[Glances at last chapter publication date] despair. 🫠
Many thanks to everyone who's reviewed this stupid neglected fic over the past year. (Feeling particularly ridiculous for not even leaving
reacts until now, gah!) I think this current arc has just been kryptonite for my brain even
thinking about LC. Anyway, finally read all the reviews, cleaned up a bunch of typos, had a good laugh at plenty of entertaining reactions and comments. Thanks again to everyone. And now,
finally, chapter 56:
~Chapter 56: Lost Pretense~
“Have. They. Lost. Their. Minds?!”
Starr’s outrage echoed what everyone had to be thinking as we all crowded around the TV to watch the news report. Dramatic footage of the battle that had just happened over Indigo flashed across the screen. Rayquaza coiled defensively in front of the League building while Lugia rained beams from above. Lance and his dragons trying their hardest to intervene. Bystanders cowering in fear when they’d been a mile away in reality. Even knowing the actual context behind it all, it was hard for me to see how anyone could watch this and not think we were the bad guys.
“But this doesn’t make any
sense,” Rudy protested, leaping up from his chair while Ebony nodded fervently along with his words. “How on earth can they think the
Rockets were the good guys there?”
“Just… just watch the rest of it,” Darren replied, pulling him back into his seat.
“At this time, we’re still unsure what prompted this, or any of the previous attacks,” a news anchor said. “Here to help shed some light on things is Champion Lance.”
The screen cut to Lance standing on the ruined grand stairs to the League HQ wearing the same stoic face I’d seen on him this morning.
“It was very brave of you to stand up to the guardians in that way,” a reporter was saying, holding a microphone up to him. “What can you tell us about the attacks?”
“We’re not sure at this time,” Lance said neutrally. “All we know is that we’re not going to allow incidents like this to keep happening.” He promptly exited the frame.
That was it? I guess he wasn’t into public speaking.
“In an effort to prevent further destruction, the Department of Pokémon Affairs announced an emergency vote to pass the Legendary Management Act,” the news anchor went on.
A very professional-looking Lorelei appeared on screen, and I immediately felt myself tense up, as if she’d suddenly appeared in the room with us.
“These disasters cannot continue,” she said, staring straight at the camera as I shrank into my seat. “The League is committed to ensuring the safety of everyone in the region by finally putting the Legendaries’ power in check. If that means apprehending them, so be it.”
While she spoke, the footage cut to an aerial view of a stark white island against a stretch of sea in all directions. Sootopolis, or what was left of it. A slideshow of images played, showing the ruined city, the flooded streets, the melted buildings. Crowds of refugees waiting at a packed ferry dock. I gripped the edge of the couch to keep my hands from shaking.
“To this end, Viridian’s representative gym leader will be spearheading the effort to neutralize the threat,” Lorelei said thinly.
“Yeah, like hell she’s gonna openly say that they commissioned
Rockets,” Starr scoffed.
Despite the cool tone in Lorelei’s voice, her words left a bitter sting. What did it matter if she didn’t
want to be working with Giovanni—the League was still going through with it.
Giovanni appeared on the screen to a chorus of growls and hisses from the Pokémon around us. Part of me wanted to get worked up like everyone learning about this for the first time. Instead, I just felt… tired. I couldn’t even feel angry at him.
“Some people still believe that the guardians aren’t at fault here. What would you say to them?” the reporter asked.
Giovanni’s mouth curled into what passed for a warm smile. The smile of someone who had already won. “The Legendary Pokémon are meant to be the guardians of our world. But we’ve all seen the raw destruction their power can enact when it is allowed to run wild. The Legendaries must be held accountable for their actions.”
“Self-righteous
bastard,” Starr muttered under her breath.
“Is it true that your task force has already apprehended several of the guardians?” an offscreen voice asked.
Giovanni nodded solemnly. “At this time, we have already taken Raikou, Entei, Articuno, and Rayquaza into custody. If necessary, the remaining Tohjo guardians will be apprehended in the event that their violence continues.”
All the while, footage played of Rayquaza breathing out vicious dragonfire at a squad of airships. Because of course they’d conveniently leave out the fact that those airships had been attacking Rayquaza unprovoked.
“Unfortunately, the ones responsible for the Viridian disaster remain at large. Our priority must be to track them down and bring them to justice.”
The screen cut to Lugia and Ho-oh, silhouetted against the night sky over Viridian.
Ho-oh… it had been trying to
stop Lugia from attacking the city, but most people would have been too busy evacuating to tell the difference. And of course, the footage had been deliberately cut to leave out who the target of Ho-oh’s attacks was.
Giovanni folded his hands with a grave expression. “This is why we created the bioweapon known as Mewtwo. It was designed to fight Legendary Pokémon, to prevent them from enacting their tyranny upon us.”
Starr stood up sharply from her seat. “That’s
bullshit and you know it!!”
Giovanni closed his eyes, putting on a dejected air. “Unfortunately, thanks to a group of extremists, Mewtwo was taken from me, resulting in the destruction that we all saw last year.”
Starr threw her arms in the air. “Ohhh my god, I can’t watch this, I’m gonna put my foot through the screen.” She spun around and stormed towards the front door of the cabin, several Pokémon moving out of her way as she did. “Someone give me a recap later, I’m going outside.”
I didn’t really absorb the rest of the news broadcast. It was all stuff we already knew, filtered through the most backwards lens possible. My brain kept replaying the meeting with Lorelei over and over. If we’d just done things differently, said the correct things, maybe we could have…
A barrage of overlapping voices saturated the air—Rudy complaining loudly and asking a million questions with Darren attempting to explain things while Weavile cut in unhelpfully, along with scattered comments from various other Pokémon. Couldn’t hear myself think. I mumbled something about going to find Starr and then picked myself up from where I had sunk into the couch, rushing outside before anyone could say anything. The cool forest air swept over me the moment I was outside, and while my head was still full of buzzing anxiety, I could at least breathe out here, so that was something.
It wasn’t too hard to find where Starr had gone off to. Sounds carried from around back—energetic footsteps crunching the leaves, grunts of exertion, the occasional dull impact. I rounded the edge of the cabin to find Starr circling Feraligatr in a fighting stance, punching at the latter’s open palms. The gator lazily moved her arms with every punch to give a different target each time, eyes half-lidded like she’d done this hundreds of times.
Starr’s punching gradually began to slow. Her breathing grew heavier. And then she paused for juuust a moment too long, and Feraligatr took that as the cue to swing her tail around, knocking her trainer clear off her feet. With an awkward thud, Starr landed flat on her back in the leaves, swearing incoherently.
Feraligatr chuckled a bit before extending a claw to help her up. Starr reached up to grab it… but then used the momentum to throw herself over the gator’s back, putting her in a headlock. Feraligatr waved her arms in a half-hearted show of resistance for a few seconds before flopping to the ground, ‘defeated.’ Starr then slid down from her starter’s back, reclining against the scaly hide.
I leaned against the wall of the cabin, waiting for nothing in particular as I watched the two. Then, without warning, Starr locked eyes with me and said, “Hey, I want to battle.”
I blinked. “What?”
“You heard me.”
I hesitated for a bit, but then… Aros was probably the best fit. It took a minute to track him down, and he seemed mildly confused by my tone, but he wasn’t one to ever turn down a battle. We returned to Starr picking herself up from the leaf-strewn ground and giving Feraligatr an expectant look.
“*Suppose a real workout would be good,*” the water-type grunted, lifting her weight from the ground.
There was no fanfare. Starr and I both pointed, and the two Pokémon collided in a rough heap, pushing and clawing and tussling back and forth in lieu of elemental techniques. Not a lot of real strategy to be found. What started as the occasional command devolved into a whole lot of shouting and random encouragement, and by the end I was yelling as loud as I could until my voice went hoarse, and my blood pounded and all the anxious tension from before had faded into a dull afterthought.
It ended with the heavy thud of both reptiles flopping onto the ground, sending a wave of leaves fluttering out from under them. Feeling almost as winded as the two Pokémon, I sank back against the nearest tree as my pulse slowly returned to normal. Without a word, Starr slumped to the ground next to me.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
She tapped a fist against my upper arm. “Figured we both needed that.”
I wrapped my arms around my legs and took a few moments to center myself in the outdoor environment. The rustling of wild Pokémon through the undergrowth. The breeze carrying pine scent through the air. The rough bark against my still-sensitive back.
“I’ve been starting to wonder if we’re on the wrong side in all this,” I said in a low voice, idly tearing up bits of grass and letting them fall through my fingers.
“That’s idiotic.”
I winced. “I just… I always thought that protecting the Legendaries was obviously the right thing to do. But now…”
“Jade,” Starr said, giving me an impatient look. “Don’t tell me after all this, you’re gonna start saying the Rockets were
right just because of some shit that happened before either of us were even born?”
“I’m not saying they’re
right,” I replied defensively. “I’m just saying it’s hard to argue against
some of what they’re saying.”
“Welcome to my world,” Starr said coolly. “Reason number 87 why it was hard to walk away from them. So you don’t get to change your mind about this.”
I put a hand to my forehead. “I’m not… I’m not changing my mind, I just…”—I slammed my fist against a root—“the Rockets aren’t right, but neither are the Legendaries! But I’m supposed to protect them! And then I find out about all this crap and that it’s kind of their own fault? Am I supposed to just ignore it all?”
Starr exhaled roughly, running a hand down her face. “Are you forgetting that I’m signed up for all that crap now too?”
My gaze slid away from hers. I unclenched my fists, now feeling the sting in my right hand. “No, I didn’t forget, I just…” I inhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. I know this has gotta be ten times more frustrating for you.”
Starr was quiet for a long moment, brow furrowed. “I wasn’t trying to make it a competition,” she muttered. “I get why you’re confused. It sucks all around. Just part of the
fun of growing up.” She threw an arm upward with a dramatic twirl.
I gripped my knees tighter, sinking a bit lower before finally leaning my head against Starr’s shoulder. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye, then put her arm around my shoulders without saying anything.
~~~~~
<This is absurd,> Lugia declared. <Who are they to believe they can make decisions for us?>
Well, I guess that answered the question of whether or not Mew had told the other legends how the meeting went.
I was seated at an outdoor picnic table by the lake that Lugia occasionally slept in. The reddish glow of dusk glimmered on the water, occasionally broken by splashing from some of Rudy and Darren’s Pokémon as they chased each other through the shallows.
“They…
are kinda the highest authority on Pokémon-related things in the country,” I pointed out, already knowing that it wouldn’t help.
<No matter,> Lugia said, waving a wing dismissively. <We’re under no obligation to comply with their wishes.>
That was kind of the problem. The Legendaries were under no obligation to listen to
anyone. That was the entire reason the League was afraid of them.
Ajia hummed, kicking her legs up from her seat on a low-lying tree branch. “If we’re not working with them, then we’re going to have to find a way to deal with the fact that it’s legal for the Rockets to capture you now.”
Moltres turned to face her, looking skeptical. “No one else was stopping the Rockets before. What exactly has changed?”
Ajia held a palm up. “Well… before, the Rockets had to at least
try to be subtle and avoid giving away the fact that they had caught legends. Now they can just openly target you in broad daylight.”
Moltres didn’t seem terribly impressed by this information, judging by its wordless stare.
“Okay, even if it doesn’t change much for
you, it’ll definitely affect
our ability to help,” I added tiredly.
Lugia’s piercing gaze fixed onto me. <Explain.>
I rubbed the back of my head. “I mean, what if we got arrested?”
Lugia scoffed. <It would be trivial to free you from human confinement.>
“What if they had Rayquaza and a bunch of ALRs to meet you when you did?”
The seabird gave me a long, hard stare before finally turning away, grumbling incoherently. I guess the legend didn’t have an immediate answer for that.
Rudy turned from where he’d been leading Ebony through some fireball drills on the shore. “Look, all I’m saying is that the Rockets better wait until after the League finals,” he said, emphatically holding up three fingers. “Just
three more days, that’s all I’m asking. After that, I don’t care what happens.”
“We can look forward to getting arrested in four days, then,” Darren said sagely.
The finals were in three days—now that was definitely something that’d slipped my mind with all the… everything.
I shuffled a foot against the dirt. “It sorta feels like we’re going in circles.” I glanced up at Lugia. “Maybe… maybe if you guys could just… have an honest discussion with the League? Try to come to some sort of compromise?”
<We will discuss nothing of the sort,> Lugia said with a snort. <If your leadership has thrown in their lot with the Rockets, then they deserve what’s coming to them.>
Something about that statement sent a chill down my spine. “‘What’s coming to them’?” I repeated. “You mean like what started all this?”
Lugia tilted its head. <What are you referring to?>
“They told us that Legendaries attacked humanity twenty years ago,” I said, feeling the heat rising in my voice. “I want to know if that’s true.” Both the Rockets and the League had corroborated the story. But I wanted to hear it from the legends directly.
Lugia glanced away. <That’s… taking things out of context,> it said, tail lashing in the shallow lakewater.
A flicker of dread crept up my neck. “That’s not a no…”
<It’s not as though it was unprovoked!> Lugia yelled indignantly, wings partially flared. <The humans attacked us first!>
“Attacked how?” I asked, staring up at the legend.
Lugia stared back, eyes sharp. <Testing those forsaken capture balls on us. Using us.>
I hesitated. “So they went after you first, and then you retaliated.”
Lugia narrowed its eyes. <Yes. What else would you think?>
That they’d attacked preemptively to end the threat before it began. Because that was what the League had said. And while I didn’t trust the League to be unbiased, I wasn’t too sure that Lugia’s take was any less biased.
I glanced away, finally breaking eye contact. “Look, I—I didn’t know what to think.”
<Evidently,> Lugia said with a huff, turning away. <And for your
information, I was not personally involved with that incident,> the legend added, shards of indignation digging into my head with each word. <I spent that year in the southern seas, far from anyone.>
I swallowed. <But what if you hadn’t?>
<What an utterly pointless question. A meaningless hypothetical.>
My chest tightened. I already knew the answer anyway. There wasn’t anything to be gained by asking.
Lugia turned away and dove into the lake with a mighty splash, sending waves of water washing over the shore. Ebony barked playfully as she raced away from the waves and Jet shoved Weavile into them before dashing after her. Even though they were having fun, watching them left an odd pang in my chest. Jet had run back to Rudy’s team the instant I’d tried to confront her about the battle with Raven and Ender. I wasn’t surprised, but it still stung.
Suicune had been lounging in the shallow waters, pretending not to pay attention to the conversation thus far, even though it had no reason to be here otherwise. I still had no idea what to make of Suicune. It regularly said that it wanted nothing to do with us, but also kept showing up to bother us ever since last week. And of course it hadn’t apologized for screwing everything up in Indigo. Why would it have?
The beast yawned widely and stood up, shaking the water from its paws as it strode onto the shore. “Why are we quibbling over events long past? We should be making plans to free our captured kin.”
“We can’t make any major moves right now, not so soon after what happened in Indigo,” Ajia said, leaning back on her tree branch to get a better look at the beast. “It’d be a really bad look.”
Suicune gave her a deadpan stare. “You’re joking. What on earth are we meant to do, then? Wait around until they come for us?
Ajia shook her head. “That’s not it. We’re not giving up, we just need to be careful with how we approach things.”
Darren sidled over, holding a finger up. “For starters… you should at least stay out of view so the Rockets can’t target you.”
Suicune tossed its head. “I have no interest in hiding like a coward. If they come for me, I will fight them, and if they use any other legends against me, I will free them.”
There was no point in explaining why that wouldn’t work. We’d already been over it what felt like a million times.
“I’m not any happier with the situation than you are,” Moltres said, flicking its tail. “But there’s no denying that following the course of the chosen pact has proven useful. It’s foolish to pretend otherwise.”
“I didn’t ask to be a patron,” Suicune spat. “I don’t
want to be a patron.”
“This may come as a shock, but sometimes we must do things that we don’t wish to do,” Moltres said dryly.
Suicune glowered at the firebird, nostrils flaring.
I let out an exasperated sigh. More internal Legendary drama. I knew that the outcome was important, but I was getting so tired of it that I could feel the words sliding off my ears. So I just plopped down on the ground next to my team, feeling increasingly irrelevant.
Firestorm glanced at me without saying anything, his expression a bit lost. I sighed, idly holding a few small twigs up to his tail flame and watching them burn.
“You’re not the only one who doesn’t know what to do here,” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring tone.
The Charizard sighed deeply, warm air washing over me. “*How do we fight this? We can’t defeat the entire League.*”
“No, but it
is kind of fun to imagine barging into the national council and challenging the Pokémon Affairs people to a battle,” I said with a chuckle. That at least got him to smile.
Swift walked over and settled into a seated position next to us, feathers fluffed out. “*This isn’t the first time we’ve felt lost.*”
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye before absently running a hand through his feathers. “I just… don’t know what good the chosen can do in this situation.”
The truth was right there, even if it was hard to say explicitly—that being chosen felt increasingly irrelevant. What did it matter if we had humans and legends working together if this wasn’t an enemy we could defeat?
“Why couldn’t being chosen have given us some kind of
actual power to help?” I muttered under my breath.
Swift preened a few feathers, looking thoughtful. “*Maybe they thought the legends needed help.*”
“I know they need help, but—”
“*Not that. Needed help cooperating with humans.*”
I paused, mulling it over. “That makes it sound like whoever designed the chosen pact didn’t think the Legendaries ever
would cooperate with humans. Or at least, not without something pushing them to do it.”
Swift gazed upward, feathers ruffling in the breeze. “*Maybe.*”
It wasn’t the wildest theory we’d had. Maybe being chosen was literally just so that the legends had some reason to discuss things with humans. So that their immense power could have at least a
bit of human input. But then, why not
all the Legendaries? Why only some of them?
Ajia hopped down from her tree branch and walked over, hands clasped behind her back and a look on her face like she was carefully considering her words. “Hey, so… I just wanted to check if you were doing okay.”
I glanced up at her, and she winced slightly, so I guess my expression must not have looked great.
“Sorry,” I said, “it’s just… I still can’t believe we’re only just
now learning about the whole thing with the Legendaries, and the League, and…” My words trailed off.
A Starly fluttered down from the trees and landed on Ajia’s shoulder. “*It was never my intent to conceal things,*” the Starly—Mew—said, flicking her tail feathers. “*I didn’t want to worry anyone with events that transpired before your time. And it didn’t feel right to drag others’ past failures into the open.*”
It made sense. And Starr never exactly had any reason to bring up random decades-old Rocket propaganda either. Still frustrating to feel so blindsided, even if it wouldn’t have
actually changed anything.
Mew tilted her head, gazing at me through large, avian eyes. “*Do you wish to know which legends clashed with the League decades ago?*”
I took a deep breath. “No, I don’t think—”
A savage wind whipped across the lake suddenly, forcing me to hold my hair against my head to keep it out of my face. Apparently, while we’d been talking amongst ourselves, tensions hadn’t cooled at all. Suicune barked something at Moltres and then stormed off into the trees, violently scattering the leaves in its wake.
I couldn’t say I was surprised, or that I minded, really. As far as I was concerned, the meeting had run its course and not really accomplished anything, so I was ready to call it quits and go for a flight to clear my head.
I gestured to Firestorm, and he stood up, giving his wings a good stretch. I scratched between the shoulder blades in the spot that he always liked and was just about to swing a leg over his back when a voice rang out from overhead.
“Well, you guys sure are a put-together lot.”
I craned my neck upward, searching for the source. Some kind of winged shape overhead—a Pidgeot? One with a shorter, more yellowish crest than Swift’s. The bird glided down to land near the shoreline, and once it had touched down, a rider jumped down from its back. A girl with a tanned face and long, dark hair, dressed in a ranger’s uniform. Wait, I’d seen her before—she was that ranger girl who’d helped us out during the Moltres attack.
“Hi Kari,” Ajia said, putting on a smile that was definitely trying a bit too hard.
Pidgeot bowed deeply to the legends, and Kari gave them a short nod of respect before turning back to face Ajia. “Yeah, so uh, were you planning on filling me in on anything? It’s been weeks.”
Starr turned around sharply. She’d been watching something on her phone along with Feraligatr but was now narrowing her eyes at the new arrival. “Hang on—how is this any of your business?” she asked loudly.
“Last I heard, you weren’t involved in any of this either,” Kari replied dryly. “Things change.”
Starr stood up abruptly, fists clenched. Without missing a beat, Ajia teleported in between them—and it honestly took me a second to remember that Ajia couldn’t teleport, that Mew had done it, the motion was that seamless.
“So, I
wanted to fill you in,” she began, shooting a look at Starr before turning back to the ranger, “but there’s been sort of a lot going on, and I figured that you were probably busy, so—”
“What is this human doing here?” Moltres cut in, eyeing the ranger suspiciously. “Why are we speaking as if she is already aware of what’s going on?”
Oh, right, the Legendaries were still here. Or at least, some of them. (Good thing Suicune had left).
Ajia folded her arms behind her head, looking back toward Moltres. “She kiiiinda helped us rescue you last month.”
“Indirectly,” Kari added, rubbing her eyes.
Moltres gave her a hard stare. “I suppose that would explain it.”
“Speaking of,” Kari went on, turning to us, “I told you guys that things’d go south if you didn’t get the collateral damage under control. And lookit what happened? It’s that.”
“You think we
wanted collateral damage?” I asked heatedly, feeling my throat clench up.
“Nah,” Kari said. “Just not the greatest at stopping it.”
Easy for her to say. She didn’t have to balance protecting the legends with fighting the Rockets with trying to save the Rockets’ legends.
“Alllright, let’s all try to be civil, yeah?” Ajia said quickly, holding both palms out toward everyone. She then glanced over at Kari and added, “I’ll take any advice by the way.”
Kari gave her a hard look. “You guys need to come clean to the Ranger Union.”
Ajia blinked. “Come clean…?”
“Tell them you’ve been working with the guardians.”
“What?” I asked, utterly bewildered. “Why?”
“We can help,” the ranger said bluntly. “If you guys are busy stopping the guardians from being captured or whatever it is that you do, you can’t keep the damage under control.” She jabbed a thumb at her chest. “That’s where we come in. You keep us roped in on whatever nonsense you’re up to, we make sure that the damage is kept to a minimum. Faster evacuations, more Protect shields around infrastructure—that sorta thing.”
“What?” Rudy’s incredulous voice piped up. He’d spun sharply around to face us with a baffled expression. “You saw what happened when the
League found out about us—what makes you think it’d be any different a second time?”
“Because the rangers don’t take orders from the League, that’s why,” Kari said, pointing at the Ranger Union patch on her shoulder. “We’re the ones who help out with
wild Pokémon. The League is supposed to handle stuff involving trained Pokémon. Why the hell the Department of Pokémon Affairs put the
League in charge of this mess is anyone’s guess.”
“Giovanni probably had something to do with it,” Starr grumbled.
It was such a weird thought, coming clean after all this time. We’d been operating in secret for so long that I had a hard time imagining what it would even look like.
“I
guess trying to keep things a secret hasn’t exactly… worked,” I said slowly, still rotating the thought around.
“Yeah, but it’s not like coming clean to the League would have
helped,” Starr said.
Mew gave Ajia a look, and the two of them silently conversed for a bit. Then, Ajia clasped her hands in front of her and said the last thing I expected her to say: “My dad’s a ranger chief, and, well… I think he should know. He might be able to help us.”
It took me a few seconds to be sure that I hadn’t imagined her saying it. After all this time, she was changing her stance, just like that?
“You sure you’re not going to regret that?” I asked quietly. “Coming clean to your dad, I mean.”
Ajia was silent for a moment, looking down at her own hands. “I think there’s a part of me that has wanted to for a long time,” she said, giving me a tired smile. “The same part of me that was tired of keeping secrets from you two.”
I couldn’t say I didn’t know how she felt. Even though I’d never had to experience being the lone chosen like she had, there was a strange isolation to it all, and the idea of being able to speak freely without dancing around the truth was… liberating.
As surprising as it was, the more I rolled it around in my head, the more sense it made. Less damage meant fewer chances for people to get hurt,
and it would be easier to counter the anti-Legendary sentiment that had been spreading lately.
I took a deep breath. “Okay, so… I know it was bad the last time someone found out about us, but we didn’t even
tell the League—they found out anyway. Maybe getting the rangers on our side could be a good call.”
Rudy had stopped paying attention. He was currently racing his team around the lake. Judging by the orange blur at the front of the pack, Jet or Raichu was in the lead with Ebony not far behind and Tyranitar trailing well in the back. Darren… he must have left at some point because I didn’t see him. So, that just left the Legendaries…
Lugia emerged from the lake, water streaming down its feathers. As Mew explained the proposition, its expression grew increasingly agitated.
<Our problems have come from humans learning of our arrangement,> Lugia said with a huff. <There is no way you can convince me that informing
more humans can lead to any improvement.>
Ho-oh, who’d been quietly preening since being teleported here a minute earlier, gave Lugia a sideways glance. “Hm. It’s risky, yes. But good things often are.” Its eyes flickered toward Starr.
Mew was in her normal form now, drifting airily back and forth with her tail trailing behind her. <I’m in agreement with my chosen. I believe we should do it.>
Lugia gave her an incredulous look. <You were the one who was in favor of secrecy in the first place,> it said accusingly.
Mew wrapped her tail around herself. <I know, but things are more complicated now.>
Lugia stared at her for a few seconds, waves of frustration radiating from its mind. Then it turned and spat a wisp of blue energy at the lake, freezing the spot instantly.
Ho-oh watched the seabird with an expression of heavy restraint. It clacked its beak in thought, mulling over its words before saying, “I would not have anticipated it being a wise course of action, but at this point it may be for the best.”
“I am opposed,” Moltres said flatly, tossing its head.
Rudy skidded to a stop, breathing heavily after finishing the run with his team. “Why’s”—
huff—“that?” he asked, bracing his hands on his knees while Ebony ran circles around him.
Moltres eyed him. “It’s not the principle of working with humans. I just see no reason to trust
these humans in particular. What qualifications do they have?” The firebird shot a look at Kari. And, well, to her credit, she was doing pretty well at not being too fazed by having Legendaries glare at her suspiciously.
“The Ranger Union is dedicated to maintaining the pact. We’re all about keeping the peace between humans and Pokémon,” the ranger explained. Her Pidgeot stood tall alongside her with its chest puffed out.
“Hmph.” Moltres seemed unimpressed.
Ajia clicked her tongue. “That just leaves…” Her words trailed off as we all realized the Donphan in the room. Suicune and Zapdos. Well, Suicune would have certainly been against it, but…
Moltres gave a dispassionate glare in the direction Suicune had left, flames crackling. “Suicune has run away like a child. They have relinquished their vote.”
Rudy glanced up at his patron. “Doesn’t that make it harder for
your side to win the vote?”
The firebird tossed its head, scattering small embers. “That is beside the point.”
I had to admit, I was a bit impressed. That Moltres put more value in sticking to its principles than getting its way… It also meant that we were tied. The only remaining legend who hadn’t voiced an opinion was…
Zapdos had been roosting in a shaded patch of tall grass, talking quietly with a flock of Spearow. Upon realizing that our conversation had turned its way, the thunderbird glanced in our direction and deflated slightly. But, even if it was uncomfortable at the sudden attention, the legend bowed to its flock and stood up, approaching our group with slow, thoughtful steps.
Finally, Zapdos opened its long beak and spoke: “I believe, if there is a chance for us to have more human allies, then it is worth it.”
Moltres gave the thunderbird a hard stare. “You know this could backfire,” it said harshly.
“I know,” Zapdos said, staring at the firebird unflinchingly. “It is still worth it.”
Moltres was stone-faced for a bit, but then nodded, looking reluctantly impressed. “I have missed seeing that conviction.” The firebird turned around, talons crunching on the gravel. “Alright then. We will speak with your human superiors.”
This was it. We were really doing this.
Kari nodded firmly. “Cool. Guess I’ll see you guys ‘round the HQ later,” she said, throwing a leg over her Pidgeot’s back and taking off.
Ajia retrieved her phone with decisive look. “Alright. I’ll text my dad and tell him we have something to share.”
~End Chapter 56~
