lisianthus
『教えてよ、まだ知らかい話』
CW//blood, violence
(A bit of a foreword! And defining some things! So, what is called Unova here encompasses the entirety of America (including Alola) and Canada–excluding Quebec, which is a part of Kalos! The official name of the country is called The Isocratic Union of Unova (Isocracy is a political ideology meaning that everyone shares equal power, which I thought fitting of the semi-utopian world of Pokémon, and of the 'freedom and liberty' roots of America). The country called Hiyori (with two kanji that both mean 'Japan', which read together mean 'good weather', and sound like 'greater than the sun') is analogous to modern-day Japan, and in tradition of adding 'go' (meaning 'language') to a country's name to signify a language, Poké!Japanese is called Hiyorigo. Citizens of Hiyori are called Hiyorijin, which follows the Japanese convention of adding 'jin' (meaning 'person') to the end of a country's name to signify a citizen of said country. The language analogous to English is called Hydraean, which takes from the prior, colonial name of Galar (the Kingdom of Hydraea).
Some info to make sure you get everything! Happy reading~~~ I do hope you enjoy!!)
Shining, dazzling sky-flavored blue. And a form draped in a matter-of-fact piece of clothing that vaguely mirrored an oversized labcoat. Usually that slouched Trainer was accompanied by an almost-identical-looking figure, however on that particular day he had the twisted privilege of taking part in silly antics with a certain idol who was nothing like him. If it was true that, as many strangers said, that Emmet and his brother, Ingo, were very, very different personalities (which, if you truly studied the pair, was unarguably false), like two immutable forces of Black and White... Lisia was best described as some alien shade of deep Sapphire.
Of course, whether or not Emmet was any similar to his brother was of relatively little importance. What was more important was the unfortunate burden, in his opinion, of being known the world over. That shared reality of his and the blindingly bright girl in his peripheral vision was what brought him to this... what seemed to be a haunted house in a windswept corner of Kanto of all places. Taking him away from the work he loves, and the brother that he admittedly has been overly attached to for a greater part of his 26 years on Earth. All for... a glorified PR stunt. Sure, this would bring some tourists to the Subway upon airing, but closing the Subway for a few days, just because half of the main attraction wasn't there... seemed irresponsible, Emmet thought. Well, maybe not... Ingo couldn't do all the battling after all, that'd be too much trouble. But having just the Single Train open... wouldn't that be fine?
Despite his futile gripings, Emmet was… contractually obligated to be there. And unlike Lisia, wasn't afraid of ghosts. In fact, he semi-frequently explored the ‘catacombs’ of Nimbasa’s now-abandoned subway system, back when the Battle Subway didn't exist. Alone–well, with his Chandelure in its Poké Ball, anyways.
So why… was he dreading an event as trivial as this?
Lisia, to her credit, was happy to visit Kanto once again–her father was born and raised there, so she naturally had an interest in exploring the not-so-distant region. Although both Kanto and her home of Hoenn were, of course, in the country of Hiyori, the 700 miles separating the two regions made truly taking in the sights and spectacles of Kanto a bit of a hassle, especially for someone as young yet busy as herself. Lisia assumed that doing something like this would hopefully bring forth new fun, and new people to meet, hopefully! As for the prospect of seeing ghosts, Lisia, perhaps mistakenly, categorized them as 'new friends' in her head. Her reasoning was a slightly vapid one, along the lines of:
"Some Ghost-types are cute, too, like Mimikyu!"
And of course, the opportunity to spend time with Emmet is a welcome one! Emmet is quite different from her best friend and close relative Wallace... aside from being older than her, Emmet is just about the opposite of him. Emmet is in many ways the complete opposite of a 'magical girl' of lore. Stoic in public appearances, quiet, a little demure-seeming, the list goes on and on. But because of Lisia’s fairy-tale-like ability to seemingly make friends with anyone, the two were at least acquainted with each other.
A sunglassed man, his slightly lean build obscured by a black parka, beckoned to the pair. Probably to give another overview of the escapades of the day.
'Isn't that overdressing? Kanto isn't that cold…' Lisia noticed, ever the sharp eye.
"We'll be filming for about an hour, that should be more than enough footage for us. It's big here, so you won't be able to explore every room. And make sure to get comfortable! That means acting like normal, Emmet, the cameras won't hurt you, you know!" he chuckled.
Emmet stiffened at the man's remarks, visibly now very conscious of the five black-clad crew members stationed near the entrance.
"Hey… don't worry about them! I have a trick to forget about cameras, Emmet!" Lisia quickly stepped a little closer to him.
"...What is it?"
"All you have to doooo… is, hold your breath and slowly, slooowly, count to three! It might sound too good to be true, but it's helped me a lot before getting on the stage to perform!" Lisia offered cheerily.
One… two… three…
Emmet had to admit that it worked well. Almost too well. How did that girl possess the nerves to do this, just about every day? He couldn't wrap his mind around it.
"Let's head inside. Even if we have all the time in the world, we're still on a schedule!" the producer commanded.
The first thing the pair noticed inside the almost-crumbling, definitely-abandoned mansion was the long, winding staircase… and the obvious bloodstains on it. Yikes.
Lisia involuntarily shrieked, clearly taken by surprise by the blood.
Emmet was unprepared for such a reaction from his costar, and stepped back, failing to see an expensive-looking ceramic cup behind him.
Crunch, went the cup.
The sound echoed across the mansion, two wide stories tall. There was a glass chandelier in the middle of the main room they were in, precariously hanging a bit lower than it should be.
Other than the debris scattered around, and the rather conspicuous bloodstain on the stairs, nothing else seemed too out of the ordinary for a supposedly haunted mansion.
'Maybe, they'll just edit the ghosts in later..?' Lisia secretly hoped to herself.
"Action!"
The cameras turned on, the lights flickered, and it was time to explore.
Wait.
"D-did the lights just flicker?!" Lisia stuttered.
A Spinarak darted out from the cover of a tablecloth draped on the floor, and ambled over to Emmet.
"Oh, hello there. Would you like to say hello to my Galvantula, Spinarak?"
The Spinarak nodded, then sadly watched Lisia not-so-slowly back away from the newly demarcated-and-annexed Bug Zone, which was only a few away.
'Is Amou seriously that afraid of this kind of thing? She can be in front of a crowd, but not in front of a wild, docile Bug-type?' Emmet questioned.
"Miss Amou. I believe you're making our newfound friend feel sad right now. Would you like to say hello, too?" Emmet sternly stated in a joking sort of manner.
"It's not as bad as seeing a ghost, of course… I'll bite, then! Coming~"
At her mention of the word 'bite', however, the Spinarak bolted off, presumably all the way to Azalea Town. That was much to the dismay of Emmet's Galvantula, who had excitedly jumped from its' Ball to greet its' compatriot mere moments before.
"...Was I the scary one?!" Lisia loudly exclaimed, clearly quite puzzled.
Bzzt.
Bzzt.
Click.
The lights turned off.
'That was on purpose, wasn't it?' Lisia nervously thought.
"Galvantula, can you try to give some electricity to the lights?" Emmet asked his Pokémon.
"Galv!" it affirmed.
But it didn't work. If the reason for the lights going out was simply a power outage or even on purpose, feeding the lights with electricity, like a power generator or, in this case, a Pokémon, would have brought the lights back on. Could it have been a ghost's doing?
"Galvantula, return. Chandelure, I need you." the white-clad figure spoke to his Pokémon with a steady voice, belying any hint of fear in his mind.
Chandelure almost instantly illuminated the room to a level comparable to a person holding a torch or a lamp. Not enough light to see very far, but it did fit the mood of a haunted house quite well.
"At least we have some light, now… thank you, Chandelure!" Lisia thankfully exclaimed.
Chandelure spun to show appreciation… and crashed right into the actual glass chandelier.
Shards flew everywhere. Chandelure was unharmed due to its' metal and glass composition, but the same couldn't be said for Emmet. He wasn't bleeding heavily, but a sizable, and sharp-looking, piece of glass had definitely scratched his cheek badly.
"Are you okay!?" the exuberant girl screamed over the reverbing din of glass crashing.
"I'll be fine… just adding more blood to this place. It's better happening to a train conductor like me than an idol, anyways." Emmet remarked, unfazed. Much worse had happened to him before, after all.
"And don't worry, Chandelure. I should have sent you out a bit further away. Are you fine?" he apologized to his clearly-concerned Pokémon.
Chandelure nodded in the affirmative, and the pair decided to move onwards, with a Pokémon lighting their way.
Suddenly, Chandelure zipped towards a certain door. Was there, perhaps, a particular energy behind that door that appealed to it?
"I guess we're going over there? What do you think happened?" Lisia asked Emmet, who was a little ahead of her.
"It could be a powerful Pokémon’s aura… get your Altaria out, just in case," he instructed her.
Lisia rustled through her small Bag while walking–she had placed it on the ground as soon as she had entered, but apparently thought better of it. The possibility of an errant Ghost-type trying to steal her unattended items was a slightly likely one, so it made more sense for Lisia to keep it on her person.
“...I think I forgot his Poké Ball?!"
"..." Emmet offered nothing in response, just a glance Lisia's way that seemed equal parts shocked, dissapointed, and resigned.
"Wait, I DEFINITELY brought it!! Did a ghost take it…? Oh nooooo…" Lisia was panicking quite a bit at this point, understandably so.
'This is fine, you're strong enough to defeat most things that are in your way. Damn, it would have been nice to have backup at least…' Emmet said to himself.
"Your Altaria will be fine. It'll turn up at some point. Let's keep on moving." Admittedly, doing this was a bit of a cold move, but considering how Chandelure was interested in whatever lied beyond the door, getting moving was a better option.
Perhaps her Altaria lied beyond that door, as well. One would never know, of course.
Besides, Emmet's hunch was that the ditzy-seeming girl left her Altaria wherever she was staying in Kanto. How she functioned like that, he would never know… order was a stable element in his life. Trains depart and arrive at exact times. Leading an orderly life like that was absolutely a must for him, and his brother, too. Scheduling, planning, and order were a bit mundane to some, but those things have provided structure in his life thus far.
And so, they opened the door, which was to the right of a window with tattered curtains. It was raining outside, which wasn't too unusual for Kanto in October.
Tontontontontontontonton.
Many, many Poké Balls spilled out from the door. The room itself couldn't have been big enough to be a big storage area, but it was packed full of old-tech Poké Balls, about 20 or 30 years old.
"C-could there be Pokémon inside of those? There's no way someone would leave their Pokémon like that for so long, right…?" Lisia, nervously shifting her weight from one side to the other, wondered aloud.
"Chandelure, is there a Pokémon nearby?" Emmet asked.
Nodnodnod, the Chandelure shook up and down, confirming Emmet's suspicions.
"Alright... stay right behind me, then. Keep a lookout for anything strange."
"Alright…" Lisia murmured, blissfully unaware of something floating right towards her from behind.
Emmet continued to look in some worn cardboard boxes, which were also filled with Poké Balls, for 'anything suspicious'. He hadn't taken notice of the absence of his costar, one Lisia Amou, yet, for he was too engrossed in his own investigation.
A faint screaming sound could be heard in the distance. Emmet took no heed to it, as it seemed like a normal occurrence in an area infested with mischievous Ghost-types.
"Doing alright, Amou?" he asked. She hadn't said anything for the past few minutes, not that he remembered anyways, which was strange, considering her observed idol habit of talking very quickly and frequently–at what felt like the rate of a Pikachu's heartbeat.
And there was no response from the Lisia-less space Emmet called to.
Once more, this time looking over his shoulder.
It was dark inside still, but the flashes of lightning seemingly coming from outside combined with Chandelure's flames illuminated Emmet's surroundings passably enough.
"...Oh my god…" Emmet muttered. Lisia had disappeared. Where to, hell if he knew. 'God, was that screaming her? Guess I'll have to look for her now…'
"Chandelure, let's go to the second floor. Hurrying would be better."
And they took off across the main floor, making sure to sidestep any debris. Then, went up the steps of the stairs, until,
Emmet slipped on the pool of (fresh?) blood, in a very exaggerated and comedic fashion.
Don, his body hit the third step of the stairs, and gacha, his back cracked louder than any back should.
"Damn… was that the blood we saw before? It had to have been dry before, right?"
Sudden realization hit. Emmet bolted upright from his prior dangling position, which did not do wonders for his newfound back pain.
Could it be that that blood was spilled not even five minutes ago?
Being the morally upstanding individual he is, Emmet got to his feet once more in pursuit of his costar.
Except.
Don.
Gachaa.
His back hit the floor once again, with his head smacking the floor as well, a moment after his body.
And this time, Emmet did not entertain the now-futile thought of getting up once more. Nor the thought of his likely imminent demise to the same monster that got to Lisia. Or if the brave people manning the cameras would stop the footage and rouse him.
Only blank, meaningless thoughts occupied his head as he fell unconscious.
Instead of waking up his Trainer with flames, Chandelure decided to take another route in looking for Lisia (which was quite an easy task, her aura was quite bright, along with her choice of clothing to boot), and bringing her to Emmet's possibly-dead possibly-alive corpse.
While going off to the second floor to look for what she thought was Altaria (the shadow looming behind her was simply a Gastly playing tricks), Lisia had made a new acquaintance of her own.
Rotom tend to hide in abandoned buildings, and a particular one that Lisia befriended while upstairs had made its' home in a washing machine. A Rotom was of course no replacement for her beloved Ali, no Pokémon would be, but she figured that a new member of her team, at least for now, would be great to have.
"Jingle Slosh IV, use Hydro Pump to wake Emmet up!" Lisia said, using her best Ace Trainer
impression. She pointed her finger into the air in front of her, directing her new Ghost-type friend to Emmet's face-down, slumped figure.
Shuuuu, the cold water blanketed Emmet and he woke with a start.
Dripping wet.
"...My head hurts. Why am I wet, Amou?" he asked, extremely bewildered.
"Chandelure found me upstairs and-" she started, only to be cut off by Emmet making one of his signature erratic-looking poses to halt her speech.
"Are you bleeding, Amou?" he suddenly remembered to ask Lisia.
"No? I'm all in one piece. Anyways, like I was saying, Chandelure found me, so I took Jingle Slosh down with me, well, he floated down, I didn't carry him, and he just woke you up! And the lights turned back on a few minutes ago…"
"I'm sorry, did you call that Washer Rotom 'Jingle Slosh', Amou?" Emmet inquired exasperatedly.
"Yep! His full name is Jingle Slosh Amou IV!" Lisia enthusiastically twirled, pointing to the dancing-as-best-a-washer-can Rotom by her side.
'Dear God… this has to be a fever dream.'
"You've had not one, but three other washers at some point in your life, all with the name 'Jingle Slosh Amou'...?" Emmet asked, incredulously.
"Is naming household applicances not normal…?" Lisia tilted her head. The Rotom was copying her movements by now, he seemed to have taken quite a liking to her.
"Our viewers will decide, I guess… so if you checked the upstairs areas with Chandelure, I guess nothing terrible was up there. We probably don't have much time left, so let's head back to that Poké Ball room once more." Emmet got up, then paused.
"My coat and hat are sopping wet." he noticed aloud.
"Tom, Rotom!" the washing machine offered, lid swinging open. It seemed to have a drying function as well, which was quite convenient. Dual washer/dryers weren't common in older Hiyorian homes.
"These are dry-clean only... shou ga nai, naa…" he defeatedly uttered the last phrase ('it can't be helped…'), in Hiyorigo out of habit more than anything else. Ratings in Hiyori–and the number of visitors to the Battle Subway–would undoubtedly skyrocket because of this.
Score one, PR stunt.
The mansion was quite big, complete with a few blocked-off-by-debris areas, so traversing the mansion in a truly safe manner took a little while. Lisia peppered him with rapid-fire Hiyorigo the whole way to the room.
Even though the show was being filmed in Kanto, she tended to default to Hydraean when it came to media being consumed internationally. Not everyone in Unova could speak Hiyorigo, the whole region of Unova was three times the population of all of Hiyori after all, but most people in Hiyori could speak Hydraean. So it was Lisia's joy to carry on a (mostly one-sided, just like in any language with the two) Hiyorigo conversation with Emmet once she remembered that he spoke it, too. The Subway Boss spent time studying both the engineering of trains and the art of battling in Kanto. Even if he didn't look it, he was most definitely more than competent in the language.
And so, they arrived at the incredibly mysterious, incredibly small room, and waded across the incredibly large river of Poké Balls to the left and right sides of the room.
"So... what now, Mr. Subway Boss Number One?" Lisia said in Hydraean, attempting to lighten the mood just a little.
"There's something we need to do here. Start digging through these Poké Balls, and it you see anything strange, tell me as soon as you see it," he seemed to come up with the idea on the fly.
Gatagatagatagata.
The sound of both of them rooting through Poké Balls was the only sound in the mansion, suddenly. Considering how their experience thus far was marked with screaming, loud noises coming from who knows where, and other sound-based occurrences likely brought about by ghosts, the absence of noise felt even scarier than hearing the screech of a Haunter.
"Emmeeeeeeeet!" Lisia called, drawing out the last part of his name for emphasis. "I found something you might want to see..! It's a pretty big button… I wonder what would happen if I were to push it?" she teasingly said.
"Stay there, and don't push it. I'm coming over to look."
"Alright, this looks pretty old…" he absentmindedly put his right hand down on the ground in order to get into a squatting position, when disaster struck.
He had placed his hand directly on the one area of the room he was not to touch. Which housed an inconveniently big red button.
Ban. Ban. Ban. Banbanban. Banbanbanbanbanbanbanbanbanbanban.
Hosts of Mimikyu seemed to erupt from the Poké Balls, all chittering excitedly. They made no move to attack the stunned Emmet and frozen Lisia. Instead, all of them, who must have numbered more than a hundred in total, simply gazed towards the right of the room, which Emmet and Lisia were both facing.
With a byuu~n, a purple shadow seemed to cut through the stale air and menacingly stare at Lisia and Emmet.
This seemed to unroot Lisia from the floor, and she quickly ran out the door, undoubtedly crushing more than a few Poké Balls, which were made with older, more fragile material.
"Amou, you were not scheduled to depart! Please return to the station!" Emmet yelled after her, his speech a tad stilted.
'Are the train references in his speech something he only does for the Battle Subway…?' Lisia thought to herself.
When making a train-based pun, Lisia thought that Emmet's speech always seemed unnatural, like he didn't know how to effectively deliver lines. Maybe next time, she would tutor him on idol work for this show.
"I don't want to be attacked by whatever's in there, did you see how it looked at you?"
"I see Haunter while exploring the old parts of the station sometimes. They're harmless if you have Pokémon with you." Emmet tried to calm her fears.
"It's nothing to be afraid of, it's weak to Chandelure's moves. Your new friend can fight it, too... and you've been meaning to get more battle experience, correct?"
Jingle Slosh IV had been standing to the outside of the entrance. It seemed like he wouldn't fit through.
Lisia noticed this, and made an outlandish, and quite destructive decision.
"Jingle Slosh IV, break down that wall!" Lisia said, perhaps a bit rashly.
And before Emmet could object to the probable asbestos exposure brought about by Lisia's not-so-sage advice to the living washing machine... With a don and the sound of Poké Balls spilling out the side of a somehow fully-collapsed wall, Lisia was ready to fight as well.
The Haunter looked as though it was considering escaping, but the just-made dust cloud covering most of the room seemed to make it think twice.
During that time, Lisia and Emmet both prepared moves, taking advantage of an opening just as any competent Trainer would.
"Chandelure, use Will-O-Wisp!" Emmet said, remembering the results of his Pokédex scan of the Rotom fifteen minutes or so ago.
'If Amou knows how to utilize that Rotom effectively… this encounter might be over in one turn.' Emmet thought.
Of course, if anything went wrong he would likely easily be able to deal with the Haunter effectively, but giving the inexperienced Trainer a confidence-boosting opportunity such as this one would be a good thing, or so he thought.
Lisia's eyes shimmered with recognition at the set-up, which was undoubtedly an easy task for one as skilled in Double Battles as Emmet.
So of course, she took advantage of it. Lisia had recently been studying the art of battle in preparation for someday taking over the role of Gym Leader from Wallace, so the mental connection, the most dazzling move to pick!, came easier to her than it would have had before.
It also helped that the status move to Hex combination was a fairly well-known Contest combo, too.
No matter how or why Lisia knew, she chose correctly.
"Jingle Slosh IV! Use Hex!" Lisia confidently grinned.
With that, extra damage was added to the already super-effective combination, and the Haunter fainted. It disappeared in an instant, along with the Mimikyu horde, which silently shuffled out through the new, gaping hole in the wall.
There was one Poké Ball left in the room. That one was a modern-style Ball, however.
Lisia picked it up, and out came her Ali. Their reunion after an hour apart was joyous enough that one would have thought they hadn't seen each other in weeks.
'Such is the manner of an enduring, close relationship, I guess… and to be fair, if I was as worried about Nii-san as Amou likely was about her Altaria… well, the scene here would be just about the same, wouldn't it…' Emmet mused, smiling just a little.
"I believe it's about time to leave this place, Amou. My Pokédex says that it's been about an hour and five minutes from our departure." Emmet stated matter-of-factly.
"Come on, Ali! I'll race you to the outside!" Lisia excitedly said to her friend, who chirped something back to her.
"Right... hey, Jingle Slosh IV! I've already named you, so why not become a part of my team? I think we could have lots of fun, no matter if we battle or do Contests together!" the aqua-haired girl cheerily said, beaming heavily.
"Tom! Rotom!" it answered. Lisia touched a Poké Ball she had picked up from the floor to it, and stowed the Ball into her small bag.
Thus, Jingle Slosh IV became a member of Lisia's team.
Outside, the weather had cleared up considerably, although some signs of the prior heavy rainfall still showed.
Lisia was off to the side, busy showing her new Pokémon to the cameras. It would undoubtedly become featured in countless magazines across the world once the Halloween-themed episode of that particular variety show aired in a week or so.
"Emmet, what happened to your coat and hat?" the producer enquired after supplying him with a customary 'otsukaresama', thanking him for his work.
Emmet gazed at the Rotom, realizing his mistake.
Never mind his clothes shrinking in the wash, they had to have shrunk while in a Poké Ball too, right?
Emmet's suspicions turned out to be correct. His coat and hat, the most ubiquitous parts of any self-respecting Subway Master's outfit, were small enough to fit a plushie of his likeness.
He had to immediately deal with Lisia, who alternated being on the verge of laughter due to the absurdity of the situation, and being incredibly apologetic for the exact same reasons causing her laughter.
He had many more at home; yes, he had packed extras; yes, he would let his Eelektross wear the hat.
And the two both look fondly on that day, now. It hasn't even been two months since then, but the two both remember that day as a hectic and zany, yet fun one.
As a keepsake, Emmet and Lisia each have a signed picture of themselves standing back-to-back, on Jingle Slosh IV, making exaggerated Subway Masters-style poses. Eelektross is sitting on Emmet's head, complete with a tiny conductor's cap, and Altaria makes a silly face in the background.
Emmet and Lisia want to do something again, very soon. Although they had their doubts at first, particularly Emmet, their time together turned out to be a very fun one.
And in a few months, Lisia will visit the Battle Subway, for the first time in what will definitely be many times, for the purpose of advancing her battle technique.
Perhaps she would show Emmet the correct way to deliver lines. It would likely help their advertising efforts nicely. Apparently the Battle Subway had recently hired a new PR assistant. Lisia had heard her name before... and was excited to meet her, too!
SHUPPATSU SHINKOU!
(A bit of a foreword! And defining some things! So, what is called Unova here encompasses the entirety of America (including Alola) and Canada–excluding Quebec, which is a part of Kalos! The official name of the country is called The Isocratic Union of Unova (Isocracy is a political ideology meaning that everyone shares equal power, which I thought fitting of the semi-utopian world of Pokémon, and of the 'freedom and liberty' roots of America). The country called Hiyori (with two kanji that both mean 'Japan', which read together mean 'good weather', and sound like 'greater than the sun') is analogous to modern-day Japan, and in tradition of adding 'go' (meaning 'language') to a country's name to signify a language, Poké!Japanese is called Hiyorigo. Citizens of Hiyori are called Hiyorijin, which follows the Japanese convention of adding 'jin' (meaning 'person') to the end of a country's name to signify a citizen of said country. The language analogous to English is called Hydraean, which takes from the prior, colonial name of Galar (the Kingdom of Hydraea).
Some info to make sure you get everything! Happy reading~~~ I do hope you enjoy!!)
Shining, dazzling sky-flavored blue. And a form draped in a matter-of-fact piece of clothing that vaguely mirrored an oversized labcoat. Usually that slouched Trainer was accompanied by an almost-identical-looking figure, however on that particular day he had the twisted privilege of taking part in silly antics with a certain idol who was nothing like him. If it was true that, as many strangers said, that Emmet and his brother, Ingo, were very, very different personalities (which, if you truly studied the pair, was unarguably false), like two immutable forces of Black and White... Lisia was best described as some alien shade of deep Sapphire.
Of course, whether or not Emmet was any similar to his brother was of relatively little importance. What was more important was the unfortunate burden, in his opinion, of being known the world over. That shared reality of his and the blindingly bright girl in his peripheral vision was what brought him to this... what seemed to be a haunted house in a windswept corner of Kanto of all places. Taking him away from the work he loves, and the brother that he admittedly has been overly attached to for a greater part of his 26 years on Earth. All for... a glorified PR stunt. Sure, this would bring some tourists to the Subway upon airing, but closing the Subway for a few days, just because half of the main attraction wasn't there... seemed irresponsible, Emmet thought. Well, maybe not... Ingo couldn't do all the battling after all, that'd be too much trouble. But having just the Single Train open... wouldn't that be fine?
Despite his futile gripings, Emmet was… contractually obligated to be there. And unlike Lisia, wasn't afraid of ghosts. In fact, he semi-frequently explored the ‘catacombs’ of Nimbasa’s now-abandoned subway system, back when the Battle Subway didn't exist. Alone–well, with his Chandelure in its Poké Ball, anyways.
So why… was he dreading an event as trivial as this?
Lisia, to her credit, was happy to visit Kanto once again–her father was born and raised there, so she naturally had an interest in exploring the not-so-distant region. Although both Kanto and her home of Hoenn were, of course, in the country of Hiyori, the 700 miles separating the two regions made truly taking in the sights and spectacles of Kanto a bit of a hassle, especially for someone as young yet busy as herself. Lisia assumed that doing something like this would hopefully bring forth new fun, and new people to meet, hopefully! As for the prospect of seeing ghosts, Lisia, perhaps mistakenly, categorized them as 'new friends' in her head. Her reasoning was a slightly vapid one, along the lines of:
"Some Ghost-types are cute, too, like Mimikyu!"
And of course, the opportunity to spend time with Emmet is a welcome one! Emmet is quite different from her best friend and close relative Wallace... aside from being older than her, Emmet is just about the opposite of him. Emmet is in many ways the complete opposite of a 'magical girl' of lore. Stoic in public appearances, quiet, a little demure-seeming, the list goes on and on. But because of Lisia’s fairy-tale-like ability to seemingly make friends with anyone, the two were at least acquainted with each other.
A sunglassed man, his slightly lean build obscured by a black parka, beckoned to the pair. Probably to give another overview of the escapades of the day.
'Isn't that overdressing? Kanto isn't that cold…' Lisia noticed, ever the sharp eye.
"We'll be filming for about an hour, that should be more than enough footage for us. It's big here, so you won't be able to explore every room. And make sure to get comfortable! That means acting like normal, Emmet, the cameras won't hurt you, you know!" he chuckled.
Emmet stiffened at the man's remarks, visibly now very conscious of the five black-clad crew members stationed near the entrance.
"Hey… don't worry about them! I have a trick to forget about cameras, Emmet!" Lisia quickly stepped a little closer to him.
"...What is it?"
"All you have to doooo… is, hold your breath and slowly, slooowly, count to three! It might sound too good to be true, but it's helped me a lot before getting on the stage to perform!" Lisia offered cheerily.
One… two… three…
Emmet had to admit that it worked well. Almost too well. How did that girl possess the nerves to do this, just about every day? He couldn't wrap his mind around it.
"Let's head inside. Even if we have all the time in the world, we're still on a schedule!" the producer commanded.
The first thing the pair noticed inside the almost-crumbling, definitely-abandoned mansion was the long, winding staircase… and the obvious bloodstains on it. Yikes.
Lisia involuntarily shrieked, clearly taken by surprise by the blood.
Emmet was unprepared for such a reaction from his costar, and stepped back, failing to see an expensive-looking ceramic cup behind him.
Crunch, went the cup.
The sound echoed across the mansion, two wide stories tall. There was a glass chandelier in the middle of the main room they were in, precariously hanging a bit lower than it should be.
Other than the debris scattered around, and the rather conspicuous bloodstain on the stairs, nothing else seemed too out of the ordinary for a supposedly haunted mansion.
'Maybe, they'll just edit the ghosts in later..?' Lisia secretly hoped to herself.
"Action!"
The cameras turned on, the lights flickered, and it was time to explore.
Wait.
"D-did the lights just flicker?!" Lisia stuttered.
A Spinarak darted out from the cover of a tablecloth draped on the floor, and ambled over to Emmet.
"Oh, hello there. Would you like to say hello to my Galvantula, Spinarak?"
The Spinarak nodded, then sadly watched Lisia not-so-slowly back away from the newly demarcated-and-annexed Bug Zone, which was only a few away.
'Is Amou seriously that afraid of this kind of thing? She can be in front of a crowd, but not in front of a wild, docile Bug-type?' Emmet questioned.
"Miss Amou. I believe you're making our newfound friend feel sad right now. Would you like to say hello, too?" Emmet sternly stated in a joking sort of manner.
"It's not as bad as seeing a ghost, of course… I'll bite, then! Coming~"
At her mention of the word 'bite', however, the Spinarak bolted off, presumably all the way to Azalea Town. That was much to the dismay of Emmet's Galvantula, who had excitedly jumped from its' Ball to greet its' compatriot mere moments before.
"...Was I the scary one?!" Lisia loudly exclaimed, clearly quite puzzled.
Bzzt.
Bzzt.
Click.
The lights turned off.
'That was on purpose, wasn't it?' Lisia nervously thought.
"Galvantula, can you try to give some electricity to the lights?" Emmet asked his Pokémon.
"Galv!" it affirmed.
But it didn't work. If the reason for the lights going out was simply a power outage or even on purpose, feeding the lights with electricity, like a power generator or, in this case, a Pokémon, would have brought the lights back on. Could it have been a ghost's doing?
"Galvantula, return. Chandelure, I need you." the white-clad figure spoke to his Pokémon with a steady voice, belying any hint of fear in his mind.
Chandelure almost instantly illuminated the room to a level comparable to a person holding a torch or a lamp. Not enough light to see very far, but it did fit the mood of a haunted house quite well.
"At least we have some light, now… thank you, Chandelure!" Lisia thankfully exclaimed.
Chandelure spun to show appreciation… and crashed right into the actual glass chandelier.
Shards flew everywhere. Chandelure was unharmed due to its' metal and glass composition, but the same couldn't be said for Emmet. He wasn't bleeding heavily, but a sizable, and sharp-looking, piece of glass had definitely scratched his cheek badly.
"Are you okay!?" the exuberant girl screamed over the reverbing din of glass crashing.
"I'll be fine… just adding more blood to this place. It's better happening to a train conductor like me than an idol, anyways." Emmet remarked, unfazed. Much worse had happened to him before, after all.
"And don't worry, Chandelure. I should have sent you out a bit further away. Are you fine?" he apologized to his clearly-concerned Pokémon.
Chandelure nodded in the affirmative, and the pair decided to move onwards, with a Pokémon lighting their way.
Suddenly, Chandelure zipped towards a certain door. Was there, perhaps, a particular energy behind that door that appealed to it?
"I guess we're going over there? What do you think happened?" Lisia asked Emmet, who was a little ahead of her.
"It could be a powerful Pokémon’s aura… get your Altaria out, just in case," he instructed her.
Lisia rustled through her small Bag while walking–she had placed it on the ground as soon as she had entered, but apparently thought better of it. The possibility of an errant Ghost-type trying to steal her unattended items was a slightly likely one, so it made more sense for Lisia to keep it on her person.
“...I think I forgot his Poké Ball?!"
"..." Emmet offered nothing in response, just a glance Lisia's way that seemed equal parts shocked, dissapointed, and resigned.
"Wait, I DEFINITELY brought it!! Did a ghost take it…? Oh nooooo…" Lisia was panicking quite a bit at this point, understandably so.
'This is fine, you're strong enough to defeat most things that are in your way. Damn, it would have been nice to have backup at least…' Emmet said to himself.
"Your Altaria will be fine. It'll turn up at some point. Let's keep on moving." Admittedly, doing this was a bit of a cold move, but considering how Chandelure was interested in whatever lied beyond the door, getting moving was a better option.
Perhaps her Altaria lied beyond that door, as well. One would never know, of course.
Besides, Emmet's hunch was that the ditzy-seeming girl left her Altaria wherever she was staying in Kanto. How she functioned like that, he would never know… order was a stable element in his life. Trains depart and arrive at exact times. Leading an orderly life like that was absolutely a must for him, and his brother, too. Scheduling, planning, and order were a bit mundane to some, but those things have provided structure in his life thus far.
And so, they opened the door, which was to the right of a window with tattered curtains. It was raining outside, which wasn't too unusual for Kanto in October.
Tontontontontontontonton.
Many, many Poké Balls spilled out from the door. The room itself couldn't have been big enough to be a big storage area, but it was packed full of old-tech Poké Balls, about 20 or 30 years old.
"C-could there be Pokémon inside of those? There's no way someone would leave their Pokémon like that for so long, right…?" Lisia, nervously shifting her weight from one side to the other, wondered aloud.
"Chandelure, is there a Pokémon nearby?" Emmet asked.
Nodnodnod, the Chandelure shook up and down, confirming Emmet's suspicions.
"Alright... stay right behind me, then. Keep a lookout for anything strange."
"Alright…" Lisia murmured, blissfully unaware of something floating right towards her from behind.
Emmet continued to look in some worn cardboard boxes, which were also filled with Poké Balls, for 'anything suspicious'. He hadn't taken notice of the absence of his costar, one Lisia Amou, yet, for he was too engrossed in his own investigation.
A faint screaming sound could be heard in the distance. Emmet took no heed to it, as it seemed like a normal occurrence in an area infested with mischievous Ghost-types.
"Doing alright, Amou?" he asked. She hadn't said anything for the past few minutes, not that he remembered anyways, which was strange, considering her observed idol habit of talking very quickly and frequently–at what felt like the rate of a Pikachu's heartbeat.
And there was no response from the Lisia-less space Emmet called to.
Once more, this time looking over his shoulder.
It was dark inside still, but the flashes of lightning seemingly coming from outside combined with Chandelure's flames illuminated Emmet's surroundings passably enough.
"...Oh my god…" Emmet muttered. Lisia had disappeared. Where to, hell if he knew. 'God, was that screaming her? Guess I'll have to look for her now…'
"Chandelure, let's go to the second floor. Hurrying would be better."
And they took off across the main floor, making sure to sidestep any debris. Then, went up the steps of the stairs, until,
Emmet slipped on the pool of (fresh?) blood, in a very exaggerated and comedic fashion.
Don, his body hit the third step of the stairs, and gacha, his back cracked louder than any back should.
"Damn… was that the blood we saw before? It had to have been dry before, right?"
Sudden realization hit. Emmet bolted upright from his prior dangling position, which did not do wonders for his newfound back pain.
Could it be that that blood was spilled not even five minutes ago?
Being the morally upstanding individual he is, Emmet got to his feet once more in pursuit of his costar.
Except.
Don.
Gachaa.
His back hit the floor once again, with his head smacking the floor as well, a moment after his body.
And this time, Emmet did not entertain the now-futile thought of getting up once more. Nor the thought of his likely imminent demise to the same monster that got to Lisia. Or if the brave people manning the cameras would stop the footage and rouse him.
Only blank, meaningless thoughts occupied his head as he fell unconscious.
Instead of waking up his Trainer with flames, Chandelure decided to take another route in looking for Lisia (which was quite an easy task, her aura was quite bright, along with her choice of clothing to boot), and bringing her to Emmet's possibly-dead possibly-alive corpse.
While going off to the second floor to look for what she thought was Altaria (the shadow looming behind her was simply a Gastly playing tricks), Lisia had made a new acquaintance of her own.
Rotom tend to hide in abandoned buildings, and a particular one that Lisia befriended while upstairs had made its' home in a washing machine. A Rotom was of course no replacement for her beloved Ali, no Pokémon would be, but she figured that a new member of her team, at least for now, would be great to have.
"Jingle Slosh IV, use Hydro Pump to wake Emmet up!" Lisia said, using her best Ace Trainer
impression. She pointed her finger into the air in front of her, directing her new Ghost-type friend to Emmet's face-down, slumped figure.
Shuuuu, the cold water blanketed Emmet and he woke with a start.
Dripping wet.
"...My head hurts. Why am I wet, Amou?" he asked, extremely bewildered.
"Chandelure found me upstairs and-" she started, only to be cut off by Emmet making one of his signature erratic-looking poses to halt her speech.
"Are you bleeding, Amou?" he suddenly remembered to ask Lisia.
"No? I'm all in one piece. Anyways, like I was saying, Chandelure found me, so I took Jingle Slosh down with me, well, he floated down, I didn't carry him, and he just woke you up! And the lights turned back on a few minutes ago…"
"I'm sorry, did you call that Washer Rotom 'Jingle Slosh', Amou?" Emmet inquired exasperatedly.
"Yep! His full name is Jingle Slosh Amou IV!" Lisia enthusiastically twirled, pointing to the dancing-as-best-a-washer-can Rotom by her side.
'Dear God… this has to be a fever dream.'
"You've had not one, but three other washers at some point in your life, all with the name 'Jingle Slosh Amou'...?" Emmet asked, incredulously.
"Is naming household applicances not normal…?" Lisia tilted her head. The Rotom was copying her movements by now, he seemed to have taken quite a liking to her.
"Our viewers will decide, I guess… so if you checked the upstairs areas with Chandelure, I guess nothing terrible was up there. We probably don't have much time left, so let's head back to that Poké Ball room once more." Emmet got up, then paused.
"My coat and hat are sopping wet." he noticed aloud.
"Tom, Rotom!" the washing machine offered, lid swinging open. It seemed to have a drying function as well, which was quite convenient. Dual washer/dryers weren't common in older Hiyorian homes.
"These are dry-clean only... shou ga nai, naa…" he defeatedly uttered the last phrase ('it can't be helped…'), in Hiyorigo out of habit more than anything else. Ratings in Hiyori–and the number of visitors to the Battle Subway–would undoubtedly skyrocket because of this.
Score one, PR stunt.
The mansion was quite big, complete with a few blocked-off-by-debris areas, so traversing the mansion in a truly safe manner took a little while. Lisia peppered him with rapid-fire Hiyorigo the whole way to the room.
Even though the show was being filmed in Kanto, she tended to default to Hydraean when it came to media being consumed internationally. Not everyone in Unova could speak Hiyorigo, the whole region of Unova was three times the population of all of Hiyori after all, but most people in Hiyori could speak Hydraean. So it was Lisia's joy to carry on a (mostly one-sided, just like in any language with the two) Hiyorigo conversation with Emmet once she remembered that he spoke it, too. The Subway Boss spent time studying both the engineering of trains and the art of battling in Kanto. Even if he didn't look it, he was most definitely more than competent in the language.
And so, they arrived at the incredibly mysterious, incredibly small room, and waded across the incredibly large river of Poké Balls to the left and right sides of the room.
"So... what now, Mr. Subway Boss Number One?" Lisia said in Hydraean, attempting to lighten the mood just a little.
"There's something we need to do here. Start digging through these Poké Balls, and it you see anything strange, tell me as soon as you see it," he seemed to come up with the idea on the fly.
Gatagatagatagata.
The sound of both of them rooting through Poké Balls was the only sound in the mansion, suddenly. Considering how their experience thus far was marked with screaming, loud noises coming from who knows where, and other sound-based occurrences likely brought about by ghosts, the absence of noise felt even scarier than hearing the screech of a Haunter.
"Emmeeeeeeeet!" Lisia called, drawing out the last part of his name for emphasis. "I found something you might want to see..! It's a pretty big button… I wonder what would happen if I were to push it?" she teasingly said.
"Stay there, and don't push it. I'm coming over to look."
"Alright, this looks pretty old…" he absentmindedly put his right hand down on the ground in order to get into a squatting position, when disaster struck.
He had placed his hand directly on the one area of the room he was not to touch. Which housed an inconveniently big red button.
Ban. Ban. Ban. Banbanban. Banbanbanbanbanbanbanbanbanbanban.
Hosts of Mimikyu seemed to erupt from the Poké Balls, all chittering excitedly. They made no move to attack the stunned Emmet and frozen Lisia. Instead, all of them, who must have numbered more than a hundred in total, simply gazed towards the right of the room, which Emmet and Lisia were both facing.
With a byuu~n, a purple shadow seemed to cut through the stale air and menacingly stare at Lisia and Emmet.
This seemed to unroot Lisia from the floor, and she quickly ran out the door, undoubtedly crushing more than a few Poké Balls, which were made with older, more fragile material.
"Amou, you were not scheduled to depart! Please return to the station!" Emmet yelled after her, his speech a tad stilted.
'Are the train references in his speech something he only does for the Battle Subway…?' Lisia thought to herself.
When making a train-based pun, Lisia thought that Emmet's speech always seemed unnatural, like he didn't know how to effectively deliver lines. Maybe next time, she would tutor him on idol work for this show.
"I don't want to be attacked by whatever's in there, did you see how it looked at you?"
"I see Haunter while exploring the old parts of the station sometimes. They're harmless if you have Pokémon with you." Emmet tried to calm her fears.
"It's nothing to be afraid of, it's weak to Chandelure's moves. Your new friend can fight it, too... and you've been meaning to get more battle experience, correct?"
Jingle Slosh IV had been standing to the outside of the entrance. It seemed like he wouldn't fit through.
Lisia noticed this, and made an outlandish, and quite destructive decision.
"Jingle Slosh IV, break down that wall!" Lisia said, perhaps a bit rashly.
And before Emmet could object to the probable asbestos exposure brought about by Lisia's not-so-sage advice to the living washing machine... With a don and the sound of Poké Balls spilling out the side of a somehow fully-collapsed wall, Lisia was ready to fight as well.
The Haunter looked as though it was considering escaping, but the just-made dust cloud covering most of the room seemed to make it think twice.
During that time, Lisia and Emmet both prepared moves, taking advantage of an opening just as any competent Trainer would.
"Chandelure, use Will-O-Wisp!" Emmet said, remembering the results of his Pokédex scan of the Rotom fifteen minutes or so ago.
'If Amou knows how to utilize that Rotom effectively… this encounter might be over in one turn.' Emmet thought.
Of course, if anything went wrong he would likely easily be able to deal with the Haunter effectively, but giving the inexperienced Trainer a confidence-boosting opportunity such as this one would be a good thing, or so he thought.
Lisia's eyes shimmered with recognition at the set-up, which was undoubtedly an easy task for one as skilled in Double Battles as Emmet.
So of course, she took advantage of it. Lisia had recently been studying the art of battle in preparation for someday taking over the role of Gym Leader from Wallace, so the mental connection, the most dazzling move to pick!, came easier to her than it would have had before.
It also helped that the status move to Hex combination was a fairly well-known Contest combo, too.
No matter how or why Lisia knew, she chose correctly.
"Jingle Slosh IV! Use Hex!" Lisia confidently grinned.
With that, extra damage was added to the already super-effective combination, and the Haunter fainted. It disappeared in an instant, along with the Mimikyu horde, which silently shuffled out through the new, gaping hole in the wall.
There was one Poké Ball left in the room. That one was a modern-style Ball, however.
Lisia picked it up, and out came her Ali. Their reunion after an hour apart was joyous enough that one would have thought they hadn't seen each other in weeks.
'Such is the manner of an enduring, close relationship, I guess… and to be fair, if I was as worried about Nii-san as Amou likely was about her Altaria… well, the scene here would be just about the same, wouldn't it…' Emmet mused, smiling just a little.
"I believe it's about time to leave this place, Amou. My Pokédex says that it's been about an hour and five minutes from our departure." Emmet stated matter-of-factly.
"Come on, Ali! I'll race you to the outside!" Lisia excitedly said to her friend, who chirped something back to her.
"Right... hey, Jingle Slosh IV! I've already named you, so why not become a part of my team? I think we could have lots of fun, no matter if we battle or do Contests together!" the aqua-haired girl cheerily said, beaming heavily.
"Tom! Rotom!" it answered. Lisia touched a Poké Ball she had picked up from the floor to it, and stowed the Ball into her small bag.
Thus, Jingle Slosh IV became a member of Lisia's team.
Outside, the weather had cleared up considerably, although some signs of the prior heavy rainfall still showed.
Lisia was off to the side, busy showing her new Pokémon to the cameras. It would undoubtedly become featured in countless magazines across the world once the Halloween-themed episode of that particular variety show aired in a week or so.
"Emmet, what happened to your coat and hat?" the producer enquired after supplying him with a customary 'otsukaresama', thanking him for his work.
Emmet gazed at the Rotom, realizing his mistake.
Never mind his clothes shrinking in the wash, they had to have shrunk while in a Poké Ball too, right?
Emmet's suspicions turned out to be correct. His coat and hat, the most ubiquitous parts of any self-respecting Subway Master's outfit, were small enough to fit a plushie of his likeness.
He had to immediately deal with Lisia, who alternated being on the verge of laughter due to the absurdity of the situation, and being incredibly apologetic for the exact same reasons causing her laughter.
He had many more at home; yes, he had packed extras; yes, he would let his Eelektross wear the hat.
And the two both look fondly on that day, now. It hasn't even been two months since then, but the two both remember that day as a hectic and zany, yet fun one.
As a keepsake, Emmet and Lisia each have a signed picture of themselves standing back-to-back, on Jingle Slosh IV, making exaggerated Subway Masters-style poses. Eelektross is sitting on Emmet's head, complete with a tiny conductor's cap, and Altaria makes a silly face in the background.
Emmet and Lisia want to do something again, very soon. Although they had their doubts at first, particularly Emmet, their time together turned out to be a very fun one.
And in a few months, Lisia will visit the Battle Subway, for the first time in what will definitely be many times, for the purpose of advancing her battle technique.
Perhaps she would show Emmet the correct way to deliver lines. It would likely help their advertising efforts nicely. Apparently the Battle Subway had recently hired a new PR assistant. Lisia had heard her name before... and was excited to meet her, too!
SHUPPATSU SHINKOU!
on any worldbuilding like this! You could write an entire article about how you'd call countries and how that's done linguistically, and I would gobble it up!
a stealth shill for my fic?!
