Prelude to Cacophony
"Perhaps I should begin at the beginning," Gardevoir began. Finding Beni and Cammy had taken a few minutes, but once the three of us had settled down for breakfast, Gardevoir had immediately wanted to explain why she was here. I had made her wait until after breakfast, however.
"That's usually a good plan," I agreed.
*Saves energy with fewer corrections,* Beni chimed in, still gnawing the last of her roasted fish.
"And it's more fun!" Cammy finished.
Gardevoir rolled her eyes. "You three rehearse that, don't you?"
"Pretty much." *Yes.* "Yep!"
"Sigh." Gardevoir was the first person, human or pokemon, I'd ever heard actually say the word as they sighed. "Okay, well, let me start, then.
"Long ago, Kanto was the only 'civilized' region, and very few parts of that could be considered towns. Only one area, I believe you call it Saffron City, was anything close to a city in those days. Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto were virtually unpopulated except for pokemon and tribal societies. One of these, in Hoenn, was the first to discover the ability to capture and train pokemon. Fortunately, because they and their ancestors had lived with pokemon their entire lives, they didn't capture those who were unwilling, and they treated those they did capture with respect and honor."
I nodded. That was known fact in Sinnoh, though surprisingly neither Johto nor Hoenn had similar legends.
"Eventually, though, the old chief, who had lived before the invention of 'totem staves,' what they called pokeballs, died, and his grandson came into power. The new chief had never experienced pokemon in the wild, knowing only those who had been captured by villagers, and he saw that if one could train them to use as weapons, the one who did that would be more powerful than any other. He succeeded in swaying much of the village to his opinion, and pokemon soon realized that they would be lost if they didn't learn how to fight humans as well as their own natural predators. One of the most powerful wild pokemon finally hit on a way to win. He contrived to meet with one of the few humans who didn't agree with the chief, and they agreed to help each other defeat the new chief and to persuade the village to return to living respectfully with pokemon.
"At first, the young man succeeded, and the village held a brief but vicious civil war. In the end, the young man lost. He was captured and sentenced to death, but his partner, the powerful wild pokemon, helped him and the other five pokemon in his team escape. Eventually, they found themselves at a place not far from here, winded and unable to go further into the forest. He asked for help from the guardian of the forest, my mistress, and she accepted his plea to protect his pokemon from recapture. They were set free in far corners of the globe, where the chief would never find them."
"And the young man?" I asked, suddenly intrigued. The legends had never gone that in-depth.
"He died. The chief shot him from a distance, fearing to get too close to his weapons. When he dishonored himself by doing that, he was removed, and a new chief was selected. That new chief decreed that pokemon and humans were partners, neither to be superior to the other, and that all pokemon in the area were members of his tribe. In essence, that made it so that anyone who hurt a pokemon was tried just like he would be if he'd hurt another human. Many of the pokemon of the time felt this was an acceptable solution, but some few couldn't withhold their anger at what the humans had already tried. A war threatened to start in the pokemon world, but this time, pokemon selected their own trainers, and with them, they were far more powerful than any wild pokemon could ever be."
"Wow," Cammy observed. "That's cool!" Gardevoir looked up at the sky in appeal for a moment, and then locked eyes with me.
"The young man had been the first pokemon trainer, and his sacrifice and that chief who made humans recognize pokemon as equals are why pokemon allow themselves to be caught, and trained for battle. Some few of us remain who remember that time, and we remember the dangers that threatened to end this world. So we train, against each other and in battle with other trainers, to fight for this world if we have to. The descendants of the rest remember only a need to fight and win, as much instinct as conscious thought."
I nodded again. "I understand, but what, precisely, does this have to do with me?"
"I'm getting to that. You see, those six pokemon from that young man's team are still alive. They represent some of the true elemental powers of this planet, and some of them are not pleased with what they have seen lately." She shrugged, and picked up a piece of toast to munch on thoughtfully. "You may have heard the name 'Regigigas' in your travels?"
I hadn't, but I was willing to go with the flow.
"Sure," I lied. Gardevoir gave me a piercing look and I managed to look abashed. "Er, no, not really."
"Regigigas and his sons, Regice, Registeel, and Regirock," Gardevoir intoned in a sepulchral voice, "created the land you sit upon now, and all continents. Their powers were largely spent after the creation of this world, but they were still far more powerful than the average pokemon when Regigigas agreed to work with humans."
"You mean, the creator of the continents served that human?" I asked. I may act stupid, but I've never been slow on the pickup. "A god, essentially, working with a human?"
"Indeed, and the long years since have only seen his power grow. But that is not the true threat. Regice, Registeel and Regirock spent far less of their powers than their father did. They remain powerful enough to unmake that which their father made."
"Break the continents," I said, stunned. "Serious?"
"Deadly," she confirmed. "Celebi, and a handful of other... I suppose you could call them immortals... including Regigigas, do not wish to see this world ended. For better or for worse, we like you humans, for the most part, and we don't want to see you die out before you really have a chance to grow."
"So, is it just those three against you?" I asked. I had heard, as I've said, of Celebi, and it seemed unlikely that a being which transcends time would have much trouble with anything.
"No. Darkrai has leagued against us as well."
"Darkrai?"
Gardevoir sighed. "I had no idea that the legends of humans had died out so quickly."
Cammy raised a paw. "If this Darkrai was in our legends and didn't want us to be ready for him, might he not have eliminated the legends? And the people telling them?"
The psychic pokemon looked at her with new respect. "That's a very good thought, and one I'll have to investigate further," she admitted. "But in the meantime, suffice it to say that, if there is a being devoted wholly to light, goodness and morality, Darkrai is the farthest opposite you could imagine. You mortals lack the reference to understand this, but he is pure and total evil. In fact, he is the entire concept of evil, and nothing you have alive today can come close to him in power."
I whistled. "So, he's the ultimate evil. Nice. And, ah, what..."
"...does this have to do with you?" Gardevoir interrupted. "Yes, I was still getting to that."
Beni was beginning to get somewhat irked at Gardevoir's evasiveness.
*We have training to do,* she sent pointedly. *Hurry up, please.*
"Essentially, the immortals cannot interfere directly. They must restrict themselves to mortal agents such as myself and other pokemon and trainers. Your feelings for your partners has indicated that you might be an excellent choice as one of these agents."
I felt my mental shields snap shut as the suggestion hit.
"No." For all my nervousness, the denial was calm, almost cool. "Not a chance in hell." Less calm.
"What?" I had surprised her. I felt some minor pleasure at the fact, vastly overshadowed by the sense of being roped into something.
"I am a free agent," I said firmly. "I work only with my pokemon, my partners, and not for anyone. Ever."
"This world may be destroyed!" Gardevoir protested.
"Let it." I stood up and kicked dirt over the fire's coals. "Come on, Beni, Cammy. We've got work to do. Good day, Miss Gardevoir." My two partners nodded their own dismissals at her.
All the time she had been speaking, she had been treating me as an inferior, talking down to my level. It was satisfying to see her gaping in astonishment, but I didn't allow myself a backward glance as I left her behind. Beni and Cammy followed without protest, Cammy jumping onto the Arcanine's back as was her custom. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled at each step I took, and I kept expecting shouted words of accusation or an attack from Gardevoir, but nothing happened. I didn't relax until we were safely down the road, perhaps a mile away.
[One week later.]
The contest was being held in Celestic, in honor of somebody having finally identified and captured the legendary pokemon spoken of in the myths of Sinnoh's creation. Apparently, some clown group known as Team Galactic had attempted to use them to create an entirely new world up on Mount Coronet, and this guy and his buddy had stomped all over them. It was pretty cool stuff; I heard all about it on the ferry from Hoenn to Sinnoh.
We had walked the rest of the way in solitude, Beni, Cammy and I. Gardevoir had not bothered us again, and I had my hopes that she wouldn't leave Hoenn to follow us. In fact, I had just given up all worries on that front, and was whistling. It was a beautiful day, and I had not a care in the world.
That was, until I saw Celestic Town. Or rather, where it should have been. There was a twelve foot chain link fence, along with half a dozen Elite 4 guards blocking my view, but from what little I could see, Celestic appeared to have moved on without giving a forwarding address. There was a chasm stretching as far as I could see, with a strangely circular shape to it. I looked up at one of the burly pokemon trainers standing guard outside the fence.
"What happened?" I asked. The guard looked down his nose at me, but didn't reply. I was slightly miffed.
*Ahem.* Beni put a paw on a sign that I had missed.
"Restricted area. Guards are authorized to use lethal force. Do not enter!" I read solemnly. I looked over at the guard, who nodded imperceptibly. I backed slowly away.
"Well, I understand how policy is," I sympathized. "You can't let me enter and you can't talk." I hit an obstruction, a rather soft and warm one. I looked around and hit the ground in shock.
"Who are you?" the obstruction asked. She raised an eyebrow and swept her long blonde hair behind her in an absent minded gesture.
"Zach, miss. I mean, ma'am, I mean..." I babbled.
*Zachary Winton-Kincaid,* Beni supplied for me.
"Pokemon Coordinator!" Cammy added.
"I see," the woman said, smiling a private, very small, smile. "Another contestant, then."
"Yes," I agreed, having regained control of my tongue. "Where has Celestic Town gone?"
"That is a very good question," said Cynthia, Sinnoh League Champion, darkly. "And one I would love to know the answer to." She looked down at me thoughtfully. "Most of the other contestants arrived much earlier," she commented.
I gestured at Beni and Cammy. "Neither of them can use Fly," I said by way of explanation. Cammy flapped her arms energetically, like wings, startling an honest laugh out of the lady.
Most Coordinators are trainers beforehand, and have collected the requisite pokemon and badges to travel quickly. I had always planned to, but the time never seemed right. I never really wanted to collect pokemon, as such. I always enjoyed meeting them instead, making friends with them, and then by mutual agreement traveling on together for a time. I had, in that way, met many pokemon that some trainers didn't even know existed, and more that trainers would have given an arm or a leg to just see. A few days after having departed on my journey, I had seen, far overhead, a Mew, who came down and poked my nose with her paw. I say her, because she looked female, but I didn't actually get a chance to speak to her. She giggled and zoomed up into the sky while I was still trying to collect my thoughts.
"I see. Well, it doesn't seem likely that you knew what was going to happen in advance." She made as though to turn away, and I felt a pang of sudden guilt as I recalled Gardevoir.
I sighed. "Ms. Cynthia?"
"Cynthia," she corrected, turning back to me.
"Cynthia," I agreed. "We... need to talk."
She, and two of her biggest guards escorted me to a nearby cabin untouched by the...whatever... and I sat down. A mug of tea was set in front of me, and I felt heartened when the guard who served it winked at me. Then again, it could just have been something in his eye.
"This happened about a week ago," I began. I told her the entire story that Gardevoir had told me, leaving out only the references to the night before. She listened gravely as I explained the apparent quandary the legendary pokemon were in, and surprisingly flinched when I named Darkrai as the cause of the problem. My cup of tea had been refilled twice since I had started talking, by the time I was finished, and I wished there had been something stronger in it as she leveled a grave look at me.
"I had family in Celestic," she said without intonation.
"I'm sorry," I said, and winced. "I mean, really sorry. But that doesn't help, does it?"
"No, it doesn't." That came out harsh, but she drew a deep breath and sighed. "Listen. You won't believe this, but it's not your fault. Yes, you should have perhaps called someone and told them this, but..." she sighed again. "Nobody would have believed you. I might have, but that's not even certain, and I don't particularly think you would have managed to reach me, anyway."
To be honest, the idea of calling the League, any League, had not occurred to me, let alone calling the Champion direct.
"You're right," I said. "I don't believe it."
"Well, fine," Cynthia replied. "In the meantime, I have a few phone calls to make, now that we know what we're up against." She turned to the phone and nodded at the guards. "He can go outside, but don't let him get to far. We might need him to tell the story again when the Four arrive. Lucian is on his way, I think. Flint, Aaron, and Bertha will be slightly longer, since they still have challengers to defeat."
A rumbling crash echoed in the distance, making us all run outside to see what had happened. The fence had fallen, and with it six feet more of ground. The chasm was growing, and Cynthia's gaze hardened as she saw it.
"Forget that," she snarled. "As of now, I am declaring a Level Five Emergency. All gym and League challenges are canceled and I want the entire League, gym leaders, Elite 4, and Professor Rowan here now."
As she turned away, a sound caught my attention from near the chasm. It sounded like a cry, ragged and breathless, and the guards shouted as I bolted for the edge.
*It sounded like it came from here,* Beni said, pawing at a fallen tree. She had been listening to my thoughts the entire time and had understood immediately my suspicions. I heard the cry again, and I heaved at the tree desperately. It came a few inches off the ground as I struggled against it, and then it suddenly lifted up entirely. I looked up to see a blue, red and yellow pokemon that I didn't recognize.
"Good job, Garchomp," Cynthia called out to it. The pokemon-Garchomp?-nodded and set the log down nearby, but out of the way. I looked down to see what we had rescued.
A pair of yellow eyes stared balefully at me out of a oval black face. I looked down, appalled; had the log crushed it? The face moved to one side, and a small tan and black creature coughed and sputtered as it dug its way out from underneath.
"Maaawwwile!" it said. I suspected it was as close to a curse as pokemon got, judging from Beni's indulgent purr.
*It's a Mawile,* Beni told us redundantly.
"I see," I said. I offered it a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Mawile."
The black and yellow face from before whipped out and bit down on my hand. I winced as I saw the teeth just barely miss, and then felt my hand move up and down. I looked more closely and saw that what I had thought was an entire pokemon was actually attached to Mawile's head. Apparently, it considered it much the same as any other appendage, and found it easier to shake hands like that.
*Actually,* Beni commented dryly, *She thought you had offered her food, and I managed to convey to her in time what the extended hand meant. Otherwise, you'd be writing with your left hand from now on.*
I managed not to flinch again as Mawile released my hand.
"Ask her if she saw anything," I asked Beni as soon as I had all my fingers back. I didn't want Mawile to start gnawing on things if she got nervous.
Cammy finally arrived as Beni tried to obey my orders.
"Oh, wow!" she exclaimed, and before I could stop her, she scooped up the little creature into her arms. "It's so cute!"
"Cammy, watch out!" I tried to say, but before I could, the large jaw had reached out and fastened on her nose. I stared in shock as Cammy giggled.
"Aww, you little thing," she said, prying it apart. I remembered then that Lucario is part-Steel, and permitted my heart to start beating again.
"Can we keep it?" Cammy asked as she stroked the Mawile's ears. Cynthia cleared her throat and I looked apologetically at her.
"We'll see," I told Cammy. "Beni, what have you got for us?"
*Not much,* Beni admitted. *She's not very old, perhaps equivalent to your age or a few years younger, in human terms, so she is still very frightened and very confused. But as nearest I can tell, a large dry creature-* She paused, and cocked her head to one side. *Yes, dry,* she agreed. *Apparently, Mawile 'see' taste rather than color. Anyway, she tasted a large dry creature land in the middle of the pale squishies-that would be Celestic-and then the creature, Celestic, and all its inhabitants, vanished entirely.*
I looked across the void where a thriving town, if a bit quiet, had once been, and my gaze hardened. "Darkrai," I muttered.
*Probably,* my partner agreed. She looked over at Cammy, still gleefully petting the Mawile. *Mawile sees her as sweet, and friendly. I gather that Mawile are also impressionable, because she's conceived of you as an elder brother and Cammy as an elder sister.*
"What about you?" I asked jokingly. She gave me a very tired look, her mane puffing out in irritation.
*I,* she said to all and sundry, *She thinks I'm your mate.*
I heard Cynthia burst into gales of much-needed laughter, and the iron mask-like faces of her guards even broke with small smiles. Only the three of us didn't laugh, since we knew how accurate that impression was. We exchanged glances and looked at the Mawile almost in one motion.
"We'll keep her," I said firmly. I looked back at Cynthia, who was still laughing, and shrugged. "If the Champion doesn't object, of course."
"The Champion-whew-thinks that's a splendid idea," she managed, between breaths.
"How about it, Mawile?" I asked her, kneeling next to Cammy to look at the odd pokemon. Her jaws snapped just in front of my nose as Cammy jerked her away.
"No!" she told the Mawile sternly. "You do not bite."
The plant-like appendage (strange how easy it was to think of it like that) wilted as Mawile nodded. "Mawile."
*She understands. She also understands your offer and accepts,* Beni told me. I smiled and held out a pokeball.
"Well, here you go," I said. The Mawile jumped at the pokeball and tapped the button. The red light shone around her and sucked her in, and I heard the ding as the pokeball closed without a struggle.
"We should probably name her," Cammy commented. I nodded and opened the pokeball to let Mawile out.
*Jaws,* Beni suggested for a name.
"Venus," I countered. Cammy shook her head.
"It should be something cool!" she said with disapproval. "How about..." She paused as she felt Mawile jerking on her leg fur. The Mawile reached out with her appendage and grabbed my jeans gently, once she had her attention.
"I think she likes 'Venus,'" Cynthia observed. The Mawile nodded and did a simple dance.
"I think she likes it very much," I agreed. "Venus it is, then. Welcome to the team, Venus!"
Cynthia and I amused ourselves by working out what moves Venus knew. It was a dismal set, but the Champion agreed that Venus would have more powerful abilities once she matured.
"She really is in the 'gawky teenager' state," she observed. "Once she's had a chance to get used to being fully grown and capable, she'll work out for herself what she can do."
Obvious stuff, of course, but we needed something to occupy ourselves. I was relieved when Lucian teleported in with his Alakazam and Cynthia departed to brief him. I turned to Beni and Cammy.
"I need one of you to try to find Gardevoir," I said. "She knew something about what was about to happen, and I'm not sure what it was, but if you can find her, we need her. Check where we camped that one night, then work your way back to us with the same route we took to get here. If she followed us, she may be somewhere along the way."
*I'll go,* Beni said. I nodded; I had expected that. I pulled out a pouch we had used before and slung it around her neck. It held half of our total savings, sufficient funds to get Beni there and back and whatever she needed along the way.
"You can move much faster than we can," I said, "So I'll expect you back within a week, no more. If you're not back by then, we'll come hunting for you."
Beni nodded grimly. The plans we had once laid for emergency situations, such as being separated or kidnapped, almost as a game, now took on a truly sinister cast.
*I understand,* she said. *Be careful, Zach.* She turned about and bolted away, clearing small trees and underbrush with as little thought as I might give to small pebbles. I turned to Cammy.
"We need to find out what happened here," I said rhetorically. "Between the two of us."
There was an anxious tugging on my leg.
"Between the three of us," I amended hastily, "We should be able to get at least a rough idea of what's going on." I considered a moment. "There ought to be a lot of pokemon around here, but I don't hear a single one. Cammy, go see if you can round up someone who saw what happened. I'll take Venus here and go see what the powers that be have discovered."
Cammy nodded without a word. As I watched, she seemed to melt away into the grass, barely making a sound.
"Well, kid," I said, scooping up the Mawile and perching her on my shoulder. "Just you and me, now." As if to say that she understood my sudden sense of loneliness, Venus's paw patted my ear gently. I smiled. Well, at least I wasn't totally alone.
[To Be Continued.]
"That's usually a good plan," I agreed.
*Saves energy with fewer corrections,* Beni chimed in, still gnawing the last of her roasted fish.
"And it's more fun!" Cammy finished.
Gardevoir rolled her eyes. "You three rehearse that, don't you?"
"Pretty much." *Yes.* "Yep!"
"Sigh." Gardevoir was the first person, human or pokemon, I'd ever heard actually say the word as they sighed. "Okay, well, let me start, then.
"Long ago, Kanto was the only 'civilized' region, and very few parts of that could be considered towns. Only one area, I believe you call it Saffron City, was anything close to a city in those days. Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto were virtually unpopulated except for pokemon and tribal societies. One of these, in Hoenn, was the first to discover the ability to capture and train pokemon. Fortunately, because they and their ancestors had lived with pokemon their entire lives, they didn't capture those who were unwilling, and they treated those they did capture with respect and honor."
I nodded. That was known fact in Sinnoh, though surprisingly neither Johto nor Hoenn had similar legends.
"Eventually, though, the old chief, who had lived before the invention of 'totem staves,' what they called pokeballs, died, and his grandson came into power. The new chief had never experienced pokemon in the wild, knowing only those who had been captured by villagers, and he saw that if one could train them to use as weapons, the one who did that would be more powerful than any other. He succeeded in swaying much of the village to his opinion, and pokemon soon realized that they would be lost if they didn't learn how to fight humans as well as their own natural predators. One of the most powerful wild pokemon finally hit on a way to win. He contrived to meet with one of the few humans who didn't agree with the chief, and they agreed to help each other defeat the new chief and to persuade the village to return to living respectfully with pokemon.
"At first, the young man succeeded, and the village held a brief but vicious civil war. In the end, the young man lost. He was captured and sentenced to death, but his partner, the powerful wild pokemon, helped him and the other five pokemon in his team escape. Eventually, they found themselves at a place not far from here, winded and unable to go further into the forest. He asked for help from the guardian of the forest, my mistress, and she accepted his plea to protect his pokemon from recapture. They were set free in far corners of the globe, where the chief would never find them."
"And the young man?" I asked, suddenly intrigued. The legends had never gone that in-depth.
"He died. The chief shot him from a distance, fearing to get too close to his weapons. When he dishonored himself by doing that, he was removed, and a new chief was selected. That new chief decreed that pokemon and humans were partners, neither to be superior to the other, and that all pokemon in the area were members of his tribe. In essence, that made it so that anyone who hurt a pokemon was tried just like he would be if he'd hurt another human. Many of the pokemon of the time felt this was an acceptable solution, but some few couldn't withhold their anger at what the humans had already tried. A war threatened to start in the pokemon world, but this time, pokemon selected their own trainers, and with them, they were far more powerful than any wild pokemon could ever be."
"Wow," Cammy observed. "That's cool!" Gardevoir looked up at the sky in appeal for a moment, and then locked eyes with me.
"The young man had been the first pokemon trainer, and his sacrifice and that chief who made humans recognize pokemon as equals are why pokemon allow themselves to be caught, and trained for battle. Some few of us remain who remember that time, and we remember the dangers that threatened to end this world. So we train, against each other and in battle with other trainers, to fight for this world if we have to. The descendants of the rest remember only a need to fight and win, as much instinct as conscious thought."
I nodded again. "I understand, but what, precisely, does this have to do with me?"
"I'm getting to that. You see, those six pokemon from that young man's team are still alive. They represent some of the true elemental powers of this planet, and some of them are not pleased with what they have seen lately." She shrugged, and picked up a piece of toast to munch on thoughtfully. "You may have heard the name 'Regigigas' in your travels?"
I hadn't, but I was willing to go with the flow.
"Sure," I lied. Gardevoir gave me a piercing look and I managed to look abashed. "Er, no, not really."
"Regigigas and his sons, Regice, Registeel, and Regirock," Gardevoir intoned in a sepulchral voice, "created the land you sit upon now, and all continents. Their powers were largely spent after the creation of this world, but they were still far more powerful than the average pokemon when Regigigas agreed to work with humans."
"You mean, the creator of the continents served that human?" I asked. I may act stupid, but I've never been slow on the pickup. "A god, essentially, working with a human?"
"Indeed, and the long years since have only seen his power grow. But that is not the true threat. Regice, Registeel and Regirock spent far less of their powers than their father did. They remain powerful enough to unmake that which their father made."
"Break the continents," I said, stunned. "Serious?"
"Deadly," she confirmed. "Celebi, and a handful of other... I suppose you could call them immortals... including Regigigas, do not wish to see this world ended. For better or for worse, we like you humans, for the most part, and we don't want to see you die out before you really have a chance to grow."
"So, is it just those three against you?" I asked. I had heard, as I've said, of Celebi, and it seemed unlikely that a being which transcends time would have much trouble with anything.
"No. Darkrai has leagued against us as well."
"Darkrai?"
Gardevoir sighed. "I had no idea that the legends of humans had died out so quickly."
Cammy raised a paw. "If this Darkrai was in our legends and didn't want us to be ready for him, might he not have eliminated the legends? And the people telling them?"
The psychic pokemon looked at her with new respect. "That's a very good thought, and one I'll have to investigate further," she admitted. "But in the meantime, suffice it to say that, if there is a being devoted wholly to light, goodness and morality, Darkrai is the farthest opposite you could imagine. You mortals lack the reference to understand this, but he is pure and total evil. In fact, he is the entire concept of evil, and nothing you have alive today can come close to him in power."
I whistled. "So, he's the ultimate evil. Nice. And, ah, what..."
"...does this have to do with you?" Gardevoir interrupted. "Yes, I was still getting to that."
Beni was beginning to get somewhat irked at Gardevoir's evasiveness.
*We have training to do,* she sent pointedly. *Hurry up, please.*
"Essentially, the immortals cannot interfere directly. They must restrict themselves to mortal agents such as myself and other pokemon and trainers. Your feelings for your partners has indicated that you might be an excellent choice as one of these agents."
I felt my mental shields snap shut as the suggestion hit.
"No." For all my nervousness, the denial was calm, almost cool. "Not a chance in hell." Less calm.
"What?" I had surprised her. I felt some minor pleasure at the fact, vastly overshadowed by the sense of being roped into something.
"I am a free agent," I said firmly. "I work only with my pokemon, my partners, and not for anyone. Ever."
"This world may be destroyed!" Gardevoir protested.
"Let it." I stood up and kicked dirt over the fire's coals. "Come on, Beni, Cammy. We've got work to do. Good day, Miss Gardevoir." My two partners nodded their own dismissals at her.
All the time she had been speaking, she had been treating me as an inferior, talking down to my level. It was satisfying to see her gaping in astonishment, but I didn't allow myself a backward glance as I left her behind. Beni and Cammy followed without protest, Cammy jumping onto the Arcanine's back as was her custom. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled at each step I took, and I kept expecting shouted words of accusation or an attack from Gardevoir, but nothing happened. I didn't relax until we were safely down the road, perhaps a mile away.
[One week later.]
The contest was being held in Celestic, in honor of somebody having finally identified and captured the legendary pokemon spoken of in the myths of Sinnoh's creation. Apparently, some clown group known as Team Galactic had attempted to use them to create an entirely new world up on Mount Coronet, and this guy and his buddy had stomped all over them. It was pretty cool stuff; I heard all about it on the ferry from Hoenn to Sinnoh.
We had walked the rest of the way in solitude, Beni, Cammy and I. Gardevoir had not bothered us again, and I had my hopes that she wouldn't leave Hoenn to follow us. In fact, I had just given up all worries on that front, and was whistling. It was a beautiful day, and I had not a care in the world.
That was, until I saw Celestic Town. Or rather, where it should have been. There was a twelve foot chain link fence, along with half a dozen Elite 4 guards blocking my view, but from what little I could see, Celestic appeared to have moved on without giving a forwarding address. There was a chasm stretching as far as I could see, with a strangely circular shape to it. I looked up at one of the burly pokemon trainers standing guard outside the fence.
"What happened?" I asked. The guard looked down his nose at me, but didn't reply. I was slightly miffed.
*Ahem.* Beni put a paw on a sign that I had missed.
"Restricted area. Guards are authorized to use lethal force. Do not enter!" I read solemnly. I looked over at the guard, who nodded imperceptibly. I backed slowly away.
"Well, I understand how policy is," I sympathized. "You can't let me enter and you can't talk." I hit an obstruction, a rather soft and warm one. I looked around and hit the ground in shock.
"Who are you?" the obstruction asked. She raised an eyebrow and swept her long blonde hair behind her in an absent minded gesture.
"Zach, miss. I mean, ma'am, I mean..." I babbled.
*Zachary Winton-Kincaid,* Beni supplied for me.
"Pokemon Coordinator!" Cammy added.
"I see," the woman said, smiling a private, very small, smile. "Another contestant, then."
"Yes," I agreed, having regained control of my tongue. "Where has Celestic Town gone?"
"That is a very good question," said Cynthia, Sinnoh League Champion, darkly. "And one I would love to know the answer to." She looked down at me thoughtfully. "Most of the other contestants arrived much earlier," she commented.
I gestured at Beni and Cammy. "Neither of them can use Fly," I said by way of explanation. Cammy flapped her arms energetically, like wings, startling an honest laugh out of the lady.
Most Coordinators are trainers beforehand, and have collected the requisite pokemon and badges to travel quickly. I had always planned to, but the time never seemed right. I never really wanted to collect pokemon, as such. I always enjoyed meeting them instead, making friends with them, and then by mutual agreement traveling on together for a time. I had, in that way, met many pokemon that some trainers didn't even know existed, and more that trainers would have given an arm or a leg to just see. A few days after having departed on my journey, I had seen, far overhead, a Mew, who came down and poked my nose with her paw. I say her, because she looked female, but I didn't actually get a chance to speak to her. She giggled and zoomed up into the sky while I was still trying to collect my thoughts.
"I see. Well, it doesn't seem likely that you knew what was going to happen in advance." She made as though to turn away, and I felt a pang of sudden guilt as I recalled Gardevoir.
I sighed. "Ms. Cynthia?"
"Cynthia," she corrected, turning back to me.
"Cynthia," I agreed. "We... need to talk."
She, and two of her biggest guards escorted me to a nearby cabin untouched by the...whatever... and I sat down. A mug of tea was set in front of me, and I felt heartened when the guard who served it winked at me. Then again, it could just have been something in his eye.
"This happened about a week ago," I began. I told her the entire story that Gardevoir had told me, leaving out only the references to the night before. She listened gravely as I explained the apparent quandary the legendary pokemon were in, and surprisingly flinched when I named Darkrai as the cause of the problem. My cup of tea had been refilled twice since I had started talking, by the time I was finished, and I wished there had been something stronger in it as she leveled a grave look at me.
"I had family in Celestic," she said without intonation.
"I'm sorry," I said, and winced. "I mean, really sorry. But that doesn't help, does it?"
"No, it doesn't." That came out harsh, but she drew a deep breath and sighed. "Listen. You won't believe this, but it's not your fault. Yes, you should have perhaps called someone and told them this, but..." she sighed again. "Nobody would have believed you. I might have, but that's not even certain, and I don't particularly think you would have managed to reach me, anyway."
To be honest, the idea of calling the League, any League, had not occurred to me, let alone calling the Champion direct.
"You're right," I said. "I don't believe it."
"Well, fine," Cynthia replied. "In the meantime, I have a few phone calls to make, now that we know what we're up against." She turned to the phone and nodded at the guards. "He can go outside, but don't let him get to far. We might need him to tell the story again when the Four arrive. Lucian is on his way, I think. Flint, Aaron, and Bertha will be slightly longer, since they still have challengers to defeat."
A rumbling crash echoed in the distance, making us all run outside to see what had happened. The fence had fallen, and with it six feet more of ground. The chasm was growing, and Cynthia's gaze hardened as she saw it.
"Forget that," she snarled. "As of now, I am declaring a Level Five Emergency. All gym and League challenges are canceled and I want the entire League, gym leaders, Elite 4, and Professor Rowan here now."
As she turned away, a sound caught my attention from near the chasm. It sounded like a cry, ragged and breathless, and the guards shouted as I bolted for the edge.
*It sounded like it came from here,* Beni said, pawing at a fallen tree. She had been listening to my thoughts the entire time and had understood immediately my suspicions. I heard the cry again, and I heaved at the tree desperately. It came a few inches off the ground as I struggled against it, and then it suddenly lifted up entirely. I looked up to see a blue, red and yellow pokemon that I didn't recognize.
"Good job, Garchomp," Cynthia called out to it. The pokemon-Garchomp?-nodded and set the log down nearby, but out of the way. I looked down to see what we had rescued.
A pair of yellow eyes stared balefully at me out of a oval black face. I looked down, appalled; had the log crushed it? The face moved to one side, and a small tan and black creature coughed and sputtered as it dug its way out from underneath.
"Maaawwwile!" it said. I suspected it was as close to a curse as pokemon got, judging from Beni's indulgent purr.
*It's a Mawile,* Beni told us redundantly.
"I see," I said. I offered it a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Mawile."
The black and yellow face from before whipped out and bit down on my hand. I winced as I saw the teeth just barely miss, and then felt my hand move up and down. I looked more closely and saw that what I had thought was an entire pokemon was actually attached to Mawile's head. Apparently, it considered it much the same as any other appendage, and found it easier to shake hands like that.
*Actually,* Beni commented dryly, *She thought you had offered her food, and I managed to convey to her in time what the extended hand meant. Otherwise, you'd be writing with your left hand from now on.*
I managed not to flinch again as Mawile released my hand.
"Ask her if she saw anything," I asked Beni as soon as I had all my fingers back. I didn't want Mawile to start gnawing on things if she got nervous.
Cammy finally arrived as Beni tried to obey my orders.
"Oh, wow!" she exclaimed, and before I could stop her, she scooped up the little creature into her arms. "It's so cute!"
"Cammy, watch out!" I tried to say, but before I could, the large jaw had reached out and fastened on her nose. I stared in shock as Cammy giggled.
"Aww, you little thing," she said, prying it apart. I remembered then that Lucario is part-Steel, and permitted my heart to start beating again.
"Can we keep it?" Cammy asked as she stroked the Mawile's ears. Cynthia cleared her throat and I looked apologetically at her.
"We'll see," I told Cammy. "Beni, what have you got for us?"
*Not much,* Beni admitted. *She's not very old, perhaps equivalent to your age or a few years younger, in human terms, so she is still very frightened and very confused. But as nearest I can tell, a large dry creature-* She paused, and cocked her head to one side. *Yes, dry,* she agreed. *Apparently, Mawile 'see' taste rather than color. Anyway, she tasted a large dry creature land in the middle of the pale squishies-that would be Celestic-and then the creature, Celestic, and all its inhabitants, vanished entirely.*
I looked across the void where a thriving town, if a bit quiet, had once been, and my gaze hardened. "Darkrai," I muttered.
*Probably,* my partner agreed. She looked over at Cammy, still gleefully petting the Mawile. *Mawile sees her as sweet, and friendly. I gather that Mawile are also impressionable, because she's conceived of you as an elder brother and Cammy as an elder sister.*
"What about you?" I asked jokingly. She gave me a very tired look, her mane puffing out in irritation.
*I,* she said to all and sundry, *She thinks I'm your mate.*
I heard Cynthia burst into gales of much-needed laughter, and the iron mask-like faces of her guards even broke with small smiles. Only the three of us didn't laugh, since we knew how accurate that impression was. We exchanged glances and looked at the Mawile almost in one motion.
"We'll keep her," I said firmly. I looked back at Cynthia, who was still laughing, and shrugged. "If the Champion doesn't object, of course."
"The Champion-whew-thinks that's a splendid idea," she managed, between breaths.
"How about it, Mawile?" I asked her, kneeling next to Cammy to look at the odd pokemon. Her jaws snapped just in front of my nose as Cammy jerked her away.
"No!" she told the Mawile sternly. "You do not bite."
The plant-like appendage (strange how easy it was to think of it like that) wilted as Mawile nodded. "Mawile."
*She understands. She also understands your offer and accepts,* Beni told me. I smiled and held out a pokeball.
"Well, here you go," I said. The Mawile jumped at the pokeball and tapped the button. The red light shone around her and sucked her in, and I heard the ding as the pokeball closed without a struggle.
"We should probably name her," Cammy commented. I nodded and opened the pokeball to let Mawile out.
*Jaws,* Beni suggested for a name.
"Venus," I countered. Cammy shook her head.
"It should be something cool!" she said with disapproval. "How about..." She paused as she felt Mawile jerking on her leg fur. The Mawile reached out with her appendage and grabbed my jeans gently, once she had her attention.
"I think she likes 'Venus,'" Cynthia observed. The Mawile nodded and did a simple dance.
"I think she likes it very much," I agreed. "Venus it is, then. Welcome to the team, Venus!"
Cynthia and I amused ourselves by working out what moves Venus knew. It was a dismal set, but the Champion agreed that Venus would have more powerful abilities once she matured.
"She really is in the 'gawky teenager' state," she observed. "Once she's had a chance to get used to being fully grown and capable, she'll work out for herself what she can do."
Obvious stuff, of course, but we needed something to occupy ourselves. I was relieved when Lucian teleported in with his Alakazam and Cynthia departed to brief him. I turned to Beni and Cammy.
"I need one of you to try to find Gardevoir," I said. "She knew something about what was about to happen, and I'm not sure what it was, but if you can find her, we need her. Check where we camped that one night, then work your way back to us with the same route we took to get here. If she followed us, she may be somewhere along the way."
*I'll go,* Beni said. I nodded; I had expected that. I pulled out a pouch we had used before and slung it around her neck. It held half of our total savings, sufficient funds to get Beni there and back and whatever she needed along the way.
"You can move much faster than we can," I said, "So I'll expect you back within a week, no more. If you're not back by then, we'll come hunting for you."
Beni nodded grimly. The plans we had once laid for emergency situations, such as being separated or kidnapped, almost as a game, now took on a truly sinister cast.
*I understand,* she said. *Be careful, Zach.* She turned about and bolted away, clearing small trees and underbrush with as little thought as I might give to small pebbles. I turned to Cammy.
"We need to find out what happened here," I said rhetorically. "Between the two of us."
There was an anxious tugging on my leg.
"Between the three of us," I amended hastily, "We should be able to get at least a rough idea of what's going on." I considered a moment. "There ought to be a lot of pokemon around here, but I don't hear a single one. Cammy, go see if you can round up someone who saw what happened. I'll take Venus here and go see what the powers that be have discovered."
Cammy nodded without a word. As I watched, she seemed to melt away into the grass, barely making a sound.
"Well, kid," I said, scooping up the Mawile and perching her on my shoulder. "Just you and me, now." As if to say that she understood my sudden sense of loneliness, Venus's paw patted my ear gently. I smiled. Well, at least I wasn't totally alone.
[To Be Continued.]