Chapter Eight – Game for Champions
I crumbled the letter in my hand, gripping the film reel so tightly that my knuckles turned white. Did that mean that she was dead after all? She said she wouldn't be here to witness anything I had done or was about to do. So, was all of this for nothing? Was she out there somewhere long gone, her body just waiting to be found with no soul attached to it? Or was she just hiding, unable to physically see the things she foresaw?
I turned the film reel over in my hands, examining the outside of it. The tin case was flimsy, not quite as sturdy as the rest, so I didn't dare open it yet. It wasn't for me, anyway, whatever the contents of the reel revealed. The first time I watched this, it would be with some man named Stu Deeoh. And that was assuming that he'd let me watch it.
It was strange to think that so far, all of the letters had involved someone that I knew in one way or another. This time, though, I was about to bring in a complete stranger, someone who I wasn't sure May had even met. I couldn't know if anything that May wanted me to do would truly happen anymore, not that I had been entirely sure before. But it was one thing to need something from my dad, and it was a whole other thing to need something from a stranger.
"Well, will you look at the mess you made here?"
I nearly dropped May's film reel at the sound of a young man's voice, but I composed myself quickly and turned around to face the speaker. He was around May's age, just a few years younger than me, and I couldn't help but be reminded of her. All the tough trainers I had ever met always looked the same to me somehow, and I was willing to bet money that this guy was a trainer, too. There was a fire in his eyes, much like the blaze in May's.
"I'm guessing you found whatever it is that you're looking for?" he asked with a smirk, gesturing to the reel in my hands. He was clearly more amused than angry, but I hadn't exactly planned on being caught. "I'll have to let security know that they need to step it up. Although if you were a thief, I would think you would've wanted something better than an old movie. Those ones are trash, anyway—movies from decades ago that were never released because the reviews were so terrible. I forgot we still had them."
I lowered my arms to my sides, May's film tapping against my knee. She certainly had picked a good hiding spot for it, hadn't she?
"I didn't mean to trespass. I was just… looking for something that someone put here for me," I told the man, and the smirk turned into the smile.
"That's specific." The man reached a hand out towards the reel, and I pulled back, stepping on some of the papers that I had pulled from the shelf. His smile flickered into a frown temporarily, his eyes narrowing a little, but he took a step back and lowered his hand. "The interesting thing is that I actually trust you. You've just got that aura about you. Still, I'm going to have to take you to security since you are trying to take something from our property."
Great. Here I was, a respected man from Hoenn, caught stealing from a famous studio in Unova. I didn't know if there was a better first impression I could make on the people here. Really, this was impressive. I could see the headlines flashing through my mind: Steven Stone, Hoenn Champion, Arrested for Trespassing and Theft at Pokéstar Studios!
But I could definitely turn this around to my advantage.
"Would you be able to take me to Stu Deeoh instead? You see, the reason that I came here was to get this film reel and bring it to him." I smiled at the guy, hoping that politeness would help my cause, and he put his hands on his hips. Even though he didn't look the part of someone in the film industry, he certainly had the attitude. He had running clothes on, like he had just come from the gym, a little shabby but quite possibly powerful.
That was just speculation, though. But I had a feeling that he was someone important.
He stared at me for a moment, though after that second passed, he nodded. "You really are an interesting guy," he said, like it ought to be a compliment. Then, he turned on his heel with a smile, gesturing for me to follow him. "It's not often that we have thieves making requests. Come on, I'll take you to Stu."
I stepped forward, papers crunching beneath my feet, but the man seemed unconcerned about the mess I made. We walked forward in silence, hopping down the stairs and back outside. I didn't know where exactly we were heading, but I followed anyway. It was peculiar that this man trusted me so much, a virtue to the extreme. If I was a real thief, there was nothing stopping me from running away right now.
The studio complex was huge, and I didn't know where this guy was bringing me. We walked past giant buildings, huge studios marked by letters and nothing more, and I could see a huge theater with a red carpet in front of it at the end of the main walkway. It was no surprise, though, seeing as the films usually brought in over a billion PokéDollars. This place could probably control the whole region if it wanted.
But instead of heading into one of the nice buildings, the guy led me into an older building, one that had probably been here since the initial construction of this place. Even the inside appeared cheap, and the stairs creaked as the man brought me up the stairs to the second floor. It reminded me of what my dad said again: living in a humble home kept a man humble. Despite the flash of the cameras and the glitter of the roads, maybe Stu Deeoh carried on like any other man.
The young man leading me through the studios stopped in front of a door, knocking twice and entering without a response. I was hit with light, so bright that I had to squint my eyes to adjust. And maybe I was wrong—maybe it was this building that was just old for show, and Stu Deeoh hadn't remained humble after all.
The room was even glitzier than Wallace's room, with movie posters behind back-lit glass panels, bright red sofas that matched the carpet leading to the theater, and cardboard cut-outs of famous actors that I had seen in old movies from my childhood. Things as they were now, I never had time to see movies anymore, but I recognized every single poster in this room and every single cardboard cut-out.
"Look what I brought for you, Mr. Deeoh!" the young man announced to an elderly one sitting behind a large white desk. He had puffs of blondish-gray hair around his ears, but the top of his head was bald and shiny. His suit was pressed neatly, a pocket protector flashing from his jacket. "This guy has a gift for you."
"Nate, dahling!" Stu exclaimed, a beaming smile on his lips. I shot a look at the young man, who jumped onto the couch and held his hands behind his head. Nate? That sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn't remember where I heard it. "Who is this charming young fellow that you brought? Please, please, come in and take a seat!"
Nate moved over on the couch, but I didn't make any motion towards it. After a second, Nate turned slightly to look at me, his arm now resting over the back of the couch. I fiddled with the film reel in my hands, and both Nate and Stu's eyes flashed to it. The look of amusement was back on Nate's face in a heartbeat.
"Sorry to bother you, sir, but I have a request to make of you," I finally said, walking up to Stu's desk and setting the reel down on it. He picked it up, running his fingers across the tin casing. "You see… it is imperative that you watch this film. I… I don't know what's on it, but you have to watch it and set up a screening."
Stu looked up from the film reel and laughed, and the booming sound echoed through the room. "You want me to watch and set up a screening for a movie about which you know absolutely nothing? I run a studio, boy, not a home movie theater. Besides, we switched to digital awhile back… we can't play this." He banged his hand against the reel so it made a tinny noise, and I winced. "Obviously I'm in this business for the love of movies, dahling, but I'm also a businessman. I know a bad deal when I see one."
Nate hummed from behind me, and I turned to see that he had sprawled out across the couch. He was smiling still, examining his hands as if they were the most fascinating thing about this place.
"I wouldn't be so quick to shut him down, Deeoh," he said, his eyes not even flickering from his hands. Who was this guy, anyway? "This is Steven Stone, the former Champion of Hoenn. His successor, May, recently disappeared—she's the one who has been all over the news lately. What are the chances that he's looking for her, huh? My guess is that the contents of that movie have something to do with her disappearance."
I raised my eyebrows in surprise, and Nate finally looked up from his hands and at me. Had he known this entire time? And why was he placing so much trust in a person who was suspected by everyone else?
"A champion just like you, Nate, dahling?" Stu asked.
Champion Nate of Unova! Right, I knew he was familiar—I heard about him not too long ago. He recently became the champion, maybe a month or two or three ago, after dealing with a problem with some advocacy group. And apparently he was also quite the film star, too. He starred in a couple of recent film franchises, and even though I had never seen any of them, I had certainly heard some of the details floating around.
"Yep, just like me," Nate responded dryly, staring at me as if expecting me to react more than I had. "Do what you want, but if you ask me, whatever is on that reel is obviously pretty important to him—and if it's important to an important person, then it could be important to everyone else. You catch my drift?"
The line of reasoning didn't follow exactly, but I could tell now that he was just trying to help me out—why, I didn't know. All I knew was that he was going to push this until Stu agreed. Had I lucked out yet again by running into him of all people? It could have been anyone who walked up those stairs, but I got Nate.
"A movie from the missing Champion, huh?" Stu said pensively, his eyes going a bit distant. He focused on the reel again, picking it up and flipping it over in his hands. "Now that could be interesting."
Standing up, he walked around his desk towards me. We were just feet apart, as if he wanted to be close for safety. He opened the case, pulling the actual reel out of it. A piece of paper slipped out with it, falling slowly to the floor, wobbling back and forth in the air until it hit the ground. Stu bent down and picked it up, shoving the case under his arm as he reached for the paper. His eyes scanned the page, back and forth like that piece of paper, and the color slowly drained from his face.
"You're the Adventurer, dahling?" he asked quietly, sticking the letter and the reel back into the case. When I nodded, he laughed dryly, his tone not at all amused. "So, you want the proceeds from this to go fifty-fifty to the Soup Kitchen and Pokémon Palace? That's mighty nice of you, isn't it? You don't even know what's on this film."
I furrowed my eyebrows, looking over at Nate. The brown-haired boy didn't look the least bit surprised, unlike me, and when he met my gaze, he nodded. But it was as quick as that—I realized exactly what May wanted. So long as this movie even involved the missing Champion, people would flock to see it. And if lots of people came to see it, then the two charities would get quite the chunk of change.
It seemed strange that, after all this time, she wanted to finally blow her cover, though. She had made her disappearance so ambiguous—no one knew if she had gone missing or been kidnapped or simply ran away. Did she really wait until the right moment—wait until this moment to let the world know that she had done this on her own?
What did that note say?
And here she thought she was making a hero out of me. She was the game maker here.
"Well!" Stu boomed when I didn't say anything, waving the reel at me. "I'll watch it now, and if I deem it appropriate for audiences, then I will set up a screening—give me one week to get the advertisements out and prepare for the proceeds to go directly to the charities. All right, Steven, dahling? Come back in a week. We'll plan for seven o'clock sharp."
The thought of everything I still needed to do flashed through my mind. I had to see this movie, too, even if May didn't say so directly. The next note was waiting for me in the theater, but I felt as though I would betray her by getting it before watching the movie. I needed to know what the reel held—what secrets she was about to reveal.
"Three days. I want the screening in three days," I said, knowing full well that I was in no position to barter with Stu Deeoh. If people were going to come to this screening, though, then they were going to come. An extra four days wouldn't help anyone—the advertising could be done in two. And it was May's plan to get everyone to see the movie someday, at least according to her letter, which meant that this wasn't the stopping point.
Stu appeared surprised at my demand, but he smiled and nodded. "All right, dahling, three days. Leave all the preparation to my team. Nate, dahling, why don't you show him around? He is a champion like you, after all!"
And it was done. There was nothing more I could do for now. If I came back in three days and found that he wouldn't do a screening, there was nothing I could do—he watched it, and that was what May asked of me. It was a waiting game, the worst kind. I would much rather play May's games than this one.
I started out of the room, Nate close at my heels. I had every intention of just leaving this place and sitting around nervously for the next three days. Once I had been a man for adventure, the Adventurer that May wanted, but that man was gone. I just wanted to solve the final mystery, to get to the end of this long road, too winding and too cruel.
Nate skipped ahead, walking by my side now. "Three days, huh?" he asked, hands back on his hips. He smiled reassuringly at me, clearly noticing my newly downtrodden demeanor. Three days was still too long. "Hey, come on, you're the old Champion of Hoenn, aren't you? This is perfect! Why don't you come with me to the Pokémon World Tournament? They've been trying to get in touch with the Hoenn Champion and haven't been able to talk to anyone. You can participate in the tournament while you're waiting."
When I didn't say anything, just bounded down the stairs and outside without a word, he laughed. I didn't know much about this kid—he was maybe twenty years old, a youth with boundless energy. He helped saved Unova when the old hero, some girl named Hilda, never showed up. On every news channel, he had been played off as a kind-hearted soul, the hero with a bleeding heart. I couldn't tell if that was true.
"It's not far—if you have a flying-type, the PWT is just across the pond, maybe just half an hour away." Nate pointed dramatically into the distance, as if I could really see anything, but the towering studio buildings blocked it all. "If you have to wait three days, you might as well do something. No point in sulking."
"Do you think he'll play it?" I asked, ignoring his suggestion of going to the tournament entirely.
He smiled even wider, and I couldn't help but wonder if his cheeks hurt with all that stupid grinning. "Even if all the proceeds are going to charity, Stu can still make bank off of this through the additional attention to the studio and endorsements. This film, in one way or another, has a connection to the missing Champion. I think it's safe to say that it'll be shown. Stu isn't stupid. He knows what this means for his business." He paused, and we stopped walking in the middle of the main road through the studio. "You know something about that missing Champion, then?"
I scowled as I crossed my arms, bitterly amused by the suggestion. Sure, I knew something about it, but it wasn't nearly as impressive a feat as he probably thought it was. Whatever story he was piecing together in his mind—something so brilliant, I was sure—was nothing but a farce. It was not nearly so romantic or dramatic or mysterious.
And it really wasn't any of his business, anyway.
When I didn't respond, yet again ignoring the questions that constantly arose, he just shrugged. "Nevertheless," he elbowed me, apparently trying to lighten the mood, "you're going to be here for three days. You might as well do something fun. To be honest, it looks like you could use a good battle, and I'm sure your Pokémon feel the same stress that you do. Think about them if you don't want to think about yourself."
So, I did. Skarmory had been pushed to breaking point since I kept flying back and forth across Hoenn, and the rest of my team had been trapped in their Poké Balls for too long. This really wasn't a time to sit back and relax—no time for games or tournaments. But maybe Nate had a point: maybe I owed my team something.
It was easy to put myself under a veil of ignorance, so focused on a narrow goal, and completely shut out everything else.
"Okay." When Nate's eyes lit up upon hearing my response, I mustered a smile and held out my hand towards him. For whatever reason, he had trusted me, and I owed him something, too. I didn't know if he was naïve or good at reading people, but he helped me get this far. "I should properly introduce myself. My name is Steven Stone."
The young man grasped my hand, shaking it firmly with three quick pumps. "The name's Nate. Nice to meet you."
Author's Note: Nate is my favorite character in this fic, and I'm so excited that you guys are finally meeting him.
To write a story with so few female characters present ubiquitously in it is very unusual for me, but it gets easier, haha.
