MikaelBrigman
Golurk-Platinum
- Pronouns
- he/him
When Blanche opened his eyes, he could only see through one of them. The sterile air of the medical wing was all too memorable to him, and he wasn't surprised at all to see it fill in the space around him. The humbuzz of the lights overhead made it clear that he had slept clear through the night.
He hissed as new bandages rubbed against his skin, though he managed to push the blankets aside to sit up and think. He plucked at the bandages that overlapped his eye and gave a relieved breath. He didn't feel any injuries in the socket and he could see fine.
His eyes snapped to the door as it creaked open and Gin poked his head in, before gesturing with a can of soda.
"I, uh, got you a drink, man."
Blanche sighed. "You're a lifesaver." He then paused. "Is it a bad thing that I could mean that literally?" He took the offered can instead of standing up.
"Maybe, yeah, but that's the job," Gin said, cracking open his own can. "You good, dude?"
Blanche looked down at his hospital gown before pulling at it to look at his bandaged chest. Less than he used to wear, but no small amount. "I'll live for now," he said. "How's everyone else?"
Gin took a long drink, then set his can down on the countertop.
Blanche's gaze caught the bandages around his knuckles.
"Not great," Gin said, clicking his tongue. "Really not great."
Blanche's pulse pounded through his skull. It should have been obvious, he said to himself, trying to push it away. You saw it.
I saw it.
Gin started, "Rosa-"
"Rosa, is she…" Blanche began, before shutting up. "No, go ahead."
"No, you first, since you're still in bed," Gin said.
Blanche rubbed his wrists, trying to find any kinks in the joint while processing his thoughts. "Is Rosa alright?"
"I haven't seen the others since they went home," Gin said. "They didn't need to get patched up like you did. I bruised my fists even with metal knuckles."
"Ah, that sucks."
"At least I wasn't bleeding all over my girlfriend," Gin said, shrugging.
Something clicked in Blanche's brain, and his even expression became a lot less forced and a lot more natural. "Not the time for jokes. Were they alright at least? Oh, hell, the city's a mess right now, isn't it? Shit, I'm glad we evacuated, but the MagLevs are probably broken and I can get everyone getting mad at FLARE for not doing enough but-"
"Breathe, man, you're gonna pass out," Gin said.
Blanche's jaw shut mechanically and he pushed his hair out of his face. "Right. Right, shit. Just tell me if they're alright or not."
"You should take it easy while you're still in the hospital," Gin offered. "The boss-man told us all to let him handle everything."
An engine sputtered to life in Blanche's brain. "Augustine or Lysandre?"
"Uh, if you mean the orange-haired guy, then-"
Metal clacked against the tiled floor as an unopened can was knocked from Blanche's side. He stood up, stumbling against the wall before righting himself. His lips were pulled into a grim snarl, his brow furrowed into a glare.
"Move, Gin. I have to talk to someone."
"Rosa's not here, she went home-"
"Not her. Get out of my way."
Gin stepped to the side as Blanche stumbled out.
"Where are you going?" Gin asked.
"In a few minutes, the unemployment office, if there is one," Blanche said, his eyes focused on someplace far away. "Right now, I'm going to have a calm… civilized conversation with our boss."
After solitarily walking down hallways and limping down staircases, he came upon a door. It was labeled like any other, but there were no other rooms in the encompassing hallway. The plaque was small and simply read Lysandre's name along with "Director."
He slammed on the door with a closed fist.
"Enter, Amaranth."
He stared down the camera above his head, thinking about giving it a certain gesture for a moment before he scoffed and walked in. Light flooded in from behind him before it was cut off by the door.
The red mural on the ceiling and the blue mural on the floor though he could hardly put together the full shapes, they seemed brighter and more vibrant. He assumed it was a trick of the light or his eyes adjusting differently.
Lysandre sat behind his desk, piles of paperwork in front of him and a pen continuing movement even as he sat up straighter.
There was a silence for a few moments as Blanche's presence permeated the room and Lysandre continued to deny him a reaction.
The window to the pipeline beneath FLARE was dark as it had been before, though a thin layer of dust clouded it somewhat. Even so, red and blue lights continued revolving down below.
"If you're going to speak, spit it out," he finally said, pausing in his calligraphy to shake his head, though he didn't spare Blanche a glance.
"I knew you were evil," Blanche said, staring far past Lysandre.
"Few have considered me to be a lawyer as of yet, but I accept the title nonetheless." Lysandre continued scrawling on forms.
"I can't believe I didn't do anything…" Blanche clenched his fist, sending a ripple of pain up his arm. "The first thing I did when I got here was think, what the hell? FLARE? Shouldn't that be Team Flare? Evil organization? Ultimate weapon?"
Lysandre looked up at him, his gaze steely.
Blanche continued anyway. "But when I looked around, I saw that nothing was like I expected, so I changed my mind." He ran a hand through his hair as his pulse quickened. "The Pokémon are the same, I recognize most of them, the people are the same, even with different personalities, but you…" his eyes focused onto Lysandre, "You…" a low growl rose from his throat, "You son of a bitch!"
Lysandre stood from his chair. "What do you know about Team Flare?"
"You wouldn't understand. That's the funniest thing about all of this bullshit," Blanche said, giving a half-laugh and tilting his head back. "I know so much but I can't use any of it. Too weak to go on a journey, too stupid to make my own armor, too awkward to talk through any of my problems, a whole lot of good that bastard has done me. Avatar, my ass."
"Speak."
"I can't remember your evil team perfectly. You kidnapped some old guy named AZ, you had four… five? Four chicks with bright hair and the one fat guy. Xerxes, maybe? You took Xerneas or Yveltal and plugged them into a big gun and you blew the shit out of yourselves like a bunch of dumbasses. Serena and Calem are heroes or something stupid like that, and you guys are probably dead." Blanche sneered, the ugliness welling up inside him and spilling out. "Any of that sound familiar?"
Lysandre's hand shook on his desk. Blanche couldn't see his eyes.
"I recommend… that you do not speak ill of the dead."
"They deserved it," Blanche said. "How did you get away with it? Covering up the media? Are you saving that plan for a rainy day? Did you do a mind wipe using God-knows-what?"
"Whatever you are speaking of… never came to pass." A piece of paper tore as Lysandre's hand tensed, and the ripping echoed throughout the room. "Who are you, really?"
"If I knew, I wouldn't have come here in the first place. But strange things always seem to happen in this city. Why is that? What is it that draws all the Anomalies here? What drew that Zygarde here?" Blanche's voice reached a fever pitch. "What happened to Rosa, you bastard?"
"Dahlia is alive. Bond Phenomenon dissolved. Likely unable to fight in the future. Will be dismissed as FLARE Ranger 00," Lysandre said. "Safe."
"Why was she down there? Why was she stuck down there with Tencent? Now he's gone and she's gone and I can't… explain that to me! How did that help anything?" Blanche screamed.
"There are things in motion that…" Lysandre stopped. "No. It is very likely that you would understand them, but you would refuse to accept them. Whatever you are, wherever you came from, whatever made you… you remind me too much of myself."
"Oh, how fantastic, one of the greatest sociopaths in Pokémon is telling me I'm like him," Blanche spat. "I'm nothing like you. I wouldn't lock someone in a trap to be used as bait. I don't care what your goals are, you're sick."
"If you would accept them, you would understand that it was necessary," Lysandre said. "That I believed it to be necessary."
"You killed Tencent!" Blanche roared.
"I did, yes. It was not my intention." Lysandre shuffled papers around on his desk. "I would have preferred it hadn't."
"You're a murderer- You intended for it to happen and it did."
"You have killed as well. The meteor of December, the Falling Sky. It may seem minute, but Psychic-type energy was used during that battle, along with other strange sorts. It was sentient."
"You think I couldn't tell?" Blanche whispered, his lips trembling. "I know. I know what I did. I'll do it again if you push me."
"You don't mean that. You're too smart for that. Your friends aren't smart enough to realize what you have been doing. Except perhaps Geranium, for the same reasons as I. You… remember when the Heavens Shattered. But it is impossible for you to have been there, I have seen your medical records. Your body seems to be built of scar tissue, hastily regrown. Your DNA is defective but shows few signs of wear." Lysandre's gaze leveled with his. "You are not perfectly human."
"I'm not." Blanche admitted, shrugging his shoulders and trying not to betray the frost settling in his stomach. "I can't consider myself that anymore. I never should have tried to, but now I realize I don't have to care."
"Legendary intervention would leave traces of AIAM fields within your body or at least an overlap in fields that defines your form, but you have none. A Myth is far more likely in that case, but there are none thought to create living, breathing humans from dust."
Blanche scoffed and he hated that it sounded like a choked laugh. "You wouldn't believe me."
"You know far too much for me to not inquire. Are you from the future? Some sort of time traveler?"
"My patron, if you could call the bastard that, won't give me a straight answer, but he seems to prefer the idea that this world was a video game before I came along," Blanche said.
"I see," Lysandre said, before shaking his head. "I had believed you were an amalgamation similar to… no, it is not my place to tell."
"No, go right ahead. You're already on my shit list, I can't imagine adding yourself to someone else's can hurt."
"I would like to see what you would do," Lysandre said quietly, his voice almost soft if not for his furrowed brow, "Without access to FLARE's technology or funding; without an infinite power source strapped to your chest. How long would you survive? If you were cut loose entirely, would your suicidality continue? Could you continue living the lie that you choose to live for other people, rather than simply being unstable and unable to imagine living for yourself?"
"Screw you," Blanche said.
"I do care about my people, Amaranth," Lysandre said forcefully, "Even if you may not believe it."
"You're right; I don't."
"But because you simply believe something does not make it true, and the opposite applies as well. Everything I've worked for and worked towards, it is for the good of life itself."
"You killed Tencent. You may have expected something different, but you killed him."
"We can argue in circles throughout the day, but that would make you a hypocrite. You are on probation, Amaranth. I will not accept insubordination. Your abilities, though strange, are not irreplaceable."
The air froze in Blanche's lungs. "What?"
"Whether your armor remains functional will be your handler's decision. You will leave until you are ready to return and act in FLARE's interests, not your own. You are a soldier. This is not a television series where loose cannons are valued. Leave this building. Dahlia is recuperating but will recover. The other Rangers are still in action. You are not required."
"You can't afford to kick me out," Blanche said, weakly, his throat closing up though he tried to keep his tone clear.
"I can," Lysandre said. "Your comrades may be disappointed, but it is their friendship that lays with you, not their loyalty. FLARE is for protecting our planet, not for accommodating you. Excuse yourself from my office."
Blanche's arm flinched, as if to strike at something, before he threw it to the side and scoffed. The door slammed shut behind him as he left, once again immersing the room in darkness. The sound of a fist slamming on a metal wall reverberated through the room.
Lysandre stood in his office, alone, for a few minutes. Eventually, he sat down but couldn't bring himself to write.
"This ugly world where children have to fight to survive… we're fighting to destroy it, Amaranth."
The gleam of the mural above him seemed to brighten.
Blanche stormed past someone in a trench coat as he left FLARE, paying no attention to the nondescript man.
Looker watched his back as he passed, though the action went unnoticed. He bit down on the stick of a lollipop and rubbed his chin.
"Looks like trouble on this side of paradise," he mused before sighing. "I shouldn't have expected anything else. I'm surprised the kid hasn't shown up by now."
A boy in blue stone armor stood on a beach on the west coast of Kalos, staring out across the ocean as he wondered why the world seemed so unbalanced.
The cloud cover was entirely gray, though lighter in some patches. Rocks and gravel dotted the garden path as he walked past Rhyhorn and towards the door beneath a light drizzle.
Shauna had been slumped at the table, but after he swung the door open, she lifted her head from her arms. There were dark rings around her eyes and bandages slapped onto her elbows.
"Oh… hey," she said, blinking heavily. An adhesive patch was peeling off in front of her temple as well as another on her ear.
Blanche sighed, the tension in his chest depreciating somewhat though it didn't go away. His voice was croaking when he asked, "Still in the land of the living?"
"I dunno if this can be called living." Her eyelids drooped further, but she fought valiantly to keep them open. "I don't know how Ariel does it- She's up in Rosa's room, Quilladin too- She's just…" Shauna moved as if to gesture, but the only thing to show for it was a slight shuffle.
"Strong like that," he supplied. "Is Rosa…?"
Shauna's gaze dropped towards the tabletop. "Tencent disappeared during the fight and she's really beaten up about that. I'm sure he'll come back eventually, but-"
"He won't."
She looked up at him. "What?"
"Tencent's dead, Shauna. That monster was a Zygarde and it absorbed him. We killed it. He's not coming back."
"You," she struggled for words before she pushed herself up, "You don't know that!"
"Don't be naive!" Blanche shouted. A silence boomed throughout the ground floor in the moments that followed, before Shauna clenched her fists.
"Why? Why shouldn't I hope? Why shouldn't I try to believe that Rosa's just stressed when she says he's gone? What's your problem with that?"
"My problem with it is that it's stupid! He's gone and our boss killed him and he put me on probation and no matter what we think or do he's dead and gone so we might as well suck it up and deal with it because this isn't a fantasy world; This isn't a game, Shauna." He swept out with his arm. "Our friends, any one of us, you, me, we, could die and FLARE would manage to replace us because they would need to, because it would be necessary. Lysandre doesn't give a shit that Tencent is gone, and acting like he's not isn't going to solve the problem!"
"Zygarde is a Legendary Pokémon! They don't work under our rules or anyone's rules, least of all yours. Just because you think it's impossible doesn't mean it is, it just means you don't care enough to try and believe.
Blanche took a step back. "I… I care! God damn, do you think I didn't? Even if he wasn't my partner, Rosa's one of my best friends and I cared for her sake!"
Shauna slammed a fist on the table and arcs of electricity leapt from it onto the wood. "Then why aren't you trying to friggin' act like it?"
"Because I can't even care about myself! How could a guy like me care enough to…" Blanche trailed off, slowly realizing what he had said.
From a higher floor, the sound of sobbing reverberated through the building.
Shauna was looking up at him with tired but wide eyes nonetheless.
"I didn't say that. Forget I said that." He verbally backpedaled as he started to walk around her and towards the stairs. "I'm going to go check on Rosa," Blanche said quickly.
"No. No! You can't just say something like that then play it off like it's nothing!" She shouted, her sidestep seeming more like a stumble as she blocked his path.
Blanche looked off to the side and forced himself to scoff. "There's more important stuff to worry about and this isn't the time for this talk."
"No, you can't do that! If you ignored the unimportant stuff and just leave it, it'll fester and grow and then it'll be so important that you can't focus on anything else-"
"I know!" Blanche yelled, "I know, I know, dammit! But my dumb ass getting a therapist is less likely than you remembering anything important, and if I'm constantly second-guessing myself, that's how I'll get distracted!"
"Second-guessing? You mean caring about yourself?" She shrieked.
"Yes! I mean, no, I mean- Look, can you just forget I said anything?"
"No! We're friends, aren't we?" she demanded, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "That's not what friendship's about; It's give and take in equal amounts!"
"Because Serena gives you so much in return," Blanche shot back.
"You have no idea what she's gone through!" she said.
"Neither do you!" he yelled.
"I don't need to- You're doing it, going and changing the subject because you're too much of a coward to try caring at all."
Blanche's fist thumped against the wall as he seethed. "I'm more replaceable than dirt, Shauna. I have about as much aura. At best, I'm a damned lab experiment. There's nothing in here," he jabbed at his chest with his thumb, "To care about."
"You're not looking very hard, then!" she shouted.
"Shit- Fine! You know what? You're right! I'm not looking hard because if I do, I might find out that I don't actually enjoy risking my life every week for other people's or my boss's or some other asshole's sake! I'm not a hero. I'm not like you. I'm nothing like you," Blanche said.
Shauna was silent as she curled in on herself. Her arms shook by her sides as tears began leaking out her eyes.
"You… you idiot…" she said, her breath shuddering. "How can you say that?" she whispered.
The response came easy to him. "Because it's true, dumbass. "I didn't do any of that stupid shit because I'm a hero, I did it because if someone's going to die for all of you," he brushed past her and walked towards the stairs. "I thought that it should have been me to do it."
That was what he thought he thought, wasn't it?
As he heard footsteps on the stairs ahead, he felt an electrifying grip clamp onto his arm.
"You can't really mean that," she said in a low tone, "You can't."
"I have to check up on Rosa, leave it be and just forget about it," he said, trying to pull away.
"No!" She tugged him back, hard. "I can't forget something like that! You told me that I shouldn't leave someone alone when they're in pain, didn't you?"
"That… Listen, I said forget it!"
"There's something wrong with you, Blanche! I'm not going to ignore that!" Tiny sparks bounced on his arms where they were unbandaged. "I'm not going to ignore it again!"
He pulled his arm away even harder. "Get off of me."
She pulled him back with a strength that couldn't have been purely physical. "We need to talk about this!"
"Can't you both calm down, please?" Ariel pleaded suddenly, appearing on his opposite side in his periphery.
"Get…" he reared back and gathered his strength, "OFF!"
Shauna stumbled back, tripping over her own feet before regaining her balance. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as the air's crackling grew louder.
"I believe you both should calm down," Serena said, walking past him and placating Shauna.
It was raining outside. The pounding of water echoed through the glass windows.
Blanche sighed. "I'm going to go check on Rosa."
"We're going to talk about this later," Shauna said, jabbing the air between them with her index finger. "All of us."
He tried to ignore the spike of dread that wedged in his chest and covered it up with a scoff. "Whatever."
Not a minute later, he was at Rosa's door. The sound of crying had ceased, and he doubted that they would have left her alone if she was still awake.
The door creaked open silently as he stuck his head inside. A lump was swaddled in what must have been a dozen blankets. A few barely visible green spines stuck out from but not through them. The air stunk of iodine.
He eased the door shut and placed his forehead against it as he thought.
"Damn it…" he murmured, his joints shaking.
He paced to his room as quietly as he could, packed everything he could into his spare bag, and listened to the rain tapping against the window.
The fire escape didn't look too shabby.
When the others started looking for him, they found Quilladin's Pokéball alone on his bed.
Lusamine walked out of the only flight that had been inbound to Lumiose-3. Wicke and Faba followed after her. Though none of them were native to Alola, they hadn't rode a MagLev train in quite some time.
There were few other passengers in the car. The evacuation order had only just been lifted and much of the inner city was still rubble. There were a few emergency workers, a couple of FLARE employees designated by their orange business suits, and a white-haired boy that practically radiated anger.
A distant part of Lusamine thought he didn't look so much different from Gladion, but it was quickly crushed. She didn't have time to sympathize with strangers.
The boy exited before the MagLev shot off towards Jaune Plaza, where the closest entrance to FLARE was located. The station map was dotted with red marks and blockages.
The lobby was all but deserted if not for the boxes filled with shovels and similar tools. A thick film of dust covered the entire floor, seeping into even the escalators.
A young woman in a lab coat escorted them, looking sheepish as she brought them to the door of FLARE's leader.
She was hyper-aware of his pupils dilating as her delegation entered the darkened room.
"Lusamine," Lysandre said, likely a greeting but one could never tell from his tone.
"Lysandre," she responded. "Is the city alright?"
He leveled a flat glare at her. "No. No, it is very much not."
"I must apologize," Lusamine said. "It truly was an accident."
"Where was the Aether Foundation's support?"
She sucked in a breath. "The problem is that our 'support' is a bit too slow and its biology may cause quite the conundrum. Faba."
Faba clicked open a briefcase and withdrew a file, quickly handing it over before he adjusted his goggles.
Lusamine withdrew a picture and slid it across Lysandre's desk.
The Pokémon was quadrupedal, purple scales on its hind legs with green, Flying-type-like talons on its front. Opposite its silvery gray mane was a sharp finned tail. A binding like that of a cross intersected with a backward facing ax head to cover its skull. A collar with seventeen drives stuck rigidly out of its neck.
"It was built to fight Ult- Anomalies. We were able to change its typing and skill set at will. After the mutant Zygarde escaped, we released it to track it down. Had the mutant Zygarde continued indefinitely, we have no doubt that it would have defeated it single handedly. We call it the Type: Full."
"I feel that you are stalling," Lysandre said testily.
"Context is necessary. It was somewhere in this region's mountains when the mutant was defeated. We have lost control of it."
Lysandre pinched the bridge of his nose. "And?"
"Our tracker shows that it is approaching Lumiose-3 as we speak. At current rates, it will reach the city's epicenter at eleven o'clock tonight."
"We can't handle another Anomaly right now," Lysandre said testily.
"There's nothing we can do about it," Lusamine said, crossing her arms. "If you can't deal with it, perhaps the UR will step in."
Lysandre closed his eyes.
"I'll have the evacuation order extended.
"If I may ask, why is it that Anomalies tend to veer towards this city?" Lusamine asked.
Behind Lysandre, red and blue lights continued to revolve around each other.
"I often wonder about that myself," he lied.
He heard the waves crash against the rocks below the deck as he drummed his fingers against the glass. Moonbeams reflected off the surface of its dark amber contents. He was further away from Lumiose-3 than he'd ever taken himself before. The Tower of Mastery hung over the skyline much further down the beach of Shalour City.
"You know," he said, leaning back on his stool and looking into the rafters, "Where I come from, I don't think I'd be allowed to drink this stuff."
"Technically, we aren't," his companion in sorrow-drowning replied, "But most leagues are still trying to get things running smoothly. I don't think you'll get much trouble from 'em."
The boy he'd run into seemed familiar, but Blanche couldn't quite place the feeling.
He took a metal container from a pocket in his blue jacket, unscrewed the cap with a slight whine, and poured a small stream of pinkish liquid into his drink.
"...Is that a flask?" Blanche asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Huh?" The brown-haired boy looked up at him with an unfocused gaze. "Oh, no, I only drink recreationally. This stuff is… well, you could call it a gift from a friend. Essence of Aromatherapy. Gets rid of the side effects. Which I guess is kind of against the whole point of it, but whatever. Want some?"
Blanche looked from the flask to his glass, briefly remembering an incident involving said side effects and an overgrown Mantine. He clenched his jaw to hold back a bitter laugh, before grabbing the container and adding some to his own.
"Cheers," the other boy said, holding up his glass.
"Cheers," Blanche replied.
They clinked their glasses together and took a deep drink.
Blanche sputtered, nearly spitting out the contents across the wooden bar. It tasted sweet, salty, bitter, fruity, and like nothing at all simultaneously. It also tasted like piss. Exceptionally like piss.
The other boy slowly placed his emptied glass on the bar. It cracked anyway.
"Damn it," he muttered. "How was that, stranger?"
"I'm sticking with soda." Blanche made a face as he slumped over the counter. "And you drink that for fun?"
"That's what adults do," the other boy said as he forced a stoic expression and an odd impression. "I'm so glad I don't use Looker as a father figure. The asshole invited me out for drinks with Interpol, can you believe that?"
His brain was scrambled enough from the day that he didn't even question that. "How old are you, what's-yer-face?" Blanche asked.
The other boy actually ticked off his fingers as he said, "Uh, what year is it… 2013? I was sixteen in 2009… It's not quite May, so… I'm nearly twenty, I think. I don't really celebrate my birthday anymore, I'm just too busy."
Blanche's head thunked onto the wood as his thoughts left to go swimming in Shalour's coastal seas. "You don't look older than me, that's not fair. I know a guy, his name is Michael, he looks my age but I always forget that he's a little older."
The other boy blinked at him before shaking his head as if to rid himself of a useless thought. "I know a guy named Michael too, but he's a bit younger than me so it's probably a coincidence."
"Who knows? This world's filled with stupid coincidences," Blanche muttered.
"Yeah, I'll drink to that. Well, theoretically, because," he gestured to the somehow-cracked glass, "Y'know."
"Right." He sighed. "What are your least favorite coincidences, what's-yer-face?"
"...Are you hitting on me?"
"Probably not, but hey, I'd be the last person to know," Blanche muttered. "If I didn't know better I'd say that Shauna, uh, this girl who's… whatever, she was probably really mad about that."
"Dawn says a lot of stuff like that. Huh. We're pretty similar, in a "we're not so different" kind of way, not in a "two sides of the same coin" way."
"Is that why you came over here?" Blanche asked sarcastically.
"Well, I saw some kid looking miserable and you kind of have a vacuum around you, so I thought I'd stop and talk with you for a bit. More of the first thing, I promise," he said with a chuckle.
"Vacuum?"
The other boy waved a hand in front of his face. "I can see all sorts of stuff. Aura, psions if Abra isn't asleep, sometimes electromagnetics in the Earth's aura, you name it. You don't got any aura, do you, stranger?"
"Don't I know it," he said, exasperated. "I'm probably dead if I get caught out in the wilderness by myself."
"If you run into ferals, sure, but I'm pretty sure I took care of most of the packs in Kalos," the other boy said, looking into the rafters and scratching his cheek. "I could be wrong."
"Eh?" Blanche prompted.
The other boy waved his hand. "I'm like, kind of in Interpol? I have a badge but I don't think they pay me normally. I'm running around most of the time just doing odd jobs, nothing too crazy."
"Ah, you're a temp?" Blanche asked. Maybe he'd been speaking logistically.
"Something like that. Normal guy stuff, punching out Legendary Pokémon, fighting off teams of criminals, all that."
Blanche looked back to his glass, then back to the other boy. "You wouldn't happen to be my replacement, would you?" he asked with trepidation. "I mean, I don't think FLARE trains people like that, but-"
"Blanche, buddy!" he said, swinging an arm around him. "It's the other way around, I promise. I'm trying to retire before I turn twenty and you're making that so much easier."
The gears in Blanche's head were a bit clogged at that moment, but even he could register that something was off about that statement.
"When did I tell you my name?"
"Ah? I mean, you've got a name tag." He pointed where Blanche's lapels would be if his jacket was just a bit fancier.
Blanche looked down and felt a finger thwap off of his nose. He flinched back as the other boy laughed at him.
"Ha! Ah, never gets old. By the way, did you know that if your hand covers your face, it's a sign of low intelligence?"
"Huh? Care to demonstrate?" Blanche said.
The other boy gave him a weird look before spreading his fingers around his forehead.
Blanche thrusted his palm in his face, sending the other boy reeling back.
"Shoulda seen that coming," the other boy laughed, completely fine with no red to signify stinging on his face.
The bartender set down a new round of drinks as the other boy fumbled for his wallet and rapidly apologized for breaking the glass.
Perhaps unsubtly so, Blanche veered off his seat a bit trying to catch a glimpse of the other boy's Trainer License.
Hilbert? Now, where had he heard that name before…
"You're from Unova, aren't you?" Blanche said hesitantly.
"What gave it away?" Hilbert asked, smiling.
"Accent," Blanche lied.
"Isn't an accent the thing that language teachers are always insisting goes over the "e" in Pokemon?"
"Uh… yeah, I think. But it's also just how someone talks."
"Oh, right."
There would have been a brief silence if not for the squeaking of Hilbert's flask as they passed it between themselves.
"So, Blanche, what's got you out here on the beach?"
"Interpol didn't tell you yet?" Blanche asked dryly. "I'm on probation. My boss is full of shit and I'm replaceable and my friends care way too much and it's annoying…
"And that's a run-on sentence," Hilbert said, "But I'll excuse it for dramatic effect."
"What?"
"...I've been told that I talk a little too much like we live in a television show."
Blanche would have passed out from sheer irony if it weren't for the gut feeling that a character trait like that was on the tamer side of the spectrum of things he had to deal with.
"But that's not important. Draw out your sorrows and deal 'em like cards, because you seem like you could use a game of poker."
A beast made to kill other beasts writhed in agony as it lost its path.
Trees around it were disintegrated and blown clear out of the ground as fire and electricity lapped off of its body. Frost covered the ground around it and boiled off as it made contact. Rocks and dirt swirled around it like a tornado and sharpened into bits of metal.
As quickly as it lost its first path, it saw another. Two, in fact.
Somewhere, deep inside itself, it felt the desire to live a full life, as well as the desire to die and end its suffering. Both of these desires pulled it in one direction in a way that could be considered subconscious; if the Beast Killer could be said to have a conscience in the first place.
Blood flecked off of its fur, its self-inflicted wounds healing as quickly as they had been made, as it stood back up on its two sets of mismatched legs.
It began running towards Lumiose-3.
Blanche laid out his story as clearly as he could, starting with arriving in Kalos and getting roped into FLARE, leaving out anything too confidential even if this Hilbert guy was part of Interpol.
Hilbert blinked. "Damn. I've seen some stuff in my time, but I don't think I've heard of anything like that before. I definitely haven't lived it. Like, that really sucks. Seriously, dude."
Blanche swirled his drink and looked away.
"I don't know about that. I mean, I'm not a whiny emo brat or anything." Sudden headache aside, he continued, "My problems are pretty stupid compared to everyone else's."
"That doesn't mean they aren't problems," Hilbert said. "Little problems are little, sure, but you deal with them when you have 'em instead of waiting for them to get bigger."
"Do you have memory problems?" Blanche asked. "I mean, remembering things or knowing things that you shouldn't or that no one else does?"
"Yeah," Hilbert said simply.
Blanche's eyes widened.
"People died a few years ago. I know." Hilbert stared at the wooden countertop. "Nothing I could do about it at that point. I couldn't have stopped them from getting hurt and protected everyone else at the same time. It happened and I'm not denying that. I have to keep going to keep anyone from feeling that pain." Hilbert shrugged. "I've met other people that remember since I travel a lot. They're outsiders now. Kids that popped up from families no one remembers, packs of Pokémon with no adults, wanderers that didn't fit in after what they've seen."
"And you're… okay with this?" Blanche asked.
"Okay with it? Hell no. It's why I can't stop. I don't want to let more people and Pokémon be hurt like that. I've spoken to my friends maybe six times since everything got fixed." Hilbert's fingers tightened around his glass, but he seemed to realize the pressure he was exerting; not just on his drink, but on the other people on the beach. The air was filled with a sort of anticipation. It dried up as he visibly relaxed, slumping slightly.
"It sounds like you're the one that needs a cold one," Blanche said sarcastically.
"Yeah, maybe I do," Hilbert chuckled, "Neither of us are talking about poker or drinks, to be clear. I won't deny that, so neither should you. I don't do running away."
The ring of four Holo Casters echoed through the house and the streets of Little Kanto.
"No… not now!" Shauna fumbled for hers, but found that yes, an Anomaly was inbound and they needed to report.
Rosa's sobbing intensified, pounding off the walls and through the floors.
Serena strode down the stairwell, her face grim and set in stone with a thin-lipped frown.
Ariel stumbled down not long after, her sundress stained with tears and her expression panicked.
"We can't… we can't go now! We're down two Rangers, this can't be happening!"
"We have to go," Serena said.
"We… fight for them in their absence," Ariel said, unsure of her words, "Isn't that what we do?"
Shauna clenched her fists before turning on her heel. "Fine. Whatever it takes. Let's go."
"You don't know me," Blanche said, suppressing a roll of thunder in his veins.
"You've been talking about your problems for a solid half-hour. I think I've got a pretty good idea," Hilbert said before shrugging.
Blanche clenched his fists.
"I'm not running away, I'm just…"
"What do you call leaving when times get tough?" Hilbert prodded.
"Shut up, I know!" Blanche seethed. "But it's more complicated than that. I'm useless there. They don't want me, they can't."
"Who is they?"
"My… coworkers," Blanche struggled out. He couldn't bring himself to lie about what he believed.
"Did they really say that?"
"Well, no, but… I can read between the lines! I'm not an idiot, I know when I'm not welcome."
"Sure you do. You sound awfully certain of that. That's a little weird if they never said it directly, in my opinion."
"My boss might as well have," Blanche muttered.
"Well, your boss sounds like a jerk, so don't get angry about it."
Cries echoed in the cool Kalosian night. The Anomaly approached quick and fast.
The FLARE Rangers, six in number, stood in a haggard cone, blocking its path towards the walls of Lumiose-3.
It stopped, rearing its head at them, the dust cloud behind it settling.
There was a terse moment where they all clenched their muscles, none of them even breathing, before the world exploded into motion.
"They don't want me there. All of them. Everyone in that damn city. They all want Amaranth, the Esper, the Leader, the smart one, but they don't want me- You know I don't have a clue what my name is? Blanche is just something Ariel came up with because she had nothing better to do. They don't want me, the useless one, the one who's always lagging behind, the one that can't read a social cue to save his life."
"Sounds biased on your part," Hilbert said. "I'm certain you're not useless. Everyone's useful in some way. And you work for FLARE, obviously, so you're doing some good."
"You know-"
"I know a lot of things, but there's some things that are just common sense," Hilbert said nonchalantly. "But no, yeah, no, Interpol didn't tell me everything about you guys over there. I've got, uh, this thing in my brain. What's it called when you can see somewhere else?"
"Clairvoyance."
"Yeah, that. The Earth has an aura field, you know? The thing is that it didn't used to be so big. It was smaller before that whole deal... how much do you know about Shattering the Heavens?"
"Haven't tried, probably won't," Blanche answered.
"Eh, you never know. I kind of got wrapped up in that whole thing by accident, and now I can feel when disturbances are happening." Hilbert waved a hand in front of his face. "I can see aura, I mentioned that, right?"
"Right. How did the Heavens Shatter? It's all redacted and no one will tell me. Did you see the Aura Guardian too?" Blanche asked.
"Eh… no, but I hear he's a really handsome fella." Hilbert rubbed his chin. "But my point is, I know a lot of stuff. You ain't useless, Blanche. You're definitely not lagging behind. You remember the big meteor you smashed?"
"Well, the deal with Deoxys was mostly Rayquaza…" Blanche said, trying to trade away his own involvement.
"Is that what the eggheads are calling that thing? Never mind, uh, what I'm saying is, you were the first to go up there, so you're not lagging behind."
"That was… that wasn't really me, though."
"Man, you are trying really hard to discredit yourself. Is that, like, an attempt at humility or do you just hate yourself that much? Also, don't worry about social cues. I missed a ton of 'em and it worked out just fine with me and Dawn… and… wait, I think I just realized something." Hilbert blinked before shaking himself out of the sudden funk. "What I'm saying is that I turned out just fine and I'm kind of an idiot."
"That makes two of us," Blanche said, resting his head on his arms.
"Don't try to define yourself as useless. This isn't a pawn shop, and you're not going to get a better bargain out of life if you do."
A pillar of energy that neared absolute zero traced along the apartment walls on the edge of Lumiose-3. Cracks appeared as ice bloomed outwards following the Ice Beam, exploding into shards as the building's supports were sheared.
A wall of earth has risen to block it, but as frost built up, it became brittle. Serena had only a moment to raise her arms in front of her face to shield herself before the Stone Edge burst into dust and ice tumbled onto her. A shield of flame appeared and was snuffed out in an instant as the beam blasted her in the torso, encasing her body in ice and freezing it to the street.
The Beast Killer leapt forward with a claw raised, ready to strike her down totally, before Ash struck against it with one half of his Doublade. It skittered across the paved streets, sparks rising beneath its claws.
A clicking sound was nearly silent as its drives changed, and its eyes changed from an icy blue to a deep, stone-like gray. It raised its foot and slammed it down, sending a ripple through the streets.
Ash leapt into the air in a cloud of purple fog, practically floating as the others rushed in.
The Beast Killer's head reared to the side as a scrap of metal impacted against its helmet, denting it inward after a shower of sparks. Its eyes sharpened and honed in on Shauna, who had just taken to the air. Its collar clicked again and its eyes turned yellow.
There was an ear-splitting crack of thunder above their heads as lightning melted around Shauna as if it were water, and Ash was stricken from the sky.
Its eyes turned to a murky brown before rocks rose from their tumbled positions and shot towards Shauna like bullets. A pink glow surrounded them, blocking them and allowing her to dodge away.
The Beast Killer focused on the Esper clad in orange and the Meowstic by her side, before its eyes turned purple and an unnerving haze leaked from its slashed against its hindquarters in its blind spot, something searing and dark.
Gin jumped away, just barely avoiding the responsive headbutt.
Its eyes turned to a deep red, the color of fighting spirit, as it shut out the world around it. A blast of sheer focus erupted from its chest, a concussive force that knocked Gin from his feet before it even struck his shoulder.
A pillar of fire engulfed the Beast Killer and erupted upwards, causing it to cry out in agony before its drives unconsciously switched and it began absorbing the flames.
Ariel's arm was outstretched, her breathing labored, and however rudimentary its mind, it could see that she was also an attacker.
Another scrap of metal slashed across its body, embedding itself deep in its flesh and causing it to scream in bound anger and pain.
A wave of fire blasted outward from it, creating a dust explosion that shot skyward and left no stone unturned.
Smoke rose into the emptied air.
The Beast Killer stared at the remaining opponent.
The Esper in white clutched her helmet where a rock had broken through. Licks of flame poured out of the cuts in her morph suit.
"No more," she said, dropping her hand to reveal the white-hot flame that burned front of her eye. She shifted into a rudimentary combat stance, one that revealed how untrained she was. Even so, the fire pouring out of her body swirled into her hands. At first, it was a pillar, and then it was a rod, and finally, it became a spear.
She swept it to the side, standing tall in her own declaration of war. Ozone burned between them.
The monster designated as Type: Null leapt forward.
"I'm not doing that," Blanche said, sulking.
"Yeah, you are. It's lame as hell."
"I know." Blanche buried his head further into his arms. "God, I'm so lame."
"Which Legendary are you talking about? I usually swear by Arceus because I'm fairly certain he's real, but it's mainly to piss off my Sinnohan friends." Hilbert made a valiant effort to cheer him up, but the forced laugh at the end was a little too obvious.
"None of them. I don't think God is a Pokémon. Arceus is a little too… small-scale."
Hilbert gave him a weird look. "Well, if you say so. He's really big. Definitely bigger than a planet."
"How big, exactly?"
"Probably half the size of your mom," Hilbert said.
Blanche laughed and Hilbert cracked a smile for a moment before it disappeared.
"Uh, I mean, oh, damn, that was probably insensitive. Sorry if you lost anyone when the Heavens Shattered."
"Not related, not your fault," Blanche said. "I can't remember her but I can remember that jokes are funny." He slumped again. "Man, my memory has gone to shit…"
"Hey, don't beat yourself up about things you can't fix," Hilbert said. "You can't help it, right?"
"Well, even if I can't, it's still pretty lame," Blanche said.
"Don't blame yourself for it. Sometimes there are things you have to do but can't really help doing," Hilbert said, looking towards the sea's edge on the horizon.
"I don't think that applies." Blanche swirled his drink. It really wasn't having the impact he had thought it would. "I still can't help but think that I lost my memories for a reason. Did I do something to lose them? Was I bad enough of a person to deserve it? Was who I was just that worthless?"
"It doesn't matter," Hilbert said plainly. "You're you, right? No one else you could be."
"I wish that wasn't the case sometimes," Blanche said, staring deep into his glass.
"...Huh. You really do hate yourself."
Blanche looked up and rolled his eyes. "No, where'd you get that idea? I'm not some whiny emo brat. There's no emotional component like hate involved in it. It's like, science or something. I am clinically less than a normal person. Multiply that by my life, carry the four, and you get the obvious conclusion."
"No, no, you're not listening. I've not met a single person or Pokémon that was, uh, what's the word? Apathetic? Yeah. I've never met someone that doesn't care about anything. Everyone feels something sometimes. And you know, there's that saying that the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy." Hilbert propped his head up with one hand. "You're a human by my guess, so that first thing applies to you too. You sure as hell don't love yourself, I can tell that much. If you use the process of elimination… just analyze that with your logic."
The monster that had become Type: Full roared to the sky.
Blanche sucked in a breath and let it out sharply. "Fine. Fine. I admit it." He slammed his hands on the bar and pushed himself to his feet. "I hate myself. So what? Who gives a damn? Not you, you're just a random stranger. Who's going to fix it? Not them, they're not me. What's the point in denying it? What's the point in accepting it? If I quit entirely, I'm probably going to die when the next Anomaly shows up. If I keep going like this, I can protect myself by risking my life. God, that's ironic, isn't it?"
Hilbert nodded, leaning back to look up at the boy above him. "You could say that. I can't fix your problems for you."
"Then why in the blue hell do you keep asking about them?" Blanche nearly yelled.
Hilbert sighed and slowly stood up. "See, the thing about being a hero is that sometimes, you have to give people space to be the hero of their own story." He looked up slightly as Blanche, the small height difference not diminishing his presence. "People do heroic things without being "heroes" like me. They can't do those things without acknowledging that something needs to be done, or more than that, acknowledging that something is wrong. Baby steps."
"...Are you seriously trying to tell me that all of this was an intervention?"
"You could call it that," Hilbert shrugged. "It's what I do. I'm not a psychologist, There Are No Psychologists, but I do know a lot of people. You kinda pick up some stuff. Uh, basically, if you're aware of your problems, you'll either ignore them or try to fix them. The difference is that you'll do it purposefully, which can make it worse or better. Running away stops being an option, though. And you, Blanche, you don't seem like the kinda guy to ignore your problems entirely. Am I on the mark with that?"
Blanche gave a small laugh even if he couldn't muster the energy to smile. "No. No, I see what you mean. Unless they're girl problems. Romance makes team dynamics weird."
"I'll drink to that. Well-"
"Hypothetically," Blanche interrupted, "Yeah, I guess so."
There was a familiar buzzing in Blanche's pocket. A sound that he had grown to dread and anticipate.
Hilbert gave him a knowing look and tapped his temple.
"I don't need to tell you what to do, do I?"
Blanche shook his head, already turning to enter open air. His Holo Caster displayed information on an Anomaly that would soon reach Lumiose-3. He tapped at it for a moment before raising it to his ear.
"Hey, Clemont. Is the flight gear working?"
As he heard confirmation, Blanche cracked a smile and widened his stance. He looked back at Hilbert.
"Thanks for the pep talk, man."
Hilbert gave a half-wave. "It's what I do. Go do your thing, hero man. Oh, and tell Looker that Black says to not do anything shady."
"If I get the opportunity, I might. I get the feeling that you're just avoiding having to say it yourself." Blanche reached deep into his bag and withdrew his morpher.
"See ya."
Blanche nodded and raised it to his chest.
"Clemontic Gear Access: NSPACE!"
AN:
Self-loathing makes you an asshole. I used to have a lot of problems with it (but now I can say "you're welcome" when someone thanks me and not just "no problem" every time) and it really screws up your relationships. Everything is about how much you need to give to make people like you or how much you need to change to feel worthy of their grace. I can't remember how it got better so I can't give any advice on that, but I'm pretty sure watching Gurren Lagann had something to do with it.
Blanche and Hilbert finally meet. Hell freezes over. The conversation's not as deep as I'd like it to go, but I honestly don't think they'd be friends in a normal situation. Hilbert was never the most friendly guy to unknowns and Blanche can't socially interact properly to save his life. Uh, this is probably a minor thing, but while not all religions use the word God for their deities, most have a version of Hell, so while using the name God is a bit strange in Pokémon, I'm sure there's an underworld in some in-universe mythology.
And uh… I'm sorry, guys, I need another break. My elderly dog passed away this passing weekend and I've been beating myself up about it all week. He was a very good boy. I haven't gotten any work done on my buffer and the last scene was all I could muster. I might have to go to a two-week post schedule in general, but I'll have to see.
I need some catharsis, forgive an angsty teen for being selfish. It's probably kind of obvious, but Blanche started as an SI with a different name and a different identity. Sinbad or Santiago (hey, foreshadowing), take your pick. In my initial drafts, FLARE wasn't even a thing. More wish fulfillment-y. Less character growth. Shauna was much more Tsundere-y and Serena's Calem obsession would have lasted much longer and been less subtle. Blanche was a flat character because I was afraid of making it clear to myself that I was unlikable. I was trying to ignore the worst parts of myself (hey, that's relevant to the theme of the chapter, how about that?). That's a problem with SI in general, because people on the internet hating on your insert is basically people hating on you, and most people want to avoid that. So, I scrapped the more SI parts of the SI story and made it generic enough to be OC-insert/isekai. Blanche is a hypocritical asshole who pretends to be something he's not because it's easier to live that way. His issues were never about how he looked or what effect he had on other people, because ultimately he just used the problems he had to justify his own self-loathing. He probably still is a flat character because I'm only a passable writer, but that's how I wrote him. Blanche isn't a good or a bad person, he's just a guy. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. Occasionally, he does heroic things, but he also does unheroic things. He's protected a whole lot of people, pushing himself almost suicidally far, but he's provoked his friends to tears on multiple occasions because he believed it needed to be done, or it was a means to an end. He's a person like anyone else. Probably a better person than me in some ways, probably worse in others. He's practically unrecognizable to me now, and that's why I haven't labeled this story as SI. I'm just a guy, he's just a guy, but we're not the same guy. If that makes any sense at all.
God damn, I'm whining again on the internet. Uh, Flying to Heaven, I really appreciate your feedback, I hope you're still reading. I haven't read much of Hoenn's Bug Catcher but Jan is an inspiration to us all. That guy from Reddit, I hope you like the new stuff even if you have problems with it. Everyone else reading, I'd really appreciate comments on the story more than well-wishes. It's what keeps me motivated, honestly.
See ya. I'll be back.
He hissed as new bandages rubbed against his skin, though he managed to push the blankets aside to sit up and think. He plucked at the bandages that overlapped his eye and gave a relieved breath. He didn't feel any injuries in the socket and he could see fine.
His eyes snapped to the door as it creaked open and Gin poked his head in, before gesturing with a can of soda.
"I, uh, got you a drink, man."
Blanche sighed. "You're a lifesaver." He then paused. "Is it a bad thing that I could mean that literally?" He took the offered can instead of standing up.
"Maybe, yeah, but that's the job," Gin said, cracking open his own can. "You good, dude?"
Blanche looked down at his hospital gown before pulling at it to look at his bandaged chest. Less than he used to wear, but no small amount. "I'll live for now," he said. "How's everyone else?"
Gin took a long drink, then set his can down on the countertop.
Blanche's gaze caught the bandages around his knuckles.
"Not great," Gin said, clicking his tongue. "Really not great."
Blanche's pulse pounded through his skull. It should have been obvious, he said to himself, trying to push it away. You saw it.
I saw it.
Gin started, "Rosa-"
"Rosa, is she…" Blanche began, before shutting up. "No, go ahead."
"No, you first, since you're still in bed," Gin said.
Blanche rubbed his wrists, trying to find any kinks in the joint while processing his thoughts. "Is Rosa alright?"
"I haven't seen the others since they went home," Gin said. "They didn't need to get patched up like you did. I bruised my fists even with metal knuckles."
"Ah, that sucks."
"At least I wasn't bleeding all over my girlfriend," Gin said, shrugging.
Something clicked in Blanche's brain, and his even expression became a lot less forced and a lot more natural. "Not the time for jokes. Were they alright at least? Oh, hell, the city's a mess right now, isn't it? Shit, I'm glad we evacuated, but the MagLevs are probably broken and I can get everyone getting mad at FLARE for not doing enough but-"
"Breathe, man, you're gonna pass out," Gin said.
Blanche's jaw shut mechanically and he pushed his hair out of his face. "Right. Right, shit. Just tell me if they're alright or not."
"You should take it easy while you're still in the hospital," Gin offered. "The boss-man told us all to let him handle everything."
An engine sputtered to life in Blanche's brain. "Augustine or Lysandre?"
"Uh, if you mean the orange-haired guy, then-"
Metal clacked against the tiled floor as an unopened can was knocked from Blanche's side. He stood up, stumbling against the wall before righting himself. His lips were pulled into a grim snarl, his brow furrowed into a glare.
"Move, Gin. I have to talk to someone."
"Rosa's not here, she went home-"
"Not her. Get out of my way."
Gin stepped to the side as Blanche stumbled out.
"Where are you going?" Gin asked.
"In a few minutes, the unemployment office, if there is one," Blanche said, his eyes focused on someplace far away. "Right now, I'm going to have a calm… civilized conversation with our boss."
After solitarily walking down hallways and limping down staircases, he came upon a door. It was labeled like any other, but there were no other rooms in the encompassing hallway. The plaque was small and simply read Lysandre's name along with "Director."
He slammed on the door with a closed fist.
"Enter, Amaranth."
He stared down the camera above his head, thinking about giving it a certain gesture for a moment before he scoffed and walked in. Light flooded in from behind him before it was cut off by the door.
The red mural on the ceiling and the blue mural on the floor though he could hardly put together the full shapes, they seemed brighter and more vibrant. He assumed it was a trick of the light or his eyes adjusting differently.
Lysandre sat behind his desk, piles of paperwork in front of him and a pen continuing movement even as he sat up straighter.
There was a silence for a few moments as Blanche's presence permeated the room and Lysandre continued to deny him a reaction.
The window to the pipeline beneath FLARE was dark as it had been before, though a thin layer of dust clouded it somewhat. Even so, red and blue lights continued revolving down below.
"If you're going to speak, spit it out," he finally said, pausing in his calligraphy to shake his head, though he didn't spare Blanche a glance.
"I knew you were evil," Blanche said, staring far past Lysandre.
"Few have considered me to be a lawyer as of yet, but I accept the title nonetheless." Lysandre continued scrawling on forms.
"I can't believe I didn't do anything…" Blanche clenched his fist, sending a ripple of pain up his arm. "The first thing I did when I got here was think, what the hell? FLARE? Shouldn't that be Team Flare? Evil organization? Ultimate weapon?"
Lysandre looked up at him, his gaze steely.
Blanche continued anyway. "But when I looked around, I saw that nothing was like I expected, so I changed my mind." He ran a hand through his hair as his pulse quickened. "The Pokémon are the same, I recognize most of them, the people are the same, even with different personalities, but you…" his eyes focused onto Lysandre, "You…" a low growl rose from his throat, "You son of a bitch!"
Lysandre stood from his chair. "What do you know about Team Flare?"
"You wouldn't understand. That's the funniest thing about all of this bullshit," Blanche said, giving a half-laugh and tilting his head back. "I know so much but I can't use any of it. Too weak to go on a journey, too stupid to make my own armor, too awkward to talk through any of my problems, a whole lot of good that bastard has done me. Avatar, my ass."
"Speak."
"I can't remember your evil team perfectly. You kidnapped some old guy named AZ, you had four… five? Four chicks with bright hair and the one fat guy. Xerxes, maybe? You took Xerneas or Yveltal and plugged them into a big gun and you blew the shit out of yourselves like a bunch of dumbasses. Serena and Calem are heroes or something stupid like that, and you guys are probably dead." Blanche sneered, the ugliness welling up inside him and spilling out. "Any of that sound familiar?"
Lysandre's hand shook on his desk. Blanche couldn't see his eyes.
"I recommend… that you do not speak ill of the dead."
"They deserved it," Blanche said. "How did you get away with it? Covering up the media? Are you saving that plan for a rainy day? Did you do a mind wipe using God-knows-what?"
"Whatever you are speaking of… never came to pass." A piece of paper tore as Lysandre's hand tensed, and the ripping echoed throughout the room. "Who are you, really?"
"If I knew, I wouldn't have come here in the first place. But strange things always seem to happen in this city. Why is that? What is it that draws all the Anomalies here? What drew that Zygarde here?" Blanche's voice reached a fever pitch. "What happened to Rosa, you bastard?"
"Dahlia is alive. Bond Phenomenon dissolved. Likely unable to fight in the future. Will be dismissed as FLARE Ranger 00," Lysandre said. "Safe."
"Why was she down there? Why was she stuck down there with Tencent? Now he's gone and she's gone and I can't… explain that to me! How did that help anything?" Blanche screamed.
"There are things in motion that…" Lysandre stopped. "No. It is very likely that you would understand them, but you would refuse to accept them. Whatever you are, wherever you came from, whatever made you… you remind me too much of myself."
"Oh, how fantastic, one of the greatest sociopaths in Pokémon is telling me I'm like him," Blanche spat. "I'm nothing like you. I wouldn't lock someone in a trap to be used as bait. I don't care what your goals are, you're sick."
"If you would accept them, you would understand that it was necessary," Lysandre said. "That I believed it to be necessary."
"You killed Tencent!" Blanche roared.
"I did, yes. It was not my intention." Lysandre shuffled papers around on his desk. "I would have preferred it hadn't."
"You're a murderer- You intended for it to happen and it did."
"You have killed as well. The meteor of December, the Falling Sky. It may seem minute, but Psychic-type energy was used during that battle, along with other strange sorts. It was sentient."
"You think I couldn't tell?" Blanche whispered, his lips trembling. "I know. I know what I did. I'll do it again if you push me."
"You don't mean that. You're too smart for that. Your friends aren't smart enough to realize what you have been doing. Except perhaps Geranium, for the same reasons as I. You… remember when the Heavens Shattered. But it is impossible for you to have been there, I have seen your medical records. Your body seems to be built of scar tissue, hastily regrown. Your DNA is defective but shows few signs of wear." Lysandre's gaze leveled with his. "You are not perfectly human."
"I'm not." Blanche admitted, shrugging his shoulders and trying not to betray the frost settling in his stomach. "I can't consider myself that anymore. I never should have tried to, but now I realize I don't have to care."
"Legendary intervention would leave traces of AIAM fields within your body or at least an overlap in fields that defines your form, but you have none. A Myth is far more likely in that case, but there are none thought to create living, breathing humans from dust."
Blanche scoffed and he hated that it sounded like a choked laugh. "You wouldn't believe me."
"You know far too much for me to not inquire. Are you from the future? Some sort of time traveler?"
"My patron, if you could call the bastard that, won't give me a straight answer, but he seems to prefer the idea that this world was a video game before I came along," Blanche said.
"I see," Lysandre said, before shaking his head. "I had believed you were an amalgamation similar to… no, it is not my place to tell."
"No, go right ahead. You're already on my shit list, I can't imagine adding yourself to someone else's can hurt."
"I would like to see what you would do," Lysandre said quietly, his voice almost soft if not for his furrowed brow, "Without access to FLARE's technology or funding; without an infinite power source strapped to your chest. How long would you survive? If you were cut loose entirely, would your suicidality continue? Could you continue living the lie that you choose to live for other people, rather than simply being unstable and unable to imagine living for yourself?"
"Screw you," Blanche said.
"I do care about my people, Amaranth," Lysandre said forcefully, "Even if you may not believe it."
"You're right; I don't."
"But because you simply believe something does not make it true, and the opposite applies as well. Everything I've worked for and worked towards, it is for the good of life itself."
"You killed Tencent. You may have expected something different, but you killed him."
"We can argue in circles throughout the day, but that would make you a hypocrite. You are on probation, Amaranth. I will not accept insubordination. Your abilities, though strange, are not irreplaceable."
The air froze in Blanche's lungs. "What?"
"Whether your armor remains functional will be your handler's decision. You will leave until you are ready to return and act in FLARE's interests, not your own. You are a soldier. This is not a television series where loose cannons are valued. Leave this building. Dahlia is recuperating but will recover. The other Rangers are still in action. You are not required."
"You can't afford to kick me out," Blanche said, weakly, his throat closing up though he tried to keep his tone clear.
"I can," Lysandre said. "Your comrades may be disappointed, but it is their friendship that lays with you, not their loyalty. FLARE is for protecting our planet, not for accommodating you. Excuse yourself from my office."
Blanche's arm flinched, as if to strike at something, before he threw it to the side and scoffed. The door slammed shut behind him as he left, once again immersing the room in darkness. The sound of a fist slamming on a metal wall reverberated through the room.
Lysandre stood in his office, alone, for a few minutes. Eventually, he sat down but couldn't bring himself to write.
"This ugly world where children have to fight to survive… we're fighting to destroy it, Amaranth."
The gleam of the mural above him seemed to brighten.
Blanche stormed past someone in a trench coat as he left FLARE, paying no attention to the nondescript man.
Looker watched his back as he passed, though the action went unnoticed. He bit down on the stick of a lollipop and rubbed his chin.
"Looks like trouble on this side of paradise," he mused before sighing. "I shouldn't have expected anything else. I'm surprised the kid hasn't shown up by now."
A boy in blue stone armor stood on a beach on the west coast of Kalos, staring out across the ocean as he wondered why the world seemed so unbalanced.
The cloud cover was entirely gray, though lighter in some patches. Rocks and gravel dotted the garden path as he walked past Rhyhorn and towards the door beneath a light drizzle.
Shauna had been slumped at the table, but after he swung the door open, she lifted her head from her arms. There were dark rings around her eyes and bandages slapped onto her elbows.
"Oh… hey," she said, blinking heavily. An adhesive patch was peeling off in front of her temple as well as another on her ear.
Blanche sighed, the tension in his chest depreciating somewhat though it didn't go away. His voice was croaking when he asked, "Still in the land of the living?"
"I dunno if this can be called living." Her eyelids drooped further, but she fought valiantly to keep them open. "I don't know how Ariel does it- She's up in Rosa's room, Quilladin too- She's just…" Shauna moved as if to gesture, but the only thing to show for it was a slight shuffle.
"Strong like that," he supplied. "Is Rosa…?"
Shauna's gaze dropped towards the tabletop. "Tencent disappeared during the fight and she's really beaten up about that. I'm sure he'll come back eventually, but-"
"He won't."
She looked up at him. "What?"
"Tencent's dead, Shauna. That monster was a Zygarde and it absorbed him. We killed it. He's not coming back."
"You," she struggled for words before she pushed herself up, "You don't know that!"
"Don't be naive!" Blanche shouted. A silence boomed throughout the ground floor in the moments that followed, before Shauna clenched her fists.
"Why? Why shouldn't I hope? Why shouldn't I try to believe that Rosa's just stressed when she says he's gone? What's your problem with that?"
"My problem with it is that it's stupid! He's gone and our boss killed him and he put me on probation and no matter what we think or do he's dead and gone so we might as well suck it up and deal with it because this isn't a fantasy world; This isn't a game, Shauna." He swept out with his arm. "Our friends, any one of us, you, me, we, could die and FLARE would manage to replace us because they would need to, because it would be necessary. Lysandre doesn't give a shit that Tencent is gone, and acting like he's not isn't going to solve the problem!"
"Zygarde is a Legendary Pokémon! They don't work under our rules or anyone's rules, least of all yours. Just because you think it's impossible doesn't mean it is, it just means you don't care enough to try and believe.
Blanche took a step back. "I… I care! God damn, do you think I didn't? Even if he wasn't my partner, Rosa's one of my best friends and I cared for her sake!"
Shauna slammed a fist on the table and arcs of electricity leapt from it onto the wood. "Then why aren't you trying to friggin' act like it?"
"Because I can't even care about myself! How could a guy like me care enough to…" Blanche trailed off, slowly realizing what he had said.
From a higher floor, the sound of sobbing reverberated through the building.
Shauna was looking up at him with tired but wide eyes nonetheless.
"I didn't say that. Forget I said that." He verbally backpedaled as he started to walk around her and towards the stairs. "I'm going to go check on Rosa," Blanche said quickly.
"No. No! You can't just say something like that then play it off like it's nothing!" She shouted, her sidestep seeming more like a stumble as she blocked his path.
Blanche looked off to the side and forced himself to scoff. "There's more important stuff to worry about and this isn't the time for this talk."
"No, you can't do that! If you ignored the unimportant stuff and just leave it, it'll fester and grow and then it'll be so important that you can't focus on anything else-"
"I know!" Blanche yelled, "I know, I know, dammit! But my dumb ass getting a therapist is less likely than you remembering anything important, and if I'm constantly second-guessing myself, that's how I'll get distracted!"
"Second-guessing? You mean caring about yourself?" She shrieked.
"Yes! I mean, no, I mean- Look, can you just forget I said anything?"
"No! We're friends, aren't we?" she demanded, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "That's not what friendship's about; It's give and take in equal amounts!"
"Because Serena gives you so much in return," Blanche shot back.
"You have no idea what she's gone through!" she said.
"Neither do you!" he yelled.
"I don't need to- You're doing it, going and changing the subject because you're too much of a coward to try caring at all."
Blanche's fist thumped against the wall as he seethed. "I'm more replaceable than dirt, Shauna. I have about as much aura. At best, I'm a damned lab experiment. There's nothing in here," he jabbed at his chest with his thumb, "To care about."
"You're not looking very hard, then!" she shouted.
"Shit- Fine! You know what? You're right! I'm not looking hard because if I do, I might find out that I don't actually enjoy risking my life every week for other people's or my boss's or some other asshole's sake! I'm not a hero. I'm not like you. I'm nothing like you," Blanche said.
Shauna was silent as she curled in on herself. Her arms shook by her sides as tears began leaking out her eyes.
"You… you idiot…" she said, her breath shuddering. "How can you say that?" she whispered.
The response came easy to him. "Because it's true, dumbass. "I didn't do any of that stupid shit because I'm a hero, I did it because if someone's going to die for all of you," he brushed past her and walked towards the stairs. "I thought that it should have been me to do it."
That was what he thought he thought, wasn't it?
As he heard footsteps on the stairs ahead, he felt an electrifying grip clamp onto his arm.
"You can't really mean that," she said in a low tone, "You can't."
"I have to check up on Rosa, leave it be and just forget about it," he said, trying to pull away.
"No!" She tugged him back, hard. "I can't forget something like that! You told me that I shouldn't leave someone alone when they're in pain, didn't you?"
"That… Listen, I said forget it!"
"There's something wrong with you, Blanche! I'm not going to ignore that!" Tiny sparks bounced on his arms where they were unbandaged. "I'm not going to ignore it again!"
He pulled his arm away even harder. "Get off of me."
She pulled him back with a strength that couldn't have been purely physical. "We need to talk about this!"
"Can't you both calm down, please?" Ariel pleaded suddenly, appearing on his opposite side in his periphery.
"Get…" he reared back and gathered his strength, "OFF!"
Shauna stumbled back, tripping over her own feet before regaining her balance. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as the air's crackling grew louder.
"I believe you both should calm down," Serena said, walking past him and placating Shauna.
It was raining outside. The pounding of water echoed through the glass windows.
Blanche sighed. "I'm going to go check on Rosa."
"We're going to talk about this later," Shauna said, jabbing the air between them with her index finger. "All of us."
He tried to ignore the spike of dread that wedged in his chest and covered it up with a scoff. "Whatever."
Not a minute later, he was at Rosa's door. The sound of crying had ceased, and he doubted that they would have left her alone if she was still awake.
The door creaked open silently as he stuck his head inside. A lump was swaddled in what must have been a dozen blankets. A few barely visible green spines stuck out from but not through them. The air stunk of iodine.
He eased the door shut and placed his forehead against it as he thought.
"Damn it…" he murmured, his joints shaking.
He paced to his room as quietly as he could, packed everything he could into his spare bag, and listened to the rain tapping against the window.
The fire escape didn't look too shabby.
When the others started looking for him, they found Quilladin's Pokéball alone on his bed.
Lusamine walked out of the only flight that had been inbound to Lumiose-3. Wicke and Faba followed after her. Though none of them were native to Alola, they hadn't rode a MagLev train in quite some time.
There were few other passengers in the car. The evacuation order had only just been lifted and much of the inner city was still rubble. There were a few emergency workers, a couple of FLARE employees designated by their orange business suits, and a white-haired boy that practically radiated anger.
A distant part of Lusamine thought he didn't look so much different from Gladion, but it was quickly crushed. She didn't have time to sympathize with strangers.
The boy exited before the MagLev shot off towards Jaune Plaza, where the closest entrance to FLARE was located. The station map was dotted with red marks and blockages.
The lobby was all but deserted if not for the boxes filled with shovels and similar tools. A thick film of dust covered the entire floor, seeping into even the escalators.
A young woman in a lab coat escorted them, looking sheepish as she brought them to the door of FLARE's leader.
She was hyper-aware of his pupils dilating as her delegation entered the darkened room.
"Lusamine," Lysandre said, likely a greeting but one could never tell from his tone.
"Lysandre," she responded. "Is the city alright?"
He leveled a flat glare at her. "No. No, it is very much not."
"I must apologize," Lusamine said. "It truly was an accident."
"Where was the Aether Foundation's support?"
She sucked in a breath. "The problem is that our 'support' is a bit too slow and its biology may cause quite the conundrum. Faba."
Faba clicked open a briefcase and withdrew a file, quickly handing it over before he adjusted his goggles.
Lusamine withdrew a picture and slid it across Lysandre's desk.
The Pokémon was quadrupedal, purple scales on its hind legs with green, Flying-type-like talons on its front. Opposite its silvery gray mane was a sharp finned tail. A binding like that of a cross intersected with a backward facing ax head to cover its skull. A collar with seventeen drives stuck rigidly out of its neck.
"It was built to fight Ult- Anomalies. We were able to change its typing and skill set at will. After the mutant Zygarde escaped, we released it to track it down. Had the mutant Zygarde continued indefinitely, we have no doubt that it would have defeated it single handedly. We call it the Type: Full."
"I feel that you are stalling," Lysandre said testily.
"Context is necessary. It was somewhere in this region's mountains when the mutant was defeated. We have lost control of it."
Lysandre pinched the bridge of his nose. "And?"
"Our tracker shows that it is approaching Lumiose-3 as we speak. At current rates, it will reach the city's epicenter at eleven o'clock tonight."
"We can't handle another Anomaly right now," Lysandre said testily.
"There's nothing we can do about it," Lusamine said, crossing her arms. "If you can't deal with it, perhaps the UR will step in."
Lysandre closed his eyes.
"I'll have the evacuation order extended.
"If I may ask, why is it that Anomalies tend to veer towards this city?" Lusamine asked.
Behind Lysandre, red and blue lights continued to revolve around each other.
"I often wonder about that myself," he lied.
He heard the waves crash against the rocks below the deck as he drummed his fingers against the glass. Moonbeams reflected off the surface of its dark amber contents. He was further away from Lumiose-3 than he'd ever taken himself before. The Tower of Mastery hung over the skyline much further down the beach of Shalour City.
"You know," he said, leaning back on his stool and looking into the rafters, "Where I come from, I don't think I'd be allowed to drink this stuff."
"Technically, we aren't," his companion in sorrow-drowning replied, "But most leagues are still trying to get things running smoothly. I don't think you'll get much trouble from 'em."
The boy he'd run into seemed familiar, but Blanche couldn't quite place the feeling.
He took a metal container from a pocket in his blue jacket, unscrewed the cap with a slight whine, and poured a small stream of pinkish liquid into his drink.
"...Is that a flask?" Blanche asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Huh?" The brown-haired boy looked up at him with an unfocused gaze. "Oh, no, I only drink recreationally. This stuff is… well, you could call it a gift from a friend. Essence of Aromatherapy. Gets rid of the side effects. Which I guess is kind of against the whole point of it, but whatever. Want some?"
Blanche looked from the flask to his glass, briefly remembering an incident involving said side effects and an overgrown Mantine. He clenched his jaw to hold back a bitter laugh, before grabbing the container and adding some to his own.
"Cheers," the other boy said, holding up his glass.
"Cheers," Blanche replied.
They clinked their glasses together and took a deep drink.
Blanche sputtered, nearly spitting out the contents across the wooden bar. It tasted sweet, salty, bitter, fruity, and like nothing at all simultaneously. It also tasted like piss. Exceptionally like piss.
The other boy slowly placed his emptied glass on the bar. It cracked anyway.
"Damn it," he muttered. "How was that, stranger?"
"I'm sticking with soda." Blanche made a face as he slumped over the counter. "And you drink that for fun?"
"That's what adults do," the other boy said as he forced a stoic expression and an odd impression. "I'm so glad I don't use Looker as a father figure. The asshole invited me out for drinks with Interpol, can you believe that?"
His brain was scrambled enough from the day that he didn't even question that. "How old are you, what's-yer-face?" Blanche asked.
The other boy actually ticked off his fingers as he said, "Uh, what year is it… 2013? I was sixteen in 2009… It's not quite May, so… I'm nearly twenty, I think. I don't really celebrate my birthday anymore, I'm just too busy."
Blanche's head thunked onto the wood as his thoughts left to go swimming in Shalour's coastal seas. "You don't look older than me, that's not fair. I know a guy, his name is Michael, he looks my age but I always forget that he's a little older."
The other boy blinked at him before shaking his head as if to rid himself of a useless thought. "I know a guy named Michael too, but he's a bit younger than me so it's probably a coincidence."
"Who knows? This world's filled with stupid coincidences," Blanche muttered.
"Yeah, I'll drink to that. Well, theoretically, because," he gestured to the somehow-cracked glass, "Y'know."
"Right." He sighed. "What are your least favorite coincidences, what's-yer-face?"
"...Are you hitting on me?"
"Probably not, but hey, I'd be the last person to know," Blanche muttered. "If I didn't know better I'd say that Shauna, uh, this girl who's… whatever, she was probably really mad about that."
"Dawn says a lot of stuff like that. Huh. We're pretty similar, in a "we're not so different" kind of way, not in a "two sides of the same coin" way."
"Is that why you came over here?" Blanche asked sarcastically.
"Well, I saw some kid looking miserable and you kind of have a vacuum around you, so I thought I'd stop and talk with you for a bit. More of the first thing, I promise," he said with a chuckle.
"Vacuum?"
The other boy waved a hand in front of his face. "I can see all sorts of stuff. Aura, psions if Abra isn't asleep, sometimes electromagnetics in the Earth's aura, you name it. You don't got any aura, do you, stranger?"
"Don't I know it," he said, exasperated. "I'm probably dead if I get caught out in the wilderness by myself."
"If you run into ferals, sure, but I'm pretty sure I took care of most of the packs in Kalos," the other boy said, looking into the rafters and scratching his cheek. "I could be wrong."
"Eh?" Blanche prompted.
The other boy waved his hand. "I'm like, kind of in Interpol? I have a badge but I don't think they pay me normally. I'm running around most of the time just doing odd jobs, nothing too crazy."
"Ah, you're a temp?" Blanche asked. Maybe he'd been speaking logistically.
"Something like that. Normal guy stuff, punching out Legendary Pokémon, fighting off teams of criminals, all that."
Blanche looked back to his glass, then back to the other boy. "You wouldn't happen to be my replacement, would you?" he asked with trepidation. "I mean, I don't think FLARE trains people like that, but-"
"Blanche, buddy!" he said, swinging an arm around him. "It's the other way around, I promise. I'm trying to retire before I turn twenty and you're making that so much easier."
The gears in Blanche's head were a bit clogged at that moment, but even he could register that something was off about that statement.
"When did I tell you my name?"
"Ah? I mean, you've got a name tag." He pointed where Blanche's lapels would be if his jacket was just a bit fancier.
Blanche looked down and felt a finger thwap off of his nose. He flinched back as the other boy laughed at him.
"Ha! Ah, never gets old. By the way, did you know that if your hand covers your face, it's a sign of low intelligence?"
"Huh? Care to demonstrate?" Blanche said.
The other boy gave him a weird look before spreading his fingers around his forehead.
Blanche thrusted his palm in his face, sending the other boy reeling back.
"Shoulda seen that coming," the other boy laughed, completely fine with no red to signify stinging on his face.
The bartender set down a new round of drinks as the other boy fumbled for his wallet and rapidly apologized for breaking the glass.
Perhaps unsubtly so, Blanche veered off his seat a bit trying to catch a glimpse of the other boy's Trainer License.
Hilbert? Now, where had he heard that name before…
"You're from Unova, aren't you?" Blanche said hesitantly.
"What gave it away?" Hilbert asked, smiling.
"Accent," Blanche lied.
"Isn't an accent the thing that language teachers are always insisting goes over the "e" in Pokemon?"
"Uh… yeah, I think. But it's also just how someone talks."
"Oh, right."
There would have been a brief silence if not for the squeaking of Hilbert's flask as they passed it between themselves.
"So, Blanche, what's got you out here on the beach?"
"Interpol didn't tell you yet?" Blanche asked dryly. "I'm on probation. My boss is full of shit and I'm replaceable and my friends care way too much and it's annoying…
"And that's a run-on sentence," Hilbert said, "But I'll excuse it for dramatic effect."
"What?"
"...I've been told that I talk a little too much like we live in a television show."
Blanche would have passed out from sheer irony if it weren't for the gut feeling that a character trait like that was on the tamer side of the spectrum of things he had to deal with.
"But that's not important. Draw out your sorrows and deal 'em like cards, because you seem like you could use a game of poker."
A beast made to kill other beasts writhed in agony as it lost its path.
Trees around it were disintegrated and blown clear out of the ground as fire and electricity lapped off of its body. Frost covered the ground around it and boiled off as it made contact. Rocks and dirt swirled around it like a tornado and sharpened into bits of metal.
As quickly as it lost its first path, it saw another. Two, in fact.
Somewhere, deep inside itself, it felt the desire to live a full life, as well as the desire to die and end its suffering. Both of these desires pulled it in one direction in a way that could be considered subconscious; if the Beast Killer could be said to have a conscience in the first place.
Blood flecked off of its fur, its self-inflicted wounds healing as quickly as they had been made, as it stood back up on its two sets of mismatched legs.
It began running towards Lumiose-3.
Blanche laid out his story as clearly as he could, starting with arriving in Kalos and getting roped into FLARE, leaving out anything too confidential even if this Hilbert guy was part of Interpol.
Hilbert blinked. "Damn. I've seen some stuff in my time, but I don't think I've heard of anything like that before. I definitely haven't lived it. Like, that really sucks. Seriously, dude."
Blanche swirled his drink and looked away.
"I don't know about that. I mean, I'm not a whiny emo brat or anything." Sudden headache aside, he continued, "My problems are pretty stupid compared to everyone else's."
"That doesn't mean they aren't problems," Hilbert said. "Little problems are little, sure, but you deal with them when you have 'em instead of waiting for them to get bigger."
"Do you have memory problems?" Blanche asked. "I mean, remembering things or knowing things that you shouldn't or that no one else does?"
"Yeah," Hilbert said simply.
Blanche's eyes widened.
"People died a few years ago. I know." Hilbert stared at the wooden countertop. "Nothing I could do about it at that point. I couldn't have stopped them from getting hurt and protected everyone else at the same time. It happened and I'm not denying that. I have to keep going to keep anyone from feeling that pain." Hilbert shrugged. "I've met other people that remember since I travel a lot. They're outsiders now. Kids that popped up from families no one remembers, packs of Pokémon with no adults, wanderers that didn't fit in after what they've seen."
"And you're… okay with this?" Blanche asked.
"Okay with it? Hell no. It's why I can't stop. I don't want to let more people and Pokémon be hurt like that. I've spoken to my friends maybe six times since everything got fixed." Hilbert's fingers tightened around his glass, but he seemed to realize the pressure he was exerting; not just on his drink, but on the other people on the beach. The air was filled with a sort of anticipation. It dried up as he visibly relaxed, slumping slightly.
"It sounds like you're the one that needs a cold one," Blanche said sarcastically.
"Yeah, maybe I do," Hilbert chuckled, "Neither of us are talking about poker or drinks, to be clear. I won't deny that, so neither should you. I don't do running away."
The ring of four Holo Casters echoed through the house and the streets of Little Kanto.
"No… not now!" Shauna fumbled for hers, but found that yes, an Anomaly was inbound and they needed to report.
Rosa's sobbing intensified, pounding off the walls and through the floors.
Serena strode down the stairwell, her face grim and set in stone with a thin-lipped frown.
Ariel stumbled down not long after, her sundress stained with tears and her expression panicked.
"We can't… we can't go now! We're down two Rangers, this can't be happening!"
"We have to go," Serena said.
"We… fight for them in their absence," Ariel said, unsure of her words, "Isn't that what we do?"
Shauna clenched her fists before turning on her heel. "Fine. Whatever it takes. Let's go."
"You don't know me," Blanche said, suppressing a roll of thunder in his veins.
"You've been talking about your problems for a solid half-hour. I think I've got a pretty good idea," Hilbert said before shrugging.
Blanche clenched his fists.
"I'm not running away, I'm just…"
"What do you call leaving when times get tough?" Hilbert prodded.
"Shut up, I know!" Blanche seethed. "But it's more complicated than that. I'm useless there. They don't want me, they can't."
"Who is they?"
"My… coworkers," Blanche struggled out. He couldn't bring himself to lie about what he believed.
"Did they really say that?"
"Well, no, but… I can read between the lines! I'm not an idiot, I know when I'm not welcome."
"Sure you do. You sound awfully certain of that. That's a little weird if they never said it directly, in my opinion."
"My boss might as well have," Blanche muttered.
"Well, your boss sounds like a jerk, so don't get angry about it."
Cries echoed in the cool Kalosian night. The Anomaly approached quick and fast.
The FLARE Rangers, six in number, stood in a haggard cone, blocking its path towards the walls of Lumiose-3.
It stopped, rearing its head at them, the dust cloud behind it settling.
There was a terse moment where they all clenched their muscles, none of them even breathing, before the world exploded into motion.
"They don't want me there. All of them. Everyone in that damn city. They all want Amaranth, the Esper, the Leader, the smart one, but they don't want me- You know I don't have a clue what my name is? Blanche is just something Ariel came up with because she had nothing better to do. They don't want me, the useless one, the one who's always lagging behind, the one that can't read a social cue to save his life."
"Sounds biased on your part," Hilbert said. "I'm certain you're not useless. Everyone's useful in some way. And you work for FLARE, obviously, so you're doing some good."
"You know-"
"I know a lot of things, but there's some things that are just common sense," Hilbert said nonchalantly. "But no, yeah, no, Interpol didn't tell me everything about you guys over there. I've got, uh, this thing in my brain. What's it called when you can see somewhere else?"
"Clairvoyance."
"Yeah, that. The Earth has an aura field, you know? The thing is that it didn't used to be so big. It was smaller before that whole deal... how much do you know about Shattering the Heavens?"
"Haven't tried, probably won't," Blanche answered.
"Eh, you never know. I kind of got wrapped up in that whole thing by accident, and now I can feel when disturbances are happening." Hilbert waved a hand in front of his face. "I can see aura, I mentioned that, right?"
"Right. How did the Heavens Shatter? It's all redacted and no one will tell me. Did you see the Aura Guardian too?" Blanche asked.
"Eh… no, but I hear he's a really handsome fella." Hilbert rubbed his chin. "But my point is, I know a lot of stuff. You ain't useless, Blanche. You're definitely not lagging behind. You remember the big meteor you smashed?"
"Well, the deal with Deoxys was mostly Rayquaza…" Blanche said, trying to trade away his own involvement.
"Is that what the eggheads are calling that thing? Never mind, uh, what I'm saying is, you were the first to go up there, so you're not lagging behind."
"That was… that wasn't really me, though."
"Man, you are trying really hard to discredit yourself. Is that, like, an attempt at humility or do you just hate yourself that much? Also, don't worry about social cues. I missed a ton of 'em and it worked out just fine with me and Dawn… and… wait, I think I just realized something." Hilbert blinked before shaking himself out of the sudden funk. "What I'm saying is that I turned out just fine and I'm kind of an idiot."
"That makes two of us," Blanche said, resting his head on his arms.
"Don't try to define yourself as useless. This isn't a pawn shop, and you're not going to get a better bargain out of life if you do."
A pillar of energy that neared absolute zero traced along the apartment walls on the edge of Lumiose-3. Cracks appeared as ice bloomed outwards following the Ice Beam, exploding into shards as the building's supports were sheared.
A wall of earth has risen to block it, but as frost built up, it became brittle. Serena had only a moment to raise her arms in front of her face to shield herself before the Stone Edge burst into dust and ice tumbled onto her. A shield of flame appeared and was snuffed out in an instant as the beam blasted her in the torso, encasing her body in ice and freezing it to the street.
The Beast Killer leapt forward with a claw raised, ready to strike her down totally, before Ash struck against it with one half of his Doublade. It skittered across the paved streets, sparks rising beneath its claws.
A clicking sound was nearly silent as its drives changed, and its eyes changed from an icy blue to a deep, stone-like gray. It raised its foot and slammed it down, sending a ripple through the streets.
Ash leapt into the air in a cloud of purple fog, practically floating as the others rushed in.
The Beast Killer's head reared to the side as a scrap of metal impacted against its helmet, denting it inward after a shower of sparks. Its eyes sharpened and honed in on Shauna, who had just taken to the air. Its collar clicked again and its eyes turned yellow.
There was an ear-splitting crack of thunder above their heads as lightning melted around Shauna as if it were water, and Ash was stricken from the sky.
Its eyes turned to a murky brown before rocks rose from their tumbled positions and shot towards Shauna like bullets. A pink glow surrounded them, blocking them and allowing her to dodge away.
The Beast Killer focused on the Esper clad in orange and the Meowstic by her side, before its eyes turned purple and an unnerving haze leaked from its slashed against its hindquarters in its blind spot, something searing and dark.
Gin jumped away, just barely avoiding the responsive headbutt.
Its eyes turned to a deep red, the color of fighting spirit, as it shut out the world around it. A blast of sheer focus erupted from its chest, a concussive force that knocked Gin from his feet before it even struck his shoulder.
A pillar of fire engulfed the Beast Killer and erupted upwards, causing it to cry out in agony before its drives unconsciously switched and it began absorbing the flames.
Ariel's arm was outstretched, her breathing labored, and however rudimentary its mind, it could see that she was also an attacker.
Another scrap of metal slashed across its body, embedding itself deep in its flesh and causing it to scream in bound anger and pain.
A wave of fire blasted outward from it, creating a dust explosion that shot skyward and left no stone unturned.
Smoke rose into the emptied air.
The Beast Killer stared at the remaining opponent.
The Esper in white clutched her helmet where a rock had broken through. Licks of flame poured out of the cuts in her morph suit.
"No more," she said, dropping her hand to reveal the white-hot flame that burned front of her eye. She shifted into a rudimentary combat stance, one that revealed how untrained she was. Even so, the fire pouring out of her body swirled into her hands. At first, it was a pillar, and then it was a rod, and finally, it became a spear.
She swept it to the side, standing tall in her own declaration of war. Ozone burned between them.
The monster designated as Type: Null leapt forward.
"I'm not doing that," Blanche said, sulking.
"Yeah, you are. It's lame as hell."
"I know." Blanche buried his head further into his arms. "God, I'm so lame."
"Which Legendary are you talking about? I usually swear by Arceus because I'm fairly certain he's real, but it's mainly to piss off my Sinnohan friends." Hilbert made a valiant effort to cheer him up, but the forced laugh at the end was a little too obvious.
"None of them. I don't think God is a Pokémon. Arceus is a little too… small-scale."
Hilbert gave him a weird look. "Well, if you say so. He's really big. Definitely bigger than a planet."
"How big, exactly?"
"Probably half the size of your mom," Hilbert said.
Blanche laughed and Hilbert cracked a smile for a moment before it disappeared.
"Uh, I mean, oh, damn, that was probably insensitive. Sorry if you lost anyone when the Heavens Shattered."
"Not related, not your fault," Blanche said. "I can't remember her but I can remember that jokes are funny." He slumped again. "Man, my memory has gone to shit…"
"Hey, don't beat yourself up about things you can't fix," Hilbert said. "You can't help it, right?"
"Well, even if I can't, it's still pretty lame," Blanche said.
"Don't blame yourself for it. Sometimes there are things you have to do but can't really help doing," Hilbert said, looking towards the sea's edge on the horizon.
"I don't think that applies." Blanche swirled his drink. It really wasn't having the impact he had thought it would. "I still can't help but think that I lost my memories for a reason. Did I do something to lose them? Was I bad enough of a person to deserve it? Was who I was just that worthless?"
"It doesn't matter," Hilbert said plainly. "You're you, right? No one else you could be."
"I wish that wasn't the case sometimes," Blanche said, staring deep into his glass.
"...Huh. You really do hate yourself."
Blanche looked up and rolled his eyes. "No, where'd you get that idea? I'm not some whiny emo brat. There's no emotional component like hate involved in it. It's like, science or something. I am clinically less than a normal person. Multiply that by my life, carry the four, and you get the obvious conclusion."
"No, no, you're not listening. I've not met a single person or Pokémon that was, uh, what's the word? Apathetic? Yeah. I've never met someone that doesn't care about anything. Everyone feels something sometimes. And you know, there's that saying that the opposite of love isn't hate, it's apathy." Hilbert propped his head up with one hand. "You're a human by my guess, so that first thing applies to you too. You sure as hell don't love yourself, I can tell that much. If you use the process of elimination… just analyze that with your logic."
The monster that had become Type: Full roared to the sky.
Blanche sucked in a breath and let it out sharply. "Fine. Fine. I admit it." He slammed his hands on the bar and pushed himself to his feet. "I hate myself. So what? Who gives a damn? Not you, you're just a random stranger. Who's going to fix it? Not them, they're not me. What's the point in denying it? What's the point in accepting it? If I quit entirely, I'm probably going to die when the next Anomaly shows up. If I keep going like this, I can protect myself by risking my life. God, that's ironic, isn't it?"
Hilbert nodded, leaning back to look up at the boy above him. "You could say that. I can't fix your problems for you."
"Then why in the blue hell do you keep asking about them?" Blanche nearly yelled.
Hilbert sighed and slowly stood up. "See, the thing about being a hero is that sometimes, you have to give people space to be the hero of their own story." He looked up slightly as Blanche, the small height difference not diminishing his presence. "People do heroic things without being "heroes" like me. They can't do those things without acknowledging that something needs to be done, or more than that, acknowledging that something is wrong. Baby steps."
"...Are you seriously trying to tell me that all of this was an intervention?"
"You could call it that," Hilbert shrugged. "It's what I do. I'm not a psychologist, There Are No Psychologists, but I do know a lot of people. You kinda pick up some stuff. Uh, basically, if you're aware of your problems, you'll either ignore them or try to fix them. The difference is that you'll do it purposefully, which can make it worse or better. Running away stops being an option, though. And you, Blanche, you don't seem like the kinda guy to ignore your problems entirely. Am I on the mark with that?"
Blanche gave a small laugh even if he couldn't muster the energy to smile. "No. No, I see what you mean. Unless they're girl problems. Romance makes team dynamics weird."
"I'll drink to that. Well-"
"Hypothetically," Blanche interrupted, "Yeah, I guess so."
There was a familiar buzzing in Blanche's pocket. A sound that he had grown to dread and anticipate.
Hilbert gave him a knowing look and tapped his temple.
"I don't need to tell you what to do, do I?"
Blanche shook his head, already turning to enter open air. His Holo Caster displayed information on an Anomaly that would soon reach Lumiose-3. He tapped at it for a moment before raising it to his ear.
"Hey, Clemont. Is the flight gear working?"
As he heard confirmation, Blanche cracked a smile and widened his stance. He looked back at Hilbert.
"Thanks for the pep talk, man."
Hilbert gave a half-wave. "It's what I do. Go do your thing, hero man. Oh, and tell Looker that Black says to not do anything shady."
"If I get the opportunity, I might. I get the feeling that you're just avoiding having to say it yourself." Blanche reached deep into his bag and withdrew his morpher.
"See ya."
Blanche nodded and raised it to his chest.
"Clemontic Gear Access: NSPACE!"
AN:
Self-loathing makes you an asshole. I used to have a lot of problems with it (but now I can say "you're welcome" when someone thanks me and not just "no problem" every time) and it really screws up your relationships. Everything is about how much you need to give to make people like you or how much you need to change to feel worthy of their grace. I can't remember how it got better so I can't give any advice on that, but I'm pretty sure watching Gurren Lagann had something to do with it.
Blanche and Hilbert finally meet. Hell freezes over. The conversation's not as deep as I'd like it to go, but I honestly don't think they'd be friends in a normal situation. Hilbert was never the most friendly guy to unknowns and Blanche can't socially interact properly to save his life. Uh, this is probably a minor thing, but while not all religions use the word God for their deities, most have a version of Hell, so while using the name God is a bit strange in Pokémon, I'm sure there's an underworld in some in-universe mythology.
And uh… I'm sorry, guys, I need another break. My elderly dog passed away this passing weekend and I've been beating myself up about it all week. He was a very good boy. I haven't gotten any work done on my buffer and the last scene was all I could muster. I might have to go to a two-week post schedule in general, but I'll have to see.
I need some catharsis, forgive an angsty teen for being selfish. It's probably kind of obvious, but Blanche started as an SI with a different name and a different identity. Sinbad or Santiago (hey, foreshadowing), take your pick. In my initial drafts, FLARE wasn't even a thing. More wish fulfillment-y. Less character growth. Shauna was much more Tsundere-y and Serena's Calem obsession would have lasted much longer and been less subtle. Blanche was a flat character because I was afraid of making it clear to myself that I was unlikable. I was trying to ignore the worst parts of myself (hey, that's relevant to the theme of the chapter, how about that?). That's a problem with SI in general, because people on the internet hating on your insert is basically people hating on you, and most people want to avoid that. So, I scrapped the more SI parts of the SI story and made it generic enough to be OC-insert/isekai. Blanche is a hypocritical asshole who pretends to be something he's not because it's easier to live that way. His issues were never about how he looked or what effect he had on other people, because ultimately he just used the problems he had to justify his own self-loathing. He probably still is a flat character because I'm only a passable writer, but that's how I wrote him. Blanche isn't a good or a bad person, he's just a guy. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to. Occasionally, he does heroic things, but he also does unheroic things. He's protected a whole lot of people, pushing himself almost suicidally far, but he's provoked his friends to tears on multiple occasions because he believed it needed to be done, or it was a means to an end. He's a person like anyone else. Probably a better person than me in some ways, probably worse in others. He's practically unrecognizable to me now, and that's why I haven't labeled this story as SI. I'm just a guy, he's just a guy, but we're not the same guy. If that makes any sense at all.
God damn, I'm whining again on the internet. Uh, Flying to Heaven, I really appreciate your feedback, I hope you're still reading. I haven't read much of Hoenn's Bug Catcher but Jan is an inspiration to us all. That guy from Reddit, I hope you like the new stuff even if you have problems with it. Everyone else reading, I'd really appreciate comments on the story more than well-wishes. It's what keeps me motivated, honestly.
See ya. I'll be back.