Borne of Caution - Act 2: Chapter 6

With a jaw-cracking yawn, Lee lets his eyes creep open as the last vestiges of sleep drain away from him. The blanket covering him is luxuriously soft and warm, so he turns his bleary eyes away from the drab ceiling and snuggles a little deeper into the covers. Being so comfortable, it takes his sluggish brain a moment to remember where he is.

The blanket covering him twitches a little, drawing his attention.

‘Ah. That’s no blanket.’ He breathes a little deeper through his nose, catching a spiced, yet not too sharp scent that he knows by heart. ‘Blankets definitely don’t move… or smell like Ninetales. No wonder I slept so well.’

Covering him neck-to-toe are golden fox tails. The actual comforter and whatnot have been pushed off to the foot of the bed. The memories of the day prior hit, and Lee smiles. ‘Vulpix evolved. Vulpix evolved and she’s all the better for it.’

Reluctantly, Lee turns away from the fluffy fox tail serving as his pillow to face Ninetales. She lays beside him cuddled into his side, her head turned and laying chin-down on her pillow as she sleeps. Ninetales’ muzzle is cracked open just the slightest amount, and in the stillness of the early morning, Lee can hear her quiet breaths. The mane-like tuft on her head is mussed from turning in bed, and when one of her ears twitches, a bit of the tuft is flicked with it.

Slowly raising his head to look over his pokemon, Lee spies the bright red display of the nightstand alarm clock reading 9:04 AM back to him.

‘We slept in quite a bit…’ He blinks the last bit of bleariness from his eyes. ‘I hope Grovyle isn’t too upset that we’re going to get a late start on our morning training. We still need to visit Moore and Flannery, after all.’

Beyond the nightstand and over in Brendan’s bed, he finds the boy and his jumbo Electrike both laying dead to the world in a mess of wrinkled covers. Electrike snorts in his sleep and kicks a little.

It’s taken Brendan and his infectiously upbeat self only two weeks to break the nervous shell around the young Electric-type. After constant pleasant treatment and support from Brendan and his team, the pup quit sitting and sending mournful looks to the south, back to the valley where his mother left him with them. He shed his nervousness and jitters, even befriending Goomy and Shinx, forming a trio that makes Lee smile every time he sees them trundle off to find mischief. Thankfully, Mawile seems to have taken it upon herself to keep an eye on the three youngest pokemon when no one else was watching them, and it’s a duty she takes seriously.

As is only natural Lee’s baby girl took the role of fearless leader of their troupe. But that seemed to make Electrike painfully conscious of how large he is compared to his much-smaller friends, and the pup treads as if he were on eggshells around the kitten and mucus-coated dragon.

‘I didn’t realize it was Electrike’s turn to play throw-pillow. I’m glad Brendan got him to open up. I don’t think I would have the time to care for two babies.’ Lee hums to himself, idly noting that he seems to do that a lot. ‘Electrike is already weaned and eating solid food without any issues, yet he can’t be any older than two months. Shinx is around the same age, but I estimate she’s still got two or three weeks before I can start taking her off her bottle. A side effect of Electrike being a Giant? Does being a Giant cause accelerated developmental growth as well? Or is it something simple like the Electrike line maturing faster as a species? I might have to see if Brendan is willing to let me borrow Electrike for an afterno-‘

‘Beloved,’ a voice not belonging to Lee starts, interrupting his mental monologue. ‘You’re thinking rather loudly.’

Ninetales cracks a red eye open, staring up at Lee with an exasperated smile.

Lee returns her stare with a sheepish grin. ‘Sorry about that. I didn’t realize I was going to wake you up.’

‘It’s no matter. We’ve slept late and the day’s duties call to us, so now is as good a time as any to rise.’ Ninetales withdraws her namesake tails, drawing a shiver from Lee as the chill of the air-conditioned room is allowed to flow over his bare chest and the parts of his legs left uncovered by the shorts he wore to bed. The fox then stands on the bed and yawns with a mighty, full-body stretch that makes her tails stand straight like a frayed fan. ‘Did you sleep well?’ She asks, finishing her stretch.

‘Best sleep I’ve had since…’ He pauses, then wonders why he bothered hesitating when he knows Ninetales is perfectly aware of why he stopped. ‘Since we came here. How about you?’

Her answering smile is small but no less pleased for its size. ‘Wonderful. I’ve not felt this rested… ever, I believe… Or, at least I rested well once you turned your cell phone off.’

A small grimace flashes across Lee’s face. As they were preparing for an early rest last night, his phone started blowing up with notifications out of nowhere. After taking a look at the first few and seeing none of them were from Nigel Birch or someone else important, he simply turned it off. “I think someone signed me up for a spam service or something,” Lee grumbles, leaning back into the pillow and wishing it were a fox tail. “If it’s all spam, then a Porygon who can backtrace and blow up whatever server it’s coming from is going to look like a mighty appealing teammate.”

Ninetales huffs out a vulpine laugh, and her radiant happiness bleeds over to Lee, putting a wide smile on his own face. ‘Perhaps we should start our day together?’

Together. The reminder that he’s never truly alone makes everything seem so easy. With a cheerful nod, Lee rises out of bed as Ninetales hops down to the floor.

The room is much like any other for inns marketed towards trainers, as there is a small-ish kitchen unit that sits in the corner. After throwing on the shirt he discarded the night prior and grabbing his backpack, Lee makes his way to the kitchenette with Ninetales following along. In short order, he has a pan of water with a baby bottle of Miltank milk inside warming up on the stove, a pair of buttered skillets beginning to sizzle, and coffee beginning to brew in the small, hotel-supplied coffee pot.

It doesn’t take long for the smell of breakfast to wake up Brendan, who mechanically sits up in his bed and yawns a jaw-popping yawn. The movement jostles Electrike enough that the electric pup blinks open his eyes and stands with a stretch not unlike how Ninetales did, and after a quick sniff of the air, sits up and sends a longing look toward the skillet Lee is placing several strips of bacon into.

“Morning,” Lee calls over his shoulder, as he starts mixing several eggs in a bowl. “What do you want in your omelet?”

“Morning…” Brendan groggily greets back, scooting his legs over to sit on the edge of the bed. The boy takes a moment to think before answering. “Cheese, bacon, and mushrooms if you’ve got ’em.”

“Mushrooms too, eh?” Lee smirks as he pours the mixed eggs into the still-free skillet, making the mix hiss and sizzle. He looks down at Ninetales. “Look at mister refined palette over here,” he says, jerking his head towards Brendan.

The fox laughs once; It’s a short thing, just a sharp exhale through her nose.

Brendan flushes at the unexpected ribbing and doesn’t seem to have a reply ready, so instead, he just huffs.

Before he turns back to the stove, Lee spies the piteous look Electrike is sending to him—or rather, to the pan of bacon. With a roll of his eyes, the man lifts a strip of mostly-cooked bacon from the pan with his spatula, lets it cool for a moment, then takes it between his fingers and holds it down at waist level. “C’mon, little man. You can have one, and only one, as a treat.”

Electrike perks up, his stubby tail wagging. The wagging comes to a halt, though, as the pup looks over to Brendan for permission. Since the pup is so large, he’s actually looking down at his trainer.

Brendan’s grin is answer enough.

The pup jumps down from the bed and zips over, tail wagging in a blur as he takes the greasy treat from Lee’s hand and scarfs it down in three messy bites. He licks his chops to get every bit of delicious grease as he trots back to sit at Brendan’s feet.

Smiling, Lee wipes the fat off his fingers with the hem of his shirt and returns his attention to the stove. ‘Oops. Left that on too long.’ He takes Shinx’s bottle from the nearly boiling water it’s sitting in and turns off the heat. ‘We’ll let that cool for a bit before I feed her.’

For a while, everyone is content to sit in an easy silence as Lee cooks. He finishes Brendan’s breakfast, plates it, and hands it and a cup of coffee off to the smiling boy, who heads over to the small table in the other corner to eat. Electrike, meanwhile, hops back up on Brendan’s bed and makes himself comfortable, patiently waiting until he and the other pokemon are fed.

Halfway through his morning meal and just as Lee is plating his own food, Brendan speaks up. “Lee?”

“Hmm?” The zoologist asks, sitting down with Brendan and cutting into his omelet with the side of his fork.

“You seem…” Brendan sets his fork and rolls his hand as he looks off to the side, trying to think of a word. “Happy?” The world comes off as more of a question than an observation, and Brendan cringes. “Happier, I mean! Uh, sorry, I don’t think that came out right…”

Lee chuckles and takes a bite of his food. “Don’t worry about it, Brendan. I am happier,” he says after swallowing.

Brendan sends a sidelong glance to Ninetales, who dutifully sits at Lee’s side. She gazes back at Brendan cooly.

“Hmm…” Lee twirls his silverware between his fingers. “I told you how Ninetales and I use her telepathy to communicate, right?”

The Birch heir nods and leans forward, the last traces of sleepiness chased away from his face.

“Well, there are some pretty profound differences between the mind of a human and a pokemon. Not only is our brain chemistry itself totally different, but so is how we interpret concepts, ideas, emotions, and views of the world. Pokemon have such a different way of approaching life that their minds are optimized to think in ways most people can barely understand, even if they readily live with humans all the time.” Lee begins. ‘I seem to be doing these lectures a lot.’

‘Such is the nature of those who nurture.’ Ninetales’ reply is as quick as it is fond.

Lee’s smile grows just a touch. “It really becomes apparent with telepathy. Now, these are just my experiences, and a data set of one should be regarded with all due skepticism, but bear with me.” Seeing Brendan nod resolutely, Lee continues. “Telepathy with Vulpix was a confusing muddle at first. We were two different creatures trying to communicate with a psychic tether of sorts. Oftentimes, what I had to relay to her and vice-versa got lost in translation, as there was a near-total disconnect between our understanding of how the world worked. We started off with simple stuff, like sharing images.”

“Sharing images, huh? How does that work?” Brendan polishes off his coffee and tosses the paper cup into the distant trash can. When it hits the rim with a hollow thunk and drops to the floor, he groans and makes to rise.

Before Brendan can get up, the cup is enveloped in an aura of purple—and crushed into an impossibly small ball of coffee-stained paper pulp. The ball then levitates itself and shoots into the trash with more force than necessary, rebounding off the side of the can with a ping!

‘I’ve got exercises in mind to help your control, love, don’t sweat it,’ Lee sends to Ninetales as her faint embarrassment washes over him. “Yeah, sharing images,” he answers Brendan, pulling the boy’s wide eyes away from the display of telekinesis. “It works just like you see in TV shows and games. One of us thinks of an image, and the other sees it in their head as if they imagined it. From there, both of us slowly began to change and morph our mindsets: mine to be more pokemon, and hers to be more human.”

At Brendan’s unsure frown, the zoologist mulls over how to best explain what he means. “This is how I visualize it…” Lee lifts another bite of his food to his mouth, eating between sentences. “Imagine taking a thousand different data cables that all have different prongs, then trying to plug these cables into a thousand ports on a big computer. The problem here is that the prongs on the cables don’t match many of the ports. Since not all the wires are connected, some of the data isn’t going to flow correctly and will be lost, right?”

Brendan nods again, still paying rapt, if slightly unsure, attention.

“So what we did,” Lee gestures to himself and then Ninetales with a hand, “is we both shifted our mindsets around and tried to think like the other, in essence changing the ports and cables so everything connected better. Get it?”

“I guess.” Brendan leans back and folds his hands behind his head. “So by thinking differently, telepathy works better?”

“In broad strokes, yes,” Lee answers with a smile. “When Ninetales evolved, it increased all of her abilities by…” He pauses, trying to puzzle out just how large an increase all of her various attributes received, only to realize he isn’t sure. “Huh, I’m not really quite sure just how strong Ninetales is now, but the point here is that all of her abilities grew stronger, telepathy included. Before, things were sort of stilted and words were still lost in translation, but now?” Lee grins. “Ninetales and I can speak to each other even more clearly than you and I are speaking now. Her telepathy conveys exactly what she means to say perfectly, and in a way a human mind can interpret.”

if his blank look is any worthwhile signal, the younger trainer doesn’t seem to understand the significance of what he’s being told, but Lee can’t really blame him; being told and experiencing it are two wholly different beasts.

“Ninetales and I have been meaning to have a heart-to-heart talk for a long time, and we cleared up just about everything last night thanks to her newfound talent.” Lee stands, taking his and Brendan’s empty paper plates and walking them over to the trash can. “It took a lot off my mind, so yeah, I’m much happier than I was yesterday.” He tosses both plates into the can and makes his way back to the backpack on his bed.

Brendan is silent for a moment as he mulls over what he’s been told. “So…” He begins, only to cut himself off. “Are you…” He stops again. “Are you feeling better?”

Ninetales gives the boy a sharp look of warning, and Brendan raises his hands up in surrender.

Lee is halfway into pulling out a fresh set of day clothes from his backpack when he dissects the inflection behind better. He bites his lip and taps his bare foot on the carpeted floor. “Better? Most certainly. I’m still going to keep seeing my therapist, though. I feel like I should stick it out until she says so, not quit halfway.”

Brendan just grins. “Good.”

The ire Lee feels simmering within Ninetales drains away like a basin with its plug pulled, replaced with a gentle smile and a flare of approval—both for Lee’s decision and for Brendan’s answer.

Lee huffs out a laugh as he sets clean clothes out for himself. “I said it to your father, Brendan, and I meant it: when I have kids one day down the line, I hope they turn out as good as you did.”

His face breaking out into an embarrassed flush, Brendan suddenly finds the floor fascinating and looks away.

Ninetales just lets out a vulpine chortle.

Both Lee and Brendan clean up the room, take turns showering, then one by one, release their pokemon so each team can have their own breakfast. Brendan’s bunch dominate the table the two trainers vacated, noisily chattering over their bowls of food. Or at least Marshtomp is noisily chattering, and failing to close his mouth between bites as he does so.

Mawile, who sits across from Marshtomp, cringes as she sees flecks of half-chewed food hit the table. She levels Marshtomp with a look, then croons a sickly sweet note as her face takes on an obviously false smile.

Marshtomp clams up, swallowing his bite with a heavy gulp. His beady eyes regard Mawile with both a bit of fright and barely hidden infatuation.

The smile on Mawile’s face takes on a much more genuine tone, and Marshtomp practically melts in his seat with a goofy, lovestruck grin.

By Lee’s bed on the floor, Ninetales and Grovyle eat their meals with much more reserved energy to them, conversing quietly as they do so. Whenever Ninetales isn’t looking, Grovyle scrutinizes her intently.

Leaning against his bed, Lee rolls Shinx’s ball in his hand. Inside the pokeball, the kitten is likely still sleeping or just now beginning to awaken. ‘Do you think Mawile is actually sweet on Marshtomp or is the poor guy getting played?’ He asks Ninetales.

Raising her head from her bowl, Ninetales licks a few stray grains of rice from her lips. ‘I’m uncertain. It’s my understanding that the intentions of Fairies are difficult to divine, and natural actors like Mawiles muddle most attempts at being read.’

The ball in Lee’s hand shakes a little. It seems Shinx is awake and wants out.

Last night, after the one-sided fight between Shelgon and Ninetales, everyone gathered in their room in a rowdy bundle to crowd around Ninetales. Not wanting to stress out Shinx with all the commotion, Lee released her outside, fed her, and kept an eye on her as she and Electrike played until she tired out. Afterward, she was returned to her ball for bed. She’s yet to actually meet Ninetales since her evolution.

‘Shinx gets her heart from you, Lee. I don’t think she’ll react poorly to me,’ Ninetales assures, finishing her meal. Her bowl is cowled in an aura of violet before levitating over to the other dirty dishes in the sink with measured slowness. ‘If you wait much longer, her milk is going to need to be reheated.’ Ninetales jumps up onto the bed and seats herself, folding her tails around her front legs. ‘I’m ready when you are.’

‘I know, I’m just being nervous over nothing. Here goes…’ The zoologist taps the button on the pokeball, letting it open with its iconic flash and snap-hiss. As the light fades, Shinx is left blinking her luminescent yellow eyes on the bed. She takes in Lee’s face and purrs in her throat. The purr grows and her claws knead the bed when she spies her bottle on the counter of the kitchenette.

Brendan doesn’t even need to do anything, as Mawile sees what’s happening and shushes her teammates. Which is to say she shushes Marshtomp.

Lee smiles and cups the kitten’s chin, making her nuzzle happily into his hand. “Before your breakfast, baby girl, there’s someone I want to re-introduce you to.”

Though her grasp on human speech is coming along fast enough to fill Lee with pride, Shinx tilts her head, visibly puzzled by his words.

Rather than say anything else, Lee coaxes her to turn around with a finger that she follows without any hesitation. Upon seeing a pair of gold forelegs, Shinx tilts her head and looks up.

Bright yellow eyes meet gentle red.

“Vulpix evolved, baby girl. She’s a Ninetales now. Neat, eh?” Lee smiles down at the little Electric-type.

For a worrying moment, Shinx does nothing, just blinking up at Ninetales.

Ninetales purrs in her throat much like Shinx did a moment prior, lowering her head to better meet the kitten’s eyes.

The blue and black cub steps closer… Then dives headfirst into the mound of tails around Ninetales’ forelegs, purring up a storm as she snuggles into the vixen.

Ninetales recoils and almost jumps back, but catches herself at the last moment. A laugh bubbles out of her muzzle as she leans down and noses the top of the cozy kitten’s head. Shinx raises her head and nuzzles Ninetales back without a hint of fear or discomfort.

‘I told you that there was nothing to fear, Lee.’

After everyone is fed, washed, dressed—and in Shinx’s case, reluctantly pulled out of a mound of fox tails—Brendan, Lee, and Ninetales step outside into the outdoor concourse of the hotel.

Lee sighs and pulls at the collar of his shirt, feeling it already clinging to him in the humidity. “Ever lovely Hoenn…”

“Aw, you know you love it here.” Brendan grins and locks the hotel door behind them. He drops his key in his pocket and looks over to the door of the room adjacent to theirs. “Where are Zinnia and Courtney?”

“Not too sure,” Lee admits, pulling his phone from his pocket, only to realize it’s still turned off. He taps the power button and waits a moment for it to boot up. After watching the same over-stylized boot intro ending with a PokeGear! logo for the hundredth time…

Ding-ding!

Ding-ding!

Ding-ding!

Ding-ding!

Ding-ding!

Notifications pop in seemingly without end and so quickly that the phone screen begins to flash, lasting long enough for Lee to begin worrying that his phone might be broken. After a long twenty or so seconds, the flood comes to an end.

2 Missed Calls

3 New Text Messages

354 New Emails

“What…?” Lee squints and rubs his eyes, but the numbers remain unchanged. “Three…” He double-takes. “Three hundred fuckin’ emails?!”

“Wha?” Brendan steps over to Lee’s side and tries to peer at the screen, so Lee lowers his hand so both he and Ninetales can see. “Wow…” Brendan murmurs. “That’s a lot of emails.”

‘Perhaps deal with the calls and the text messages first, Lee,’ Ninetales suggests, sitting and making herself comfortable. She pokes his side with her muzzle. ‘They might be more urgent.’

‘Right, right…’ Lee dials his voicemail and waits for it to connect. As he waits, he turns to Brendan. “If you want, you can go ahead. We need to stop by the Gym to talk to Leader Moore, then we can meet up at whatever battleground you find. I might be here for a bit…”

“Can do.” Brendan folds his arms behind his head without a care and starts walking. “I’ll send you a message when I find a place, okay?”

“Stay safe!” Lee answers as his phone finally connects to his voicemail box. He holds the phone up to his ear, and as he does so, he offers his hearing to Ninetales so she can listen without him putting the phone on speaker. There aren’t many people walking along the sidewalk of the road running parallel to the hotel, but the few out and about all slow down to peer at Ninetales.

The great fox’s mind edges a bit closer to Lee’s as she listens in to the cellphone through him.

“You have 2 unheard me-” Lee hits the button prompt he already knows is coming to skip ahead. “First unheard message, sent today, at eight-O-one AM.” The phone is silent for a moment as it loads the recording.

“Hey Lee, it’s Nigel,” the cell phone begins playing. “First off, if Ninetales is listening, congrats on your evolution. That’s a huge step to be taking this early in life.”

Ninetales smiles. ‘I’ll have to offer Nigel my thanks when we next see him.’

“Someone captured her evolution on camera, though, and you two have become viral celebrities overnight. Forums and social media have been lighting up with your names since yesterday, and the Littleroot newspaper even murkrowed about you and Brendan being the best thing since the invention of the pokeball. I know you’re not the type to be active online and all, but keep an eye on things. I know you’re probably busy, so don’t worry about calling me back right away. If it gets too overwhelming, call me and I’ll have the lab’s PR guy start managing your image in the news. I’ve already got him keeping Brendan squeaky clean online… Not that there is much work to be done there.” The message is quiet for a second. “I’m not sure how long this popularity is going to last, but a Ninetales’ evolution is a huge event some people might only live to see once, and the video of that fire clone move is making the rounds this morning too. I’m not worried about your safety since your pokemon are with you, but please be wary, Lee. People might try to manipulate you.”

A scoff leaves Ninetales’ muzzle. ‘Let them try.’

“Stay safe out there.” Cla-click! The recording ends.

“…” Lee swipes down on his phone’s screen, taking a look at the emails sent to him.

BattleNet: You were mentioned in the thread: Official Lee Henson Megathread

BattleNet: You were mentioned in the thread: Official Lee Henson Megathread

BattleNet: You were mentioned in the thread: Newcomers to look out for this year

BattleNet: New PM from Kabu

ContestCorner: Guest of Honor invitation

BattleNet: You were mentioned in the thread: Official Lee Henson Megathread

BattleNet: You were mentioned in the thread: Rare Pokemon and where to find them

BattleNet: You have been invited to join the private group: Seekers of Hoenn

Alec Aarons: Exclusivity deal.

BattleNet: New PM from SITE_ADMIN

BattleNet: You have been invited to join the private group: 9TT

BattleNet: You have been invited to join the public group: FoxFriday

 

“…” Lee pinches the bridge of his nose with his free hand, takes a deep breath, and mentally counts backward from ten.

‘Easy, beloved.’ Ninetales stands and presses herself into Lee’s side, curling her neck around his torso to peer up at him. The added warmth is a little much in Hoenn’s muggy heat, but Lee says nothing. ‘We’ll approach this at our own pace. If the world wants our attention, they will have to learn to be patient. They dance to our tune, never the other way around.’ She licks her lips and wets her nose with her tongue. ‘…Yesterday, did I push too hard to use that technique? I didn’t intend to create a larger headache for you…’ Her final few words are laced with regret.

‘It’s fine, love.’ Lee shifts his phone to his left hand and reaches down with the right to pull Ninetales into a one-armed hug. The action earns him a flash of telepathic affection. ‘I knew your evolution was going to make waves, and with Grovyle’s TMs out there branded with our names, it’s only going to be a matter of time before people figure out we’ve got more than a few tricks up our sleeves.’ Lee releases her, and the fox pulls herself back a step. A sardonic smirk pulls at Lee’s scars. ‘Maybe pick something less flashy, next time? Or something that has at least hit the prototype stage first? Fox Fire jumped from mostly theory to live battle in one step and that makes me want to scream. It has critical flaws, too. If we didn’t end the match when we did, Zinnia would have figured them out.’

Lee recalls vividly how he had to pilot one of the little flaming foxes through Ninetales, as she just couldn’t direct two at the same time. Shaping them, as crude as they were, was still an awe-inspiring display of her pyrokinetic abilities. Each clone was filled with so much Fire TE that they were practically walking C4 charges, with plenty of gas in the tank for their own attacks.

The biggest issue is that the clones have no will of their own, needing manual direction from Ninetales. One was already nearly too much, so Lee assumed control of the other, only to realize he didn’t actually know how to make it move; it was a solid construct with actual articulating limbs and everything. Ninetales had to open her mind to some of its deepest layers and allow Lee to reference her own motor controls to make his clone move. The sheer concentration of guiding her own fiery proxy and letting Lee piggyback off of her muscle memory left her paralyzed in the field. To top it all off, the clones consume a worrying amount of energy, even with Ninetales’ new well of power, and take far too long to actually create.

Not good. Fox Fire won’t be the viable, expendable fighting force the pair imagined for quite some time.

‘Perhaps using two clones was asking too much for Fox Fire’s first use,’ Ninetales sniffs. ‘We’ll use only one until I can control them better and refine my skill with their creation. I can then hand control to you afterward, as I’m confident I can help sustain one and fight at the same time so long as I am not the sole puppetmaster. It’ll be as if we’re battling side-by-side.’ The final thought puts a grin on her muzzle and makes her do a little, delighted wiggle.

Unconsciously, Lee raises an eyebrow. ‘That has to count as some kind of disallowed interference from me.’

‘I read that dusty rulebook with you and I saw no such rule,’ Ninetales turns her nose up.

‘If there isn’t one, they’ll make one when they realize how it works.’ Lee returns.

‘Then we just won’t tell anyone.’

‘I suppose…’ Lee puts the emails out of his mind for now, ignoring the alert as another one pops in. Swiping back over to his voicemail, he raises the phone to his ear again.

“Second unheard message, sent today, at eight forty-one AM.” There is a crackle, then the message starts. “Lee, pal. I hope I didn’t catch you at a bad time, but I’ve got some news for you about your TMs.” Even if it’s a recording, each one of Aarons’ words is slick with sleazeball grease. “Sales are looking fantastic. We’ve got tons of preorders, so many that it looks like only the second batch is actually going to make it to the shelves. You’re in the money, pal. Things are looking grand, aren’t they? You’ll get your check for everything here in a few weeks. Now, I’ve also got another proposition for you. I spied a curious move on BattleNet used by a curious pokemon owned by a curious man, and I think you know what I’m talking about. The Committee? They were salivating.” Once more there is that hungry purr Lee heard when Aarons saw Convergence for the first time. “I’m not at liberty to discuss numbers and terms over a voicemail, but I’ll shoot you an email with a bit more, then you can call me, okay? I’ll catch you later, friendo. Keep doing Hoenn proud out there.” The recording ends with a Ca-click!

“Right, that’ll be the last email I answer then.” Lee moves on to the messages left to him.

The first is just Courtney saying she’s going supply shopping and will be back in the afternoon. As much as Lee doesn’t want to leave the Magma admin alone to her own devices, he and Zinnia can’t follow her everywhere, or it will tip her off that something is amiss.

The second one is from Zinnia just a few minutes before they left their room.

Zinnia: Hey lee. heading to the poke cent to check on Shelgon. back later. The message is punctuated by a little smiley face blowing a kiss.

Lee winces. ‘Love, did you have to be so rough on Shelgon?’

‘Shelgon is a tough pokemon. He’ll recover without issue,’ Ninetales insists.

‘I’m less worried about his physical condition and more worried about inter-team relations following that battle.’

‘Well, I don’t think you would have preferred him to hit me, so I put enough effort in to keep the battle on our terms,’ she huffs. ‘…But if you insist, I’ll offer an olive branch and apologize. That may harm Shelgon’s pride more than the loss itself, however.’

‘ . We’ll talk more on it later.’ Lee types out a reply to Zinnia.

You: Zinnia, about yesterday. No hard feelings?

After a moment, a trio of dots bounces in the corner of the text field, telling him the Draconid tribeswoman is formulating a reply.

Zinnia: nah dont sweat it dolittle. i went into the battle kinda expectin to lose. didnt expect it to be a stomp but thats just more motivation for shelgon. before you ask hes recovering fine and might get to keep a rad little scar on his forehead.

Lee frowns.

You: Is a mentality like that healthy? I don’t think it is.

The reply is quick.

Zinnia: dragon thing dont worry your little mammal head over it :^)

Lee rolls his eyes and continues to the last message.

(3200)-2333-9586: Hi Lee! It’s Flannery at the gym. Grandpa gave me your number. He’s wanting to know when you plan on stopping over so he can clear his schedule.

‘Flannery?’ Lee blinks, but adds the number to his contact list.

You: I’m free all day. We can head over now if you’d like.

Flannery must have been sitting there glued to her phone with a reply already typed up, because her response is near-instant.

Flannery: That sounds great! C’mon over!

Nodding to himself, Lee tucks his phone away into his pocket. “Everything else can wait until I’ve been awake for more than an hour.”

Once more, Lee finds himself and his ace pokemon sitting in the Lavaridge Gym. He and Ninetales, along with Moore and Flannery, are all seated in the sitting room Moore and Lee first conversed in a week prior. Rather than sit in his lap, Ninetales now has her own cushion to Lee’s right.

“Madam Ninetales, Lee, thank you for taking the time to come in so soon.” Moore clasps his hands together with a bright smile, one mostly directed at Ninetales.

‘Madam Ninetales?’ The vixen thinks to Lee in bemusement.

Lee smiles. ‘I’m pretty sureMoore is from Johto or Kanto. Some of the smaller towns and villages there still worship your species.’ He clears his throat. “We’re delighted to be back, Gym Leader Moore. We haven’t had time to truly test out Ninetales’ upper limits, but I can already tell your Firestone has done a lot for her.”

“We saw.” Moore’s eyes twinkle. “To beat a Dragon with a never-before-seen Fire technique? The town will be talking about this one for years to come.” He chuckles. “Now, I was wondering how you wish to go about your side of our trade. I admit I have no experience with something as outlandish as commissioning a brand new pokemon attack.”

Lee hums to himself. “Well, first off, I’d like to do a test run to confirm that moves created by Ninetales can actually be captured by TMs, as I’ve yet to determine if her prodigious control over her Fire is something inherent to her. I’m happy to workshop the idea today, though, and return when we have a working example.”

Both Moore and Flannery blink, then understanding dawns on Moore’s face. “Ah, you’re thinking we need to go have some bozo with a big confuser to make the TMs, do you? Wait here.” Moore rises and exits the sitting room, sliding the door closed behind him.

Lee watches him go with surprise, then turns his eyes to Flannery. “You have a TM copier here?”

The redheaded woman nods. “Yeah. It’s old, but it still works. Grandpa has had it for years to make the TMs he hands out as prizes. It’s only got enough memory to hold one move at a time and it’s kinda slow, but that’s all we really need it for.”

“Do you know how the copier works?” Lee leans forward a bit. “I thought Gym Leaders just had batches of their prize TMs made by Silph or Devon.”

Flannery crosses her arms with a scoff. “Yeah, if we wanted to pay an arm and a leg for ’em. Gyms have to be self-sufficient, and grandpa has kitted the Gym with everything Lavaridge would ever need if the League vanished overnight.”

Before Lee can ponder the politics behind a Gym being ready for government collapse, Moore returns. The elderly trainer trots in with a large, ugly machine that looks like a cross between a heavy-duty laptop of yesteryear and a briefcase, holding it by faded and cracked handles mounted to the side. He sets it down heavily upon the table and opens it. From Lee’s angle, he can see a cracked green CRT monitor flicker to life in the upper half of the case.

“Alrighty…” Moore slowly types a command into the keyboard recessed into the case of the supposed TM copier, and upon hitting Enter, the machine shudders and whines as cooling fans spin to life. “I think the old girl is warmed up.” He lifts the old, faded keyboard and pulls a headband from behind it, one with copper electrodes lining the inside and a wire leading back to the machine. “You were saying something about a trial run?”

Lee nods, silently wondering how much a TM copier would cost. “Yeah. Ninetales has a handful of custom moves made redundant by other ones and a few that never made it out of the prototype stage. I’m wanting to copy one of these and teach them to one of Flannery’s pokemon as a proof of concept. If you can find a use for the move, then consider it on the house.”

Flannery frowns. “Lee, we agreed to one move, not two. You can’t just give us that much!” She argues.

Lee glances over to Ninetales, silently asking for her input.

‘Perhaps ask for help when it comes to the tests you wish to run on me,’ she offers. ‘A Fire Gym must have the equipment necessary to train Fire pokemon. The TM printer is proof enough of that.’

“Well, if being given a prototype move is too much, maybe Ninetales and I could bother you to assist us in testing her powers?” Lee speaks his pokemon’s proposal in her place. “As I said, we still don’t know what we’re working with.”

“Two custom techniques and the chance to assist Madam Ninetales in her growth? My my, Lee, keep this up and Clan Moore might have to propose a formal alliance between our families.” Moore smiles, but for some reason, Lee feels as if it’s not entirely a joke.

At Moore’s side, Flannery’s face grows a little pink and she shoots a glare at her grandfather that goes ignored.

‘Alliance? Oh…’ Some half-remembered history lessons remind Lee what a traditional ‘alliance’ usually means to old money and nobles. His face warms up slightly. ‘Flannery is good-looking and all, but I hope Moore is just kidding around…’ Lee catches Flannery’s eyes, and the redheaded Gym heir just blushes a bit deeper and shrugs helplessly.

Moore ignores the silent conversation between Lee and Flannery, either not noticing or pretending he saw nothing. He definitely ignores the smoldering look from Ninetales. Instead, he holds the headband wired to the copier out to Lee like a giddy child. “We can accept those terms. Would you like to do the honors?”

Taking it, Lee carefully fits the headband to Ninetales, taking care to muss up as little of her head-tuft as he can. The end result… is a little messy, as she’s forced to flex her ears to the sides so the electrodes of the stretched-out band remain in contact with her forehead. Lee silently promises the now-grumpy vixen a good brushing later.

‘Let’s give them that Ember shotgun blast we made a few weeks ago,’ Lee relays to Ninetales. The move turned out to be a bit of a dud. It’s an emulation of Seed Blast, but it ate much more stamina than a regular Ember and was generally a worse ‘get off me’ option than even a brainless Flamethrower.

Ninetales brings the move to the forefront of her mind and closes her eyes in concentration. Through her, Lee can feel the Fire TE in her body molding in preparation for the attack. ‘Ready.’

“Okay, hit it,” Lee tells Moore.

The Gym Leader hits a key on his keyboard. The copier groans and shakes, but a progress bar begins to fill on its screen.

“As we wait,” Lee begins, resting his arms on the table. “What sort of equipment does the Gym have to train its Fire-types? I imagine you’ve got quite the array of specialty items.”

Flannery takes the lead on the question. “We’ve got the standard stuff. Thermometers and thermal cams, targets that burn at different temperatures, all that. For more general stuff, we’ve got weights, force… sensory things,” she can’t seem to quite find the name of what she’s looking for. “Targets and target throwers for accuracy training… really, if it exists I’m pretty sure grandpa has one downstairs.”

“My dear, it never hurts to be prepared!” Moore insists, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

The copier chooses that time to chime and shudder once more. From a thin, slit-like slot on its side, a disk with a strong resemblance to an unmarked CD is spat out.

“Had to delete Overheat, but I’ll have Ty make a fresh copy later,” Moore smiles and takes the disk, handing it to Flannery. “Let’s head to the courtyard, shall we?”

The old copier is closed back up, then as a group, Lee, Ninetales, Moore, and Flannery walk their way through the Gym to the same courtyard where Ninetales evolved just yesterday. As they go, Lee notices they don’t pass anyone in the Gym. No trainees, no assistants, nothing.

‘Did they clear the Gym out for this?’

‘It would be the safest option,’ Ninetales inspects a wall tapestry depicting various Fire pokemon in a very traditional Japanese style as they pass. The centerpiece of the art is a Ninetales and Arcanine standing back to back, both peering up and away from each other. ‘The implication here is that we should remain quiet about our involvement and pretend Flannery created the technique on her own.’

‘Hmm…’

In short order, the courtyard is upon them. Flannery steps up into the center of the courtyard with the TM in one hand, while the other hovers over the pokeballs on her belt. “I’m not really sure who to pick…” she admits, looking to Lee for guidance.

“Your ace,” Lee crosses his arms as Ninetales sits herself to his right. “If the whole point of the move is to be impressive, then I’ll want to build around your ace, and confirming they can use a pure Fire attack made by Ninetales is how we begin.”

Flannery takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay, Torkoal, here we go…” She takes a ball from her belt and slots the hole of the TM around the pokeball button. The disk shines a faint orange and spins around on a thin cushion of Fire TE, gaining speed until…

Vvvvrrrrr crack!

The disk spiderwebs into cracks before crumbling and falling away. The shards that hit the ground practically disintegrate into dust.

“Back in my day,” Moore grumbles, “TMs had to use this great big ugly contraption that scratched your pokeball like there was no tomorrow. Kids nowadays don’t even need a machine to read the disk and everything is all green and biodegradable…”

Lee suppresses a smile.

Flannery beams, tossing her pokeball high. “Torkoal, let’s see what you can do!”

The ball pops open with a snap-hiss and drops a tortoise-shaped energy mass to the ground. As the light clears, Lee is given his first look at the ace he and Ninetales will be fighting in a week’s time.

Standing on the grounds is a tortoise with rusty red skin, with eyes squinted almost shut, and a dark brown, nearly black shell with the same color and texture as volcanic rock. For a pokemon, Torkoal is rather tame appearance-wise until one considers the hexagonal holes in his shell, where anyone looking inside can see a blazing-hot coal base. Lee clearly recalls the video game pokedex stating Torkoal was small, maybe one-foot something, but Flannery’s pokemon is roughly three feet tall at the highest point of his shell’s hump. Flannery’s care for the pokemon is apparent in how his shell shines with a polished gleam.

Surreptitiously, Lee withdraws his Pokedex from his jacket pocket and checks the entry for Torkoal, finding the real-world average height is closer to two and a half feet.

Torkoal groans and expels a snort of black, ashy smoke, dutifully waiting for instruction from Flannery.

“Okay, Torkoal,” the redhead puts her hands on her hips. “I just used a TM and you should know a new move, so let’s try it out!” She pumps an eager fist and points to a boulder off to the side of the courtyard. “Use…” She pauses. “Erm… What’s the move called, and what does it do?”

“Ah… We never gave this move a name,” Lee looks away, embarrassed for having glossed over that. “It’s a variation of Ember. Rather than shoot a stream of fireballs, it’s a wide-spanning blast of them. The name can be whatever you want it to be, I guess.”

“Right, right,” Flannery clears her throat and regains her composure. “Torkoal!” She begins dramatically. “Use your new move, Ember… Ember… Blast? Emburst?” She ends unsurely.

If Flannery’s antics perturb Torkoal, he doesn’t let it show. He draws in a deep breath, his throat glowing a flickering orange, then he throws his head forward. From his maw shoots an explosive blast of Embers that fly like the pellets from a shotgun, as each one crosses the distance to the boulder Flannery is pointing out in a flash. Most of them impact with a staccato of pops, blowing holes into the face of the stone. A few fliers singe the wall behind the rock.

“Holy crap, that was the coolest…” Flannery murmurs, looking star-struck at her Torkoal, who puffs up proudly under the praise.

“My stars…” Moore murmurs, adjusting his glasses. “Another one right out of thin air…”

Lee smiles. ‘I guess that confirms it. Moves made with the aid of pyrokinesis can indeed be passed on. It seemed weaker than what you can do, love, but maybe Torkoal just doesn’t have the guff to use it at full power.’

‘It passed on my experience, though.’ She flicks one of her tails. ‘I could barely keep the spread contained when we first began our tests, yet Torkoal accomplished it well.’

‘That’ll be something to keep in mind.’ Lee nods. “So,” he begins aloud, drawing Flannery, Moore, and Torkoal’s attention. “I’ve got some exercises in mind for Torkoal to determine what sort of move he would benefit best from, then we can workshop some ideas. Sound good?”

Flannery’s grin lights up the courtyard.

High up and nearly at the top of Mt. Chimney, Courtney leans against the rails of the cable car steadily bringing her up the mountain, staring down at the town of Lavaridge as she does so.

Slipping away from her traveling partners proved to be quite the chore, but the Ninetales’ evolution provided enough commotion for her to escape the careful eyes that always seem to watch her.

On the next six cars behind her are members of Magma devoid of their uniforms, all of them forming a covert task force. With each part of the team is a crate of supplies, each crate containing a part of a machine being quietly assembled within the volcano.

Having left the Magma science division for her administrator position before the device was unveiled to senior leadership, the workings of the machine are a bit of a mystery to her. She knows it will somehow resonate with their champion and awaken him, but little else. It doesn’t matter too much, however, as she knows the gist of what is going on and is content with that.

Groudon, the Ancient Pokemon of Continents and Lord of all that is Earthen, slumbers somewhere deep under the crust of the planet. Groudon has vanished from all but the most obscure of tomes, and even in those rare volumes, each more precious than gold, the insights provided by the people of ancient Hoenn are as sparing as they are mind-boggling. It’s no wonder to her that the Ancient Pokemon have vanished from the minds and imaginations of the people. To most, Gods should be peaceful, benevolent things who maintain some sort of balance in the world.

Most would find the idea of a God who can shatter the world in anger to be an unpleasant thought. The few startling texts Courtney was privy to said the same thing.

Twas no mercy or tiding done unto thou from the Greater Blue and Greater Red. Thou live in the shadow of their ignorance and violent hate.

The best they could glean from the ominous passage was ‘Groudon and Kyogre formed the oceans and continents while trying to kill each other in an uncontrolled rage. It was only a pleasant side-effect that people got to live here afterward.’

Ye orbs of Red and Blue, with a fell light, do they quell the Greater Blue and Greater Red. Slumber now, titans, and clash none more in this age.

The next passage was more difficult. It clearly referenced some type of artifact, an orb of sorts. The wording suggests the blue orb =controls Groudon, and the red one controls Kyogre.

Last Courtney heard, her fellow Magma Admin, Tabitha, was keeping an ear to the ground for mention of archeological digs recovering any such artifacts. In the meantime, Magma R&D was hard at work advancing the field of Type Spectrology by years at a time. All the effort was going to locate anything giving off intense readings akin to Ground or Water Type Energy. Magma needs their orb ASAP, or at least they need to deny the dogmatic Aquas the red orb.

It makes an ironic sort of sense that the Ancient Pokemon could be controlled by the power of their rivals.

Courtney frowns in distaste as she thinks over Magma’s own ‘rivals.’ Magma is trying to save the world, to ensure peace and growth for a hundred more generations, but Aqua seems determined to drown all life on the planet with a religious, moronic fervor. Why they want to raise the seas is something she just cannot understand. Is there even a reason? Will they try to hold the world as ransom? Or has Aqua just transformed into some insane doomsday cult?

Bah…

Rather than drill into the planet, a time and resource-intensive effort, Magma will use an already open pathway like the volcano of Mt. Chimney to rouse their champion pokemon. Once roused, they’ll use the blue orb to control him, and with that control, reshape the world into something that will sustain the lives of people and pokemon for thousands of years.

Courtney’s phone rings right on time, and she expected no less. Here in a lone cable car on a mountain is the only place she feels safe speaking to him. She raises it to her ear.

“Courtney…” The voice from the speaker is magnificent: learned, cultured, and so reassuring to hear. “How goes your pet project?”

“Well, sir,” Courtney pats herself on the back for keeping her worship out of her voice. “There are roadblocks on some objectives, but I have integrated well with the group. I… know they are suspicious, but I suspect it’s natural rather than blown cover.”

“I see…” There is a pause. “Tell me again, Courtney, your evaluations of them. I have your reports, and as detailed as they are, they lack the touch of a personal conversation. Keep it brief if you would. I know you’re only minutes from the volcano.”

The magenta-haired woman kicks herself mentally. Was a ten-page dossier on each of her marks not enough? She’ll do better next time.

“Sir, regarding the Draconid Tribeswoman,” she begins. “The Draconid is of moderate concern. She is a talented trainer of Dragons, but she is too headstrong and violent to be of significant use to Magma. Her current roster is Shelgon, Swablu, and Goomy. She has no tactical resources I can determine. I will strive to make her a non-factor in the least violent way possible, owing to the possibility of one of her pokemon undergoing stress evolution and generating an incident if she is dealt with too harshly.”

“A Shelgon… Well evaluated. We do not have the resources to spare to deal with a grieving Salamence. Relevant details, indeed. The next one?”

“Regarding Brendan Birch,” this one is easy. “Brendan is of low concern. He is the most talented and tactical of the three as a trainer, as well as noble in a way rarely seen. His pokemon are obedient and well-raised. His roster consists of Marshtomp, Mawile, Breloom, and an Electrike possessing the Giant’s Gene. I have rated him as a low concern due to how I intend to sway him into Magma. He is the sort of person who can aid in the governing of a new world.”

“First names? Goodness, Courtney. You sound almost fond of the boy.” The voice chuckles. “Don’t forget your most important mission during your fun, however. I need you at my side if we are to safeguard the generations of the future.”

“I would never forget, Leader Maxie. Not now, not ever,” she breathes.

“I know you won’t,” Maxie’s smile can almost be heard over the phone, and it fills the Magma admin with wondrous purpose. “And the last one?”

“Regarding Henson,” Courtney hesitates. “Henson is of… significant concern. His performance as a trainer is merely above average, but he boasts a roster of powerful pokemon with varied abilities. He has demonstrated prodigious talent in creating pokemon moves, as I’ve observed a number of undocumented attacks used by his pokemon. His current roster is Grovyle, Shinx, Octillery, a Corvisquire I’ve yet to see, and… a Ninetales.”

The line is silent at the revelation. “I see…” The answer is slow and measured. “Continue.”

“Henson is kind, perhaps foolishly so, but I believe… he could be convinced to see things Magma’s way. At this time, I highly advise against his elimination in any form, as his Ninetales presents a serious retaliation risk,” Courtney finishes.

The way that fox stares at her sometimes…

“Courtney, Gamma-pi-gamma-delta-beta.”

With a blink, Country rattles off the requested ID check code. “One, seven, nine, zero, six, six, four, three, four, one, eight.”

“Good…” The voice over the phone sighs. “You have felt no breaches on your mental blocks?”

“None.”

“Good. If at any time you feel you’ve been mentally compromised, you are to consider yourself recalled immediately and will be intercepted for quarantine and treatment. From now on, failure to report in and defeat a security check in a timely manner is grounds for declaring you a lost asset, understood?”

Even so close to a volcano, a cold shiver runs down Courtney’s spine. “Leader Maxie?”

“I will not be questioned on this. Good luck with your project, Courtney. Bring pride to Magma.”

The line goes dead.