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Chapter 85
Part 1
I've noticed that Pokémon, generally speaking, never ask one another about their ages. Personally I'm thankful for it; I'm honestly not sure how I'd answer that question.
How old am I, exactly? It's complicated. Is it the age of my soul, or the age of my body, that I'm expected to count? And speaking of which, how old is my body, exactly? I didn't hatch from an egg; I was placed into a Cyndaquil body I'm assuming was many years past its infancy at the moment of my reincarnation. Was this a wild animal before I was placed here, or was this form specially crafted by Giratina just for me? Did it pop into existence instantaneously? Do I count my reincarnation as my birthday? Or, rather, my hatchingday?
I'm glad these questions ultimately don't matter much. I've never been one for abstract philosophy. I'm content just to enjoy my new existence as a fire elemental without thinking too hard about it.
But here in the Pokémon world, we judge venerability by appearance. That's why evolution is such a big deal. By evolving, a Pokémon conveys their desire and expectation for the world to revere them as an adult. Whether they deserve such revere is another question altogether, but we seem to unanimously grant the benefit of the doubt, if only because a bigger, stronger monster tends to hit harder when they aren't treated the way they want.
Of course, there are exceptions. Pokémon show signs of age, both visible and behavioral, without the need for evolution. Pokémon tend to grow larger in size as time passes, or their fur turns grey and starts to fall out, and so on. Pokémon having no evolutionary stages tend to get the benefit of the doubt more often; if you see a Skarmory or a Miltank or a Heracross, you're more likely to stop and pay closer attention to how they act before you decide whether to look up to them or down at them.
Whereas humans show their age whether they want it or not, with every child wishing they were an adult and every adult wishing they were a child, Many Pokémon in effect have the privilege of choosing when and why they grow up – a privilege humans could only ever dream of.
But as I've come to realize, it's not just about what you want the rest of the world thinking of you. Sometimes it's more about how you want to see yourself. Making the first change was a no-brainer; I felt young, I felt weak, and I wanted to feel stronger and more confident in myself.
But now I sit here, staring at this magical crystal that was just handed to me last week, and I'm finding the decision to make the second change not to be so straightforward.
"Useless," says the belligerent ghost sitting beside me, fiddling with her own crystal and clanking it on the floor. "They call this a prize? What am I even supposed to do with this? Set it on my shelf? Display it to all of my teammates who coincidentally also have one of their own now? Give it away to all the friends that I don't have?"
"If you're going to complain so much, why not just eat it?" I suggest.
"No, thank you. These things taste like tar," the Sableye tells her woefully uninformed teammate. "I eat gemstones, not oily splinters of glass. I don't see any other use for this besides being a paperweight. A paperweight to remind me of the fact that I'm never going to evolve like all you sophisticated Pokémon."
"Hey! One day you will evolve!" says the strange steel chimera. "Maybe, maybe!"
"What are you talking about? Sableye can't evolve," she replies.
"Sure you can! Can too! And so can I!" says the Mawile, looking all oblivious to the world as she does. "I will evolve! You see, it happens too!"
"Oh, not this again," grumbles the Sableye, clawing at her forehead. "Lyre, there is no such thing as mega evolution. That's just a stupid myth invented by idiots who have nothing better to do than to draw terrible pictures of hideously mutated Pokémon. The art isn't even that good. You are never going to evolve, and neither will I."
"Nuh-uhhhhh!" shouts the Mawile, in her squeaky, way-too-cute-for-her-own-good voice. "They are really! I will be it one day! Mega Lyre!"
"Mega Liar, more like it," says Kerzek, "Alright, look, you want a mega evolution? Here. I'll give you one."
Kerzek zips into the portal back to the Gold Division and returns a few moments later carrying a large red ruby that's nearly the size of her body. She hefts it up and holds it like a shield. "Hey! Look at me, I'm a Mega Sableye!" she says with the most painful sarcasm in the world. "OooooOOOoooh! Look how scary I am! Oh, wait! I'm forgetting something." She flashes her eyes red. "There! Happy?"
"WOOWWW!" shrieks the little fairy, jumping and cheering. "CONGRATULATIONS, KER! SEE! I TOLD YOU IT WAS POSSIBLE! I TOLD YOU! YOU DIDN'T LISTEN!"
"Oh, for the love of…" Kerzek grumbles, lobbing the gemstone at her in frustration, which she deftly catches in her horns. "You're hopeless, you know that? Just hopeless."
I don't know what it is about these girls, but I enjoy their company. Ever since Char put us on the logistics team together, the three of us have formed an odd little kinship with one another. Maybe it's because I find all the other girls on Team Ember various levels of insufferable. Tallie is our hot-headed boss who doesn't like being friendly with her underlings, which, fine, I can get that. Eva/Aster is mentally damaged from centuries of immortality and I'll probably never get along with her, but I'm glad she apparently found someone who can. Glower is… I haven't figured her out yet, to be honest, but I get the feeling there's more to her than she shows. Now if she would ever actually show us anything. Zachel won't open up to anyone but (I'm assuming) Seviper. She pulled off a really nice cover-up by pretending to just be friends with him, but I wonder when that particular little truth is going to come out. I guess it's not something you notice unless you've been in that particular situation yourself.
On the other hand, Lyre is, to me, the most interesting person here. Once you get a feel for the way she likes to express herself, you might find that her apparent obliviousness is actually a finely-crafted sense of humor, and she's impressively clever enough to always stay three ideas ahead of everyone else. I quite like her. I think she knows I'm the only one here who's onto her, but I'm sure Kerzek is starting to catch on just as well.
And Kerzek is an honest, reliable, meticulous hard-worker who's only looking for someone to share mutual respect and confidence. She tries so hard to act all edgy and nihilistic, but it's just the boredom talking from a lifetime of living in solid walls. She's warming up to her new life. She sees Team Ember as just that, a functioning team; she's not looking to make friends with all of us, but I'm hoping I can be one of them. I quite like her, too.
As for the other member of the logistics team, Gemstone: I'm not too sure about her. We haven't spent all that much time together. She just evolved, and she appears to have taken a dose of humility, but I'm still waiting to see if she'll open back up to anyone. Maybe we can get along just fine.
Then I'd have a shiny Pokémon as a friend again. Never thought I'd see the day. Go figure.
So on that particular day, the three of us were holding down the secret base as most of the team went on missions. Our job was to assist Hunter in case he came back and needed anything. Lyre was reading, Kerzek was being a perfectionist about the interior design of the place, and I had nothing much to do but write in a journal and think about whether I wanted to be a Typhlosion.
"So hey, what about you, Quills?" said Kerzek as played with the big red gemstone. "Gonna use that thing, or what?"
"I'm not so sure just yet," I admitted.
"Why? Not strong enough?" she asked.
"Nah, I'm pretty sure I'm strong enough," I said. "But I'm thinking it's not really necessary."
"Not really necessary? What, you need a reason to get bigger and stronger?" She wondered.
"I like my form just the way it is now," I explained. "I have enough energy. I'm strong enough to defend myself. Other Pokémon see me and know to respect me. So… I don't know what purpose it would serve to evolve right now, other than to be change for the sake of change."
"Scarlet doesn't want neck-fire!" Lyre joked. "Neck-fire is useless weird! Back-fire is pretty!"
I snorted a laugh. "Yes, there is that, too," I sighed, letting the feral-shard tumble from my paws. "I think I'll give my stone to Zachel. Think I'm going to just have to wait for a reason to evolve."
"Y'know, you could become a ghost, if you wanted," Kerzek told me.
I snorted fire at her. "What, are you offering to kill me?"
"No, I'm actually being serious. You can evolve into a ghost-type if you wanted. Fire-ghost. Like Chandelure. I don't know what the exact methods are, but there's a way. What, you didn't know that?"
"What? Really?" I said, honestly surprised. "No, I've never heard of a ghost-type evolution. Certainly something to think about, if it were really true. Could I count on you to show me the ropes of being a ghost-type?"
"Ropes? Nah, there are no real ropes to being a ghost," Kerzek told me. "Not like I'm sure there's all kinds of ropes for being a fire-type, having your every little twinge of feeling change the way your fire burns, apparently. Nah, once you learn how to go intangible and invisible, then it's all a matter of learning what you're weak against and that sort of thing. And that's basically it. Nothing special about it."
"Still, would you teach me?" I asked plainly. "I would appreciate it."
"Yeah, well, become a ghost first and maybe we'll talk," she told me. "And good luck with that, because even I don't know how you'd trigger that evolution. I just know it exists."
That was the first I'd ever heard of such an evolution, and I'll be honest, the thought was quite tantalizing, particularly the thought of gaining actual elemental immunities. I was already quite addicted to Char's frozen flame, from what little experience I had with it. Getting smacked in the face with rocks and not feeling any of it was a very odd sort of thrill that I could get quite used to. I was already starting to imagine getting hit point-blank with a hyper beam (or a Skitty's solar beam, for that matter) and brushing it off like nothing.
I would have thought about it more, but I suddenly found myself having to do the job that I was assigned when Hunter marched in.
I watched the Flareon from across the room for a long moment, wondering if he'd come to take any of the money which Ray had left him (which he'd barely even touched). He looked at the gold for a moment like he was thinking about taking some, but I realized his lackies weren't even with him, and he looked a bit distracted by something.
"Can I help you?" I decided to say.
"Yes," said Hunter. "Yes, in fact, you can help me. I… I'm assuming Char and Saura are not here?"
"No, they aren't," I informed him. "They left the three of us in charge of helping you today."
"So I see," he hummed, shifting around uncomfortably in his fur. "Might I possibly request a moment of your time… preferably alone?"
I needed to think about this for a moment. Was I supposed to trust this Flareon alone? On one hand, he'd left his own helpers behind, so he was already offering a show of good faith. But on the other hand… what was he planning to do with a private audience? Was he planning to manipulate me somehow? Keep secrets from the rest of my team?
Heh. Well. Unbeknownst to him, he picked the wrong Pokémon to trust with keeping secrets from his own team. Suddenly I found myself quite fascinated by what he might have to say; I had a feeling that whatever he would tell me, I could trust myself to find a way of dealing with it.
Sorry, Hunter. You might be Ambera's best skip tracer, but you can't beat a human at mind games. At least, not this one.
I nodded to Lyre and Kerzek and motioned for them to leave through the portal (I hoped Kerzek would pick up on my "pretend to leave, hide in the walls and listen" signal) and then I approached Hunter at the center of the room on all fours to meet his eye level.
Now, even I wasn't quite prepared for what he had to say.
Once we were apparently alone, he said to me: "I'm hoping you're on good terms with my clientele, Char and Saura?"
"Quite good terms, yes," I told him with reserved enthusiasm.
"Good. Then as one flamekeeper to another, I need to ask your help in dealing with them," he said, lowering his voice secretively.
"I'm listening," I told him. I wasn't about to tell him off before he even said anything, so I needed to sound halfway agreeable. If I gave him the impression he couldn't trust me, he wouldn't spill his true intentions.
"There's a reason I'm charging so much for this job, more than I've ever charged any client before," he began telling me. "There was something in particular I've chosen not to disclose to Char and Saura when they asked for my service. That being… I've never been hired by the Amberan resistance movement before. Furthermore, I've never successfully infiltrated any of the major resistance bases. For this very reason, I failed to find Saura before my deadline back when he was my target. My other eight jobs, while they took me far and wide, never concerned the resistance."
"What's your point?" I asked.
"I mean to say," he sighed in an oddly weak and vulnerable way, "this job marks a particular turning point in my career. That turning point being… my retirement. Once I find Adron the Terrible, or give up on finding him… I will take no more assignments. I've decided that Adron the Terrible will be my tenth, and final, assignment."
"Why…?" I said blankly. "Because there's nowhere you can go from here? Think there's never going to be anything more difficult than tracking down Scythe?"
"While yes, that statement is true, it is not the reason I must retire," Hunter explained. "The reason is, put simply, conflict of interest with my clientele. I cannot, in good conscience, claim to uphold my honor after this. In other words, I cannot expect my client to trust me with their most intimate information when I could very well turn around and use that information against them in my next assignment. I am a hunter, not a double agent. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Somewhat," I admitted. "I still don't understand what your point is. What does this have to do with Char and Saura, exactly?"
"Then I'll be blunt with you," he said, looking at me sternly. "I need Char and Saura to let me into the Gold Division base. Understand… as this is my final mission, as well as the most difficult mission anyone could have asked of me, I am pulling all the stops. I am absolutely using every possible resource at my disposal. Your Scyther was a member of this resistance base, is that correct? His team resides there? In this case, I need to be let into the base. I need to speak with his team, as well as any and all teams who might have information about him. In effect… I need to join the resistance for this one. And I know that I cannot join the resistance with the intention of leaving and betraying you all once I have what I need. I know there is no going back from this. That's why, if I'm truly doing this, this must be my final mission. This is where my flame burns out."
"I'm assuming it's insufficient to just… arrange a meeting with them?" I tried. "We could arrange a meeting with whomever you want."
"No. That's far from sufficient," he told me earnestly. "If I am to form a narrative about why Adron fled, and where he has gone, I need to meet with anyone and everyone who even remotely has ties to him. And I cannot promise all of those meetings will operate under the most honest of pretenses. I sometimes require information which other Pokémon do not realize they are giving me."
"I see," I told him simply. "So I see, so I see."
"I'm beseeching of you, Quilava," Hunter said to me. "Help me convince them. I know they will not be convinced easily. That's why they won't let me into that wall portal and I'm limited only to working from this hideout. But for finding Adron the Terrible, this simply isn't good enough. So if you want me to find him, and you want me to find him quickly, you need to get me into your Gold Division base as soon as possible."
I was right. This was certainly a fascinating conversation. I was glad I decided to humor him. Now I just needed to think about how I was going to respond.
Alright, Scarlet, I told myself. I know you still have what it takes to be clever. You tricked one of the Master's immortal Pokémon; I'm sure you can run some circles around a dumb little Flareon if you need. Obviously we can't take this at face value. We can't just let him into the base upfront. That's how…
I visibly flinched as a mildly unpleasant memory bubbled to the surface. I'm sure Hunter noticed.
That's how Jacaranda wound up dead.
Now, I've come to realize another truth about not just Pokémon, but people in general, all people:
Either you have a dark past, or you're going to have a dark past someday. That's just how life is. We can't all avoid living through awful things that we mostly have no control over. That's why you learn from your mistakes – because the first time you make the mistake, you didn't even realize you had control over things in the first place.
And no, I don't like to voluntarily reminisce over what happened to the Lost and Forgotten. But unlike most Pokémon with a dark past, I don't let my dark past hold me back. I don't let it define me. And I have Jacaranda to thank for it. Every time I think about wallowing in that long-past day, reliving that moment where I watched the Rhydon burst down the door, or the moment where I said goodbye to Jacaranda, I hear him whispering into my ear: "I didn't die so you could be a slave. I died so you could be free." And so I choose to be here and now, in the present. I choose to be free, and to make decisions in the real world where they can have concrete effects on my future, not in my memories and daydreams where they do nothing but stoke the long burned-out flame of regret.
I realized it would probably be best if I stopped asking "Why can't I trust him?" and started asking "Why can I trust him?"
Char was not going to return for a while. Nor was Tallie. Heck, I even would have asked Eva for help if she happened to be around at that moment, but she'd straight-up gone missing for a few days, and not even Char knew where she was.
This couldn't wait. I needed to figure out a way of deciding whether this Flareon was trustworthy. And I had to do it without Char's jurisdiction over Team Ember, and I had to do it without letting High Intelligence know that we'd secretly installed a very, very heinous backdoor security breach into the Gold Division itself.
"Wait here," I told the Flareon, muttering under my breath to match his secretive tone. "I'll be back in about fifteen minutes. Don't do anything funny."
"I don't see why I would, considering you're my clientele," he replied. "I only care about the job I'm being paid to perform."
"You're already doing something funny, by going behind Char's back instead of just asking him about this," I told him, giving him the evil-knowing-eye as I walked away. "Don't make it worse."
He gave me a yeah you've got a point there face as I left him there. I darted over into the wall portal, where I know I would have privacy from him.
And just as I hoped, Kerzek and Lyre came sidling into the portal not moments later.
"I'm assuming you got all that?" I asked them quickly.
"Yes, yes! Each and every word!" Lyre assured me. I realized Kerzek had dragged her into the wall, or maybe into the secret space where Zachel and Seviper liked to hang out sometimes.
"What do we do, then?" Kerzek asked me. "He seems a little sketchy, going behind Char's back like this."
"Kerzek, you realize that we're the biggest criminal organization in the whole continent?" I scoffed at her. "Look who's talking. We're all the definition of 'a little sketchy.'"
"Well, when you put it like that," she grumbled, folding her arms at me. "But what are you saying, exactly?"
"I'm saying, it's not about who's more honest than the other," I said to her. "It's about making sure that all our interests align. Once you do that, everyone's best buddies forever. Kerzek… Do you think you can whitelist more Pokémon to use the portal?"
"Uhhhh… if they're not already on Team Ember or Team X, they have to be physically present, but yea," she said. "Who've you got in mind? Hopefully not that guy out there."
"Nah, at least not yet," I said. "Kerzek, I need you to go and get me the most useful Pokémon in the entire Gold Division, if you know what I mean."
"Yeah, and what if I don't know what you mean?" Kerzek returned. "Think you could maybe stop talking in mysterious riddles for a rock-blasted moment? This is kind of a big –"
"IIIII know who she's talking about!" Lyre sang doing her little know-it-all dance. "III know who she means! It's fake Scythe!"
I chuckled at her. "Yep. That's right. Let's see if Domo is available. Seeing that he's still assigned to stay in the base, last I heard about him, we should be able to find him somewhere. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to have a break from Daemon for a minute. So yeah, you have ten minutes. Go hunt down our fake Scythe, if you will. Hopefully you'll accomplish that faster than the Flareon's gonna take the find the real one."
"Wait, aren't you coming?" Kerzek wondered.
"Nah, I've got something else to set up," I told them. "I'll explain everything once you get back. But for the idea I have, we're going to need Domo pretending to be Char… and we're going to need the Frozen Flame."