Edwin and Fearow ushered Pausso and me through the city to the place where the negotiation was going to take place. We weren’t alone. Florence, Isaac, and Hisa also tagged along, with their Pokemon in tow, of course. Misdreavus seemed grumpy about the bright sunlight now that it was getting closer to the middle of the day; he huddled close to Hisa’s back and grumbled as we walked. Hoppip, on the other hand, hummed cheerfully as he floated through the air next to Florence. He was probably appreciating the opportunity to get so much sunlight after all the time we’d spent walking through forests.
I looked around as we walked, more curious now to know what Violet City was like, but nothing particularly interesting caught my eye. It seemed like we were still in the military district, so most of the buildings looked the same. It didn’t take long before we reached our destination, a large, drab structure made entirely of stone.
We all piled inside to discover the whole building was composed of one big empty chamber, completely bare of any decoration. There were scuff marks on the ground that showed where large objects had been moved around. Maybe this was normally a warehouse?
Two people were already standing in the empty room, deep in discussion. One was General Finnegan – that made sense – but I didn’t recognize the other. He was a short man who looked a bit like my Uncle Benji, with his hair that was thinning on top and his big round glasses. He was also wearing a gray lab coat which made him stand out starkly compared to everyone else I had seen from Violet City.
The new guy perked up as soon as our group entered the building, and his eyes shot straight to one person in particular. “Isaac Pine?” he asked, his voice delighted.
Isaac blinked; then he smiled as well. “Tomo! I was wondering if I would see you around here.”
“How could I miss such an opportunity?” The short man – Tomo – smiled as he moved forward to shake Isaac’s hand. “The general has already informed me about your newest invention. You must tell me everything about it.”
“Naturally.” Isaac must have noticed that the rest of us were watching him, because he cleared his throat and turned to conduct the introductions. “Everyone, this is the esteemed researcher Tomohiro Hinoki. The two of us have corresponded for many years.”
“Ah!” Hisa said, perking up. “The same Hinoki who wrote about the biological mechanics of majū flight?” Tomo bowed slightly in response. “It is excellent to meet you! I had hoped that your writings would help me better understand the biology of ghosts, but alas, they seem entirely different from avian majū.” Misdreavus peeked out over Hisa’s shoulder to chatter his agreement.
Isaac smiled and shook his head slightly before he took over introducing each of us to Tomo. General Finnegan waited just long enough for us to exchange names, then barged into the conversation at the earliest moment possible.
“One of you has the devices that contain the majū’s leaders, yes?” he asked. “Let us see if they can be reasoned with.”
“Perhaps we should only release one at a time?” Hisa suggested mildly as he ran a hand over his chin. “They were, ahem, quite strong on the battlefield. We do not want them to escape and run rampant through the city.”
Finnegan considered this for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. I turned to look at Florence, who had captured the two ringleaders. She looked oddly nervous as she peered inside her sack.
After a few moments of poking around, Florence sighed and looked back up at the rest of us. “I am not sure which ones contain the Arcanine and the Nidoking,” she admitted. “They all got mixed around when we ran for the city.”
I bit back a grumble as I understood what she meant. We had taken to carving signs into the poke balls that held captured Pokemon to tell them apart; Hoppip’s ball still had a number three on it, and Florence had borrowed my knife so she could carve a rough etching of a wing into Natu’s ball that very morning after the Pokemon had reappeared. But there was no time for that kind of nuance in the middle of battle. When it came to the sack of caught Pokemon, we had no way of telling one poke ball apart from another.
“I suppose we must rely on trial and error, then,” Isaac said with a sigh. “Here, Tomo, watch closely and I will explain the theory behind these poke balls.”
It turned out that Florence had caught a lot of Pokemon, because her group let her do most of the catching when they realized she was good at throwing the balls from a distance. So we decided to split the cache of balls and test them on two different sides of the room to work out what they were. I was worried when I let the first Pokemon out – after all, wouldn’t they be mad about getting caught? However, the Nidoran that emerged was still asleep, so I was able to recall it without any trouble.
I fell into a pattern fairly quickly: press the button, check the species of the sleeping or paralyzed Pokemon, recall the creature before anything could change, then put the ball in the appropriate pile. As I worked, I wondered with some discomfort about what we were going to do with all these injured Pokemon. Sure, we would release them once we reached a truce with the warring Pokemon clans. But could we just leave a bunch of Pokemon who were paralyzed, frozen, and asleep out in the wild? Maybe we could give them a pile of berries or something, so they could all recover.
After a few minutes of sorting I heard a sharp intake of breath from the other side of the room, and I whirled around to see that the others had found the Nidoking. He sprawled lazily on the floor, one arm cushioning his head, and breathed deeply as he slept. Isaac and Tomo had both been watching Florence work; now they each took several steps back and Tomo put his hand over his heart. Florence just frowned and pressed the button on the ball, returning the Pokemon before he could wake up. “One down,” she said as she placed the ball far off from the others that littered the floor.
I nodded and turned back to my own task, picking up the next ball and clicking its button. Now it was my turn to flinch as the Arcanine materialized on the ground a few feet away, curled up tightly with her head resting on her back legs. General Finnegan had been observing my work, and I heard him make a strange sound behind me. When I glanced over my shoulder I flinched again. He didn’t look scared; if anything, he looked eager. Weird.
I aimed the ball and clicked its button again, pulling the large Pokemon back in. “I found the other one,” I called back to the others as I fished my small carving knife out of my travel sack, popped it out of its sheath, and carved a simple A onto the top of the ball. I didn’t particularly want this one to get lost again.
“Excellent!” Hisa said. He had found a stool somewhere and was perched on it near the wall with his legs spread out in front of him. “Who shall we start with?”
“Probably Arcanine,” I volunteered. “She was the one who wanted to talk to us in the first place. Nidoking only ever attacked.”
“Arcanine it is,” Finnegan agreed quickly. “Trainer Edwin, will you manage the device?”
I handed Arcanine’s poke ball off to Edwin and gathered up the rest of the balls, carrying them over to the side of the room in piles so they wouldn’t lose their groupings. Then I turned to watch as Edwin released the fire-dog out in front of our group.
“Trainer Monroe, you should have your partner explain the situation as soon as the enemy wakes up,” Edwin said quietly, his eyes still on the Arcanine. “If she shows any sign of attacking I will send her back into the ball immediately. We can repeat that sequence as many times as it takes for her to listen.”
“Got it,” I replied, catching Pausso’s eye and nodding. He snorted and wagged his trunk up and down in return, then trundled up to the front of our group so that he stood just a few feet away from the giant dog. It made me a little nervous; I had seen how fast Arcanine was out on the battlefield, and what if she took Pausso down before Edwin could react? But we wouldn’t make any progress if we didn’t take risks.
After a few minutes of waiting, the Arcanine’s nose twitched a few times. Then her eyes snapped open and she was on her feet in a heartbeat, growling deep in her throat and looking all around her.
“Dru!” Pausso said quickly, waving his arms to get her attention. “Zee drow drowzee, dru drow.”
The Arcanine snorted out a puff of smoke and cocked her head to the side, baring her teeth. “Nine?”
“Zee,” my partner said in a soothing tone. “Drow, zee dru.”
For a few long, tense seconds, the Arcanine towered silently over my Pokemon. Then she grumbled deep in her throat and sat down, holding her head up regally as she observed all of us.
I let out the breath I had held ever since she first woke up, feeling relieved. She was apparently still willing to negotiate.
“Clan Leader Arcanine,” General Finnegan said formally. I glanced over at him and raised my eyebrows – he was giving the Pokemon a title, really? “I apologize for the necessity of taking you prisoner this way. However, this war of yours has gone on too long. It needs to end, and we need your assistance to make that possible.”
Arcanine listened to Pausso as he passed along the message. Then she tossed her mane and growled slightly. “Arca, ar nine.”
N̷͈̅o̶̝͊t̵̪͑ ̸͕̈́ú̴̮n̷͍͐ţ̴͑i̷̡͝l̷͎̀ ̵͒ͅ ŏ̵̙ṭ̷̑ḧ̵̡e̷̟͝r̵̘̔s̷̳͠ ̶͙͋ r̶̥̀e̷̢̔ț̴͒ụ̸͂r̴̩̓n̷̋͜ ̴͐͜w̵̱̒h̴̛͚a̵̖̍t̶̫̔ ̶̡͐t̵͈̄ḧ̵̪e̴͓̓y̵̥͆ ̴̜̌s̸͇̓t̷̳̎ò̸̪l̸̯̈́ẽ̵̘, Pausso translated.
I passed the message along to the group and Finnegan grimaced. “Stole? Explain yourself.”
Once Finnegan’s question had been passed back to Arcanine she launched into a long sequence of sounds, parts of her name mixed in with growls and barks. Pausso had her pause every so often so he could send parts of the story to me, and I put them together into explanations for the rest of the group.
It turned out that Arcanine’s clan and the Nidoran clan each controlled large portions of the land outside the city. For a long time, as long as Arcanine had been alive and in her parents’ time as well, the two clans had no major quarrel with each other. The two groups never even saw each other except in passing – unless they were visiting the berry grove.
The grove was apparently a bountiful area full of trees that grew the juiciest and most potent berries. The Violet City locals exchanged surprised looks when I passed that information along; apparently they weren’t familiar with it. The berries grew in the Growlithe clan’s territory, so they claimed ownership over it, but the grove produced so much fruit that they let other wild Pokemon take berries from the trees as well.
This past year, when the snows passed and the trees started budding with fruit again, things changed. They suddenly saw many more Nidoran in the grove than had been seen before, and the berries began disappearing from the trees faster than ever. Arcanine growled and smoke trickled out of the corners of her mouth as she told us how the Nidoran had clearly been stealing more berries than they could use, and thus reducing the supply for everyone else.
When her clan realized what was going on, they kicked the Nidoran out of the grove. The Nidoran hadn’t been happy about that, so they had started sending some of their fighters to the grove, where they would challenge members of the Growlithe clan to battles. This had gone back and forth for some weeks, with the Nidoran clan gaining and losing access to certain trees as they won and lost battles.
“Berries,” Finnegan said flatly when he heard this. “These creatures are fighting a war right outside our city for berries?”
Pausso translated the question, and Arcanine narrowed her eyes and flattened her ears in response. “Ca!” she responded angrily. “Arr, nine canine!”
Pausso paused, then turned to look at me with his eyes open wide. Ń̴̞o̵͇͆.̷͙́ ̷̟̽ F̶͚̀i̵̜͛g̶̫̎h̵̺̅t̵̡̂i̴̼͘n̸͎̿g̷̼̍ ̷͙͗ f̶̱̌o̷̪͗r̶͇͊ ̷̳̎ h̴̠̏ë̷͉́r̴̿ͅ ̷̗̍ s̸̤͊ö̵̲́ǹ̶͙.̴̠̒
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It look a few attempts to get Arcanine to explain what she meant, but we got there eventually. Apparently her son – a Growlithe – wanted to solve the problem with the Nidoran clan once and for all, so he volunteered to act as an ambassador. He travelled into Nidoran territory several times, meeting with the opposing Pokemon and discussing the situation with them. After his last meeting he had come back home and told Arcanine that the other side was willing to agree to their clan’s terms. He had arranged for the clan leaders to meet on neutral ground, on the trail that separated their territories.
On the day of the meeting her son left home with a plan to reach the trail early so he could conduct introductions. However, when the sun reached its zenith and Arcanine arrived at the pre-arranged meeting point, Growlithe was nowhere to be found. Instead, the Nidoran clan was already waiting for them, and they attacked without warning. Not only that – they attacked brutally, trumpeting in anger the whole time and not following the usual conventions of wild Pokemon battles for pride or territory.
Arcanine was pushed back into her own lands, and several of the Pokemon that came with her were badly wounded. So she retaliated and sent her own battlers back to seek vengeance, and to try to discover what had happened to her son. Things escalated until eventually their whole clans were fighting each other with no regard for the usual rules of combat.
We were all silent for a few moments when Arcanine finished the last part of her story and Pausso translated her final words. I could feel cautious optimism coming from him as he passed her message to me. S̴͚͛h̶̫͗e̵̤͋ ̶̍ͅ k̴͍͝n̷̖̓o̵̦͋ẅ̷̭ŝ̶̪ ̸̻̋ w̴̠̃ǎ̴̘ȑ̵͎ ̷͈͋ c̵̩͂a̸̰͆n̷̨͆n̶̳̊o̷̜͘ẗ̶̖́ ̷͍̌ g̴͔̔o̵̺̓ ̸̹̑ f̵͓͐ö̵̗r̶̲̚e̷̤͂v̷̳̒é̵̪r̵̓͜.̸̜̈ ̶̖̿ Ȉ̶̞f̴̱̌ ̵̢͌ N̶̊ͅĭ̷̡d̵̤̋o̸͝ͅr̶͇͋ă̸̭n̵̰͑ ̴̛̣ c̵̤͐ḽ̸͝a̷͚͛ṉ̶̾ ̵̛͇ r̵̭͌é̶̱t̶͖̊ŭ̸̬r̶̮̀n̷̗͒ș̵͝ ̴̭̀ s̴͈͒ó̷̡n̵̦̆ ̶̹̍ a̸̟̕n̶̞̈́d̶͍̎ ̵̟́ a̶̻̓p̵̰̓ǫ̵̓l̶̲͗ŏ̵̧g̵͖͘i̴͖̿z̸̝͗é̵̪ș̵͗,̶̪̈́ ̸̦͒ t̶̹̓ḩ̸̅e̴̯̕y̷͎͘ ̴̈́͜ c̷̼̽a̵̯̒n̵̉͜ ̶̳̅ h̵̟͒ạ̵̓v̶̖̂e̵̻͐ ̴̕͜ ť̷̖ṛ̷͠u̴̼͆c̷͓͛ȩ̷̈́.̵̰͂
I translated for the others in the room, then grinned and rubbed Pausso’s head. “You did awesome, partner,” I told him quietly. “You’re getting really good at this psychic speaking thing.” It was true, too – his words felt like they were getting clearer and hurting my head less every day, and I didn’t think it was just because of the persim berries. My Pokemon wiggled his ears in response, clearly happy about the praise.
“So they are fighting partially over resources, but mostly due to this unexpected attack on neutral ground,” Tomo said, adjusting his glasses as he spoke. “The location of the initial attack would explain why they keep choosing to battle around the same area.”
“I agree,” Edwin said. He stood at attention, as he usually did around General Finnegan, but his face had relaxed somewhat, and he now mainly looked puzzled. “I find it strange that the Nidoran suddenly attacked when they had agreed to a truce. I have never known the species to be treacherous in my previous interactions with them; they are usually quite straightforward, in fact.”
“But it sounds like we can solve this,” I pointed out. “All we have to do is give Nidoking a talking-to, get him to admit where the missing Growlithe is and make him apologize to Arcanine.”
“I am not sure it will be that easy,” Isaac said as he tapped his pencil against his notebook. “But we may as well gather more information.”
“Agreed,” Finnegan said curtly. “Trainer Edwin, you may release the second majū.”
Edwin accepted the second poke ball from Florence, but he paused before pressing the button. “With the Arcanine still out, sir?” he asked uncertainly. His Fearow shifted his feathers nervously next to him.
“Yes,” Finnegan said with no hesitation. “I want to see how they react to each other.”
I exchanged a glance with Florence, then settled backwards into a more defensive position. This probably wouldn’t go well.
Edwin rolled his shoulders, then aimed the Nidoking’s ball at an angle far off from the Arcanine and clicked the button. When the Pokemon materialized he was still sprawled out and sleeping, like he had been before. I noticed that Arcanine stiffened when he appeared, but after a few moments she relaxed. She kept her eyes on the Nidoking, though, and it looked like she’d be ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice.
The Nidoking woke up a lot faster than Arcanine had. In less than a minute his ears started twitching, and his eyes blinked open not long after that. He sat up and looked around the room, seemingly disoriented – that is, until he noticed Arcanine sitting calmly on the other side of the warehouse.
Pausso tried to intervene, shouting “Dru! Zee drow!” at him right away, but the Nidoking completely ignored him. The Pokemon trumpeted an angry roar and immediately dashed forward, aiming straight for Arcanine. She got up on all four feet and crouched down, ready to pounce, but Edwin shot a pulse of light out of Nidoking’s poke ball and recalled him before the two could collide.
We all took a few moments to breathe. The energy in the room had changed immensely when the two fully-evolved Pokemon saw each other; it was like everything had suddenly gotten heavier, more condensed. And the room still felt tense even now that the Nidoking was gone. Maybe it was due to how Arcanine was still on her feet and growling softly in the back of her throat.
“Again,” Finnegan said in a steely tone.
Edwin didn’t hesitate; he just nodded and pressed the button again. This time he sent the Nidoking out as far from Arcanine as possible. That didn’t change anything, though. The Pokemon still ignored Pausso’s screamed words and wasted no time identifying where Arcanine had gone, then charged towards her.
Edwin returned the Pokemon again, then glanced back at Finnegan. “General…”
Finnegan just chuckled. “It is alright, soldier. I saw what I needed to see.” He nodded his head casually towards the still-growling Arcanine. “You may put the other beast back in its ball.”
Edwin nodded quickly and lifted the second ball that he held, calling back Arcanine. Then he sent out the Nidoking again, this time into the same place where Arcanine had just been sitting.
The Nidoking appeared with his back to us and immediately charged forward, roaring as he ran. He skidded to a halt after a few steps, confused, then looked rapidly around the room with his ears twitching.
“DRU!” Pausso yelled, hopping up and down and waving his arms wildly in an attempt to gain the Nidoking’s attention. “Zee drow drowzee, dru drow!”
Nidoking looked over his shoulder at my Pokemon and snorted. Then he turned around and started charging at Pausso, and therefore at us, instead.
Edwin quickly returned the giant Pokemon before he could make much progress. Then he looked over at Finnegan. “Orders, sir?”
“Keep trying,” the general said as he crossed his arms over his chest and continued staring forward. “We will wear him out eventually.”
It took six rounds of letting Nidoking out of the poke ball and immediately calling him back in again before he learned to stop charging at us. Then he got smart and tried sending a Poison Sting attack our way instead. Luckily we were all able to duck below the few barbs that he shot out of his horn before Edwin returned him, though Tomo did look rather green after the incident. Finnegan sent for the trainer with a Ledyba to come join us, and he set up a large Reflect screen in front of us. Three iterations of failed Poison Sting attempts later, the Nidoking finally gave up and listened to Pausso.
“Kii, do nido,” the bulky Pokemon said in a grumpy tone. He crossed his arms over his chest and huffed at us. I had to bite back a giggle, because his posture was identical to General Finnegan’s.
W̴͉̕a̵̛ͅn̷̮̅ẗ̸͓s̴̤̃ ̸̲̈́ t̴͔́o̸̼̿ ̴͖̓ k̴̟͝ń̴̤o̸̢̿w̴̦̏ ̸͔̐ w̴̬̐h̴͓̉y̴̪̅ ̵̧̀ i̷̪̇n̶̰̈́ṯ̷̏ė̵̯ṟ̶̛f̷̢̆e̴̯̋r̵̫͐ḭ̶̋ň̴͙g̴͓̒, Pausso sent to me.
I relayed the message to the others, and Finnegan snorted. “You started this by fighting right next to my city, Clan Leader Nidoking,” he told the Pokemon sternly. “Tell us where the missing Growlithe is.”
Pausso spoke briefly. In return, the Nidoking tilted his head to the side and spread his arms out wide. “Ni? King, do ni.”
My Pokemon paused before translating. H̴̬̕ȅ̸̯ ̵̮̌ d̸̲̏o̷̧̐ȇ̵͎s̷̗̈ ̵͖͗ ň̵̦o̵͈͝t̶̖̕ ̷͉́ k̶̟̀n̷͓̅ō̴̭w̵͔͒ ̷͈͘ ọ̴̔f̶̧͝ ̷̨͠ ä̸͖ ̸̳̐ m̷̥̈́i̶͈̕s̶͙̏s̷͇̈ĩ̵͕n̷̘̚g̵̮̈́ ̶̤͊ G̵̲̈́r̷͙͝ő̴̢w̴̘̎l̸͇͂i̴͇̐t̵͎͆h̴̻̊é̷̢.
I frowned and told the others what he’d said. “Maybe he’s lying?” I volunteered.
Isaac shook his head slowly as he considered the large purple Pokemon. “That does not seem to be how he works.”
Misdreavus muttered a few odd sounds, and Hisa nodded as if he agreed with his ghost. “Perhaps we should ask him for his side of the story?”
Finnegan consented to this, so Pausso passed the request along. At first Nidoking didn’t want to tell us; he just growled at us and stomped his feet, refusing to talk. Then, to my surprise, Misdreavus shot across the room and got right up in Nidoking’s face. “Dre! Misdre mis vus!” he hissed, shaking his hair-tendrils out around his head.
Nidoking puffed up his face angrily and roared at Misdreavus, but the ghost just stretched out his head until it was twice as big as the other Pokemon’s and hissed right back. Then the poison Pokemon blew out a large breath of air and nodded his head. “King,” he grumbled, to Misdreavus’ apparent satisfaction.
Pausso must have felt my confusion, because he glanced over his shoulder at me. T̵̳̋o̷̡̔l̷͇͆d̶̢͊ ̵͕̓ h̴̬̐i̶̗̎m̸̦̍ ̶̳̒ u̴̪͑ṣ̸͝è̶̹ ̶̱̍ b̷̰͛ȓ̸̬a̵͕̎ȉ̵ͅn̵̩̆,̵̧̄ ̶̳͗ n̸̫͊ö̶͚t̵͆͜ ̶̦̈́ ṃ̴̊ư̴̰s̷̳̚c̸̬̏l̸͔͌ẻ̵͖s̴͍̓,̸̫̍ my Pokemon thought to me.
With that, Nidoking settled down and started talking. His story was similar to Arcanine’s, but also different in several key areas. For example, he claimed that the berry grove was the Nidoran clan’s ancestral land from back when their territory crossed the trail, and they were the ones kind enough to let others access the trees. He said that they were just minding their own business when the Growlithe clan started attacking them and pushing them out of the grove for no reason, so of course they’d started pushing back; they needed to reclaim what belonged to them already.
Nidoking did recall holding discussions with a young Growlithe, a pup who wanted the clans to get along. He and a group of his closest advisors had talked with the Growlithe and determined the source of the problem: his clan had seen a surge in the number of children who were hatched the previous year, so the grove was no longer able to sustain their numbers. One of his advisors, his daughter Nidoran, had suggested that the clans work together to plant more berry trees so they could increase the size of the grove. He had liked that idea, but hadn’t liked the suggestion that the grove would still officially be part of the Growlithe territory.
Eventually the Growlithe ambassador told him that his mother had conceded to his terms, and the grove would officially belong to the Nidoran clan as long as the fire Pokemon were still allowed to freely take fruit from it. They agreed to meet and finalize the pact on neutral ground, on the trail. His daughter had gone ahead of their group to act as a scout, just in case one of the rival clans was trying to spy on them.
When he had reached the trail, his daughter was gone. Nidoking grew visibly angrier as he described how another wild Pokemon – a Haunter – had appeared from behind a tree and told him that a Growlithe had stolen her away. He was furious about the treachery of the Growlithe clan, so when Arcanine and her group appeared a few minutes later, he assumed it was another ambush and immediately launched an attack.
His motivation was effectively the same as Arcanine’s: he mainly wanted his daughter back. He thrashed his tail back and forth as he told us if the other clan returned his missing child and apologized, they could go back to the same uneasy truce they’d had before.
I exchanged a look with Pausso as he finished translating Nidoking’s story. By itself the story seemed completely reasonable. But when compared with Arcanine’s story… “Maybe there’s just been a misunderstanding,” I suggested. “Can you try telling him about how Arcanine’s story was different?”
Pausso nodded his trunk and turned back to the poison Pokemon, starting his explanation. But it didn’t work; he only got to speak for a short period of time before the larger Pokemon cut him off with an angry roar. Nidoking started scraping his feet against the floor and snorting in anger, acting like he was going to charge at us again, so Edwin hurriedly returned him before things could get out of hand.
That left us all in an awkward silence where we stared at each other, not sure what to do next. The two sides of the story were too different; one of them had to be lying, surely. But the passion in the two Pokemon’s voices had made one thing clear.
If we were going to stop this war, we would have to find the missing Pokemon first.