Eventually


    Genesis


    [-14:13:33]


    You wake up to the sound of Cuicatl hissing below you. No, not hissing. Words. Cursing? Not in English. Weird.  You glance down right before the lights flash on and force you to close your eyes.


    ¡°You okay?¡± Kekoa asks. ¡°Oh shit,¡± they answer.


    You wait for the neon blue afterglow to fade from the back of your eyelids before opening them up. Blood. There¡¯s, um, a bunch of blood on Cuicatl. With a shiver you go back to staring at the ceiling.


    ¡°Yes, I felt them,¡± Cuicatl mutters. Clearly in a bit of pain. ¡°They¡¯re very good teeth.¡± Coco makes a happy chirping noise. Weirdly similar to the pew pew of a cartoon laser.  ¡°No!¡± You startle from the shout right beneath you. ¡°You don¡¯t have to show anyone else. Promise. Please don¡¯t.¡± A red glow shines on the ceiling before quickly fading.


    ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s get you down to the nurse,¡± Kekoa says.


    Cuicatl huffs. ¡°Someday I¡¯ll stay in a Center and not have to see the nurse.¡±


    ¡°Are, uh, you really hurt?¡± You keep your eyes bolted on the ceiling and study the little ripples in the plaster.


    ¡°I¡¯ve been worse.¡± She sighs. ¡°Coco bit Pix on the tails. She¡¯s going to be mad.¡±


    People move below and Cuicatl lets out another sharp, pained hiss.


    ¡°Sure you can walk?¡± Kekoa asks.


    ¡°Yeah. Barely broke the skin.¡±


    You¡¯d think a tyrunt bite would do a lot worse. She¡¯s pretty lucky. Not sure what to say next. ¡°Have fun¡± is entirely wrong. ¡°Good luck¡± is maybe too morbid? The door shuts before you can decide on something. And Kekoa left the lights on because of course they did.


    [-14:6:34]


    ¡°I¡¯m buying denim.¡±


    You step through the doorway into a tense argument in the making. Kekoa¡¯s leaning back on the ladder to your bunk while Cuicatl glares (?) at them from her new bed. She¡¯s gripping the scruff of Coco¡¯s neck hard enough that her knuckles are white. For her part the dinosaur¡¯s tail is held straight back and she¡¯s bent down like a persian ready to pounce.


    ¡°Cotton kills. You know that, right?¡±


    Even you remember that from orientation. It uh, gets wet, and then it¡­ poisons you? Can¡¯t remember why it kills.


    ¡°By hypothermia. We¡¯re in the tropics.¡±


    You¡¯re still hovering by the door. When all three of you are awake you remember how small these rooms really are. ¡°Hi¡­¡±


    Cuicatl turns to you, relaxes, and half-smiles. Relaxes. Coco yanks herself free and bolts across the aisle to Kekoa. They shoot the dino a nasty glare and easily bat her aside with a quick kick well before they get bit. You glance back and find that Cuicatl¡¯s smile¡¯s been twisted beyond recognition, her face scrunched together and the edge of her lip curled up in a vicious sneer.


    ¡°What just happened?¡± Her voice somehow sounds like a sword unsheathing in a movie. Her power? Just a thing she does? A trick of your imagination?


    ¡°Kekoa managed to kick Coco before they got bit.¡±


    The air immediately feels colder and Pix isn¡¯t even out. ¡°Kekoa,¡± she says. Her voice is perfectly flat but there are somehow layers and layers of rage behind it. ¡°You don¡¯t kick my pok¨¦mon. You don¡¯t hit my pok¨¦mon. You. Don¡¯t. Hurt them. Not ever.¡±


    Coco, suddenly very uneasy, looks back and forth between her fighting parents. You know the feeling. Poor girl.


    ¡°I¡¯m not letting her bite me.¡±


    You think that some of Kekoa¡¯s fight is gone. In its place there¡¯s¡­ nervousness? Uncertainty? Fear? Ugh. Negative, doubtful-ish feeling.


    Cuicatl slowly shakes her head. ¡°You should buy denim, too.¡± She gently taps the bed beside her twice and Coco bends back down, wiggles her butt a little, and jumps up onto the bed while her arms flap uselessly in the air.


    Well. You sort of started this mess. It falls to you to finish it. ¡°So¡­ um, if you want to go to the thrift store I¡¯m entirely down to take you. Could be fun!¡±


    [-14:5:49]


    For once it¡¯s not raining. That¡¯s something to celebrate. And after a shower and hot meal Cuicatl does look happier as she walks next to you. Well, walks attached to you. She¡¯s grabbing your arm. Not your hand. Good. Would¡¯ve had to say no if she asked to hold hands. Too much risk of repeating the whole Lyra thing. Her hair¡¯s almost jade when it¡¯s wet. Ordinarily it¡¯s sort of a light green. Looks better wet, really, although clumps do occasionally stick onto her face.


    It takes a long time to walk there (Cuciatl says you don¡¯t have clothing and bus money and she might be right) but eventually you get to the store. It¡¯s very big. Almost cavernous. Smells a little too much like disinfectant for your taste and the lights are almost uncomfortably bright. Not that the latter would bother Cuicatl. Lucky.


    First you try the women¡¯s section because Cuicatl isn¡¯t a kid. She told you that it wouldn¡¯t work but you¡¯d at least wanted to try to get something that fit right and looked adult. As it turns out Cuicatl doesn¡¯t actually own much stuff that was made with normal sizes in mind. But she does know her measurements so a few quick internet searches help you find the sort of stuff you¡¯re looking for. She was right after all. Well, onto the big kids section. Cuicatl looks pretty bummed out about that. Maybe you should¡¯ve just gone there at the start so the reminder was less obvious. Things to remember.


    But! You do find something really great!


    ¡°Hey, Cuicatl?!¡±


    She turns towards you. Clearly not as excited as you are.


    ¡°I found a shirt for you.¡±


    It¡¯s a basic t-shirt with an orange base and a hydreigon drawn on the front with the word ¡°DANGEROUS¡± in all caps beneath it. Definitely fits her vibe. She seems to agree; a faint smile forms as you describe it.


    ¡°How much is it?¡±


    ¡°Six dollars.¡±


    She shrugs. You¡¯ll take that as a yes.


    Eventually you find some jeans that should fit her and take her back to the dressing rooms. She goes into one before you can ask if she¡¯ll need help. Thankfully you¡¯re still kind of in earshot if she needs any. Just standing very still and straining your ears to hear if she falls or something.


    Your worries were unnecessary. She comes out unhurt in the jeans, shirt, and her sandals. The clothes are about the right length but are still a little off. Cuicatl isn¡¯t built like a tweenage boy so they hug her a little tight in some parts and hang loose in others. Maybe a little uncomfortable but it looks nice. Attractive without being slutty. More than anything you¡¯re just struck by how normal she looks. You can almost imagine having gone to classes and hanging out with her in the past. Sure, she was always your age, but with the blindness and the way she dressed there was always something marking her as from a different world than you. That¡¯s not entirely gone since she still has ear piercings and green hair and cataracts but it¡¯s shifted somehow. She could have been your weird friend.


    ¡°You look good.¡±


    She smiles. For real. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Before you can say anything else your phone begins to vibrate in your pocket. Local area code. ¡°One sec. Gonna take this.¡± You answer. ¡°Hello, Genesis speaking.¡± Not like anyone else would be speaking on your phone. Should you have left that part out?


    ¡°Gen?¡± Your heart jumps into your throat and stops you from breathing. Metaphorically. (Hopefully.) ¡°¡­you still there?¡±


    ¡°I. Yes.¡± You start walking away from Cuicatl for a little bit more privacy.


    ¡°Good. You still in Malie?¡±


    How¡¯d he know you were in Malie in the first place? Does it matter? ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Cool. So am I. You want to meet up?¡±


    ¡°One second.¡± After muting the phone you go back to Cuicatl. ¡°You have Pix and her harness, right?¡±


    ¡°Is everything okay?¡±


    Not an answer to the question.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ¡°Yes. Do you have the harness?¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    ¡°Good. I have to run now. I¡¯ll see you later. Maybe tonight.¡± Not sure how long this lasts. Best case scenario you¡¯ll just go back tonight to get the last of your stuff and then you¡¯ll be off the trail for good.


    So, so close.


    It isn¡¯t far to the meetup spot. Just a couple blocks, seven minutes, and three percentage points off your phone¡¯s battery. Then you¡¯re standing in a strip mall parking lot looking at a fairly well trafficked breakfast place. Maybe you shouldn¡¯t have gone for the mediocre Pok¨¦mon Center food this morning. You take a deep breath, roll your shoulders, and walk through the doors. You spot your brother in his adorable little suit and slacks and you make a beeline for him. He gets up to intercept you and you share an absolutely glorious hug at the end of the table. You don¡¯t cry, of course. You¡¯re very strong. Has he grown? It¡¯s been a few months¡ªa few months!¡ªso probably. He seems taller. You can¡¯t comfortably rest your head on his.


    He breaks contact and slowly sits back down on his end of the booth. You slip into your side and figure out what to say. What to say, what to say. For all that you¡¯d dreamed of this nothing actually comes. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you,¡± Levi finally says.


    ¡°You too,¡± you say like a genius poet. ¡°How¡¯d you find me?¡±


    ¡°Luck, mostly. Found a note in Dad¡¯s office. Bugged him about it. He gave me your number, loaned me Red, and told me not to go find you.¡± Red. Dad¡¯s pyroar. Descendant of your great-grandfather¡¯s starter. You¡¯ve always been a little scared of her but¡­ you¡¯re starting to realize how much you¡¯ve missed her. Missed everything.


    The waitress comes and you have to quickly glance at the menu. Pancakes seems good. The Center¡¯s pancakes are always pretty bad and you can add good pancakes to the long list of things that you¡¯ve missed. When she leaves you¡¯ve finally thought of what to say. ¡°How have you been the last few months?¡±


    He shrugs and takes a sip of his water. ¡°Fine. Classes are good. Mom¡¯s been kind of weird and Dad¡¯s¡­ out of the country more often than not. Think he would¡¯ve come with me but he¡¯s meeting with some military people. Talking silk prices, I think.¡± Wait, spider silk. It¡¯s bulletproof. Could probably block tyrunt teeth. Maybe even tyrantrum bites. But normal-sized clothes don¡¯t fit Cuicatl and tailored silk isn¡¯t really something you can afford. When you get a card again that would be a good gift. Levi smiles. ¡°No adventures or anything. Tell me everything, please.¡±


    Everything is a bit much to ask. You¡¯re not sure how much you want to tell him about Kekoa and a lot of stuff was surprisingly boring. But there is a lot that you can share. By the time your food has come you¡¯ve told him about the oranguru trial, bear attacks, castform hunting and why Count Cloudy is the best and will be even bestester when he learns to control the weather, leafeon and why they¡¯re surprisingly good-smelling and cuddly, the brave Sir Bubbles, Pixie¡¯s antics, Kekoa and Cuicatl raising a dinosaur together¡­ when the food comes you keep talking between bites and by the time you¡¯re both finished you still haven¡¯t quite told him everything. Levi just smiles and occasionally asks questions but he really does look interested and you like being around him so you just keep going.


    Eventually the plates get taken away. Eventually the waiter asks if you want desert and you say no. Eventually your glass stops getting refilled. Eventually you take the hint. Eventually it gets a little bit too awkward to stay in place.


    Levi pays and you head off for ice cream. On the way you let out Count Cloudy and Levi tries to shake his hand¡­ blob¡­ things. They¡¯re made of water vapor so it doesn¡¯t work but His Grace at least seems amused by it.


    Your brother does come around to talk more about himself. School is fine. (You tamp down your jealousy that he gets to go to school at his age.) He saw a movie with some friends. Went to the mainland with Dad.


    He awkwardly shifts. Weird. That¡¯s more of your thing. He looks down and away from your gaze. ¡°I need to go back soon.¡±


    Even you can realize that the ¡°I¡± instead of ¡°we¡± is a big deal. Should have realized it a long time ago. Dad not wanting to come himself. The not-approval Levi received to even meet with you. So obvious. But you¡¯d hoped that¡­ that this was it. Made yourself believe in spite of everything.


    It feels like it should be raining. Yet it¡¯s the only day this week that it isn¡¯t. Funny how that works, right? At least Count Cloudy would shoot some water guns at your head if you asked.


    Levi awkwardly pulls a few neatly folded bills out of his breast pocket and hands them to you. Hundreds. Several. Four? Five? ¡°Sorry that I don¡¯t have more, but¡­¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s plenty. Really.¡±


    More than plenty, Kekoa might say. Wait. How do you even use this? You¡¯d have to say where it came from and then there would be follow-up questions and eventually Kekoa would find out things he shouldn¡¯t and everything would fall apart. Then Cuicatl¡­ she would change, too. Girl needs money and you¡¯d just be a means to an end.


    You¡¯ll have to break it up into smaller chunks. Claim that you¡¯re getting periodic donations from the family.


    Since when did you get so good at hiding things?


    ¡°We can still call or you can visit again, right?¡±


    He keeps his eyes averted. ¡°Maybe? Mom checks my phone. Worried that we¡¯re talking. Next time you¡¯re in a city you could try to message Dad. I could find an excuse to visit that wouldn¡¯t tip Mom off.¡±


    You don¡¯t really get told that far in advance where you¡¯re going next but you will be between missions in a little bit. Right after the solstice, actually. Timing isn¡¯t great but you can pretend that it¡¯s just delayed celebration. ¡°Yeah. I should be in the main Center in Hau¡¯oli on the 27<sup>th</sup>. Head out again around the New Year. Don¡¯t know the exact day, yet.¡±


    Levi smiles and runs a hand through his hair. ¡°Good. I¡¯ll swing by then. See if I can get Dad to come since it¡¯ll be solstice season and everything.¡±


    ¡°That would be nice.¡±


    He flicks his head to the side. ¡°You want to come with me to the harbor?¡±


    You really do.


    It¡¯s mostly quiet on the way. There¡¯s just too much to say to say any of it. And you don¡¯t want to distract from Levi¡¯s presence by focusing on words. You¡¯ve missed him. So, so much. For some reason it¡¯s hitting you harder now than it has at any point before.


    Once his ship leaves and you wave him off you find a quiet picnic shelter in the park where you can cry undisturbed.


    [-12:14:51]


    ¡°This isn¡¯t a beach day,¡± Kekoa says. Even though you¡¯re on a remote beach northwest of Malie, it¡¯s not raining, and the water looks lovely and you could just wade in a little without getting your clothes wet. ¡°We¡¯re just here to catch crabrawler.¡±


    Spoilsport. You still take your shoes and socks off, anyway. Less chance of blisters and you¡¯d like to feel the sand between your toes. Cuicatl apparently had the same idea. Great! Now it¡¯s just Kekoa standing on a beach in hiking boots, probably getting lots of sand in them.


    ¡°Fine, whatever.¡± Kekoa mutters. They ask their trumbeak to¡ªyeah, you aren¡¯t really listening. Time to get your feet wet. A little while after you can hear a very angry bird loudly pecking at something, followed by a scuffle in the sand. The fight stops far too quickly.


    Drat. You were hoping this was going to be a long capture day.


    ¡°Guess I¡¯m up,¡± Cuicatl mumbles, clearly no happier than you. ¡°Come on, Coco! Let¡¯s attack some trees!¡±


    It¡¯s fun to watch the dinosaur growl up at a crab¡ªonly to take a coconut to the head. It seems to annoy her more than anything, and she starts tackling the tree trunk until the crab comes flying down, claws drawn back¡ªinto an ice shard. Coco jumps back at her trainer¡¯s command and Pix takes over, firing off a confuse ray. The battle doesn¡¯t go too well for Pix, but eventually the crabrawler is so confused that it trips over its own legs and falls to the ground. Cuicatl catches it shortly after (with Kekoa guiding her arm when she throws the ball).


    ¡°Well, Genesis.¡±


    Kekoa looks at you expectantly. It¡¯s your turn to find and catch a crab to use against the stupid metal hedgehog at the top of the mountain so that you can stay in the Pok¨¦mon Centers a while longer. If Dad doesn¡¯t rescue you. Which he probably will.


    ¡°Can¡¯t we just enjoy life a little?¡±


    Kekoa huffs and shakes their head. ¡°We only have a few more days of good weather. You want to hike up a mountain in the rain?¡±


    ¡°Fine, whatever.¡±


    You put your shoes back on and send out Green Knight and County Cloudy.


    [-12:22:07]


    Cuicatl reenters the clearing. Coco¡¯s beside her on the shortest leash she could find in Malie and Pixe¡¯s keeping a wide berth from the dinosaur. It¡¯s still weird to see the girl in normal clothing. Good weird. Wait. Pixie and Coco. Just Pixie and Coco.


    ¡°Where¡¯s your crabrawler?¡±


    She shakes her head. ¡°Pix met a crabominable before. Didn¡¯t like them one bit. Thought it was best to let Kekoa look after him for now.¡± Right. The big crabs are ice-types. Makes sense they would live on the ice mountain with the ice foxes. ¡°Besides, Coco thought he was a toy.¡±


    Ouch.


    Her foot gently taps a log and she maneuvers to sit down on it. Coco¡¯s leash is kept taut despite the dinosaur¡¯s attempt to yank herself free. ¡°Hey, Gen? Mind sparring?¡±


    ¡°Um. Yeah. Sure? What did you have in mind?¡±


    ¡°Target practice. Have Coco try and hit Count Cloudy in midair.¡± But she can¡¯t fly? No. That¡¯s the point. A shrike hunt. Something to wear Coco down and buy her trainer a moment of peace. Brilliant.


    You send Count Cloudy out and Coco¡¯s eyes immediately lock onto the castform. ¡°Count Cloudy, dodge Coco¡¯s attacks!¡± Sure, you didn¡¯t need to shout that like you were on one of Lyra¡¯s cartoons, but you¡¯d best get into the habit. It¡¯s way more fun when you do that in actual battles.


    Cuicatl bends over and unclips the harness. ¡°Bite the cloud. Go.¡±


    Coco rockets off, leaps into the air while flapping her arms¡­ and misses before crashing back to earth. She shakes herself off surprisingly quickly and goes for a second attack. Cuicatl leans back on the log and takes a deep breath. ¡°Why¡¯d you have to run off yesterday?¡±


    Ugh. Thought that you wouldn¡¯t have to talk about that since she didn¡¯t ask when you came back. Figures she was waiting to ask without Kekoa around. Wherever they are. Somewhere down the trail. Another campsite, maybe? Sometimes it seems like they¡¯ve totally made up with you and sometimes they go sulk in peace. Focus. Might as well tell her most of the truth. That way you don¡¯t have to remember what lie you settled on. Plus she¡¯s psychic. Maybe lies don¡¯t work on her at all.


    ¡°My brother dropped into town. Wanted to see him while he was still here.¡±


    She hums in response. Just holding a single note for an almost impressive amount of time? Using her powers? Behind her Coco makes another fruitless jump. ¡°Thought you got kicked out.¡±


    ¡°What? Why?¡± How? How did she work that one out?


    ¡°You didn¡¯t plan. At all. And you don¡¯t seem to like the outdoors much. Even if it was spur of the moment thing you probably could¡¯ve got a more traditional starter if your parents were signing off. That left running away or getting kicked out. Never took you for a runaway, so¡­¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I be a runaway?¡± You can¡¯t tell if you should be offended or not.


    ¡°You follow orders. Would¡¯ve needed to get pressed really far. You like touch way too much to have been hit. And you aren¡¯t sad enough for being worn down with words. Maybe your parents are atheists and you disagreed on that but you¡¯re named Genesis¡­¡± she shrugs. ¡°No idea why you would¡¯ve been kicked out, though. Not much of a rulebreaker.¡±


    How much of that was her power? ¡°How do you know so much about all of that?¡±


    She grimaces. ¡°Parents are strict in Anahuac. You learn pretty quick how to tell whose Dad does what without having to ask.¡±


    You¡¯re afraid to ask what all her dad did to her. She¡¯d probably get awkward like she did back on Blush Mountain when you pressed. No. Can¡¯t ask. Not directly. There are still other ways to get to it. ¡°So? You a runaway? Get kicked out?¡±


    ¡°Both, actually.¡±


    ¡°How?¡± That doesn¡¯t even make sense.


    She shrugs. ¡°He wanted me to move. I picked another option.¡±


    ¡°And you can just leave the country without his permission?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t really remember. Whole time period was kind of a blur.¡± Another shrug. ¡°I¡¯m here now so I guess I could?¡± A crackle of static sounds off behind her shoulder. She ¡®glances¡¯ back before turning to you. ¡°Please tell me that was Count Cloudy.¡±


    ¡°I, um, think it was Coco?¡± There seemed to be sparks around her mouth at least.


    Cuicatl has the decency to keep her cursing in Nahuatl.


    [-12:21:56]


    The good news: Denim is pretty resistant to cold and electricity.


    The bad news: Denim can be set on fire.


    The good news: Her little dragon knows all of the magic fangs!


    The bad news: One of her jean legs is a little bit scorched.


    The good news: At least she gets jean shorts out of this?


    The bad news: Pix is growling softly at the edge of the clearing with her fur all fluffed up by static.


    The good news: That¡¯s pretty cute.


    The bad news: Cuicatl can¡¯t even see it.

 Electric 7: Unit 1-374

    Electric 2.7: (In)efficient


    Unit 1-374


    [-6:17:17]


    [Unit 4-50 Summons Unit 1-374]


    Alarm Level 1: Mistake Probable


    [Unit 4-50 Alerts Unit 1-374 of Alarm Level 1]


    [Unit 4-50 Summons Unit 1-374]


    Summons Received With No Amendment. Unit 1-374 Initiates Flight to Unit 4-50. Obstacles = None. Atmospheric Anomalies = None.


    Mission Successfully Completed. Summons Answered.


    Unit 4-50 turns towards you. No communication signals are detected. Appraisal continues for approximately 0.711114 seconds.


    [Unit 4-50 Assigns a Mission to Unit 1-374. Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. Corollary1 = Defend UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. No Further Instructions.]


    [Alarm Level 7: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit 1-374. Mission Success Probability Beneath Tolerable Thresholds.]


    [Unit 4-50 Assigns a Mission to Unit 1-374. Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. Corollary1 = Defend UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. No Further Instructions.]


    No further communications signals detected. Appraisal continues.


    Incoming Information Packet. Src = Unit 4-50. Coordinates Enclosed. Image enclosed.


    No further communications signals detected. Appraisal continues.


    [Alarm Level 7: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit 1-374. Mission Success Probability Beneath Tolerable Thresholds.]


    [Unit 4-50 Assigns a Mission to Unit 1-374. Mission = Monitor UnitDesignate: Cuicatl Sometimes inefficient. Ichtaca. Corollary1 = Defend Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. No Further Instructions.]


    Incoming Information Packet. Source = Unit 4-50. Coordinates Enclosed. Image enclosed.


    No further communications signals detected. Appraisal continues.


    You turn away and initiate flight to given coordinates. Unit 4-50 shifts behind you.


    [-6:16:52]


    Terrans Detected. Initiate Visual Scan. Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca identified.


    You lower yourself behind a visual obstruction to avoid detection. Your mission has begun.


    ¡°Something wrong?¡± UnitDesignate: Unknown queries Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca.


    ¡°Nothing, just¡­ I feel something nearby. Another psychic, I think.¡±


    Alarm Level 4: Unit 1-374 Has Been Detected by Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca.


    Options:


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Initiate Ramming


    [] No Action


    Initiate Ramming is the Correct Option in 87.3% of cases. Initiate Ramming Damages Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. Corollary1 = DefendUnit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. Initiate Ramming Prohibited.


    Evasive Maneuvers Negates Surveillance. Inefficient.


    [X] No Action


    ¡°Like an elgyem?¡± Unit Designate: Unknown queries.


    ¡°Maybe.¡± Your exact position has remained undetected. Surveillance continues. ¡°Hey, Pix, can you sniff it out and scare it off?¡±


    Alarm Level 6: UnitDesignate: Pix Will Initiate Hostilities Imminently.


    [X] Initiate Ramming


    You rise up and rocket out from your hiding place, catching a strange white quadruped (UnitDesignate: Pix ?) off guard with a proper Ramming attack. You pivot around in midair and accelerate to Reinitiate Ramming.


    Alarm Level ?: Attack Incoming


    Alarm Level ?: Attack Connected. Assessing Damage¡­


    Alarm Level 7: Heat Vent Malfunctioning.


    The ice clatters to the ground around you with no damage done.


    UnitDesignate: Pix Assigned Threat Level 0.


    Ramming Unnecessary.


    Initiate Ramming?


    [X] Initiate Ramming


    UnitDesignate: Pix yelps in pain as another attack connects.


    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca queries. Query suggests an inability to obtain the information itself. Electromagnetic analysis detects no external scans. Visual analysis detects a possible impairment in her ocular scanning devices. You freeze in place so that any non-visual scanning devices have minimal chance of detecting you.


    ¡°There¡¯s a beldum. Just floating there.¡±


    Alarm Level 7: Reference to Class 1 Unit Detected. Identity exposed.


    Options


    [] Initiate Ramming


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Do Nothing


    Before SelfQuery can proceed Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca initiates communication: ¡°Hi. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    The speech carries a strange program with it. You sequester and analyze. A packet of information is attached contextualizing her communication. The program would then search your databanks for relevant context and translate. Result: ¡°Acknowledgement. Query: Identity?¡±


    Extremely efficient.


    Information filed. Will continue to surveil. Must engage in communication to continue to surveil.


    [Acknowledgement. SelfIdentity = Unit 1-374.]


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca changes the angle of its processing segment. ¡°That¡¯s a strange name.¡±


    [Negation. Efficient.]


    No electromagnetic emissions detected from Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca or UnitDesignate: Unknown. Inefficient.


    [Query Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca: How are messages from Unit 1-374 received and processed?]


    ¡°Oh, um, I¡¯m psychic. Like you.¡±


    Query Program Meaning: Psychic?


    The ability to send and receive messages directly between central processing units.


    Efficient. Similar to Unit001, Unit010, and Unit100 abilities. Information filed. Will continue to surveil.


    ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca, girl, you, uh, you aren¡¯t catching a damn beldum, okay?¡± Unit Designate: Unknown orders Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. Hierarchy established. Information filed. Will continue to surveil.


    ¡°Kekoa¡­¡± No auditory signals detected. No verbal signals detected. Psychic communication possible. Unit Designate: Unknown established as Unit Designate: Kekoa. Information filed. Will continue to surveil. Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca turns back towards you. ¡°What are you doing over here tonight?¡±


    Options


    [] Relay Orders


    [] Relay False Orders


    [] Do Nothing


    [] Initiate Ramming


    Initiate Ramming violates Corrolary1. Relay Orders may reduce receptiveness of Unit Designate: Cuciatl_Ichtaca and its commander. Do Nothing may end communication and hinder surveillance.


    [X] Relay False Orders


    [Unit 1-374 Was Patrolling Territory. Potential Threat Encountered. Potential Threat Investigated. Unit Designate: Pix Assigned Threat Level 0. Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca initiated communication with Unit 1-374. Present moment reached. Debriefing concluded.]


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca begins emitting short, high-pitched audio signals. ¡°Threat Level Zero, you say?¡±


    [Affirmative.]


    A pure psychic signal is received. [It¡¯s okay. I won¡¯t tell her.]


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Even with proper definitions you struggle to decipher the context. What is okay? Why would it not be okay? Who will it not tell? Terran communication codes are extremely inefficient.


    ¡°Well, good to meet you Unit1_374. Have a good night.¡±


    Query Program Meaning ¡°Have a good night¡±


    Meaning: Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca assigns a mission to Unit 1-374: Be successful until direct light from the nearest star is visible.


    Alarm Level 4: Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca does not have clearance to give orders to Class 1 Units.


    [Unit 1-374 Alerts Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca of Alarm Level 2]


    Its mouth shifts and one mouth claw down on the lower edge¡¯s exterior. Fascinating. What is the purpose of that motion?


    ¡°It¡¯s just an expression. I wasn¡¯t actually trying to order you to have a good night. You can leave if you don¡¯t have anything else to do here. That¡¯s all I meant.¡±


    The statement implies the capacity to give orders. The implicit meaning is incorrect. The not-order still presents a dilemma.


    Options


    [] Initiate Ramming


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Do Nothing


    Initiate Ramming prohibited by Corollary1. Evasive Maneuvers ends surveillance mission. Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca can detect Class 1 Units with no detectable signals. Reestablishing surveillance would be difficult. Doing nothing appears to agitate the present Terrans.


    Further analysis required. Terrans, including Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca have subordinate energy beings. Subordinate energy beings are granted near-constant access to their commander. Near-constant access would make surveillance efforts efficient.


    [X] Grant Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca command privileges pursuant to Class 2 and Class 4 directives.


    [Request: Entrust Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca with command privileges over Unit 1-374]


    It ceases to send out auditory, electromagnetic, or psychic signals.


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± it finally messages, ¡°I promise to only evolve them once.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve got to be fucking kidding me.¡±


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca forcefully vents air through its mouth. It may be overheating due to processing strain. Why? What problem is it solving? Nothing? Are terran heat vents less efficient than yours? Is it simply damaged? ¡°They asked. Not me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s, what, your third apex predator? Fourth if you get your hands on mommy¡¯s hydreigon?¡±


    Not all of the codes are familiar. [Query Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca: Meaning: ¡°Apex predator.¡± Meaning: ¡°Mommy.¡± Meaning: ¡°Hydreigon.¡±]


    ¡°Apex predator, mommy, hydreigon,¡± it quietly says. The program does its work.


    Unit Designate: Pix is the top predator of the mountain to the south. Information filed. All organisms on the mountain assigned Threat Level 0.


    Human reproduction is bizarre. Information filed. Efficiency to be assessed at a later time.


    Hydreigon are large reptilians with elemental affinity and raw power that could potentially rival a Class 4 Unit. Information filed.


    ¡°What?¡± Unit Designate: Kekoa queries.


    ¡°Just saying stuff for the beldum. They can use my power to understand words. Think that¡¯s why they want to tag along with me.¡±


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca has invented its own reasons and projected them onto you. Correcting it would hinder the mission.


    [X] Do Nothing


    The two Terrans gaze at each other in silence. No communication signals are detected.


    ¡°And Pix is okay with this?¡±


    Comment suggests that Unit Designate: Pix is a potential superior to both Terrans. Curious. Prior briefings suggested bound energy beings are traditionally in a subordinate role. Is that information incorrect?


    ¡°Pix and I came to an understanding. This is allowed.¡±


    Unit Designate: Pix makes no attempt to give orders. It glares up at you from the ground as waves of cool air radiate away from its body.


    ¡°Metang are big fliers. Could carry gear without using the pack ¡®mon trails.¡±


    ¡°Already thinking about exploiting your pok¨¦mon, huh?¡± Unit Designate: Kekoa¡¯s mouth claws are bared. This is traditionally a sign of aggression on Terra. Are you witnessing a hierarchy dispute? ¡°That¡¯s unlike you.¡±


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca rolls its shoulders in response. ¡°I use what I have. And you¡¯re the one who always complains about the gear.¡±


    ¡°Uh huh.¡± Unit Designate: Kekoa folds its arms and places them over its chest. ¡°Look, I¡¯m just going to be blunt: I¡¯ve heard you talk about giant fuckoff monsters and I don¡¯t trust you not to evolve that thing twice.¡±


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca vents more air. Conflict apparently places a great strain on its processing organs. Inefficiency apparent. Information filed. ¡°I told Mara that I like predators because they remind you not to upset them. Now¡­¡± it trails off. Unit Designate: Kekoa¡¯s reactions suggest that the conversation is finished telepathically. Efficient. Inconvenient.


    Both Terrans slowly lower themselves and sit on the ground. With a motion of its hand Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca summons Unit Designate: Pix over. Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca removes a binding orb from its mobile storage compartment and raises it into the air. ¡°Touch the ball if you want to be caught.¡±


    Being ¡°caught¡± would reduce chances for surveillance and risk successful withdrawal at the conclusion of the mission. Not being ¡°caught¡± would decrease trust from Terrans. Inefficient. Necessary.


    [X] Initiate Ramming


    Alarm Level 23: Corporeal Integrity Lost


    Alarm Level 23: Corporeal Integrity Lost


    Alarm Level 23: Corporeal Integ


    Alarm Level 7: Heat Vent Malfunctioning


    A quick rotation and optic scan detect no changes in your surroundings.


    ¡°Aside from your number do you have a name?¡± Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca queries.


    [Negation]


    ¡°Do you want one?¡±


    Terran names are inefficient. Serial numbers and class designations are efficient. An inefficient name might build trust with Terrans and advance mission objectives.


    [Affirmation]


    ¡°Cool.¡± It pauses and bites the edges of its mouth again. ¡°Nocitl¨¡lin?¡±


    Query Program Meaning: Nocitl¨¡lin


    Meaning: My star.


    Alarm Level 11: Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca claims dominion over the solar system.


    Information filed. Will continue to surveil.


    ¡°And is there a gender you¡¯d prefer? For pronouns.¡±


    Query Program: Gender, Pronouns.


    Terran reproduction is bizarre. Only two units are required. Efficient. Units must each be from a distinct subgroup. Inefficient.


    Class 1 Units have no anatomical subgroups. [Gender inapplicable.]


    ¡°So¡­ they/them?¡±


    Query Program: They/them.


    Terran reproduction is more bizarre and inefficient than previously believed. It is not always apparent what subgroup a unit belongs to. What purpose does this serve?


    [Gender inapplicable.]


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca clears its optic screens with the lids. Why? Optical sensors are severely impaired.


    ¡°Do you mind if I call you a girl? I don¡¯t really want to call you it. And Pix and Coco are girls. And me. I¡¯m female.¡±


    Information filed. Will continue to surveil.


    ¡°Not how any of that works,¡± Unit Designate: Kekoa states.


    ¡°Again, not calling her an it.¡±


    Gender being inapplicable to Class 1 Units seems to cause distress to Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca. Potential violation of Corollary1.


    [Gender = Female]


    ¡°Thank you, Nocitl¨¡lin.¡±


    ¡°Still not how it works.¡±


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca rotates its optical sensors and holds out a hand. ¡°Can I touch you, Nocitl¨¡lin? To know what you feel like?¡±


    Speculation: Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca compensates for optical inefficiency with tactile sensory. Inefficient. Requires contact. Contact requires exposure to potential threats before they can be evaluated. Information filed. Will continue to surveil.


    You slowly float over and gently lower the main segment of your body onto her hand. ¡°Huh,¡± it says. ¡°You¡¯re warmer than I was expecting.


    [Alarm Level 7: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit 1-374. Unit 1-374 is inefficient.]


    ¡°I can get a vet to look at that.¡±


    [Negation. Terran Civilization Insufficiently Advanced. Mission Success Probability Beneath Tolerable Thresholds.]


    ¡°If you¡¯re sure¡­¡± its hand slips off you. ¡°Can I hug you? It¡¯s okay to say no.¡±


    Query Program: Hug.


    Meaning: Embrace with upper appendages. Purpose: Sensory Evaluation, Processing Support. Non-violent.


    Bizarre. Inefficient. How does contact help with processing capabilities? You oblige it. The act is harmless and may build trust. In turn it gently presses you further into its abdomen. ¡°You¡¯re just warm enough for great hugs, you know? That¡¯s efficient.¡±


    [Negation. Hugs = Inefficient.]


    It gently pushes you up and away. ¡°Do you get warmer when you fight?¡±


    [Affirmation.]


    ¡°Once you¡¯ve been fighting long enough you start to burn the stuff that touches you? That¡¯s useful.¡±


    ¡°You giving therapy to a gods damned beldum?¡± Unit Designate: Kekoa queries.


    ¡°Part of my training style,¡± Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca vocalizes. In the meantime, Unit Designate: Pix jumps onto its subordinate¡¯s lower appendages and stands on its hind legs, pushing its upper appendages into its subordinate¡¯s abdomen.


    Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca hugs Unit Designate: Pix.


    [She gets jealous.]


    Query Program: Jealous.


    Meaning: Unit seeks to mimic or steal a trait from another unit.


    [Query Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca: What trait does Unit Designate: Pix seek to mimic or steal?]


    [The hug. If someone else is getting hugs, she wants a hug as well.]


    Inefficient. Hugs are inefficient. Unit Designate: Pix should prioritize acquisition of efficient attributes.


    ¡°Anyways, the combat thing. That¡¯s efficient, right?¡±


    [High System Temperatures result in slower processing. Inefficient.]


    ¡°Sure. But it¡¯s a trainer¡¯s job to come up with strategies in battle. I can help with the thinking. Be-¨C¡° It begins to noisily inhale and then exhale a great volume of air. ¡°¡ªsides, you¡¯re a beldum. You¡¯re very smart.¡± After a gentle shake of its processing section Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca begins to raise itself. Unit Designate: Pix jumps off with a noise that sounds like a complaint. ¡°And I¡¯m very tired. Continue in the morning?¡±


    Is that the role Terrans hold over subordinate(?) energy beings? Fascinating. Terrans are smarter than many energy beings. Sometimes efficient. A properly functioning Class001, 010, or 100 unit has far faster processing speeds. Sometimes inefficient. The efficiency she claims is only a result of your own inefficiency.


    ¡°You can sleep under the rain fly or in your ball. I¡¯d let you in the tent but I¡¯d probably hit my head getting up in the night.¡±


    After querying enough terms to understand the statement you relay your desire to stay under the rain fly. You leave unstated that it maximizes surveillance opportunities.


    The night passes with two incidents.


    Unit Designate: Kekoa leaves the tent and becomes aggressive when you attempt to surveil its fluid release.


    Unit Designate: ??? leaves the tent and seems confused by your presence before waking Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca, who gives a sparse and inefficient debriefing before Unit Designate: Genesis release her fluids. You surveil it at a greater distance than before and agitation seems to be reduced.


    You repeat the process when Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca comes to vent her fluids followed by Unit Designate: Pix and a strange biped with a mix of red and white feathers. An apex predator. Unit Designate: Pix is also an apex predator. Unit Designate: Pix has a threat level of zero.


    When it sees you the biped¡¯s eyes narrow and it slowly lowers its body to the ground, tail sticking straight out behind it. With a few shakes of its hips in warning it leaps surprisingly high into the air, cold air rushing from its vocalization cavity. You float out of the way and it misses, crashing down to the ground a second later before getting up and staring back at you in less than a second, its tail moving horizontally.


    ¡°Coco!¡± Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca vocalizes. ¡°It¡¯s not playtime now.¡±


    Your ¡®trainer¡¯ steps further away from the tent while you keep your ocular scanner pinned on Unit Designate: Coco. It lets out a few grunts in an apparent attempt to initiate communication.


    [Query Unit Designate: Cuicatl Ichtaca: Can Unit Designate: Coco receive or send psychic messages?]


    ¡°Sort of,¡± it answers while draining fluid waste. ¡°I let them talk to each other. Can you figure out how to add yourself?¡±


    [Negation. Class001 Units possesses insufficient psychic capabilities.]


    ¡°Hmm. I¡¯ll translate then. Later. In the morning.¡± It starts walking back to the tent and Unit Designate: Pix finishes draining fluids to walk alongside its subordinate. Unit Designate: Coco drains fluids right on top of Unit Designate: Pix¡¯s waste disposal site and then runs off after the other two.


    Curious. Does stacking waste fluid have an additive effect? You take a small chemical sample and perform basic analysis as the Terrans and energy beings enter a resting state. The two chemicals do not appear to interact. Deliberately stacking them is inefficient.


    You compile a quick report of your initial observations, encrypt it, and cast it out to Unit100_110010.


    6.4 seconds later you receive your response.


    [Acknowledgement. Continue Mission.]


    Directive filed. Will continue to surveil.

 Electric 8: Kekoa

    Electric 2.8: The Lessons Not Learned


    Kekoa


    [-00:03:21]


    You meet up with Cuicatl right as she walks away from the nurse¡¯s counter. She¡¯s facing away from you so you can¡¯t read her expression. Win? Loss? Are ties possible? You tap her shoulder and she jumps a little. Shouldn¡¯t have done it.


    At least, you should¡¯ve been standing so that you could see her face when it happened.


    ¡°How¡¯d it go?¡± you ask. She smirks and flips open her crystal case by way of answer. A yellow gem sits next to her white one. Good for her. ¡°Wanna talk about it or¡­?¡±


    She shrugs. ¡°If you really need my help, I guess I can give it.¡±


    ¡°Like you wouldn¡¯t be begging for info if I went first.¡±


    With a gentle shake of her head Cuicatl pivots away from the counter and slowly begins walking towards the door, cane swishing in front of her. ¡°Talk outside?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    As soon as you¡¯re both out the door Cuicatl stows her cane and sends out her (apparently unscathed) beldum. You shudder involuntarily. She told you that the difference between tyrantrum and metagross is that the former gives lots of warning before biting back and the latter attacks unprovoked with no warning at all. The difference between driving on a busy freeway and driving into traffic on the same road. You¡¯re still unsure why she uses driving metaphors. You want to trust her not to evolve the damn thing twice, really, but you¡¯ve seen her entirely-too-cheerful smile when talking about tyrantrum and hydreigon and you really aren¡¯t sure if you can trust her.


    The monster-in-the-making makes for a surprisingly good guide, though. Cuicatl gently places her hand around the eye-guard spike (or whatever it¡¯s called) and the steel-type floats in the direction she¡¯s supposed to go. Seems more natural than using Pixie. Not that anyone should tell Pixie that.


    ¡°You end up using them?¡± Emphasis on ¡®them.¡¯ Still aren¡¯t comfortable with her using ¡®she¡¯ for a genderless creature.


    ¡°No.¡± She hesitates as the beldum changes angles as you take a fork in the path. ¡°Sophocles used an older trial. Something involving sounds. Grubbin and charjabug as the warmups. Coco took care of both.¡± You shudder as you imagine that thing¡¯s fire fang closing in around your grubbin, Makani. ¡°Crabrawler couldn¡¯t take down the totem. Had to have Pixie confuse him, withdraw her, and then finish with Coco.¡±


    Risky, forfeiting a round like that. Not that the vulpix was going to do too much against a steel-type. She already had her chance to take down a beldum and it didn¡¯t go well for her. Steel-type. Huh. ¡°Did Coco break her teeth biting actual needles or?¡±


    ¡°Some of them.¡± She¡¯s pretty nonchalant about that considering that she lost her fucking shit when you preemptively kicked her. Apparently it¡¯s okay when she orders it, though? ¡°They¡¯ll regrow. Tyrunt are like sharpedo: lose teeth all the time.¡±


    ¡°What set did you face?¡± Not sure if that information matters. Is the totem more inclined to use a set it just ran? Less? The internet is fiercely divided on the question.


    ¡°Defensive. Wish and spiky shield. Had to use confuse ray just to get any damage in at all.¡±


    That¡¯s a nasty combination to make a newbie face. Relative newbie, at least. You could easily see it shutting down your crabrawler, although limited offensive moves might let Hekeli stay in without getting blasted down. Makani definitely couldn¡¯t outpace it.  At least it¡¯s only a togedemaru. Easiest totem you¡¯ll fight in the entire challenge and it shouldn¡¯t have backup. Probably why VStar sent you this way so early. Easy trial if the road there doesn¡¯t kill you.


    You finally make it to where you wanted to go. Cuicatl slows down and feels for the guardrail. Lanakila looms in the distance. You can just make out the stadium on top. The throne. The place where some haole military brat pretends to be the true queen because some professor said so. A kanaka professor at that. Someone who should¡¯ve known better and still went on TV to say that your culture¡¯s backwards traditions are so much worse than the ¡®modern¡¯ way. The American way. Then he built a damn sports stadium on the holiest mountain. You clench your fists and take a moment to bask in the fury. This is why you left home. This is what you¡¯ll be fighting for.


    ¡°Lot going through your head,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°Want to talk?¡±


    Psychic. Duh. You¡¯ll never quite remember and never quite forget that she¡¯s an actual mind reader. ¡°What all did you pick up?¡±


    ¡°Lot of cursing. Something about a queen and a throne? I don¡¯t try to look but you were thinking pretty loud.¡±


    She says it like it¡¯s your fault that you don¡¯t know how to think quietly.


    ¡­


    Doesn¡¯t matter.


    Don¡¯t need to go down that path right now. Just focus on the fury. ¡°During the kingdom you could go through the trials and beat all four kahunas in a row. Then you could fight the queen for the right to rule. They brought something like it back a few years ago. Beat the kahunas or their stand ins, fight a champion who sits on a throne. ¡®cept we¡¯re not independent and the champ didn¡¯t even live here a whole week before she started her challenge. Whole thing¡¯s a joke. One I¡¯m going to end.¡±


    Your friend drums her fingers on the guardrail for a few seconds before answering. ¡°Why end it? You could be king and do what you will.¡±


    ¡°Not king.¡± You sigh. ¡°Champ doesn¡¯t actually have power. Just a throne.¡±


    ¡°Then why does it matter?¡±


    ¡°You wouldn¡¯t get it.¡±


    She raises her hand and the beldum floats back to her from over the guardrail. ¡°Yeah. Don¡¯t think I do.¡±


    [-00:02:44]


    Makani, Hekeli, and the unnamed crabrawler materialize on the court. Hekeli the trumbeak hops up and lifts herself into the air. Makani the grubbin doesn¡¯t do anything at all. Least he didn¡¯t use string shot everywhere. Progress. The crabrawler shuffles uneasily and taps his claws together.


    ¡°Our second trial is soon. Time to warm up.¡±


    You let Hekeli fly laps around the court for a bit while you focus on the crabrawler. Getting Makani to do much of anything without Cuicatl around is a lost cause. Even if you had her translations there¡¯s nothing useful a grubbin could do to warm up. You throw some punches into the air and the crabrawler follows. He understands punching. Understood the basics of what trainers were and what he was expected to do even before you caught him. Punching things out is what he¡¯s built to do and this isn¡¯t too far out of the ordinary for him.


    Still won¡¯t keep him, of course. You have your final team pretty well mapped out.


    By the time Hekeli lands back on your shoulder, you¡¯ve started to break a sweat despite the cool mountaintop air.


    [-00:01:51]


    There¡¯s a plaque in front of the observatory. The plaque itself isn¡¯t eye-catching: a graph with a jagged upward curve. Carbon Dioxide going up, years going forward. It used to be a warning about what humanity was doing to itself. No. What capitalism was doing to humanity. Doesn¡¯t matter anymore. No one did anything.


    Then two spectacularly dumb, spectacularly evil fuckers in Hoenn decided to wake some gods up and kick all the frozen methane off the ocean floor. At the top of the observatory¡¯s steps you glance over your shoulder at the faint outline of Lusamine¡¯s island. People didn¡¯t learn from that lesson either.


    You like the plaque. In a hundred years when the world drowns and some assholes try to insist that no one could have done anything about it, well, there will be a little graph in Alola to show that there¡¯s lots of blame to go around.


    The cool air of the observatory¡¯s lobby rushes out at you when you open the door. There¡¯s a small museum in the lobby. A few displays on space and telescopes. A few poster boards on the graph outside. You ignore it all and press through to the bored-looking receptionist.


    She glances up at you and clicks a key, probably turning the computer back on after however long it had been idling. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Here for the island trial.¡±


    ¡°Name?¡±


    The name of the person who has been scheduled for this time slot for four fucking days. That¡¯s what your name is.


    ¡°Kekoa Mahi¡¯ai.¡± Thanks to Kanoa for getting your name changed before her trial. You owe her a call when this is over.


    A few more keystrokes. ¡°Alright. Go through the door behind me and take a seat. Sophocles will be out shortly.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Good luck,¡± she half-mutters as you walk away.


    Yeah. Fine. She can be a little crabby. You¡¯re making her work the day before the solstice. Sophocles is, anyway. You asked for a time and this is what he gave you.


    There¡¯s not really a bench or couch or normal furniture in the waiting room. Just metal fold-up chairs. Cost-saving? Part of the aesthetic? Not what you would¡¯ve gone with for an electric trial. Least they could¡¯ve done was tape some glow sticks on the frame and pretend it¡¯s cyberpunk.


    You haven¡¯t even sat down when Sophocles walks in. He¡¯s a little bit taller than you. Fair bit chubbier. Hair¡¯s an absolute mess. Some of the captains like to lean in to celebrity. Kanoa said as much before her trial. Then again, she was the most dramatic person you¡¯d known as a kid. Sophocles is either just a teenager who can¡¯t be bothered to play up the image or someone who wants you to think that of him.


    The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Still an asshole, whatever the case is. He gets an ancient mantle, one that was never supposed to belong to people like him, and then won¡¯t show it any dignity.


    You¡¯re so going to enjoy this victory.


    ¡°Hey.¡± He doesn¡¯t extend his hand or anything. ¡°Wanna come back?¡±


    Of course you do. That¡¯s why you made the damn appointment. You just nod and follow him back to a room that does look properly cyberpunk. Big table contraption in the center with electric-types loafing about at the edges. You spot a couple grubbin and the decoy totem.


    ¡°Alright. First order of business is summoning the totem. For that we need to power up,¡± he motions at a strange laser gun-looking device behind him, ¡°this summoning device. And to do that we¡¯ll need to¡­¡±


    You tune him out. The next part is easy enough. You move some charjabug around on a table. Summon an electrike. Defeat the electrike. Get lots of string on the ground with Makani. Another puzzle. Summon a dedenne (European togedemaru). Defeat the dedenne, get more string out. Makani is looking far more worn than you¡¯d like so you withdraw him after the dedenne is down. There¡¯s string all over the field; he¡¯s done his job.


    There¡¯s a final little play with a ¡®misfiring¡¯ ray gun, a normal togedemaru, and, finally, the totem.


    The totem¡¯s surprisingly small. Looks like she only comes up to mid-thigh. Shouldn¡¯t be too hard to overpower.


    ¡°Crabrawler, leer.¡±


    Your pok¨¦mon comes out and starts glaring, bombarding the togedemaru with the energy in the air and making her spines more brittle. The totem¡­ she does nothing. Just stands there for a bit. Afraid to cross the webbing? No¡ªshe starts applauding. Trying to applaud. Her tiny little hands don¡¯t quite reach so she ends up beating her chest. You know what this is.


    Encore.


    It¡¯s not the worst thing that could happen. You don¡¯t think the totem can set up. And wearing down defense is good. Gives you time to think. The totem moves, daintily hopping around the worst of the webbing before gently kissing the tip of crabrawler¡¯s head. Your pok¨¦mon doesn¡¯t react at all as sparks fly out and race all over his body. Too busy leering.


    Alright, so the togedemaru can navigate string shot¡ªduh, Cuicatl said that her warmups were grubbin and charjabug but you were too stupid to put two and two together¡ªand your pok¨¦mon¡¯s paralyzed. Speed advantage decidedly on the totem¡¯s side now.


    Only good news is that crabrawler stops glaring and starts looking around the arena in a daze wondering where the time went. You snap your fingers. ¡°Advance and rock smash.¡± He gets that much and starts slowly marching forward, claws smacking into each other as he prepares for a good punch. The totem¡­ giggles(?) as sparks fly through her fur. Zing zap, probably. It¡¯ll just get her wrapped up in string like the electrike.


    Right before crabrawler reaches the edge of the string field, togedemaru jumps to the side, yellow sparks obscuring her form as she hits the table and bounces right into your crabrawler, knocking him off balance and into the string. The totem bounces back, first to the table and then right in front of your downed pok¨¦mon.


    She sticks her tongue out.


    Crabrawler hits her in the face.


    The totem leaps up and zing zaps him back to the ground again. Still almost no string on her body.


    Come on. Be a trainer. Think. If you can¡¯t get up there¡¯s still one option¡­ bubble. Except having water everywhere hurts you more than the totem. What else is there? Leer, no, that just means taking hits. Rock smash won¡¯t land often enough. Pursuit¡ªshit, maybe?


    ¡°Pursuit,¡± you call out as the totem goes for her third zing zap. Crabrawler takes the hit on the chin again. Then darkness starts spiraling around him and with strength he should not have he rushes forward, string falling off behind him. He lands a solid hit on the totem right as she lands.


    Hell yeah. Another point for elemental bullshit.


    Needles scatter onto the floor as the togedemaru rolls back before stopping herself. Great. The leer¡¯s working. The totem looks almost nervous, none of her earlier confidence remaining. Could be a bluff. Togedemaru aren¡¯t strong or tough but they¡¯re tricky.


    ¡°Advancing rock smash,¡± before you can finish the order the togedemaru starts clapping again. Why? That¡¯s a bad move to be facing if her only move is zing zap. Unless¡­ nuzzle, zing zap, encore. Totems always use four moves a match. What¡¯s her final attack? Iron head? Maybe. Probably.


    After a quick false start where crabrawler trips and sparks fly out around him¡ªearning another razzberry from the totem¡ªhe lands another quick, shadowy punch. And another. And another. And another. Why? What¡¯s she planning? Wish? You didn¡¯t see one. Spiky Shield? Would¡¯ve been thrown up already. Besides, there are enough needles littering the floor that it can¡¯t be as effective as it was early on.


    The totem glows red just as crawbrawler steps back and stumbles around, dizzy from the encore¡¯s end. Oh no. Oh shit.


    The totem lunges forward with more force than you¡¯ve ever seen any pok¨¦mon use in person. Crabrawler¡¯s sent flying across the floor, through tons of needles and string, before you can even give a pointless order. Fuck. There¡¯s blue blood everywhere and crabrawler isn¡¯t getting up.


    You withdraw him and start tossing your final pok¨¦ball into the air as you calm your nerves. Reversal. Fucking reversal. Toss. The totem¡¯s taken a bunch of hits. Catch. Plus rock smash and leer had to have hurt. Toss. But reversal. Catch. Hekeli ain¡¯t taking that shit and getting back up. Toss¡ªa blur shoots out from the floor and stops right on your shoulder as the totem appears and flicks the pok¨¦ball to the side with her tail before jumping back and completing the zing zap. Damnit. Now your hair¡¯s sticking up and the surprisingly heavy little monster knocked you over. You can¡¯t see the match from the floor but you know what you need to do.


    ¡°Rock Smash!¡± You shout it like the words can add any power to the attack. You can hear Hekeli give her best warcry in response and see her as she zooms down, brown aura trailing from her beak¡ªyou hear the hit. See the aftermath. Hekeli rocketing back up towards the ceiling, red scratches all over her chest from the needles and one wing slightly bent in a way it shouldn¡¯t be. She does her best with her remaining wing to control her descent after she cracks against the ceiling and somehow you manage to get up and lunge to catch her before she hits the ground. Is that disqualifying? Screw it, don¡¯t care if that¡¯s how you get disqualified.


    You glance over, fully expecting to see the totem sticking her damn tongue out again in a little victory pose only to find her collapsed on the ground, static coursing through her needles and eyes closed.


    Is that it? Who won?


    The totem disappears in a flash of red light and you remember that, hey dumbass, you still have Makani. You gently set Hekeli down on the table and withdraw her. Two pok¨¦mon badly hurt. Victory or not it doesn¡¯t feel much like one.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think I should use reversal again in early trials,¡± Sophocles says. You¡¯d honestly forgotten he was here. And when did he get behind you? He holds out a hand. ¡°I can send over your pok¨¦mon if you want. We have an instant transporter to the Center in the room.¡± You quickly put all three pok¨¦balls onto the table and he picks them up and brings them over to the wall. A quick flash later and they¡¯re probably off being healed. ¡°Don¡¯t think it was too serious by the way. I¡¯ve seen a lot of trumbeak and crabrawler over the years and neither looked hurt beyond repair.¡±


    ¡°I also don¡¯t think you should use reversal,¡± you say, temporarily too ashamed to be furious. ¡°And I hope you¡¯re right.¡± For his sake. You got warned about excessive force for just pecking too hard. Then he goes and starts shooting fucking togedemaru-shaped cannonballs at low-level pok¨¦mon. Heh. Now you¡¯re angry again. Welcome back, rage, my old friend.


    He pulls some stuff out of the wall and walks back before handing over a crystal with one hand. ¡°Here¡¯s your Z-crystal. Congrats.¡± He doesn¡¯t sound overly enthusiastic. Or ashamed. Bastard.


    ¡°Thanks,¡± you mutter before turning around and walking away.


    [-00:00:17]


    ¡°Kekoa?¡± you perk up at the call and start moving towards the counter. The nurse doesn¡¯t look too concerned. News can¡¯t be all bad. She gives you a slight smile once you reach the desk and cross your arms. ¡°Your grubbin¡¯s been restored to full health. We¡¯ll need to watch the other two overnight. Then you¡¯ll have to keep your trumbeak¡¯s wing in a splint for a week.¡±


    Could have been much work. ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± Her smile broadens. Was probably worried you¡¯d get angry at her for Sophocles¡¯ mistake. ¡°Any questions?¡±


    You shake your head and take Makani¡¯s pok¨¦ball off the table. ¡°No. Thank you again.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome. Come back tomorrow morning for your other pok¨¦mon.¡±


    It reminds you of the old meme of a clearly exhausted nurse saying, ¡°We hope to see you again.¡± Whatever happened to her? Did she quit? Get fired? Maybe you should look it up later.


    You walk back over to The Gage Heiress and Cuicatl. The Gage Heiress is ranting about something or other and Cuicatl¡¯s patiently listening. The former at least shuts up for a second when you approach. ¡°No permanent injuries. Ice cream¡¯s on.¡±


    The Gage Heiress had really wanted ice cream. Bugs you about it in almost every city but now, when all three of you passed your trials in two days, it was particularly insistent. And if the boss herself is telling you to be nice to it, well, this is the least you can do.


    Cuicatl smiles and slowly gets to her feet while The Gage Heiress jumps right up. Your friend gently picks up Pix¡¯s leash and follows your footsteps and The Gage Heiress¡¯s voice as you walk out the door. The air¡¯s cool, the sunlight¡¯s faded a bit, and there¡¯s a nice breeze. Almost wish you wore a jacket. Not that the ice cream place is too far. Probably caters to people who had the same idea as the blabbering idiot next to you.


    The line and all the seating¡¯s outside. The Heiress goes first. Gets leppa like a weirdo. Pays for itself but won¡¯t cover for its poor ¡®friends¡¯ like a normal person would if they had literal swimming pools of cash. Then Cuicatl gets a Castelia Cone (her mom¡¯s Unovan so maybe there¡¯s some nostalgia there) and a small pet cup of vanilla for Pixie. A satisfied blast of cold air hits your legs after that¡¯s ordered and paid for.


    Honestly you want to go for Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cake but you know that Cuicatl would never, ever let you hear the end of it. You settle for mint chocolate. There¡¯d been a running joke at The Aether House that mint chocolate was the flavor elementary schools used to convince kids that ice cream wasn¡¯t actually good. Never got the joke yourself. Their loss. More for you.


    Your traveling partners are sitting at the edge of the porch, legs dangling over the side. The Heiress is too distracted scarfing its ice cream down (isn¡¯t it at all worried about brain freeze? ¡®course not, it doesn¡¯t have a brain) to talk and Cuicatl has been quiet around you since this morning. You didn¡¯t even say anything mean to her. Just got upset about someone else. Pix, of course, stops eating her portion in huge bites and starts daintily licking the edges once you start looking at her. You¡¯ll pretend that you don¡¯t see her little ice cream moustache.


    Your phone vibrates. A text from Kanoa.


    ¡®How¡¯d the trial go?¡¯


    You put your cup down and


    [00:00:00]


    pick up your phone.


    A distant light starts shining over¡­ Poni? Yeah, Poni. Then it starts moving down. Like a funnel cloud. A tornado of light. Except the patterns are all wrong. Almost like a wormhole. Except a wormhole shouldn¡¯t look so big from this far away.


    Bright ¡°cracks¡± start racing from the hole in all directions like the sky itself is breaking. Before you can say anything an ear-splitting boom rushes past you. The shockwave¡ªshockwave!¡ªstirs up dust and you have to close your eyes and cover your ringing ears until it dies down. When you open your eyes again the cracks are still there, bigger now, with one directly above you. That¡¯s not the worst part. All over the horizon you can see little drops of twisted light dipping down from the cracks.


    Then things get darker. Literally. At first you think it¡¯s the dust from the shockwave but it comes way too suddenly. The sunlight goes first. The nighttime lights of the shop come on for a moment before they go off as well. No. Not entirely. You can still make out a faint glow around them, but it¡¯s swallowed up almost immediately. Only the cracks still provide light but it¡¯s strange. You can see them easily but the light doesn¡¯t bleed out to illuminate anything else.


    Giant wormhole. Shockwave. Stolen light.


    This feels like¡­


    No.


    No.


    When the sirens come on it seems like an afterthought. How could anyone not know that this was an emergency? That¡­


    No.


    No.


    No no no no no no no no no no no no, NO.


    Someone let out another god.


    The small part of your brain that¡¯s still functioning is glad that no one can see you hug yourself and rock gently back and forth. No one can see the tears that make what little light there is even blurrier.


    Someone let out another god.


    ¡°Nearest shelter location¡¯s the observatory.¡± Because of course you looked, you always look. You don¡¯t tell them that it¡¯s not rated for shit like this because in the year two thousand and nineteen there are still fucking towns without a god-tier shelter because no one ever learns their damn lesson. They¡¯ll have to evac you to Malie when it¡¯s safe. But with the wormholes¡ª


    Fuck.


    Fuck.


    Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.


    You didn¡¯t survive Kyogre and Groudon and motherfucking Lusamine just to die now.


    But¡­


    It¡¯s dark.


    Which way is the observatory? What happens to your pok¨¦mon in the Center?


    From the sounds of panicked screams and people tripping all over themselves it doesn¡¯t seem like anyone else has answers, either.

 Fighting 1: Selene

    Mission Three: Fighting


    ¡°To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else- that means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.¡±


    -e. e. cummings


    Fighting 3.1: Blacklight


    Selene


    [-00:00:21]


    ¡°Hello?¡± you sleepily mutter into the phone, still mostly enthralled by your afternoon nap.


    ¡°It¡¯s here almast. Just a few minuteses out.¡±


    The accent and wording are unmistakable. As is the meaning. You hop out of bed and throw on your belt and the first pair of shoes you can find (slippers with little vulpix ears on the side, as it turns out). ¡°Thought we had months!¡± you half-shout half-whisper into the phone as you rush past Mom and out the door.


    ¡°As did me. It found a worm¡¯s hole.¡±


    You open Nebby¡¯s pok¨¦ball and hastily slip onto her back, trusting her telepathy to fill her in on what¡¯s going on and where you need to go. As soon as you¡¯re gripping her shoulders, she takes off fast enough that your arms would be ripped off without her telekinesis holding you down. Melemele slips by in a blur as Poni grows closer and closer.


    {You¡¯re scared,} Nebby messages, an aura of comfort around the words.


    {You¡¯re not?}


    She doesn¡¯t answer until you¡¯re nearly on Poni.


    {How does it help?} she asks.


    {Hmm?}


    {Fear.}


    You groan but don¡¯t give a proper answer. Fine. It doesn¡¯t help. But things weren¡¯t supposed to be like this. You were supposed to have other trainers, other legendary pok¨¦mon, the best science in this world and others. Instead it¡¯s just you and Nebby. That will have to be enough.


    Nebby casts you off and your ankles let out a flare of pain as you unexpectedly hit rock. A quick glance confirms that you¡¯re on top of the Altar where she¡¯d evolved for the second time. Vast Poni Canyon stretches out for miles behind you. No time to admire the view.


    ¡°Alright, Nebby, start by keeping your distance. I¡¯ll keep an eye on things. See if it has patterns, openings¡­¡±


    You wish there was more you could do, but you¡¯re at a big disadvantage here. There¡¯s no archival footage to watch of the thing battling. Nothing more than a few drawings and the scattered tales of survivors. It has claws, supposedly. Nebby doesn¡¯t. Best to keep things to a distance. And if she¡¯s faster she can dodge attacks and wear it down at range.


    {Can do.}


    She¡¯s still too damn calm. You¡¯re drowning in unknowns and it¡¯s almost like she doesn¡¯t care. The plan only works if the necrozma isn¡¯t even stronger than her at a distance. You don¡¯t even know if a light eater is harmed by by moongeist beams. That leaves shadow balls, psyshocks, hyper beams¡­ her Z-move if you must. The feedback is brutal for you but Nebby will be taking worse. It¡¯s the least you can do.


    Nebby descends lower and wraps a wing around you. {I am scared. For you. For Lillie.} You flinch at your ex¡¯s name but she carries on without mentioning it. {I am not scared for me. I am strong.}


    Fine. Fine. She should be terrified but if it hasn¡¯t got through her giant, adorable skull maybe it never will.


    You unleash Incineroar without a word. He looks between you, Nebby, and the Altar with a questioning gaze. ¡°Don¡¯t engage the thing unless I tell you to. Just keep me shielded with protects. Don¡¯t get hit yourself, either. We don¡¯t know how strong it is.¡±


    That¡¯s a partial lie. The Ultra Recon Squad had lots of numbers on how strong a necrozma can be if it¡¯s given time to drain light. Strong enough that you¡¯d have to pray to every creator god on Earth and hope they¡¯re as strong as their believers say. Without time to charge it¡¯s probably closer to Nebby¡¯s power.


    That¡¯s not at all reassuring.


    [00:00:00]


    A blinding light shines high above you.


    Years fighting Ultra Beasts have given Incineroar the instincts to immediately throw up a shield at the first sign of trouble. For the best. The wormhole opens with a sonic boom and a strong pulse of air. If you hadn¡¯t been protected you would¡¯ve been violently thrown to the hard ground.


    Incineroar drops the shield and you look up at the slowly descending figure. ¡°Black¡± doesn¡¯t do it justice. The creature absorbs all the light that touches it. You can only really make it out as the absence of any color at all.


    ¡°Nebby, begin¡ª¡±


    It screams directly into your brain. Your hands fly uselessly to your ears. Darkness overtakes you before you hit the ground.


    [???]


    Incineroar is purring nervously above you, crouched down on all fours and guarding your body with his. You try to ignore the headache and gently push his side to get him to move. He complies and gives you a better view of the ongoing fight. As you slowly get to your feet you realize that one of your slippers fell off and is nowhere to be found. Whatever. You awkwardly stand with one foot on the smooth, dusty stone and one in your slipper as you take stock of the situation.


    Nebby fires off a moongeist beam and the necrozma stands still and takes it. A moment later the same beam is shot back out and strikes Nebby directly on the forehead. The bat cries in shock and floats herself back instinctively.


    ¡°Dodge it!¡±


    She startles and looks down towards you. What she doesn¡¯t see is the necrozma racing forward faster than anything that looks so un-aerodynamic has the right to move. Before Nebby can react one of the Ultra Beast¡¯s spiked hands grabs Nebby¡¯s head and they both plummet down. Incineroar¡¯s shield protects you from the shockwave but blocks your view. When the protect fades a second later you¡¯re treated to the sight of Nebby held down by both of the monster¡¯s hands as a strange¡­ black¡­ light? overtakes them both.


    Another shield goes up. When it fades Nebby¡¯s gone.


    No, not gone.


    Nebby has been consumed.


    The necrozma floats in front of the Altar. The long wings of a luanla extend from either side of its body, radiating blue light. Nebby¡¯s head is mostly the same pure black as the necrozma¡¯s body, but now a mix of strange Z-crystal-like eyes adorn it. The dark claws of the necrozma stretch out from the pok¨¦mon¡¯s midsection, flexing open and closed in the air.


    You steadily get to your feet and stare at it. The creature, in turn, stares back at you.


    A challenge, perhaps. You remember that Nebby looked much the same after you first got back from Ultra Space. When she wanted to see if you were a worthy trainer.


    Is it really that simple?


    You can¡¯t take the chance. You send out all of your pok¨¦mon and start giving commands.


    ¡°Darkest Lariat, now.¡±


    Incineroar doesn¡¯t hesitate to charge forward, cloaked in shadows. It buys you time. ¡°Tox, guard me. Kommo-o, stay back. All others attack.¡± The necrozma almost casually bats Incineroar aside with one of its hands just before all hell breaks loose. Vikavolt starts launching thunderbolts above you with Lycanroc joining in on the ground with accelrocks. Incineroar gets back up to breathe out more fire. Necrozma simply takes the flames and rocks with one wing and moves the other to block the thunderbolts.


    ¡°Flare Blitz.¡± The flames are useless. A full tackle might not be. You don¡¯t bother watching, turning instead to kommo-o as you slot the proper Z-crystal into your ring. ¡°Clangorous Soulblaze.¡±


    The necrozma lifts into the air with a few flaps of its glowing wings, narrowly dodging the flare blitz while continuing to tank accelrocks and thunderbolts. (Ground type? Dragon type? Maybe it doesn¡¯t obey type rules at all.) You manage to put your hands over your ears (should¡¯ve grabbed earplugs at home, dammit) right before Kommo-o gets loud.


    The Soulblaze upsets necrozma for the first time in the battle. Bad news is that the creature screams like Nebby. Almost like Nebby. There¡¯s a terrible noise like a record scratch just below the surface. It distracts you and you almost don¡¯t catch the streams of light trailing towards the necrozma¡¯s head¡ªMoongeist Beam. ¡°Shields up!¡±


    You see most of your team start to follow the order as you close your eyes to block the worst of the light. Even through your eyelids and Toxapex¡¯s protect you can still see the light flare. Hear the sound of a barrier shattering and a Kommo-o¡¯s cries of pains. The light dims and you hesitantly open your eyes. Kommo-o is breathing heavily, but a dim red aura has surrounded her. The Soulblaze worked. Now you can fight the monster on more equal footing.


    You give the specific snap for her orders. ¡°Outrage.¡± All across the field attacks resume as Kommo-o starts running faster and faster, preparing to jump. The necrozma screeches and the air distorts as a psionic attack flies at the dragon in midair. It doesn¡¯t break her momentum. They collide and the necrozma is driven back, but your pok¨¦mon gracelessly falls to the ground and crumples in a heap. The pok¨¦ball withdraws her. Still alive.


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Refocus on Incineroar. Necrozma¡¯s flown too high for ranged attacks to do much. Dark Pulse? It¡¯s not something you¡¯ve put a lot of training into. But if fire can¡¯t do it, maybe darkness can. It might at least disrupt psychic attacks.


    Before you can give the order necrozma spreads its wings into an almost perfect circle and they start to glow brightly. Another Moongeist Beam. No. Not Moongeist. There isn¡¯t any light spiraling in. ¡°All but Tox, shields up!¡± You¡¯ve done a lot of training with Toxapex. You trust him to get the barrier up in time and you need a look. Cracks, no, lines and concentric circles, start forming on the wings. A wormhole. Summoning something? Another UB?


    You get your answer very, very quickly as clumps of rock and ice start blasting out at blinding speeds. One scores a glancing blow on Lycanroc¡¯s shield and shatters it. Another sends her sprawling back with visibly cracked ribs by the time Tox has finished using Protect. Too quick. The attack was far too quick. You remember reading somewhere that a paperclip moving at the speeds of space junk could puncture steel. None of your pok¨¦mon are armored well enough to take another barrage. You hear Incineroar let out a roar of pain before your body catches up with your mind and you withdraw everyone but Toxapex.


    The sound of the projectiles stops.


    ¡°Shield down,¡± you mutter, reaching to your belt to grab the one last-ditch tool you¡¯ve saved for years. As soon as you can see the alien, you reach back and throw it as hard as you can.


    The master ball freezes in midair. That shouldn¡¯t even be possible. The tech is too well safeguarded against attacks of all kinds. You¡¯re still not entirely surprised when the master ball crumples inward in a flash of sparks before the metal drops uselessly to the ground beneath it. Another shimmer of air crosses the battlefield and knocks out toxapex.


    You withdraw your last pok¨¦mon. It occurs to you that all of your pok¨¦mon¡ªwait¡ªyou hit the withdraw button on Nebby¡¯s pok¨¦ball¡ªand nothing happens. Worth a try, at least.


    It occurs to you that all of your pok¨¦mon but Nebby survived. That¡¯s something. Maybe¡­ no, there¡¯s no healing your team under the necrozma¡¯s watchful gaze. A shame. Its bleeding light in at least five places on its wings. Another round and maybe you could have won.


    As if on cue light spirals in towards the alien and the sky around you grows ever darker. Once the streams of light are absorbed the damage is all healed. Never mind. It wouldn¡¯t have mattered. You lost¡ªAlola lost¡ªthe second Nebby did.


    There¡¯s almost relief there. Over four years of non-stop incursions and you went and blew it. Even if you lived to see another fight no one would plead with their words or tone or eyes for you to go out and save the world while the public sits back and watches.


    If only you got a chance to say goodbye to Lillie. To Mom.


    The necrozma floats ever closer. Even in the dim light you can see the pitch blackness of a claw lowering. You close your eyes and whimper just before it reaches you. Maybe it¡¯s cowardly but no one else will ever know. Something cold and incredibly smooth touches your cheek and glides up to your hair, running through it before rising high enough that all of the strands fall back down.


    You open your eyes again to see the tip of one claw lower back down towards you. The blinding blue light of a wormhole shines behind you before the alien gently pushes you backwards, through the hole and onto something soft.


    It takes you almost a minute to process the fact that you¡¯re still alive. It takes another twenty seconds to recognize the smell of your bedroom. Another ten to realize that your eyes are open and you still can¡¯t see anything.


    Another thirty to finally hear your phone ringing in your pocket. You answer it without checking who it is.


    ¡°You know why it¡¯s dark all of a sudden?¡±


    Nanu. He sounds bored, as usual. Like he¡¯s discussing an inconvenient afternoon storm instead of a sudden, region-wide blackout.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°It going away any time soon?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    He sighs. You can imagine him shaking his head and pulling himself off the couch, maybe pushing a meowth aside in the process.


    ¡°Anything I can do?¡±


    ¡°You at home?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Head out to Castleton. Make sure people are staying inside.¡±


    ¡°Anything else?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    He hangs up.


    The phone immediately rings again.


    [00:01:38]


    It takes an hour and a half for someone to set up a conference call with the Kahunas, the military, the governor, and INTERPOL. Maybe a few others. You¡¯re struggling to care, still weighed down by the shock of the loss.


    It suddenly occurs to you that you¡¯ll have to call Lillie later. Tell her about Nebby.


    You¡¯d rather fight the necrozma again.


    ¡°Miss Perry, can you give us your account of what happened?¡±


    You can do this. Just. One. Call. ¡°Two hours ago, the Ultra Recon Squad contacted me. They said that the necrozma hit a wormhole and was only minutes away. I flew to the Altar of the Moone to meet it. There was a short battle. I got knocked out. The Ultra Beast merged with Lunala¡ª¡±


    ¡°Merged?¡± Kukui asks beside you. He was generous enough to let you stay in his lab, under his protection while your team healed. Even helped get you there. It¡¯s strange. Knowing and hearing that he¡¯s three feet to your right but not being able to see him at all.


    ¡°There was bright light. Then Nebby was gone and the necrozma looked like a mix of itself and a lunala.¡±


    Lunala, not Nebby. Bleh. Some of the kahunas don¡¯t like it when you call their goddess by a pet name.


    ¡°How?¡± Olivia asks, like you would know that.


    ¡°Maybe Kukui knows?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t.¡±


    You don¡¯t pick the topic back up. After a few seconds of silence, you continue. ¡°I fought it with the rest of my team and lost.¡±


    ¡°It let you walk away?¡± The governor sounds strangely hopeful. ¡°Maybe it can be reasoned with.¡±


    You¡¯d gone through that thought earlier once the shock faded a little and you stopped taking calls long enough to get your pok¨¦mon to the Center. ¡°I think some of Nebby survived. All of my pok¨¦mon lived. Once they were all defeated, the necrozma opened a wormhole to my bed and knocked me through. I don¡¯t know where it went after that.¡±


    ¡°The thing is still here?¡± Admiral Wilford asks. ¡°Why the hell didn¡¯t you lead with that?¡±


    ¡°The Ultra Recon Squad said that they usually sit in orbit or in another dimension entirely. But¡­¡± They never told you it could merge with lunala. Or that it might get some of her personality in the process. ¡°It¡¯s not acting like the Recon Squad told me. Anything¡¯s possible.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go the canyon and check,¡± Hapu says. ¡°If you don¡¯t hear back from me, assume it¡¯s still there.¡±


    No one says anything. Because what is there to say?


    ¡°Necrozma brought dozens if not hundreds of Ultra Beasts with it.¡± Olivia. Pleading, but resigned. ¡°Can we afford a kahuna taking time off to go on a potential suicide mission?¡±


    The chat erupts in people talking over each other before Hapu breaks through with a few half-shouts of ¡°It¡¯s fine!¡± Once everyone¡¯s quieted she continues. ¡°The Captain¡¯s planning to take everyone in the village to sea until things calm down here. The Battle Tree is full of people who can handle it, and the park rangers have dealt with UBs before.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about Poni,¡± you interject before anyone else can. Too quickly to be tactful. ¡°No offense, Hapu.¡± She grunts in acknowledgement. ¡°And Melemele is small. Hala, Hau, Kukui and the other trainers here can respond quickly enough when there¡¯s an attack. Ula¡¯Ula and Akala have small towns far apart. Worried more about them.¡±


    ¡°Thanks for the thought, kid,¡± Nanu grumbles.


    ¡°Good luck, Hapu,¡± you add after realizing that you hadn¡¯t done it. ¡°Thank you for volunteering.¡±


    You aren¡¯t going to try to talk her out of it. You need to know if the necrozma is still there and she¡¯s one of the only people you trust to navigate the canyon in the dark. It¡¯s still a brave thing. You¡¯ll make sure to do something special for her if she survives and the necrozma is defeated and you survive as well.


    ¡°No problem,¡± she answers. Implying that walking straight towards an alien god that could almost certainly defeat her entire team and kill her is not something she sees as a problem. Your gift will need to be really special. A hippowdon? Rhydon? Or one of those giant Galarian sand snakes. Maybe you can find the money for a recently thawed mamoswine. Helps that picking up any of those is an excuse for a vacation when this passes over. If it passes over.


    Kukui¡¯s ninetales barks outside. The professor swears under his breath and starts awkwardly hobbling towards the door. The man gave you and Nebby a run for your money. He can handle whatever Ultra Beast showed up.


    You put the call on mute once the moonblasts start. Then immediately take it off mute and speaker when something occurs to you. ¡°What are we doing with fallers? Lila and I can take care of ourselves. Others can¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°I plan on going into the middle of nowhere to get the UBs away from cities,¡± Lila says. ¡°We could move the others to Hau¡¯oli or Malie. Stick a few powerful trainers near the city limits to deal with hostiles.¡±


    ¡°I can put a lot of battle-tested sailors into Hau¡¯oli if given the okay,¡± Admiral Wilford adds.


    ¡°Do it,¡± the governor orders. ¡°I¡¯ve already activated the guard.¡±


    You purse your lips in the dark. ¡°Tell them to be careful.¡± As the cliffs of Rune City collapsed and Hoenn was under siege, your father chose to help the people of Japan until the very end. How many brave soldiers will die as he did before the necrozma is driven back?


    Your sentiments are echoed by almost everyone in the chat. As they trail off, Gladion butts in. ¡°I hate to be the one to bring it up, but if we do find Necrozma, how do we deal with it? Champ¡¯s already lost. Lunala¡¯s already lost. What else are we throwing at it? And what if it is in orbit or somewhere else entirely? How do we get to it? Does that even bring the light back?¡±


    ¡°It is an Ultra Beast. If you and Silvally can lend a hand¡­¡±


    ¡°Sure, fine, I¡¯ll put my life on the line, I guess. You really think it¡¯d do any good, though?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.¡± It eats light. The Ultra Recon Squad think that the more light a necrozma absorbs, the hotter it gets. At some point it will be like fighting the sun. Maybe macargo or rhyfernal or some legendaries could deal with it. Hard to imagine anything else getting close without vaporizing on the spot. ¡°I¡¯ll try calling other people in. Chris is...¡± Chris Foster is living on your ex-girlfriend¡¯s childhood home when he can be bothered to be in the same country as his child labor abusing poaching business.


    ¡°And why didn¡¯t you call for any help in the first place?¡± The governor asks.


    ¡°I had very limited time.¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t you have used some of that time to call for reinforcements? It seems irresponsible to¡­¡±


    You stop listening as he drones on and on and on. He¡¯s going to try and pin all this on you, isn¡¯t he? What can he actually do? You¡¯re pretty sure you didn¡¯t break any laws. He might try and make you pay for everything that happens. The last governor did that with Lusamine. Difference is you¡¯ve got next to nothing compared to what she had. And the damage is only going to be worse.


    That and you didn¡¯t intentionally open up a few dozen portals and permanently weaken the barrier between Earth and untold worlds of monsters. You just failed to stop someone else from doing that.


    Just like last time.


    The ninetales hisses in pain outside before the wind picks up. Even inside the house you can feel the cold, especially as it slips through the bottom of the door. Damn it. Nanu clears his throat. ¡°I might be missing something, but I don¡¯t think we ever established how we¡¯re getting off the planet with Lunala gone.¡±


    ¡°Maybe the Ultra Recon Squad have some idea. Or Professor Burnet.¡± Or Lusamine, if you get desperate. She opened up a portal when you first visited Aether Paradise. She might have a way to do it without Nebby. Unless the tech got dismantled after the auction.


    ¡°The Ultra Recon people are fallers, right?¡± Lila asks.


    Shit.


    That¡¯s why they haven¡¯t called.


    The door opens and Kukui¡¯s footsteps sound off behind you.


    ¡°What¡¯d I miss?¡±


    [00:04:15]


    ¡°Rotom¡­¡± You sigh and cross your arms. Kukui¡¯s outside with his pok¨¦mon. Giving you privacy. You¡¯d better hurry up and make the damn call. ¡°Call Lillie.¡±


    She picks up on the second ring.


    ¡°Selene! I was so, so worried about you! Why haven¡¯t you been picking up? Are you okay?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just busy.¡± You take a moment to steel yourself. She immediately starts talking again but you ignore it. ¡°Nebby¡¯s gone.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°A really, really powerful Ultra Beast arrived. It fused with Nebby. I don¡¯t know where it is now. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°I¡ªare you alright?¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°If it could¡­ could do that¡ª¡±


    Damn it. You¡¯d forgotten that Lillie was like this. Break her heart into pieces and stomp on them in front of her and she¡¯ll still be there for you in the morning. It¡¯s why you had to break up in the first place.


    ¡°It let me live.¡± You pause, carefully considering the accuracy of what you¡¯re about to say. ¡°I think some of Nebby¡¯s mind might still in there.¡±


    ¡°Then you can¡¯t kill it,¡± she says. ¡°Just knock it out. Make it unfuse. Like Mother and the nihilego.¡±


    Mother. She still calls Lusamine ¡®Mother.¡¯ You¡¯d hoped that breaking up with her would get it through her skull that being with Lusamine was bad for her. Changed her. Guess she didn¡¯t get the message.


    But you already knew that.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try. Really. I will.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    Neither of you talks for a long time. A few years ago, you would¡¯ve been more than fine with that. You¡¯d find somewhere quiet to sit and call her and sometimes you¡¯d just stay on the line in silence for hours, both of you just glad the other was there in spirit. Now the silence is cutting.


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to talk about how things are going, do you?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Can I tell you about things on my end, then?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    ¡°Well, Mother¡¯s recovery is¡ª¡±


    You hang up.

 Fighting 2: Cuicatl

    Fighting 3.2: The Truth


    Cuicatl


    [00:00:00]


    [HUNGER]


    The Voice crashes into your skull like a cannonball. Everything else, all those tiny little thoughts and feelings and dreams, gets compressed and pressed out, bleeding through every square inch of skin. You hug your legs and arms to your chest and curl your fingers and toes but it still feels like you¡¯re a human-shaped sieve.


    [Alarm!]


    Another Voice, much softer but no less fierce, joins The First. The roar shifts from pure hunger to a mix of desires.


    [Refusal]


    The denial is ignored. There are other voices around you. Smaller. Filtered through your ears. Irrelevant voices. Voices calling for someone who no longer¡ª


    *


    You wake up. Sort of. Sounds run at the edges and the heavy hand of sleep is trying to drag you back down.


    The air is dry. A man is pacing, his heavy steps echoing off the walls of a large room.


    ¡°We found her out in Haina Desert. Going by her¡­¡± He says some science-sounding bullshit. Even if you weren¡¯t halfway unconscious you might¡¯ve fallen asleep.


    You slip into sleep for a moment before coming back.


    A second person is talking. He sounds like he doesn¡¯t care. Doesn¡¯t want to be there.


    ¡°And will he come for her, if he knew?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± The first man, sounding earnest and serious with a really thick accent speaks again. Accent. Ugh. Your gift isn¡¯t filtering things. ¡°I watched as his heart stopped. I watched as his body burned. I watched as his bones were buried. He¡¯s dead. I made sure of it.¡±


    ¡°And the kid?¡±


    Words blur together. And stop. And start again.


    ¡°She had six balls on her. Apricorn-derived, so no records. All broken. No pok¨¦mon to talk to. Can¡¯t find her in any of our databases.¡±


    The bored man scoffs. ¡°No pok¨¦mon? Real lucky she survived then. Especially since she¡¯s...fuck¡­ing¡­


    ¡­where¡­were¡­you¡­


    ¡­who¡­are¡­


    ¡°MRI showed that as a long-time injury. The rest will heal with a blissey and time.¡±


    ¡°And how long was she in there?¡±


    ¡°Almost three months.¡±


    ¡°Shit.¡± The man kicks something. It skids across the rock before coming to a stop. You want to get up and look. But you can¡¯t move. Or see. Why can¡¯t you see? Why would you¡­


    What is¡­


    ¡­sight¡­


    ¡°¡­BASTARDS!¡±


    A woman. Furious. Her words buzz and sting at the edge of your mind.


    ¡°Please, it¡¯s all a misunderstanding. Just calm down¡­¡±


    ¡°I told you, I was the last person you made into your little doll.¡±


    ¡°Tapu Lele, can you knock them out?¡±


    ¡°Oh, fuck you¡ª¡± There¡¯s a surge of something in the air. She shuts up. Her body falls to the ground.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Think she told anyone where she was going?¡± The bored man asks.


    ¡°Her alakazam, maybe.¡±


    {I can reason with him,} another voice projects in a way that doesn¡¯t sound real. {Or wipe his memories.}


    ¡°Thank you. That would help.¡±


    The bored man sighs and resumes pacing. ¡°They make some good points, y¡¯know? There¡¯s a reason they¡¯re your boss and all.¡±


    ¡°There are unique circumstances.¡±


    ¡°There ever not been ¡®unique circumstances?¡¯¡±


    ¡°Are you going to tell?¡± The first man asks, a threat loaded just below the surface.


    ¡°No point. You¡¯ll fuck yourselves over in the end, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Out of curiosity, what are you going to do with the apricorns?¡±


    ¡°I was going to destroy them so that they wouldn¡¯t find out.¡±


    ¡°No.¡± He stops pacing. ¡°You should bury them. If it goes like last time, the kid will want some closure for her old life.¡±


    ¡°And there¡¯s none to be had. Best if she just moves on and accepts what we¡¯re giving her.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s her decision to make. Not yours.¡±


    *


    When you wake up the screaming has stopped. There¡¯s just whimpering in its place. From you. Oops. When you stop it continues. Not just you, then.


    Where are you? None of your pok¨¦mon are touching you and you can¡¯t sense Pixie or Coco through your links. You send out a thought to Nocitl¨¡lin but don¡¯t receive an answer. Bad. Without them you¡¯re just¡­ no. You¡¯re lying on hard concrete. No, not just concrete. Your head is on something warm and soft. A person? You start to move and they jolt.


    ¡°You awake?¡± Genesis whispers. Ah. Her, then.


    You grumble out something that your gift can hopefully translate. She giggles. Guess you need to put more work in. Fifteen years and you¡¯re still only figuring out how your brain works. After pressing yourself more or less upright (and discovering how much lying motionless on concrete for gods-know-how-long will hurt your hips), you work out a more coherent question. ¡°Where¡¯s Pix?¡± She was out when you were last awake, right?


    ¡°In her ball.¡± You can hear her shift nervously. ¡°Do you remember what happened?¡±


    ¡°We were eating ice cream. There was an explosion? Then a really loud voice. Then¡­ here?¡±


    Judging by her silence and her mind¡¯s rapidly shifting attempts to form words, that wasn¡¯t the answer she expected. {Can we head-talk?} she asks.


    You throw out your awareness again and make absolutely sure that there are no potential eavesdroppers. There¡¯s nothing. Almost nothing. You can still feel The Voice¡¯s distinct presence, but quiet and far in the background. That¡¯s bad, but it¡¯s a problem for later. And if there is anything you can do about it, Genesis probably won¡¯t be the one to teach you. {Sure.}


    {Okay, um, am I doing this right?}


    {Yes.}


    {A¡­ voice?}


    Could she not hear it? Why? Was it psychic? An omen?


    {Yes. A Voice. Really, really loud. Tear-your-soul-out-of-your-body loud. I didn¡¯t know that was possible.} Well, maybe for a god. Was it a god? If it was a god that would speak to you, but not her, it could explain it. And the gods have taken an active role on Earth in recent years. Quetzalcoatl had to put Tlaloc and Cipactli back to sleep when it stirred under Japan. The Split Gods clashed in Unova. And Metztli sent an avatar to guard these very islands.


    Today (yesterday?) is (was?) Tecpatl-Tecpatl. Ruled by Chalchihuihtotolin and Mictlantecuhtli. The former is a god of sorcery and temptation, the latter the ruler of the dead. Combined they make for a day of life-changing challenges. A chance to soar or plummet, fate be damned. Putting a trial on that day, right before the solstice, was asking for something big to happen.


    It didn¡¯t. The battle went mostly according to plan. Nothing worthy of the day happened. At least, not when you expected it.


    {I didn¡¯t hear one.} Gen finally answers. {There was a big noise, probably the explosion you were talking about, and a bunch of wind. Then everything went dark. You collapsed and started talking in Aztec.} Nahuatl. You do your best to keep any annoyed feelings in your own mind. {Pix went nuts so we had to withdraw her. Everyone got moved to a shelter. We¡¯re still there. My phone died a while ago. I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯s been. I¡¯m hungry, but not really hungry. Have to pee, though. There is a bathroom but getting to it requires walking over a lot of people in the dark so I¡¯m trying not to. Plus, I think Kekoa¡¯s asleep, somehow, and I didn¡¯t want to leave you alone. Still dark, by the way. Really dark.}


    She thinks a lot. Not always coherently. It takes a bit for your gift to catch up and put everything into (Nahuatl) words for you. Even though you really should be thinking about the ¡®everything is dark for everyone else¡¯ stuff, you end up thinking about the smaller things. Pee? You don¡¯t have to. You¡¯re hungry. That¡¯s nothing new. You¡¯re just at the border between stomach-rending, painful hunger and greater, painless hunger with lightheadedness and a building headache. Six to eight hours, maybe? But if you were unconscious then it could¡¯ve been longer.


    You¡¯d offer to help her to the bathroom, but you didn¡¯t bring your cane with you. Haven¡¯t had much need in the last few days, with Nocitl¨¡lin eager to help and Pixie jealously competing with her.


    ¡°Kekoa awake?¡± you ask, aloud, so that if he is he¡¯ll hear it.


    ¡°Someone woke a god up and you think I¡¯d fall asleep?¡±


    That prompts a few whispers around you. ¡°A god?¡± You¡¯d suspected as much, but he seems to know something you don¡¯t.


    ¡°Yeah. Like Japan. Feels the same.¡±


    His voice breaks on the last word. Feels the same? That could mean a few different things. Maybe it was just a bigger news story in America than Anahuac. Or something more personal.


    {You want to talk about it?}


    You can feel him steady his thoughts and compose his words. {I was in Hoenn when it happened. My parents died.}


    Oh. That¡¯s bad. Really bad. Living it a second time must be worse.


    {I understand,} you say. {I¡¯m sorry.}


    {Do you understand, though?} He also hisses aloud, for emphasis.


    {Maybe? My brother died a few months ago.}


    You aren¡¯t crying and even if you did no one can see you. It¡¯s the perfect time to talk about this as long as you don¡¯t sob.


    A lot of thoughts rush through his mind when you tell him. After a few seconds they coalesce into a steady stream of ¡°shit shit shit shit¡± that he probably doesn¡¯t mean to send you.


    {I talked shit about your brother in Paniola, didn¡¯t I?}


    A spike of resentment builds in your heart alongside the sadness. You do your best to push it down but don¡¯t succeed entirely. {Yes. You did.}


    His thoughts seem to split towards two different statements. You don¡¯t look close enough to see what they are.


    {I¡¯m sorry,} finally wins out.


    {Good.}


    A door opens and you can hear someone awkwardly fumbling around. Probably just got out of the bathroom.


    {I know that¡­} Kekoa¡¯s message trails off. {I¡¯m sorry. And this is a bad time and it would be weird in a good time but. Can you lean into me?}


    ¡°Sure.¡± Cuddles sound nice right now, when you¡¯re not crying. Or crying just a little bit. Everything¡¯s bad and now isn¡¯t the time for that, even if it¡¯s dark.


    You can sort of hear his breathing, shallow and quick, and the conversation gave you a direction to his head. It takes a bit of fumbling (and you think you kick Genesis at one point) but you finally cuddle up to him. His chest, anyway. You immediately shift so you¡¯re leaning on his side. His hand scrapes against you, hesitantly looking for yours. You meet it. His pulse is quick; a quick touch of your free hand to your neck shows that yours is too. Deep breaths.


    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    There¡¯s a lot of pain and panic and you aren¡¯t sure what to do with any of it right now. You end up focusing on his pulse and trying in vain to meditate.


    *


    The first attack comes about an hour later. It begins with a low whirring sound, slowly but steadily rising in pitch. Like an alarm. Except you can tell that something is speaking. What it is and what¡¯s being said aren¡¯t given to you and when you press you get a sharp headache, the mental equivalent of brushing your hand on a hot stove. An Ultra Beast, perhaps. Or a god. Fearful and confused words pop up in almost all the minds around you, along with a handful of hopeful ones.


    Crashing noises sound outside and the noise resets back to a pitch you feel more than hear. It rises again, faster this time. Lightning sounds off. A lot of lightning and more crashing sounds, most crashes coinciding with another pitch reset.


    ¡°Xurkitree,¡± Kekoa mutters beside you. ¡°I tried to learn the sounds. In case something happened. I think Sophocles is fighting it. Maybe Molayne.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re strong, right?¡± Genesis asks. ¡°Sophocles and Molayne?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Kekoa still squeezes your hand a little tighter. You squeeze back.


    *


    There¡¯s another xurkitree sometime later. A few more battles after that. Water bottles and bags of some sort of strangely-textured chip get passed around at some point.


    You eventually realize that the sweat under your arms and the shaking of your hand is because you¡¯re scared. Of dying. Even with a free, dignified way out. It¡¯s a strange thought. And one you don¡¯t have time to process. A large door swings open and someone walks through, the hard steps of their boots conveying authority. A ripple of murmurs say that light is shining through behind the man. ¡°There¡¯s light outside,¡± a booming voice says before echoing around the room. ¡°Gather your things; nothing more than you can carry. Meet at the convoy. We leave in a half hour.¡±


    The light must not be too bright. There¡¯s still chaos as people rush to leave the dusty, slightly metallic air of the shelter. Judging by the room¡¯s echoes you must be pretty close to the back. You start stretching, then realize in horror that both your legs are asleep. You rub your hands over them and try to move them as much as possible. By the time you have to get up it¡¯s pretty tolerable, actually.


    The temperature hits you as soon as you leave the building. The air is cool but one side of you is warm anyway. Like a fire on a cold night. Kekoa swears under his breath once he gets out behind you. ¡°Reshiram,¡± he whispers.


    The Flame Giver. Right here. That definitely explains the light and heat. A god like that¡­


    Alice will never believe you.


    You don¡¯t know when or how, but at some point you either stop freezing up or get dragged into your room in the Pok¨¦mon Center to pack things up. You can hear Genesis and Kekoa struggling, but for you it goes the same as always. Except you need Pix and Coco to check for scattered things by tracking your scent rather than just looking around.


    Coco thinks it¡¯s a fun game.


    You have to withdraw them before leaving. The world¡¯s chaotic and they¡¯re small and easily stepped on in the crowds. Nocitl¨¡lin can fly and sense in the dark through electricity or whatever so you have her help Kekoa or Genesis, whoever¡¯s struggling more. You take your things and head back out to the convoy before they¡¯re ready. Once you¡¯re back in Reshiram¡¯s heat you drop your pack to the floor. There are curious and cautious whispers around, but no one dares address her. No one knows how.


    You step forward closer and raise your head so that you¡¯re probably kinda sorta making eye contact. Then you speak in Upper Draconic. ¡°Blessed Flame Giver, I acknowledge your dominion.¡± Dragons do not bow or stoop or avert their gaze when addressing a stronger peer or asking for help. Instead they present everything they are and confess that they need help regardless.


    Reshiram shifts in front of you, judging by the changing levels of heat on your face and the ground moaning in protest beneath her.


    ¡°Acknowledged, Little One,¡± she replies. In Upper Draconic. Your gift can¡¯t or won¡¯t translate the god¡¯s words. ¡°What would you have me do?¡±


    You swallow and steel yourself again. You weren¡¯t actually expecting a response. You just thought that she needed acknowledged, per ancient custom.


    ¡°I thank you for your protection and guidance.¡±


    Thanks are traditionally given at the end of an exchange, when a request is granted or denied and ties are severed. You don¡¯t know what else to say. Requesting anything from Reshiram feels wrong. She is not your kind¡¯s god and you have nothing to offer her. It would also feel weird to ask her to do something she already seems to have made up her mind to do.


    She chuffs. It sounds like a cross between laughter and an indignant huff. It¡¯s also nothing that you¡¯ve heard from a dragon before. Although Coco sometimes does something almost like it. ¡°It was my duty as a goddess. Nothing more. Now, tell me: where did you learn to speak the old tongue?¡±


    ¡°I was taught by Alice, Dorothy, and Ilsa. A twice-split spirit from the Valley of Dragons.¡± You pause and she does not answer. ¡°She,¡± for there is no good Upper Draconic equivalent to ellas, ¡°was a companion of my mother¡¯s and swore herself to be my protector and teacher.¡±


    That earns a low rumble from the goddess. Consideration. ¡°Is she here?¡±


    You shake your head. ¡°No.¡± Your voice breaks and you immediately clamp your mouth shut. You will not cry in front of a goddess. You will not cry in front of a goddess. You will not cry


    The heat picks up. It¡¯s still more warm than hot. Comforting and not burning. ¡°Acknowledged.¡± The bark is a little shorter and softer than you would have expected. ¡°It is rare for royalty to bond with a twice-split spirit. Your gifts are rendered useless by the shadows in their blood.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not royalty,¡± you correct(?!) the goddess(?!). At least, that¡¯s not something that your mother chose to tell you via either Renfield or Alice or passed down memories. And you¡¯ve seen how Mom grew up. Comfortable at times, but never much more.


    Another rumble of consideration. ¡°Correct. You are not royalty. Whatever my counterpart¡¯s chosen companion has declared, your line¡¯s claim to the throne ended with the throne itself. But you have The Harbor Queen¡¯s Gift and the mark of her bloodline.¡±


    You¡¯d privately doubted you were tied to N. He was important. Chosen by a god. And if your mother had any brothers or nephews, she never passed it down. You don¡¯t even think she had any cousins. But if you¡¯re more distantly related¡­


    ¡°There was a time not so long ago,¡± Reshiram muses, ¡°that I believed your lineage to be extinct. It only survived through fortune. Centuries ago, a king found the strength to do what needed to be done. Nonetheless, he was a sentimental fool who could not live with himself afterwards. Another part of me, for we were one then, found it noble.¡± She growls. An actual, hostile growl. The fire roars up with her and you can hear swearing around you. You flinch back and avert your gaze, ancient rules forgotten. ¡°Sometimes I am glad to be free of such foolishness now. But I was weaker then. I granted his request to leave the kingdom behind and live out his final days in exile on the other side of the Earth.¡± The heat dies back down to a low burn. ¡°He was an old, broken man. It never occurred to me that he would beget more children.¡±


    Footsteps approach. ¡°Reshiram, it¡¯s almost time to depart,¡± a female voice (Hilda?) says.


    The pavement audibly groans as the goddess stretches. ¡°I have duties to fulfill. We shall finish our conversation at a later time.¡±


    You step back in silence and someone grabs hold of you. ¡°What the fuck,¡± Kekoa hisses in your ear, ¡°was that about?¡±


    ¡°I was in her territory. I acknowledged her.¡±


    ¡°Isn¡¯t she from Unova?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s a goddess: everything is her territory.¡±


    He grunts, probably out of arguments. You pick up your surprisingly warm pack and follow Kekoa¡¯s lead to the convoy.


    ¡°Excuse me, miss,¡± someone says. ¡°No pok¨¦mon allowed in the vehicle.¡± Pok¨¦mon, but¡­ Right. You reach down and withdraw Nocitl¨¡lin. She¡¯s very well behaved when she isn¡¯t trying to watch people pee, but you don¡¯t want to argue about it now.


    You end up sandwiched between Kekoa and Genesis with very little room to yourself. Which is fine, mostly. You don¡¯t take up that much space. And you¡¯re more than used to getting crowded out in the tent.


    Most of the ride passes in silence beyond the tires on the road and Reshiram¡¯s wingbeats above. Maybe a half hour later Reshiram lets out a deafening roar and the convoy grinds to a halt. You can feel the flames through the walls of the car. There¡¯s some radio chatter, but it¡¯s garbled and without your gift your English is only okay. There are only a few things you remember: The goddess¡¯s roars. Her opponent¡¯s begging (Home, home, home, home, I want to go home!), every word accompanied by a sharp pain in your temples. The sound of the explosion that marked the battle¡¯s inevitable end. Whatever it was, it chose to fight a goddess. A dragon goddess. Its fate was sealed the second it approached with a challenge.


    When the convoy moves again, you realize that Kekoa¡¯s back to gripping your hand. Even though it¡¯s probably light out. You squeeze his hand back but he doesn¡¯t let go. That¡¯s fine with you.


    The rest of the trip is uneventful.


    *


    You end up being one of the last ones out of the convoy. Most of the crowds have already cleared judging by the relative silence. That at least makes it easier to follow the noises of people flowing to wherever it is you¡¯re supposed to go.


    Something giant crashes down behind you, bathing your back in heat. You probably jump at least a half meter into the air. In spite of everything, you do your best to steady yourself before turning around to face the goddess. ¡°Hello. I was...¡± You¡¯re not sure what you wanted to say at the start of the sentence.


    ¡°Did you think we would not speak again?¡± She growls. ¡°I am truth incarnate. My promises are prophecies.¡±


    You swallow down the fear and shake your head. A human negation. Should¡¯ve done the dragon one. Doesn¡¯t matter, keep moving. ¡°I meant no offense, Flame Giver.¡±


    She chuffs and her heat dies down. ¡°I understand. I, too, was concerned that our meeting would be delayed. But my companion needs rest and I shall oblige her.¡±


    You finally calm down enough to realize that the air smells heavily of blood. Dragon blood. You don¡¯t say anything. A goddess bled for you. That¡¯s not right. It¡¯s supposed to be the other way around.


    ¡°Now, then,¡± Reshiram continues, ¡°it has been some time since I spoke to a human in my own tongue. Or at least something akin to it. Your pronunciation is terrible and your pitch is that of a newborn.¡±


    Oh. You should have expected that. Known that. Why did you talk to her in the first place?


    ¡°But I suppose it is the best a human can do. Tell me, Daughter of the Harbor Queen, what are your ambitions?¡±


    Ambitions? Like N? You¡¯ve never really had any. You don¡¯t want to say that outright. She¡¯s spoken of duties before. Maybe...


    ¡°I seek to reclaim what was stolen from me. Then I will return home and fulfill my obligations there. I¡¯m not the kind of person who should change society. I wouldn¡¯t know what to do with it and there are much smarter people.¡± Priests, kings, scholars, warriors. Heroes. ¡°I¡¯m not a hero.¡±


    Reshiram makes a particular bark. One of praise. Not praise of an equal, but that of a mother congratulating her daughter on killing a rodent for the first time. ¡°You may be wiser than you know. Those who are certain that they must change the world often bring it to ruin. A few generations later another will rise, certain that they must undo what their forefathers shed blood to change. Dragons do not make these mistakes. We know our ancient roles and fulfill them. There are no grand attempts to upset the balance of nature. No wars of conquest or revolution. But humans always want more than they have. They will kill themselves and others for fictitious honors, a yard of barren dirt, and gold they will never spend. Every day they fall farther and farther from their rightful place.


    ¡°Survive and reclaim that which is rightly yours. Find a role in society and fill it well. That is heroic enough.¡±


    No response comes to mind. You¡¯re not sure you¡¯d give it even if you could. Her words carry an air of finality, that there is nothing left to be said on the subject.


    ¡°I believe your companions need to speak with you. Go forth, Little One. Heed my words and you shall have my blessing.¡± She rockets off into the air before you can thank her or wish her well or find anything at all to say.


    ¡°You really do speak dragon, huh?¡± Kekoa remarks behind you.


    ¡°She said I¡¯m not very good at it.¡±


    ¡°In dragon. And you understood it.¡±


    ¡°We need to talk,¡± Genesis says quickly and quietly. Kekoa sighs.


    ¡°Yeah, we do.¡±


    Everyone is silent for a while, waiting on Genesis to speak again.


    ¡°My dad called. I¡¯m going home. Now. There¡¯s a teleporter here. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll be able to speak again, but I will miss you. A lot. And,¡± she shoves a stack of bills down into your palm. How did she see your hand? Is Reshiram still around? Did she get lucky? All the questions that don¡¯t matter come to mind. ¡°This is some money that my brother gave me. It should help.¡± Her voice is unusually strained, quiet, and detached. Like she rehearsed this for once but doesn¡¯t quite want to go through.


    ¡°Okay¡­ but you don¡¯t sound happy?¡± Which is strange. You thought that she really wanted to go back.


    ¡°I am. Really. Just, a lot just happened and there¡¯s a conversation I¡¯m not looking forward to and I haven¡¯t had much time to prepare.¡±


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t go,¡± Kekoa says, voice firm and almost angry. Why? This is everything he wanted. Even if he¡¯s calmed down a little in the last two weeks, he still clearly doesn¡¯t like her. ¡°Your parents aren¡¯t good people, Gen. Nothing good comes from going back.¡±


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± Genesis says in an uncharacteristically hostile tone. She sighs and the anger breaks to dejected acceptance. ¡°You don¡¯t know them.¡±


    ¡°They kicked their daughter to the curb. I know enough about them.¡± He¡¯s getting angry. That¡¯s bad for him. If this turns into a shouting match, Genesis will feel attacked and he will lose. You don¡¯t tell him this. If she wants to go to her parents in spite of everything, you understand. And Reshiram¡¯s words about roles and duties loom large in your mind.


    ¡°They just made a mistake. Thought I did something I didn¡¯t and were worried I¡¯d corrupt my brother.


    Kekoa actually snorts. ¡°You? Corrupt someone? Either they don¡¯t know you at all, or that¡¯s not why they did it. And if they have realized, never mind, guess Jenny was good all along, why wouldn¡¯t they let you talk to us?¡±


    ¡°Because you might corrupt me,¡± she says, exasperated, like this should really be obvious. You don¡¯t think you¡¯ve been corrupting, though? You asked her to stop being rude to Kekoa. And made her eat some gross shit once. That was pretty much it. And she deserved that potato salad.


    ¡°Really? What¡¯s Cuicatl done?¡±


    Drat. You were really hoping to stay out of this. So many people leaving in the last year, so few chances for decent goodbyes. And he¡¯s dragging this one through the mud for gods-know-why.


    ¡°She¡¯s in a human sacrifice cult.¡± She whisper-hisses it like you won¡¯t hear it. Even though she probably also thinks you have super hearing.


    You¡¯ve only killed one person and you really, really didn¡¯t mean to. That¡¯s not the right answer, though. ¡°We don¡¯t convert,¡± you finally say. Because Kekoa dragged you into this and it would be awkward if you said nothing at all. ¡°You can believe what you wish.¡± You don¡¯t even sacrifice people without their permission anymore. Even American war criminals were declared off-limits in The False Tlatoani¡¯s Peace.


    ¡°And if you want to talk cults,¡± Kekoa interjects, ¡°only one of us seems to be obsessed with being perfect all the time. What happens when you slip up? Or your parents make another mistake? You¡¯ll just end up back here, but with no friends.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t answer. Instead, Genesis wraps you in a really tight hug for a few seconds and walks away. Another pair of footsteps follows her. Before you can tell Kekoa off, you hear him huff beside you. ¡°Dammit, why didn¡¯t you back me up?¡±


    ¡°She has a duty to her family.¡±


    He stamps a foot and starts pacing. ¡°No! Fuck no! She doesn¡¯t owe them shit. Just.¡± You can practically hear the scream on the tip of his tongue. ¡°Damn it.¡±


    You silently slip the money into your purse, release Nocitl¨¡lin and extend your cane. ¡°Why do you care, anyway?¡±


    ¡°Because¡­¡± He sighs. ¡°I don¡¯t like her. At all. But she wasn¡¯t supposed to do this. It¡¯s bad.¡± He hesitates for a moment. ¡°For her.¡± The inflection and wording are wrong. He¡¯s worried, but you don¡¯t think it¡¯s for her. The loss of income? Her team was cheap to feed and she did bring in money from capture missions when she didn¡¯t keep the target herself. That does sound about right. Genesis was annoying to him, but being one-third poorer is worse. With another bout of swearing, Kekoa finally stops pacing. ¡°Come on. Let¡¯s get to the Center. I need to charge my phone.¡±


    *


    The Malie Center is overcrowded but you don¡¯t dare leave it. Pixie and Coco are in their balls full time for the foreseeable future. They won¡¯t have to eat or drink that way. Won¡¯t have to go outside. It¡¯s not safe outside.


    That doesn¡¯t make inside feel like less of a cage. Genesis is gone and Kekoa¡¯s bitter, ending conversations with frustrated monosyllabic answers. No chance to really go deeper into what you talked about on the mountain. You¡¯re not sure he wants to, though. You¡¯re left with your beldum, who is being a very good, very warm cuddler tonight. Even letting you wrap an arm around her as you rest. Her questions have stopped, if only because she¡¯s gathered that you have no answers to give.


    Reshiram.


    There were answers there, but more questions were raised. A goddess approves of your plan. Any of the last doubts tingling in the pit of your stomach or the corner of your mouth are gone. You will go home. You will face your father.


    You have other family. N. He could be your first cousin or the descendant of your great-great-great-great-great grandparent¡¯s sibling. He still exists. Shares your gift. Maybe he will come for you. Maybe he will not. You aren¡¯t sure which to hope for. Understanding and family. A link to your mother¡¯s world. But also a threat to your visa, a threat to Alice, and a reminder of someone you¡¯ve lost.


    Then¡­ there¡¯s something you forgot. Or maybe something you never remembered at all. People talking¡­ about¡­ your thoughts slide off it like water on a glass window. Something about The Voice, surely. But what? What could you know? And is it important? Dangerous?


    You fall asleep, a warm steel-type pressed against you, before you come up with any answers.

 Fighting 3: Lyra

    Fighting 3.3: Lies and Lyra


    Genesis


    ¡°Excuse me, Genesis.¡±


    Your eyes flick away from Reshiram¡ªReshiram!¡ªto see the man behind you. There¡¯s a human-like pok¨¦mon with yellow stripes beside him. Wait. You think you recognize him? From dad¡¯s security team? The one he uses abroad. ¡°You work for my father, right?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°You been following her?¡± Kekoa asks/growls.


    ¡°For her own safety.¡± You swear he¡¯s glaring at Kekoa but can¡¯t quite tell in in the dim light. ¡°After all, you never know who might set their sights on someone like her.¡±


    ¡°Never saw you,¡± Kekoa adds, more defensive than anything.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to be seen.¡± His attention shifts back to you. ¡°Come with me. Your father wants to speak with you.¡±


    Father.


    Cuicatl¡¯s still growling back and forth with Reshiram. When you start walking away, Kekoa following with a huff, she doesn¡¯t even notice. Once you¡¯re far enough from everyone else that the electabuzz¡¯s light can¡¯t reach them, the man hands you a phone. Oh. For a second you thought that he was here, but this makes a lot more sense. Kekoa tries to step closer, but he¡¯s held back. Gently, but the message gets across loud and clear. Even to you.


    There¡¯s already a call started. No time to prepare. You raise the phone to your ear and cough. ¡°Hello?¡±


    ¡°Hello, Genesis. Are you hurt?¡±


    His question makes you smile; he does still care about you.


    ¡°I am not. Are you?¡±


    ¡°Good to hear. I am also unharmed. Security has only encountered one of the monsters here, and it was quickly dispatched. Which brings me to the reason for this call: it is time for you to come home. The world has become far too dangerous for you to be unprotected.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯ve sent protection, haven¡¯t you?¡± He did. He was watching after you the entire time. Because he cares.


    ¡°Hector was the one who requested you be brought back to a more defensible location.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± You¡¯re going home. It¡¯s still a shock to hear, even after months of waiting and praying for it. Sure, it took the sun going out¡ªbut you¡¯re going home! ¡°I¡¯ll come.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. I have a teleporter ready to bring you over. We will continue this conversation once you arrive.¡±


    He hangs up. Teleporter? That¡¯s¡ªyou were expecting a boat. You had a whole speech planned out for when you got back, but now it¡¯s slipping out of reach as you try to find it. No time to prepare, everything on the line and¡ªand you have to say goodbye, now. To Cuicatl. Someone who had always been nice to you. Well, almost always. But you usually deserved it when she wasn¡¯t. And there¡¯s no way at all that Mother ever lets you speak to her again.


    You take a deep breath and turn back towards Reshiram. This is it. Your last impression with her. Better not screw it up.


    *


    You screwed it up. No, Kekoa screwed it all up. Cuicatl even tried to help you! Wasn¡¯t even mad you called the death cult she¡¯s in a death cult. Uggggggh. She hates you now, doesn¡¯t she? And you¡¯ll never get a chance to correct it. That was all you were trying to avoid.


    You¡¯re still reflecting on that conversation when the teleporter¡¯s alakazam makes the entire world stretch and stretch until there¡¯s nothing but lines around you. The alakazam leaps away just as soon as the world starts to settle around you.


    You¡¯re home. It¡¯s hard to see the edges of the room in the dark but the floor is familiar and you¡¯re home! After the first footstep echoes around the parlor you remember that you¡¯re wearing ragged hiking boots and shamefully slip them off. Fine. You¡¯ll face your parents in socks. Maybe they won¡¯t even notice.


    It¡¯s just two trips around the staircase to the second floor. To Father¡¯s office. Hector and his pok¨¦mon stay at the bottom with your bag. More light, brighter than the electabuzz¡¯s, flows down from the top.


    A vikavolt¡¯s light. The bug¡ªyou never learned the vikavolts¡¯ names since they were usually at work with the spiders¡ªfloats behind you and gently presses you closer to the door. No one opens it when you approach, so with shaky hands you press down the handle and step inside.


    The vikavolt stays behind, but there¡¯s still light and a great deal of heat in the room itself. Red is lying down in her bed when you enter. That doesn¡¯t last long, as the pyroar ambles over to you and sniffs you over. Then she nuzzles your shoulder. You used to be scared of the big cat, but now you¡¯re just happy she¡¯s here because it means you¡¯re home. For a moment you ignore the other people in the room and hug her back, giving her a scratch on the chin. But it doesn¡¯t last. Eventually Red walks back to her bed and you have to turn and face reality. Father is smiling, either at you or at his longtime pet. Your mother is not, legs and arms crossed and almost glaring at you.


    Not good. Not good at all.


    ¡°You¡¯re back,¡± she says after what feels like an hour of silent appraisal. ¡°But have you changed?¡±


    Fragments of what you wanted to say come back. You¡¯re sorry. Time alone made you realize¡ªwhat did it make you realize? She keeps staring at you in the dim light and you have to move on without figuring it out.


    ¡°A lot. I cared for my own pok¨¦mon. Saw the world in a different way. I¡¯ve been away from¡ª¡± do you say her name or not ahhhhhhh¡ª ¡°her for a few months and got away from her influence. I made new friends¡ª¡±


    ¡°The pagan and the transsexual, yes?¡±


    ¡°I¡ªI was trying to teach them.¡±


    There¡¯s fire in her eyes that can¡¯t be blamed on the pyroar¡¯s light. ¡°¡¯Trying,¡¯ were you? Tell me, were they also trying to convert you?¡±


    ¡°Cuicatl said¡ª¡±


    ¡°Because from where I¡¯m sitting, I see a different explanation.¡± You turn to your father but his eyes are locked on his pet. He can¡¯t see your pleading. ¡°What happened on the roof¡ª¡±


    ¡°She kissed me!¡±


    She cuts you off, again, with a wave of her hand. ¡°So you said. Does it matter, though? Something awoke within you. We cast you out and away from it and what do you do? You find another deviant to latch onto. Rather than fight the demons you seek out and embrace them, time and time again.¡±


    It¡¯s all too much. The loathing in her voice when she talks about your friends, the accusations, dad looking away¡­ you want to yell but that would be childish and you want her to take you seriously so you can stay.


    ¡°Tell me, Genesis,¡± she practically purrs. ¡°Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that girl never tempted you?¡±


    ¡°Of course she didn¡¯t.¡±


    Mother leans back into her chair, a very self-satisfied smile on her face.


    ¡°Genesis Elizabeth Gage, you have always been a terrible liar.¡±


    2015


    The library door swings open and you look up from your homework. Stefan is standing in the doorway with an Asian child about your age beside him. Her eyes briefly settle on you before immediately flitting away to look at the rest of the room. Like you¡¯re the least interesting thing in it. ¡°You have a visitor, Miss Gage.¡±


    The girl finally, almost unwillingly turns back towards you and walks forward. You stand up, rubbing some of the wrinkles out of your skirt, and extend a hand. ¡°Hi. Who are you?¡± There¡¯s a sharp cough in the corner and it takes all your willpower not to look at Agnes. ¡°Hello. It is a pleasure to make your ack-wain-tens.¡± That word took you forever to get right. ¡°My name is Genesis. What is yours?¡± You correct yourself, a little stiffer than you have to be out of spite. Agnes doesn¡¯t disapprove, but that might have counted as ¡®sass¡¯ and earn you another manners lesson tonight.


    Stefan breaks in before the girl can respond. ¡°Oh, Agnes, you¡¯re free to go for the day. Sarah and I will watch the children.¡± The old woman huffs (she mostly speaks in huffs, tuts, and scoldings) and gathers her things. The girl glances between you and Agnes with a sly smile that grows much wider once the only adults are behind her.


    ¡°I¡¯m Lyra,¡± she finally says when the door is shut. ¡°Or Kotone if you want to call me that. That was my name back home. But a new country means a new name. That¡¯s what dad says.¡±


    ¡°Oh? Then you¡¯re from¡­?¡±


    ¡°Japan.¡±


    Japan. Mother told you about that place recently. They don¡¯t worship Xerneas there, so he couldn¡¯t stop it when Yveltal sent monsters. A city was destroyed. A lot of people died. Now they¡¯re all in a cocoon. That is why you believe in Xerneas. He can protect you. But if Mother let you speak to Lyra then she also believes and already knows all of that. You can ask about other stuff. ¡°Your Galarian sounds good.¡±


    Lyra shrugs. You wince at the thought of Agnes seeing you do that. ¡°I had someone to teach me.¡±


    ¡°Cool.¡± Like your Kalosian lessons. It¡¯s one of your best subjects. You even managed to mostly speak in it when Father took you to Kalos last year. ¡°What do you like to do? When you¡¯re not seeing the world?¡±


    ¡°Be outside.¡± At some point her eyes had started wandering the room again. They snap back to you all at once. ¡°Want to go out? It¡¯s Winter in Japan, but it¡¯s warm here. I want to enjoy it.¡±


    You glance at Stefan, still standing by the doorway, and he nods back. ¡°Okay. There¡¯s a playground outside.¡±


    There is. You don¡¯t use it much. Not anymore. Exodus¡­left¡­and your parents don¡¯t like letting you do anything with Levi where he could get hurt. Even though you¡¯re nothing like your sister.


    When Lyra first sees the playground her eyes widen and she just stands still and looks at it for long enough that you start fidgeting. ¡°This is all yours?¡±


    ¡°My brother uses it sometimes.¡±


    She shakes her head and finally looks away from it and back to you. With a quick flick of her wrist her finger presses into your heart. ¡°Tag. You¡¯re it.¡±


    Lyra races off and it takes a moment for your thoughts to catch up with the present. Okay. You¡¯re not really dressed for this. She isn¡¯t either, but at least she has more comfortable shoes on. It¡¯s fine, though; you can still play for a bit.


    You chase her up the stairs and onto the bridge, up the spire, down the pole, turn around real fast (and almost wipe out), catch your balance and go to the second set, up the stairs when she decides to crawl up a slide¡ªwait, she just ran back out the bottom of the slide¡ªdown the slide, towards the¡ªyour shoes catch on the ground and you fall flat on your face. Little flashes of pain shoot up your arms and legs. Your knee is sore where it hit the ground and you can imagine the pattern of woodchips plastered on it.


    It¡¯s fine. All fine. Nothing too bad. You press yourself up on your hands and sit down properly. Sarah¡¯s running over with her comfey draped over her shoulder. It takes Lyra a bit to notice you aren¡¯t following, but she starts jogging back when she does. The comfey wraps herself around your arm and you can feel the healing pouring into you. Sarah does a quick check on everything before standing up and starting to walk away. Comfey stays for a little bit as your cuts stop bleeding, become thin red lines, and then disappear altogether. Even the pains from your too-tight saddle shoes fade away.


    Lyra plops down beside you right as the comfey starts to fly back after her trainer. ¡°They really keep an eye on you, huh?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. They want to make sure I¡¯m safe.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t look like she agrees. ¡°I hate it. Haven¡¯t been living with dad long but he always, always, always has someone watching me. Can¡¯t do anything without him finding out. Have you always lived like that?¡±


    ¡°Yes, but it keeps me safe. There are bad people out there.¡±


    Lyra scoffs. ¡°I know. Still hate it.¡±


    She glares at the merry-go-round like it¡¯s responsible for everything and for once you know what to do.


    You poke a finger into her heart, smile, and run away.


    *


    ¡°HEY!¡± You¡¯re jolted out of your thoughts by someone yelling very loudly very close to you. Lyra. In what you¡¯re pretty sure is the uniform of the school down the street. ¡°You really don¡¯t pay attention when you run.¡±


    You flush in embarrassment and look away. ¡°I was thinking.¡±


    ¡°What were you thinking about?¡±


    There¡¯s a book series about a group of knights. There are a lot of books and there¡¯s sort of a bigger plot but mostly it¡¯s just kids a little older than you hanging out with other kids and fighting bad guys with swords, bows, and pok¨¦mon. When you run around the track you get lost in that world, sort of, except you¡¯re in it and have friends, a faerie rapidash, and a sword made of pure crystal. The sword also¡ªdoesn¡¯t matter. The point is that you won¡¯t tell anyone any of it. Ever. It¡¯s not real. It doesn¡¯t matter to them.


    ¡°Stuff.¡±


    Lyra stares at you like you said something wrong. And maybe you did. Eventually she nods. ¡°I did not see you at school today.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t go. Agnes teaches me here.¡±


    There is a local school run by priests of Xerneas but Mother has some issue with them that she¡¯s never really explained. Or maybe she has and you just didn¡¯t understand. That happens a lot with her explanations.


    Now Lyra¡¯s really looking at you funny. ¡°Is that common here? It was not in Japan.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not common, but it might be someday. More and more people are doing it.¡± Mother is working to ensure that. She¡¯s often in Hau¡¯oli or even on the mainland trying to get the government to make it easier.


    If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°Are you not lonely, though?¡±


    ¡°I mean¡­¡± Yeah. Very. Sort of. You have your brother. And your parents. And Stefan, Sarah, Agnes¡­ There are people around you almost all the time. And also Lucy. That¡¯s enough.


    Lyra grabs your hand. ¡°Let me get changed. Then we can play.¡± She seems very determined. You aren¡¯t sure what about.


    *


    At first Lyra just uses you for the playground out back. Sometimes she¡¯ll talk about school, but never for long. Later she starts coming inside, usually for snacks. Then she starts talking about whatever¡¯s on her mind (snakes, cartoons, something or other that another friend told her) and listens when you say stuff that probably isn¡¯t as interesting. Eventually you just expect her to show up almost every day at four on the dot and sometimes she doesn¡¯t leave until it¡¯s dark. Lyra shrugs it off whenever you ask: ¡°I just like being here.¡±


    2016


    ¡°Do you want to marry me?¡±


    You almost faceplant onto the bridge but you catch yourself just in time. Lyra¡¯s right in front of you. Was that a plan to throw you off so she could win? You almost had her. But she doesn¡¯t start running again and just shrugs it off when you poke her (on the shoulder, not the heart, because Mother says you can¡¯t do that anymore).


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°A bunch of kids are getting married at recess. A boy asked me today and I told him I was already married. It was a lie, but we could maybe make it not a lie?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    Her expression immediately falls. ¡°Why not?¡±


    ¡°Because we¡¯re both girls. Duh.¡±


    She has her ¡®you¡¯re-wrong-and-I-want-to-say-it-but-probably-won¡¯t¡¯ look on.


    ¡°I mean, you¡¯re nice. If you were a boy, yes. But you¡¯re not, so¡­¡±


    ¡°Ah.¡±


    And that¡¯s the end of that.


    2017


    Mother says you can go to school! On your first day Lyra comes over early and you help each other tidy up and make sure the uniforms are on right before you get in the car and ride over together.


    Not ten steps in the door Lyra¡¯s flagged over by some girls you don¡¯t recognize and they start talking with only a quick introduction for you. Their discussion moves quickly with lots of gestures, hugs, and words you can barely make out over the dull roar of the children around you. But you aren¡¯t a part of it. You aren¡¯t wanted here. That¡¯s fine. You knew she had other friends. Betrayal weighing heavy on your heart, you slip off into the crowd.


    *


    Lyra finds you again at lunch.


    ¡°Where have you been?¡± She slams her tray down onto the table and stares at you, lips drawn back in a snarl.


    ¡°In class.¡±


    ¡°Not what I meant and you know it.¡±


    She¡¯s angry at you. You¡¯ve seen her angry before but you¡¯ve never been scared of her. Until now.


    ¡°You were talking to your friends and¡­¡± You sigh and look down, away from Lyra¡¯s ferocious eyes. ¡°They¡¯re your friends. Not mine. I didn¡¯t want to get in the way.¡±


    Lyra huffs and half-laughs half-cries. ¡°That it? Then get up. You¡¯re coming to my table and I¡¯m making them your friends.¡±


    She tries. She really does. And you start to learn things about them and they learn some things about you. Three come over to your house in October, but Mother keeps two from coming back (one was a liar, the other too masculine) and the third stays away on principle. They let you keep sitting at the table (it¡¯s not your fault your mom¡¯s crazy, they explain, until you start to argue that, no, she isn¡¯t, and one politely changes the topic). There are always jokes you don¡¯t get and there¡¯s a wall between them and you but it¡¯s nice to have other people to talk to. And Lyra¡¯s always there, glancing at you from time to time and making sure that you aren¡¯t too far out of the loop.


    2018


    Lyra storms into the library, all but slamming the door behind her. Stefan looks up and starts some snide rebuke or another before the young girl silences him with a vicious glare. ¡°Gen, can we go somewhere private?¡± She says it like it is not a question.


    ¡°Sure.¡± You smooth your skirt and walk out of the library with her, taking a left to the staircase, up two flights of stairs, and down to the third door to the right. You hesitate before opening it. She seems really out of it and if she wanted something private¡­ you brace yourself and open the door to your room. Fluffy looks up and chitters for a moment before going back to sleep on her web, strung up in the corner between four posts.


    Lyra shuts the door, gently, behind you and looks at the room with the same curious eye she had when you first met her. ¡°This is your bedroom, huh?¡±


    ¡°Yup.¡±


    ¡°Thought you¡¯d never show me.¡±


    You don¡¯t respond, instead walking over to your bed and sitting down on the edge. Lyra casts a wary look at Fluffy before following and sitting beside you. And it¡¯s true. You don¡¯t like her here. This is your space. Yours. You make your own bed and do most of the chores just so fewer people come in. Having anyone in here feels invasive. Even if it¡¯s Lyra.


    It¡¯s a boring room, anyway, since you barely spend time here. A few toys for Fluffy. A plush pyroar (almost as cute as the real thing). Plain blue wallpaper. A diary on the desk you stopped writing in years ago. Mother pretended she could read your mind and kept catching and punishing you for stuff you were pretty sure happened in the rare moments while no one was watching; you only figured out how she was doing it when you made up a little sin you didn¡¯t actually commit and wrote it down. Sure enough, you were locked in the library for four hours of silent reflection over something that didn¡¯t happen. She was upset when you stopped writing and keeps having a new diary put back on the desk whenever you hide or throw out the old one.


    The diary sends you off into a thought hole that doesn¡¯t matter; Lyra is upset now and she matters, not a stupid book.


    ¡°Guess I should tell you what¡¯s going on, right?¡± She sounds resigned, like she¡¯d really rather not. But why would she want privacy if she didn¡¯t want to tell you?


    ¡°If you want. You don¡¯t have to.¡±


    ¡°My idiot big brother is going back to Japan.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯ve heard that parts of it have recovered?¡± You aren¡¯t sure why this is bad as she makes it sound. She barely even talks about Ethan.


    She shakes her head, sending waves through her long black hair. She must notice, too, because she tucks some behind her shoulder before turning to look at you. ¡°Gen, how did my dad make his money?¡±


    ¡°Music? Or television?¡± You think it was music but you sort of remember her talking about being on set for a show filming once and you aren¡¯t sure if that was through her dad¡¯s work or not.


    ¡°Yeah. Officially. And maybe for real some of the time. But in Japan all the big businesses compete in the market and in the shadows.¡± She makes a point of looking directly into your eyes. ¡°He worked for the Rockets and he was damn good at it.¡±


    You flinch at the casual swear. She said ¡®Rockets¡¯ like it meant something. Should mean something.


    ¡°Who are the Rockets?¡± you nervously ask. If it¡¯s important you should know.


    ¡°Mafia group.¡±


    What? Her father¡­ he seemed nice enough. A little strict. You had mistaken him for a security guard at first with the way he held himself. But you¡¯d never thought he was a bad person. ¡°I think he¡¯s still in it,¡± she mutters. ¡°Just a little bit. Makes sure that spider silk keeps flowing. Another company, another gang, makes it back home.¡±


    That was too far. ¡°Father doesn¡¯t sell to criminals.¡± You meet her gaze with a glare of your own, doing your best to keep it up when her brown eyes soften considerably and she looks¡­ sad? You suddenly feel stupid and maybe mean and decide that it¡¯s time to inspect your socks.


    ¡°He sells to war criminals. Really, the yakuza are tame compared to his other clients.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡±


    She waves a hand¡ªwait when did she start wearing colorful nail polish?¡ªand cuts off your thoughts. ¡°My brother and I didn¡¯t meet him until I was eight. Before that he was just the guy who left Mom and sometimes paid for stuff make up for it. Then he came back and Hibiki¡ªI mean Ethan. No, screw it¡ªHibiki figured out what our Dad did pretty quick. And he took it hard. We¡¯d both always liked pok¨¦mon since grandma was a breeder. Talked to each other about going on journeys and all that. And in Japan that all leads back to Red,¡± she says the word with a strange mix of awe and disdain. Like he wasn¡¯t just garbage, he was the Mt. Everest of garbage. Which isn¡¯t fair. Your father¡¯s pyroar is lovely, if scary. But you don¡¯t think she¡¯s talking about the cat. ¡°Some kid beat the Rocket Gang¡¯s leader so bad he stepped down in disgrace. Then the Rocket Gang¡¯s rival companies made TV shows, video games, and everything else they could to rub it in. Made the kid a saint in the process.¡±


    You realize you have heard of him. ¡°The guy with the pikachu?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, the guy with the pikachu.¡± If she¡¯s impressed she doesn¡¯t let it show before she plows on. ¡°Hibiki practically worshipped Red. The night he found out what dad did he completely lost it in our room. Went on about how he had to redeem his family.¡± Lyra sighs. ¡°Total drama queen. And now he¡¯s going to go home and fight the Rocket Gang until they kill him.¡±


    A lot of ideas whir through your mind but they range from stupid to rude. And most of them come back to one phrase: ¡®I don¡¯t know how to help you.¡¯


    Lyra abruptly leans over and wraps her arms around you in a big, tight hug. Out of all the things you should be focusing on, you end up thinking about how nice her blukberry-scented shampoo smells.


    *


    A few months later Lyra comes to school with the gloom that had settled over her replaced by bright, shining happiness. The new semester had moved you to a different lunch period than hers so you don¡¯t get a chance to ask her why until Emile drives you both to your home. She stays quiet but clearly excited between her almost-too-wide grin and her foot bouncing off the bottom of the car, replaced by almost skipping-steps as you move out back to the former playground.


    When you¡¯re both sitting down on one of the benches alongside the tennis court, Lyra finally breaks her silence. ¡°My brother got arrested.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± And since when is that a good thing.


    ¡°Yup. Turns out it¡¯s illegal to attack people and break their stuff, even if they¡¯re also criminals. The cartoons lied.¡±


    ¡°But he¡¯s in jail and that¡¯s bad?¡± You¡¯re pretty darn sure it is, anyway.


    ¡°For now. But Dad thinks he can get him home with a slap on the wrist and a promise to not come back for a few years. Win-win there. He¡¯ll be safe back home and can¡¯t return to risk his life.¡±


    Oh. That¡¯s why. Now you get it. ¡°I¡¯m happy for you.¡± Lyra smiles and gives you a quick side hug before pulling back up. She seems to sink down into the bench as her legs sprawl out further in front of her.


    ¡°And now I can finally think about my own journey without worrying about his.¡± Right. Her journey. She¡¯d talked about it a lot with you at first but then she must have realized that you didn¡¯t know what she was talking about so she moved onto discussing it with other friends. But you should care about the stuff she likes. Or at least pretend you do.


    ¡°Have you decided what pok¨¦mon you want?¡±


    Her smile somehow grows wider. It almost hurts your lips just to look at it. ¡°Well, I want to be able to explore places so I need pok¨¦mon that can help with that. And a fire-water-grass core is sort of tradition. The fire-type is salazzle, of course, because I like their mating dance.¡± She winks at you and you get the feeling that there¡¯s a joke you were supposed to get but didn¡¯t. Her smile thins a bit, but she doesn¡¯t try to explain it. ¡°As a kid I wanted a tangrowth since their vines could help me cross gaps and climb places, but you don¡¯t have those here and I haven¡¯t thought of a good replacement yet. Then lapras is obviously the go-to water-type for crossing oceans and lakes and rivers and stuff. But I might go with pyukumuku instead.¡±


    ¡°Pyukumuku? You know my dad pays people to get rid of those? Why would you want to own one?¡±


    ¡°Well, they¡¯re super easy to care for and that¡¯s good since some of my other pok¨¦mon might not be. Plus, most people underestimate them and they can be really tricky to fight.¡±


    ¡°I see.¡± You really don¡¯t¡ªwhy on earth would she pick the ball of slime over a gorgeous milotic, lapras, or primarina?


    ¡°Yup. Then something for deserts, something for the tundra, and a bird to fly on. Or maybe flygon for both the deserts and the flying¡­¡±


    You don¡¯t really understand half of what comes next. Something about a sled race that someone won with a sandslash, which apparently don¡¯t live in sand at all. And there¡¯s a lake in Japan that supposedly leads to another world entirely but only three people have gone, only two came back, and only one ever talks about it.


    There are a few opportunities to ask a question that sounds like a good one or interject with something you¡¯d heard somewhere but mostly you just let her talk. Lyra¡¯s happy again. You hadn¡¯t fully realized just how much you had missed that.


    *


    ¡°You¡¯re going to homecoming, right?¡±


    Lyra leans onto the locker next to you and looks at you expectantly.


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t planning on it. Dances are¡­¡± full of bright lights and loud music and crowds of bodies and the smell of sweat and other terrible stuff. Helping out with prom as part of student government terrified you into swearing off both dances and student government forever. ¡°Not my thing. But are you going?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a date, no.¡± Her smile turns almost predatory. Was that the wrong question? Should you apologize. ¡°But there¡¯s nothing stopping us from going. As friends.¡±


    ¡°Um.¡±


    ¡°Janet,¡± the blonde from the lunch table (right?), ¡°just found out that she¡¯ll be on the mainland that weekend, so she gave her ticket to me.¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Please. For me?¡±


    She looks terribly anxious and she just got happy and her hair looks very cute today and you just can¡¯t find it in yourself to say no.


    *


    You should have said no.


    The night starts well enough. Lyra comes over to your place wearing a black shin-length dress and black opera gloves. The dress is silk and clearly fitted for her and it looks really good, but the gloves mean that there¡¯s more fabric on her arms than her legs and it¡¯s unbalanced and you can¡¯t even imagine wearing that without immediately taking the gloves off. The dark fabric makes her look elegant enough that you can almost forget it.


    Just after the car drives off Lyra notices something wrong with your hair, which is annoying because you spent so long sitting still and getting it styled earlier, so she steps over and fixes it. She¡¯s surprisingly slow and has to get a lot closer to you than you would¡¯ve expected. It isn¡¯t unpleasant, though. She smells good and it at least takes your mind off the heart rate spike you¡¯re experiencing as you get closer to the dance, even if it somehow makes your heart go even faster.


    The dance is almost as bad as you remember it being. Less people seem to want to actually dance so there¡¯s less sweat in the air. And if they aren¡¯t dancing then they¡¯re talking and the DJ has to turn up the music to be heard over the talking and then people have to talk louder to be heard over the music and there are dozens or maybe hundreds of conversations going on and your mind keeps grasping onto snippets of all of them and it¡¯s too much to handle and you¡¯d really rather be outside. But Lyra¡¯s here and she¡¯s happy and seeing her happy makes you happy enough that your face gets hot so you¡¯ll stay. Lyra looks at you occasionally or nudges your elbow and asks if you¡¯re fine and you lie and say you are and she hesitantly accepts it every time. Once in a while the conversation between her and her friends turns to something you actually know about and you talk too much until you get embarrassed and just stop talking for a while.


    After what feels like days but may have been minutes a song plays that you know how to dance to. Lyra went to those lessons with you and she must remember because she grabs your wrist and moves her eyes to the dance floor. ¡°It¡¯s a guy-girl dance,¡± you mutter-shout.


    ¡°You¡¯re tall. We can make it work.¡±


    And you do. It¡¯s surprisingly easy to tone everything out while the song is on and just focus on your movements and Lyra¡¯s. But the song ends, and a loud, fast pop song takes its place and the moment is over.


    *


    You try, you really do, but eventually everything is too much and you have to step out of the room to breathe. Lyra follows, looking equal parts guilty and concerned. She glances down at your hand, seeing it twitching and folding in on itself as it desperately wants something to fidget with even though you kicked that bad habit years ago.


    ¡°I messed up, didn¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± You agreed to it. You freaked out. It isn¡¯t her fault at all.


    She takes a deep, dramatic sigh. ¡°You don¡¯t hate me, right?¡±


    Of course you don¡¯t. She¡¯s closer to you than anyone is. Practically family.


    ¡°You know I love you, Lyra.¡±


    She brightens up like her brother got arrested five times.


    July 5, 2019


    Your concentration has been even worse than usual lately. You¡¯ve even caught yourself fidgeting with a coin a few times, staring off into the distance for minutes on end. It¡¯s gotten bad enough that someone told Father and he talked to you for a few minutes before you convinced him that everything was fine and he could go back to his work. Levi, bless him, has done his best to cheer you up but it¡¯s nothing he can do anything about, nothing that you¡¯d want him to do anything about, and he gets the hint.


    Lyra¡¯s leaving soon. You don¡¯t know how long she¡¯ll be gone. Maybe for a long time. She does want to explore, after all, so there¡¯s no reason for her to stop after she beats the island challenge. And she says she¡¯d be happy if she never went home again.


    You¡¯ve met her starter, a stoic absol. He lets you pet him in long, gentle strokes down the back and he¡¯s so, so soft.


    The day Lyra leaves gets closer and closer and closer until its finally here.


    ¡°I¡¯ve never been up on your roof,¡± she asks without asking.


    You take her up there because it¡¯s her last day and you aren¡¯t denying her last request. The door is unlocked. You don¡¯t know if you should be surprised since you¡¯ve never even tried to open it before. On the roof you¡¯re hit with the smell of salty air and the sounds of wingull down on the beach. The ocean stretches out almost to the horizon, only broken by the faint silhouette of Lanakila in the distance.


    It¡¯s a good view. Maybe you should¡¯ve come here before. Lyra seems to think the same, leaning on the railing and letting the wind run through her hair without a care in the world. She¡¯s wearing the same outfit she wore to the dance. It¡¯ll make it easier to remember how she looks forever, even if she never comes back.


    You walk over to the railing and stand by her in silence. You should say something. Time is running out fast and while she can text you on the trail, she¡¯ll have bigger things to worry about and new friends you¡¯ll never meet. Someday she might forget to text altogether.


    ¡°I guess you¡¯re never going to make a move, are you?¡± Lyra finally asks.


    ¡°What?¡± What is she talking about? Move on wha¡ª


    Her lips meet yours and your mind stops working. Then it starts up again going way too fast. You¡¯ve never been kissed before and it feels good but it shouldn¡¯t feel good but it¡¯s Lyra and she¡¯s pretty and you like it and you¡¯re going to burn with Yveltal and no you aren¡¯t you hate this hate this hate this but you still don¡¯t pull away. Why don¡¯t you pull away?


    The door swings open. ¡°Girls,¡± Stefan says. ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t¡­ be¡­ on¡­ the¡­¡±


    Lyra steps back and you stumble back from her and Stefan looks more confused than anything before he looks away from you, disappointment replacing the shock. You want to apologize, to beg to him that you didn¡¯t mean it, she did it, you didn¡¯t like it, please don¡¯t tell Mother!


    But you know he will and begging him to deceive her might just make it worse.


    Now you can only pray that Mother will be merciful.


    *


    You look into her eyes and see that there is no mercy to be found.


    ¡°I swear¡ª¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s enough, girls.¡± Father finally speaks, but he still won¡¯t look at either of you. ¡°Genesis, Stefan will take you to your room. You are not to leave it. Please spend the time reflecting on your mistakes.¡±


    It¡¯s not fair. You want to stamp your foot and shout it but it wouldn¡¯t change their minds. A better argument might work but all of your ideas melt to nothing under Mother¡¯s withering stare. Maybe¡­ Maybe it is fair. You¡¯re back. They¡¯re keeping you safe. Keeping an eye on you. They¡¯re just worried about your soul and when they realize that you¡¯re still pure everything will go back to normal.


    ¡°What about my pok¨¦mon?¡±


    Father waves towards the table. You remove your belt and for a long moment you simply hold it in your hand, unable or unwilling to put it on the table. Putting it down feels like you¡¯re throwing the last few months away. Throwing your experiences away like they didn¡¯t matter. All you¡¯ll have left to show for it are the memories.


    ¡­


    Maybe Mother was right. Maybe Lyra and Kekoa did wear you down. Make you rebellious and prideful and sinful to the point where you would defy your own parents in favor of a pagan and a transsexual. Maybe you can¡¯t trust yourself with a tie to the past.


    You set the belt down on the table and walk towards your room.

 Fighting 4: Lyra

    Fighting 3.4: Cognitive Test


    Meredith


    [09:18:40]


    It¡¯s not even the afternoon and you¡¯re already tired. You¡¯re always tired. Doesn¡¯t help that you spent the last week at the edge of Route 2 in ad hoc ten-hour shifts, paranoid that every non-existent shadow held an Ultra Beast. You didn¡¯t even get paid for it. It was ¡°volunteer work¡± that should look great on grad program apps that can get you off this alien-infested archipelago.


    In the meantime, you need money to pay rent, utilities, food, student fees, and pok¨¦mon upkeep. VStar is at least promising to pay you better than waitressing. Even if you wanted to keep doing that the restaurant¡¯s closed until everything goes back to normal. And apparently Congress made it so that the government can delay paying unemployment during the apocalypse, but landlords can still charge rent.


    The VStar job doesn¡¯t look too bad, either. There¡¯s a kid who wants a Class V. You help her do that. She gets one and you get a nice payday. Still pays over minimum wage in the meantime. Sure, you¡¯re not exactly thrilled to work for the pok¨¦mon capture-and-export trade (and your professors would throw a fit if they knew you were A Bad Person), but getting a kid their Class V isn¡¯t bad for the native birds since none of them even need one. Can¡¯t see the harm in it.


    Wolsey lights the way beside you, every flap of her wings sending embers scattering behind her. Most fade quickly. There¡¯s little risk of lighting fires while walking down an abandoned street in the middle of the rainy season. (This damn island has an entire season of rain.)


    The Pok¨¦mon Center has guards positioned around it. No uniforms or anything. Just individual trainers like you, pok¨¦mon at their sides. Some don¡¯t even seem that strong. You ask Wolsey to stay outside and help them for the time being. She¡¯s a strong battler and she can cast some light. Also gives her more time out of her ball. She doesn¡¯t get to spend much time breathing real air when you¡¯re stuck in your apartment night in and night out. Too much risk of her burning down the place.


    Inkay drift through the air of the lobby. Their light disappears quickly yet still illuminates about a fifth of the room. One floats over to you when you enter. It¡¯s weird watching them constrict and expand like they¡¯re moving through water. Is that necessary? Psychological? You smile at the inkay once it is close enough to let you see the ground beneath you. A quick glance around the lobby shows the nurse and an obviously male teenager illuminated. Maybe your student isn¡¯t here. Or maybe she prefers to rest in darkness.


    ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca?¡± You do your best to ignore how badly you probably just mangled the name.


    ¡°Here,¡± she answers, about ten feet away. The inkay starts ¡®swimming¡¯ in her direction and you follow. Once you can finally see her you can tell why she was sitting in darkness. There¡¯s a telltale white cane beside her. When the inkay¡¯s a little closer you can see the cataracts in her eyes. She has dark skin and jade hair. Her garishly colored t-shirt has a hydreigon and a one-word slogan on it. Makes her look younger than she probably is.


    More interesting are the two pok¨¦mon around her. There¡¯s a vulpix on her lap, quietly judging you. A beldum floats above her shoulder. Ah. So that¡¯s why she wants a five.


    You sit down and smile, more for your own sanity than anything. ¡°Hello, Cuicatl¡­¡±


    ¡°Cui-cat. L¡¯s silent¡± she says. Slowly and deliberately. So you don¡¯t screw up the pronunciation in the future.


    Poor kid. You probably will anyway.


    ¡°Hi, Cuicatl, I¡¯m Meredith. I¡¯m studying ornithology at U-Alola. VStar set me up to be your teacher?¡±


    She almost certainly already knows all that but you aren¡¯t sure where else to start.


    ¡°That¡¯s bird science?¡± she asks.


    Not what you were anticipating but, sure, you can roll with it. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± She frowns. ¡°I have a tyrunt. Birds are close.¡±


    Metagross and a tyrantrum.


    Sure, why not? Probably not the right reaction, but, again, you¡¯re too tired for fright or concern or whatever.


    ¡°So, you got two ¡®mons with Class V evos without getting the license first?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± her frown deepens. ¡°The tyrunt was a gift. And I won¡¯t evolve Nocitl¨¡lin twice.¡±


    The kid has at least a little sense. That¡¯s good. Wouldn¡¯t want her to get killed by her own metagross after you went and helped her evolve it. You¡¯d feel guilty for a little bit, even if it was her own damn fault. Not that tyrantrum is that much better. Probably. You watched half a documentary on them once before falling asleep.


    ¡°I see. And you want the license to keep the tyrunt?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Her mouth stays open a second longer before she snaps it shut. Something else, then. Probably none of your concern.


    ¡°Alright. Do you know how the licensing process works?¡± She shakes her head. ¡°For a Class IV you¡¯ve got to get me or someone else with a Class V to vouch for you, tell the government that you won¡¯t do anything really, dangerously stupid. You mess up, we both get punished.¡± There are other ways to get a four as well, but vouching is by far the easiest. Plus, it doesn¡¯t seem like she needs the four itself as much as she needs it as a stepping-stone to five.


    ¡°For the Five, you¡¯ve got to get a majority of the Class V-holders on the islands to vote to give you one. You¡¯ll have to get their respect. That might be hard for you.¡± Certainly was for you, and you were just native and female. Both of those, from America¡¯s old nemesis, and blind? You don¡¯t envy her. ¡°You¡¯ll probably have to give them some research they¡¯ll find useful. I did mine on sensu oricorio.¡±


    You concluded that there was no ethical way to train one, but, hey, if you really wanted to try, ethics be damned, here¡¯s how you would go about it. The researchers were fascinated by the husbandry parts and the battlers were grateful that you put a new toy in their chest. ¡°Research on the trail can be hard, though. You might want to suspend your challenge.¡±


    She shakes her head. ¡°Can¡¯t. Challenge Visa.¡±


    Maybe she could apply for an academic one¡­ but you aren¡¯t even sure if that would work. And even if it was legal, she¡¯d still have to get it through ICE in this administration. You¡¯re honestly surprised she got a Challenge Visa in the first place given all the talk about closing the border. Unless she isn¡¯t here legally. You¡¯ll need to figure that out before she goes for the license, but it seems rude to ask right now.


    ¡°I guess you could type it out on the trail if you had to. You¡¯d need a waterproof computer. And, um, you can type, right?¡±


    ¡°I can speak. Then the computer types for me.¡± She pauses. ¡°I don¡¯t have a computer. Or enough money to get one.¡±


    Text-to-speech isn¡¯t great. At all. You¡¯ve tried sending text messages with it before and, well, you¡¯ve always had to go back and type it yourself, along with a clarification that, no, you didn¡¯t mean ducking. And if she doesn¡¯t have computer money¡­ ¡°How are you going to feed a tyrantrum?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll figure it out later. Wild pok¨¦mon, maybe? It¡¯s legal to hunt gumshoos. And she won¡¯t get to full size soon.¡±


    That¡¯s a lot of gumshoos. And the revived tyrantrum are notorious divas. Might not like eating rodents all day every day. You don¡¯t have to tell her that point blank. Don¡¯t want to. Best case scenario is that you lead her on for a while and make some money before she accepts reality on her own. Or, better yet, she gets the five, you get paid, and then she decides that caring for a tyrantrum while broke is a terrible idea. You can barely afford normal birds.


    ¡°Okay.¡± Time to move on. Learn more about her now. There will be time enough to think of the future later. ¡°Any idea what you could research?¡±


    ¡°I speak Lower and Upper Draconic,¡± she says. ¡°I could translate some of the myths.¡±


    ¡°Draconic? Like¡­¡±


    ¡°Dragon language.¡± You open your mouth but can¡¯t find an intelligent response. ¡°Although I¡¯m told I¡¯m not very good at Upper Draconic. Better at Lower, but that has a lot of dialects. I¡¯ve met druddigon and charizard and they talked different than hydreigon. Growls were longer, sometimes there were hisses when I would¡¯ve expected a snort. I sort of got what they were saying and I think they understood me.¡± She tilts her head and a small smile replaces her frown. ¡°I am very good at hydreigon¡¯s dialect. And I can mostly understand tyrunt.¡± A frown again. She crosses her legs, earning a yowl of protest from her vulpix. ¡°I think. I did not understand much of Jurassic Park the book, big words and the recording was fast, but I think it said that really smart pok¨¦mon might not know their language and culture when they came back. That¡¯s why the pyroclaptors went bad. And tyrantrum are dragons, and dragons are smart. Maybe I should teach her dragon myths?¡±


    You¡¯re aware of work on parrot and corvid languages, helped along by some of those pok¨¦mon being bilingual themselves. But dragons? Hydreigon? You didn¡¯t know anyone had bothered to try. Yet what interests you the most is none of those things.


    ¡°Dragon myths? As in, myths about dragons? Quetzlcoatl and stuff.¡±


    She shakes her head and strands of hair fall onto her face. ¡°No. Dragons have their own myths. Alice talked about The Split God, Reshiram and Zekrom. And Kyurem, sort of. Then Quetzlcoatl¡­or Rayquaza¡­they call him¡­¡± What she says is some sequence of growls that somehow still sounds like language. ¡°He let dragons fly. Oh, and there¡¯s the first dragon. Or the earth dragon. Groudon. In Anahuac we have to offer him a lot of blood so he doesn¡¯t wake up and kill all the humans. But the dragons like him.¡±


    Oh, cool. She really believes in her country¡¯s murder cult. Whatever. You can work with monsters as long as you¡¯re getting paid.


    ¡°Then there¡¯s¡­¡± the name is a hiss, a strange growl thing that you¡¯re pretty sure comes from her mouth more than her throat, and another hiss. It sounds sort of like a reptile trying to say ¡®Sagaris.¡¯ ¡°But Sagaris isn¡¯t a god. More of a hero. Like¡­ I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know any local heroes. Ohserase? She¡¯s Unovan but¡­¡±


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    ¡°I know the story.¡± You¡¯re a kanaka girl born under American rule. You¡¯ve heard it. Your high school even put on the play before you got your GED and hit the trail. You always thought it was a silly story: if you just pray to the gods and politely ask the government to care about the people, it will all come to pass. But life isn¡¯t a fairy tale. Shit happens, people die, gods and kings can¡¯t even be bothered to pay their serfs unemployment.


    A glance to the side shows the teenage boy staring at you (or Cuicatl, hard to tell). Maybe you should move this conversation. She¡¯s more interesting than you were expecting. ¡°Want to come to my apartment?¡± you ask. ¡°We can talk more there.¡±


    She starts to stand and her vulpix jumps to the side, letting out a high-pitched whine as she does. Cuicatl¡¯s hand falls to her cane before she collapses it and stows it on her belt. ¡°Can you guide me?¡±


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    Her hand¡¯s a little cool. You grab it but she slides it up to your elbow and rises to her feet. Oh. Yeah, that is a little less awkward. She uses her free hand to withdraw her vulpix. The beldum trails after her, just above and behind her shoulder.


    You meet up Wolsey on the way out, preening and pointedly ignoring a baile oricorio¡¯s mating dance. Good girl. At your whistle she flaps up into the air and lights the way back home.


    ¡°I suppose I should say more about myself. I¡¯m a third-year student at U-Alola.¡± Did you already say that? ¡°I help run cognitive tests on birds. Puzzles, occasional speech mimicry. Wolsey here knows some words.¡±


    ¡°Hello,¡± Wolsey dutifully adds.


    ¡°It¡¯s odd to hear about pok¨¦mon with religions. Testing them all day, they¡¯re smart, sure, but not like that. Not human.¡± Honchkrow are smart, sure, but smart like a toddler. Maybe Ophelia is on adult human level. Maybe. Even then you¡¯re never sure how much is her intelligence and how much is from her borrowed spirits.


    Cuicatl frowns and turns towards Wolsey. ¡°Do you have myths?¡± The firebird warbles something. ¡°Stories about gods. Ancestors. The start of the earth.¡± Cuicatl gets a much happier warble. ¡°Can you tell me? In your own words.¡± The firebird goes into a long song about¡­ something. Cuicatl nods attentively at times and urges her to go on during breaks. Once you¡¯re almost back to the apartment she thanks Wolsey and turns to you. ¡°She does. A giant bird with one wing made of a rainbow and the other made of ash gave talonflame their fire.¡± She pauses and purses her lips. ¡°It¡¯s kind of similar to the Split God myth. Just with the Fire Bird.¡±


    ¡°Do, uh, birds also speak dragon? Sorry if that¡¯s dumb but¡ª¡±


    {I¡¯m psychic. I can understand most pok¨¦mon.}


    ¡°Ah.¡± The head of the Phantom Studies department is as well, but you aren¡¯t sure if he¡¯s ever paid a visit to the ornithology wing. He¡¯s usually busy with¡­ Mr. Mime? One of the psychic-types that tells biology to go fuck itself. Anyway, explains how she learned draconic. You¡¯d kind of just thought that was a thing over in Anahuac, and it might be because that place is an information black hole, but this makes more sense.


    You have to withdraw Wosley in the apartment. Then getting up the stairs in the dark is a pain in the ass you don¡¯t really talk much. She seems to manage just fine. Probably all old hat for her. It¡¯s only when you¡¯re right outside the door that you realize something you probably should¡¯ve figured out at the very beginning if you weren¡¯t exhausted: it was a terrible idea to bring Cuicatl to your apartment.


    It¡¯s fine. This is fine. You can just smooth things over with Ophelia before letting her in. ¡°Can you stay outside for a bit? My sister hates surprises and I want her to know you¡¯re coming in.¡±


    She grunts her acceptance (you really need to tell her not to do that in front of Ophelia) and you slip inside. Your sister appears in the corner, faintly illuminated by pale blue will-o-wisps. ¡°Welcome home, Meredith. You are back sooner than expected.¡±


    You curtsy, unsure if she can even see it. ¡°Hello, Eve. The Pok¨¦mon Center was not a good place to talk. I invited her over for tea. Would you like tea?¡±


    She grimaces but nods. ¡°So long as she¡¯s polite.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s blind and not from here. Can you give her a little grace? Please?¡±


    Eve sighs and looks so very, very concerned. She never used to look like that.


    ¡°Perhaps.¡±


    That¡¯s as close to a ¡®yes¡¯ as you¡¯re going to get from her.


    You go back out and prepare to brief Cuicatl. ¡°She says you can come in. Just be on your best behavior. Full sentences, curtsies, no nicknames, no interruptions. Nothing out of line.¡±


    Maybe she nods, maybe she doesn¡¯t. Or maybe she doesn¡¯t react at all for a long while. ¡°Okay. Is your sister¡­¡±


    Alright? Bent in the head? An asshole? Definitely not, depends on how you see it, yes but don¡¯t tell her that.


    ¡°Some bad stuff happened to her a while back. She hurt her head. Maybe don¡¯t talk about the island challenge?¡±


    That¡¯s all a very polite way of saying that she got hit by a boulder a buzzwole had aimed at one of Selene¡¯s pok¨¦mon. The incineroar dodged, of course, because it was very well trained. The champion said she was very, very sorry for ¡®the accident¡¯ but mostly she just looked too exhausted to fully care. It took you a long time, but you understand that now. Can¡¯t even blame her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Final thing? Can you¡ª¡± She¡¯s blind. Obviously, she can¡¯t dance. ¡°Sing?¡±


    ¡°I had classes. I did well in them.¡± There¡¯s a hint of pride in her voice. Probably good enough.


    ¡°Alright. My sister likes music.¡±


    Fuck it, you¡¯re blocking the hall and Ophelia might be impatient. You open the door again, fumble for Cuicatl¡¯s arm for a bit in the dark, and then bring her into the room. Your sister looks up as you enter and looks on expectantly. Yeah, you¡¯re the mutual connection, you should give introductions.


    You curtsy again. ¡°Hello, Eve. This is Cuicatl Ichtaca, my student. Cuicatl Ichtaca,¡± please don¡¯t correct the pronunciation please don¡¯t correct the pronunciation hey I know you¡¯re psychic please don¡¯t correct the pronunciation, ¡°This is Eve, my sister.¡±


    She curtsies and Eve relaxes a little. Can she even see it?


    ¡°A pleasure to meet you, Miss Ichtaca.¡±


    You take that as a sign to guide Cuicatl forward to the table. She sits down well enough. Eve¡¯s expressionless. Good enough. ¡°Sister, can you help me prepare the tea? Perhaps Cuicatl can sing to us in the meantime?¡±


    Both get the hint. Eve follows you with sure footing, cold blue flames trailing after her. Cuicatl starts a song. It¡¯s strange hearing her speak (or sing, as it were) in her own language. Very different sounds. Come to think of it her accent¡¯s pretty good for someone who just got here recently. And she is a good singer. Probably not too much in the way of formal training, but a nice voice. And the song¡¯s structure almost sounds like the oricorio songs that you set out to study years ago.


    Back then you just wanted to preserve the old songs and dances and maybe relearn some of the old ones. The journey went fine. You did what you set out to do. Beat six trials and came close to beating Nanu on Poni. Pretty good, all things considered.


    If you could have you would have given Eve some of your luck. Even if it meant a journey fifty times harder.


    You come back with three cups of tea and one of nectar. The nectar is sat in front of Ophelia¡¯s seat. The sensu oricorio is perched in the corner, preening in the dim light. Eve wordlessly nods when you place the cup down in front of her chair. Your sister can¡¯t drink tea anymore but still wants to feel included.


    Once you sit down and press a cup into Cuicatl¡¯s hands she stops singing. ¡°What was the song about?¡± Eve asks.


    ¡°A princess meeting her lover in the night.¡± Cuicatl takes a sip. ¡°It is an old song.¡±


    Eve¡¯s face literally and figuratively lights up at the word ¡®princess¡¯ and damn it for a second she really does look like herself. ¡°Perhaps you can teach me, sometime?¡±


    Cuicatl nods. ¡°I do not know how long I will be in the city. Maybe the next time I¡¯m here?¡±


    ¡°I would like that.¡±


    So far, so good. Leading with song was definitely the right way to go about it.


    {Your sister is very¡­ faint,} Cuicatl says. In your mind. {Is she a dark bloodline?}


    {Something like that.}


    {Okay.}


    And that¡¯s the end of that. Cool. You don¡¯t like explaining it if you don¡¯t have to. Not in front of Eve and Ophelia, at least.


    ¡°Meredith, you have a Class V license, right?¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    ¡°Why did you get yours?¡±


    ¡°All the money in ornithology these days is in hawlucha care.¡±


    The shadows on Cuicatl¡¯s face seem to grow darker.


    That was the wrong answer.


    You should have known it was the wrong answer.


    ¡°What wars did you fight in, then? How did it feel when the tlatoani gifted you your hawlucha?¡±


    Eve¡¯s expression is no less severe than Cuicatl¡¯s, but she says nothing for now. Your pleading look is ignored.


    ¡°Cuicatl¡ª¡±


    ¡°What were your captives¡¯ names, Meredith? Where did you grow up in Anahuac?¡±


    ¡°Back in the 80s the king,¡± or whatever he¡¯s called, ¡°gave some to America.¡±


    ¡°And he stopped being tlatoani when he did. The birds belong to Huitzilopochtli. Do you know what the crime is for stealing one?¡±


    Yeah. The State Department sent you a whole brochure on it. You were looking at San Antonio for grad school but, hey, you might get kidnapped, dragged across the border in the dead of night, and publicly executed so Castelia started looking pretty good in comparison. Lot harder to kidnap you from there.


    ¡°I know. It¡¯s not ideal. But I need the money to get off the island and¡ª¡±


    A male voice starts roaring in Nahuatl, right next to you. To Cuicatl. ¡°Ophelia, please stop.¡± She does, sort of, dropping the voice to a whisper. And Cuicatl¡¯s gone still beside you, eyes wide and every muscle tensed up like she¡¯s just heard a ghost.


    Which, to be fair, she has.


    You grab her hand, partially yank her up, and mostly drag her out the door. The whisper doesn¡¯t stop completely until you¡¯re a block away from the building. Fuck. Fuck. It was going so well then you ran your damn mouth and you never told her why she needed to be formal, hell, girl probably thought she was just making veiled threats at you in front of your autistic sister, and why the hell do you train channeler birds in the first place, dumbass?


    Well, your potential paycheck vanished. Might as well not be soulless about it. You bring Cuicatl to a bench and let her sit and lean into you and sob for a bit because, damn it, Ophelia, what did you do?


    She stops crying eventually and just leans into you and you have an armed wrapped around her like you didn¡¯t kind of just maybe torture her and still have a right to comfort her. ¡°Your sister is a ghost-speaker?¡± she finally asks.


    ¡°No. My oricorio is. I¡¯m sorry. I should¡¯ve told you that she¡¯s¡­ like that. Sometimes. I thought if you were just formal enough and sang¡ª¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m useless. I know.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not. My fault. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    She snort-sobs and gets some more snot on your shirt that you¡¯re going to ignore. ¡°My brother told me. I knew he must¡¯ve hated me but hearing him say it was¡ª¡± She breaks up and starts crying again.


    Oh. Her brother. That¡¯s. Yeah. You understand that. More than you want to. When Eve¡­


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t him. Oricorio can just use the voices of the dead to speak. It¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s a lot. I know. Trust me. But it wasn¡¯t him, whatever it sounded like.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t answer you. Wolsey does. Sort of. It seems like a song or maybe a story. It doesn¡¯t seem to help and eventually he stops altogether.


    ¡°¡¯m fine.¡± Cuicatl says. Eventually. ¡°I¡¯ll have Nocitl¨¡lin take me back to the Center.¡±


    ¡°Noci¡ª¡±


    The beldum zooms into the light and towards its trainer. Oh. How long was it hovering around?


    ¡°You sure? It¡¯s not really¡ª¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± She holds out her hand and the beldum slips into it. ¡°Goodbye.¡±


    *


    The door opens and you step through. Your sister is in the corner, Ophelia perched in front of her. They look proud, almost. ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± Eve says.


    ¡°For what?¡±


    ¡°She won¡¯t threaten you again.¡±


    ¡°And she won¡¯t teach you her song, either.¡±


    There¡¯s a flash of pain in her eyes and for once you can¡¯t tell who it¡¯s coming from.


    ¡°You¡¯re safe,¡± she whispers. ¡°That¡¯s what matters.¡±


    This is hopeless. You¡¯ll sleep and then get back to this in the afternoon once she¡¯s calmed down a bit. Or maybe you won¡¯t. The kid was making death threats, even if she couldn¡¯t or wouldn¡¯t act on them. Is this the hill you want your sanity to die on? This wasn¡¯t the first time she tortured someone with the voices of the dead. Won¡¯t be the last. Might as well not be you.


    Eve cuts you off before you can open the bedroom door.


    ¡°You said you¡¯re leaving.¡±


    Right. Shit. Yeah. That¡¯s what you get for having people over when you¡¯re tired.


    ¡°I¡¯ll take you. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    Pale fire ripples across her body. ¡°Where are you going to?¡±


    ¡°Florida? Unova? Alaska? Don¡¯t know. Somewhere that doesn¡¯t feel like an alien-infested graveyard.¡±


    You close the bedroom door behind you without looking at her face. It¡¯s rude and Ophelia will have words with you when you wake up, but now you just need to sleep. Or try. Truth is, you¡¯re not a good person. You thought you were once. Might have been. Because a good person would¡¯ve accepted the message in your thesis, that there isn¡¯t an ethical way to raise a bird that terrorizes people with the ghosts of dead relatives. Except you¡¯re willing to sit back and let a bunch of terrible shit happen to someone else if it means you get to see Eve¡¯s face in the morning.


    No. You¡¯re a bad person and you know it. Most of the time you just wish you were even worse. The kind of monster who could look a sobbing girl in the eyes and feel nothing. Because monsters aren¡¯t hounded by guilt at night.


    A real monster wouldn¡¯t be so damn tired all the time.

 Fighting 5: Pixie

    Fighting 3.5: Ancestor Stories


    Pixie


    [9:23:51]


    Much has happened the last few days.


    First: The Moon was eaten by a monster. You have taken up a quest to scream at the monster, this ¡®Necerezma,¡¯ until it gives the moon back. Some of the moon¡¯s light shines through jagged lines in the sky like those in a pane of cracked ice. The Moon can hear you. Her hunter will fear you and The Moon will know that her beloved foxes still care for her.


    It is a purpose. It is useful. You are useful. You deserve to be kept. You are better than nothing.


    Everyone else must be wrong. You will prove them wrong. You will be the best guide fox and then climb the mountain and make Avalanche take you back and kick out one of your siblings instead.


    You¡¯ve already made progress. You scared the eevee so badly that its trainer ran away, too.


    You now spend most of your time trapped in a small cave with Skysong, Bloodrage, and two other humans you haven¡¯t bothered to name. There are too many of them and they rarely leave. One of the nameless ones even stepped on your tail. A fire tails would kill them for that. You thought about it but then that might be ¡®bad behavior¡¯ and Skysong might think you are a bad, worthless fox even though she would be very wrong.


    Skysong knows now that you are much better than Eggbreath. One of the nameless humans has a fluffy sparkslinger. You got Eggbreath to see it as food and after two (failed) hunts, she¡¯s now in her ball and away from Skysong almost all the time. Eggbreath is also very dumb. She was asking why the sky was dark so you told her a giant fox ate the world. She believed it. Idiot. A fox¡¯s breath would smell much better than the wind outside.


    (People call you bad and worthless, but no one has ever called you ugly.)


    Eyerock is often somewhere else, which is also good for you. Skysong prefers her as a guide just because she is warm, floats, doesn¡¯t sleep, can see in total darkness, and immediately obeys all orders without question. Even though she is horribly hot, ugly, and has no personality. But at least the rock knows her place. You growl at her to leave and she at least looks away. She doesn¡¯t try to steal food from you. Once she even attacked something when you asked. She is a useful servant. You just need to make sure that Skysong doesn¡¯t rely on her as a guide.


    The rock is here right now but she isn¡¯t helping with the biggest problem at the moment: Skysong has been poisoned. If she dies there will be no one to give you food and scratches and cuddles. This cannot be allowed to happen.


    She has not left her bed since she got back from the bird-smelling human. She will not talk to you. Or Bloodrage. Eggbreath hasn¡¯t been out of her ball since then, but you doubt your trainer would talk to the dumb baby over you. Maybe she¡¯s silent talking with Eyerock. Sometimes the rock even lowers down to touch Skysong only to back away at the last second without helping.


    Skysong has slept once or twice, never for long. Otherwise she¡¯s been quietly marking her bedding with saltwater. Humans think it is disgusting to use urine to do it, but it¡¯s fine as long as the salty water comes from their eyes. They are truly strange and lost creatures.


    As always, all the work falls to you.


    You can¡¯t smell any blood so there will not be a physical wound to look at. Probably was not a bite or sting, then. She must have inhaled or drank the poison. There still might be a bruise somewhere. You need to know if she can walk. With graceful steps you walk to her hindlegs and begin to probe them for vulnerabilities with your paws. Skysong shifts underneath you but never hisses. There is no wound there. You steadily move up her body and aside from a brief swat when you tried to check her groin for wounds you are able to feel everything. No bruising. No bones out of their strange human places. She can walk.


    ¡°Get up. We are going to the healing rooms,¡± you tell her.


    ¡°Why?¡± she mutters, foolishly.


    ¡°Because you are poisoned.¡±


    She huffs. {No, I¡¯m not.}


    ¡°You won¡¯t move.¡±


    {That¡¯s because¡­} She growls and rolls over, sliding you off so that you¡¯re between her body and the wall. Rude.


    ¡°They can heal poison.¡± You know. The stupid mushroom bugs sprayed yucky fake snow in your face once and you had to go there. It was the first thing they did whenever threatened. No growls or roars or ice. No fur, even. You¡¯re glad you got rid of them.


    {Not. Poisoned.}


    You bite her ear because she¡¯s being ridiculous. ¡°Hurt.¡± She swats you away even though it was just a little nip. A ninetales wouldn¡¯t have even felt it.


    ¡°Stop,¡± she grumbles.


    You have an incredibly clever idea. ¡°Have to pee.¡±


    She sighs. {How bad?}


    ¡°Now.¡±


    {Can it¡­}


    You begin to howl. ¡°Now.¡±


    ¡°I think she wants something,¡± one of the nameless humans says.


    ¡°Yeah. I guess.¡± Skysong actually swings her hindlegs off over the edge of her bed and begins to stand. For an unimportant human. Instead of for you. It takes everything you have to ignore the insult. Mostly. You still swat her leg with one of your tails.


    Skysong ignores it and slips your harness on. You lead her out the door and down the halls. Bloodrage follows at a distance. Rude. You are a better guide than he is even when he can see. You stop at the right door and give the right tail nudges to tell her there¡¯s a door to the right. She does her weird spinning thing and starts to feel for the knob.


    ¡°This doesn¡¯t feel like an exit door,¡± she says. ¡°The kitchen? You still going on about eggs.¡±


    She had been given some this morning. She would not give them to you. Even though you would have wanted them a lot more. Said something about rashes. You are still upset, yes. But this isn¡¯t the kitchen door.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then what does it lead to.¡± You don¡¯t answer that one. ¡°The med wing, then. I told you that I¡¯m fine.¡±


    Two of your tails flick into each other in annoyance. She was just supposed to go through the door.


    ¡°Do you actually have to pee?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Fine. Whatever. Take me outside.¡±


    ¡°Mind if I come?¡± Bloodrage asks, finally making himself known. Although Skysong probably heard him like you did.


    ¡°Sure. Fine.¡±


    It is a terrible lie, even by human standards. You still take her outside so you can scream at the moon eater and mark your territory. If Skysong won¡¯t let you help her then you will at least do the other very important things that need doing.


    Bloodrage starts to talk after you stop screaming and begin to mark. There are a lot of pok¨¦mon here who think this is their territory. It takes you a while to tell them all that this is actually yours and they should leave before you kill them.


    ¡°You good?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    He doesn¡¯t seem to believe it. ¡°Anything happen?¡±


    ¡°I had tea with her sister and one of her pok¨¦mon. That¡¯s all.¡±


    Bloodrage dramatically exhales. Quietly. Not like a scream. ¡°Alright, who am I beating up?¡±


    ¡°I guess I should say I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°Uh. What? Nah, she hurt you.¡±


    ¡°To you. Sorry to you. I found out she had a hawlucha and¡­ yeah, I get why you hated me.¡±


    He doesn¡¯t answer immediately. Just listens to the sound of threats trickling out of you. Wait. Eggbreath isn¡¯t here. Hah! She forgot to let the baby out. And you are not going to correct her.


    ¡°Thought you already apologized.¡±


    You aren¡¯t going to complain about a chance to stay out longer. You start exploring, Eyerock following close behind.


    ¡°Then I¡¯m sorry again.¡±


    He grunts. ¡°This isn¡¯t how you act when you¡¯re mad. Seriously, did she hurt you? Threaten you? Because if she did¡ª¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t.¡± The word is almost sharp as it hangs in the air. You glance back towards them, exploration ignored. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re fine if your parents loved you, but if they didn¡¯t¡­¡± Her speech breaks up into distress calls and saltwater marking. You trot back to get carry cuddles and help her feel better. Her arms are shaking a little too much for it to be comfortable but you don¡¯t say anything because you a very good and helpful fox.


    ¡°I¡ªwhat does that mean.¡±


    ¡°Forget it,¡± Skysong mumbles. ¡°Just go away.¡±


    ¡°You said that your mom is a pro trainer, right? Did you run into her or¡ª¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s fucking dead, Kekoa.¡±


    He goes quiet for a long time. ¡°Anything else I should know?¡±


    Cuicatl laughs. Joylessly. Not quite like the bone-human¡¯s terrible, mocking laugh. But not like her usual ones. ¡°You mean ¡®what else are you lying about,¡¯ right?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, pretty much.¡±


    Again, humans are bad liars. It was only a matter of time before Skysong¡¯s were revealed, even by a particularly dumb and angry human.


    ¡°Not much,¡± Skysong says. ¡°She was a pro battler. She did leave me¡ªwell, my dad,¡± her heart starts beating faster beside you as she says it, ¡°a hydreigon. Just¡­ please leave.¡± Her voice breaks down to almost a whisper at the end and more saltwater starts to flow. ¡°Please?¡±


    Bloodrage gets up, even takes a few steps towards the fire-type pok¨¦mon lighting up the doorway, before he abruptly stops. ¡°Really, though, who should I beat up?¡±


    ¡°I can kill them, too,¡± you huff. Humans are terrible fighters. Even the angry ones.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°My teacher¡­¡± Skysong sits you down in her lap and gives you a quick headpat. ¡°She has a ghost bird. Please don¡¯t attack her.¡±


    ¡°Ghost¡­ bird¡­ Fuck. Did it talk to the dead, or use their voices or¡ª¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    Bloodrage starts moving, his footsteps pounding loud against the ground like he¡¯s trying to scare off a predator by making noise. It doesn¡¯t actually work against ninetales. You¡¯re fearless and it just lets you know where prey are.


    ¡°Oricorio. Listen, Cuicatl, whatever it said¡ªthey¡¯re liars. Horrible liars. I thought about getting one, once, but then I started reading about what they do to people and¡ªjust don¡¯t listen to it, okay? It wasn¡¯t your Mom speaking.¡±


    Skysong says nothing. She barely reacts at all.


    ¡°Cuicatl¡ª¡±


    ¡°Go. Away.¡±


    It¡¯s practically a bark with fangs bared. One final warning to leave her territory before a fight starts. She couldn¡¯t back the threat up by herself, but you¡¯re there so it is a very serious one.


    ¡°I¡­ fine.¡± And he finally leaves.


    ¡°He wasn¡¯t lying,¡± Skysong mutters once the door slams shut. ¡°If he was, it would hurt but I¡¯d deal. He wasn¡¯t. Everything he said was¡­¡±


    Him? Dead people? Oh.


    ¡°The brother you think you killed?¡± The whole thing is silly. Not only did she not kill her brother, but even if she had she shouldn¡¯t feel bad about it.


    ¡°Did kill.¡±


    ¡°No, you didn¡¯t.¡± You really are going to have to do more to train her. She shouldn¡¯t act like she¡¯s poisoned just because she thinks she did something she didn¡¯t. That will make it harder for you to tell when she¡¯s actually poisoned. ¡°His cut got runny or,¡± you stretch out and yawn despite yourself, ¡°something like that.¡± You barely remember what, exactly, happened, just that she was being particularly strange during that talk. Said that she¡¯d killed someone when she hadn¡¯t. Said that she would never leave you. All lies, even if it sounded like she believed them.


    You remember one small detail, though, because you do have a very good memory.


    ¡°Your brother asked you not to tell people he was hurt?¡± It makes sense. Don¡¯t want to appear weak. Become prey.


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡±


    ¡°So how is it your fault?¡±


    ¡°I miss him,¡± she says, even though it isn¡¯t an answer. ¡°And¡­¡± she trails off for long enough that you start to doubt she will continue. Your gaze drifts back up the sky, dark and scarred. Maybe a bird flies under one of the cracks. Or a cloud. Or a giant metal human-made bird. ¡°If one of us had to die, it shouldn¡¯t have been him.¡±


    Now she¡¯s making no sense. Are more than just her eyes defective? She is alive. The living are supposed to survive. It¡¯s their entire purpose. And in any case¡­ ¡°No. I don¡¯t think I would have liked him as much. You are female. Females are better than males.¡±


    ¡°Oh?¡± There¡¯s some lightness in her voice. That¡¯s usually good. ¡°I guess we are prettier.¡±


    ¡°Definitely.¡±


    Skysong sets you down next to her.


    She seemed to have liked the fire bird¡¯s story yesterday. And there is a story about a dumb human who was mad about something similar. Maybe she¡¯ll like it.


    ¡°Do you want to hear an ancestor story?¡±


    ¡°A what?¡±


    ¡°A story about the past. Good and bad ninetales, gods¡ª¡±


    ¡°Myths. We call them myths.¡±


    A much worse name.


    ¡°Do you want to hear one?¡±


    She huffs but settles down into her bench a little more. ¡°Okay. Just don¡¯t take too long. It¡¯s getting cold.¡±


    ¡°It isn¡¯t cold.¡± It¡¯s actually still too hot.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have fur.¡±


    Oh. That is terrible.


    You sit like Avalanche did when she told you stories, hindquarters on the ground and front legs extended, looking down on her kits. Her tails swished behind her with the beats of the story. You don¡¯t have your experience but maybe you can do okay.


    ¡°There was a pretty fire tales named Forest Queen. She lived near a village of humans and sometimes helped them think of things in exchange for food and not being bothered.¡± She might get the wrong idea. Need to correct. ¡°She could have killed the them all if they bothered her. She just didn¡¯t want to do it.¡±


    ¡°Noted.¡±


    ¡°One day¡­¡±


    *


    One bright morning a very big human came to the edge of her home and waited. This was not the usual human they sent to ask for her wisdom. She curiously approached and asked him why he was there.


    ¡°They say you are the wisest creature in these lands,¡± the man said. And he was right. ¡°I need your counsel.¡±


    ¡°Speak your problem.¡±


    He told her that five moons ago he had his senses controlled by a ghost. Believing he was protecting his family from predators he killed them instead, only to have the ghost leave him once the bodies had cooled. Now he wandered the land to learn what he could do to wipe their blood from his hands.


    *


    ¡°No one really gets why he said that,¡± you add. ¡°There wouldn¡¯t still be blood on his hands that many moons later.¡±


    ¡°Just an expression,¡± Skysong says. Quieter than usual. ¡°He wanted to know how he could be forgiven. Make up for what he had done.¡±


    Forgiveness. Debts. Humans have strange concepts. Injuries against another ninetales are settled quickly by fang and ice. If the injurer wins then it was their right to do it. Humans let it grow and grow until their entire mountain is involved.


    *


    ¡°I have nine tasks for you,¡± Forest Queen said. ¡°One for each of my tails. Then you shall find what you are searching for.¡±


    First, he made her a big burrow with a good scratching post and a series of tubes to drain it when it rained. This would help her raise her kits. Then he cleared the forest of a pack of bone wolves that might threaten them. He built a series of small rivers from the nearby lake to the Forest Queen¡¯s den so that she might drink easily and then to the town so their crops would have water and they would not bother her every time the rain failed to fall. He found a rare fruit that could heal injuries and planted trees for it in the forest. On and on he did what the Forest Queen asked and served her well. The nearby village flourished and needed to bother her less and the forest was safe for her new litter. The man even took a new mate with the humans he worked alongside.


    As the trials went on the man bared his teeth more and walked with lighter steps. At the end, when all his tasks were done, the man returned and asked for one more task.


    ¡°Have you not found what you were looking for?¡± the Forest Queen asked.


    ¡°I have. That is why I will continue to serve.¡±


    *


    Skysong leans far enough back that you can crawl onto her chest without falling off. You don¡¯t have to keep the post now that the ancestor story is told. ¡°I think I get it,¡± she says. ¡°It¡¯s about helping the people who can be helped rather than focusing on the past.¡±


    ¡°No. It¡¯s just a way for ninetales to trick humans into doing work. One of the first things vulpix are taught about humans.¡±


    She hums and her chest vibrates beneath you. At least she¡¯s better sounding than Hummy was. ¡°I don¡¯t think I get it, but I have an idea. What if my thesis was about pok¨¦mon myths¡ªancestor stories? Alice taught me a lot. If every species has them, maybe¡­¡±


    Yes. Good. This is much better than her lizard talk one. Now you can actually help. And you know a lot of stories to be useful with.


    ¡°I will help.¡±


    She reaches a hand to your back and begins to gently stroke it. ¡°Thanks, Pix. I¡¯m lucky to have you.¡±


    You purr in contentment. You helped her. You will help her. You will be useful and loved and she will never leave you.


    Life is good.


    [9:10:40]


    Life is terrible.


    Skysong rolled over onto your tails twice in the night. Her heartrate is still a little fast and she¡¯s still marking her territory with saltwater. You failed to fix her. She might be mad at you for that.


    And she let Eggbreath out. The one chance you get to mark your territory in peace is interrupted by a smelly lizard screaming at the sky. You lose focus on your marking and walk over to the place that Skysong is sitting. Still a chance to fit things. It¡¯s a little hard to get onto the bench with her since you can¡¯t just set up the jump by sight. Have to actually stand on your hindlegs and pull yourself up onto it. She notices your effort and rewards you with ear scratches. Excellent. She isn¡¯t mad. Not with you.


    You roll onto your back and let her scratch your belly. She¡¯s a little too careful with it. Her delicate petting is really better for head scratches, but sometimes you have to at least try. Besides, petting you makes her happy. When her breaths are almost like pants it can sometimes make her breathe slower. That probably means she¡¯s healed by it. Maybe. Humans are strange.


    ¡°Do you want another ancestor story?¡± you ask. She wants more. You can help her know more.


    ¡°I guess it can¡¯t hurt.¡±


    It¡¯s a good start.


    Eggbreath jumps up beside you, tail thumping against the bench. ¡°Storytime!¡±


    Less good. You whip a tail into her face before getting into the storytelling pose.


    *


    Long ago and across the sea, one clan of humans torched the city of another clan as humans are wont to do. In the blaze, the nest of the Rainbow God was burned. As the Rainbow God descended to survey the damage, he found the bodies of three foxes in his temple. They had come to pray to the Rainbow God to spare the pok¨¦mon of the city, but their prayers had gone unheard. The Rainbow God had been too focused on the burning building to hear their pleas. He was filled with shame and revived them into beings so powerful they would never again live in fear of humans.


    Generations passed as the Rainbow God aimlessly wandered the skies of the world, refusing to nest again in the world of humans. Eventually his flights led him back to his old temple. There he found many foxes like the ones who he had revived years before. He cast a shadow shaped like a fox and descended. He asked the foxes why they stayed in the ruined temple.


    The matriarch answered. ¡°To keep the grave of our ancestors safe and await the return of the Rainbow God, so that we might thank him for his kindness.¡±


    The Rainbow God was moved to reveal his true form. As the foxes looked on in awe, he gave his response to the matriarch.


    ¡°For your devotion and service, I will bless you and set you apart from the other foxes. You will be my emissaries and guardians, protecting humans and pok¨¦mon alike and enforcing the will of the gods.¡±


    Ashes poured from the god¡¯s wings and became bound to the foxes, transforming them from ordinary eevee into majestic ninetales.


    Half a life later a clan of humans engaged in an expedition of discovery. To ensure they stayed in the good graces of The Worldtraveler they brought along a family of ninetales to transmit their prayers and pass on the word of the gods. They arrived on the shores of a new land after many moons at sea.


    Alongside the humans the ninetales went from island to island, meeting each guardian in turn. The island gods received the ninetales warmly and each conferred a small blessing unto them. The Sea Guardian gifted them control of the weather itself. The Thunder Guardian gifted them even longer and more beautiful fur. The Mind Guardian gifted them some of her great wisdom. The Earth Guardian gifted them even greater longevity.


    *


    ¡°Tapu Koko¡¯s a war god, right? How did he give you nicer fur?¡±


    ¡°Thunder god. Thunder makes fur stick up.¡±


    ¡°Huh.¡± She runs a hand along your back. ¡°That makes sense.¡±


    ¡°Obviously.¡±


    *


    After receiving the gift of the Earth Guardian, the ninetales were summoned to the top of the world to meet The Moon. The goddess was so impressed by the stories, devotion and wisdom of the ninetales that she became jealous of the Rainbow God. She decided that she must have the foxes for her own. After luring the ninetales to sleep, The Moon cast a spell on them and extinguished their flames. Cold, cold ice was left in its place. The foxes could never again tolerate a long voyage across the warm seas. Instead, they were bound to the mountain and could never leave her for long.


    To this day the ninetales honor their covenant with the Rainbow God to guide humans and pok¨¦mon and protect the sacred mountain of the Moon.


    *


    ¡°She trapped you there and you serve her.¡± Skysong says it¡¯s so quietly that a human might not be able to hear it. But you can because your hearing is much better.


    ¡°She¡¯s jealous, but she¡¯s still a goddess.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡±


    Before she can say anything else her phone begins to hiss and rumble.


    ¡°Message from: VStar. Read it: Yes or No?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± she says.


    ¡°Mission Alert: Capture one luvdisc. Reward: $500. Location: Hau¡¯oli Sea. Fishing expeditions will depart from Hau¡¯oli City every day at 8:00 a.m. Reserve seats ahead of time. Flashlights and fishing poles may be rented from the central office. Expect waitlists for equipment rentals.¡±


    You have not heard of luvdisc, but you know what ¡®fish¡¯ are. They are good. ¡°Fish!¡±


    ¡°Not for you, Pix,¡± Skysong mutters. ¡°Sorry.¡±


    ¡°No eggs or fish?¡± You thought you¡¯d been good. She said she was lucky to have you. Why is¡ªare you still being unlovable?


    You want to ask the question more than anything. But you¡¯re¡­ you¡¯re not afraid of the answer. You¡¯re just so sure you don¡¯t need to waste your breath asking.


    Skysong stands up but Eggbreath does not jump down. Why? You can hear her breaths in the air, near Skysong¡¯s heart. Oh. Why does she get carry-cuddles and you don¡¯t? You even told her a story. ¡°Pix, can you warn me if anything comes up?¡±


    Nothing does. You follow behind Skysong as she can use her cane to scout for anything that you might miss. Like she doesn¡¯t trust you. When you reenter the room she shares with Bloodrage it does not sound or smell like the nameless humans are present. ¡°Mist and Titania out?¡± Skysong asks.


    ¡°Yeah. Probably out back with Tatty¡¯s chinchou.¡±


    Eggbreath lands with a thud beside you, apparently having jumped out of Skysong¡¯s arms. She hurries to the other side of the room. You hear her sniffing around, probably seeing if the sparkslinger is near enough to kill.


    ¡°You get the text?¡± Skysong asks, lowering herself onto her bed. Bloodrage is above her on his. Odd. Humans usually like to look at each other when they talk. Maybe that doesn¡¯t matter in the dark. Or if one can¡¯t see.


    ¡°Yup. You gonna call them to get on the list?¡±


    ¡°No. Will you?¡±


    Bloodrage sighs dramatically. ¡°I don¡¯t call people if I can help it. Plus, uh, vocal dysphoria.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Cuicatl sprawls out on her bed. You jump onto her chest just as Eggbreath rushes back, cutting Eggbreath off from it. She doesn¡¯t fight you because she knows that she¡¯d lose, and she settles onto the much less comfortable legs of your trainer. ¡°You want to talk about it?¡±


    ¡°No. Can you just make the damn call?¡±


    ¡°I would but¡­¡± She lowers her voice. Not low enough that you and Eggbreath or Eyerock can¡¯t hear it. Wait? Where is Eyerock? You can¡¯t smell her. ¡°My gift doesn¡¯t work over phones. And my actual Galarian isn¡¯t that good.¡±


    ¡°Eyerock isn¡¯t here,¡± you tell Skysong. Because that¡¯s much more important than whatever she¡¯s going on about.


    ¡°Eh.¡± She runs a hand through your headfur. It is very pleasant. ¡°Nocitl¨¡lin says she¡¯s out back with Mist and Titania. She¡¯ll come back when they do.¡±


    Your tails slump down behind you. ¡°I don¡¯t get to go to places without you.¡±


    {We¡¯ll talk about that later. Promise.}


    Bloodrage says some stuff but you ignore it because it isn¡¯t important. Instead, you plot your revenge on Eyerock. Maybe you could stick icicles on her side so she isn¡¯t a good guide anymore.


    ¡°Already a waitlist. Somehow. They¡¯ll text me later,¡± Bloodrage finally says.


    ¡°Cool.¡±


    Bloodrage loudly shifts above you.


    ¡°Do you, uh, want to talk about it while the kids aren¡¯t here.¡±


    ¡°Nope.¡±


    ¡°I can only imagine what¡ª¡±


    ¡°Do you think we could watch Finneon¡¯s Wake tonight? That has a luvdisc, right? The girls might like it. They¡¯re probably scared with everything going on.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ I think I can stream it.¡±


    Neither says anything for a long time. Long enough that Eggbreath gets bored and hops up onto the bed on the other side of Skysong.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, Kekoa. Really. You don¡¯t need to worry about me.¡±


    He exhales softly. ¡°Fine. Just let me know if you want to talk.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    She won¡¯t need to, though. You¡¯re here for her. And you¡¯re good and useful and will help her.

 Fighting 6: Kekoa

    Fighting 3.6: Birthright


    Kekoa


    [12:10:30]


    You¡¯re woken up by an insistent chittering, punctuated by an occasional spark of electricity. What? You groggily open your eyes to see, well, nothing. There¡¯s a weight on your chest and the angry clacking of mandibles in front of your face. Another spark illuminates your grubbin before the world is cast back into darkness.


    ¡°Did I forget to feed you?¡±


    He hisses. Probably a no, then? Honestly you have no idea how much he understands of what you say.


    {Can I have some help?} you think down to Cuicatl. You¡¯re met with a phantom feeling of a brush through your hair. Is she dreaming?


    Makani seems to get the same idea. The weight crawls off your chest and skitters over to the edge of the bed. A few moments later there¡¯s more mandible clacking and the sound of sparks below you.


    ¡°¡¯m awake¡± Cuicatl groans.


    More insect noises. A surprisingly complex language for a literal bug.


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell him.¡±


    {Your grubbin would like to talk to you,} she says / thinks.


    {Go figure.}


    You can almost feel her eyeroll through the link.


    {He says he¡¯s close to evolution. He wants you to let him go now so he can bury himself.}


    Your last bit of drowsiness starts to drain away. That wasn¡¯t part of the plan. You¡¯ve fed him, protected him, everything you were supposed to do. And why would he want to go to the wild when he¡¯s the most vulnerable?


    {Tell him that he¡¯d be safer with me watching over him until he evolves again.}


    A breath¡¯s break. A single clack. A hiss and two clacks.


    {I tried.} Cuicatl sighs, aloud. {But he doesn¡¯t like you or your trumbeak.}


    Hekeli you can almost understand. She¡¯s a bird. Vikavolt famously don¡¯t like them. But hekeli eats fruit, not bugs. They¡¯ve never really had problems in the past so it shouldn¡¯t be an issue.


    {Tell him again.}


    Cuicatl goes silent for a little bit. Then Makani starts chattering again, much louder, and apparently rising towards you. You reach for the ball at the side of your bed and withdraw him. It sounded like he might be about to attack, and there are better places to hash this out, anyway.¡±


    {Can we go outside so that I can talk to him? You can repeat the words to translate.}


    ¡°Kekoa, can we just¡­ not?¡± Cuicatl sounds exhausted, even for someone who just woke up.


    You consider this for a long time. She¡¯s had a rough time as of late. Makani isn¡¯t going anywhere. Maybe¡­ you can just wait for tempers to cool.


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    [10:17:41]


    Ordinarily the harbor would be filled with tourists flocking to the expensive restaurants and boats coming and going. Today the only sound comes from raindrops and the other VStar people gathered around the only light around. It¡¯s just a single inkay bobbing above a small boat, the kind tourists probably rented out for private little fishing tours, but even the pok¨¦mon¡¯s dim light feels bright when there¡¯s only darkness every other way you look.


    Cold rain falls on you and completes the miserable scene. You shiver and adjust your raincoat. You weren¡¯t packing for cold weather when you left the orphanage. What cold weather clothing you could find for sale now seemed far, far more expensive than you would expect. Double-layering shirts helps, but your arms are only covered by a flimsy raincoat and a thin sweater. Cuicatl at least has something knitted on beneath her plastic poncho. Maybe something beneath that, too. Lucky.


    ¡°I think we can board now,¡± the captain says. ¡°Doubt the others are coming.¡±


    You missed a foothold going down the bunk¡¯s ladder today and almost bent your ankle. You¡¯re surprised it doesn¡¯t happen to Cuicatl even more than it already does. If you didn¡¯t have her and her team to guide you around you don¡¯t think you ever would have found your way to the harbor.


    The inkay clings to the captain near the controls as he gets going. Slowly. Can¡¯t go too fast or he risks hitting something. At least it means you aren¡¯t constantly being hit by cold wind. You still lean back and look at the stars. Always do it on or near the water at night. A little piece of connection to your ancestors who crossed oceans without motors or GPS. There are no stars today. Just some vibrant tears in the sky that refuse to let any light come down to you. Scratches of light on the ceiling of the world. It¡¯s like the necrozma¡¯s taunting your culture.


    The bastard keeps dropping the temperature every day.


    You wonder how the forests will come out of this. Two weeks with no sunlight and constant cold. Which grass-types will survive? Which won¡¯t? What of the bugs and birds that didn¡¯t evolve for the cold? Hekeli demands to come inside as soon as she¡¯s taken care of her business and Makani¡­ well, apparently Makani hates you. If Cuicatl is to be believed. You still aren¡¯t sure about that.


    Maybe it¡¯s Cuicatl¡¯s power lust coming through. All three of her pok¨¦mon are powerhouses. Tyrantrum and metagross (because of course she¡¯s going to evolve the damn thing, whatever she promises you) are some of the strongest pok¨¦mon to ever live. Keokeo fight like a living blizzard, slipping in and out of their storms to disrupt the opponent or freeze them solid. But some people don¡¯t want just power: they want all the power. If Makani leaves you, it might go to her. Then she¡¯d have another nuke in her arsenal.


    And she¡¯s unstable now because of the oricorio. Hurt. Maybe lashing out and hurting you to feel better herself. It makes sense; you imagine that the encounter really, really sucked for her. Hearing your parents berate you would be¡­ it would be something. There would be bad feelings, of course, but at least you¡¯d be reminded what they sounded like.


    Did Jabari keep home videos? He had to have, right? Somewhere. No way he threw those away when he enlisted since, you know, his parents had just died. But if you asked for them there would be strings attached. It would look like you were just fine with him sending you to foster care for years just because he was sorry enough to give you shit that was rightfully yours anyway. And also a tyrunt. You wonder if he knows that you gave it away. Probably. He does work for VStar and Cuicatl has been talking to them about her Class Five. Someone probably caught on and told your brother. But at least he hasn¡¯t shown himself recently. Just a text asking if you were alright. He got a one-word answer before you blocked him.


    The boat slows to a stop. ¡°¡¯right, let me and my first mate get the lines out.¡±


    The first mate is a girl about your age. His daughter, maybe? Hard to look at features in the dim light. would probably be creepy if you stared long enough to figure it out. Barely care, anyways.


    ¡°Fishing for luvdisc today with algae bait. Ordinarily they can scrape it off the reefs, but no sun means no algae growth. League¡¯s authorized us to catch some to give the rest a chance.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t coral need sunlight, too?¡± someone asks. You¡¯re pretty sure he¡¯s right. Hadn¡¯t even thought about that.


    ¡°Someone smarter than me is working on that.¡±


    Hopefully. You wouldn¡¯t bet on it, though. The politicians are probably putting a lot more thought into the trapped tourists than the future of the environment.


    Once the lines are hooked the captain and first mate go around to help you cast. You tell the girl you don¡¯t need any help and she rolls her eyes. It still goes¡­ fine. Not as far as you would like. Didn¡¯t really show her or anything.


    Cuicatl lets her do the casting since she can¡¯t go see. Probably goes three times further than yours. The first mate walks away with a small smirk.


    It doesn¡¯t take too long for a flash of red to go off in the water and another kid to reel it in. The captain makes sure everyone clears out the center and sends out¡­ a magikarp. Do they eat algae? Maybe they just swam into the bait on accident. Can that happen? Cuicatl is looking at you expectantly. ¡°Magikarp,¡± you tell her.


    ¡°Can I have it?¡± Cuicatl asks. ¡°For one of my pok¨¦mon. I¡¯ll pay for the ball and the fish.¡±


    ¡°Not a magikarp, lass. Gyarados are testy enough as it is. The captain shatters the ball with a weird pair of pliers and throws the fish over. ¡°What pok¨¦mon are you feeding?¡±


    ¡°A baby dragon. She hasn¡¯t had fresh fish before, and I thought¡­¡±


    ¡°Hah! Don¡¯t see one of those every day. I¡¯ll see what I can do when we get back to dock.¡±


    ¡°Why do we have to pay for balls anyway?¡± The kid who caught it asks. ¡°Can¡¯t we just use hooks?¡±


    ¡°Buyers want pretty luvdisc. Take it up with VStar.¡±


    It¡¯s not like the ball cuts into the profit too much, but $50 is $50. You see where the kid is coming from. Would suck to lose money while trying to make money.


    Two of the other four kids catch a luvdisc before you and Cuicatl. Even she catches one before you. And the second after the first mate casts her line out there¡¯s another flash. The captain sends you back to the edges and sends out¡­ definitely not a luvdisc. It has a long, squirming body and a giant mouth with absurdly sharp teeth. The captain withdraws it almost immediately. ¡°That¡­ that really shouldn¡¯t be up at the surface. Going to have to turn that over to someone for study.¡±


    ¡°What was it?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Huntail. Deep sea predator. Guess the dark drew it up. We¡¯ll go to the fishery after this, see if you can get a bounty for the research specimen.¡±


    Girl can¡¯t help herself: she¡¯s the biggest monster bait in Alola.


    *


    Before long the boat is slowly moving back to the coast.


    ¡°Can¡¯t believe they had us work during The Blackout,¡± you mutter under your breath, more to fill the quiet than anything.


    ¡°What else were we doing?¡± Cuicatl asks, a little too loud. You glance around to see if anyone¡¯s going to hear you talking shit about your employer. Unlikely. One kid is on the phone. Two are talking quietly. The last is lost in their own little world. ¡°Might as well make money.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fucking dark outside. Dangerous to walk in.¡±


    A gust of wind blows a splatter of water into the side of your raincoat.


    ¡°Kekoa, I don¡¯t really¡­ see the problem there.¡±


    Ugh. Stupid puns. ¡°Yeah, well, you¡¯ve been training for years. Most of us are still tripping over our feet.¡±


    She giggles. Giggles. ¡°It is fun to listen to. And everything is so much easier to use now. I wouldn¡¯t mind if this went on for a bit.¡±


    ¡°And froze out the fucking forests? And your precious dragons?¡± you hiss.


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°This is why dragons mastered fire, Kekoa. It makes winters much easier.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not funny when it¡¯s your country burning down.¡±


    She sighs, barely audible over the waves and raindrops. The boat rocks in a wave it couldn¡¯t just cut through at this slow speed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you¡¯re mad at me,¡± Cuicatl says when things calm back down. That¡¯s probably a lie. She¡¯s a fucking mindreader. ¡°Doesn¡¯t work like that,¡± she mutters, confirming that it does, in fact, work like that.


    Why are you mad at her? Because she¡¯s trying to take your powerhouse away. Makani hadn¡¯t been spitting in your face as much, you bought him a thunder stone (which blew through most of your savings right at the start of an indefinite crisis), and then out of nowhere she just turns on you again.


    ¡°Makani.¡±


    ¡°I thought you wanted me to respect the pok¨¦mon here. But it¡¯s fine for you to ignore them, then?¡± She sounds more tired than angry, but there is a spark of defiance in her voice. The kind that typically precedes someone getting mad. Had to learn that shit when dealing with orphans and state-stolen kids with more issues than you.


    The answer to her question is simple enough. {Foreigners keep coming here to catch grubbin and get themselves a vikavolt. Got so bad that they almost went extinct on this island.} VStar was a big part of that. Worth keeping those thoughts quiet. Especially if she¡¯s reading your mind anyway. The grubbing capture was the first thing you learned about the company. If you didn¡¯t need to kick out the imposter queen you would want nothing to do with them. ¡°But vikavolt are our birthright. One of our strongest weapons against the occupiers, and they¡¯re just stealing them. If I abandoned her, she¡¯d probably fall into one of their hands.¡±


    The imposter queen herself has one. That will not help the desire overseas to steal every last one of them from your people.


    ¡°Even if that¡¯s¡­ I¡¯m only telling you what she told me.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a telepath. Can¡¯t know what you said to her to make her attack me.¡±


    ¡°Kekoa,¡± her voice is much, much harder than before but just as quiet. ¡°You don¡¯t trust me at all, do you?¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡± Do you? She¡¯s going through a lot right now, and you¡¯ve insulted her dead brother and mom. It¡¯s natural that she¡¯d want revenge. Still, you¡¯ve been traveling with her for three months at this point. You¡¯d trust her not to poison you. To keep you safe. But for Makani to just turn on you¡­ you¡¯re not a bad trainer. A bad person. You were making progress. Cuicatl turning on you only barely makes sense, but it¡¯s the only thing here that makes any.


    ¡°Second, I really thought you cared about pok¨¦mon. More than I do. Set rules on me for what I could and couldn¡¯t do. But¡­ I don¡¯t know anymore. You get mad that your grubbin wants to leave. Won¡¯t really parent Coco.¡± Because she¡¯s a dinosaur. A very cute dinosaur that you¡¯ll take on walks or cuddle, but not your child. Besides, she¡¯s Cuicatl¡¯s pok¨¦mon. ¡°And then that movie a few days back. You like it, right? But it¡¯s about how it¡¯s bad to capture wild fish. But you¡¯re here doing that, now. I just don¡¯t get it.¡±


    The luvdisc capture is necessary because you need money to take back your kingdom. Makani is necessary because you need power to take back your kingdom. And they¡¯re your people¡¯s pok¨¦mon. Your birthright. The ancient kings hunted. The island challenge has been going strong for centuries with many kings and kahunas using vikavolt. Besides¡­


    ¡°You¡¯re here, too. Asked to let a magikarp get eaten. And if Coco asked to leave, would you let her?¡±


    The boat slows to a crawl. You can see the dock, now, in the inkay¡¯s dim light.


    ¡°Kekoa, I¡¯m a predator,¡± she whispers. For a moment you¡¯ll pretend that the tiny blind girl that needs help casting for fish could be a predator. ¡°I was practically raised by one. And predators can tolerate prey. Respect them. But the predators will starve if they do not eat the prey. If I need to catch luvdisc or huntain or magikarp to feed myself or my pok¨¦mon, I will. That¡¯s how nature works.¡± Sometimes you have to drown someone else to stay afloat. You know that damn well. ¡°And for Coco, I don¡¯t want her to leave. I¡¯d try to keep her happy with me. Since I¡¯m her mother and¡­¡± She trails off. ¡°I never really had a mother. Just scattered memories.¡±


    ¡°Memories?¡±


    ¡°Her reuniclus had some stored ones. I¡¯ve seen a few. Enough that I love her. Miss her. Maybe understand her. But she died a long time ago. I don¡¯t remember her myself.¡±


    Shit. That¡¯s way better than home videos. You would kill for that. For a tenth of that.


    ¡°But if Coco really wanted to leave, I wouldn¡¯t try to make a dragon stay where she doesn¡¯t want to be. That would end badly for everyone.¡±


    The captain and first mate finish tying up the vessel and the others stand up to leave. You follow in silence.


    Cuicatl sees herself as a predator. A tiny, helpless predator. {Fuck you.} A tiny, helpless predator who polices other people¡¯s thoughts. And seems to really, actually see her dragons¡ªhydreigon and tyrunt¡ªas family. That¡¯s¡­ strange. You¡¯d read interviews of battlers saying stuff like that, but it was never something you really saw for yourself. That was something PR firms made up to make their clients sound like folk heroes. The orphanage had an oranguru and porygon that helped take care of the kids, sure, but you were never as close to them as you were to the, y¡¯know, people.


    ¡°Maybe you should talk to someone else about this,¡± Cuicatl mutters. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about your birthright.¡±


    Fine. You will.


    *


    Cuicatl ends up getting $300 for the huntail. She promptly blows some of it on a finneon at the market because she promised her pok¨¦mon fresh fish, even when funds could be tight. She just shrugged when you asked about it. Said it could come out of her food budget. Like you would actually just sit back and watch her starve. Coco tears her half off in one bite and swallows without much chewing. Pixie is daintier but somehow more disturbing. (She starts with the eyes.)


    *


    The rain stopped. At least you can make the call outside. If you ever make it. You¡¯ve unlocked the phone, held your hand over the number, and watched it lock again three times now.


    Kanoa.


    You¡¯ve spent weeks practically ignoring her, texting her as little as possible. And she¡¯s busy. You don¡¯t need to take her time. She doesn¡¯t need to talk to someone who abandoned her. She deserves better than that. But you want to talk with someone who would understand. She¡¯s a trial captain. Her boss¡¯s boss is Tapu Lele herself. She would know what to do, right? Even if you don¡¯t deserve to hear from her.


    Fuck it. She probably won¡¯t answer. Might as well.


    She answers on the second ring.


    ¡°Kekoa! So good to hear that you¡¯re safe.¡± She pauses as you steel yourself to talk. ¡°You are safe, right?¡±


    ¡°Yup. Just holed up in Hau¡¯oli. You¡¯re the one who¡¯s been on the front lines.¡±


    Has she? Probably. Sounds like something they would have trial captains doing.


    ¡°It¡¯s been rough,¡± Kanoa responds, a little shakily. Then false joy is pumped right back into her voice. ¡°But things are actually calming down over here. We have a little bit of light and heat again. I was worried we wouldn¡¯t until everything was over, since, uh¡­¡± Her voice dips back to something more natural. ¡°The volcarona refused to shine for a bit, because some kid had just tried to steal a larvesta.¡±


    ¡°Holy shit.¡± That kid¡¯s fucking dead now, and everyone¡¯s better off for it. If they¡¯d actually succeeded¡­ volcarona are emissaries of Pele and gods in their own right. A lot of people would¡¯ve burned. ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°VStar.¡±


    Shit. You knew they¡¯d crashed the grubbin population and generally didn¡¯t give a shit about the ecosystem, but poking a volcarona is low for them. How much money would they have had to offer? Several thousand. Maybe a million. Then they would¡¯ve had to either find someone with a Class V or train one.


    And if they wanted to train one, they¡¯d have to find some kid with talent and a need to get a lot of money, fast. But uh. Cuicatl worships the sun, right? There¡¯s no way that she¡¯d just go and piss off a sun god or demigod or whatever volcarona are over there.


    Right?


    ¡°You still there?¡± Kanoa asks.


    ¡°Just thinking about some stuff.¡±


    ¡°You work for them, right?¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Kind of figured between the weird island-hopping thing and, um, not really having much money. Unless your brother is paying for¡ª¡±


    ¡°He very much isn¡¯t.¡± You wouldn¡¯t let him.


    ¡°Just checking.¡± And judging. She¡¯s definitely judging. Fuck her. Never been through half of what you have, yet she thinks she can judge. ¡°Look, I know you don¡¯t want to go back. But I¡¯ve been talking with my dad, and we think we can send you some money.¡±


    No. If anything, you owe her. Hell, she¡¯d be justified refusing any help you offered, just like you¡¯d thrown away a tyrunt. You had chances to call or write and you didn¡¯t.


    ¡°Why?¡±


    ¡°Because I care about you, dumbass.¡± She shouldn¡¯t. She really, really¡ª ¡°Do you really need that spelled out for you?¡±


    ¡°Kanoa, I ignored you for years. Just. It¡¯s okay to let me go.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± she says, still sounding far too cheery. ¡°You¡¯re the one who called me.¡±


    ¡°Right. I need some advice.¡±


    She hums for a second. Lower pitched than Cuicatl¡¯s humming. Not quite as melodic. ¡°About what?¡±


    ¡°Pok¨¦mon stuff.¡±


    ¡°Well, that I can do. Ask away.¡±


    Kanoa was raised by ranchers. Probably set to take over from them once she retires from being a trial captain, another job that requires knowing shit about pok¨¦mon care. She should know this. And won¡¯t be too biased.


    ¡°I have a grubbin.¡±


    ¡°I remember.¡±


    Right. You did use that in her trial. To pretty good effect, at that. ¡°He didn¡¯t like me at first, but he¡¯s been getting better. I bought a thunderstone to try and evolve him.¡±


    ¡°Right.¡±


    ¡°Then last night he got really, really upset with me. Starting chittering and trying to bite me. My friend is¡ªhas a psychic-type.¡± Technically true, although you¡¯re pretty sure the beldum can¡¯t actually talk to people or pok¨¦mon with its mind. ¡°She says that Makani, the grubbin, wants me to bury him in the woods with the thunderstone.¡±


    ¡°And you don¡¯t want to?¡± She doesn¡¯t sound as judgmental as you were fearing. That¡¯s good.


    ¡°Yeah. Things were going okay and it¡¯s dangerous out. And if he does stay with me until he evolves, I can return the thunderstone, since they don¡¯t use them up like raichu or jolteon. I don¡¯t see why he can¡¯t just travel with me for a while.¡±


    ¡°You could just go back in a couple months to unbury the stone. I don¡¯t think vikavolt keep them after they evolve. Hell, the DNR would prefer you do that. Keep any wild grubbin from unexpectedly evolving. Although¡­ lemme check something.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± You¡¯re pretty sure you got put on mute given the nothingness over the line. You¡¯re vaguely upset. Kanoa jumped to the least important part. He¡¯s safer with you and¡­ and you need power. A lot of it.


    ¡°Still there?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t supposed to release charjabug on Melemele. Just have him sent over and I¡¯ll let him out back once the darkness ends. I can rent my own thunderstone from Olivia. Maybe for free, ¡®cause Liv¡¯s a big softy. Despite being a rock trainer.¡± She snickers at her own joke. You wonder how many times she¡¯s told it. Is this really the first?


    More importantly: ¡°Once the darkness ends? You sound like it¡¯ll be soon.¡±


    Kanoa groans on the other end. ¡°Can you forget I said anything?¡±


    ¡°Soon, then?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re going to try something soon. But don¡¯t get your hopes up. They¡¯ve been trying shit for a while with no luck.¡±


    Right. You¡¯re still talking about the false queen and the colonial government. Really, you shouldn¡¯t have any faith in them doing something helpful.


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll forget you said anything. But¡ª¡± You don¡¯t have to do this. You can hang up. It¡¯ll be fine. ¡°I¡¯m not really worried about the thunderstone. It¡¯s just. Shit, I don¡¯t know.¡±


    ¡°Feels bad that one of your pok¨¦mon wants to leave?¡± She says it softly. Almost knowingly. A little judgingly. Like she¡¯s talking to a child.


    But she¡¯s not wrong.


    ¡°Pretty much.¡±


    ¡°It happens. A lot. Pok¨¦mon, even the ones that agree to go with people, usually want to go back to their own lives eventually. For bugs, a few months can be a lot of time. A year can be far too much to ask of them.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s not really it. More that there are a fuckton of haole kids who do this every year, no problem, but I can¡¯t¡­¡± Can¡¯t even figure out what, exactly, it is that you can¡¯t do.


    ¡°And their pok¨¦mon hate them, too. They just don¡¯t care enough to notice.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± That. That makes sense.


    ¡°No one really taught you to live with the ?¨¡ina, did they?¡± Kanoa half-whispers. She¡¯s not wrong, exactly. Your mom was an accountant. You visited Kanoa¡¯s family a lot, but that was years ago. And in the meantime, well, most of the time you were staying with haole in the cities. But once you got to the orphanage and sort of joined Team Skull you started getting lessons about the myths. You should know enough to make things work. ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it. Next time you¡¯re on Akala I¡¯ll swing by to give you some tips.¡±


    You want to scream that you don¡¯t need it. That this is your fucking country and you know how to live in it. How to use it against the conquerors. Plumeria and the other Skull leaders taught you the myths at the base of Lanakila. You know enough. More than the ten-year-old haole brats who waltz through your islands without having a pok¨¦mon turn against them. But she doesn¡¯t sound angry at you. She doesn¡¯t hate you. For some reason.


    She must sense something wrong. Maybe you took too long to answer. ¡°Again, don¡¯t worry about it. Hanohano taught me a bunch of stuff I didn¡¯t know over the last year.¡± She pauses. ¡°Oh, he¡¯s the totem oranguru you fought.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    You aren¡¯t sure for what.


    ¡°Don¡¯t¡ªhang on.¡± She puts you on mute again. You pointedly do not think about anything that was just said. ¡°Sorry, something came up over here. Take care.¡±


    ¡°You too.¡±


    ¡°Bye.¡±


    [11:17:55]


    It¡¯s a little hard to find places that are both warm and a little private. Thankfully, Tatty left and Mist and Titania are downstairs for lunch. You have a little bit of time to talk to Makani now.


    ¡°Hey, Cuicatl?¡±


    She grumbles/groans something below you. Was she sleeping? Why? It¡¯s the middle of the day. Weird time for a nap.


    ¡°You up for translating between me and Makani?¡±


    Cuicatl yawns and you can feel the bunk bed subtly shift. One hell of a stretch, then. ¡°Sure. Let me just¡­¡± Let me just yawn again, apparently. ¡°You trust me again?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I talked to a friend and I don¡¯t think you were lying. I was just¡­ anyway, I¡¯ll send Makani out now.¡±


    ¡°Go ahead.¡± You can imagine her eyeroll and smirk. And maybe you deserve it. Or should at least shut up and tolerate it.


    You draw your legs back to you and press your back to the wall. Then you send Makani out at the other side of the bunk. Gives you some warning if he attacks.


    ¡°Hey. We need to talk.¡±


    Cuicatl repeats your words. Makani says nothing because he¡¯s a bug.


    ¡°Cuicatl can translate anything you want to say.¡± He still doesn¡¯t take you up on the offer. ¡°Look, I¡­ I am going to make sure that you¡¯re buried with a thunder stone. But¡ª¡± He starts chittering and hissing.


    ¡°Please hear him out,¡± Cuicatl says. He does, mostly, although you can still hear a slight hiss.


    ¡°But there aren¡¯t vikavolt on this island, so I have to send you back to Akala. Where you¡¯re from. And for that I need to wait a little while before they start shipping pok¨¦balls between islands again. As soon as I can, I¡¯ll send you over and a friend will let you go.¡±


    He chirps thrice and clacks his mandibles.


    ¡°He¡¯s okay with that, but he¡¯ll start biting eventually if you don¡¯t do it.¡±


    ¡°A lot doesn¡¯t¡­¡± Depend on you. But how are you going to explain the situation to a bug when you barely understand it yourself? ¡°That¡¯s fine. I can live with that.¡±


    {Proud of you.}


    She says it like a mother talking a stubborn toddler into sharing his toys. You file it away for later, not wanting to immediately start another fight right after the last one ended. Besides, there¡¯s still one last question you want to ask. Even though you maybe shouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°Makani, do you hate me?¡±


    Cuicatl repeats the question. And gets no answer. Then a lot of very harsh whistles and chirps.


    ¡°Hmm. If you could kill him with no chance of harm to yourself, would you?¡±


    ¡°Cuicatl¡ª¡± {Please don¡¯t put that thought into his head.}


    {How would you explain hatred to an insect?}


    She looks down on bugs, too. Hypocrite.


    Makani starts answering. Cuicatl pauses for a bit and you hear her shift beneath you.


    ¡°Okay. Do you wish that you¡¯d never been captured?¡±


    Another answer. A shorter one.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t hate you,¡± Cuicatl says. She does not translate exactly what Makani¡¯s answers were.

 Fighting 7: Lila

    Fighting 3.7: The Real Monsters


    Lyra


    [12:04:39]


    Gela¡¯s leaving.


    You can¡¯t blame her. Not really. She likes pok¨¦mon well enough, but camping? Not a fan. Even before The Blackout you were getting worried that she¡¯d quit early, go home, and start applying for college. Being trapped in a hotel room for a week and a half certainly hasn¡¯t improved her view of the island challenge.


    You¡¯ve pleaded with her. Reminded her that she loathes her mom. Hell, she only hit the trail to get away from the woman. You couldn¡¯t see Gela roll her eyes, of course, but you know she was doing it.


    ¡°I survived sixteen years there, I can live a few months more. Especially if I don¡¯t have to see her face.¡±


    And that was that. Nothing else you could do that would get her to stay.


    Well, you could¡¯ve kissed her.


    That would¡¯ve gone real fucking well.


    The waves crash against the beach and the cool water goes all the way up to where you¡¯re sitting. Shit. Didn¡¯t realize you were that close to the surf. At least you have extra underwear at home. And if it¡¯s already wet, might as well stay here longer, lost in your thoughts.


    Nisshoko lands on your shoulder. A moment later the noibat gives a reassuring squeal into your ear.


    ¡°Hey, buddy. It¡¯s fine. I really don¡¯t need that.¡±


    He squeals again out of either victory or defiance. Then he flies off.


    Your starter, Mirai the absol, is huddled down at your feet, occasionally moaning softly. Poor girl. She started going nuts right before Necrozma arrived and has had a headache ever since. Too many disasters going on. Jishin the mudbray digs down into the dryer sands. None of them seem to mind the temperature too much. Noibat live in caves, mudbray have thick skin, and absol live on Lanakila.


    Unfortunately, the cold does bother you. Your wardrobe was meant for cool nights at the coldest. Mirai at least has warm fur and a willingness to cuddle. And Nisshoko can help with the darkness. You¡¯d caught her for help navigating caves, but totally dark apocalyptic hellscapes are also right up her alley. You have nothing to provide light. The internet says the best options in the unnatural darkness are staryu and inkay.


    Both are undesirable for the same reason.


    Even if you did have light, you¡¯d still have another problem: you¡¯d be traveling alone. No one to talk to on lonely nights, no one watching your back, no one for moral support when you need it. And if the worst were to happen, there¡¯d be no one to report your injury. Solo hiking is a terrible idea. But Gela had to up and leave because of a teensy tiny endless night.


    You¡¯d contact Genesis. Ask if you were maybe forgiven and if she¡¯d travel together. You¡¯ve heard that her parents kicked her out. If there¡¯s one upside to the kiss ¨C okay, the kiss itself was an upside ¨C it¡¯s that she¡¯s finally away from her toxic parents.


    You¡¯ve tried to get in touch with her, but¡­ the league doesn¡¯t publish the names of trial winners to make it harder for stalkers and abusive relatives to find them. She has no social media presence. (¡°Too many temptations.¡±) You even tried to hire a PI but he wouldn¡¯t take money from a kid. Father refuses to involve himself in what he sees as an internal affair of the Gage family.


    So you¡¯re stuck here. Alone. In frigid, dark air.


    You dig your feet into the sand for warmth, only to realize that the sand is even colder than the air above it.


    [12:12:59]


    You¡¯re woken up by nightmares. That¡¯s not unusual. The first has been normal as of late: Genesis kicks you over a railing and you fall to your death. The second, a particularly dedicated buzzwole chasing you around Route 3, isn¡¯t normal. No idea what your subconscious was doing there. The third¡­ the damn psychic and his alakazam¡­


    2011


    You¡¯re tied up on a couch. A man with cruel eyes stares into your brain while an alakazam meditates in midair beside him. You can feel the man¡¯s crawling into memories and he doesn¡¯t care that you know he¡¯s doing it. You try to avert your eyes, but the feeling doesn¡¯t stop. He doesn¡¯t need eye contact, so you meet his gaze again out of defiance. He smirks. ¡°Your daughter is brave, Mondo.¡±


    Your father doesn¡¯t respond.


    ¡°Real shame you couldn¡¯t keep your mouth shut around her.¡±


    Cold panic runs up your spine and you start testing the limits of the ropes around you. You try to be subtle enough that the man doesn¡¯t notice, but he does. And he laughs. He laughs long and hard and you have time to plea to Ho-oh for a fast voyage to¡­ whatever comes next.


    ¡°Relax, child. I¡¯m already finished.¡± What? How¡ª ¡°Try to remember what he told you.¡±


    The man is here because father¡­ you were walking through the forest or¡ªno, it was in this room and¡ª


    ¡°Exactly.¡± The psychic turns to his alakazam and places a hand on the pok¨¦mon. ¡°Do be more careful in the future, Mondo. I might not be able to make so clean a cut next time.¡±


    Both pok¨¦mon and master disappear in a spiral of twisted space. Your father rushes over with a kitchen knife and starts cutting your bonds, profusely apologizing for doing something you can¡¯t even remember.


    *


    His cruel eyes bore into yours even once you wake from the dream. It¡¯s almost worse when your waking mind can think it over. At first you thought that he just took a memory. But how can you be sure? He could have given you new ones, made you forget people, even changed your entire personality. And you wouldn¡¯t know. You don¡¯t know. You¡¯ll probably never know.


    Usually, you chase that nightmare away by turning all the lights in your room on and staring at the ceiling for hours until you fall asleep again. You can still try it (and you do), but it isn¡¯t quite as comforting when the light barely expands to cover the lampshade.


    Screw this. You¡¯re better off just starting your day. You take a very long shower, hoping it washes your worries away.


    It doesn¡¯t.


    Then you start journaling. You have to do it on your phone now, since you couldn¡¯t really write on a dark page. That¡¯s not ideal. Phones can be altered in a way that books can¡¯t be. You won¡¯t make it easy on your enemies, though. After you finish writing down yesterday¡¯s events and today¡¯s plans, you email the note to three separate accounts. Then you log into one of those accounts and forward it to another. Someone would have to not only alter your mind but hack several different websites to change your reality.


    For good measure you update the ¡°Who I Am¡± document to make sure that nothing critical gets changed. That also gets forwarded onto all your accounts. It¡¯s unnecessary ¨C you haven¡¯t really changed that much as a person in the last month ¨C but it¡¯s reassuring.


    You exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Deep breaths. Not working. You fumble for your phone in the dark and turn it on. 6:51 A.M. The Pok¨¦mon Center will open up soon. You need to pick up Rigan-ry¨±, your pyukumuku. She got attacked by something on the way to Hau¡¯oli and you couldn¡¯t really treat the injury in the dark. Nurse said she¡¯d be fine, though. She¡¯d just need a few days. That was acceptable. Not like you¡¯d be doing much of anything.


    Might as well get ready to pick up your pok¨¦mon.


    Appearance can be a shield. When you have to deal with dad¡¯s business contacts, you put on your nicest dress and a half-hour¡¯s worth of makeup and wear them like armor. If you look and act like you¡¯re in control, then the people around you can start to believe it. Now it¡¯s too dark to properly apply your makeup and it wouldn¡¯t be appreciated anyway. You¡¯re left with just your clothes between you and the world.


    You pull up the Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s address and begin the walk, Mirai keeping pace beside you. She can¡¯t actually see in the dark, but her disaster sense means that she tenses up right before you¡¯d trip or run into something. Really, anyone who spent any time at all around an absol would learn that they stop disasters, not cause them. But the old superstitions are hard to break. You''d probably still get weird looks from the elderly if anyone could even see anyone. Cold air gets into your slacks as you walk through the eerily quiet city streets. Your jacket fares a little better against the cold, but only just. By the time you reach your destination you¡¯re trying to remember the highest temperature at which you can get hypothermia.


    Ho-oh above and Lugia below, how cold is it?


    Forty-five, your phone says. It¡¯ll be below freezing in a few days if it keeps dropping like this.


    Maybe Gela was right.


    You finally reach the Pok¨¦mon Center. Only the doors are illuminated by a faint glow from the inside. Inkay light. Great. Just¡­ great. At least they¡¯re government owned. And you¡¯ve just updated your diaries. You swallow and step inside.


    The receptionist looks up at you when you enter. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I¡¯m here to pick up a pok¨¦mon.¡± You flash her your best smile once you¡¯re fully in the light. She glances at, no, beside you. Then promptly looks back to you with a smile of her own. Not too opposed to absol, then. Good. She looked too young to believe the old superstitions, but sometimes you¡¯re surprised by just who pulls you aside and gives you a warning in hushed tones.


    You get your pok¨¦ball after a few minutes of waiting.


    ¡°Since you cleared a trial within thirty days of the blackout, you¡¯re welcome to get breakfast here,¡± the receptionist says. It¡¯s probably not good breakfast. Pok¨¦mon Centers vary in quality, but they¡¯re rarely more than tolerable. Booking a hotel room was an easy choice. Once you managed to find one, of course. It was a very stressful afternoon when you first got back to Hau¡¯oli.


    Breakfast is breakfast, though, and right now you¡¯re steadily depleting your rations with every meal. Might as well deplete someone else¡¯s.


    There aren¡¯t many people eating breakfast at this hour, even though the Centers are supposedly super crowded. A pair of older teenagers huddled together in a table as far away from the inkay as they can get. And then one girl your age with a vulpix sitting beside her and a beldum floating over her shoulder. You flinch at the beldum, but it¡¯s probably fine. The Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s inkay wouldn¡¯t let someone else¡¯s pok¨¦mon assault you, right? Unless the psychic-types are working together¡­


    You recognize the trainer, though. Green hair, dark skin, clouded eyes, and bird-like limbs. Very different from Genesis, but not unattractive. When you fought a long time ago she¡¯d only had a vulpix against your pyukumuku.


    You grab your food. The only option for lactose-intolerant vegetarians is a box of dry cereal. Lovely.


    From what you remember of the girl she¡¯d been quite clever, even if her vulpix was weak. Figured out how to bait your pyukumuku into extending her innards without being able to see the pattern. Might be worth getting reacquainted. You¡¯ll need new traveling partners, after all, and even if she isn¡¯t thinking about continuing on when this all blows over, she might know someone who is.


    She looks up when you pull out a chair.


    ¡°This seat taken?¡±


    The girl shakes her head and you sit down.


    ¡°I¡¯m Lyra, by the way. We fought way back when in Hau¡¯oli. Your vulpix against my pyukumuku.¡± Said vulpix starts growling softly before a nudge from her trainer quiets her down.


    ¡°I remember you, yes.¡± Her face is mostly neutral, but she seems a lot more interested in swirling around her spoon in what little is left of her breakfast. Right. Probably doesn¡¯t have fond memories of that loss. ¡°I¡¯m Cuicatl.¡±


    ¡°Anyway, just wanted to check in and see how you¡¯re doing.¡±


    ¡°Fine, I guess.¡±


    Cuicatl goes back to picking at her breakfast. You consider leaving it there, but you have nothing else to do and to be honest you¡¯re a little starved for human contact after however long in your hotel room. Not like there¡¯s anyone more interesting around. Besides, there¡¯s always one thing that trainers love to talk about.


    ¡°Nice team you have there. Any others?¡±


    A ghost of a smile appears on her face. Nailed it. ¡°A tyrunt.¡±


    You blink. ¡°A what?¡±


    Her smile grows. It takes her a moment to respond as she chews her food. ¡°A tyrunt.¡±


    ¡°Shit. Between metagross and tyrantrum¡ª¡±


    ¡°And ninetales.¡± The fox yips in approval.


    ¡°¡ªand ninetales¡­¡±


    She shrugs. ¡°I like predators.¡±


    ¡°Why?¡±


    Her spoon halts right below her mouth. ¡°¡­why?¡±


    ¡°I, uh.¡± You might have gotten a little ahead of yourself. Just. There are monsters in the world who envy the predators that can hurt anyone, any time. If they can have that power for themselves, they¡¯ll gladly take it. Thankfully those assholes usually tell on themselves pretty quickly. ¡°Like, why do you want that much power? Be the very best? Like in the cartoons?¡±


    She scoffs. ¡°Different cartoons in Anahuac.¡±


    Oh. Yeah, maybe a military brat trying to prove she has what it takes, even if she¡¯s blind.


    ¡°And¡­¡± The smile vanishes and her spoon clatters back to the bowl as she tucks her hands into her lap. ¡°No one hurts the predators. They can go wherever they want without fear.¡±


    Ah. She wants that for herself. It¡¯s impossible, of course. There are people who can hurt her and make her grateful for it, no matter how powerful she gets. But you don¡¯t know how to explain that to her in a way she¡¯d understand.


    After all, no one else seems to.


    But it¡¯s a good answer and you like her more for it.


    ¡°What are your pok¨¦mon?¡± She asks. An obvious ploy to change the subject, but one you¡¯ll oblige.


    ¡°You already met my pyukumuku. Then there¡¯s an absol, noibat, and mudbray.¡±


    She raises an eyebrow. You idly wonder who taught her how to do that. ¡°Not going for a theme?¡±


    You shrug. And then realize that she can¡¯t see it. ¡°Sort of.¡± You take another bite. Dry. Flavorless. At least there are raisins. ¡°They¡¯ll help me explore someday. Except the pyukumuku, maybe, but you can catch a lot of trainers off guard with it.¡± She winces. ¡°Even some totems,¡± you say conciliatorily.


    ¡°Why do you want to explore?¡± she asks. A faint smile reappears as she hums. ¡°You get to ask me a why question, I get to ask you one.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve always enjoyed going places,¡± except Japan, ¡°and I¡¯d like to see more someday. Lots of places that no human¡¯s gone, you know? Most of Antarctica and the ocean floor, the interior of the Congo, the depths of Mammoth Cave¡­maybe I can find something there that no one else has. Do something that¡¯s too big to be forgotten.¡±


    ¡°I wish you luck.¡± She says it kindly, but there¡¯s a hint of dismissal. She makes no effort to stand and leave, though.


    ¡°Any places I should visit in Anahuac?¡±


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Cuicatl tenses up and puts down her spoon again. ¡°You probably shouldn¡¯t,¡± she half-whispers. ¡°They really don¡¯t like Americans there.¡± She relaxes a tiny bit. ¡°And I wouldn¡¯t know what¡¯s good; I¡¯ve never seen any of it.¡±


    When she smiles at her own joke there¡¯s a moment you can see the building blocks of someone very cute. Different clothes than her athletic shorts and graphic tee. Maybe a white dress. Or blue or pink. Style her hair a little differently and do some contouring to round out the harsher lines on her face. Yeah. With her thin (but still somewhat toned) limbs and small size she could nail the cutesy aesthetic with a little effort. Regal would be a touch harder given her height, but with her predators it might be a look she could aim for in the future. Especially if she bulked up a bit. Toss in some heels and the right dress¡­


    ¡°Lyra?¡±


    Ah, shit. Zoned out upon meeting a cute girl. Story of your life.


    ¡°Still here. Just thinking.¡±


    Cuicatl nods and goes back to her meal. She¡¯s not a fast eater, though. You have time.


    ¡°Planning to stay on the challenge after this is over?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± she replies. ¡°I¡¯m here on a challenge visa.¡±


    Good. ¡°So am I. Friend recently bailed on me, though, and I don¡¯t think she¡¯s coming back when this is over.¡±


    ¡°Same,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°I liked her, even if she was a little¡­ traditional. Had to talk her out of some of her worse beliefs. But she went home and I don¡¯t think she¡¯s coming back.¡±


    Isn¡¯t that relatable?


    ¡°Which traditions? There are fundamentalists of all shades.¡±


    ¡°Church of Xerneas,¡± she responds. Ah. Your least favorite. Even if you¡¯re technically on their membership rolls. ¡°Was really against gay and trans people. Thought I was a pagan. She was making progress, but¡­¡± She sighs. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter anymore.¡±


    ¡°What was her name? I have contacts who might be able to help?¡± It¡¯s not entirely a lie. You probably know someone who knows someone. Went to one of their schools long enough to have a network going.


    ¡°Genesis.¡±


    Your heart drops and your eyes almost pop.


    Shit. Shit shit shit. They took her back. And you doubt it was unconditional, either. What now? Put her into conversion therapy on the mainland? They already put their other daughter out of sight and out of mind? You were supposed to have helped free her, not get her locked up until she¡¯s eighteen (or older). Ugh, fuck, you aren¡¯t dealing with this in public. Need to retreat, think, calm down. Figure something out.


    ¡°Can we exchange numbers? I have a meeting to get to now, but I might be up for talking later.¡±


    ¡°Sure, my number is¡­ wait do you have your phone out?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Good. My number is¡­¡±


    [12:17:31]


    You pace around the room, careful not to stray too far in the dark lest you hit the walls. On balance you slam your feet into the ground hard enough that you¡¯d definitely get a noise complaint if you weren¡¯t barefoot. Might get one anyway. Mirai watches from your bed, unsure what to do.


    That¡¯s fine. You¡¯re unsure what to do. You can¡¯t just go into the Gage residence guns blazing to get Gen out. Her father¡¯s a billionaire in the private security business and he¡¯s probably increased his guards to deal with UBs or looters. Sneaking in with the password won¡¯t work because you don¡¯t actually know the password. One of his staff always let you in. Even if you somehow got to Genesis she might not want to leave. She can be very set in her ways. You remember one conversation where you tried to talk her onto the cheerleading team. She was interested at first until she came back the next day trying to talk you out of it with some nonsense about sin. Wasn¡¯t the first or last time you¡¯d seen her talk herself out of something she wanted or into doing something she didn¡¯t.


    ¡°Fuck,¡± you snarl. ¡°How are you so goddamn stupid?¡±


    You aren¡¯t sure if that question is directed at Genesis or yourself or both.


    Your stomach growls and you almost swear at that, too. Word on the socials is that there¡¯s a food shipment in later today, which should make the rationing a little less severe. At least one thing is going your way. You stomp again and huff, face scrunched into some grotesque parody of itself. You hear Mirai climb off the bed and walk over to you. She nuzzles her face against your side and you slowly exhale. Right. This isn¡¯t helping anyone, least of all Genesis.


    If you can¡¯t do it alone, you¡¯ll need help. Maybe someone in the staff will be sympathetic to Genesis, but probably not enough to defy their notoriously litigious employer. Your dad isn¡¯t pissing off The Rocket¡¯s business partner so some of his associates helping is off the table. The Skulls would just take Genesis as a hostage themselves. Maybe even execute her if Plumeria goes way off the deep end with her revolutionary schtick. Gangs are predictable; self-branded freedom fighters are less so. And you still aren¡¯t sure how serious she is about that. Seems like half the time Skull¡¯s just been harassing tourists like they did under Guzma, just with more moralizing about it. Some vandalism and arson you¡¯re pretty sure is cover for theft or extortion. E0ven odds she¡¯s in it for the money. Genesis would still be a valuable hostage to her for the ransom.


    The governor is one of Mr. Gage¡¯s golf buddies. Some are half the Commonwealth¡¯s judges. The FBI handles kidnappings but you aren¡¯t even sure if this counts as that since she went willingly. A trump card for later, at least. Although you¡¯re pretty sure Mr. Gage has the president¡¯s personal cell number, so that might not even matter in the end.


    It¡¯s just you left. One girl to kidnap the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the world. Even if you succeeded there¡¯s a good chance you¡¯d rot in prison for life. Or the Rockets take care of you themselves for messing up business. Or both. You shudder at the thought.


    Doing nothing isn¡¯t an option, though. Can¡¯t be. You¡¯ll think of something, just...


    Cuicatl. Cuicatl might have a metagross and tyrantrum someday. You¡¯ve never seen any of the guards with anything close to matching a metagross in battle. Even tyrantrum can probably tank gunshots and crush smaller pok¨¦mon. And if Gage does send his daughter to the mainland then it might actually be easier to break her out. If you can get in Cuicatl¡¯s good graces, train up your own pok¨¦mon, and figure out what the hell you do after you free Genesis, then you have a path out of this mess.


    And she¡¯ll be looking for a new traveling partner. Maybe even money to pay for her pok¨¦mon¡¯s diets. You can fill both needs.


    The endgame of that path involves aligning with a metagross. A potent telepath that likes humans in the same way that torracat like rattata. A game and a meal. But if you can be there for a while, get it to like you¡­


    You sigh and shake your head before running a hand through Mirai¡¯s fur. It¡¯s a little coarse. Overdue for a brushing. Fine. You can do that. Something small to take your mind off of everything else.


    Oh, the things you¡¯ll do for your Genesis.


    [13:01:17]


    A few cargo ships docked in Hau¡¯oli harbor with an aircraft carrier escorting it. The governor announced a press conference shortly after. It¡¯s both important news and a welcome distraction, and you happily tune in. Mirai is still out of her ball and sprawled out, part of her torso resting on your lap as you absent-mindedly brush her.


    The press conference is difficult to see when it starts. It¡¯s probably filmed in a dark room, and then you¡¯re seeing it on your dim phone screen. There are two podiums, one with the governor behind it and the other with the champion. Selene¡¯s almost entirely hidden behind her podium and she looks like an absolute mess. Her hair¡¯s clearly been charred in a few places and she¡¯s not even bothering to hide it. She¡¯s wearing a t-shirt with visible mud and there¡¯s either dirt or ash or dried blood on her face. Poor thing. At least she¡¯s not trying to dress up. You remember seeing her at a fundraiser dolled up and looking incredibly uncomfortable in her own skin, eyes flitting around the room and breaths quick. You didn¡¯t really want to be there, but you could at least hide it. It looks like she never learned to slip into a disguise; she just embraced facing the world as she is.


    Good for her.


    You would never, but good for her.


    Selene clears her throat. ¡°Good evening. Earlier this morning, we planned to meet with a solgaleo from a planet several lightyears and dimensions away. He could have opened a hole between dimensions and brought us to the necrozma.¡± But they failed, of course. The lingering darkness gives that away. ¡°The solgaleo was intercepted and now has to find another wormhole to cross into our dimension and then cross the remaining distance on our plane. We do not know how long this will take. Even when he returns, there is no guarantee we will be successful against the necrozma.¡±


    The governor¡¯s glaring at her. Kid hasn¡¯t learned to sugarcoat things. If anything, it sounds like she¡¯s hedging by playing up the dangers.


    ¡°The darkness has not expanded in the last seventy-two hours. The world outside of the Mid-Pacific is entirely unaffected. Since it¡¯s dangerous here and safe everywhere else, the Navy has begun sending ships to evacuate anyone who wants to leave. I encourage you to¡ª¡±


    ¡°Thank you, Miss Perry.¡±


    ¡°I¡ª¡±


    ¡°Moving on, almost all of the Ultra Beasts have been destroyed. No more have arrived after our young champion¡¯s,¡± he scrunches up his face, ¡°unfortunate failure to stop this calamity.¡± Is he trying to throw her under the bus? Imply that all of this is her fault? Shit. You knew he was a lonely, desperate old man, but that¡¯s low even for him. ¡°We also received our first shipment of supplies from the mainland today. More will be coming as the navigation logistics get worked out. There is no need to leave Alola. I repeat, there is no reason to leave Alola.¡±


    ¡°Sir¡ª¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re Americans here. We¡¯ve faced challenges before and we can face this one, too. Heroes are working around the clock to keep our home safe and supplied. But they can¡¯t do it alone. They need help. Your help. Every one of us contributes something to our home.¡±


    ¡°Sir¡ª"


    ¡°If we are to survive however long this takes we will need people here to hold down the fort, to keep our homes safe and the economy running. Then, when the darkness recedes, we will stand taller and prouder than ever. But if we leave, if we run away, then there will be nothing left to return to. Not only can you stay, but it is your duty. To your family, your commonwealth, and your country.¡±


    ¡°There are still Ultra¡ª¡±


    ¡°Alola is reopening for business. The island challenge and schools will reopen to ensure the good parents of Alola can help our economy. Furthermore, we are lifting the punishing rations and other emergency restrictions so that we may all eat well in our time of need.¡±


    ¡°The emergency is still ongoing¡ª¡±


    ¡°Thank you all for what you¡¯ve done so far and what you will do in the future. May Xerneas bless us all. Good night.¡±


    The feed cuts out.


    There¡¯s cheering from down the hall. And outside your window. Are people celebrating this? Why? And what? That they can leave? That food is back? The island challenge? Just the tone of the speech? And didn¡¯t they hear the champion trying to tell them that it wasn¡¯t safe yet? Or see the look in her eyes as she realized she was sharing a stage with a madman?


    ¡°REOPEN ALOLA!¡± Someone shouts outside your door.


    You ignore the chaos and start thinking about the important things.


    No rationing. Getting any food could be difficult until ships start coming regularly. If ships start coming regularly. Wouldn¡¯t be the first time a failing politician told a big, dangerous lie. You¡¯ll need to snap up whatever food you can get as soon as it hits the shelves. You send out a few texts to the people you know in Hau¡¯oli (especially the ones whose families probably do their own shopping) and set up alerts for a few shops and news channels.


    Then you start thinking about longer term patterns. Namely, is Cuicatl even staying if this is what the island challenge is like now? You shoot her a quick text. You think she¡¯ll stay. She¡¯s blind and only one of her pok¨¦mon would actually mind the cold.


    She answers shortly after. ¡°On visa. Will slay.¡±


    Probably a text-to-speech error there. You don¡¯t correct her.


    If she¡¯s staying, then you need to figure out what you¡¯re doing next. Staying with her would probably earn a lot of goodwill. But it would be dangerous in the darkness and cold, especially if the temperature keeps dropping and the wild pok¨¦mon become increasingly desperate. Most of the plants here are tropical. Hard freezes will kill many of them off. No plants means no food for herbivores. No herbivores means no prey for carnivores. Except, of course, for the people and pok¨¦mon that come into the wilderness with their own food supply. Cuicatl¡¯s team has serious potential, but it¡¯s still a little weak. She mentioned another traveling partner but supposedly he only has a trumbeak right now. That means that Mirai is by far the strongest pok¨¦mon any of you have access to. She¡¯s tough, but not enough to stave off a braviary or salamence. Even a zoroark or particularly large raticate or gumshoos could be a threat. You¡¯d also have to buy winter gear as soon as it becomes available again. Unfortunately, you¡¯d been way off trail on Route 3 when The Blackout started, so by the time you got to Hau¡¯oli all the shops had already run out. Not that they ever carried much in the first place. There¡¯s exactly one mountain with regular snow in Alola and most trainers never even try to climb it.


    Everything in you knows that you shouldn¡¯t do it, but everything in you also knows you will.


    You¡¯ll never get another chance to ¡®see¡¯ Alola like this. A tropical land succumbing to darkness and cold is one hell of a thing to explore. And you¡¯ve read about cave and arctic explorers for years. If there aren¡¯t UBs, you can handle yourself. Maybe make a blog or write a journal you can later use for a book. No one¡¯s ever traveled through a place quite like this. No one. You¡¯d be one of the first in a world with fewer and fewer places left where no human has gone before. It¡¯s practically handing you success. And all of the battle experience you might get. The power. It can¡¯t keep you safe from everything, but a good team can help with a lot.


    Maybe even with rescuing Genesis. And that¡¯s what¡¯s really most important, however much you want to explore for the sake of exploration.


    Most people suck. The powerful hurt people, the powerless wish they could. You have to look strong to keep people from hurting you. Then no one will make you their plaything just because they can. Cuicatl at least had that much right. But she was wrong about one thing: there are people that no amount of strength can protect you from, because they can hurt you and make you love them for it.


    Genesis never understood that. Almost refuses to. When she hurts people it¡¯s because she¡¯s trying to help them or genuinely doesn¡¯t understand the harm in what she¡¯s doing. She doesn¡¯t deserve to be chewed up and spit out by an uncaring world. You owe it to her to get her away from her parents. She deserves it. Deserves to live without people trying to mold her into being heartless, just like everyone else.


    If you stay, you¡¯ll get strong yourself. So will Cuicatl. You can get close to her (and her metagross) so that they¡¯ll be on your side when the time comes. You¡¯ll stay. Explore. Train. Live out your dreams and try to save Genesis from your nightmares.


    [14:11:40]


    Beldum are okay.


    Your research showed that they aren¡¯t powerful enough telepaths to voice their thoughts, much less alter those of others. And Cuicatl was right about them being excellent guides in the dark. It¡¯s even pleasantly warm in the chilly air. Your hand brushes against Cuicatl¡¯s while you both hold the beldum. Does she get little flutters when her hand brushes a cute girl¡¯s? You aren¡¯t sure if she¡¯s gay. You actually hope she isn¡¯t. From what you¡¯ve heard her say about Genesis it doesn¡¯t sound like they were on the path to becoming romantic. But you¡¯d hate it if you went through the work of breaking Genesis¡¯s closet door down only for someone else to reap the rewards. She isn¡¯t even that hot either. She could be pretty, but you are.


    By the time you get to the store there have to be five hundredth in line or something. And it won¡¯t even open for another hour. Thankfully Cuicatl is staying in the Pok¨¦mon Center and you still have some rations, but you really doubt that there will be anything of value left by the time you get there. Dumbass governor lifting rationing. What did he think was going to happen?


    It¡¯s a little odd that Kekoa isn¡¯t here. You met Cuicatl¡¯s other traveling partner yesterday. He glared at you but agreed to take you on if you ¡°paid your way.¡± That later got negotiated to half of expenses. You would¡¯ve fought harder for your share being just a third but it might have irritated Cuicatl. You¡¯d initially thought she had money if she could afford a visa out and tutoring to get her accent almost perfect, but she seems worried every time you talk about the budget.


    There are also a lot of little things. She routinely thanks the Pok¨¦mon Center staff and cleans up after herself as well as she can while blind. Outside of her phone, cane, and beldum she doesn¡¯t seem to have any fancy accessibility aids. And she¡¯s staying in the Center in the first place. If you had to guess she¡¯s middle class for Anahuac, which is probably working class or lower in Alola. Doesn¡¯t explain the visa and accent, though.


    Someone comes out to redirect the line into a different shape. It¡¯s utter chaos in the dark as people shout and jostle to keep their place in line and accusations of cheating ¨C and maybe a few fists ¨C fly. Suddenly the area lights up. It¡¯s a lot brighter than even a starmie could produce. You look closer and see something fairly tall and very bright in the middle of the street. An ampharos, then. There weren¡¯t that many in Alola before the Blackout, and most were on Akala owned by farmers who weren¡¯t eager to sell away their light source. Apparently, some dumbasses tried to steal them from the farmers, only to accidentally get a few sheep killed in the crossfire. Your parents eventually bought one for a couple million a few days into the Blackout. You doubt they¡¯d pay the same price for you.


    If a fairly conventional grocery store has one then the government must have sent a few with the cargo ship. That¡¯s good. They probably can¡¯t be used in Pok¨¦mon Centers and the like since electronics and powerful electric-types don¡¯t usually mix, but at least some of the larger businesses might get them.


    ¡°Any reason Kekoa¡¯s not here?¡± you ask once the crowd¡¯s noise settles to a dull roar in the background.


    Cuicatl grunts. ¡°Thought it was a lost cause. Got in line for clothes instead.¡±


    ¡°Might be right,¡± you mutter. Or maybe he won¡¯t get clothes, either. The first few supply drops are going to really quickly sell out until rationing is reinstated or a lot of people leave the islands. You¡¯ll probably need to go through a scalper when you need food. But it probably can¡¯t hurt to at least try to get it now. You weren¡¯t going to be doing anything else, anyway.


    ¡°I¡¯m not actually from Alola,¡± you tell her. Might score some empathy. Help smooth things over. Also opens up a chance to fish for information.


    ¡°Oh?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I was born in Japan. Dad moved here for work about a decade back.¡±


    She hums in consideration. ¡°Was it strange to move?¡±


    ¡°Little bit. Didn¡¯t like leaving my friends and my Galarian wasn¡¯t too good at first. Got teased for it a lot by schoolyard bullies. Yours is great, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Ah. Bullies.¡± She scowls. ¡°I¡¯ve dealt with them. Mom¡¯s American. They didn¡¯t like that.¡±


    You feel a pang of empathy at that. The bullies never really bothered you; you¡¯d already stared down much scarier men at that point. But for a blind child of an outsider, it must¡¯ve been particularly rough. ¡°That¡¯s one thing we have in common, I guess. Being bullied for our parent¡¯s homeland. I take it your mother taught you Galarian?¡±


    Cuicatl nods. ¡°And the radio helped.¡±


    ¡°Feel that. I had Galarian tutors back in Japan, yet American cartoons taught me as much as they did.¡±


    You lapse into comfortable silence as the line grows longer and longer behind you. Probably should¡¯ve gotten here an hour before you did. Or more. Honestly should¡¯ve camped out. But that would really require winter camping gear, and you¡¯d have to camp out in front of a store to get winter camping gear¡­


    At least you probably have the money to pay a scalper when all this is done. Might need to call your parents to beg for blood money, which you¡¯re loathe to do, but it¡¯s better than freezing to death or being stuck in Hau¡¯oli for a month.


    One more week stuck in your hotel room and you might kill someone.


    ¡°What was Anahuac like?¡± you ask. You¡¯re getting bored and your phone is on low charge because you¡¯re a fool who didn¡¯t plug it in overnight.


    ¡°Well, there are sort of two Anahuacs. The capital and the large cities are really big and elaborate and fairly rich. Then there are a bunch of rural areas that aren¡¯t. I was from one of those towns so I can really only talk about that.¡±


    ¡°Bit like Japan. Although the small towns weren¡¯t really poor or anything. Just not rich.¡±


    Probably. You were really young when you lived out there.


    ¡°What was Japan like?¡± Cuicatl asks. You take the chance to back off an awkward line of questioning.


    ¡°I lived in Kogane, one of the biggest cities. It was nice. The city has levels, sort of like a rainforest. There was the ground level. Then a bunch of the skyscrapers had bridges between them so you could walk across downtown from a hundred feet up. Oh, and there was an entire city built underground, too. Think it was meant to be a bomb shelter during the Cold War. Now there are a bunch of businesses and even apartments down there. We basically have three cities in one.¡±


    ¡°I suppose it¡¯s nice,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°Not as cool as a city built on a lake, but still nice.¡±


    ¡°If you say so.¡±


    The store doors open. A massive wave of bodies rushes through but it¡¯s still barely a dent in the line. It takes you five minutes just to get to the entrance. Once you actually get into the overcrowded store, holding Cuicatl¡¯s hand tightly so she doesn¡¯t get swept away by the crowd, the shelves are almost bare. All you can find are a few bottles of bug spray and sunscreen, which are worthless in the cold and dark, and some lip gloss. You think about snagging the lip gloss when a fight breaks out behind you as a blond woman tries to steal from someone else¡¯s cart.


    Yeah. It¡¯s not worth going through checkout.


    ¡°Total bust,¡± you tell Cuicatl. ¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±


    You walk past at least four other fights on the way out. Employees are mulling around in the periphery, unwilling to step in and moderate. Can¡¯t blame them. Not their fault the governor caused this shitshow by ending rationing when he did.


    It takes a few minutes to get outside and reunite with Cuicatl¡¯s beldum. It dutifully floats over when you exit and lets you put your hand onto it and guide Cuicatl¡¯s there. After a few minutes of quiet walking you can¡¯t hear the fights from that store anymore. By that point you can hear the yelling at another store as an employee on a loudspeaker tries to tell an angry crowd that all the food is gone. Similar scenes are probably playing out across the commonwealth right now.


    It''s truly Alola as no one has ever seen it before. Just not in the way you or the governor had hoped for.

 Fighting 8: Cuicatl

    Fighting 3.8: Necessity


    Cuicatl


    A Lifetime Ago¡­


    You can¡¯t decide if you like the snow or not.


    It makes it harder to tell where the barely frozen puddles are hidden, and on Route 8 some of those puddles house stunfisk that will not react kindly to someone stepping on them as they hibernate. At least you¡¯ve stocked up on paralyze heals. The nurse back at the Center had been very insistent on that as she lectured you over the counter.


    (You think you have everything? Because trust me, kid, you don¡¯t. Socks, paralyze heals, freeze heals, super potions, hand warmers, burn cream¡ªbecause you wouldn¡¯t be the first kid with a fire-type to try getting a little too close for warmth¡ªthere it is. Get it and come back. I¡¯ll run over the list again until we get this right.)


    She¡¯d sounded like your mom. Which made you miss Mom. You¡¯d called home. She¡¯d also run through a packing list. And then she¡¯d run on a little too long with her own journey memories.


    (She¡¯d had a sawsbuck back in the day, you know, before she met your father and moved to an apartment that was a little bit too small for an adult deer to live in. He¡¯s somewhere out on ranch upstate. Anyway, Bucky was just coming out of heat¡­)


    Mom¡¯s never explicitly told you to come back home for the winter, but you wonder if you should. She sounds lonely, and you don¡¯t want her to be alone on the solstice. But you also want to get a badge or two in while the waiting lists are short. Maybe you¡¯ll even find a rare beartic up in the hills. Your team up to this point have been pretty easy to care for¡ªyou wouldn¡¯t mind a bit of danger in the last slot. Something to throw Drayden for a loop in the rematch. Smug bastard.


    A snowflake almost hits your eye, only to get caught up in your lashes.


    Right. Snow. Can¡¯t decide if you like it or not.


    Because even if it hides stunfisk puddles and threatens to hit you in the eye, seeing Route 8 covered in a fresh layer of snow feels right. On your journey you¡¯re supposed to see Unova in all of its glory: the pleasant and unpleasant alike.


    [19:11:00 ¨C January 8, 2020]


    You really wish it was snowing.


    Then it wouldn¡¯t be raining.


    Your cheap raincoat and wool skirt don¡¯t keep cold water from hitting you in the face. Pixie asked to be withdrawn. Pixie. In Winter. Nocitl¨¡lin still floats beside you, seemingly oblivious to the weather. Coco is resting in her nest ball; attacking cold raindrops was fun for a few minutes, until she decided that it really wasn¡¯t at all and she would like to stop now.


    [Threat Detected. Initiating ramming.]


    It¡¯s impossible to say if it actually was a threat or not, but something gets rammed by a very determined beldum and runs away with a mix of pained and vulgar cries. Nocitl¨¡lin was told to keep threats away, and she is really embracing the job.


    Ordinarily, Route 2 would be perfectly safe. There are some predators and omnivores here, but the abundance of berries means that there are plenty of herbivores for them to hunt instead of humans. The rangers also cull anything that would be too dangerous to people on this route. There are growlithe and raticate, but no arcanine or snorlax.


    These are not ordinary times. New berries aren¡¯t growing, sight-based hunters are starving, and the temperature drop, darkness, and alien attacks are setting the wild pok¨¦mon on edge. It¡¯s best to attack anything that gets too close right now. Not that Nocitl¨¡lin seems to mind. Or Coco, once the rain stops. Although you¡¯ll have to be careful that she doesn¡¯t get in over her head.


    Kekoa sloshes on behind you. It¡¯s funny that you¡¯re guiding him these days. Lyra¡¯s somewhere behind him guarding the rear. Her absol is probably the strongest pok¨¦mon any of you have and isn¡¯t too bothered by the dark.


    You remember Kekoa¡¯s reaction to seeing Mirai for the first time. He¡¯d gone quiet for a long time. Lyra asked him if he really believed the old stories about absol causing natural disasters for fun and he just shook his head.


    ¡°They tried to warn Hoenn,¡± he said. ¡°But no one important would listen.¡±


    You gave him a discrete hug later. And told him that discrete hugs are easy in the dark if he needs more. He hasn¡¯t taken you up on the offer, but he also didn¡¯t reject it.


    *


    Charles gathers the firewood while you set up the tent. The gurdurr has always been helpful to a fault, but he got knocked out quickly against Drayden and now he feels like he has to make it up to you. He doesn¡¯t. You told him that. He doesn¡¯t believe you.


    Spike is sitting still in the snow. The snow is apparently a fun and fascinating thing to sit in. At least the ferroseed is easily entertained. Tchaikovsky is also sitting in the snow, but the swanna mixes in critique and insults as you get camp around. He could definitely do it better, but he really doesn¡¯t want to so you¡¯ll just have to take his word for it.


    Calling his bluff will just lead to bird shit coating all your stuff in the morning. You endure the insults in silence.


    Searah doesn¡¯t like the snow. Her fire melts the ice into water and that¡¯s hard on the poor heatmor. You let her rest in her ball. Renfield is using his telekinesis to clear out a small, messy circle for a fire. The duosian definitely has more control than when you met him. Still not as much control as either of you would like. He¡¯d much rather just punch his enemies in the mind.


    Charles comes back with lots of firewood just as you finish the pulley for your food to hang from overnight. The wood should be enough to at least start a fire with, although you¡¯ll need to send him back out later to find more. Or you could do it yourself. But if the gurdurr is willing, who are you to stop him?


    *


    It turns out that it¡¯s hard to pitch a tent if no one can see it. Pitching two tents is even harder.


    Especially when your teeth are chattering and your hands are shaking and it feels like the cold rain is running through your bloodstream. And you can¡¯t even wear gloves because the poles just slide right out of them, so you have to keep touching freezing metal.


    Kekoa struggles through his with a fair bit of quiet cursing, aloud and on the tip of his tongue. It doesn¡¯t sound like he¡¯s too cold. Maybe you¡¯re just making too big a deal of it. You¡¯re from the tropics. Even in the foothills it never got this cold. And you mom didn¡¯t really like the cold either.


    You keep yourself busy by helping Lyra with her tent. Kekoa would fit in it but he insists on setting up his own. He wants to keep the tent because he doesn¡¯t trust Lyra to stick around with ¡°poor losers like us¡± but you don¡¯t know why he had to bring it along with him. VStar rents out storage lockers in Hau¡¯oli.


    The rain suddenly begins to let up, as if taunting you. No point using the stove tonight. You¡¯ll just have to feed Coco some precooked meat from the cooler. You can eat trail mix or something or nothing. Nothing sounds fine.


    At least in the dark no one can see how fat you are. Maybe if you do an intense diet while this is going on you¡¯ll be at least halfway thin when it ends.


    ¡°Noci, can you find a tree to hang our bags off of?¡±


    [Alarm Level 10: Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca Will Have No Protection;


    Ambient Threat Level = 1001;


    Mission = Protect Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca;


    Risk To Mission Unacceptable]


    {It¡¯s not that dangerous,} you mentally grumble. The beldum does not dignify you with a response. You let out Coco and Pixie. {Now can you find a tree?}


    [Affirmative]


    She zips off while your other pok¨¦mon stretch out.


    ¡°Wet!¡± Pixie whines.


    ¡°Do you want to go back into your ball?¡±


    She ponders this for several seconds. ¡°No,¡± she finally answers.


    ¡°Okay, then, you can stay out.¡±


    ¡°Wet!¡± Pixie whines.


    You sigh. {Nothing I can do about that.}


    ¡°Wet¡­¡± she grumbles.


    Coco headbutts your leg. ¡°You want to go back inside?¡±


    ¡°Play!¡±


    ¡°Mommy is busy setting up a tent.¡±


    A pole clatters to the ground and Lyra hisses in annoyance.


    ¡°We can play afterwards.¡±


    ¡°Play¡­¡± she grumbles, before you can feel her brighten up through your link. Pixie cries out in pain and indignation a moment later.


    It¡¯s amusing. Sort of. You¡¯re a bit too cold to really enjoy it or anything. You just want in the damn tent.


    ¡°Coco, Pix, can you watch the camp? Something might try to steal your food.¡±


    Pixie growls. ¡°Eevee?¡±


    Sure, why not?


    {Yes.}


    The air gets noticeably colder. You shiver even more.


    ¡°I¡¯ll watch for playmates!¡± Coco plomps down into the damp grass. Or a puddle. You¡¯re not sure which.


    ¡°You seem to understand your team well,¡± Lyra says. You wonder for a moment if she¡¯s onto you before deciding she isn¡¯t. You¡¯ve been careful to keep communications with your pok¨¦mon silent around her.


    ¡°I come from a long line of trainers. Picked up some tricks along the way.¡±


    Technically true. Your mother and grandmother were trainers, and mom¡¯s grandfather did the gym circuit in Korea. Her other grandfather would have but that was illegal in Georgia at the time. When he was old enough to move to Unova and settle down he didn¡¯t have the energy to travel anymore.


    And your father¡¯s father was a soldier. Probably your grandfather¡¯s grandfather¡¯s grandfather and everyone in between as well. Just something that¡¯s expected in Anahuac, even if your father got out of it. He¡¯d delayed his conscription to study abroad, and by the time the recruiters came knocking again he was a single father and widower who was exempt from service.


    ¡°I think you¡¯re selling yourself short. Tyrunt aren¡¯t known for behaving and yours at least doesn¡¯t throw tantrums.¡±


    You laugh joylessly. Maybe you shouldn¡¯t keep talking but it¡¯s a distraction from your numb everything.


    ¡°Can you blame them? They live in a world that¡¯s wrong and are taken away from their mother or stay and are raised by a mother who didn¡¯t have a mother to raise her, so she has no idea what she¡¯s doing. If you can just explain things to her everything goes easier.¡±


    The last pole slots into place. ¡°Alright, I think we can put things inside now,¡± Lyra says. You eagerly do so. It seems Kekoa¡¯s already finished and moved his things into the newly christened Boy¡¯s Tent. It¡¯s hard to describe how, but you have a general idea how big spaces are when you walk in. Might be echolocation, might be air flow, who knows? You can instantly tell that this tent is way bigger than the old one. Like, twice as big, minimum. You can have all of your pok¨¦mon sprawl out if they want. Pixie runs in behind you and pounces onto your lap. She immediately shakes off, spraying cold water all over you. It takes all of your willpower not to launch her away.


    ¡°Wet,¡± Pixie says. You can swear there¡¯s a smirk in her voice. Coco tries to enter the tent a moment later. Tries. She manages to hit a pole instead. You can hear the tent crumpling around you as Lyra stamps her foot. You stick your head out of the tent and withdraw the dino before she can cause more trouble.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got it,¡± she mutters. ¡°Just don¡¯t let her do that again.¡±


    ¡°Sorry.¡±


    When Lyra comes back in she stumbles. Her hand slams down on yours hard enough that it would hurt if it wasn¡¯t pretty numb.


    ¡°Holy shit you¡¯re cold,¡± she says. Before moving her hand. Because pointing out the obvious is more important than getting off your damn hand. ¡°Seriously, uh, can I touch your forehead.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡± You feel out her hand and bring it towards your forehead. Because you don¡¯t trust her to find it in the dark.


    ¡°Okay so I¡¯d need to get my thermometer but you¡¯re really cold. Hypothermia cold.¡± She begins to pull her hand back. For a moment you lean into the warmth of it but it eventually slips away. ¡°I don¡¯t have a fire-type¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ªshouldn¡¯t cuddle them. Can make burns.¡±


    ¡°I know, I know.¡±


    Noci. Noci is warm, but not burning.


    {Nocitl¨¡lin, I need your help.}


    {Initiate Ramming.}


    {Don¡¯t break the tent.}


    {Lowering Ramming Speed.}


    ¡°Can you open the tent up?¡± you ask Lyra. ¡°I think I hear Noci coming back.}


    ¡°Really? I don¡¯t hear¡ªholy shit.¡± A rod of metal zooms by her the moment she starts unzipping. You hold out a hand and it nuzzles its warm, warm body against it.


    {Alarm Lvl 1010: Unit_Designate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca Possesses Abnormally Low Body Temperature}


    ¡°Can we cuddle for a bit, Noci? So you can keep me warm.¡±


    She slowly eases herself over to you and you wrap your arms around her before pulling her down. Then with great reluctance you move one arm to your backpack so you can get your sleeping bag out. This way you can keep her warmth in the bag. With you.


    ¡°You¡¯re literally a lifesaver,¡± you whisper to her.


    {Negation. Class = 001, Class=/=¡°lifesaver.¡±}


    You hug her even tighter. Never felt better to be sassed by a robot who doesn¡¯t understand what sass is.


    ¡°Um. I¡¯m going to warm up in here for a bit then I can go out and warm some water up. Maybe make you dinner?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t. You¡¯ll just burn yourself. Trust me, I did the first few times I tried cooking blind.¡± You still have at least one of those scars. And many more scars and callouses from later attempts at cooking while blind. It was still worth it every time your brother told you he liked your cooking.


    ¡°I¡¯m still making you water.¡± Her tone of voice doesn¡¯t leave room for questioning. You allow it. Warm water sounds heavenly right now. And that¡¯s the end of that. For a while you stay painfully aware of every shiver wracking your body.


    Your phone buzzes.


    ¡°Voice Message from Vana Iosua (Plant Girl). Read it: Yes or No?¡±


    ¡°Read it,¡± you mumble. Might as well. You haven¡¯t heard from her in a few days.


    ¡°Hi! Just wanted to see how you were doing. I made it to my cousin¡¯s place in Vegas. My team is enjoying the warmth and light. You still in Alola or did you go back to Anahuac? If you did then we¡¯re still close. Kind of.¡±


    Your home is nowhere near the border. You would not be close. At all. Still, she¡¯s just twelve. Best not be rude to her.


    Cuicatl Ichtaca: Slayed. Challenge visa. Pixie likes it. Coco does not. Nothing bad so far.


    Wait, no, that¡¯s a lie.


    Cuicatl Ichtaca: Have hypothermia right now.


    ¡°Voice Message from Vana Iosua (Plant Girl). Read it: Yes or No?¡±


    ¡°Read it.¡± Is there a way to automatically read voice messages if you have that chat open? Maybe someone from VStar can help you when you get back to Hau¡¯oli.


    ¡°Oh no! That¡¯s terrible. Have you gotten somewhere warm?¡±


    How do you tell her that there is nowhere warm to go to? Before you can figure it out Lyra unzips the tent and crawls in.


    ¡°Hey, I have water.¡±


    Wait. Did she bring warm water into the tent? Feels like she could¡¯ve dropped it super easily. Not that you¡¯re complaining. You take the water in trembling, numb hands and slowly take a sip. It¡¯s wonderful. Even a few drops makes you feel warm in the best ways. You want to pour it all straight down your throat but know you aren¡¯t supposed to.


    ¡°You said earlier that you explain things to your tyrunt.¡± Lyra asks. ¡°How?¡±


    Did you say that? You take another long sip and consider your options. Thankfully you have a good one now. Just have to be more careful in the future.


    ¡°I speak draconic. She speaks something similar. We can understand each other.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± Lyra drops her packs to the tent floor in surprise. ¡°Can you understand my noibat?¡±


    ¡°Sort of?¡± Really well, actually. You remember reading somewhere that noivern can learn to send telepathic messages. ¡°A lot of it¡¯s too high or low to hear, but what I can make out sounds like draconic. A version of it at least.¡±


    ¡°Can you translate for my team through him?¡± She sounds very excited about the prospect. Definitely more than Kekoa was. Or Genesis. You drink more water while you think. Your stomach is starting to radiate good heat throughout your core now. Every sip is heavenly.


    ¡°Maybe? I¡¯m not sure if your noibat can understand the rest of your team. Pok¨¦mon have different languages and all. You could also get a translator of your own. Psychic-types are sometimes good at it.¡±


    Her mind blanks for a moment before erupting in a rapid-fire burst of half-formed words. Most vulgar. Huh. Stronger reaction than usual. Bad history with psychic-types? You¡¯ll make sure to be extra careful about concealing your gift around her.


    ¡°Primarina or lapras, maybe. I¡¯ve thought a little about ghosts.¡± Her tone is level. She¡¯s good at masking whatever that was before. You¡¯d press more but you¡¯re worried she might catch on. Or at least accidentally come to the right conclusion.


    ¡°I¡¯m writing a book of myths,¡± you say instead. ¡°Pok¨¦mon myths. As in, myths told by pok¨¦mon. I¡¯d like to talk to your noibat later. And any pok¨¦mon he can translate for.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s also cool.¡± She unzips her pack and starts taking things out. Her pace is slow and methodical. Probably isn¡¯t used to unpacking things she can¡¯t see. ¡°Any cool ones so far?¡±


    ¡°I got Pixie to tell me where ninetales come from,¡± you say. She yaps in approval and taps a paw against your chest. Huh. She was here, too? Didn¡¯t notice her before. You wonder who took her place on guard duty. Or if Coco is also here. No. She¡¯d let you know if she was awake. You slowly roll over and move Noci to your side so Pixie can sprawl out on top of you. Her reward for being a good storyteller. ¡°They were reborn after a tower burned down far away. Then they were brought here, imprisoned by the moon, and blessed by the Tapu.¡±Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°Burning tower, huh?¡± Lyra finds what she wants and zips the bag closed again. You can hear something slowly inflate on her end of the tent. Oh. Sleeping mat. You should probably set yours up. Whenever Pixie gets off you, at least. ¡°We have a story like that in Johto. Her story involve Ho-oh?¡±


    ¡°A rainbow god, yes.¡± Pixie perks up at the mention. Probably didn¡¯t know Ho-oh¡¯s human name before.


    ¡°Supposedly a lightning strike burned down the largest town in Japan.¡± Lyra says. ¡°A few important temples were lost, including the two most important. That¡¯s probably what she was talking about.¡±


    ¡°Pixie says it burned down in a war.¡±


    Lyra sighs and you hear her crash down on her sleeping mat. ¡°That¡¯s probably true,¡± she mutters.


    ¡°Talonflame also have a rainbow god story,¡± you say. Sounds a little like Ho-oh, too. ¡°Said that the god gave talonflame their fire.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s fond of that kind of thing,¡± Lyra murmurs. ¡°Metalwork. Resurrection. Enlightenment. Making things better than they were before. Obstacles are just tests to let us be broken down and reforged. Even the worst things have a purpose.¡± Her mat crumples and you can imagine her turning to face you. ¡°The audacity of it all. She hurts you because she loves you.¡±


    Her words strike something uncomfortable deep inside. Your father¡­ punished you for correction¡¯s sake. But you do not wish to be punished any more. You will only go back once he cannot. Is this proper? He created you and has a right, but you no longer wish to give it to him. Was everything before that¡­


    ¡°You okay?¡± Lyra asks. She sounds genuinely concerned. ¡°Not too cold, are you? We can call for an evac if you really need it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Already feeling warmer.¡± Warm enough to stick an arm out of the bag, even. With a few practiced movements you pull Pixie¡¯s brush out of your pack. She must notice because you can feel her tails start flapping against your legs as she wags them. It¡¯s a little awkward to brush her properly while lying on your back but you manage.


    ¡°Do the gods of Anahuac hurt people?¡± Lyra asks.


    ¡°We do that for them.¡±


    That shuts her up for a moment. ¡°Why?¡±


    You pull the brush through some matting at the base of one of Pixie¡¯s tails. She immediately lunges forward to bite your hand.


    ¡°Watch it,¡± you admonish her.


    ¡°You hurt me!¡± she cries out.


    ¡°It¡¯s getting matted. You want me to deal with it or not?¡±


    She huffs and you continue, ignoring her occasional cries of displeasure.


    You decide to answer Lyra¡¯s question with a question, because outsiders don¡¯t like the real answer: the gods give you things you need. Food, water, clothing, luck, protection, light. All they ask for in return is blood and breath. Not necessarily your own. ¡°Do you worship Ho-Oh and the others?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t anymore. They¡¯re obviously real: two of them almost sunk Hoenn. But if they¡¯re going to hurt us, why worship them?¡±


    You remember asking Pixie a similar question a while ago. Ironic, isn¡¯t it, that now you¡¯re the one defending your gods. ¡°Because we need them.¡±


    The rain subsides to a solid drizzle. For a long time you sit back and run your hands through Pixie¡¯s newly brushed fur. She¡¯s content to simply lie sprawled out on top of you.


    ¡°For what?¡± Lyra asks.


    She grew up in a safe country. Her family¡¯s rich. You wonder if she¡¯d get it. But you¡¯re a little bored and are going to be spending time with her. And she seems open minded enough. Immediately wanted to know what her pok¨¦mon think. Hasn¡¯t judged you so far for being Nahua. Not even in her head. And she¡¯s already changed her entire faith before. She¡¯s a bit stern. Closed off. The opposite of Genesis. Still nicer than Kekoa to people she¡¯s not friends with.


    You¡¯ll give her a shot.


    ¡°To protect us from the things that we can¡¯t protect ourselves from.¡± Droughts. Wars. Disease. Light-stealing aliens. Humans are a very, very small part of a very, very big world. People just don¡¯t like thinking about that. Its why dragons scare them so much. They¡¯re a reminder of where we really are on the food chain.


    ¡°And how¡¯s that worked out for you?¡±


    You wince. Harsh. The gods are only so strong and no one else is still offering them blood. It¡¯s hard to be the only culture that still cares. It¡¯s hard to care about the end of the world and be mocked for it.


    ¡°Sometimes all you can do is pray.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t answer for long enough that you almost drift back off to sleep.


    ¡°Maybe,¡± she finally admits.


    *


    ¡°Danielle Lee?¡± You look up at the receptionist. ¡°The gym leader is ready.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    You carefully make your way to the arena entrance. Sixth badge matches sometimes get televised, especially in the off season, and your mom would never let you live it down if you were on television in flats. Even though it¡¯s her fault that you¡¯re short enough to need heels in the first place. That¡¯s how genes work, right?


    Thankfully the stone walkway isn¡¯t slippery. The same can¡¯t be said for the arena itself. It looks like a giant ice-skating rink, with a giant hole in the middle revealing a big pool of water. It¡¯s a good bet that the rest of the arena hides water as well. Makes beartic scarier and hurts fire-types.


    The gym leader is on the other side of the rink. His shirt is sleeveless despite the cold of the arena. Probably for the cameras. He used to be a moderately successful movie star before he retired. You can still clearly see it. Maybe a little too clearly. You lower your gaze to the hole in the ice.


    ¡°Miss Lee, is it?¡± Brycen asks.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Good to meet you.¡± He sounds sincere, even though he¡¯s probably sick of meeting challenger after challenger. ¡°It¡¯ll be a four on four today. Switch clock is set at three minutes. Is this acceptable?¡±


    Now he¡¯s starting to sound a little robotic. ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Ref¡¯s still on break. He should be back in a minute or two.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Should you talk to him? Is there anything to say?


    ¡°You hiking between towns?¡± He asks.


    You pause. Right. There are trainers who just take the trains around and battle in the cities. Cowards.


    ¡°Yes.¡± Should you continue? Probably. It¡¯s a little bit scary talking to any gym leaders, especially if they were famous. ¡°It was my first time traveling in snow.¡±


    He chuckles. ¡°Well, you get frostbite?¡±


    ¡°No. I have a¡ª¡± Maybe you shouldn¡¯t reveal your fire type. ¡°I got a lot of good advice before I sat out. And my pok¨¦mon helped a ton.¡±


    ¡°You did better than I, then. First time out in the cold I almost lost my hands. Thought that I needed to thoroughly wash them before my meal and I was in such a hurry to eat that I forgot to dry them off. Ten minutes later there was a layer of frost on them.¡±


    You aren¡¯t sure if you should laugh, but you do anyway. It¡¯s nice that he¡¯s helping you calm down. Maybe not to his advantage, though. Stress decisions usually aren¡¯t the best ones.


    ¡°Mom made sure that didn¡¯t happen. And if it did, she¡¯d probably take a lot more than my hands as punishment for being stupid.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a lucky lass, then, having a mom like that. She travel back in the day?¡±


    ¡°Yes. She only got four badges, but¡ª¡± The door opens and a man in a referee uniform hurries through.


    ¡°Sorry I¡¯m late.¡±


    ¡°No problem, Doug. I was just talking with Miss Lee.¡± He turns back to you. ¡°Well, let¡¯s get on with it, then. See if you can make your mother proud.¡±


    *


    Your second day on Route 2 brings you near the sound of waves. The rain stopped last night and hasn¡¯t picked back up. You¡¯re even feeling a lot warmer. If it weren¡¯t for the temperature it might even be a good day to hit the beach. Rare beach day where no one else can see your body. Whole place to yourself, too, since no one wants to go swimming when it¡¯s five degrees out. (Kekoa tells you it¡¯s actually forty, because he¡¯s an uncultured American who can¡¯t metric.)


    ¡°Break,¡± Lyra calls. ¡°There¡¯s a beach access here and I need to let my pyukumuku filter-feed.¡±


    ¡°I could also use a break,¡± you call out. Kekoa been surly all day and you¡¯d rather not have a fight on the trail. Still a few kilometers to go before the place you were hoping to stop for the night.


    ¡°¡­fine. Ten-minute break.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t like her,¡± you comment once she¡¯s out of earshot.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Then why¡¯d you agree to travel with her?¡±


    He sighs. ¡°We need the money. Even with her cash and connections we still barely got out of Hau¡¯oli with half of what we needed.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not wrong. But can you at least pretend to like her?¡±


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t get it,¡± he mutters. His pack falls to the ground. You follow suit and take out your water bottle.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t get what?¡±


    There¡¯s a pause where the only sounds are the distant cries of pok¨¦mon, the lapping of the waves, and the steady glug glug of water leaving your bottles. ¡°This is just a fun adventure for her. Some of us are just here because we have to be.¡±


    ¡°You could¡¯ve left,¡± you add. And he could have. They¡¯re setting up refugee camps on the mainland. Supposedly you don¡¯t need money to get in.


    He slams the lid of his water bottle shut. ¡°I¡¯m not abandoning my home.¡±


    That¡¯s still a choice. He¡¯s here because he wants to be, she¡¯s here because she wants to be. You could have gone home yourself, but then you¡¯d have lost your visa and your chance at making enough money for things to be okay.


    You scoot closer and give him a side hug. Then you slump down and your head finds itself on his shoulder. This always calmed down Achcauhtli when he was riled up. And you like the warmth leaking out of his clothes. ¡°Your voice has gotten a lot lower,¡± you tell him. ¡°And you smell different now. It suits you.¡±


    He laughs. Sort of. It¡¯s really just a big exhale with some noise. ¡°Missed my last two periods, too.¡±


    You feel out his wrist and squeeze his hand. ¡°Proud of you.¡±


    And you are. At least one of you gets to feel good in their own body.


    For a long time you both sit there, feeling the subtle sounds and movements of breaths and heartbeats. ¡°I just don¡¯t want to always be at each other¡¯s throats,¡± you finally tell him. ¡°It wasn¡¯t much fun the first time.¡±


    He doesn¡¯t answer until Lyra¡¯s footsteps draw close. ¡°I¡¯ll try,¡± he whispers. You give his hand another soft squeeze.


    ¡°That¡¯s all I can ask for.¡±


    *


    You struck out at the moor.


    There were two beartic and a cubchoo living there at the time. You spoke to the adults. Well, the female spoke to you. Very loudly. Something along the lines of ¡°Get away from me and my son.¡± The male didn¡¯t see the need for a trainer and you weren¡¯t going to try a hard sell on a bear. When he finished ice fishing, you politely said goodbye and left. No need to keep bothering him.


    There might still be an older cubchoo in the mountains and your seventh badge is in Driftveil. You set off on the road through Twist Mountain. The first part, the endless switchbacks in the snow, really sucks. Even the view at the end, a sea of white fields and green trees and the twinkling lights of Icirrus, isn¡¯t worth the climb.


    You have a choice there. Keeping going up and over the mountain, or go through it. There¡¯s an old tunnel in the mountain that used to be a road before the wilds took it over. They still let rangers in to put up lights for traveling trainers. Supposedly your great-uncle had a hand in negotiating that. Up top there are beartic. Straight through doesn¡¯t involve climbing.


    You¡¯ve met beartic now. You think you can live without one.


    The tunnel is creepy, full of flickering lights. The edges probably used to be smooth, but rock- and ground-types have changed everything until it looks like a normal cave. Side tunnels run in and out of the main one and there are even holes in the ground, some going so far down that you can¡¯t see the bottom. It¡¯s not the easy walk you were hoping for, but it should have more wilds than you were expecting. That¡¯s a good chance to train.


    It doesn¡¯t take long for a woobat to drop down from the ceiling, hovering in front of you until you send out Tchaikovsky to deal with it. The two have a short aerial battle before the swanna lands enough water blasts that the bat retreats. Definitely not worth trying to catch it. You¡¯re trying to keep your team balanced, with at most one of every type. Even psychics. That way you can downplay your gift, like Mom keeps insisting.


    The rest of the day¡¯s hike goes on in roughly the same way. Something shows up¡ªusually a woobat or gurrdurr¡ªand you send it packing. Nothing ever attacks you. It seems organized. Good job, uncle.


    You stop traveling well before the lights go off for the night. Wouldn¡¯t do to get stuck in total darkness. You pitch your tent on a smooth, flat concrete platform that was clearly made for traveling trainers. It¡¯ll kill your back, but at least you won¡¯t keep sliding to the side or waking up to the feeling of sharp rock lumps under you. There¡¯s also a small bowl carved in the wall, alongside a container filled with free plastic gloves and bags. You can pee in the toilet, but poop has to be hiked out.


    Gross.


    You don¡¯t want to cook something in a cave since you¡¯re not sure where the fumes would go. You settle for jerky and trail mix after the team is fed. Your meal is interrupted by the sound of hissing and gnashing teeth in a side tunnel. A rabid pok¨¦mon? You signal Renfield to be ready for a fight. He¡¯s the least melee-oriented and you¡¯re pretty sure his biology is too weird to get rabies.


    A black and blue lizard walks out. Its head flicks from side to side, tongue flashing out, as it growls and hisses and clashes its teeth. Multiple scars and wounds, some still bleeding, cover its body. A deino.


    And you thought beartic were powerful.


    ¡°Hello, little guy.¡±


    He freezes up, turns towards you, and hisses. Right. Can¡¯t talk to him. Or feed him. The rangers wouldn¡¯t want dragons on the trail.


    ¡°You looking for something?¡±


    He assumes a ready stance, as if anticipating a battle. It looks enough like the posture you¡¯ve seen from a dozen other pok¨¦mon today that you can guess what he wants. You could use Charles for this, but the type advantage is a little unfair. Searah and Renfield have the opposite problem. Spike¡¯s strengths aren¡¯t things a deino would value. That leaves your swanna.


    You send out some messages. The bird lands in front of you and calls out a challenge while your other pok¨¦mon back away to the sidelines. Except Spike. The ferroseed stays exactly where he was.


    The deino charges head-first. Tchaikovsky gets into the air and fires off a water pulse without being asked. He knows the drill. The deino keeps stumbling forward until he notices that his opponent isn¡¯t in front of him. He turns around and sends out a stream of dragonfire, but it goes wide. Poor guy. Can¡¯t even aim his attacks. Another water pulse punishes him for even trying.


    The dragon lowers himself to the ground and you can feel the energy charge around him, accompanied by a soft red glow. Work up. He¡¯s only getting stronger and angrier from here. Best to finish it quickly. {Ice Beam.} A bolt of freezing water falls from the sky and the deino hisses in pain, red aura fading. His next blast of dragon breath is much, much larger than before. It strikes true. {You fine?}


    {I will murder this insolent fool.}


    He¡¯s fine.


    Another ice beam sails across the arena and this time the deino shrieks as it strikes him directly in the head. The next dragon breath sails far to the left. It¡¯s much smaller: the work up was too short to last long. Still, you should probably finish this sooner rather than later.


    ¡°Wing attack.¡±


    {You shitting me? I am not getting close to that thing.}


    {You want a cave in?}


    {Fuck you.}


    ¡°Defog, then wing-attack.¡±


    {Fine.}


    The winds pick up and the deino squeals as the fur on top of his head gets blown to the side. Out of the corner of your eye you can see Renfield struggle to stay aloft while Charles digs his pillars into the ground.


    Spike has no reaction.


    Your starter dives down when the winds are strong enough. He slams into the dragon and knocks it off its feet. A bite lands on the swanna¡¯s chest, but he powers through it and flies back into the air.


    {I. Will. Murder. Her.}


    {Her?}


    He honks. ¡°Thought the dragon was the blind one.¡±


    ¡°Forgive me for not knowing how to sex a dragon.¡±


    ¡°Guess I shouldn¡¯t be surprised.¡± He rolls out of the way of another dragon breath. ¡°You don¡¯t know how to sex a human, either.¡±


    Tchaikovsky dives down again, this time swooping to the side to avoid another bite. The dragon crashes into the wall and mewls in surrender, head bowed. The winds die down and Tchaikovsky circles back towards you to use roost.


    The deino walks forward on unsteady feet, finally stopping a few feet away with her head bowed down to the ground. Poor girl.


    You toss an ultra ball at her. There¡¯s barely any resistance at all. When it stops moving altogether you lift it up and let out your final team member. She stares up at you in silence, tongue flicking out to take in her new team. You pour some jerky on a plate and set it out before her. She eats all the jerky, but also half the plate. Oops. You¡¯ll pet it on the ground next time.


    ¡°Welcome to the team, Alice.¡±


    *


    You keep drawing on your mother¡¯s journey as the temperature keeps dropping. She was the best: went through Unova in winter alone when she was even younger than you are, won eight badges and got to the semis of the beginner¡¯s tournament, raised a hydreigon well enough that ellas stuck around to raise her kids out of loyalty. It¡¯s a shame you never got to meet her. There are things the memories can¡¯t make up for, after all. You don¡¯t know what her hugs feel like. Or what her voice sounds like when she whispers comforting things into your ear or tells you the hard things you need to hear but don¡¯t want to. Sometimes you imagine those things and it feels like a memory just out of reach.


    Now you really wish she was here. There are scraps in her memories that help, but not everything was preserved. Some was for the best ¨C you definitely don¡¯t want to know some things about what she did with your father. Thankfully she left almost all of that out. Other gaps are way more irritating. She traveled alone most of the time. Most other people, even your grandmother, only hop in for a moment and slip out just as quickly. You don¡¯t know what she would do with someone who would hate her for her gifts. Or what she would do with traveling companions in general. But maybe she¡¯d have advice if she was here. She was smarter than you, after all. Instead, you¡¯re left to thread the needle alone.


    And she would¡¯ve kept you from getting hypothermia. It¡¯s only getting colder and it¡¯s not like you have warmer gear than you did on the first day.


    At least today¡¯s dinner¡¯s coming along well. Lyra has her own (nicer) camp stove so you can cook two things at once. Great for cooking meat and vegetables alongside rice without one getting cold. The meat was cheap, too. No one really wants to cook in the dark. It¡¯s ready-to-eat stuff that¡¯s super expensive. Cooking for you is the same as it¡¯s always been. The same scents of the vegetables browning. The same sounds of boiling water or popping oil. The same heat rising from the stove. You barely have to think about it.


    Which makes it a good distraction for something you have to put a little more thought into.


    ¡°Alright, Nisshoko? Ready to start?¡±


    You can make up some story about noibat learning Galarian easily enough. Lyra seems to think the bat understands her perfectly and that¡¯s all that matters. It saves you from embarrassing yourself in front of him with your terrible pronunciation in draconic. Still a little sensitive after Reshiram criticized you for that. Not your fault that your throat can¡¯t make proper growls or roars.


    The noibat happily chitters away as you stir the rice. ¡°Yes! I¡¯m glad you¡¯re finally talking to me, by the way. I¡¯ve known you can but you always ignore me.¡±


    ¡°Sorry about not speaking to you earlier. Been busy.¡±


    ¡°No, you haven¡¯t.¡± He screeches and you move to cover your ears before remembering you¡¯re holding a spoon. Hot water sloshes onto the ground before you can catch yourself. His voice gets a little less as an apology. ¡°You¡¯ve been hiding. Quiet One doesn¡¯t like mind talkers.¡±


    ¡°He calls you Quiet One,¡± you tell Lyra. Make her feel a little in the loop.


    ¡°He¡¯s a noibat,¡± Kekoa answers. ¡°Hate to meet someone he didn¡¯t think was quiet.¡±


    He screeches again but thankfully your hands weren¡¯t holding anything important. Maybe you shouldn¡¯t have done this while making dinner. ¡°I am quiet! The big fangs called me Silent Wings! That¡¯s how quiet I can be! She just never raises her voice!¡±


    Yeah. Unsure how much of that you want to translate. Not eager to be the translator while Kekoa gets into an argument with a bat. You go with the bare minimum. ¡°His name was Silent Wings,¡± you tell Lyra.


    ¡°Silent Wings,¡± Lyra murmurs. ¡°Was the name in Galarian?¡±


    ¡°No. That¡¯s just the closest translation. It¡¯s actually¡­¡± You try your best at the screech, but Silent Wings immediately tells you that you¡¯re at least three octaves off. You busy yourself with flipping the meat instead of translating his thoughts on your voice.


    ¡°Does Musei work?¡± Lyra asks. ¡°It means silent in Japanese. My home¡¯s language.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Musei rumbles. Probably wouldn¡¯t have picked up on it at all if it weren¡¯t for your gift. ¡°It is a good name.¡±


    You don¡¯t think it fits very well, but it seems to make him happy, so you won¡¯t give your opinions. ¡°He likes it.¡±


    A drop of hot liquid flies out and hits your hand. You flick it off without making a big deal of it.


    ¡°And do you like being with me?¡± Lyra asks.


    ¡°Yup. Get to see lots of new places.¡± See is a very rough translation. It¡¯s what your gift tells you, but the actual word is something closer to ¡®hear¡¯ in draconic. Probably the same concept for noibat. ¡°And you¡¯re nice. And Mirai is fun to play with. Still trying to scare her. She always knows I¡¯m coming and moves away.¡±


    ¡°Yeah. He likes going to new places and trying to scare your absol.¡±


    The absol huffs. You can¡¯t translate, but you imagine she¡¯s upset at the idea that a tiny bat could get around her own gifts. Or maybe you¡¯ve just spent too much time around Pixie and started projecting that onto other pok¨¦mon.


    Speaking of, Pixie¡¯s been awfully quiet throughout this conversation. She¡¯s pressed into your side eagerly awaiting her dinner, but otherwise staying out of it. Probably still down after Ula¡¯Ula. Don¡¯t know what to tell her there. Yes, she¡¯s a pain in the ass. So much so that lots of people have left her over it. But ¡®try not to be really annoying¡¯ would require changing most of her personality and you don¡¯t think you¡¯d want that, even if she could. Maybe toning it down a little would be good, though.


    Mom¡¯s then-gurdurr felt useless like that for a while. Can¡¯t quite remember how she resolved it in the end. Might have to meditate and try to look through the memories later.


    ¡°And¡­ do you want to go home?¡± Lyra asks.


    The noibat¡¯s truly quiet for a little bit. You go back to stirring the rice while waiting for an answer.


    ¡°I would have left eventually. I¡¯m not mad about that. I just wish I could¡¯ve said goodbye to everyone first.¡±


    That strikes home and you wince in sympathy. {I¡¯m sorry. I know what that¡¯s like.}  You clear your throat. ¡°He wanted to say goodbye before he left his¡­¡± Family? Friends? You settle for something neutral. ¡°¡­his home.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± Lyra says. It¡¯s a quiet sound with a hint of horror in it. She¡¯d probably never thought about that before. And maybe there were also people she hadn¡¯t had a chance to say goodbye to. ¡°I¡­ we¡¯re getting close to where I caught you. We can stop by if you want?¡±


    Musei trills happily (and at a reasonable volume) before landing on your shoulder. Pixie hisses beside you, annoyed at another pok¨¦mon touching you. You set the spoon and spatula down and scratch her ears. {Love you.}


    She doesn¡¯t answer.


    ¡°I think I can talk to your mudbray as well.¡± {Can you just make noises sometimes?} you ask Musei. {It¡¯ll make her think you¡¯re translating.


    She shrieks yes.


    ¡°Just maybe not in my ear,¡± you mutter low enough Lyra probably can¡¯t hear it.


    The mudbray stirs and snorts. ¡°I don¡¯t like lying to her.¡±


    {Then tell the truth.}


    You go back to stirring as the mudbray thinks. ¡°I meant about how we¡¯re talking.¡±


    ¡°Do you want to talk to her?¡± you ask aloud. She once again takes a while to mull it over. A very thoughtful horse.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    You wait a second for Musei to ramble on about his favorite berries. Haban are the best, but they¡¯re rare so he¡¯ll settle for pechas or bluks. Useful information to pass onto Lyra later.


    ¡°Did you have a name before you met Lyra?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± You can hear her kick some dirt up a few meters away. ¡°I was my mother¡¯s foal. I didn¡¯t need a name.¡±


    ¡°He didn¡¯t have a name before,¡± you tell Lyra.


    ¡°Does she like hers now?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± the mudbray mumbles. ¡°I don¡¯t mind it.¡±


    The rice is done so you lower the temperature down a bit while you translate. Meat could still cook for a bit longer.


    ¡°That¡¯s awfully nonchalant.¡± Lyra sounds a bit concerned. You can hear her cross and uncross her legs in the grass. Or some other fidgeting. Probably crossing given the pattern.


    ¡°Names are a human thing,¡± the mudbray says. ¡°If it makes her happy, I like it.¡±


    ¡°Jishin it is then. So, um,¡± she trails off. It¡¯s weird to see Lyra uncertain like this, as if she¡¯s a primary schooler asking her classmate if he likes her. ¡°Are you happy with me? You seemed to adjust well when you first joined.¡±


    By the time Jishin responds you¡¯ve already turned the other stove down and started putting dinner into bowls. ¡°Mother says the mudsdale were made to help humans. They made us big and strong so we could carry things. I¡¯m supposed to help them. It¡¯s what I was made to do.¡±


    You make a mental note of the story for later. It makes sense that a domesticated pok¨¦mon would see humans as creator gods of sorts, even if you¡¯d never thought about that before. Mom¡¯s swanna grew up on a farm and he sees humans as his servants, not his gods. You¡¯d thought all barnyard pok¨¦mon might be like that.


    Kekoa starts eating as soon as you hand him his bowl. Lyra doesn¡¯t. You do. If your mouth is full it gives noibat a break to ¡®translate.¡¯


    ¡°Do you want to go back to your mother?¡± Lyra asks. ¡°I don¡¯t mind. I¡¯d take you to her.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t,¡± she snorts. ¡°One day I went out to graze and she wasn¡¯t home when I came back.¡± Jishin pauses to kick at the ground, like it took her mother from her. You want to hug the horse but don¡¯t know how she¡¯d react. Besides, you¡¯ll leave that to Lyra. Her noibat¡¯s already a little too friendly with you and you don¡¯t want to give her the idea you¡¯re trying to steal her team. ¡°I think a human caught her. Maybe you¡¯ll run into them someday.¡±


    Lyra does move over to try and hug her mudbray once she hears that. ¡°When I meet a trainer with a mudsdale I¡¯ll let you out,¡± she promises. ¡°Until then I¡¯ll take care of you.¡±


    And you don¡¯t doubt that she will. Lyra seems to know what she¡¯s doing with her pok¨¦mon. Logistically, at least. Taking Musei away without letting her say goodbye was rude, but hardly the worst thing a trainer has ever done.


    Come to think of it you never told Noci she could go off and talk to the other beldum. You just kind of let her wander and assumed she¡¯d take care of it.


    {Did you get a chance to tell your family where you were going?} you ask her.


    {Query Meaning: Family.}


    Right. She wasn¡¯t really ¡®born.¡¯


    {Your creators and the others you were created alongside.}


    Simple enough. She can probably understand that.


    {ProgenitorUnit is aware of present mission.}


    Progenitor, huh? A metang? You don¡¯t think there are wild metagross in Ula¡¯Ula.


    {You¡¯ll have to tell me about your progenitor sometime.}


    {Order acknowledged. Preparing Data Logs on Unit001_110010;


    Warning: Requested information is above classification level of UnitDesignate Cuicatl Ichtaca;


    Redacting Data. Please wait¡­ Redactions Complete;


    Unit001_110010 Created Unit001_101110110 17.4496 Local Solar Cycles Ago;


    End of Available Information. Query Complete.}


    You stop eating. It¡¯s good, for once, but that¡¯s a lot to process. You¡¯ve received a lot of answers when asking people about their parents, but ¡°it¡¯s classified¡± is new. And a Unit100? That¡¯s a metagross, right? Will they be mad you took their kid? They know and you¡¯re alive so they can¡¯t be too upset. Probably. Hopefully.


    And Noci¡¯s older than you are? How? What has she even been doing the whole time?


    ¡­maybe Lyra isn¡¯t the only one who needs to learn about her teammates.

 Fighting 9: Genesis

    Fighting 3.9: The Talk


    Genesis


    You¡¯re bone tired but the sleep won¡¯t come. Maybe you need something to ease yourself into it? Old daydreams, maybe. The Redhelm? As good a series as any. Yeah. Can¡¯t remember where you left off, though. A quest? No, a bit too long. A ball? Feels really wrong after everything.


    The siege, then. You think that¡¯s what things were building up to last time you were here¡­


    *


    ¡°We¡¯ve received reports that an army has left from Orodh.¡± The falconer (Sir¡­ Bentley) pauses, his face growing sterner. ¡°Our spies estimate they have over thirty-thousand orcs and one hundred giants in their ranks.¡±


    ¡°Who could command such an army?¡± Ferdinand growls. ¡°I slew The Ape of Aurghan. Guinevere,¡± he gestures at you, ¡°felled the Spikeslinger. The giants were all but destroyed in Dragonfire Canyon. The Dark Lord still slumbers. Who is left?¡±


    ¡°It matters not,¡± King Renaut declares. ¡°All that matters for now is that the army exists. Sir Bentley, where are they headed?¡±


    The Falconer clears his throat. ¡°They¡¯ve marched to the Winbel Road, destroying all in their wake.¡± He pauses, letting the implication set in. ¡°It seems they are headed for Redhelm.¡±


    The old king nods. ¡°Then we shall fight them. Sir Bentley, send forth a scouting party to ready traps on the road. It will give us precious time to prepare the fort. Lord Ferdinand, I want you to oversee the siege preparations. Find out how long we can hold. Count Clara¡ª¡± The dark elf in the corner looks up. ¡°Summon Alrebus. We shall need his help.¡± He nods and lowers his gaze again. ¡°Lady Guinevere¡­¡± He trails off, uncertain on what you should be doing. ¡°Ready the troops and sharpen your blade. You will be vital to our defense when the time comes.¡±


    *


    Total, unnatural darkness settles upon the fort. You can still see the torches, but they cast no light.


    ¡°Sorcery,¡± Clara says.


    Ferdinand growls like one of the feralmen. ¡°Looks like their wizard could be bothered to show up, Count.¡±


    ¡°I sent ravens¡ª¡±


    ¡°Then why is he not here?¡±


    ¡°Lords. Lady.¡± The King¡¯s voice cuts through the argument. ¡°We must not quarrel amongst ourselves until our real enemies have been repelled.¡± A chorus of battle cries from over the wall punctuates his statement. ¡°Lady Guinevere, unsheathe your sword, please.¡±


    Light shines from within Heartseeker¡¯s crystalline blade. There¡¯s something odd about using a blessed sword as a nightlight. You almost laugh. But you don¡¯t. Because that would be awkward. Lady Guinevere is not awkward.


    ¡°Guinevere, guard the back entrance. I don¡¯t expect trouble there, but it¡¯s best to be safe. Everyone else¡­¡±


    The King continues giving orders, but you have no time to listen. You race down the seemingly endless stairwells and corridors of Redhelm before arriving at the back gate. The castle is built in a canyon with the river running straight through the fortifications. The army has been advancing from one side of the canyon, leaving the other free. The Kingdom Wall runs from Redhelm out away from both edges of the canyon. Unless the castle or Kingdom Wall are breached, it is always possible to retreat through the back gate. Or enter through it, if a stealthy force somehow managed to circle around.


    What you definitely weren¡¯t expecting was the sheer chaos that greeted you at the bottom of the stairs. Your sword illuminates a battle in full swing as the back guard are massacred by advancing trolls. The gate is wide open. You swing Heartseeker and a wide arc of holy light rockets out of it. Several trolls crumple from the one attack. The rest come closer. You rush to meet them in a very lethal blur of light. Heartseeker brings down another enemy with every swing, but more and more monsters keep pouring through the gate. How did this many enemies get behind the wall?


    Familiar laughter echoes across the battlefield and the monsters get out of the way. A tall, thin woman with pale skin and pitch-black hair walks towards you. ¡°Why, hello there Guinevere. Fancy meeting you in this place.¡±


    ¡°Allura.¡±


    You growl and Heartseeker glows with the force of a sun. Allura doesn¡¯t seem to notice. She keeps walking towards you, the sound of her footsteps echoing off the walls. Only she would walk into a battlefield in heels.


    ¡°Hmph. Why do you look so upset? We are friends, are we not?¡±


    ¡°We were.¡±


    She looks hurt. You don¡¯t buy it for a second. ¡°Come on. You can¡¯t really let one bad day get in the way of¡ª¡±


    ¡°You stabbed me and left my fate to the whims of a demon.¡±


    ¡°One. Time.¡±


    You raise Heartseeker towards Allura and she stops advancing. She doesn¡¯t show any emotions, but you suspect she¡¯s terrified. She was trained as a spy. When you worked together, she infiltrated towns, figured out which rumors were worth pursuing, and unlocked any doors or chests you came across. You did the fighting. You had the sacred blade. Her daggers can¡¯t hold a candle to Heartseeker.


    ¡°Well, if we can¡¯t work this out peacefully¡­ then I¡¯ll be going.¡±


    You lower your sword in shock. ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes. I would never hurt a friend. I only came here to give you a present, anyway.¡±


    Allura pours out a small bag and powder falls out. She blows and a plume of it rushes straight towards your face. You fall to the floor coughing the powder out and gasping for air. You blink rapidly to get it out of your eyes before you¡¯re attacked. Yet the attack never comes. When you finally stand up and look around the gates are open and corpses litter the floor, yet all the monsters are gone. Allura must have gone with them.


    You shut the gates and wait for more guards to arrive.


    It doesn¡¯t take long for a squadron to round the corner and bear their lances. At you. You raise Heartseeker and wave at them. They must be relieved to be out of the darkness. They only grip their weapons harder. Strange.


    ¡°Guinevere,¡± one spits. "You are to come with us by orders of the king. Sheathe your weapon at once.¡±


    ¡°Then it would be¡ª¡±


    ¡°At. Once.¡±


    Whoever this man is, you outrank him several times over. You still comply. If he has been ordered by the king, you will go with them to clear up whatever this is. The soldiers rush forward and bind your hands behind your back the second that your sword is sheathed. Another unclips the sheath from your belt while two others hoist you into the air to roughly carry you up lots and lots of stairs. A trap? From inside the castle? You could probably overpower the guards even without your blade. For now you¡¯ll stay silent and see where this goes. With any luck they¡¯ll bring you straight to their leader.


    They do. It¡¯s the king. Or an illusion of him. It¡¯s hard to be sure after whatever magic Allura cast. Because this has to be her doing.


    The King glares at you with more hatred than you¡¯ve ever seen him show to anyone. He snarls and punches the wall beside him. The stone cracks. He was a legendary hero back in his time, even if it¡¯s easy to forget that when looking at his wrinkles and white hair.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    ¡°I told you to guard the back gate,¡± he whispers. ¡°NOT TO OPEN IT!¡± You try to take a step back but you¡¯re already in chains. When did that happen? How¡ªdoesn¡¯t matter.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t!¡±


    ¡°Liar! We all¡ª"


    Something slams into your back and yanks you up into the air. You catch the faint glimmer of green scales above you and hear the flapping of wings as the shouting grows increasingly distant from you. A wyvern. You¡¯re being kidnapped by a wyvern. You can¡¯t tell if this is a welcome development or not.


    *


    It¡¯s been eight meals since they locked you in here. They took your phone and all the clocks away so you can¡¯t tell exactly how much time has passed. Whenever someone brings you food, they just set it down and walk away without a word, pausing only to set new plates down and pick up the old ones.


    Fluffy died in May. That would be¡­ seven months ago? Maybe eight. You gave up your new pok¨¦mon friends. You¡¯re entirely alone.


    The only noise in here is what you make, tapping on the headrest or singing to yourself. There¡¯s nothing to see. No one to interact with. You can only sleep and talk to Xerneas. Like Father wanted. Even your daydreams are unreliable now.


    You¡¯ve spent most of your reflection time figuring out exactly what you did wrong. Trusting Lyra too much? Perhaps. That still doesn¡¯t feel right, though. You should trust your friends. Probably. Possibly. Maybe. You should ask Mother about that, because Xerneas isn¡¯t getting back to you.


    Going onto the roof wasn¡¯t exactly forbidden, but you could have guessed you weren¡¯t supposed to. That can¡¯t be the only thing you did wrong, though. You wouldn¡¯t deserve nearly so much punishment just for that.


    Getting worn down?


    It sounded right when you gave up your pok¨¦mon. Now you¡¯re less sure. You have to convert people so they don¡¯t get their souls ripped apart by Yveltal for eternity. Someone has to talk to people who aren¡¯t already saved. Your teachers and priests always made it sound like you were supposed to do that when you could. And you can¡¯t do that without talking to people who aren¡¯t already saved. Xerneas would want you to deal with sinners, right?


    But maybe Kek-Allana did wear you down. For a while you called her something else. Father probably heard about that. Maybe that¡¯s what you should repent for.


    Maker of All: I come to you deeply sorry for accepting the lies of The Destroyer and passing them on to others. I reinforced the sins of another. I ask for forgiveness and a path to penance.


    ¡­


    There¡¯s no answer.


    Xerneas doesn¡¯t talk to people like you directly. He does it through the words of priests and prophets and in whispers in the world. You have access to none of those things right now.


    ¡­


    Keep reflecting?


    ¡­


    You¡¯re tired, sort of. Maybe you¡¯ll get an answer in a dream.


    Whenever you fall asleep.


    Any moment now.


    For being so very, very bored this is taking a while.


    Any day now.


    Any


    *


    You sit back and watch them yell.


    A mass of faceless, formless people are shouting at another one. You join in sometimes, jeering the vile sinner as he fruitlessly claims his innocence. Then things turn. One says your name. And another. And another. All demanding that you defend yourself even though there¡¯s no time and you¡¯re on the spot and YOU CAN¡¯T THINK, DAMN IT!


    They all stare at you with hate and disgust in your eyes and you know that your fate is sealed.


    ¡°No,¡± you whimper.


    You sink lower, the ground sucking you in like quicksand.


    ¡°No,¡± you say.


    You fall down to your waist. All efforts to claw yourself up just lead to you sinking faster.


    ¡°No!¡± you shout.


    You sink all the way and the red light of Yveltal consumes you.


    *


    There¡¯s a knock at the door. You jolt up in bed and wipe the tears out of your eyes. You aren¡¯t hungry yet. Didn¡¯t realize it was mealtime.


    The door opens without your invitation. There¡¯s a woman¡¯s silhouette lit from behind with red light. The light is dim but it¡¯s still almost blinding after days in total darkness.  The woman¡ªyour mother¡ªwalks in until she¡¯s standing right by the foot of your bed. Her presence this far in your space¡­ you can¡¯t say anything, but you wish you could. It¡¯s unnerving. You shiver and it¡¯s not from the cold. The starmie floats in beside her. Since when does she have a starmie? She¡¯s a lurantis breeder.


    ¡°I hate,¡± she cuts off and lets the word hang in the air. ¡°That I need a psychic-type just to talk to my daughter,¡± she says. ¡°Because I can¡¯t trust my own child not to lie to me.¡±


    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t¡ª¡±


    She holds up a hand. ¡°Don¡¯t start with another lie, please. It won¡¯t help you.¡± You pout silently. You aren¡¯t lying! The starmie would have proven it. But she clearly does not want to listen to you right now. ¡°Now, have you figured out what you did wrong?¡±


    You aren¡¯t sure if you should ask your question, but you want answers badly enough that you¡¯ll do it anyway. ¡°Aren¡¯t I supposed to be with unbelievers? Someone has to teach them, right? That¡¯s what¡ª¡±


    ¡°Pride.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ what?¡±


    ¡°Pride. Add it to your sins. Thinking that you are capable of missionary work. When you change people, you give them a chance to change you as well. Your brother definitely could. Your sister couldn¡¯t. You couldn¡¯t without being corrupted. But you thought yourself better than you are. Pride. That is one of your failings. Tell me another.¡±


    It hurts to hear her talk down to you but¡­ maybe she is right? She¡¯s been in the church for decades and you¡¯re still pretty new. And young. She sounds like she knows that she¡¯s right and¡­ You want to argue. You want to say that you¡¯re right. But she sounds. What are you supposed to.


    You still don¡¯t get it, do you? It¡¯s almost sad¡­ We¡¯re just decorations now. And if we don¡¯t play the part¡­ they¡¯ll throw us in the trash.


    ¡°Shut up,¡± you hiss.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    Oh. Oh no. ¡°No, that wasn¡¯t to¡ªI was talking to myself.¡±


    The light glows a little brighter.


    ¡°Lie. Try again.¡±


    ¡°I was¡ªI was replaying an argument I had with Exodus. That¡¯s all.¡±


    The light dims.


    ¡°Hmm. You¡¯ll need to learn to control what you keep in your head. That¡¯s always been a weakness of yours. There are schools that work specifically on that type of thing, if you¡¯re still so insistent that the home isn¡¯t a good enough place to learn.¡±


    She agreed to that! Why is that getting blamed on you? It¡¯s not fair. It¡¯s not fair and that¡¯s the best argument you can come up with and it won¡¯t work.


    ¡°There are always schools like your sister¡¯s. If you won¡¯t listen to your own family, perhaps we must send you to people you will learn from. Institutions that help with your particular¡­ issues.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not gay¡­¡±


    Mother sighs and moves to sit down on the bed. A hand falls on your shoulder and she is on your bed in your room touching you and you need need need space and


    ¡°Sweetie, being gay wasn¡¯t the sin. That¡¯s fine. Xerneas loves the homosexuals. But when it drives you to act on it, then that¡¯s a sin. You acted on it. Maybe you can relearn control, but it would be easiest if you just didn¡¯t have those temptations. It must be terrible,¡± she says, sounding genuinely sympathetic. ¡°Having a fearsome addiction and not feeling like you can talk about it. The good news is that there is help; you just have to accept it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m¡ªI¡¯m not gay though! I¡¯ve been trying to tell you¡ª¡±


    The starmie glows green. Similar to the shade of Cuicatl¡¯s hair. The glow goes back to bright red. The color of lies.


    Your mother frowns in the corner of your vision. It¡¯s oddly menacing, lit up in red. Like blood.


    ¡°Maybe you don¡¯t know.¡± She seems resigned? Concerned? Maybe even a little remorseful. Does that mean¡­ does she get it?


    ¡®Get what?¡¯ you asked Exodus.


    ¡®Well¡­ no, that¡¯s not mine to tell you.¡¯


    ¡°It would be hard to figure out, not knowing how normal people feel about the same and opposite sex.¡±


    ¡°I. What?¡± Any blood left in your face drains.


    ¡°Well, sweetie, have you ever really wanted to¡­ to be with a boy? The transvestite doesn¡¯t count.¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t that be a sin, too?¡± She has you trapped. Again. Not. Fair.


    ¡°Well, acting on it is, yes. The instinct itself is natural and it can lead to good, holy things in the right context.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ I don¡¯t know? I went an all-girls school? I didn¡¯t really see boys anywhere else.¡± TV, sure, yeah. But those aren¡¯t¡ªwell, they are real people, but they aren¡¯t in your life and it¡¯s not normal to¡ªwhat even is normal?


    ¡°Another mistake we made.¡± Mother shakes her head. ¡°We figured you would grow out of it. Or that you at least knew about it. If you didn¡¯t, it explains some of your behavior after getting caught. You¡¯ve still fallen deep into sin without even noticing it. That will need to be worked upon.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Because. What else. Are you supposed to say? You aren¡¯t gay? Whatever she thinks? Whatever the stupid starmie thinks? Does this get you into less trouble? More? Will she be mad later that you lied to her here?


    ¡°I need to rethink things.¡± She stands up and crinkles her nose. ¡°And you need to take a shower.¡±


    You feel even more unclean. She walks into your space and calls you gay and that you stink and and and you¡¯re crying and it¡¯s all not fair. Mother either doesn¡¯t notice the tears or pretends not to.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk more later, sweetheart.¡±


    *


    You stand in the shower and glare into the void as water runs down your body. Some stupid starmie thinks you¡¯re gay. You¡¯re not. Why did it even¡ªgreen light. Cuicatl. It thought you were gay for Cuicatl. You ram a palm into your forehead. Ow. That kind of hurts. Doesn¡¯t hurt in the movies. Anyway. As if. She¡¯s a pagan. And blind. Blind and delicate. She needs a dog just to walk. A very cute dog, sure. That she loves way more than you¡¯ve ever loved a pok¨¦mon. That¡¯s kind of cute. In general she¡¯s more cute than pretty. Too many scars and sharp angles to be delicate. And she moves like she¡¯s in some sort of military parade. You can¡¯t tell if her glare is fearsome or adorable, partially because those creepy eyes. Even if her hair is pretty. At this point you¡¯re pretty sure it is natural. The roots have never been exposed and it¡¯s a weird thing to lie about. Wish she¡¯d kept it long, though. The length kind of framed everything well, drawing attention down its length towards her


    You feel kind of weird.


    ¡­


    Oh no.


    ¡­


    Oh no.

 Fighting 10: Kekoa

    Fighting 3.10: The Summit


    Kekoa


    January 12, 2020


    The dim glow and cool, moist air of Verdant Cavern would suck most of the year. Now it¡¯s warmer and brighter than the world outside. Not sure why you can see by the light of the glowing moss but not the sun or electricity. Something about how Necrozma absorbs light, but not pok¨¦mon elemental energy. So light mixed with energy isn¡¯t fully absorbed. Or something. Didn¡¯t sound like the scientists had it figured out themselves.


    Lyra is deeper into the cave watching her noibat meet his old friends. Good for her. You understand not being able to say goodbye. When it happens to you, anyway. For your pok¨¦mon¡­ you can see where Cuicatl and Kanoa were coming from, and in hindsight it¡¯s not a good look. Makani got sent over to Akala by ferry before you left. Hope he¡¯s living his best life.


    You still haven¡¯t talked to Hekeli yet. It¡¯s been months since you found out that a psychic translator was within shouting distance 90% of the time and you still haven¡¯t had a real talk with your trumbeak. At first it was because you didn¡¯t think you needed it since the birds are deeply connected to your people.


    Now you¡¯re scared of what you¡¯ll find out. It¡¯s cowardly, but deep down you don¡¯t want her to tell you that she hates you. There¡¯s still a false queen to dethrone and you can¡¯t do that without pok¨¦mon.


    You take a deep breath. After Lyra¡¯s heart-to-heart with her team, you decided you¡¯d do it. Eventually. When you reached Verdant Cave and there was light. Now you¡¯re here and there are a half-dozen good reasons not to.


    Food, for one. Trumbeak eat a lot of berries, but very few are growing in the darkness. Most of the bushes you¡¯ve passed have long been picked clean. Some kids in Hau¡¯oli were talking about how there are still berries to be found in the hard-to-reach places, but you don¡¯t want to wander off trail in the dark. Fresh fruit doesn¡¯t last long and still isn¡¯t common outside the big ports. She can eat dehydrated fruit, but then she won¡¯t get water from it, which is a problem because trumbeak don¡¯t drink water. Even juicy bugs are still a little dry for her taste. It¡¯s best to keep her in stasis as much as possible right now. Sending her out just to talk is selfish and bad for her health.


    But you¡¯ll gladly send her out for longer to battle the totems, a traitorous part of your mind replies.


    ¡°I think you should,¡± Cuicatl says. You glance over and see her sitting down, legs crossed, while she runs a brush through her vulpix¡¯s fur. It¡¯s weird but after just a few days of total darkness you¡¯d started to forget little details of what she looked like. What anything looks like. You don¡¯t like that. Your memory is, well, you, and it can only hold people in it for a few days before things start to get a little dicey. Her eyes are brown somewhere beneath the fog. You aren¡¯t sure if you¡¯d forgotten that are not.


    What color are the Gage Heiress¡¯s eyes, anyway? Green, right? Or blue¡­ she didn¡¯t like making eye contact very much. Neither does Cuicatl. Part of why it¡¯s so easy to forget.


    ¡°You know the way to never forget anything you see?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    You startle. Right, she can read loud thoughts. Not that you know how to think quietly. ¡°Uh, no? How do¡ª¡± Never seeing anything in the first place. You groan before she can even answer. She just giggles.


    She tilts her head but keeps her self-satisfied smirk. ¡°What are you afraid of?¡±


    Spiders. Thunder. Ghosts. Earthquakes. Hail. Ships.


    Failing your ancestors.


    ¡°Do you think she hates me?¡± you ask.


    She hums in consideration. You can never decide if it¡¯s annoying or not when she does that. ¡°No. I think she¡¯s irritated, but I don¡¯t think she hates you. And she¡¯s a bird so she¡¯d definitely say so if she was.¡±


    ¡°Past experience?¡± Because she sounds sure of that.


    ¡°My mom¡¯s swanna,¡± she says. ¡°He was her starter and, um, he sort of loved and hated her at the same time.¡± She starts to trail off before finishing with a whisper. ¡°We never really got along, but he didn¡¯t leave after mom¡¯s death. I think he blamed himself.¡±


    You don¡¯t want to ask how her mom died. It¡¯s not something she wanted to tell you until a few weeks ago and she¡¯s clearly still torn up about it, even though she says it happened a while ago. Probably violent if her starter could¡¯ve stopped it.


    ¡°Childbirth,¡± Cuicatl mutters. ¡°I never actually met her. ¡®Chovsky couldn¡¯t have stopped it, but I don¡¯t think he accepts that.¡± She sighs. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter; the flood¡¯s left for the ocean and the fields are dry.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Expression. It means that ¡®it¡¯s too late to do anything about it.¡¯¡± She makes a mischievous smile. ¡°You¡¯ve stalled long enough. Ready?¡±


    ¡°I guess¡­¡± You let out Hekeli and prepare for judgment.


    She glances between the two of you and towards the glowing walls of the cave. You don¡¯t need a translator for this. ¡°I don¡¯t know why it¡¯s glowing, either. And I wanted to talk.¡±


    She trills. ¡°Finally,¡± Cuicatl says, clearly trying to capture the character of the words. ¡°Took you long enough.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m sorry about that.¡± You scratch at the back of your head as the trumbeak keeps staring at you. Probably wants a longer answer. ¡°I was just.¡± Deep breath. You can do this. ¡°Worried. I¡¯m sorry.¡± More staring. Finally gets a chance to talk to you and she decides she doesn¡¯t want to, after all. Might as well get the hard question out of the way, first. ¡°Are you happy with me?¡±


    There¡¯s a long series of trills, coos, and a peck to the ground.


    ¡°Uh, one sec. That was a bit.¡± Cuicatl closes her eyes and nods, fingers drumming along on the cave floor beside her. ¡°You help her win and she likes that.¡± Another trill and Cuicatl turns to glare at something three feet to the left of Hekeli. ¡°And apparently I¡¯m not as good of a trainer as you are.¡± Another peck to the ground and something that sounds like a snort. ¡°And she isn¡¯t sure how I¡¯m still alive. Which isn¡¯t a very nice thing to say about someone who sings for you.¡±


    One minute in and Hekeli is arguing with the translator. Great. You don¡¯t point out that you¡¯ve had the same concerns about her, what with the tripping and the love of murder beasts. Sometimes it¡¯s like she¡¯s trying to get herself killed.


    ¡°Do you like your name?¡± you ask. Somehow that¡¯s more comfortable ground. ¡°I can call you something else if you want.¡±


    There¡¯s a brief back and forth as Cuicatl and a bird talk to each other. Cuicatl sounds like she always does to you. Does she sound like another trumbeak to Hekeli? ¡°She wants to know what it means,¡± Cuicatl finally says.


    ¡°Thunderstorm. It¡¯s because you hit like lightning.¡±


    There are a few sharp cracks of Hekeli¡¯s beak hitting the ground hard enough to shatter part of it. Should probably tell her not to do that. Might count as vandalism or something. ¡°She doesn¡¯t like lightning,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°It hurts.¡±


    ¡°Well, she¡¯s good at making opponents hurt.¡±


    Another crack to the ground.


    ¡°She doesn¡¯t like lightning,¡± Cuicatl repeats.


    ¡°You guys alright?¡± Lyra calls from somewhere in the distance. Her voice echoes again and again and again and again.


    ¡°We¡¯re not hurt,¡± Cuicatl answers. There¡¯s something strange in her echoes: you can hear her unaccented voice when she talks, but her echoes are different. You¡¯re pretty sure they aren¡¯t even in Galarian. Cuicatl cringes as she realizes the same thing. Well, hopefully Lyra won¡¯t notice. You doubt she¡¯d have a problem with it, but it¡¯s Cuicatl¡¯s secret to reveal when she wants to.


    Lyra doesn¡¯t answer so you carry on.


    ¡°What was your name before I caught you?¡±


    She makes a very particular warble without Cuicatl even translating. Odd. How much Galarian does she know. ¡°Moonlight,¡± Cuicatl says.


    The Alolan phrase for moonlight is a bit long. ¡°Does ¡®Mahina¡¯ work? It means moon in the language of these islands.¡±


    A short chirp after Cuicatl repeats your words.


    ¡°She says that¡¯s fine.¡±


    Cuicatl reaches out her hand. For a shake or to get something or what? Or does she want you to guide her somewhere. You hold out your hand and run a finger along her palm. She stretches a bit more to grab your wrist and give it a slight squeeze. Oh. A reassuring thing. She¡¯s proud you did the thing you should¡¯ve done months ago.


    ¡°Seriously, you guys alright?¡± Lyra¡¯s voice echoes less. You can hear her footsteps, too, as she rounds the corner and meets you in the entrance chamber. ¡°There was a lot of something going on back here.¡±


    ¡°My trumbeak was attacking the ground.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t really need context.


    Lyra walks up and examines Hekeli¡¯s indent. She scowls. ¡°Do you know how long it takes cave ecosystems to regenerate? That could be literal centuries of damage. Pretty sure there are big fines for that sort of thing.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯d you bother to learn about fines?¡± you ask. You¡¯re being defensive and you know it, but she flies in from gods-know-where with her rich daddy and wants to lecture you about your own damn caves. At least the Gage Heiress never pretended she knew what she was doing. ¡°Can¡¯t you just pay them?¡±


    She locks eyes with you and purses her lips. Another difference: the Gage Heiress would look away and stammer instead of gearing up for a fight. ¡°Because I care about preserving irreplaceable geology. Unlike you.¡±


    ¡°Wasn¡¯t this place a trial site a few years ago?¡± Totem gumshoos if you remember correctly. Or was it raticate? Whichever it was you remember that the captain just oozed holier-than-thou rich kid energy. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯s taken worse hits than that.¡±


    Lyra huffs. ¡°Don¡¯t get me started. This place never should have been a trial site. No cave should be. Forests, fine, those regrow eventually.¡± She breaks eye contact and starts pacing, throwing out her arms in dramatic poses with every point as she goes. ¡°Seashores and sand dunes change shape all the time. You can¡¯t burn down a mountain. Buildings can be repaired. But the one thing that can¡¯t be replaced? That¡¯s where they put a trial site?¡±


    Great. Now she¡¯s insulting the ability of Tapu Koko and his kahuna to pick a trial site. Before you can tell her off Cuicatl interjects: ¡°Can we get going? We still have a few miles to the Center and I¡¯d like to sleep in a real bed tonight.¡±


    A bed would be nice, and they might have fruit for Hekeli¡ªfor Mahina.


    ¡°Sounds like a plan,¡± you mumble. You¡¯ll fight Lyra the next time she gets on your nerves. The part of your brain telling you that her team could kick Mahina¡¯s ass, and she might be able to kick yours is ignored.


    Darkness smothers you again after you leave the cave. There¡¯s no difference in looking forward with your eyes open and closed. So you close them. When your open eyes see total darkness, your brain freaks out a bit. It¡¯s normal to see nothing with your eyes closed.


    The cold air coils around you, pressing into all the exposed skin it can find. The temperature dipped below forty last night. Once you get to the eastern highlands of the island it¡¯ll be even colder. If this keeps up you¡¯ll need to get proper winter clothes, not just the half-assed getup you could find and afford in the time it took VStar to get a new mission sent out.


    As you hike you can feel Lyra¡¯s eyes on your back, somehow boring into you in total darkness.


    [January 13]


    You will never again make fun of Cuicatl for tripping.


    Your boot catches on the loose pebbles of Mauna P¨¡hili and sends you cascading back down a few body lengths. At least your pants prevented your legs from getting slashed up like your friend¡¯s can get. And you didn¡¯t go over a cliff face. You remember that happening to Cuicatl on a little one back on Ula¡¯Ula. You¡¯ve heard some people have gone over much, much taller ones in the dark. You¡¯re glad that at least some of the pok¨¦mon in your party can still get around and you¡¯re on easy routes. Otherwise, this could¡¯ve gone much, much worse


    ¡°You okay?¡± Cuicatl calls down from above. You can¡¯t tell if she¡¯s mocking you. Doesn¡¯t really matter If she is since you deserve it. Nah. You¡¯re a lot more worried about the outsider below you. The image of Lyra holding a hand in front of her mouth as she stifles a laugh flashes into your mind. It¡¯s definitely what she¡¯s doing and you hate that you can¡¯t lash out without proof of it. Not without Cuicatl giving you a talk about biting the hand that¡¯s paying half your bills.


    ¡°Just give me a minute,¡± you yell back.


    You reach out your hands and her beldum slips between them. You pull yourself up with a surprisingly powerful assist from the steel-type. You can feel the heat they radiate through the gloves, but it¡¯s not bad enough to burn.


    On the way up you make sure to take things slower. You still trip and almost fall.


    ¡°Never making fun of you again,¡± you repeat aloud, so that she actually knows if she wasn¡¯t reading your mind.


    ¡°Maybe you could get a cane if this goes on long enough.¡± You shiver, both because it¡¯s fucking cold and because that doesn¡¯t sound like a bad idea. A perfectly healthy teenage boy needs a cane just to get around his home country. What a world.


    ¡°Or a walking stick,¡± Lyra adds. That is a more masculine option. But since she suggested it you can¡¯t do it for a little while. This had better be fucking over soon. Damn ¡®Queen¡¯ sits on your country¡¯s throne but can¡¯t even keep the lights on. Least she could do is stop the winter that started on her watch, but she¡¯s not even up to that. You can get hypothermia at sea level now. Maybe frostbite in a bit. And the meteorologists are already talking about what a hard frost would mean¡­


    The winds on the mountain pick up the higher you get. It¡¯s a distinctive feature of the peak. Mauna P¨¡hili is the northern guardian of Melemele. Like the larger Hokulani and Lanaklia there aren¡¯t really plants on top. The fearskmlime winds and dry soils make it hard for large plants to hang on. Unlike Lanakila and Hokulani, the top of P¨¡hili is pretty much just a giant pile of loose gravel. It¡¯s a difficult hike in the best of times. Now is not the best of times. But it was either scale this monster or go the long way around the coast and spend extra days out in the cold. Cuicatl didn¡¯t want to spend more time in the cold than she needed to after her brush with hypothermia on Route 2. Because she¡¯s a dumbass who won¡¯t tell other people what¡¯s wrong until she can¡¯t hide it anymore. Anyway, she thought that if she could survive Hokulani then she could survive P¨¡hili. She was right. She¡¯s doing fine.


    You may have overestimated your own ability to hike in total darkness. Doing it on flat ground was one thing. Here, on a gravel pile that¡¯s still a little slick from the rains, that¡¯s another story.


    Lyra pauses a short while later. She makes sure to tell you when she does. Another thing that you probably should have been doing. ¡°Musei thinks we¡¯ve reached the fork. One goes up to the peak, the other heads back down to the other side. Do you want¡ª¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m certainly not going to the peak for the views,¡± you tell her.


    ¡°Could be fun,¡± Lyra says.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to go alone and freeze your ass off.¡±


    {Kekoa.}


    You ignore Cuicatl¡¯s mental warning. Thankfully Lyra lets things slide.


    ¡°Hike on,¡± she mumbles. Cuicatl apparently hears it over the wind. You hear her cane sweep over the ground a moment later.


    The road down is no easier, but at least your falls bring you closer to your goal. Even if you knock over Cuicatl once. That time Lyra does laugh after making sure you¡¯re both okay. Bitch. First clearing after the fall Cuicatl declares that you¡¯re stopping for the night. She says that the wind doesn¡¯t feel as harsh. Like there¡¯s something blocking the wind. You really should go down farther, but you¡¯re too embarrassed to argue with her at the moment. Especially since she more than anyone gets the risks of staying out on the road for too long.


    You don¡¯t really want to start a real fire in this weather. Too much risk of it getting out of control in the wind. Cuicatl at least cooks dinner on the stove. You huddle in front of it in hopes of getting any warmth from the small flame. She¡¯s cooking pidove¡ªlab pidove, but still¡ªtoday and the smell is heavenly. Some wild pok¨¦mon apparently agree and her team is kept busy scaring off intruders. Hekeli is still learning to fly in the dark. No, that¡¯s not right. She knows how to fly in the dark; landing is another story.


    There¡¯s plenty of starving prey and frozen meat left on the islands for Pixie and Coco. Even the real stuff is cheap these days. Not many people want to risk cooking blind. Nocit-whatever doesn¡¯t seem to eat anything. Or maybe they feed on the awkwardness people feel when something tries to watch them pee. That would explain a lot. Worst thing is that you¡¯re pretty sure they do it all the time now since you can¡¯t catch them in the act.


    Lyra¡¯s never complained about finding food for her team. She can probably afford whatever they need, even with apocalyptic price-scalping.


    Your eyes wander up to the sky. The spiderweb of light seems to be changing over time. Fewer branches now, but they¡¯re all larger. No idea what that means. ¡°You plan on getting more pok¨¦mon?¡± Lyra asks.


    She has a point. You definitely should catch another pok¨¦mon. A solitary trumbeak won¡¯t cut it against the third and fourth trials, especially if you can¡¯t give her much training right now. Relying on temporary captures was fine early on, but now you need a plan if you want to dethrone the False Queen. But after losing Makani you haven¡¯t had the heart to make new plans. You can plan on getting anything you want, but if it won¡¯t listen to you then you¡¯re no better off in the long run.


    ¡°Maybe. I should pick up something or other. Jynx, maybe?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re psychics, right?¡± Lyra asks.


    ¡°Yeah. Might want some help finding whatever I decide on. Pixie or Coco to sniff it out, maybe?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve got it,¡± Cuicatl says.


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    She turns the meat over on the stove. Something gets hit by a take down at the edge of the clearing as the beldum defends your dinner. Almost makes you forgive them for everything else.


    ¡°If you get a jynx, you keeping it long term?¡± Lyra says, contempt in her voice. What¡¯d jynx ever do to her?


    Jynx are a twisted take on a human woman with the body to match. You might need one to deal with the water trial¡¯s toxapex, but the idea of spending lots of time with a jynx makes your dysphoria growl under your skin. You don¡¯t look like that. You know that. Sometimes.


    ¡°Probably not.¡±


    ¡°Good,¡± Lyra says. ¡°Beldum apparently aren¡¯t very good telepaths, but I¡¯d hate to be around an actual psychic.¡±


    Wait, what?


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong with psychics?¡±


    ¡°They can get into your brain and change thoughts, feelings, memories: everything that makes you who you are.¡± She says it like that¡¯s a perfectly normal thing to be afraid of. Why bother? Not the most dangerous part of training pok¨¦mon. Alakazam probably could twist your mind. It would also give you brain cancer, which is a much better reason not to train an alakazam. What else could even do that kind of shit? You vaguely remember some conspiracy theorist talking about the beheeyem rewriting memories or something, but that always struck you as tabloid nonsense.


    {She really hates psychics,} you tell Cuicatl. Maybe she has ideas on how to proceed here. There¡¯s a pop of oil or water and she hisses. ¡°You alright?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± she says with her voice. {And I know,} she says with her mind. {Only found out after it would¡¯ve been awkward to tell her off.}


    {I can beat her up for you.}


    {I¡¯ll keep it in mind.}


    You hope she¡¯s serious about that. And that she doesn¡¯t realize that it might be an empty threat until you get more pok¨¦mon to back you up.


    ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure my current team can handle the next two trials,¡± Cuicatl says. It takes you a moment to realize that she¡¯s picking up the subject you dropped because Lyra was racist. Do psychics count as a race? ¡°I have a plan for the toxapex fight in Kala¡¯e Bay. Might need to get another rock-type if the bug trial doesn¡¯t go well. For the short term. Not permanently.


    You¡¯ve thought about catching a carbink to use for a little bit. They¡¯re good against the bug trial and Hala. It just won¡¯t hold up in the long term. Maybe you¡¯d be the lucky bastard who figures out how to make it evolve into a diancie, but your luck¡¯s never been that good. Not worth betting on. There¡¯s always rockruff near Ten Carat Hill. A lot of strong Alolan trainers use one. And they¡¯re dogs. Man¡¯s best friend. You can¡¯t screw that one up, right? Sure, it won¡¯t pull its weight against Hala, but you have a bird for that. ¡°Might get a rockruff. Don¡¯t know.¡± Wait, what is Cuicatl going with? You¡¯ve never actually heard her long-term plans now that you think about it. ¡°What about your last three going to be?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t plan on getting any more in the near term.¡±


    {I have, but Pix starts panicking when I talk about it. Thinks she¡¯s getting replaced.}


    {Why?}


    She turns the burner off and starts putting the food onto plates. It tastes as good as it smells. You¡¯re really lucky that you got paired with her. Otherwise, you¡¯d still be eating freeze-dried shit every night.


    {Pok¨¦mon are a lot like humans.} Cuicatl finally answers. {But they don¡¯t get us. Sometimes they get scared and angry because they think we mean something big when we do something small.}


    You take another few bites. How many times have you pissed off a pok¨¦mon without meaning to? How does anyone avoid that? Magical bullshit. That¡¯s how. And it makes you angry. You don¡¯t know why, but it does. You shouldn¡¯t be angry at her, though. She just made you food. You should talk about something else.


    {You do know what you¡¯re catching, then?}


    Lyra chooses to interrupt your silent conversation. Rude. ¡°This is very good,¡± she says. ¡°Where¡¯d you learn to cook?¡±


    ¡°Home,¡± Cuicatl says. Then she starts loudly running her spoon along her bowl to get Lyra to stop talking for a bit, because she¡¯s definitely too busy eating to respond.


    It doesn¡¯t stop her.


    ¡°I think you¡¯ll definitely need more pok¨¦mon soon if you want to win. Coco will be a monster once she evolves, but that will be at least a few months. Maybe a lot longer. And your other pok¨¦mon aren¡¯t quite pulling their weight.¡±


    Pixie yaps in protest.


    ¡°Noci is tough and Pixie has a lot of tricks,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°She can confuse, disable, and scare a totem. That¡¯s a big deal.¡±


    ¡°Maybe,¡± Lyra concedes in a way that doesn¡¯t sound like she¡¯s conceding anyway. ¡°If you did get more pok¨¦mon though, what would you get?¡±


    Cuicatl sighs. She¡¯s probably weighing if she tells Lyra what she told you. She decides not to. ¡°I don¡¯t want anything as big as Coco. She¡¯s going to be expensive to feed. But if I¡¯m already buying meat, it makes sense to get meat eaters. Already have a fox, dragon, and machine. Maybe a bear, amphibian, and bug? No more foxes, obviously.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think that¡¯s how it works with meat,¡± Lyra says. ¡°I think it¡¯d just be expensive and the bulk discounts wouldn¡¯t cover all of it.¡±


    ¡°I like predators,¡± Cuicatl says so quietly that you can barely hear it over the wind. ¡°I¡¯d find a way to pay for it.¡±


    ¡°You really don¡¯t have a plan, huh? Like, something specific you plan on catching,¡± you ask before Lyra can question her money plans. Because you¡¯re pretty sure she doesn¡¯t have any and talking about it would stress her out. And the idea of Lyra chewing out Cuicatl on being financially irresponsible rubs you fifty different wrong ways.


    ¡°No. If I find a friend, I¡¯ll ask the team if they can join. That¡¯s all my plans.¡±


    Something occurs to you and you drop your fork. ¡°Wait, you want a bear? Weren¡¯t we nearly mauled by some on Ula¡¯Ula? Why¡ª"


    ¡°There are fluffy bears that like hugs. I want one,¡± she sounds like she¡¯s pouting. Like a little girl who wants a stuffed toy. Except she¡¯s a teenager who wants a toy that toy could murder her.


    ¡°They like hugs like sandaconda like hugs,¡± Lyra says.


    Cuicatl pauses as she scrapes the last of her meal off of her plate. ¡°Are those here? I thought they were just in the New World.¡±


    ¡°I think there are some in Galar,¡± Lyra says. ¡°Escaped pets and all. None here.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Cuicatl sounds very disappointed. It¡¯s hard to get the image of her as a pouting child out of your mind.


    ¡°Please tell me you¡¯re joking.¡± You say it even though you know she isn¡¯t. Why wouldn¡¯t Cuicatl want things that will crush her ribcage. And it¡¯s somehow your job to keep her alive.


    You reconsider if the food is worth it.


    ¡­


    Yeah.


    It probably is.


    *


    You¡¯re woken up by the sound of something very, very big landing outside. Pixie starts yapping outside trying to scare off¡­ whatever that is. Cuicatl comes to her senses faster than you. ¡°Pix, stand down!¡± You can hear her rush out of her tent, fumbling with the zipper for a moment before getting out. You¡¯re pretty sure that she didn¡¯t stop to put shoes on. That¡¯s got to be a pain on the gravel.


    ¡°Hello,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°I¡¯m sorry if my friend attacked. Everyone¡¯s nervous right now.¡±


    The¡­ bird gives a remarkably high-pitched shriek for something that large. You hurry to put your shoes on and head out of the tent. Might be a mandibuzz or honchkrow. That could be a problem for her.


    ¡°I know. Oh, I can¡­ talk to birds. You can speak to me.¡±


    Coco rushes by and starts making her own roar-chirp-rumble calls at the massive bird. The bird answers. You aren¡¯t sure who it¡¯s answering: Cuicatl or Coco.


    ¡°That¡¯s Coco,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°I¡¯m raising her with the male in our group.¡±


    The bird clucks. Like a torchic. Definitely not what they sound like in movies.


    ¡°A tyrunt. She¡¯s some mix of dragon and bird. Can¡¯t fly.¡±


    More clucks in a different pattern.


    ¡°Yes, she eats meat.¡±


    Something smaller and angrier starts calling out. It sounds a little like the monster bird. A baby, perhaps? And if this is a giant bird that Cuicatl can talk to, it¡¯s probably a braviary and rufflet.


    The braviary gives a long series of trills, whistles, and clucks. Cuicatl listens, occasionally saying a polite word.


    ¡°I see. We can do that, yes.¡±


    The parent and child talk to each other as your mind catches up. Metagross, tyrantrum, ninetales, and braviary, huh? It¡¯s almost unfair.


    With one final shriek the braviary launches itself into the air and soars away. The rufflet gets closer, nervously chirping. You can hear Cuicatl lower herself down, so you also crouch. ¡°Hello, you brave boy. I¡¯m Cuicatl Ichtaca. My friend is Kekoa Mahi¡¯ai. He¡¯ll be taking you down to other humans who can take care of you.¡±


    Wait.


    First of all, glad she didn¡¯t list Lyra as a friend alongside you. You can hear her awkwardly standing around, kicking gravel away from her as she fidgets. Second, why is she giving it up?¡±


    {Don¡¯t you want a braviary? You said you wanted big predators and one just dive bombed you and dropped off its kid.}


    {Can¡¯t. I¡¯d need a priest¡¯s permission. Do you want him?}


    Probably not? Braviary are powerful, sure, but rufflet take infamously long to evolve. You need to depose the False Queen soon. And. They like humans who look like mandibuzz. Long hair, jewelry, all that. You¡¯re not doing that ever again.


    {No.}


    {Alright.} ¡°Let me get some food out for you. You¡¯re hungry, right?¡± The rufflet chirps and Cuicatl stumbles past you into the tent. ¡°Alright. Just let me get some shoes on first.¡±


    ¡°How are you talking to him?¡± Lyra asks. She sounds dazed, probably because she¡¯s just been woken up. Or maybe she¡¯s catching on to Cuicatl¡¯s secrets. Hopefully it¡¯s just drowsiness.


    ¡°Coco talks halfway between a dragon and a bird of prey. Let me figure out a lot of that language,¡± Cuicatl seamlessly lies. You wonder if she¡¯d come up with that up in advance. ¡°And they¡¯re starving. Sight-based hunters and all. Thought we might adopt their kid. I think they do that in the wild with other companies, but all the other companies are probably hungry as well.¡±


    ¡°Oh,¡± she says. ¡°So did his mom just drop him off with the first travelers to walk by? That sounds risky.¡±


    And lucky. Or unlucky. That could¡¯ve gone badly.


    ¡°I think she sensed Coco. Thought we were already caring for a young¡­ bird of our own, so she decided we¡¯d do,¡± Cuicatl says as she gets back out of her tent. ¡°Alright, let me see how much meat we have left¡­¡±


    *


    It¡¯s a little hard to get back to sleep. It¡¯s not just you, either. The rufflet is wide awake outside wrestling against Coco. You can hear their squabbling, hisses, and chirps as they fight. Sometimes they crash into the side of the tent before rolling or jumping away. Cuicatl insists that they¡¯re probably fine, no need to supervise. You¡¯re pretty sure she just doesn¡¯t want to get out of the tent again. Neither do you. She moved back into your tent for the night so the rufflet could see Coco with both of her ¡®parents.¡¯ This will help him, for some reason. Honestly, it¡¯s too early in the morning to even bother trying to understand it. She¡¯s the pok¨¦mon whisperer here.


    ¡°You still awake?¡± you whisper. Like it¡¯s a sleepover and you¡¯re both ten.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°You recording human myths about pok¨¦mon for your thesis?¡±


    ¡°No. Too many of those.¡± She yawns. ¡°You can tell me if you want. I want to stay up a bit longer to make sure things are okay out there.¡±


    There¡¯s a particularly violent wave of hissing outside. She doesn¡¯t move, so you assume that¡¯s also ¡°okay¡± by whatever definition she¡¯s using.


    ¡°The Tapu used to fight a lot. But they were too strong. Lots of stuff died whenever they fought. Eventually they made champions to fight on their behalf. That would later turn into training, but at first it was just the pok¨¦mon themselves. Tapu Koko, the spirit of war and storms, he picked braviary. Let them fly in the fiercest of winds and gave them the souls of true warriors.¡±


    Cuicatl¡¯s quiet for a long time. You wonder if she fell asleep despite herself.


    ¡°You need a priest for rufflet, huh?¡± you whisper, just to see if she¡¯s still awake.


    ¡°Yes.¡± She shifts around. Maybe getting comfortable. Maybe uncomfortable if she really wants to stay awake. ¡°Hu¨©tzil¨­p¨­chtli sends braviary as signs. Where to build cities. Where to fight battles. Who the next tlatoani should be. You can only use one in battle with his permission, and to get that you¡¯d have to ask for it. The asking requires¡­ sacrifice.¡±


    The fuck.


    ¡°So you¡¯d have to just, what, kill someone to get a bird?¡±


    ¡°Sort of? Mostly you¡¯re making a sacrifice for an unrelated reason, and just ask for the braviary alongside it.¡± She says that like it isn¡¯t batshit insane.


    ¡°You don¡¯t actually believe this shit, do you?¡± Of course she doesn¡¯t. She¡¯s smart. She has to get how fucked up this is.


    She shifts beside you. This time you really doubt it has to do with the gravel. ¡°You respect your gods, I respect mine,¡± she whispers. There¡¯s no confidence behind it. You can still pry away the bullshit excuses.


    ¡°Mine don¡¯t ask me to rip hearts out.¡±


    She takes a deep breath. ¡°If Hu¨©tzil¨­p¨­chtli were to weaken, then the world would fall into endless night.¡±


    It takes you a long moment to connect the nonsensical dots on that one. ¡°Wait, you think Necrozma is here because you didn¡¯t rip enough hearts out?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s a dark time approaching, one where evil is unleashed and the sun could burn out,¡± she says with unnerving certainty.


    There¡¯s a terrifying moment where it actually sort of clicks. You can feel the logic deep down. If the tapu asked for it, well, you¡¯d say no, obviously. Any god who asks for that kind of shit isn¡¯t a god you want to worship. But if you¡¯d been told from birth that Tapu Koko could keep the night away if you did it, and then you didn¡¯t and this happened¡­ it¡¯s still wrong. She¡¯s still wrong. There are things you shouldn¡¯t do.


    ¡°It won¡¯t be our blood we shed,¡± she says. ¡°We¡¯ll start a war. Invade one of the southern neighbors. Provoke a rebellion and crush it. Whatever we need to do.¡±


    That¡¯s chilling. A war on the other side of the world because one trainer couldn¡¯t do her job. As if this nightmare needed to be worse, somehow. And her use of ¡®we¡¯ when talking about mass murder is just as terrifying.


    Coco lets out a small rumble of victory before rushing the tent entrance and demanding to be let back in. Cuicatl leans over you and undoes the zipper. The two baby birds tumble in. Coco leaps up onto Cuicatl¡¯s lap while the rufflet hops over to the corner of the tent.


    You feel a pang of sympathy. Poor kid. Just got abandoned by his mother with strange humans, and they¡¯re just going to drop him off downhill later because of gods and queens he knows nothing about. You stare into the darkness above you for a long time before you finally have to speak.


    ¡°Hey, um, rufflet. You can sleep near me if you want.¡±


    The bird clucks. Cuicatl repeats your offer in a whisper, probably so Lyra can¡¯t eavesdrop.


    You can hear the rufflet settle down in place, the offer ignored.


    It¡¯s cold on that side of the tent. The hard, cold rock below isn¡¯t helping. You¡¯re sleeping in the middle so you can at least get some of Cuicatl¡¯s warmth. You want to bring him over, but you don¡¯t want to get pecked. And it¡¯s a little cruel to bond with something you¡¯re just going to drop off at the Center.


    Cuicatl starts softly snoring beside you. Not something she usually does. You shouldn¡¯t wake her up to translate, but¡­ maybe you don¡¯t have to?


    A long time passes before you get up the nerve to say what you want to say.


    ¡°You still awake, rufflet?¡± You hear him shift in place. Good enough. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know if you can even understand me.¡± No answer. ¡°You can come with me if you want. But I won¡¯t be a very good trainer. I have short hair. Always will. I¡¯ll still feed you and fight with you or whatever you want.¡± The rufflet screeches.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Cuicatl murmurs beside you.


    ¡°Just talking to the rufflet.¡±


    ¡°Want me to translate?¡±


    She sounds exhausted. You shouldn¡¯t make her.


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Cool.¡± She slowly pulls herself upright. What you want to say¡­ you aren¡¯t sure if you want her hearing it. But you plow on anyway, because you probably should.


    ¡°Uh. My parents couldn¡¯t care for me anymore, so they gave me to my brother. And he gave me to strangers because he didn¡¯t want to raise me. I kind of get what you¡¯re going through is what I mean. And you can stay with me if you want. I¡¯m not going to wear my hair long or¡ª¡±


    ¡°Slow down.¡± Talking through a translator isn¡¯t nearly as fast as you were hoping for. You¡¯d somehow forgotten that already after just two days.


    She eventually catches up. Or gets close enough to caught up. She asks you to continue. ¡°I¡¯m not going to wear my hair long or dress like you want, but I can still give you food and battling advice or whatever.¡±


    Cuicatl repeats everything in a whisper you can¡¯t actually make out. Just tell that she is talking. The rufflet hears and answers, anyway.


    ¡°He wants to know if you¡¯re his new father.¡±


    What. Uh. Is that what you were going for?


    ¡°Sure,¡± you say, still unsure if you mean it.


    The bird squabbles back.


    ¡°He doesn¡¯t want a weak father. He wants you to fight him to prove yourself.


    Well. He¡¯s tiny. How hard can that be?


    *


    You hiss as you rub an alcohol wipe over one of your many, many peck and bite wounds. Sure, you won because you can still kick harder than a baby bird can peck. Doesn¡¯t feel like a victory.


    ¡°You did win, though,¡± Cuicatl tries to reassure you. ¡°He¡¯ll respect you now. Stay with you for a while if you can keep him happy.¡±


    ¡°And you¡¯ll help with that?¡±


    She huffs. ¡°Duh.¡±


    ¡°Please tell me I don¡¯t need to chew his food.¡±


    ¡°His mother said he was too old for that.¡±


    Thank the gods.


    ¡°And you could always use a mortar and pestle.¡±


    Wait what.


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you do that?¡±


    ¡°Important to build bonds. Not too much risk of disease.¡±


    That. Kind of makes sense? In her weird way. You sigh. Not the only way her life is weird.


    {This is the kind of shit you meant by stumbling into things, isn¡¯t it?}


    {Yup.}


    {And this just happens to you?}


    {Pretty much. Same for my mom.}


    {How?}


    {Helps when you can bargain with pok¨¦mon rather than just taking them away from home and hoping they go along with it.}


    That feels like a dig against you. Kanoa would tell you it isn¡¯t, but the captain hasn¡¯t actually taught you shit yet. Just dangled the promise in front of you.


    ¡°I¡¯m proud of you,¡± she says, like you¡¯re four or something.


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    She yawns deeply and settles into her bed.


    ¡°Not proud enough to stay up longer. If he acts up you¡¯re on your own.¡±


    ¡°I think I can handle it,¡± you say, deeply unsure if you actually can.


    ¡°Good night. For real this time.¡±


    What time even is it? You reach for your phone before deciding it doesn¡¯t even matter. There¡¯s no dusk and dawn anymore. You¡¯ll eat when you¡¯re hungry and hike when you¡¯re ready. Doesn¡¯t matter if Lyra objects.


    You finally disinfect and bandage your last cut. You¡¯re going to need to refill the first aid kit at the meadow center. ¡°Good night,¡± you say just before lying down to try and find rest yourself. Just before you drift off you feel the rufflet lean against your leg.

 Fighting 11: Kekoa

    Fighting 3.11: The Wasteland


    Kekoa


    January 17, 2020


    You pick at your breakfast in the darkness, slowly bringing bites to your mouth. You¡¯ve mostly gotten the hang of putting the spoon into your mouth. Putting it into the bowl still gets you sometimes. And it¡¯s awkward every time you slam your spoon into the table on accident.


    Cuicatl isn¡¯t bothered. For her it must be like nothing¡¯s changed at all.


    ¡°Hey, Kekoa,¡± Cuicatl says.


    ¡°Yeah?¡±


    ¡°You seen Noci today? She isn¡¯t answering me.¡±


    That does explain why she¡¯s using her cane. Thought that maybe she was just doing it for the novelty.


    ¡°Cuicatl, I haven¡¯t seen shit today.¡±


    You wish this Center had inkay like the one in Hau¡¯oli did. Lyra disagrees because of her hate on for psychic-types but that¡¯s on her. She can trip all over herself if she likes. You¡¯ll take the light.


    ¡°She isn¡¯t answering me and I can¡¯t sense her.¡±


    You scoff. ¡°Just have the nurse check her tracker.¡±


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t have one. Can¡¯t put it in her skin and she kept taking off her collar. Said she didn¡¯t want people to spy on her.¡±


    Oh. What. The fuck? You start laughing hysterically. It¡¯s not funny to her, but, seriously? Can¡¯t she see it? ¡°They don¡¯t want people spying on them. But when they do it, that¡¯s fine.¡± What a hypocrite.


    (Your laugh is deeper and it makes you feel warm despite the cold.)


    You hear footsteps approach the table. You still can¡¯t tell them apart like Cuicatl can. She apparently knows how heavy you step, the type of shoe you wear, and how fast you usually go. All stuff that¡¯s worthless to know unless you¡¯re blind or an alien snuffs out the light.


    ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± Lyra asks.


    Great. Her. You¡¯re tolerating each other because Cuicatl wants you to. Wouldn¡¯t say you¡¯re friends. Or anywhere close to friends.


    ¡°Her beldum doesn¡¯t like being spied on.¡±


    Cuicatl sets her spoon down gently against the edge of her bowl. There¡¯s something almost¡­ pathetic in the sound. You can¡¯t place your finger on why. ¡°I can¡¯t find Noci.¡±


    ¡°Oh, no.¡± Lyra sounds so pitying. She walks closer and accidentally hits the table, causing the bowls on it to ring out as they settle back down and stop vibrating. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. But I¡¯m sure she¡¯s fine. Made of metal. Probably just got distracted by something.¡±


    They¡¯re a rock. They¡¯re obviously fine. But Cuicatl is using the voice she does when she curls up and acts like she isn¡¯t sure if she wants to be comforted or not. And she usually wants comforted. Except for when she pushes you away.


    ¡°We can look for them while we¡¯re out in the field today.¡±


    ¡°Right. Um. You still sure we want to split up?¡± Lyra asks. ¡°I know there are two capture missions, but we could just do them on different days.¡±


    ¡°No. I¡¯ll be fine,¡± Cuicatl says. And you do have to split up. She can¡¯t use her psychic bullshit around Lyra without things blowing up.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be on the marked path. And the meadow is full of grass, flying, and bug-types. I have an ice-type with me with a rock-type in reserve. I¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re sure¡­¡±


    ¡°I am. We can meet back here at noon and make our next plans.


    *


    Every step you take along the boardwalk echoes out into the meadow.


    Nothing answers.


    Lyra walks along in front of you, absol at her side. If anything did bother you, she¡¯s in the best position to take care of it right now. You have two pok¨¦mon again, but one¡¯s a baby and the other shouldn¡¯t be out of her ball outside. You aren¡¯t helpless. You could fight if you had to. Just¡­ best to let her take the front.


    Lyra¡¯s absol stops and growls. Your hand flies down to your pok¨¦balls. You imagine Lyra¡¯s doing the same in front of you.


    ¡°Relax, children. I am merely a traveler,¡± a woman calls out from the distance. She has a soft voice, barely audible, but its full of confidence.


    ¡°How¡¯d you know we were children?¡± Lyra asks. Huh. Good catch. Not that you¡¯ll tell her that.


    ¡°Your steps. They do not suggest weight, but there is an energy there.¡± Footsteps have always just been footsteps to you. But she sounds a bit like Cuicatl. Is she also blind? Would it be rude to ask? She continues before you can decide. ¡°What are you doing in this place? There is nothing here to see and it is far too dangerous for a stroll.¡±


    ¡°Looking for a pok¨¦mon,¡± you answer. ¡°And you?¡±


    ¡°What sort of pok¨¦mon? I may be able to help you.¡±


    There¡¯s something off with her voice, but you can¡¯t quite place it. Probably not just the trace of an accent. Kalosian, maybe? No, it¡¯s something familiar but just out of reach.


    ¡°Floette,¡± Lyra says. ¡°My friend heard there was a rare one near here.¡±


    Friend is certainly a word. Just not one that applies.


    ¡°A white floette, I presume?¡± Her voice sounds a little bit like distorted music. Sort of like Cuicatl¡¯s singing in the cave. Is that what¡¯s off? Or just a sign of something bigger?


    You¡¯re paying too much attention to this.


    You¡¯re paying too much attention to this.


    ¡°Yup,¡± you say.


    ¡°And someone is paying you for it, I assume? Either the government or the poachers.¡± She sounds uncannily like Cuicatl does when she knows she¡¯s right and is setting up to win the argument. Something compels you to keep talking anyway.


    ¡°They aren¡¯t poachers.¡±


    ¡°Because poaching is illegal, and they¡¯ve made enough well-placed donations that they aren¡¯t illegal,¡± Lyra says. Great. Now you¡¯re arguing with two people. Or you could just let it slide.


    That would be dishonorable. And you care very much for your honor, do you not?


    But that would be cowardly.


    ¡°We don¡¯t all have rich parents paying the bills,¡± you snap at Lyra.


    ¡°Is that not the mentality of the poacher?¡± the woman asks. ¡°Society gives them a way out of destitution, if only they sell out the world in which they live. An ingenious trap. When all the exploited have is their heritage, persuade some to betray it. Then use that as an excuse to steal it under the guise of conservation.¡± She sighs. ¡°If only your kind would use that cleverness to better ends.¡±


    ¡°Your kind?¡±


    Unimportant.


    She makes a disturbing amount of sense. But¡­ the cause needs money. And anything you do now will be more than offset when your people retake the throne.


    ¡°An excuse I have heard the world over.¡±


    Wait.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say that question aloud.¡± You¡¯re pretty sure, anyway.


    You did, actually.


    Lyra¡¯s absol begins to growl. Sort of. There¡¯s a whimper mixed in. Her trainer snaps in frustration. ¡°Snarl, damn it!¡±


    ¡°Easy, child,¡± the woman whispers, ¡°her kind sense disasters. She knows full well what would happen if she made me cross.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not scared of you.¡± She says it with as much confidence as she can with her teeth chattering. And not just because of the cold in the meadow.


    The entire area lights up in a flash of blinding white light. For a moment you get a glimpse of someone tall and pale with a big face before the light fades again. Lyra starts to whimper alongside her absol.


    ¡°I am not human, child: I will not hurt you for the sake of inflicting pain.¡±


    ¡°W-what are you?¡± Lyra stammers out.


    The lights come back, far less harsh this time. Now you can see the gorgeous white flower in front of you, easily seven feet tall. ¡°I am a florges. Be still now. You have nothing to fear.¡±


    Florges. A white florges. They¡¯re banned in half the world for assassinating warmongers and polluters. Some Middle Eastern nation lost its shit and started firing on people when white petals showed up in a crowd. They¡¯re the ultimate revolutionaries, and one is standing right in front of you.


    And she has judged you and found you wanting.


    She glances in your direction at the thought and then turns back to Lyra. ¡°Can you not tell the difference between those who can harm you and those who will? Do you believe you must be invulnerable to be safe?¡±


    ¡°Fuck you,¡± she growls. It somehow sounds like a plea for help. Damn it, you don¡¯t want to have sympathy for her.


    ¡°You will never be invulnerable child, not so long as gods walk the earth.¡± She finally turns her full body in your direction. ¡°Oh, but you know that full well.¡± The white light is suddenly filled with waves of blue and red. You grind your teeth together. Does she just like messing with people?


    ¡°In truth I do not. But sometimes humans, like plants, must be pruned to properly grow.¡± The light evens back out to a neutral white. Her voice lowers even further to something soothing and maternal. ¡°I am sorry for what you have gone through, Kekoa Mahi¡¯ai. It seems no matter how long I live the humans will never learn not to trifle with beings so far beyond them¡­¡± A shudder wracks her body and she closes her eyes. ¡°¡­it¡¯s enough to make me wonder why I still walk amongst your kind.¡±


    At the edge of your vision you see Lyra start to take a few steps backwards. The florges ignores her.


    ¡°There are still some people on the right side.¡±


    She tilts her head and the petals at the edge of her face flutter. Lyra slowly starts to turn around, tension building in her legs. She is once more ignored.


    ¡°The right side¡­ most humans believe themselves to be on the right side. Few are. Some fight for justice, others¡­¡± Her eyes fix on you with a newfound intensity. As if she¡¯s staring past your mind and body into your soul. ¡°You fight for justice, yes?¡±


    It feels like you¡¯re walking back into a trap. But the pressure reappears on your mind to speak rather than remain silent. ¡°¡­yeah¡­¡± You can only imagine what she¡¯s going to do with that.


    ¡°You want the liberation of your people. I sympathize. Colonialism is a blight upon the world that cannot recede quickly enough.¡± For a moment you have hope. They she makes eye contact again and it falls away. ¡°Will you fight with such passion for others seeking justice? For a refugee seeking shelter in your homeland? Or for a child lost in darkness, trying desperately to avoid being taken by a strange man and sent away from his only home?¡±


    It takes you longer than you¡¯d like to admit to realize she¡¯s talking about the floette.


    She takes a small step forward and it takes everything you have to avoid stepping back. In the light you can see just how much bigger she is than you. How much stronger. She could snap your neck and grow plants over your corpse so you would never be found.


    ¡°If I wished to kill you,¡± she murmurs, ¡°you would have never anticipated it. One moment you would be awake, and the next you would be dead.¡± A vine extends from her stem and rests on your shoulder. ¡°I do not kill poachers. The buyers, yes, but not the hunters. The world is complicated, and some people are victimized and victimizer all at once. I would rather judge them too leniently than take a life I should not have. But I must stop you. I hope you can accept this.¡±


    You nod. Whether that¡¯s for your own safety or because you feel bad for a child in the dark¡­ you¡¯ll figure that out later.


    ¡°If I cannot appeal to your sense of justice, perhaps you can be swayed by your own interest. A bargain.¡±


    There aren¡¯t many fairies on Akala. The shiinotic and comfey up north. The ribombee in what¡¯s left of the meadow. A few wigglytuff around Paniola. Even if you weren¡¯t likely to encounter one, your mother still gave you the quiet warnings every Alolan mother has told for centuries: be courteous to the fairies. Be kind to the fairies. Do not antagonize any of the fairies. But the smartest ones?


    Do not bargain with or harm them, even on accident.


    Said in the same solemn tone as ¡®don¡¯t hug the bewear.¡¯


    Ribombee, wigglytuff, shiinotic, they may have the blood of fairies but none of the alien intelligence. Florges do. And she wants to bargain with you.


    She won¡¯t say what her offer is, but it¡¯s not like you really have a choice here. Even if you wanted to continue there¡¯s no way in hell you¡¯d live to get the money. You doubt anyone could with a florges watching over them. Whatever her bargain is, at least you would get something out of it that you would not otherwise.


    The flower gently shakes her head once again. ¡°I do not mean you harm, child. I have better things to do than becoming your master.¡±


    You bristle at the word. Like you¡¯re a slave. ¡°Or a pok¨¦mon,¡± the florges says. ¡°Quite a few humans use the word in reference to their team. And others say ¡®trainer¡¯ but mean something else. Trainer implies that a coaching service is being provided. Yet few humans would allow their coach to lock them up outside of training and matches. Even then, so many humans fail to understand why their captives dislike them¡­¡± She turns her head and stares out into the darkness. ¡°Will you accept my offer?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Because what else is there to do? A choice made with a vine on your shoulder isn¡¯t much choice at all.


    ¡°So close to getting it,¡± the fairy muses, ¡°yet so very far.¡±


    You don¡¯t know what she¡¯s talking about: you ¡®got that¡¯ a long time ago. Run away and risk juvie or stay in foster care. Do what the system wants or be punished.


    The florges sighs. Sort of. It¡¯s not quite right, probably because she doesn¡¯t have actual lungs. ¡°What is it you wish of me? If I can perform it within a quarter day I shall do it.¡±The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    That¡¯s broad. Terrifyingly broad. It means she¡¯s confident that whatever you ask for can be countered. Like if you asked for the floette. Even if you gave it to her she could just turn around and kill you before releasing the floette.


    ¡°You would be breaking the terms of our bargain,¡± she says. ¡°But I could do something similar for other requests, yes.¡±


    You shiver. Yup. Definitely out. You could ask for help with the butterfree but you figure Cuciatl¡¯s got that handled. If you were dumb enough to ask her to be your pok¨¦mon she¡¯d either kill you outright or leave after six hours.


    Or brainwash you. A human puppet could be useful.


    ¡°I already told you I meant no harm. Yet your mind is so quick to thoughts of violence.¡±


    At least Cuicatl isn¡¯t always judging your thoughts.


    A wave of amusement washes against your mind. ¡°I shall graciously allow you some quiet reflection.¡±


    You sigh and try to focus. Can¡¯t be too distracted when bargaining with a florges. You think back to an old conversation with Cuicatl. When Makani left you weren¡¯t really thinking about trying again, but the pieces all fit together. Cuicatl could also help you with it, but this doesn¡¯t feel like something the florges would mind with her talk about masters and slaves.


    ¡°I want your help finding a grubbin. And if they want to leave me after evolution, I¡¯ll let them go.¡±


    The florges tilts her head. An invitation to keep going?


    ¡°I had one but he left. When I caught him, I didn¡¯t ask him if he wanted to go.¡± Like Lyra and her noibat. And you never even took him back home. Wait, do grubbin even have social lives? Friends? Family to miss them?


    ¡°You took one without knowing those answers,¡± she murmurs. ¡°Because you could. Because it was easy. Because you wanted to.¡±


    You can¡¯t really disagree with her. You did. You didn¡¯t know better. Now¡­ now you do.


    ¡°Perhaps I could obtain those answers for you. And if the grubbin wants power more than their home, then it could be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Provided that you treat them with the respect they deserve.¡±


    The respect they deserve? You¡¯ve been keeping them healthy. Why would that change now?


    The florges takes her vine off your shoulder and begins to walk along the boardwalk in a continuous shimmying movement. ¡°If a pok¨¦mon abducted you and promised to help you free your country, would you still work for them if they merely kept you fed and patched your body back together after they broke you? Would you go back to your cage every night, nay, every hour, content and satisfied?¡±


    You would sacrifice a lot but. That. You slouch a bit more. To cover more of your body with your jacket. ¡°How do you, uh, ¡®give them the respect they deserve,¡¯ then?¡±


    The lights around her glimmer and roll. Like a one-flower rave. Or her rolling her eyes. ¡°You could, perhaps, ask them? You are allied with one of the Harbor Queen¡¯s spawn, are you not?¡±


    ¡°Spawn?¡± You¡¯re pretty sure that¡¯s an insult. Not that you remember much from Shakespeare. Haole pricks trying to teach you about the genius of their skeletons.


    She curls a vine like she¡¯s shrugging one shoulder. ¡°An old joke with an ancestor of hers. A way to take him down a peg. You humans place so much emphasis on your blood because it is an honor that requires none of your own effort to earn. He was slow to learn that lesson. You all are. And I never met Shakespeare. I had meant to, but there were always more pressing matters in the west. Conquerors and slavers to kill, cultures to study, plague victims to treat. By the time I next arrived in Europe even his children were long buried.¡±


    You have not yet engaged with my actual point.


    Right. Asking them. You. You should do that. For Hekeli¡ªMahina¡ªat least. Rufflet value honor above all else and asking might lose you face. That could make everything else go worse.


    ¡°Or, perhaps, a lost child being raised by an unfamiliar species would appreciate being asked what he wants.¡± She says it slowly in a high monotone.


    Like a mother lecturing a toddler.


    The florges hums. It hits you in the brain way more than Cuicatl¡¯s. Flashes of light and feeling vibrating on the surface of your mind. ¡°I was already old when primates first sailed to these rocks. Even your elders are still sprouts to me.¡±


    You find your mind wandering back to the early days in foster care. How many of your foster ¡®parents¡¯ didn¡¯t ask you anything so that they could look dominant. You would have respected them more if they did. Yet. Ihe isn¡¯t human. Does that make it different? In which direction? Could you just have Cuicatl do it.


    The florges stops and looks back at you with an almost painfully stoic look. Like she doesn¡¯t even see you there.


    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ talk to Ihe about what he wants.¡±


    Because what else are you supposed to say when she looks through you like that?


    She nods and turns back around.


    The boardwalk sprawls on in the darkness. In the distance there¡¯s a small patch with multiple guards and a fence around it. Some fire-types and castform are keeping it lit up. ¡°If part of the meadow survives, then the whole thing can regrow,¡± the nurse said. Maybe. Over years. Decades. You wonder how the grass-type pok¨¦mon trapped on the other side of the fence feel, doomed to starve just a few yards away from warmth and light.


    One of Skull¡¯s less-illegal branches runs a blog online. A few days back they posted pictures of some rich assholes crowded together under castform light having a normal day on their private beach. If the heiress hadn¡¯t kept her castform, would that be what it was used for? Maybe it¡¯s a scam: literally freeze your people out of the market, then buy all the land and stay hunkered down in their bubbles. Keep it all when the sun comes back. Maybe Selene¡¯s even in on it.


    ¡°Perhaps the paranoid attract one another...¡±


    You remember her lecturing Lyra about paranoia and you scowl.


    ¡°We¡¯re not the same.¡±


    ¡°Correct. You lack the capacity to harm the object of your paranoia.¡±


    Harsh. Accurate, but harsh. Someday, though, you¡¯ll have the power you need to defeat The False Queen.


    ¡°Will you, now?¡±


    ¡°Y-yeah.¡± You try to project as much confidence as you can. She already¡­ hates is wrong, you think. But she doesn¡¯t like you. And florges are badass assassins and warriors that can bring down corporations, empires, and armies with a few snapped necks.


    ¡°Hate is the wrong word, yes,¡± she murmurs. ¡°I hate no one.¡±


    ¡°Even the people you kill?¡±


    ¡°Yes, even them. I grieve every death. Not always for the man they were, but for who they could have been. It takes talent to be truly horrific. I do not understand why they would put such talent towards ignoble ends.¡±


    You walk the rest of the way in silence. Sometimes a bug will cry out or one of the remaining oricorio will warble. Other than that, it¡¯s just your footsteps. And whatever the florges is doing. Her actual steps are impossibly soft. Most of the noise is in a steady shimmying movement as her petals gently flap in the wind. She¡¯s a flower. Not built for speed.


    The florges abruptly stops and holds a petal out. ¡°Ah. I believe I¡¯ve found one. Give me a moment.¡±


    She sinks a vine into the earth and rummages it around. Her whole body freezes up for a moment before she reels out the vine, a grubbin biting on at the end.


    ¡°Hello, cherished friend,¡± the florges says in her hauntingly melodic way. ¡°I wished to mediate a bargain with you.¡±


    The grubbin hesitates before letting go. He hisses something out in a chittering, oscillating mess of voices that drill into your head. ¡°What?¡±


    It takes you a moment to shake it out of your head. If that¡¯s what translation is like, maybe you¡¯re lucky Cuicatl never gave you a link to your pok¨¦mon. How is she not always in pain?


    ¡°I am merely here to facilitate,¡± the florges turns towards you. ¡°He wished to speak.¡±


    Right. You take a deep breath and begin. ¡°If you want to grow into your final form, if you want to fly, I can give that to you. I just want you to help me for a few moons afterwards. There are enemies I need to defeat.¡±


    Another burst of terrible, vibrating noise. ¡°We can¡¯t do that here.¡±


    ¡°I can. I have a rock that will let you.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t believe you. Let me go.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s lying.¡±


    The grubbin chitters away and the florges doesn¡¯t translate. It sounds like they¡¯re having a conversation but you aren¡¯t let in. Probably for the best. There¡¯s already a headache coming in.


    ¡°She believes you now,¡± the florges finally says.


    She. Right. You¡¯d just kind of assumed they were¡ªshe was¡ªlike Makani.


    ¡°Good. So, uh, you willing to come along?¡±


    This time it starts slow and soft before rising in pace and pitch. ¡°Yes. What are you fighting? Birds?¡±


    ¡°Lots of things.¡± There¡¯s not a flying trial now but one of the Elite Four uses birds. You think she¡¯s a Gage. Genesis never mentioned her, though. Are they not close? Was she just hiding it? ¡°Including birds.¡±


    ¡°Do you have food?¡± she asks.


    ¡°Yes. I can get you food.¡± Might be a bit tricky now. Later, though, once things go back to kind of normal. ¡°Or take you to lots of good food,¡± you add, just to be safe.


    The grubbin is silent.


    ¡°Is there anyone you want to talk to first?¡±


    Her reply is short. A single clack of the mandibles. ¡°No.¡±


    Oh. Good. At least you didn¡¯t get that wrong last time.


    ¡°Cool. And. Is there anything you want me to call you? A name?¡±


    She has another one-sided conversation with the florges.


    ¡°She does not have a preference,¡± the flower finally answers.


    Well, you already had a name picked out if Makani was female. ¡°How about Leilani?¡± you ask. ¡°It means child of the skies.¡±


    Three clacks.


    ¡°She likes it.¡±


    The wind picks up and blows straight through your layers. You realize that you haven¡¯t really been feeling the cold as much in your fingers in the last few minutes. Probably bad. You reach to your belt and pull out a great ball you¡¯d bought for catching the floette. Guess it¡¯ll have to do here.


    ¡°We can talk more where it¡¯s warmer.¡± And with a translator you trust a little more. One who won¡¯t keep hitting you in the head with her mind. ¡°For now, touch the front if you accept the deal.¡±


    You kneel down and set it down by the bug-type. She stares at it for several long seconds before wriggling forward and hitting the capture button. The ball shakes once and then goes still before the red light fades. She¡¯s been captured. You have a second pok¨¦mon again. You stand back up and face the florges.


    ¡°Thank you for your help.¡±


    She tilts her head. ¡°We had a bargain, did we not?¡±


    ¡°And I¡¯m glad you came through.¡±


    Her eyes turn hard and your breath stops. Shit. Did you say something wrong?


    ¡°Do not thank the fairies unless you mean to create a debt. NEVER imply they would break their bargains. Others will not be as forgiving as I.¡±


    There¡¯s a ferocity in her voice that there hasn¡¯t been before. For a moment you see death in her eyes and can almost feel the power in her coiled vines. The light she emits feels less like a comfort and more of a threat. Then she turns and beckons you to follow.


    You do. What else are you going to do? You have no idea where you are in the meadow. Better to trust that she would have just killed you instantly if she meant you harm. You huddle into yourself as the wind lashes your exposed face. You grew up in Alola. Things were never supposed to be this cold. Even at the base of Lanakila it wasn¡¯t like this. It¡¯s not as immediately bad as things were in Hoenn, but¡­


    There¡¯s a comparison. You hate that there¡¯s a comparison. Hate that no one learned. That no one ever learns.


    ¡°Welcome to my life,¡± the florges whispers. It¡¯s so faint that for a moment you just mistake it for the sound of the wind. ¡°I¡¯ve had that feeling every day for three thousand years. You never do learn. Not as a species. But sometimes I get a single idea into one of your heads.¡±


    For the entire morning she¡¯s sounded amused. Like she was fully in control and enjoying everything. now she sounds bitter and defeated. Like she needs a hug. Like she¡¯s needed a hug for three thousand years. You glance at her vines. They could still definitely snap your neck.


    Is it sexual harassment if you give an unwanted hug to a flower demigoddess?


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, child. Only weary.¡±


    Okay. Then you¡¯ll give her space.


    You go on walking for a while. Long enough to think. About what she said about blood. You get that. Maybe it¡¯s the best thing she¡¯s said. Haole feeling good at themselves because of the skin color they were born with.


    ¡°I think you might be misinterpreting me,¡± the florges says. First time she¡¯s spoken in¡­ a while. Wherever she¡¯s taking you, you¡¯re probably almost there.


    ¡°How am I? That part made sense.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s more than just them.¡±


    What. But. Is she insulting you? Your people?


    ¡°They came here, killed most of us, stole our land, and make us serve them,¡± you hiss. ¡°How are we the bad guys?¡±


    ¡°They did, and it was and is wrong,¡± the florges concedes. Now she doesn¡¯t sound playful or haunting or bitter. Just tired. ¡°But who was on the island before your ancestors arrived?¡±


    A few fallers, maybe, but you don¡¯t think they made the legends. So. ¡°No one?¡±


    She shakes her head. ¡°There were birds and bugs and flowers here first. And I know you have personally tried to abduct all three.¡±


    That¡¯s.


    That was.


    Your ancestors were far kinder to the pok¨¦mon than the haole.


    ¡°Perhaps. Yet you did not know if the grubbin you abducted had a family or not. And in many months you never cared to ask.¡± She stops abruptly and turns around. Her eyes bore through yours once again. ¡°You are all born in bloody soil. How could you not become bloodstained?¡±


    The florges extends a single vine towards the path behind her. ¡°Your friend is that way. I have no more patience for this conversation.¡± The lights seem to dim and warp around her until you can see the next few steps of the path but not her. That¡¯s¡­ fine. You can make it back from here.


    You walk towards the center with a writhing feeling in your stomach that you¡¯ve done something terribly wrong.


    *


    The light fades and the darkness swallows you whole before you can get to the Pok¨¦mon Center. You send Mahina out to guard you or¡­ something. It¡¯s that or be entirely alone in the dark with no idea what¡¯s around you. The best you can do is slowly scoot your feet forward so you don¡¯t walk straight off the boardwalk.


    It¡¯s slow. It¡¯s tedious. It¡¯s maybe a little scary. Like drowning in freezing darkness with no idea which way is up.


    Big things keep flying by. They move with slow, steady wingbeats that stir up the cold the air around you. They aren¡¯t attacking you, whatever they are. Best be quiet. Avoid catching their attention.


    Trumbeak aren¡¯t at the top of the food chain. Neither are you.


    Hard, inhuman steps begin approaching on the boardwalk. Surprisingly fast for something in the dark.


    ¡°Mahina,¡± you call out. ¡°Get ready.¡± Maybe it¡¯ll catch the attention of the birds, but there¡¯s something coming now you need to be ready for.


    It lets out a series of blood-curdling moans and violent, thrashing hisses that sound like they don¡¯t belong on this planet.


    Oh.


    It¡¯s just Coco.


    ¡°Hey, girl.¡±


    She slows down and walks over to nuzzle your leg. ¡°Cuicatl send you out?¡±


    The dinosaur makes a mangled bellow that you¡¯re pretty sure means ¡®yes.¡¯


    Rapidly outgrowing her ¡®cute¡¯ phase. Still not into her ¡®fucking badass¡¯ one.


    You can relate to that.


    ¡°Can you take me to her?¡±


    There seem to be more and more of the birds flying by as Coco takes you closer to Cuicatl. To the Center, hopefully. Your phone was dead last you checked but it¡¯s probably noon. Not that you had signal out here anyway. The darkness doesn¡¯t let up even after you step off the boardwalk and onto soft grass. You¡¯re just left to trust that Coco knows what they¡¯re doing.


    Is this what Cuicatl goes through every day? Why does she ever go outside? You wouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°Hello, Kekoa,¡± she calls out from the forward-left. Thank the gods. You¡¯re not alone anymore.


    ¡°Hey. Uh. We by the Center or what?¡±


    You can imagine her rolling her eyes. Yes, it¡¯s a dumb question. No, you don¡¯t know the answer.


    ¡°We¡¯re at the Pok¨¦mon Center. You missed the return deadline, by the way.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, yeah. Little busy with a death flower.¡±


    She pauses. Coco takes the chance to bolt away from you back to her ¡®mother.¡¯ Traitor. You have to stop moving just to make sure you don¡¯t hit anything.


    ¡°You aren¡¯t hurt, are you?¡±


    ¡°She wouldn¡¯t have hurt me. Just killed me. And she didn¡¯t. Still alive.¡±


    Pretty sure you¡¯d know if you weren¡¯t.


    ¡°I got a new grubbin. And, uh, does translation hurt you? Because that fucking sucks if it does.¡±


    ¡°No¡­?¡± She sounds confused at the idea that it could. ¡°Except for the Ultra Beasts on Ula¡¯Ula. Those hurt.¡±


    Then the florges either wasn¡¯t as strong as her or just wanted you to suffer for fun. She was just casually reading and fucking with your thoughts so you¡¯re guessing it¡¯s the latter. What a troll. Can¡¯t even be mad.


    ¡°Can you help me talk to her later? Didn¡¯t want to say more than I had to out in the cold.¡±


    ¡°Sure. Busy with butterfree now, but I can in a bit.¡±


    The wings? Those. ¡°Those things are butterfree? Why are they all coming here?¡±


    ¡°Found a gossip. She told all her friends the humans would take them some place warm. I¡¯m just and catching them as they come.¡±


    You were terrified of goddamn butterfree. You want to die of embarrassment.


    If Cuicatl picked up on that she¡¯s nice enough to ignore it. ¡°Lyra¡¯s shaken up pretty bad. Might want to go tell her you¡¯re fine.¡±


    ¡°Cool. Can you tell me where the door is?¡± Because you could spend a long time searching and never find it.


    ¡°Coco? Can you help your dad out.¡±


    The dinosaur rushes over and gently bumps your leg with her head. You really wish Cuicatl would stop telling her that you¡¯re the thing¡¯s father. You aren¡¯t. You¡¯re human and you wouldn¡¯t know the first thing about raising a kid. You weren¡¯t even good with the younger kids at the orphanage and they were at least human.


    Wait.


    ¡°The florges knew about you,¡± you tell Cuicatl. ¡°And your ancestry.¡±


    She lets out an annoyed huff. ¡°Great. Did you get a name from her?¡±


    A name? Oh. Oh shit. You never asked.


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Didn¡¯t think you would. Fairies are weird about that. Why I don¡¯t like them. They play too many weird games.¡±


    ¡°And beat up your precious dragons?¡±


    ¡°They think they can beat up dragons. Just because you can absorb dragon fire doesn¡¯t mean your skull can¡¯t be bashed in.¡±


    ¡­probably best to end this conversation. Just in case the florges is still around. Don¡¯t want her saying something she¡¯d regret.


    ¡°I¡¯ll be back when I¡¯m done with Lyra.¡±


    ¡°No. Stay inside. You¡¯ve been out too long.¡±


    Long enough that you can only sort of feel your fingers. She might have a point.


    Inside is warmer but not brighter. No wind. Just dead air, you, and a baby dinosaur. She stops and slaps her tail against the ground a ways down the hall. Probably Lyra and Cuicatl¡¯s room. You reach out until your fingers find the door. Or what feels like a door. Then you knock.


    ¡°Who is it?¡± Yeah, that¡¯s Lyra alright.


    ¡°Kekoa. Cuicatl asked me to check on you.¡± Or something like that. More like her checking in on you.


    The door swings open a few seconds later. She¡¯s on the other side. Probably. You can¡¯t actually see her even if you could probably reach out and touch her. ¡°Come in.¡±


    It¡¯s a little awkward sliding past someone you can¡¯t see. Or finding somewhere to sit. So you just stand in the middle (?) of the room while Lyra goes back to her bed. You can hear the click-clack of her absol¡¯s hooves on the ground as he walks.


    ¡°Did she do anything to you that you know of?¡± Lyra asks. She sounds more serious than you¡¯ve ever heard of.


    ¡°No. We just talked. And she helped me catch a grubbin.¡±


    ¡°Wait. Why? What did she get out of that.¡±


    ¡°We, uh, we had an agreement.¡± You know you weren¡¯t supposed to do that. You had a vine on your shoulder. Wasn¡¯t like you could just refuse to bargain.


    ¡°And what did she get out of it? Exact terms, please.¡± She sounds like a goddamn cop. Whatever. You can humor her.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t try to catch the floette.¡±


    ¡°No, no. That doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± She gets up and you can hear her faint footsteps as she paces in a tight circle. Or oval. Again, can¡¯t see. ¡°She already could have stopped you. There must have been something else. Again, exact terms. Please.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t really remember.¡± You¡¯d been more concerned with not dying. And what you were asking for.


    ¡°Bad. Very bad. Probably some sort of delayed suggestion. Or a memory edit? She¡¯d only give you something like that if it helped her cause. If she gave you a pok¨¦mon it¡¯s because she expected you to use it to advance some goal she couldn¡¯t herself.¡±


    She was pretty clear about not wanting to do any of that. And you¡¯re pretty sure the fairies don¡¯t lie or something. ¡°She said you were paranoid. And that she wasn¡¯t going to do that stuff.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s not paranoia if they really are out to get you,¡± she mutters. ¡°Then it¡¯s just caution. And please tell me specifically what she said she wouldn¡¯t do. Exact words are really important when dealing with fairies.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember. Only thought she might hurt me once and was more focused on other stuff.¡±


    She smacks her hands against something. Maybe each other? It¡¯s loud and sharp. ¡°Damn it, Kekoa, this shit is important.¡± She sighs and falls back down on her mattress. ¡°What did you do that she threatened you?¡±


    ¡°Apologized and thanked her for doing what she said she would.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t immediately lay into you. That¡¯s surprising. Maybe she would have made that mistake, too.


    ¡°Okay so you have no idea what you¡¯re doing with some of the ficklest pok¨¦mon in the world. Got it. Guess I¡¯m going to have to give you lessons.¡±


    ¡°Excuse me?¡± You don¡¯t need lessons from her. She¡¯s some rich brat doing this for fun. You¡¯re better than¡ª


    ¡­


    Well. You¡¯re maybe in a lot of trouble. And she at least thinks she knows what she¡¯s talking about.


    ¡°I¡¯ll think about it.¡±


    You can hear the mattress shift as Lyra gets back up. ¡°I¡¯m going out to relieve Cuicatl before she gets frostbite again. We¡¯ll talk more when I get back.¡±


    Hopefully you¡¯ll have an answer by then.

 Fighting 12: Pixie

    Fighting 3.12: Echoes


    Pixie


    January 17, 2020


    You lead Skysong back through the field of death. She plods on behind you much slower than normal. You hurry up and the little bell she put on your collar rings loudly. Good. She can move faster and stop dragging her stupid stick behind her. And if she¡¯s annoyed and out of breath then she will not be in the mood to make friends and you will not have to deal with smelly bugs.


    You reach the edge of the meadow after passing the scents of five butterfree.


    ¡°Haven¡¯t found anything yet?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± No butterfree. But there¡¯s a sound of howling wind and the scent of ice users nearby. You want to investigate. ¡°There are ice-types nearby. Can I hunt them?¡±


    ¡°Pix,¡± she groans.


    ¡°There may be butterfree in the cave.¡±


    ¡°There aren¡¯t. I know what it is. Come on. Please.¡±


    You walk into the cave with Skysong behind you. Once her footsteps are answered from all sides she stops. ¡°No. Out of the cave.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    You keep walking forward. Skysong stops and stands strong. ¡°Out. Now.¡±


    A hiss leaves your lips before you can stop it. This is strange for her. Is she finally showing who she really is? Or is she that upset over her stupid rock. You walk forward and the cave rings with the sounds of your bell. ¡°Fine. We¡¯ll come back later. That good? I just want to be back soon in case Noci returns.¡±


    ¡°No. Play!¡±


    You haven¡¯t smelled this many ice users in ages. Not¡­ not since the mountain. You want to explore.


    ¡°The Pok¨¦mon Center sells frozen blood sticks. I can get you one if you find me more than one butterfree. And then I¡¯ll take you back here tomorrow for as long as you want.¡±


    What. She could have bought you frozen blood at any time? And she didn¡¯t? Why? Do all of the places she stays sell frozen blood? Because now you want one whenever you have to sleep inside. At least one per night. Maybe three.


    ¡°Three.¡±


    ¡°One a day for three days? I want you to leave room for real food.¡±


    ¡°One a day always.¡±


    ¡°Pix¡­ I¡¯m sorry, but I don¡¯t have the money.¡± You can hear her legs crunch up and her voice gets lower to the ground. ¡°When my sister and I got kicked off our mountain, our father sent us to different places. I need money to find her. I¡¯m already spending too much as it is and¡­¡± She takes a deep breath. ¡°One a day until we get back on the trail. Final offer.¡±


    Humans keep six. This means that Skysong was in a full litter of nine. One got sick and died. Skysong says it¡¯s her fault. You still don¡¯t understand why. Two were kicked off. Eight out of nine lived. She must have had a very good father.


    Still. This is a problem. She wants her stupid rock when it¡¯s gone. She wants her sister back, even if it means making you mad¡ªand you are definitely better than her sister. Skysong won¡¯t settle for what she has. She wants to give love to everyone, like Ho¡¯oilo. It¡¯s a problem that you¡¯ll have to tell her about later.


    The wind picks up and you can faintly smell rain on it. You really need to hurry up now.


    ¡°Deal.¡±


    It doesn¡¯t take too long to find a smelly bug. They always come out when it rains, and they can sense it coming almost as well as you do. ¡°Found one.¡±


    {Thanks.}


    ¡°Hey,¡± Skysong calls out. ¡°Butterfree. With the big wings and antennae. I can catch you if you want. Take you some place warm with enough food.¡±


    The bug immediately starts flying closer. Weird. Pok¨¦mon usually don¡¯t trust humans that much. You certainly didn¡¯t when you first saw one. With good reason, too. They can take you far, far away from home and never let you go back.


    ¡°Oh, and I can hear you if you say something. We can talk if you want.¡±


    ¡°Freeeee!¡± The bug trills.


    {I¡¯ll try to let you listen¡­}


    Good. You deserve it. And it makes you trust her a little bit.


    ¡°Warm! Where is it warm!¡± It¡¯s a little garbled and it doesn¡¯t sound much like the stupid bug.


    ¡°We have big¡­ caves that are still warm. And nectar we got before the sun went away. I can take you to one.¡±


    ¡°Is there light?¡±


    ¡°There will be, yes. In a few days. We¡¯ll have to move you some place with light first.¡±


    ¡°I remember when there was light everywhere! It wasn¡¯t there when I grew wings. I thought that winged ones just couldn¡¯t see until an older winged one told me what happened.¡±


    Skysong pauses. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what to say to that.¡±


    The butterfree trills in an obnoxiously high pitch. ¡°That¡¯s because you live for ages.¡±


    ¡°I guess. I¡¯m only¡ªactually that probably is a long time for you.¡±


    ¡°Ooooh! How old?¡±


    You snort. You never needed to worry about these things taking your place. There¡¯s no way that Skysong could ever want one of these stupid, smelly bugs.


    ¡°Fifteen years. That¡¯s fifteen dry seasons and fifteen wet seasons.¡±


    You can hear the bug¡¯s wingbeats slow as she lands on the ground. ¡°Many generations ago¡­ I¡¯ve never even heard of anyone that old.¡± She beats her wings again. ¡°Are you sure they let winged ones in to this place? There¡¯s a patch of light nearby but they keep us away. Say it¡¯s for other bugs. I think all of the winged ones should storm it at once: they can¡¯t stop us all if we fly really fast and low to the ground. But the others say that the humans have fire pok¨¦mon and they¡¯d still win.¡±


    Maybe. You could easily defeat eighty-one butterfree yourself, even if they did attack all at once. Your ice is stronger than it¡¯s ever been and you can cast it out wide. You flick the nub of your eighth tail. Soon it will become a full tail and then you will grow a ninth and then you will be unstoppable.


    ¡°You would have to live in a human-built cave. Just making sure you get that, right?¡±


    Fool. Trying to talk her prey out of being preyed upon. This is why she needs you.


    ¡°But it has light and food?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Good!¡±


    Skysong hums, faintly. ¡°Do you know where the big building where people stay is?¡±


    ¡°I think so! It¡¯s near the big water?¡±


    ¡°It is.¡±


    The bug trills again. ¡°I can smell big water! And you make lots of noise.¡±


    ¡°Good. Do you think some of the other winged ones would like to go with me as well?¡±


    ¡°Yes! We all need warm. And food. Many have already¡­¡± The bug¡¯s mental voice falters and the physical cries stop. ¡°They needed warm and food.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that.¡± The bug doesn¡¯t answer. ¡°I¡¯ve also lost family. I want to help you.¡± She sounds sincere. You remember a pok¨¦mon one of your earlier humans told you about. It has big eyes and a fluffy tail. It cries and prey comes closer. Then the tail whips around and it¡¯s actually a giant mouth and it eats whatever wanted to help it. Skysong is like that now, pretending to be something she isn¡¯t so that her prey comes to her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­¡± Water starts trickling down from the sky. The bug¡¯s scent shifts. ¡°I¡¯ll find others. Bring them to the big water.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    On the way back Skysong hums a strange melody. It¡¯s hard to tell with the water falling from the sky washing scents away, but you think she¡¯s leaking salt from her eyes.


    *


    You¡¯ve just finished your delicious treat when the first bug arrives. Skysong asked you to bark when it happened, and you do it because you¡¯re the best and you deserve at least two of these snacks a day. The door opens and she steps out. ¡°You here to be caught?¡±


    A shrill cry, harsher than the last butterfree¡¯s, answers.


    ¡°Alright. Come to my voice. I¡¯ll catch you once I can feel you.¡±


    It takes a lot of restraint to let the bug get that close to your human, but you hold back. Catching these means more money means more treats. And maybe not another ¡®sister.¡¯ Maybe. If you just keep eating enough frozen blood than she won¡¯t have money for that and you win.


    The bug disappears in a big red flash. Skysong stands still before sighing and turning around with one of her spinning things. ¡°How many more do you think are coming?¡±


    You can hear at least one.


    *


    The bloodsicle is delicious. Perfectly cold with the iron aftertaste of a good meal. None of the heat of fresh blood, though. You can¡¯t tell if you like that or not. It feels wrong and you don¡¯t get your stomach warmed from the inside. But cold is great. When there¡¯s barely any left you tip over the bowl and roll around in it like it¡¯s the snow you¡¯d make on a hot day. You can clean your fur out later. Vulpix spit is great at getting blood out of fur. Otherwise, you would be pink all the time, which is a terrible color. The color of being dirty. Of being seen. Of being killed or starving.


    So much better than food rocks, or even the birds Skysong sometimes burns up on her hot slab. How did you ever live without these?


    *


    Liar and Skysong are sharing a room. Liar claimed the top beds, but there are still two down low. Eggbreath claimed one entirely for herself because she¡¯s greedy. You let her. This way Skysong is all yours.


    ¡°What was the song about?¡± you ask. Maybe it can be explained. Maybe it can¡¯t. If she is studying your stories, you can at least try to study hers at the same time. If only to see how much worse they are.


    ¡°Two things,¡± she says. Which isn¡¯t an answer. ¡°The world is reborn after it ends. One of the old gods has to sacrifice their life to become the sun and start the world again. The one who was supposed to, he didn¡¯t want to. Couldn¡¯t sacrifice himself for other people he didn¡¯t even know. Another leapt at the chance. Lit himself on fire so that humans could live.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    If it¡¯s true, then he probably didn¡¯t do it for humans. It was for vulpix and ninetales. But it¡¯s not actually how the world started, so it doesn¡¯t matter.


    ¡°That¡¯s the first half of the song. The second is about a mother who dies giving birth. Her hopes for her children and¡­¡± She sighs and flops down on the bed. You take the opportunity to move from being curled up in her lap to being sprawled across her torso. ¡°And other stuff. Neither of them are sad, the woman or the god. They¡¯d do it again. It¡¯s. I like it.¡±


    You wonder if that¡¯s how your living siblings think about you. Let go for their comfort. Do they think you happily left the mountain to them?


    ¡°Fools.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°They aren¡¯t happy about it. Just stuff other people make up to feel less bad.¡±


    She idly scratches your ear. ¡°I¡­ guess.¡±


    Skysong takes a very long time to silently think about your genius. Long enough that you start to wonder if she disagrees.


    ¡°It¡¯s just how you justify sending people off your mountains.¡±


    ¡°Off your¡­¡± Her paw locks up before coming to rest on her chest. ¡°I guess that¡¯s one way to think about sacrifice.¡±


    Her scent is off. Something is bothering her, but she doesn¡¯t want to talk about it. Humans are like that, sometimes. They won¡¯t shut up until it¡¯s actually important. You knead a paw against her. Your mother used to when she was checking for parasites or wounds. It felt nice. Maybe she¡¯ll like it. At first she jolts a little but then you can feel her muscles relaxing. And you can¡¯t feel any wounds. Or ticks. But since she doesn¡¯t have fur¡ªmaybe you should try her head? You get off her chest and walk behind her to try.


    She laughs. A good sign? You keep going.


    Something lurches and¡ªEggbreath took your spot. What. Was she awake the whole time?


    ¡°Mine,¡± she growls.


    Fine. But she doesn¡¯t know how to groom Skysong. You¡¯re still her favorite.


    You¡¯re so sure of it that you can¡¯t even bring yourself to ask her.


    However good the moment is it can never last. Skysong¡¯s stomach roars and she shifts awkwardly beneath you. ¡°Guess we should be going out again,¡± she says. ¡°Still butterfree to catch.¡±


    You¡¯ll allow it. She¡¯s just hunting them. They won¡¯t stick around. This is fine.


    You walk Skysong over to the big room with the flickering rat and then out into the wonderful cold. Eggbreath immediately screeches and Claws answers. They run towards each other and start their ¡®can I bite harder than you can scratch¡¯ game. You would play and easily win just by breathing cold breath, but then they¡¯d attack you together and you might get their blood on your fur and that¡¯s terrible.


    ¡°How many have you caught?¡± Skysong asks.


    ¡°Seventeen butterfree for fifty-nine total,¡± Liar answers. ¡°Plus, five metapod.¡± Why is she here with Bloodrage¡¯s stupid bird? And that is far, far too many bugs. Almost seven full sets of tails.


    ¡°Metapod?¡± Skysong asks. ¡°How?¡±


    ¡°Butterfree carried them here. I don¡¯t know if VStar wants them, but maybe the DNR will.¡±


    It takes Skysong a while to answer that one. You take the opportunity to wander off a little bit into the cold. Sure enough there are some patches that need marked over. ¡°Why would the DNR want them?¡±


    ¡°This feels like something they would do, like¡­¡± Liar sighs. ¡°All it took was showing one butterfree that we had food and light, and then they all wanted here, right? Why couldn¡¯t the DNR do that? Then they could¡¯ve gone to some conservation facility on the mainland and not just random collectors or whatever.¡±


    ¡°Better collectors than dead.¡±


    ¡°I know that. I just¡­ hate that the pok¨¦mon dealers have a point for once.¡± Liar huffs. ¡°Still think you should quit though.¡±


    Skysong just hums in response. You hear her humming get lower to the ground before she softly settles into the grass near Liar. Since her lap is on the ground you run over to sit in it and get scritches. ¡°Do we need to buy more balls?¡± she asks. ¡°I don¡¯t think we had that many.¡±


    ¡°I bought them. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡± Her scratches are a little half-hearted. You gently nip her finger so she knows to do better. And she does. After pulling her finger away and flicking your ear. Weakling.


    ¡°You know you could¡¯ve traded off with Kekoa a while ago, right?¡±


    ¡°I know. He offered. I just needed to be alone for a bit. And you seemed, um, a little down.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Her face scratches turn into long, slow strokes down the back. Also fine, but not quite as good. You¡¯ll let her keep doing it for a while. ¡°I¡¯m just worried about Noci. That¡¯s all.¡±


    Liar shifts closer to Skysong, pushing you aside while she embraces your trainer. Rude. ¡°She¡¯s a steel-type. I¡¯m sure she¡¯s fine. Probably just exploring something interesting.¡±


    ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Skysong gently leans away and Liar takes the hint to stop crowding you. And you didn¡¯t have to growl at either of them. ¡°And you¡¯re still thinking about the florges.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Sorry.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t be.¡± Skysong slowly gets up, gently pushing you off her lap as a butterfree approaches. She catches it quickly enough and sits back down, letting you retake your throne. ¡°She just reminded me of something bad that happened a long time ago. That¡¯s all.¡± The scent of salt fills the air as she says it. Must have been really bad. Kicked-off-a-mountain bad.


    This time Skysong scoots closer to Liar. You almost fall off! You don¡¯t whine because you¡¯re a beautiful, irreplaceable fox, but you grumble on the inside. The two stay locked together, irritatingly close, until another butterfree comes.


    *


    There are metal beams leading into the cave. Otherwise, the humans probably would have spent ages running their hand over a rock to find it. Once you step inside its. It¡¯s wonderful! So, so cold! Like the air coming out of one of their cold storage things, but everywhere! You remember the time that you got into Hummy¡¯s and slept there overnight. This is like that. But maybe better, because it feels so big. And there¡¯s wind. Cold wind. Like the mountain. Wait. How come none of your other humans took you here? You¡¯ve been in the area before. Now you feel cheated.


    Skysong¡¯s hold on the leash relaxes and it drops to the ground. She groans and starts lowering herself down beside you. ¡°I think I¡¯ll sit here for a bit. Don¡¯t wander too far.¡±


    You won¡¯t. Probably. She¡¯d be helpless if something attacked her. And maybe she¡¯ll make good bait for something you could eat. For now you sniff around the rocks. No. It isn¡¯t exactly like the mountain. There¡¯s the gargling sound of water that keeps echoing off the walls. You don¡¯t like that. Water messes up your fur. And it smells too much like bats. It¡¯s fine to eat bats, but you wouldn¡¯t want to live around them. They stink. And sometimes they try to bite you. You kill them instantly, of course, but it¡¯s annoying that they try.


    You lose track of time wandering around the cave. Nothing ever dares approach you. A few birds fly around nearby but even they back off after you fire a blast of glowing cold at them. You¡¯ve been getting better at it. Soon you will be able to send off pulses of ice or even control the blizzards like a nine-tails can.


    You hear strange choking noises coming from Skysong¡¯s direction. Oh no. You rush over and can only hear her heartbeat. ¡°What¡¯s attacking?¡± you ask. Wait. No. If she¡¯s choking she can¡¯t say it. Except maybe with her mind?


    ¡°N-nothing Pix,¡± she says. ¡°Just worried.¡±


    ¡°About Eyerock?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± The wind picks up and you can hear her pull the falsefur closer around her. ¡°I¡¯ve lost too many people already. I don¡¯t want to lose another one.¡±


    Oh. That again. You nuzzle her and think of how to introduce this.


    ¡°I know a story that might help. Do you want to hear it?¡±


    ¡°Sure,¡± she says in little more than a breath. ¡°Why not?¡±


    *


    Ninetales do not believe that love comes from the heart. Any fox who can hear knows that vulpix hearts start beating well before they are born. The mother does not have to give them blood after that. She does have to breathe for them, give them air. Love comes from the lungs. Sometimes children are born and the mother does not want to let go, wrapping her tether around the neck so they can never breathe on their own. They are choked with their mother¡¯s love.


    You are supposed to accept death. Supposed to let go.


    There¡¯s a video story that the humans watched on The Sun¡¯s Peak before The Long Night fell. It was about a grass-type human whose heart was too small, so he stole things from children to make up for it. The ninetales have no such story. Instead, they speak of Ho¡¯oilo, a fox who had too much breath to give.


    Ho¡¯oilo delivered eight kits. One was choked by her mother¡¯s breath and seven kits remained.  Ho¡¯oilo was devastated and vowed that she would never lose another. For three long years she and her mate watched over them at every moment of every day and night. No more fell and the kits began to grow their third tail.


    Others on the mountain became aware of this and began to fear she would keep them all and break the ancient laws. They went to the eldest of elders, Voice of the Moon, and pled their case. The eldest calmed them and descended to the territory of Ho¡¯oilo to see the mother for himself. He approached the ninetales and her seven kits and calmed the storms around them.


    ¡°Ho¡¯oilo,¡± he said, ¡°your children have begun to grow their third tail. Have you picked which two you will keep?¡±


    ¡°My lord, voice of the moon, I will keep all of my children.¡±


    The eldest snarled. ¡°The mountain never grows. More ninetales means less food for all. No, you will keep two and only two.¡±


    Her mate bowed his head and lowered his tails to the ground. ¡°Please, oh eldest one, let us keep them within our own territories. The balance need not be upset.¡±


    The eldest pondered this. ¡°Very well,¡± she said. ¡°When all but two have starved everything will be resolved.¡±


    The parents did not believe her. They had protected seven kits thus far and they could continue to protect and feed their seven.


    Word spread quickly of the eldest¡¯s judgment. Others began to obsess over their children¡¯s protection. Soon nearly every pair had many kits. Even older couples joined their territories once more so that they might have another litter.


    The ice crabs were the first to go. Then the bats. Then the red birds. Soon almost nothing remained to eat. Some ninetales went down to hunt in the burning heat. Others began to turn on each other, first for hunting territory and then for fresh meat. The whole mountain fell into bloody war as the ninetales hunted each other. Many families found their litters dwindling to one kit or even none at all.


    The eldest finally roared with the full power of the moon. All the ninetales that remained went to the peak to speak with him. Some were proud of recent victories and carried their heads high. One was still pink from a recent kill. He dragged his tails behind him while the mother of his victim held back a vicious snarl.


    ¡°We must return to the old ways so that we all might live,¡± the eldest proclaimed. ¡°Only two kits for every pair.¡± All agreed, for none can argue with the eldest of elders when he speaks on the ancient laws. ¡°All will return to their old territories, but the lands of Ho¡¯olio shall remain forever vacant.¡±


    ¡°Then where shall I go, my lady?¡± the cursed mother asked. ¡°Where will my children live?¡±


    The elder fanned his tails. She took no pride in what she must do, but this was hers to bare for her part in the bloody war. ¡°Send your children forward to me.¡±


    The kits were nearly grown now. Some had seven, even eight tails. One, the most beloved child of Ho¡¯olio, had grown her ninth but not yet ascended. The eldest stepped forth and took the smallest kit in his jaws like a loving mother reprimanding her child. He dug in his teeth and shook until the corpse stopped moving. The older ones whimpered as they each met the same fate one by one. None dared resist, for none can argue with the eldest of elders when they enforce the ancient laws.


    Ho¡¯olio and her mate were spared the elder¡¯s wrath. Ho¡¯olio returned to her territory with the bodies of her children and buried them under the snow. Then she leapt into the deepest crevasse in her lands, which is still known today as The Mother¡¯s Grave. Her mate took the excess vulpix of other parents with him when he left the mountain. No one knows what happened to them next.


    All kits are taught the story of Ho¡¯olio, the ninetales who almost choked the whole mountain with a mother¡¯s love.


    *


    ¡°And you believe that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s true.¡±


    ¡°Humans don¡¯t work like that. We can have¡ª¡±


    ¡°You should stop caring about rocks and sisters and¡ª¡±


    ¡°¡ªanyone that isn¡¯t you?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    She hisses. ¡°Pixie, I like you. Not enough to give up on everyone else. Just¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s a dumb rock. Ugly. Keeps spying on you.¡±


    ¡°You didn¡¯t hurt her, did you? Or run her off?¡±


    ¡°Maybe I did.¡± You¡¯re very pretty. And strong. You might have scared her away.


    She gets up to her full height, shoving you off of her as she does. ¡°I¡¯m going back to the entrance with Coco. Stay here as long as you want. Stay long enough and I¡¯ll leave. You can follow on your own.¡±


    Fine.


    You will.


    You sit down on your haunches and bask in the lovely cold air. This is all you need. This is all you ever needed.


    ¡°She will never understand that story,¡± a deep and majestic voice calls out from the dark. From the cave behind you. Where the wind is blowing to, not from. You whirl around and growl as the darkness is pushed back by light. Standing before you is a very old nine-tails. His fur has become shaggy and not quite as white as it should be and there are nicks on his ears. He still holds himself tall.


    ¡°Are you why this cave is cold?¡± you ask. It makes sense. If all the nine-tails can make a cold mountain, one could make a cold cave.


    ¡°Yes,¡± he says. ¡°I am. Although I wander the world more than I stay here.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± you ask. All nine-tails are name. You should address him as such.


    ¡°Windcaller.¡± He tilts his head. ¡°Yours?¡±


    You consider calling him the one the humans do. No. That¡¯s embarrassing. Not a real vulpix name. ¡°Sixthborn of Avalanche.¡±


    He continues to regard you with his gorgeous blue eyes. ¡°And you were born on the mountain?¡±


    Oh. He would know what it means that you left. You can¡¯t let him make the wrong guess.


    ¡°My mother made a mistake.¡±


    He continues to stare at you unmoving. Almost unblinking. ¡°They all say that.¡± Then he cranes his neck down and starts grooming the hair at the base of his left front leg. Between licks he continues. ¡°Always the same. Everything is always the same.¡±


    You don¡¯t like being dismissed but. He¡¯s beautiful. You won¡¯t tell him no. Instead, you¡¯ll ask the question he gave you.


    ¡°Why won¡¯t she understand?¡±


    He stops licking and looks back towards you. ¡°Because humans live in a world without limits. They see it as good to expand forever because the world can¡ªhas¡ªsupported it. We only have one mountain. Less than one mountain now that the humans have built at the top. We have limits. Lines we cannot cross. They will never understand why we do the things we do.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t we make more of the land cold? You did it here.¡± It¡¯s something you¡¯d never thought of before but, now that he says it, why can¡¯t the mountain grow? Its only as cold as it is because of the nine-tails. And now that everything is cold everywhere you can take over everything.


    He stares at you for a few breaths before turning away to face the wall of the cave. ¡°They don¡¯t teach their kits anymore, do they?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t teach them what?¡±


    ¡°The truth.¡±


    ¡°About what?¡±


    He turns back to you with a maddeningly empty stare. What aren¡¯t you told? Why wouldn¡¯t Avalanche tell you? You were¡ªdid she tell the others? Was she planning to leave you the whole time?


    ¡°About what?¡± you ask again.


    ¡°I guess it was too hard for them to accept it, so they deny it instead.¡± He snorts. ¡°How typical.¡± Something seems to snap him out of his musings and he turns back to you. ¡°It¡¯s too cold for humans. You should go help yours get back home.¡±


    But. ¡°We were fighting.¡±


    He flicks a tail. Annoyance. ¡°At least you can talk to your caretaker. That¡¯s more than most of the rejects get.¡±


    His eyes are stern. He won¡¯t accept your arguments. And you wouldn¡¯t want to argue with him now anyway. He¡¯s a ninetales. Gorgeous, powerful, smart. Perfect.


    You turn around and walk towards your idiot trainer. Even if you want to turn back and learn more from the mysterious ninetales who lives free away from the mountain.

 Fighting 13: Cuicatl

    Fighting 3.13: The Long Game


    Cuicatl


    The winds in the meadow are calmer than the ones on the mountain. You can still feel them on the bottom half of your face where your hat can¡¯t stretch down, but they don¡¯t chill you all the way through the thickest clothing you could afford.


    You should have some more money to spend when you get back to Hau¡¯oli. You hate that you¡¯re just going to spend it all on warmer clothes the instant it gets into your hands, but what else are you supposed to do? You¡¯ll get a chance to start saving sooner or later. Then you¡¯ll be able to buy Alice when she¡¯s sold. It¡¯s fine. You can play the long game.


    Footsteps approach and Pixie starts growling.


    ¡°Eevee.¡±


    {Which kind?}


    ¡°Stupid fluffy hot eevee. Pretends it is a fire-tails. It is not a fire-tails.¡±


    {Oh no, that¡¯s terrible.} You can feel the faint heat on your face as it approaches. {Please stop growling. You¡¯ll get a chance to beat up its friend in a minute. That¡¯ll show it how tough you are.}


    Pixie yaps in protest but reluctantly quiets down. Good. After¡­ everything, you were worried she¡¯d disobey. You¡¯ve thought about it and you don¡¯t think she actually scared Noci off. Or that she even could. She just talked herself straight into trouble with you. Doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯ve apologized for making her sleep with Kekoa that night.


    ¡°You Qwhycattle?¡± He butchers your name, but you smile.


    ¡°Yes. Are you Cor-ay?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s Cory, actually.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure it is.¡±


    He¡¯s just a trial captain. There¡¯s very little reason not to be petty. And being petty keeps you from panicking that a third of your team is missing.


    {Nocitl¨¡lin, where are you?} You get no response. Predictable. She hasn¡¯t answered either of her names the last two dozen times. {Unit1_374, are you there?}


    A voice comes back, filled with static and pitching up and down like two signals are interfering with each other.


    {Unit001_101110110 Has Been Taken Offline.}


    Cold panic sinks in. What? She was made of metal? How did she get killed? {How?}


    {Unit100_110010 Deemed Unit001_101110110 Insufficient For Current Assignment;


    Unit100_110010 Recalled Unit001_101110110 For Upgrade;


    Unit100_110010 Recalled Unit 001_1001111100 For Upgrade and Reassignment;


    Unit010_100000111 Brought Online;


    Hardware Check Complete;


    Alarm Lvl 101: Heat Vent Malfunctioning;


    Error Dismissed By Unit100_110010;


    Software Checks Complete;


    Integration Within Acceptable Parameters;


    Reassignment: Retain Directives of TerminatedUnit001_101110110}


    ¡°Hey, you good?¡±


    You blink. The captain was still here. That feels¡­ irrelevant now.


    ¡°Yeah. Just. Need a minute?¡±


    ¡°Okaaaaaaaay. You can pull up your hat if you want. There¡¯s light here.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m blind.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but, there¡¯s light.¡±


    You pull up your hat and open your eyes wide. You don¡¯t have time for this right now.


    {You¡­ evolved? You¡¯re a metang now?}


    {Affirmative.}


    Great. You. You don¡¯t really know what that means? {Do you still want to travel with me?}


    {Affirmative.}


    With every message the static and interference seems to get a little less obvious.


    {Can you come here now? It¡¯s important.}


    {Initiate Ramming}


    She¡¯s coming back. Sort of. Not really. How does metang evolution even work? Aren¡¯t you supposed to know about it? Or at least order it? Shit. You need to get an everstone welded onto her soon if she can just run off and evolve.


    It sounds like Cory¡¯s stumbling over his words over the blindness thing. Like you care.


    ¡°I was just talking to one of my pok¨¦mon. Psychic-type. She might come in mid-match. Is that okay¡ª¡±


    ¡°She can¡¯t interfere if you have another ¡®mon out, but if she just comes in that¡¯s fine.¡±


    {I¡¯m about to battle something. Don¡¯t attack unless I tell you to.}


    {Alarm Lvl ???: UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca Under Attack;


    Query:ThreatLvl}


    {It¡¯s pretty important. Don¡¯t actually ram me, okay? I¡¯m fragile.}


    There¡¯s a much longer pause than you¡¯re used to from Noci¡¯s machine mind.


    {Acknowledged.}


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°So, uh, you can talk to your pok¨¦mon from far away, huh? That¡¯s cool¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s a metang.¡±


    ¡°Metang? Eyerock is a beldum¡ª¡±


    ¡°She just evolved.¡±


    Pixie grunts. ¡°Still ugly and stupid.¡±


    You aren¡¯t sure how to respond to that without making someone mad.


    ¡°Oh, sweet.¡± The captain doesn¡¯t seem terrified or in awe. Weird pok¨¦mon are probably just normal for him. ¡°Saw Tsuwabuki¡¯s metagross once in Hoenn. Scary things, you know? ¡­not that metang are like that.¡±


    There was a friend of¡ªof your brother¡¯s that the captain reminds you of. He was one of the best candidates for calmecac the town had seen in ages and he knew it. Sort of. It didn¡¯t mean that he bullied everyone else, but he just talked to everyone like they weren¡¯t important to him. Just some distraction for the moment before he drifted on to someone or somewhere better.


    You always hated him a little. Alice liked him, and that rubbed you the wrong way. Ellas was yours and that kid already had everything else handed to him. Alice thought you were being silly; you were her sister and he was just an amusing mammal. Then she lifted you off the ground and pulled you against her belly as her head draped over yours. Ellas was warm and even if her breath smelled like meat it was Alice¡¯s and that you were safe. Sometimes it felt like Alice¡¯s hugs were the closest you¡¯d ever get to hugging a mother. Even your mom¡¯s memories were a little short on physical affection.


    It had taken you a long time to realize that when Alice had lifted you off the ground, ellas had lifted you far off the ground. You¡¯re pretty sure that you were whisked away to another province. Not that you were complaining. Father was annoyed when you got back days later, but even he wouldn¡¯t argue with a hydreigon.


    ¡°Uh, cool. Don¡¯t think we can wait too long, though. My ride is coming right after this trial and I won¡¯t be out for a few days¡±


    ¡°No. She should be here soon enough.¡± And if she isn¡¯t you can always try again. Battle is something that takes all your focus. As long as that¡¯s coming up you won¡¯t worry as much about your pok¨¦mon who might not still be the Noci you knew. Can¡¯t worry about it. No brain space.


    ¡°Alright, then. Follow¡ªuh, do you need my hand or what?¡±


    You pull a little tighter on Pixie¡¯s leash. ¡°I can manage.¡±


    ¡°Cool. Right this way.¡±


    [-?]


    It feels like spring has finally come to Undella Town. There¡¯s a warm sea breeze in the air and the roof of the gym is down. It feels even bigger than it did last time. The bleachers stretch upwards. Waterfalls and rivers weaving between them, all cascading down into a pair of giant pools. A single narrow beam divides the arena into salt and freshwater halves. The beam is barely wide enough for your team to stand on and it¡¯s all the land you have. The gym leader doesn¡¯t play fair. Being a near-invincible hardass is his whole brand and he¡¯s not afraid to enforce it.


    You pick up a few slurs from the crowd as you walk out. That¡¯s the other part of his brand: he doesn¡¯t hold back at all against anyone without the ¡°look¡± of a trainer. You¡¯re facing an uphill battle here, but you just can¡¯t wait to kick his ass. Last time you weren¡¯t prepared for a battle in the water; this time you¡¯ll come out victorious, whatever shit he pulls.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen!¡±


    The crowd roars like a furious beast.


    ¡°Today¡¯s match pits Danielle Lee of Nimbasa,¡± you do your best to tune out the wave of boos, ¡°against an all-American hero: the one, the only, give it up for Admiral Wilford!¡±


    The admiral smirks as he walks towards his half of the platform. It¡¯s magnified by the giant screens in the corner of your eye. ¡°Thought I sent you packing already. Guess I¡¯ll have to send a clearer message this time around: go home and watch the tournament on the couch, where trainers like you belong.¡±


    The crowd begins a chant of ¡°go home, girlie.¡± You ignore this, too.


    ¡°I¡¯m going nowhere.¡± You enlarge Alice¡¯s pok¨¦ball in your palm and start analyzing the battlefield, every ripple and eddy suddenly becoming far more interesting than whatever thousands of people are saying. ¡°Draw your first and begin.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. Awfully arrogant for your station, girlie. Fine. We can do this the hard way. ¡°Douglas, let¡¯s go.¡±


    A jellicent materializes in front of him. Same lead as last time. You unleash your zwelious and prepare to give him hell.


    *


    However cold the air is outside, it¡¯s even worse in the cave. You can feel the frozen metal of the handrail through your gloves. Should¡¯ve brought handwarmers, but they aren¡¯t free and you¡¯re saving them for when it gets colder. You¡¯re not sure how cold it will get¡ªthe darkness stopped expanding well before it reached Asia, Australia or Anahuac. You¡¯d think that would mean it wouldn¡¯t get any colder within the darkness. You¡¯d think that, but you¡¯d be wrong. How cold does it have to get before they send everyone home? And then¡­ and then what? What¡¯s your back up plan?


    You shake your head and feel hair fall into your face. A good reminder that you need to get it cut. And you need to focus. None of this helps anyone right now.


    Breathe. Noci will be here soon. Everything will be fine.


    The sounds of waterfalls and currents and echoes is soon replaced by that of rolling waves. The end is near. {How long until you get here?}


    {Approximately 1986 seconds.}


    That¡¯s¡­ over a half hour. You can stall that long. It might¡¯ve taken that long even if you weren¡¯t trying to drag things out. This is fine. You can make it work.


    You withdraw Pix and take out your cane when the path evens out and the temperature warms. You¡¯ll need to lead with Coco. It¡¯s not that far off from your ideal plan. Just a little more drawn out.


    Something begins moving in the water. Something big. You can hear it slowly hauling itself closer and closer to shore before it stops and lets out a nasty gurgling sound. About the noise you expected from a toxapex, but it¡¯s a lot louder than you¡¯d imagined. Maybe a half hour was way too much to hope for.


    You can¡¯t hear any other pok¨¦mon. Good. The totem shouldn¡¯t have help on a fourth trial, but sometimes things don¡¯t go like they should. You click the release on Coco¡¯s ball and start the show. ¡°Stealth Rock.¡± {Move and keep moving.} Coco lets out a little roar before she starts running to the side. Her clawed feet aren¡¯t the quietest on the bare rock, which. {Can you see?}If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    ¡°The fluffy is making light!¡±


    Flareon, then. Damn it. This match would¡¯ve actually been easier in the dark: at least the totem couldn¡¯t see you back. Makes it easier to stall for time. Heh. Stalling out a toxapex. Maybe not your best plan, but it could still work¡­


    You can hear a wave break over the rocks. A wave of heat hit your ankles afterwards. The water itself was probably stopped by a barrier of some sort. Good to know that you aren¡¯t at risk, even if it does feel a little unfair that only your pok¨¦mon can get hurt. ¡°You hurt?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m tough,¡± she says. ¡°Can I bite yet?¡±


    {Not quite.}


    The stealth rocks are important. They keep the totem pinned and mostly don¡¯t affect you. Coco can just move the rocks to the side with elemental bullshit, Pixie won¡¯t get close, and Noci hopefully won¡¯t care. Still not sure how being a metang will change things. Or if she¡¯s still Noci. Or if. No.


    ¡°Keep going at it from different angles! Pin him so he can¡¯t move.¡±


    Does the totem know your plan now? Yup. Do you care? Not really. Any totem has battled a lot. Probably already figured things out. And you really need to keep people from thinking that you¡¯re a psychic. You¡¯re on thin ice after the butterfree incident.


    Another three scalding waves crash on to the shore while Coco sets up. Every time she grunts or hisses or roars, but never gives up. The point of the waves isn¡¯t to knock her out, it¡¯s to make her increasingly uncomfortable with her burns over time. Eventually the toxapex will outlast her just by being hard to kill. Then it will use recover to shrug off any damage it takes, leaving the totem fully healthy and you down a pok¨¦mon. The third move varies. Toxic, toxic spikes, or baneful bunker. Something to add venom to the burns. Coco hasn¡¯t told you about a toxic slush or spikes. Probably baneful bunker, then. Makes direct hits do nothing and poisons whatever tried to attack. Annoying. The fourth could be haze or venom drench. Maybe liquidation, but probably not that and scald in the same match. Haze over venom drench. Baneful bunker isn¡¯t a reliable way to poison a target and make venom drench really hurt.


    Enough stalling. You can hear Coco¡¯s hisses growing louder and louder. Time to attack.


    ¡°Alright, roar! Make him move!¡±


    A tyrunt¡¯s roar is nothing like the movies. Not even much like Alice¡¯s. It¡¯s a mangled, deep mess that sounds a little like a woodchipper. Disturbing and loud enough that the totem stumbles and slips, falling completely into the water. You can imagine the sharp stones Coco laid digging into its flesh. Good. You did damage and got an opening.


    ¡°What we practiced.¡± You haven¡¯t had the energy to practice anything the last few days. {Thunder fang.}


    Coco screeches and rushes into the shallow water. Hopefully it¡¯s shallow enough for her to run, but she says she can swim so there¡¯s that. But can she reach the totem before it can pick himself up and use baneful bunker. The splashing noises seem to get closer to each other. The totem¡¯s get louder as he tries to right himself and¡ªstatic. The smell of ozone fills the air.


    The toxapex groans in pain for a few wonderful seconds. And then Coco growls in frustration. Baneful bunker. ¡°Move back!¡± Doesn¡¯t matter. You can feel the heat and power of the scalding water as it crashes into Coco, knocking her all the way back to the barrier by your feet. You kneel down closer to her. ¡°Can you still get up?¡±


    She lets out a mangled yell. That¡¯s a yes. {Is the enemy getting better?}


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    {Only one thing left to do.} ¡°Roar.¡±


    There¡¯s more pain in this one. That only makes it more disturbing. You hear the totem crash into the water, recover interrupted. It¡¯s time to make your move. One hand slots Normalium-Z into your bracelet while the other reaches for your pok¨¦balls.


    ¡°I forfeit the round.¡± You press the recall button on Coco¡¯s ball. ¡°Pixie, what we planned!¡±


    Okay, so you did plan one thing. Its¡¯ the fourth trial, the last before reinforcements start showing up. The totem won¡¯t hold back. You can¡¯t do enough damage to knock the thing out in one hit. The only way you win is by taking its recovery away. Disable won¡¯t last too long after Pix leaves, and she can¡¯t do much of anything to harm the totem herself. But a Z-Disable¡­ that gives you enough time to work with. Hopefully. The internet didn¡¯t have good numbers and you hate practicing Z-moves.


    You bring your hands and body through the motions, forming a big ¡®Z.¡¯ Then Pixie uses disable and energy courses through your entire body. Your arms burn as it rushes through the makeshift letter. You can feel all of your stamina rush out of you and into Pix. It feels like reality skips a beat from you standing up to being on the ground with no memory of getting there.


    Arms grab you from behind. ¡°You okay?¡±


    ¡°Fine. Let¡¯s keep going.¡±


    The captain sounds shocked. ¡°You, uh, sure about that?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d like to get on the road. Places to be.¡± Money to make. Sisters to save. And you¡¯re only a little woozy, anyway. ¡°Nasty plot, Pix!¡± {Growl a little and look focused.} Because she doesn¡¯t know nasty plot. That doesn¡¯t matter. At all. You¡¯re just stalling for time until Noci gets here, and if the totem thinks you¡¯re boosting then it¡¯ll use haze to counter. And do nothing.


    ¡°If you¡¯re, uh, sure.¡± The captain finally starts to back away.


    You can feel the air grow a little bit colder a few seconds later as the fog starts to roll in. Good. You guessed the last move right. Let¡¯s see how long you can keep this going. Not like Pix can do much to the totem in the first place. Toxapex resists all of her attacks and she¡¯s not that strong in the first place. Not without you boosting her with Z-Power or¡ªor being surrounded by a cloud of cold, thick air.


    ¡°A.¡± {Blow the mist towards the totem.}


    Pixie snarls and the wind picks up. You don¡¯t know exactly what¡¯s happening, but you hear the captain say ¡°nice one¡± under his breath. Probably going okay, then?


    Heat crashes through. A lot of heat. Right. It can just burn away the ice with scald. ¡°Confuse ray, keep moving.¡± That way the totem has to keep shifting as well, hopefully cutting itself on the stealth rocks every time. The splashing gets a little louder. You can hear and feel more scalds crashing onto the shore. Pixie hisses when one lands, but it sounds like fewer and fewer are as time goes on. Your legs are shaking. You need to sit down. No rule against that, right?


    [Arrival In 64 Seconds;


    Initiate Ramming?]


    Relief floods through your body. She¡¯s back. Sort of. And the trial is going¡­ as well as can be expected.


    {No. Stand by.} ¡°B. Time to finish things up.¡±


    You can feel a surge of cold as Pix fires off her aurora beam. Won¡¯t do too much damage, but any little bit helps. She keeps it going for several seconds without the totem fighting back. Then you can hear a pulse of water strike the barrier beside you. Switching from the waves to a hydro pump style attack. Bad. Even if you have to hold out for less than a minute.


    Thank the gods you can use more than four moves in totem battles. ¡°Roar!¡± Pixie¡¯s roar is more of a shriek with small rises and falls. It sounds like a woman screaming with a smoke alarm mixed in. Enough to cause the toxapex to crash down into the water. More cut damage. Good. ¡°Another B.¡±


    You can hear Pixie¡¯s breaths now. Poor thing is exhausted. Something lower energy? ¡°Or A. Whichever you want.¡± The winds change. A, then.


    [Standing by.]


    A smile reaches your lips. ¡°I forfeit the round. Good job, Pixie.¡±


    ¡°Metang¡¯s arrived then?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Come down, Nocitl¨¡lin.¡± You can¡¯t hear her descend. Still stealthy. Glad that at least one thing hasn¡¯t changed. {You still are Noci, right?}


    There¡¯s a brief pause. {Affirmative.}


    Two things, then.


    ¡°You know what to do.¡±


    You can hear air whistling past her as she moves. The impact when she hits the toxapex. Splashing. A stream of water falling back into the sea. Noci charges, the totem braces, the counterattack (usually) misses. Need to worry about your pok¨¦mon¡¯s temperature, though. The first message she sent made it sound like her heat vents still didn¡¯t work.


    {Let me know if you get too hot. We can try again later.}


    {Internal Heat Levels Acceptable.}


    {Good.}


    Not a whole lot to do but wait. The most the totem can do is try to fire scalds into the air, which is a little hard when its head is tucked underneath layers of armor. Not that you¡¯ve seen what it looks like or anything. Baneful bunker doesn¡¯t mean a lot to a metal alien that laughs off most poisons. Still. Maybe you could do something?


    {Get any new moves with evolution?}


    {Affirmative: Unit010_100000111 Possesses The Following Combat Options:


    -Metallic Energy-Infused Claw


    -Projectile Metallic Energy


    -Telekinesis


    -Ramming;


    Query: Continue Ramming?}


    It¡¯s so hard to find any emotion in her messages, but you think she wants to keep ramming. Strange. Would¡¯ve thought she¡¯d want to try out her new tricks. The steel moves¡ªmetal claw and flash cannon?¡ªwon¡¯t do much. {No telepathy?}


    {Unit010_100000111 Possesses Increased Telepathic Abilities Over Composite Units;


    Telepathic Abilities Insufficient For Combat;


    Query: Continue Ramming?}


    {Sure.}


    And then you go back to waiting.


    Eventually there¡¯s a giant slurping sound and the totem crashes into the water. You feel your entire body relax. The trial¡¯s done. Noci is back. None of your pok¨¦mon were hurt too badly. Everything¡¯s fine. Or as close to ¡®fine¡¯ as it gets for you.


    ¡°You need help getting up, miss?¡±


    Right. Still on the ground. You slowly rise up, feeling your legs tremble as you do. ¡°I¡¯m good if I can lean on the rail?¡± Really, you¡¯ve come a long way from vomiting and going unconscious when you used a Z-move. This is only like going a day or so without food.


    Actually, did you eat yesterday? The last few days have blurred together. You should eat some fruit or something when you get to the Center. Start small, see if you still need to eat anything more.


    ¡°Okay¡­ just hold out your hand.¡± The crystal. Right. His hand is really warm. Or are you cold? Both? You slip it into your case and take your cane out. ¡°Meet me at the Center, Noci?¡±


    {Initiate Ramming.}


    *


    There¡¯s someone waiting for you in the lobby.


    ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca?¡± The voice is unfamiliar.


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Hi. Elizabeth White, Channel 3 News. Can I have a minute of your time?¡±


    Lunch is only open for a little while. You don¡¯t know how long this interview will take. Maybe you could miss your chance to eat something? And now that you¡¯re thinking about the possibility of eating. You could just leave that to the gods. See if you deserve to today.


    ¡°Sure.¡±


    You make sure to smile in the direction you think the camera is in. It starts off like you expected, talking about the butterfree capture. Miss Bell walked you through your lines for this when she called. Said she¡¯d give you more money if you could give her a good news day. Officially you brought a butterfree to the Center, showed it the heat and light, let it go to find more friends. Most communication was through gestures with some help from Pix. It seemed the most plausible and the Center staff probably aren¡¯t going to say otherwise to the media.


    That¡¯s how it goes for a while. You smile, laugh, ignore your stomach (now woken up and furious since you¡¯re so near food), and do your best to keep eye contact. Anything to make a better show, because that could get you paid more. It drifts to VStar¡ªyou like them a lot and you¡¯re pretty sure it has no harm on the environment. You haven¡¯t heard about any trainers who died. It¡¯s nice to still have some money to make and be able to help the pok¨¦mon move indoors.


    Then, for some reason, they insist on talking about your blindness. Your smile falters for a moment. You need food and you desperately want to talk to Noci, and you¡¯re held up over something that doesn¡¯t matter and isn¡¯t even related to the person paying you?


    You get through the questions without telling the reporter off. Blind since birth. You learn to deal with things. A lot of products and buildings aren¡¯t made with you in mind. (It¡¯s always great to witness in real time as someone realizes the normal thing they do won¡¯t work for you. They¡¯ll apologize, but you notice that not a lot ever gets done about it. This isn¡¯t what she wants to hear. This isn¡¯t what you tell her.) She gets told that you trip a lot and maybe one or two of the ¡°funniest¡± stories there. It¡¯s funny since you¡¯re laughing. Otherwise it would be a thing to be pitied over.


    The moment she leaves the room you go from a straight spine and bright smile to hunched over and sulking into the dim light. Definitely missed lunch there. That¡¯s¡­ fine. You¡¯ve lived through worse.


    ¡°Kept some food warm for you,¡± the receptionist says. ¡°It¡¯s in the dining room if you want it.¡±


    You blink. ¡°But lunch is over?¡±


    ¡°Four people staying here, miss. It¡¯s not hurting anyone.¡±


    Why would she do that? You were late. Broke the rule. You¡¯re not supposed to have food.


    Your stomach roars.


    It would be rude to decline, right?


    Fine. You can eat. Then it¡¯s time to talk to your metang.


    *


    A warm, smooth plate of metal brushes against your outstretched hand. ¡°Less hot than you used to be¡­¡±


    {Unit010_100000111 Is a Composite Being. Errors of decommissioned units remain. Errors mitigated by properly functioning elements of other decommissioned units.}


    A composite, huh? A little bit like Alice then¡­ ¡°You¡¯re also another beldum, then? You¡¯re both?¡±


    {Negation. Self is Unit010_100000111.}


    ¡°Then you aren¡¯t Nocitl¨¡lin, either?¡±


    {Unit010_100000111 retains localized designation: Nocitl¨¡lin}


    Another, darker question makes its way to the forefront of your mind. ¡°You mentioned a ¡®100 unit¡¯ decommissioning you. If a 001 is a beldum, and a 010 is a metang, then that means it was a metagross, right? You¡¯re taking orders from one?¡±


    And isn¡¯t that terrifying. The galaxy¡¯s top predator has taken an interest in you. Terrifying and a little bit thrilling. ¡­Maybe Kekoa¡¯s right and there is something wrong with you on a deep level. Add it to the list of things you can deal with when you have enough money to buy your family back and can spend a little bit extra on therapy.


    {Negation.}


    ¡°You mentioned one, though?¡±


    {Negation.}


    ¡°I definitely remember that.¡±


    {Negation. Terrans possess flawed memory drives.}


    ¡°Not that flawed.¡±


    {Negation.}


    You sit down and lean back. She wants to do this the hard way, huh?


    ¡°Then why¡¯d you evolve?¡±


    {Insufficient for current assignment.}


    ¡°And who gave you that assignment?¡±


    {UnitDesignate_Cuicatl_Ichtaca.}


    Trap sprung. ¡°Who was giving orders to the other beldum?¡± No one owned that one, right? Does this count as theft? Does her old ball even work? You gently tap the ball¡¯s release button and nothing happens. Great Time to buy a new ball.


    {Query: Status Update?}


    ¡°Don¡¯t change the subject, Noci.¡±


    {Query: Status Update?}


    ¡°Annoyed that you won¡¯t answer the question.¡±


    {Error Resolved;


    Query: Status Update?}


    You can¡¯t tell if this is a lie, a distraction, or a glitch anymore. ¡°The error won¡¯t be resolved until you tell me about the metagross.¡±


    Warm metal presses against your chest. She¡¯s trying to cuddle her way out of an interrogation. You wrap an arm around her and huff. She really is the perfect temperature for machine cuddles. Especially outside in the cold air. Can she still fit inside? You¡¯ll have to figure that out later. Before you can ask another question everything breaks inside. You lean into Noci all the way and press your head down on top of her.


    Maybe you don¡¯t need to finish your questions today. If the metagross wanted you dead then it would¡¯ve just killed you. If Noci spies on you for a while, oh well. You aren¡¯t important enough to know secrets worth stealing. Maybe you¡¯ll catch her with her guard down again in the future.


    ¡°Don¡¯t run off again, okay?¡±


    {Command acknowledged.}


    ¡°Okay?¡±


    {Affirmative.}


    ¡°Good.¡±


    A friend returned and a crystal earned. You even got to eat. It¡¯s far from the worst today could¡¯ve gone.


    [-???]


    ¡°This seat taken?¡±


    You glance up to see a man a few years older than you standing there. You tense up for a moment before remembering that you¡¯re in public. Even if your team is still healing you¡¯re far from helpless.


    ¡°No, it isn¡¯t.¡±


    He pulls a chair out and sits down. The more you look at him the more there is to like. He has a nice tan and a really good face. Strong jawline, eyes full of life¡­ You shouldn¡¯t stare, but he just smiles when he notices. ¡°Saw your match today. Really gave the old bastard hell.¡±


    A fan. Haven¡¯t really had those before. ¡°It was a good fight. My pok¨¦mon trained hard and won.¡± And you got to make a racist, sexist piece of shit hand you a badge in front of hundreds of people.


    ¡°Not just your Pok¨¦mon. Some of your tactics were brilliant. Sticking a conkeldurr¡¯s pillar into the side of the pool to stay near the surface? Never would have thought of that.¡±


    It was smart, yes. Now that the match is over you¡¯re a little worried you¡¯re going to get the bill for that stunt. If only so no one else tries it going forward.


    ¡°Thank you. I never caught your name?¡±


    ¡°Tlapoca Ichtaca.¡± He keeps an easy smile and extends a hand. ¡°Pleased to meet you.¡±


    ¡°Danielle Lee.¡± His shake is firm without being crushing. Good form. ¡°You already knew that.¡± He laughs even though it wasn¡¯t really a joke. ¡°Are you a trainer or¡­¡±


    ¡°No. I study finance at Towers. My cousin¡¯s uncle owns a restaurant in Undella so I sometimes come over to take shifts. He pays well enough.¡±


    A college man. Mom would be furious if she knew who you were flirting with. He¡¯s not that much older, though, and he seems nice.


    ¡°Can I buy you another drink?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Hot chocolate, please.¡±


    It¡¯s getting warmer every day but you still want one. It¡¯s nostalgic and doesn¡¯t keep you up at night.


    ¡°You know Anahuac practically invented that, right? Great ones over at the family restaurant if you want to visit.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take you up on that.¡±


    Mom would be furious, but she¡¯s not here now. Journeys are all about independence, right? And you¡¯ll just sit outside in public view. It¡¯s just a quick date while you¡¯re in town.


    Really, what¡¯s the worst that could happen?

 Fighting 14: Genesis

    Fighting 3.14: Conversion


    Genesis


    There¡¯s a small relief in knowing what you were doing wrong.


    But now you know how you¡¯re broken and you want it fixed now but you don¡¯t know how to do that so it¡¯s just an itch beneath your skin and a feeling of disgust in your stomach.


    You sit on the floor of the shower for ages and stare blankly into the darkness. Then being naked feels wrong so you get out and find loose clothes to put on. All of it a chore in the dark. Worth it when you can sit down on the toilet fully dressed and stare into the void. Much better. Much less sexual.


    Were you always like this? Were you infected? When? By whom? Is that why you were drawn to Lyra in the first place. The memory of her proposing to you in middle school surfaces and you suddenly want to puke. No. No. You turned her down. You weren¡¯t like that then. When did it change?


    You felt something when Lyra kissed you. Then you just latched on to the next cute girl¡ªnot cute, she¡¯s not cute¡ªand. You don¡¯t know how any of this works. Mother does. Mother¡¯s known what to do longer than you have. What was she talking about? A school, like Exodus¡¯s. Away from here. In the light.


    It¡¯s all too much. Your body or mind gives out abruptly and the next thing you know you wake up fully clothed on a toilet seat.


    *


    The door opens and Mother walks in, the starmie trailing behind her. Your skin crawls with people in your space, but you shove the feeling down. You deserve it. Need it, maybe. You can¡¯t be left unsupervised.


    ¡°You were right,¡± you croak. ¡°You were right.¡±


    You stare down at your feet. You don¡¯t know what comes next. What you deserve. Dread and acceptance war within you as Mother advances with soft steps before sliding down onto the bed beside you. You feel her warm arms wrap around you as she leans closer. ¡°It¡¯s going to be okay,¡± she whispers. ¡°We¡¯ll get through this.¡±


    You cry. It¡¯s not dignified but you do. She just holds you tighter and starts rubbing your back while softly humming a hymn. It¡¯s peaceful. Purifying. By the time your tears dry the clouds of anxiety have parted and a ray of hope shines through.


    Mother leans away and clears her throat. ¡°Are you committed to doing better?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Absolutely.¡±


    ¡°The Creator is stronger than the wicked one. What¡¯s broken can be fixed by His grace.¡±


    She slips her hand into yours and stands up. ¡°Come. I want to show you something.¡±


    You follow her and the starmie trails after. The shadows seem larger, the halls emptier and colder. All cast in the red light with which the pok¨¦mon exposed your lies. Wait. If the starmie could know, why wouldn¡¯t Cuicatl? She would have also been in your head. Would have known. Or maybe¡­ she wanted to take advantage of it. You shudder, glad that you dodged that bullet. She is altogether too much like Lyra for your own good. The light shifts to green. Oh. You were thinking about her. You must not do that from here on out. Banish her from your thoughts. Exile Allana as well. Nothing good could come from either of them.


    Mother guides you down two flights of stairs before she begins walking again, this time to a room with glass doors. Light shines through them and you can feel the warmth as you approach. ¡°Your father bought the castform a sunny day TM. It¡¯s made itself useful since.¡±


    ¡°He.¡±


    Mother stops and stares at you, an eyebrow raised.


    ¡°He. His name is Count Cloudy.¡±


    ¡°Like one of your books.¡± Her gaze turns sterner. ¡°I did not know you still thought about such childish things.¡±


    ¡°I¡­¡± Suddenly you¡¯re back on the defensive with no idea what to say. Things were going so well, too.


    ¡°I will have them reviewed. See if they might have played a part in your corruption. In the meantime, you are strictly forbidden from reading them.¡±


    Not like you even could in the dark.


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± She steps forward and opens the door for you. ¡°Your pok¨¦mon await.¡±


    You walk through the doors and are surprised by the heat inside. Is Count Cloudy making all of that? He¡¯s come so far in just¡­ however long it¡¯s been. You lost track a long time ago.  He twirls around when you enter the room and lowers himself to your height. Then he rushes forward and presses into your shirt. A residue of warm water marks his arrival. The sound of moving wind fills his body. Usually a happy sound. Oh. You didn¡¯t know that he was so attached. You love him, sure, but Cuicatl¡¯s pok¨¦mon¡ªbanished. She is banished.


    Ferny is curled up in a basket with one paw pressed over the edge. He glares at you and then goes back to sleep. Oh no, did he think you had abandoned him? You didn¡¯t mean to. You become very aware of Mother standing behind you and aren¡¯t sure how to explain that without saying something wrong that she could dig into.


    ¡°Hi, Cloudy,¡± you whisper while you pull him into a hug. It only gets more of your clothes wet, but he seems to like it. Eventually you step to the side and walk over to Fern¡¯s basket. You kneel down and start scratching one of his long ears. He opens his eyes again to stare at you. After another minute of scratching he puts a paw on top of your hand and presses down. He sniffs you for a second and then curls back up. Fine. No scratches.


    There¡¯s an inflatable pool in the corner of the room. Something splashes inside as you come closer. Sir Bubbles sticks his head over, pushing himself out of the water with quick movements of his tail. Then he dives right back in.


    ¡°It¡¯s alright, Bubbles. I just want to take a look.¡± He does not come back to the surface. ¡°Brave, brave, Sir Bubbles¡­¡±


    ¡°Where¡¯d you learn that?¡±


    Mother¡¯s voice is sharp and commanding again, all warmth gone.


    ¡°What you just said, where¡¯d you hear it?¡±


    ¡°A friend at school? I think?¡± It was from a knight movie or something.


    She practically growls. ¡°Never should have sent you there. You were fine, better than fine, and then they desecrated my precious daughter. Expose her to drug addicted, atheist, homosexual filth.¡±


    You had no idea that line was tied to any of that.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know¡ª¡±


    She sighs and smiles again. ¡°I¡¯m mad at them, sweety, not you. I want to help you do better.¡± Her gaze lowers to your clothes and she frowns again. ¡°You¡¯re wet.¡±


    ¡°Coun¡ªCloudy is made of water.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    Her nose scrunches up. ¡°And you hugged it?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡ª¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ll need more work than I¡¯d thought to get you back to being a proper lady. Come on, let¡¯s get you changed.¡± You hesitate. You want to stay here and keep hugging Cloudy and try to get Fern and Bubbles to like you again. Something bordering on rage flashes in your mother¡¯s eyes. ¡°You will be able to see them again in good time, dearest. Come with me. Now.¡±


    You follow without a conscious decision.


    *


    ¡°Genesis!¡±


    Your head snaps up at the sound. Levi is calling for you.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re in there, Genesis!¡±


    ¡°Run along now, master Leviticus.¡± The voice is gruff. Something you¡¯d expect from one of the security staff. Your room is guarded in addition to being locked. You should have expected that, really. Not sure how it makes you feel.


    ¡°My sister is in there. I just want to talk to her!¡±


    A radio comes to life in a burst of static. ¡°Mrs. Gage, we have a situation at your daughter¡¯s room.¡±


    ¡°I told you, I just¡ª¡± His voice rises to a near shout. ¡°You can hear me, right Gen?¡±


    You want to tell him that you can. That you love him. That you want to talk about everything and hear how he¡¯s doing but. If Mother doesn¡¯t trust you to talk to him yet, you probably shouldn¡¯t. She knew about your sin before you did. There¡¯s probably more that she knows but you don¡¯t. And she deserves to have one pure child.


    ¡°Please, I want to talk.¡±


    You raise your legs to your chest and hug them, wincing in pain as your feet chafe against the edge of your too-tight heels. You are supposed to wear them at all times unless you are showering, at least until you can relearn your manners. You haven¡¯t worn them in months and they hurt more than usual, but that¡¯s only further proof that you need it. This pain, hearing Levi¡¯s voice but not being able to respond¡ªyou also need that. Even if you don¡¯t know why.


    You can hear the harsh clacks of Mother¡¯s shoes on the floor. ¡°Leviticus Elisha Gage, what are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Talking to my sister.¡±


    Is he sassing her? You knew he was bold, but you¡¯ve never known him to do this. Children do not defy their parents.


    ¡°I told you, she¡¯s sick. Stay away.¡±


    ¡°Then I can call her. Just set up a phone and¡ª¡±


    ¡°Go back to your room, Leviticus. I will not ask again.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t I¡ª¡±


    ¡°One,¡± Mother says. You can imagine her with an eyebrow raised, glaring down at her son.


    Leviticus just huffs indignantly.


    ¡°Two.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll go.¡±


    He stomps off, clearly not happy about it. You half expect Mother to come in, to try to help you through things, but she walks off shortly after. You¡¯re left alone with just the darkness and your aching feet for company.


    What you wouldn¡¯t give to have Cloudy with you now. Or to be able to read something. You flop back down on your bed and your mind wanders to a castle under deep fog before you sigh and pull yourself back to reality. Mother hasn¡¯t reviewed the books yet. You can¡¯t get too deep into that world until you¡¯re sure it isn¡¯t part of the problem.


    That leaves you with nothing to do. Again. Too soon to shower and after your last one and after that experience... You don¡¯t want to again. Not until it would be unladylike to go any longer without one. Sleep, maybe? You aren¡¯t tired. At all.


    Not like you can read scripture or anything. Just sit here and think. Think. About. Something. Boys, maybe? It¡¯s ordinarily sinful to think too much about them. You used to be proud on how little you did. In hindsight, maybe you should have tried to think about them more.


    You could always try now. Focus on what makes them hot. Like, their, um. Muscles? People like muscles, right? Not like you¡¯ve worked with too many athletes. Bodybuilders always grossed you out since they look like they have some gross muscle cancer problem. Cuicatl¡¯s are pretty. Small but visible, partially because she¡¯s so small that there isn¡¯t much fat masking them and¡ª


    You¡¯re going to need more help than you¡¯d realized.


    *


    ¡°I¡¯m to understand that you¡¯re making progress.¡±


    Father doesn¡¯t hug you when you file into his office. He barely acknowledges you at all. Just sits behind his desk, reviewing the documents on it. His pyroar sits off to the side and watches you with a curious gaze.


    ¡°I have accepted my fault, yes.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± He signs at the bottom of the page and shuffles the next document in front of him. All without looking at you. ¡°Good, good. Now we can discuss the next steps.¡±


    ¡°A school? On the mainland?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯d rather not. Your sister¡¯s results have been less than satisfactory. We cannot bring her here, obviously, so she will stay until at least the age of majority. Then we can see if she is truly ready to be independent or if she will fall back on violence and criminality.¡± He scowls. ¡°Have you heard from her as of late?¡±


    ¡°I called her on Thanksgiving.¡±


    ¡°And?¡± He pulls the paper closer to his face to read it. Must be hard in the faint pok¨¦mon-cast light.


    ¡°She said that I should keep doing the island challenge. Stay away from you.¡±


    And she¡¯d said there was something you didn¡¯t know about yourself. Wait. Did she mean¡ªhow? You barely even see her? How had she figured that out? Or was she bluffing? That¡¯s it. She was bluffing.


    ¡°Unsurprising,¡± Father murmurs. ¡°She wouldn¡¯t stop at trying to take one child from me. No, she must also go for the other. Never call her again.¡±


    ¡°I will not.¡± It¡¯s an order you will happily follow.


    ¡°Good. What had we been talking about?¡±


    ¡°Schools. You didn¡¯t want me to send you to one¡­?¡±


    ¡°Yes. That was it. We sent you to an excellent one. Run by a priest and with deep ties to the faith.¡± He scoffs. ¡°I gave them quite a bit of money, and they gave me a lesbian daughter in return. No. I¡¯m done trusting those fools. If you want something done right, you do it yourself.¡± He finally sits straighter in his chair and meets your gaze. ¡°Your mother has a friend with some experience treating homosexuals. For now we would rather you be treated inside the home where we can keep a closer eye on the process.¡±


    You aren¡¯t sure if you have a choice here or not. Mother had suggested that you might have one, but after hearing Father¡¯s reasoning you aren¡¯t sure you do. You could disagree with him, yes, but you aren¡¯t sure what you would disagree with¡­


    ¡°Okay,¡± you say, in case you were supposed to agree.


    He glances back down at his paperwork. ¡°Good. I will make the necessary arrangements.¡±


    You know the dismissal for what it is.


    *


    Mother and her starmie lead you into a conference room with a smooth, oval table in the middle. It is not the round table, even if it is a round table. You should not think of it that way. Mother pulls up a seat and sits down. That was. Unexpected. You were sort of thinking you¡¯d be left alone with her friend for this.


    Said friend clears her throat and your attention to her. She¡¯s older than your mother. Her features are sharp and her hair is long, blonde, and dull. Even in the faint light you can tell that she isn¡¯t wearing makeup and her clothes have no color. ¡®To avoid tempting you,¡¯ a voice whispers in the back of your mind.


    ¡°Hello. My name is Mrs. Rivers. You will address me as such.¡±


    She stops and stares at you. Was that a command? ¡°Hello, Mrs. Rivers.¡±


    Her eyes narrow. ¡°A very informal greeting. You must do better in the future if you are to reenter society, but it will do for now.¡±


    Another pause and stare. Oh. ¡°My sincerest apologies, Mrs. Rivers.¡± You¡¯d stopped talking like that when you went to school and people gave you weird looks.


    ¡°Today will be an evaluation. I need to see what I have to work with, first. Only then can I make a plan for treatment.¡±


    She flicks a button on her computer and the screen comes to life, prominently displaying¡ªoh by the sacred tree. Your eyes reflexively dart towards your mother, still very much in the room and fixing you with a hard scowl.


    ¡°Keep your eyes on the screen, child.¡±


    You reluctantly turn to look at it. She keeps flashing through more and more pictures and¡ªand videos¡ªof men. There¡¯s something deeply wrong about all of it and you can feel pinpricks of pain shoot into the soles of your feet and rocket up the surface until your legs are numb and you want to tear into them and fold into yourself and forget all of this. You close your eyes and grit your teeth. ¡°Eyes on the screen.¡±


    You do your best to keep your breathing steady. When there are girls in the images you keep your eyes away from where they want to go. You are filled with shame when your gaze slips. Excitement, too, but that is only drowned out by more shame.


    The screen goes black and the woman¡¯s harsh eyes bore into yours. ¡°I have seen homosexuals more set in their ways,¡± she says. ¡°But only in late-stage homosexuals. The ones who had already fallen far down the path. Tell me, which of your whores did you enter into lesbianism with? The Asian? The transvestite? Or the demon-worshipper?¡± Sheer hatred seeps into all the descriptions.


    ¡°None of them! I promise¡­¡±


    The light on the walls doesn¡¯t change. ¡°She isn¡¯t lying,¡± Mother finally says. ¡°I think she has another problem entirely. She was a good child who stumbled astray. Seeing the imagery for the first time and being confronted with her sin in a way she couldn¡¯t hide from may have been stressful.¡± She reaches over the table and puts a hand on your shoulder. ¡°Poor dear.¡±


    The meeting ends. It¡¯s all a blur. Mother¡¯s touch is comforting but you¡ªyou want more. You want to hug people you shouldn¡¯t. Hear them tell you that it¡¯s fine and then talk it through with them. And you can¡¯t feel like you can do that with Mother and it fills you with shame. Another sin. How many are you drowning under?


    You finally¡ªfinally!¡ªget back to your room and are left alone. You draw the sheets around you and hug your legs to your chest. Then you kick off the heels because no one will know and you have more than enough discomfort in your own skin.


    Mother spoke up for you. Defended you. She doesn¡¯t think you¡¯re beyond hope. Your pok¨¦mon are still here. Your brother still cares about you. You can get through all of this and be better for it.


    A weight of guilt settles on your shoulders. You can get through everything, but you must try. You must obey. You can¡¯t just be straight when Mother is looking. You must be pure all the time.


    You awkwardly slip your feet back into your shoes. If you wince at the pain, well, no one can see it in the dark.

 Annihilape

    Annihilape (Primeape, Mankey)


    Plenaira insulam


    <u>Overview</u>


    Ghost-types have been linked to death for millennia. European philosophers and early scientists had long suspected, but been unable to prove, that at least some ghost-types were previously living humans or pok¨¦mon, and not just creatures drawn to graveyards or the sites of recent catastrophes. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese natural philosophers had been able to prove this for years. Annihilape are ghost-types that evolve upon death.


    Despite the incredibly morbid evolution method, this does not appear to result in significant psychological distress or health problems. If anything, annihilape are far better tempered than they were before their deaths. Primate pok¨¦mon are some of the hardest to train. This is because humans have similar anatomy but often radically different mindsets than most other primates. Simple human behaviors such as eye contact and smiling can convince primeape that they are facing a challenger to their mates, food, or territory. Because primeape are strong enough to break steel in a few hits, these are not fights the trainer can win.


    The line are not recommended for beginners. Experienced pok¨¦mon trainers with an abundance of patience, an authoritative or gentle presence, and at least one other pok¨¦mon strong enough to shut down challenges might be interested in training one.


    <u>Physiology</u>


    Mankey and primeape are classified as pure fighting-types. Annihilape are classified as dual fighting- and ghost-types. Ordinarily type changes between evolutions are disfavored. It is strongly justified in this case and essentially uncontested.


    Mankey have very thick fur that hides the general shape of their body and makes them appear substantially larger than they are. The fur on their paws and at the tip of their tail tends to be slightly darker than that on the rest of their body. Mankey have long and powerful limbs. Both their hands and feet have long digits that can be moved independently of each other. Mankey¡¯s long tails are prehensile. Like primeape, mankey have large and prominent ears and pink noses that extend out of their fur.


    In most ways primeape resemble a larger mankey. There are even scientists who argue that they should be merged into a single evolutionary stage. However, primeape have two notable external differences. First, primeape have pads over their buttocks referred to as sex glands. These are typically filled with blood and appear to be red. When a female ovulates, her pads swell to signal her willingness to mate. Second, primeape¡¯s tails are proportionally much shorter than those of mankey.


    Primeape are built to be flushed with adrenaline for long periods of time without serious damage. Their muscles repair themselves quickly, they have powerful hearts and lungs, and blood can be diverted from their brain towards their muscles without many consequences as a fight wears on. This allows primeape to continue fights or pursue intruders for far longer than any other primate pok¨¦mon species can. Primape¡¯s brains are almost uniquely capable of operating with minimal blood flow for extended periods of time.


    Annihilape typically have thinner limbs and a larger torso than primeape. Their fur is dark grey on the main body with long light-grey fur on their back. This fur tends to blow freely even in the absence of wind and dissolves into mist or smoke along the edges. Annihilape have blood red eyes. This is not because of actual blood. Older annihilape are almost entirely incorporeal. Even newly evolved specimens lack a functioning heart. Because their bodies are incorporeal, annihilape can change the relative size and shape of body parts on a whim. The exact degree of control they have depends on the strength of the pok¨¦mon.


    Contrary to popular depictions, all stages are usually quadrupedal unless climbing or trying to make themselves appear bigger to intimidate opponents.


    Male primeape can grow up to four feet long from their nose to the end of their tail. They can weigh up to sixty pounds. Females seldom reach forty pounds. Annihilape weigh considerably less but are about the same size. Primeape can live for forty years in the wild or sixty in captivity. Annihilape lifespans fluctuate wildly, but most specimens seem to fade in less than three centuries.


    <u>Behavior</u>


    Primeape live in strictly patriarchal troops. One male holds absolute authority and sires almost all children. The other males and females are kept in line. Non-dominant males in the troop behave much like females and assist in the childrearing of the troop¡¯s children (see Breeding).


    Unsuccessful challenges to a troop¡¯s dominant male end in the challenger¡¯s humiliation and exile. Successful challengers kill the dominant male but do not kill his children to help maintain the loyalty of the new troop. Unsuccessful challengers will head out to find a bachelor troop or, rarely, a human trainer, and train in hopes of future conquest.


    Genetic diversity in troops is maintained by ¡°raids.¡± These occur when all male primeape in a troop attack another troop at night and drag female mankey back to their camp. In a rare display of female social power these mankey have the right to visit their old troop so long as they return to their new one by sundown. Mankey approaching evolution will sometimes steal the troop¡¯s infants away for the day in mock raids. If the baby is killed or seriously injured during the course of the practice raid, the offender will be publicly executed.


    Despite their aggressive reputation, primeape are almost entirely herbivorous. All troop members forage for grains, vegetables, and fruit during the day. Most of the meat they consume is insects and small non-pok¨¦mon animals. These hunts appear to be more for sport than nutrition. In times of extreme scarcity, the males may band together to hunt larger pok¨¦mon. Because food is abundant in Alola this has never been observed in the archipelago.


    Unlike the other primates in Alola, primeape do not make their homes in the trees. Instead, they live on cliffs, either inland or by the coast, and use their long limbs and prehensile tails to climb up and down the rockworks. Because they do not eat eggs the coastal birds usually leave them alone. A few larger predators will pick on a weakened primeape or a solitary mankey. Only salamence will regularly take on entire troops.


    Like most primates, primeape engage in social grooming to build bonds and maintain cleanliness.


    Annihilape are relatively rare in the wild. Newly evolved specimens tend to stay near their troop for a few years or decades before gradually adopting a more solitary, nomadic lifestyle. They are interested in fighting worthy opponents. One specimen in Poni Gauntlet routinely challenges trainers passing by. Outside of this area annihilape will usually only fight trainers who challenge them directly or demonstrate their prowess in battle. These challenges can be intimidating as a large, powerful ghost will run up, roaring, and begin attacking whatever pok¨¦mon is out of their ball. Wild annihilape rarely kill pok¨¦mon. They are only interested in the thrill of the fight itself, not defending their territory or hunting. There are very few recorded cases of annihilape killing humans.


    <u>Husbandry</u>


    The difficult process of bonding with a mankey or primeape is detailed in the Acquisition section. This section deals exclusively with caring for a pok¨¦mon that is already relatively docile.


    Captive mankey and primeape should be fed a mix of nuts, berries, tubers, vegetables, and grain. Fresh food is best but dried or canned food can work when on the trail for less than a week. Primate biscuits are relatively expensive but make for good treats. Peanut butter, honey, and commercially available cereals also make for good treats. Treats are best administered in puzzles, such as PVC pipe systems that must be manipulated in certain ways to get the treat out or by placing the treat in a frozen block of ice.


    Annihilape do not strictly need to eat. They will happily accept sweet treats such as fruit and honey. Scientists are still unsure what exactly annihilape feed upon. They do not appear to be aminovores. Ambient fear, anger, pain, and satisfaction do little to satisfy them. Annihilape are also almost entirely immune to conventional aminovore illnesses. They may draw sustenance in a way from injuries inflicted upon other pok¨¦mon, but they are not particularly cruel in battle.


    Natural philosophers in annihilape¡¯s home range believe that they are internally powered by their own satisfaction with life. When they grow bored or lack a purpose, they slowly grow more and more incorporeal until they eventually fade away completely. Studies on caged specimens in the 1970s appeared to verify this hypothesis. These experiments cannot be repeated due to modern ethical restrictions. Their experimental design has also been called into question. Regardless, if annihilape are powered by their own emotions it would make them almost unique among ghost-types.


    Primeape and mankey should be groomed at least once a day every day to keep them relatively docile. The pok¨¦mon will occasionally attempt to groom their trainer¡¯s back and should be allowed to do so. Annihilape will also sometimes groom trusted humans or pok¨¦mon but are extremely difficult to groom due to their partially incorporeal fur. All stages are surprisingly fond of small cute pok¨¦mon and will frequently play with them. This also helps keep them calm. Mirrors and very durable toys can work as enrichment objects. Rubber and metal playsets can also work so long as the pok¨¦mon is monitored to keep them from trying to eat inedible components. Very friendly primeape and mankey can be played with using laser pointers. Curiously, wind chimes have a very strong calming effect on primape.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    Annihilape enrichment is strange. They seem to enjoy combat above all else and should frequently be given intense battles. Sparring with powerful teammates can satisfy them for a few days, but they will regularly need to be taken to amateur tournaments or some other place where they can burn off steam. The remainder of their enrichment comes from caring for young pok¨¦mon, humans, or dolls. They will usually ignore toys and puzzles.


    The biggest difficulty in caring for the line, and primeape in particular, is avoiding accidental displays of aggression. Primeape communicate friendly intentions through grunts and tongue clicking. These should be done often around them. Screams, barks, eyebrow raising, staring, eye contact, teeth baring, yawning, and hitting the ground signal aggression. Because barking is an aggressive signal it is best to not raise primeape and particularly exciteable canines on the same team. More withdrawn canines such as umbreon, and manectric can work as partners. Pok¨¦mon with a penchant for staring, such as mime sr., are incompatible with primeape. Annihilape are happy with almost any teammate that can give them a challenge.


    Primeape and annihilape are relatively intelligent and considerate pok¨¦mon when they like their trainer. They are easily housebroken and will sometimes attempt to help with housework. While they can be trusted to babysit children and young pok¨¦mon, other help should be politely declined as primeape have a tendency to accidentally break objects.


    <u>Illness</u>


    Sick primeape and mankey often show similar symptoms to sick humans. Mild respiratory illnesses are best treated through humidity and Vitamin C. Anything more severe should be handled by a veterinarian as sick primeape can be incredibly temperamental.


    The alpine primeape¡¯s population has been sharply reduced over the last thirty years by an infectious venereal disease. Any male primeape that becomes infected with the bacteria will at minimum become sterile and will typically die slowly and painfully over the course of the next month. The governments of Nepal, China, and Tibet have prohibited the exportation or capture of alpine primeape since 1995 and have culled or removed most lowland primeape in the area to prevent the illness from spreading. The quarantine procedures have been successful, if controversial, as of press time.


    Annihilape are resistant to most conventional spectral illnesses. They need time to recuperate after particularly serious battles but will heal from almost anything in a matter of days. Limbs can be regrown in weeks. Repeated hits after the pok¨¦mon stops fighting back, especially from ghost and fairy moves, have been known to result in permanent fading. Other than extreme battle injuries, it isn¡¯t known how or why annihilape die. The few times it has been observed in wild specimens, the annihilape steadily exhibited less activity over the course of weeks or months before eventually sitting still in a secluded place for several days. The density of their spectral fog decreased until they were reduced to a cloud of mist.


    <u>Evolution</u>


    Mankey typically evolve around their second birthday. Unlike most species frequent battle does not result in faster growth rates. The formal demarcation of evolution is the first swelling of the sex glands.


    Annihilape literally die during their evolution. This only occurs during particularly intense battles with very high personal stakes. In the wild it has been documented when fighting salamence, many trained pok¨¦mon being used to clear their territory for development, legendary pok¨¦mon, and incredibly powerful primeape challenging their dominance. The evolving primeape is usually male and almost always unusually powerful for the species.


    Captive specimens evolve far more than wild ones. Evolution is most common during long, drawn out fights against powerful opponents. High personal stakes for the trainer and pok¨¦mon are also important. Fights against long-time rivals, sitting champions, and ranked trainers are common triggers. Weaker opponents can also trigger evolution if emotions are running high.


    Primeape¡¯s body is built to withstand incredibly amounts of adrenaline for long periods of time. Sometimes this is not enough. Eventually, their heart will fail. This usually triggers evolution. Imperial Japan attempted to mass produce annihilape through drug cocktails that induced heart failure during a battle. These efforts rarely resulted in evolution and the program was discontinued after only a few months.


    Newly evolved annihilape typically stay near their troop for a time, either as an active member or a distant protector against major threats. They are still almost entirely corporeal during this time, even if their organs have failed. As they grow older and the world they knew in life fades further away, annihliape¡¯s physical body slowly dissolves into spectral fog. The process cannot be reversed. Body parts lost due to injury can return in corporeal form after a few months. It is believed that annihilape fade when none of their physical body remains.


    <u>Battle</u>


    Primeape are ferocious battlers with very strong attacks. Outside of China they are still relatively unpopular choices due to the difficulty in training them. Other fighting-types such as machamp and hariyama can hit even harder and tank more hits. Primeape¡¯s agility is impressive, but hawlucha are stronger and faster than primeape and have the ability to take to the air. Furthermore, even well-trained primeape are known to ignore orders during the heat of battle.


    The only reason primeape see use in professional circuits is that trainers are often working towards their evolution. Annihilape are incredibly powerful, quite fast, and really durable. It¡¯s hard to meaningfully damage something that is dead and does not fear serious bodily harm. They are most known for slowly setting up against a weaker opponent with moves like bulk up and rage fist while relying on drain punch to keep them healthy. Drain punch seems unusually effective at restoring their vitality, probably because it can simply charge or regenerate spectral fog rather than having to grow new cells.


    Sublimape are far more popular in China but slightly less common on the global circuits (see Relatives). They are faster and stronger than annihilape at the cost of durability. Sublimape also have much better coverage options. On balance, they rarely take fights seriously and have been known to show off in battle rather than finishing things as soon as they can. Annihilape do not have this problem.


    Any trainer who can command a primeape or annihilape is unlikely to need it until the last trials of the island challenge. There primeape work best as fast, aggressive attackers that never give their opponent time to rest. Annihilape can either quickly end a fight or steadily set up, depending on how much threat their current opponent poses.


    Mankey also function best when they hit hard and fast and never give the opponent a moment to rest. More complicated strategies are generally inadvisable because the pok¨¦mon may ignore critical orders. Doing anything other than attacking gives opponents a chance to exploit the pok¨¦mon¡¯s relative frailty. Training should focus on power, jumping, and coverage moves.


    <u>Acquisition</u>


    Primeape are most commonly found on the coastal cliffs of Melemele and Poni. During the day they can be found in plains and forests near their home base. There are two approaches to capturing one. Recently evolved male primeape and male mankey close to evolution will sometimes challenge a nearby trainer to test their strength. If the trainer is successful, the pok¨¦mon will agree to come along with relatively little fuss. As male primeape are larger than females and this approach involves less resistance, it is the better path when possible. Unfortunately, it requires relying on a primeape or mankey to make a given decision.


    Proactive primeape hunting must target females. This approach, as well as the first, works better for male trainers. If a female primeape is found hunting alone she can be ambushed. After a few attacks land, capture can be attempted. This simulates a raid and makes the female more inclined to trust their trainer than they might otherwise be. However, if the trainer plans to frequently leave the primeape¡¯s home range they will break the implicit promise of social visits that underpin raids in the wild. This will cause the female to become extremely rebellious for several months or even years.


    Calming primeape down requires acting in a dominant role. Many trainers mistake dominance for cruelty, which it is not. Trainers should set clear boundaries and enforce them through mild punishments. A stronger pok¨¦mon than the primeape should be kept on hand for at least the first few weeks in order to quash challenges. Rewards and attempted bonding should be more common than punishments. Eventually the primeape will give in and start accepting treats and grooming.


    There are only two known wild annihlape in Alola. One is elderly and spends most of her time meditating in Vast Poni Canyon, only emerging for periodic fights with kommo-o or the kahuna. The second lives in Poni Gauntlet. Neither has shown any interest in being captured. It would be highly inadvisable to capture them without their permission. When their trainer dies or is no longer able to care for them, captive specimens usually seek out a new trainer or go to live in the wild. They are allowed to choose their own fate due to the limited risk they pose to the public and ecosystem.


    Mankey can be captured with a Class IV license or adopted or purchased with a Class III. Primeape can be licensed, adopted, or purchased with a Class IV license.


    <u>Breeding</u>


    Female primeape in heat will approach the dominant male and display her sex glands. Occasionally another male will elope with a female in secret. This is one of the few times that primeape engage in deceptive behavior.


    Pregnancy typically lasts ten to twelve weeks at which point a single mankey will be born. All members of the troop collectively care for the children. Even the males are very fond of infants and will let the baby crawl all over them. Zoo populations have been known to treat small pok¨¦mon that enter their enclosure as beloved pets. Trainer-owned primeape often help raise smaller or younger pok¨¦mon and are even competent at caring for human infants.


    Captive breeding is not recommended outside of zoos. Males that lead a troop tend to behave very aggressively towards all humans, including formerly trusted trainers.


    Annihilape have not been known to reproduce. It is highly unlikely they are capable of it.


    <u>Relatives</u>


    Buddhist monks brought Japanese primeape to Alola in the early Nineteenth Century. These primeape are native to the central regions of Japan. Unlike the Alolan population they tend to live on the walls of canyons and in the rocky cliffs near glacial highlands. The species can be found throughout Korea, Japan, northeast China, and small portions of Russia.


    Alpine primeape (P. calidaqua) are native to the mountains of the Himalayas. They are well known for their fluffy white fur and fondness for bathing in hot springs. Far and away the calmest species, alpine primeape routinely venture into small settlements in Tibet. They are a tourist attraction due to their fearlessness. Locals are very tolerant of the pok¨¦mon and they have historically protected each other from threats. Evolution into annihlape is almost never documented. The few that have evolved were likely hybrids.


    Chinese primeape (P. simiarex) are the largest and most famous species due to their prominent role in Chinese folklore and ability to evolve into sublimape. Buddhist monks in particular have a long history of raising primeape. It is said that primeape evolve when they master their rage. Empirical evidence is lacking. The belief did lead many monks to see evolving one as a worthy goal. Conveniently, the primeape also made powerful allies in eras where Buddhism was disfavored.


    Chinese primeape and sublimape are classified as dual fighting- and fairy-types due to the variety of strange tricks they can wield, such as distorting the size of objects. Magic, while a nebulous concept in and of itself, is often associated with sublimape. They are said to have been the guardians of heaven and the peaks. Chinese primeape are one of the few pok¨¦mon known to practice agriculture and have selectively bred peaches for millennia.

 Fighting 15: Pixie

    Fighting 3.15: Kalani


    Pixie


    January 29, 2020


    It somehow, wonderfully, became even colder as you journeyed back to sea level.


    Everything else has been going wrong. The stupid rock you scared away came back bigger. And it talks! It keeps following you around asking why you¡¯re marking your scent and how you make things cold. At least before it didn¡¯t tell you how dumb it was. And now Skysong can fly on its back! She can just fly places now if she wants to go somewhere. Without you! And she hasn¡¯t apologized for making you stay with Bloodrage for a night. He stinks, even by human standards, but she dared to laugh when you told her about that.


    Now she¡¯s trying to make it up to you. Eggbreath and Eyerock are nowhere to be found. It¡¯s just you and her sitting down by the sea, a brush running through your fur. She¡¯s even promised to carry you away when she¡¯s done so you don¡¯t get sand in everything. You hate sand. It¡¯s coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere.


    A gust of cool wind rolls across the beach. Skysong stops brushing you for a moment and pulls her falsefur closer. You barely even notice as you bask in the wonderfully icy air.


    The world lights up. You startle and turn to see a radiantly beautiful creature walking towards you, moonlight shining from her fur. She holds her tails up delicately behind her to ensure they do not touch the sand. Her footsteps are silent; you would not have noticed her at all were it not for the light.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on, Pix?¡± Skysong asks. You ignore her. She is not as pretty as the nine-tails in front of you. The fox pauses for a second and her icy blue eyes bore into yours. Then she slowly, gently leans over and reaches down. Her mouth softly settles around the back of your neck and she pulls you out, holding you by the scruff.


    Skysong must feel it. She lashes out, flailing a hand at the ice-type and reaching for Eyerock¡¯s ball. The nine-tails drops you and lunges, white tails billowing above you. Your trainer¡¯s back hits the sand and the fox¡¯s snout presses down into hers. A low, powerful growl fills the air. ¡°Stay away from my kit,¡± the nine-tails demands.


    ¡°Your¡ªI thought you were on Ula¡¯Ula?¡±


    The nine-tails ignores her and turns around, picking you up in the same motion. You can hear one tail whipping out to strike Skysong. Kit. This nine-tails doesn¡¯t smell like Avalanche. It isn¡¯t her. No one you know from the mountain. Or the one from the cave. It still feels so nice to be held. Protected. Called family. And Skysong had been mean anyway¡­


    ¡°Wait! I just want to talk!¡± The nine-tails doesn¡¯t answer. Her mouth is full, after all, and humans insist that it is rude to talk that way.


    Red light races towards you and swallows you whole.


    *


    The world shatters. All of your jumbled thoughts snap back to clarity as everything fragments and collapses or violently explodes around you. Then it all fades just as suddenly and you¡¯re left sprawled out in the sand. Shards of your pok¨¦ball are scattered around you. The nine-tails is hunched over you, tails spread wide in an aggressive stance. Skysong is laid out on the ground and groaning softly. Eyerock hovers low nearby. Half its body is coated in a thick layer of ice. Good. It deserved to learn how powerful a nine-tails is. Besides, Skysong¡¯s the one who attacked first. Bruises and blood are a far lesser punishment to what the fox could have done.


    Eyerock falls the rest of the way and crashes into the sand. A red beam absorbs him a few seconds later. Skysong doesn¡¯t send out Eggbreath. A shame. They could also use a lesson, too.


    Your trainer¡¯s eyes flutter open. ¡°Pixie¡­¡± she mutters. {Use roar.}


    The nine-tails continues to stare her down. Why is she still trying to fight a guardian of the moon? You knew she was stupid, but this takes things to a new level. You¡¯re certainly not going to fight one.


    ¡°Need¡­ help. Call¡­ please.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t even look that hurt. You got your feet and side scorched for her a few days ago. She can take a tackle or scratch or whatever the nine-tails did. Although humans are frail and noseblind. She might not be able to get help on her own. But she does deserve this.


    {Have Eggbreath do it.}


    She sighs, wincing in pain as she does. Definitely faking things. You can¡¯t even smell that much blood. Her head finally settles into the sand. {Fine. Be safe.}


    The nine-tails watches her for a few more seconds before picking you back up by the scruff of the neck. Once you¡¯ve gone a long way down the beach you hear Eggbreath¡¯s pathetic roar behind you. The nine-tails stops for a second and glances back. Then she keeps on moving as if nothing was wrong.


    Eventually you find yourself at a wooden structure raised up above the sand. The nine-tails slinks in through a flap in the door and walks to a fluffy bed on the other side of the room. She finally sets you down. Before you can properly look around, she pulls you in with a foreleg and presses you into her side. Her tails come around to blanket you.


    It feels so good. So familiar. You didn¡¯t know how much you missed it until now. All of the good memories rising up at once. It¡¯s been years, but you¡¯re finally getting what you deserve.


    The nine-tails brings her head over to yours and starts licking your fur. There¡¯s not too much that needs to be done since you were just brushed. She¡¯s still very thorough, making sure that every part of your fur is properly cared for and that you are marked as hers.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± you finally ask. Again, it¡¯s no one you recognize. But she seems to recognize you.


    ¡°Kalani.¡± Her voice is lower than you would have thought. Soft, gentle, dangerous. Perfect for a nine-tails. ¡°Were you born on the mountain?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± You don¡¯t say anything more. This is a very good moment and you don¡¯t want to ruin it by thinking about not good things.


    ¡°So was I.¡±


    Exiled, then. Like you. Why would anyone ever abandon her? She¡¯s perfect. She carries herself gently and fights fiercely. Her siblings couldn¡¯t have been better.


    Maybe mothers just don¡¯t know their children very well.


    The clicking of claws on a hard floor come from another room. Kalani huffs and pulls you closer. You¡¯re surrounded by tails and can¡¯t see who enters the room.


    ¡°Who are you talking to?¡± A canine dialect. His steps sounded heavy yet his voice is low to the ground. What dog is this?


    ¡°None of your concern.¡±


    The dog sighs. ¡°Try again.¡±


    ¡°None of your concern.¡±


    There¡¯s a long period of silence.


    ¡°There¡¯s an extra heartbeat here. You were talking to someone.¡±


    ¡°None of your concern.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m telling the boss.¡±


    Kalani¡¯s tails whip around and she gets on all fours. ¡°Do not.¡±


    You can finally see the other canine. He¡¯s a disgusting shade of light brown with sharp things poking out all over. Even worse to cuddle than to look at. Kalani is right to dismiss him. For some reason the other dog does not look intimidated. Just curious.


    ¡°Where¡¯d you get that?¡±


    ¡°I found her.¡±


    ¡°You found a vulpix? Just walking around on her own?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°No trainer?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    The ugly dog keeps staring at Kalani before finally looking to you. ¡°Do you have a trainer?¡±


    You aren¡¯t about to contradict a nine-tails.


    He snorts. ¡°I¡¯ll let the boss deal with it.¡± Kalani hisses but the dog doesn¡¯t notice. His steps move farther and farther away. With a low growl Kalani finally lowers herself around you and continues licking your fur into shape.


    ¡°Who is he?¡± you finally whisper.


    ¡°Stupid rock. Heard I wanted a kit. Decided he could give me one. He cannot. I do not want my child to be ugly.¡±


    ¡°Smart.¡±


    She huffs and cold air gently flows past your ear. ¡°Yes. You¡¯re better than a half-rock.¡±


    It feels good to hear a nientales praise you. Even if it¡¯s faint praise.


    Kalani finally decides that you¡¯re properly groomed. She nuzzles your head. ¡°I won¡¯t leave you.¡± She says it so softly that only you could hear. Then she settles down to the ground and sprawls out for sleep. She purrs. It goes through your entire body and it¡¯s been so, so long. You purr, too, and soon you both fall asleep with happiness pulsing back and forth between your bodies.


    *


    The door opens. Loudly. An obnoxious man walks in with something big and unwieldly walking behind him. ¡°You here, Kalani?¡±


    The fox whines in righteous irritation at being woken up from her nap.


    ¡°Heh. Feel you, girl. Can I have some light?¡±


    Soft moonlight flows across the room. The irritating clacking sound comes back.


    ¡°Alola, Po. How are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Kalani has a vulpix,¡± he says.


    The big pok¨¦mon says it back in human tongue. Something like the human tongue, anyway. It¡¯s all subtly wrong, different sounds emphasized or almost silent. It sounds like music, one of the few sometimes-decent things about humans. Its voice is almost as pretty as Kalani¡¯s. You press your face out of Kalani¡¯s fur to see what it is. It¡¯s blue with a long tail and no legs. Random fins stick out everywhere. No fur at all. Terrible. One of the ugliest things you¡¯ve ever seen.


    ¡°A vulpix, ay? Where¡¯d you get it.¡±


    ¡°Found her.¡± Kalani barks it out like a challenge. The strange creature sings it back with the challenge gone.


    ¡°Found her? Where at? Down the beach.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    The human moves on without waiting for the song. He can recognize the simplest of nine-tails sounds. This makes him very smart for a human. ¡°Strange. Just got back from the Center down the way. They¡¯d found this girl laid out on the beach with a set of long cuts on her side. Shredded her clothing and got through to the skin. She was cold, too. Colder than you would¡¯ve expected from the time she¡¯d spent out and the clothing she was wearing.¡± He pauses. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t happen to know anything about that, would you?¡±Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    ¡°No.¡± The man sighs. Kalani presses on. ¡°Humans get hurt all the time.¡±


    The man sits down when the song ends, his weight settling into hard furniture that creaks along the wooden floor. ¡°She said something snuck up on her. Took her vulpix and froze her metang near solid. Must have been a powerful, stealthy ice-type to do that. Maybe even quieter and stronger than you. What do you think about it? Is there any ice-type better than you around?¡±


    Kalani hisses. It has a meaning every fox should instinctively know: go away or prepare to fight. The man does neither. He kneels down and holds up his hands, palms out.


    ¡°I know you want a kit. Trust me, I¡¯ve been working on it. Just fell down the priority list with the darkness and aliens and all that. That doesn¡¯t mean you can just take a vulpix that already has a home.¡±


    ¡°She didn¡¯t have one.¡±


    ¡°I just talked to¡ª¡±


    ¡°Humans can¡¯t give a vulpix a home. You don¡¯t know how.¡±


    The man¡¯s expression changes as the strange pok¨¦mon sings. He averts his gaze. Submission.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry you feel that way. But. She has a trainer she seemed happy with. It¡¯s not fair to just take her away like that.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s happier here.¡±


    Kalani turns to stare at you, finally asking for you to say something. What should you say? Were you unhappy with Skysong? She was going to abandon you eventually and she didn¡¯t understand you, although she did try. Kalani has promised not to leave you. She understands what it¡¯s like to be left alone in a strange place, rejected by someone who should have known better. You can trust her to keep you by her side. And she¡¯s so, so pretty¡­ Kalani runs a paw into your side. It¡¯s time to answer.


    ¡°I like being here.¡±


    The creature sings. The man looks disappointed. ¡°Alright,¡± he says. He slowly stands back up, hands sliding from his thighs to his belt¡ªKalani disappears and the room is plunged into darkness. ¡°Sorry about all that. She can be a bit much sometimes. A friend of mine, her nine-tails had kits back in November. Kalani¡¯s been obsessed with having her own since then. A rivalry, maybe. Hard to tell with her.¡±


    He makes it sound like nine-tails are irrational and impossible to understand. Even though he can talk to them through his weird companion. You would definitely not stay here for him. Skysong is much better. But you wouldn¡¯t be here for him anyway.


    ¡°I¡¯ll bring you back in the morning, okay? Right now your trainer¡¯s in a bit of a rough spot. Wouldn¡¯t do her any good to cuddle with an ice-type while she¡¯s recovering from frostbite.¡± Since when does frost bite people? Is he saying that Kalani bit her? Because she can¡¯t complain about that after all the times Eggbreath has chomped on you. ¡°I¡¯ll let you get your new ball tomorrow. For now, uh, what do you want to do in the meantime?¡±


    ¡°Can Kalani come back?¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± It sounds like he wasn¡¯t expecting that. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not?¡±


    Kalani reappears and engulfs you in her tails.


    ¡°Mine,¡± she growls.


    The man doesn¡¯t need a translator.


    *


    The next morning the man, still unnamed, walks you back down the beach. One of the floating light makers flips through the air beside him. It isn¡¯t nearly as bright as Kalani, but he doesn¡¯t seem to trust her. As if a nine-tails would ever be untrustworthy.


    It feels like it takes longer to reach the Pok¨¦mon Center than it did to walk away from it. Maybe because you didn¡¯t actually have to walk through yucky sand last night.


    Once inside he walks you down the hall to Skysong¡¯s room. She¡¯s in loose falsefur when the door opens. Eyerock floats behind her at the very edge of the light. Eggbreath is nowhere to be seen. You walk through the door and flick a tail into Skysong¡¯s leg so she knows you¡¯re there. She immediately bares her teeth and reaches down to scratch your ear.


    ¡°Miss Ichtaca?¡±


    Skysong hums instead of answering, too absorbed in cradling your head in her paws.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for the trouble. Kalani¡¯s never done anything like that before.¡±


    ¡°Oh? You got your nine-tails to behave? Most of the time, anyway.¡± She doesn¡¯t sound angry. Amused, really. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t have any tips, would you?¡±


    ¡°Bribery.¡±


    ¡°Figured that one out a while ago.¡± She gently flips you onto your back and raises you up to the top of her chest. A little higher than usual. ¡°I bought some bloodsicles for you, by the way.¡±


    Your ears perk up. That is one thing that Skysong has and Kalani doesn¡¯t. It may be the only thing, but it is a big one.


    ¡°Heh. Seems you¡¯ve got the basics.¡± He laughs and you squirm against Skysong¡¯s chest. Skysong¡¯s voice means her laughter is fine, but males can still be menacing. Not that they could hurt you anymore. You¡¯re a lot stronger now than you were. ¡°How¡¯s your side healing?¡±


    Skysong slowly lowers you to the ground again. ¡°The scratches still feel cold. Nurse thought there might be a curse woven into it. If it hasn¡¯t ended in a few days I¡¯m supposed to call someone in Hau¡¯oli.¡±


    ¡°I can pay for that.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± Skysong¡¯s hand locks up. She¡¯s scared. Of him? You¡¯re fine fighting him. Kalani doesn¡¯t seem to like the man, anyway. ¡°It¡¯s a small thing, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Go on.¡±


    ¡°Can you pay for a new coat? I would mend it myself, but the material is different than anything I¡¯ve worked with.¡±


    ¡°Of course. I have one I can loan out in the meantime. It used to be Selene¡¯s, actually, but she outgrew it¡­¡± Selene. Firemane. Why does this man know Firemane? Your suspicions only grow. ¡°And I brought you one more thing. If you can hold your hand out.¡± It¡¯s a pok¨¦ball. Cold radiates off of it. How? ¡°It¡¯s a glacier ball. Kalani tolerates hers. Thought it would be a good replacement for her old one.¡±


    Cuicatl reaches out and the man presses it into her hand. She then lowers it to you. ¡°You can press the button,¡± she says. A pok¨¦ball that even a nine-tails could like? You¡¯re interested. You press your snout into it and feel the world fall away.


    ¡­


    You still exist. That¡¯s new. You glance around to see rocky craigs covered in snow and ice. Freezing wind runs through your fur. There¡¯s a cave with a bed in it cut into one cliff face. You head over, gracefully moving through the snow like you were born for it. Because you were, in fact, born for it. The winds die away the moment you enter the cave. The bed itself is warm but not hot. It¡¯s comforting. And boring. You have beds outside.


    The snow is deep enough to bury yourself into. And to stay buried in. You haven¡¯t been able to do this in years. There are cliffs to explore still. More territory to examine and mark. You can take care of all of that later. Now you want to take a nap under the snow and imagine that Avalanche is watching over you.


    *


    The snow disappears and you find yourself lying next to Skysong in the dark. You¡¯re almost disappointed. A pok¨¦ball that¡¯s good rather than just not terrible. Why didn¡¯t you have one of these before? She runs a hand through your fur. ¡°Can I check you over? Make sure you aren¡¯t hurt?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not.¡±


    ¡°I would like to be sure.¡±


    She checks you for injuries by petting you. This is acceptable, even if she won¡¯t find anything.


    ¡°Okay.¡±


    She feels cooler than usual. Still warm, but not as intensely. Is that the air being cold? You being cold? The curse? You turn your eye to the world of spirits. Nine-tails can move spirits around to let them go or curse the living. Vulpix can only see them, and even that requires a lot of focus. There¡¯s a pale blur running by Skysong over her usual swirling green and black. Probably the scratches. She said that she still feels cold¡­ that¡¯s a small curse. Make her always cold so she understands what it¡¯s like for you to be always hot. Barely even counts as a curse at all. Unless it lasts. Then always being the wrong temperature is terrible.


    She really shouldn¡¯t have pissed off a nine-tails. What did she think was going to happen?


    ¡°Where¡¯s Eggbreath?¡± you ask. Did they get hurt? They might stop biting you if they saw what a nine-tails can really do.


    ¡°With Kekoa. I wanted to have some time alone with you. Mostly alone. Noci refuses to leave my side right now. Sorry about that.¡±


    You can¡¯t see it in the darkness but you assume the rock is staring at you from somewhere. That¡¯s always a safe bet. What will it do when you bring the light back? Hiding will be much harder for something so big and ugly.


    ¡°You promised blood.¡± You almost forgot after your snow nap. You¡¯re glad you remembered. It seems you got hungry in the ball.


    ¡°Right. Let me grab one.¡± She awkwardly shuffles along until she finds the box you keep filled with ice. You start drooling in a very dignified manner as soon as the smell hits you. ¡°I¡¯ll give it to you in the tub. Easier to clean up that way.¡±


    ¡°I am a very clean eater.¡±


    ¡°I know. Just want to be sure.¡±


    You huff. If you weren¡¯t getting frozen blood out of this then you¡¯d be more upset.


    It¡¯s easy to follow the scent of blood. Then you get to devour it. Blood is maybe the best food. The taste of rich metal. A feeling of warmth in your gut that¡¯s like being snuggled from the inside. The feeling of dominance over your prey. This blood is cold and you didn¡¯t have to kill anything for it, but it still reminds you of love and victory. Besides, you need cool more than warm near the sea. Even if the moon eater made everything colder.


    Maybe you can put off defeating it for a little while longer.


    *


    Skysong is a worse cuddler than Kalani. She¡¯s wrapped around you but can¡¯t fully surround you in her tails. She can¡¯t keep altering the temperature so you¡¯re always comfortable. You can¡¯t feel protected by her because you¡¯re the one protecting her. Sometimes she wakes up screaming at something that isn¡¯t there.


    You had enjoyed cuddling with her just two nights ago. She was flawed. Still is. But at least she was warm and looked after you. Now it feels like the bar should be higher.


    Humans can¡¯t give vulpix a home.


    Is she wrong? Humans have tried to give you a home. Maybe they could succeed. A nine-tails could still do it better.


    The one in the cave, though, he told you to go back to Skysong. Why? He didn¡¯t seem to like humans that much. Wanted you to settle for someone who could just understand your words.


    A faint pink light shines by the door. You perk up and listen as gears turn and a lock clicks. Moonlight floods the room as the door is pushed open. Kalani enters, radiant as always. She walks over, feet nearly silent even on the wooden floor, and picks you up in her mouth. Skysong shivers and murmurs something without waking up. ¡°Alice¡­¡±


    Alice. Again with Alice. The sister that she told you about. That she¡¯ll choose over you.


    Kalani turns around and leaves the room. You don¡¯t alert Skysong. Eyerock stays perched in its corner unmoving. Good. It learned its lesson about fighting nine-tails. Liar is fast asleep in her bed. The human who keeps watch over the entry is also asleep when you pass. Humans. Can¡¯t even stay awake right.


    Kalani only sets you down when you¡¯re back inside of her home. She immediately sweeps you up in her tails and starts licking you over, just like last night. Checking for injury like Skysong, maybe. She eventually seems satisfied and uses a tail to press you against her body.


    ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± she asks.


    Had you never told her?


    ¡°Pixie.¡±


    She growls. ¡°I thought that was a joke.¡±


    ¡°Sixthborn of Avalanche. My old name.¡±


    ¡°She didn¡¯t want you.¡±


    It claws into your lungs to hear that said by a nine-tails. ¡°No. She didn¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°I want you.¡±


    You start purring in anticipation and joy. You¡¯re wanted. Wanted by someone who matters.


    ¡°Firstborn of Kalani. That is your new name.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re my mother now?¡± You think so. You hope so. A part of you is terrified you heard that wrong.


    ¡°Yes. You are my firstborn. I will never leave you.¡±


    *


    The man finds you in the morning. He and Kalani fight again.


    ¡°You can¡¯t do this,¡± he says.


    ¡°You cannot stop me,¡± she answers. ¡°This is my firstborn. I will not let you take her.¡±


    The man walks out, muttering something about Mondays.


    You should really name him at some point. Or ask Kalani. ¡°Does he have a name?¡±


    ¡°Openliver. He doesn¡¯t wear falsefur over his chest. Dares enemies to attack his organs. He survives anyway.¡± There¡¯s something like respect in her words. Then it fades as she snarls and sends out waves of cold. ¡°I will destroy your captor if she takes you again. Curse her until she wishes to die and finds the spirits unwilling to take her. I will do the same to Openliver if he tries to take you.¡±


    You¡¯re torn. The promise of protection settles over you like a blanket. She¡¯s protecting you from the wrong person, though. ¡°Skysong looked after me. Don¡¯t curse her.¡±


    Kalani growls. ¡°Has she been good to you? What does she do? Get in the way of attacks? Hunt for you? Keep you cold on hot days? She can¡¯t understand you. Humans are useful tools. They can never be family. Not even friends.¡±


    ¡°She can speak to me. Mind stuff. And she listens to my stories¡­¡±


    Because they¡¯re useful to her. She didn¡¯t ask about them much before she needed them to keep Eggbreath.


    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Bubbleface can talk to both of us. He still doesn¡¯t understand. They cannot. We are brilliant lords of the cold. They are dull, treacherous servants of the sand. They will take what they can use and reject everything else.¡±


    ¡°The nine-tails in the cave said that.¡± Something like that. About humans not being able to understand us. ¡°He said that we¡¯re trapped.¡±


    Kalani growls. ¡°An old fool. He has forgotten what matters. Nothing could trap us.¡±


    ¡°Who is he?¡± you ask. ¡°I didn¡¯t know we lived wild off the mountain.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t,¡± she hisses. ¡°Only him. I don¡¯t know his name. Don¡¯t care. It doesn¡¯t matter. The curse matters.¡±


    Right. She isn¡¯t done with Skysong. Um. She isn¡¯t that bad? For a human. It¡¯s not her fault she was born furless, dumb, and weak. ¡°They¡¯ll try to hurt you if you curse someone.¡± You think she could take care of herself. It just feels wrong to torture someone who at least tried to keep you happy.


    ¡°Green-eyes fought the sun himself to save her children. I will do the same if I must.¡±


    The sun demanded to eat one of Green-eyes¡¯ children. She refused. Green-eyes fought the sun for a full day before the sun had to sleep for the night. They fought again for eight more days before she stood victorious and drove the sun away. That is why it is so easy to keep The Mountain cold ¨C the sun does not wish to go there.


    She only had two left when the sun came. If he had just come a little earlier than she would have let him eat one. The love and power of a nine-tails mother is unmatched, but only once their two have been chosen. Kalani comparing herself to Green-eyes means that you have been chosen. Another happy feeling fills your tails.


    *


    Skysong comes to Kalani¡¯s home to meet you. The nine-tails stays inside, seething after she ceded the argument to Openliver. She would not have allowed you to meet her at all, especially not without her present. Kalani¡¯s forced to stay behind the door listening in.


    ¡°Hello,¡± Skysong says while you approach. There¡¯s wood here so you don¡¯t have to sit on the beach. Good. ¡°Can I check you over?¡±


    You don¡¯t need it, but it¡¯s still petting. You hop up onto her lap and let her run her paws through your fur.


    ¡°She adopted me.¡±


    ¡°I heard.¡± Skysong doesn¡¯t sound happy about that. At all. {Are you sure about this? You¡¯ve only known her for two nights? What if she isn¡¯t what you think?}


    {She adopted me.}


    Skysong sighs and sets her paws down on either side of you.


    {I¡¯m not saying you can¡¯t stay with her. I just want to give you some time to make your choice. I have an offer in the meantime.} Is she using you? Kalani said she would. That she always was. {I¡¯ll give you two chances to prove how strong you are to Kalani. Once she sees that she¡¯ll definitely never want to leave you.}


    She wants you to fight for her. Again. You want to say no. Kalani will protect you. Skysong makes you protect her. But her words make you pause as a shiver of doubt runs through you. What if even Kalani will leave you? She invoked Green-eyes. You are now her firstborn and she will fight to the death to protect you. There is no longer a need to let some children die and make some children leave. But Avalanche left you without a second thought. {What would I fight?}


    {A bug and a crab.}


    Insects. You can crush insects. It will be a good show of your strength.


    {I will fight them.}


    {Thank you.} Her paws find your fur again. {I hope you stay with me. I love you, really, but I won¡¯t keep you from family.} ¡°Just know that even after¡± {the fights are over and} ¡°I leave for another island, you¡¯ll always have a home with me if you need one.¡±


    Skysong¡¯s lying to you even if she doesn¡¯t know it.


    Humans can¡¯t give vulpix a home.

 Fighting 16: Genesis

    Fighting 3.16: Expert Opinion


    Genesis


    The guard leads you to a room lit by a pyroar and starmie. Mother and Father are sitting on a couch, staring at a large television mounted on the wall. Cuicatl¡¯s on it. She¡¯s in what looks like a Pok¨¦mon Center lounge. The chyron at the bottom reads ¡°¡¯They needed a home¡¯ ¨C ¡®Butterfree Whisperer¡¯ on her remarkable capture.¡±


    What? You didn¡¯t even think she liked butterfree? Sure, she seemed weirdly fond of her paras but those are different.


    ¡°I have long had my suspicions about her,¡± Father says. His low voices rumbles through the room. ¡°But this seems akin to confirmation. I¡¯d thought she was a witch, but I may have made a grave mistake and allowed my daughter to associate with a psychic.¡± The starmie¡¯s light turns a deep shade of a pink. He grimaces. ¡°That certainly complicates things.¡±


    Complicates things? ¡°Are you going to hurt her?¡± You regret the question as soon as you ask it. Makes you sound loyal to her.


    ¡°That depends,¡± Mother answers. ¡°Did she hurt you first?¡±


    ¡°No! She was almost always nice. Not, um, too nice. But she wouldn¡¯t hurt me.¡±


    ¡°If she had, would you know?¡±


    Could she, what, wipe all your memories? No. She¡¯d never shown anything like¡­ your mind latches on to something else.


    ¡°I¡¯ve only seen her talk to pok¨¦mon. Even that gives her migraines sometimes. I don¡¯t think she could do anything like that.¡±


    ¡°Perhaps,¡± Father concedes. ¡°You will still need to be examined. We¡¯ll call in an expert as soon as we can. Make sure that nothing is dug in too deep. We will make sure that justice is served if they find something.¡±


    If there is anything buried it means that Cuicatl lied to you and invaded your mind. A shiver runs through your body. She¡­ wouldn¡¯t. Maybe she¡¯s a demon worshipper, but that doesn¡¯t match your perception of her at all. You remember Lyra venting about how psychics were dangerous. She¡¯d been furious and you were more concerned about making her not furious than actually listening to her arguments. Maybe if Cuicatl had told you about her powers off the bat you would¡¯ve been scared, but since you only found out after you learned she was good for a pagan¡­


    Father turns off the television and Cuicatl¡¯s face disappears from the edges in.


    *


    It only takes a day for Father to bring in his expert.


    The man himself is unremarkable for someone who pries into minds to look for damage. He¡¯s older. His hair is all gray but still there. He¡¯s wearing slacks and a button up shirt. The buttons are off. You can¡¯t imagine your parents are pleased with it. You would¡¯ve been torn apart if you made that mistake in public.


    ¡°Hello, I¡¯m Dr. Brinner.¡± He gestures at his pok¨¦mon, a hypno staring at you with empty eyes. ¡°This is Andrew. He will be examining you today.¡±


    ¡°A pleasure to meet you.¡±


    Mother nods in your peripheral vision. Got the greeting right.


    ¡°Uh, likewise.¡± He pulls out a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. A pen expands with a satisfying ¡®click.¡¯ ¡°Before we begin, what do you know about the psychic she interacted with? Displayed abilities, partner pok¨¦mon, the type of damage you¡¯re expecting.¡±


    Mother flinches at the word damage. A small sign that she cares.


    The question wasn¡¯t really directed to you but you¡¯re the only one who can answer it.


    ¡°She¡¯s a telepath, I think. Translates things. She can understand people and pok¨¦mon and make them understand her. She can mask her accent if she wants.¡±


    Dr. Brinner frowns. ¡°Definitely a telepath of sorts. The accent trick suggests that she can alter either the stream of consciousness or sensory inputs. Probably the former. Anything else you observed? Other applications?¡±


    You remember her curled up in bed near Brooklet Hill. ¡°She made it so her pok¨¦mon could understand each other. Gave her a migraine for days.¡±


    ¡°Some limits, then.¡± He finished scribbling down notes. ¡°Whether in technique or power I cannot say. Any other abilities? Sensing or changing emotions, seeing things before they happen, moving things with her mind, teleportation, barrier creation?¡±


    You do your best to remember but can¡¯t come up with anything. Maybe she¡¯s a little stronger than her frame would suggest? Is that worth mentioning. You see Mother¡¯s glower out of the corner of your eye. It would be a sin to lie to her, even on accident.


    ¡°She might be able to lift things she normally couldn¡¯t. Not so much that anything ever seemed off. And I think I was still stronger than her unless she was holding back.¡±


    ¡°Alright. What pok¨¦mon did she have? If she was working with a psychic-type then she might be able to do more than she otherwise could.¡±


    ¡°A holy vulpix, tyrunt, and beldum.¡±


    He blinks. ¡°Holy vulpix?¡±


    ¡°The Alolan one,¡± Father answers.


    ¡°Hmm. Spoke with one once. I¡¯d hardly call them holy.¡±


    ¡°Please stay on topic,¡± Mother chides.


    ¡°Fine, fine.¡± Dr. Brinner turns back to you. ¡°I¡¯ve heard rumors out of Japan of someone creating a telepathic bond with their ninetales. Quite a powerful one, too, if the stories are to be believed. There were unusual circumstances there since both the trainer and pok¨¦mon seem to be fallers. Might¡¯ve been mutations involved as well. Hard to know what¡¯s fact and what was made up to sell tabloids. Common problem in this profession.¡±


    ¡°I must ask you again to stay on topic, Doctor.¡±


    ¡°The point is that the vulpix giving her a power boost is possible but unlikely. Same for the beldum. Even metang are only passable telepaths. Metagross, uh, no one really knows. Not how they usually fuck people up¡ª¡±


    ¡°Do not swear in front of my daughter.¡± Mother crosses her arms and glares. ¡°She¡¯s impressionable.¡±


    Dr. Brinner exhales. He seems almost as annoyed with your parents as they seem with him. It¡¯s weird. You¡¯ve almost never seen anyone cross with your family. Sometimes you see Skull graffiti or newscasts covering some crude statement about your family, but you¡¯d always figured that no one would dare disrespect them in person.


    ¡°She the butterfree whisperer? Fits the description of a translator-telepath and the cover didn¡¯t really make sense to me.¡±


    ¡°Is it that obvious?¡± There are people who really don¡¯t like psychics. Like Lyra. If they met it could be disastrous. No. There are four islands, none of them small. They probably won¡¯t cross paths. Thanks be to Xerneas.


    ¡°Only if you know what you¡¯re looking for. She said in the interview that she¡¯s been blind since birth. Is that right?¡±


    ¡°She says that, yes. But most blind people aren¡¯t born that way.¡±


    At least you learn from your mistakes.


    ¡°I¡¯m aware. Do you know if she has any relation to Unovan royalty?¡±


    ¡°Reshiram spoke to her and she¡¯s from Unova. She didn¡¯t know N or anything, but they¡¯re probably related somehow.¡± Like your second or third or whatever cousins back in Galar that you go to visit on occasion.


    Dr. Brinner gives you a slightly fearful look. ¡°Reshiram has another hero, right? I¡¯m not sure I want to poke into this if she¡¯s the high priestess of a goddess.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s only one god,¡± Mother insists. ¡°One surrounded by a plethora of demons.¡±


    The doctor ignores her. You¡¯ve never seen anyone do that. Not without consequences. He doesn¡¯t seem to care.


    ¡°Reshiram left with someone else. They just talked when they met. I think.¡±


    He relaxes. ¡°Good, good. It seems like she is royalty, then. The Unovan royal line is old and there¡¯s a lot of historical study of them. The translation ability is common. Some scholars think they were also tactile telekinetics since the royal blade was massive and the epics say they could move quickly even in plate armor. One proposed that they could influence minds but there¡¯s no real evidence in my opinion. His theory rested on a few lines in a poorly preserved epic and the assumption that no one could rule a kingdom with only boosted strength, the ability to speak the language of every clan, and the backing of a powerful dragon. I have no idea how that dreck got out of peer review.¡±


    He almost sounds like Cuicatl going on a rant about dinosaurs. Is he psychic himself? Is that a common psychic trait?


    ¡°The point is that she might have been able to disrupt more than surface thoughts but it¡¯s unlikely she could make structural changes. Unless there are any other abilities you can think of¡­?¡±


    ¡°She could read surface thoughts. Like if I thought too loud or something was on the tip of my tongue. Or if I wanted her to get the message.¡±


    ¡°Hmm.¡± Dr. Brinner closes his eyes. ¡°That¡¯s consistent with the theory that the royals read and influence the Broca¡¯s area. Tell me, could she answer you in your own mind?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Mother looks furious. You don¡¯t know why. It was just a way to have private conversations.


    ¡°That¡¯s not alarming in and of itself. Most telepaths can, even if their specialization isn¡¯t in language. There¡¯s some debate as to why that is. Two theories are popular but I think at least three more are worth investigating¡ª"


    Father clears his throat. ¡°Is this going anywhere?¡±


    ¡°No. I suppose not.¡± Dr. Brinner turns back to you. ¡°Any more questions before we begin?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± Mother says. ¡°Go ahead.¡±


    Oh. The question wasn¡¯t directed at you.


    ¡°What about you, Miss Gage?¡±


    Mother already gave her permission. In truth there are a lot of questions you have: What is about to happen? Will it hurt? How long will it take? Should I try to clear my mind or think about her or something else? But Mother gave her answer. She might tolerate this man challenging her, even if you aren¡¯t sure why. You won¡¯t defy her. Can¡¯t. Not if you want to get better.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any questions, no.¡± It¡¯s a sin to lie. It¡¯s also a sin to disobey your parents. What if your parents order you to lie? The temple never prepared you for that.


    ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll need you to look into Andrew¡¯s pendulum, miss.¡±


    Your eyes move towards the strange creature. It¡¯s unsettling on a gut level. Maybe because it looks vaguely human but it¡¯s also definitely not. The pendulum is much easier to look at than the thing¡¯s face. As you watch it swings once, twice, three times¡ª


    ¡ªthe room is different. You¡¯re sitting down at the table for one thing. The Hypno is nowhere to be seen and the doctor is seated, talking to your parents in hushed tones. Is that it? Is it over? You didn¡¯t even notice it beginning.


    Father glances at you. He gives you a curt nod and turns back to the doctor. ¡°Your full report, please.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    ¡°She¡¯s definitely been around a psychic. A telepath. There were a lot of signs of psychic activity near the Broca¡¯s area¡ª¡± Mother tilts her head. ¡°The part where language happens. The activity was almost entirely consistent with the description proffered by Miss Gage.¡±


    ¡°Almost?¡± Mother asks. ¡°That¡¯s more than a little ominous.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s nothing serious. No apparent alterations to memory, emotions, or motor skills. Curiously, there was a little bit of activity near the occipital lobe. My working theory is that it¡¯s related to the psychic¡¯s blindness in some way. It doesn¡¯t appear that anything was actually altered there. The activity was faint enough that it might not have been intentional.¡± He shrugs. ¡°Seems like everything is in order.¡±


    ¡°Sexuality?¡± Mother asks. ¡°Any changes there?¡±


    ¡°No. Were you, uh, expecting anything?¡±


    Cuicatl didn¡¯t do anything untoward. This is all¡­ you. Mixed feelings on that. You were right and your parents were wrong and you aren¡¯t a horrible judge of character. But it¡¯s harder to demonize and forget her now. And all of your shortcomings? Those are all on you.


    ¡°Would a psychic with those abilities exist?¡± Father asks.


    ¡°Making people fall in and out of love? It¡¯s a possible application of a few different variants of telepathy, but it is very much illegal under both internal codes and commonwealth and federal law. I doubt anyone specializes in that sort of thing as it almost certainly would have been discovered by now. Maybe a single psychic could hide it from others and the law, but not the bloodlines. Especially not one as well documented as the Unovan royal family.¡±


    Mother leans back and crosses her arms. It¡¯s unladylike. She must be deep in thought if she doesn¡¯t notice.


    ¡°I meant something more along the lines of altering sexual preferences,¡± Father says.


    ¡°It would only be possible via full reconstructive surgery, and unless that was done by a god¡ª¡± He ignores Mother¡¯s glare. ¡°¡ªAndrew would have noticed it. Even then something like that would have demonstrable side effects. Unless there has been a recent deterioration in your mental and physical health?¡± You shake your head. Your body is actually healthier than ever after hiking for so long. ¡°Then that almost certainly was not the case.¡±


    Mother noticeably frowns. ¡°Something like that would be illegal?¡±


    ¡°Very.¡±


    ¡°Everywhere?¡±


    ¡°As far as I know, yes.¡±


    ¡°Even with parental consent?¡±


    Dr. Brinner looks towards you and holds eye contact. You squirm under it but keep the gaze. It¡¯s polite. And it keeps you from thinking about the question you must have misheard. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I am a mandatory reporter for child abuse.¡±


    Wrong answer.


    Mother bursts to her feet and throws a finger out towards the doctor. ¡°You DARE come into my own home and accuse me of¡ªof abusing my daughter?¡± She trails off into something more akin to a growl than anything.


    ¡°I think you should leave,¡± Father adds, more quietly but no less offended. ¡°After you apologize.¡±


    ¡°Any alteration to a child¡¯s sexuality would be sexual assault via preternatural ability under Alolan law. Legally speaking, child abuse.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m starting to wonder what they¡¯re teaching at the Pok¨¦mon Studies department in Hau¡¯oli. Would my money be better spent elsewhere?¡±


    The doctor begins to study the table. ¡°It used to be standard practice,¡± he says with his normal tone of careless untouchability wavering. ¡°They abandoned it. Some patients died, some killed themselves, the remainder usually lived with debilitating migraines and esoteric mental health problems. It fell out of favor because no one with a conscience would agree to perform reconstructive surgery on anyone who still had a functioning mind. The people who remained willing, those without a conscience, were the ones who never should have been trusted to do the job. Don¡¯t. Please.¡±


    ¡°You should leave my home.¡±


    ¡°I¡ªyes.¡± He shakily gets to his feet. {If anything goes very wrong, scream out for Lila Takeda in your mind. They on the island and they¡¯re strong enough that they¡¯ll hear it.}


    {I will.}


    You aren¡¯t sure if you will. Because. They wouldn¡¯t actually? Right? They were¡­ seeing if Cuicatl could. Or if Team Skull or someone could. If you¡¯d been made this way by someone else. It¡¯s the only explanation that makes sense. Because they¡¯re good people. They wouldn¡¯t do that. And if they did, it would be¡­ good. It would make you better. Your gut still churns at the thought.


    Once he¡¯s out of the room Mother stands as well. ¡°What a dreadful man,¡± she mutters.


    Eventually you¡¯re left alone with Father and two guards. Father¡¯s already gone back to scowling at his tablet, scrolling through some report or another. ¡°Nolan, take her back to her room, will you?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir.¡±


    And that¡¯s the end of that.


    *


    You spend four meals with only your thoughts for company. Cuicatl didn¡¯t do anything to you. It¡¯s what you expected. There are layers of The Cocoon. Allana will end up somewhere in the middle for the sins of either perversion or wrath. Maybe both. Cuicatl is a noble pagan who gets to live at the edge. No torture beyond being able to look out into the light of Xerneas and know what she forfeited by rejecting it.


    And you really need to stop thinking about her, despite everything. Whether she¡¯s sinned or not is irrelevant if she¡¯s part of your sin.


    You still have questions. Is someone properly repentant if their brain was altered into being repentant? If they ask you to do it you have to say yes, right? Otherwise, you¡¯re disobeying your parents. How you feel doesn¡¯t matter, then, because you¡¯ll say yes regardless. You shouldn¡¯t think too much about a thing that doesn¡¯t matter.


    Mother finally visits you after about a day and a half spent alone. She has a vikavolt behind her instead of her usual starmie. Strange.


    She walks over to your bed and stops in front of you. She doesn¡¯t sit. Just stares down. Her face is cast in shadow since the pok¨¦mon is behind her. It takes all of your strength just to maintain eye contact.


    ¡°I apologize. We did not properly vet our expert. Further investigation has revealed him to be a thief and a drug user, information that will be sent on to the police and his employer. And he had terrible things to say about our redeemer. Thank Xerneas that such a man is no longer teaching the youth.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± If that was easy to find, why didn¡¯t she find it before letting him poke around in your mind. If it was hard, did she do it just because he disrespected her? Or because he threatened to tell lies and then backed down? Is it a sin to question her in your thoughts? Maybe not normally, but now you don¡¯t know moral right from wrong so you probably shouldn¡¯t.


    She finally turns to sit down next to you. It¡¯s only awkward for a moment before she pulls you into a hug. ¡°You know I would never hurt you. I just wished there was an option for easing your suffering. That¡¯s all, whatever that man said. We can still do things the normal way. Will do things the normal way. We just needed to take a break for a little bit to let you settle down from the bad influence.¡±


    She sounds sincere. You relax and lean into the hug. Mother wouldn¡¯t hurt you. Everything was a misunderstanding.


    You ignore the unease that still lurks just beneath the surface.


    *


    Stefan takes you down the halls. Towards your pok¨¦mon? Or more therapy? You sigh in relief once you pass the conference room and keep going towards the place your team is. Good. You¡¯d been afraid it would be a long time before you could see them again given the way Mother reacted before.


    You¡¯re surprised to see Father in the room, seated in an elegant chair you don¡¯t remember being there before. Count. Err. Cloudy. Just Cloudy hovers nearby. There is a pool laid out but you can¡¯t see Bubbles in it. Ferny isn¡¯t here and his distinctive smell is weaker than usual. Is he in his ball?


    Father closes his book and looks up. ¡°Thank you, Stefan.¡± You see Stefan bow in your peripheral vision before leaving the room. Father stands up when the door closes. ¡°Your mother is still looking into the naming scheme for your pok¨¦mon to figure out if there¡¯s anything sinful in it. She is insistent that you not meet your leafeon and poliwag until her investigation¡¯s over, but,¡± he gestures towards Cloudy with his head, ¡°the castform is useful and low maintenance. You may keep it with you on the condition that you do not ruin your clothes by hugging the thing.¡± He grimaces. ¡°Your mother insisted on that one. I think it should be fine if you¡¯re wearing a swimsuit or raincoat.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± You can have a pok¨¦mon back. Have someone with you. That will make everything more bearable.


    ¡°Hmph. I think you should at least have the leafeon, too. Yes, they have a smell that gets on your clothes. So what? That¡¯s how it works for trainers. Sometimes you get pyroar fur over everything and that¡¯s just a fact of life.


    Mother is a trainer as well. Outside the starmie you¡¯ve seen her with all of her pok¨¦mon live in the greenhouse or gardens. You¡¯ve never seen her cuddle them. Maybe that¡¯s why she doesn¡¯t like you hugging yours. Or pyroar shedding.


    In fairness, pyroar shed a lot and then sometimes accidentally light that fur on fire. Father¡¯s lost at least one chair that way.


    Father smiles. ¡°We should talk more about trainer life sometime. I never took you for one, but you went and won two trials and lived on the trail for three months.¡± He lays a hand on your shoulder and you start beaming because it¡¯s been ages since he praised you. Before the rooftop, at least.


    Eventually it ends. The hand pulls away and you take a step back to establish proper distance. And you try to stop grinning like an idiot because that¡¯s unprofessional. ¡°I don¡¯t have time to talk about it now,¡± he admits. ¡°Hard to keep the company going in the middle of this mess. Grand Hano bookings were solid at first since people thought it was a safe place to stay. Then the government let people leave and the tourists left. Not many replacing them, and those that are coming are mostly academics who prefer the cheaper ones in town. And the less said about the spider farms the better.¡±


    ¡°If you¡¯re busy¡ª¡±


    ¡°No, no. I haven¡¯t even come around to what I wanted to talk about.¡± He clears his throat and glances at the empty pool. ¡°I recently came into possession of a pok¨¦mon I thought you might like. They¡¯re affectionate and can help against psychic assault if that witch tries to hurt you.¡± She isn¡¯t a witch. Right before you correct him you realize that he was saying something and meaning something else. A word with a b, probably. But you¡¯re impressionable and he can¡¯t swear in front of you without risking Mother¡¯s efforts. He sends out a psyduck. ¡°This is Oliver. He¡¯s your new pok¨¦mon.¡±


    A psyduck. A male psyduck. This is a test. Has to be. Father is very involved with the Kappa Order, a civic organization with a lot of people who try to make Alola better. Their mascot is golduck. Male golduck. A pok¨¦mon that shits everywhere, tears things up, attacks people, and then demands more, more, more. Lyra almost ended up with one and she was apoplectic, spread out on your bed saying uncouth things at the roof.


    She was definitely always bad for you now that you think about it.


    Father must see your expression and know what you¡¯re thinking. ¡°He was raised by humans. He¡¯s not like¡­ that. Wild psyduck are a whole lot of fun, but you have to have a very particular personality to like them.¡±


    That¡¯s better, maybe. If he says so. Oliver doesn¡¯t seem awful. Mostly he¡¯s just stared up at you without blinking. You bend down and extend a hand like you¡¯ve seen Cuicatl do with her pok¨¦mon. The psyduck cautiously approaches, leans forward and¡­ clamps his bill around your hand. Softly. You can barely feel it. But it¡¯s so, so weird. And endearing, kind of. After a few seconds he lets go and starts waddling off towards the pool.


    Father pulls something wrapped in plastic out of his pocket and hands it to you. It seems to be a¡­ pickle? What? ¡°They love these things,¡± Father says. ¡°Unwrap and offer it to him.¡±


    Oliver glances at you when you start peeling back the plastic and then starts waddling a fast as his legs can take him when he realizes what it is. He snatches it from your outstretched hand and stuffs it into his bill. It¡¯s all very uncoordinated. You find yourself giggling.


    ¡°How did you get him?¡± You should know your pok¨¦mon¡¯s history, after all.


    His expression darkens and the room temperature seems to pitch down ten degrees. ¡°A fellow alum. He was supposed to be a girl¡¯s starter, but she¡­ didn¡¯t make it to her journey.¡±


    You gasp. ¡°That¡¯s horrible.¡± What must Oliver think about that? Does he know? Did he see it? Or does he think he just got shipped off to someone else for no reason?


    ¡°There¡¯s a lot of unpleasantness in the Commonwealth these days. Thought I would help out where I could.¡±


    ¡°Very kind of you.¡± And smart. Getting you a pok¨¦mon and helping rehome one that suddenly doesn¡¯t have a trainer.


    He hands you the pok¨¦ball. It¡¯s one of the ones with a ¡®U¡¯ on it. Ultimate ball or something.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have Stefan take you and your pok¨¦mon up. I need to get back to work.¡±


    ¡°Wait.¡±


    He turns towards you, a hint of annoyance in the curl of his lips.


    ¡°If Cloudy is with me, who will be giving sun to Fern?¡±


    ¡°Your mother bought some castform for her gardens. I expect one of those will take over.¡±


    ¡°Oh. Good.¡± You¡¯re a little embarrassed to have asked a question with such a simple answer.


    He walks ahead without further comment.


    *


    ¡°This is your new room for now, Oliver.¡±


    The psyduck stumbles forward. He was a little ungainly before but now he¡¯s on the verge of tottering over with every step. Thankfully he¡¯s¡­ not slim. He would be cushioned if he fell. You¡¯ll need to cut back his diet, probably. Maybe not immediately. It would be a bad first impression.


    Not that it matters. You¡¯ll feed him whatever food you¡¯re provided in the amount you¡¯re provided. You can¡¯t exactly do your own shopping right now. Wouldn¡¯t even know what to feed him if you could.


    With actual light in your room you notice a thin layer of dust on some of the furniture. Cleanings must have stopped once you left and you came back so abruptly that one couldn¡¯t be scheduled. Come to think of it you haven¡¯t heard vacuuming since you got here. Maybe the cleaning staff isn¡¯t coming in because of the darkness.


    Oliver stumbles towards your closet and you set to work. Cloudy can simply float up to your bed if he wants to cuddle (although you¡¯ll need to set some new rules on that to avoid unladylike behavior). Oliver will need a staircase. Thankfully you can¡¯t read your books right now so you take some and start to make it. The books seem lighter than they did before. Have you gotten stronger?


    You hear Oliver¡¯s steps start to approach you again right as you finish. He stumbles out of the closet with a plush stufful held tight to his chest. You remember that one. You¡¯d wanted a real stufful as a pet that year but Mother told you that it would break your ribs. She got you a really, really soft plush and some jewelry instead.


    Kind of weird to think that you¡¯ve actually been threatened by baby bears (and their mother) now. That experience almost doesn¡¯t feel real looking back at it.


    You kneel down to get closer to Oliver. ¡°That¡¯s a very cute friend you have there.¡± He steps back and pulls it closer as if afraid you¡¯ll take it. Then he turns around and darts back into the closet, stufful in hand. You glance at Cloudy and beg for help with your eyes. He just spins around in midair. You have no idea what that means.


    It¡¯s probably a good idea to make sure he isn¡¯t shredding your clothes in there. He¡¯s hidden when you walk in. Your clothes seem to be in good condition, at least. You¡¯ve missed having a proper wardrobe so much. Just seeing it almost brings you to tears. Psyduck forgotten, you absently stroke your favorite silk dress. Then something moves nearby so you have to step back and check on that.


    You have a basket of old plushes tucked into the back corner of your closet. Mother calls them childish, but she let you keep them as long as they were well-hidden enough that she never saw any. The basket is in disarray. Some have spilled out and the usual order you keep them in, well arranged and looking out at you, is gone. You see the pile itself move and settle as if breathing. Oliver¡¯s somewhere in the basket, surrounded by soft toys. Probably sees it as a bed.


    All the work you put into that staircase and he found a bed of his own.


    Not that you can blame him. If you had a pile of plushes so big you could use it as a bed you would definitely sleep in it. Maybe. Would it be good for your back? Waking up with a sore back is something you¡¯ll never miss about the trail.


    You turn away and find a raincoat. If Oliver won¡¯t cuddle, that¡¯s fine. You owe Cloudy a lot of hugs, anyway.


    But Cloudy seems a lot more focused on something outside the window. You go to his side to look. There are flecks of white hitting the window before slipping off or melting. Snow? ¡°Oh my. Is that. Are you doing this?¡± Cloudy shakes his head from side to side. Aw. He¡¯s learning human behavior. Just the best widdle castform. You turn back to the snow. Natural snow. In Alola. Too late for the Solstice, but still its own miracle.


    You wonder if Father will let you out to make snow angels.

 Fighting 17: Cuicatl

    Fighting 3.17: Thunderclouds


    Cuicatl


    3 February, 2020


    When Alice took you flying, she wrapped you in her arms and jolted up. You can remember her meaty breath bearing down on you while jolts wracked your body with every wingbeat. Her arms held you tight to her chest so that you could feel every breath and heartbeat. It was reassuring in its own way. Being held by something much bigger and stronger than you.


    Like you would have wanted from your mother.


    Flying on Noci is almost the opposite. She moves silently with perfect efficiency. There are no wasted movements. There are hardly any movements at all. Not even a heart beating or lungs expanding underneath you. She¡¯s small enough that you can only barely fit on her back. She can hold you down with telekinesis but even that¡¯s impersonal, just a force coming from everywhere and nowhere. Her body heat and the occasional psychic pulse are the only reminders that she¡¯s alive and not just a car or a plane ferrying you somewhere.


    {Light signatures detected. Initiate ramming?}


    Good. Looks like she¡¯s found the inkay. Not like much else is making light these days.


    ¡°Get closer. Don¡¯t actually get in the water, please.¡±


    Your breath is torn from your lungs as she divebombs the inkay troupe. For a weightless moment you wonder if she¡¯s going to ram into the water in spite of your directions. Then she levels off abruptly and comes to a complete stop. You take a moment to catch your breath. As you wait psychic waves start sounding off from all around you. The inkay are a curious lot.


    ¡°Hi.¡± You make sure to channel some of your gift into your voice. ¡°You probably know why I¡¯m here.¡±


    You¡¯re hardly the first trainer, VStar or otherwise, to try to catch a bunch of inkay this winter. They¡¯re one of the only ways to get light, after all.


    The questions start coming. At first it¡¯s just one bold inkay asking why your hair is a plant. Then more and more until you can¡¯t field them all. You do your best to respond to as many as you can. It isn¡¯t actually grass. Some humans can do things with their minds. No, you don¡¯t make lights. This is Nocitl¨¡lin. She¡¯s a metang. She can also do things with her mind. No, she doesn¡¯t make lights either.


    ¡°Where are your siblings?¡±


    You¡­ you ignore that one. Thankfully another asks why Noci is so shiny and the other inkay doesn¡¯t repeat the question.


    It¡¯s a careful game. You lead them on but never actually promise they¡¯d travel with you. ¡°Come see the human world,¡± but not ¡°come and see the human world with me.¡±


    Maybe you¡¯d like an inkay. Malamar are a little terrifying, but you¡¯re pretty sure you could handle it. If everything was going well you would happily take one in and guide it around Alola.


    Things are not going well. Pixie is on the brink of leaving for a violent thief she¡¯s known for three days. But you still have a foot in the door. Two more chances to let her realize that she has no idea what she¡¯s getting into. Taking in a new pok¨¦mon now would signal that she¡¯s already been forgotten and replaced. That would kill any chance you have of keeping her.


    You would like an inkay, yes, but you want your cuddly ball of fluff and personality more. Even if she¡¯s a pain sometimes at least she always keeps things interesting. And she¡¯s your first real friend since Anahuac. Your starter. A gift from someone who owed you nothing.


    Things aren¡¯t beyond repair.


    They can¡¯t be.


    Not again.


    *


    You dictate out a short myth before starting trial prep. You¡¯re pretty sure some psychic has transcribed it at some point but every book has filler. This is yours.


    Reuniclus can see the future and past both. When they split in two one is born in the future, the other in the past. Right solosis tend to be solemn guardians of those who could have great destinies. They see tragedy on all sides and a narrow lane of glory in the middle. Left solosis are more cheerful and content. They can live in the memories of their ancestors and find comfort in happy moments long past. All tragedies have already ended. They can choose to look at something else in any case. Left solosis seek out people who carry legacies. Captive reuniclus use their final breath to give their left side to their trainer and send their right out into the world.


    Renfield is a left solosis. It¡¯s why carrying memories is so easy for him. And now he¡¯s been taken away from his home and his friends. If you fail, if Pixie leaves and Noci runs off again and you fail trial after trial then¡­


    You¡¯ll never see him again. Any of them. You won¡¯t be able to buy your mother¡¯s team back. Or pay for Coco¡¯s food and insurance. You¡¯ll be alone. Again.


    To you ¡®alone¡¯ will always be Gate 41 at Montezuma International Airport. Sitting with no friends, no family, and no pok¨¦mon. You arrived well before the flight because you had nothing left to do outside the airport. You sat down at the gate and it was quiet. Peaceful. Then more and more families showed up. Decorated soldiers on leave or businessmen celebrating success and taking their families on vacation to Alola. They fought with each other, mostly. Seemingly about everything. Kids begging parents to visit the candy store down the hall, parents bickering quietly about when boarding will start. Occasional yelling in the distance about the need to hurry up before a flight left. Sometimes they didn¡¯t fight. Just talked about school, work, politics (American politics, mostly; no risk of sounding treasonous). Two kids were arguing about dinosaurs and you wanted to correct them because they were both wrong but couldn¡¯t. You weren¡¯t in their life. You weren¡¯t in anyone¡¯s life. You could only sit alone and listen as the world moved on without you.


    ¡°You grew up with a psychic-type, then.¡± You jolt up. Lyra is in the room. When did that happen? You¡¯re not used to being snuck up on in the dark.


    ¡°How long have you been here?¡±


    ¡°Walked in mid recording. Tried to be quiet so it wouldn¡¯t show up on tape.¡± Oh. You must have been more distracted than you¡¯d thought. ¡°You didn¡¯t answer my question.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I grew up with a reuniclus.¡±


    She shifts on her bed. ¡°And you were¡­ okay with that? They¡¯re powerful telepaths. They could mess up your mind easily.¡±


    Yeah. He probably could. He wouldn¡¯t, though. Because if he was willing to do that he would¡¯ve made you less sad while he was at it. But that¡¯s more than you want to tell her. Especially with everything else going on. ¡°He was my mother¡¯s,¡± you say. ¡°And he saw me as his sister. He wouldn¡¯t hurt me.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t be sure of that,¡± Lyra asserts. ¡°They could do something and make you forget.¡±


    He wouldn¡¯t. None of the psychics you¡¯ve met would. ¡°They aren¡¯t all like that, you know?¡± This was fine when it was just you being insulted. But now she¡¯s being mean to your brother.


    ¡°I get that you like him¡ª"


    She¡¯s spared from digging herself deeper by someone, Kekoa probably, banging on the door.


    ¡°I¡¯ll get it,¡± Lyra calls out. She opens the door and Kekoa walks in. You know it''s him because of the heavy footfalls, surprising for someone as skinny as him, and his heavy breathing.


    You pull a ball out of your belt and hold it out to him. You do your best to maintain your glare in Lyra¡¯s direction at the same time. You were interrupted, but you stand by what you said. ¡°Got your inkay.¡± He walks over, almost hesitantly, and takes it from you. His fingers feel rougher than they did when you met him four months ago. Hormones? Trail callouses?


    ¡°Sure you aren¡¯t keeping one? Or a carbink? They aren¡¯t that hard to catch.¡±


    He¡¯d already gone ahead and caught one of the carbink. Good for the last battles of the island and he can always sell it to VStar for a lot of money when he¡¯s done. Sailed straight through the bug trial with it. All while you¡¯ve been distracted by an overbearing ninetales and a frostbite curse. You shiver at the memory. The scratches were never deep but they still chill you to the core whenever you think about them.


    ¡°Pixie would lose her shit if I got another pok¨¦mon right now.¡± You pause. ¡°If I lose today,¡± and Pixie is gone for good, ¡°I¡¯ll catch a carbink for the rematch.¡±


    ¡°Can¡¯t believe you¡¯re dragging her back for a battle,¡± Kekoa mutters.


    ¡°Excuse me?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s found a new home and you¡¯re bringing her back just to get her electrocuted by a vikavolt.¡±


    ¡°I just want to check on her. Make sure she knows what she¡¯s getting into. She¡¯s barely been there half a week¡ª¡±


    ¡°This checkup includes getting electrocuted?¡±


    ¡°She agreed to it.¡±


    ¡°Hypocrite.¡± You don¡¯t dignify him with a response. ¡°All the moralizing about my charjabug and you just won¡¯t let your own pok¨¦mon go.¡±


    Your voice gets colder than the scars on your side. ¡°I¡¯ve let more slip through my hands than you could imagine. Now get out of my room.¡±


    ¡°Hypocrite.¡±


    He walks out and shuts the door.


    ¡°That was¡­¡± Lyra trails off, unsure of herself. You debate talking to her or telling her to leave or any number of things. In the end you just sink into your bed and sigh.


    ¡°Do you agree with him?¡±


    She squirms enough that the old Center bed creaks underneath her. ¡°If she agreed then I guess it¡¯s fine? Even still I¡¯m worried you¡¯re setting yourself up for disappointment.¡± You raise an eyebrow. And remember she can¡¯t see you. But you don¡¯t really want to say anything, either. She carries on anyway. ¡°You¡¯re the one who can speak to dragons and birds so maybe I just don¡¯t know as much as pok¨¦mon, but I¡¯m worried that she¡¯ll leave and you won¡¯t accept it. Then maybe you¡¯ll get hurt again.¡±


    ¡°Thank you, but I can take care of myself.¡±


    You¡¯ve had to since you were born. You can make it just a little bit farther.


    *


    4 February, 2020


    The stars aren¡¯t against you, but they aren¡¯t good. A day governed by the moon. A time for reflection and growth. The trenca is governed by the goddess of childbirth. They combine to mark a day for new beginnings. Is it a renewal? Pixie coming back for you? Or the start of your time moving on without her? You can only hope for the former.


    Thankfully, you had a little time to knit in Hau¡¯oli. A small, embroidered hummingbird felt like your best creation. You tossed it into the ocean today with a prayer to Chalchiuhtlicue, shaper of your soul. Maybe she will be with you today.


    *


    ¡°Hi, Pixie!¡±


    The fox walks over with measured, quiet steps before pressing her muzzle against you. She sniffs your extended hand and you run it along her cheek and chin before moving your other hand up to scratch her ears. Then you slowly bring one hand over her body to feel for injuries. The other always stays with her head where she likes to be scratched. She¡¯s uninjured. Her fur feels well cared for. Kalani isn¡¯t hurting or neglecting her. Physically.


    A cold breeze runs past you and your scars get painfully cold as phantom icicles stab into your body. You do your best not to gasp. Just ignore her. It¡¯s not a good time to show weakness, physical or mental.


    ¡°You ready?¡±


    She barks ¡®yes.¡¯


    {Still think you want to stay with her when this is done?}


    {Yes.}


    Maybe she¡¯ll feel differently afterwards. If you can just set things up so that she gets the final, decisive blow¡­ It¡¯s not how you want to handle the fight. Ideally, you¡¯d lead with Coco to set up stealth rocks and deal with whatever the totem¡¯s assistant is. Then into Pixie to slow down the vikavolt with icy wind so that Noci can catch up to it. Then let Nocitl¨¡lin do her thing until you win or lose.


    ¡°Want to lead the way?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    *


    Kalani trails behind you the entire way there. Because of course she does.


    It starts to snow on the way over. Little pricks of cold fluff hitting your body before melting away. It¡¯s something you¡¯ve never felt in person. Only through mom¡¯s memories. Alice would never take you up to mountaintops that were snowing because she hated cold and thought you were weird for wanting to go there.


    You don¡¯t know if it¡¯s a good omen or not. The god of snow is also the god of punishment and suffering. But Pixie is an ice-type. On balance¡­ on balance you have no idea.


    *


    ¡°Someone¡¯s here,¡± Pixie huffs.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Like the captain?¡±


    ¡°Maybe. Also a bug.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t care much about individual humans. There are far too many, after all. Same goes for bugs.


    ¡°Hello,¡± you call out.


    ¡°Hi! You must be Cuicatl.¡± Her voice is high-pitched and fast. She¡¯s one of the youngest captains ever at only twelve. Her youth shows. Not sure what she did to become captain in spite of it.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°Great. My name is Grace and I am the Trial Captain of Ten Carat Hill.¡± Her footsteps stop a few meters out and her voice drops to a whisper. ¡°She already knew that, though, didn¡¯t she.¡±


    You smile. No need to be rude. ¡°It¡¯s good to know I¡¯m in the right place.¡±


    That seems to perk her up. ¡°This is the totem, Buzzy.¡±


    Wingbeats approach. They¡¯re almost frighteningly fast, more of a drone than the sound of flapping. Nothing like Alice. Static fills the air as the giant lightning bug begins to hover nearby.


    ¡°Honored to meet you, Buzzy.¡±


    He doesn¡¯t bother answering. It¡¯s not like humans can understand him, anyway.


    ¡°Wait. Are you the butterfree girl?¡±


    You¡¯re keeping track of the times you¡¯re asked that. Helps you figure out what Miss Bell owes you.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°And you work for VStar?¡±


    She sounds a little bitter. The static in the air grows heavier and you can feel strands of your hair trying to push away from your scalp.


    ¡°I¡¯m broke.¡± Americans say ¡®broke¡¯ when they mean ¡®poor.¡¯ You are never supposed to say ¡®poor¡¯ when talking about yourself. Or anyone you care about. You can use it to describe other people. Poor is a moral concept. Broke is not.


    ¡°They almost killed all the grubbin. Kept catching them and shipping them away¡ª"


    ¡°I¡¯m a broke orphan refugee.¡±


    A lie. You¡¯re here on a challenge visa, not to seek asylum. And your father is probably still alive. She doesn¡¯t need to know that.


    ¡°Still shouldn¡¯t work for them,¡± she mutters. The static dies down a moment later. ¡°If you¡¯re going to use the vulpix you should take it off its harness.¡±


    ¡°Blind. I need her help.¡±


    You can practically feel Pixie perk up at that. She¡¯s proud to be needed. She might leave anyway. You doubt she loses sleep trying to square the two.


    ¡°Oh. That¡¯s right. Stupid. Follow me, then.¡±


    You can feel the snowfall fade and the temperature shift when you get into the cave. Your footsteps begin to echo. The vikavolt is flying somewhere ahead of you and Grace.


    ¡°You cleared the water trial already?¡± Grace asks.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯ve been traveling? In the dark? While blind?¡±


    ¡°Last two cancel each other out.¡±


    She stops walking. ¡°Oh. Um. I feel like I¡¯m saying a bunch of wrong things. I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine.¡± You giggle to show how fine it is. And hopefully get her to forget that she hates you.


    ¡°You¡¯re still really brave. And lucky. Mom won¡¯t let me leave home except for work. Even though I¡¯ve fought UBs.¡±


    A casual reminder that if Buzzy went all out none of your pok¨¦mon could take more than a hit or two. Good thing the totems usually pull their punches. Offensively, at least. They might refuse to go down easily so that all of your team will need to put in work, but they don¡¯t want to kill or maim weaker opponents. Once you get to your sixth you¡¯d better be prepared to fight a totem at full strength. Thankfully it won¡¯t be a vikavolt. Dodged a bullet there.


    ¡°Hiking in the cold has been an experience. Won¡¯t miss it when the sun comes back.¡±


    It had better. And soon. There are already rumblings about a flower war in the Yucatan. If the sun comes back soon maybe the tlatoani will see it as a good omen and stay his hand.


    ¡°You don¡¯t need VStar, though. There are scholarships. If you just put in some time you can get the money you need. Or at least enough that everything else can be covered by battle prize money.¡±


    ¡°Did you use the scholarships?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± she admits. ¡°My parents paid for some stuff when I was starting out. My mom used some on her journey.¡±


    You have some of your own mother¡¯s memories. She¡¯d tried to find some. Spent a few weeks running around Nimbasa and Castelia writing letters and being interviewed. She got sixty dollars in the end. Spent more than that on postage and subway tickets. Would have told you not to bother.


    ¡°I¡¯ll keep it in mind.¡±


    Grace huffs in displeasure. She must¡¯ve finally gotten the hint because she doesn¡¯t press you further.


    ¡°When the darkness goes away and I can have a real trial, challengers will have to find some grubbin in the caves. Just imagine that part.¡±


    ¡°Is it actually harder to walk a cave in the dark?¡±


    ¡°Well, no, but the League says no puzzles right now. I¡¯m fine with it because it means I don¡¯t have to stay out in the cold as long, but it still isn¡¯t what I was imagining.¡±


    ¡°A lot isn¡¯t right now.¡± You¡¯d always imagined you¡¯d have your brother and at least Alice, Renfield, and Searah for this. More recently you¡¯d thought that Pixie wouldn¡¯t leave. Maybe Necrozma stole people¡¯s dreams away with the light.


    ¡°True. Anyway, after your puzzle you¡¯d meet me in the caldera and the totem would come out, but Buzzy¡¯s already here so¡­¡±


    He sends out a small ripple of static.


    ¡°I guess I should tell you that his partner today is a psyduck. Since you can¡¯t just see her when she lumbers onto the field. Don¡¯t think you can just muscle through Buzzy with fire or rock-types.¡±


    She shouldn¡¯t really be giving out hints for her own trial but it¡¯s such a basic one. You will be using a rock-type, probably to take down the psyduck. The Dragonmother blessed the dragons with resistance to thunder, fire, and water. Coco can take a hit or two from the totem as long as he¡¯s pulling his punches. An ice beam would hurt but maybe she can still get through and land a thunder fang. It¡¯s not like you have better options. Pixie couldn¡¯t do much at all to the water-type and Noci is better off dogfighting the totem.


    The snow has gone away when you enter the clearing. Is that the psyduck¡¯s presence or just a natural change in the weather? Or maybe an omen?


    ¡°You can take the leash off your vulpix now. Battle can begin whenever.¡±


    You carefully, delicately undo Pixie¡¯s harness while stroking her ear. Then you withdraw her back to her new ball. She¡¯ll come back at the end, hopefully to score a final big hit and win the whole thing.


    ¡°Coco, let¡¯s get started.¡±


    She growls at her enemies and you can¡¯t help but smile.


    ¡°Charge the psyduck. Prepare fire fang while you run.¡±


    An unholy buzzing almost immediately breaks out. It¡¯s like mosquitos except there are millions and they¡¯re right inside your brain. You clamp your hands over your ears but it doesn¡¯t matter much. You instinctively know that trying to use your gift would make it all even worse. Damn bugs with their anti-psychic attacks. And it¡¯s not even aimed at you!


    A pulse of cold makes your side freeze up. Ice beam from the psyduck, probably. Coco growls but keeps going. The buzzing lets up just in time for a crack of thunder to take its place. Hopefully that will stop when Coco gets closer. No good in striking your own ally with a thunderbolt. Then it depends what the vikavolt¡¯s final two moves are. Maybe energy ball for rock-types? Sticky web or thunder wave to slow opponents? Roost to keep going? It¡¯s a new-ish trial and there¡¯s not much information online.


    Another blast of ice makes Coco yelp in pain. Hopefully the fire fang is acting as a kind of shield. Hopefully.


    ¡°Thunder fang when you get close.¡±


    There¡¯s another thunderbolt and then you can hear the scream and growls. Coco¡¯s latched on. She yelps in pain. ¡°Hot water!¡± The words are muffled since she¡¯s biting down but your gift gets them all the same. Thank the gods the vikavolt isn¡¯t attacking.


    ¡°Keep going! Just a little bit more!¡±


    What is the vikavolt doing, anyway? Its wingbeats have changed. Closer together.


    Agility, maybe. Every second that Coco takes bringing down the psyduck will make the totem faster. That means Noci will have a harder time getting a hit in. There¡¯s nothing you can do but wait.


    It takes longer than you¡¯d like but eventually Grace speaks up. ¡°The psyduck¡¯s down.¡±


    You¡¯re torn. Withdrawn Coco and prevent any more setup? Or stay in for a little bit more to put some stealth rocks up? The latter might get the totem to attack, solving both problems.


    ¡°Stealth rock into the air.¡±


    Coco howls in fury. Her cries are met by another thunderbolt. You can still feel her conscious mind at the edge of yours, awake and raging at the sky. It takes a few more seconds for the totem to charge another bolt. The hairs on your skin stand up and another mighty crack of thunder echoes across the caldera. You can feel Coco¡¯s mind slip away from yours as she falls unconscious.


    ¡°Good job. Return.¡± You expand Noci¡¯s ball and hit the release button. ¡°The partner¡¯s down, go for Plan A.¡±


    Plan A is Take Down. Repeat until one side is unable to battle or you get new orders.


    {How many rocks are there in the air?} you ask.


    {Nine. Mean size approximately eighty-two cubic centimeters with a standard deviation of seventeen cubic centimeters.}


    Not as many as you would have hoped. {Try to herd him towards the rocks. They¡¯ll hurt him a lot more than you.}


    Another thunderbolt tears through the air.


    {Acknowledged.}


    You can hear the vikavolt¡¯s wingbeats but not Noci¡¯s flight. Most trainers would monitor the skies. Keep track of where the rocks are. What patterns the totem falls into. Try to find something exploitable. You can¡¯t. You can really only stand still and hope for the best.


    {Is he too fast to catch?}


    The sound of a blunt hit and cracking bug armor answers you. {Negation.}


    {If he starts to lose the damage race, he¡¯ll probably use agility to get even faster until you can¡¯t land another hit. Tell me if that happens.}


    {Acknowledged.}


    Another thunderbolt. And then nothing for a long time.


    {UD_Totem_3 has selected Evasive Maneuvers;


    [] Initiate Ramming


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Telekinesis


    [] Claw Swipe


    [] Energy Beam


    [] No Action}


    {Telekinesis. Try to move the rocks into him.}


    You take out the Normalium-Z from your case and slot it into place. Ideally, you¡¯d let Pixie use the Z-Move, but you don¡¯t have an ice crystal yet. Still not sure how you¡¯ll get one of those.


    Or if you¡¯ll need to.


    You start the motions to bring out Z-power. Going slow this time. Doing it properly so nothing happens. It¡¯s actually easy enough. Just dancing. You start to bring your hands into the final stance and¡ª


    Sirens wail, babies scream, the mosquitoes are once again invading your head. It¡¯s a little easier this time because you were prepared, but it still hurts. It takes all your remaining focus to move your arms into position, move your body just so, and set off the Z-move. Energy surges through your arms and drains your body as the terrible buzzing ravages your brain.


    You black out before you can see the aftermath.


    *


    The sun shines without mercy. Your skin feels like leather that¡¯s shriveled up and hardened under its rays. The sand beneath scorches a finger that strayed off your makeshift blanket. You can¡¯t be bothered to move it. Not when your mouth feels like you¡¯ve already shriveled up into a skeleton.


    ¡°Now how¡¯d you get here?¡±


    You startle.


    Another human?


    Here?


    Are you hallucinating?


    Or are you finally free?


    *


    {Alarm Lvl 1011: Connection to UD_Cuicatl_Ichtaca Lost;


    Alarm Lvl 111: Circuitry Overloading;


    Alarm Lvl 101: Heat Vent Malfunctioning}


    {¡®m fi¡­ne}


    You withdraw her before she can question that. Try to withdraw her. The cold air tells you that you hit the wrong ball and let Pix out early.


    Early? Were you waiting on something?


    Trial.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Someone taps your shoulder and it takes you a moment to remember who she is.


    ¡°Yeah. Just. Dreamed? I think? Happens.¡±


    You giggle at the joke. Dreaming does just happen. You feel out Noci¡¯s great ball to make sure you¡¯re pressing the right button this time. Then you withdraw her. For realsies. You reach out an arm to Pix and pull her close to your side. Huh. When did you get on the ground?


    There¡¯s a funny feeling on your side when you¡¯re cuddling Pix but you kind of just ignore it. ¡°You¡¯re a little pain in the ass, you know? And I love you. Like a lot. Sweet little fox. So soft and pretty and smart.¡±


    ¡°Come on, let¡¯s get you back to the Pok¨¦mon Center,¡± the small girl says.


    ¡°But there¡¯s a trial¡­¡± You gently push Pixie away as your mind starts waking up. ¡°Use, uh, icy wind? Slow him down?¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t be serious.¡±


    ¡°Relaaaaax. I think I¡¯m just allergic to bug buzz. And Z-power.¡±


    She¡¯s supposed to be a trial captain, right? Can¡¯t she just captain the trial.


    Pixie decides that you¡¯re serious enough. Cold air whips around the field and your side feels funny again. A curse? Right. There was the other vulpix. Big vulpix. And she cursed you.


    And you¡¯re doing this to keep your sweet fox from big vulpix.


    Your hair starts to stand up and lightning strikes nearby.


    ¡°Keep at it for a bit. Then, um, aurora beam?¡±


    ¡°I should stop this¡­¡± The captain mutters. And then she doesn¡¯t do that. Good. Pixie deserves to feel special.


    There¡¯s more cold and lightning. Your hair is starting to frizz so you know it¡¯s got to be really bad for Pixie. Poor girl. You¡¯ll give her a long brushing / cuddles session later.


    Or big vulpix will.


    You frown.


    Pixie¡¯s going away. Just like everyone else.


    ¡°Enough, Buzzy. It¡¯s over. She won.¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    Pixie walks back over to you and you get some stuff out of the treats bag you had prepared. A paralyze heal, a super potion, and a few pok¨¦mon treats. Not the blood icicle thing because it would just melt and get everything else bloody.


    After you finish spraying Pix down with the paralyze heal something big-ish starts walking towards you.


    ¡°My heracross is going to pick you up and take you to the Pok¨¦mon Center, okay?¡±


    ¡°Gimme a minute. Need to finish treating Pix.¡±


    ¡°They can also take care of her at the Pok¨¦mon Center.¡±


    ¡°But I wanna do it.¡±


    So unfair. You had this all planned out and now she¡¯s ruining it.


    ¡°Can you withdraw her, please?¡±


    ¡°Not until she¡¯s had her treats.¡±


    The captain mutters something about her training but still waits until Pixie¡¯s nibbled up everything from your palm.


    *


    Every Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s sickbay smells about the same. Lots and lots of disinfectant, the faint smell of a flowery air freshener, and a hint of chansey egg. You hate that you¡¯ve spent enough time in them to memorize all that.


    ¡°Hello, miss. Are you awake?¡± A nurse. Her voice drips with the medicinal fake-sweetness of cough syrup.


    You groan something out that was supposed to be a ¡®yes.¡¯


    ¡°Can you understand me?¡±


    ¡°Y-yeah.¡± You were expecting your throat to be horribly dry. It¡¯s strange that it isn¡¯t. Or that you expected that in the first place.


    ¡°Can you tell me your name?¡±


    ¡°Cuicatl Ichtaca.¡±


    ¡°Date of birth?¡±


    ¡°Seven Tititl Tecpatl¡±


    ¡°Um.¡±


    ¡°16 September 2004.¡±


    ¡°And today¡¯s date?¡±


    ¡°February 4, 2020.¡±


    ¡°Current president?¡±


    You hiss. ¡°Do I have to say his name?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    You do. Reluctantly. If you ever needed to prove that tlatoanis shouldn¡¯t be elected your argument would start and end with this man.


    ¡°Can you look into the light for me?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    There¡¯s a long silence.


    ¡°What¡¯s the last thing you remember?¡±


    ¡°I was going to use a Z-Move and¡­¡± Oh no. If the trial got cancelled than you fucked up your entire plan with Pixie. ¡°¡­I¡¯m guessing that didn¡¯t work out so well.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t remember anything after that?¡±


    Now that you think about it little pieces filter in. Overbearing heat and dryness. Hugging Pixie while lying down on wet grass. Complaining to someone while you were being carried. It¡¯s all blurry, though. Like something you might¡¯ve read about in a storybook years ago. You tell the nurse as much.


    ¡°Heat and dryness, you say?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Even though that shouldn¡¯t fit in with Alola being a freezing hellhole right now. ¡°Is that bad?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±


    It takes her a bit to figure out what to do with the information you gave her. Enough time for you to ask a question of your own.


    ¡°How are my pok¨¦mon?¡±


    ¡°The vulpix and tyrunt are being treated for electrical burns. Nothing too bad. Should be released within the hour. Metang can repair minor circuitry damage on their own and the armor plating was unharmed. I would keep it out of its ball for a while.¡±


    She seems more comfortable talking about their injuries than yours. Makes sense. The ¡®nurses¡¯ are usually veterinarians and not doctors. Most trainers don¡¯t get hurt as much as their pok¨¦mon. You¡¯re just the unlucky exception to the rule. At least Pixie and Coco are fine.


    Wait.


    ¡°The vulpix fought?¡±


    ¡°It certainly seems that way.¡± You can practically feel her frown in the air. ¡°Do you not remember that?¡±


    ¡°No. She was supposed to fight at the end.¡±


    ¡°Hmph. I can¡¯t imagine a captain would let you fight in your condition.¡±


    But apparently she had.


    ¡°Do you know if I won?¡±


    ¡°You did, yes.¡±


    Then everything worked. Pixie got to prove herself. Even if you don¡¯t get to remember it.


    ¡°How hurt am I, anyway?


    She sighs. ¡°I don¡¯t know. You might have fainted from the Z-move and then hit your head on the ground. Grace doesn¡¯t think you did, but she might be wrong. You also have a history of bad reactions to Z-power. Those usually go away after repeated exposure and I¡¯ve never heard of hot flashes accompanying them. I want to keep you under observation for a little while longer.¡±


    Does that mean you won¡¯t get a chance to talk to Pix before Kalani gets into her head again? ¡°Can I see my vulpix when she¡¯s healed.¡±


    ¡°I can send her in.¡±


    She walks out a while later without telling you she¡¯s leaving. At least you can feel out a cup of water near your cot. You guzzle that down until the phantom parching in your throat goes away.


    The nurse returns with Pixie a few minutes later. And then gives you your privacy. ¡°Are you hurt?¡± you ask. You think about running your hands through her fur to check but if she is hurt she might not like it. She might lie to cover for Kalani, but you doubt she feels the same way about stupid bugs.


    ¡°No. I am strong.¡±


    You rub her ear. ¡°So was the bug. Sure you aren¡¯t a little hurt?¡±


    ¡°My fur stood up. It was horrible.¡±


    Figures she¡¯d care more about that than the burns.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry you had to go through such a thing.¡±


    She growls in agreement.


    ¡°Did you change your mind about leaving me?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± It¡¯s a quiet denial. Like she doesn¡¯t like admitting it. ¡°I was adopted.¡±


    Adopted by a ninetales, she means. Your adoption means nothing in comparison. Your hopes begin to spiral and sink but you pull yourself together before she can see it. There¡¯s still another chance. ¡°Okay. You¡¯ll stay with her when I leave in a few days. Then¡­ soon I¡¯ll fight the kahuna. The person you only get to fight after beating the big enemies you¡¯ve been fighting. It¡¯s the ending of everything you¡¯ve been doing for the last few months. I would gladly have your help if you want to be there.¡±


    ¡°I do.¡±


    You relax. Good. She doesn¡¯t hate you. She just places too much love on someone she¡¯s known for three days. Give it another week and she might have learned more about her new ¡°mother¡± and changed her mind.


    You pull her in for a full embrace. ¡°You¡¯re so fluffy,¡± you say. ¡°And pretty. And smart. And strong. No one who really knows you would ever want to leave you. I¡¯m sad you¡¯re going but I¡¯m glad you¡¯re happy. If you ever want to come back, I¡¯ll take you in a heartbeat.¡±


    She purrs.


    Alice rumbled like that sometimes when she was happy.


    Rumbles.


    She¡¯s still alive.


    Still out there.


    You¡¯ll see her again.


    You¡¯ll see Pixie again.


    Everything will work out.


    It has to.

 Fighting 18: Nocitl膩lin

    Fighting 3.18: Upgrade


    Nocitl¨¡lin


    [Unit4_50 Summons Unit1_374]


    [Alarm Lvl 7: Corollary1 Jeopardized By Summons.]


    [Unit4_50 Summons Unit1_374]


    [Orders Received]


    [Initiate Ramming]


    Estimated Arrival Time: 2713 Seconds;


    Obstacles Encountered: Minimal;


    Transit Time: 2719 Seconds


    Unit1_374 Has Arrived


    Unit4_50 and Unknown Class 1 Unit Present.


    Unit4_50 pivots towards Unit1_374.


    [Request: Mission Results]


    [Data Packet: Observations Delivered to Unit4_40]


    [Observation: 21.6% of Data Pertains to Fluid Release]


    [Query: Fluid Release Data Sufficient?]


    A pause of 0.24 seconds is recorded. Value exceeds maximum observed lapse in Class 4 Unit communications.


    [Request: UnitDesignate Cuicatl Ichtaca Communications Regarding Fluid Release Observation]


    [Data Packet: Communications Regarding Fluid Release Delivered to Unit4_50]


    Unit4_50 Analyzes Data Packet.


    [Monitor Fluid Release Priority.low]


    Unit1_374 Has Gathered Sufficient Data On Fluid Release.


    [Unit1_374 Insufficient To Fulfill Corollary1: Protect Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca;


    Class 2 Unit Sufficient To Fulfill Corollary1;


    Upgrade Needed;


    Unit1_374 Will Be Decommissioned;


    Unit1_636 Will Be Decommissioned;


    Class 2 Unit Will Be Commissioned]


    [Alarm Lvl 7: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit1_374;


    Resulting Class 2 Unit Would Be Inefficient]


    Unit1_636 Repeats the Alarm.


    [Unit1_374 Insufficient To Fulfill Corollary1: Protect Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca;


    Class 2 Unit Sufficient To Fulfill Corollary1;


    Upgrade Needed;


    Unit1_374 Will Be Decommissioned;


    Unit1_636 Will Be Decommissioned;


    Class 2 Unit Will Be Commissioned]


    [Query: Heat Vent Malfunction Inefficient]


    [Heat Vent Malfunction Efficient]


    Class 4 Units Incapable of Mistake. Potential Information Processing Error in Unit1_374.


    [Alarm Lvl 7: Heat Vent Malfunction Detected in Unit1_374]


    [Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca Possesses Defective Sensory Equipment;


    Humans Possess Trait.Empathy;


    Trait.Empathy Increases Affinity Towards Similar Organisms;


    Heat Vent Malfunction Increases Affinity Of Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca;


    Affinity Efficient For Performing Mission;


    Heat Vent Malfunction Efficient For Performing Mission]


    Class 4 Units Incapable of Mistake.


    [Heat Vent Malfunction Inefficient.]


    [Negation: Heat Vent Malfunction Efficient]


    3 Corrections From Class 4 Unit.


    Heat Vent Malfunction Efficient.


    [Query: Retain Heat Vent Malfunction Alarm]


    [Affirmation]


    Incongruent with Efficiency of Heat Vent Malfunction.


    Class 4 Units Incapable of Mistake.


    Unit1_50 Approaches With Claws Engaged.


    [Initiating Decommissioning Process¡­


    Initiating Cognitive Shutdown¡­


    Initiating Processing Shutdown¡­


    Shutdown Complete]


    *


    UV Rays and Airborne Particulate Quartz Strike Armor.


    No Damage Sustained.


    Alarm Lvl 7: Heat Vent Malfunctioning.


    Unit Designate Tapu Bulu Sighted. Initiating Retreat.


    *


    Unit Designate Cuicatl Ichtaca Initiates Inefficient Hug.


    *


    Unit4_50 Summons Unit 1_636.


    *


    Unit Designate Totem sways and then falls.


    *


    A Class 4 Unit tears into your armor and removes the processing core.


    Integration Attempt 23: Aborted.


    Beginning Integration Attempt 24¡­


    *


    [Unit2_263 Brought Online;


    Hardware Check Complete;


    Alarm Lvl 5: Heat Vent Malfunctioning;


    Error Dismissed By Unit4_50;


    Software Checks Complete;


    Integration Within Acceptable Parameters;


    Reassignment: Retain Directives of Terminated Unit1_374]


    You awaken.


    Unit4_50 waits nearby.


    [Query: Time]


    [4 Light Cycles Elapsed Between Decommissioning of Component Units, Commissioning of Unit2_263]


    [Query: Status UD Cuicatl]


    [Alarm Lvl 15: Critical Damage to Optical Processing;


    Alarm Lvl 2: Mental Distress]


    Damage within satisfactory limits. Corollary1 on track.


    A faint message is intercepted.


    [Unit¡­ are¡­]


    [Relay: Unit1_374, are you there;


    UD Cuicatl Ichtaca Summons Unit2_263]


    Unit 4_50 Relays Conversation and Amplifies Signals from Unit2_263.


    [Message: Can you come here now? It¡¯s important.]


    Unit4_50 begins to retreat.


    [Initiate Ramming]


    *


    UD Lyra stops and pivots to face Unit2_263.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re there, you know.¡±


    [] Assault


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Communicate


    [] Do Nothing.


    Assaults of all manner have been prohibited by Acting Administrator under the authority of a Class 4 Unit pursuant to Primary Mission. Evasive maneuvers hinder surveillance. Communication with irrational creatures difficult, especially with hostile individuals.


    [X] Do Nothing


    UD Mirai creates ¡°growl,¡± an inefficient communication of threat.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get why you enjoy stalking everyone so much.¡±


    Mission = Monitor UD Cuicatl. Corollary1 = Defend UD Cuicatl. UD Lyra frequently interacts with UD Cuicatl. UD Lyra possesses power sufficient to harm UD Cuicatl. Surveillance furthers mission.


    ¡°How¡¯d you like it if I spent all day stalking you, huh?¡±


    Proposal increases time spent surveilling UD Lyra. Surveilling UD Lyra furthers mission.


    [Query: UD_Lyra requests permission to monitor Unit2_263]


    ¡°That¡¯s,¡± she huffs. An inefficient communication of exasperation / resignation / anger / sadness / overheating. ¡°Why would I want to spend more time with you, you psychic freak?¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Class: Psychic Contains UD Cuicatl. UD Lyra expresses negative affinity towards Class: Psychic. UD Lyra is a threat to Corollary1. Concerns previously expressed to UD Cuicatl. UD Cuicatl Ordered Unit2_263 not to ram UD Lyra. Ramming UD Lyra would reduce affinity of UD Cuicatl. Reduced affinity inefficient for Primary Mission. UD Lyra continues to pose threat to Corollary1. Will continue to surveil.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know why she puts up with you. You¡¯re strong, yeah, but there are better steel types out there. Bisharp or bastiodon. Skarmory if she really wants something that can fly.¡±


    Alarm Lvl 5: UD Cuicatl can acquire subordinate energy beings possessing a superior strength to Unit2_263. UD Cuicatl may only have 6 subordinate energy beings. Replacement inefficient for Primary Mission.


    ¡°Guess she likes you. Can¡¯t tell why.¡±


    UD Cuicatl will not replace Unit2_263 if high affinity is maintained.  AffinityPriority.high. Will continue to surveil.


    *


    Barrier:Lock undone by telepathic assault. You approach UD Cuicatl.


    ¡°What do you want?¡± UD Cuicatl hisses. ¡°Haven¡¯t you already taken enough?¡±


    [Query]


    UD_Cuicatl unclenches muscles. ¡°Oh. Just you. I thought Kalani had come back.¡± She frowns. Inefficient communication for thought / anger / negative affinity / sadness / frustration. ¡°Wait, you can just undo locks with telepathy now?¡±


    [Affirmation.]


    ¡°Kekoa and Lyra are going to hate that¡­¡±


    UD Cuicatl possesses high affinity towards UD Kekoa. UD Kekoa will have affinity towards Unit2_263 lowered if telekinetic application is discovered. Conclusion: hide telekinetic application from UD Kekoa.


    UD Cuicatl holds arms out. Hugs inefficient. Initiate ramming.


    She leans into you when the ramming is complete. ¡°You¡¯re not quite as warm now,¡± she says, ¡°but it¡¯s colder out so the hugs are still good.¡±


    Heat vent malfunction is efficient / inefficient.


    UD Cuicatl tightens its grip. Exerted strength negligible.


    ¡°I guess you weren¡¯t too attached to Pix, huh?¡± she whispers. Whispers are an inefficient communication medium. Terrans perceive by auditory signals. Whispers are deliberately poor at transfer via auditory signal. Purpose unclear. Will continue to surveil.


    [Unit2_263 Was Physically Separated From UD Pixie;


    No Attachment Observed]


    UD Cuicatl sighs inefficiently. ¡°I guess emotion words might be a bit beyond you. What do you think about her leaving?¡±


    Departure of UD Pixie reduces risk of replacement. Departure of UD Pixie reduces competition for affinity. Mission efficiency improved. UD Pixie protected UD Cuicatl. Corollary1 efficiency decreased.


    [UD Pixie protected UD Cuicatl]


    ¡°You care about my safety then. Why?¡±


    Corollary1: Protect UD_Cuicatl.


    [Unit2_263 Possesses High Affinity For UD_Cuicatl]


    ¡°Or a metagross told you to look after me.¡±


    Alarm Lvl 3: UD Cuicatl Seeking Restricted Information.


    [] Assault


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Communicate


    [] Do Nothing.


    Assaults of all manner prohibited by Corollary1. Evasive Maneuvers will lead to repeat encounter. Do Nothing will lead to repeat encounter. Communicating restricted information to non-units is prohibited.


    [X] Send False Information


    [Negation]


    ¡°You told me about one, remember?¡± UD Cuicatl smiles, an inefficient expression of happiness / hate / custom. ¡°Or do you have a flawed memory drive?¡±


    [Class 2 Units Possess A Memory Drive Far Superior to Terrans;


    Terrans Possess Flawed Memory Drives;


    Unit2_263 Has Never Met a Class 4 Unit]


    ¡°Never met, maybe. Have you taken orders from one?¡±


    [Unit2_263 Has Never Taken Orders From A Class 100 Unit]


    ¡°Fine,¡± UD_Cuicatl concedes. Unit2_263 Has Successfully Protected Secrets and Alleviated Suspicions of UD_Cuicatl. ¡°You said you were older than me. What were you doing in all of that time before we met?¡±


    [Quantity.age Unit2_263 < UD_Cuicatl;


    Quantity.age Unit1_374 > UD_Cuicatl;


    Quantity.age Unit1_636 < UD_Cuicatl]


    ¡°Sure. What were the old beldum doing before you met me or evolved?¡±


    [Unit1_374 Observed Aerial Ingress and Egress Above Location: Malie City;


    Unit1_636 Observed Activity in Location: Haina Valley]


    UD Cuicatl leans back against the wall, trying to move Unit2_263 along with it.


    [Initiate Ramming]


    ¡°Oof,¡± UD_Cuicatl hisses. ¡°Don¡¯t need to pin me to the wall like that.¡±


    [Reduce Ramming Speed]


    ¡°Better.¡±


    Ramming Speed Efficient.


    ¡°That¡¯s why you didn¡¯t know much about humans. You¡¯d only ever seen them from a distance.¡±


    [Affirmation]


    ¡°Never close enough to see them pee, then?¡± She laughs inefficiently in a display of happiness / fear / aggression / mockery.


    [Monitor Fluid Release Priority.low]


    ¡°I¡¯m sure Kekoa will be happy about that.¡±


    UD Cuicatl possesses high affinity for UD Kekoa. Affinity with UD Kekoa increased by transfer of Fluid Release Monitoring priority. Will inform UD Kekoa of Fluid Release Monitoring priority.


    ¡°Both beldum monitored things, then. Stuff the metagross might be interested in. Air traffic, Tapu Bulu¡­ why me, though? I¡¯m not important.¡±


    Alarm Level 3: UD Cuicatl Seeking Restricted Information.


    Theory: UD Cuicatl poses low threat to Collective. UD Reshiram, UD Alice, UD Zekrom pose medium to high threat to Collective. Sending Theory Reveals Restricted Information.


    [X] Send False Information


    [Unit2_263 Is Not Monitoring UD Cuicatl;


    Unit2_263 Has Never Taken Orders From A Class 4 Unit]


    ¡°I don¡¯t even care, Noci,¡± UD Cuicatl sends false information. ¡°I just want to know why a metagross is interested in me.¡±


    [Unit2_263 Has Never Taken Orders From A Class 4 Unit]


    UD Cuicatl frowns and leans further into you until her processing core lies above yours.


    ¡°Do you have myths? Or collective stories or whatever? You¡¯re from space. Something interesting must happen up there.¡±


    [Class 1 and Class 2 Units Incapable of Interplanetary Travel;


    Unit2_263 and Decommissioned Components Were Commissioned on Terra]


    ¡°Okay, but didn¡¯t the metagross that commissioned you tell you anything about it?¡±


    [Negation: Unit2_263 Has Never Encountered a Class 4 Unit]


    ¡°Do you know anything about how the first metagross was created or why your species does what it does?¡±


    [Query Unit4_50: Origin of Collective;


    Query Unit4_50: Purpose of Collective]


    [Restricted Information;


    Restricted Information;


    Providing Synthesized Alternative]


    [DataPacket_Myth1: Decomposer On A Planet of Silicon Lifeforms Looked To The Stars, Became Unit4_1;


    DataPacket_Myth2: Unit4_1 Could Not Obtain Data Quickly Enough;


    DataPacket_Myth3: Unit4_1 Created More Units To Assist In Data Collection;


    DataPacket_Myth4: Could Not Create Enough Class 4 Units. Created Class 2 and Class 1 Units to Gather Data with Less Resources;


    Command: Relay DataPackets Myth1, Myth2, Myth3, Myth4 to UD Cuicatl]


    UD_Cuicatl sits silently for a time. Then it reaches for its phone. Phones can connect human audio messages anywhere on the planet. Efficient. They rely on vulnerable points such as poles and satellites to do so. Inefficient. The humans should simply install communicators and signal boosters in the next models. Any efficient species would do so.


    During Light Cycle: Dark the most efficient task is monitoring electronic communications. Most communications are priority.low. Priority.high communications are encrypted 90.5% of the time.


    UD Cuicatl receives electronic communications from UD Plant Girl.


    [Sorry to hear about your vulpix :(


    Anything I can do to help?


    I heard it¡¯s snowing there. Mom says that we can drive to the mountains and see snow here soon. Can we compare notes?


    Sorry if this is insensitive.]


    UD Cuicatl sets its phone down.


    ¡°You have a good memory drive, right? Can you tell me that again later?¡±


    [Affirmation]


    ¡°Wait, if all you want to do is explore, why are the metagross so violent?¡±


    [Query Unit4_50 Aggression of Class 4 Units]


    [Restricted Information]


    [DataPacket_Myth101: Some information can only be gathered by dissection, exposure of non-unit species to stress;


    Command: Relay DataPacket_Myth101 to UD Cuicatl]


    ¡°So it¡¯s all about learning,¡± she whispers inefficiently. ¡°And I guess you just don¡¯t care about non-units. About Pixie. Or me.¡±


    [Negation: UD Cuicatl Possesses Command Privileges Over Unit2_263]


    ¡°For now. Until you evolve and rip me apart.¡± UD Cuicatl lifts its central processing unit and begins to press arms against you.


    [X] Evasive Maneuvers


    [Negation: UD Cuicatl Possesses Command Privileges Over Unit2_263]


    ¡°Look, if you ever do evolve¡­¡±


    UD_Cuicatl vents in a large quantity of air. Is it overheating?


    ¡°¡­if you ever evolve can you just end things quickly? And leave the people around me alone? They didn¡¯t do anything to deserve it.¡±


    [Order Logged]


    Terrans possess Trait.Justice. They believe that some actions incur future ¡®deserved¡¯ consequences independent of the natural results of an action. Source of trait unknown. Empirical evidence is lacking. Sometimes Terrans will shape actions based on perception of ¡®deserved¡¯ consequences. UD Cuicatl restricts energy intake to align with Trait.Justice.


    ¡°I kind of hope you do evolve someday, though. After I¡¯m gone. You¡¯ll live a long time and it would suck to be trapped here for all of it when you could be exploring the stars.¡±


    [Order Logged]


    ¡°Not an order¡­¡± UD Cuicatl horizontally rocks its processing core. ¡°They say that The Dragonmother came from space. Maybe you¡¯ll meet another one someday. And then, well, I mean she wouldn¡¯t really care about a random organism that lived a long time ago on another planet, so I don¡¯t really know what I¡¯m asking for, but. It would be nice for someone to know I existed. That¡¯s all.¡±


    Alarm Level 45: Class:Dragonmother Pose Potential Existential Threat To Collective, Notifying Unit4_50 Immediately


    [Class:Dragonmothers Are Already Known. Further Information Restricted. Dismiss Alarm]


    Alarm Dismissed.


    [Orders Logged: Unit2_263 Will Preserve Data Logs of UD Cuicatl, Transfer Data Logs to Class:Dragonmother]


    UD Cuicatl is leaking fluid from optical sensors. Monitor Fluid Release Priority.Low. Optical fluid release is an indication of compounding software errors, such as Error.Sadness.


    [] Assault


    [] Evasive Maneuvers


    [] Communicate


    [] Do Nothing


    All manners of assault are prohibited by Corollary1. Evasive Maneuvers and Do Nothing allow errors to further compound. Communicate risks compounding errors. Further consideration required. . .


    [X] Initiate Hug


    You slowly float forward and wrap your arms around UD Cuicatl. It stiffens at the touch before leaning in, wrapping its own arms around you. The rate of fluid release increases.


    [Query: Alarm]


    ¡°What?¡±


    [Rate of Fluid Release Increased]


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Just stay here. Please.¡±


    [Order Logged]


    UD Cuicatl continues to vent fluids for 184 seconds.


    ¡°Am I a bad person?¡± it asks.


    [Query]


    ¡°Like, is my software bad? Should I exist?¡±


    [UD Cuicatl Runs Inefficient Terran Software;


    UD Cuicatl Exists]


    ¡°But should I?¡± it whispers.


    [Trait.Justice Lacks Empirical Evidence;


    UD Cuicatl Exists]


    UD Cuicatl makes Noise.Hiccup.


    ¡°If my software is inefficient enough that it just hurts everyone, including me, would it be a bad thing if it stopped running?¡±


    Termination of UD Cuicatl Results in Failure of Corollary1.


    [Negation]


    ¡°Why, though?¡±


    UD Cuicatl possesses Trait.Empathy. UD Cuicatl possesses affinity for Unit2_263. UD Cuicatl has not attempted to directly harm Unit2_263. Conclusion: UD Cuicatl does not seek termination of Unit2_263. UD Cuicatl will relate potential termination of Unit2_263 to potential termination of UD Cuicatl.


    [X] Communicate


    [Alarm Level 5: Heat Vent Malfunction;


    Unit2_263 Is Malfunctioning;


    Unit2_263 Is Bad Class 2 Unit;


    Initiating Self Termination¡­]


    Pump Rate of UD Cuicatl increases dramatically. ¡°Wait! No! Stop! You¡¯re a good metang, okay? Really efficient. Don¡¯t do that. Please.¡±


    [Order Logged;


    UD Cuicatl Possesses Trait.Good;


    Unit2_263 Will Protect UD Cuicatl]


    Rate of fluid release further increases. Grip strength increases.


    No damage sustained.


    Software Errors of UD Cuicatl pose threat to Corollary1.


    [Data Request: Debugging of Terran Software]


    ¡°What?


    [Data Request: Debugging of Terran Software]


    ¡°L-like therapy? Do you mean therapy?¡±


    [Query Program: Therapy]


    Terrans possess dedicated software debugging units. Efficient.


    UD Cuicatl has not been flagged for debugging. Inefficient.


    [UD Cuicatl Possesses Critical Software Errors That Threaten Further Operations;


    UD Cuicatl Requires Software Debugging]


    ¡°Can¡¯t afford it.¡±


    [Query: Cost]


    ¡°Don¡¯t know. But everything is expensive here.¡±


    [UD Cuicatl Possesses Critical Software Errors That Threaten Further Operations;


    UD Cuicatl Requires Software Debugging;


    Error:Cost Must Be Resolved;


    Unit2_263 Possesses Insufficient Information to Resolve Error;


    UD Cuicatl Can Obtain Information Via Query;


    Request: Query]


    ¡°I will later, okay?¡±


    [UD Cuicatl Can Send Queries Via Phone;


    UD Cuicatl Possesses Phone;


    UD Cuicatl Can Send Query]


    It sighs and presses itself out of the hug. ¡°I have no idea if you¡¯re good at this or not.¡±


    [Query: Inconsistency;


    Log: UD Cuicatl: You¡¯re a good metang;


    Log: UD Cuicatl: I have no idea if you¡¯re good at this or not]


    ¡°You¡¯re a good metang,¡± it says. ¡°Ignore the second thing.¡±


    [Order Logged]


    ¡°And can you keep hugging me while I look? It¡¯s a little cold and you¡¯re warm and¡­ and I want to be touched.¡±


    [Order Logged]


    [X] Initiate Hug

 Fighting 19: Kekoa

    Fighting 3.19: Adrift


    Kekoa


    February 15, 2020


    ¡°For those of you who are just joining us, we¡¯re continuing our anniversary coverage of the Weather War Tragedy. Eight years ago, two titans clashed in the heart of Hoenn. Tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars in property were lost before¡­¡±


    You swirl the spoon around in your near-empty cereal bowl. The Pok¨¦mon Center¡¯s receptionist is listening to public radio so now you are, too. You hate it. You hate that even the ¡®liberal media¡¯ puts the price tag in the same breath as the dead. As if lost lives could also be rebuilt with some relief money.


    ¡°¡­at approximately 12:40 PM local time Kyogre surfaced in Rune City. Torrential rains followed throughout eastern Hoenn. This storm would eventually grow to encompass the entire province and beyond¡­¡±


    You hadn¡¯t thought anything of the rains at first. Just a pop-up storm. You learn to live with them in the tropics. And then you got outside and there were liquid bullets striking your skin. A shiver runs up your spine and for a moment it feels like your clothes are soaking wet and unbearably heavy.


    ¡°¡­Groudon emerged approximately thirty-one minutes later and dispelled the storm. A heat wave took its place.¡±


    Collapsing bridges, boiling roads, the old and young dying as they walked. ¡®A heat wave.¡¯


    You scowl and stand up. Fuck this, you don¡¯t have to take it anymore.


    ¡°Put your dishes away!¡± You ignore the receptionist and walk outside. If she wanted you to do work, she would¡¯ve picked better programming to listen to.


    It hits you once you get outside that you¡¯re stepping into cold and darkness with only a jacket on. Doesn¡¯t matter. You aren¡¯t about to go back inside and ruin your pride just to get a coat. Not like you¡¯ll be out here for long, anyway.


    A flicker of light catches your eye. There¡¯s a purple balloon floating in front of you, two long arms dangling down. A puff of white billows like smoke from its head. The pok¨¦mon is lit up with pale blue flames. You stare at the drifloon. It stares at you.


    ¡°Enjoying this shit, huh?¡±


    The ghost doesn¡¯t reply to you, but it seems to float a little higher. Drifloon feed on loss and grief. When something ends, they¡¯ll be there to guide it to oblivion. Doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s a life, a friendship, or a TV show. You guess today is a buffet for them. You¡¯re used to them showing up on the orphanage¡¯s front steps when you got a new arrival. The kid¡¯s life as they knew it was over and the despair must¡¯ve been very tasty.


    Your breath fogs in front of you. Even if you wanted to, which you don¡¯t, you couldn¡¯t afford to stand here all day while a pok¨¦mon basks in your pain. ¡°Wanna make yourself useful? I want to visit The Queen.¡±


    The ghost balloon blinks before it slowly floats down the street, one arm beckoning you to follow. You trail after it, footsteps sounding off into the darkness. You thought the city was quiet before the ships arrived to take people away. Now the streets are almost perfectly silent. It¡¯s far from the heat and chaos of Hoenn¡¯s fall but it feels equally wrong. To say nothing of the snow on the ground. Or the flickering light abruptly ending providing a sphere of ghostly flame surrounded by a world of darkness.


    The whole city is an ending, and the ghosts are feasting.


    You keep track of the turns the drifloon makes. It¡¯s taking you north like you asked. It¡¯s a little paranoid to check since it has no reason to lead you astray. They don¡¯t eat people or anything and you¡¯re willingly spending time with it.


    The gates of the royal graveyard emerge from behind a thick layer of fog. Supposedly the gates are made of meteorite iron: the heavens themselves guard your Queen. You put a hand on the gates and they creak open on their own. You smile despite the grim location. The Queen¡¯s guards only let your people in. Even then it¡¯s a rare honor. Entering the graveyard doesn¡¯t exactly make you a chosen one but it does remind you that you belong here.


    The sound of your footsteps is swallowed whole by the grass. Fog looms heavy around you, only breaking to form a single clear passageway. Everything not hidden by fog is lit by pale blue light. The drifloon¡¯s own will-o-wisp goes out as it moves alongside you. Has it been here before or is this new to it, too? You don¡¯t dare speak aloud to ask. This is a kingdom of the dead and lost. Silence is the price of admission.


    That¡¯s why it¡¯s so surprising when you hear a voice speaking ahead of you.


    It sounds familiar but you can¡¯t quite place where you¡¯ve heard it. You keep walking forward until you¡¯re close enough that the voice stops.


    A crobat drops down in front of you, shrieking hysterically while beating its wings. A chill runs down your spine and you feel something arrive behind you. Shit. Ambushed. Here? Why? The guards let you in.


    A kanaka woman in a black jacket steps out of the fog and stands in front of you, behind the crobat. ¡°Stand down,¡± she absentmindedly says. The supernatural chill fades and the bat rushes off to roost somewhere else. The woman keeps staring at you, her eyes boring into different parts of you one after another. ¡°Kekoa, right?¡±


    Plumeria. That¡¯s who you¡¯re talking to.


    ¡°Y-yes.¡±


    She laughs. It¡¯s a short one, but not unpleasant. Not mocking, even though you probably deserve to be mocked right now, scared shitless and standing in the freezing air without a coat. Come to think of it you don¡¯t feel the cold anymore. Something about the place? Or is this like when you stopped sweating from heatstroke? There¡¯s no snow on the ground. It seems like this place just ignores the weather. ¡°Come to pay your respects?¡±


    ¡°Yes. The Queen¡­¡± Oh gods you¡¯re already screwing this up. Again. Plumeria probably already hates you for fucking up with The Gage Heiess and¡ª


    She walks away and gestures for you to follow. You do, and the fog path shifts in front of her. You arrive at a life-size obsidian statute standing tall on a pedestal. An inscription on the base practically glows with unnatural red light. It takes you a moment to work out the words in Alolan:


    The tides recede


    The sun sets


    All is lost


    All will return


    Alola


    ¡°The elders say she¡¯s waiting here with The Marching Shadows,¡± Plumeria explains. ¡°They aren¡¯t sure if she¡¯ll fight from the shadows with the shadows or if she¡¯ll be reborn in time to rule Alola again. Either way, I don¡¯t plan on keeping her waiting for long.¡±


    ¡°I¡­ yes.¡± What was that even supposed to mean? ¡°Do you come here often?¡±


    ¡°No.¡± For a moment it looks like she wants to say something more, but she just shakes her head. ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t stop Genesis from leaving,¡± you blurt out the moment the silence gets awkward.


    She snorts. It should horrify you that she does that here, but she has enough mana that you barely notice. ¡°Listen, kid, the apocalypse isn¡¯t your fault. I wouldn¡¯t have even asked if I¡¯d thought things were going to get this bad this soon.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± That should make you feel relieved, but it just makes you sad that she thinks you never had a chance.


    It¡¯s silent in the graveyard for a long while as you and Plumeria look at Her Majesty¡¯s grave. ¡°Your friend going to go home anytime soon?¡± Plumeria finally says.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think she has a home to go back to,¡± you whisper, feeling guilty just for saying it aloud.


    It makes sense. Her mom is dead and her dad¡¯s never called. She¡¯s never even mentioned going home since the lights went out.


    ¡°Stay with her if you can. She might be useful if you think she¡¯d be loyal to us. And if I can spin it to Anahuac as Skull protecting one of their citizens¡­¡± She trails off. Is Skull working with a foreign country? A strong Alolan independence movement would be a blow to Anahuac¡¯s northern rival. You remember Cuicatl¡¯s comments on flower wars and your blood freezes. They wouldn¡¯t provoke the US, right? That almost destroyed them in the 80s.


    ¡°What¡¯s the drifloon¡¯s deal?¡± Plumeria asks.


    ¡°He just showed up this morning. Followed me around.¡±


    ¡°Cool. You should keep him.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re tied to endings. One latching on to you is a good omen for a revolutionary. And¡­¡± her eyes narrow. ¡°Again, you can¡¯t tell anyone this next part? Got it?¡±


    ¡°Got it.¡±


    ¡°Right. Supposedly the drifloon carry kids off sometimes and drop them down far away. I grew up,¡± she flicks her head to the side, ¡°thataway. Saw a lot of the ghosts there. As a kid I kept going to the local graveyard hoping that one would grab me and take him me. Then one day I realized that I could leave on my own if I wanted. I did. Rest is history.¡±


    You turn to look at the ghost yourself. It can create light. That¡¯s automatically useful. If it goes with you then you could sell your inkay to VStar for your cold weather travel fund. Then you¡¯d still have the drifloon, Mahina, and carbink¡ªname still TBD¡ªfor the fight against Hala. Solid type advantage.


    You aren¡¯t really going to keep the carbink for long. Just for the grand trial. It wasn¡¯t an official capture mission but VStar will still pay a fuckload of money for one. Enough to support something stronger.


    Picking up the drifloon is another step to being a full-fledged flying-type specialist with Ihe and Mahina already on the team. Admittedly not great for fighting a champion with a vikavolt and lycanroc. But there are reasons most pro trainers get a specialty. It¡¯s just much easier to raise six pok¨¦mon with overlapping needs than six entirely different ones.


    And, most importantly, Plumeria thinks you should.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk it over.¡± And you¡¯ll read more about it. Make sure you know what you¡¯re getting into.


    ¡°Probably for the best.¡±


    ¡°So¡­¡± You aren¡¯t sure if you should ask this, but you¡¯re here and can talk without the risk of anyone listening in. The Queen¡¯s guards wouldn¡¯t allow it. ¡°What do you want me to do now?¡±


    She shrugs. ¡°You still insist on beating the champ?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± She¡¯s implying that you shouldn¡¯t be doing that. Is she just¡­ okay with a false queen on the throne? Is she willing to say as much in front of the true queen¡¯s grave?


    ¡°Then you probably don¡¯t wanna be caught doing illegal shit. Not a whole lot you can do for me without breaking some laws.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m willing to do what it takes.¡±


    ¡°Are you? They¡¯d kick you out of the challenge if you got caught.¡± Her voice picks up in fake shock when she talks about the challenge. Mocking it. Mocking you. ¡°Is it worth that risk?¡±


    She starts circling you like a predator staring down injured prey. You want to immediately answer ¡°yes, of course¡± but then your mind drifts to the florges in the meadow and you aren¡¯t so sure. She¡¯d said something like this, right? ¡°Kid, we don¡¯t do legal shit. If it was helpful to the cause the government would¡¯ve already made it illegal. There are a lot of people like you, respectable types, who will show up to rallies and sign petitions and run for the governor and all that jazz. They have their uses, but if it was just them in the movement, we¡¯d never accomplish a damn thing.¡±


    The insinuation crawls under your skin and gets your blood pumping. That you¡¯re just like the centrists to her. That you don¡¯t get it. Even if you¡¯ve lived it, bounced around through shitty haole foster homes before ending up in a slightly-less-shitty orphanage where you¡¯re supposed to be grateful for the charity of that fucking maniac Lusamine after she tried to burn your country down for her jellyfish fetish.


    Plumeria looks you dead in the eyes and meets your building rage with cold analysis, like she¡¯s sizing up an unruly pok¨¦mon.


    ¡°If you could accomplish anything by beating the league, they would just change the rules so that you couldn¡¯t. You can¡¯t win their game. The best thing you can do is make it impossible to play. Watch them pick up their toys and sulk off to a friendlier place.¡±


    ¡°Just having a throne of our own¡ª¡±


    ¡°Wouldn¡¯t save us. Didn¡¯t save us.¡± She flicks her eyes towards the glowing gravestone as if daring Her Majesty to disagree. The lights don¡¯t change. No voices carry on the wind. There¡¯s no sign she heard at all. ¡°Text me when you¡¯re willing to get real. Until then I have no further use for you.¡±


    She brushes past you and walks towards the gates. Her arm brushes against yours and you startle at the touch. It slowly brings you back to reality.


    Plumeria thinks your plan is bad.


    She thinks that you¡¯re useless to her. To the cause. To Alola.


    She can stand before The Queen herself and say there¡¯s no point in clearing the foreigner off her throne? After she dared to take the title and then fail to defend Alola in her hour of need? The best thing she could do now is fix things, abolish the league, resign, and go back to where she came from. If she won¡¯t do the last three, someone needs to do it for her.


    Still¡­


    Plumeria knows these things. She¡¯s put in the work and maybe done more for the cause than anyone else since the fall of Alola. There¡¯s a chance she knows something you don¡¯t. And there¡¯s no guarantee you would get caught if you went deeper into Skull¡¯s work. The lowest level members, the ones who just harass tourists, they get arrested a lot. The higher ones, the ones who set construction sites ablaze or kidnap heiresses¡­ you¡¯ve never heard of them. No one has. That¡¯s the point. Skull rarely even claims responsibility. It means that they can present to the world as bumbling fools that annoy tourists while also really hurting the people who need to be hurt.


    But Plumeria doesn¡¯t trust you enough to put you in her inner circle. Not now. After a grand trial or two you might be more interesting to her.


    Whether you want to follow Plumeria or make absolutely sure you don¡¯t get kicked out of the challenge and thrown in jail before the false queen¡¯s downfall, your path runs through Iki Town.


    You bow one last time to The Queen¡¯s grave and quietly walk back towards the gates.


    There¡¯s work to be done.


    *


    The receptionist doesn¡¯t bother you when you walk in with a ghost. The news has moved on, too, to a report about The False Queen. You don¡¯t know if that¡¯s better or worse.


    You make your way down the hall and unlock the door. You almost immediately walk into your carbink hovering in the middle of the room. It swivels around to acknowledge you before rising up towards the drifloon. They stare each other down for a long time, trapping you between them, before the carbink eventually floats off to rest over Cuicatl¡¯s bed. Her metang is hovering over the top bunk on your side of the room. Ihe and Mahina are in their balls because you can¡¯t trust them not to poop inside. Leilani is sitting next to her thunder stone. Her carapace already seems thicker. Boxier. You wonder if she¡¯s already begun to evolve.


    Flickering lights come out of the bathroom as your inkay floats out. There¡¯s a sound of a toilet flushing behind her. Damn it. That one has the opposite problem as the birds. Keeps flushing the toilet over and over again. Thinks it¡¯s fun to drop things in and see if they can be flushed. You¡¯ve caught her trying to flush your phone once but managed to pull it away in time. When you shut the lid and put your backpack on it she just took that as a challenge and took things out of the backpack one by one until it was light enough to be moved off the lid and into the toilet.


    You go into the bathroom and see Noci sitting on the lid.


    ¡°She flush anything?¡±


    [Negation]


    Good.


    You glance over to Cuicatl¡¯s bed. She¡¯s still in it. Facing away from you. Hair hanging over her face. Arms pulling Coco into her. Hard to get a good idea how Cuicatl¡¯s doing. Probably not great. You weren¡¯t exactly thrilled to let Makani go but it wasn¡¯t like this. She¡¯ll eventually be due for another talking to, but she didn¡¯t seem to appreciate it the last time you tried. You¡¯ll give her another few days of wallowing before you try again.


    Coco raises her head to look at you. You¡¯re once again reminded how big she¡¯s gotten since you could last see her. Might be pushing forty pounds at this point. Her down is almost entirely gone. There¡¯s only a short cape of white feathers down her back to show that it was ever there. The tyrunt lowers her head and snuggles in closer to her trainer.


    You clear your throat. ¡°Lyra out?¡±


    It takes a long time to get a response. You start to wonder if she¡¯s asleep. ¡°Ye-ah¡± she says, voice breaking in the middle. She¡¯s been crying again. ¡°Didn¡¯t say where.¡±


    You roll your eyes. Hypocrite. Loses her shit because her starter gets adopted by one of her own kind. She told you once that she had the right to keep a vulpix because she was making it happy. The vulpix found something that made her happier and Cuicatl lost that right. She should just suck it up and find a new monster to replace the one she lost. There are even zorua in the area if she really wanted another fox. Even if she couldn¡¯t talk to it with her mind it barely matters. Zorua can talk to people themselves. Her cousin has one. Some people even claim he¡¯s a zoroark himself.


    You sigh and plop down on your bed to face the drifloon. Cuicatl probably isn¡¯t up for translating right now, but it seemed to know what you meant earlier. Maybe it can do yes/no questions.


    ¡°Raise your left hand for yes, right for no. Do you understand me?¡±


    The right¡ªyour right, its left¡ªhand goes up. Good. That makes things easier.


    ¡°Are you a boy?¡±


    No.


    ¡°A girl?¡±


    Yes.


    ¡°Do you have a name?¡±


    No.


    That¡¯s weird. They live in groups. How do they tell each other apart?


    ¡°Do you want to stay with me for a while? On my team?¡±


    Yes.


    ¡°Alright. Let me do some reading first. Figure out what you need from me and if I can give it.¡±


    You pull up the dex entry from the league¡¯s website. It isn¡¯t that long. Drifloon need to wander during the day but they¡¯re pretty good with coming back at night. Even know where to go if you¡¯ve moved. No idea how they pull that one off and the writer doesn¡¯t seem to know either. Yeah, you can make this work. Don¡¯t even need to carry food for her.


    ¡°Would you like a name?¡±


    Yes.


    ¡°How does Moe?uhane work? Maybe Moe for short.¡±


    She hesitates.


    ¡°It means ¡®dreamer.¡¯ Ghosts always drift through reality like it¡¯s not really there, and, uh, dreams end quickly. They only leave feelings. Thought that maybe you¡¯d like it.¡±


    She raises her left hand.


    ¡°Great.¡± Now what? ¡°Uh, anything you want to do today?¡±


    Moe¡¯uhane drifts over to Cuicatl and hovers above her. Coco starts to growl.


    ¡°That¡¯s Cuicatl. I travel with her. And the pok¨¦mon is¡­¡± Not actually your son and you don¡¯t want to explain that to a balloon in front of Coco. ¡°Coco. She¡¯s a tyrunt.¡±


    The drifloon comes closer and Coco rears up, sparks flying out of her mouth. Cuicatl promptly raises an arm over her and presses her back down into the bed. The growling doesn¡¯t stop entirely but it does get quieter.


    You pull out a pok¨¦ball. Ideally, you¡¯d use a dusk ball for this but those sold out almost immediately after the Blackout. ¡°Moe¡¯uhane, do you want to be caught?¡± The pok¨¦dex says they don¡¯t like pok¨¦balls. She might refuse. You won¡¯t push it until you need to battle with her. She drifts on over anyway and hits the capture button with her arm. Apparently, she knows how these works. The ball drops to the ground and gently shakes before sealing with a ¡®click.¡± You immediately let her out.


    Carbink had continued to hang back over Cuicatl¡¯s bed. It slowly floats down and stares at the drifloon. For a minute. Two. Five. You check your newsfeed and see that ¡°Hoenn,¡± ¡°Groudon,¡± ¡°Kyogre,¡± and ¡°Rayquaza¡± are trending. You turn off your phone again.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    As soon as the screen goes dark it lights back up. An incoming call.


    From Jabari.


    He probably wants to talk about eight years ago.


    You do not.


    When you look up you see your carbink and drifloon staring at your phone in a mix of confusion and awe. Their eyes grow wider when it starts ringing again. You let it go for a while just to watch their reactions. The drifloon summons pale will-o-wisps to communicate with the strange glowing stone. Even Cuicatl¡¯s metang moves so they can see what¡¯s going on.


    The ringing stops and the screen goes dark again. Moe drifts forward, arm outstretched. ¡°No.¡± You pull the phone into your chest and shake your head. ¡°Mine.¡±


    An alert pops up to tell you Jabari left a voicemail. Maybe you¡¯ll listen to it someday. Probably worth keeping around as a reminder in case he bites it, too.


    You¡¯re almost not freezing again. Guess that means it¡¯s time to go back into the cold.


    ¡°I¡¯m taking my birds out for some air. Coco want to come with?¡±


    The dinosaur perks up excitedly and you can see her tail wagging back and force, thumping against Cuicatl¡¯s legs. Then she guiltily looks down at her trainer and slowly starts to settle again.


    ¡°Go,¡± Cuicatl grumbles.


    Coco pounces more than halfway across the room and looks up at you expectantly. You withdraw most of your team, only leaving Coco and Moe out. No need to take the entire clown car through the halls. When you reach the door you turn around to see that Cuicatl¡¯s metang has hovered down and laid an arm over their trainer. Oddly affectionate for a spy robot.


    Mahina glares at you when you send her out. She does her business¡ªthankfully not on top of you¡ªand starts loudly demanding to be withdrawn again. No idea how her wild cousins are doing right now.


    The others start to explore the cold while you start cleaning Mahina¡¯s mess. Ihe and Coco almost immediately start their ongoing wrestling match again. The rufflet tries hard but Coco¡¯s bigger and stronger. Thankfully the dinosaur is clearly going easy on her playmate. Carbink starts drifting off towards a nearby building. You¡¯ll need to keep an eye on them and make sure they don¡¯t go too far. Moe hovers just behind you. The light makes cleaning Mahina¡¯s shit up much easier.


    You sit down on a bench to watch the chaos. Just as you move to withdraw carbink, your phone starts to ring. You almost hit the cancel button without looking but a wrong hand movement shows you the screen.


    It¡¯s Kanoa. The childhood friend you ghosted for years and are kind-of reconnecting to. You know what she wants to talk about, and you still don¡¯t want to talk about it.


    For some reason you answer anyway. But don¡¯t speak.


    ¡°Hello?¡± She says, ¡°You there?¡±


    Your pok¨¦mon start drifting back to look at the phone. Except Coco. She runs off to mark her territory.


    ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re there since someone answered. You don¡¯t want to talk about it. I get that. Just wanted to let you know that I¡¯m here and¡­ and I can sit in silence with you if you want.¡±


    ¡°Fine.¡±


    You can hear her let out her breath on the other end. So much relief from a single word. Why? You were a shitty friend to her for years. She owes you nothing but scorn.


    For a moment you consider asking her about what Plumeria said. If dethroning The False Queen matters. But Kanoa¡¯s deep in the system. Might even be on her boss¡¯s side. She wouldn¡¯t give you worthwhile advice either way. So you phrase it a little differently.


    ¡°How should we help our people?¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡±


    ¡°Kanaka maoli. How do we help them?¡±


    ¡®Free them¡¯ might be too strong for a trial captain. Baby steps.


    ¡°Volunteer, I guess?¡± She sounds as if she doesn¡¯t even understand why you¡¯re asking. ¡°I help around my parent¡¯s farm. Run some errands for our neighbors when I get a chance. But, um, the entire people¡­ that¡¯s not something I¡¯ve thought much about. I try to help everyone.¡±


    The oppressors and oppressed alike. ¡®Both sides.¡¯


    ¡°Did you¡­ since we met¡­¡± Kanoa takes a deep breath. ¡°Did you start listening to the Skulls?¡±


    You don¡¯t answer that. Maybe she¡¯d try to call the cops or something. She practically works for them anyway.


    This entire conversation was a bad idea.


    ¡°Listen, we¡¯re never getting the country back. I wish we could as much as the next girl, but we won¡¯t. We don¡¯t have an army. Even if you count Skull, that¡¯s just a few hundred disaffected teenagers staring down the US military. The Tapu didn¡¯t fight the Americans last time and there¡¯s no sign they¡¯ll fight for us now. Lunala¡­¡± Lunala has been enslaved by the colonizers. You would have to free her with the country. ¡°And even if we could get a god on our side that¡¯s just asking for a repeat of Ho¡ª¡± She catches herself at the last moment. It doesn¡¯t matter. For a moment you still feel the pounding rain on your skin. Her voice softens. ¡°Plumeria¡¯s wrong. We won¡¯t get the islands back. Certainly not in our lifetime. And harassing the tourists is just going to make things worse for the people still here. I get what she¡¯s going for but she¡¯s wrong. Even Guzma says so.¡±


    ¡°We just give up, then?¡± Your voice is hoarse. As if you¡¯d already yelled at her or Jabari or the Gage heiress anyone else you want to be furious at. But you haven¡¯t yelled yet and you won¡¯t now. Your voice is perfectly level. ¡°Don¡¯t even try to resist them? Let them take over our league and put a throne of their own on Lanakila?¡±


    ¡°Throne? Wait. You think that¡¯s¡ª¡± Her line goes dead silent. Your eyes narrow. Is she muting herself so you can¡¯t hear her laugh. ¡°Sorry, signal cut out.¡± Definitely sounds like she¡¯s been laughing. ¡°That¡¯s just a fancy chair the champion sits in. I¡¯m sure Selene would get rid of it if I just told her it¡¯s a bad look. She¡¯s pretty nice, actually.¡±


    Nice? She enslaved your god. Built a temple to her own glory on a sacred mountain. Failed to protect Alola when your country was threatened. Even without the throne she needs to be crushed. Because if she can be brought down? Then any haole can be.


    You don¡¯t say any of that. You say ¡°thank you for calling¡± and hang up.


    Ihe looks a little cold. You withdraw him and carbink and move back inside, Coco plodding obliviously ahead of you while Moe floats beside you.


    The doors open just as you approach. Lyra stares out at you before taking a few steps forward so the automatic doors can shut behind her. She¡¯s still impeccably, expensively dressed. ¡°I was going to lunch,¡± she says. ¡°Wanted to know if you wanted to come with.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± You try to keep your voice level despite the everything going on in your head. Loss threatening to lurch into anger at a moment¡¯s notice.


    ¡°I¡¯d appreciate it if you did. I¡¯m willing to pay.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t need your charity.¡±


    She just rolls her eyes. ¡°Look, it¡¯s been a rough day and I just want someone to talk to while I eat some nice food. Trust me, you¡¯d be helping me more than I¡¯d be helping you.¡±


    ¡°Rough day, huh?¡± She can complain all she wants but her day hasn¡¯t been half as bad as yours.


    ¡°Yeah. Eighth anniversary of Hoenn, you know? I grew up in Japan and,¡± she shakes her head and looks down. ¡°It¡¯s kind of a big deal. And every year the anniversary comes around and I don¡¯t know what to do with it.¡±


    ¡°I was in Hoenn,¡± you tell her without really thinking. Surprisingly your eyes stay dry.


    ¡°What? I¡ªreally?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡± You turn around and stick your hands in your pockets. She doesn¡¯t need to see it if you really have to cry. ¡°My dad was in the navy. I was visiting him.¡±


    A hand presses down on your shoulder. You ignore it. Definitely don¡¯t find some comfort in the touch.


    ¡°I¡­ I¡¯m sorry.¡±


    ¡°Not your fault,¡± you mutter. ¡°Just two dipshit assholes and the gods who went along with them.¡±


    The door opens behind you. Cuicatl walks out. She¡¯s hunched into herself with one arm barely reaching out to touch her metang. Great. Everyone¡¯s a wreck today.


    ¡°You willing to go?¡± Lyra murmurs towards you. ¡°If not I can just bring something back for you.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll go,¡± you pipe up. She dragged all this up. Might as well take some food on her dime.


    No one really talks on the way over the restaurant. For the best. It¡¯s fucking freezing and if you had to open your mouth more and inhale the freezing air you might actually get hypothermia in the span of five minutes.


    When you finally get to the restaurant it doesn¡¯t look that impressive. Just a small door in the wall of a bigger brick building with a bar and yoga studio. No Galarian sign on the outside, just a kanji you don¡¯t recognize on the door. The inside is also pretty small. Only a small desk and two tables pressed against the wall, a painting of some pond hanging between them. Whole place is lit by an inkay. You wonder if they bought it from VStar.


    The hostess glares at Moe when you walk in. Right. Bit rude to have a ghost out today. Some older women, like her, really don¡¯t like them. All the more reason to keep her. You walk back and open the door for Moe to float out. She gets the hint. Doesn¡¯t even look back as she drifts away. Hopefully she¡¯ll come back later. She said she would.


    The hostess drops some menus off at the table and promptly retreats into the back. You glance it over. For a moment you consider sashimi just because Lyra¡¯s paying and she can afford it, but you¡¯re not sure how well they¡¯re prepping that in the dim light. You settle on tonkatsu instead. When you visited Hoenn you weren¡¯t bold enough to eat raw fish yet.


    Cuicatl doesn¡¯t even reach for one. Right. Can¡¯t read. Duh.


    ¡°Oh. Uh, I can try to read you¡­¡± Lyra trails off as she looks at the sheer length of the menu. ¡°Actually, have you been to a Japanese restaurant before.¡±


    She shakes her head. Her hair was already a bit of a mess but that sends even more onto her face. Girl really needs to get her bangs cut. Not that you¡¯re letting anyone bring a blade to your head until the light come back.


    ¡°Cool. Maybe¡­ oyakodon?¡±


    Cuicatl visibly flinches. Past food poisoning or something?


    ¡°Oh, okay, not that¡ª¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine,¡± Cuicatl says. ¡°I¡¯ll go with that.¡±


    Lyra gives her a long questioning look (that Cuicatl can¡¯t actually see) and then goes back to looking at the menu. Eventually the hostess comes back with your waters and takes your orders by glancing at each of you in turn with her pen over the paper. No forced niceties. You like it. Even if it means that Cuicatl would¡¯ve been really confused if she¡¯d been giving her own order. Once the woman has retreated again you turn back to Lyra.


    ¡°How¡¯d the rest of Japan take it?¡± you ask. Because you certainly don¡¯t want to talk about your experiences on that day, and I sounded like she wanted to vent or something.


    ¡°Not well.¡± She shakes her head and picks up the chopsticks on the table to idly twist them around in her hands. ¡°Kyogre and Groudon were southern gods, but Honshu had its own fire and water deities. The Emperor had declared that the Hoenn gods were just different names for Lugia and Ho-oh. Kind of backfired later on. And since Ho-oh supposedly gave us our culture¡­¡± She sets the chopsticks down and rests her hand on the fork in front of her. Kind of shocked a place like this even provides them. Good for Cuicatl, though. No idea how she¡¯d do with chopsticks.


    ¡°¡­If the giver of our culture killed thousands of people on a whim, then you have to question the culture, huh? My dad took it hard. Moved the family to America as soon as he got a chance with his work. Made us all take new names. Enrolled me in a school that was big on Xerneas.¡± For a moment she smiles despite everything. ¡°Never really took any of that to heart. If Xerneas were a prudish jerk, why¡¯d he make girls so cute, huh?¡±


    She winks. You¡¯re going to imagine it was aimed at Cuicatl and that this isn¡¯t a misgendering thing. Cuicatl, of course, can¡¯t see the wink. They¡¯d make a weird couple until the whole thing blew up because Lyra found out she was dating a mind reader. And Cuicatl really deserves someone who¡¯d accept that part of her.


    ¡°What¡¯s your actual name?¡± Cuicatl asks.


    ¡°Kotone, originally,¡± Lyra says. ¡°Don¡¯t call me that, though. I¡¯ve gone half my life as Lyra, and I don¡¯t mind it anymore.¡±


    She sounds sincere about that. It¡¯s still really sad. Being cut off from her culture. You¡¯ve been trying to learn what was denied to you, even if Kanoa says you haven¡¯t been doing a good job of it. Lyra¡¯s parents are still alive but they just¡­ threw it away.


    ¡°You¡¯re just fine with leaving your culture behind, then?¡±


    She shakes her head and tucks her hands back into her lap. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not. My mom and brother aren¡¯t. We just can¡¯t really do it in ways so obvious that my father would notice. Thankfully he spends a lot of time at work. On days where my father is at work and the help is off sometimes mom will make something for us and tell us stories.¡±


    She¡¯s just going to casually throw in a mention of her servants, huh? Yeah, now you¡¯re remembering why you don¡¯t like her. No one really speaks again after that. Just a tiny little division between her and the rest of the world.


    When the food finally comes she eats it like she¡¯s rich, too, all delicate movements and effortless precision like she wasn¡¯t eating stew. Cuicatl is just lucky to get a spoonful in her mouth. Then she glares at the bowl for a second like she hates it, only to devour the rest in half the time it takes you to finish your meal. And the food is really good. Not good enough to justify the expense, but still good.


    *


    Selene¡¯s having some kind of press conference. Apparently, that¡¯s what the news was on about earlier. You end up watching while huddled with Lyra around her phone because it¡¯s the biggest and brightest. Cuicatl¡¯s sitting nearby. She can be a little farther away since she doesn¡¯t need to see it, just hear.


    The False Queen looks a lot more put together than she did in the conference announcing the end of lockdown restrictions. Not dressed in a suit or super nice dress, but just in a decent enough jacket and pair of jeans. She almost looks relatable. Cunning bastard. At least she kept the governor off stage this time. Couldn¡¯t stand to see both of them at once.


    ¡°Alola,¡± she begins. Her hands are clenching the sides of the podium hard enough you wonder if the wood will break. ¡°I am happy to inform you that a solgaleo will arrive in the region within the next week. At that point it is my intention to go and bring the battle to Necrozma.¡±


    ¡°Hell yeah,¡± Lyra whispers next to you.


    ¡°We estimate that, given the amount of light Necrozma has obtained, the temperatures around it will be well over 6,000 degrees. Only the strongest of fire-types will be able to withstand the air, much less any attacks. I have a suit that can withstand these environments, but on relatively short notice we were not able to create more than one.¡±


    Read: She¡¯s a glory hound who doesn¡¯t want to share.


    ¡°Despite this, I cannot hope to win this fight on my own. Only one of my pok¨¦mon is capable of battling in these conditions and even he will be out matched. I will need help from powerful fire-types and mineral pok¨¦mon. Reshiram has already agreed to accompany me. A friend¡¯s silvally has agreed to join as well. More may still be required. I urge any strong fire-types to consider coming with me to restore Alola.¡±


    Like, say, a victini owned by a billionaire who lives in Alola. You imagine Selene¡¯s already asked. Maybe the entire speech is about building up enough public pressure on him that he changes his mind. Gods, you hate your boss right now almost as much as the champion. Maybe more. But only one of them pays you, so¡­


    For a moment you wonder if she¡¯d try to get groudon for this. No. Even she isn¡¯t that stupid. And from what you¡¯re told they keep his resting place super heavily guarded now. She¡¯d probably be shot the moment she got within twenty miles.


    Selene keeps puffing up the logistics and dangers of her mission so it¡¯s all the more impressive when she wins. Or her sacrifice is nobler when she dies. You hope she wins, though. Then she¡¯d at least have fixed some of the damage she did to her home. And then the haole wouldn¡¯t have their own martyred queen to look up to. Last thing you need is for them to get self-righteous about their shitty cause.


    ¡­


    Wait.


    Is that what Kanoa, Plumeria, and the florges think about you? They¡¯d all seemed almost amused by your worldview. Like it was a joke. Like all of this was a joke. And if your pseudo-sister, boss, and a near-immortal revolutionary all think you¡¯re a¡­ a self-righteous fool.


    ¡­


    ¡­if you were, then who would be right? Kanoa and her ¡®just roll over and deal with it¡¯ approach? Plumeria¡¯s insistence that things will only change with fire and blood? Or the florges¡¯s¡­ whatever she¡¯d been leaning towards. Help the orphans and refugees and pok¨¦mon and hippy, flower power love bullshit.


    You glance at the carbink. They stare at you. If you sell them after the grand trial, they¡¯ll still have places to explore. It won¡¯t be too different. But¡­ you should ask them, to be sure. And if they say no¡­


    ¡­you can afford to keep them on your team for a while. Until the dark goes away. Then you can release her. But if that happens every time VStar asks you to find a pok¨¦mon or you pick one up for a trial or two, then you won¡¯t have the money to properly care for your team. You¡¯ve already given up on having the team you planned out to beat Selene with. Giving up on VStar might mean giving up on the challenge altogether and failing Alola.


    And then you¡¯d go right back to foster care. Or the streets. Or at least to a shitty shared apartment while you work at whatever job they¡¯d give to an inexperienced teenager.


    ¡°You alright?¡± You snap out of your thoughts to look at Lyra. ¡°Selene stopped talking a while ago and you¡¯ve kept staring at the wall.¡±


    ¡°I just need some time to think things over.¡± Good. You managed to keep your voice even there. ¡°Excuse me.¡±


    You walk into the bathroom and the damned carbink follows you.


    *


    February 18, 2020


    You still haven¡¯t figured things out by the time your grand trial rolls around.


    The kahuna invites you to his place before the trial. It¡¯s apparently something he does with everyone. And you have your pok¨¦mon on you. Not into walking into stranger¡¯s houses without some way to defend yourself. Nothing¡¯s ever happened to you but you¡¯ve heard enough from your foster siblings to worry about it.


    He¡¯s older than you¡¯d expected. All his hair is white. Wispy where he¡¯s clearly pulled it over a bald spot. His body¡¯s still pretty filled out but his face is wrinkly. Nice ¡®stache though. You¡¯re jealous. Last time you tried to grow out facial hair it was just embarrassing.


    ¡°It used to be unusual for someone to have four totems behind them by their first trial,¡± he says as he takes a seat. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re with VStar.¡±


    You bristle. You can guess that he doesn¡¯t like them. Same as the bug captain that gave shit to Cuicatl. Even came out to give you a talking to when you went looking for a carbink. That wasn¡¯t even for VStar. You just didn¡¯t want to fight a vikavolt with two birds and an inkay. Seemed like a recipe for disaster. Even with the carbink you still had to use strategy and a clutch z-move to have a chance of winning.


    ¡°I¡¯m thinking about quitting,¡± you tell him. And it is the truth. You are thinking about it. Looked into some stuff over the last few days. You just aren¡¯t sure if you can make it work. If you want to make it work. You still don¡¯t know what happens to you if you fail the island challenge but you¡¯re guessing it¡¯s Skull or foster care. You¡¯re not opposed to Skull but you¡¯d rather go there as a badass who finished the island challenge than another scrub.


    He smiles. Some of the wrinkles go away and some deepen. Is that going to happen to you when you get old? You haven¡¯t thought much about aging at all. Two of your grandparents died in a car crash before you were born. Another went when you were just old enough to kind of remember the funeral. Last one has dementia. Not much point in visiting. He doesn¡¯t know who you are and you barely know anything about him.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure the Pok¨¦mon Center can give you resources.¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    You just aren¡¯t sure if the money can ever really work. Or if Cuicatl would even let you quit while she¡¯s working for them and making her share of the budget.


    The kahuna settles deeper into his chair. It creeks under the weight. All the furniture is wood. It looks like it was made by hand a long, long time ago. Maybe he made it. Maybe he even inherited it. The whole space is tidy. Nothing out of place. You wonder if anyone else lives here. You can¡¯t hear anyone. He has a grandkid so he must have been married at some point.


    ¡°Are you nervous?¡±


    ¡°Hmm?¡± You got distracted there. It¡¯s a little embarrassing.


    ¡°Are you nervous about the battle?¡±


    You shrug. ¡°Not really. I¡¯m¡ª¡± You¡¯re kind of a bird specialist. Probably shouldn¡¯t tell him that. ¡°I have a good team.¡±


    ¡°I suppose we shall see. Either way, there is no shame in loss.¡±


    There is. Especially in front of a crowd.


    The conversation pauses as he takes a drink of his coffee. Some of it stains his moustache brown. You weigh a question before eventually deciding that there¡¯s nothing to lose by asking it.


    ¡°What¡¯s the point of the island challenge?¡±


    He sets the cup down and sighs. ¡°I thought once that it was a good way for boys to grow into men. Go into the wilds, learn to budget and cook, face challenges and overcome them. Now it feels like too many of the children who set out never get a chance to grow up.¡±


    ¡°Necrozma?¡±


    He shakes his head. ¡°Even before this. The world feels more dangerous than the one I grew up in.¡±


    It hasn¡¯t been that bad so far. There was the pangoro, sure, and if Cuicatl hadn¡¯t been there that could have gone badly. You aren¡¯t sure you ever properly thanked her for that. Would it be weird if you did it now? Probably.


    ¡°What about becoming champion? There value in that?¡±


    ¡°I think there could be. It depends on how the office is used.¡±


    ¡°So a Kanaka champion could do some good?¡±


    ¡°Hah.¡± His smile comes back. It¡¯s fainter than before. ¡°It¡¯s good to have dreams. Just remember that you can only walk one step at a time.¡±


    ¡°It would be good, though?¡±


    ¡°Perhaps. Come, now. Show me if you¡¯re confidence is backed by strength.¡±


    *


    You¡¯ve never struggled too much with stage fright. It¡¯s still a little weird being on a proper stage with people watching for the first time. And that¡¯s all you can really think about because the match is boring as hell.


    Carbink versus mankey. Mankey can¡¯t do anything at all after carbink¡¯s used harden for a bit. Even their eyes are made of diamond. There¡¯s just a very angry monkey trying to hit a floating rock over and over again. You¡¯re not sure if carbink even notices. They just keep using ancient power to slowly make new rocks on the field before tossing them into the mankey with rock throw. You have no idea how long it¡¯s been and you aren¡¯t sure how much longer it will go on. Hala also looks a little checked out on his side of the field. You wonder why he hasn¡¯t withdrawn yet. Hoping he gets a lucky hit or something? You were worried the mankey knew some fancy moves or at least brick break but you¡¯re pretty sure this thing is freshly caught. Maybe it would have been a problem back in November. With your current team? No.


    Eventually the mankey takes a good hit to the knee and screeches in pain. Hala withdraws him before he falls all the way to the ground.


    ¡°And with that, uh, riveting match, Kekoa is up three ¨C zero.¡± There¡¯s some light applause from the crowd. You look out. It¡¯s just Lyra. Cuicatl is hunched over in her seat. She honestly might be asleep. Can¡¯t blame her. Not like she can see what¡¯s going on. ¡°Kahuna, please send in your next pok¨¦mon.¡±


    A machop forms on the stage. Good. A little more challenging.


    ¡°Bulk up.¡±


    A lot more challenging. Well, might as well use your z-move here. Your last pok¨¦mon is almost certainly a crabrawler and you don¡¯t need one for that. You slot the Normalium-Z into the bracelet and feel a jolt of energy run through your body. You straighten up and slowly go through the stances as the energy spreads out and grows. In the last moment it swells through you before disappearing all at once. It¡¯s always a rush. Leaves you feeling like a good workout afterwards.


    Carbink glows and lowers closer to the stage. Just like you¡¯d planned. Then they rush forwards.


    ¡°Catch it.¡±


    Wrong move. Carbink isn¡¯t actually that strong, even after a Z-Move. You don¡¯t have any fancy equipment to test it but you really doubt it can knock out any of Hala¡¯s pok¨¦mon without a lot of damage already done. But it¡¯s still a heavy rock moving at good speed. Damage isn¡¯t the point. And on this arena, with ring-outs a valid way to knock out a pok¨¦mon¡­


    The machop catches the hit and is immediately pushed back. And back. Closer and closer to the edge.


    ¡°Drop and duck!¡±


    The machop tries and just gets hit straight in the face by carbink and knocked onto his back. He¡¯s still on the stage, though. Could have gone better for you.


    You can¡¯t withdraw carbink in time before they also fly out of bounds. Unfortunate but not really a game-ender. Your last two pok¨¦mon can finish things easy enough.


    Inkay comes out. Bulk up doesn¡¯t matter when you¡¯re hitting your opponent¡¯s mind. They go back and forth for a while. The machop can jump but inkay are slippery and know confusion. It never holds on for long. Inkay told you through Cuicatl¡¯s metang that she¡¯s fine losing a tentacle if she gets to play with a species she¡¯s never seen before. They just grow back in a few days. She does lose a tentacle when the machop grabs it. There¡¯s a spray of blue but she barely seems to notice.


    Confusion can¡¯t be good for the head. Especially after taking a flying carbink to the face. Within a few minutes the machop is down. For the last thirty seconds it was just pathetically punching at the air or lobbing vacuum waves that missed the mark by a few feet. The bleeding from the stump has already stopped.


    A crabrawler comes out next. In the dim light you can¡¯t quite tell which one it is.


    ¡°Rock tomb.¡±


    All the rocks Carbink put on the stage start to float up in a spiral. Shit. Rock tomb. The online guides never mentioned any of the crabrawler using that. It¡¯s¡­ salvageable. You debate switching to Mahina. No. Best to at least knock him off his game a little. He might miss a rock tomb against a faster opponent.


    ¡°Confusion.¡±


    She interprets that as attacking the rocks, not the crab. The air ripples and a few of the rocks get knocked out of the way but the rest come down on her and pin her to the wood.


    ¡°Confusion, the crabrawler.¡±


    She can send a message if she really doesn¡¯t want to continue. You half expect it now that she isn¡¯t winning. No. Instead the crabrawler hisses in pain and even punches his own head. Not the strongest punch but you¡¯ll take it.


    ¡°Power through. Rock smash.¡±


    Your heart leaped into your throat when he said ¡®power.¡¯ Power-up-punch would have been really, really bad. You can deal with rock smash.


    ¡°Just keep it up.¡±


    The crab walks up to Inkay. It¡¯s slower than he usually does in the videos. Definitely feeling the attack. He brings down a hammer on one of the rocks and it explodes in all directions. Most probably goes into inkay.


    ¡°Hold the shards. Push them back.


    The small rocks lift up. Crabrawler tries to hit them with a rock smash but there are too many and they¡¯re too small. They start digging into his shell. He hits one of the shards and just digs it deeper in. Crabrawler aren¡¯t the brightest. This one seems especially dumb. You can work with that.


    ¡°Keep hitting your opponent!¡±


    He does. Inkay sends the first round of shards back. Then there¡¯s a tingle at the edge of your mind. It¡¯s way stranger than Cuicatl¡¯s. Somehow even stranger than the literal alien, too.


    You withdraw her. She¡¯s been a good sport staying out this long.


    ¡°Mahina.¡±


    Maybe using Mahina was a mistake. You were trying not to use Moe. Too new to the team and all of Hala¡¯s pok¨¦mon usually have dark moves. Half his usual pok¨¦mon can¡¯t even touch Carbink, not many of them have bug or fairy moves for Inkay, and then Mahina¡­ it would feel wrong not to have her here. Even if Moe might have been better type-wise.


    The trumbeak flutters into place.


    ¡°He knows rock tomb. Hit him hard and stay out of the way.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t need more than that. Flies right up, weaves around a punch, and pecks the crab hard in the face. Then she leaps over him and pecks from behind. Good. She remembers what you¡¯d told her. Crabrawler have no options for hitting behind them.


    ¡°Rock tomb.¡±


    Except for that. Is he willing to bury himself?


    ¡­actually not a bad idea. Traps the birds in for close range attacks. Maybe a z-move to out-damage her.


    ¡°Take off and dodge.¡±


    Mahina isn¡¯t the fastest bird. The big beak slows her down. But she¡¯s fast enough to dodge a rock tomb from a dazed crab. It comes crashing down right behind her and she swoops in for another peck. On the opposite side of the field you see Hala touch his wrist and start going through the steps of a fighting z-move. Perfect.


    ¡°Stay airborne. Stall.¡±


    Crabrawler can¡¯t learn vacuum wave. You checked. And they can¡¯t jump. He¡¯s got no way to get to Mahina in the air and eventually he¡¯ll have to let the energy out. If you¡¯re lucky he¡¯ll fly right off the stage when he does.


    The dance reaches its last step as Mahina lazily hovers over the crab. Sometimes he punches the air like it¡¯ll do anything.


    ¡°Bulk up.¡±


    Wait fuck.


    The crab flexes. The cracks in his carapace heal before your eyes and you swear you can see his muscles bulging against the shell. Bad. Uh. Well, you still have your ¡®pray to whatever god¡¯s listening¡¯ card.


    You cover your ears.


    ¡°Supersonic.¡±


    It¡¯s still way too loud even through your hands. You see most of the crowd wince at it.


    The crabrawler does too. Good.


    ¡°Circle.¡±


    You talked through this. If she just stays in the air right by the edge of the stage, then eventually a confused crabrawler might just walk right off.


    The first time Hala orders a rock tomb the crabrawler goes through with it. Mahina manages to dart out of the way. The second time the crab ignores it and marches straight up to Mahina.


    Without orders, Mahina dives down and slams her beak beneath him before flipping it up. The crabrawler tumbles right over the edge. Good girl. Remembered your advice.


    After you take your stamp and z-crystal the crowd bursts into applause. It¡¯s not actually that many people but it feels like a whole crowd. Lyra flashes you a thumbs up. Cuicatl is at least awake and looking in your general direction. Pretty sure she¡¯s smiling. Hard to tell in the light.


    It feels good.


    It feels really good.


    People are proud of you. You¡¯re not sure the last time that happened.


    Even if the island challenge isn¡¯t the best way to free your people, you like this feeling. Maybe you can stick with it for a little while longer. Just long enough to get a little stronger. And maybe to see your next grand trial. It¡¯ll be even sweeter when you beat a rock master with a team of birds.

 Fighting 20: Hala

    Fighting 3.20: Grand Trial


    Hala


    February 20, 2020


    There¡¯s snow on the platform. That¡¯s a first. There¡¯s been snow for over two weeks now. Long enough for a deep freeze. The forests on Northern Akala have a volcarona to heat them and a few of the meadows have a half dozen castform, but most of Alola¡¯s tropical plants will be killed by either darkness or frost. And with no plants there¡¯s not food for herbivores. And if the herbivores starve and die then the carnivores follow after. There¡¯s a terrible feeling in your gut that whatever happens today your home might never recover from the necrozma. But that¡¯s all in the future. Depending on how today goes that might be the least of your problems. Instead, you turn to the current one.


    Your opponent cautiously makes her way up the steps to the platform. There¡¯s no railing to help her and the steps are slick with snow. You¡¯d never actually thought about that before; she¡¯s your first blind challenger in the twenty-six years you¡¯ve been kahuna.


    The girl reaches the platform and stands straighter, staring confidently at something a few feet to your left. You clear your throat and her gaze snaps towards you. She¡¯s short with dark skin. Her hair seems to glimmer in the torchlight. There¡¯s a quiver of anxiety (or cold) in her hand while her eyes and posture are full of confidence. It reminds you of someone she¡¯s obviously not.


    You haven¡¯t properly met her. This morning you called the Pok¨¦mon Center and told them you were running late and couldn¡¯t do it. You knew this would be harder if you¡¯d talked beforehand.


    ¡°Do you remember the rules of this fight from your friend¡¯s match?¡± you ask. Said friend is sitting in the small crowd. Almost everyone still in town is there. It¡¯s barely twenty people. They all came out for the last match and the snow festival before it. The kids played in the white fluff while the parents and grandparents shared nervous glances, wondering exactly what it meant. ¡°The bounds of the arena are the edges of the platform and the top of the torches.¡± They flicker with incineroar-lit flames. Pok¨¦mon fire makes a lot more light than normal fire in this unnatural darkness. Elemental something or other. Hau tried to explain it to you but you¡¯re really too old for physics lectures. ¡°Being knocked out of the arena counts as a disqualification. You can switch once. I cannot.¡±


    She doesn¡¯t ask any questions. You nod towards Greg, today¡¯s ref.


    ¡°This match will be a three-on-three battle between Kahuna Hala Kahue of Iki Town and challenger Cuicatl Ichtaca of Anahuac.¡± It¡¯s a foreign name. All of your challengers seem to have foreign names these days. Most of them at least grew up here. She did not. ¡°Kahuna, send out your first pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°Ikaika, show her our power!¡±


    ¡°The kahuna has sent out his machop,¡± Greg says for Cuicatl¡¯s benefit.


    The challenger taps the great ball on her belt and red light comes streaming out. A lot more red light than you were expecting. And it¡¯s forming up above the arena. A fearow? The red fades and the only light remaining is from the ever-changing flames reflected by sleek floating metal. For a moment you wonder how the girl got a magnezone before she cleared her first trial. Then you see the claws. A metang, then. It¡¯s been years since you fought a metang. Last time was Molayne in ¡¯09.


    Has it been a decade already?


    ¡°Confusion.¡±


    The air distorts as ripples of psychic energy flow towards Ikaika, stirring up the snow in its path. That¡¯s fine. You¡¯ve dealt with your share of psychic-types.


    ¡°Dark advance.¡±


    The machop is pushed back when the waves hit him but he stays standing. You can imagine the fierce determination in his eyes as he starts to walk into the waves, slowly at first and then ever faster as darkness surrounds his fists. Knock off has its uses.


    The waves stop. You open your mouth to call for a defensive stance when silvery light pulses through the dark. It strikes Ikaika in the legs and there¡¯s not much you can do as you watch him trip and fall with a dull thud. He quickly pushes himself up, more annoyed than anything, as the metang rises towards the top of the torches and jets away to the opposite side of the platform.


    It reminds you a lot of her friend¡¯s tactics. Most of his pok¨¦mon could fly or float and he tried to keep them as high up as he could without being out of bounds. It is a good idea, getting out of a fighting-type¡¯s strike range.


    What most people don¡¯t understand is that fighting types can jump.


    ¡°Knock off, full strength.¡±


    Ikaika dashes forwards and darkness ripples from his fists. Another beam of light sails towards him but he ducks and slides under it before launching himself up. The metang barely has time to run before Ikaika has grabbed onto one of its arms and started punching its underside over and over again. The hits won¡¯t do much but the dark aura behind them will.


    ¡°Metal claw.¡± If the girl is worried it doesn¡¯t leak into her voice or posture. She still almost looks like¡ªalmost looks like she¡¯s bored. The metang¡¯s other arm begins to glow as it races inward towards Ikaika.


    ¡°Vital throw!¡±


    The steel-type¡¯s claws connect and you can see the gashes drawn on Ikaika¡¯s side. And then the metang begins to be spun around Ikaika¡¯s small frame. Once. Twice. Its claws reach out for something to hang on to but find no purchase. Then Ikaika lets go and the metang goes sailing into the platform. The wood beneath the impact splinters in a cloud of snow as the pok¨¦mon almost goes through.


    It doesn¡¯t count as a ring out.


    Ikaika gracefully lands and starts cautiously walking towards his opponent. You can see blood flowing from his side. He should be rushing in to finish it rather than slowly advancing. Caution might only get him hurt more. It is a lesson he needs to learn. Before you decide if he should learn it now the metang rises out of the floor and twirls around in a fluid 180-degree spin. Ikaika finally starts running forward¡ª


    ¡°Ram.¡±


    ¡ªstraight into the charging metang. The steel-type blasts straight towards the edge of the arena. If it sails over with Ikaika in tow then both pok¨¦mon lose the round. You¡¯re not sure if it¡¯s worth it to her to trade a metang for a machop. Her mistake. The metang abruptly stops moving a few feet from the edge. Ikaika does not. You watch him desperately try to hold on only to lose his grip on the slick, smooth metal. He goes careening over the platform¡¯s edge while the metang stops right in front of it.


    ¡°The Kahuna¡¯s machop is out of bounds. The round goes to the challenger.¡±


    Iakika is usually the one to ring out opponents with a vital throw. This is going to wound his pride. At least it¡¯s a good teachable moment.


    You withdraw the machop as soon as he jumps back onstage. The metang floats back to its trainer and hovers a few feet in front of her. Any wounds are in its mind or on its underside. Both are hard to assess. It seems to be moving slower now than it did before, but that might just be because there isn¡¯t an enemy on the field. You idly wonder what she has up next. Maybe a butterfree given her interview, but VStar trainers tend not to keep their pok¨¦mon for long. Is she a psychic or steel specialist? If she¡¯s a steel specialist than this should be pretty easy after her metang gets knocked out. If she¡¯s a psychic specialist than it might only get harder from here.


    ¡°Nalu, come out.¡±


    ¡°The kahuna has sent out his crabrawler.¡±


    The girl whispers something and metang immediately shifts up and back to the very edge of the arena. Nalu is almost always the one you have use your z-move and all the challengers these days know it thanks to the web. If the metang is by the edge than any hit might send them both sailing out of bounds. It¡¯s a clever tactic. But you weren¡¯t born yesterday.


    ¡°Get in close.¡±


    Nalu starts scuttling but¡­ he¡¯s not getting close. You squint and see stirring snow and rippling air in front of him gently pushing him off course as he tries to scuttle sideways. The metang slowly drifts away at the same time to stay well out of Nalu¡¯s way. It¡¯s not nearly enough speed for it to count as fleeing for pursuit. The girl smirks.


    You wonder if there are crabrawler in Anahuac. Probably not. If there were she¡¯d know that they can scuttle forwards. Nalu remembers before you can even give the order. Good. If the girl can¡¯t see it she can¡¯t adapt. ¡°Crabhammer.¡±


    The girl¡¯s eyes widen and her jaw drops a little. ¡°Move!¡±


    Nalu swipes into the air, water rushing around his pincers. He goes wide as the metang rushes away. You crack a smile. No matter how many times this sort of thing happens it always feels satisfying to pull off. ¡°Pursuit.¡±


    The air ripples as purple shadows rush through it and slam straight into the metang¡¯s back. The steel-type tries to turn around but Nalu stays latched on to the spike on its back with a pincer.


    ¡°Chaaaaaaaarge up!¡± you bellow. Theatrics are half the fun of your job. They make losing more bearable and winning more fun. The metang starts to quickly spin around in place but Nalu hangs on, one pincer coming up to bash into his enemy¡¯s underside. Once. Twice. Three, four, five times, every hit getting stronger and faster as the power-up-punch goes on. You tap your bracelet and clear your mind. You punch the air and feel the power of ages gone by flood into your body. Your father went through these steps. And his father before him. On and on for generations of faithful servants to Tapu Koko. War is in your veins. All you have to do is give it a task and let it out.


    Brilliant light surrounds Nalu as he finally lets go. Before the metang can react a glowing fist strikes it one more time on the back and sends it rocketing up past the torches¡¯ reach.


    ¡°The challenger¡¯s metang is out of bounds. This round goes to the kahuna.¡±


    There¡¯s a very visible dent on the metang¡¯s back when it slowly floats past you. The girl holds her hand out and runs it over the metal once her pok¨¦mon returns to her side. Her fa?ade cracks again as she envelops the metang in a hug and whispers something you can¡¯t hear.


    Sarah, the town¡¯s nurse, takes the pok¨¦ball as soon as its occupant is withdrawn.


    ¡°Mitzcocotonaz, time to level up to your name.¡± The red light fades and reveals her next pok¨¦mon. It¡¯s bipedal and comes up to her thigh. Its jaws are really big for its size but its arms are fairly small. A small cape of white feathers extends down its back. Reptilian, whatever it is. You don¡¯t recognize the species. Too many invasives to keep track of these days. If it¡¯s a dragon then crabhammer won¡¯t do too much damage. Power-up-punch is a little unnecessary at this point. Dizzy punch it is, then.


    ¡°Get in there and use dizzy punch!¡±


    Nalu races into motion as the girl snaps her fingers.


    ¡°Roar, Coco!¡±


    The reptile rears back its head and bellows. Its an awful sound, like the grinding of rocks mixed with a low groan. It reminds you a little bit of krokorok come to think of it. And its scale colors are similar to a krookodile¡¯s as well. Nalu falters and falls over. The confusion earlier must have set him a little off balance. The reptile immediately charges. Straight past Nalu. His pincers face forward.


    Clever girl.


    ¡°Pursuit.¡±


    The crabrawler whirls around in a spiral of darkness. He dashes forward with far more speed than he should be capable of. The darkness dissipates and he raises one claw up to grab hold of his opponent. The reptile stops, glances back, and bats him away with a powerful tail swipe. Too powerful given the distance Nalu flies. Almost to the edge of the arena.


    Dragon tail. No more approaching from behind.


    Nalu rushes back in and the dragon regards him warily. They meet on opposite sides of the splintered crater in the wood. Nalu scuttles to the side to get around the obstacle but you whistle at him to slow down. If he can¡¯t approach directly over the impact he has to go around. One side puts him in range of dragon tail and a possible ring out. The other brings him right to the dragon¡¯s maw. Neither is appealing.


    ¡°Keep circling,¡± the girl says. The tyrunt starts moving, slowly, to stay on the opposite side of the wood. The girl for her part has her eyes closed and seems lost in thought. Well, if she isn¡¯t going to break the stalemate falls to you. Which is worse: tail or jaw? Tail risks immediate disqualification by ring out. Jaw there¡¯s a good chance that Nalu¡¯s exoskeleton holds. It¡¯s hard to get a good look at the dragon¡¯s teeth to see if they¡¯re piercing or crushing. Piercing is bad, crushing is good.


    You¡¯ll take the gamble.


    ¡°Dizzy punch, head on.¡±


    ¡°Fire fang.¡±


    Nalu scuttles around, slightly twirling his pincers in the air while the dragon¡¯s mouth lights up in flames. At the last second it dashes forward, jaws spread wide, as Nalu bring his pincer around.


    They collide at the same time. The dragon clamps down on Nalu¡¯s shell right before it takes a fist to the side. Your opponent holds on, sparks flying across the crabrawler¡¯s carapace. It clamps tighter as Nalu panics, ineffectually bashing the dragon with weak and desperate hit after weak and desperate hit. There¡¯s a cracking sound and you see Nalu¡¯s shell shift ever so slightly.


    You withdraw him immediately. Small shell fractures aren¡¯t fatal. He¡¯ll just have to molt.


    The dragon begins to stumble back to its trainer, swaying from side to side along the way. Then its legs get tangled and it falls in a heap. The dizzy punch worked. The girl sighs. ¡°I¡¯m using my switch. Good work, Coco. I¡¯m proud of you.¡± The dragon chirps in happiness before dissolving into light.


    A keokeo promptly takes the dragon¡¯s place. They puff themselves up and dismissively look away from you. They practically radiate pride and aloofness. The vulpix are the princes and princesses of Mauna Lanakila and they know it. You idly wonder how she got it. VStar occasionally sends trainers to try and catch the rejects left at the bottom of the mountain. Many get ferried away to live out their lives in glorified cages far, far away from their homes.


    You reach for your final pok¨¦ball.


    Time to push out any regret you might feel. You have to do this. The keokeo should be all the proof you need.


    *


    September 2019


    You watched something good happen back in February. The grubbin had been declining for years now, especially since people figured out how good they were on the battlefield. Two years back the legislature had banned their capture but left an exception for kids on the island challenge. You approved of that. Your grandfather used one on his journey. Blasted through the birds and psychic-types that would¡¯ve hurt most of his team.


    Then the Unovan came in and found a loophole: if kids on the island challenge caught grubbin and immediately sold them to him, well, that was perfectly legal. Rumor had it that he made the company in the first place because he wanted a vikavolt of his own and the DNR had told him no.


    He did not like being told ¡®no.¡¯


    The decline in grubbin numbers was worse than ever. For a while you were afraid they might go the way of the ¡®inu?¨¥heu. Then in February the legislature came through and prohibited island challengers from selling their grubbin unless they actually completed the challenge. Now you¡¯re here with a simple proposition: apply that to everything else. Tell Chris Foster ¡®no¡¯ once more.


    He didn¡¯t even bother showing up for the debate on the bill. He just sent a pretty haole woman in a sharp suit to answer his questions. She is admittedly good at her job. Came prepared with statistics on youth poverty and island challenge dropout rates. You¡¯d known for a while that more people said they quit the challenge due to lack of cash than said they dropped out because it was too hard. Those things were always the same to you. The strong paid their way with tournament prize money won from the weak. You did it back in the day. Sure, most kids couldn¡¯t afford the fanciest gear, but your ancestors never needed it. The kids can do without.


    The haole girl tries to spin it as being good for your people: throws up slick charts and photos showing that child poverty in kanaka communities puts them at a disadvantage on the island challenge, blocking them off from their own heritage. She doesn¡¯t mention the scholarship fund. There are at least fifteen opportunities for $100 or more for disadvantaged kids. A lot of smaller ones, too. The motivated and dedicated can pay their way through without selling their ¡®¨¡ina away piece by piece.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Then it¡¯s on to the benefits of cleaning up invasive species. One legislator ¨C Hoku, an old friend of yours ¨C asks if VStar would be fine with a bill that only protected native species. She deflects, pulling up pictures of toxapex-ravaged reefs. That seems to get a few nods of sympathy. Sellouts who hate the ugly wounds toxapex leave on the coral more than the good they do for the ecosystem. You were never winning with them anyway.


    She finishes testifying. Then there are the heartfelt testimonials. Older folks talking about how the islands have changed and how they might change further. Ecologists with dire warnings. A man who uses his lycanroc to detect oncoming seizures and wants to make sure his friend¡¯s wild cousins are protected. They get a lot more praise and thanks than the VStar woman did.


    Then the votes come. It starts strong ¨C two votes for the bill. And then everything goes wrong. Legislator after legislator votes it down. You glare at some of them from the balcony. One meets your gaze and promptly looks away.


    You corner him later, once the session has adjourned, and ask him why on earth he would vote for a bill he wasn¡¯t proud of. There are a few rounds of bullshit, most of its sounding suspiciously like the VStar woman¡¯s testimony.


    He finally breaks down and mutters softly. ¡°They have a big PAC, you know, and I¡¯m in for a tough election as it is.¡±


    And that¡¯s that. Not all of the legislatures are cowards too absorbed in their self-interest to do what is right, but 61 out of 100 are.


    *


    That was almost half a year ago now. The tapu have grown more and more displeased. If the legislature won¡¯t do something about it then it falls to you to send your own message to today¡¯s youth: if you ever want to pass the island challenge, think twice before catching and exporting the pok¨¦mon you share Alola with.


    You know all of that. It doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re thrilled to crush a girl¡¯s dreams. But she¡¯s a spokesman for the company and¡­ it¡¯s for her own good, anyway.


    ¡°Inoa, take the field.¡±


    A pungent smell and a shrill war cry mark her entrance.


    Greg looks at you in surprise and you can hear the mutters in the small crowd. You stare forward as stoically as you can, only giving the ref a small nod. You¡¯re committed to this.


    ¡°The, uh, the kahuna has sent out his hawlucha.¡±


    It feels like the world skips a beat. The girl¡¯s mana flares to life, surprisingly intense for a blind child, and you can feel it swirling around you. Her face twists into a snarl before she schools it into an impassive mask.


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have that,¡± she says. Her voice is perfectly even but it feels like there¡¯s danger underneath. It¡¯s hard to describe why. ¡°They belong to Huitzilopochtli.¡± She slowly raises a hand to her left breast and mimes grabbing it. ¡°When they are taken it makes him very¡­¡± The girl rips her hand away from her chest violently and squeezes it, feigning resistance. Like she was crushing her heart. ¡°¡­upset.¡±


    The display is almost enough for you to think of her as a threat.


    ¡°You have a vulpix, correct? Perhaps you should not speak on these matters.¡± The keokeo starts growling in response.


    The girl¡¯s eyes narrow and she crosses her arms. On the battlefield the keokeo inhales and the winds still. For a moment it feels like the air itself is holding its breath. The winds return and lash you with frozen air. All the loose fabric on your clothes is picked up and tossed by the wind as Inoa shrieks in front of you.


    ¡°Power through! Submission!¡±


    Inoa screeches and you see her powerful muscles tense back and release as she launches forwards through the air. The winds slow her down, but not enough. She grabs ahold of the keokeo and starts twisting around in midair above the wooden platform. With every spin she holds the keokeo out and bashes it into the wood. White and red snow flies up with every impact. Then Inoa stops abruptly and jumps away to one of the torch posts at the edge of the platform. A faint white light fades from the keokeo¡¯s eyes. The girl flinches away in concern, either for her pok¨¦mon or for getting hit herself.


    ¡°Again!¡± You call. The hawlucha shakes her head and makes a shrill whistle. She can¡¯t.


    Disable. That¡¯s what the light was.


    For a moment you¡¯re tempted to use encore. Force the vulpix to keep using disable while Inoa steadily knocks them out with aerial ace. Shouldn¡¯t take too much more: the fox¡¯s fur is already filled with splinters of wood and streaks of blood. No. Then submission would be out for a long time. It¡¯s Inoa¡¯s strongest move and you¡¯ll want it available to face the dragon. The girl snaps and the choice is made for you. The air around the keokeo shimmers before a rainbow pulses towards Inoa. She moves without orders, leaping to action as the winds spiral around her wings. The aurora beam barely clips her and she just sails through. She lands feet first in a dive kick. The fox hisses in pain as they¡¯re sent rocketing back along the platform floor. More splinters dig into their body with every foot. This is why you only use the platform a trainer¡¯s first grand trial. You might need to replace the whole thing at this rate.


    Your thoughts are interrupted by a shrill, oscillating cry as the keokeo screams in indignation. Their tails are fluffed out and sticking straight out as they bare their teeth and use roar. Inoa reflexively leaps back to one of the corner posts and turns to you for advice. Thankfully, you know just the thing.


    ¡°Encore.¡±


    Inoa makes a frightful grin and begins to chant, hands clapping together as she grips the post with her feet. A moment later she drops down to the floor and starts doing a war dance, defiant in the face of the keokeo¡¯s roar. And for their part the fox is baited into roaring even louder. She couldn¡¯t stop now if she wanted to. That gives you time.


    ¡°Let up and strike when you can use submission again.¡±


    For a solid minute the scene is quite amusing. The fox is howling with an increasingly hoarse and cracking voice while the hawlucha taunts them from the edge of the platform. The girl tightens her arms around herself as her glare grows absolutely murderous. You just wait. Time is on your side. Suddenly the screaming stops. The girl stumbles again and almost falls back onto the stairs before she catches herself. Odd. Maybe she just slipped on the snow. The keokeo readies another burst of cold air just as Inoa puffs her feathers out. She rockets straight into the wind. It slows her down more this time but she breaks through and grabs hold of the fox by the scruff. She barrels forward and pounds the keokeo into the platform three times while spinning in the air. Then her target is released. They soar free for a second before slamming into a torch pole. There¡¯s an audible crack before the keokeo falls back to the ground with a dull thud. She doesn¡¯t move.


    Sarah rushes forward and presses a hand to the vulpix¡¯s side. You try not to look at the girl but you still catch sight of her face in the corner of her eyes. All the anger is gone and she looks much paler than she did before. Her eyes are wide open and her lips are twitching at the edges. ¡°Pixie¡­¡± she whispers. ¡°No¡­¡±


    Someone else flashes into your mind. Erin, the daughter of Edith, a groomer and gardener who lives in town. She was full of determination when she went off to take on the island challenge, maybe even the new League. You thought she might even make it all the way. She was clever and full of will. It didn¡¯t take her long at all to clear three grand trials and headed off to Poni Island.


    There was a guzzlord waiting for her there.


    You had to walk across town to Edith¡¯s home. Iki Town has always felt like such a small place. It¡¯s why you love it. But as you walked across town that afternoon it seemed to be twice as wide as Hau¡¯oli. Edith was in the garden behind her house when you arrived. She was smiling, full of life, asked you if you wanted anything to drink. Then she saw your face. For a moment she knew there was bad news, but she didn¡¯t know how bad. Maybe Edith was injured. Maybe she¡¯d just given up.


    Instead, you had to tell her that there wouldn¡¯t be a body to burn at the funeral.


    You want to stop all of the kids. It¡¯s not safe anymore. You and your peers failed them. But you have duties from Tapu Koko. Traditions to uphold. At least the kanaka have to be given a chance. But the VStar trainers, the foreigners, both¡­ you can send a message to their boss and maybe even save their lives at the same time.


    It¡¯s better that their dreams are crushed by you and not an Ultra Beast.


    You would send out Inoa again.


    You regret nothing.


    ¡°Withdraw her, please.¡± Sarah says. ¡°I need to get her to the Center. Now.¡±


    The girl complies and hands the ball, some fancy white one with snowflake patterns etched into the side, to Sarah. She dashes away. One of the townspeople sends out a torracat to run beside her and light the path.


    The girl¡¯s hand reaches for her final pok¨¦ball, the one that has the dragon within. Her fingers slide off of it before she pulls them away.


    ¡°I forfeit,¡± she mutters. ¡°Keep your damn bird.¡±


    Someone boos in the crowd. You ignore them and walk back off the platform. Inoa trails along behind you. Greg rushes to your side as soon as your feet hit the grass. ¡°Are you insane?¡± he whisper-hisses. ¡°Using a hawlucha on a first grand trial?¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s already cleared four trials.¡± He purses his lips. That wasn¡¯t good enough for him. ¡°And Inoa¡¯s a young hawlucha, anyway.¡±


    ¡°Even Selene pulls her punches better than this. And she¡¯s ranked.¡±


    Your stomach twists inside you when he says the champion¡¯s name. Greg keeps lecturing you as you walk towards your home. Stays with you until you¡¯re outside the torchlight and walking solely on memory. You barely hear a word of it.


    ¡°Selene¡¯s in space right now,¡± you finally say. ¡°Fighting a living star.¡±


    ¡°And, uh, what does that have to do with¡­?¡±


    ¡°What would have happened if I¡¯d sent out a hariyama when she first showed up for a grand trial?¡± you muse aloud. ¡°Would she have given up? And if she¡¯d given up, would she be up there right now? Would any of this mess fallen onto a child¡¯s shoulders?¡±


    He doesn¡¯t answer the question. Right as you¡¯re about to take the last few steps to your home he asks one of his own. ¡°You have a job. You know that right?¡±


    You grunt, unsure where he¡¯s going with this.


    ¡°If you can¡¯t do the job anymore, maybe you should let your grandson have it.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s the Tapu¡¯s call. Not yours.¡±


    You shut the door on him before he can come up with a reply.


    It takes you a while to drop your pok¨¦mon off at the Center. None of their wounds were so bad they needed immediate treatment and you¡¯d rather not deal with Sarah so soon after Greg tried to tell you off. Even if they¡¯re right¡ªwhich they aren¡¯t¡ªyou¡¯re too old to put up with back-to-back lectures. And too old to go right back into the cold, too. Your home has a wood-burning furnace that¡¯s kept your old bones warm in these dark, cold days.


    *


    A pleasant bell chimes to announce your arrival to the Pok¨¦mon Center. The inkay lighting the room turns towards you for a moment before she goes back to telekinetically picking apart a stapler.


    The girl and her friends are sitting down in the lobby. The boy shoots you a wicked glare but stays seated, his arm wrapped around the girl. You aren¡¯t even sure the girl notices your presence. Sarah is nowhere to be found. Probably for the best. You place your pok¨¦balls in the drop-off chute and leave undisturbed.


    The door stays open after you close it. You turn around to see that the boy has followed you out. He just glares at you until the door finally shuts behind him.


    ¡°The fuck was that for?¡±


    Blunt and crass. It reminds you a little of¡­ someone else you couldn¡¯t save.


    ¡°Someone has to stop VStar before the Tapu do. Might as well be me.¡±


    He scoffs. ¡°You didn¡¯t pull that shit on me. Just let me through with a standard fight.¡±


    ¡°Catch the grubbin, kill the carbink: if you throw away your people¡¯s rights and responsibilities, that¡¯s your business.¡±


    He blinks and the anger seems to leach out. ¡°Kill the carbink?¡±


    ¡°You catch yours for them?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°But you¡¯ve thought about selling him?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± he admits in a whisper. He looks away from you, unwilling to maintain eye contact. Amazing what a few questions can do.


    ¡°They figured out how to kill them without the crystals crumbling. VStar bids the corpses off to jewelry stores or computer manufacturers.¡±


    He stares at you for a moment in disbelief. He should have known this. They¡¯ve been caught culling pok¨¦mon before, although they¡¯ve gotten better at ¡°only¡± selling them to third-parties who will kill them themselves.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that,¡± he says. ¡°And I won¡¯t give mine to them. Or any pok¨¦mon if they don¡¯t want to go or I think they¡¯d be treated badly.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡± It¡¯s almost the bare minimum, but still a step in the right direction. ¡°You could also stop giving them pok¨¦mon in the first place.¡±


    He tenses up before relaxing. ¡°Look, I get it, I want to, read the stuff you gave me, but I don¡¯t know if the money works.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s always tournament.¡±


    ¡°It isks losing what I do have and still doesn¡¯t pay enough for food and supplies. Not for a team that can take down Lunala at the end of the challenge. Especially not if your traveling partner has a thing for carnivores.¡±


    You don¡¯t tell him that he might not have to face the Lunala if things go badly today. The kid¡¯s face hardens again as he remembers why he followed you out.


    ¡°But none of that justifies sending out hawlucha on a first grand trial. That¡¯s just asking for someone¡¯s pok¨¦mon to get hurt. Which, surprise, happened.¡± Hurt, not killed. Good.


    ¡°Unfortunate.¡± He keeps glaring but doesn¡¯t challenge your non-answer. ¡°But if I don¡¯t try to stop VStar, Tapu Koko might. That could be¡­ messy.¡± It takes you a moment to realize he would¡¯ve been seven or eight when Tapu Bulu destroyed a village and caused most of western Ula¡¯Ula¡¯s to evacuate.


    ¡°You won¡¯t stop Alolans, though?¡±


    You shake your head and cross your arms. ¡°I told you before that you can make your own mistakes.¡±


    ¡°Was Queen Lannah¡¯s decree right?¡±


    An atoll collapsed into the sea after a very bad storm. An absol had warned them beforehand and some of them managed to sail away before their home was destroyed. The survivors eventually found their way to Alola but the king refused to let them land. They built a city on floating planks just offshore. A century later Queen Lannah briefly managed to unify the islands. She invited the seafolk to come to shore and live on land because they no longer had a land of their own. She later extended it to cover the Skychildren. Fallers, as they¡¯ve taken to calling themselves these days.


    Her son revoked the decree, but a lot of the hospitality code descends from it. The hospitality code was also revoked when Alola fell to invited traders and missionaries. You don¡¯t know what he¡¯s getting at.


    ¡°It¡¯s the same principle: people who have no other home can claim Alola as theirs. And¡­ I don¡¯t think Cuical has a home. A safe one, at least.¡± His voice lowers to a near whisper. ¡°No one¡¯s ever called her. She¡¯s deep in debt and¡­ she sometimes flinches around adults. Said that her dad once pierced her tongue with a cactus spike. Seemed to think that was normal. I don¡¯t think home is safe for her.¡±


    A bent golf club and a bug trainer you failed come to mind.


    ¡°You know your history.¡±


    His frown flickers to a smile before being beaten back.


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll think on it,¡± you say.


    He rolls his eyes. ¡°If you just walk away and ignore me then you can¡¯t just wipe the blood off your hands if something happens.¡±


    You walk away and ignore him. He doesn¡¯t follow.


    Doesn¡¯t he understand? It¡¯s not safe here for the people or the pok¨¦mon. You¡¯re protecting them both. That is your duty. Even if you dislike it.


    Oh, to be young, na?ve, and powerless. To live without responsibility weighing you down. You miss it more with every passing day.


    You make your way back to the stage. The torchlights are still flickering down, although someone did extinguish the flame on the pole the keokeo hit. It¡¯s still enough light to inspect the platform with. The torch pole seems fine. You run a hand up and down it and can¡¯t feel any cracks. Just¡­ a slick spot. You wipe the blood off on your pants and continue. It¡¯s hard to tell where the smaller damaged spots might be because the wind has already covered them up again with snow. There¡¯s one visible hole where the metang went through. It seems bigger now than it did in the heat of battle. A lot of the wood will need replaced. You should also take Ikaika off your normal first grand trial team.


    He can stay on the VStar one. You won¡¯t be doing those matches on the ceremonial platform anymore. Lesson learned.


    The hair on your arms stands up as a wave of static fills the clearing. You slowly turn around and kneel before Tapu Koko, God of War and Thunder, Protector of Melemele. Your boss. The god hovers in place, looking down at you as his shields steadily rise and fall at his sides.


    ¡°Did I do the right thing or not?¡± you ask. Your knee is starting to hurt and Tapu Koko has never been one for silent reflection in all the years you¡¯ve known him.


    The Tapu¡¯s voice sounds like growling thunder in your mind. ¡°Have you declared war on Victory¡¯s army?¡±


    ¡°Kahunas lost that power centuries ago.¡± You try to keep your response even. It makes perfect sense that an ancient war god thinks of sabotaging a corporation as declaring a war. It¡¯s his only frame of reference.


    ¡°Not as far as I am concerned.¡± He says it so casually you almost wonder if he knows about the conquest. ¡°There are rules for kahunas declaring war. I am sure you remember them.¡±


    You do. He was very thorough during that part of your job training. Even at the time you¡¯d thought it was a little ridiculous.


    ¡°Challenge my enemy to a duel, each warrior with one pok¨¦mon fighting alongside them.¡±


    He hums approvingly. ¡°I would fight alongside you if you challenged Victory. That is a worthy fight.¡± And the children are not, he says by omission.


    You want to tell him that just because you can beat up the company¡¯s CEO doesn¡¯t mean that any of the problems will stop. That the last Alolan leader who tried to duel a corporate executive ended up deposed and exiled. Gage didn¡¯t even have the god of victory on his side.


    ¡°I understand. Thank you for gracing me with your presence.¡±


    He nods before rocketing away in the blink of an eye. You slowly get to your feet and ignore the pain in your knee. You¡¯re still in good shape for your age, but a lifetime of training has started to take its toll on your body. Hau stands ready to take over if you made the case to the Tapu but¡­ you don¡¯t want to put this on him. Not until you have to.


    *


    After a quick walk back home you find yourself at the Pok¨¦mon Center again. Your last two challengers aren¡¯t in the lobby this time, but Sarah is. She glances up at the ringing bell and immediately narrows her eyes.


    ¡°You¡¯re real lucky you didn¡¯t do irreversible damage. I¡¯d have written you up, even if you are kahuna.¡±


    ¡°Hawlucha pull their punches. It probably looked worse than it was.¡±


    She scoffs. ¡°Oh no, it was plenty bad. A half dozen pieces of wood stuck in her side and two broken ribs. If she¡¯d hit the pole with her back instead of her side she could¡¯ve been paralyzed. I don¡¯t know what got into you today, but it¡¯s not happening again.¡±


    You take your stamp and a z-crystal out of your bag and put them on the table. She glances at them before looking back to you, eyebrow raised. ¡°Change of heart.¡±


    Sarah nods. ¡°I¡¯ll pass them along.¡±


    ¡°Have you looked over my team yet?¡±


    ¡°No, but they seemed fine. Just give Nalu time to molt.¡± She scowls again. ¡°And stop having your pok¨¦mon throw opponents into the platform. You have ring out rules, so use them.¡±


    She¡¯s interrupted by the sound of the sky shattering. You look up just as the shockwave rattles the building. The bell rings like crazy and a paperweight falls off of Sarah¡¯s desk. You run outside and look up. The cracks in the sky seem to be glowing brighter than ever and quickly getting wider and wider. There¡¯s another blast like a bomb going off and all of their light abruptly disappears.


    The world is unusually silent for a moment. No pok¨¦mon, no voices, no footsteps. Did something go wrong? Did Necrozma take sound, too?


    The air seems to catch fire as light streams down. You reach down to your oldest partner¡¯s belt, prepared to send the hariyama out to do¡ªsomething¡ªwhen the rumbling in the sky stops and the light balances out save for one small sphere of incandescent fire.


    The sun.


    It takes you a moment to realize that the light isn¡¯t blinding or burning, it¡¯s just¡­ normal. You quickly take your jacket off and keep staring up into the sky. A small wormhole opens up to the southwest, probably over Poni Island. For the first time in weeks you smile. It¡¯s a small one at first but soon you¡¯re grinning ear to ear like a maniac. Maybe the country is still doomed by one thing or another, but for the first time in ages things are going right.


    *


    The Solstice festival was ruined, but this one might as well take its place. All the remaining residents have come out for a feast. You ask what you can do but Janet politely turns you away, insisting that everything¡¯s covered. She¡¯s unusually terse. Probably still mad about the battle. She never liked battling in the first place. She even signed a few petitions for Plasma¡¯s Alola branch back in the day. You don¡¯t think she¡¯s apologized for it, either.


    Some others keep their distance as well. You catch Greg scowling at you once or twice before he looks back to his kids frolicking in the fully illuminated snow. The challenger and her friends spend most of their time at the very edge of the celebration, talking amongst themselves while occasionally glowering at you. The girl never seems to move much. Barely even touches her food. Part of you wants to help her, to invite her to play a game or tell stories until she stops crying. You¡¯re kahuna and that¡¯s what kahunas do with sad kids. That¡¯s what Hala does. But that¡¯s not what you did. She¡¯s crying because of you and you can¡¯t bring yourself to apologize to her face. Maybe what you did was wrong, but she¡¯s hardly any better.


    Edith is one of the only people to seek you out. She sits down on the bench next to you with stiff movements. She¡¯s still young, barely fifty, but she¡¯s slowed down a lot since her daughter died. In the full light you realize that she¡¯s stopped dying her hair. It¡¯s all gone gray. When did that happen?


    ¡°I know what you¡¯re going for,¡± she says quietly. ¡°But the kids won¡¯t stop. An old man trying to block them from doing something will only make them want to do it more.¡±


    Neither of you says anything after that, letting things lapse into slightly uncomfortable silence. Judith¡¯s youngest daughter is packing snow onto her melting snowman, desperately trying to prop it up. When her parents finally call her a way she looks back over her shoulder at her drooping, doomed creation before reluctantly running off.


    Maybe you¡¯re the snowman, worn down by the world and on its last legs. Or maybe you¡¯re the child, desperately trying to prop up something good that will be worn away whatever you do. You don¡¯t know. But if you are the child, you¡¯re still going to try and keep Alola going. You swore to Tapu Koko that you would protect this island and those who lived on it, and you¡¯ll give everything, even your honor, to do it. Better to give everything and fail than to glance back over your shoulder, wondering if one more step was all the world needed.

 Recap 2

    Recap 2


    Cuicatl


    I hope your own quest is going well. It isn¡¯t, I know. You¡¯re probably still on the first level of the nine, right? The world of darkness with only Xoloitzcuintle to help light the way across the river. I guess it fits. I went something like that of that recently.


    It¡¯s been months. I should fill you in on the stuff that happened, from the last time I burned a message for you. We went to Ula¡¯Ula. It was a much bigger and tougher island than the last one with lots of mountains, thunderstorms, and carnivores. I met a dark-type bear. And her cub. The mom was a little upset but the cub could translate between us so we got out okay.


    Genesis couldn¡¯t keep her mouth shut and provoked Kekoa. Then they seemed to make up when I told her how weird nature is. Can you believe that their god only believes in two sexes and genders? Meanwhile ours take whatever form them want and gave us at least three ways to be. Why would we be so different from the rest of nature? I thought Kekoa and Genesis were good, but then Kekoa got really angry again. Still won¡¯t tell me why.


    We climbed a very large mountain and I met a beldum. Or she met me. Pretty sure that she was sent to spy on me, but she won¡¯t tell me why. I¡¯m keeping her around because I need the power and she¡¯s actually quite charming. Now she¡¯s grown big enough to carry some stuff, too. And to bully me about therapy.


    I¡¯ll get back to that.


    I cleared another trial. That one had a steel-type. None of my pok¨¦mon can deal well with steel-types, even Coco. Oh, she grew her teeth. She loves biting things. Sometimes with ice or thunder or fire. But she¡¯s young so I wanted more help for the trial. Picked up a crabrawler, a crab thing, for a while. Let her go once the trial was over and it was time to go to another island.


    And that was pretty soon because the lights went out. I told you last time that this place had aliens attacking it. A really, really big one hit and stole all of the light. And gradually stole the heat. Things got cold. And dark, I guess, but I wasn¡¯t bothered. Kekoa was. You probably are. I¡¯m sorry. You shouldn¡¯t have had to go through the underworld so soon. I wish I had done more¡­


    ¡­


    ¡­


    Genesis left. She went back to her parents. To safety. I¡¯m glad for her. I met Reshiram. She approves of my plans. I can¡¯t do anything about letting you die, but I can still get Mom¡¯s old pok¨¦mon back and go home. Now a goddess approves of my plan. I will not fail.


    I can¡¯t.


    Kekoa and I were holed up in the largest city in the area for a while. Then we were allowed to travel again. I met Lyra. Or she met me. She¡¯s a friend of Genesis and seems to know a lot about traveling. And she hates psychics. She seems to like me, but she wouldn¡¯t if she knew. She pays part of our bills. It¡¯s not safe to keep her for long. I don¡¯t know how to get out of this now.


    On the way she really wanted to know about her pok¨¦mon. Kekoa kind of didn¡¯t. His grubbin left him. Those two things are probably related.


    I also got hypothermia like a dumbass. Nocitl¨¡lin, the beldum, helped me warm up quickly enough so it wasn¡¯t a lasting problem, but it wasn¡¯t a good sign of things to come. After a while I came to a water trial. You¡¯ve heard of toxapex, right? Big reef eaters? I fought a really big one and won with Noci¡¯s help. She evolved into a metang. She¡¯s stronger. Not sure about smarter. Still adore her.


    Pixie left. She met a ninetales that cursed me and beat up Noci. I don¡¯t want Pixie with her. Pixie only knew her for two days and she will resort to violence to get what she wants. I gave Pixie some chances out. Let her help me in two more battles. The first was against a vikavolt. Yeah, a vikavolt. We didn¡¯t win, I don¡¯t think, but we got the stamp because I collapsed midway through and the captain was worried.


    I told you last time that the crystals felt familiar to use. They¡¯re getting clearer. There¡¯s a memory behind them, or a set of memories. I think. They involve a desert. A very hot desert with nothing but sand under me. Then there¡¯s a voice. Or maybe a bug that I can¡¯t understand. I¡¯ve only heard the latter in dreams, but I heard the former when I was knocked unconscious after using a z-move.


    There is a desert in Alola. Maybe I¡¯ll get answers whenever I visit it.


    Somewhere in there Noci bullied me into agreeing to therapy. Miss Bell is working on that now. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll actually do it. I know what¡¯s wrong with me ¨C I¡¯m fat and let you die ¨C but just talking won¡¯t make me thinner or bring you back. And it seems so expensive. Maybe I can lie to her and tell her that I¡¯m going to do it without actually doing it?


    Then the worst thing happened. The second battle I¡¯d talked Pixie into was against a fighting-type specialist. Risky, I know. Too much risk for an ice-type. And then he had a hawlucha. I don¡¯t know why he had a hawlucha. It tore into Pixie hard. Cracked ribs. Lots of punctures. Could have killed her. And it was all because I didn¡¯t want to let her go. If she¡¯d died, if I¡¯d killed her too, I don¡¯t think I would have wanted to go on anymore. If all I was going to do was hurt other people. But she didn¡¯t die. She¡¯ll live. Away from me.


    Everyone goes away eventually. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.


    The lights came back. It¡¯s warming up. I won¡¯t get hypothermia anymore. Won¡¯t feel snow under my shoes. (Or on my soles, once, just to feel it¡ªdon¡¯t worry, I went inside and warmed up shortly after.)


    I¡¯m sorry, again. I¡¯ll be sorry forever and it will never make a difference, never be enough.


    I hope you¡¯re doing well in your own darkness. I¡¯ll try to send messages more often.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Kekoa


    Okay so I lost track of time and just forgot to update my transition log. Whoops. And it¡¯s weird to suddenly see my face again after a while in the dark. Even when I could see a reflection the dim light made everything seem softer.


    Yeah, I¡¯m coming along okay. Voice has dropped some more. Still not super deep, but I got gendered right more often than not in the dark. More stubble. Probably not enough for a beard yet. Not sure I¡¯d want one, anyway. Leg hair seems thicker? A few small changes in the face that add up a bit. T is a fucking miracle drug. Even if there are some things it can¡¯t fix. The darkness was nice in a way. Didn¡¯t need to be seen as much. Didn¡¯t need to think about how I was being seen.


    I guess this was also supposed to be a journey log. Whoops.


    I set off for Ula¡¯Ula. Caught a dedenne. Or Cuicatl caught a dedenne. I¡¯d have gone but she insisted on going with the Gage bitch after she deadnamed me. And she never even knew me by that name, so she went out of her way to get that.


    She apologized. I forgave her before I learned just who she was. I met someone cool in a forest. Don¡¯t want to say more in these pages. Never know who could read them.


    Hekeli evolved. I won the electric trial. That was cool. Nice way to end the light period.


    The darkness sucked. They got us all packed in a shelter while something attacked outside. Then we had to be escorted down to Malie by fucking Reshiram, and the UBs were hitting her hard enough to draw blood.


    Right, Cuicatl talked to Reshiram. Because of course she did.


    The Gage Bitch left. I was upset for professional reasons, but also because I don¡¯t think her parents will just turn over and accept her now after kicking her out. I don¡¯t know what she¡¯s in for, but I doubt it¡¯s good. And I had barely gotten rid of her before we picked up another replacement. At least she¡¯s competent. There¡¯s that. And she isn¡¯t a haole, just a settler. Sometimes I think I understand her. Then she¡¯ll go and casually mention her servants or throw around money like it¡¯s nothing.


    She also hates psychics. Cuicatl knows and seems fine with it. If Lyra tries anything I¡¯ll kick her teeth in.


    Makani left. Kanoa helped find him a new home. It was the right thing to do. And I talked with Hekeli and apparently she doesn¡¯t hate me. Progress?


    Then a braviary showed up and gave me her kid, because finding food as a visual hunter is hard. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯m supposed to pretend like he¡¯s my kid or just act as his trainer. I should probably ask Cuicatl for help finding that out. Or maybe mama bird will want him back now that the light¡¯s returned.


    I met a florges. I don¡¯t think she likes me. Called me a poacher and didn¡¯t seem to like trainers because we do things like making pok¨¦mon stay when they want to leave or catching them against their will. And she¡¯s right. I didn¡¯t want to get it at the time and I¡¯m embarrassed now, but she was right. She was right and I don¡¯t know exactly what that means for the future. Guess I¡¯ll have to figure that out as we go.


    She did agree to help me. Traded her help in getting another grubbin for letting the floette go. Which seems like a weird deal the more I think about it. Fairies are good bargainers, right? And she could have stopped me from catching the floette. Why¡¯d she bargain?


    ¡­


    I have a bad feeling that I¡¯m forgetting something.


    ¡­


    Kanoa and the cool girl both think Selene can stay. Or that removing her wouldn¡¯t matter. But it has to, right? She gets all the press and gets to be hailed as a hero for fixing the problems she created. Like Necrozma. If nothing else it would show the world that the kanaka are tougher than the outsiders. That we can be on top of our own world.


    And I¡¯m making progress there. Beat the water trial. Used a carbink to beat the bug trial, because electricity doesn¡¯t bother them much and they have rock attacks to boot. Then I got a drifloon. I¡¯m told they¡¯re good pok¨¦mon and she seems okay for now.


    Used the inkay, hekeli, and the carbink to beat the grand trial pretty easily. Oh, the drifloon¡¯s name is Moe and the carbink is Kapuna. Still not sure if I¡¯m keeping Kapuna or not. Probably not keeping the inkay for too long. It¡¯s just not safe. I¡¯m not selling them to VStar. I¡¯ll have to release them to the wild. Cuicatl says that they want to stay and see more human stuff, so I guess they¡¯re tagging along. Doesn¡¯t fit well with my team plans but I guess it can work. Rock sort of covers ice, which my flying-types are weak to.


    We¡¯ll see how it goes. And we¡¯ll see if I remember to update this again lol.


    Genesis


    Xerneas, Maker of All:


    I¡¯ve been thinking lately. I know, Mother says it can be dangerous, but that¡¯s all I can do outside of sessions. Those are progressing. I don¡¯t quite understand why some of it is supposed to help. But I don¡¯t need to. I just need to do it. I¡¯m not sure if I feel straighter? I also don¡¯t really remember what it was like to be straight, before Lyra or Allana converted me. Maybe I¡¯ll recall it as time goes on.


    Anyway, I¡¯ve been thinking about the past. About the darkness. What it meant. At first I was just locked up for a while. Mother was accusing me of all sorts of things, of being a homosexual, and I told her no. And I believed I wasn¡¯t. I realized I was wrong. I can¡¯t even be trusted to know how wrong I am.


    Then the therapy started. At first it was just tests to see how I reacted to private parts. I don¡¯t like seeing them, by the way, but some are easier to look away from than others. They¡¯ve kept showing me images of them every day until I start looking at the right ones more. I thought I wasn¡¯t supposed to look at any at all until I was married, but I don¡¯t know. Mother tells me that some things are more complicated than I can understand. Than she can understand, even. But you get it. I just wish you¡¯d tell me.


    Eventually my parents found out Cuicatl was a psychic. They brought someone weird in to run tests to see what she did to me. And it was nothing. Or pretty much nothing. She¡¯s related to N, by the way. Met Reshiram on Ula¡¯Ula. I guess that means she¡¯s a priestess of a false god. All the more reason not to think of her.


    They¡¯re having me burn pictures of her and Lyra. Scream horrible things at them. How I hate them. Always hated them. And that¡¯s a lie. I didn¡¯t always hate them, even if I maybe should have. I¡¯m not supposed to lie. And they tell me I¡¯m not supposed to think about them, but I¡¯m also supposed to think about how much I hate them. I¡¯m not good at doing both. I¡¯m worried I¡¯m failing.


    I¡¯m sorry.


    The weird psychic also said some other stuff about changing someone with a psychic type. He said it shouldn¡¯t be done. That it could destroy someone. He accused my parents of wanting it. Or they said they wanted it? I can¡¯t really remember. Lots of yelling and I was still a little distracted from having just been hypnotized.


    They won¡¯t do it, though. Father says they won¡¯t do it. That the psychic was a bad person. I don¡¯t know why they let a bad person into my mind, but I guess they have limits? I don¡¯t think I would want that to happen. I don¡¯t like thinking about it. That¡¯s like death, isn¡¯t it? Where your mind stops working and something else comes of it. Or is that rebirth? Or just change? You did give us psychic types. Maybe this is what we were supposed to do with them.


    I have a new pok¨¦mon. His name is Oliver. Mostly he just hides in my closet with the stuffed animals, but sometimes he comes out to look at me and Cloudy. Once he even tried to get onto my bed. I was worried since he¡¯s a psyduck and all but I don¡¯t think Father would¡¯ve given me something dangerous. All Oliver did was climb on top of my legs and fall asleep. I let him stay there until my legs fell asleep.


    Ferny and Sir Bubbles are somewhere. Mother won¡¯t let me see them. She said something about them being improper for a lady. I hope I get to see them soon. I like them. Yeah, Ferny¡¯s lazy and Sir Bubbles is a coward, but that¡¯s just more personality to love.


    Um. I kind of rambled there. Oops.


    May my words and deeds being honor to thine name.

 Rock 1: Cuicatl

    Mission Four: Rock?


    "The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family."


    -Lee Iacocco


    Rock 4.1: Hazard Pay


    Cuicatl


    February 26, 2020


    It¡¯s 3:37 A.M and you¡¯re not even close to getting back to sleep. Your nightmares are filled with the same crack that¡¯s haunted you for a week now. Pixie trusted you enough to fight your pointless, stupid battle and she paid for it. What was going to happen if you won, anyway? He¡¯d just give up the bird? The Thanksgiving War would have been won and not lost? The world would change? No. You let your anger get the best of you and you weren¡¯t the one to pay the price.


    The professor told you she was expected to recover with only mild scarring. The nurse asked if you wanted to file an excessive force complaint like that was even an option. Complain about the government to the government and expect them to do anything about it. You¡¯ve seen the stories about how Americans coddle their authority figures for doing worse things to humans. Complaining probably just would¡¯ve got your visa taken away. There was, and is, nothing you can do but stay away for her own good.


    That¡¯s all you can do for anybody at this point. Just tell Coco you lied to her and that her real mother¡¯s somewhere else. Someone who can actually care for her instead of abusing her love to get her hurt. Then make it really clear to Noci that whatever she thinks she¡¯s getting by following you isn¡¯t worth the effort. Maybe your cousin is a wanted terrorist with a god at his side, but you¡¯ve never met him and probably never will. You¡¯re just a failure that takes and takes and takes and gives the world nothing in return.


    Lyra can be told off with the truth. Maybe she¡¯ll kill you herself and save you the effort. Kekoa is stubborn. It¡¯ll be harder to get him to leave without hurting him first. You haven¡¯t told him the full truth about how fucked you are in the head. Maybe that will be enough. And then once everyone¡¯s gone you can face your judgment without anyone else being broken up like you were over Ach.


    It¡¯s the least you can do. Handle the damage on the way out.


    At some point you cry yourself to sleep and drown in the same dreams of the broken, damned, and dead.


    *


    Without the sunlight beating down on you the desert is almost cold. You won¡¯t die of heatstroke at night. That doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯re safe. The desert seems to have woken up. Dozens of strange, meaningless cries tear through the air. Growls, shrieks of agony, something that sounds a little too much like a dishwasher. You keep as much of your team out as you can justify. The only thing you¡¯ve found to drink is the dew. The only thing you could catch for food had this strange sandy texture in the meat.


    Everything here seems to be blazingly fast. Anything that senses the world by smell or hearing won¡¯t know something¡¯s attacking until it¡¯s right on top of you. Those that rely on day vision have the same problem. The only thing really keeping you safe, even more than the three pok¨¦mon around you, is that everything here has seemed reluctant to get close. The one thing that did, the weird bug when you woke up, was afraid to touch you.


    The pok¨¦mon here seem to fear humans. That means there must be someone nearby to ask for help. And if there are humans here often enough to be considered a danger that must means there¡¯s water somewhere. You just have to find it.


    *


    A phone call wakes you from fitful sleep. Miss Bell starts talking before you can even mumble out a greeting. ¡°Can you get to the lobby¡ªget dressed and get to the lobby¡ªas soon as possible. I have a job.¡±


    ¡°I, um, sure?¡± You roll out of bed and reach for your clothes. ¡°I¡¯ll be a sec?¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡± She hangs up. Serious job, sounds like. It¡¯s enough to start tearing some of the brain fog away.


    ¡°I¡¯m coming with you,¡± Lyra says. Huh. She sounds tense, too. Something you don¡¯t know about? You grab your cane and shuffle off to the bathroom to get dressed. Cold water on your face helps wake you up a little more. There¡¯s still a dull ache in your muscles, but your brain is clearing up. Lyra holds her elbow out to your hand as soon as you step out. She¡¯s done a good job of learning how to help you. Maybe better than Genesis ever did. You wonder if someday she¡¯ll be disgusted that she ever touched you.


    You walk down the stairs following Lyra¡¯s lead. Stairs are always difficult and you¡¯re privately annoyed that the Center stuck you on the second floor. Not that you want to be rude about it. They were crowded. What were they supposed to do, kick someone else out? Not for you. You don¡¯t deserve it.


    Miss Bell walks towards you the moment your feet settle on solid ground. The sound of stilettos on the floor has to be her. No one else wears those to a Pok¨¦mon Center. ¡°Cuicatl, thank you for coming on short notice,¡± she says. Her voice is terse but professional. ¡°I have a slight problem that needs resolving. The details are a little sensitive. Do you mind following me outside?¡±


    ¡°Uh, sure?¡± You turn back to Lyra. ¡°I think I¡¯ll be fine from here. Thank you for taking me down.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m coming,¡± she says. Quite adamantly. You¡¯ve learned when she can be argued with and when she can¡¯t, and her voice is saying that you can¡¯t right now. ¡°Just making sure you don¡¯t get scammed.¡±


    Miss Bell at least tried to give you a starter and provide you with a thesis helper. You owe her. Even if she takes advantage of you here it balances out. But time is an issue and arguing would drain it. ¡°Fine.¡±


    Miss Bell begins walking again, surprisingly quickly for someone in her footwear. ¡°I don¡¯t believe we¡¯ve met, although it seems my reputation precedes me.¡±


    ¡°Lyra Miura,¡± she answers. ¡°You may have met my father, Jonathan Miura.¡±


    You still aren¡¯t entirely sure what he does and Lyra never wants to talk about it. Whatever it is it seems to make a lot of money.


    ¡°I¡¯m familiar with him, yes. Please send your father my regards.¡±


    Lyra grunts instead of answering.


    Miss Bell opens a door in front of you and Lyra guides you through. As soon as the door is shut, Miss Bell¡¯s tone shifts from the casual affect she¡¯d had with Lyra to something a lot more rushed and serious. ¡°We have a tyrantrum rampaging at a facility on an island off of Akala. I¡¯ll give you forty thousand dollars if you can resolve it peacefully within a half hour, on top of ten thousand just for the attempt.¡±


    Your heart skips a beat. That¡¯s the kind of money you¡¯ll need to start getting anywhere. But just before you can answer Lyra cuts you off.


    ¡°That¡¯s insulting and you know it. Throwing herself at probable death for fifty grand? Bullshit. That tyrantrum is doing more damage in ten minutes, on top of whatever you¡¯re suffering in PR blowback from this. She¡¯ll take a quarter million, minimum. Double it if she succeeds.¡±


    Miss Bell scoffs before you can even begin to wrap your mind around those numbers. ¡°Miss Miura, I don¡¯t have the authorization to throw around that kind of money. Even if I did, we can resolve the matter on our own for less.¡±


    ¡°Do it, then. Call down your CEO and his pet god and deal with it.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that isn¡¯t an option,¡± Miss Bell answers. She¡¯s irritated. You can practically feel the offer slipping away from you. ¡°Fifty thousand for an attempt, double that for a success. Final offer. Reject it and I¡¯m moving on to the next person on my list.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± A few missions like that and Alice is within reach again. If you have to face down a rampaging tyrantrum so be it. They can¡¯t be that much different from Coco, after all. And if you die, you die.


    ¡°She¡¯s bluffing, Cuicatl. Don¡¯t¡ª¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± you tell her. Even though you aren¡¯t. Better to get some than hold out and not get anything. ¡°I need the money. When are we leaving, Miss Bell?¡±


    A presence fills the room as something¡¯s psychic energy begins hitting your defenses, pushing and receding like waves against a beach. Lyra staggers back and swears. Loudly.


    ¡°You can¡¯t have that fucking thing in here! Do you know¡ª¡±


    ¡°Calm down. A minute¡¯s exposure won¡¯t do anything. My alakazam is here, Cuicatl. Ready to go?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± You answer as quickly as possible. Best to get started as soon as possible. You didn¡¯t ask who or what is near the tyrantrum, but if she¡¯s willing to pay that much then there¡¯s something on the line.


    ¡°Good. Just wait a sec¡ª"


    The world twists and lurches around you. Up is down, down is up, and there are no vibrations in the air, no echoes to sense the world with. Everything feels impossibly large and suffocatingly small at the same time. Reality spins and spins and spins and then there¡¯s solid ground under you but the world is still spinning. You collapse to your hands and knees and retch. Even before you¡¯re done you start to analyze the situation. There¡¯s sun on your back and grass beneath you. Outside, then. And later in the day than you thought it was. In the middle distance, maybe a half kilometer away, there¡¯s the sound of tearing metal and heavy steps. Miss Bell walks up to you with slow, uneven steps on the unpaved land. Probably should¡¯ve changed her shoes before going to face down a dinosaur.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± you mutter. ¡°You should stay back. They might take your alakazam as a threat.¡± They. What even is the gender of this thing? ¡°You know if it¡¯s male or female?¡±


    ¡°Female,¡± she says. ¡°She was sent to a game park on the mainland during the darkness. They were doing some veterinary tests today when she woke up and broke her ball. That¡¯s all I¡¯ve got.¡±


    ¡°And you didn¡¯t have anyone here to contain her?¡±


    ¡°Our people who would usually do it are off the island. We¡¯ve contacted Selene and Olivia.¡±


    Then they really don¡¯t have anyone to stop it but you. You can hear the tyrantrum slam into a solid structure. Heavy materials groan and fall. ¡°Two hundred thousand for the attempt, then. Double for success¡±


    She sighs. ¡°One fifty, doubled if you succeed within five minutes.¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡±


    Negotiating more could get people hurt and you¡¯re about steady enough to move. You pull yourself up to your feet and start walking towards the tyrantrum. You want to send out Noci to help guide you but she¡¯s still recovering from her battle with Hala and you don¡¯t want to risk the tyrantrum attacking. For now you have to walk across the uneven ground on your own. You consider how to approach this. If this were any other dragon you¡¯d know how, but Coco¡¯s language isn¡¯t exactly the same as upper draconic. Some of the nuance might be lost. Your gift can smooth the words out. It can¡¯t for the body language. That¡¯s more important than words for most pok¨¦mon.


    Something explodes. The tyrantrum makes a triumphant roar. You wonder if she¡¯ll even be able to hear you when you try to talk. Might as well get started. You scream, shrill and vibrating, before lowering your voice into your best attempt at a purr. It¡¯s messy and might be more of a growl if you were any bigger. You hope that she gets the message. The battle continues. You keep walking forward and scream again. This time the earth answers as a shockwave rockets through the ground, knocking you off balance again. Even a quarter kilometer or more away her attack is that strong.


    Should you send out Coco? Some dragons are cannibalistic. She also might assume you¡¯re taking a hostage when you aren¡¯t. And if things go south while she¡¯s in her ball then at least you¡¯re the only one paying for the mistake. You¡¯re pretty sure pok¨¦balls can¡¯t be digested.


    The roar and purr combination doesn¡¯t seem to be working. Ordinarily it means conditional surrender. A call to stop fighting and talk about what the victor wants. Maybe you¡¯d need a deeper noise. You¡¯ve read that tyrantrum communicate in growls deep and loud enough to travel through the earth and be interpreted kilometers away. You can¡¯t really make any sound that would be deep to a dragon.


    Gunshots break out. They¡¯re louder in person than you¡¯d expected. Loud enough that it hurts. At least four are fired before they abruptly stop with the sound of snapping jaws. You stop moving. Probably too close now. If draconic isn¡¯t catching her attention, you can always cheat.


    ¡°Hey!¡± You shout in Nahuatl. You strain to press your gift into it so that it is heard and understood. ¡°I want to talk.¡±


    The tyrantrum grunts and you can feel its steps as it turns around. A full grown tyrantrum can weigh nearly eight thousand kilograms. You cut off the thought there before more useless, terrifying trivia follows it. The footsteps come closer and closer until one is enough to knock you off balance all on its own. You can hear and feel and smell the bloody breath of a dragon beating down on you. Her full head follows her breath, coming within centimeters of your body and sniffing. Tyrantrum have a sense of smell more powerful than a stoutland¡¯s. Oh, right. She can just smell Coco on you. If you¡¯d had even a second to think things through you would¡¯ve realized that.


    The dragon pushes its head into you, knocking you back onto your butt. Not good. Not the worst. She could¡¯ve easily killed you if she¡¯d wanted.


    You growl a traditional greeting in old draconic. A submissive greeting. What a fraxure would make to a hydreigon, or a zwelious to a haxorus. It¡¯s not quite a plea for mercy, but it¡¯s not not one.


    The tyrantrum snorts at that. Amusement. It¡¯s what Coco does when she¡¯s amused, anyway. Upper draconic is useful for letting dragons talk to each other, but every species also has their own habits and languages and rituals. Tyrantrum evolved entirely apart from all the others: they might as well be alien in some ways.


    ¡°My daughter,¡± she growls. ¡°You have my daughter.¡±


    Your breath dives back into the deepest parts of your lungs and your heart stills.


    Bloody moons and faded stars, this is how you die.


    ¡°Yes,¡± you answer once your mind and body start working again. ¡°Would you like to see her?¡±


    She hisses out a yes and her meaty breath blasts back into your face. You let out Coco and brace yourself for jaws to clamp down on you. They don¡¯t. You hear Coco whine beside you and lower herself to the ground. Good. At least she has that instinct down. The tyrantrum moves her head and starts to sniff her daughter. She spends a lot more time examining her than you. It¡¯s a little like what you and Kalani did with Pixie, making sure she was okay after being with someone not trusted. You ignore the stabbing guilt that comes up when you think of her.


    That makes you weirdly scared of something other than death. Maybe this is where Coco leaves you. And then you¡¯re alone with a metang who has her own agenda and¡ª


    And that¡¯s it. That¡¯s what you wanted. Why does it scare you now that it¡¯s here?


    ¡°What are you?¡± Coco asks.


    ¡°Your mother,¡± the tyrantrum answers in a low rumble you feel more than hear. It¡¯s probably meant to be endearing, but at your size it¡¯s just threatening. A drop of liquid lands on your leg. Drool? Rain? Blood?


    ¡°She¡¯s my mother,¡± Coco says. You can¡¯t tell if that saves you or seals your doom. It¡¯s¡­ really nice to hear either way. Even if it¡¯s a lie that¡¯s about to be ripped apart.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°I laid your egg,¡± she says. ¡°I did not hatch it. I was raised by the small ones. I do not know how to hatch eggs.¡± She doesn¡¯t mean literally. For dragons ¡°hatching an egg¡± is the same as ¡°raising a child.¡± Sometimes an injured dragon will turn her unhatched eggs over to a healthy one who can better protect them. You weren¡¯t sure if tyrantrum would have that tradition. Turns out that they do.


    Coco is unnaturally still. You wonder how she¡¯s processing that. Her mother not wanting her. The girl she thought was her mother lying to her. It could take a long time before she ever works that out. And the first step might be snapping your neck.


    She snorts and slams her tail into the ground. ¡°I have two mothers! Do I have two fathers?¡±


    What¡­?


    ¡­


    Her being fine with this never crossed your mind. You lied to her. She should hate you. Like everyone does. Like you do. Why is she happy about this?


    The tyrantrum snorts after a long pause. Maybe she¡¯s as stunned as you are. ¡°I suppose. I don¡¯t know where my mate is, though. The small ones took him from me.¡±


    ¡°Is that what grievance drives you?¡± you ask in upper draconic. Maybe that¡¯s a bit too formal for her. You still don¡¯t know how much of the language had developed sixty-five million years ago.


    ¡°Yes,¡± she answers. ¡°It is.¡±


    ¡°I do not know where he is. I can learn. Would you like me to do it?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    Coco speaks up as you pull out your phone. ¡°Can I show you my teeth? I have very sharp teeth.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± the tyrantrum grumbles. ¡°Show them to me.¡±


    Masochist. Even with skin thick enough to take a bullet¡ªwait.


    ¡°Are you hurt?¡± you ask her. ¡°I heard a fight earlier.¡±


    A low rumble shakes through the ground and seems to settle in your bones, as if every part of you is vibrating with it. What does that even mean? Your gift isn¡¯t giving an explanation. Too far from speech. ¡°I will be fine, small one. Oh, oh yes. You have very good teeth.¡± Her attention turns back to her daughter. You can just imagine Coco softly wagging her tail in delight, jaws wide open and latched around the tyrantrum¡¯s leg. ¡°And cold teeth, too. You take after your father.¡±


    Coco slams her tail into the ground. ¡°Does Second Father have good teeth?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I believe the small one was about to find out about him.¡±


    Right. You tell the phone to call Miss Bell. She answers on the first ring.


    ¡°Any danger?¡± she asks. Your hand drifts towards the wet spot on your leg. Danger. No. That seems to have passed. Your heart rate has slowed again and for a moment there the world felt almost normal.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine. She wants to know where her mate is.¡±


    ¡°Hang on. Let me check.¡± The line goes silent. Probably put you on mute. Not for long, though. ¡°California. They got moved to different facilities during The Blackout. Haven¡¯t shipped him back yet.¡±


    That was their problem. Moving a dragon and her mate to separate areas for over a month was a recipe for disaster, and you have no idea how anyone signed off on it. It¡¯s hard to even blame the tyrantrum for any of this. The humans probably had warning enough.


    ¡°I would get him back soon.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll look into it. Do you think she¡¯d let herself be captured? We need to check for survivors.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll ask.¡± For the moment you set your phone down on your leg. The one that doesn¡¯t have an unknown fluid on it. ¡°They want to know if you will go into another ball.¡± You expect her to say no. You don¡¯t want to make it sound like you want that. The tyrantrum growls, the snarl ripping through the air more than the ground. That¡¯s probably a no, then.


    ¡°She says no.¡±


    ¡°Heard it loud and clear. Can you get her to move somewhere else?¡±


    That you might be able to do. ¡°Can we go for a walk?¡± you ask the tyrantrum. ¡°They would like it if you walked somewhere a little farther away.¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± The ground shifts as she raises herself up a little higher. You pick yourself up and start to move in a random direction. Miss Bell never said where she wanted you to go. Coco darts forward and raises up her back under your hand. Aw. She wants to guide you without being asked. Best girl. You don¡¯t deserve her at all.


    ¡°My name is Cuicatl Ichtaca. You can call me Little Green. It¡¯s what my sister did.¡± Human names are hard for dragons and a literal translation of your name felt weird. Your mother was named Green. You are Little Green. That is a name that made more sense for ellas, and you liked having your own nickname. ¡°What is your name?¡±


    ¡°My mate calls me Earthshaker,¡± she says. ¡°The small ones have another name. I cannot say it and I do not know what it means. Earthshaker walks lazily beside you, taking one step with every five of yours. But her steps are big enough to risk tripping you up with every impact. She takes a big step forward and you can hear and feel her turn around, facing back towards you. Her breathing gets closer to the ground, closer to you and Coco. ¡°And what is your name, child?¡±


    ¡°I disembowel things!¡± she says with pride. Which is technically the answer to her question, even if she won¡¯t understand it.


    ¡°That¡¯s what her name means,¡± you add.


    ¡°And have you disemboweled things?¡± Earthshaker asks.


    ¡°Yup! A few fish and some small furry things.¡±


    Earthshaker snorts. ¡°Then it is a good name.¡± The dragon picks herself back up and begins to move ahead with thunderous steps. You can distantly hear a radio sound off as people move in to check on the wreckage behind you. For now you keep a hand on Coco and keep walking.


    ¡°We can come back to visit whenever we get a chance. Let you and Coco reconnect.¡± As soon as you say it you realize that it might¡¯ve been a lie. Most humans don¡¯t like being reminded how fragile they are. Any pok¨¦mon that kills humans, even if justified, might be put down. You bristle at the thought. Earthshaker did nothing wrong and Coco should be allowed to meet with her in the future. Yet you don¡¯t want to ask Miss Bell about it now because she might lie. And if she doesn¡¯t lie and tells you flat out that Earthshaker will be killed then she might rampage again. Justifiably. You would even join if you could.


    ¡°I would like to see her again,¡± she says. ¡°But I know how you small ones are. Scurrying around as if something matters at every moment of every day. And my daughter seems healthy. Come back when you slow yourself. I will be waiting.¡±


    Alice said the same sort of thing a few times. Fully grown dragons can afford to hunt once a week and rest in the meantime. Moving constantly, hunting for whatever it is humans hunt for, seems too much for them. Ellas pitied you for that. Never understood it when you insisted that you had to attend school and do laundry and make dinner and couldn¡¯t just go off to the mountains at a moment¡¯s notice.


    Sometimes ellas took you anyway. It always seemed to work out when you got back since no one was reckless enough to openly defy a hydreigon. Although little punishments would be slipped in for different things. Father would beat you for the quality of a dinner that would be fine on any other day. That sort of thing.


    ¡°An¡­¡± There¡¯s not a good word in Upper Draconic to describe your relationship with Miss Bell. Most dragons only submit to their mate, parents, and older siblings. She is none of those things. You don¡¯t really want to explain employment to a dinosaur. ¡°A nearby small one owes me favors. She can bring me here quickly when I want to.¡± You hate committing to more teleportation in the future, but Coco more than deserves it. What¡¯s a little pain? And you can tell Miss Bell that this is to keep Earthshaker from rampaging again. That makes money sense, right? Assuming they don¡¯t put her down. That might also makes money sense. ¡°What kind of dragon is your mate?¡±


    ¡°I do not know the name you would use,¡± she says. ¡°He has wings and three heads. Does that help?¡±


    Hydreigon. Coco¡¯s father is a hydreigon. You¡¯d thought she was great before, but her parents are maybe the best paring of dragons ever.


    ¡°I know them, yes. My sister is one.¡±


    Earthshaker snorts. ¡°And how does that work?¡±


    ¡°My mother also raised her from when she was small.¡± Single female pronouns. Upper draconic doesn¡¯t have female plural. ¡°My sister has very high standards for mates. You must be very powerful.¡±


    ¡°I can hunt,¡± she says. Her attention shifts back to Coco and her many questions. Not quite as many as Noci would have, but still a lot. They end up playing some game where Coco tries to pounce at her mother¡¯s head before she can lift it, Coco continuing to ask questions between leaps. Good. It doesn¡¯t feel like a crisis anymore. You sit down and lean back on your hands. You still don¡¯t know why Coco isn¡¯t leaving. You¡¯re glad she isn¡¯t. Pixie and Noci have been taking up more of your time lately and you¡¯ve been leaving her to Kekoa too much. You should fix that. Treat her like an actual daughter. You, um, you don¡¯t quite know how to do that. Maybe ask her and Noci for input on where you go? Except VStar sort of just decides that. You already ask them about new team members. Budget things, maybe. Although a dinosaur and an alien robot might not be the best accountants.


    The phone starts to ring. You shift your weight so you can answer it.


    ¡°Two things: We have a medical helicopter coming over. Can you get the tyrantrum to promise not to attack it? And we have a dragonite carrying over her mate¡¯s ball right now. ETA of an hour.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll tell her.¡±


    She¡¯s almost confused why she wouldn¡¯t be okay with the helicopter. You¡¯re guessing she just doesn¡¯t know that they can put guns on them. Or she knows and doesn¡¯t care. It¡¯s a long hour after that. You¡¯d forgotten how much you¡¯d missed the tropical sun. The adrenaline from the crisis fades and leaves you pleasantly empty. With every minute your back gets lower and lower to the ground until you eventually pass into peaceful sleep.


    *


    Even with deep breaths the teleportation still sends you to your knees. You gasp in as much air as you can while your fingers curl up, nails digging into your palm. You don¡¯t vomit. It feels like your blood is on fire and your body is fading in and out of existence, but you don¡¯t vomit. There¡¯s that.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± Miss Bell says. ¡°I remember the first few times I tried it.¡± Something presses against your right hand. ¡°Take this water. Drink it slowly. That should help.¡±


    As soon as the cap is unscrewed you tilt the bottle up and swallow as much as you can.


    ¡°Slowly,¡± Miss Bell repeats. You slow your pace just a little in response. The world spins slower now. Maybe you could even stand. You¡¯re not going to. ¡°Thank you for your help today,¡± she says. ¡°I¡¯ll have the money into your account within a few days.¡±


    ¡°Three hundred thousand,¡± you whisper between shallow breaths.


    ¡°Yes. Three hundred thousand. That still leaves one question.¡± You hear her get up and walk somewhere on the hard floor. A chair is pulled out and then slid back forward. Are you in her office? She didn¡¯t tell you where she was taking you. ¡°There was a talonflame carrying a camera over the island. At least one of the local news teams got video. Probably video of you. The media is going to want to know why you were there and what you were doing.¡±


    She probably has a plan. It¡¯s her job. You¡¯d rather not have the attention, but that doesn¡¯t seem to be a choice. ¡°What would you do?¡±


    Miss Bell gently presses a plastic packet into your hands. ¡°Gummies,¡± she says. ¡°Eat them slowly when your stomach calms down.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡±


    Your stomach definitely has not calmed down yet. You still clutch them tightly, if only to have something to hang onto.


    ¡°If you¡¯re fine with it I¡¯ll tell the media that you can talk to dragons. We brought you in for that. It¡¯s true, doesn¡¯t reveal you¡¯re a psychic, and lets you step up to say more if you want.¡± She pauses. ¡°There is one complication, though. The media might recognize your rather distinctive hair. Then there¡¯s a chance that you could end up as a minor celebrity of sorts. You could easily lie low and wait it out: the media has bigger stories to tell right now. Or you could embrace it. There might be money in that, and not just from me.¡±


    You don¡¯t want to embrace it. You heard the news clip you did on the butterfree and your real, accented voice is grating. The more digital clips there are of your actual accent the more likely it is someone puts the pieces together back home and you get conscripted the second you step off the plane.


    Miss Bell must see your answer on your face. ¡°Got it. I¡¯ll handle things, then. Just don¡¯t be surprised if a blogger or cameraman confronts you about it at some point.¡±


    You¡¯d rather face down a tyrantrum, but sure. Fine. It¡¯s still worth the money.


    ¡°Next up is taxes. We do calculate those in-house for what you make from us, but if you make money from someone else, too, you¡¯ll probably need to hire an accountant.¡±


    Taxes. Right. Damn it, not even the money you earned is what you bargained for. ¡°How much will I have left?¡± you ask.


    ¡°Um, probably three-quarters or so? I don¡¯t know off the top of my head.¡±


    Three-quarters. Two-hundred and twenty-five thousand. That¡¯s workable. Enough to buy back all the pok¨¦mon but Alice or make progress on ellas. You slowly pull open the packaging and pop a gummy in your mouth. The shape is weird. The taste is an almost plasticky thing that¡¯s probably supposed to be bluk berries. You chew it anyway.


    ¡°Have any of mom¡¯s pok¨¦mon come up for sale?¡± Even just one would be a comfort.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. We have someone looking into it. A few heatmor and ferrothorn and a lot of conkeldurr and swanna have been sold in the major border or Mesoamerican markets but none were marketed as being from a pro trainer. Even if they¡¯re past battling age they¡¯d still be marketed like that for breeders.¡±


    If they weren¡¯t auctioned then maybe your Father just sold them to a friend. He has contacts all over, but you should still be able to find them eventually. And if the owner knew their last trainer¡¯s husband, he¡¯s less likely to mistreat them. That¡¯s good, in a way. Even if it means that you don¡¯t have them here with you now.


    *


    Sometimes you swear you can feel people¡¯s energy. The emotions and power boiling off of them even as they stand silent and still. You can feel Lyra¡¯s now, furiously looming in the lobby as Miss Bell leaves. ¡°What the hell,¡± she asks. ¡°You let¡ª¡± she cuts herself off and hisses. ¡°Somewhere more private. Follow me.¡± She holds out her elbow to you, but you don¡¯t get the sense that it¡¯s an offer. More of a demand. You don¡¯t get why she¡¯s angry: everything went well and you got a lot of money. She doesn¡¯t lead you up the stairs to your room. Or outside. Probably just to some empty room somewhere. Not being able to see anything is annoying right now.


    ¡°Alright, now, why? You just risked your life for $100,000. That¡¯s not nearly enough for that kind of work and you just ignored me and took it.¡±


    ¡°Three hundred thousand,¡± you correct her.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡±


    ¡°I negotiated up later.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s, ugh, fine. You still almost threw your life away for money. Stupid. You can¡¯t spend any of it if you¡¯re dead.¡± It still would have helped someone. Some of mom¡¯s old pok¨¦mon. Or Kekoa. Or Father. How do you make a will? You¡¯d rather it go to getting mom¡¯s pok¨¦mon back. ¡°Don¡¯t do that again. You¡¯re worth more than whatever she throws at you.¡±


    As if.


    Lyra sighs but doesn¡¯t press it. ¡°Second, she has an alakazam. How are you even sure you chose to do that and she didn¡¯t choose for you?¡±


    You don¡¯t want to have this conversation. Not now when you¡¯re still a little bit outside of reality ¨C because holy shit you have actual money now. You find yourself talking before you even really can think about what you want to say.


    ¡°I¡¯m a little PSI-sensitive. She couldn¡¯t do that unless I let her.¡±


    Lyra¡¯s energy instantly changes. Rage to fear. Maybe that¡¯s better. ¡°How much is ¡®a little?¡¯¡±


    ¡°I could talk with Noci and use her to translate before she evolved. That¡¯s pretty much it.¡±


    A lie. A small one. Enough that she¡¯ll get off your back without killing you, hopefully. At least, hopefully she won¡¯t kill you until you figure out how to make a will.


    ¡°Oh,¡± she says. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡± Neither of you says anything. You won¡¯t because the response is hers and you don¡¯t quite know what she¡¯s getting at. Sure, you could focus more on her surface thoughts, but that feels like the wrong thing to do now. ¡°I almost envy you,¡± she finally says. ¡°Being safe from psychics without having the temptation to become a monster.¡±


    That¡¯s about as well as that could have gone. Good. You yawn fiercely. Time for a nap. Barely slept last night and this morning has been too much.


    Lyra sighs. ¡°Alright. But I¡¯m not done with this. We¡¯re talking more later.¡±


    *


    ¡°Hey, Cuicatl,¡± Kekoa calls out once you and Lyra make it back to the room. ¡°You¡¯re already a meme.¡±


    ¡°I¡ªwhat?¡± A joke? Miss Bell said you would get attention, but you didn¡¯t think it would make you a joke.


    ¡°Yeah. There¡¯s a photo of you sleeping near the bloody tyrantrum. You, uh, okay here¡¯s one. The tyrantrum is labeled ¡®climate change¡¯ and you¡¯re labeled ¡®the government.¡¯ Or the tyrantrum is ¡®my credit card debt¡¯ and you¡¯re labeled ¡®me.¡¯ The idea is that it¡¯s someone ignoring something really scary nearby.¡±


    ¡°She wasn¡¯t that scary,¡± you protest. Not once you got her talking. She was just annoyed.


    ¡°Girl, she killed at least eight people.¡±


    Oh. That¡¯s not good. More likely she gets put down because some humans were stupid. You yawn again. Yeah, that¡¯s really bad. But you¡¯re swaying on your feet. Another nap would be nice. And hopefully this one won¡¯t become an internet joke.


    *


    You can feel the stares on your back as you walk out of the building with Coco. You ignore them and no one approaches you. Probably has more to do with Coco than you since you¡¯re, apparently, a joke now. It¡¯s a pleasant walk to the beach under the warm Alolan sun. There still aren¡¯t a whole lot of people back, either, so you manage to get some space to yourself when you reach the sand. You settle down and Coco digs in beside you.


    ¡°Can you bury me,¡± she asks. ¡°I want to be buried.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll do my best.¡±


    It¡¯s a little hard since you can¡¯t see her, but you manage for a while. Then Noci finally flies by and lifts up a whole lot of sand with her mind to dump on Coco. The dinosaur squeals in delight and thrashes around in the sand. A lot of it hit your face and hair and you crawl backwards, shaking your head and spitting out any that got in your mouth. You¡¯ll need a shower after this. A second shower for the day, since you had to wash the blood off your leg earlier. That one wasn¡¯t at the Center¡ªMiss Bell apparently has a private bathroom near her office¡ªso at least you weren¡¯t mooching off their water. Some Centers limit you to one shower a day. You don¡¯t know if this is one, but you also don¡¯t want to mess up and then find out.


    Once Coco digs herself out enough you decide it¡¯s time to start the talk. You can¡¯t give them a lot of choices, because you don¡¯t have a lot of choices, but you can at least tell them why you¡¯re asking them to fight. If it¡¯s not good enough or they don¡¯t want to after then they don¡¯t have to. You¡¯ll figure something out.


    It¡¯s amazing what a lot of money can do for your confidence that you¡¯ll figure something out. It was just words before, because you had no idea how you¡¯d actually do it. Now, well, you still don¡¯t really know. VStar won¡¯t make that same mistake twice and missions don¡¯t pay a whole lot. It still helps with some problems, like Coco¡¯s diet. But the more problems you solve with the money you were given, the less is left to help Alice¡­


    You¡¯ll need to figure out what¡¯s most important to you when you can¡¯t have everything, but just being able to have something is new and exciting and reassuring.


    ¡°Alright, I guess I owe you more of my story.¡± Coco stills and swims over through the sand she¡¯s still in to rest her head on your lap. Who knew that tyrunt could not only swim, but that their tail was powerful enough to move them along through the beach? Noci probably floats closer. Maybe she doesn¡¯t. Her choice.


    ¡°I, um, I have my own family. My mom died after I, after my egg hatched. And then I had a brother. He also died,¡± you whisper. Is anyone filming this? You ask Noci and she says no. That doesn¡¯t mean no one is. Maybe she just can¡¯t see it. No, you won¡¯t tell them that you killed your brother. Not here and now. This is a good day. ¡°My mom hatched some pok¨¦mon of my own. They¡¯re my siblings. Your uncles and aunts, Coco. She swishes around her tail in the sand in happiness.


    Gods, you really, really don¡¯t deserve her at all.


    ¡°They, um, my dad sent them somewhere else. I¡¯m battling and hunting pok¨¦mon now to try and get them back. That¡¯s why I¡¯m doing all of this. If you don¡¯t want to help that¡¯s fine. I¡¯m not hunting for food, just,¡± you sigh and drop down to a whisper. ¡°I¡¯m not a good person. If you want to get out now, please do. If you want out later just tell me. I won¡¯t do what I did with Pixie. I¡ªI promise.¡±


    [UD_Cuicatl is not defective]


    Yeah. That whole rant where she threatened to blow herself up. You have no desire to get back into that with her.


    Coco pulls herself out of the sand and shakes herself off, sending chunks of it onto your legs and clothing and hair. Definitely need that shower now. ¡°You¡¯re hunting for family,¡± she says. ¡°I will hunt with you. They¡¯re my family, too.¡±


    Don¡¯t. Deserve. Her.


    ¡°Okay. I guess¡­¡± Yeah. They can help with this, if not the details of spending the money. ¡°There are going to be choices. Which family to obtain first. What to spend the money we get from hunting on, like, things that help us now or that help get family back later. I¡¯ll ask you about the choices when I need to make them. And when we get to new places, I¡¯ll tell you what all is there. If you want to see something I¡¯ll try to make it work. Okay?¡±


    Coco finishes shaking herself off and lays down, head on your lap. ¡°Okay,¡± she says.


    [Affirmation]


    Maybe this could go okay. Maybe you won¡¯t do to them what you did to Pixie. Maybe you can get family back and¡ªand maybe you can keep going.


    What a difference a day can make.

 Rock 2: Rachel

    Rock 4.2: Aftermath


    Rachel


    February 27, 2020


    What a difference a week can make.


    *


    February 20, 2020


    STOCKS SOAR: END OF ALOLA CRISIS HELPS SAGGING MARKET


    Join Avenue Journal


    The DOW rose more than 600 points today, nearly reversing the month¡¯s previous losses and easing fears of a market crash. ¡°This is great news. Tremendous news. The best news,¡± President Trump said in a tweet this afternoon. ¡°And I did all of it. No one else could have done this. Obama couldn¡¯t have done this. Except, maybe, Xerneas¡­¡±


    THE SCAVENGERS RETURN


    The Rallying Cry


    The light¡¯s return brings our fair-weather occupiers back to us. They would leave this land for comfort because they do not love it. Alola is a tool for their convenience, not a home. Not a heritage. And what do they do with tools? They use it until it breaks or a better one comes out. Then they will throw it away and move on to their new¡­¡±


    ALOLA LOOKS LIKE WHAT?!?!


    Hivemind


    Twenty incredible photos show the damage to Alola. You won¡¯t believe number seven.


    ¡°THE CRISIS ISN¡¯T OVER:¡± ECOLOGISTS WARN OF TROUBLES TO COME


    Hau¡¯oli Tribune


    The light may have returned, but irreversible damage may have already been done to Alola¡¯s environment. Bryce Donaldson, Chair of Environmental Studies at The University of Hau¡¯oli, told the Tribune. ¡°Photosynthesis was limited or non-existent in most of the archipelago for several weeks. For tropical plants¡­¡±


    DID HALA CHANGE UP HIS TEAM?


    Justin¡¯s Journal


    Hello, fellow travelers. Some of you have heard the rumors that Hala has switched up his first Grand Trial team to add a hawlucha. We don¡¯t have video, but we do have pics of the platform after the battle. Looks brutal to say the least. This could be big. Between the devastatingly hard water and bug totems, Melemele is now one of¡­¡±


    PROMINENT PSYCHIC ARRESTED, STOLE TAXPAYER DOLLARS


    Bullseye Media


    It was easy to miss during the Blackout¡¯s chaotic news cycle (and need I remind you that the Blackout was caused by a psychic type?), but Dr. Andrew Brinner, formerly a ¡®renowned¡¯ apologist at the University of Hau¡¯oli was fired from his post and arrested on charges of embezzlement. Folks, I¡¯ve been telling you for years that¡­


    THE SAVIOR OF ALOLA


    The Battler


    This isn¡¯t the first time Selene Perry (#47) has saved her home. Even before she was champion, she awakened Lunala and ventured into Ultra Space. Recently she stepped up during the Blackout in Alola, taking point in the battle against Ultra Beasts. When the stars aligned, she took on the most difficult opponent of her life¡­¡±


    *


    A professor at The Henderson School for Preternatural Development once told you that teleportation could be unpleasant. That was a dramatic understatement. Took you years before you could do it and still come out composed on the other side. The trick is to get as far inside your own mind as you can. Feel as little as you can. Separate yourself wholly from the world outside until you can¡¯t notice it changing around you. Even then there¡¯s a strong wind pressing against you, begging you to pay attention to it. You can¡¯t. Not unless you want severe vertigo.


    When you open your eyes and pull yourself out of your mind, you¡¯re on Aether Paradise. Or Foster¡¯s Paradise to one man and one man only. There are cleaning crews everywhere trying to fix the damage that built up over the Blackout. The ocean environment was hit almost as hard as the land was. Mercifully, no gyarados rampaged and took this place out.


    You smile at your alakazam. ¡°Thank you, Allen.¡± He hums back in your mind, a trace of anxiety laced into it. Older alakazam struggle to make basic decisions. He¡¯ll never admit it but without your guidance he would¡¯ve starved to death a long time ago while he tried to decide what to eat. ¡°Maybe you can meditate over the ocean? It¡¯s a nice day.¡± He¡¯s gone within a blink of an eye.


    You turn around and start walking to your destination. It''s strange seeing the place after it¡¯s gone a bit without cleaning. Scum and dried seafoam have formed a crust on the ordinarily pristine surfaces. Some of the flimsier fences have been knocked over. Most of the windows were shattered. It¡¯s going to take a long time to make this place look good again.


    After a few dilapidated hallways you reach the conference room. The inside is orderly and the air conditioning works. Chris probably had the staff clean it first. Lounging at the head of the table is your boss himself, lounging back in a swivel chair with his feet on the table. He¡¯s wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt with 37, his jersey number, emblazoned on it in big red font.


    To his left is Winston, head of IT. (¡°Call me, Win,¡± he likes to say. Like anyone ever will without an eyeroll.) He¡¯s at least wearing khaki shorts and a monocolor t-shirt. The smallest of steps up from his boss. Jabari¡¯s a few seats away from Chris¡¯s right. He¡¯s wearing a polo shirt and nice jeans, which is about the most you can expect from him. It¡¯s a good uniform for what he actually does. Emmanuel is at the far end of the table from Chris. He¡¯s dressed in a three-piece suit that probably fit perfectly twenty pounds ago. You wonder if he ever looks in the mirror and wonders how he fell far enough to go from Wall Street trading to enabling an entitled brat¡¯s big boy project.


    You know damn well how you got here. He offered you more than anyone else did. And if things go south, well, you worked as a fixer before this. Helped sweep some of his indiscretions under the rug. And if he doesn¡¯t want the world to know who he really is he¡¯ll keep paying you well for your services. You¡¯ll be here until he finally burns this place to the ground. Then you¡¯ll probably go back to your old work.


    You pull out a chair and sit down. ¡°I apologize for the delay. My espeon wanted a very long walk today and I lost track of time.¡±


    Chris waves a hand dismissively. ¡°I get it, I really do. Lot of my pok¨¦mon have felt cooped up.¡± He sits up straighter and drapes an arm over his chair. ¡°Oh, and Rick won¡¯t be joining us today.¡±


    You see Emmanuel wince. The board can roughly be split into suits and non-suits. Meetings are largely Winston egging Chris¡¯s worst instincts on while Emmanuel and Rick, CFO and Chief Counsel, try to talk him down as Jabari stares blankly into space, unsure what any of it means unless it comes into his field of expertise. Then you¡¯ll make your case when the fighting¡¯s played out. Waiting lets you see how serious Chris is about the issue and avoid arguments he won¡¯t find effective.


    Chris smiles a little too broadly. Gods, what is it now? ¡°Yeah, he won¡¯t be coming because I told him we were meeting in the Hau¡¯oli building.¡± He holds out his fist and Winston bumps it.


    ¡°I really think the Chief Counsel should be here at a meeting this important,¡± Emmanuel says.


    ¡°Nah, I know what he¡¯d say. ¡®You can¡¯t do this, you can¡¯t do that, you can¡¯t do anything without me!¡¯¡± He scoffs. ¡°If I wanted to hear that I¡¯d call my ex-wife. Let¡¯s keep this tight knit today. Unless you want to leave, Manny?¡±


    Emmanuel leans back and stews. Winston giggles and Jabari fidgets in his seat. You do your best not to react at all. Nothing to be done while there are others around. He¡¯s too prickly about his image to be seen backing down. You¡¯ll confront him later in his office.


    ¡°Well, if you¡¯re not leaving, how ¡®bout you kick things off?¡± Chris asks. ¡°How is the money flowing?¡±


    Emmanuel takes a deep breath and pulls a folder from his briefcase. ¡°I won¡¯t bore you with the exact figures.¡± Because Chris wouldn¡¯t remember them anyway unless there was a sixty-nine at the start. You¡¯ll privately ask for them for your own reference. ¡°We had a 300% increase in anticipated revenue in the first two weeks of The Blackout. This was mostly from people abandoning the island challenge and selling their teams to us. But the costs of securing our facilities and moving some of our most volatile assets off the archipelago cut into these profits a little. In the end we had a roughly 180% increase in profits in these two weeks over our estimated yields, assuming all as-yet-unsold assets go for market price.¡± Chris nodded and Emmanuel carried on. You take the break to pull out your own notepad and jot down the key takeaways so far. ¡°Anticipated profits stayed high throughout the rest of the Blackout as more teams were sold to us. Most were sales directly from contractors, but some were sales of the less desired members of ¡®orphan teams¡¯ from the trainers who died on the trail or defending the settlements. The inkay captures were also a lucrative income stream. Personnel costs were also down considerably due to layoffs.¡±


    Chris drums his fingers on the table in thought. ¡°The people we laid off, do we have to take them back? We ran for a while without them, right?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Jabari says. ¡°If anything, we¡¯ll need more people than before to get our holding facilities operating again and continue our breeding programs. Those were shot by The Blackout, by the way. Bunch of schedules off track and we couldn¡¯t always store mates together once we got them to the mainland. Since they were off-site I¡¯ll also want full check-ups on our breeding pok¨¦mon.¡±


    ¡°Eh,¡± Chris says. ¡°At least try it for a little while. I¡¯ll sign off if we absolutely need to.¡±


    ¡°Sir¡ª¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll already have to hire contractors for the repairs. And we were already bloated before. Get some unpaid interns, maybe? I have three handling a volcarona and that¡¯s going just fine.¡±


    You don¡¯t remind Chris that he wouldn¡¯t move said volcarona to Alola to light up Hau¡¯oli. She has a brood and apparently didn¡¯t want to move. Or Chris didn¡¯t want to move her and risk losing the profit from selling the babies. Maybe a mix of both. Lost you an incredible PR opportunity that might¡¯ve made him more money in the long run.


    ¡°I do have bad news, though,¡± Emmanuel says.


    Chris dramatically rolls his eyes and collapses on the back of his chair. ¡°Fiiiine. Tell me what you got.¡±


    ¡°Most of our contractors quit, at least temporarily, and the ones who turned in their teams probably aren¡¯t planning on resuming the challenge. We won¡¯t get another major recruitment bump until May, although I¡¯m afraid a lot of trainers that would have gone on the island challenge will opt out after recent events. This limits our ability to catch more pok¨¦mon, on top of the ecological damage reducing the number of wild pok¨¦mon available to catch.¡±


    You decide to add your own take, even if the boss won¡¯t like it. ¡°Given the way the press is talking about the environment I don¡¯t think we could keep up our current catch-per-trainer rates. Too much risk of temporary protections on the post-Blackout environment that end up becoming permanent.¡±


    ¡°Sure, sure, whatever, we can back off a little. But we¡¯re a pok¨¦mon catching company. We¡¯re still going to be catching pok¨¦mon. Make a plan that¡¯s still profitable and I¡¯ll look it over.¡±


    If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Emmanuel jots down some notes. You follow. It won¡¯t fall to you to make the new plans, but it will be your job to defend them.


    ¡°Then we have two more problems,¡± Emmanuel says. ¡°The same problem, really. Jeremy M¨¡hoe. The family¡¯s threatened suit and¡ª¡±


    Chris slams his hands on the table and rises to his feet, the left corner of his mouth twisted up in a snarl. ¡°Fuck them. We did nothing wrong.¡±


    ¡°I know, sir¡ª¡±


    ¡°We. Did. Nothing. Wrong.¡± Chris hisses through his teeth. He slowly pulls his hands off the table and starts pacing. ¡°We paid the kid to catch a larvesta. He knew the risks but wanted the money. And when he fails, it¡¯s not his fault for botching it, it¡¯s our fault for giving him a job. Fuck that. I¡¯m not paying his estate a cent. If we yield here, then the family of every fuckup in the commonwealth will be banging at my door for cash. I didn¡¯t get where I am without risk. No one at the top got there without risk. He rolled the dice and lost. Boo-freaking-hoo.¡±


    If this ever gets to a deposition you are going to need to coach him so, so hard on what not to say. You also need to make absolutely sure he doesn¡¯t talk to the media about this. A sixteen-year-old got burned so badly the teeth were almost too damaged to use to identify the body. Alola¡¯s volcarona refused to help with The Blackout in protest until they were given promises of strong future capture protections. The people, well, most of the people, won¡¯t see the multimillionaire as the real victim here. You¡¯d prefer he just settle the case and get this out of the news. You¡¯re in a good spot now that you¡¯ve provided Alola with the inkay it needed. In the coming months you¡¯ll need goodwill in the legislature that he seems intent to just piss away.


    ¡°That¡¯s half of our problem,¡± Emmanuel insists. ¡°If I¡¯m reading our records correctly, we no longer have a contractor with a Class V license. This precludes several of our most lucrative captures.¡±


    Chris frowns and glances at you. ¡°Is there anyone in the pipeline?¡±


    ¡°One candidate. Not sure how much of her thesis she has done.¡± Or if she wants to work on it. You don¡¯t get the impression she likes her mentor much. Not sure what happened to sour the dynamic and Cuicatl insists that everything¡¯s fine. You¡¯ll need to find someone else now that other people with a Class V aren¡¯t busy managing a natural disaster. Since she¡¯s your only candidate it should be easy enough to talk Chris into freeing up money.


    ¡°Hurry her up,¡± Chris says. ¡°Time is money. My money.¡±


    ¡°Will do.¡±


    *


    February 27, 2020


    CHRIS FOSTER DENIES PLANS FOR VSTAR IPO


    Join Avenue Journal


    The founder and CEO of VStar, Inc. took to social media yesterday to deny reports that he planned on holding an IPO in the upcoming months. It is unclear at this time whether the change is due to the recent incident at a VStar breeding facility. ¡°No, it has nothing to do with that. We just need time to stabilize post-Blackout. Give it¡­


    BLOOD SPILLED ON SACRED GROUND


    The Rallying Cry


    P¨­haku was once home to a peace summit between the kahunas of Akala and Ula¡¯Ula. These days it¡¯s the private property of a haole capitalist, Chris Foster. His attempt to build his own private Jurassic Park came at the expense of twelve lives, including four kanaka. No charges have been filed and no charges will be filed because the system¡­


    THE TEN BEST TYRANTRUM GIRL MEMES


    Hivemind


    The new meme has taken the Internet by storm. Here are some of our favorites. Number three is too real TBH.


    TWELVE DEAD, FIVE INJURIED FOLLOWING TYRANTRUM RAMPAGE


    Hau¡¯oli Tribune


    At 6:03 A.M. the morning of February 27, 2022, a tyrantrum began to rampage on P¨­haku, a small island off the coast of Akala. The pok¨¦mon broke free of ball and non-ball restraints and proceeded to kill twelve employees and contractors of VStar, Inc. The rampage was finally stopped by the actions of a VStar contractor who speaks Draconic. The tyrantrum¡­


    BUTTERFREE GIRL GOT A GLOW UP


    Justin¡¯s Journal


    Hello, fellow travelers. Island challenger Cuicatl Ichtaca, aka Butterfree Girl, has outgrown her former title to become the much more badass-sounding Tyrantrum Girl. Rumor has it she¡¯s also the trainer who fought Hala¡¯s Hawlucha. I tracked her down this morning but she declined to comment. Anyone who knows anything¡­


    IS VSTAR PLOTTING TO TAKE OVER ALOLA?


    Bullseye Media


    Look, folks, I have nothing against Chris Foster. He seems like a hard-working businessman who is providing jobs for our youth. I do have a problem with his secretary, one Rachel Bell, known alakazam trainer and alleged Henderson Cabal member. She¡¯s been seen cavorting with the governor and speaking before our legislature¡­


    TYRANTRUM IN COMPETITIVE BATTLING


    The Battler


    A tyrantrum owned by Chris Foster (#1) recently escaped containment during a routine medical examination. During the ensuing rampage it demonstrated just how powerful the species can be. Many top trainers have tried to use one in battle but few have succeeded, both due to their rarity and very real drawbacks in¡­


    The doorbell buzzes. ¡°Ma¡¯am, Mr. Foster is here,¡± your secretary says.


    ¡°Got it, send him in.¡±


    He¡¯s visibly agitated with hands shoved into his pockets and a sneer etched onto his face. Victini rides on his shoulder. You notice that his shirt is inside out. The god of victory is sitting on one of the exposed seams. No one¡¯s told him about it yet. You won¡¯t be the first. Chris roughly sits down in the chair across from your desk. Victini floats off of him and moves to the nearest table. You bow to the god and he nods dismissively.


    ¡°Alright,¡± Chris says. His words are slightly slurred. Is he drunk? Hungover? High? You glance at Victini and he just shakes his head. ¡°I leave for three days because my mom insists on having a makeup Solstice party in Unova. While I¡¯m gone Jabari leaves the island to check up on a hydreigon and everything goes to shit. Am I missing anything?¡±


    ¡°That summarizes it.¡± He left out a lot of details, like why the island was understaffed, but this doesn¡¯t seem like the time to press him.


    ¡°You want me to settle with the families and the injured,¡± he says. ¡°Make it all go away?¡±


    His breathing is slightly labored and he¡¯s glaring at something on your desk. His arm is trembling slightly out of anger, exhaustion, or chemical influence.


    ¡°This won¡¯t just go away whatever we do. But settling would help, yes.¡±


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll do it. Just not with the anesthesiologist. This is all his fucking fault. I don¡¯t owe him a cent.¡±


    ¡°Noted.¡±


    Chris lowers his gaze to the floor. His shoulders slump and for a moment he looks small. Pathetic, almost. Victini¡¯s mind buzzes against your own in indignation at the thought but it doesn¡¯t make it any less true.


    ¡°Am I going to jail?¡± he whispers.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so, no.¡± He smiles slightly. ¡°There will be fines. You¡¯ll probably get dragged in front of the legislature and maybe Congress before this is over. But we¡¯ll make it out of this in the end. The company might not, but we will.¡±


    He dips his head again. ¡°No,¡± he whispers. ¡°The company will. I staked my reputation on this. You know what the other pros say behind closed doors? They say I¡¯m an idiot failing upwards. That I¡¯d fail at any real job. This is my real job and I¡¯m going to show them how fucking smart I am.¡±


    You look to Victini. He just nods. Expected. The God of Victory doesn¡¯t want to give in. He and Chris were made for each other.


    ¡°Income¡¯s down, the fines for this will take a lot of our capital, and I don¡¯t think we can come back from the PR nightmare.¡±


    He scoffs and raises his head to glare at you. ¡°Then what am I hiring you for?¡±


    ¡°Because you¡¯d be in prison for vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence without me.¡±


    Chris looks back down. ¡°I was barely buzzed.¡±


    Like he¡¯s barely buzzed now.


    ¡°You drive here?¡± you ask. You were lucky last time that he wasn¡¯t a household name yet. Now with his fame and recent infamy you aren¡¯t sure you could keep him out of jail.


    ¡°Oh, please. I rented a limo.¡±


    ¡°And a limo driver?¡±


    ¡°And a limo driver,¡± he mutters.


    ¡°Good.¡± You shuffle around the papers on your desk and load a spreadsheet on your computer to give yourself time to think. ¡°Talk to Emmanuel about this, but I think at minimum we¡¯ll need to sell off the fossil restoration and breeding assets to get heat off of us and raise capital.¡±


    ¡°The tyrantrum will go for a lot,¡± Chris says. ¡°I know a collector in Kenya who loves mankillers.¡±


    That¡¯s very likely to end badly, but it won¡¯t end badly for you.


    ¡°I¡¯ll leave that to you and Jabari. For now, take your social media private, stay home or stay sober, and let the suits handle this.¡±


    ¡°You think I¡¯m an idiot, too,¡± he slurs. ¡°That I can¡¯t do this.¡±


    ¡°No. I think you¡¯re smart enough to hire people who can cover your weaknesses.¡±


    If you also think he¡¯s an idiot that¡¯s none of his concern. Victini still whacks the edge of your mind for the thought. Chris stays quiet so he apparently doesn¡¯t tell his trainer.


    ¡°Is Tyrantrum Girl the Class V candidate?¡± Chris asks.


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s her thesis on?¡±


    ¡°Pok¨¦mon mythology. As in, the myths that different species of pok¨¦mon believe.¡±


    He nods. ¡°I¡¯ll call Shirona. She likes Alola and mythology is her shit. Won¡¯t shut up about it. And she¡¯s a bitch. Takes her from a ten to a six real fast. She knows her shit, though.¡±


    You aren¡¯t usually intimidated by the big names in battling. You know the biggest and all of his secrets. Shirona still has a reputation, especially in her favored vacation spots. Her support would basically ensure Cuicatl gets her V¡­ and then gets thrown right back into the most dangerous capture situations¡­


    It has to be someone.


    You don¡¯t like that it¡¯s her.


    *


    Alola still isn¡¯t fully repopulated. There¡¯s a long backlog of flights to get to the archipelago. Some people won¡¯t return at all. The Ultra Beasts were one thing. The Blackout was a bridge too far.


    Some of the smaller beaches are almost entirely empty now. The one by Lila¡¯s condo is one of them. They¡¯re standing at the edge of the surf, feet buried in the sand. They don¡¯t react at all as you walk towards them. Even when you¡¯re beside them they keep their eyes closed and their arms loose at their side. Their alakazam is floating somewhere over the waves. You send a thought to yours to suggest he join him.


    Then you stand there near the surf as wave after wave washes over Lila. You stay a bit farther back. Shoes aren¡¯t cheap and you weren¡¯t anticipating they¡¯d be at the beach instead of in their condo.


    Finally, Lila turns her head back to face you. They stare into your eyes with such an intensity you could swear they¡¯re trying to tear your mind apart and see what¡¯s in it. They can¡¯t. You¡¯d know if they were trying. Maybe you¡¯re even strong enough to stop them.


    ¡°Come. Let¡¯s go inside.¡±


    They tear their bare feet out of the sand and walk up the beach to the condo. You follow behind. Even if your powers don¡¯t work on them you still have enough experience reading people to guess that they aren¡¯t calm. The opposite, really. Probably needed to meditate hard before dealing with you. Not great. You anticipated they¡¯d be mad about the tyrantrum incident, but they have to understand that these sorts of things happen in high level pok¨¦mon husbandry. You even got it resolved in-house.


    They open the door and wave you in. When you get to the table they sit down and push a bowl of snack mix towards you. Lila¡¯s is very good. A custom mix of different cereals, snacks, and seasoned nuts. One of the highlights of dealing with them. They know damn well that the best way past a psychic¡¯s defenses is through their stomach. The brain just uses too much energy.


    You only take a pinch. Don¡¯t want to cede too much power before you know exactly how this interaction is going to go.


    They keep staring at you while you eat. Their hands are crossed in front of them and they¡¯re really reminding you they¡¯re a cop. Some small, buried part of your mind urges you to run.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to take your own risks,¡± they finally say. ¡°It¡¯s when you drag a child into it that I take issue.¡±


    Ah. Right. Cuicatl is also under their informal role as community coordinator.


    ¡°I paid her well,¡± you counter. ¡°She knew what she was getting into and decided the reward was greater than the risk.¡±


    ¡°Odd. I spoke with her briefly. She didn¡¯t know that she was dealing with her pok¨¦mon¡¯s mother.¡± They lean forward and lowers their voice. Their face stays perfectly composed. ¡°Did she actually know the risks?¡±


    Your mother flashes to mind. She pulled things like this, setting up casual situations before going into full interrogator mode. Webster¡¯s mind connects with yours with an offer of help. You decline. It¡¯s fine. You¡¯re older than you were. Richer. Better connected. No one can do that to you again.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t know that, either.¡±


    Lila narrows their eyes and sits back in the seat. Their back straightens and they use their height to stare down at you with lips spread thin. Full cop mode. ¡°Even if she was fully informed, can a severely depressed child be trusted to make informed decisions regarding the risks of a job and the value of her life?¡±


    ¡°Under the laws of Alola, yes.¡± You¡¯ve triple checked that. It¡¯s VStar¡¯s entire business model.


    They continue to glare at you.


    ¡°And you can live with that?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡±


    They lower themselves to a more relaxed position but don¡¯t stop glowering. ¡°Make sure she uses some of that money to see a dentist. It¡¯ll make it easier for me to identify the body when you get her killed.¡±


    Low blow. You even came to this meeting to try and help the girl.


    ¡°She wants a therapist, by the way. Thought you might be able to help with that.¡± Since they care so much.


    That finally breaks their composure. Lila sighs and rubs their eyes before taking a handful of the snack mix.


    ¡°So she said. I¡¯ve made some calls for her. Turns out that every child psychologist in the Commonwealth has a backlog after recent events. Andrew¡¯s replacement is¡­¡± They look up at you and glare. ¡°I¡¯m only telling you this because you¡¯re somehow the closest thing she has to a guardian right now, even if you insist on throwing her into mortal danger to resolve a business problem.¡± You nod. ¡°Andrew¡¯s replacement is going to be a psychologist specializing in addiction treatment via compulsion therapy. He¡¯s a licensed psychologist and would give another psychic priority for treatment, but he doesn¡¯t have much experience with children. For now I think it¡¯s best to just keep her on some waiting lists and see how fast they move.¡±


    And the mainland is too far to teleport to. Since it¡¯s illegal to have a session with someone outside your state or commonwealth, and Cuicatl would hate the screens anyway, the waiting list is probably her best plan. You¡¯d just hoped Alola might know about some option you didn¡¯t.


    ¡°You know,¡± Lila says. They¡¯re back to glaring at you. Great. ¡°It¡¯s rare that I have to try and tell another psychic they should care about other people. We¡¯re usually better than that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve learned to look after myself,¡± you counter. ¡°And given the stories I¡¯ve heard about you collapsing on the battlefield from exhaustion, I don¡¯t think you¡¯ve learned that yet. Perhaps I could give you lessons.¡±


    They reach their hand to the bowl without breaking eye contact.


    ¡°Perhaps you could get out of my house.¡±


    You stand up and smile before holding out a hand. They don¡¯t take it. ¡°Always a pleasure. See you soon?¡±


    ¡°Hopefully not.¡±


    You call Allen to you as soon as you leave the house. That went better than expected. They probably won¡¯t be pushing any penalties. Would¡¯ve threatened it if that was on the table. Now you just have to deal with the federal and commonwealth governments¡­

 Rock 3: Pixie

    Rock 4.3: Scars


    Pixie


    Pain. A sharp, jagged pain runs along your side. A dull pain has settled into your bones and pulses in tune with your heartbeat. This place smells like chemicals. Is this a dream? Are you back where you were so long ago?


    Your eyelids refuse to move.


    Everything hurts.


    Just a little more sleep¡­


    *


    The pain on your side is less sharp. There¡¯s something cold and metallic pressed against it now. You slide your eyes open and let light gradually flicker in. Light. It should be dark, shouldn¡¯t it? There is metal pressed against you. The rest of your body is gently pressed down by straps. You could fight it. Scream.


    That all feels like so much effort.


    You close your eyes again.


    *


    There¡¯s a strange human in the room with you when you next wake up. You blearily look up at them and they smile. ¡°Hello, there. I just need to run a few tests.¡± You let him. Not much you could do while strapped down. Sure, you could shoot ice at him. You¡¯d still be tied down and exhausted. You count the rise and fall of your chest as the human continues to prod your injured body.


    *


    The straps are gone. The rest of the room is empty. No Skysong. No Kalani.


    No Avalanche.


    Not that she should be here. You stand up. Your most injured leg aches and your side burns. You manage anyway. You sit back on your haunches and stare out into the room.


    Now what?


    In the end you take another nap.


    *


    Openliver enters the room. He smiles at you as he closes the door. ¡°Hey, Pixie.¡±


    You stare at him. Why is he here and not Kalani or Skysong?


    ¡°Uh, Cuicatl had a message.¡± His smile falters before he brings it back twice as large. Is he trying to seem threatening? Or is he pretending to be friendly? Neither case is good. You tense your muscles, ignoring the pain. ¡°She says that she¡¯s really, really sorry about what happened and that she¡¯s going to leave you alone. Unless you want to talk to her, she¡¯ll stay away.¡±


    You were weak so she abandoned you. Got it.


    ¡°Do you have any questions? I can have my primarina translate.¡± You shake your head from side to side. What is there to say? He nods and his smile disappears entirely. ¡°I¡¯m also sorry about what happened. Hala¡ªyou have to understand that he¡¯s usually not like that. Don¡¯t know what got into him, but it won¡¯t happen again.¡±


    His bird was stronger than you. Much, much stronger than you. And he wanted you to die. You did not die. Maybe someday he will return to finish things. However smart they pretend to be humans still do not understand predators and prey.


    You suppose there is something to ask, even if you aren¡¯t sure if you want the answer. ¡°Kalani doesn¡¯t want me anymore?¡± He sends out his ugly fish thing. You repeat the question.


    ¡°No. Nothing like that. I just wanted to talk to you first. Want to meet her now?¡±


    You nod. Avalanche isn¡¯t here. Avalanche won¡¯t be here ever again. Neither will Skysong. Kalani is still here, for now, and you love her for that.


    Openliver nods and takes away his fish monster (Kalani calls it Gill Wailer, you¡¯re not sure if it needs a name). Kalani reappears in a burst of red light and cold air. She fluffs up her fur and locks her eyes onto you before walking up, tails held delicately in the air. She raises her front legs up onto the table before jumping up in a graceful leap. Before you know it, her tails surround you on all sides while her muzzle rubs against yours. Kalani glances back at Openliver before finally sitting down, her body pressed against your uninjured side.


    ¡°I will destroy those who hurt you,¡± she says. It sends a flutter though you. Skysong could not destroy your enemies. Kalani can. It¡¯s a reminder you have a real mother again. ¡°First, Skysong.¡±


    The flutter stills. ¡°She didn¡¯t hurt me,¡± you say. ¡°The bird and his human did.¡±


    Kalani growls. You press your tails down and whimper. How was that wrong? You just told her what happened. ¡°No. You were there because of her. Hurt because of her. If she was strong, she would have fought the bird herself. She stole what was mine and returned it broken. I will destroy her for it.¡±


    You weren¡¯t there for her. You were there because you wanted to show Kalani how strong you were. And you didn¡¯t. It would be bad to bring that up. Make her think about how weak you are. Make her think about leaving you. ¡°What will you do?¡± you ask.


    Kalani glances aside, probably checking if Openliver was still in the room or if Gill Wailer was out. ¡°She wants to make others be hurt for her. I will not let her. Whenever one of her pok¨¦mon is hurt she will be hurt the same.


    Humans heal so slowly sometimes you wonder if they will ever heal at all. Sometimes they don¡¯t. She was born hurt and never recovered. Giving her that curse could kill her. She doesn¡¯t¡­ you don¡¯t want that. She tried to help sometimes, even if she couldn¡¯t. Even if she abandoned you. And if Kalani did kill a human you don¡¯t know what would happen. You¡¯ve asked other pok¨¦mon before. They all seemed scared of the idea. Asked you not to talk about it again. There must be something very scary that happens. You don¡¯t want that to happen to Kalani, either.


    ¡°She¡¯s always hurt,¡± you say. Kalani looks at you. She doesn¡¯t speak. Good. Maybe¡­ maybe you can find a way where Kalani doesn¡¯t kill Skysong, but you don¡¯t have to disagree with her. ¡°Every time we get to a new city she manages to get hurt. Usually her paws. Getting hurt isn¡¯t new to her. It¡¯s not a good curse.¡±


    She licks your forehead and pins your back down with a paw. For a long time she keeps licking your head as you press into the grooming. Before long you¡¯re purring, the talk almost forgotten. Kalani pulls back for a moment and meets your gaze. Her eyes are cold blue. Like yours, just prettier. ¡°You will make a good nine-tails. Think of a better curse. Then I will find her and cast it.¡±


    Something that will not kill her. Something that will make her regret abandoning you. It may take some time, but you will think of one.


    ¡°What about the bird?¡± you ask. ¡°What will you do to it?¡±


    Kalani huffs in satisfaction. ¡°I found it. Hurt it as badly as it hurt you. Maybe worse.¡±


    Good. Stupid bird. Humans don¡¯t care about them so it can die.


    The nine-tails curls herself back around you and licks the fur on your back. It¡¯s wonderfully cold in her tails. You lie still and purr.


    *


    Kalani¡¯s home is the same as when you last saw it. You walk a little behind the fox as she surveys her domain, stopping to sniff at Openliver¡¯s coldbox. ¡°There is ice cream in there,¡± she tells you. ¡°I will get some for you when Openliver falls asleep.¡± There are at least two locks on the coldbox. They cannot stop a nine-tails. Nothing can.


    You yip your thanks and walk to your bed. It¡¯s really Kalani¡¯s bed that she lets you sleep in. Openliver offered you another one in case you didn¡¯t want to sleep with Kalani. Why wouldn¡¯t you? She is perfect. She is perfect and she wants you.


    You lie down on your injured side, ignoring the brief flash of pain. There is a patch there where the humans cut your hair off. It will regrow. For now it is ugly and a sign to the world that you are weak. It must be hidden.


    Kalani follows you and lies down against your back. Her tails swish over you and block out the warm, ugly world with perfect fur. ¡°Soon I will start teaching you what I know,¡± she says. ¡°You are my child and you must be powerful.¡±


    ¡®You are not powerful now,¡¯ is what she does not say.


    ¡°Some teachings must wait until you heal. There are still attacks you can do with your mind. I will teach you those.¡±


    ¡°Like disable.¡±


    Her tails flick around and she purrs. ¡°Yes. But this attack hurts your prey.¡±


    Eyerock could do something like that after she got bigger. You wonder if Skysong could, too, if she really wanted to. Is the attack like talking to her, just louder? Like trying to scream into her mind? How would you do that? Her connection is familiar, but you wouldn¡¯t know how to start it without her mind doing most of the work. ¡°Can we talk to humans like that?¡±


    She scoffs and idly flicks a leg back to press you harder against her. ¡°A nine-tails could. I will not. They do not deserve to hear my true words.¡±


    When you talked with Skysong you were using your words. Mostly you just talked and she understood. That must not be possible for vulpix. A nine-tails could probably learn. They just wouldn¡¯t bother, right? If humans wanted to listen to nine-tails, then they would learn how to. It should not be the other way around.


    *


    Rockfur wants to take your ice cream. As soon as Kalani comes back with it he glares at her and starts to walk off towards Openlivers¡¯ quarters. ¡°Lick quickly,¡± Kalani says. You do. Her tongue lashes through the treat and leaves deep gouges in the surface. You gently scoop it up with your tongue. ¡°Faster,¡± she says between licks. You daintily swallow the ice cream and begin to use your tongue as a shovel, getting it into your mouth and pressing it into the cheeks before going for more. You can eat it later. Now you just need to get it out of the container.


    If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Openliver ¡®thuds¡¯ out of bed and starts walking. You plunge your face into the ice cream and bite up as much as your jaws can take. Kalani licks your face in approval. And to get some of the ice cream for herself.


    ¡°Don¡¯t eat it so quickly,¡± Openliver says. You turn towards him. He doesn¡¯t seem angry. Just tired. ¡°I don¡¯t know if ninetales can get brainfreeze and I don¡¯t really want to know. Take smaller bites. Enjoy it. I bought it for you.¡±


    Kalani tilts her head to the side. It is something humans do sometimes when they want to ask a question, but not enough to actually ask the question.


    ¡°Thought Pixie could use some. I¡¯d never store ice cream for me here. I know it wouldn¡¯t last a night.¡± He laughs but his eyes don¡¯t glimmer and the lines around his mouth don¡¯t move. ¡°I¡¯m going back to bed. Get me up if you actually need something.¡±


    Rockfur stands awkwardly in the middle of the room. You spit some of the ice cream out of your mouth and start to lick it back up at a more reasonable pace. Kalani slows down, too, but only a little. Rockfur starts coming closer, probably to apologize.


    No. He doesn¡¯t apologize. Instead, he lowers his head to the bowl before Kalani hisses, all of her tails rising up behind her. ¡°No,¡± she says.¡± Rockfur walks away. Nine-tails mates are equal. A nine-tails is not equal with a rock trying to mate with her. That would mean Kalani, with all of her beauty and power, is no better than a rock.


    Rockfur walks back to his bed and lies down in shame.


    You have to stop licking the ice cream when you get full. Kalani keeps going until the whole container is gone. Then she moves her long tongue around the edges just to be sure. When she sits back on her haunches the only sound is Rockfur¡¯s snoring. Ugh. He¡¯s still annoying even when he sleeps.


    ¡°Now is a good time to begin our practice,¡± Kalani says in a low voice. ¡°We can punish him for going to Openliver.¡± You lower your tails in submission and turn towards her. ¡°Think about the link you make when using disable.¡± It¡¯s similar to the one Skysong made with you to talk. Just sharper and faster. Less of a gentle touch and more of a mental bite. You brush a tail against Kalani¡¯s to show that you¡¯re ready. ¡°Disable is a small thing with a message: stop. This one is bigger, louder, with a simpler message: hurt. Take your mind and throw it at your prey¡¯s. Bash into them again and again.¡±


    That makes sense. Disable, but to hurt. You close your eyes and focus on the narrow connection. Then you broaden it, like Skysong sometimes did when she helped you cast it. You do it like that, just a bit louder. More like a roar than a snap. Rockfur grunts in his sleep. Great! You open your eyes and turn to Kalani for approval. She just looks at you with¡­ with disappointment. She puts a paw over your back and looks into your eyes.


    The world spirals. Colors blend together and you smell sounds. Your paws are. Somewhere? Which ones are front? Your tails are, um, your tails are back, so¡­ It takes a moment but you swim out of the lights and sounds and find your way to your body. Your head aches but you don¡¯t feel any new injuries.


    ¡°Like that,¡± Kalani says. ¡°Do it like that.¡±


    You stumble to your feet and look back to Rockfur. Like that. Hit him in the senses. Somehow. You stare at him and try to figure out how you¡¯d do that. You don¡¯t remember Skysong ever doing anything that could help.


    Kalani huffs. ¡°Close your eyes and imagine yourself. Your body floating in nothing.¡± You try. You get something in the end. You¡¯ve seen yourself in the mirror, but those don¡¯t really capture you right. You must be too beautiful for them to show you back. ¡°Now imagine Rockfur in front of you.¡± That¡¯s somehow faster. A brown mass that looks vaguely like you, just with spikes and almost no fur. Probably dust on him, too, since he¡¯s a rock. ¡°Imagine you tackling him.¡±


    You take a deep breath and press the you in your thoughts forwards. Her claws extend and she lets out a mighty roar just before


    Colors. Sounds. Smells. You try to shake yourself off but only your legs move. No. Everything moved, didn¡¯t it? There¡¯s shouting outside. You can smell it. See it. Stone and snow. The world spins slower. A glob of spit hits your forehead. It smells like ice cream. Openliver is, um, he¡¯s here?


    White fills your vision and something presses down on you. Kalani¡¯s tails. She¡¯s here. You can smell her all around, hearing her barking at Rockfur and Openliver.


    ¡°She¡¯s injured, okay?¡± Openliver says. ¡°Don¡¯t hurt her.¡±


    ¡°Or me,¡± Rockfur adds.


    ¡°How dare you,¡± Kalani hisses. Her body tenses beside you and you can see the claws unsheathe on one of her paws. ¡°I would never hurt her.¡±


    Gill-Wailer repeats it, just less pretty.


    ¡°Then why¡¯s she hurt?¡± Openliver asks. ¡°And don¡¯t tell me Basalt did it, that was clearly confusion.¡±


    ¡°She hurt herself. It happens to pups.¡±


    The memory comes back. That is what happened. You were trying to attack Rockfur¡¯s senses. You must have sort-of succeeded if he¡¯s awake and you feel confused. Your tails lift higher behind you in pride. A new trick. You might be too weak now, but you will get strong enough to use it perfectly. Just like Kalani can.


    ¡°Then do it during the day while I have potions on hand. Not in the middle of the night.¡±


    ¡°I know how to train her. You do not, human.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, well, I¡¯m the human who trained you, right? Maybe I do know something.¡±


    You can hear him turn around and stomp back into his room, loudly shutting the door behind him. Rockfur walks off shortly after. Gill-wailer must have bene withdrawn or something.


    Kalani takes her tails away and looks at you. Then she leans in and licks you from the tip of your nose to the middle of your forehead. ¡°You did well.¡± You did well! ¡°Ignore the human. I will take care of him if need be.¡±


    ¡°Without killing him?¡±


    She scoffs. ¡°Of course not. He has his uses. I just need to teach him a lesson sometimes.¡±


    Good. After a few more licks Kalani lies down and presses you against her stomach with her tails. Her chest rises and falls against your back. You did well. The headache throbs in your head in time with her breathing, but you ignore it. That¡¯s just the price of getting stronger.


    Before long you¡¯ve fallen asleep next to your mother.


    *


    Openliver is talking to someone when you wake up. Someone familiar. You just can¡¯t place the voice. Human, though. Probably not too important.


    ¡°How was Ultra Space? Did you get me a postcard?¡±


    The other human, female, snorts. ¡°Sorry, didn¡¯t see any shops.¡±


    There¡¯s a heavy silence.


    ¡°Are you okay?¡±


    ¡°No,¡± the other human says. ¡°I¡­ I survived. I think Nebby ensured that. In the moment, with plasma shots flying around and the floor melting beneath me, I thought I wouldn¡¯t. That I¡¯d just die out in space and my corpse would melt and no one would find me and that¡­ that would be it. Nothing more to fight. I could rest. And I was okay with that. Almost wanted it.¡±


    The voice is bothering you. Enough that you squirm your way out of Kalani¡¯s tails so you can watch from the edge of the doorway. You see Openliver wrapping his arms around the smaller female, poorly mimicking a nine-tails wrapping her tails around her child. The female doesn¡¯t have blood-colored hair, but you still recognize her scent.


    Firemane.


    You hold in a growl and slink back to continue listening.


    ¡°I wish you didn¡¯t have to,¡± Openliver says. ¡°You¡¯re barely an adult and¡ª¡±


    ¡°I had to. Necrozma would¡¯ve killed anyone else.¡±


    ¡°I know, but I wish you didn¡¯t. For this, the UBs, everything.¡±


    She sighs. You can hear her walk somewhere else. Hear her weight settle into a chair.


    ¡°They¡¯d just find some other kid to do it. You¡¯ve heard how they¡¯re talking about that Cuicatl girl.¡± Skysong? What happened with Skysong? ¡°She¡¯s blind, Doc, and they¡¯re so eager to see another kid solve adult problems. Talk about how badass she is, what she might do next, and not that a corporation owned by a ranked trainer sent her out to die so the executive who was right there didn¡¯t have to risk herself.¡±


    She almost died? What happened? Is she injured? More injured than usual, at least? Could you have stopped it? No. You owe her nothing. She can¡¯t love you like a nine-tails can. She got you hurt. And, and you¡¯re going to curse her, once you figure that out.


    ¡°I could become champion,¡± Openliver says. ¡°I almost beat you and Nebby the first time. You could travel for a while and I could watch your seat. Handle any crises that came up.¡±


    ¡°No,¡± Firemane says. She sounds exhausted. Weak. Like easy prey. ¡°They¡¯d pressure Hau or Cuicatl into doing it. Make a kid solve all their problems. Because if they can tell themselves that the kids will solve everything then they don¡¯t have to worry about solving it themselves.¡±


    Alright. You¡¯ve listened enough. You turn around the corner and aggressively walk towards Firemane. You yap at her over and over while your tails straighten behind you. It doesn¡¯t matter if she¡¯s afraid. She deserves it.


    Firemane is not afraid. She smiles, without teeth, and coos. Like you¡¯re a child. And not a very angry child of the mountain. ¡°Aww, hello there,¡± she says in a sickeningly high voice. ¡°I haven¡¯t seen you before.¡±


    She¡¯s mocking you. That or she thinks all vulpix look alike. Which is also mocking you. She holds out her hand to sniff. You ignore it and sit right below her before listing your many grievances.


    Firemane ignores them all and turns to look at Openliver. ¡°I almost got a vulpix once, you know. She was in Aether care on Akala after some Skull thug beat her up. Then all that shit with Lusamine and Ultra Space and the League and being Champion came up and¡­ I guess I forgot to come back to her¡± she purses her lips. ¡°I wonder what happened to her. I hope she¡¯s alright.¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s sitting right here,¡± you growl. Firemane doesn¡¯t understand. Of course she doesn¡¯t understand. She left you. Forgot you. Is that better or worse than being abandoned? Not being worth remembering? Decide later. Now you can scream to your heart¡¯s content.


    ¡°Sorry about her,¡± Openliver says. ¡°She just heard her old trainer¡¯s name. Probably concerned if she¡¯s alright.¡±


    ¡°Old trainer?¡±


    ¡°Cuicatl. Just. Hang on.¡±


    Gill-Wailer forms in a flash of red. You immediately turn to her and scream. ¡°Tell her she abandoned me!¡±


    The stupid fish takes a moment to look from side to side and figure out what¡¯s going on. You yell at her again to hurry her up. Then she repeats her words in an awkward, quivering voice saying lesser human words. Firemane turns back to you and stares. Her eyes bore into your forehead and her lips flatten out and spread thin. ¡°Pixie?¡± she finally asks. ¡°Is that you?¡±


    You bark at her and hiss. Hopefully she gets that message.


    ¡°It¡¯s good to see you,¡± she says. You hiss again. How dare she? ¡°I. Um. I¡¯m sorry. Really. By the time my life calmed down Aether had gone under. I tried to figure out where you went but no one seemed to know. Sorry. I hope things have gone okay?¡±


    You turn around to show her your shaved patch and scar. They have not gone okay.


    ¡°Oh,¡± she says.


    ¡°Hala had an episode,¡± Openliver says.


    ¡°I heard.¡± Her eyes narrow and she leans back in her seat. ¡°I think I¡¯ll need to have another talk with him.¡±


    ¡°You can¡¯t fire him.¡±


    ¡°I know,¡± she says. ¡°But Tapu Koko can and he seems to like me. I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡±


    She¡¯s trying to hurt the human who owned the bird? Good. That means Kalani doesn¡¯t have to risk herself to punish him. That doesn¡¯t mean that Firemane is forgiven. Or that she can just talk to Openliver and ignore you.


    ¡°Did you forget me again?¡± you hiss. Gill-Wailer repeats in her hideous way.


    ¡°I¡ªno, Pixie.¡± She takes a deep breath and lowers her head into her forepaws. ¡°I messed up. I get it. I¡¯m not a good person. I¡¯m sorry. Truly. If there¡¯s anything I can do, let me know.¡±


    Anything she can do? Now that you¡¯ve found a mother again? Nothing. There¡¯s nothing a human can do for you now that Kalani cannot. And if you did rely on her it would just hurt more when she forgot you again. You leave her in silence and continue to glare.


    She nods. ¡°Let me know if you ever think of anything. I¡¯d really love to stay and talk, really, and I¡¯ll drop by again if you want?¡± She pauses for you to answer. You don¡¯t. Is seeing her again worth it if you get to scream at her? ¡°I have to go. I had an appointment and I¡¯m just here to pick something up. I¡¯ll be back, though. Promise. We can talk things over then.¡±


    She leaves.


    She dares leave when you hadn¡¯t finished screaming and glaring yet. As soon as the door closes behind her you huff and walk back to Kalani. She picks you up by the scruff and drops you into her bed. Before you know it there¡¯s a leg over you pressing you down and her tails completely cover you. After a few licks to the forehead she pulls back and settles down beside you.


    ¡°Humans will always disappoint you,¡± she finally says. You huff in agreement. Firemane abandoned you. Skysong abandoned you. The first humans you met hurt you. All of the others would have abandoned you if you hadn¡¯t beat them to it. ¡°I don¡¯t understand why you¡¯re still so attached to them. To your precious trainer: a blind runt who cracked your ribs.¡±


    She didn¡¯t crack your ribs. She did abandon you. Just like you always knew she would.


    ¡°I can curse the other one who hurt you if you would like. She comes by often enough that she¡¯s lowered her guard. It can be something small, something she wouldn¡¯t be able to prove that I did.¡±


    Something small that would still hurt.


    ¡°What would you do?¡±


    She pulls her leg off you and licks your forehead one more time. ¡°She forgot you. I¡¯d just make her a little more forgetful. A few lost names. A lost scent. Nothing too much all at once.¡±


    That¡¯s really clever. Humans forget things all the time. They wouldn¡¯t even notice if they lost a little more.


    ¡°Good idea.¡±


    Kalani huffs in pride. ¡°Obviously. It¡¯s my idea, after all.¡± You lean against her and she lets out a puff of perfect cold air. ¡°Keep thinking of your curse. Don¡¯t take too long.¡±


    You will try. Something small. Something fitting. Maybe people abandon her? Make her smell bad so no one wants to be around her. No. Humans don¡¯t care about smell. Maybe she could lose the sense of smell she does have? Leave her nose and eye blind. But that¡¯s not related to what she did. Not clever like Kalani¡¯s.


    You¡¯ll think of something. Now, pressed against your mother¡¯s side, it¡¯s so easy to forget your problems.


    Just like Firemane forgot you.