CHAPTER 141

We couldn't have possibly run out of the Lost Tower faster than we did. Mathilda had simply led us to the first floor before going back upstairs. I drew a ragged breath, opening my bag to down an entire water bottle, washing down all the bile that had built up in my throat in the process. Thank Arceus, we had gotten out of that okay. It was a miracle, really. If Mathilda and Ruth hadn't been holding back, then we would have died right then and there.

"I am never, ever doing any ghost bullshit again," Pauline cried.

"We won't. We won't, I'm sorry," Cecilia said.

"Let's just… go," she said. "Far away from this place. I don't feel safe."

We nodded, opting to wait to put in some distance before healing our Pokemon. We recalled most of them, keeping only one each. I had Togetic with me, who instantly noticed something was wrong, and I explained what happened, much to her dismay. I put a hand in front of me and couldn't stop myself from trembling. The sheer scale of the world and how powerful beings could get boggled my mind no matter how obvious it was and how many times I saw it. I was so weak. I clenched a fist and sniffled as Togetic rubbed her head against mine.

"Thank you Princess," I whispered. "Everyone is fine, it was just a close call."

Another one.

I was tired of being spared by the whims of beings more powerful than I was by orders of magnitude. This wasn't the time to be a scared little girl and cry. I had grown past that. I… I had. I took a deep breath, staring back at the Lost Tower. Just like I thought, it looked a lot smaller on the outside than it actually was somehow, and there was no sign of any battle having gone on there.

Hell, even the numbers of windows were wrong now that I was getting a closer look. Togetic called out, telling me to stop staring, and I nodded. The knowledge I had gotten from the tower was invaluable for a trainer my age. Kids usually didn't learn how ghosts formed, even in school. Oh, everyone had theories, of course. Reincarnated Pokemon or humans was one of the most popular ones, but that had been completely wrong. I assumed only the League and ghost specialists in high places had access to this knowledge.

And this talk about the Dusk? Was that where ghosts were when they died? From the way they had spoken about it, it seemed that they were conscious there. Ruth had called it a good place to clear her head. Either way, the fact that a tower that I assumed was specifically engineered to create ghosts only formed one every few decades helped explain how rare true ghosts were. Why else would someone build a cemetery only for people with tragic deaths? They must have had an agenda of some kind, or at least I believed so.

And then there was the Copperajah in the room.

Since when could Sinistea and Runigerus turn into fucking humans?! I had never heard of any ghost types turning into humans. Creating illusions with humans in it, yes, but becoming full-fledged humans capable of speech? Did that also have to do with their ages and how powerful they were? I didn't have enough information to answer that, but I did have a bit of context. They had the exact same body, like they were clones. That implied that something else had maybe helped them gain this ability. Maybe the person that gave them their 'purpose' they seemed so obsessed with.

I exhaled loudly.

"Should we alert someone?" Justin said. "That tower should definitely be closed to the public."

"If they don't close places like Victory Road, they won't close the Lost Tower either," Denzel shook his head. "And… I don't know, it would feel wrong, wouldn't it?"

I hesitantly nodded. "Mathilda and Ruth are different, but I think they'd both dislike it if we did that. It's a hard choice. I… I don't think I'll be saying anything, but feel free to do whatever you want, Justin. Personally, I don't think they deserve more suffering."

"You're... right. I won't say anything."

In the end, even though she had saved our lives, Mathilda terrified me more than Ruth did. She was essentially holding the latter captive, forcing her to forever tend to the tower against her wishes. If Ruth ever tried to escape, she would be killed repeatedly. They both had a dash of good and evil about them in very different ways.

"I just don't want to speak about it. I don't want to think about it," Pauline said. "Fuck that place."

"Do you want to vent?" Denzel asked. "I'll listen."

The redhead paused. "Fine. Later tonight."

What else… what else? Night Shade! I already suspected the move to hold a lot more potential than I knew due to Fantina summoning five at once with her Frillish, but those had been on a completely different level. They were capable of going toe to toe with our entire teams combined, were only vulnerable to dark moves, and were capable of regeneration. What was different with their shades? Okay, they were obviously tougher due to experience, but even then, they should have taken damage from our other moves! Darkness would be a foil to ghosts no matter what, it seemed. I didn't know much about the type, and not many people did in Sinnoh. There weren't that many high leveled dark type specialists here, so it would take a long time to find any answers.

Damn it, I hated being kept in the dark. Something told me that if I ever wanted to find those three Gengar, I'd need to get more knowledgeable about dark type energy to better protect myself just in case. Damn it, I could have had potentially asked them so much more information... but it was hard to think straight when I'd been on the brink of dying.

The point was, I had abandoned working on Jellicent's Night Shade to practice other attacks, but it seemed that the move held untold amounts of potential. Letting it go was the wrong move. When we were done working on Whirlpool, I'd ask him to try replicating what Runerigus had done, or get as close to it as possible. A Night Shade that didn't explode with one attack and could dish out damage multiple times would be an incredible threat to face. Plus, Mathilda had been somewhat impressed by Buddy when she first saw him.

I was thinking about Pokemon battling, so I had at least calmed down enough for that. I held out my hand again and sighed in relief. I wasn't trembling anymore, despite how shaken I still felt. I turned to Cece, who was staring at Golett's Pokeball in silence.

"Are you… I mean, no, you're obviously not okay, but are you feeling better?" I asked, stepping close to her. She opened her mouth, and I stopped her. "Don't try to blame yourself now. We all agreed to go inside, and we were all tricked by Mathilda."

"Right," she quietly said. "But I failed to keep you safe."

"What? We all worked together to keep each other safe. Our Pokemon all had a part in helping. Your Zweilous was instrumental in keeping the shades' attention away from us."

"That's…"

She didn't finish her sentence.

"Look, we got out at least," I said, forcing a smile. "And you got your Golett."

She showed a hint of a smile. "Right. We should look at… look at the positive. Solaceon is just a few days away after all."

"That's what I'm talking about. And I'm excited to meet your new little guy."

"He's going to be a tough one to raise," she said. "But I hope I don't mess up like I did with Scyther."

"Hard to do that when it currently has no will. Or at least it doesn't according to Mathilda. I'm sure that it'll change though. You could look up information about it when we get to Solaceon."

Cecilia shook her head. "I want to do it on my own, otherwise I would be a fraud."

"I'd say that's a little much, but then that'd kind of be hypocritical of me. Does it even have a mouth to eat? How're you gonna give it vitamins?"

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"You know what, that's an excellent question."

"Pfft!" I laughed, feeling my entire body relax.

So long as we moved past the event,

We would be fine.

—

Golett was a weird little guy, indeed.

My team was practicing their moves off in the distance, and Denzel and Pauline were finally talking again. Every Pokemon was well enough to practice except Justin's Krokorok, and he was tending to him. His Audino was a lifesaver, and Electabuzz's arm had easily been fixed with a Heal Pulse and a few potions. We'd had to use so many that we were almost out of them, though.

I was currently meeting Cecilia's Golett for the first time. Its eyes and rune slowly lit up with a pale yellow light as Cecilia released him, and I could hear the distinct hum of an… engine? Along with some wet clay mushing around inside of its body. Golett blankly stared in between us both and into the distance. It was a genderless Pokemon, but using 'it' all the time felt so dehumanizing.

"Should we just give it a gender?" I asked, observing the golem. "Or call it they?"

Cecilia hummed. "I'd prefer to call it a boy."

I nodded. "He/him it is. Hi little guy!" I waved.

The golem slowly rotated his head toward me, its expression unchanging.

Well, it wasn't like its expression could change. It had no facial muscles, it was just an immutable face. Cecilia grabbed her Pokedex, and I opted to do the same.

Golett, the Automaton Pokemon. These Pokemon are thought to have been created by an ancient Unovan civilization, and they are powered by an unknown energy channeled into their runes that appears to last thousands of years.

"That's a lot vaguer than usual," I complained. "And if he's Unovan, how the hell did he end up here?"

"I don't know. Perhaps the person who built the Lost Tower owned a lot of them, or was an Unovan traveler? Mathilda and Ruth are Pokemon from Galar too, so it's possible that he might have gone through more regions."

"Since they're ancient… does it mean they won't make them anymore?"

Cecilia nodded, and I felt a twinge of pain. Eventually, when their energy ran out, all Golett would go extinct, unless someone figured out how to recreate them.

That was a depressing thought. Maybe their evolutions lasted longer? Not that I had ever seen one.

"Golett… do you eat, darling? Or can you?"

The ground type's head popped open with a hiss, revealing a gaping hole above its neck. Smoke rose out of the hole, and machinery hummed. I curiously peered inside, and I couldn't even comprehend what I was looking at. A cacophony of hot steam, moving wet clay and swirling light all combined to create the sound of an engine.

"Do you just pour it in there? Won't that short-circuit him?" I asked.

"Well, he did open his… mouth after I asked if he ate, so surely not."

"I think you should consider the option that he doesn't even know what he's doing. He might be a bajillion years old, but you've got to treat him like a newborn baby. Plus, he's a cutie."

The Golett closed his hatch and started staring at us again.

"Well, maybe I should look information up after all," she sighed. "I don't want to accidentally hurt him."

"Good," I smiled. "Better safe than sorry. I'll leave you to introduce him to your team properly, but can we do the telepathy thing again later?"

"I don't know, Grace…"

"Please? Just once more to see how fast the pain is going to lessen. Or how slow," I shuddered.

"Just one more time, then. After that, you're taking a break until you get an opinion from a Nurse Joy. Scrambling your brain again that badly this soon can't be healthy."

"Thank you!" I said, kissing her cheek. "I'll make it up to you somehow!"

"I might change my mind."

"Wha— absolutely not!"

After annoying her for a bit longer, I left to join my team again. Since we were out of view of everyone, I used the opportunity to release Turtonator, but him being there made Togetic unable to focus on her Shadow Ball practice, so I ended up having to recall him after barely two hours. I considered speaking to her about it again, but she was getting better, and I didn't want to force anything. She was glaring less and less, and was no longer pre-charging an Ancient Power at all times, she just found it hard to trust him. To Princess, Turtonator was the Pokemon who'd almost killed and permanently scarred her mother, so it would take time to get used to.

Inch by inch, Sunshine was slowly becoming part of the family. He was openly talking to Sweetheart now, and even playing with her by letting her ram into his tough, pale scales with her horn. Still, when he looked at me, I couldn't help but notice the disappointment. His stare was silently screaming at me, telling me that I could do more. I still refused to fight Team Galactic with him, and I would always do so.

It wasn't my job.

—

"Your Mankey rumor seems more and more like a pile of crap," Denzel said.

"Shut it. You're just scaring them off," Pauline clapped back.

"That's not even how Mankey work. They're supposed to get mad at everything, not get scared of the first human they hear."

It was the next day now, and we were off-route, looking for Pauline's Mankey. There had been a few wild Pokemon attacks, but nothing that threatened us too badly. We weren't that deep in, so the Pokemon were still relatively easy to deal with if we combined all of our strengths. Pauline and Denzel were back to their usual selves, and it appeared they had a breakthrough yesterday night, so thankfully they were friends again.

The telepathy experiment yesterday night had gone slightly better than the first. The amount of pain I'd have to put myself through to get my brain used to the process was daunting to think about, but at least I'd made some progress. Cece didn't want to do it anymore, though.

"If only your Growlithe had smelled one before," Pauline grumbled at Justin. "This would be so much easier. There's just one more day until we get to Solaceon!"

"At this point, you should just catch the first thing you come across," I shrugged.

"I won't give up yet!"

Four hours later, Pauline gave up. We couldn't afford to stay here too long, since we were cutting in close as it was. Louis' group had probably walked past us by now, if Denzel was calculating his hours right. The redhead dejectedly stared at the floor and sighed.

"Look, it's not the end of the world. You can always get your Mankey later, just get something else for now. Or just don't participate in the tournament," Denzel said, patting her shoulder.

Pauline jumped, taking a few steps away as she stared away from us. "Y—yeah. No, I think I'll catch something. The first Pokemon I see!"

"I'll hold you accountable to that declaration," I said.

Around fifteen minutes later, we heard rustling in the leaves. A tall Watchog passed us by, staring at us warily with its large eyes. Pauline just let it through.

"So much for that," Cecilia teased.

"Come on, it was a Watchog!" She yelled. "It's—"

The Watchog came back flying into a nearby tree with two huge claw marks on its chest, and a pool of blood accumulated across the grass. A blur of white jumped at us, but Slowking raised a hand, restraining it long enough for us to see. A Vigoroth shook and struggled against the Psychic as blood leaked out of its nose, staining its fur.

"Let it go," Pauline said, releasing her Gothorita and Rufflet. "I want it."

"There you go," Justin said. "Cece, can you lend me your Slowking? I'm going to go and heal this Watchog."

"Sure."

Slowking lowered his hand, and Vigoroth immediately jumped at Charmeleon, who bit down on its arm with Crunch without Pauline's command. The normal type screamed and forcefully tore its hand away, ignoring the chunk of flesh it lost in the process, and started to claw at Charmeleon with a ferocity I had never seen before in a Pokemon. Gothorita quickly restrained it again, and Rufflet stood, waiting for Pauline's command.

"You're a tough one," Pauline said. "Charmeleon would have gotten overwhelmed without Gothorita's help."

The fire type growled to protest, but her trainer ignored her.

"You have what I'm looking for in a Pokemon. You live off-route, so you're probably not familiar with humans. Let me tell you, if you want to grow stronger, you're going to want to come with me."

Vigoroth squirmed and raged against Gothorita's Confusion, and the psychic gave an irritated grunt in response.

"See? As it stands, you can't break out. Did you know that Rufflet over here can?" She said, nodding toward the flying type. She proudly flared her feathers. "Charmeleon can too, with a bit more work."

The fire type's nose flared in protest, and Vigoroth kept struggling. Pauline crossed her arms.

"We'll wait until you give me an answer. Gothorita, drop him, but keep him restrained if he jumps at us again. I'll stay here until you nod or shake your head, Vigoroth."

The psychic type listened, and unsurprisingly, Vigoroth attacked us again.

This was going to take a while, so I opted to scan it with my Pokedex in the meantime.

Vigoroth, the Wild Monkey Pokemon. Vigoroth is always itching and agitated to go on a wild rampage, and it struggles to sit still for even a minute. If it does, its stress levels rise until it cannot take it anymore, and it blows up into an uncontrollable rage.

Well, that sounded like an extremely hard Pokemon to raise. I did know a bit about the Pokemon and that it evolved into the terrifying Slaking, though. If they weren't all extremely lazy, then they'd probably be stronger than even pseudo-legendaries. In the wild, they simply lounged around and ate any grass that was within reach. I had heard that it was possible to reduce their truancy, but I obviously had no idea how. We all nodded at the Watchog, who thanked us for the help and ran away as fast as it could.

An hour passed. Then two. Then three. Vigoroth still hadn't stopped, although he had calmed down slightly. At this point, I had released my Pokemon so that they could train their current moves. Electabuzz was even sparring with Tangrowth, although they were both holding back a decent amount. Togetic was practicing her control with Psychic and her shaping with Ancient Power. Slowking, and Gothorita were currently working in shifts to let each other rest.

"Pauline…" Denzel groaned. "Just catch it already. I'm bored out of my fucking mind."

"No."

"The tournament is soon, and—"

"Shh. Just a second," she raised a finger.

Vigoroth's eyes narrowed as she approached.

"I think we can come to an understanding, no?" Pauline asked. "Don't you want to fight things?"

Vigoroth grunted.

"Well, I want to make you fight things."

Just like that, Vigoroth nodded, and Pauline caught him easily.

"Why couldn't you just say that from the start?!" I exasperatedly asked.

"Because its judgment was still clouded. We needed to let it calm down first."

"Weird definition of calming down," Denzel said. "But let's go. We're going to cut it short, we have to be quick."

Pauline hadn't given up on her Mankey just yet, but she had gotten her fourth Pokemon.

—

Less than a day later, we arrived at Solaceon. The small town was swarming with trainers, and it seemed that the usual population felt like it had at least doubled. It was probably good for business, and I had no doubt that they weren't all joining the tournament, but boy, did it feel cramped.

Either way, it was time to sign up.