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Chapter 73
Saura didn't sleep much that night, and if he did, he didn't remember his dreams. That was probably good, because they would have been filled with ominous dark clouds trying to engulf and suffocate his family.
He paced back and forth in his corner of the den, occasionally stopping to glance over at his sleeping mother and father, and all the little seedlings cuddled around them.
"Think. Saura. Think," he whispered to himself, listening closely to the sound of his own voice in hopes that it would tell him something useful. "What's next? What can I do? I need to come up with something tonight. I promised them. What's my next step?"
He glanced the other way at Saurvor and Saurlee. They'd agreed to stick together from now on, at least until the danger passed. And that meant they all slept in the same corner of the room, too. They were a team.
"I could try convincing dad to leave the reserve," Saura whispered at nobody. "But he'd never agree to it! This is the safest place in the world to him. I know I can't change his mind about it. Ugh… I wish I would have asked more questions from that Redeemer guy when I had the chance…"
He forced his forehead against the floor as though trying to induce one of those headaches he'd spent so long trying to dispel.
"What would Char do in this situation?" he wondered. "What would Scythe do? What would Alakazam do?"
He couldn't see the den's entrance around the corner; he couldn't tell from looking whether the Watchers had come out yet. Either way, he knew that night had fallen, and that meant he couldn't get any work done safely. All he could do right now was to think.
"I know a few things," Saura considered, setting himself down. "I don't think I'm the cause of this. Or Team Grayleaf. If we were the cause of it, the problem wouldn't happen in the other timelines where I wasn't warned this danger. So I can trust myself. I guess that's something. And it's probably not the Master because he's the one who decided we were untouchable in the first place. I don't think his generals would do anything to us."
He tried to remember what he was told…
"The truth is, in the overwhelming majority of variations of the timeline I've seen, you and your family – save for Saura, of course – have perished around this time. It is rare for you to survive for even this long. Come fifteen days from now, you have always met your doom."
"Even in the timelines where you escaped from Hunter, you have still perished. Whatever is this unseen cause of your death, I suspect it is still stalking you."
"So I always survive… yeah, that makes some sense. I can't be the cause of it. Wait a minute…! How did he know that we die in the first place? If he wasn't paying attention when we died, how does he even know that we die?"
Saura leaped to his feet and rushed to the front door of the den. There, he peered at the night sky and at the silent ghosts that had risen to their nightly watch, drifting silently like clouds.
"So… whatever this is, it's secret and doesn't leave behind traces," Saura guessed. "If this were a forest fire or something that destroys the whole forest, it would have been obvious. So this must be something that shows up and just leaves us all dead."
He peered suspiciously at the ghosts who claimed the starry sky as their own.
"Is it the Watchers? Do the Watchers attack us? Does… does the Call bring them all in here? Nah, can't be. At least it can't be my Call. That wouldn't make sense unless someone else in my family has the Call. Which… Nah. Pokémon only get heartspeak if we spend time around humans… And I'm sure that nobody else here has ever met a human in their lives. At least a human who wasn't transformed. Even I haven't met one of those. …Which makes me wonder how I got the Call in the first place. Heh."
In the starlight cast through the den entrance, Saura spied a supply nook that his father used to store gardening tools. In a big cluttered pile, there lay all kinds of stuff the family would use to help keep their land looking beautiful every year. Spade-rocks, ropes, drag-rakes… He'd used most of them in his lifetime; despite his general disinterest, his father made sure he got his experience.
But now he wondered if he could use them for something other than gardening.
"We need to booby-trap the forest," Saura decided. "It's not a perfect idea… it won't help with ghosts, or birds, but… it's something we can do while we wait for help to show up… I'd start right now if I could, but we have no way of working at night…"
He trudged over to the supplies and pawed at the tangled pile of rope on the floor.
"I wonder if dad knows how to make traps… Guess I'll ask him in the morning… WAAAH!"
Saura tumbled backward in terror when he noticed a Watcher floating in the doorway.
He lay on his side for several moments only staring at the strange wispy creature, remaining motionless except for his jittering heart and panicked gasps of breath. This visitor was a singular ghost which had broken away from the swarm in the sky. It was only five feet in front of him; it couldn't possibly have come any closer without entering the den. It took the form of a Pokémon that Saura didn't recognize, something which almost looked like a jellyfish that swam in the air. Its skin was a strange reflective color; Saura couldn't tell if it was a light creature cast in shadows, or a dark creature touched by the moonlight…
And its eyes… It watched Saura with eyes of ghastly yellow and bloodshot red, blankly staring down at the frightened Bulbasaur with distant interest. Yet, it floated no closer. It refused to enter the doorway, as though an invisible barrier kept it out.
Saura knew that what he beheld wasn't even a Pokémon. Celebi had called them "newborns"; they were spirits of unborn Pokémon who should have been kept safe in Giratina's domain as they awaited a day to be incarnated. They were never supposed to exist in the physical realm without a body or an identity. Their true forms were incomprehensible to behold; it was the fabric of reality which rendered them in the forms of ghost Pokémon, something which mortals could better understand.
"W-what do you want?!" gasped Saura. "Go away…! Y-you already got me, remember? You don't need to get me again…"
As expected, the ghostly entity didn't answer, nor did it move, or even make any indication that it was listening. It bobbed slightly in the air, neither approaching nor retreating. Likewise, Saura didn't move a muscle, hypnotized by the sight of the apparition so uncomfortably close to his face.
Then, after several minutes of the strange standoff, Saura stood up.
He squinted at the creature. He watched its short, leaf-like tendrils drift in an invisible breeze. He met the creature's unblinking stare.
"Do you know how tired I am of you?" Saura hissed at it, taking a wary step forward. "Do you know what you did to me? Do you know how many dumb headaches you gave me? Kept me from helping my friends? Made me weak and cowardly and helpless when I was supposed to be helping them?"
He stepped forward again.
"And now what? You want to get in here and hurt my family?"
The ghost only drifted obliviously in place.
"Well… how about I give you a headache for once, huh?!" He growled, planting his feet down in a familiar battle stance.
He held his breath and focused some of his stored sunlight into his bulb, drawing upon its energy…
His last thoughts were "This had better work…"
Then he heard the ghost emit a strange little squeak.
The next thing he knew, the ghost was blasted away in a small flurry of razor-leaves. His razor-leaves.
It turned and tumbled as it drifted upward, back towards the treetops from which it came, until Saura lost sight of it among the rest of the swarm. And once again he found himself alone, standing in the soft beam of moonlight cast by the den's entrance.
"…That… actually worked," Saura gasped, looking down at his paws. "I… I don't know what else I expected, but… huh."
Saura had a strange thought. A sudden compulsion.
Living in the Gold Division base, the nighttime was always so far away. You'd have to walk through so many windy halls, up so many staircases, and finally through buildings or waterfall caves or whatever just to catch a glimpse of the stars… and the ghosts which haunted them. That, or you had to take an overnight mission… which Team Ember had never dared doing. The night always felt like some far-away myth, a forbidden world of the worst dangers and fears.
But not here. Here, back at home with his family, the night was only three steps away.
Of course, it had always been like that since Saura was a seedling. But he never dared to stand at the front door after the darkness fell. Father forbade it. Anyone who disobeyed got grounded to the corner for an entire day.
But now, something felt different. The forest looked so… tranquil. It beckoned him with its soft, calming wind and its refreshing autumn chill. And perhaps something more powerful, too. Some sense of adventure, perhaps. Some sense of courage.
Alone and defenseless, and in the thick of nighttime, the little Bulbasaur dared to step outside his den and beyond that invisible pane of glass, a barrier that had always kept him inside just as much as it kept the Watchers out. Now, perhaps for the first time since the night he met Char, he felt the fullness of the moonlight fall upon him. It tasted so oddly exotic and invigorating.
There were Watchers around, yes. Most were high in the sky. There were a few that drifted between the distant tree-trunks of the forest. But there were no Watchers around the front porch of Grayleaf's den. The area was clear.
There was peace.
Saura smiled softly to himself, imagining his friends standing proudly beside him.
Route 418
Earlier that day…
"So! Anyone know the first rule of fighting Watchers?"
The Umbreon waited for an answer from the Pokémon in tow.
"Don't let them touch you?" Ray wondered. "Oh trust me, Char's team knows that better than anyone!"
Raon nodded back at him. "Correct. Don't let them touch you. Now what's the second rule?"
Zachel tried to answer. "Uh… watch out for the ones that –"
"The second rule is don't let them touch you," Raon cut in. "Anyone care to venture a guess at rules three through one hundred?"
"…Don't let them touch you?" Leo tried.
The Umbreon devilishly grinned. "Sounds like you've learned the important part," he said. "The rest is mostly just details."
It was still early in the evening; there were plenty of hours, at least five or six of them, before the Watchers would become a threat. It was plenty of time for the supply team to rendezvous with Char, learn about the task they were handling, and start working on it. What that task was, or how long it would take, was anybody's guess.
Raon and his group took Route 418 into the countryside. It was a smaller, more remote road than Route 415 the road they'd taken out of Iron Town. The townsfolk were constantly passing on Route 415; there was never a private moment to discuss their confidential resistance work. Now that they were alone on this deserted countryside road, with nothing but fields of tall grass and silent forests all around, it felt safe to speak.
"Alright, all jokes aside, Watchers move in certain patterns you've got to look out for," Raon instructed, glancing vigilantly at the darkening sky. "They're like the clouds. Sometimes they're densely packed in one area. If there are too many, you just don't go that way. Simple as that. Not unless you got sol-rock or some kind of explosive option. When you go out at night, you watch for the areas with the least amount of Watchers and you go that way. If you deal with them one at a time, and hope you don't run into any of the strong ones or the crazy ones, they're easy to deal with. Just don't miss with your attacks."
Zachel glanced at her claws. "What kinds of attacks are we talking?" she asked. "Projectiles, I assume? I know a few of those. It's just the standard ghost weaknesses, right?"
Raon shook his head. "Afraid not. We don't really know why, but Watchers don't have the same weaknesses as Ghost-types. As far as we can tell, they seem to be weak to psychic energy, ghost energy, and dark energy. Aside from that, hit 'em with any elemental attacks you got, and it knocks them back most of the time. Just don't try melee. No normal-type tricks, no fighting-type tricks, no flying-type tricks. Not unless they're projectile, and even then, they don't do much. Oh, and if you absolutely have no other options…"
Raon lifted his paw, showing off a glowing set of claws.
"Charge your energy into whatever you're hitting them with. It works for one hit, and it'll protect you from the curse. That is, if you really got no other options. I know Scythe likes slashing, he can charge up those blades of his nice and bright. Ursa isn't quite bad at it himself. But you know who's the very best when it comes to fighting Watchers?" He cocked back a gleaming grin at his followers. "You're looking at it. That'd be me. That's why Scythe hired me. The Watchers are my specialty. I've proven to be the best at dodging 'em, best at navigating 'em, best at outrunning 'em, best at blasting 'em. Best night-prowler in the whole darn base, far as I'm aware. The only one I'll admit who's better than me is Aether the Absol, but she's gone and retired, not even in the base anymore."
Leo got all starry-eyed. "Wooow! Really? I didn't know!" he excitedly gasped. "Wow, Ray! You weren't kidding, were you? Team Ember really does have the best teachers!"
"Pleasure's all mine," gloated the Umbreon, his golden rings already glimmering in pride. "But there's only so much progress one can make just by talking about it. What you need most is some confidence, and that only comes when you start swatting 'em away all by yourself. But… depending on what kind of chores Char has us running… that's what tonight is for."
"Oh joy. Can't wait," Zachel said dryly. "Honestly I'm not worried so much about fighting Watchers. Do you think we'll make it back to town in time before the retailers close?"
Raon gave a mysterious chuckle. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, either," he said. "Char told us to barter, right? Well, I'll have you know I'm rather good at bartering, too."
The Zangoose scrunched her nose at the reply. "Bartering? But what does that have to do with…"
"Ah-ah! You'll see," he replied. "Just watch and learn, kiddos. We're all professionals here. We're getting the job done right, one way or another."
Raon glanced up and saw something moving. "Oh, would you look at that," he said. "With my keen eye, I spy a little bird in the sky."
It took Ray a moment to see what he meant. "Oh yeah, that's Tallie up there!" said the Raichu. "…Oh! Oh! I… Guys! Guys! I think I know where we're going! I know what this is! I just didn't recognize it because we came from the other way last time! It's this old Watcher bunker where we did our last job and caught the shadow bandit."
"…Oh. Ohh! Yeah, there's one of those out here, isn't there?" replied Raon. "Kinda forgot about it. Rocky said something about it now that I recall. Can't imagine this one has seen a lot of maintenance. If you've noticed, this isn't exactly a high-congestion road. After the old bridge fell on Route 510 a few decades ago, nobody comes this way anymore. Now they just go around and take 415 straight into the city."
Ray waved to the raptor high in the air. The silhouette-speck against the evening sky did a little bob-and-weave maneuver to affirm their presence.
"That way," said Raon, jumping impatiently off to the side of the road. "She's signaling. She wants us to come this way."
Ray squinted at Tallie and scratched his head. "Huh? She is?"
Zachel playfully tapped Ray on the back as she passed, following the Umbreon's lead."Heh. How come Raon knows more about bird signals than you?" she goaded. "Remorse doesn't even have birds on their team."
"I! Uh! She never taught us that one!" Ray tried, scampering to catch up.
Not wanting to waste any precious minutes of sunlight, the small team dashed through the shrubby fields and short-cut their way to their destination. Sure enough, there was a tiny dirt trail that ramped downward into the ground, disappearing into some kind of artificial cave. This was the entrance to the shelter which Ray expected.
"Halt! Intruders!" shouted a voice from within the tall grass. "Who are you? Why have you come here? State your purpose!"
Following the voice, the grass-stalks rustled and out popped a certain little Skitty who proceeded to glare dauntingly at them… or as dauntingly as a Skitty can possibly glare.
"Dragonbane! It's us!" Leo called to him. "Let us in!"
"Who is us? Who do you work for!" came the spirited reply.
Raon returned a glare of his own. "Alright, alright, enough kidding around," Raon sighed, trying to push past. "Daylight's waning and we've got work to do."
Surprisingly, the Skitty didn't hesitate to jump in front of the much-more-powerful Umbreon and stare menacingly.
A new voice came from above. A Hoothoot had perfectly disguised herself on a nearby tree-branch. "Dragonbane, unless you have memory loss, you would know who they are. This is the remainder of Char's group."
Dragonbane stood even taller. "Tallie told me I need to be a sentry!" he insisted. "That means I need to make sure you're not Zoruas or Dittos! So tell me who you work for and why you're here!"
Raon rolled his eyes. "We work for Char. He's holding team tryouts. We're here because he requested us to come. And we don't know what our job is, because Char hasn't told us yet. Happy?"
"Good enough," Dragonbane said. "Come on in. The rest of us are already here."
Together, they entered the dark and creepy opening in the ground and proceeded through a long, damp and smelly tunnel that nearly seemed like a sewer pipe. The three birds of the security team, plus the assertive little Skitty, brought up the rear.
And soon, all seventeen Pokémon of Char's group had arrived and were gathered together in this strange little underground chamber.
Shelter
The only light within the abandoned Watcher shelter, besides the one on the Charmander's tail, came from a fire at the center of the room. Thankfully, this one was quite big and bright. During the ploy to capture the shadow bandit, Char had to make sure the light source he used wasn't too much, both because he needed the edges of the room to remain perfectly dark, and because there wasn't anywhere for the smoke to filter out. But now, Kerzek had set a nicely-sized ghost-flame upon the remains of the bonfire; it lit up the whole gathering of Pokémon with an odd white-and-violet light without crackling or polluting the air.
After Char took roll-call and verified nobody was missing, he began explaining his plan.
"This place is an old bunker that Pokémon used to hide from the Watchers at night," said the Charmander to everyone as he stood before the fire. "As you can see, it's not in very good condition. Three of the doors to the outside have completely collapsed, the ceiling is falling in, and there's chunks of rocks and dirt all around the outside of the room. The only reason the center of the room is clean is because my team just used this place to finish one of our recent jobs. But ever since that job was over with, I couldn't stop thinking about this place. It's busted, it's smelly, it's got all sorts of rodents and bugs. But it's big, and it's in a very good location, and it's nice and private. It seems like no other Pokémon ever come here. And who could blame them? It's a dump and it's really far out of the way. But I'm thinking… maybe it doesn't have to be.
"So here's what I need for all of you to do: we're going to fix this place up and we're going to make it a secret clubhouse for Team Ember! I want all this junk out of here, I want the ceiling fixed, I want that entrance moved to the opposite side. I want a door with a nice lock on it. And maybe, if there's enough time, I want some furniture and decorations in here! All the top teams have remote bases like this, so why not us too? It'll help us store supplies and accomplish missions faster when we don't have to walk back and forth to the division base every day.
"And that's your job! You can start right away and you have until tomorrow night. Work through the night if you need to. You can't do all the work from the inside, but maybe we can learn how to fight the Watchers, too."
Char was too busy peering over at the nearby Vulpix to notice the big smile of elation on Raon's face.
"Supplies team, you are responsible for fetching everything we need from town and getting it here secretly. Security team, you're here to make sure nobody bothers us. You keep out the wild animals and warn us about intruders. Logistics team, you'll direct this whole project. You decide what we need to do and how we need to do it. And home-base team…we're the workforce. We're going to do whatever the logistics team needs. Now if everyone behaves and we all get the job done on time, we'll all go back home together and I'll welcome you all to your new rooms in Team Ember's hall! But if things go wrong… my team and I will be keeping close eye on everyone and we'll decide who stays and who doesn't. Everyone got it?"
"Pssst. Char, aren't you forgetting something?" hissed Tallie from nearby before anyone had the chance to answer.
Char's eyes lit up in realization, and so did his tail. "Oh! Right! One last thing…" he quickly said, jumping to the side and digging around in a small pile of supplies he'd brought.
From the pile, he produced a gorgeous crystal ball of pure, unblemished glass. Inside the ball, there burned a small blue tongue of fire, its mesmerizing glow glinting in the eyes of all who beheld it. As brightly as the flame burned, it burned without the slightest hint of dancing, as though eternally petrified inside of its diamond encasement. The flame also remained perfectly upright regardless of how Char rolled and turned the sphere in his claws.
The sight of this rare object, as expected, brought many gasps of awe from the recruits.
"You might be wondering why I said I'd give special consideration to fire-types," Char explained, holding the item proudly for all to admire. "This is the reason. We call this the 'frozen flame'. It's the most powerful relic Team Ember has. If you're a fire-type Pokémon and you're anywhere near this thing, you can't be hurt from anything made of rocks, or any rock-elemental attacks. You won't even feel pain. And since I think we're going to be working with a lot of rocks in this place… I think we're going to put this thing to good use."
With that, he set the beautiful sphere down between a few small stones so it wouldn't roll away.
Finally he pointed to the side and said, "Alright, I'm handing this over to the logistics team now. It's all you! Show us what you can do!"
Gemstone certainly looked skittish. She almost didn't move for a full minute. "Wow, big job," she said, gazing blankly at all the garbage and disarray around the room. "I've uh… I've never done a job this big before."
"Well, you wanted to be the leader," Kerzek told her. "So go on, fearless leader. Give us orders."
The Nidoran gulped hard and peered into the shadows behind the ghost-fire. "Um… Well for one thing, we need a lot of light. Need lanterns or something."
"Anything else, kiddo?" Raon chuckled. "The supplies team is only making one trip into town if we can help it."
"Hold on a moment, I'm thinking!" shouted the tiny leader of logistics. "We need to fix up the whole west side of the room. Isn't this your thing, Kerzek? Team Cog does all the stuff with wall architecture, right?"
"To put it mildly, yes," huffed the Sableye, walking into the shadows for a moment.
Kerzek disappeared clear into the collapsed wall. A few moments later, her head popped out from the ceiling. "Look, I don't know we're going to fix the cave-in. There aren't any strong Pokémon here. I mean muscular-strong. We need to install a support pillar. At least one of them. I don't know how you're going to get one of those all the way over here from town."
"Anything we can do?" Gemstone pleaded.
The Sableye vanished into the ceiling again and came out a minute later. "Okay, so this thing isn't as deep underground as I thought. The whole ceiling of the bunker is made of iron. It's rusted out and made a giant hole over here, that's where the surface collapsed. So I think we probably can't fix it. But we could break it down and rebuild it. If we can dig to the surface here and get rid of all the rubble, we can probably patch up the hole and cover it with dirt or gravel or something."
"So what do we need? And how long will it take?" said the Nidoran quite urgently.
"As far as supplies go," Kerzek said, "Maybe twelve skeleton bolts… a three-by-five steel beam… maybe a mobile-orb and a big bag of food so I can get some help in here… I'll be honest, I've never done something like this before, either. Maybe a crystal drill? I'd ask for some cement mix but I know you're not getting any of that. Uh… yeah. That's my best guess."
Gemstone quickly bounced over to the supply team. "Got all that?" she barked at Ray.
"Yeah! Sure! I'll remember all that!" Ray said with a nod. "I'm not sure if we can get all of that before nightfall, but we'll do our best."
"Good. Do your best, and we can do the rest in the morning. Char, I get to give you orders too, don't I?"
Char couldn't stifle a little laugh. "Yeah, what do you need?"
"Digging," she said bluntly. "You take the home-base team up to the surface and start burrowing down. Try to keep as much of the dirt on the surface-side as you can." She suddenly turned again to Ray. "Shouldn't you have been gone ten seconds ago?" she questioned. "If you say you can't get it all done before nightfall, you'd better get moving already."
Raon returned a little swagger as he turned around. "She's got a point, boys," he called. "Supply team, follow in line. We've got work to do."
Iron Town – Market District
For Ray, it didn't feel too unusual to be marching into town this late into the evening. This was, after all, the time when they'd usually be heading back to base after a hard day's work. But it felt wrong knowing that today, they weren't headed back to base at all. In fact, they even had to turn around and go back to the bunker once they were laden with supplies.
It was thrilling. And scary. Ray knew he might be walking among the Watchers this very night. But he trusted the Umbreon who so shamelessly declared himself the best Watcher-slayer in the whole Gold Division. He wasn't sure how true that claim was, exactly, but he knew that Raon was good enough to be a long-standing member of Scythe's team, and that certainly meant something.
What he really wasn't sure of, however, was how they were going to get their supplies when all the shops were closing for the night.
"See? We told you, Market Street is empty," Zachel grumbled. "Now we'll have to go back, waste a whole night, and… Oh. You've got that look in your eye again. You're planning something."
Raon kept on walking. "For those in the know, the market never truly sleeps," he said mysteriously. "Come on and follow. We still need to hurry, we're just not exactly going to be normal customers at this time of day."
"Oh! Are you talking about a black market?" Leo guessed. "Are there secret shops around here? Are you going to show us where they are?"
"Yes, in a way. You'll see," was the Umbreon's reply.
The team traveled up the long, long street. Some retailers were still packing up for the day. The passersby were clearly thinning out as the minutes passed and the sky darkened. At one point, the street lamps lit aflame, their light helping to guide the way for the townsfolk even though it wouldn't do anything to repel the Watchers.
Raon reached the very end of the street, but still kept going. He slipped down a dark and narrow alleyway, becoming invisible except for his glinting red eyes and shiny gold rings. He beckoned for the teammates to follow.
"This is going to be interesting," Zachel whispered. "A black market. Never been to one of these before. Wonder what they got for sale."
"Yeah, this is probably one of those secret places where Kecleon does his business," Ray replied, charging static into his own fur to help light the way. "We might get to see some really rare items here."
But after the first alleyway was past, there came another, and several more after that. Raon fearlessly turned corners in total darkness and led the way confidently, although Ray was beginning to wonder where they could possibly be going. There were no more public roads in sight; this was all just dark, dilapidated alleyways, many not in any better shape than the bunker they were trying to fix up. He wondered if they were headed to the industrial district.
But nope. At last, in a ray of dimming sunlight, Raon led the group out into an expansive sort of lot, all paved with sand-concrete and lined with many uniform buildings all in a row. It was impossible to tell them apart except for some tiny numbers upon the doors. He peeked out from the shadows, looked both ways, and then told everybody to run for it.
"So uh… there don't look like there are any Pokémon around here," Zachel noted. "So what's the deal with this bartering you said you'd do?"
"The only Pokémon left are guarding the perimeter of this place, and we slipped right past the fences," Raon told them, prowling around to the building's back doors. "And luckily for us… the idiots trust the guards enough that they almost never lock up for the night. Team Ember, welcome to the warehouse district."
And he pressed open a door, revealing an expansive, dark building packed with many shelves of supplies.
"Oh… and did I say 'bartering'? Oh, whoops. I actually meant burglary. This is where most of the retailers keep their spare stuff locked up, and where the industrial district ships their finished products. Everything we need is somewhere in one of these buildings."
"W…wait. Stealing? We're just going to steal stuff from the warehouse?" Leo asked oddly. "That… doesn't seem right."
Raon only chuckled, creeping farther into the ominous building. "What, are you ashamed of being a criminal? Well you picked the wrong line of work, then. We're the resistance, remember? Our very existence is criminal."
Ray was hesitant as well. "Yeah, but… uh… this all belongs to someone. This isn't the Master's stuff… it just belongs to the law-abiding citizens. Besides, won't they notice it's gone?"
"Yeah, and what would you do instead, huh? Buy all your supplies from Kecleon?" snickered the Umbreon. "Need I remind you that Kecleon is a thief? Where do you think he gets all his stuff, I wonder? You've been using stolen goods since the moment you signed up on Team Stripes. Now is not the time to suddenly grow a conscience about it."
He gleamed a bright red eye at his followers and added, "By the way… you should keep in mind that my kind weren't always called 'dark-types'. Back in the day, we were called 'evil-types'. And many of us still proudly live up to the title."
Thunk.
Something clocked Raon in the head. He immediately slumped to the floor, but seemed mostly unfazed.
"…Ow!" he mumbled, quickly scrabbling back to his feet. "What the…? Guys, there's someone else here with us… Quick, run for it. Get out of here. I'll hold them off."
But then the door shut on them, cutting off the remaining rays of sunlight and locking the team in the thick of darkness.
And then… nothing.
Ray lit himself with static, but it wasn't enough to see anything. He could only see the soft glow of Leo's fur and the brightness of the Umbreon's rings. He could only hear the frightened panting of breath, both his own and that of his companions as they all stood guard for another attack.
But another attack never came.
Eventually, Leo even shouted an echoing "Hello?" into the void, but there was no reply.
Raon paced a wary circle around the younger Pokémon. "If I had to guess… I don't think we're locked in," he hummed. "I think there were other thieves in here. I think they bolted when they saw us and shut the door behind him."
"So… we're alone?" Zachel said quietly, relaxing her battle stance. "You're the one that can see in the dark here. Do you see anything?"
"Didn't see anything," Raon reported, still casting watchful glances every which way. "I didn't even see what hit me. Could have been invisified Pokémon. It's a bit dusty in here, but I don't quite smell anything. Seems we're alone now, so let's get on with our job. I was going to suggest we split up and hunt for supplies separately, but now I think we should stay together. Ray, what were the things we needed?"
Ray still shook from the startle, but tried to compose himself and said, "Lights. That was the first thing."
"Could use some lights around here, to be honest," Zachel added. "Lanterns would be best. Or luminous orbs. Hah… must've been nice always having a Charmander around with you, wasn't it? You never had to worry about the dark."
"Yeah, we should have made Char come with us," agreed Ray. "And then, uh… we need a bunch of skeleton bolts, whatever those are."
The Umbreon nodded. "Those are screws that ghosts use to pin stuff together inside of walls. Hope that bag of yours is a big one, Zangoose."
Zachel patted her exploration bag which was strapped firmly around her shoulder. "Best one I got," she confidently said. "Thirty times bigger on the inside. Also reduces weight to a fourth."
"Good, because skeleton bolts are heavy," Raon said, prowling down the aisles of warehouse shelving.
"Don't know how we're going to fit a whole steel beam in here, though," Zachel added dryly.
Raon shrugged. "Don't worry about that. We can get steel beams anywhere. Let's focus on the bolts and drills for now… assuming there's even any here."
As Ray finally adjusted his eyes to the dark, he didn't see much of any use on the warehouse shelves. Back and forth they went, between rows and rows of shelves, yet, there were no handheld tools or useful supplies. Just giant crates and weird machines.
"Looks like this warehouse is a bust, unfortunately," sighed Raon, after their cursory search. "I think this is just industrial machine parts. But we have a few more to check. The tools we need are here in this district, I promise. But they're always switching stuff around so it's hard to tell where to find anything. Nothing left to do but check another one. Come along, then. You know you'll have to be doing this without me one day, so now's your chance to learn something."
The lights turned on.
Power flowed through the electric rods in the ceiling, illuminating the whole room. Voices could faintly be heard from the front entrance.
"Oh… oh this is bad," Raon whispered, suddenly very nervous.
The Umbreon twitched his ears for a moment, then bolted behind the nearest pile of crates, motioning for the rest to follow.
And there they hid for a minute, waiting for the lights to go out again, or any sound that would indicate how close the intruders had come, or what they were. But there was nothing. No voices, no footsteps, no hints of anything.
"In hindsight, we should have left when the other thieves attacked us," Raon quietly rued. "I bet they slipped up and got spotted by the guards. Now the guards are going to find us instead."
"Aww! We'll be framed!" Leo realized.
"I mean, we're not exactly innocent ourselves," Zachel said back. "We broke in here too."
"But we should be okay… right?" Ray wondered. "We're a strong group of Pokémon. We can probably knock them out and bolt for the exit."
"I could probably knock them out, yeah," said Raon, peering around the corner of the crate. "Depends on their typing. But we have to do this carefully. We don't know how strong they are."
After several more minutes, the intruders still hadn't shown themselves or given away their positions. Yet, the lights still didn't go out. Ray could only fidget with his tail and cast worried glances at the warehouse aisles, wondering how fast he could run if he tried his hardest.
Raon sniffed at the air. "Okay, they've got to be on the other side of the room by now," he said. "This is probably our chance to break for the exit."
But again, they didn't get very far. Raon jumped out to lead the way, but he once again was thwacked in the head by something invisible before he'd taken five steps.
And before Ray had the chance to leap out and protect him, he felt a claw close around his tail, keeping him held in place.
Ray fired a burst of static straight through his tail and into the invisible assailant, but it only caused strange arcs of electricity to leap in the air around him. He only then noticed that his friends were similarly struggling to escape some invisible hold, and that something was doing a great job of pinning Raon tightly to the ground.
"Gotcha," whispered a pleased voice into Ray's ear… one that sparked some distant recognition.
"…And that is how it is done," said another, instantly-recognizable voice.
The air warped and wobbled, and there was a purple-colored Kecleon effortlessly holding down the powerful Umbreon. A pair of green claws were holding Leo and Zachel in place. And while Ray was still reeling in the relief of knowing they'd not been in danger at all, he wondered who could be holding him prisoner…
He turned to find a very familiar Furret yanking the end of his tail. "Hi, Ray!" she squeaked. "Looks like I caught you again!"
"Okay, okay, seriously," grunted the frustrated Umbreon who'd long since given up struggling. "What was that all about, huh?! You nearly gave the kids a heart attack."
The smug purple-colored Kecleon brushed off his claws as he let the humiliated Umbreon back to his feet. "Oh, just consider it a training exercise!" he laughed. "We're here taking our new protégé out for a few lessons, and the warehouse lot is ripe pickings as always."
"The last thing we expected to encounter were rival thieves, but it was a welcome opportunity to demonstrate how we deal with them!" The green brother added. "So, what say you, Shadow Bandit? What have you learned from this?"
"That was so amazing…" gasped Fern, finally letting go of Ray's tail. "You turned on the lights so that they would hide and stop moving around. I never would have thought of that! If it were me, I'd have just stayed in the dark."
"The dark is only useful against some foes, young miss," said the shopkeeper. "Certainly not against an Umbreon."
Ray collapsed to the floor in breathless relief. "Ah. Ah! I was so ready to fight. Glad we don't have to fight yet. We still have to go out against the Watchers after all. I didn't want to waste too much energy!"
"Oh? What are you doing out so late, if I might presume to wonder?" Asked the green brother. "Anything in particular you need from these warehouses? We may be able to direct you to the correct place."
"We're rebuilding a run-down Watchers' bunker," Zachel explained. "We need construction supplies. Like skeleton bolts. Drills. Lights. Steel beams. That sort of thing."
Fern lit up instantly, and squirreled her way around the Pokémon to help Ray back to his feet. "Hey! How about we take care of it?" she offered with a great smile. "Yeah! You just tell us what you need and were we ship it to, and we'll get it there in the morning! You can wait until morning, can't you?"
"Y-yeah…! Morning should work! B…but…" Ray quickly glanced the two lizard Pokémon, but couldn't judge any sort of reaction from their faces. "We don't really have a lot of money at the moment. We couldn't pay Kecleon for all that! I was gonna have to barter stuff down to dirt-cheap but all the markets closed before we got back."
"Oh, how about I just pay for it?" Fern offered further. "You know I have more money than I know what to do with! And I really do need to repay you for what you've done. Being the Kecleons' partner is the best thing in the world, and I never would have gotten here if it wasn't for Team Ember. What do you think, Kabb, Kebb?"
"Hm! If it isn't such a monumental load of supplies you need, or such a long distance, we can arrange something, yes!" said the green brother. "…Say, this wouldn't happen to be the same bunker where we performed are little act, is it? It is the only bunker around here I would dare to call 'run-down'…"
"Yeah! Yeah, it is!" Ray excitedly answered. "Char wants us to fix that place up. That's why we're here."
"Ho, I say, we've reconstructed more than a few underground bases in our time," the green brother replied. "We'll bring everything you need! Leave it to us. We'll perform the delivery first thing in the morning! Just so long as someone's there to receive it!"
Ray smiled brightly. "Oh! Yeah, sounds like a deal to me. We're staying there all night, so we'll be there in the morning!"
The brother bowed. "Good, good! Now it would probably be best if you skedaddle your way back there before the Watchers arrive! That's a bit of a trek, isn't it? And besides, we've yet to finish our little lessons for the evening."
"Oh, and here."
The Ferret pulled something out of her supply bag and presented it to the Zangoose.
"What's this, now?" Zachel said, taking it tentatively.
"It's light! I heard you guys talking about how you needed light. So you can have my luminous orb. Don't even mention it! The brothers have hundreds of these, anyway."
With their task complete, but in a quite unexpected way, the supplies team quickly left the warehouse, sneaked back through the alleyways, and began their long walk to the new base, hoping they wouldn't encounter too many Watchers along the way. Raon, though, didn't look too thrilled with himself.
"At least you see I was right about Kecleon," he hissed as they left the city boundaries, their eyes already adjusting to the chilly darkness.
"You were right about something else too," Ray returned. "It did take bartering. I was just the one who needed to do it!"
Ray only had a singular moment to smile at his own comment before he noticed something rise out of the ground behind them…
"It has begun," Raon uttered quietly, picking up his pace. "Stick close. Very close. They usually take an hour to come out in the full swarm. We'll need to be in the bunker by then. Even the warriors who fight the Watchers for a living need to make sure they hide when the first swarm hits…"
"How come? Aren't they easier to fight right now?" Leo asked in worry.
"Because… it's like the weather. The stormclouds. You don't know where the dense swarms are going to be until they're already out. If you risk it… they could spring up all around you, and there aren't a lot of ways to get out of that…"
The Umbreon glanced at the Pokémon in tow, and his crimson eye shimmered as he noticed the Shuppet-like creature now staring at them from a dozen meters behind.
"Okay, so here's what we need to do," he said to them. "Line up in a straight line behind me. Try and follow my pawsteps exactly. And now… get ready to run."
Shelter
Char was very relieved when Raon and the three Pokémon in his care returned to the bunker. His flaring tail-flame made it difficult to hide how worried he'd been getting as the darkness turned absolute, the treetops became invisible against the clouds in the sky, and the Watchers rose to their nightly reign. It was too late for the sentries to report anything; he'd ordered Tallie and the other birds to return to cover for the night some two hours ago. He imagined the straggling teammates getting caught out on the road somewhere and surrounded by ghosts, and could only put his full faith in Raon to safely deliver his teammates to him.
Raon arrived with a surprising explosion from behind the tree-line. A pulse of dark-type energy swept the nearby Watchers away, and in its wake came the hurried procession of Pokémon into the safety of the tunnel.
"Ah! Finally! You made it!" Char cheered, casting light from his exuberant flame all across the room, as the working team of Pokémon murmured among themselves.
"Was there ever any doubt?" said the sly Umbreon. "You know I wasn't going to let your kiddos down, right?"
"Yeah, and fighting the Watchers isn't that hard after all!" said Leo. "You just have to run fast and not miss your attacks! I bet we could zap them all night, couldn't we, Ray?"
Gemstone hopped down from a large pile of dirt. "Alright, and your supplies are… where?" she questioned. "We dug half a hole, but we can't go any farther as-is. We were waiting on you."
"Oh, uh… supplies. They're coming in the morning!" Ray promised.
"But you have none right now? Nothing?" groaned the Nidoran. Then to the Umbreon, "Anyway, you were saying something about not letting us down?"
"Hey, lay off, we took care of it all," Raon said, standing up to her confrontation. "Shipments are coming in the morning. Trust me. Oh, and I do think we brought one thing… Right, Zachel?"
Zachel snagged the luminous orb from the bag, and gently tossed it toward the center of the chamber where it rolled and stopped beside the frozen flame.
"Oh… oh a light ball. It's something, I guess," said the bunny with detest. "No sense using it now, though. The rest of the work needs to be done from the outside. And I'm not going out there until the all-clear."
Char turned a pleased grin in the Umbreon's direction. "Well, since there's nothing else we can do on the bunker for now… I guess all that's left is to fight the Watchers. So… are you ready?"
Raon struck a pose. "Are you kidding? I've been ready since the moment –"
"…Actually, Raon… I wasn't talking to you," Char said with a mysterious little grin.
Raon oddly back-stepped at the comment. "…Oh…? Then who…"
He turned to find a certain meek little Vulpix approaching from his side. "I'm… as ready as I'll be, Char," he reported with a deep sigh. "So… if I show you… then I'm staying on the team… for certain?"
"That's right! You sure are," Char told him. "That's what we agreed on. Ray told me enough about you already. I know you'd make a good teammate. But this is something I need to see for myself. And that's actually why I brought us all here to a place where it's easy to fight the Watchers. I want everyone to see it, too!"
"Uh… wait, am I missing something…?" Raon said, giving a weird look at the passing fox. "Show us what? What do you want to show us, exactly? This had better not be something dangerous. The Watchers aren't something you should play around with, Char…"
"Oh, this isn't play!" said Ray. "He's going to show us how he fights the Watchers!"
"…Wait… you?" Raon stammered. "But you're so… how should I say this… small?"
"You're a bit small yourself, you doofus," said Kerzek, following behind Zona.
Raon hung his mouth open for a moment. "…Hey! Who're you calling… Hey! I'm an Eon, I'm naturally small! For your information, I'm the biggest Eon I know!"
The Umbreon wore a befuddled look as the whole room full of Pokémon filed past him and down the entrance tunnel, following the lead of Char and Zona.
At the very same time as a certain Bulbasuar hundreds of kilometers to the south-east sat at the mouth of his den and stared forlornly up at the stars, so did his old and beloved partner, the human-turned-Charmander, stand just within the door of the Watcher-bunker and behold a monstrous cloud of the ghosts blocking his view of the sky. Though so very far apart, they together prepared to face their ultimate fears of the darkness in their own separate ways, finding the courage to push back against those monsters who'd oppressed their lives and freedoms perhaps even more than the Master ever had.
And while a few razor-leaves were enough to show Saura his own inner strength, Char had an entire team to defend. He needed something a bit more… potent.
"This only works… three times in four, I think," Zona calmly told Char as the rest of the Pokémon crowded around them. "Sometimes I can't focus right. And sometimes I'm just too tired. I used to only be able to do it one-in-four times, but… I had practice."
"You feel okay now, though?" Leo asked, softly brushing a paw on Zona's back. "Think you can do it?"
"…Yeah, I can," Zona said, exuding all his confidence. "I… need to. Char needs to see this."
Ray was already giggling. "Oh, I can't wait to see the look on everyone's face…! This is so cool!" he cheered.
"Alright, honestly, you're starting to weird me out," Raon said in exasperated worry, standing near the front of the line, where the Watcher-cloud loomed ominously just a few steps in front of their faces. "What exactly are you trying to pull here, Zona?"
"…You'll see," Char only replied.
"…Yeah, I'm sure I will," said Raon, rolling his eyes. "For your information, if you all get massacred because of this, it's going to be counted as my fault, alright? I think I'm allowed to have a say in this, wouldn't you?"
"I have a… well… everyone calls it a 'hidden power'," Zona explained quietly. "Pokémon with hidden powers can have a strength with an element that isn't normally theirs. And mine is psychic-type. I think I… got it from the egg. From my mother. She had very strong psychic powers, and I think she passed them to me…"
Zona hung his head ever-so-slightly, but Leo was quick to nuzzle the little fox in the neck. "Awww…! Don't think too hard about your mother, okay? Don't let it hurt…"
"It's okay, Leo," Zona sighed. "I guess I… never explained it to you, have I?"
"Explained what?" asked Leo.
"How I make the light happen," he said simply. "I try to remember Mother and Father. They're the memories I use to focus the power. Memories of… love." He took a sharp, confident step forward. "Love can protect… Love can hurt… Sometimes it can comfort and hurt at the same time. And sometimes… it can conquer."
From the tiny Vulpix, there came a burst of light brighter than any luminous orb. It made only a soft rumble like distant thunder as it displaced surrounding air, followed by the garbled and warped sounds of what had to be the voices of the Watchers…
When it was over, Zona's eyes were still blank-white with the powerful glow of white-fire and sunlight.
And in the surrounding forest… it had become daytime.
Even knowing what to possibly expect, Char was positively stunned at this display of power. He knew that the sun hadn't suddenly risen, and time hadn't just suddenly jumped forward… yet the grass and trees outside the den were cast in something indistinguishable from raw daylight. The light only seemed to linger in the air with no source, streaming radiantly into the tunnel like rays from the morning sun.
"I can sustain this for about an hour," said Zona, still with ghastly-white eyes. "If you need to finish digging your hole, you can do that now."
Char was almost as starry-eyed as the proud little Vulpix. He could hardly fathom the mighty show of power he'd just witnessed. Such spectacular power, all from a tiny little fox…
It's almost like the Call, Char realized. This is what the Call would look like, if it were visible…
The Umbreon standing next to Char was just as floored. "I… I'm… Holy flames of Solgaleo! I've only ever seen Alakazam himself do something like this…" With a jealous snort, he added, "Okay Char, so remind me why you even need me? You seem to have a good team of your own going here… Uhh… dare I might say it, but if this kid can keep it up… that'd make him a better watcher-slayer than me. Don't tell anyone I said that, by the way…"
"…Oh, we'll still need you," Char assured him with a very pleased smile. "We won't always get to rely on Zona. Like he says, it only works three out of four times… So we need you to teach us what we should do the rest of the time."
Raon flicked his tail. "…Fair enough. But holy gods, Char. This kid was on Team Stripes this whole time? Holy gods."
And though nobody else noticed it, Char and Eva shared a sly smile with one another. Things were coming together nicely now, and they both knew it.
Soon, Char would have a larger, capable team…
A dozen reliable Pokémon who could carry out the daily mission-work for Team Ember, tackle their team's bulletin board head-on…
And that meant Char could finally focus wholeheartedly on the things that mattered most: learning to read, finding Giratina, utilizing the Call, and figuring out what part of Ambera he had wanted to change before giving up his memories and his humanity.
Maybe defeating the Master. Maybe saving the world.
And though it was wishful thinking, and he kind of wanted to hide the thoughts from Eva…
Maybe somehow, when the time came, he could still save the world with Saura at his side.