The Joy watched the three water pokémon swim in a small pond critically, making little notes on his pad and glancing occasionally at the Chansey that stood next to him. Leo, on the other hand, was entirely silent as he stared at the pink haired male Joy, who apparently worked at the Ecruteak Pokemon Center as some sort of sales representative, helping to both manage local requests that trainers could take at the Center and also helping to manage the…trading, aspects of Centers.
Leo had never considered the fact that, up until the later games, pokémon centers were the place to trade pokémon was an important fact. Until now. They weren't just healers, the Joys were pokémon experts. If you wanted a fair trade, you ran the trade through the Centers, expensive fees or not. Leo hadn't known this until he caught two feral Magikarp and a feral Goldeen while fishing – his fishing trip having lasted for three whole days, rather than the planned one – and had come down to the Center to ask where he could go to sell them. The nurse on duty had laughed at him, then said they would buy them.
"The two Magikarp you've brought me are indeed feral, but unremarkably low in strength. Probably only hatched this year. I can give you two hundred dollars each, minus fifty dollars if you want replacement pokeballs." The Joy said critically, never taking his eyes off of the three water-types in the pond. One Magikarp splashed about in the shallows, lazily flopping back into the deeper part of the water and continuing to lazily swim about.
"Ok," Leo said, nodding. That made sense. He expected more, but the Joys had to make money off of the trade somehow. "Who will buy the Magikarp anyway?"
"Aquariums, the well-to-do, foolish trainers who believe they can actually evolve the things," the Joy replied. "The Bell Tower will most likely buy them though. They recently had a problem with a Pidgeotto flock stealing their Magikarp out of their koi ponds, and need fresh fish to replace them. Feral Magikarp as pets are status symbols, you know, and the kind caught around Mount Mortar have little to no records of evolving into Gyarados. It's easiest to evolve ocean-born Magikarp after all," he said rote, feeding Leo a tidbit of information that he hadn't asked for but found himself appreciating nonetheless.
He had heard that last bit before though. Freshwater Magikarp were infinitely less likely to evolve into Gyarados than ocean-based specimens. There simply weren't enough lakes large enough to support a massive creature like a Gyarados for it to be otherwise.
"And the Goldeen?" Leo pressed, eyes tracking the white-and-gold fish as it elegantly swam about the pond, scales glimmering spectacularly in the mid-morning light. It swerved around one of the Magikarp, surfacing for just a moment to snap at a bug that had landed on the water before returning to just…swimming about. That one had been a lucky catch, Leo hadn't seen a single Goldeen until that one showed up in a pond a little further off the beaten path than Leo should've gone.
"That one's a bit harder to tell. Don't get me wrong, it's certainly a feral and has lovely colors – the orange is brilliant, even for its species – but whether it will be sold as a battling 'mon or a decorative 'mon depends entirely on its personality and ability. Neither Goldeen or Seaking are famed battlers, but they do have their niche," the Joy explained patiently. "However, I would estimate around seven hundred dollars for a price. Flat out I will tell you that the Center would be willing to buy it for seven hundred and fifty, with twenty five take off for a replacement pokeball. That would be a gain of…one thousand twenty five dollars, if you want the replacement balls,"
Leo mulled it over but didn't really have much to think about. He'd caught these three fishes on a whim anyway, and selling them would be better than either releasing them and wasting the two-hundred-dollar a piece pokeballs he had caught them in, or keeping them on his person as dead weight and extra mouths to feed. For whatever reason pokeballs weren't reusable after all.
"Sure, I'll sell them to you," Leo said, scratching the back of his neck and ignoring the whispers of Spiritomb as the ghost came to awareness. It chose to sleep, or fall dormant in the more likely scenario, at the oddest of times. Like as soon as Leo wakes up, or midday, or mid training session.
Lazy jerk. At least Leo had confirmed that the ghost's natural ability, Pressure, was good for Santiago's psychic training. The slowpoke had improved by leaps and bounds despite his general unwillingness to train – compared to his previous progress that is. Confusion was now a lot more viable for Santiago to use mid-battle, Leo figured. It would help for his coming battle with Morty tomorrow.
"Excellent. We'll get the paperwork sorted out right away then – do you have any preferences to where they're sold to?" The male Joy asked, turning his attention fully to Leo this time.
"You know better than me where a good place will be. Just don't sell the Magikarp to restaurants. There are plenty of non-feral Magikarp to go around," Leo said, and the Joy chuckled at that, making a little note on his notepad.
"Restaurants wouldn't sell a reasonable sum for Magikarp, but I'll keep it in mind. Now if you would recall the pokémon and follow me, we'll get you all sorted out," he said, recalling the Chansey and turning on his heel, marching stiffly out of the Pokemon Center's "backyard," for lack of a better term, and back into the massive hospital. Leo recalled his fish and followed sedately, plodding along happily. He had money now! He might even be able to – gasp – buy a souvenir!
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"What in the name of all that is holy got into Victoria?" Leo muttered, staring wide-eyed at the TV in the PokeCenter lobby. Santiago lay at his feet, his big head laying directly on Leo's left foot and cutting off all blood flow to the appendage. Leo, however ignored the increasing discomfort in his foot in favor of watching the news program, and the obvious excitement it generated in both the newsperson and the trainers in the lobby.
"…in what will surely be an epic showdown that will define a generation of rising Champions, Victoria Oak, the renowned Normal-type Master who swept through all sixteen Indigo League gyms a few years ago, and Lance Wataru, the rising star of the Wataru clan and newly-minted Dragon-type Master, both issued challenges to Champion Martin on the same day…" the announcer said, continuing to rattle off speculations and trying to hype up all the listeners as well as listing off the dates already assigned to the challenges. They would be held at the end of the League Season, in the last two weeks of it actually. Right after the official "we collected eight badges" tournament that, once won, actually allowed people to challenge the Elite Four and Champions. There was more to it than that, of course, and other ways to earn the right to challenge the Elite Four, but Leo wasn't sure of the details.
The one thing he was sure of was that with a potential three challengers pining for the title, it was going to be one heck of a tournament. That, and that something must have happened to make Victoria want to be Champion because as far as he knew she had no such desire.
"It's about time someone challenged Martin. He's been on the throne for too long, and not once has he really proved he has the strength to hold it," a trainer muttered from next to Leo.
"True," another trainer said, scratching the head of his Pikachu as it lay curled up in his lap. "He's nothing compared to the previous Champion. The only reason he beat Layla in the first place is because she was getting old,"
"Maybe we'll finally have another Johtoan take the mantle this time. Kanto trainers may be tough, but they have no clue how to lead," the first trainer grumbled, making Leo frown. "Besides, Martin's been pushing for a succession of Kanto from the Indigo League. Creating rifts. Maybe Lance being on the throne would fix that. Even another Oak as champion would be better than what we have now,"
Leo frowned and dug through his backpack, which was in the seat next to him, searching for his pokedex. When he found it he immediately flicked it on, scrolling through the email section in search of any new messages or emails that might've been sent, but not received by him due to the lack of signal out near Mount Mortar. What he found was a single message from Oak saying that he'd be swinging by the Ecruteak Pokemon Center today, in a few hours actually, to give Leo some equipment to study Spiritomb with and to do a check-up and inspection on the ghost, but otherwise nothing from Victoria.
It irritated and worried Leo. Had something happened to make Victoria have a change of heart? He obviously missed something while on his little fishing/training vacation – because fishing, of course, was not the only thing he did – and he needed to find out what.
Recalling Santiago and standing up, nearly falling over at the sudden pain in his foot from it getting blood flow again but quickly righting himself, Leo headed off to go hunting for information. He'd start with recent news, in hopes something would jump out at him, and then proceed from there. After an hour of search turned up nothing of great importance besides a few articles on the increased activity of Sneasel near the Ice Path warning off trainers, Leo found himself falling into a deeper spiral of searching for other information.
Obviously there was no information on Spiritomb in any references Leo could find, not even on the internet had been any help – though he hesitated to call it the internet. It wasn't nearly as intuitive or easy to use as Earth's internet, there weren't even any search engines! It was weird. But he did learn that Cynthia was not the champion of Sinnoh yet. As sparse as interregional news was, information on Champions and Elite Four was easy to come across. They were the most recognizable faces of any region after all, and as such Leo knew that Lucian, a psychic type trainer, was currently the Champion of Sinnoh. It was also interesting to see that Steven had only become the Champion of Hoenn last year, that Alder was still the Champion of Unova, Diantha was the Champion of Kalos, and some guy Leo had already forgotten the name of was the Galar Champion. That information, at least, was easy to find.
That was mostly irrelevant though. What was relevant was his disappointment in not being able to contact Cynthia about Spiritomb, and get some answers. Still, with Lance soon to be Champion – so long as Victoria didn't take it from him – Leo expected he'd be hearing about her soon. It probably wouldn't be long until she took the throne of Sinnoh Champion.
So with that out of the way, Leo set about to do some light training with Santiago. He'd train his entire team a bit harder later, but he didn't want to tire them out too much before the gym battle. Even if it was tomorrow, rest days were important.
"Focus, Santi. You know what I want you to do," Leo said, snapping his fingers and staring into his Slowpoke's eyes. Santiago blinked slowly, his blank gaze meeting Leo's as he cocked his head to the side. He snapped his fingers once more and the slowpoke righted his head, tail perking up slightly and wagging as if to play. "C'mon, bud, use your psychic powers," he said, pointing his index fingers skyward and wiggling them back and forth in a rhythmic motion.
Santiago's eyes tracked the movement, his tail swaying in time with the rhythm and holding his attention for a solid ten seconds before his eyes began to glow. Wiggling his fingers became harder in response to Santiago's psychic manipulation, as he tried to stop the motion with his psychic powers, but not impossible. Still the fact that he was using his psychic abilities was a good sign and Leo decided to move onto the next step. Slowly he reached into his pocket and withdrew Longinus' crown gem, the pink sphere gleaming in the midafternoon light.
Santiago's eyes immediately fixated on the gem, still glowing blue. "Wait. Wait. Now lift," Leo commanded, and the gem was suffused with blue light and slowly lifted into the air, far steadier than it had been even a week ago. It seemed almost effortless to Santiago now to exhibit this kind of control, whereas before it would wobble as it lifted into the air. "Good boy," Leo praised, snatching the gem out of the air and presenting Santiago with an oran berry with his other as a reward. Merri, Oak's Alakazam, had told him to train Santiago's finesse first, rather than big things like bashing rocks with waves of psychic force. Most slowpoke were only capable of using psychic powers like a hammer, it would be unexpected and would get Santiago further in his training if he could train his finesse.
The probably was actually getting Santiago to train. Today was a good day if he was already listening to Leo.
Santiago happily snatched the berry, jerking forward and encasing Leo's entire hand in his mouth before pulling away, berry in tow. Leo wrinkled his nose in disgust, flicking his now saliva-covered hand to wick the worst of it off.
"You know I don't like it when you do that, butthead," he grumbled without any heat. He'd long since given up actually trying to get Santiago to stop doing that, even though it had been a while. "But I guess you earned it. And now that you're properly motivated, let's try to move on to multiple objects," Leo said, pulling a few more small pebbles out of his pocket and placing them on his hand. This was the next step, and though Santiago was, technically, making headway, it was slow going. Mostly because, again, he just didn't want to train.
"Ah, Leo, there you are! Merri told me you'd be in the training grounds," a familiar voice called, prompting Leo to turn and grin at Professor Oak as he stepped through the sliding door of the indoor training arena – rented by Leo with his newly earned money. Santiago, on the other hand, took that as his cue to stand up and wander off, wholly ignoring Leo now.
"Hey, no! We're not done yet," Leo barked, but Santiago ignored him, trundling over to Leo's pack that leaned against the far wall. "Great. And you were actually listening for once. How's it going, Professor?" he said, standing up and greeting the Professor with a handshake.
Merri, on the other hand, frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, raising one eyebrow at Professor Oak while her moustache twitched irritably. Oak paused for a moment, then furrowed his brows and raised an eyebrow at Leo.
"Merri says she can't talk to you," he said. Leo blinked in surprise, then nodded in understanding, pulling Spiritomb's keystone out of his pocket and shaking it like he was mixing a drink.
"Whatever you're doing, stop it. I told you to stop making me immune to psychics – is that why Santiago couldn't stop my fingers from moving? I told you not to do that, we were training," Leo chided, earning himself a few harsh whispers from the ghost. He'd figured out two days ago that Spiritomb could extend its ghostly influence to Leo, and effectively neutralize psychic powers that came into contact with him. It made training Santiago even harder until he had a talk with Spiritomb about doing that, and though he hadn't thought about it until now, it was pretty obvious that it meant Spiritomb could close his mind off to psychics as well.
"Is the ghost a dark type?" Merri's voice came through, almost…staticky sounding to Leo's mind. Thankfully he hadn't forgotten the touch of the Alakazam's voice, so parsing her words out from his own thoughts was easy despite the interference.
"I'm pretty sure, yes. Best I can figure, so long as I keep it close it can cover me with a…veil that keeps psychics from being able to see me," Leo said with a shrug. He was just spit-balling there, he wasn't actually sure what Spiritomb was doing.
"A ghost-dark type…is that a unique typing?" Professor Oak mused, eyes fixated on the keystone.
"No, Sableye is also a dark and ghost type," Leo corrected. Oak snapped his fingers and nodded, pulling a small pocket journal out of his pocket and clicking a pen he pulled from his white lab coat.
"I forgot about the gem eaters. I've never really had a chance to study one, which is a shame. It surely would've helped here," Oak lamented, making a quick note before putting it away, a grin stretching across his face. "But oh well. This is entirely new territory for me! Merri, we have the equipment, right?"
Merri rolled her eyes and teleported away, reappearing moments later with a few boxes in tow. Oak grinned and hefted one of the boxes, unpacking them one by one and littering the ground with various pieces of scientific equipment. Leo's attempts to help him unpack were met with mild annoyance, the Professor setting everything up exactly how he liked it and leaving Leo to watch from the sidelines. When Leo finally asked what all the equipment was for, Oak cheerfully replied that he didn't have anything pressing to attend to today, and as such had decided to come over to Ecruteak and run some tests on Spiritomb.
"You have done an admiral job resisting the ghost so far. Your mind remains untainted so far as I can tell," Merri said as she floated next to Leo, casually raising one hand and levitating a camera-looking thing so it didn't fall over when Oak bumped against it. At the same time her eyes shone with a brilliant white light, not as a use of telepathy or other psychic powers, but something else.
"Untainted?" Leo asked, resisting his instincts to go help Oak set up whatever it was.
"Indeed. Most ghosts communicate with their chosen partner through mental contact, not unlike psychics but on a different level. Between new partnerships – and especially with young ghosts who do not know what they do – this usually results in unintentional changes to the weaker partner's psyche and personality. I sense none of those changes in you," Merri explained. Leo blinked and rubbed the back of his neck.
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"That explains the mood swings," he muttered. "I've been noticing some random changes in my emotions, and some weird thoughts that don't necessarily feel like my own from time to time. I guess that's from Spiritomb?" A sudden hissing from Spiritomb, sounding far more agitated than before, had Leo jumping in surprise and glancing down at the keystone he still held.
"I'm using Miracle Eye. It's upset it can no longer shut me out on a whim," Merri explained with an uncharacteristic smirk. "And yes, you can attribute that to Spiritomb. That sort of empathic link is normal, expected even, between ghosts,"
"I see. Should I be worried about Spiritomb trying to manipulate me? We've already done the whole battle of wills thing when I first met it, so I'm not too worried, I just want to know if it's going to try something else," Leo said, feeling incredibly calm about what Merri had just revealed despite the implications. Maybe it was because of what he just said, but his gut told him there was something more to his confidence.
"I would need to know the ghost more to determine such a thing. As I look at it now, though, it seems not as malicious as I had originally feared. Such an origin story does not always bode well for a being such as its personality," Merri said. "But that is what we are doing now. We want to see the depth of your connection. Research into ghosts is tenuous at best, but…we have made headway,"
"That's reassuring. If Froslass is the dominant personality like I believe her to be, then I shouldn't have much to worry about. She's mischievous, but usually not malicious," Leo said, nodding along. Merri hummed and fell silent, still staring at Spiritomb's keystone and doing…something with her psychic powers.
"Ok, I think we're ready," the Professor said, setting up another camera and proudly examining the small array of scanners, cameras, and the single computer he had set up, all connected to the single electrical socket in the training area. It was actually impressive all that had fit inside the few boxes Oak had brought along. The Professor hummed and thought for a moment more, then grinned and nodded his head, turning towards Leo with an excited gleam in his eyes.
"Let's get started, shall we?"
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Leo groaned mentally, rubbing the bridge of his nose and trying to fend off a headache. When Professor Oak had said he wanted to run a few tests, he hadn't thought that would involve standing around for hours while he did various scans, poking and prodding at him and Spiritomb, as unwilling as the ghost had been at first, until they were satisfied with whatever the scanners picked up. Idly he watched Diana as she rolled awkwardly on her back trying to get back on her feet from being prone - a motion Leo noticed she had trouble with, with the stone armor she had. He didn't want her to be helpless if she ended up on her back, after all.
Since he wasn't doing anything but stand there and look pretty for Oak's cameras, as well as hold Spiritomb up and coax it out of its keystone, he figured he might as well work with Diana a bit too.
"Fascinating," Oak murmured for the umpteenth time, staring with blood-shot eyes at a computer screen and nodding his head absently. Merri stared at the screen over his shoulder, similarly transfixed and pointed something out with a spoon, earning herself a nod and a few more murmurs from the Professor.
"Anything?" Leo asked, spinning Spiritomb's keystone on his finger, the stone wobbling dangerously as it did so. The ghost inside chuckled, seemingly enjoying the spinning sensation. Diana looked up at him from where she lay on the ground, practicing rolling onto her belly from that position and whined. Surprisingly she and Spiritomb had been the best behaved so far, even if Diana had initially tried to eat the electrical cords. He'd recalled Santiago earlier when he started trying to tear apart Leo's backpack to get at the oran berries stashed inside, and he'd recalled Zuko when he annoyed Merri by trying too hard to play with her.
Though admittedly it had been amusing to watch the Quilava bounce around Merri, snapping at her playfully and rolling about on the floor in an attempt to get her to play. Merri had just threatened to knock him out herself if Leo didn't recall him, so he did.
"Nothing concrete. This is raw data, it will take time for us to get any truly in-depth answers out of this. That said, your bond with Spiritomb does appear different than those of other ghosts," Merri said telepathically, still staring at the screen.
"Spiritomb's main body is rooted to the stone, that much it true, but for some reason the energy signatures are blurry and I can't make out any detailed information about its structure. Even with its ectoplasmic body out of the stone all I'm getting is blurs and distortions – not unlike what you would see if you took a picture of, say, a dark pulse with this equipment but at the same time subtly different," Oak explained absently, staring at the screen further. After a few more moments he sighed and stood, rolling his neck. "It is very different from many other ghosts I've seen – but at first glance it looks closer to a Dusknoir in structure than anything else,"
"Huh. And that means?" Leo pressed.
"To you? Not much. From a purely scientific perspective, however, it could mean a lot. Dusknoir are fabled to be pokémon that help others pass into the afterlife – from a research perspective, this means they physically devour ghosts, memories, and other such esoteric things. Memory ghosts, like the Froslass you followed, are a favorite prey of theirs. The truly fascinating part is that they store the memories they consume in their belly and can call upon them for a short time before they fade away. Your Spiritomb has a similar structure to the interior of a Dusknoir who has eaten a number of the "memory ghosts," so I theorize that it can call upon memories of the hundred and eight "spirits" that you mentioned." Oak explained passionately.
"Huh," Leo said eloquently. "I mean, it would make sense if what I sensed in the mind-scape is correct. There were a few personalities in there, but for the most part the different voices seemed like fragments of actual minds – like, echoes, if you will."
"Exactly," Oak said, nodding and going back to staring at the screen. Leo was silent for a moment longer, watching Diana as she rolled over and managed to push herself to her feet, beaming at Leo when she stood upright. He grinned back at her and congratulated her, tossing her a round stone he had in his pocket for her to munch on, then brought up another topic he'd been meaning to ask about.
"Hey, do you know why Victoria challenged the current Champion?" Leo asked, and Oak tore his eyes away from the computer screen to stare at him.
"Victoria what?" he asked.
"She challenged the current Champion, the same day Lance did. It's been all over the news," Leo said.
"I've been so busy lately I must've missed it. I mean, Victoria has been training to get her Champion certification so she probably feels ready for it now," Oak said slowly, thinking.
"Champion…certification?" Leo asked.
"Yes. Victoria can't actually become the Champion of the Indigo League because she was born in Alola – it'd be a conflict of interests if a foreigner could become Champion. But becoming a Champion-Tier trainer does come with a lot of benefits," Oak said slowly. "It's how I got started with all my research grants, by becoming Champion. No one would fund the kind of research I wanted to do without it,"
Leo hummed and nodded, silently wondering what kind of research Oak was talking about. He remembered from the games that Professor Oak was an expert in pokémon/human relations, but he didn't exactly know what that meant…oh sure, he'd seen Professor Oak do plenty of experiments; testing psychic powers, breeding pokémon, doing research to add to the Pokemon Encyclopedia, but Leo didn't see how that applied to "human/pokémon relationships."
"It's just kind of weird because Victoria told me she didn't have any interest in becoming Champion, so I was curious," Leo muttered. The Professor nodded and turned back to his screen, tapping away for a few moments before quickly closing the laptop and stretching, Merri putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Right, well, I do believe it's time for me to head back. I'll take everything here back with me, but I'll be back tomorrow to bring you the laptop and a better scanner for Spiritomb," he said.
"What time do you think you'll be dropping by? I've got Morty's gym test in the morning, and then I'm scheduled to battle him around five," Leo said.
"I know. Daisy came back from her journey, finally, and both she and Gary want to come watch your gym battle. We booked some seats," the Professor said with a smirk.
"What if I don't pass the gym test?" Leo asked before he could think. Oak gave him a look that spoke volumes.
"As doubtful as I am that you will, Morty's test is not one you can fail. True, it's marked as one of the hardest tests in the entire Johto region, but on the flip side there is little to no chances of you failing. I think in the entirety of the time he's been leader, only one person has failed," Oak explained. Leo made a small noise of surprise, not sure what to think about that. Leaders typically liked to keep their gym tests secret until it was time for the trainer to take their test, as a sort of unwritten rule. And Leo didn't know anyone who would be willing to divulge what Morty's test would be, so his curiosity was through the roof.
"Well, that'll be fun I suppose," Leo mused, scratching his chin. "You could use a vacation, and the kids will like it. I don't think I've ever seen you take a day off now that I think about it. Will you go watch Victoria's Championship match too?"
"If I can," Oak said, continuing to pack away his stuff. Leo nodded and let the conversation die, packing away what he could with the Professor. Once he left there would be just a bit more time for Leo and his team to get some last-minute training in, and at the rate things were going now he felt like he would need it.
With all that had happened Leo doubted Morty would take it easy on him.
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Morty greeted Leo at the front entrance of the Gym early next morning, expression blank as he led him deeper into the stadium-like building, passing through the empty reception area without saying a word. Leo followed just as quietly, toying with the keystone in his pocket and trying his best not to think too much about what was to come. To be honest he wasn't worried about the test, but he doubted Morty was going to take it easy on him.
"Leave your team here," Morty commanded after winding through the complex gym halls, pulling up short of an ominous iron door and pointing at a small metal box hanging from the wall. Leo stared at him in confusion.
"What?" he asked.
"My test is for the trainer, not the pokémon. The gym battle is for testing pokémon. Leave your team in the box – including Spiritomb – and enter the room," Morty commanded again in a tone that brooked no argument. That made Leo a little nervous, but he did as asked and watched as Morty closed the lid on the box and locked it with a key that he then handed to Leo. That, at least, made Leo feel a little better about leaving his team in the middle of a hallway. He was certain anyone with a strong enough pokémon could get the box open, but then again who was dumb enough to try that in the middle of a Gym? Much less a ghost gym?
Morty opened the door and Leo stepped inside, glancing around the empty, dark-stone room lit only by a single, glowing yellow lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. The door slammed shut behind him and despite the way his adrenaline spiked, flooding his veins with white-hot energy, Leo found himself a little disappointed. For a ghost gym this was a little stereotypical wasn't it? Empty room, dim lights, lots of shadows – what next, a ghost will appear right? Maybe a Rotom from the lightbulb, or a Gengar will phase through the wall?
"Ah, there it is," Leo said, suddenly feeling a little dizzy. A blue ball of fire appeared in his field of vision and he shook his head, banishing the confusion from his mind and clearing the dizziness with an effort of will. Confusion could be nasty, true, he'd discovered that plenty of times when Froslass would use confuse ray on him, but that just gave him practice with breaking free of it. "That was….what the hell," Leo murmured, blinking rapidly and rubbing his eyes at the sudden change in his surroundings.
Gone were the metal walls, gone was the light, and in its place was a dark, almost pitch-black field lit only by an orange glow in the distance. Shadowy pine trees rose to his left and right, while an eerie wind rustled through the grass that he could barely make out at his feet. Leo rubbed his eyes again and shook his head, doing his utmost to see if he was still confused or not.
"Well then, let's see how this goes," Leo said aloud, more to provide himself with a sense of comfort at being alone in the silence than anything else as he sat down in the grass, cross legged with his eyes closed and hands clasped in his lap. He took deep , calming breaths and pushed away all thoughts and emotions with an almost physical effort, bleeding out his nerves through his feet and into the ground below with each exhale and building up his courage with each inhale.
It was a practice his father had taught him, when he was very little. He wondered how his old family was doing?
"You left us," an eerily familiar voice said, freezing Leo's blood in his veins. "How could you leave us?" Leo opened his eyes and stared at the figure that now towered above him, face obscured by shadow but unmistakable in stature. The man that stood before him was not overly muscular, nor was he tall or overbearing. It was just the way he stood, shoulders set, back straight, feet spread apart just so that gave him an air of authority, an air of someone you should and will listen to when he spoke. Or at least he should've been. The phantom that stood before Leo now, accusing him of heinous things and screeching in hatred and anger was no more than that – a phantom. A shadow of the man it imitated.
It was nothing like Leo's father.
"YOU LEFT US!" It howled in anger, prompting Leo to stand and punch it in the face. His fist passed straight through the illusion, but was effective in silencing its howls.
"You really think that imitating my family will get to me? What you just did shows how little you know about me or my family. Is this another mindscape thing? Is that the song and dance you want to play? Fine. Let's play it," Leo said slowly, ignoring the phantom as it leapt at him, passing straight through him harmlessly. And though he sounded brave there, Leo was shaken by the appearance of his father. He'd wished for so long to hear his voice again, to see the faces of his family…and yet there he was, even if it is poor imitation.
"So be it," a soft, but powerful voice said, and suddenly the world shifted. Gone were the illusions and shadows, replaced by nothing but pure darkness – a scene Leo had seen before with Spiritomb. But this time it was different. It was not the darkness of apathy and hatred, but rather a darkness of silence. There was nothing here, nothing but Leo's own thoughts and even those were slowly consumed by the void. Leo struggled against it for a fleeting moment, but it proved itself too much, the silence too alluring, and so his thoughts slipped away until all of himself was encompassed by nothing but silence. The purest of quiet.
Then with all the suddenness of a tropical storm a presence slammed itself down onto Leo's psyche, pressing down, down further and further and breaking past all of his resistances. Caught off guard he could do nothing as the presence forced his consciousness into a tight, tiny little ball, pain splitting through his head as he fought and struggled against it with all his meagre might.
"Who are you?" the voice asked, but it was not a verbal question. How Leo understood it he didn't know, but it was presented to him in much the same way as psychics asking questions when they could not speak verbally – it was a question of intent, not of language. And it was a question Leo did not know how to answer, as he panicked and struggled against the presence that forced him into this state of smallness.
For a moment there was fear, but that was swallowed by the silence. For a moment there was anger, but that too was swallowed by the silence. All that was left was the pressure, and the question, and Leo did not have the presence of mind to answer it. It almost felt as if he was being pressed into the ground, face first, with a boot on his entire body. Like someone was stepping on him.
For one terrifying moment the pressure increased, threatening to shatter Leo and crush his psyche into dust when, suddenly, the face of his father appeared in his mind. It was no illusion, this time, but a memory. "Sometimes we fall just to see how far we've climbed. See how far you've come?" he said in that familiar, knowing tone. And Leo stopped struggling. He stopped resisting the pressure and "looked" up, as best he could and stared at the presence that suppressed him. It looked big, true, but he was more interested in how big he himself had been. How "big" he had been before, and how small he was now. He'd grown quite a bit even since his time travelling through ultra space, hadn't he? But there was always room to grow further, always things to continue to improve upon. That was the lesson here, and he hated that he had to be pushed this far to be reminded of that.
So he did the only thing he could do – he laughed. He laughed long and loud, tears streaming down his face as he stood and basked in the pressure. He remembered his father, and the love of his mother, and the warmth of his former family. He saw their faces clearer than he had since he first arrived in this world, and cried tears of joy as he enjoyed their memories. And to answer the question that had been posed to him, the question of who he was, Leo bared his soul.
The presence peered into his soul laid bare, judging the depth of his very being as if looking for something specific. Just as abruptly as it had arrived it backed off, letting Leo's psyche relax and expand again, regaining its full awareness and presence of mind as he "filled out" his own mindscape once again.
For a moment further nothing was said, until the voice spoke again. "Hello again," it said, and Leo opened his eyes to a blank ceiling, and worried-looking Morty.
"Hello," he said, and smiled.
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Morty fretted nervously, pacing back and forth in the locked room and looking down at the prone form of Leo. The silver Ninetails stood next to him, occasionally pawing at the glimmering shield of silver energy that surrounded the boy as he lay prone, his eyes flicking rapidly beneath his eyelids and sweat beading his brow as the ghost that had elected to test him did its thing. That was his test, after all, a simple question posed to trainers by a ghost – who are you? The lucky ones even got a ghost partner, after his haunter confused them and knocked them out with hypnosis. But not Leo. No, Leo apparently kept all the bad luck to himself and Morty did not envy him for it. Originally Ninetails had wanted to test him until something else decided to butt in, and Ninetail just let it.
Why Kusanagi, the Imperial Aegislash kept in the Bell Tower had elected to test Leo, Morty didn't know. What he did know was that if the katana, its sash wrapped tightly around Leo's left arm and sheath laid across his chest, the blade itself stuck into the stone floor next to him, was in any way displeased with Leo's fortitude then it could very well kill him or worse.
He didn't want to be the one to receive Professor Oak's wrath for killing one of his pet projects. And, sure he could sic his team on the Aegislash and try to forcibly pry it away from the boy, but the King's Shield it had erected around the two prevented most interference, and he wasn't sure what the Aegislash would do if he actually pressed it. So he was forced to wait and see.
"Ok Ninetails, give it thirty more seconds before you melt that shield." Morty said, chewing his lip worriedly. The Ninetails, his family's ancestral guardian and the oldest living member of its species known to man at over a thousand years old, flicked its tails impatiently and sending will-o-wisps scattering across the empty room. Morty hesitated a moment further, fists clenching, when the shield dropped entirely and Kusanagi unwound its sash from Leo's arm. The sword lifted itself up into the air, sheathing itself while its big, green eye blinked at Morty.
"Well?" Morty asked it, glancing nervously at the boy still laying on the ground. The ghost hummed, a strange sound that was reminiscent of a sword being unsheathed, and gently bumped its sheath into his arm. For a brief moment Morty was allowed access into the ghost's thoughts. It was strange no matter how many times he felt it, not unlike when a psychic tried to talk to him, but far…deeper. Whereas psychics left room for interpretation, ghosts did not. That simplicity made them far more…complicated to understand at time. Which obviously meant that what Kusanagi said confused him to no end.
He smells like the moon. What does that mean? Morty mused, watching as Aegislash placed itself in the corner of the room, settling still as Leo stirred. He wondered what secrets he held, what unfortunate destiny he had to have caught the eye of Ninetails, to have drawn Kusanagi to him, and to have brought himself to Spiritomb. I do not envy him. My life is hard enough with all these stupid ghosts haunting me. Morty thought to himself, scratching his chin as Ninetails moved forward, sniffing Leo as he stirred.
And even as his eyes flickered open, the sword spoke once more in a tone much clearer. He is a Traveler, born under the light of a different sun.