“What’s the matter with that jerk?”

George stomped his way out of the building, dragging Blitzer along with him back to the front of the hovel. The red scarf around his neck had heated up to a discomforting degree. His free hand was tugging it loose, yet the heat didn’t disappear. It wouldn’t yield even to the cool breeze that passed by. Even for something that retained heat well, it was absurd. Right this second, Greenfield was lucky George wasn’t a fire breather like Blitzer. Half the town would’ve been ablaze by now. All for Blitzer’s sake.

The young Charmander was utterly overwhelmed. His mouth was hanging ajar, a dim shadow had taken hold of his eyes, and his limbs just kind of hung around, taped onto his body without any sense of control. He still hadn’t said a word ever since Hein had given his performance in the cafe. It had captivated him. Controlled him. Dominated him, as if the weight of the world was crushing him into the ground.

“Who does he think he is, doing that to someone else? And then he wants to act like nothing happened, ‘oh here’s your stupid package, kids’. And why does he treat us like idiots? You for being you, me for calling him out? Then he all but threatens to use his ghost magic on us!” George pouted, erratically waving a hand in front of his face, mimicking a finger point and foam coming out of his mouth. A lone Roselia passing by stared for a little while, before walking with the wind.

As George ranted, Blitzer’s eyes stared on ahead. It was less of a stare, and more plain pointing ahead. Like most others, ghosts in his eyes were nothing but an oddity, spoken of as faraway tales rather than neighbours. Having seen what he had seen, it wasn’t surprising anymore that no one stood up to Hein, or even mentioned him much. Some things about the world are best left unknown. Life was easier that way. Much, much easier.

It was too late for George and Blitzer now, though. One was mortified, the other was fuming.

“Argh! We let him just walk all over us. Again. You know what, I’ll tell that Tangrowth to just hand it straight to us next time.”

“If there even is a next time…” Blitzer then whimpered. George stopped dead in his tracks, a few steps removed from the front door of the hovel, which had taken on a dull green tint.. Say one thing for Blitzer, say he’s a grab bag of emotions. Cheery and optimistic, angry and stomping his feet, scared or in pain, nervous or curious, he swung around like a wind chime in a hurricane. Yet here he was now, gasping and rubbing his head. George’s teeth pressed into his lip.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Y-yes, I am. Don’t worry about me.”

“You don’t sound alright.”

“I’m just worried, that’s all.”

George pressed his tongue into his cheeks. ‘ He’s thinking about something. It can’t be anything good, I can feel it. ’ He thumbed and cleared his nose. “After what that… cyclops pulled just now, who wouldn’t be. We should talk about it.”

He had to pause to come up with a valid way to describe Hein. There were too many parallels back home to pick from. The Reaper most of all, but mentioning that name would only make the situation worse. Blitzer drew an exasperated breath, throwing his arms into the air beside him. He appeared to be wobbling back and forth with the wind.

“That can’t be a good idea. He might still be listening in.”

George shook his head. “He’s not following us anymore, I’m sure of it.”

“How? You don’t know if he’s still listening in,” Blitzer whispered. “He could be in the ground. Or in a wall. In an object, even. He can be anywhere.”

“Believe me,” George said, reaching out to the Charmander’s shoulder with a hand, “I have an instinct for that damn cyclops. We’ll be fine. He’s not watching.” ‘And it’s not a bluff.’

Blitzer sighed. “Okay then. I didn’t want to talk about this, but- no, I should be telling you. It’s important. Hein… He’s, he’s giving me really strange vibes.”

George folded his arms. ‘ Tell me about it. ’ “ Just about everyone in that cafe is probably thinking twice about going back in there another day. I’m sure. How long has he been in business for?”

“Years, I guess, ow,” Blitzer said while biting on his tongue. George stood close enough to him to smell a hint of iron amidst the ash and fruit that he was breathing out. He sucked in a breath with gritted teeth.

“Years? Are you kidding? This can’t be the first time, can it?‘ Blitzer stared at the human turned Oshawott with an awkward curl in his mouth. No response, he just wobbled. This wasn’t the time to be asking stupid questions. George had blurted one out anyway. His cheeks puffed up; the undisturbed sounds of the stream and the toiling of other Pokemon made George reach for the back of his head.

“S-sorry, just pretend you didn’t hear anything.” ‘ Of course he’s been at it for years, who in this village can even stand up to him ?’

“D-don’t worry, okay.” Blitzer gulped. “It’s not him being creepy or rude, that I’m used to. He isn’t from these parts. My parents told me that you shouldn’t trust strange adults, because they don’t have your best interest in mind. After getting bashed for being a Charmander a few times, I finally understood what they meant. I still don’t like it whenever it happens, but…” he paused to sniff. “You get used to it.”

George nodded without the strength to look the Charmander in the eye. “I get you.” ‘I wish I didn’t, though…’

Blitzer clicked his tongue. “But that’s not what I meant. Don’t you think it’s odd that we’re getting these messages from him, of all people? He’s not from here, he appeared about four years ago, and no one’s ever even heard from him before. Yet he of all people is giving us weird information that might get us into serious trouble if anyone else finds out about it? Who is he, even? Who’s to say he’s not doing this on purpose for someone?”

George’s out snapped open; a gasp of air flew straight in. His ears weren’t deceiving him. It was a full blown accusation of nefarious intent. “Are you sure of this?”

“I can’t think of anything else,” Blitzer replied.

George bit his lip. A double agent. That’s what Blitzer was saying. With how detailed that one-eyed ghost’s descriptions had been, the chance he wasn’t involved in this was as tiny as a hair in George’s fur. For who, though? The Soldiers? Perhaps that was why that Garchomp came to visit their village a few days ago. They were being watched all along. Their secrets weren’t really secrets. A third eye had been reading and following along with them all along. The trap could snap shut at any minute, yet the grass camouflaging it remained stiff. Nothing had happened. Not yet. George chose to remain on the side of optimism. The grass there was greener.

“But wouldn’t they have come for us, then? It’s been a while since we got or hands on,” his eyed panned over the surrounding houses and distant trees, “That. He’s known us for longer than that, too. There’s not much left to discover if he’s been listening in all this time.”

Blitzer shook his head. “I don’t know George, I’ve just got a bad feeling about all of this.” George affirmidly nodded back.

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“Me too.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Blitzer said while twiddling his claws between one another. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this kind of thing.”

George shook his head. “That’s ridiculous, Blitzer. You’re the last person in the world who can say that about themselves.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, look at all the places you dragged me off to. I’m not even that used to my own body yet. Then look at you go. Spitting fire and clawing and sniffing like it’s no big deal. I can’t do any of that.”

George pressed a few fingers into the blue fur above his scalchop. There had been a few times during his sleep or games with the others where he had ideas involving spitting water, or using his scalchop to cut something, but he hadn’t ever acted on them. The body may be different, but the soul is the same. The only humans who’d spit water or wave sharp objects around were lunatics. Even one in the body of an otter couldn’t shake that feeling off.

Blitzer shook his head. “I don’t know… it feels like I’m losing that too.”

“Huh?” George raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you see yourself yesterday? You burned that Victreebel good! You were jumping all over the place like it was nothing! What do you mean?” he asked. What Blitzer said didn’t mesh with what George believed. He had control, and he didn’t need any help. Did he?

“No, you- something’s happening to me and I don’t know what,” Blitzer nervously churred. “My head’s been throbbing since yesterday. My arms feel all weird and prickly, like I’ve been sleeping on them, but that won’t go away either. And my legs feel so shaky and weird, I can’t stand on them well anymore,”

George shot a glance towards said legs, and bit his lip as the sight of them veering off backwards.They weren’t steady in the slightest. It looked as if Blitzer was constantly on the verge of flopping over backwards, right down the slope and into the stream. He heard the splash in the back of his head, and grimaced. ‘Ouch .’ “You might be sick.”

Blitzer shook his head. “I tried asking my parents this morning, but they are all weird about it. They won’t give me a straight answer. They’re all like, ‘ oh, you’re just getting the cramps, you get those when you get older ’, but then they’re smirking in weird ways.”

“Oh.” George tapped his foot against the dirt. ‘ They must be hiding something too. Last I heard, cramps don’t just pop up at random. And I thought cramps only affected the lower half .’ “Do you-”

“What are cramps?”

“Ah!”

Blitzer’s right foot made a sharp shift to the side, causing him to lose balance and drop onto his belly. Likewise, George spun around and stumbled to get decent footing. His eyes were drawn to a lightning bolt twitching back and forth up the path.

“Oh hey lads, I didn’t startle you, did I?”

Upon seeing the familiar orange face up ahead shove his way into the conversation without so much as a care in the world, George had but a frown to give. “Speedy, what's your problem?”

Speedy pointed at himself with both paws. “Problem? Just an ordinary Raichu here. Don’ mind me.”

Blitzer pulled his head out of the dirt with an urp. Some might have slipped into his mouth; he didn’t look particularly pleased. “A little warning would’ve been nice, you know…”

“No worries, I’ll do one better next time,” Speedy said with a wink. Whether George or Blitzer liked it or not, he walked up the path towards them. George folded his arms. There wasn’t much use in saying no to someone who had already said yes in his stead. “Nah lads, I just came here to check up on you lot. See if those parents of you didn’t give you a whoopin’ yesterday, ‘cause that very well could’ve happened, you know! Actually, that’s silly of me, I should probably ask. How’d they react?”

Blitzer got up and polished the cream-colored scales off his chest with a few slaps. “Annoyed we took so long to get back. I had to dodge a few questions on what took us until the evening.”

Speedy nodded along. “And you didn’t say anything about the fight we-” he was cut off by the sound of George making loud hissing noises. Seeing the two fingers the Oshawott was holding up to his mouth, he ducked his tongue in one of his cheeks for a second. “I mean, what we were busy with that afternoon, right?”

“Of course not. I’m not stupid,” Blitzer said with a careless sway of his tail, which caused him to lose his grip on his footing. “Ah!”

“And what about you, George, did you say anythin’?” Speedy continued, paying Blitzer’s antics no mind. George pulled up his arms.

“Not really, no.”

“You’re not a big talker, are ya?”

“...No, not really.”

“Is that a Northern thing I’m not aware of?” Speedy placed a paw in front of the widening grin on his face. George ducked a lip inwards.

“Something like that, yeah. I mean, Blitzer is better at talking, and he’s lived here all his life, I’m sure. Surrounded by uh, by the… southern life?” George thumbed his nose. Trying to come up with a convincing story of where he’s from was a nightmare. If only he actually knew what he was talking about, this would be so much easier. How he wished for one of those magic lamps that granted three wishes if you just rubbed it. Life would be a lot less stressful.

“Well lad, there ain’t no southern life I know of, but Agate’s about as far south as it gets! Well, except for Kronn Province, but that place is dry, and it sucks. So yes, Agate’s the south! And we’re all a talkative, friendly bunch here! Might take a while if you’re new, but stick around long enough, and you’ll see,” Speedy said. George clicked his tongue. The Raichu seemed convinced enough, at least. His nerves eased a little; he used the moment to steer the conversation back on track.

“But yes, Blitzer talks very well. So I let him do the talking for me.”

“Hey now,” Blitzer chirped with an excited crackle, “don’t blame me, talking is fun! You get to meet and know people with talking! It’s how I express myself best! Better than any other way!” he said with both claws exaggeratedly pressing against his sides as if he were showing off his strength.

George twirled his ears around. ‘Doesn’t everyone do that? ’

Speedy chuckled, giving his pale belly a good thump with one of his paws. Said paw bounced right off. “Hoho, well I’m glad you two managed to get off without a scratch! ‘Cause you know, I was getting pretty worried about the both of you. Didn’t see you this morning at all!”

George shrugged. “We were just playing games with the other kids. Junior, too.”

Speedy stood up on his toes. “Oh! Well now, I must’ve missed it then. Busy morning for me.”

To this, George puffed out his cheeks. For a father, he sure didn’t seem to be very concerned with what his kid was up to. “Busy morning? Yesterday was busy enough though, what did you have to do now?” George asked.

“Oh, uh, Cleaning around the house, of course!” Speedy answered, rubbing the back of his head with a single paw. “Junior is quite a messy boy, so I always have to take my time to sweep up the house, you know. Clean up the dust, the little food crumbs we leave around, that sort of thing, heheh.”

“Well, you’re a great cook just like my mom, so I can understand!” Blitzer said while walking up to the Raichu, who smiled in relief upon seeing him approach.

“Why, that’s very kind of you, Blitzer!”

George made a loud click with his tongue. There wasn’t any point in trying to suppress the slapping of his tail into the dirt this time around; the gravel path always kicked up a cloud of dust noticeable enough after the first slap, and it wasn’t as if he had anything to hide, anyway. Surely Speedy knew that behaving like a drunken uncle wasn’t going to net him any favours. In fact, George wasn’t the first, the second, or even the twelfth person to be disappointed hearing it. Those feelings weren’t worth the effort of hiding.

Unfortunately, that lack of effort extended to his hands; his fingers slipped and revealed a sizable chunk of the light brown paper he’d been clinging onto.

“Hm? What’s that you’re holding there?”

At first, George didn’t pay any heed to the fact that Speedy’s eyes were leering onto the paper. It just sort of flew over him that the paper’s contents weren’t anything he’d want leaked. For a second, it was just a paper, and it was just Speedy. What could possibly go wrong? Then the answer hit him. A lot.

“O-oh, uh, n-nothing.”

“What’s the paper for?”

“It’s uuuh, a-a- grocery list? Yes!” George blurted out.

“What’s a grocery list?” Blitzer asked. “Wait a minute-”

“List of stuff to buy! From home- the north I mean!” George followed right after. Blitzer flinched for a second; his thoughts were lagging behind.

“Oh yes, eh, you told me about it! That’s the uhh... My parents wanted me to buy some… stuff…” the Charmander’s eyes slowly turned from George to the Raichu standing right next to him, who appeared dumbfounded by their little performance. The nerves were shooting off them like shedding hairs. Even an insect could tell.

“You know lads, no need to hide things from me. I don’t go around telling anyone.”

George bit his lip, then sighed. “Okay. Um, this will sound really weird, but,” he paused to swallow his saliva, “we’ve been getting these strange messages every so often. They come from that cyclops in the cafe. Oh, and this Tangrowth, too. Last time we had to pick up something, now we have to deliver it somewhere.”

George and Blitzer looked at each other with a slight sense of defeat. George in particular wasn’t happy. He hadn’t revealed the flute piece as of yet, but he couldn’t shake off the idea that he had just opened Pandora’s Box, and that Speedy would have a torrent of questions for them, until every secret had been pilfered from their minds.

Speedy leaned backwards, looking at them both with his arms folded and a smug little smile growing on his face. “Well now, why didn’t you lads say so earlier?”

“...Huh?”

George opened his mouth, yet said nothing. Speedy was seemingly overjoyed. “Now whatever you might think, know that my doors are always open for ya. It’s the least I could do, alright?”

“You already told me,” Blitzer replied. Speedy nodded right back at him, his feet tapping into the dirt.

“I haven’t told your friend yet! Hm… I wish I had more to say right now, but eh, I’m afraid I’m running on empty here!” he said, then turned his head. The rest of Greenfield behind him was as sleepy as ever; a light breeze did little to stir Pokemon and vegetation alike. “If you excuse me, I need to get going.”

“...really?”

“Yup! I’ll probably come back some other time! Tomorrow, maybe! See you lads around”

George couldn’t believe his ears. Speedy was already crossing the bridge down the path by the time Blitzer managed to squeak out a ‘bye’. There was a slight bounce to his step, not an uncontrolled one like Blitzer’s, but a giddy one. All over a piece of paper. He buckled his lips inwards.

“Well, uh, that just happened,” Blitzer said, tail dangling about in a neutral manner. “Do you think he has something to do with those messages we’re getting?” he asked George, tipping his head around slightly until the Oshawott’s face dipped into his view.

George folded his arms over his scalchop. “There’s obviously more than he’s telling us. But what? He’s still the same.”

Blitzer nodded. “Yeah, he’s still uncle Speedy,” he said. George nodded along. Uncle Speedy. It seemed ridiculous to put it that way, but the connection was there. Thinking back, nothing about the Raichu seemed off. That orange fur ball had his secrets, but nefarious intentions? Not a chance. Given how long Blitzer had known him, the coast seemed clear enough.

“So, uh, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know.”

George drew a deep breath as he looked over the rain stained roofs of Greenfield. “Back to the others once we’ve put the message away. I’m not in the mood to go exploring, that’s for sure.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Blitzer looked on with George for a few seconds, before an idea shot into his head. “Wait, one question.”

George turned his head around. “What is it?”

“What’s a cyclops? You said Hein was one, what is that?” Blitzer asked, to which George shrugged. ‘No harm here saying that much, right?’

“A monster from Greek mythology. I read a book about them once for school, I think. They only have one eye, and since Hein only has one eye, I thought it was fitting.”

Blitzer’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, a monster? Do they have scales, and wings and stuff? Are they strong and all heroic?“

George thumbed his nose. “Well, they’re not Charizards, for one-”

The Charmander leaned forward. “And what’s Greek mythology? You can’t just keep all these human things for yourself!”

Grumbling, George rolled his eyes. ‘I’ve opened up Pandora’s box, alright…’