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Chapter 55
Iron Outskirts
Team Ember followed their Marowak guide, crossing the lackluster brown land and approaching the shadow of the great plateau. Char weaved around the mud puddles which must have been left by a recent rainfall, and wondered where exactly Marrow was taking him. It didn't seem quite like a shortcut.
"All fear is rooted in the same thing," Marrow said. "The unknown. Fear is the anticipation. You don't know what'll happen. Or you know what'll happen, but you don't know whether or not you'll survive. Once you realize where the fear is coming from, you don't need to let it distract you so much."
"Uh, Marrow… what are we doing here?" Saura wondered. "I'm not really afraid of the Iron Outskirts. We've been here before."
The Marowak scratched the back of his neck with his bone club, surveying the dreary expanse of land. There wasn't much to look at, only the muddy puddles dotting the ground and the long, never-ending heap of boulders which had fallen from the crust of the plateau and lined its great wall.
Marrow eye gleamed. "Well, why not make a game of it?" he said fiendishly. "There's a certain familiarity with walking the beaten path. Can't face your fears if you never know you had them."
"What does this have to do with Lily?" Saura wondered. "Or does this have anything to do with that at all?"
"Fear is fear," Marrow said again. "That's a secret: since all fears are founded in uncertainty, if you face one fear, you're really facing them all. If you conquer a fear you have, it's gonna help you face all the rest of them. Even those that don't seem like they have anything to do with one another. And that's really all there is to my biggest secret! That's why they call me 'Marrow the Fearless'. Because I made a hobby of findin' things I was afraid of and beatin' them until the fear went away."
Once the road was far behind, Marrow turned to the members of Team Ember, brandishing his club.
"Alright, we're gonna play a little game," he announced. "I'm going to give you guys some dares. Whoever loses a dare first… Daemon set me up with cleaning duties tomorrow, and you're going to do it for me. But if you all can do the dares I give you, then I guess I'm gonna have to take the shift all by my lonesome self. Also, I'll give you a really nice item from our team's storage. No idea what it'll be at the moment, but I'll find something we can part with."
"Uhh… what kind of dares?" Saura asked worriedly. "Nothing dangerous, I hope…"
"Maybe a little dangerous," Marrow said evilly. "No fear without some danger. But I've got faith you'll make it. So? You guys all in? I promise the item will be worth your while."
Char agreed to the terms. His team followed his lead, though Otto had to ask him for permission to respond to Marrow's challenge.
I'm really not sure what Marrow can dare me with, Char thought to himself. He doesn't know what I saw in Temporal Tower. Having Dialga roaring at you and threatening to put your fire out, there's really not much that can top that.
Go ahead, Marrow. Try me. I don't see how you can scare me.
"Alright, Char, since you're the leader, yours comes first," Marrow said. "I've got a real easy one for yah. I dare you to dip your tail into one of these puddles!"
Char jumped back. "—What?" he shouted, horrified at the very idea. "W-why?! What's the big deal?! Couldn't you give me something else?!"
"Nah, the idea was to give you something that'd make you squirm," Marrow said with an evil laugh. "Dunk your tail, or it's cleaning duty for you. Those are the rules!"
Char huffed in frustration. He felt like Marrow had tricked him. He gathered his tail into his hands and saw that the flame was already half his size. He nodded to his teammates for support; Ray and Saura returned glances of worry.
"Char already did that once," Saura replied, shuddering at the memory. "It took him an hour to recover…"
"Oh, lovely! Then I guess it won't be so bad the second time," Marrow chirped. "Well, Char? You give up? Gonna be our lucky housemaid of the day?"
"N-no! Not… wait," Char stammered, eyeing his flame and caressing the sensitive nerves around the fire-spouts. "J-just don't be surprised if I yell. It's… really not fun to do, Marrow. It's really not."
"Oh, I know, but I also don't believe it's all that bad," Marrow said. "See, I know this, 'cus we had a Char on Remorse before. Really dependable teammate, I really missed him. And you wanna know why Scythe hired him? Because our old Char, he dedicated his life to overcoming his mental weaknesses. Every day he was a Charmeleon, he dipped his tail into a bucket of water, flame an' all. And held it there for a whole minute. Cried his eyes out, but he did it, every day. And you wanna know what he did as a Charizard?"
"…What?" Char asked suspiciously.
"He could swim," Marrow replied. "As in, dive under the water. He was so used to the pain that he could put up with it for minutes at a time, and he could survive the water for a bit without throwing a tantrum! Scythe came along and said, 'whoa, a Charizard who can swim! The Master will never see this one coming! I need him!' and he was on our team."
"That's insane!" Char cried, gazing incredulously at his own tail.
"Yeah, it was, no doubt about it," Marrow replied. "He was a really heavy-hitter against water enemies, too. Wasn't afraid of them a bit. You shoulda seen some of the looks on the faces of the Master's Blastoise when he just ran straight up against the water jets and popped 'em in the chin. It was so priceless it even makes me laugh unto this day, heh, heh. Ahhh… sure do miss that guy. Anyway! Your move, Char."
"Char… you don't have to do it," Ray offered meekly. "I'll help you with cleaning duties…"
Char shook his head. "Naah, if there's a such thing as a Charziard that can swim, I can splash my tail for half a second," he decided, letting go of his flame. "I just thought it would kill me, or something. But I guess if your Char could do it… Alright, Marrow, I'll do it."
"Atta boy, Char," Marrow laughed. "Anytime you're ready. Guys, better brace yourselves, just in case he shoots fire…"
Grumbling, Char sat down by a deep pool of water and gazed into it. It was a muddy abyss, hiding even his reflection in the murkiness. He tried to hold back the vivid memories of the last time he voluntarily submerged his flame. He remembered how he had vowed never to do it again.
"Just get it over with, Char!" Marrow encouraged him. "Remember! Fear is all in the anticipation. The longer you wait, the worse you're making it!"
With a deep breath and a rush of resolve, Char sat himself down in the shore of the puddle, letting his tail slip beneath his surface. Hearing the hiss of the steam escaping into the air, he cringed and braced himself for that special flavor of stinging pain which had haunted his nightmares since his tail's first encounter with the water.
Instead, he felt a pinprick of pain. After a few moments passed, the pinprick grew to the intensity of a single nail piercing his skin, but leveled out into a dull, unsettling throb. Plainly confused, Char looked over his shoulder to check and see if his flame had missed the pool entirely, but it had not; the tip of his tail had clearly descended at least four inches under the surface, spouting a trail of sizzling vapor as the flame continually tried and failed to spring back to life.
"Char…?" Saura said softly. "Doesn't… that… hurt?"
But as soon as the strangeness of the situation hit him, so did the intensity of the pain, and the Charmander sprung into the air like a popped cork, wailing in torment the whole way. When he came to his senses again, he found himself curled in a tight ball nursing his tail, taking sharp, deep breaths as though to billow the fire inside of him.
"Hey, hey!" Marrow cheered, setting his club down to give the brave Charmander applause, much to the annoyance of Char's friends. "Well, then! You've done it. No cleaning duty for you! So, then, what was it like this time? Wasn't so bad, was it?"
"Ah… ahhh…" Char replied, squeezing the tip of his tail so tightly in his claw as though cutting the blood circulation would make the pain subside faster. He felt like angrily snapping at the Marowak, and the words he would use began to rise from the back of his throat. But just before he burst, the odd truth occurred to him that, no, it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time, and he chose to respond truthfully.
"It wasn't…" the panting Charmander decided to say, already feeling the pain fading. "That wasn't… it wasn't so bad. Wasn't so bad. Why—why wasn't it so bad?"
"Hmm?" Marrow hummed. "Surprised that you're more resilient to pain than you were at some point in the past? Really, now?"
Char could vaguely understand what Marrow was saying as he mentally chased away the stinging sensations. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he noticed Ray standing beside him, offering to help him back to his feet.
"You alright, Char?" Ray whispered. "Easy, there. Can you stand?"
"Yeah, I'll… I'll be fine," Char grumbled, testing his legs. In truth, he was honestly surprised at how well he fared with the pain this time around, and remembered that he had felt much worse. The few moments of discomfort were nothing compared to the cold, or the disgusting experience of losing an arm. Already, he felt whole and stable again.
"Wow! I didn't think you'd get over it that fast," Saura said with a nervous laugh and a smile. "I was afraid you'd have a repeat of last time."
"Ah, but there's no time to celebrate just yet," Marrow warned him, hefting his bone to his shoulders and motioning for the team to follow. "Char's free of cleaning duties, but you're up next. And I think I know just what to do to you. I just need to find… just the right place."
Marrow wandered in semicircles with the wayward team in tow, drawing closer to the great wall of the mesa, until he seemed satisfied with a patch of dirt underfoot.
"Hmm, here!" he announced, stamping the ground with a paw. "Seems perfect. Not too wet, not too tough… Ready for your dare, Saura?"
"Uh… I guess?" Saura replied meekly. "But shouldn't we be trying to rescue the Bagon already? Isn't this just a waste of time?"
"Hah, you act as though this'll take time," Marrow chuckled. "Not unless you're going to be a scaredy-cat about it. Besides, Scythe told me to train you, so this is how I'm going to do it. Now, hold a moment for me…!"
Tossing aside his club, the Marowak took a headfirst dive, disappearing beneath the surface of the earth as though it were water. No evidence of his existence remained, save for a small, neatly-formed vortex of dust that crumbled at the point of his disappearance.
"Whoa…" Saura said. "I didn't know he could do that…"
"What, dig?" Ray replied. "Oh yeah, Marrow digs! Of course he can dig!"
Before Ray could further embellish the talents of the gallant Marowak, the vortex exploded, spraying loose chunks of dirt into the eyes of the onlookers. When the dust cleared, the brown lizard reappeared at the bottom of a sizable ditch, kicking entire fountains of dirt up to the surface with each stroke of his paws.
"Ah, that should be enough," the Marowak announced, balancing himself on the shifting landslides and appraising his work. "Now, then. Here's your dare, Saura! I'm going to bury you alive. Get down in here and I'll cover you back up in dirt, and just stay there until I let you go. Think you can do it?"
Saura grimaced. "That's pretty far down… How, uh… how am I supposed to breathe?"
"You can't!" Marrow laughed. "You'll just have to hold your breath. So, are you up for it? Or you plannin' on letting Char down after all the trouble he went through, putting his tail in the water like that?"
"I didn't… I mean, I never… I haven't held my breath for very long before, Marrow," Saura squeaked. "I don't think I can. I'm going to gasp for breath and swallow all that dirt…"
"Alright, if you really need to come up for air, send a vine up to the surface and I'll get'cha out," Marrow told him. "But that'll still count as losing. I'm going to leave you down there for at least a few minutes. Sound fair?"
Saura frowned hard, clearly bothered by the suddenness of such an unpleasant assignment. He glanced at his friends, as though to ask them for advice, but made his decision quickly. "I'm really not sure about this," Saura admitted. "But… If you'll get me out early if I need it, then… I guess there's no harm in trying."
Less than a minute later, Saura was buried four meters below, and Marrow patted the dirt flat as though the hole was never there. Char and Ray gulped in nervousness as they watched the patch of land, wondering when Saura would send his signal for help. Marrow, however, didn't seem the least bit bothered.
"Some of the Master's goons call me the 'grave digger,'" the Marowak boasted, dusting the soot from his claws. "Suppose it's no exaggeration. Though I was amused to find they thought so highly of me. Very special honor, it is, to have your foes make up their own name for you."
No one responded to the Marowak. Char only fretted with his claws, and Ray nibbled nervously on the end of his tail.
"I don't know what the lung capacity of a young Bulbasaur is," Otto said, landing upon Saura's makeshift grave, "But it won't be more than seventy seconds before he needs air."
"Aww, why all the long faces, now?" Marrow goaded. "C'mon now, why not relax for a bit? C'mon, I'll tell you a story."
"It does not seem the time for a story," Otto replied, "you will be interrupted in less than a minute."
"Nonsense, it's the perfect time for a story!" the masked lizard laughed, patting the ground. "C'mon, sit now. Listen. I insist."
Char begrudgingly sat down next to the Marowak, but paid him no notice, keeping his eyes peeled on the spot where Saura's vines would sprout from the soil. Otto didn't budge from the place stood, watching in fascination to see if his estimation would come true.
"Now here's the story of how we stopped one of the Master's patrols dead in their tracks," the Marowak began. "See there's a town way, way out to the west of here called Slicker Lake, and it was an underwater lake for certain types of swimmers. Well, a while back, Team Remorse thought to set up outpost down there in the water, using those waterfall stones that let you breathe underwater, you know? But in order to do that we had to make it look like the town was above the water, so the Master wouldn't notice anything going on below, y'know? Kinda like what we did to the Cliffside Academy! Well, as it just so happened, when we were just about done with the façade, we noticed movement on the roads. One of the patrols was getting way too close, and we needed to delay them. So—"
Thwick! A vine popped out of the ground just in front of Char, and a second one came soon afterward. They waved around like cattails in the breeze.
"Oh, would you look at that! Odd little plants growing there," Marrow laughed. "Aaaanyhow, as I was saying. We really needed to delay those troops so we could finish the building. And you're going to love the plan we came up with."
"Marrow!" Char shouted, fed up at the Marowak's attitude. "You have to save Saura from suffocating, remember? You promised."
"Oh, of course I will," Marrow replied with indifference. "But I wasn't going to start the countdown until he shot the vines up. I think I'll get him out in about two minutes."
"MARROW!"
Char stood up to face the Marowak with a fearsome glare, but was thwacked on the head by a bone club just as he did.
"Hey, Char! Calm down a bit!" Marrow snapped back. "Dont'cha see what I'm trying to get at, here? If you'd just let me finish, I'm sure you'll see."
Char only scowled.
"Fine, fine, have it your way. I'll cut to the punchline," Marrow sighed, rubbing the outside of his helmet as though to soothe a headache. "Ah, alright. Hey, Otto. You seem like a smart one. Tell me, what causes someone to suffocate?"
Otto hopped around the ends of Saura's wigging vines, looking as though he might mistake them for worms and yank them out. "Most animals cannot survive without oxygen from the air," Otto replied plainly. "The time a creature can spend without oxygen depends on the creature's lung capacity and body mass. If the oxygen is deprived for too long, the creature's blood might become stale, which causes fainting and death."
"Yes," Marrow said knowingly. "But where does oxygen come from? How does it get into the air?"
"Simple," Otto chirped. "It comes from… … …plants."
Char blinked for a moment, beginning to piece the puzzle together. Even Otto had needed an extra moment for the thought to sink in.
"Right, now I think you're starting to get it, Char!" Marrow goaded, patting him on the head.
"So, wait! Saura doesn't need to breathe?!" Ray cried in disbelief. "Because he has a plant on him that breathes for him?"
"That cannot be true," Otto noted. "Plants cannot create oxygen without photosynthesis, which requires sunlight. Since no sunlight is touching Saura, the bulb has no energy with which to create the oxygen, and he would still suffocate."
"Ahy, but what if you're forgetting something else?" Marrow teased. "What about all the sunlight he has stored in that great big battery on his back? Think that'll help him at all?"
Otto jumped in surprise. "I did not consider that," he admitted, tilting his head at the still-wiggling vines.
"You bet. Since plant Pokémon are both plants and animals at the same time, they can keep trading their plant for air as long as they've stored the sunlight for it," Marrow explained. "How do I know this? Well, it's something scientists noticed happens in grass Pokémon when they have to spend too much time without sunlight. It's called 'respiration recycling' or somesuch technical term, I forget. Happens automatically."
"But a while ago we discovered it could be used in covert ops. See, when you want to plant a Pokémon beneath the ground, so far down that their scent can't be tracked by the hounds on the surface, generally you'd use a ghost Pokémon or a rock Pokémon who don't need to breathe at all, or a gounder like me. But that's such a common tactic nowadays that the enemies are prepared for it. It's too predictable. So when we had to defend that lake, Kyria had the brilliant idea to plant a grass Pokémon instead, nobody would suspect that. I mean, so what if you detect a plant under the ground? Could just be a root, after all! Well, we gave it a try, and she saved up enough sunlight to survive under the ground for a whole day and a half with no air at all, and sprung a trap as soon as they passed over her. Put 'em all to sleep!"
"As for Saura, in just the time it's taken to walk this far, I'm sure he's saved up enough sunlight to hold his breath for at least two minutes. Isn't that right, Saura?"
At that, Marrow clutched Saura's vines and forcefully snapped them over his shoulders. Through an explosive burst of dust, Saura was flung into the air, emitting a pained yelp as he landed upside-down on his bulb just in front of Marrow's amused gaze.
"See now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Marrow laughed, letting go of the vines.
After hacking up a few mouthfuls of dirt, Saura scrambled to tilt himself upright, and growled scornfully in Marrow's direction. "You… said you would…"
"Ut! Ut-ut-ut, answer the question!" The Marowak insisted, waving the bone club at him. "Answer truthfully!"
"Urrk…" Saura moaned, casting his gaze downward and stifling his disdain. "Alright, alright… it… wasn't that bad."
"Lovely! Then you're officially free of chores, then!" Marrow cheered to him.
Saura awkwardly tried to paw the dirt out from the folds of his scarf. "But… how am I still alive…?" he mumbled. "How come I didn't suffocate…? I don't understand."
"Well, maybe your friends can explain it to you a bit later," said the gravedigger, hefting his bone and taking lead of the party again. "But we've really got to be moving on, dont'cha think? Very well, moving on, then!"
Though it seemed as though it may have been afternoon already, morning had yet to pass. The sun's light slanted downward at a steep angle from the east, allowing the giant cliff of the plateau to block off the morning light and hold a large slice of the land inside a prolonged nighttime.
After having followed the cliff wall for several minutes more, Marrow approached close to the lingering shade, glancing across the surface of the ridiculous pile of gravel which had avalanched from somewhere up on the cliff's face. The rocks came in many sizes, some larger than Marrow himself. In the closest proximity to the plateau, the rubble formed a long, shallow ramp up to the wall, although the footing was fiercely unstable and would clearly shift at the slightest pressure.
"Alright, Rai, I think I've got a little something for you to do," Marrow spoke as soon as the team had completely crossed into the darkness. "Ready for your dare?"
"I'm not going to like this, am I?" Ray whined, gazing apprehensively at the mound of rocks. "Alright, Marrow. What do you want me to do?"
"Run up and touch the side of the plateau," Marrow instructed, shrugging. "If you can do that without any help, you're done. I'll even help you come back if you need. Think you can do that?"
Ray warily crawled to the foot of the mound. He pawed at the first small rock he could reach, and jumped back when the rock shifted and let loose a small rockslide in his direction.
"You are not heavy," Otto offered. "You will make it if you run quickly enough. Do not let the rocks trap you."
"Shame you're not a fire-type," Char joked. "That way, at least if you fell into the rocks, it wouldn't hurt."
Ray eyed the cliff wall. It wasn't so far away, just a forty-foot climb across the rocks. "Alright," Ray decided, his look of dread changing into a fearsome smirk. "I've got this. Just watch!"
Eager to get it over with, Ray dropped the bag of supplies at his side and jumped onto the first foot-hold. Though the rocks collapsed underfoot, the Raichu kept his balance and pushed off, finding a flat stone to stabilize himself.
"Wow, this is actually kind of hard," he laughed awkwardly, feeling the flat rock teetering beneath him as he clung to the edges with his claws.
"Don't stop," Marrow warned him. "If you stop, you'll fall. You've got to just run for it, as fast as you can. You can run, can't you?"
"Of course I can run, are you kidding?" Ray boasted, wobbling around and afraid to take another step. "Alright, watch!"
Gritting his teeth and crouching low, Ray coiled himself, then pounced up several more of the rocks, feeling them fall away whenever he would push off. After covering about half the distance to the wall, he found that he needed to pause again atop a large and flat platform, waiting for the earthquakes he had created to subside.
As he tried to balance himself on the teetering shard of shale, it occurred to him that the earthquake was somehow getting worse.
But as Ray contemplated just making another run for it, a monstrous Onix burst out of the rocks just in front of the Raichu's face, roaring with agitation and lashing out at the intruder who had disturbed its sleep. It was a frightfully magnificent snake, revealing that many of the rocks which Ray had stepped on likely belonged to its body. The snake's body stirred under the gravel pile, causing such an upheaval of balance that Ray was thrown backwards, tumbling all the way down the pile until he landed on solid ground.
"Aww, c'mon, don't tell me you didn't see that one coming!" Marrow laughed. "Didn't you see her horn sticking out from the pile! Aww, what a lovely lady. Wasn't expecting such a big one! Well, Rai, you gonna give it another shot?"
"Uhhgh," Ray moaned, rolling himself off from a sharp pebble he had landed on. "Oh, wow…"
Righting himself upon his four paws, Ray gazed up at the majestic snake, admiring its size as well as its immunity to his element. He wondered if he should try attacking with his tail, or just doubling his efforts and making a run for it. The snake continued to watch him scornfully, swiveling her head to keep constant eye contact with the mouse, disregarding the Marowak and the other Pokémon who stood behind him.
"Hey," Ray shouted back to the Marowak. "Can't I just run down the way a bit? You said I just had to touch the wall, you didn't say where."
"Sure, if you want!" Marrow replied with an unseen grin. "Might be worth a try."
"You would wake up more Onix," Otto warned loudly. "There is another sleeping Onix to the right, and at least three to your left."
"Okay, never mind, then!" Ray shouted, digesting the news. "Alright, I think I've got it now! Here it goes!"
Ray dashed fearlessly at the beast, ignoring the falling rocks underfoot as he propelled himself across them. The Onix lowered her head as he grew close, ready to snap up the rodent in her stony jaws the moment he came within range. To Char, it looked as though Ray was trying to lure her head down to attack, but he didn't see what kind of damage he could do all by himself. He bit his lip, hoping Ray would make it out unharmed.
The Onix struck, lurching her head forward to gobble up the little rodent in a single bite. But just as her mouth struck the rock, the Raichu was gone.
Zip! In a flash of light, Ray was suddenly farther up the pile. Char couldn't quite tell how he had gotten there.
The guardian snake stirred, unwinding itself from its rocky blankets and angrily glancing around for the little pest. As Ray was trying not to fall backward from his new foothold, the snake spotted him and leaped out from the rocks, completely revealing its long, stony form as it struck at him.
Zip! Once again, the Raichu had vanished from sight just mere moments before the snake struck, re-appearing even closer to the great wall. Ray shook his head and clawed at his cheeks, as though trying to overcome a headache, before noticing that the wall was only just a few more leaps away.
"Ah! So he does know the quick-attack," Marrow said. "I'm impressed! Good, I was hoping he would. Makes this whole ordeal much easier for him. Looks like he's got this in the bag."
"Oh, you mean how he uses lightning to move faster?" Saura said. "Oh, yeah, he's done that before. But he says it's really hard to aim."
Marrow shrugged. "Well, he should learn, then! One of an electric's biggest strengths! If I were an electric Pokémon, I'd sure want to learn that one first thing."
Wasting not another moment, Ray bounded up the few remaining rocks, overcoming their efforts to slide him back down. At last, he spun around to face the arduous slope he had climbed, whipping the wall with the end of his tail.
"Alright, that's it, he's got it!" Marrow announced. "Time to give him a little help."
With his club held out behind him, the Marowak charged forward with speed that nearly rivaled Ray's. When he reached the edge of the rocks, he sprung into the air, flying much higher than Char thought could be possible. At the peak of his jump, he twisted his body and flung his club away. The throw missed the snake by a hair.
The Onix, who had just discovered for herself how far the Raichu had encroached into her territory, failed to notice the new attacker flying like a missile at the back of her head.
Just as Marrow landed on the neck of the beast, his bone club somehow came back to him after having changed directions in mid-air. It struck the opposite side of the Onix's neck, just between snake's first two body segments. Marrow caught both ends of the bone and leveraged it like a hand-hold, trapping the Onix between his arms.
The great snake flailed and panicked, flinging the Marowak around, but his grip on the bone stayed steady and he skillfully wrangled with the beast. A moment or so later, the Onix simply passed out, its huge body flopping down upon the gravel and becoming part of the rockslide had created. Marrow stood victoriously upon the beast's head as he rode it down the pile until it stopped moving.
"Marrow! How did you do that?" Ray cried in awe, scampering back down to the safety of the flat ground.
"Oh, no big effort, really," Marrow said with a shrug, stepping off of the defeated beast. "Onix have a pressure point between the head and the first body joint. If you can squeeze it hard enough, puts them out like a candle."
"No… no, not that," Ray said, panting. "How did… you throw your bone like that? You didn't use white energy… How did you make it come back to you like that? That was amazing!"
"Oh! Ohhh, that," Marrow said knowingly. "…Cubone's Secret."
"Secret?!" Ray cried. "C'mon! How is that a secret? I bet you used white energy, didn't you? Was it in your hands?"
"Time to go," Marrow said, disregarding the Raichu's pleading and. "Looks like we're over halfway there. Should be passing Iron Crevice entrance soon, if I'm not mistaken."
"Marrooow…"
After more walking, the miles fell behind Char and his team, along with the entrance to an old mystery dungeon he had no desire to revisit. As Marrow led them alongside the gravel-piles at the base of the plateau, Char practiced spotting Onix horns in the rubble and hoped that Shale Cave wouldn't be as ruthless as the other cave-based dungeons he'd visited. He vaguely remembered the one that had been constantly filled with wind, another terrible place he had no intention of ever seeing again, and wondered what happened to make Shale Cave so special. From the documents, it seemed that it was just a boring cave: no wind, no lava, no stalactite-spikes hanging from the ceiling to fall on them, just a hole made of rocks. He hoped the dungeon would prove to be just as boring as it sounded, certainly less eventful than Marrow had made the rest of the morning with his inane dares.
Ray didn't seem to mind the gravedigger's antics, however. He seemed thrilled to be adventuring with one of this lifelong heroes, and seemed intent on digging for the rest of Marrow's secret techniques.
"Just a hint?" Ray pleaded, much to Char's chagrin. "How about a hint? Did you make a gravity wave to pull the bone back to you?"
"You know I'm just going to keep ignoring you," Marrow laughed, tapping the Raichu on the head with his club. "Secrets are secrets."
"Wait, hold on," Ray said with a gasp. "Is it a secret because you don't even know how it works?"
"You're gettin' closer, but not quite," Marrow teased. "But I guess I'll tell you this much, if you're really that interested. No, there's no white energy involved. But I can't quite do it with any bone. That's the first thing you learn as a Cub when you start diggin' graves for the first time. You can just feel that some of the bones are different than others. You've got to look for those special bones that form a connection with you. When you find just that right bone, that one that resonates with you, that's when magic happens."
"So is that your favorite bone?" Ray wondered. "Did you have to search your whole life just to find that one?"
"This one, eh… fourth-favorite, I think," Marrow estimated, looking over his shoulder at the bone he carried and at the Pidgey which sat once again at its end. "Certainly my favorite of the bludgeons. Third-favorite, I lost a while back, second- and first-favorite are in the closet back at the team base. Generally I don't like 'em this big, but I switch 'em out every once and again, to get practice with 'em all."
"Marrow," Otto chirped suddenly. "We are almost to our destination. You haven't given me a task."
"Task?" Marrow repeated. "What task?"
"You promised to given an item to us," Otto said, "but you forgot the challenge for me. Also, I would like the opportunity to avoid finishing your chores."
"…Oh, right you are," Marrow said, wobbling his bone and startling Otto into the air. "Right, right. So caught up in talking about bones, I nearly forgot the new guy. Well, then. Let's see here…"
Marrow stopped in his tracks, glancing up at the plateau wall and the late-morning sky. He hummed to himself, drumming his claws against his club as he contemplated.
"Here's one for you," he decided. "Fly up until you're higher than the plateau. Then fall back down."
"You want me to perform a dive maneuver," Otto said.
"Yep, but without the part at the end where you stop yourself from hitting the ground!" Marrow replied.
"You want me to crash-land…?" Otto chirped with a hint of unease. "And at the speed of falling from the height of the plateau…"
"Yeah, something like that!" Marrow replied evilly. "Well, go on. Here's your chance to win the item for the team. Can you do that?"
"…Yes," Otto said, nodding to Char. "I will do so."
Otto began his steep ascent, gaining altitude until he merged with the sunlight above the plateau's shade and Char had to avert his eyes.
"Um… you're just going to catch him, right?" Saura demanded. "You're not actually going to let him crash…"
"Of course I'm going to catch him," Marrow answered, dropping his club and keeping his eyes fixed on the small speck in the sky. "What do you think I am, a heartless brute? And hey, if I time it just right, I can catch him as I'm falling so he doesn't feel the impact at all. Guess that'll be my challenge. Wish me luck…"
The Marowak tiptoed back and forth, carefully lining himself up with the Pidgey in the sky. "Augh, sun's got in my eyes," Marrow hissed. "Probably should'a picked a better place for this. Or a better time. Auuuugh, this isn't any good…"
To Char's surprise, the Marowak threw himself to the ground and clutched his skull tightly as though he suffered a sudden migraine. With a forceful convulsion, he yanked his skull clean off his head, revealing the scaly, fuzzy, mouse-like face underneath, the face he knew many Pokémon could never have recognized as a familiar Pokémon. Once his face was bared, he peered back into the sky and shielded his eyes from the sunlight, stepping as far into the shade as he could without tripping over the rocks.
"Much better," he shouted, eyeing the sky. "Oh, here he comes. Eufff!"
Crouching for just a moment, the Marowak sprang straight up into the air, disappearing into the gleaming sunlight.
Three seconds later, he fell back to earth… but he was empty-handed.
Marrow looked dismayed, his surprise clear on his bare face. Wide-eyed, he looked down at his claws, as though to wonder why the Pidgey wasn't there.
"You… missed…?!" Char cried in panic, gasping in unison with his friends. He looked to the sky, trying to spot the falling bird in hopes he could catch Otto himself.
But Otto was in no danger. Char soon found him hovering in place, not so far above Marrow's head.
"No, I didn't miss," Marrow grumbled, fitting his helmet back on. "He backed out."
It took Char a moment to understand what it meant. He was about to demand an answer, but the truth hit him shortly enough.
Otto fluttered to the ground, landing before his friends. "I failed," he reported, a hint of shame in his downcast face.
"Aye, you did," Marrow said flatly, adjusting his skull one last time. "What do you think went wrong?"
"I was not strong enough to defy my instinct," Otto said plainly. "I am trained to control my fall. When I realized the challenge required defiance of the training, it was too late to plan for it. I was weak."
"Aww, does… this mean… we don't get the item…?" Ray said with a soft whimper. "All that… for nothing?"
"Yep, 'fraid not," Marrow said grimly. "That was the agreement. No item for you. And Otto gets to clean the closet tonight. But that doesn't mean it wasn't all for nothing… you got something more valuable than an item, wouldn't you say? You've learned about yourself, and how fear works. Just like a dungeon mission that goes wrong. You might not get the prize, but you find weaknesses in your character and patch them up for next time. Now, enough dawdling for us. There's still at least one prize left for you to get, right? Time to hit Shale Cave and find that runaway."
As Marrow lead off the last span of their walk, and Saura and Ray nagged and complained to Marrow about what item they might have gotten, Otto approached Char carefully with his head in defeat. Char could tell the little Pidgey was dismayed at his performance, but was trying to hide it behind his usual stoic mask.
"I am sorry, Char," Otto said softly. "I assumed I could pass the test. I did not know I would fail."
"It's alright," Char told him, though admittedly he was perhaps just as surprised as well. "It happens to all of us."
"I will not disappoint you anymore, Char," Otto chirped, his eye gleaming with the same innocence Char remembered from his visits at the daycare center. "I hoped to have a perfect record on your team. I have no excuse to fail. I am certain I am strong enough to avoid further failure. Please don't disband me from the team."
"Wha-? I'm not disbanding you," Char insisted, flabbergasted that he had even suggested such a punishment. "And I'm not even disappointed. Maybe if this were a real mission, but… I honestly don't see any mission that would require you to dive-bomb the ground like that stupid dare he gave you."
"So you will not hold this against me as a team partner…?" Otto wondered, hopping along the ground next to Char. "I am still equal in rank to you?"
Char bit his tongue, feeling a bit of the frustration return from the first day the Pidgey joined the team. But he remembered to explain things to the Pidgey in a language he would understand, and to be gentle with him.
"Otto…" Char sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Do you really think Saura and Ray have never made mistakes before? If I didn't kick them off the team after making a mistake, what makes you think I'd do that to you?"
"I assumed it was possible they never disappointed you," Otto replied. "But I see how that is unlikely."
"Look, Otto, we can talk about this later," Char sighed. "If you want to make up for a mistake, help us finish this mission. Go in the air and see if you can help us spot the entrance to Shale Cave."
"At once," Otto chirped, zipping into the air and leveling out to drift on the thermals far overhead.
Char shook his head at the strange bird, wondering how he would get through to him. Then, he dropped to all fours and scampered to catch up with the team.
Though it had ended in disappointment, Char wondered if Marrow the Fearless had truly taught the team something important about the nature of fear with his silly game. Maybe, he thought, Marrow really had mastered the art of courage and held much wisdom to demonstrate to him and his team.
Well, we have him for the rest of the week, so I really hope so, Char said to himself. Just hope it doesn't involve any more of those dumb dares…
Shale Cave B1F
The cave was just as drab as Char had hoped. The floor and ceiling were composed of a light-brown stone, smooth and flat, not too different than paper. The surfaces were shiny, seeming to amplify the light from Char's tail so far around the team that it seemed like they were walking through one of the brightly-lit hallways at the Gold Division base. Around them stood various sizes of pillars where stalagmites and stalactites had merged, but not enough to keep the dungeon floor from feeling like one large open room.
As Char took his first steps at the front of the team, holding his flame forward, he noticed that the floor was a bit slippery. He made a mental note to dig into the floor with his claws with each step.
"Looks comfy," Marrow noted. "Now that we're here, what are we up against? Anyone? Anyone know the dungeon stats?"
"Five floors," Ray recited. "I think. And there were… Geodude line, Onix, Zubat and Golbat, of course… typical cave-dwellers."
"Kabutops live in here," Otto added. "They pose the most threat."
"Hmm, any Bagon?" Marrow asked.
"No, but Bagon is the client we're looking for," Saura said. "I don't think they live in this cave naturally like they did in Jormungand's Garden."
"Hmm, that's funny," the Marowak said, "because there's one standing right over there."
"What?!" Char yipped, turning the direction Marrow was looking.
It was true. Far across the large room, past many of the sparkling pillars, there stood a small, blue, wingless dragon. It stared back at them as though Char and his team were predators about to converge on him, and for a moment only stood stunned in indecision.
"Kablo?!" Char called out to the dragon, running toward it. "Kablo, is that you?"
But the dragon didn't show any interest in Char. Instead, he leaped into the shadows like a scared rat, and soon was out of sight.
"Wha? He's running from us…?" Char cried in confusion. "Follow him!"
Char broke into a sprint after the lost dragon, careful not to slide astray on the slick floor. Otto swiftly zoomed over his head into the shadows much faster than he could run. By the time Char was about to reach the point he had seen the Bagon, Otto returned into Char's sphere of light, bearing bad news.
"The Bagon escaped down the stairs," Otto reported. "He is deeper in the dungeon. I would have followed, but I would have been separated."
"Smart move," Marrow said. "Hmm, curious. So this client of yours seems to not want to be rescued. I'll dare say, that doesn't happen very often from my experience. Any idea what's gotten into him? Did it say anything in the mission papers about prior circumstances, or any some such?"
"It is possible Kablo is a feral, as I once was," Otto speculated, landing to rest on the floor. "Perhaps it is a pet and it has run away from its master. Or perhaps it is a very young hatchling."
"Crazy Bagon," Char uttered, mostly to himself. "That Bagon could die in here, especially since the Kabutops live down deeper. Well, I guess we'll drag it kicking and screaming back to the dragon reserves if we need. And if this dungeon is only five floors, it shouldn't take too long to corner it…"
The confused team followed Otto to the stairs and continued their search for the Bagon. Char humorously considered that he would need to switch to outlaw-hunting strategies if the chase were to continue on long enough.
Shale Cave B2F
As Char descended the staircase, he had the oddest thought that perhaps he recognized the shape and the size of the stairs. They reminded him of the stairs in Temporal Tower: the long, circular flights that wrapped the outer side of the tower between floors. He wondered if maybe all the staircases in all of the mystery dungeons were somehow bleeding over from Temporal Tower itself, which would explain the odd existence of staircases in such strange and obscure places.
On the second floor, the ceiling seemed lower than before, making Otto visibly irritated at the lack of room to hover. The rock-pillars were far more numerous, turning the room into a confusing web of branching paths. Yet there were still no foes in sight, so Char considered himself lucky.
"Alright, let's split up," Char decided. "Otto, you can see in the dark fairly well. You go that way. Ray, you can use one of the luminous orbs, and go that way."
"Eh, might want to rethink that order," Marrow warned him. "You don't want to separate from the main team, especially in a cave dungeon."
"…How come?" Char wondered. "I think we're all strong enough to handle a battle on our own, or at least run from it."
The Marowak shook his head. "Yes, but if you split up in a mystery dungeon, the dungeon gets weirder," he said. "You mean Scythe didn't tell you that? That's the whole reason for the buddy rule in the first place! Proven fact: if you don't stick together in a dungeon, the dungeon has a greater chance of playing mind games on you. Like changing its own layout or other weird things. You know, things that happen in the really deep and unstable dungeons. Always, always have an ally at your side in a dungeon, unless there's a very good reason not to."
"We have split up before," Otto mentioned, "and nothing bad has happened. Such as yesterday in Jormungand's Garden."
"Well, if you split up, you need to stay within eyeshot of one another," Marrow explained. "That's basically the rule: stay close enough that you can see one another. Because if you lose your teammate, then you're the dungeon's plaything. We don't know why it happens, but that's just how dungeons act. Just being alone makes the dungeon more severe."
Char suddenly found himself faced with an unpleasant memory. He recalled the moment in Temporal Tower, after Scythe had run away, that he'd chosen to run ahead of his friends. He recalled watching the mystery dungeon go completely berserk. It was such a terrifying moment, it had been the subject of at least one of his nightmares since then.
"Alright, then instead of splitting up, how about this," Char decided. "Ray, do we have the X-ray glasses today?"
"Sure do," Ray reported, setting the bag on the floor to search for them. "Thought they'd be useful for a rescue mission."
"Good, put them on," Char ordered. "We can see Kablo through the walls that way. Otto, you can fly around the pillars, but not too far. That way Ray will still have eye contact with you."
"Hmm, these are weird," Ray said, trying out the glasses. "I can see through walls fine, but the light from your tail doesn't pass through the solid things. So it looks like—"
"EEEYYYAAAAHHH!"
As the team was strategizing, a sudden shriek of terror resounded from deeper in the cave. The call was high-pitched, enough to sound like the Bagon might have made it, or that the Bagon had dealt a painful blow to a feral. With the glasses strapped to his face, Ray grabbed the bag and hurriedly followed his teammates in the direction of the sound.
Turning a corner, Char met with the Bagon again, and the foe which had landed the blow: a typical bully Graveler. It stood above the fallen dragon, waiting for it to make the next move, as the dragon clutched a bleeding knee.
"Hold on, we can help!" Char called to the dragon. "Don't move!"
"N-no!" cried the Bagon, squirming with all his might and climbing back to his feet. "No! Get away! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
At that, with a hobble in its step, the Bagon slipped right by the Graveler and into the dark again. Char found himself facing off with the Graveler, who now seemed more interested in him than the little blue creature it had just injured.
"Well, at least we know it's intelligent," Saura offered. "That's… really weird."
"Ray, get a stun seed," Char ordered. "Saura, get r–"
"Nah, don't bother wasting your stuff on it," Marrow scoffed. "Hey Rai, you want to see what I can really do with white energy? Watch this."
Stepping in front of Char, Marrow brandished his club in both hands, wielding it like an oversized sword. He pointed it in the Graveler's direction, taunting the feral beast, as its surface became covered with the silvery sheen of a charged attack. With a spirited grunt, he spun the club around and thrust it straight into the ground.
The shale split cleanly around the end of the bone, letting it pass deeply into the ground. The impact shook the whole chamber, rattling chunks of gravel loose from the ceiling. The fissure widened, growing longer with zig-zagging cracks, until it honed in on the Graveler, who only watched curiously.
The moment the fissure struck the rock beast in the foot, the creature's entire body burst open in a gruesome explosion of chunks and black, oily blood.
Team ember stood gaping at the sight. Char decided not to look too closely at the remains of what could barely even be called a corpse.
"Most polite way to do it," Marrow noted, setting his club back atop his shoulder. "Get it over with before they feel any pain. Now, any of you see which way the Bagon kid went?"
"You cannot strike me with that attack, correct?" Otto chirped, betraying much fear of the powerful display he witnessed.
"No, of course not. Can't hit anything in the air. The rest of your friends aren't so lucky. Now, do you know which way he went?"
"To the right," Otto replied, fluttering over to the messy pile of rocks and perching upon what used to be one of the beast's arms. "I did not know of this technique before…"
"Woww…" Ray gasped, fretting with the end of his tail again. "Marrow… I'll remember never to make you angry."
"Well, you keep ignoring me and let the Bagon get away again, maybe you'll just do it," Marrow grunted. "Come on, let's not draw this out for all five floors if absolutely necessary. Follow him!"
Shale Cave B3F
After rushing down the stairs, the team found that they were hot on the Bagon's tail again. The Bagon looked as though he had just finished hobbling down the stairs and was taking his first steps in the next floor when he spotted his pursuers.
"No, no, no!" The wayward dragon screamed, dragging itself as far away from the Pokémon as possible and doing so with surprising speed. "GET AWAY FROM ME! PLEASE! GET AWAY!"
The third floor of the cave was even more cramped than the last, as the ceiling was almost too low for Marrow to walk standing upright. The pillars had also fused together to create discrete rooms, one of which the team found themselves standing within, the Bagon having escaped through the narrow passage and into the darkness beyond.
"Aye, I've had enough of this!" Marrow cried, running after the Bagon. "C'mon, let's corner it."
"WAIT!"
Saura shouted from near the corner of the room, getting everyone's attention.
"I found something," Saura reported. "Look."
Indeed, Saura had found something interesting: the stairs to the next floor. They had been right there, just next to the entry point, and very easy for an unobservant eye to miss.
"Oh, hmm! What a turn of events," Marrow hummed, sitting down next to the staircase to contemplate. "Happens sometimes. You go down stairs, and poof. The next stairs are right there next to you. Real shame when you don't notice it, and you explore the rest of the floor without realizing where the exit was."
"Just like the Bagon's doing right now," Char considered. "Wait… this means he's cornered. If we guard the stairs here, he can't escape."
"Good point," Marrow said. "So, what do you think we should do?"
"Ray," Char ordered. "You stay behind. Guard the stairs. Dungeon can't play tricks on you if you don't move a muscle, right? And if something happens, just use a roll-call orb and we'll give you a hand. Give us an escape orb so that we can get us all out of here as soon as we catch him. Otto, I need your speed, and Saura, I need your strength against rock monsters. Let's get this done."
"Hmm, seems reasonable, though risky for poor Rai," Marrow considered. "A'ight, I'm with it. Go for it. I'll just follow behind."
"Good luck," Ray said as he tossed Char the requested orb. "I'll just light up a luminous orb if I get too scared. Don't worry about me!"
And with that, the whole team, minus Ray, ventured down the dark, cramped hallways for the fugitive Bagon.
Char reflected, as his mission came to a close, how strange the day had been. It seemed to have passed very quickly, and with no terrible hiccups save for the fact that the Bagon they sought was actively trying not to be rescued. Their team proved strong and competent enough to make decisions, even without Marrow's presence, and he felt proud of that. He hoped that it was at least in part due to his leadership skills and not the random twists of fate which had defined his adventures back in the earlier days.
But fate still had one more twist to play on Char's team that day.
Though the dungeon's corridors were so densely cramped, there was not enough room for many branching paths; there was largely only one way the Bagon could have gone, and it was just a matter of time before they would meet. Char held his tail forward, eyeing the darkness and the small side-corridors for any speck of blue or white which would give away the fugitive's position.
"No!" the Bagon cried from somewhere. "NONO! NO! NOO! AIIIIGIGUGUGHHH!"
Char jerked to attention, his flame growing very large and bright in his hand. The cry had been a primal, anguished one, as though the last words of a dying soul. Char feared the Bagon had gotten sliced open by a Kabutops, and scurried down the hall in the direction the sound had come.
"AIIIIGHHH! NO! NO, NO!"
Another scream sounded, just as heartbroken and pitiful as the first. Char doubled his speed and hurried to the dragon's rescue.
"Otto!" he shouted. "Go help him!"
At the command, Otto darted down the long, narrow hall like a thrown rock.
"STOP!" yelled the desperate voice. "STOPP! PLEASE, I BEG YOU!"
At the end of the hallway where he would turn a corner, Otto stopped and hovered in air, as though following the orders of the voice.
Char caught up, turned the corner, and found the Bagon, utterly trapped at a dead-end, flattening himself up against the wall. Though there were no enemies or dangers around, a fiery terror shined in the Bagon's eyes, as though Char and his team were truly demon-spawn straight from the underworld.
"Kablo!" Char called. "What are you yelling at?!"
"AT YOU!" the dragon cried. "Stop, STOP. Just STOP! PLEASE! Don't-don't come any closer!"
"Kid, if we don't come any closer, will you tell us what's gotten into you?!" Marrow blasted at it. "There are Pokémon worried about you. They hired us to find you here."
"I'm… I'm… I'm… tainted," the Bagon growled, a raspy tone that sent a shiver through Char. "I can't… I can't go out… can't spread it…"
"Spread what, little guy?" Saura pleaded. "Are you sick? We can take you to a doctor. We know a lot of good doctors around here…"
And then, Char glanced back and noticed the glazed look on Marrow's face.
His body had staggered, frozen in place. His eyes stared at the Bagon unblinkingly.
"Marrow?" Char said. "Marrow, are you alright?"
That's when Char recognized the look in Marrow's eyes. It matched the look in the Bagon's eyes.
Pure, sheer terror. It was the moment he knew from so many moments of experience where nothing can be felt, and nothing can be thought. And it was happening to Marrow the Fearless.
The gravedigger tossed his club behind himself. In a blink, Marrow dove back around the corner as though to dodge a cannonball, clutching Char's tail in one hand and Saura's leg in the other. They hit the ground in a confused tangle, Char almost dropping the orb he held.
"Use the orb," Marrow instructed, his voice skittish and raspy in a way Char had never heard before. "Char. Use the orb. We need to get out of here."
"But…"
"By the gods, if you never listen to another thing I say, Char, use the orb."
"Fine, I will," Char decided, feeling Marrow's fear rub off on him. "Alright, alright. But at least let me talk to the Bagon one more time."
"DON'T—go near him," Marrow barked ravenously, reaching for his club. "Stay… here. Do not let him touch you, do not let him threaten to touch you…"
Char carefully stepped around the corner, holding his tail forward and meeting the spooked Bagon's eye.
"Kablo," he said quietly. "It looks like we're going to leave you alone now. I don't know why, but we're going away. I guess I just… wanted to know if you're going to be alright down here."
"I'm fine," Kablo replied. "Got a stash of food down on floor five. Berries appear here all the time."
"Are you ever coming out?" Char asked of him. "We got a letter to come rescue you. That's why we're here. Your friends are worried."
"I'll come out when I'm not contagious anymore," Kablo replied. "When you leave… would you… would you go and make sure those letters are destroyed? So nobody else comes to find me…?"
"I'll see what we can do," Char replied. "Good luck, Kablo. Whatever's wrong, good luck."
"Yeah, luck, like that helps any," the Bagon spat. "Luck is a joke… Just go, Charmander. Forget me."
And with that, Char returned to Ray and the team activated the escape orb together… but not before leaving some oran berries for the poor Bagon to find.
Gold Division Medical Wing
After the strange ending to the mission, Marrow had dragged the team back to the base in silence, insisting that nobody say a word to anyone. Once inside, they headed straight for the hospital wing. Refusing to stay in the waiting room, Marrow had burst through the doors and found Dr. Orde himself, and whispered something in his ear. Whatever he had said startled the doctor so profoundly that he dropped a glass on the floor and shoved the whole team into a clean, white room with lights so bright it hurt the eyes. He then immediately took skin samples from the flustered Pokémon (and a feather in Otto's case) before bolting back out the door.
"So uh, why are we here again?" Saura wondered as the team sat in the white-tiled room.
"Taint outbreak," Marrow said solemnly. "That is, if that Bagon had been telling the truth. He might have been crazy. But if there was just the slightest chance he wasn't… I wasn't going to risk anyone catching it."
"We have not failed the mission yet," Otto noted. "The mission requirements said that we merely had to search for the Bagon in two dungeons. If we lie and say that we did not find the Bagon, we take another victory to our record and acquire the lesser bounty."
"Hah, that's twice in a row we did that," Ray laughed. "This whole 'abusing the loopholes' thing really works well, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, 'course it does," Marrow laughed in reply. "As you do more work, you'll come to find that abusing the loopholes is more like the rule rather than the exception. There's this whole art to it, and you'll learn that in time."
"Marrow…" Saura said softly. "What's the taint?"
Marrow paused for a second, as though reluctant to answer the question, but finally put his hand on his face and admitted the truth.
"It's a virus," Marrow explained. "Virus created by humans, oddly enough, to make Pokémon get stronger. Some call it Pokérus. See, the virus itself isn't what harms you, but the way your body reacts to it, and… the immunity you build up. What it does, is it accelerates the cells or something, effectively making you grow stronger in half the time. But humans, in all their cleverness, apparently didn't stop to realize the consequence of such a virus…"
"Consequence…" Ray repeated, sounding worried.
"Yeah, you bet there's a consequence," Marrow said, shuddering in disgust. "Turns out, when you grow stronger in half the time… you also die in half the time."
The room fell silent as it sank in.
"So, that Bagon…," Saura started.
"If he has it, he's in for a short life, yeah," Marrow replied. "And any Pokémon who touch him while he's contagious. And the tragic part is… he can never get rid of it. Not even after the virus dies. Because that's what it does… it changes you. Makes you stronger, but at what expense…?"
"Ouch…" Saura said sadly. "Eesh, I can't imagine what would have happened if that virus got in here… The whole Division might have been tainted…"
"Some people say that the Master willingly makes his soldiers tainted," Marrow added. "So they can hit harder in war, but once the war is over, he doesn't care—"
The door flung open to reveal Dr. Orde with a paper in his hand.
"Results, results, they're here," the Slowking said. "Alright, here they are. Bulbasaur… you're clean. Marowak, you're clean… … … Pidgey…"
The Slowking's face grew somber. His gaze fell to the floor, and he fumbled with the paper, not even looking at it anymore.
"Pidgey's clean. Charmander's clean."
He paused, reluctant to say anything else, holding the room in a nervous tension. Finally, he broke the silence.
"Raichu," he said slowly. "I'm so, so, so sorry…"
"Wait, what?!" Ray cried in fright, jumping to his feet. "I-I-I didn't even… I didn't… even… touch the Bagon! I didn't even get close to him! THEY LEFT ME BEHIND!"
"Ray, you… don't have the virus," the doctor explained. "However… you have had it once in the past, and therefore… yes, yes. I'm… sorry."
Ray's eyes widened. "How…?" he mouthed, staring at his own paws. "How… how… is this…? When did I have it?"
"I suppose now's the best time to tell you of another Pokémon who was caught with Pokérus," the doctor sighed. "…Your brother. It is likely he gave it to you in your youth, before you ever came here in the base."
Ray's expression turned blank. He only stared at the doctor forlornly, his paws hanging at his side.
Quietly, the Raichu mouthed to himself:
"Is this…"
"…why I grew up so fast?"