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Chapter 84
Part 2
We were almost ready to leave for the mission, Ray had his supply bag and everything, but he stopped and turned around at the last moment.
"Wait! We're forgetting something!" he shouted. "Actually, we're forgetting someone!"
He dug through his bag and pulled out a very tiny pouch. Out of the pouch, he pulled a large silver coin.
"My brother left me a teleport compass," he explained, showing the coin to us. "These help Pokémon teleport to a place they've never gone before. He left me instructions telling me where to teleport from, but we still need a Pokémon who can teleport. Wow… imagine if we got all the way to Ion Plains and we couldn't even do anything because we forgot to bring a teleport user! That would have been pretty silly!"
I thought, oh wow! I didn't realize we were going to be going on a teleporting mission. Who could go with us? Who could help us?
We went to go ask Char who we could take along. So he did some talking with his teammates and did some more talking with other Pokémon, and we wound up with Canniah, the big Arcanine from Team Flamewheel. I had no idea Arcanine could learn to teleport, and apparently neither did anyone else, since the first thing she told us was not to tell anyone else her secret. Because when a Pokémon can teleport, apparently everyone wants to make you do it all the time, and it's a lot more dangerous than it looks like. But Canniah said she was willing to do this favor for Char, especially after saving Prince and most of her team at Basin Canyon.
But the best part? Once we got out of the base and told Canniah where we were going, she said "Alright, hop on." And we all got to ride on her like she's a giant Rapidash! And she runs so fast I felt like I was riding Raikou! The kilometers just faded away in a blur. I rode dragonback once and I don't think even they went this fast! I started to wonder if I could carry Pokémon like this when I became a Luxray. Could I really run this fast? I'd love to give rides to all my friends!
So then we got to Ion Plains…
I'd never been to a real electric-type habitat before. I didn't know how they were even special. Was it stormy? Did everything give you static sparks whenever you'd touch them? Well… you know that feeling when there's a big thunderstorm pushing in, even if you can't see it yet, you can feel it in the air? Well Ion Plains was just like that, all the time. It felt sooo good. Like the single moment you'd lose any charges, the ground would just spark some static at you and give you more. Of course, as soon as we arrived, Canniah made all us electric-types get off her back because her fur was getting really full of static.
I hoped that the ions would help Ray feel better. And I think it actually did, for a while! So I stopped worrying about him.
As for how it looked, it was a huge flat area with a lot of hard dirt and only small patches of really tiny grass that barely even got up to my ankles. No trees anywhere. Occasionally there were big flat chunks of shale or something, and sometimes there were big patches of dry shrubs that already died in the cold weather. Apparently there was an actual residential area somewhere around with underground houses closer to Harvesting Town, but that isn't where we were going. We needed to go somewhere on the wild side. And if it weren't for the charges everywhere, it would have looked like the most dull and boring place in Ambera.
"Just as a warning, we might need to watch out for wild animals," Ray said. "When I was young, there was a whole pride of Luxray that roamed around here and they got pretty territorial, so whenever we came out here to catch lightning in the storms, we'd have to stick together to chase them away. But I hear they've since been chased out by an even bigger and meaner pack of Manectric, so we need to be careful."
"I'm assuming that's why you brought me along," Gemstone said. "I'm going to earth power the daylights out of them."
While Ray was feeling better for now, I was kind of starting to get worried about Gemstone. Ever since she evolved, she's been really quiet. When she was smaller, she was a little mean and strong-headed but at least she was confident in herself. Now, I wasn't so sure.
"Hey, you doing alright, Gemstone?" I asked her when I had a moment. Ray was busy looking for a very specific rock in the field, which was tough because there were like twelve of them all around us.
"I'm fine," Gemstone said. But usually when Pokémon answer that way, they aren't fine at all. So I tried to think of something else to say.
"You've been really quiet since you came back from Basin Canyon," I commented, trying to sound as innocent and kind as possible. "Did the evolving go well? Or do you just have a lot on your mind?"
"Lot on my mind," Gemstone replied. "I guess I've also been trying to do less talking and more listening to other Pokémon. I was always trying to make everyone else give me respect, and I never realized just how exhausting it was. And if I'm going to be a dragon, I've got to be better than that."
"You – what?" I repeated. Pretty sure I didn't hear that right.
"You know. For Dragonbane," she said. "And for… certain other Pokémon too."
I had to smile, because I was starting to see what she was talking about. It was just like I always told myself, and why I try so hard to stay positive all the time. It rubs off on your teammates like static. It doesn't matter what the situation is, if it's scary or difficult, or if Pokémon are being mean to you, or if something's gone really wrong… Pokémon are always the best version of themselves when they're being positive. I know sometimes it's okay to be sad for a little while, and sometimes you fight harder when you're angry. But when everything's all over and you need to get back to being yourself again, you need a battery to help you charge back up. And that's why Ray and I are here. We need to be those batteries of positivity that area always there just in case anyone else ever needs it.
So I think that's what Gemstone was starting to realize about herself. I know she likes being a leader. Maybe not a team leader, but a squad leader who is put in charge of directing missions. I think she started to realize that she makes a better squad leader, or maybe just a better Gemstone, when she's being someone that other Pokémon can look up to and have confidence in. And that's awesome. I know we don't have a real dragon on the team, at least until Char evolves, sort of, but I really liked the whole idea of acting like a dragon as a pillar of strength for your teammates. Very cool!
"Is that what you wished for when you evolved?" I asked. "To be a dragon on the inside for everyone else?"
"Huh?" she asked. "You mean with Jirachi? Nah, Jirachi doesn't grant wishes at the evolving ceremony."
I shook my head. "Nah! I mean your evolution wish!" I told her, kind of surprised that she didn't already know this. "They say that when you evolve, you can make a wish about the kind of Pokémon you will turn into. And the evolution will grant your wish and make you a little bit more like the Pokémon you've always wanted to be. Like if you want really bad to be stronger, you'll be stronger. Or if you want really bad to have more confidence or more courage or something like that, that'll happen too. You just have to wish for it really bad while you're evolving."
"Sounds like a silly myth for children," Gemstone said.
"Well okay, yeah, maybe it sort of is, but I like to imagine it's real!" I insisted. "And it kind of came true for some Pokémon I know! Sort of!"
"Fine, then I'll keep it in mind for when I evolve next, and I'll tell you if it came true for me or not," Gemstone said. Then she looked at me funny and said, "What about you? What's your evolving wish going to be?"
I wasn't expecting that question! Especially not from her! "Um, I don't really know!" I told her. "I don't usually think about it, to be honest. I always thought that I'd realize what my wish is supposed to be when it happens."
"You don't really think about yourself too often, do you?" Gemstone said. "You seem to prefer being considerate of other Pokémon rather than yourself."
I felt bashful hearing that. "Yeah, I guess that's true," I told her kind of reluctantly. "I don't know why. I guess it's just… I don't really have any big problems of my own? I'm perfectly fine, I'm not really sad about anything, both Team Ember and Team Stripes have been better families to me than I ever could have asked for. Sometimes I need help and I ask for help, but other than that, I try to just look for ways to help everyone else. That's just how I've always been."
"Heh. That's exactly the kind of mentality I'm trying to learn for myself right now." she said, sort of just as reluctantly as me. "Just… simple humility. Maybe I'll have to take some examples from you."
Aww, how flattering! I don't usually hear anyone say they were taking examples from me before. Usually it was the other way around.
We would have talked more, but we ran into the Manectric pack we were afraid of finding. Or rather, there were four of them. They'd just killed a bird and they were fiercely defending it. Canniah might have been able to chase them all away, but Manectric are really fast and they could have surrounded her before anyone knew what was going on. Also, if they get too angry, they create their own thunderstorms! Which wasn't very hard to do in a place like this. I didn't think that Canniah would have liked to get rained on, though.
But that's why Gemstone was here. For the first time since she evolved, I saw her step forward in a battle stance. She looked so calm, so focused. I could tell she was trying to figure out how close she could get to the enemies before they would attack. Then she stood on her hind legs, charged power into one of her front paws, and slammed it down into the ground. When she did it, it was like the old, furiously angry Gemstone was back for just a moment.
I felt a reverberation, but nothing happened right away. Then, it was like a volcano! The ground underneath the front Manectric just burst open and exploded almost as loudly as a thunderbolt! The leader was tossed really high up in the air and the others got hit hard with shrapnel from a stone that had exploded along with the ground. The pack got freaked out and confused, and decided to just bolt. Thankfully this wasn't a mystery dungeon, and the enemies weren't going to fight us until they passed out.
Even Ray and Canniah were awestruck at the powerful attack, probably imagining how much it would have stung to have been hit by it themselves. I know I sure was.
"Harder than it looks," Gemstone said as she looked back at everyone staring. "It's like trying to toss a rock and hit something, except you're tossing it into the ground and it falls upward… Seems that I can make them a bit bigger now."
I wanted to tell her, 'You know how we were talking about you trying to be more humble? Well, never ever be humble about those awesome earth power attacks. You deserve to be proud of them!' But I didn't because I decided it would sound too silly.
We searched the plains for about half an hour more. Ray was trying to remember the routes he had scurried as a little mouse in his older brother's care. He seemed to remember some rocks really vividly, but he couldn't seem to decide which one was the rock that the treasure hunt was pointing towards.
"I swear it was this one!" he said to himself. "But I don't remember that other rock being over there. Auuughhh, why does my memory have to be so terrible now when I need it the most?"
"Hey, can't we just try the compass on all the rocks and see where it works?" I wondered.
But Canniah told me the answer to that. "That's not how teleport compasses work," she said. "It only tells me a direction, and a distance. If I start at the wrong place, I'm going to warp to the wrong place. And warping to the wrong place is bad news. Defeats the whole purpose of the compass."
Well, I certainly had no way of helping with that. Ray was the one who needed to get the location correct. I never lived here.
But that didn't stop me from trying anyway.
"Ray, what did the note say, exactly?" I asked.
"It said to stand on the rock where I stood on his shoulders," Ray described plainly. "The place where I stood on my brother's shoulders and he helped me catch my first lightning bolt."
I thought about that for a moment. I focused my eyes on all the flat, gray rocks embedded in the ground, trying to imagine if any of them were big enough for a Pichu standing on top of a Raichu.
"My brother actually put most of these here, or at least had a friend do it for him" Ray said, pointing to another one. "Slabs of groundstone. Perfect insulators. They help you catch lightning from the sky. But… he didn't place all of them. Now I just have to remember… Where was I?"
Ray was starting to worry again. I could feel it and I could hear it in his voice. I hoped it was just because he was having trouble finding the right stone. But I couldn't ignore it for much longer. He was worried about something else.
I had to help him.
I thought for a moment. "Hey! You said you were catching lightning, right?" I said. "Does that mean there was a lightning storm?"
"Yeah… but… it was too fast," Ray replied, scurrying from one groundstone slab to another. "I could barely keep up. Rautzen had to carry me the rest of the way that I couldn't run myself. If only I had run the whole path myself, maybe I would have remembered more clearly… but… ah… I wonder if the stone is even still here? Any ground-types could have moved it… or blown it up…"
Soon we ran into even more Manectric. Wow, they really were everywhere. I wasn't really surprised, though. That's like being surprised that fish live in a lake.
"I think we're getting closer," Ray said. "We've got to chase these things away. I think it's over here. Gemstone, you're up again."
"Gladly," Gemstone said with evil glee. She stepped forward past the front of our little group to confront the Manectric, about six of them this time, and a few Electrike with them. Ouch, parents with children? We had to be careful here, or these wilds would get super annoyed.
I had an idea.
"Hey, Gemstone," I said, skipping merrily up to her. "Before you attack, listen to my idea."
"Your idea? What, you think you've got a better way to chase them away?" She replied, not breaking her focus on the way she was aiming her attack.
"Nope!" I said cheerily. "Actually, the opposite of that! Instead of blowing them up, blow up the ground around them! Keep them trapped in the same place!"
"What's the point of that?" She muttered. "That's just going to get them really aggressive and dangerous."
"Exactly!" I shouted. "There's enough of them there that they can easily start a thunderstorm if we can get them angry enough."
"And why do we want to start a thunderstorm, exactly?" Gemstone grumbled. "Seems unpleasant to me."
"Because the stone that Ray is looking for, he first visited during a thunderstorm," I told her, kind of loudly enough so that Ray could listen too. "So maaaaybe if we make a new thunderstorm, it will help him remember?"
"Interesting idea! I'm willing to try that," Ray said. "But watch out, they'll still try to attack us, maybe,"
"I think I can handle this," Gemstone asserted as she adjusted her aim. "Alright, close your ears and get ready for some fun."
With masterful aim, Gemstone galloped in place and sent a shockwave down through the ground. It exploded right in front of the biggest group of Manectric. They all screeched and began scattering, and some got away. But most of them weren't fast enough to outrun Gemstone as she sent even more. Pow! Pow! went the ground all around the pack, each explosion making the most satisfying popping sound you can imagine other than maybe a perfect lightning bolt hitting a really tall tree. Soon they were furious and terrified, not knowing where to run or who to attack.
When they got angry enough, the Manectric did what they are known for. They discharged a huge ground-to-sky stream of lightning, which several of the other pack members joined in on. And so did I, just for fun. The few clouds that were already there, they started swirling together like a weird sky hurricane that grew bigger and bigger until it covered the whole sky in a dark blanket. So exciting! The Ion Plains seemed like it existed in a constant state of perfect conditions for a storm, and now I was actually going to see a storm happen. I couldn't wait to see what this place would look like with a huge dark sky and huge powerful rumbles of calamity, the raw might of nature, rippling through the dark boiling clouds!
I was so excited, I even completely forgot about the two other Pokémon who I'm sure weren't the least bit thrilled to get caught in a thunderstorm on an electric-charged plain. And apparently Ray was more excited than I am, because as soon as dark clouds totally blocked out all sunlight, and the rumbling and flashing of the great unbalanced ions in the sky began to make itself known, Ray's eyes just glazed over and he really turned into a field mouse, zipping around like a Zigzagoon from rock to rock, following something invisible.
The Manectric pack thought their thunderstorm was doing its job and chasing us away, so they didn't bother us anymore as we followed Ray back in the other direction. Gemstone visibly shuddered as the first huge drops of rain struck her in the head. One raindrop smacked me in the face and I immediately understood why: this rain was icy cold! Makes sense, considering the state of the upper atmosphere at this time of year, but I really felt sorry for Gemstone getting caught in this and kind of regretted even suggesting it. At least Canniah had her fire to keep her warm.
It was like Ray just forgot we were even here. He was dashing and darting around like he was following old memories of his brother, or maybe invisible electric currents in the air. In fact he started getting kind of far away from us, like the charges from the storm were making him run faster. I don't blame him! I realized I wanted to run off into the storm too, but I didn't want to get lost in the middle of nowhere and run into angry Manectric, so I had to stay put.
"C'mon, let's go," Canniah finally said, indicating she wanted us to get on her back again.
And it's a good thing we did, because I completely lost sight of Ray by the time Canniah started chasing him. Let me tell you! It's really something riding a huge fuzzy Arcanine through a broiling rainstorm that seems like it wants to drop a lightning bolt on my head the first chance it gets. I feel like I want to do it again sometime, just for fun! But maybe instead of an Arcanine, maybe a Luxray or something else that likes the thunderstorms as much as I do…
We were all soaking wet and miserable because of the cold by the time we caught up with Ray. He was standing on a big huge rock just looking up at the sky.
"HERE!" he called to us. "IT'S THIS ONE!"
"You sure about this?" Canniah said. "Remember, we only get one shot. I don't even know if this is a two-way compass. We might have to hope your brother left us another compass that gets us back."
Ray looked at the sky and said, I think to himself… "I'm kinda scared… I'm not going to die, am I?"
He looked down at us and said, raising his voice over the pouring rain:
"Yes. I'm sure. Absolutely sure. This is where it happened."
And so without standing in the rain for any longer, and without spending any more time risking a smack on the head from a bolt of lightning, Canniah hopped up onto the groundstone slab, boosted Ray up to stand on her head, and used the teleport compass.
…
…
…
We were in a dungeon. Not a mystery dungeon… I think. No. Just a dark, dusty basement. A pretty big one too. Big enough that I think it accounted for small errors in the trip. Because that's what teleporting Pokémon are afraid of: teleporting into solid things. Instantly amputating whatever body parts they collide with. Eughh!
…Hey, I wonder if they could teleport with a mobile scarf? Would that help make it safer? Has someone already thought of that before? Hm. I'll have to ask about that later.
The ceiling of this basement was too high to see. The ground was made of huge, deep red, long rectangle bricks that were about as cold underpaw as the icy rain that we just got out of. The only light was coming from Ray's glow-in-the-dark fur that he charged up in the thunderstorm.
We all dismounted Canniah and she gave a huge shake, spraying water everywhere. The water that came from Canniah's fur wasn't so cold anymore, like a nice warm shower, so it didn't bother me much. Then she blew a stream of fire into the air in front of her. It disappeared instantly, but it gave us all a good view of the room for a moment. It even kind of burned into my mind and somehow my Luxray vision helped me remember where the walls were.
"It's empty," Ray said, scampering around. "This whole room is empty. There's no treasure here…"
"There's a door," Gemstone reported. "I can hear it from over here."
"You can hear a door…?" I said.
"Yeah. I can hear the airflow. What little is here," Gemstone explained. "This probably isn't where the treasure is. We probably need to hunt around for it."
"Oooh… a real-life hidden treasure hunt! In a dark scary dungeon!" I cheered. "And not a mystery dungeon for once! This is super exciting!"
"Hate to break it to you, but we don't actually know that yet," Canniah muttered at me. "For all we know, this could be a mystery dungeon. Especially if it's been uninhabited for over a decade."
Well… okay, sure. But I was actually just trying to project excitement onto everyone. Because I could already tell that we needed all the courage and focus and good things that come from positivity.
We followed close behind Gemstone and used Ray as a night-light. Sure enough, there was a door. It took us to some really ridiculously steep stairs, also made of the same bricks, and they were kind of lopsided like an earthquake had shifted them or something. But we had no other choice but to climb them.
It was almost as though these stairs were not built with Pokémon in mind. At all. Or at least diverse Pokémon. Maybe very specific Pokémon. Two-legged Pokémon? Or…
Humans, maybe? Nah, that's impossible. Everyone knows humans can't even come to Ambera. Though I started to wonder if maybe they could teleport here? Nah, that didn't make any sense at all. Otherwise Ambera would be full of humans…
But when we got to the top of the stairs, we started to see more light coming from deeper down the hallway. And the smells started to smell less dusty and mildewy and more like a comfortable home.
A comfortable home. With a pleasant little fireplace and a nice stockpile of foods and spices somewhere nearby. That's what I smelled as we got closer.
"Where are we, exactly?" Gemstone hissed. "Did your brother leave you any clues, whatsoever?"
"We're in a city that isn't on the map of Ambera," Ray replied. "That's all I know."
"Ray… I wonder… I wonder if Rautzen is actually here?!" I gasped. "Maybe this is where he's been hiding this whole time?"
"…Naah, Rautzen left Ambera a long time ago," Ray sighed. "And he's never coming back. But maybe this is a place where his friend lives, or something. He said that a treasure hunter lives here who will give us the money. Only one way to find out."
So we got to the end of the hallway, only to find another staircase, just as stiff, steep, lopsided, and badly designed as the first one. I realized, wow, we're way underground, aren't we? Maybe Rautzen dug this whole place out? Just for the teleport compass?
And at the top of those stairs, there was a door. A weird, small, wooden, rectangular door that just barely looked large enough for Canniah to fit through. There was warm yellow light bleeding through the cracks around the door. I could instantly tell it was electrical light. While I tried my x-ray vision on the door, Ray hopped up the rest of the stairs and lightly knocked on the door.
There was no answer. But Ray said, "Shh. There's someone in there…" and very slowly, carefully turned the knob, a weird circular knob with no handlebar, and pushed the door open.
Inside… it was the weirdest and most alien room I'd ever seen in my life.
The room was all cramped and boxy, but perfectly tidy and furnished with the weirdest furniture you can imagine. Tiny chairs that most Pokémon could never hope to sit on. A floor made out of glassy, slippery tiles. Tiny little wooden decorations lining the walls.
Was this… a kitchen? It had an icebox that closed all the way, a cooking fireplace with no fuel or coals, I think… A water fountain that pointed down instead of up…
It did all smell wonderful, though. Like nice dry spices. Kind of made me hungry.
Canniah decided she couldn't follow us into this weird kitchen place. She'd bump into everything and break stuff. And it did look like there were lots of breakables here. In the display cabinets, there were tiny bowls and plates that were displayed with such reverence as though they were magical artifacts.
We tiptoed through this place following Ray best as we could. I heard weird sounds constantly coming from the walls – all the walls, as though there were machines inside of the walls. Freaky. Were there ghost Pokémon working here?
Past the kitchen – which I don't know if it was really a kitchen, but I'm going to call it that anyway – there was an even weirder room. A bed-pad of some kind that was long and bent in the middle, but it looks very cozy. A whole bunch of thin furniture carved out of wood. And even weirder… a whole bunch of electrical objects! I could feel the currents inside of them. They were definitely electrical. But I had never seen objects like this before. I had no idea how they were supposed to function. One looked huge and flat, like a picture frame with no picture in it. Another looked like a torch fixture with a weird, tiny lantern in it.
I was getting shivers. This was not familiar. Nothing about this was familiar. And yet, it all seemed so organized and cozy and pleasant, that it was definitely home to someone. Just, that someone was not me. And it apparently wasn't Gemstone or Ray either, as they had these "What the heck is all this?!" faces the entire time we explored this place.
At last, we came to a room that I actually did recognize immediately when I saw it: an office. It had everything that an office is supposed to have: library shelves lined with books, writing tables, desks with storage spaces, and plenty of lighting. It even had a soft red carpet and dark brown walls made of some sort of fake wood. Suddenly I was comfortably back in the Gold Division, kind of. Or maybe in someone's house in Harvesting Town. But I wasn't in… whatever that was that we just walked through. I actually understood what I was looking at, and it made me feel lots more comfortable.
Lastly, I realized there was a Pokémon in this room. A Hypno. It was sitting at the desk, writing something. It was so engrossed in writing whatever it was writing, that it didn't even notice us. Except somehow it did.
"Raikouun. You're late," muttered the Hypno, not even looking up from his work.
Ray froze his tracks. "Um… Hi?" he said meekly. "Who are – "
"I am Egor," said the Hypno, sounding dull and uninterested. "Yes… I knew your brother."
"Yeah? You did?" Ray choked out. "Is he…?"
"He waited for you," said Egor. "He waited for many years, until he could wait no longer. About three years ago, he passed away."
"…Oh," said Ray, going totally silent. "…Oh. So he was here…?"
"You were promised a meeting with a treasure hunter who would give you the treasure," Egor said. "Rautzen was that treasure hunter. He wanted to personally give you the treasure."
"So… he never… actually… left Ambera…?" Ray tried to say. Oh, I could feel the positive ions spreading across him fast.
"Of course he left Ambera," Egor grunted. "The place where you now stand is not Ambera."
"I'm… not in Ambera?" repeated Ray weakly.
"This is the human lands," Egor said. "This is the Kanto region. I live in this cottage now with my human master. Rautzen hired me to perform the long and strenuous task of enchanting the compass which brought you here. It took two years of nonstop travel, but the price was right, so I agreed to it."
Ray was starting to get tears in his eyes. They were rubbing off on me.
"Listen… Egor… I just want to know one thing…" Ray said slowly. "My brother… did he… live a happy life? At the end, I mean?"
"Yes, and no," sighed Egor. "His only regret was never getting to see you again one last time. It was a very deep regret, and his last request, given to me with tears in his eyes, was to tell you to stay strong. But he stayed active and comfortably occupied until the end. The amenities of Saffron City were more than enough to provide him with a pleasant retirement. I wouldn't feel bad for him. He wouldn't have wanted it."
"O… okay," Ray whispered, visibly shaking under the weight of so many positive ions. "Well, this is… a lot. So uh…"
"Wait a moment," said the Hypno as he sat up from the desk. He clawed at the books on the nearby shelf, and took one of them down. He then turned to Ray and looked at him, and all of us, for the first time, though he didn't really seem interested in what he saw. He handed Ray a little card of some kind.
"Your inheritance is kept safe in the Gold Division's treasury," he explained in low monotone. "It has always been there. This account card will allow you to claim ownership of it. But your inheritance was never truly the treasure which your brother wanted to give you. The treasure was…"
"…To be with him again, one last time," Ray realized, his voice breaking. "That's all he ever wanted… he just wanted to say goodbye and I took too long to get here…"
Ray dropped the account card on the floor, and he suddenly clung tightly to Egor as though he were Rautzen. Egor just froze in place and kind of let it happen. "Thank you… for staying here, and for waiting for me," Ray said earnestly. "I would give this hug to him, if he were here, but I'll give it to you. Thank you for looking out for him. For being his friend. And for making that compass for him. Thank you so much for making him happy however you could."
"Funny… he said nearly the same thing to me, once upon a time, about you," said Egor. "Are you sure you are not twins?"
"No. I'm not sure. I've never been sure," Ray sniffled, clinging to him more tightly.
"While I appreciate the gestures of affection, I would like to ask that you and your friends leave the way you came, as soon as possible," Egor said. "My human master will be home from work shortly. I do not wish to explain your presence to him. The compass works both ways, so simply use it in the cellar again."
"Okay. I will," Ray whispered. "I'll never forget you, Egor. What you've done for my brother means more than you realize."
"For that, I will take your word," he replied in the same drawl. "And I suppose I will never forget you, either. Really, I cannot, not after my late friend spent most of his waking hours talking about you."
So, that was that. Ray took the account card and put it into his magical bag, the bag he brought that had almost no supplies, which he was expecting to need to stuff full of coins and valuable things. We returned to Canniah, who was waiting for us in the stairwell. We descended the stairs down into the deep dark cellar, making sure to close the door behind us. And that was it for our visit to the human lands, and the weird human house we had to walk through.
Or at least it should have been. Before we all got back onto Canniah to warp back to Ambera…
Ray just… collapsed on the floor. Right there in front of all of us.
Crying. Crying so loud. Bawling his eyes out.
"Ray… what's wrong?!" I screeched, as soon as I realized what was happening. I bounced over to him and gave him my fiercest nuzzle, I sparked him with all my negative ions, and I just… let him cuddle against me. "I'm so sorry we didn't make it to see your brother, but there's no way we could have even known," I whispered.
"No… No, Leo, that's not it," Ray sniffed in between his labored wails. "I… I… Leo… I'm dying, Leo. I'm dying. Just like him."
"…What?" I breathed. "Ray… what are you talking about?"
"I… I… I… I have a virus," he sobbed. "It makes your lifespan shorter… that's why Rautzen died already… and I'm going to die too… before I ever get to see Char's team become great, before I ever get to join Team Remorse… I'm going to die… before I ever get to even spend all the money he left me… I… I… I don't want to die! I want to be there for them! They need me! But I… I won't be there anymore…"
Ray completely broke down from there. He tore himself away from me and just slammed his head onto the floor and made crying sounds that I didn't even think were possible for a Pokémon to make, much less Ray, my idol, whom I always looked up to as the shining example of happiness and positivity…
And I was looking at him there. I felt so, so, so helpless. Like… here's Ray, one of my all-time favorite Pokémon in the world. And he's… just dead inside. So broken. So lost. So alone. And there's nothing I can do. I'm just a little Shinx. I can't pull him out of this hole. I can't take away his virus and give him his long life back. I can't… I can't do anything. All I can do… is watch him. Watch his spirit utterly die right there in front of me.
I couldn't take it.
I just couldn't take it.
By the gods above, you have no idea how badly I was panicking just then. Like my entire world was falling apart. Like it already had fallen apart and I had to put it back together with nothing but my paws.
I just… couldn't take it.
Even though I couldn't do anything. I had to do something.
I jumped at the bag that Ray dropped when he started crying so hard. I didn't tell anyone this, but I had brought something of my own in there with me. I pawed through the bag as fast as I could, and I yanked out a second little pouch with my teeth. I tore it open, until the feral-shard inside dropped out.
I put both of my front paws on that shard. I closed my eyes. And I made my wish.
Please, I said. Please, evolution stone! Please grant my wish!
Please… give me some way… any way… to help Ray. Because I have no idea how. I can't think of any way possible I can help him.
Please give me some way. Please give me some idea. Please give me the power to rescue him from this darkness.
Please. Please!
It's all I want. Just to make Pokémon happy. Pokémon like him.
Please give me this power.
And so I gave into the power of change, and I evolved into Luxio right then and there. When I woke up from the trance, I realized Ray was still crying just as badly.
I also realized the evolution stone had granted my wish. I knew how to help him. I knew just what to say.
So I padded forward toward him. I bent down and gave him a little zap from my nose to his. He looked up at me and tried to stop crying for a moment. I think he was surprised that I changed.
"Ray," I said to him in my new, slightly deeper voice. "Raikouun. My hero, my idol. Please listen to me. I need you to know something."
He was listening to me. So I looked him deeply in the eyes. And I meant what I said next.
"I don't know if you realize this, but I've been paying attention to you," I told him. "I've been learning from you. I've been learning how you spread your cheer to everyone around you. I've seen the way you make Char and Saura stronger and better just by being there. And I don't know if you've realized this, but I've been copying you every step of the way. I've been doing everything you do, in my own little way, however I can manage. So I want you to know something, Raikouun: you are not going to die young. No matter what happens to you, be it a stupid virus that you and your brother had taking your life away, or anything else… you aren't going to die. Because you, your spirit, is going to live on in me. In everything I do and everything I am. I will be the spark of joy to Team Ember long after you are gone, for as long as my lifespan carries me, and you will have been the one who taught me how to play that role. I just want you to know that. So please… keep being you, keep teaching me how to keep my smile bright and everyone else's smiles bright. And I'll remember every last thing you teach me forever. And for as long as I am alive, you will never ever die."
It worked.
Saying that, somehow, brought Ray's smile back to his face. Like a miracle, it turned his sobs of despair right into happy laughter. And he clung to me like I, in that one moment, was his best friend in the whole world.
Actually… I realize what happened now. It was like I had become his little brother. He could now be Rautzen, and I could now be Ray. And he could teach me things the way his brother taught me. The only difference is that there isn't a dumb Pokérus virus standing in my way of a long and happy life.
Once again, a Pokémon made a wish upon their evolution, wishing to be a better version of who they already are. And, how mysteriously and inexplicably it might seem, that wish was granted.
…
…
…
Once we withdrew the money we needed from the treasury, we summoned Hunter back to the secret base. Even he had this most amazing grin on his face as he looked at the pile of gold, like he knew he was going to earn every bit of that gold by being the best hunter in the whole world.
"Very well, then," he said with a spark of glee, smiling at Char, Saura, and his own little team of servants. "I seem to have everything I might need. So then, without waiting another moment…"
"Let the great hunt begin."