Ice 8.6
Persephone
Infinite Screms
- Pronouns
- her/hers
- Partners
-
Ice 8.6: Stronger
Genesis
August 14, 2020
Your pokémon are relatively low maintenance. Ferny and Callisto can feed themselves. You aren’t sure that Count Cloudy needs to eat at all. Sometimes he floats into smoke or dust and sits there for a while. A website you read said that might be eating. That means you only need to find food for two of your pokémon.
It’s the dry season in Alola. Some of the kids you know who live on the mainland looked forward to summer every year because the weather would be pleasant at home. No need to go down south for the weekend with all the hassle that brings. In Alola, summer just means that it’s almost unbearable outside. That’s been fine before. You could just go inside more for a few months.
That’s not an option now. Yes, Cloudy can still make things cooler. Not for long. Not without getting tired and needing to nap. You don’t like pushing your pokémon to their limits like that.
It also means that there’s less water. You found a pond for Oliver and Sir Bubbles. There’s just enough plants there for Oliver. You can just put leaves or grass in water if things get really rough. He doesn’t like it, but he will eat it.
Sir Bubbles is harder. He hunts, sort of. He finds bugs and shoots them with water so they can’t fly away. There just aren’t a lot of bugs out right now. They’re in some kind of heat-hibernation. He’s found some food, but not really enough. You’re going to need to figure something out.
You sigh into your coffee and take a cautious sip. A hot drink sounds terrible right now. Unfortunately, today will require a lot of energy and you still aren’t sleeping well in the heat. The nurse gives you a sympathetic look.
“You know, the weirdest thing happened to me last night,” she says. You nod, half-awake, because it’s the polite thing to do. “There was a break-in. Whoever it was looted my kid’s bedroom. Not for money. Didn’t go downstairs for food or electronics or jewelry or anything. Just tore some drawers out, messed up the closet, and stole some blankets and pajamas. Ripped up a stuffed animal while they were at it.”
“Is she hurt?” That does sound odd. You still shouldn’t laugh if there was an injury.
“No. He was out.”
He. Right. Male children can also own stuffed toys.
“Maybe they were trying to scare us,” she says. “But it wasn’t very effective. I don’t know who they were or what they want me to do.”
You hear Levi plod down the hallway and blearily look towards the coffee machine. He’s been addicted to it “for a while” in spite of his age. There’s one pokéball visible in his pocket.
Maybe you could figure something out for Bubbles that didn’t require you to leave town. That’s not going to be the case for Red. She’s big. She can’t just eat insects. At least, you’re pretty sure she can’t. The nurse and Cuicatl agreed.
Red has never hunted a day in her life. You know your father battled with her when he was younger. That was a long time ago. Now she’s an old lady who sometimes get asked to light a fire or go on a walk.
She’s hungry again and now it’s your problem. You don’t even know what lives here to hunt. There aren’t any tauros. You asked. Skarmory probably aren’t edible. Lighter birds would just fly away. The graveler are actual rocks. You are not hunting persian. Most of the young pokémon are too small to last Red more than a few hours. That leaves raticate, gumshoos, and maybe something else. Except those can all fight. Cuicatl could take down some gumshoos for Red because she had a trained golisopod. You don’t. None of your pokémon are really that strong. Except maybe Callisto. You haven’t really fought with Callisto, though.
Even if you knew what easy prey was, you still wouldn’t know how to find it.
For maybe the fiftieth time since your breakup you think about calling her or Lyra or someone. You didn’t even want to talk to them before. Just…
Levi looks at you like you have all the answers. You don’t. You don’t even know what kinds of books would have those answers or where you would find them.
How did Cuicatl take care of her sibling when she was nine? Who even taught Lyra domestic stuff? She has a family similar to yours.
Levi finishes his cereal and stands up. He makes sure to push the chair back under the table. Then he takes a few steps away before remembering that he has to clean up after himself now.
“Don’t worry about the dishes,” the receptionist says before you can jump in. “Just don’t stay out too long. Between the heat and the ghosts…” She shakes her head. “Be careful.”
“We will. Promise.”
You’re only trying to find and kill a big pokémon. What could possibly go wrong?
You do not want to kill the scrafty. For one, it looks way too human. Bipedal, big head, thin torso. Even kind of has hair. Like, it’s clearly not human with the scales and skin pouches. It still feels worse than killing a bug.
It’s also not making this quick. First, it didn’t run away, even when you sent a freaking pyroar out. He’s annoyingly strong, too. No real hair to light on fire. All of Red’s bites just get loose skin flaps that leave the scrafty enough room to turn around and sock her, hard. He’s bleeding and a little burned, but he’s still fine and Red clearly doesn’t like this fight.
Sir Bubbles is not helping. You tried having him stand back and use bubble beam. Half the bubbles hit Red. You tried having him get in close. That did not go well. At this point you want to just stop and leave, but your pokémon are wounded and you haven’t seen anything else big in hours. This is your last chance to hunt. Hopefully the Pokémon Center can patch everything up when this is done.
“Biting isn’t working, body slams aren’t working. Maybe cutting could? The skin shouldn’t help with that,” Levi suggests.
It could. You send out Ferny and point to the scrafty. “Leaf blade. Kill. Or wound. Or something big.”
His jaw drops and he looks at you aghast. Darn it. Not the time.
“…does Bubbles know hypnosis?” Levi asks.
Why did you not think of that before?
“Bubbles! Get back, use hypnosis. Hang back a little bit, Red!”
There must not be anything out here that uses hypnosis. Or maybe the scrafty just isn’t used to being attacked by politoed. He hangs back and just growls at Sir Bubbles while he booms back with his own threatening sounds. Eventually he sags just enough that Red feels comfortable leaping and… tearing.
You lower your gaze and see Ferny looking at you with deep concern. Right. Plant doesn’t want to hunt. Should have withdrawn him earlier. You do now.
You’re not doing this again. You’re finding somewhere with easier prey that you don’t have to think as much about. Or, at the very least, you’re getting strong enough to end things in one shot.
You got out of dishes at breakfast and weren’t there for lunch. Still have to clean up the kitchen for dinner. It’s only polite.
Levi is “helping.” He clearly has no idea what to do. Just stands around occasionally moving a rag across a dish while looking very confused. Should you teach him? You’re tired and just want this to be done. You remember how long it took for people to teach you when you were first starting out. Now you like to think you’re pretty decent at cleaning things, although your gear didn’t look brand new on the trail no matter how much time you spent on it.
It was very frustrating.
Maybe you can teach him one thing tonight. How to put things into the drying rack. It’s not that hard. Gives him something to do. He seems very pleased with himself by the time you’re done wiping everything down. It’s more cluttered than you would like. A few things are diagonal when it would be more space efficient to be perpendicular to the base. Still fine. Nothing broke, everything fits in. You can give him more tips tomorrow. Maybe introduce him to something else.
Were you this useless a year ago? Why did they put up with you?
August 15, 2020
You’re stuck in your room again.
Well, it’s not quite the same. You could go outside. It’s just so, so hot. Even worse than yesterday. In the nineties. All you have to fight it is a tiny little battery-powered fan. And Cloudy. He can really only drop the temperature a few degrees if he has to keep doing it for hours. Still too hot.
To top it all off, you’re bored. There is no internet. The TV doesn’t have power for movies or television. Your phone charge needs to be very carefully conserved. You only have one book. You bought it ages ago on your first date with Cuicatl and have read it cover-to-cover four times since. You’re not in the mood for a fifth.
You absolutely should have grabbed more while you were at the mall. Can’t exactly go back now, though.
You can’t talk to your pokémon because you don’t have a translator. Definitely didn’t do enough of it while you had Cuicatl and her relatively-safe metang around. You really want to know more about Callisto in particular. How is she feeling away from her island? Is Oliver feeling okay? Is Ferny mad about yesterday?
You could try to be a trainer and actually train your pokémon. That would require making them exercise in this heat. Pass. It’s even too stuffy to sleep. That just leaves daydreams.
There’s a familiar knight at the front of the hoard. One who rarely fights herself. Where you have your team of knights at your side, she has monsters. It should have tipped you off a long time ago that she was not bound by chivalry. Alas, you were deceived for months.
Her dragon and giant spider sit at her sides. Her one potentially human companion, a heavily armored knight with two cleavers, stands in front of her. You have never heard him speak.
“We don’t have to do this,” she says. “I have what I want. You just need to get out of the way.”
“And let you trample more innocents?”
You’ve seen the work of her monsters and the hoard behind her. You will not let them pass. Whatever it takes.
She looks at you like you aren’t even there. Like she doesn’t care. Like you mean nothing. Maybe you never did. “Fine. Be that way.”
Her dragon roars. The silent knight lunges. The spider just stares you down.
How do you handle this? Her two smaller monsters aren’t a problem. They can just be batted away with your shield. Maybe you have one of your knights take on the fox before they can put something to sleep or steal memories or any of her many tricks. The problem with her isn’t just the brute force. Giving her too much room could be dangerous.
The silent knight does have brute force and thick armor. How do you go about dealing with something like that? Cammy the Giant can try to smack him around with her lance. Maybe just step on him. He’s quick, though. She isn’t. Slow him down? You do have a few tricks. Sleep. Does he have eyelids over his weird bug eyes? You can’t remember him blinking.
He resists water so there goes half your team. Lord Oliver and Sir Bubbles can’t really overpower him. Maybe Ferny could? Like, cut between the plates or something? Except he’s also a bug-type. Would Ferny even want to fight?
And this is all before you have to deal with the spider and dragon. Maybe you can put the dragon to sleep or something. Or Cammy, Callisto, whatever, could overpower him. Maybe. Does she have ranged dragon attacks? You haven’t really asked. You know she has leaf storm. It’s hard to imagine leaves mattering here. Even sharp ones. Unless they got in the eyes.
Then the metagross… your Father had strong pokémon. Corviknight, vikavolt, pyroar, more that you aren’t as familiar with. He got torn apart. Literally, probably. Levi didn’t seem to know. You weren’t asking the murderer about her kill. If Cuicatl knew, she didn’t tell you.
If she tried to kill you or Levi, there’s probably nothing you could do. She wouldn’t even have to give orders. She’d just win.
She says that she’s not mad at you. You’re still mad at her. For a lot of things. Starting a war, killing your parents and traumatizing your brother, leaving the moment things got hard.
There’s also a traitorous part of you that wishes she was still here. She has a lot of problems. You also felt safer when she was around. She gave good cuddles. She’s cute. She was kind to her friends. Ruthless to her enemies. Maybe that could have been toned down. You probably could have made things work, eventually, if she’d given you enough time.
There’s no way of knowing now. You’ll have to make do. However hard it is.
You’re going to need help. With a lot of things. Battling’s up there. Thankfully, there’s someone who lives nearby who was almost good enough to beat Cuicatl. You’ll ask him tomorrow.
August 16, 2020
Levi sets his fork down in the middle of breakfast. He leans back and folds his hands in his lap just so. He was always better at etiquette than you were. “Do you know what happened with Exodus?”
“No idea.” No one ever filled you in between your rescue and the war. You had just assumed she was still being kept at the school. Now, with your parents dead? You assume your aunt and uncle have custody. That requires you to further assume that they are alive, off the islands, and the child who might legally be in their custody is their top priority. You can’t really be sure of any of that. The metagross might have assumed they would plot revenge on Cuicatl for what she did to your parents and killed them off preemptively. No one is able to get in or out of Alola right now. You bet they could still find a way if they really put their minds to it. Your cousin has a lot of strong flying-types if nothing else.
Could you ask her for help with training? You come back to the same question: how would you even reach her? She’s either on Lanakila at the Pokémon League or she’s in Heahea at her home. Your team isn’t in any shape to climb a mountain. Cuicatl and Lyra are heading that way. They’ve also made it very clear that they want nothing to do with you.
Levi looks over to the receptionist. She’s keeping the Pokémon Center in order when the resident nurse is busy. “Is there any way to get news to or from the mainland?”
“Just dragonite post right now. They’re way backed up. Government use only.”
One of the only other people staying here snorts from her table. “Didn’t know there was a government right now.”
“The League, the rangers, and I guess the governor,” the receptionist answers. “The guard is in ruins. Not a lot he can do.”
“I met a dragonite once,” you mutter. Better talking about the pokémon than the state of the world. Not much any of you can do about that. “Tried catching a dratini and did not know his mother was around. She took off and left me deaf for a few days. Had to get through the rest of Vast Poni Canyon without being able to hear.”
It was terrifying at the time. You didn’t know if you were going to end up unable to hear for the rest of your life or if everything was, somehow, going to be fine. One moment the world is as it should be and the next, bam, disabled forever.
In the last few months, your life has changed in an instant far too many times for your liking.
You look up and see your brother staring at you like he used to when you were both really little and you could put him on your back and run around. Like you can do anything. Like you’re the knight you are in your daydreams. You immediately look back down at your bowl of dry cereal. You aren’t what he thinks you are. You can’t keep him safe. You can barely keep your pokémon fed. You have no idea what you’re doing.
The most that can be said for you is that you have an idea for how to start changing that.
The kahuna’s home looks like something right out of a television show. White fence and walls. Trimmed lawn. There’s a playset in the front yard, which is a little odd. You thought those were typically in the back. There’s a meowth napping in the shade beneath it. He keeps an eye on you as you walk up to the front door.
You do not like Kahuna Nanu. He hurt Cuicatl on purpose during their fight. And it sounds like he had a big role to play in keeping her real identity from her. If he had just been a little more transparent or a little less callous, it’s quite possible this war never would have happened in the first place.
Unfortunately, he is by far the strongest trainer in this town. You need help. You know you should have done this when Lyra offered back on Poni. But you didn’t need it then. Didn’t want it. Fighting isn’t your thing and you found it hard to imagine a world where you didn’t have a very scary girl fighting for you. Couldn’t imagine that one day you would have to plan what to do if she came for your family again.
You ring the doorbell. Nothing happens. Is he out? He is the kahuna. He probably has better things to do than sit around at home. Should you ring it again? He must have got the message if he’s home. You won’t. You’ll just… come back tomorrow, probably.
The door swings open just as you turn around to leave. The kahuna’s more than a little disheveled. He’s wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt that could be something other than pajamas, but you doubt are. There are deep bags under his eyes and his hair is as messy as it can be at its short length. It looks a little longer than you remembered, too.
He looks you up and down before practically collapsing into a lean against the wall. “Can I help you?”
“Good morning. I’m Genesis—”
“I know who you are. Here for revenge? Thought she’d come and take it herself if she wanted it.”
Does he think you could kill him? Or try? Come to think of it, he doesn’t have any pokémon on hand. That’s a little weird for a trainer. Is he really answering his door unarmed while society is falling apart?
“No, um. I’m not here about that. We broke up. She’s somewhere around Lanakila right now.”
He sighs. “Good. I’ll be the first to admit that Foster took it too far with the racism. I probably could have been a little more delicate breaking the news to her. I was, once, but after the fifth time someone yells at you for something Tapu Lele did, well, hard to keep a light touch. Doesn’t begin to excuse what she did in response to it all.”
Your eyes narrow. “You know about that?” Did someone tell him? Did he overhear? Who all knows? You’re mad at her. That doesn’t mean you want her to die. Even if it’s just the logical consequence of her actions.
“Kid, my great-something-grandma made that knife. Didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what faller my niece looped into her little crusade.”
“Acerola’s your niece?”
He looks past you into the yard. “You’re letting all the hot air in. Wanna come inside?”
“Sure?” That was what you wanted in the first place.
He leads you into his kitchen. The inside of the house is a lot messier than the outside. Paper bags litter the floor in various stages of destruction. One is whole and seems to have something wiggling around inside. Several are flattened. At least two have been torn to pieces. The garbage can is overflowing with an already-full garbage bag placed beside it. Most of the kitchen table is covered in papers, bags of things, cans, plates, or other debris. He sits down at it, unbothered. You sit down about a third of the way around. Still lets you kind of see him. He does not apologize for the mess.
“I’d rather not talk about family drama with strangers. Now, why are you here?”
“I need to get stronger.” He raises an eyebrow. “My team isn’t powerful enough to stop people from hurting me or my brother. Or maybe it is and I don’t know how to use it. I have to hunt for an old pyroar now and I can’t even do that right and. I need a teacher. You’re the strongest trainer around.”
“And the busiest, pass.”
You blink. “Just like that.”
“Just like that.”
“Without even giving a reason?”
He shrugs. “Told you, I’m busy. Malie’s eating itself alive. City folk are camping out on the routes, eating the bear’s food, and then getting shocked when the bears bite back. Everything around Tapu Village is an environmental disaster, to say nothing of the ghosts. When I am at home, I’d rather be relaxing than tutoring some brat.”
“You’re kind of an, an asshole, you know that, right?” For this. For everything that went on with Cuicatl. You’re guessing there are a lot more reasons you don’t know about.
“So I’m told. Is that all? I was hoping to get a little more sleep before it gets ungodly hot again.”
The front door slams open so hard you can practically feel the handle hit the wall. Nanu winces and your soul almost jumps out of your body.
“Who’s the big, bad kahuna who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up!”
Nanu turns to look at the newcomer with mild distaste.
You’re mostly just… confused? He’s wearing black pants and a black jacket despite the heat. He has a necklace that you’re 99% sure is made of gold-painted pop tabs and a ‘gold’ watch that looks obviously fake. At first you thought that his hair had gone white unfortunately early, but, no, it looks like it’s actually just one of the worst bleachings you’ve ever seen. His hair sticks out in wild, textureless tufts. Parts of the underlying black are still clearly showing. Did he do it last night? By himself? In the dark? His sunglasses, which would be useful given the weather, are asymmetrical with one side having a… bite out of it? You think? What is going on?
“Hello, Guzma,” Nanu says. “Do you need something?”
Guzma? That’s… oh! He was the old boss of Team Skull.
…oh no, he was the old boss of Team Skull. At least you have an actual kahuna here in case he tries anything.
The gang leader walks up to the table and yanks a chair back before whirling it around. He sits down in it, legs spread behind the chair’s back, and arms crossed in front of it. “Oh, nothing much. Just got a promotion. Thought I’d break the news to the old guy in person.”
“Congrats.” Nanu pulls out a half-empty glass of water you hadn’t seen before. “You’re in for it.”
The big, bad kahuna. A promotion? Wait. No. “You’re the new kahuna?”
“Dead on the money, princess.” He barely spares you a glance. That’s good. You don’t really want him thinking about you. “What’cha got to say, old man?”
“Sucks to be you. An entire island of people and pokémon who won’t. Stop. Complaining? Yours now.” He gestures towards you. “Hell, just got a new one this morning. She’s your problem, too.”
“I think I’m good,” you whisper.
“Nah, nah, I’ve got this. What’s the problem, kid? What can the big, bad kahuna do for you?”
You aren’t sure if you’re getting out of this anymore. How can you make this request as boring as possible? Then you can go back to Nanu later since he no longer has a job to pretend to be busy with. He’s an ass, but he’s safer.
“Just needed a little advice on training. That’s all.”
“Hell yeah. So, just starting out? Middle of the challenge? End? What are we talking?”
“Middle, kind of? My pokémon are evolved. I just don’t really know how to command them. Felt important to learn right now.” He doesn’t need more details.
“Alright!” He slams a hand against the chair back before getting up to his feet. “Let’s go out and see what we’re working with.” He turns to Nanu and winks. “See, old man? Already doing more to educate the youth and all that.”
“Have fun,” Nanu drawls. “And don’t wreck my lawn. Just mowed it.”
Guzma walks back and forth in front of your pokémon like a commander inspecting his troops. Finally, he stops, looks up Callisto’s long, long neck, and gives a low whistle. “And you’re sure you need my help?”
“I only beat two trials. That was almost a year ago.”
The first one was all Ferny. Second one was a mix of castform setting up the sun to fight a steel-type and Ferny still being pretty strong. You think his last trainer might have been a serious fighter? Serious enough to really care what his pokémon evolved into. You didn’t have a major preference for Bubbles as long as he was happy with it. You do wish he picked the one that wasn’t quite so loud, though.
“Well, what do you want to learn to fight for? Best strategies depend on what we’re fighting and why. We burning shit? Protecting it? Assassinations?”
So morbid. How do you even—no. You aren’t humoring him. “Hunting. Hunting pokémon. My brother has a pyroar. She’s old. We tried to hunt a scrafty and it, I mean we did it, but it took too long.”
“Huh. Could’ve picked something easier, y’know?”
“Not much around here.”
“Not during the day. Got to get out at night and find a big, juicy raticate. Hey, I’m free tonight. I can take you out, show you how to find one—”
“I’m afraid I’m busy.” You do not want to be out with this man at night, alone. You definitely do not want your brother there with him.
His jaw drops. “Busy? At night? Now? Middle of a war?”
“Yes.” This is probably less awkward than backtracking.
“Well, uh, okay, then. I guess we can talk about ganging up on a big pokémon? That’s close enough.”
He reaches down to his belt and taps a scuffed pokéball. Light pours out. And keeps pouring. It’s not as much as Coco or even Callisto, but it’s still a hefty pokémon. When the light finishes pooling, the newly formed golisopod tenses as if to pounce. You’ve seen Cuicatl’s do it a lot. Although this thing positively dwarfs hers in size. It has to be nearly a foot taller, with thicker armor and sharper claws to boot.
“Do they usually get that big?” you ask.
“Hah! Scared of his size?”
“No. My girlfriend—” You catch yourself. “Ex-girlfriend had one that was smaller. Just wasn’t sure which one was normal.”
“Eh. When’d they evolve?”
“Few months ago?” You think. She says she caught a wimpod and that would have happened after you… left. Probably. Your memories aren’t always right about those things.
“Just a baby, then. Give them time.”
“I thought bugs didn’t live very long?”
“Some don’t, some do. These guys go. Now, you ready to fight or what?”
“Yeah, just give me a second.” You turn back towards your team. Alright. Strategy time. How do your five pokémon take on one golisopod? You know that Lyra and Cuicatl said you had a ‘weather’ team. What you do should focus more on Count Cloudy. Sun or rain. Golisopod are water-types. Sun could help with that. Cloudy already has embers flickering through his body. It would be easier on him than trying to summon rain. “Cloudy, use sunny day! Everyone else, attack the golisopod!”
There. No way he can fight five of your pokémon at once.
He can fight five of your pokémon at once. It doesn’t even look like he’s trying.
You have Bubbles try hypnosis. The bug just lunges his way and starts slashing. Sir Bubbles gives up and just starts trying to body slam him back. It does nothing.
Oliver shoots out a stream of water that barely even makes it to the golisopod. As soon as Sir Bubbles is down, the bug leaps towards him and starts attacking. Oliver eventually puts a small, flickering shield up. Protect. Right. Lyra taught half your team the move. Said it could be important. You’d just kidn of forgotten she did that.
Ferny rushes in before things can get too far out of hand. His head leaf is glowing and seems about twice as long as usual. The golisopod catches it in a claw before swiping out with his other large arm. Ferny darts away with a quick attack. Good! He knows what he’s doing. Even gives Oliver a chance to run away.
It doesn’t buy Ferny that much time, though. The golisopod is even quicker than Cuicatl’s. He tries to run but trips over himself. (Was he always that fast?) He does turn in time to lash out with another leaf blade. The golisopod just catches it with a claw and then lunges forwards to bite into his side. He really, really does not like that. You withdraw him pretty quickly so he doesn’t get too hurt.
Callisto slams her head down straight into the golisopod. It knocks him flat. For a moment. Then he manages to somehow twist around so that his legs are wrapped around the dragon’s neck. Callisto tries to right herself, tries to shake him off, tries to call for someone else to do something. The last one works, kind of. Cloudy shoots a ball of fire at her. She seems to like that even less than the bug’s slashes. You withdraw her.
The stupid bug lands on its feet. Just him, Cloudy, and Oliver now.
“Alright, let’s stop there,” Guzma says. “Weren’t kidding about your skill, huh?”
That’s an insult. An accurate one. You have no grounds to say anything.
“I get what you were thinking with the sun. You’re fighting a water-type. Why not make him weaker? ‘cept, I wasn’t going to use water-moves on any of your ‘mons. It made your leafeon a little faster. Didn’t look like he really knew how to use that speed. No teamwork to be seen.”
“I know,” you hiss. “That’s why I need help.”
Guzma sticks his hands up. “Hey, just telling you what I see. I’d train on having your team work together. Make sure they know what to do in different weathers. When to have one block and others attack. Easy stuff. Should be videos on… ah, shit, internet’s down. Well, doesn’t take an expert. Find someone, anyone, and ask for some help. Hell, I know a guy who just retired an hour ago.”
You look towards the house, half-expecting to see Nanu watching the two of you through a window. He is not.
“I don’t think he wants to help.”
“Sucks. Tell him it’s the new kahuna’s orders. We’re an island full of model fucking citizens now. Everyone does their part.”
“How bad is it?” you ask the nurse. Some of the cuts were pretty big. The golisopod was stronger than Cuicatl’s. at the time you didn’t think anything looked terrible, but you’ve never been a great judge of these things.
“Nothing to be too worried about. Mostly false swipe hits, actually. A few weaker bug bites. It’s all shallow, even if the claws… what were you fighting, again?”
“A golisopod.”
“Huh. Didn’t know any of the locals had one.”
“Not local. It was, uh, Guzma. The former Team Skull boss. He’s the new kahuna.”
The nurse stares at you like she’s expecting you to break out into laughter and give the game up.
“I’m not joking.”
“Well, Tapu Bulu sure, uh, has interesting taste. Why did you fight him? Grand Trial?”
“No. I’m just trying to learn how to fight. My brother’s pyroar needs to eat and our hunt didn’t go well and.” You look around the lobby. He isn’t here. Doesn’t know your back. “I need to take care of him now,” you say in a lower voice. “I don’t know how to do that. I thought getting stronger would be a place to start so I went to Nanu. He said no.”
The nurse gives you a long, probing look. It doesn’t feel bad. Maybe a little uncomfortable. It’s hard to describe. “Are you new to being a primary caregiver?” she asks.
“Yes?” You don’t see what that has to do with your battle skill.
“I see. How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Sixteen.”
“And how old is your brother?”
“Twelve.”
She scribbles down a note on a piece of paper. “Well, I would love to tell you that you don’t have to be strong and that the world is a safe place. Unfortunately, that’s not true at the moment. I can’t really help with training, but I can get you some books or resources on parenting if you want them. Or maybe one of the other guests knows more about the battling side of pokémon than me.”
“You don’t have to—”
She literally waves off your concerns. “You’ll thank me later. Or your brother will.”
You are thankful, now. You just don’t know how she figured out what you wanted without you telling her.
Someone nudges your shoulder and you slowly drift awake.
“Wah?”
“Hi,” Levi whispers. He climbed down from his bunk to your level. “I wanted to talk.”
“’bout what?” You glance at the book on your nightstand. It’s about teenagers. Things they supposedly like and dislike and how they think. You aren’t sure how much of it is accurate to you. It does explain your peers a little more, though. A few things you’ve asked or assumed are even a little embarrassing in hindsight now.
“I had a nightmare.”
Isn’t he a little too old for this? He looks so earnest, though. You can’t help but hear him out.
“I worry—” He shakes his head and clenches his fists. “No, I’m not worried, I’m scared.”
“About?”
“That monster. The metagross. It just tore our family, our home, apart. And it wasn’t even trying! It was like Red with a rattata. If it came back, is there anything we could do about it?”
You exhale. “Not right now. I’m working on getting stronger. Hopefully soon.”
He looks down and clings one arm to the side. “I’m scared you’re going to get hurt and it will have been my fault.” It comes out as barely a whisper.
“Come again?”
“You broke up with Cuicatl because of me. She must be angry. And the metagross… I don’t want to be the reason why more people get hurt, but I don’t think I could stop it.”
He’s worried about you more than himself. You understand. You’re more worried about him than yourself as well. “I don’t think either of them are coming back,” you tell him. “She isn’t mad; she doesn’t care at all.”
It was quiet when she ended things. She was tired. Resolved. She never lashed out. Didn’t threaten you with her team. Didn’t accuse you of anything explosive. She had just decided that she’d had enough and was going to move on now. She saved your life and spent months with you. You were her first kiss, first partner, first everything, and after one or two bad moments, she was just done. She was the great castle keeping you safe from the world and providing a place of comfort. You were just… nothing. A troublesome guest, perhaps.
You still care. Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s hate, but you feel something.
“That’s good,” he says, even though it isn’t. It’s complicated at best. Then he walks a step closer to your nightstand and runs a finger along the cover of your parenting book. “I still think we should find Kahili. She’s really strong, right? She can help.”
“We’ll try,” you promise. You still aren’t sure how you’re supposed to find anyone in Alola right now. Climbing Lanakila to reach the League feels out of the question at your current level of skill and power. Maybe the base would be more manageable, though? It may require briefly encountering Cuicatl and Lyra.
That’s probably okay, though. They don’t care.
You let out a long yawn. It’s not too hot right now. You should really get back to sleep before that changes.
Xerneas knows you’ll still have your share of problems in the morning. May as well be rested.
Genesis
August 14, 2020
Your pokémon are relatively low maintenance. Ferny and Callisto can feed themselves. You aren’t sure that Count Cloudy needs to eat at all. Sometimes he floats into smoke or dust and sits there for a while. A website you read said that might be eating. That means you only need to find food for two of your pokémon.
It’s the dry season in Alola. Some of the kids you know who live on the mainland looked forward to summer every year because the weather would be pleasant at home. No need to go down south for the weekend with all the hassle that brings. In Alola, summer just means that it’s almost unbearable outside. That’s been fine before. You could just go inside more for a few months.
That’s not an option now. Yes, Cloudy can still make things cooler. Not for long. Not without getting tired and needing to nap. You don’t like pushing your pokémon to their limits like that.
It also means that there’s less water. You found a pond for Oliver and Sir Bubbles. There’s just enough plants there for Oliver. You can just put leaves or grass in water if things get really rough. He doesn’t like it, but he will eat it.
Sir Bubbles is harder. He hunts, sort of. He finds bugs and shoots them with water so they can’t fly away. There just aren’t a lot of bugs out right now. They’re in some kind of heat-hibernation. He’s found some food, but not really enough. You’re going to need to figure something out.
You sigh into your coffee and take a cautious sip. A hot drink sounds terrible right now. Unfortunately, today will require a lot of energy and you still aren’t sleeping well in the heat. The nurse gives you a sympathetic look.
“You know, the weirdest thing happened to me last night,” she says. You nod, half-awake, because it’s the polite thing to do. “There was a break-in. Whoever it was looted my kid’s bedroom. Not for money. Didn’t go downstairs for food or electronics or jewelry or anything. Just tore some drawers out, messed up the closet, and stole some blankets and pajamas. Ripped up a stuffed animal while they were at it.”
“Is she hurt?” That does sound odd. You still shouldn’t laugh if there was an injury.
“No. He was out.”
He. Right. Male children can also own stuffed toys.
“Maybe they were trying to scare us,” she says. “But it wasn’t very effective. I don’t know who they were or what they want me to do.”
You hear Levi plod down the hallway and blearily look towards the coffee machine. He’s been addicted to it “for a while” in spite of his age. There’s one pokéball visible in his pocket.
Maybe you could figure something out for Bubbles that didn’t require you to leave town. That’s not going to be the case for Red. She’s big. She can’t just eat insects. At least, you’re pretty sure she can’t. The nurse and Cuicatl agreed.
Red has never hunted a day in her life. You know your father battled with her when he was younger. That was a long time ago. Now she’s an old lady who sometimes get asked to light a fire or go on a walk.
She’s hungry again and now it’s your problem. You don’t even know what lives here to hunt. There aren’t any tauros. You asked. Skarmory probably aren’t edible. Lighter birds would just fly away. The graveler are actual rocks. You are not hunting persian. Most of the young pokémon are too small to last Red more than a few hours. That leaves raticate, gumshoos, and maybe something else. Except those can all fight. Cuicatl could take down some gumshoos for Red because she had a trained golisopod. You don’t. None of your pokémon are really that strong. Except maybe Callisto. You haven’t really fought with Callisto, though.
Even if you knew what easy prey was, you still wouldn’t know how to find it.
For maybe the fiftieth time since your breakup you think about calling her or Lyra or someone. You didn’t even want to talk to them before. Just…
Levi looks at you like you have all the answers. You don’t. You don’t even know what kinds of books would have those answers or where you would find them.
How did Cuicatl take care of her sibling when she was nine? Who even taught Lyra domestic stuff? She has a family similar to yours.
Levi finishes his cereal and stands up. He makes sure to push the chair back under the table. Then he takes a few steps away before remembering that he has to clean up after himself now.
“Don’t worry about the dishes,” the receptionist says before you can jump in. “Just don’t stay out too long. Between the heat and the ghosts…” She shakes her head. “Be careful.”
“We will. Promise.”
You’re only trying to find and kill a big pokémon. What could possibly go wrong?
*
You do not want to kill the scrafty. For one, it looks way too human. Bipedal, big head, thin torso. Even kind of has hair. Like, it’s clearly not human with the scales and skin pouches. It still feels worse than killing a bug.
It’s also not making this quick. First, it didn’t run away, even when you sent a freaking pyroar out. He’s annoyingly strong, too. No real hair to light on fire. All of Red’s bites just get loose skin flaps that leave the scrafty enough room to turn around and sock her, hard. He’s bleeding and a little burned, but he’s still fine and Red clearly doesn’t like this fight.
Sir Bubbles is not helping. You tried having him stand back and use bubble beam. Half the bubbles hit Red. You tried having him get in close. That did not go well. At this point you want to just stop and leave, but your pokémon are wounded and you haven’t seen anything else big in hours. This is your last chance to hunt. Hopefully the Pokémon Center can patch everything up when this is done.
“Biting isn’t working, body slams aren’t working. Maybe cutting could? The skin shouldn’t help with that,” Levi suggests.
It could. You send out Ferny and point to the scrafty. “Leaf blade. Kill. Or wound. Or something big.”
His jaw drops and he looks at you aghast. Darn it. Not the time.
“…does Bubbles know hypnosis?” Levi asks.
Why did you not think of that before?
“Bubbles! Get back, use hypnosis. Hang back a little bit, Red!”
There must not be anything out here that uses hypnosis. Or maybe the scrafty just isn’t used to being attacked by politoed. He hangs back and just growls at Sir Bubbles while he booms back with his own threatening sounds. Eventually he sags just enough that Red feels comfortable leaping and… tearing.
You lower your gaze and see Ferny looking at you with deep concern. Right. Plant doesn’t want to hunt. Should have withdrawn him earlier. You do now.
You’re not doing this again. You’re finding somewhere with easier prey that you don’t have to think as much about. Or, at the very least, you’re getting strong enough to end things in one shot.
*
You got out of dishes at breakfast and weren’t there for lunch. Still have to clean up the kitchen for dinner. It’s only polite.
Levi is “helping.” He clearly has no idea what to do. Just stands around occasionally moving a rag across a dish while looking very confused. Should you teach him? You’re tired and just want this to be done. You remember how long it took for people to teach you when you were first starting out. Now you like to think you’re pretty decent at cleaning things, although your gear didn’t look brand new on the trail no matter how much time you spent on it.
It was very frustrating.
Maybe you can teach him one thing tonight. How to put things into the drying rack. It’s not that hard. Gives him something to do. He seems very pleased with himself by the time you’re done wiping everything down. It’s more cluttered than you would like. A few things are diagonal when it would be more space efficient to be perpendicular to the base. Still fine. Nothing broke, everything fits in. You can give him more tips tomorrow. Maybe introduce him to something else.
Were you this useless a year ago? Why did they put up with you?
*
August 15, 2020
You’re stuck in your room again.
Well, it’s not quite the same. You could go outside. It’s just so, so hot. Even worse than yesterday. In the nineties. All you have to fight it is a tiny little battery-powered fan. And Cloudy. He can really only drop the temperature a few degrees if he has to keep doing it for hours. Still too hot.
To top it all off, you’re bored. There is no internet. The TV doesn’t have power for movies or television. Your phone charge needs to be very carefully conserved. You only have one book. You bought it ages ago on your first date with Cuicatl and have read it cover-to-cover four times since. You’re not in the mood for a fifth.
You absolutely should have grabbed more while you were at the mall. Can’t exactly go back now, though.
You can’t talk to your pokémon because you don’t have a translator. Definitely didn’t do enough of it while you had Cuicatl and her relatively-safe metang around. You really want to know more about Callisto in particular. How is she feeling away from her island? Is Oliver feeling okay? Is Ferny mad about yesterday?
You could try to be a trainer and actually train your pokémon. That would require making them exercise in this heat. Pass. It’s even too stuffy to sleep. That just leaves daydreams.
*
There’s a familiar knight at the front of the hoard. One who rarely fights herself. Where you have your team of knights at your side, she has monsters. It should have tipped you off a long time ago that she was not bound by chivalry. Alas, you were deceived for months.
Her dragon and giant spider sit at her sides. Her one potentially human companion, a heavily armored knight with two cleavers, stands in front of her. You have never heard him speak.
“We don’t have to do this,” she says. “I have what I want. You just need to get out of the way.”
“And let you trample more innocents?”
You’ve seen the work of her monsters and the hoard behind her. You will not let them pass. Whatever it takes.
She looks at you like you aren’t even there. Like she doesn’t care. Like you mean nothing. Maybe you never did. “Fine. Be that way.”
Her dragon roars. The silent knight lunges. The spider just stares you down.
How do you handle this? Her two smaller monsters aren’t a problem. They can just be batted away with your shield. Maybe you have one of your knights take on the fox before they can put something to sleep or steal memories or any of her many tricks. The problem with her isn’t just the brute force. Giving her too much room could be dangerous.
The silent knight does have brute force and thick armor. How do you go about dealing with something like that? Cammy the Giant can try to smack him around with her lance. Maybe just step on him. He’s quick, though. She isn’t. Slow him down? You do have a few tricks. Sleep. Does he have eyelids over his weird bug eyes? You can’t remember him blinking.
He resists water so there goes half your team. Lord Oliver and Sir Bubbles can’t really overpower him. Maybe Ferny could? Like, cut between the plates or something? Except he’s also a bug-type. Would Ferny even want to fight?
And this is all before you have to deal with the spider and dragon. Maybe you can put the dragon to sleep or something. Or Cammy, Callisto, whatever, could overpower him. Maybe. Does she have ranged dragon attacks? You haven’t really asked. You know she has leaf storm. It’s hard to imagine leaves mattering here. Even sharp ones. Unless they got in the eyes.
Then the metagross… your Father had strong pokémon. Corviknight, vikavolt, pyroar, more that you aren’t as familiar with. He got torn apart. Literally, probably. Levi didn’t seem to know. You weren’t asking the murderer about her kill. If Cuicatl knew, she didn’t tell you.
If she tried to kill you or Levi, there’s probably nothing you could do. She wouldn’t even have to give orders. She’d just win.
She says that she’s not mad at you. You’re still mad at her. For a lot of things. Starting a war, killing your parents and traumatizing your brother, leaving the moment things got hard.
There’s also a traitorous part of you that wishes she was still here. She has a lot of problems. You also felt safer when she was around. She gave good cuddles. She’s cute. She was kind to her friends. Ruthless to her enemies. Maybe that could have been toned down. You probably could have made things work, eventually, if she’d given you enough time.
There’s no way of knowing now. You’ll have to make do. However hard it is.
You’re going to need help. With a lot of things. Battling’s up there. Thankfully, there’s someone who lives nearby who was almost good enough to beat Cuicatl. You’ll ask him tomorrow.
*
August 16, 2020
Levi sets his fork down in the middle of breakfast. He leans back and folds his hands in his lap just so. He was always better at etiquette than you were. “Do you know what happened with Exodus?”
“No idea.” No one ever filled you in between your rescue and the war. You had just assumed she was still being kept at the school. Now, with your parents dead? You assume your aunt and uncle have custody. That requires you to further assume that they are alive, off the islands, and the child who might legally be in their custody is their top priority. You can’t really be sure of any of that. The metagross might have assumed they would plot revenge on Cuicatl for what she did to your parents and killed them off preemptively. No one is able to get in or out of Alola right now. You bet they could still find a way if they really put their minds to it. Your cousin has a lot of strong flying-types if nothing else.
Could you ask her for help with training? You come back to the same question: how would you even reach her? She’s either on Lanakila at the Pokémon League or she’s in Heahea at her home. Your team isn’t in any shape to climb a mountain. Cuicatl and Lyra are heading that way. They’ve also made it very clear that they want nothing to do with you.
Levi looks over to the receptionist. She’s keeping the Pokémon Center in order when the resident nurse is busy. “Is there any way to get news to or from the mainland?”
“Just dragonite post right now. They’re way backed up. Government use only.”
One of the only other people staying here snorts from her table. “Didn’t know there was a government right now.”
“The League, the rangers, and I guess the governor,” the receptionist answers. “The guard is in ruins. Not a lot he can do.”
“I met a dragonite once,” you mutter. Better talking about the pokémon than the state of the world. Not much any of you can do about that. “Tried catching a dratini and did not know his mother was around. She took off and left me deaf for a few days. Had to get through the rest of Vast Poni Canyon without being able to hear.”
It was terrifying at the time. You didn’t know if you were going to end up unable to hear for the rest of your life or if everything was, somehow, going to be fine. One moment the world is as it should be and the next, bam, disabled forever.
In the last few months, your life has changed in an instant far too many times for your liking.
You look up and see your brother staring at you like he used to when you were both really little and you could put him on your back and run around. Like you can do anything. Like you’re the knight you are in your daydreams. You immediately look back down at your bowl of dry cereal. You aren’t what he thinks you are. You can’t keep him safe. You can barely keep your pokémon fed. You have no idea what you’re doing.
The most that can be said for you is that you have an idea for how to start changing that.
*
The kahuna’s home looks like something right out of a television show. White fence and walls. Trimmed lawn. There’s a playset in the front yard, which is a little odd. You thought those were typically in the back. There’s a meowth napping in the shade beneath it. He keeps an eye on you as you walk up to the front door.
You do not like Kahuna Nanu. He hurt Cuicatl on purpose during their fight. And it sounds like he had a big role to play in keeping her real identity from her. If he had just been a little more transparent or a little less callous, it’s quite possible this war never would have happened in the first place.
Unfortunately, he is by far the strongest trainer in this town. You need help. You know you should have done this when Lyra offered back on Poni. But you didn’t need it then. Didn’t want it. Fighting isn’t your thing and you found it hard to imagine a world where you didn’t have a very scary girl fighting for you. Couldn’t imagine that one day you would have to plan what to do if she came for your family again.
You ring the doorbell. Nothing happens. Is he out? He is the kahuna. He probably has better things to do than sit around at home. Should you ring it again? He must have got the message if he’s home. You won’t. You’ll just… come back tomorrow, probably.
The door swings open just as you turn around to leave. The kahuna’s more than a little disheveled. He’s wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt that could be something other than pajamas, but you doubt are. There are deep bags under his eyes and his hair is as messy as it can be at its short length. It looks a little longer than you remembered, too.
He looks you up and down before practically collapsing into a lean against the wall. “Can I help you?”
“Good morning. I’m Genesis—”
“I know who you are. Here for revenge? Thought she’d come and take it herself if she wanted it.”
Does he think you could kill him? Or try? Come to think of it, he doesn’t have any pokémon on hand. That’s a little weird for a trainer. Is he really answering his door unarmed while society is falling apart?
“No, um. I’m not here about that. We broke up. She’s somewhere around Lanakila right now.”
He sighs. “Good. I’ll be the first to admit that Foster took it too far with the racism. I probably could have been a little more delicate breaking the news to her. I was, once, but after the fifth time someone yells at you for something Tapu Lele did, well, hard to keep a light touch. Doesn’t begin to excuse what she did in response to it all.”
Your eyes narrow. “You know about that?” Did someone tell him? Did he overhear? Who all knows? You’re mad at her. That doesn’t mean you want her to die. Even if it’s just the logical consequence of her actions.
“Kid, my great-something-grandma made that knife. Didn’t have to be a genius to figure out what faller my niece looped into her little crusade.”
“Acerola’s your niece?”
He looks past you into the yard. “You’re letting all the hot air in. Wanna come inside?”
“Sure?” That was what you wanted in the first place.
He leads you into his kitchen. The inside of the house is a lot messier than the outside. Paper bags litter the floor in various stages of destruction. One is whole and seems to have something wiggling around inside. Several are flattened. At least two have been torn to pieces. The garbage can is overflowing with an already-full garbage bag placed beside it. Most of the kitchen table is covered in papers, bags of things, cans, plates, or other debris. He sits down at it, unbothered. You sit down about a third of the way around. Still lets you kind of see him. He does not apologize for the mess.
“I’d rather not talk about family drama with strangers. Now, why are you here?”
“I need to get stronger.” He raises an eyebrow. “My team isn’t powerful enough to stop people from hurting me or my brother. Or maybe it is and I don’t know how to use it. I have to hunt for an old pyroar now and I can’t even do that right and. I need a teacher. You’re the strongest trainer around.”
“And the busiest, pass.”
You blink. “Just like that.”
“Just like that.”
“Without even giving a reason?”
He shrugs. “Told you, I’m busy. Malie’s eating itself alive. City folk are camping out on the routes, eating the bear’s food, and then getting shocked when the bears bite back. Everything around Tapu Village is an environmental disaster, to say nothing of the ghosts. When I am at home, I’d rather be relaxing than tutoring some brat.”
“You’re kind of an, an asshole, you know that, right?” For this. For everything that went on with Cuicatl. You’re guessing there are a lot more reasons you don’t know about.
“So I’m told. Is that all? I was hoping to get a little more sleep before it gets ungodly hot again.”
The front door slams open so hard you can practically feel the handle hit the wall. Nanu winces and your soul almost jumps out of your body.
“Who’s the big, bad kahuna who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up!”
Nanu turns to look at the newcomer with mild distaste.
You’re mostly just… confused? He’s wearing black pants and a black jacket despite the heat. He has a necklace that you’re 99% sure is made of gold-painted pop tabs and a ‘gold’ watch that looks obviously fake. At first you thought that his hair had gone white unfortunately early, but, no, it looks like it’s actually just one of the worst bleachings you’ve ever seen. His hair sticks out in wild, textureless tufts. Parts of the underlying black are still clearly showing. Did he do it last night? By himself? In the dark? His sunglasses, which would be useful given the weather, are asymmetrical with one side having a… bite out of it? You think? What is going on?
“Hello, Guzma,” Nanu says. “Do you need something?”
Guzma? That’s… oh! He was the old boss of Team Skull.
…oh no, he was the old boss of Team Skull. At least you have an actual kahuna here in case he tries anything.
The gang leader walks up to the table and yanks a chair back before whirling it around. He sits down in it, legs spread behind the chair’s back, and arms crossed in front of it. “Oh, nothing much. Just got a promotion. Thought I’d break the news to the old guy in person.”
“Congrats.” Nanu pulls out a half-empty glass of water you hadn’t seen before. “You’re in for it.”
The big, bad kahuna. A promotion? Wait. No. “You’re the new kahuna?”
“Dead on the money, princess.” He barely spares you a glance. That’s good. You don’t really want him thinking about you. “What’cha got to say, old man?”
“Sucks to be you. An entire island of people and pokémon who won’t. Stop. Complaining? Yours now.” He gestures towards you. “Hell, just got a new one this morning. She’s your problem, too.”
“I think I’m good,” you whisper.
“Nah, nah, I’ve got this. What’s the problem, kid? What can the big, bad kahuna do for you?”
You aren’t sure if you’re getting out of this anymore. How can you make this request as boring as possible? Then you can go back to Nanu later since he no longer has a job to pretend to be busy with. He’s an ass, but he’s safer.
“Just needed a little advice on training. That’s all.”
“Hell yeah. So, just starting out? Middle of the challenge? End? What are we talking?”
“Middle, kind of? My pokémon are evolved. I just don’t really know how to command them. Felt important to learn right now.” He doesn’t need more details.
“Alright!” He slams a hand against the chair back before getting up to his feet. “Let’s go out and see what we’re working with.” He turns to Nanu and winks. “See, old man? Already doing more to educate the youth and all that.”
“Have fun,” Nanu drawls. “And don’t wreck my lawn. Just mowed it.”
*
Guzma walks back and forth in front of your pokémon like a commander inspecting his troops. Finally, he stops, looks up Callisto’s long, long neck, and gives a low whistle. “And you’re sure you need my help?”
“I only beat two trials. That was almost a year ago.”
The first one was all Ferny. Second one was a mix of castform setting up the sun to fight a steel-type and Ferny still being pretty strong. You think his last trainer might have been a serious fighter? Serious enough to really care what his pokémon evolved into. You didn’t have a major preference for Bubbles as long as he was happy with it. You do wish he picked the one that wasn’t quite so loud, though.
“Well, what do you want to learn to fight for? Best strategies depend on what we’re fighting and why. We burning shit? Protecting it? Assassinations?”
So morbid. How do you even—no. You aren’t humoring him. “Hunting. Hunting pokémon. My brother has a pyroar. She’s old. We tried to hunt a scrafty and it, I mean we did it, but it took too long.”
“Huh. Could’ve picked something easier, y’know?”
“Not much around here.”
“Not during the day. Got to get out at night and find a big, juicy raticate. Hey, I’m free tonight. I can take you out, show you how to find one—”
“I’m afraid I’m busy.” You do not want to be out with this man at night, alone. You definitely do not want your brother there with him.
His jaw drops. “Busy? At night? Now? Middle of a war?”
“Yes.” This is probably less awkward than backtracking.
“Well, uh, okay, then. I guess we can talk about ganging up on a big pokémon? That’s close enough.”
He reaches down to his belt and taps a scuffed pokéball. Light pours out. And keeps pouring. It’s not as much as Coco or even Callisto, but it’s still a hefty pokémon. When the light finishes pooling, the newly formed golisopod tenses as if to pounce. You’ve seen Cuicatl’s do it a lot. Although this thing positively dwarfs hers in size. It has to be nearly a foot taller, with thicker armor and sharper claws to boot.
“Do they usually get that big?” you ask.
“Hah! Scared of his size?”
“No. My girlfriend—” You catch yourself. “Ex-girlfriend had one that was smaller. Just wasn’t sure which one was normal.”
“Eh. When’d they evolve?”
“Few months ago?” You think. She says she caught a wimpod and that would have happened after you… left. Probably. Your memories aren’t always right about those things.
“Just a baby, then. Give them time.”
“I thought bugs didn’t live very long?”
“Some don’t, some do. These guys go. Now, you ready to fight or what?”
“Yeah, just give me a second.” You turn back towards your team. Alright. Strategy time. How do your five pokémon take on one golisopod? You know that Lyra and Cuicatl said you had a ‘weather’ team. What you do should focus more on Count Cloudy. Sun or rain. Golisopod are water-types. Sun could help with that. Cloudy already has embers flickering through his body. It would be easier on him than trying to summon rain. “Cloudy, use sunny day! Everyone else, attack the golisopod!”
There. No way he can fight five of your pokémon at once.
*
He can fight five of your pokémon at once. It doesn’t even look like he’s trying.
You have Bubbles try hypnosis. The bug just lunges his way and starts slashing. Sir Bubbles gives up and just starts trying to body slam him back. It does nothing.
Oliver shoots out a stream of water that barely even makes it to the golisopod. As soon as Sir Bubbles is down, the bug leaps towards him and starts attacking. Oliver eventually puts a small, flickering shield up. Protect. Right. Lyra taught half your team the move. Said it could be important. You’d just kidn of forgotten she did that.
Ferny rushes in before things can get too far out of hand. His head leaf is glowing and seems about twice as long as usual. The golisopod catches it in a claw before swiping out with his other large arm. Ferny darts away with a quick attack. Good! He knows what he’s doing. Even gives Oliver a chance to run away.
It doesn’t buy Ferny that much time, though. The golisopod is even quicker than Cuicatl’s. He tries to run but trips over himself. (Was he always that fast?) He does turn in time to lash out with another leaf blade. The golisopod just catches it with a claw and then lunges forwards to bite into his side. He really, really does not like that. You withdraw him pretty quickly so he doesn’t get too hurt.
Callisto slams her head down straight into the golisopod. It knocks him flat. For a moment. Then he manages to somehow twist around so that his legs are wrapped around the dragon’s neck. Callisto tries to right herself, tries to shake him off, tries to call for someone else to do something. The last one works, kind of. Cloudy shoots a ball of fire at her. She seems to like that even less than the bug’s slashes. You withdraw her.
The stupid bug lands on its feet. Just him, Cloudy, and Oliver now.
“Alright, let’s stop there,” Guzma says. “Weren’t kidding about your skill, huh?”
That’s an insult. An accurate one. You have no grounds to say anything.
“I get what you were thinking with the sun. You’re fighting a water-type. Why not make him weaker? ‘cept, I wasn’t going to use water-moves on any of your ‘mons. It made your leafeon a little faster. Didn’t look like he really knew how to use that speed. No teamwork to be seen.”
“I know,” you hiss. “That’s why I need help.”
Guzma sticks his hands up. “Hey, just telling you what I see. I’d train on having your team work together. Make sure they know what to do in different weathers. When to have one block and others attack. Easy stuff. Should be videos on… ah, shit, internet’s down. Well, doesn’t take an expert. Find someone, anyone, and ask for some help. Hell, I know a guy who just retired an hour ago.”
You look towards the house, half-expecting to see Nanu watching the two of you through a window. He is not.
“I don’t think he wants to help.”
“Sucks. Tell him it’s the new kahuna’s orders. We’re an island full of model fucking citizens now. Everyone does their part.”
*
“How bad is it?” you ask the nurse. Some of the cuts were pretty big. The golisopod was stronger than Cuicatl’s. at the time you didn’t think anything looked terrible, but you’ve never been a great judge of these things.
“Nothing to be too worried about. Mostly false swipe hits, actually. A few weaker bug bites. It’s all shallow, even if the claws… what were you fighting, again?”
“A golisopod.”
“Huh. Didn’t know any of the locals had one.”
“Not local. It was, uh, Guzma. The former Team Skull boss. He’s the new kahuna.”
The nurse stares at you like she’s expecting you to break out into laughter and give the game up.
“I’m not joking.”
“Well, Tapu Bulu sure, uh, has interesting taste. Why did you fight him? Grand Trial?”
“No. I’m just trying to learn how to fight. My brother’s pyroar needs to eat and our hunt didn’t go well and.” You look around the lobby. He isn’t here. Doesn’t know your back. “I need to take care of him now,” you say in a lower voice. “I don’t know how to do that. I thought getting stronger would be a place to start so I went to Nanu. He said no.”
The nurse gives you a long, probing look. It doesn’t feel bad. Maybe a little uncomfortable. It’s hard to describe. “Are you new to being a primary caregiver?” she asks.
“Yes?” You don’t see what that has to do with your battle skill.
“I see. How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Sixteen.”
“And how old is your brother?”
“Twelve.”
She scribbles down a note on a piece of paper. “Well, I would love to tell you that you don’t have to be strong and that the world is a safe place. Unfortunately, that’s not true at the moment. I can’t really help with training, but I can get you some books or resources on parenting if you want them. Or maybe one of the other guests knows more about the battling side of pokémon than me.”
“You don’t have to—”
She literally waves off your concerns. “You’ll thank me later. Or your brother will.”
You are thankful, now. You just don’t know how she figured out what you wanted without you telling her.
*
Someone nudges your shoulder and you slowly drift awake.
“Wah?”
“Hi,” Levi whispers. He climbed down from his bunk to your level. “I wanted to talk.”
“’bout what?” You glance at the book on your nightstand. It’s about teenagers. Things they supposedly like and dislike and how they think. You aren’t sure how much of it is accurate to you. It does explain your peers a little more, though. A few things you’ve asked or assumed are even a little embarrassing in hindsight now.
“I had a nightmare.”
Isn’t he a little too old for this? He looks so earnest, though. You can’t help but hear him out.
“I worry—” He shakes his head and clenches his fists. “No, I’m not worried, I’m scared.”
“About?”
“That monster. The metagross. It just tore our family, our home, apart. And it wasn’t even trying! It was like Red with a rattata. If it came back, is there anything we could do about it?”
You exhale. “Not right now. I’m working on getting stronger. Hopefully soon.”
He looks down and clings one arm to the side. “I’m scared you’re going to get hurt and it will have been my fault.” It comes out as barely a whisper.
“Come again?”
“You broke up with Cuicatl because of me. She must be angry. And the metagross… I don’t want to be the reason why more people get hurt, but I don’t think I could stop it.”
He’s worried about you more than himself. You understand. You’re more worried about him than yourself as well. “I don’t think either of them are coming back,” you tell him. “She isn’t mad; she doesn’t care at all.”
It was quiet when she ended things. She was tired. Resolved. She never lashed out. Didn’t threaten you with her team. Didn’t accuse you of anything explosive. She had just decided that she’d had enough and was going to move on now. She saved your life and spent months with you. You were her first kiss, first partner, first everything, and after one or two bad moments, she was just done. She was the great castle keeping you safe from the world and providing a place of comfort. You were just… nothing. A troublesome guest, perhaps.
You still care. Maybe it’s love, maybe it’s hate, but you feel something.
“That’s good,” he says, even though it isn’t. It’s complicated at best. Then he walks a step closer to your nightstand and runs a finger along the cover of your parenting book. “I still think we should find Kahili. She’s really strong, right? She can help.”
“We’ll try,” you promise. You still aren’t sure how you’re supposed to find anyone in Alola right now. Climbing Lanakila to reach the League feels out of the question at your current level of skill and power. Maybe the base would be more manageable, though? It may require briefly encountering Cuicatl and Lyra.
That’s probably okay, though. They don’t care.
You let out a long yawn. It’s not too hot right now. You should really get back to sleep before that changes.
Xerneas knows you’ll still have your share of problems in the morning. May as well be rested.
It feels realistic to me that, in this moment, she's not able to celebrate his growth but instead feels it as an attack.