Chapter 20 –Mind Games
“Well, other than the problems you’ve already told me about, she appears to be healthy,” the nurse said as she delivered Kimiko’s three pokéballs. “If you need anything else, please do let me know!” she added cheerfully, then turned and headed back to her counter.
Alex, Vivian, and Alyssa had found Kimiko in the forest shortly after the thief – they never learned his name – departed, due to some bright light source, which Kimiko had identified for them as a sunny day technique. They in turn had informed her that she was not, in fact, in the Whispering Forest, simply a wooded area in the route southwest of Xioria, for which she was grateful – although now that she wasn’t there any longer it was a moot point and did nothing for the panicking she had done after the battle. They walked her and her team back to the pokémon center, where she had her team get checked out; Alex then insisted that Kimiko get a once-over, too.
Radar was no worse for wear this time around. Fantomé, after evolving and relaxing in the battle’s aftermath, had been unusually quiet, but Kimiko had expected that. Perhaps somewhat less for her generally cheerful gastly than she might have for someone else, but it wasn’t anything to worry about. Kimiko herself had been stabbed in the arm by Ariel at some point as she tried to pick up the fish, and overall mentally scarred by the whole ordeal, but otherwise was also healthy. Ariel herself was fine, but her antisocial behavior had not changed.
“At least now she doesn’t have a shell to hide in?” Alex suggested.
Kimiko frowned at him. “I guess so, but that’s not going to solve anything. Just because she can’t pretend to not see or hear me anymore doesn’t mean she can’t still ignore me.”
“Hm… hey, I have an idea,” Alex said. He turned to the gym leaders. “You guys are psychics, right? Is it possible for you to like, read Ariel’s mind and find out why she’s so… well, why she is how she is?”
Now there was an idea. Kimiko felt a little foolish for not thinking of it sooner, but she allowed herself the excuse of having the pokémon in question stolen and the subsequent distress. But now that everyone was back together and relatively healthy, maybe she could finally get some answers about her clammy pokémon.
Vivian almost rolled her eyes – she caught herself halfway, but Kimiko didn’t miss it. “Of course it is possible, provided she allows us to do so. We psychics refuse to invade the minds of others without permission – those of us who are not barbarians, anyway. It is rude, otherwise. But I have a challenger tomorrow to prepare for. Alyssa, this is something you are capable of handling without me, correct?”
As the younger girl nodded, Alex said, “Actually, now that this whole thing is over, I was planning on challenging you, too.”
Vivian looked him over. “Come with me to the gym. We will set up an appointment. I will return you here afterwards.”
Alex nodded and stood up, looking down at his girlfriend. “Is that okay with you?” She nodded to him, unsure of why he was bothering to ask. Of course, with Ariel missing, she knew he would be at her side, and she appreciated that. But now that Ariel had been recovered there was no reason for him to babysit her, so Alex could return to collecting his badges. Kimiko had no intention of stopping him. As for herself, she needed some time to recover before challenging Vivian. “Good luck with Ariel. Let me know what her deal is.”
“Of course,” Kimiko replied. “I’m probably going to have to vent to you about it anyway,” she added dryly.
He nodded, turning back to Vivian, who had a hand on her gardevoir’s shoulder. She then took one of the pokémon’s hands, so Alex reached for the other, and then they were gone.
With them gone, Alyssa led Kimiko outside behind the center to a small pond. “Alright, let’s see if we can’t get this figured out!” As Kimiko released Ariel into the water, Alyssa sent out her elgyem.
It didn’t take very long for them to figure out that Ariel was extremely displeased with her evolution. It certainly wasn’t the root of her problems, since she had only been evolved so recently and her antisocial behavior existed long before that. But it was a start.
Gathering information turned out to be surprisingly easy, given how clammy Ariel had been before her evolution. “She’d rather have evolved into a huntail, like her father,” Alyssa explained, her elgyem gleaming the information from Ariel’s mind.
Kimiko was upset about that, but she wasn’t sure what she could do. She hadn’t planned on Ariel evolving any time soon. And at this point, it had already happened. As far as she knew, there was no way to reverse a pokémon’s evolution. Well, with the exception of the slowpoke family, whose entire evolution depended on the relationship between the slowpoke and the shellder pair. She had no idea how that might be any help, though. This was clearly not the main problem, however; Ariel’s issues existed long before her evolution.
With Elgyem feeding translations to Alyssa, and the green-haired woman passing that information along, it was slow going. They spent about an hour talking over the huntail-gorebyss evolution with Ariel, who was chattier than Kimiko had ever seen her since she’d caught her. Most of what she had to say was just complaining about her situation, though.
Eventually, whether by accident or by calculated slip-of-the-tongue, they got a hit.
“Byssssss!”
Alyssa tilted her head as Elgyem telepathically fed her the translation. “Did you know that she once had another trainer?”
“Hm? No, I hadn’t,” Kimiko said, surprised. Though, if she’d had prior experience with another trainer, that would at least explain how she’d bested Diamond way back during their first full-team practice battle. She looked down at her pink pokémon curiously.
“Gore gorebysssss!” Ariel snarled at her from pond.
“Tell us about them?”
“Wait, I have a better idea,” Alyssa interrupted, patting her pokémon on the head while she addressed the gorebyss. “Will you show us this trainer?”
Kimiko found herself in an unusual location. All she could see was a huge forest far in the distance and a bright, sunny sky above her. She was able to look somewhat around at her surroundings, and from what she could tell – the oddest thing of all – she was inside a backpack. She had somehow been shrunken down… or was she seeing things from Ariel’s perspective? She tried to inspect herself, which she found difficult with her view being limited to whatever the memory owner could see. But by focusing downwards, she could see slight pink and blue coloring at the bottom of her vision. She
was seeing through Ariel’s eyes.
Was this what Alex had gone through when they relived my memory? Kimiko thought.
Suddenly there was a wingull flying alongside her. She felt an awareness of frustration – Ariel’s feelings, not her own, she guessed – at not being able to fly in her head. As she watched the wingull drift slowly downwards, Kimiko realized they were extremely high up in the air, and there was a large cliffside down below her. Ariel must have been inside her trainer’s backpack while he was rock climbing, she realized, and began to panic. She could tell this was her own fear of heights kicking in, rather than Ariel’s, and tried to remind herself that she couldn’t actually get hurt in a memory. …Could she?
She heard a voice calling down from behind her, “How are you doing back there?” And then she noticed the sensation of movement for the first time. It had been there all along, she knew, but it was suddenly brought to her attention in her mind, which must mean Ariel was focusing on it. She heard herself shout something back in reply, and the wingull flew back into her vision cheerily. Clearly, the wingull was there to catch her if she fell out of the backpack, something Ariel was very obviously expecting.
Then the vision shifted, and the first thing Kimiko realized was that she was no longer outdoors. She was facing a young man, looking up at him from about stomach height. He appeared to be geared up with goggles and some kind of backpack. He reached towards her and Kimiko felt an odd mix of excitement and fear. It didn’t take long to realize why. The boy moved to a door, and when he pushed it open, they were bombarded with wind and a loud whooshing sound as the air rushed by. The boy looked out the door, one hand bracing himself and the other cradling Ariel and allowing her a view of the clouds and the ground below. Very far below. Kimiko suddenly felt apprehensive, and this time she knew it was her own, because it completely overshadowed the excitement that Ariel was feeling. With a cheer as her only warning, the boy dove out of the plane.
Then Kimiko experienced the sensation of free-falling. It was both exhilarating and absolutely terrifying. Far more terrifying, she decided. Had he
really just jumped out of a plane carrying his pokémon, with nothing to secure her but just his arms? She was even further horrified to realize she could not close her eyes and think of something else. She couldn’t even scream. There was, however, an odd pressing feeling on her brain, and somehow, she knew this was not Ariel’s memory, but something outside it. She thought – begged – the presence with all her focus, to end the memory.
And then, to her mercy, the scene shifted again. Kimiko felt much more comfortable now, her fear of heights no longer a factor, and also bolstered by Ariel’s feeling of confidence. They were underwater now, and Ariel had free reign to move as she chose this time. She relished it, even if her movement was still limited by her very nature as a clam. She caught sight of her trainer – Kimiko knew by now that’s who the boy was even without Ariel thinking it – decked out in scuba gear in somewhat familiar waters. The water was almost crystal clear, and she could see everything with greater clarity than she figured she would have with her own eyes, even the slopes of the dirt up to the shore and the wingull hovering just above the surface, far away. They were far away from shore, somewhere near the center of the water, making the clear visibility impressive. Ariel’s underwater vision was much better than her own.
Ariel swam alongside her trainer as best as she could, and Kimiko could just feel her sheer joy, a feeling she’d never associated with the clammy pokémon before. But then it quickly changed to worry, as Ariel noticed her trainer flailing downwards, pointing at something. Her gaze followed and she saw a green-and-black pokéball sinking in the water. Ariel immediately changed course to collect it. She had no idea how she was going to, but she was going to try. Then she saw her trainer take off his mask and try to shout something, and
that made Ariel panic. She knew humans couldn’t breathe water, so why was her human trying to talk to her now?
She noticed too late the octillery hiding in the weeds below. Was her trainer trying to order an attack?
She wasn’t going to reach the ball in time, she realized. Maybe Trainer had, too. So, Ariel did what she thought was her best chance – she shot a forceful water gun at the pokéball, hoping that would be enough while underwater to change its sinking course away from the octillery waiting below.
But what happened ended up being worse. Ariel stared in horror as her attack hit the ball with enough force to push the center button and open it, spilling out whoever was inside. Green-and-black, why couldn’t she remember who was in the green-and-black ball? She prayed it wasn’t Magnus; Trainer was comically terrified of letting the camerupt near any form of water.
But no, the ball released Spark instead, and Ariel relaxed a little. The tynamo wasn’t a fish, but she had seen him swim though the air easily enough, so why would water be any different?
And then the octillery caught him with a tentacle and swallowed him whole.
Her trainer still hadn’t put on his breathing mask yet. She wasn’t sure he even could, now that he’d already let water into it. But he hadn’t even tried to swim for the surface, trying to reach the other water pokémon with a similar terror on his face. Ariel shot a water gun at him instead, trying to stop him, but it was diluted and with less force, being under the water and farther away than the ball.
“Go up, now! I’ll deal with this!” she shouted, trying to calm her panic.
She cursed herself for not having any limbs to point with, because her trainer sure didn’t get the message. She called out for the stupid wingull to deal with Trainer instead; she realized he wouldn’t be any use under the surface, and while Magnus could tolerate water far better than Trainer thought, he still couldn’t swim, which meant it was up to her to get control of the situation. So, she turned her attention back on the octillery, who was now swimming up to meet her, instead. If she could prove she could deal with this, maybe her trainer would go with the wingull for the air he needed willingly.
But what could she do? With her trainer so close, she couldn’t make a whirlpool. Water gun didn’t have nearly enough force to damage another pokémon under the water. She wasn’t sure what reaction an ice beam would cause in the lake. She only had one other real option. She solidified her shell with an iron defense technique and dove downwards, clamping on the first tentacle the octopus threw at her, and held on for dear life as it flailed wildly.
She lost all sense of direction as she struggled to hold on, clamping as tight as she could. The octillery was flailing madly, and with her shell mostly closed she couldn’t see much else outside of a sliver. Then she felt an impact and let go as her foe slammed her into a rock.
Ariel bolstered her defenses again; she would not allow that trick to stop her a second time. But what did stop her was her trainer; he hadn’t started for the surface after all, and was now snared by the ankles by the diving octillery. He was clearly gasping for breath now, but was powerless against his captor. Ariel dove at the tentacle holding him, hoping she could apply enough pressure to make it let go. She was instead smacked by a different tentacle and thrown off balance, then it caught her in a bind attack.
And that was where she stayed, powerless to save her drowning trainer, forced to watch as he slowly went limp in the octillery’s grip.
“She doesn’t like you because you’re not a daredevil?” Alex summarized, to Kimiko’s amusement.
“Something like that,” she replied, trying to make sense of her pokémon’s feelings. “She
liked that rush, from the skydiving, being so far from the water. And she liked being able to swim with him at the bottom of Petal Lake, until… that happened. I don’t know if she doesn’t think I’m skilled enough, or because I’m not a thrill-seeker like her old trainer was, or if she just thinks all humans are idiots
because of what happened to her last trainer. It’s hard to tell and she wouldn’t give us a solid answer. It’s kind of like she regretted letting us know that much and forced us out of her mind. Honestly, I think the real reason is that she feels guilty about not only getting the tynamo eaten, but getting her former trainer drowned as well.”
Kimiko sighed, laying backwards on her bed and folding her arms behind her head, staring up at the ceiling. “She thinks he was a much better trainer than I am, and he still died. She wasn’t really sure whether or not she wanted another trainer, which is why she didn’t even respond when I asked if she wanted to be released. And that’s why she battled Diamond way back. She felt it was worth her time, and thought maybe I could prove my ability to her.”
“I guess she was satisfied then, what with her winning that one.”
“No, not really. She’d done most of the fighting herself, remember? I didn’t give her many commands. If I’d have known I was being tested…” She frowned up at the ceiling above. “Anyway, funny thing, the reason she’s sticking around now is because Fantomé evolved. She figures we were good enough to get her back from that thief, so we’re not
completely talentless. It’s like deep down she
wants to be trained, but on the surface, she’s holding herself back.”
Alex was silent for a moment, but Kimiko wasn’t looking at him so she couldn’t read his expression. When he did speak up, he sounded as though he wasn’t sure if he should be. “I guess badges don’t mean much to a pokémon who’s seen their trainer die.”
She shrugged as best she could while lying down. “I guess not. It’s not as though they’re a shield or something. I sometimes wonder why pokémon even care about them. To them, it must like some arbitrary human measurement with no meaning.”
“You’re very nonchalant about this,” Alex said, his tone a mixture of suspicion and worry.
Kimiko closed her eyes, calculated her response before speaking. “This whole thing has had me thinking. A lot has happened already since we left home. I feel like I’m just wandering aimlessly. I have a goal, but no real plan or path to follow. I’m just charging forwards and relying on pure dumb luck to happen across an answer, and all that is doing is getting me lost. It’s only been a few months and suddenly I’m an emotional roller-coaster. And I’m not a good trainer. Don’t even think about trying to argue that, I know you’re going to, but just… don’t.”
She took a deep breath and continued. “I need to get control over myself again. Maybe if my team is better trained, I wouldn’t worry so much about things like this. And they’re trying, or at least, Radar is. And I guess Fantomé is too, in his own way. I mean, both of them held their ground against that guy who was probably at a much higher level than they are, and Fantomé even evolved from that. Ariel thinks I
could be good, which is why she’s still with me. But on the other hand, I lost to Wyatt, who’s like what, ten years younger than me? I need to stop and actually train if I don’t want to keep getting beat by children.
“But I think… before all that, I want a break,” she admitted with tension. She had been considering the idea for a while, unsure of whether or not returning home would really be for the best, but saying it aloud felt somehow decisive. She still wasn’t sure if she actually wanted to or not, though, and that was saying nothing of how Alex would respond.
“Alright,” he said from across the room. He didn’t say anything about the draw, or how he’d also lost a few battles to some kids much younger than them, he simply rolled with her train of thought. “What do you want to do?”
His reply puzzled her. “I just told you. I’m going to take a break from traveling.”
“I mean, what are you going to do instead? Just spend time training? Take a vacation? Go home?”
“Oh.” She hesitated a moment longer before digging in her heels and forcing the words out. “I’m going to go home and see Michelle for a while. Probably train a bit while I’m there. Maybe take her on a little vacation to Hoenn or something, I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought of making any other plans until you mentioned it... She’s never been out of the region. Neither have I, for that matter. It could be fun.”
“Would you mind waiting until after my gym battle tomorrow, then?”
“Huh?”
“I’ve already scheduled it, so I’d like to get it over with before we travel all the way back home,” Alex explained.
Kimiko sat up and spun to face him, surprised. “You want to come?”
He tilted his head in confusion at her. “You weren’t expecting me to?”
“Well, um… no…” she admitted, blushing. “You’re doing well with your badge quest; I don’t expect you to stop just because I’m having a rough time of it.”
She noticed his strained expression before he forced a smile onto his face. It didn’t keep the edginess out of his voice, though. “How many times have we gone over this by now? I’m not doing this on my own, I want you with me.”
“I know, but –”
“And that means if you need to rest for a while, then we’ll rest until you’re ready to move on. The gyms aren’t going anywhere. We can come back here for you when you’re ready.”
She looked into his eyes and knew his mind was made up. Not just now, but years ago. She wasn’t going to change it with her impulsiveness. Not that she wanted to, though. She was glad he’d still be by her side while she sorted out the mess her life had become since leaving home.
The scene before him triggered the beginnings of a headache, and Alex knew this was going to be a long gym.
For as far as the eye could see, the room was a churning assortment of pinks and purples. The door closed behind the pair, and immediately vanished into the swirling mass of hues. Looking down, even the ground below was indistinguishable from the walls. Alex swore he could make out a mirror somewhere off to his left, but he couldn’t tell how far away or how large it was. Looking too hard hurt his eyes, and the mirror only amplified the distortion effect.
He took note of a strange tingling sensation in his body, similar to the elgyem’s memory probing. He thought maybe he was imagining it due to the headache, but no; it wasn’t just his head, and with a little focus, he felt that there was definitely a strong psychic static in the air.
To his right, Kimiko seemed to be experiencing a similar effect.
“Remind me to never do drugs,” she said, eyes closed and holding her head.
“There’s probably a maze in here, but I can’t see a path.” Alex glanced again at his girlfriend. Alyssa had convinced her sister to allow them both to tackle the gym puzzle together.
“How do you wanna handle this?” Kimiko replied.
Alex shrugged. “Just start walking, I guess? I’m not sure what the goal even is.”
“The goal is to reach the end of the maze.”
Kimiko looked up at him; he shook his head. Before either could ask, the voice echoed around them again. “Be cautious; you may find foes along your path. Do not trust your eyes. You have twenty minutes.”
“Stupid psychics,” Kimiko grumbled as the pair started to move.
“I thought you loved psychics?”
“I mean like psychic pokémon, psychic abilities. Teleportation, mind reading. Not stupid shit like this. What even does this have to do with anything? If I were a psychic gym leader, I’d just have like… I dunno, what about one of those riddles? You know, one person always lies, one always tells the truth, however that one goes. Something like that. Or maybe something like a quiz show, or a fortune telling room or something. Do you get a badge? Sorry, trainer, my magic 8-ball says ‘ask again later’. See ya.”
Alex laughed at her. “And that’s why you’re not a gym leader.”
“Is it too late to change my mind about doing this?”
“Yes.”
Kimiko appeared to start to speak, but thought better of it and just shrugged instead. A second later, the pair walked smack into a mirror.
“Ow, shit! See, this is what I mean! What’s the point of this challenge?” Kimiko groaned, rubbing her nose.
“Dunno,” Alex answered. The smack only intensified his headache, which was already worsening just by being in the room. He wasn’t quite as grumpy as his girlfriend appeared to be, but this was already easily his least favorite gym challenge thus far.
When the pair was once again able to focus, the mirror was gone and a small pink and blue pokémon stood in its place.
“They’re not mirrors,” Alex realized, releasing Diamond as the hattrem retreated a few paces backwards. “That was a light screen. Diamond, shadow claw!”
The sableye lunged forwards, claw glowing purple, unperturbed by the unusual surroundings. The hattrem was slow, and responded simply by throwing up a green protect bubble around itself. Diamond hit it and bounced off, regaining his footing and quickly trying again, but to the same results.
“Try night shade, then,” Alex commanded.
Diamond launched the twin ghostly energy beams from his sparkling eyes without hesitation, causing an eruption of smoke that blocked the psychic-type from view for a moment. That time was all it needed, rolling to the side – looking completely healthy – and blasting Diamond back with a bright light of her own in the form of a dazzling gleam technique.
Alex had to look away, recalling Diamond as he did so. “Damn, it’s hard enough to see in here without that, thanks.” He threw Thorn’s ball out instead.
“Thorn, leech seed it!”
Thorn, however, was not so unaffected by the surrounding psychic energy as Diamond had been. The bayleef shook her head, scattering a few glowing seeds in front of her, but none of them landed anywhere near the hattrem and fizzled out of existence. The hattrem responded by shocking Thorn with a psybeam.
“Bay, bayyy!” she cried out in frustration, shaking her head again and blinking her eyes.
“Alright then, if we can’t target it, how about some random thrashing? Try vine whip!”
Two vines erupted from the leaves on Thorn’s neck and suddenly there were panicked squeals coming from her foe. Nothing appeared to be landing, however; Alex wondered if the hattrem was somehow able to read where the vines would hit. It had appeared to be slow early on, but it was speedier than it let on.
“This place is just designed to give you a headache,” Kimiko commented. And between the psychedelic background, the walking into walls, and this frustrating battle, Alex was inclined to agree.
“Light screen or not, we gotta hit it with
something. Thorn, magical leaf!”
His grass-type gratefully closed her eyes, shielding them against the harsh surroundings, and flicked her leaf again, this time flinging glowing multicolored leaves forwards. The hattrem couldn’t avoid the attack this time, as the leaves followed its roll until they struck their target. With one final, quick shriek, the hattrem exploded and vanished.
“The hell just happened?” Kimiko gasped, her eyes wide.
Alex stood, staring at the spot the pokémon vanished into, thinking.
This is a trick, the hattrem just blended into the background or something. It’ll pop out and counter attack any second. Do not trust your eyes,
the voice said. And really, pokémon don’t just explode… Well, okay, they do, but they don’t just vanish afterwards… Do they?
A few more moments of nothing and Alex relaxed. “Substitute,” he said as he realized where he’d seen a similar effect. “That’s enough, good job, Thorn,” he added, granting the bayleef a rest. “Why don’t you heal up with synthesis?”
As Thorn attempted her healing technique, Alex let out Diamond and knelt down to him. “You alright?”
“Eye, saeye,” the ghost grunted, arms crossed. He swung his head left and right; Alex suspected it was more to try to clear the afterimages of the dazzling gleam rather than an answer to his inquiry.
“Sorry, I didn’t know it had a fairy-type move,” Alex said defensively. “My mistake.”
“Eye,” his ghost replied with a huff.
“Bayleef, lee!” Thorn joined the conversation with an angry whine.
“Play nice, guys,” Alex warned.
“Bay!” added Thorn, sticking out her tongue.
Diamond, however, didn’t seem phased. “Sable say eyeye,” he said, then stuck up a hand behind him with a rather rude gesture towards the grass-type.
Alex sighed, hand on his forehead. His headache was still intensifying, though now more from his rebellious pokémon rather than the disorienting locale; his eyes had started to finally adjust to that now. He decided to ignore the gesture, though he did wonder where his pokémon picked
that up from. “I said I’m sorry. You might as well recover.”
The sableye looked up at his trainer as though surprised by the suggestion, and his body immediately began to glow with a rather sinister-looking blackish aura. Somehow, the dark-type looked a bit healthier, standing taller than he had moments ago, and the aura faded.
When the two pokémon were recalled, Kimiko stepped up to him. “That was fun. What are you gonna do about him?”
“Get through this gym, for now. Maybe I can use this break of yours to work on his attitude.”
With their attention off the injured pokémon, Alex finally realized that the light screen from the hattrem that previously blocked the path was now gone, and behind it lay a door. Going through it only took them into another psychedelic room. So, the pair continued walking. It didn’t take long before they ran into another wall of light. After another curse from Kimiko, this one vanished to reveal the form of a gardevoir standing among the swirling vortex of psychic energy in the background. Having seen this pokémon before and knowing it surely must have a fairy-type technique, and that Thorn had already had some difficulty in this strange arena, Alex tried his third pokémon instead.
“Koyomi, rapid spin!”
His staryu boomeranged herself towards her target. The gardevoir, however, simply teleported out of the way. Koyomi righted herself in midair and shot a barrage of water blasts at the psychic, who once again teleported to a different spot and fired a retaliatory psybeam at the water-type.
“Really? More of this shit?” Alex groaned, feeling truly agitated for the first time today. At least the staryu didn’t seem terribly bothered by her surroundings. “Koyomi, keep up rapid spin.”
Ever serene, his staryu obeyed again with a flash of her red core, landing and launching herself once again at the opposing fairy-type. Said gardevoir once again teleported out of the way, but Koyomi changed her course to follow. The gardevoir began to teleport longer and longer distances away, and Alex and Kimiko had to duck down more than once to avoid the star-shaped projectile bouncing around the room as she relentlessly pursued her target, the spinning increasing her speed more and more every moment.
Then, by some stroke of luck, the gardevoir teleported directly into Koyomi’s path.
And Koyomi flew straight through it.
The staryu kept going and slammed hard into a barrier, ricocheting backwards and dropping to the ground. She landed, somehow managing to balance herself on one limb until she adjusted to stand on a second. By the time Alex looked away from her, the gardevoir had vanished.
“It was never even there,” he realized. “We’ve just been fighting an illusion. Double team or something. So long as it could dodge any attacks, it didn’t have to counter because we’d never be hitting anything. They’re trying to stall us.”
The room went silent; Alex knew he was visibly frustrated, and that was likely why Kimiko hadn’t made the smart-ass retort he had been expecting. She looked annoyed too, but also a bit more relaxed than she had during the first battle; she must have realized that her boyfriend was becoming more irritated and that her own lack of discipline would only make things worse, so she backed off a little. Her only expression was her mouth set in a firm line as if to say “well,
that just happened.” Koyomi remained quiet as well, staring unnervingly in the direction of her trainer, waiting for him to tell her what to do next. Alex found himself lamenting how little he let Koyomi out compared to his other two pokémon recently.
“Go ahead and recover.” Not for the first time, Alex was glad that all three members of his team thus far had self-sustaining recovery techniques.
Koyomi obediently obliged, her red core glowing, and the rest of her body following shortly after for a few moments. When the red aura faded, the water-type looked steadier on her two bottom limbs and her two arm-like limbs raised up and down. Alex could only guess what his third pokémon was doing, though he swore she looked like she was trying to flex.
“You did well there, Koyomi. Why don’t you take a break?” The staryu’s body half twisted around; for some reason Alex imagined her blushing in embarrassment at the compliment, and he realized this thought was not his own, but actually coming from Koyomi. Maybe something about their surroundings was amplifying her emotion transferring ability? Her core flashed once in what he’d recently understood to mean “yes” and, understanding it to be an answer to his suggestion rather than his theory, returned her to her ball.
Another wooden door had appeared where the gardevoir had been. The room beyond was yet another looking exactly the same as the previous two. Alex wasn’t sure how much time had passed, and this gym didn’t have a clock tower like Cory’s had. With sudden inspiration, Alex released Diamond again. The ghost looked less than pleased with being called upon a third time; his arms crossed and he tapped his foot impatiently, staring at the swirling pinks at his feet.
“Diamond, we’re on a timer here.” The ghost didn’t respond. Alex knelt down to him, unsure of how to react; most pokémon did not appreciate having demands made of them, but both ghost-types and dark-types had a tendency to require a more direct, firm approach. Diamond was both, yet that approach hadn’t seemed to make a lasting impact. “Listen, I really could use your help,” Alex offered, trying a different method.
That got the sableye’s attention. “Eye, eye,” he said with a huff. Alex could read that well enough.
I’ll bet you do.
“Look, I know you’re having trouble with feint attack,” Alex continued, and Diamond grunted and turned away. Alex kept going anyway. “We’re in some kind of maze here, and we can’t tell where the path is. You don’t have to go anywhere, but could you maybe take a look around?”
Diamond actually laughed at that, then said something Alex couldn’t translate. He didn’t move, however.
“What are you trying to do?” Kimiko asked.
“I was kinda hoping that Diamond would be able to see a path in that dark place pokémon go to when using that move,” Alex replied. “I mean, it has to look something like the real thing, right? How else can they pick and choose where to exit when attacking a target? I figure Diamond would be able to go in there, get a feel for the layout, and lead us… assuming this weird psychic energy wouldn’t impact the look of the place in there, too.”
Kimiko looked thoughtful. “We might be able to do something about that,” she noted, casting a quick glance at the sableye below and pulling a ball of her own from her bag.
Alex waited, but no psychic voice echoed in his head to protest. “What is it you have in mind? I don’t think anyone on your team can…?”
Kimiko released Fantomé. As he materialized, she said, “Maybe he can’t travel to the dark world, but he can move through walls, right?” Alex nodded in understanding as Kimiko turned to her ghost. “Okay Fantomé, I need you – hey!”
As soon as the haunter caught sight of his surroundings, he laughed gleefully and took off back in the direction they came from, the serenity from the previous night overcome. He stopped at a particular swirl on one wall, watched it for a moment as it seemed to spin clockwise, and then proceeded to spin his own body along with it, his hands clapping as they rotated around each other separately.
Before either trainer could comment, Diamond growled at the other ghost, waving a claw angrily and letting out a long string of words that caused the haunter to stop and stare with confusion etched on his face, as though he were being chastised.
“That’s enough out of you,” Alex said, reprimanding his own ghost. Said ghost looked up at him, arms crossed again, and huffed. “If you’re not going to help, you’re going back to your ball.”
Diamond didn’t argue that and instead returned
himself to his ball. Alex stared down at the empty space for a moment, disappointed. He looked back up when Kimiko tried to corral her wayward ghost.
“Fantomé, we could use your help here,” she said. The haunter clasped his floating hands together eagerly as Kimiko explained what she wanted him to do. When she finished, he saluted and then darted through a psychedelic wall.
He reappeared only two seconds later, muttered “Haunt,” and disappeared through the opposite wall.
“Outside,” Kimiko said. “I think.”
“See, you’re learning to understand them, too.” Kimiko stopped to consider that, looking surprised at the revelation, while Alex surveyed the area again. “So we’re already at the back wall of the gym,” he said. “Either it doesn’t go back very far, or my perception of this space is very warped… which I guess is entirely possible in here.”
They didn’t have a chance to discuss the issue; Fantomé reappeared in that moment, and with another salute at his trainer, pointed excitedly to the area he’d just explored.
“How was it cheating?” Alyssa asked, fighting with her sister at the back of the gym, where Alex and Kimiko had emerged from a wall, Fantomé giggling at them the entire time.
“They did not go through the maze properly,” Vivian responded. “The ghost led them through the walls to the exit, around all of the remaining battles. It did so by leaving the building and coming back in.”
“There’s no rule specifying
how the challenger has to get through the maze, only that they do,” Alyssa countered.
“The pokémon left the arena. The challenge was not completed properly,” Vivian insisted.
But Alyssa seemed determined not to let her argument go. Perhaps she’d been feeling guilty for what the young couple had to deal with in the last several days. “So they thought a little out of the box. There’s no rule saying they can’t leave and come back in. The way they finished was just a little… unorthodox. We never told them they couldn’t leave the building or the maze. If we don’t want challengers finding ways around the maze rather than through it, then we should specify that.”
“Actually, that’s not the only thing you should specify,” Alex interrupted. “We really didn’t know what to do. We guessed. Were we supposed to defeat
all the pokémon we encountered, or were some of them just roadblocks to work around to kill time? And just what the hell was that… swirling mass in there?”
“Psychic terrain,” Alyssa said with pride. “A pokémon technique. We figured a normal maze was too easy. We were going for sort of an optical illusion, brain teaser kind of effect.”
“Frankly, I’m surprised no one else has tried to get around the maze rather than through it,” Alex deadpanned. At least it was a likely answer to why he could feel Koyomi’s emotions so strongly while in the gym.
“Come on, Viv, just give it to them,” Alyssa pleaded. “We’ll just make the rules a little clearer, that’s all. Besides, they
did get through more than half of it properly!”
The older woman sighed, this time specifically addressing her sister rather than the group at large. “Alyssa, you are not yet the leader. I cannot just give away our badge to anyone who completely sidesteps the challenge. Everyone in this league must earn their prizes by the method each leader decides; we cannot be just bending the rules to give them away, and you cannot hope to inherit the gym if that is how you plan to operate it.”
“I’m perfectly fine with trying again… or maybe just a solid battle or something, if that’s okay.”
“How about that, then?” Alyssa continued. “Come on, Viv, gym leaders have to admit when they screwed up, and this is partially our fault too. Don’t make him do the maze again, just let his team rest and give them a battle tomorrow, okay?”
Alex suspected that Vivian would not have given in to anyone but her relentless sister; he was glad she was on their side. “Fine! Fine. I suppose you are right; this is partially a mix up on my part. Tomorrow?”
“In that case, there’s something else I’d like to ask you about,” Alex replied with a nod, throwing out into the void a thought that had been in his mind for some time. “I heard that staryu used to be capable of learning how to teleport. Would you know anyone willing to help me teach Koyomi?”
Vivian stared at him for a long moment. Then the corner of her mouth twitched up into a smile. “Tell you what. Tomorrow, if your staryu can learn to teleport, I’ll give you the badge for that.”
“Recall him, please,” Alyssa insisted. Alex frowned at her but did as requested, returning Diamond to his ball, and as an afterthought recalled Thorn as well. There was no need for her to be here, since as far as he knew, she could not learn teleportation; he’d just wanted to let her out to be fair since the other two were out. He’d hoped maybe Diamond could pick up something that would be useful in learning feint attack, but he could deal with that problem another time. Kimiko, meanwhile, recalled Radar. Apparently, both Fantomé and Ariel could potentially control some psychic abilities, so her challenge was to get one of them to master one form or another.
Koyomi didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that she was alone, with Diamond and Thorn both vanishing from her side. “Sorry, it’s nothing personal,” Alyssa continued softly, although Alex somehow doubted that. “Being a dark-type, I’m afraid his presence will make it difficult for your staryu to practice.” Alex nodded, admitting that at least her excuse made some degree of sense.
Vivian launched into a detailed, complicated explanation of how teleporting worked and some rules to consider, but Alex had trouble remembering it all. It sounded like a lot more effort than just ‘think of a location and be there’.
“Now then, let’s begin with a demonstration,” Alyssa said, releasing a natu. “Notti, I want you to teleport to the other side of this room, then return to me.”
“Natu!” the little green bird on her shoulder chirped. She disappeared in a flash of light. Right on cue, she reappeared across the room and let out a few more chirps to draw everyone’s attention before teleporting back to Alyssa’s shoulder.
“Good girl. Now, show the staryu how to do it.”
With another tweet, the natu fluttered down in front of Koyomi, then tweeted rapidly at her. The staryu remained stoic, but Alex felt a wave of confusion wash over him. She appeared to be having difficulty understanding what Notti wanted her to do. The water-type half twisted her body around to glance at her trainer, who shrugged at her.
“I can’t help you,” he told her. “You already know a lot more about it than I do.”
Another, stronger wave of confusion hit him, as well as something like… surprise?
“You’ll need to concentrate,” Alyssa interrupted. Alex wasn’t sure if she was talking to Koyomi or to him. Koyomi turned back to the gym leader’s apprentice, regardless. “Imagine yourself where Notti stood across the room a moment ago, envision yourself there. Then just
will it to be true. You see yourself there, and then you are there. That’s it.”
The little natu tweeted her encouragement, too, then teleported back to the target spot again.
“Ready, Koyomi?” Alex asked, deciding he should still try to play a part in this. He felt an odd sense of uncertainty and doubt – Koyomi’s mixed with his own – but ordered anyway, “Teleport!”
Nothing happened. Koyomi shuddered, but Alex felt no anxiety or nervousness from her. He couldn’t really tell anything at all, not even the previous confusion. Perhaps she was just too focused on performing her move. “Koyomi?” He got a reply in the form of a brief flash of frustration, which he took to mean
be quiet, I’m busy. He couldn’t help but envision his staryu waving an appendage at him as if to shoo him away, and he snickered.
He was distracted by a flash of light and was about to congratulate his pokémon, only to look up and see that she hadn’t moved. In fact, Notti had simply teleported back to the staryu’s location, instead. The bird tweeted a few more times, then teleported again. Koyomi slumped, but Vivian offered no rest.
“Don’t give up after one failure, try again!”
A little annoyed at the harshness in her voice, Alex said, “Ready, Koyomi?” The water-type straightened up in response. “Then teleport!”
Again, nothing happened. And again, Koyomi slumped over in defeat.
“This is gonna take a while,” Alex said, hand on his hip.
“Don’t forget, she’s not a psychic,” Alyssa noted. “She may have some latent psychic abilities, but naturally staryu will have difficulty accessing them until they evolve or through the help of TMs. It’s a shame the old teleport TM fell out of use,” she added contemplatively. “Anyway, the species used to be capable of learning, so any member should still be able to learn with a little effort. Or… a lot of effort.”
“Doesn’t that knowledge fade every generation?”
“I’m a psychic, not a scientist,” Vivian replied in place of her sister. Then, she added, “I do not know for sure. Besides, the TM existed not that long ago. It was back when Red of Kanto was still collecting badges. Surely a species would not have forgotten knowledge in such a short time span. As Alyssa said, she’s not yet a psychic, so she may have more difficulties than if it were a water-type move, for example, but she should get the hang of it eventually.”
And so, they spent the day training. Vivian took over Koyomi’s teleportation training with her gardevoir, which only seemed to put more pressure on the little water-type. Meanwhile, Alyssa had Fantomé and Ariel practicing the psychic attacking technique with her elgyem, as both of them were apparently capable of learning. From his perspective, Alex couldn’t tell if either of them were making any progress; Ariel remained relatively motionless as usual, though at least she wasn’t distracted, while Fantomé was having a hard time staying still long enough for anyone to finish a sentence.
Koyomi joined the psychic attack training after a brief lunch break, Vivian figuring that maybe she could better learn to teleport if she could learn to move other things first. Watching others perform the move seemed to be a bigger help to the staryu; it didn’t take long after that for her to start moving things at will with her mind, although she had trouble holding control for extended periods of time. Vivian shifted her back to teleportation practice shortly afterwards.
As the sun began to retreat towards the horizon, Alex wondered just how long the gym leaders were going to humor him. He knew it was likely a long shot, but he had hoped Koyomi would be able to pick up teleporting quicker than she seemed to be in order to get his badge today and move on. By evening, both Fantomé and Ariel were displaying signs of being able to move things.
At least they got something out of this, Alex thought to himself. He watched Koyomi again try to teleport without success and with a mild frustration; but then, at the next command, she vanished. It was for less than a second, and she hadn’t actually traveled any distance, but she had definitely disappeared and reappeared.
The sudden flash seemed to catch Vivian by surprise. “Well, I’ll be damned. She actually managed it on the first day.”
“But she didn’t go anywhere,” Alex replied, although he was grinning widely at his pokémon.
“Perhaps not, but she definitely just teleported. I must admit, I did not expect her to succeed.”
Alex felt a little annoyance at that; she’d only offered to give him a badge for this because she didn’t expect to have to pay up. Still, he was rather proud at the fact that Koyomi seemed to be advancing more quickly than expected by the experts. “That was great, do that again, Koyomi! Try to move, this time.”
With a wave of determination washing over him, Alex watched his staryu try to repeat the technique… and nothing happened. He felt her frustration again and immediately spoke up, “Don’t worry about it. You did it once, you can do it again. It’ll take practice to get it right every time.”
Vivian walked up to Alex and held out her hand. In it was what Alex assumed to be Xioria gym’s badge; it was a gold ring with a blue X through the center, the edges protruding from the surface of the ring as though the X went right through it. Vivian spoke: “I suppose if I am to honor my word, I have to pay up. This is the clairvoyance badge. Promise me you will continue working on her teleportation, and it is yours.”
Alex took the badge, replying, “Sorry for all the hassle the last few days. But really, thank you, and your sister. We’re going to return home and take a breather, so I guarantee we’ll keep practicing. Both Kimiko and I, we have a lot of work to do with our teams before we’re ready to continue.”
“Then it is a good thing for you that those badges do not expire,” Vivian said knowingly. “There are some regions that require trainers to obtain them all within one year of each other, you know.”
Alex answered, “I don’t think we’ll be taking that long of a break, but it’s still good to know there’s no rush.” And with his thoughts on Diamond, Ariel, and Fantomé, he thought to himself,
we’re probably going to need as much time as we can get.
