CHAPTER 159 - It Grows

"Woah! That seriously looks great," I exclaimed. Princess dropped a tiny sculpture of Angel into my hand and pouted. It was smudged, low on detail and deformed, but it was hers and it was perfect to me. "I'm telling the truth! Angel, look! It's you—"

Togetic's eyes shone and the sculpture turned to mush. She had brought in some mud inside of our Pokemon Center room to practice with, and she was dissatisfied with her progress. Tangrowth's eyes drooped, knowing that he'd failed to see his own statue. She had made Buddy first and had a similar reaction. She didn't want anyone to see her art unless it was up to her standards.

"You're doing good, stop being so harsh on yourself," I said. "Can you do mommy?"

Togetic hurriedly shook her head, saying that she wouldn't make a statue of me until she was sure that everything would be perfect. Honey and Sweetheart took offense to that, since it meant that they were just guinea pigs, and to be honest, they were kind of right. I wasn't going to intervene and pick a side though. A parent had to be neutral on these things.

"Well if you're not going to do me, do your sister or she's going to throw another tantrum."

I settled deeper onto the bed and relaxed. It had been a day since my previous battle, and it felt nice to spend some time alone with the family, and I assumed that most of my friends were doing the same. I wished Sunshine could be here… wait, maybe he could! He'd been so well-behaved these last few weeks, and especially now that we had come up with the deal. Maybe he would just sit in a corner and sleep without burning anything as usual. The room was usually cramped with Tangrowth and Jellicent taking the most space, but today, the latter was content to just float and stay flat against the ceiling.

Yes. Flat. His entire body was as thin as a sheet of paper. I almost wondered if he was trying to slip through the cracks in the ceiling, but he was just… chilling. His bright red eyes moved each time he decided to stare at someone else. Right now, he seemed fascinated with Honey's push-up routine. I called it a routine, but it was something he'd just started. Apparently he wanted to build up his endurance even more, and he believed that working out would help after I let something about Chase slip.

"You keeping count?" I asked Buddy. He rolled his eyes and inflated like a balloon. "How many?"

Electabuzz started doing one-handed push-ups and showed me five fingers.

"Five hundred? Is that true?"

Jellicent grumbled and spat a stream of water on the electric type's head. Honey let out a girly squeal and fell on his face.

"Pffft— hahaha! I guess you were lying!"

Honey laid flat against the floor, unmoving and possibly dying of embarrassment. Buddy had never been one for pranks, but he seemed to make an exception for the electric type.

"Need a towel?"

"Ele…"

He got up and shuffled to the bathroom, meaning that he'd get it himself. When he returned, I clapped my hands to garner everyone's attention. I had to call Sweetheart name's multiple times because she was obsessed with one of Angel's vine games. He was continuously poking her with one, and her goal was to bite it off. I didn't exactly know the rules… were there even rules? There didn't seem to be a time limit to it.

"I'm going to release Sunshine into the room," I declared.

There were many different reactions to my words. Princess tensed, and her stare grew sinister— or at least as sinister as it could get, which wasn't much. Angel blinked slowly and his vines drooped, including the one he was using to play with Sweetheart, who excitedly waved her arms and screamed my ear off. Honey shrugged. He wasn't thrilled with the suggestion, but he wasn't angry either. Buddy simply stared, although I caught an excited glint in his eye. Sunshine was an excellent conversation partner after all.

"He's been nice lately, and I want you guys to get closer to him. Including you!" I told Princess. "I don't say this often, but follow Sweetheart's example."

The rock type smugly smiled with her eyes closed, and Honey teased her by repeating the first part of that second sentence. She flared up in anger and tried to ram him with her horn, but he jumped over her and cackled.

"Arceus… guys. I'm doing it now, okay?"

I grabbed Turtonator's Pokeball from the counter and released him in a corner of the room. His eyes widened, no doubt in surprise of the location. He hadn't been in an actual room in months, and it showed on his face.

"Sunshine!" I beamed. "We were hanging out and we were also wondering if you wanted to participate. You know, family bonding time and all of that…"

He let out a non-committed grunt and nodded.

"Great. Come over here big guy," I said, pointing to the floor on side of the bed.

He just laid down where I had released him instead. I turned to Togetic, and somehow her statue of Larvitar had turned into this horrid, malformed version of Sunshine in the five seconds I hadn't looked her way.

"Uh… yeah, that looks nice," I said.

Larvitar was already sitting next to the dragon, and Tangrowth looked on with lassitude and disbelief. I was hoping that he and Sunshine would bond over taking care of her instead of making it into a popularity contest. I nudged the vine he permanently had around my ankle with my other foot and discreetly nodded toward the pair.

Go make friends! I thought.

With a silent sigh that was only visible through his body language, the grass type squeezed through the counter and the bedframe, awkwardly waving a vine at Turtonator, who ignored him completely. Ignoring was good… right? It wasn't fighting, at least. Jellicent had already wormed his way across the ceiling and walls, clinging to them like glue. He was kind of cute when he did that.

"Let's see what's on TV…" I muttered. "You keep working on your art. Honey, come on the bed with me."

The electric type climbed into the bed and lay on my shoulder in the perfect position for me to scratch his head. Today and yesterday night had been… eventful for the media, to say the least. Denzel had sent over the edited soundbites of Jerry confessing to everything the Hunters did, including the tournament rigging and more importantly their link to Team Galactic. It was the biggest story currently circulating in the news, and League agents had come to the city to investigate, along with hundreds of new reporters. Solaceon was usually one of the most boring towns in Sinnoh. It didn't have Floaroma's beautiful landscape, Celestic's history, or Sangem's beaches and tourism industry. Only Twinleaf could be ranked worse, and even Denzel would agree with me. He didn't particularly like his hometown.

So for one of the most boring cities in Sinnoh to have become such the center of attention? People were breathing down the Hunters' neck, and Roland Hunter— the family head— had put out a statement denying all of the allegations. That obviously wouldn't stop the rumors from spreading and the investigation from progressing.

What we had failed to anticipate was a certain angle a few channels were pushing— that the League was complicit in all of this since they let the Hunters run free all these days. There was a real scandal about the fact that Cynthia had just let them off without any consequences when Shiftry had tried to spread its darkness through the entire city. It was technically our fault, but the League was in the wrong here, so I didn't feel particularly bad. That 'protecting the region' reason felt flimsy at best. What could Shiftry do that the League could not?

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Strangely enough, the part about Shiftry being the family's true leader? No one had spoken out about that.

"Wanna watch cartoons?" I asked. Honey and Princess nodded, and Sweetheart clamored from her corner. Sunshine lazily opened an eye and snorted. "I think they've got that thing that you like on. You know the one with the singing Jigglypuff—"

"Toge! Togeprrri!"

"Right, that one."

She was a huge fan. Really, it was a cartoon for toddlers where kids would be encouraged to sing along to Jigglypuff's voice actor. Princess wasn't very good at it, but she really got into it. Honey just liked television in general, although he preferred more mature shows. I needed to get him to watch Mystery Dungeon one day. He would bawl his eyes out at that ending.

Sweetheart grumbled and dejectedly sat back on the floor. She hated that one because it wasn't action-packed enough for her liking, but it was her sister's turn on the TV. I let it play and just mindlessly watched cartoons for the next hour and a half. This was bliss.

A knock I didn't recognize garnered my attention.

"Princess," I whispered.

Her sculpture— which was now herself— turned to dust and then into a spinning drill.

"Angel, open the door. Princess, don't stab even if they're a stranger. Wait for my signal."

A lone vine snaked across the floor and then to the door handle. Mira was at the door, and I let out a sigh of relief. Turtonator flared up and his shell glowed bright red. I recalled him before he could burn anything.

"Am I bothering— ah, I guess I obviously am. Sorry."

"No problem," I said. "What's up? Come in, come in."

I waved her over and she hesitantly entered. I didn't exactly blame her. We were friends, but she wasn't like the others. She and Maeve had almost never seen my Pokemon outside of battle, so I understood her anxiety. She turned my desk chair and sat on it backward, wrapping her arms and leaning her head against the back support.

"You still feeling down?"

"Yeah. And there's this weird thing going on with Maeve where I've apologized, but it still feels like she hasn't forgiven me."

"And you wanted my help?"

"Not exactly. I just came here to vent and confess."

"Confess? What did you do?"

"Nothing bad, Arceus," she sighed. "Well, it would have been bad if I succeeded, but I didn't. I figured it was better to tell you because I know your type. You get in people's heads and figure out everything about them… err, sorry, that came out more aggressive than I wanted."

"Don't worry about it, it's no big deal," I said. I could tell there was some backstory there. "You're not exactly wrong. I mean I know you have some kind of history with Team Galactic and that it's personal, but I won't push you for answers."

I was going to ask her to stay safe, but that would have been hypocritical of me. After all, I had promised Sunshine to take them down, and I assumed that Mira had the same plan. The words she had spoken in that annex during our break-in came back to mind, and I finally had enough context to fill the gaps. She was planning on looking for the rumored Team Galactic base in Veilstone and breaking in.

Maybe she'd be able to help me when the time came. There was no way I was involving anyone else in this.

"Man, I feel way better already," Mira smiled. "But here's my confession. When I left after talking to Jerry, I tried to find him again so that he could set up the meeting with Lisa anyway, and I did," she said. "But I didn't show up. When push came to shove… I didn't have the guts to go."

She paused and her face twisted in anger.

"I'm such a pussy. After doing all that big talk and making fun of her Mightyena, I couldn't even show up. How am I supposed to find my—"

Mira cut herself off before she could continue. She took a deep breath and kept going.

"The point is, I tried to do it all on my own and I couldn't, but I still felt like coming clean. I already told Maeve, Louis and Denzel. It was you now, and Cece's next on my list."

"You're a brave girl, Mira. You charged head-first into the tournament building, and you're always there to cheer us up. I think that you're being too harsh on yourself. Although I am pissed that you went behind our back to Jerry. If you had gone there, you could have died or disappeared like Luca."

We were still hoping the League would find him somewhere locked up in that mansion, but my hope was diminishing by the hour.

"Anyway, I guess that's that," she said, cheering herself up. "Whew, coming clean is tough. I'll let you get back to… whatever you were doing. Is that a cartoon?"

"Yeah."

"Cool."

She left quickly after that with a smile on her face. Cecilia would probably be a lot angrier with her than I had gotten. Justin would have a similar reaction, and I doubted that Pauline would care. She was probably busy getting her room destroyed by Vigoroth. Just when I was about to lie back down in my bed and release Sunshine again, my phone rang. Melody was calling me.

We hadn't spoken since Denzel leaked everything to the media, but the texts she had sent were… mixed. Our involvement needed to be known so that our claims would at least get some sort of validity, but she wished that she knew I had been involved in this. It wasn't like the voice clip incriminated me in any way, but we were technically forcing a man to speak, and our questions had been very aggressive. It was for a good cause, so there hadn't been any financial backlash, but the fact that I had acted on my own ruffled some feathers at the Poketch Company.

"Good afternoon Grace. How's your day been treating you?" She asked.

"Err, I've been hanging out with my Pokemon. What's up?"

"No need to be so anxious, I'm not about to scream at you. My bosses did scold me—"

"I'm so sorry!"

"—But we've got everything under control. We didn't have to do a lot of spinning to make you the hero of that interaction. Just tell us the next time you plan on doing something crazy. Something tells me that this wasn't the first time."

I said nothing and let her continue.

"Anyway, that wasn't why I was calling to begin with. We were thinking of ejecting you of the tournament early. There are barely any trainers left in it. The few people that are left are resigning en masse now that there was confirmation that it was rigged from the start. Harry Rodriguez hasn't been seen since… it's hurting you more than anything else at this point. BattleZone is determined to see this through, but they were kicked out of the Hunters' property and all of today's matches have been delayed, so we don't exactly know what's going on."

"What about my rewards? I didn't make it to the top ten yet."

"You'll get your bonus, don't worry about it. We'll give you 100,000 Pokedollars, so slightly less than you would have gotten for first place."

"Holy shit— yeah, yeah, that's amazing! I'll take that."

"You'll have the money transferred to you sometime today, just make sure you resign— possible— need— image—"

"Melody? Hello?" I frowned.

Was something wrong with the internet somehow? This wasn't Snowpoint, so that was odd. Usually Pokemon Centers were on top of that stuff. I gasped in surprise when the electricity went out, as it seemingly did for the entire building. An industrial hum I hadn't noticed before stopped, leaving only dead silence. Larvitar loudly complained that her cartoon got cut off and Tangrowth comforted her with some head pats.

"Don't worry, it'll probably come back on soon, they have generators for that stuff—"

Togetic screamed to get our attention and pointed toward the window.

I felt my heart sink to my stomach.

The sky was bleak and ashen, and thick clouds covered the entirety of Solaceon. It was so dark that it was as if it was the middle of the night. The sun was nowhere to be seen, and not even a single ray passed through those bleak clouds. The longer I looked, the more it seemed like no light bounced off of them at all.

The true horror was the Hunters' mansion. I couldn't see it from afar, but I knew its general direction. A huge spire of void was shooting out of it and into the sky, and it was also spreading toward Solaceon. It was an endless sea of darkness where no light could hope to escape. Obsidian. Void. Null. Emptiness. It was as if the world itself was being deleted by the force, and it was coming quickly. There was no hope of outrunning it even if I tried. I heard muffled screams and saw trainers desperately trying to fly away on any Pokemon that could carry them. Some took multiple people when they could. The hallways of the Pokemon Center devolved into shouting and fighting. Curses and screams, calling for their mothers, begging for their lives, asking why them?

It was too late.

The dark was coming. I instinctively stepped back and felt Angel wrap me into a hug. Togetic rushed into my arms and shouted for me to run. Buddy and Honey stepped in front of me in between panicked shouts to shield me from whatever was happening. Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I hadn't even gotten the time to process what was happening. No final words came out of my mouth. No life flashed before my eyes. There was just a hollow feeling of acceptance. I didn't even manage to do the right thing and recall my Pokemon to protect them from whatever this was.

Twenty seconds later, it reached our building. I flinched, expecting death.

Instead, nothing happened. When I opened my eyes, the floor had been overtaken by the abyss, but I had not died. I took a hesitant step forward and felt as if I was trudging through the thickest of muds, or drying cement. The air was so dense that my brain was constantly tricked into thinking that I was drowning. It took around two minutes for me to get used to breathing, and the coughs didn't sound like they were mine. The pitch of my voice had changed.

It was cold, but not uncomfortable. My Pokemon no longer had their respective colors, and neither did my clothes, my hair and my skin. Colors faded from the world and the darkness washed it over in black and white. The walls, the desk, the bed— everything. The television only played some kind of distorted static noise. Strangely enough, I did not panic. My mind felt completely clear. There was a certain focus here that I had never felt anywhere else.

Neutrality ruled here.

I struggled toward the window again, and it seemed that the entirety of Solaceon was like this. Walls of void had encased the entire town in this hell, rendering escape impossible. The only light in this Arceus-forsaken place was a pale glow in the distance that peaked over the horizon. The mansion.

It seemed that Shiftry had made its move.

What did a Pokemon do when it was cornered?

It lashed out.