CHAPTER 170

The next morning, I reached the Café Cabin.

The Café was a lot smaller than I'd expected. From the outside, it seemed that it was barely large enough to fit a few dozen customers at a time. A decorative sign with a happy Milktank and a glass bottle of milk sat above the entrance, and there was a huge enclosure full of them further in the back. I hadn't seen one since my short stay in Twinleaf, but they seemed a lot larger than what I remembered. Some lazily grabbed tufts of grass with their hands and calmly ate while others just hung among themselves.

What I hadn't expected was for a small town to have sprouted around the establishment. It wasn't much, just a few homes, a store and a Pokemon Mart. Most of the homes were inhabited by the Café Cabin employees, but I couldn't deny that I was witnessing the early birth of a city here or something close to it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a Pokemon Center, but that would probably run the Café Cabin out of business, since they doubled as an inn. In the distance, the ever-present fog hid the rest of route 210 away from human eyes. It was a wonder how people actually lived up here. Celestic was the most isolated city in Sinnoh— even moreso than Snowpoint. Later in the year, thousands of trainers would brave the route to get there and challenge Candice.

I stepped inside of the Café Cabin and I was immediately hit with the smell of freshly baked goods. The place was packed with trainers after the mass exodus from Solaceon, and for a second, I was wondering if I'd have to sleep outside. Luckily, the crowd meant that people were too busy to recognize me. I pushed past the sea of people and walked past the bar, opting to go to reception instead to see if a room was available.

"Hi. Can I have a room for one night?" I asked.

The girl over the counter didn't even look at me and kept typing on her computer. She looked frustrated, and for a good reason. Having to do work in this loud house was probably torture. I asked again, and then she shook her head after staring at me like I was an alien for a few seconds. She'd recognized me.

"We're full, sorry," she finally said. "If you want, we can put you on a waiting list and take your number? We have service and WiFi all around Café Cabin!"

"No, it's fine. Thanks anyway," I said disappointingly. I'd have to camp out tonight, but with Sunshine around I didn't really care anyway. I would have enjoyed a bed, but—

"Are you sure? We'd love to have you at our establishment! I'm sure someone will leave soon and we'll give you one right away."

"Uh, no," I said. "I'd feel bad if I was given special treatment."

I awkwardly waved at her and left. A few heads were turning my way now, but I ignored them. The poor girl had probably wanted me to stick around because it would be good publicity for the Café. Business was booming, but they could never have enough customers. Their waiters and waitresses seemed to be handling the boom rather well, carrying dozens of drinks or six plates in their arms at a time and weaving in between customers like it was nothing. They'd been well-trained.

I opted to buy some orange juice and a cheese bagel to go. There was no way I was going to stick around in this suffocating place.

I would have never guessed that I'd come across Chase on my way out. He didn't seem surprised at all to see me. The tears in his cap had been hastily stitched back together, and he had bandages all around his hands. I stood there, gobsmacked until he finally spoke.

"What happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost," he said with a confident smirk. "I thought I might run into your little group by coming here."

"Uh, hi," I said. "It's— it's just me. Have you heard what happened to Solaceon?"

Chase raised an eyebrow at me. "Huh?"

—

"What the fuck? Some moron Shiftry was the cause of all of this?" He asked incredulously.

Somehow, Chase hadn't heard about anything while he was in Celestic. I knew that the fog was too thick for him to have seen the darkness in the distance, but apparently he was completely out of the loop. I would have expected him to hear something about it! It was all anyone could talk about these days! I shuffled on the grass we sat on and nodded.

"He'd been controlling Solaceon this entire time, and when we exposed him he threw a fit," I said. "We were all targeted… it was terrible."

"Well, you made it out alright, so it can't have been that terrible," the boy shrugged. "I'm surprised you're traveling alone. You never seemed like the type."

"I needed time to figure things out. I did a lot of things that made me discover a lot about myself."

"Sounds mopey as hell, but fair enough," he said. "Whatever happened down there, it was to defend yourself, no? I don't see that much of a moral conan— conun… what was it again?"

"Conundrum," I said. "And you—"

I sighed. I was going to fight him and say that he didn't know what it was like, but I honestly didn't feel like it. Chase was a lot nicer than he'd been months ago, but he was still very rough around the edges. Pauline definitely would have agreed with him.

"What happened to your hands?" I said, staring. "That looks pretty gnarly."

"Oh, it was this whole thing," Chase waved dismissively. "I got into a fight with an asshole Klawf and then I fell into a hole with this entire ancient city—"

My eyes almost fell out of their sockets.

"—there were a bunch of old Sigilyph there, but they were weak enough. I ended up catching one who saved my life too, but the real issue was some kind of weird, fucked up ghost that had a hard-on for hating humanity."

"H—hold on, can you say that again?"

"Which part?"

"The entire thing. Go into vivid detail, please."

Chase ended up explaining his entire ordeal, from falling into the ancient city to battling an illusionist ghost through the entire place. What really caught my interest, however, was the way he described a certain mural. It had depicted Sigilyph in large numbers, and Claydol in smaller numbers, but higher in the food chain, so to speak. If I wanted one, then I knew where to look.

"You shouldn't go down there, at least not yet," Chase warned. "That ghost? My Pokedex doesn't even know what it is. It said that there was insufficient data somehow, and it was strong enough to take my entire team. Fighting it without a dark type or some kind of anti-ghost tactic is suicide."

"I wasn't going to go there right away anyway," I said. There was no way I was going to take that risk and break my promise to Cece. Plus, I wouldn't be allowed to have more than six Pokemon until I passed that test in Veilstone anyway. "But I just want to know for the future— you didn't end up seeing any Claydol or Baltoy there?"

"Nope. They were nowhere to be seen, but I didn't exactly stick around that long."

"Okay… did you warn people, at least? That ghost sounds dangerous."

If I wanted to go there in the future, it'd be after Sweetheart had evolved so I could make use of her dark typing. Tyranitar weren't exactly known to be subtle, but I was sure that I'd be able to create something to counter ghosts. Plus, Buddy would be able to put up a good fight as well. That was a long-term plan, though. Right now, I just wanted to relax and do nothing life-threatening.

Part of me wanted to keep the information for ourselves. If teams of rangers— or the League, if the ghost proved strong enough— made it down there, then there was a possibility that I'd miss my chance to capture a Claydol, but people's safety was a lot more important than my desires.

Plus, there was always Beheeyem.

"Well, the hole was sealed back again and it didn't follow me, so I didn't really see the need to."

I slapped my forehead. "Arceus… you need to tell someone right away. What if another trainer falls down there somehow and dies? As soon as you get to Veilstone, you need to tell someone about this. Am I clear?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Chase clicked his tongue, but reluctantly agreed.

"Why would you even hide it to yourself anyway?" I asked.

"I didn't want the city to be sullied," he said. "It was like a time capsule… you'd think that it was only a few decades old and not however old it actually was. Maybe a few thousand, if I had to guess. I'd feel bad for my Sigilyph. She's a little attached to the place. When we walked by there again, she just stared at it for a while."

"I get it, but it's got to be done," I said. "If you don't say it, I will. It's a wonder you even survived against that thing."

A ghost that could turn into a human? Was it like Mathilda and Ruth? From the way Chase had described it, I couldn't place any name on the Pokemon, and the internet wasn't of any help either. Maybe it was an undiscovered, ancient species that formed in a specific way and not like the ghosts in the Lost Tower?

"I said I would, sheesh," he said.

Silence settled in for a few seconds as we watched the Milktank go about their day. I wanted to ask to meet his new Pokemon, but first… I couldn't help but be curious.

"How did your meeting go? With your grandparents?" I asked. I hoped I wasn't being overbearing, but he'd opened up to me before.

Chase gripped something on his chest, and I saw a hint of a golden chain around his neck.

"It went alright," he said.

I had never seen him smile so widely.

"Just alright?" I teased. "I told you they'd like you! Did you get to do everything you wanted?"

"I saw my mom's grave and hung out with them a bunch," he said. "They were cool. My grandpa stitched my cap back up for me and they gave me a picture of my mom too. It was probably the best it could have gone."

"I'm happy for you," I smiled. "Feels like a weight's lifted off your shoulders, right?"

"Yeah."

"What about Ri? You told me he belonged to your mom first right?"

"He's doing great. He evolved too."

"Excuse me?"

"He evolved," Chase deadpanned.

"Why do you drop the most insane information like it's nothing?" I asked exasperatedly. "Why don't we meet each other's teams? It's been a while."

"Sure, why not," he shrugged.

Chase released his entire team, and I did the same with mine, although I made sure to release Turtonator a little ways away. The fire type's eyes narrowed at the presence of so many unknown Pokemon, but I spoke him down.

"They're friends. Friends," I emphasized. "You've got to seriously fix your anti-social ways. You're behaving like a kid— ah!"

He blew a plume of smoke in my face, causing me to cough. Princess tripped him up with Ancient Power, but he comically fell over and used the situation to just lie down. He forced us to leave by raising the temperature around himself, even though we'd been here first.

"That's some serious attitude problem," Chase said. "I think I could take him."

"I don't know about that," I chuckled nervously.

Zangoose and Houndoom seemed to hate him already, so he was doing us no favors. Angel was busy rubbing Sigilyph all over, seemingly fascinated by the new sensation. It was my first time seeing one in the flesh, and they were even weirder than in the pictures. Unova had an ancient, buried civilization in their weirdly called desert-resort. Cece had spoken to me a little about it, but apparently it was chock-full of Sigilyph and Golurk, which made it one of the deadliest places in their region, and that wasn't even counting the hostile environment. Trainers usually didn't go there, opting to go straight to Nimbasa instead.

Still, they were interesting. Every single one had a different pattern on their torso, and hers was a green, wavy one along with a touch of red and blue, but its center was dark. The wings were also surprisingly not wings, but just some kind of decoration. They could move, but not very much and were also made of tough material. Sigilyph kept themselves afloat with their psychic powers.

After Angel finished rubbing her all over, she got mere inches from my face until Togetic cried out in protest. Her pale eye was somewhat unsettling. She never blinked, and it was as if it was constantly having these micro-vibrations that were barely visible if you stared for long enough.

She was pretty cute though. Her little beeps made it sound like she was a machine. Angel moved onto Zangoose, who angrily slashed his vines away and hissed. His vines dropped and he anxiously wrapped one around my ankle.

"Let her have her personal space," I said. "Not everyone is fine with touching, okay? Remember my dad?"

The grass type nodded sadly, but he kept his hold on me. Princess clung to me as well, seemingly uninterested with socializing with Pokemon outside of the team. She was only fine with Denzel or Cecilia's Pokemon.

Were… were my Pokemon all considered weirdos? I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that Honey and Buddy seemed to be mingling well. They were both speaking to Lucario and Abomasnow—

Yes, Chase's Snover had evolved, but in his defense, he'd been surprised at my Pupitar too. She was curiously eyeing Lucario but stuck to Sunshine. Her tough shell meant that the temperature didn't bother her whatsoever, and she was even eating some dirt. Vikavolt seemed content to fly around and observe. It was like flying was the funniest thing in the world to him, and he was making full use of his wings. He was loud, however, and Sunshine was clearly annoyed at the incessant electric buzzing.

Lucario had grown a lot. He was a head taller than me now, and there was a hint of wisdom in his eyes that hadn't been there before. It was weird to understand exactly what Buddy and Honey were saying, but not Abomasnow and him, although I got the gist of the conversation. They were recounting their travels through route 210, while my Pokemon were telling them of what happened in Solaceon.

"Your team's grown in strength since I last saw them," Chase said. "You don't disappoint."

"Same to you. Sorry about them, by the way," I said, nudging my head toward Sweetheart and pointing at Togetic. "I guess it's been a while since they really hung out with your team, so they didn't react like I thought they would. Sunshine reacted a lot better than I thought."

"You called him Sunshine? Still terrible with names, I see," he said. "What did you think he'd do?"

"Worst-case scenario? He might have thrown a fit and attacked your Pokemon— but I would have recalled him instantly!" I hurriedly added. "He's really sweet, you just have to get to know him."

"I didn't expect you to lie to my face."

"I'm not lying! You just have to work past his barriers! He's kind of like you, actually."

Chase seemed to take great offense at that. Sigilyph had moved onto analyzing both Buddy and Honey. The electric type felt obligated to let her get close, but Jellicent's body literally shrunk and reflexively avoided her until he couldn't take it anymore and sprayed her with a jet of water. Sigilyph let out a few panicked beeps and took refuge behind Zangoose, who was lazily preening her fur on the floor. The normal type grumbled, but let her stick around.

"Your Zangoose and my Turtonator are kind of similar," I noticed.

"Are you kidding me? Zangoose is nothing like your dragon. She's a stand-up Pokemon."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I angrily asked, placing my hands on my hips. Just when I was about to launch into a tirade about all of Sunshine's good qualities, Lucario strode up to me. "Oh… hi."

"You can still call him Ri," Chase said.

"Cool."

The fighting type grabbed onto my hand and I felt a cold energy rush into my arm.

Thank… care… Chase.

He'd meant to thank me for taking care of Chase. I had completely forgotten that Lucario could speak even though Cynthia's had done so right in front of me.

The voice was there, but it was faint, and unlike with psychics, I felt no pain at all! When Slowking had spoken to me, the voice had been completely smooth and almost void of emotion, which was how every psychic spoke (with a few minute deviations between individuals), but Ri's voice was deep and full of life. It was as if a human had been speaking to me.

"No problem," I stammered. "He's my friend."

"He's been talking my ear off to practice speaking through aura," Chase explained. "It's a work in progress."

"I mean, that's great progress if he's only been a Lucario for a week," I said.

Chase's team had always been full of dedicated and hard workers. Princess chirped a greeting at Lucario, who replied with a respectful nod. Every single one of his movements evoked a certain elegance.

Sweetheart couldn't resist anymore, and she crawled toward Ri faster than I'd ever seen her move in her new form. She could have been faster by rolling, but I could tell that she hadn't wanted to embarrass herself. Sweetheart liked strong individuals, and she seemed to think that Ri was a Pokemon she could admire just like Sunshine, which surprised me.

"Hey, do you want to battle?" I asked out of the blue. I'd been thinking about it ever since I'd seen that Ri evolved. After seeing what Cynthia had done with her Lucario twice now— once at Valley Windworks and then against Shiftry— I wanted to battle him. "Not a full six-on-six obviously, but what about a three-on-three?"

Chase lit up for a second, but then he hesitated. "Uh, I'm not sure. Maybe when we get to Veilstone."

"You seemed happy enough to do so," I frowned. "What's wrong? I can't imagine the Chase Karlson being nervous about battling."

"There's no Center here," he muttered.

"Yeah, but it's just a friendly battle. Obviously we won't go too hard, and—"

Lucario shot me a look, and I understood. He was struggling with money again, wasn't he? He'd emphasized his lack of potions very clearly while recounting his travels, both during his stay in Mount Coronet and route 210.

"Listen, I can hand you some potions if you want."

"I don't need your pity," he said.

"It's not pity, it's just being a decent human being. My friends lent me potions all the time before the Poketch Company sponsored me—"

"We can battle," he finally decided. "But I won't take any of your shit. Three-on-three's fine. No substitutions?"

"No switches is fine with me," I nodded.

"But we're doing this right away. I don't want to leave you time to start planning shit like you usually do."

"Sounds like you're scared," I teased. "But alright."

I didn't need to plan. I already knew that he'd use Ri in the battle, but he wouldn't lead with him. From the way he'd spoken about Sigilyph, they were relatively weak and there was no way his had already overcome that, so she was off the table. If I had to guess, then he'd lead Abomasnow, using his massive strength and bulk to play it safe. The last Pokemon was still up in the air, but guessing two out of three wouldn't be bad. It'd possibly end up being Vikavolt if I lost the first bout.

As for me? Chase was probably preparing to face Turtonator, but he'd unfortunately be disappointed. The fire type shot me a look that instantly let me know there was no way he was rising from his nap for this. Honey, Angel, and Buddy would have to do some work.

But I was also considering using Sweetheart if the opportunity arose and Chase used Houndoom or Zangoose. It could be a stupid idea, but even when unable to move, there was no way those two were breaking past her cocoon.

Chase and his team faced us while my entire family was at my back.

"In three seconds, call out the first Pokemon you're sending out," I said. We were improvising, since we didn't have a referee. "Three, two, one— Jellicent!"

"Abomasnow."

I took a deep breath as both Pokemon stepped forward. I was working with the type disadvantage, but I was confident it wouldn't matter that much with Buddy's survivability. It would have been a lot worse if it'd been Vikavolt.

Chase began to count down from three, and I braced myself for the coming battle.