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Chapter 89
I'm a bug. I'm not supposed to have a sense of identity.
It almost feels wrong to have a sense of identity. You're the swarm, the swarm is you. That's what's written on the DNA of every bug-type. You are nothing alone. In numbers, you accomplish the impossible and you thrive.
That's how Team Spider was. A team of only bug-types, ruled by bug-type ideology. I felt wanted, and I felt like nobody, all at the same time. I felt powerful, and I felt just as equally expendable.
Sometimes I saw the way other teams operated. Treated one another like individuals. Everyone had different abilities and different personalities. Those Pokémon were not alone, and yet they had a sense of identity.
I wanted that ever since I realized what it was. You can feel wanted on a team and feel like somebody. You can feel powerful and irreplaceable.
I dreamed of having a sense of identity and having friends who were different from one another and different from me. I don't know why; I just did. Maybe it was the day that I met Scythe for the first time. There was a bug. A big, strong, important bug who stood on his own. A leader.
Because of Scythe, I knew it was possible. I could be like that, if I really wanted. Why did I want to feel like that, though? Being big and strong is difficult; a huge responsibility. It takes so much pain and suffering. And loneliness, too. Leaders are surrounded by followers, but they're lonely, because leaders are rare. Just like the queen of a hive is lonely, even though surrounded by workers.
But for a long time, I couldn't dare myself to leave Team Spider. Part of me realized how foolish it was to leave the swarm. I was just a little bug, useless on my own. I could get squished, everyone said. Nobody would ever accept my team application, because I needed help with everything. That's how swarms work: everyone helps everyone with everything.
And yet here I am. Due to a technicality, that being Char's decision to hire everyone who showed up for his tryouts, I am now on Team Ember. Team Spider is a distant memory. Though it was by accident and not by the strength of my merits, my dream has come true.
It's a good lesson for all: try things, even when you truly believe that you don't deserve the success. Sometimes you'll get the success anyway.
My talent on Team Ember is exploration. Nincada are at their best when crawling through deep, dark crevices that other Pokémon can't cross. Though it is somewhat of a misconception that Nincada are practically blind, their vision is ironically best in complete darkness, and their feelers are exceptional at detecting the shape of pathways and nearby movement. Though many have joked about how easily I might have gotten crushed, Nincada are designed to be gracefully crushed for exactly these reasons – so they might navigate tight spaces, so they might live underground, and so that a stray stomp from a clumsy Donphan won't bring about their end.
I am responsible for many of Team Ember's successful missions in the most wretched of cave dungeons and non-dungeon caves. I have grown a respectable track record. And yet still, even after half a season on Team Ember, I still hadn't picked a name for myself. Part of me never thought I deserved a sense of identity. Although, that's only partway true. In a sense, 'Nincada' was a name, compared to what I was called on Team Spider: Nincada #8. Now there is a different Nincada #8 on Team Spider who is not me.
I've also come to realize that I never truly left the swarm at all. Team Ember is a team of individuals who appreciate one another and even appreciate me. I made a good friend named Asunder the Mightyena who let me ride on his back to our missions. But still, we are part of the swarm that is the Gold Division. Too many Pokémon to be considered as individuals. High Intelligence delegates tasks to the teams and not to individual Pokémon. Their only regard is for the team leaders.
Like a swarm, we are only successful because of our numbers. Like a swarm, sometimes we need to let ourselves be expendable for the sake of the greater directive.
Too often, I have found myself in such a circumstance:
"Oh. I'm dead. For certain this time. This is where I die for the sake of the swarm."
Only for Leo to electrocute the swarm of angry bugs surrounding us. Or for Asunder to snap me up in his jaws and carry me to safety. Or for Zachel to activate an orb to save us from certain doom. It's nice to have a team that's got your back.
They tell me I give up too easily, and that I should train myself to have a better instinct for self-preservation.
But I am a bug. It is written onto my DNA. I am all too ready to make that sacrifice. The swarm would not so thrive without this instinct programmed into the hearts of its members.
This is especially true of Nincada. Legends say that Nincada were once so numerous, they simply let themselves be eaten by whichever predator cared to gobble them up. And so all the predators could stuff themselves full until they could eat no more, and it would not even put a dent into the mighty swarm's numbers.
There are many other things that bug-types are willing to sacrifice for the swarm, as well. In my case, one of those things was strength. I could already stand my own in battle; I was always quite hard to hit and preferred to use life-draining attacks on my targets, and sometimes even sucked out their blood, which most of my teammates found distasteful. But I knew that greater power awaited me if I ever decided I would want it.
But, for the sake of Team Ember, I decided I did not want it.
I remember a time when I accompanied Asunder on a rescue mission in a forest dungeon. After finding and returning our lost client, he said to me as we were walking back to the team hideout: "Evolving is so much fun! Best decision I've ever made. Ever think you want to evolve, Nincada?"
I replied, "If I evolve, I would grow over twice as large, and lose my ground-typing. I'm a cave-crawler for you guys, and I wouldn't be able to do my job as well anymore."
"But you would be so much stronger!" he told me. "And you could fly, and really pummel the baddies! All your white-aura moves would get stronger!"
"Team Ember already has many fighters," I said. "What they need are more specialists like me. Also… there is another reason I am apprehensive to evolve, but it's rather embarrassing to talk about."
"Huh? Can't be that bad, buddy!" said Asunder. "What's such a big deal? You can tell me!"
"There was a rumor that circulated in Team Spider," I explained. "They say that if a Nincada evolves… there's a chance they could split into two Pokémon. Part of your soul would become a ghostly, empty shell that would haunt you for the rest of your life. They call it Shedinja. On one claw, I know it's probably just a myth that they made up to keep us all in line and discourage us from wanting to evolve. On the other… I've met too many bug Pokémon who claim to have seen Shedinja for themselves, so I fear it could be true. I shudder at the thought."
Asunder said, "Whoa! Oh, wait, what? I've never heard of that before! So, if you evolve, you have a child?!"
"N-no, it's not like that, I think," I said.
"Wow, that's the weirdest rumor I've ever heard!" he said. "You should totally try it and see if the rumor is true! If that's true, that's like Pokémon mitosis! That's so nuts!"
I admitted to him that somehow, his description of the Shedinja phenomenon made the prospect of evolution even less appealing than it was before…
Putting aside the strange rumor for a moment, indeed the thought of being able to fly, and having sharper eyesight that better compares to the average Pokémon, was very exciting. But if it was to come at the expense of no longer feeling at home in the dark depths of the caves, and sacrificing my special role on Team Ember, I'd always decided I would gladly stay the way I am. For them.
But then, there came a day when I was faced with making a sacrifice that I'd been expecting to make for all my life. But because it was written into my bug-type soul, I was ready to make the sacrifice without complaint.
Let me tell you about that day: the day I died.
Tallie would often assign me to a particular mission, a place we dubbed the "Gemporium" because it was so easy to come back with a bag loaded with precious crystals we could sell for hefty money. It was a place that Team Ember had discovered themselves – a place not otherwise on the map. It was my kind of place – deep, dark, and full of treasure. It wasn't a mystery dungeon, even. It was just a normal rock formation where some thieves had stashed their riches and then forgot about them, apparently. It also had no substantial threat of wild Pokémon, as there was no food there, and nothing to sustain the existence of anything but a few Zubat or Aron no more than a few layers deep. So it was safe, it was straightforward, and it put me in my element. It was large and sprawling, and we hadn't even explored it fully yet. And it was all for us.
I greatly enjoyed those missions, and couldn't have contributed my part were I a Ninjask. If I evolved, there was even the possibility that we'd have to stop running missions there anyway. That's how vital my service was.
On one such routine mission, I went with Asunder and Zachel. Asunder has excellent speed, smell, and dark vision. Zachel can wield our biggest bag and carry the most treasure with her. And I was the best at navigating those tunnels. We were an ideal, specialized taskforce for the secret treasure stash that only our team knew about.
I remember the moment I decided to squeeze myself underneath a rock to see if I could find the other side of the wall. It was very narrow, much more that I was used to, but I wasn't willing to back down from the challenge.
"Uhh, are you sure you want to do that?" said Zachel as I disappeared from her sight. "That looks too small, even for you."
"Naah, he's got this! Don't you, buddy?" said Asunder.
I was clawing my way along in the tight space, but I was getting used to it, and realizing I was making consistent progress. "Yes, I've got this," I called back to them. "Don't worry. I'll return in a moment. Let me just see if this leads anywhere."
I began to feel the distinct air current whip me in the face. There was space at the other end. My feelers told me it was close. I would get there soon.
Then something happened that never happened before in any of our prior expeditions to the Gemporium. I felt the rocks tremble, like an Onyx were burrowing through the stone somewhere nearby.
Then I felt a great pressure settle onto my back. It didn't hurt, but it certainly pinned me. I realized that part of the rock had been displaced and had crushed me.
Asunder shouted for me. "NINCADA! ARE YOU OKAY?"
I heard Zachel say, "This is an earthquake. We need to get out of here right now before another shockwave hits, or we'll be crushed."
Asunder said, "We're not leaving without Nincada!"
Zachel said, "There's no time… I'm sorry. We might have to leave."
Asunder said, "No, but we've got to try! If Nincada's getting trapped here, we're getting trapped here too!"
Zachel said, "It's going to be worse than getting trapped, Asunder."
Asunder said, "That doesn't change anything! We go down with him!"
Zachel was quiet for a moment. I could still hear rocks cracking and pebbles falling in the distance. Then she said, "Alright, fine. Let's try to save him. What should we try?"
That's when I knew I had to say something.
It was time. It was finally time.
"No. You guys go," I screamed at them. "Get out of here. Don't worry about me."
"Nincada, buddy! Don't you dare say that!" Asunder growled. "We're coming for you! I don't know how, but somehow!"
I said, "Asunder… no. Go on and get out. It's like I always said, I'm… built to be crushed so let me be crushed. And besides… I'm just a bug. There are hundreds just like me. You can hire another one from Team Spider anytime you want, there's twenty of me there."
"No! There aren't a hundred of you! There's only one of you!" yowled Asunder.
The cave shook with another tremor. I heard a huge rock fall in the room with my friends, but I still heard them running around, so I knew they were okay.
"GO!" I pleaded to them. "It's okay. Go. I want this. I need to do this for you guys."
Another hesitation. Then, Asunder said, "I'm not going to forget you, alright? You were my buddy. My little buggy buddy."
I could tell he wanted to say more, but there were more tremors, more crashes and crumbles from all over. I heard Zachel say "We need to go, now," and they ran off. Out of the collapsing cave. To safety.
That was the last I heard from him.
And once that tremor had ended, and it started to settle in where I was, and how suddenly it had all happened…
Once I realized that the pressure against my shell was actually starting to hurt, my exoskeleton was bowing under the force, and that I couldn't possibly hope to crawl forward or move in any direction whatsoever without having my body split apart…
Once I realized that nobody would rescue me, because the cave wasn't even acknowledged on the local map…
I gave myself that old reassurance one last time.
"Okay. Alright."
"I'm dead. This time it's for real."
"I… I did it. I did the right thing for the sake of the swarm."
"No… for the sake of Team Ember. The Pokémon who called me a friend even when I didn't deserve it."
Except when I said that, that's when it started to hurt. For the very first time, out of all the times I was ready and willing to accept that I was a bug, and that bugs are expendable and die for their swarm.
That was the moment it hurt. Because I was no longer just a bug. I realized how my teammates had granted me a sense of identity after all, something bugs aren't supposed to have. And this was why they aren't supposed to have one.
But I decided I was okay with that. I could accept this pain. It meant that I had done something that none of the other Nincada on Team Spider had ever accomplished: I had grown, beyond being a mere bug, beyond serving on a mere swarm.
In some small way… I had become just a little bit closer to being like Scythe. Just a little bit. And I was happy with that.
I… accepted my growth. And then, as soon as the next tremor started up…
I accepted my end.
Sometime later, I woke up again.
I was in some kind of empty space, still in the cave. But I was no longer getting slowly crushed by the ceiling. I was very much alive, well, and free of my plight.
I wiggled my wings to make sure the weight of the rock wasn't there. I noticed that my wings felt different. I noticed that I had much sharper eyesight. I could see a rough visual outline of all the cavern walls which surrounded me, even those on the far end of the room. I realized that I really had been blind all my life, if Pokémon regularly can see this far into the distance.
Happy as I was to be alive, I didn't understand what happened. I didn't understand how I'd gotten myself out in one piece.
You, reading this, you probably think you understand what happened.
But you don't.
I began to search around for an exit. Somehow I knew I would not find one, as the earthquake had collapsed too many of the tunnels. But I was going to try anyway.
And when I started exploring around, searching the perimeter of the room, I started to hear a strange voice. Small, quiet, mumbling incessantly. My sharper hearing told me it was coming from one of the walls.
I came closer to the wall. I tried to hear what the voice was saying.
"I'm dead," it said. "I'm dead. Dead for the swarm. Dead for the swarm. I'm dead for the sake of the swarm. So the swarm will thrive. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead. It's okay. I'm dead. It's okay. I'm dead."
Odd, I thought. Those sounded like my own thoughts from before I'd passed out.
I searched around the wall. I tried to find an opening, something that would let me see who was speaking.
I found the opening down under the wall. And there, to my deepest fright, I saw a bug, crushed beneath an impossible weight, squirming, trying feebly to claw his way along, stopping every now and again to rest and convince himself that he accepted his fate.
The bug was a Ninjask. It was me.
I was seeing my body from the outside.
Was this death? To be banished from the body like this? But if it were death, why was the bug clearly still alive?
The Ninjask locked eyes with me. It stopped muttering and only stared for a moment.
Then it said… "What are you? Are you my hallucination?"
I replied, "No. I was about to ask the same question of you. What are you?" I was caught off-guard by the sound of my voice. It sounded wispy.
It replied, "Nincada. My name is Nincada. Of Team Ember. And here I die for my swarm."
Me. It was absolutely me. I was speaking to myself.
I said, "But you are not a Nincada."
"I'm not?" he replied. He tried to look around at his body, but he was still unable to move.
"No," I told him. "You are a Ninjask. You have evolved. I don't know how, but that's what happened."
"Oh. That would explain a lot, actually," he said, twitching his poor little wings in the tight space where they were stuck. "But wait… if I evolved… Does that mean…? The rumors were true?"
I thought, rumors? What rumors?
Then it clicked. I remembered. I considered what this meant, and I still couldn't believe it to be true.
I said… "Am I… Shedinja?"
The Ninjask replied, "I… I think so. You are a brown shell. That's what they all said. So… you're my personal ghost, come to haunt me for the rest of my days… Hahah, or more like, for the rest of my hours, at this rate."
Ghost.
Right, I thought. A ghost. I'm a ghost Pokémon. I tried to look at myself, but my body was surprisingly stiff, and no part of myself would bend, so I could not see any part of my body. I tried to extend my claws, but I no longer had any. I could speak. I could freely float in the air at will. I didn't seem to feel pain, or cold, or hunger anymore.
"No, but I think I'm going to do something else," I said.
I descended into the floor. It was simple. Somehow, as a ghost, I knew how to instinctually phase through objects now. Also, I could somewhat see outside of the object that I was phased into. I saw the Ninjask from beneath. I aligned myself, then floated upward at him, granting him the same intangibility I had the moment that I touched him.
I carried him safely into the empty room.
The Ninjask buzzed his wings. "You saved me?" he said in disbelief. "My own ghost… saved me."
"What else would I do?" I replied. "I'm you. I think saving you was a shared interest."
"You're me?" he replied. "What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, I have all of your memories," I explained. "From my perspective, I was always you. I grew up on Team Spider, I joined Team Ember, and all the rest. That all happened to me. And it also all happened to you."
"Oh… oh, that's too strange," said the Ninjask. "Asunder was right. This is weirder than even he expected."
"Indeed he was right," I sighed, drooping lower in the air. "So… you don't have to explain anything to me, little Nincada. I already know everything there is to know about you, and you already know everything there is to know about me. And yes, I'm calling you that. Because that's what my name always was. Our name, I should say now."
"What does it feel like, to be in that body?" the Ninjask wondered. "That's the only thing I don't know about you. How does it feel? Are you okay in there?"
I stopped to consider it. "I'm a ghost. It almost feels like I don't even have a body anymore. I feel like only a presence. Someone to watch things happen, but unable to interfere. At least, that's the impression I get right now."
"So… would you say that you're like a Watcher, then?" he asked.
I wanted to laugh, but I found that I didn't quite have the vocal facilities needed for it anymore. "Yes. You could say that I feel like a Watcher now," I admitted. "How about you? Is being a Ninjask everything we ever expected?"
"I want to stretch my wings and see how fast I can really fly!" he cried, buzzing up above the ground for a moment. "I'm itching for it! And I want to claw things! I bet I could really rough up some baddies right now! But I suppose that will have to wait. Wow, I really thought I was dead this time. We're really going to escape, aren't we? I guess I was wrong once again. It wasn't time for me to die, was it?"
I considered it for a moment. "No, you didn't die. But I think that I did," I said. "Seeing that I'm now a ghost. So maybe you could say that the earthquake both killed you, and didn't kill you, at the same time. I know that's not quite true, since this separation was only caused by evolving. But it's still an interesting way of looking at things. So perhaps, you can say that you've finally fulfilled your resolution to sacrifice yourself for your team, only unlike other bugs who make that sacrifice, you now get to keep on living, and don't have to worry about it anymore."
"Heh. Heheh," he said (which sounded more like "Buzz-buzz" but I got the message either way). "Well, you're right about one thing, at least: Nincada is dead. Nincada did what he always needed to do, and sacrificed himself for the swarm. And now we're here in his place."
"I suppose we are," I said. "I hope you realize that now we have to come up with names for ourselves, too."
"Aww, do we really have to?" He whined. "I'm not good at picking a name."
"Neither am I. But yes, I think we do," I said. "It's time. It's to remind us that we've grown past being Nincada. And now we're no longer just someone's swarm-mate. We have an identity and we're not ashamed of it anymore."
"Well, an identity is stretching it, don't you think?" he retorted. "But alright. I'll think about it. Just as long as you promise that you'll help me come up with a good name, too."
"Likewise," I said. "Now let's go show Asunder what happened to his buggy-buddy. I can't wait to see his reaction, can you?"
I let him climb onto my back just like before. "Whoa, are you actually hollow inside?" he said.
"Remember, don't look into the shell," I said. "They say you get cursed if you do that. Like I'll steal your soul, or something."
"You already stole a copy of my soul, apparently; I don't think you'll be able to do it again," he teased. "Yeah, I'm staring in here, and I'm not feeling anything. Probably a myth."
"Or maybe your original host is immune to the effect," I suggested.
"Hey, I was about right about to say that. You stole my words from me," he protested.
"Yes, it's almost as though we think alike, or something," I teased.
Once he clung to me nice and tightly, I carried him up, up, up, through the ground, and into the free world beyond.
It was getting dark outside. The Watchers were coming soon – the real ones. But I was relieved to see the sunlight again, as strange as that sounds. As a Nincada, I always hated the sun and loved the dark. Now the sun meant something else to me. It was freedom from what I once was. Freedom from the past, from being just a bug. And that's not even to mention: I could see the sunset, too. My eyesight was finally good enough. As soon as I saw it, I knew the whole world was going to be new and exciting to me. For both of me.
Once up and above the surface, I let the Ninjask go free to stretch his wings, and lazily followed behind him.
We found Asunder pacing around near the entrance of the Gemporium where we first went in. He waited for us while Zachel ran for help. Oh, Asunder – a true buddy. A true friend and teammate. He never abandoned us. He told me later that Zachel wanted him to run for help, since he was faster, but he refused. He felt so bad about abandoning me that he wanted to stay here with us.
I realized with some sadness that I was never going to need a ride on his back ever again. But that didn't quite matter at the time; I was only happy to see him.
Now, to my surprise, when we reunited with Asunder, the first words he barked at us were not any of the things I expected. Not "Who are you?!" or "Oh gosh you're alive!"
No, his first beaming words out of his happy puppy mouth were, "OH! IT WORKED!"
"What worked?" I said simultaneously with the Ninjask.
"The crazy idea I had to save you!" Asunder said happily. "Zachel always brought your feral-shard on these missions, just in case something happened like what happened to Otto, and we needed to revive you! Especially since we can't rely on reviver seeds in this place. And I remembered you once told me that you might split off into a ghost Pokémon when you evolve. So at the very last minute, I told Zachel to grab the feral-shard out of the bag and slide it under the wall to you. And that was it; that was all we could do. Just escape… and hope it worked. I'm so glad it did, buddy! Buddies? What's going on with you guys, anyway?"
"We're clones," I tried explaining. "We both have the same memories, all the way until the moment of evolution. So we're both very much your buddy, Asunder."
"Oh wow, I don't mind having two buddies now! That's great!" he laughed, prancing around us. "Hey! And guess what! You can help keep exploring the Gemporium after all! Well, you can't, Ninjask, but Shedinja can! And I bet you'll even be better at it than you were before!"
"You're right," said the Ninjask with a laugh-buzzing. "That did come true after all, didn't it? I was always worried I'd have to give up exploring the Gemporium and let the team down. But in a weird way, I never had to at all. And we'll need you more than ever before, especially since…"
He glanced at the cave entrance, which was a solid wall of stone. It had collapsed entirely.
"Kerzek and you might be the only ones who can really enter now," he said. "But I don't see why we can't try digging out the rock and opening the place up again someday. And thank you, Asunder. You were very courageous, wanting to stay back and save me. Us. Thank you for saving us."
"Well, it's like I said! Of course you were worth saving, buddy! You're my teammate! You're not replaceable! There's only one of you!" He bit his tongue. "Except no, there's two of you now… Oh yeah, this might get confusing. But there's still only one of you, if you get what I'm saying! One of each of you…"
Indeed. Only one of each of us. I was never supposed to have a sense of identity. It always felt wrong. Now I had two identities. Which also felt… very strange, but it was something I could easily come to terms with. But it certainly didn't feel wrong.
Interestingly, I was able to re-enter the base with no problem at all. The portal let me in, since I was technically still just Nincada, but evolved. Likewise with Ninjask – just an evolved form of the same Nincada. And the Team Cog ghosts and the security teams all let me in, too, with no problem.
So, that was going to be an interesting conversation, telling Char that Team Ember now had twenty members instead of nineteen, even though he hadn't agreed to hire anyone new. Or twenty-one if you counted Hunter, as apparently the records showed him as a temporary member of our team. Even still, there was lots more paperwork to do all because of me… Poor Tallie!
Well, about being a new member: later, Ninjask and I were settled down into what was once my room. And he asked me a question I knew was coming.
"So… what now?" he said awkwardly, buzzing his wings. "You know… nobody ever asked you if you really wanted to stay on this team, so I'll just ask you now. Do you want to? You don't have to stay on Team Ember anymore, if you don't want. You can go be your own Pokémon, do whatever you want. I'm going to stay, but you're not me anymore. I figured I'd ask."
"Spoken like a father to his child," I teased. "Hey. Aren't I supposed to haunt you for the rest of your days? That wouldn't be very responsible ghostlike behavior of me, to just abandon you like that."
"That was a myth," he said. "I get now that Shedinja isn't a myth. But the haunting thing definitely was."
I floated up into the air above him. "Then let me say this, at least," I began. "There isn't much I can do for myself anymore. I can't eat, I can't breathe, I can't hold things. My body is incapable of movement. I can only speak, float, phase through walls, and probably battle, if I ever wanted to try that. But… it's like you said. I'm a Watcher now. That's my only ability in this body – to watch things. So… I think if I'm going to watch something for the rest of my existence, it might as well be you. And I think instead of haunting you, I'll just haunt everyone who messes with you. How's that sound?"
Ninjask buzzed with enthusiasm. "Watcher. That can be your name. How's that sound?"
I copied his bouncy movement the best I could. "I like it," I said. "I guess I have to figure out a name for you, then. Let me think. Hmm. How about Scythe?"
"Huh? What?" was his predictable response. "Why?"
"Because that's who I always wanted to be like. The bug who stood on his own, and nobody else ever cared he was a bug! And there's no rule against two Pokémon having the same name, is there? They're not even on the same team. Or even better… how about we make it like Team Spider. You can be Scythe #2."
"No… just… no, that's awful," he said, faking a claw-slash at me. "Forget the logistics, nobody would ever like that name at all. That's in such bad taste."
"Well, fine. How about we go with my original idea?" I said. "And I think you already know what it is. I sure do. Thought about it a lot, once upon a time."
"Yeah… I do know what it is," he said whimsically. "Alright, that's a good enough name for me, I think. I'll accept that. It means something. And it reminds me that I mean something."
So now, not just Asunder, but everyone on Team Ember calls him Buddy. Because that's his new name.
And well, I'm just a little jealous. That's the name I always wanted. But what can you do?
Later that day, I learned a real interesting trick with my new body. I can become invisible for short periods. Apparently most ghosts can do this, some longer than others. But as soon as I learned how to consistently vanish and reappear, I knew what I had to do.
That was my pact with Buddy. I would haunt anyone who ever messed with him. Including those who messed with me before I evolved.
That night, I floated up to Team Spider, slipped past their guards, and I spooked the poor little buggy life out of all the Nincada. All of them, #1 through #19.
But it wasn't really the Nincada I was haunting that night. No, I was there to haunt the swarm leaders, by telling their swarmmates the truth.
"It's real," I told them, with all their cute little petrified eyes and shivering wings. "Shedinja… is real."
"Okay, okay, okay!" said a young one, crawling back from me. "I-I-I-I-I'll never evolve! I promise!"
I floated up to that poor little guy, and I spoke loudly enough that everyone in the room heard me.
"No. Don't do that. Don't promise me that. Promise me the opposite," I ordered. "Promise me that you will evolve one day. All of you."
"W-why?" said the poor thing, shivering so bad. "So that the ghosts can haunt us forever?"
"The ghosts don't haunt you, though," I said. "The ghosts just want to become your friends. Team Spider doesn't want you to evolve – because once you do, and you meet your Shedinja, you won't want to be part of the swarm anymore. You'll learn that you can be yourself, have your own identity – and never need to be alone."
"R-really? Is that true?" said another Nincada. "The Shedinja are friendly?"
"Oh yes, they are. As long as you want to make friends with them," I said. "And once you realize just how friendly they can be… you'll be beside yourself with joy."
...
Special thanks to Buddy for letting me dictate the story to him so he could write it down. It really is nice to have someone you can rely on…
And special thanks to you, Watcher, for always having my back.
Author's note:
Alright! How about a news update?
So, as you may or may not have heard, 2023 is supposed to be the final year of Silver Resistance. I have planned the story to end at chapter 120, and the plan is to have it done within the next year. Enjoy these last breather chapters while they last. As soon as this Growth arc is over, the rest of the story is going to be one big blur of plot progression all the way to the end. Get ready! It's going to be the end of an era, and it's going out with a bang.
Since FFnet has recently switched story notifications to opt-in, I'd recommend you join my Discord server (found on my profile) for more consistent notifications about story news and updates.
As the sun sets on SR, I will be shifting to writing original fiction. Yeah, it's about time, right? I've actually already written two complete books about talking dragons (think Wings of Fire, but a little darker and more mature) which might see the light of day soon. I hope to publish one or two original e-books in the coming years, and I'll be posting updates about that in my server as well.
And finally, there's rumors that there's a video adaptation of season 1 of SR in the works. Possibly more news on that in the new year.
See you next time for Zona's chapter!