Chapter 153

Chapter 153

CHAPTER 153

I inhaled sharply at the news. Trainer or not, people didn't just leave their rooms at four in the morning. If he'd been out there beforehand, we could have brushed it off and said he was training, but who started training at four? It was a possibility, but it sure as hell was suspicious. I didn't even care if I was just confirming my inherent biases, I just wanted something. Some definite proof would actually cement this thing. We were certain that the tournament was being rigged for Harry Rodriguez and that the Hunters were shady, but we had nothing linking the two.

Nothing yet.

"What does he want us to do?" I asked.

"Come join him for backup," Denzel said, his voice steady. "His Cutiefly can battle, but they're not the best."

"Backup?"

"In case things go... south," he added. "With what we learned about the Hunters today, I understand completely."

I clenched around my pajamas and had to stop myself from taking a step back. I was ready. I was ready. I couldn't be a baby forever.

"Let Cece and I get dressed," I sighed.

—

It was the dead of night. A cold wind brushed past my hair as I walked toward Solaceon's desolate city center with Cecilia, Louis and Denzel in tow. We had wanted to get everyone involved, but Luca had said that more than four would alert Harry. In a large city, people would have still been out in about, but here? It was like we were in a ghost town. Only the dim street lights illuminated the street, and the dim light of a nearby Pokemon Center could be seen in the distance.

Harry's Pokemon Center.

"Took you long enough," Luca whispered as we reached him. "I've got the bastard skulking around a few blocks away. He's been walking really slow. It's like he really doesn't want to get seen by anyone, so he makes sure every street is empty before he crosses."

I frowned. "How do you even know that?"

Luca lazily pointed back toward the sky. We squinted and noticed a bright light zooming across the horizon.

Cece scoffed. "Is that your—"

"One of my Cuties, yeah," he said. "The other's a lot closer to the culprit himself, and she's just relaying his position."

Louis hissed. "But the light—"

"Calm down, you bunch of amateurs. This ain't my first rodeo. My Cutiefly are special. Those are fairies you're talking about. If they don't want you to see 'em, you won't. Not without a psychic, and Mr. Rodriguez over here doesn't have one of those."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We follow. From afar."

We nodded. Since we were here for backup, we each released one Pokemon. Cecilia released Slowking to sense any people approaching. Denzel surprisingly released his Lopunny, and I released Electabuzz in case we needed his Protect. Togetic wouldn't be good at shielding all of us at once if an attack got through. After quickly bringing them up to speed, we slowly followed Luca's Cutiefly which was signaling high into the sky. We could never approach too closely. No, that would be too obvious, especially when Harry was being as cautious as he was. For now the goal was to see where he was going, and it didn't appear to be the Hunter's mansion, which was miles away from the city center. He seemed to be going deeper in.

We followed Cutiefly for around ten minutes, but then Luca's head snapped up and he stopped us with a hand. The fairy type flew in repeated patterns that I recognized as... letters, but it was too quick and too far for me to figure out what it was saying.

"Fuck! Harry's gone," he cursed.

"What?" Denzel exclaimed.

"He turned a corner and teleported. That confirms your theory at least," he said, nodding toward me.

"What Pokemon? What did he use to Teleport?" I quickly asked.

Luca motioned to his Cutiefly, and in just a few seconds, she was in front of us. The other one followed quickly after. The fairy type executed a bunch of acrobatics in the air and spelled out a Pokemon's name.

A.

B.

R.

A.

"Today's a bust," Luca groaned. "Abra used Teleport to get in and out of the street. It barely took five seconds. Luckily with how fast it was, I don't think it noticed my Cuties... hopefully."

"Damn it, that could be bad," I clicked my tongue. "But at least we got something. One, we know that he's getting outside help. Two, we know that he doesn't want to be seen, which is shady as hell. Even someone who was training wouldn't take that amount of precautions, and if he was, why even hide the Abra? This is something more sinister."

"But we still don't know if he's linked with the Hunters," Louis said.

"It's only a matter of time," I said. "Thank you Luca. You've been a great help."

"Pay me?" He said before grinning. "I'm just pulling your leg. I don't mind working for free if we uncover whatever the hell is going on here. That information you got about them from that Isaac guy? Makes them sound a lot more cultish than I'd like. I'll keep tabs on him."

Well, we hadn't gotten what we wanted, but at least we'd gotten something, all while avoiding a fight in the middle of the street with no rules or protection. I had never been in a battle where targeting the trainer was a possibility aside from with wild Pokemon, but humans doing it disturbed me to no end.

But if they did it to me? Well, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to stop my team from killing them.

"One more thing," Cecilia said, raising a finger. "That Abra... has to be from here, right? To Teleport in the middle of an alley like that means that it's been there a lot of times before. Pokemon need to be very familiar with their environment to Teleport somewhere that quickly."

"Especially for an Abra," Denzel added. "If it was a Xatu or even a Kadabra, I would have given it the benefit of the doubt, but... yeah, this feels like it's from here. No way to be one hundred percent sure though."

"Damn, you guys are good. I know nothing about Teleportation," Luca said.

"Meeting that Abra anywhere closer to the Center was probably too high of a risk, which is why he went all the way out here," I muttered. "Now all that remains is: where the hell did he go?"

"Hunter's mansion would be my guess," Denzel said. "But that's just an assumption, and it doesn't explain what the hell their connection would be. Think he's dating one of them after all?"

"Maybe. Maybe not," I said. "Thanks for the help Luca. I'd say that we should confront Harry with what we've got, but that'd be dumb and dangerous. Let's just lay low for now. Maybe the Poketch Company will figure something out."

"I'll bow out then," he said as his two Cutiefly circled his head. I found it hard to stay focused on any of them. "Next time he does the same thing, I'll call again. I'm not about to get beaten half to death in an alley or murdered."

"Fair," I said. "Good night."

My hands instinctively went to my Pokeballs, but they only hovered there for a second. For being an elder, this man wasn't actually that old. He looked to be only slightly older than Reggie and Lane. In his fifties, maybe? He was balding and on the thinner side, although his stomach stuck out a little bit. He sported a thin, greying beard, and the usual silver eyes. Shiftry was beautiful, and I didn't say that lightly. Every inch of its wooden body was carved with beautiful, flowery imagery, and its white hair was braided into thick locks adorned with a golden hairpiece. It stared at us with cold, yellow eyes.

"Elder!" Reggie and Lane both exclaimed, bowing.

The group stared around confusedly, but we knew something had happened.

Where were Luca's Cutiefly? I expected him to be panicking, but he looked calm. He was acting his socks off, and we'd better do the same. I took a deep breath and stared at the Elder.

"At ease," he laughed. "No need for that in front of the guests."

They both stood up straight. The Elder's voice was raspy, but soft. It was an odd thing to hear. He was possibly the most soft-spoken man I'd ever heard.

"Shiftry told me of a disturbance in our home, and we quickly found the source," he said, stroking his beard. "A Pokemon snooping about."

Reggie and Lane paled.

A single Pokemon?

"We apologize... we were careless," Lane said.

"Do not fret. Everyone makes mistakes," he said. "Now, if the trainer that owns the Cutiefly steps forward, we can all go along with our day. No harm was done. Shiftry stopped it before it could disturb our home."

That meant that it hadn't found anything of note. I restrained a curse.

No one said anything. We all stood, and a heavy silence filled the air. It weighed on us. For two minutes, the Elder said nothing. Why had he only found one? That meant that the other was safe, at the very least, or maybe he was just bluffing.

"Well, no matter," he smiled, staring straight at Luca. "I know the answer already. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to come clean."

Luca's mask slipped, and he snarled. "What did you do to my Pokemon?"

"Reggie, Lane, lead the other guests back outside, will you?"

"Fuck no," Luca said. "Why? If you're gonna do something, do it with them here."

"I won't do anything," he sighed. "I just thought that it would be better dealt with in private, that is all. Shiftry—"

"Elder!" Lane called out. "Not in front of the—"

"Silence," he hissed. She shrunk down like a wilting flower. "Shiftry, release it."

The grass type nodded silently and sliced the air apart with his leaves.

My eyes flickered and the air grew so thick that it was as if I was underwater, yet I could still breathe fine. From the cut, darkness appeared and expanded. It wasn't darkness, exactly. It was like I was looking at the absence of light. A void. The abyss. There was nothing there, and the longer I looked the more I felt like the darkness itself was staring back. A sense of wrongness overtook me and I shivered. It was cold, but it bordered on the valley between manageable and uncomfortable. I couldn't even feel my own heartbeat any longer, and the colors at the corner of my vision faded to black and white. There was a gentle pull toward the abyss, as if it had an effect on gravity itself.

I had never seen a powerful dark type before. Chase's Houndoom was nothing compared to this.

The entire process had barely lasted a second. One of Luca's Cutiefly flew out of the darkness and circled around his head. He breathed a huge sigh of relief. At least one of his Pokemon was fine.

Weren't fairies supposed to resist the dark?

"How...?" Luca asked in disbelief. "No one's ever spotted my Cutiefly before without a psychic, much less trapped her."

"You may take the guests outside," the Elder said, ignoring him. "As an apology for the inconvenience, your visit fee shall be refunded. Lane?"

"I will see to it," she said.

The older man nodded and watched as we were led out of the mansion. We were safe, but we had learned nothing apart from the fact that the Elder truly existed and used an incredibly powerful Shiftry.

Luckily for us, Luca's second Cutiefly joined us shortly after. I didn't know how it had escaped detection, but according to him, he had quickly run away as soon as he felt something was wrong, while his sister wanted to keep exploring to not disappoint their trainer. She got captured, and he got away.

"Guys," Luca said. "I think I'm out."

I frowned. "What?"

"It was fun, don't get me wrong, but that Shiftry..." he muttered. "I'm no battler. It was nice while it lasted, but I'm not fucking around with that family anymore. My Cuties could have died. The Elder knew about me. How else would he have known that Cutiefly was mine?"

"That's..." I started, then sighed. "Okay. Thank you for the help until now."

"The money was nice, but I'm ditching this town. The more I stay here, the more unsettling this place is. If someone told me before I came that the most disturbing city in Sinnoh was Solaceon, I would have laughed at them, but it's true. The Hunters are entrenched here, and there's no stopping them, corrupt tournament or not."

"Wait!" Cecilia exclaimed. "Before you leave, can you ask your Cutiefly if they saw anything?"

"Didn't he say that she didn't?" Denzel frowned. "And the other one just escaped."

"Cutie?" He asked.

The fairy type spelled out a name.

H.

A.

R.

R.

Y.

Harry Rodriguez had been on the mansion's second floor along with that Abra. We had proof now. They were linked. It explained how they found Cutiefly so easily, although answers about Shiftry's powers still remained unknown. That void... it was like a black hole— or at least the visual effects was. The light around it had been distorted. There was also the fact that Abra might have sensed the second Cutiefly before he could escape.

Luca exhaled sharply and clenched his hair.

"Argh... Fuck it, I'm staying," he said, biting his lip.

AnnouncementHey everybody! I've officially created a ! Now before you get too excited, there are currently no benefits to pledging. There are no advanced chapters, and I won't move poll-voting to there either— that'll stay on my . People were asking me to create one, so I figured I'd bite the bullet and do it. I don't really expect too much, but right now all of the money would go toward art commissions.