Chapter 12: Moonlit Bay

May 27

Virbank

It was dark when they got out of the studio, but they decided to check the docks to see if the ferry ran late. Virbank was lively, even more so than it was during the day. For Nate, seeing all the other people here, mostly young adults but a good portion of middle aged people too, it provoked an odd dissonance of thoughts. Part of him wondered if the oddly dressed (to his mind; they might be edgy or punk) people hanging out in the streets were indulging in an unhealthy lifestyle or if they had a balance between business and fun. But another part of his mind was tempted to dismiss the analytical side and just have fun with the rest of them.

"Hey Rosa," he said. "Do you think I'm too serious?"

"Mmm," she grabbed one of her ponytails, checked it, then flipped it back, "you're not the most serious person I've met, but when you do get serious, you get really serious. I mean, you worry about that." She laughed. "If it does worry you, then we can just go do something you think is fun for a day. I got to be in a movie," she smiled, still high spirited from that, "so I'd be happy with most anything you suggest."

He smiled. "Thanks. Although I'm not sure what. I was just wondering about the clubs these people go to, but I'm not sure."

"Oh yeah," she said, but not sounding terribly interested. "I suppose they like it. But I don't think I'd like it myself. I mean, lots of people in one room, with loud music playing, and people all trying to talk to each other at once. That kind of noise would make me tense, not relaxed enough to have fun."

"You don't like loud music?" It seemed odd.

Rosa shrugged. "Well I don't so much mind the music as having so many things to listen to at once. I liked the music Roxie and her band were playing, although given how loud it was through the door, I'm glad they had stopped before we went in. I like music, but my favorite kind of music is just being out in the woods listening to the Pokemon calling." She giggled. "Kinda silly, huh?"

"I don't think so," Nate said. He was going to agree that that sounded like a nice thing to do when something happening nearby got his attention.

As they came to the corner to turn to the ferry dock, there was a crowd there. There were five people wearing the black and gray grab that the others of Plasma had been wearing. For all he knew, it might even be some of the same, with their head gear making it hard to identify any one of them. Standing opposite of them were Roxie and Hugh. "I've heard that you lot have been making trouble and bullying other Trainers around here lately," Roxie said, her white hair looking particularly stark under the streetlight. "I'm gonna warn you this once to stop this nonsense, or I will get involved personally."

"You have no idea what you're up against," one of them said. "If you start getting in our way, you're going to be in major trouble later on."

"Your big talk isn't about to scare me," Hugh said, sounding harsher than Roxie.

The leader of the group pulled out a Pokeball. "Maybe it will when we defeat both of you and take your Pokemon away."

Nate didn't have to say anything to Rosa. Of the same thoughts, they hurried over. "You'd have to get rid of us too," Nate said.

Glancing over, Roxie began to smile. "Feeling confident, are you?" She then released a Pokemon Nate recognized right off the bat, a Weezing (it seemed a lot lager than he had imagined them being). It seemed like little more than a huge cloud of violet smoke, much like the Koffing but with an extra few heads budding off it. Picking up on its Trainer's mood, the Weezing made a sound that was half-cough and half-laugh, releasing some of its toxic gases.

One of the Plasma thieves took a step back. "What? I didn't see you... I haven't seen you use that Pokemon before."

"That's because I've had mostly low-level challengers this month," she replied. "Not only that, but Hathor here is too high of a level to use in any of the standard Gym teams. He's just been a buddy of mine for much too long for me to let him go just yet." Roxie then beckoned them to start the fight. "You asked for a battle and you'd better not chicken out now."

While it would have been interesting to see Roxie cream the whole lot with just Hathor, the Plasma group silently decided that they'd rather split up and try to fight all four of them. Even then, the one that approached Nate was an easy opponent, especially since Ruby was a Pignite. They all won. However, before anyone could say anything, the one who hadn't fought released a smoke bomb. Nate backed up, trying to get where the wind wasn't blowing the smoke. There were some loud sounds, in particular an engine starting up and heading out across the bay. When it cleared, the five thieves were gone.

Rosa was coughing. "Ugh, that stinks," she said, covering her face.

"Yeah, they got away," Hugh said, sounding mad.

"You okay?" Nate asked Rosa. She nodded, waiting until she was sure it was okay to take a good breath.

Perhaps due to working with Poison Pokemon, Roxie wasn't perturbed by the smoke. She took a few steps forward, looking through the remaining smoke at the water. "Sounds like they took a motorboat, maybe heading towards Castelia. We might be able to get the Coast Guard to intercept them." She turned to them and smiled. "Hey, thanks for helping out. I don't know if they were being serious about taking our Pokemon, but after what happened a while back, can't be too careful."

"I don't think you really needed our help, not with that guy," Nate said.

Hathor the Weezing seemed pleased by that, grinning wide and making that hacking laugh sound. Roxie nodded. "I know, but when it comes down to it, it's people like you who help anyways that make the difference. Is there anything I can do to help you out?"

Nate shrugged. "Maybe? We were just going in to check if there was a late ferry over to Castelia since we're done here in Virbank."

Putting her hand to her lips, she gave it some thought. "Not this late, not usually. But I think I can arrange for one. Follow me." She headed into one of the nearby buildings; Nate and Rosa followed.

"To Castelia?" Hugh mumbled, then came along with them.

Inside the building, there was a counter where one of the ferry captains was drinking from a brown mug. "Hey pops," Roxie called over, waving. "Could you take one more trip over to Castelia tonight for these folks? They helped me out just now. I need to call the Guard, though, since there was a group of thieving punks that took off."

Her father raised his eyebrows. "Really? Well I have no trouble going over once more."

"Thanks," she said, but soon was making the call on her Xtransceiver to get the Coast Guard.

He chuckled and turned to them. "It's not often she asks for a favor like that, so you must have impressed her. Besides, it'll be a beautiful night to cross the bay. So the three of you are headed to Castelia?"

"That's right," Hugh said. "When can we head over?"

"Give me a few minutes to finish a couple of things in here," the captain said. "Head out that door in back to the dock where I keep my ferry. It's the white and blue one, with the Wingull sign."

Out on the dock with his two friends, Nate looked around the water surrounding them. However, there weren't any signs of the fleeing Plasma group. "They must have followed the shoreline instead of going straight across," he said. "I wonder what they were doing here."

"They were probably up to no good," Hugh said in disapproval.

Then the sound of a beeping Xtransciever caught their attention. Nate knew it wasn't his own, as he was wearing his and it wasn't vibrating. "Uh, is that one of your guys'?" Rosa asked.

"No," Nate said, looking around. After a few beeps, Bard picked up the Xtransceiver sitting beside a crate. He tried to nibble it, then passed it over to Rosa when he decided it wasn't edible.

"Don't eat them," she said, taking it and pressing the answer button. "Hello?

"Ah, hello?" a guy's voice said, his voice not too clear. Which was odd, since the black and silver phone seemed new other than a few scratches from when it must have been dropped. "Where is this?"

"The ferry docks in Virbank," Rosa replied. "Did you lose this Xtransicever?"

"Yeah, that's right. The ferry docks? I didn't think... oh wait, yeah, I can see how that happened. Crud, I was hoping it would be here in Castelia."

"I'm heading over to Castelia in a little bit, actually," Rosa said, looking over at the ferry waiting on the captain. "Want me to bring this over to you?"

"That'd be grea.. oh, wait," his voice turned nervous for some reason. "I'm not sure if we could meet up. I'm out with friends and it could be a while, and even then..." a muffled voice came from the other end. "It's nothing," he said, apparently talking to someone else. "Don't worry about it. Sorry, but I'll get back to you. Please hang onto this for now so I can reach you." The call was then disconnected.

"Aaiii fri," Medusa said, floating over and trying to touch the black and silver Xtransciever in Rosa's hand.

"Wow, he must be really busy," Rosa said. "He didn't even tell me his name."

"What'd he look like?" Hugh asked, looking at the unit suspiciously.

"He sounded drunk," Nate added. Maybe he should go with Rosa when she went to find him.

She shrugged. "I don't know; there was no video feed."

"You'd be better off turning it in to the Xtransciever company so they can get it back to him, instead of trying to find some stranger in the city," Hugh said.

"Well he asked me to hang on to it," she said, before putting it in her bag. "It shouldn't be much trouble to meet up with the guy in Castelia tomorrow."

At that point, two people came walking down the dock to them. One was the ferry captain; the other was a woman with glasses and a bag made of blue denim at her side. The captain nodded to them. "Sorry to take a little while, but we've picked up another passenger as well. Come on board and we'll leave in a few minutes."

"Excuse me," the woman said in a quiet voice as she followed the captain onto the ferry. Oddly enough, she seemed familiar to Nate but he couldn't think of when he'd seen her before. But he wasn't from this world, right? Either she looked like someone he knew, or what little he had of his memory wasn't right. It made him feel uneasy, but then she hadn't reacted to him in any particular way.

Ten minutes later, they were crossing over the moonlit water. It was a beautiful night, like the captain had said. The sky was clear, although only the stars on the western half and the horizon could be seen. Across the bay, there waited a big brilliantly lit city with buildings soaring into the sky. In between, it was all dark calm waters, stretching out to the southern horizon. The full moon illuminated the surface, making the shifting textures of the waves visible. Despite this, Nate didn't see any other boats on the water. Not even the one the Plasma group had escaped on.

Hugh seemed mad still, standing near the front of the ship looking off at Castelia. But Nate decided to try talking to him anyhow. It made him less nervous than trying to speak to that woman. "Those guys were cowards, weren't they?" Nate asked.

Hugh glanced at him, then nodded. "Trying to scare everyone into obeying them, but once you stand up to them, they're not so tough. Hmph." He hit the railing with his fist. "Maybe most of them are only full of hot air, but there are a few that are monstrously talented. Don't think this is going to be easy the whole way."

"It hasn't all been easy," he said, thinking of how long it had taken him to defeat Roxie. "What have you been doing? I thought you were going to head out with us from Aspertia."

"I was going to head out with Rosa," he said. "Not that I'm jealous of you guys; don't take things the wrong way. At first, I was going to travel with my sister Violet, but she didn't seem as interested. On the other hand, Rosa was all fired up to go on a journey. And she's clever and brave. Don't be fooled by her surface act, as she was one of the top students in school. She would've been a big help, but she's also naive and too excitable. I was going to look after her. But then you came along."

Hearing that worried Nate. "What are you planning? It sounds like it could be trouble."

"It'll be trouble for them," Hugh said bitterly. He leaned on the railing, looking to Castelia still. "You are new, so you wouldn't have heard. It was almost five years ago now when I first heard of Team Plasma. A lot of people only think they emerged about three years ago, but they've been around longer than that. What happened was... I was with my original starter Pokemon, a Lillipup, and we were with Violet. She had gotten a Pokemon too, a Purrloin; our grandfather had just caught them both for us. We were out playing on Route 19 when we were approached by a strange woman in black.

"Since we were both new Trainers, we thought there wouldn't be any problem if we fought her. I mean, there hadn't been any trouble back then. But that woman, her Pokemon fought viciously. My Lillipup was hit really hard and I knew even back then that it was a serious wound. She defeated us and if it had been any normal fight, it would have ended there. Heck, most Trainers would offer to help if their opponent's Pokemon got hurt that badly. But instead, she threatened to turn her Pokemon on us if we didn't turn over our Pokemon to her. Both she and her Pokemon were merciless."

"That's horrible," Nate said. "Most of the Pokemon battles I see seem to be more like games to the Pokemon I did have a hard time the first time I saw Ruby got hurt, but if it was that badly, I don't know how I'd feel."

Hugh bowed his head. "Most Pokemon are good, but this one, it seemed evil. There wasn't anything we could do about it either. I've never felt so helpless as I was at that moment. And then, our grandfather managed to find the Lillipup a few days later... he had died. We could never find my sister's Purrloin, even when the police sent out a list of Pokemon recovered from Team Plasma when they were broken up. I'm looking for her, but if she's still in possession of that woman, me and Vino are going to have to get a lot stronger, and build a great team."

"How will you know that particular Purrloin when you find it?" Nate asked.

"Meow," a Pokemon spoke up. Nate looked down, a bit startled by the meow when they were talking about a feline Pokemon. But, this one couldn't be Violet's old Pokemon. For one thing, it was a Skitty, with pink fur and a fluffy tail. It was wearing a yellow-orange scarf fitted to the right size for the small Pokemon, with a patch featuring peaches at the ends. The Skitty seemed to smile smugly at them.

"Are you trying to tease me?" Hugh asked, briefly irritated. He rubbed his neck. "We gave the two of them collars which should have stayed with them no matter what. Possibly like this kitten's scarf. Even if that's off, there's the DNA registry for all Pokeballs, and the Purrloin should recognize me."

They would have continued talking, but Rosa ran up to them, pursued by Bard and Medusa. "Hey, isn't this great? It's like we're flying across the water!"

"We are going pretty fast," Hugh said, smiling and acting like they hadn't just been talking about what was probably his worst memory.

Going over to Nate's other side, Rosa leaned over the railing and looked ahead. "Zoooom! Sometimes I dream about running over the water and I think it would be awesome to do that. Don't you think the bay is great?" Although her question could have been directed at either of them, she looked specifically at Nate.

"It is," he said, smiling. Medusa came up to investigate the new Pokemon, causing the Skitty to bat at her tentacles. "It would be nice to travel around on a smaller boat though, to be closer to the water. Or maybe dive. Is this a good area to dive in?"

"I think so," Hugh said. "Mostly when you hear of divers, they're off in Undella Bay or near Hamilau. You have to be careful here because of all the shipping barges that come through."

"Yeah, that could cause trouble," Nate agreed.

"Sometimes I think it would be cool to live here by the bay," Rosa said. "Or at least along this river."

Nate shrugged. "Maybe. But I think I'd rather live by a lake in the woods. That way I wouldn't have to deal with all the city crowds everyday and could enjoy nature more."

Rosa laughed. "Me too!"

A crooning call from behind them interrupted their conversation. It was another Pokemon, this time a blue turtle with a brown shell and a long curled tail, around which there was a yellow ribbon. At this, the Skitty flicked its tail before strolling over in an unconcerned manner. They were heading off to the side of the boat opposite of where Rosa had been.

"Wow!" Rosa said, her eyes seeming to sparkle. "It's a Squirtle! I thought they were rare."

"They must be, because I wouldn't have known what to call it," Hugh said.

"I should ask her Trainer about her!" She then followed after the two Pokemon.

"At least she's having a great day," Nate said. But, the only others on the boat were the captain and that familiar-seeming woman. Maybe...

Hugh turned around to watch her. "She lost Pokemon to Team Plasma too."

"Her too?" Nate asked, looking to him and briefly forgetting his uneasiness.

He nodded. "They were living in Nimbasa at the time, but were convinced by some of the early Plasma speakers to release their Pokemon. There were a lot of people like them who fell under the pressure. Then they ended up moving out to Aspertia before Plasma fully came out in public over there. If their Pokemon were disappointed by that, they couldn't know because they left the area."

"Maybe one of them will recognize her," Nate said, partly wondering aloud.

"I hope so." Then he looked at Nate. "Make sure to take good care of your Pokemon, and don't lose them. Also, take care of Rosa too."

Nate thought about it a moment, then nodded. "I think she can handle herself. But, I'll keep an eye on her."

"Thanks. That's one less thing to worry about." Then they heard Rosa yelp. "What now?" Hugh asked, going over to investigate.

They found Rosa over by the other passenger on the ferry, a little pale and shaking. Bard, Medusa, and even River were trying to calm her down while the woman held a leafy lizard Pokemon close to reassure it. "I'm sorry about that," she said. "Trey is actually quite friendly and he was probably trying to impress you."

"S-sorry," Rosa said, putting her hands to her chest. "I, um, I came to ask about your Squirtle and I wasn't expecting to get jumped on by a, a lizard."

"Ththh," the Treecko replied, crawling onto the woman's shoulder opposite Rosa to watch the girl cautiously.

"Just a scare?" Nate asked, putting his hand on Rosa's shoulder.

She tensed briefly, but relaxed and smiled on seeing him. "Oh, ah, I'll be okay." She sat down on the bench near the woman. The Squirtle came over to Rosa and reached a paw up to her.

"I wouldn't mind talking about her, although these are just some friends visiting me," the woman said. "That's Stacy, the leader of this little group. She's really sweet, but she's also quite strong, more than most people expect. Oh, and the Skitty there is Kip. Watch out for him, since he can be the most trouble."

Kip purred loudly, puffing his chest up in pride.

"How can any Pokemon that small be trouble?" Hugh asked.

She laughed a little. "Being small increases his mischief, I think."

"Who are you?" Nate asked. "I have the weirdest feeling that I should know you."

"Well," she put her hand to her cheek. "Most people around here can't pronounce my name. Call me Ysabell, that will do. I'm a fortune teller and collector of stories, but I travel a lot and see many people. I'm sorry, I couldn't say..." she bit her lip.

"Maybe she just looks like someone you knew," Hugh suggested.

"Maybe."

"Wait, you're a fortune teller?" Rosa asked, thinking of something. "Like you can see the future or tell what's the truth?"

"Ah-haha, well," she smiled and looked to the Treecko. "I can, but it's a way of mysteries. Some answers may be clear, others won't be revealed until more is known. If you wish for some fortunes, or perhaps an attempt to answer a question you have, I could try." She opened her bag, getting an excited chitter from Trey. "Yes, I know you like the book especially much. It too much for even you to read, though."

Rosa smiled. "That'd be great! We have lots of questions."

"We don't mean to bother you, but that would be a help," Nate said.

Ysabell nodded. "That's fine, I'm more likely to cause you trouble than you are to cause it to me. So I hope this won't be a bother." She then pulled out a large hardback book, enough to cover her lap while closed. It had a brown and gold cover with no title and the pages... well they were filled with some kind of text that Nate found illegible. "What questions do you have?"

"Where's Hilda Medley?" Rosa asked, peering over and trying to understand the book too.

"Hilda..." she raised on hand above the book and half-closed her eyes. The pages then turned of their own accord, eventually falling onto one that had a picture of a stained glass window on it. The window, strangely enough, showed Zekrom and Reshiram. "She's in a church."

"What's she doing in a church?" Hugh asked.

"That's all I can tell now," Ysabell said. "Any other questions?"

"I'm looking for a particular Purrloin, one that used to belong to my sister," Hugh said.

She nodded. "Okay, I should be able to..." she focused on searching through her book, eventually landing on a picture of an ornate knife. "The Purrloin is still with her captor. Only, this person... I wouldn't be able to locate her, except by luck. I'm sorry."

"At least I know more of what to expect," Hugh said, his mood turning grim.

"Even if you find her, she's still going to be difficult to deal with. Be careful."

"Where's Kyurem?" Nate asked, thinking that might help.

The next page turned to had a frost pattern all over it. "It's hard to say. Behind a wall?" She frowned and tried brushing the page off. "The frost is making it difficult to read this page. I'm sorry."

Watching her work her fortune telling, Nate wondered how she did this. It was like magic, but even in this world, that seemed far-fetched. He decided on a question that was both helpful to get an answer and a test of her ability. "It's fine. How about Keldeo? Where is he?"

"All right," she said, turning the pages. This time, she ended up on a page that depicted a scene on a ferry. Not only that, but it was a scene of this moment, with all of them and all the Pokemon in the same places: Bard and Stacy sitting by Rosa, River standing on the bench behind her, Ruby and Argent by Nate, Medusa just behind them, Vino gripping Hugh's jeans, Trey on Ysabell's shoulder, and Kip sitting on the ground watching. Even the Treecko's eyes went wide at that picture. "Oh, he seems to be right here!" Then she laughed and turned a single page. "Hah, well we shouldn't be looking at that too long. Ever see a live TV broadcast where the recorder is also the viewer? Don't look to far into the abyss."

While that made Rosa and Hugh laugh, it made Nate feel nervous for reasons he couldn't explain. Ysabell seemed to be a real fortune teller. Or more? "I see... we've been told something like that before. One more from me, if it's okay..."

"You want to know about your ability, right?" Ysabell asked, taking a quick glance back at the page. "At least that's what this text says is your next question."

"That was it," he said. Hopefully it would be the last question he had to be around for.

"Whoa, that's kind of scary," Rosa said, delighted to be scared like that.

"What is it exactly?" she asked, looking up at him.

"I can't really answer that," Nate said. "I see things on rare occasion, sometimes like the memories of others, but sometimes not. Plus my own memory is scrambled, so I have no idea why."

Ysabell thought about it a moment, then offered her hand. "Here, it may be quicker to have the book examine you. Put your hand with mine, just outside of its reach."

Nodding, he did as asked. As the book began to turn, he felt something odd with the hand there. It was like static, not sending out sparks but emitting a low level of energy. When the book settled, it was near the end of the book, on a page with some kind of chart.

She studied it for a moment, putting her hand on the page. "It would... you have the power known as Memory Link. So you're right, you are seeing the memories of others. This power is most often temporary, given by a legendary Pokemon to help with a task they assign. Once your task is complete, the Memory Link will no longer be active. And then," she shifted her focus to the chart, "when you were given the power, you were also given some images of the near future to help guide you. These images will be triggered in the same way as the memories: when you're in the right place, with the right person, at the right time, or any combination of that. They're like a preview of the future, although not set in stone. There's a chance that you won't even be present for those events, but the people, places, and items involved, they will be important to you."

"Wow, that's pretty cool," Rosa said, looking at him. "If you could learn to control that, you could learn many things."

"I don't know if I can control it," he said, rubbing his head.

"That's right, it's not under conscious control," Ysabell said. "But at least you know what to call it..." her Xtransciever rang, causing her to be distracted. "Oh, it's Sally. Sorry, but I need to take this call and she's a little hard to talk with. I hope I helped you a little bit." She then turned her attention to the call.

Because of that, the three of them headed back to the front of the ferry. "Was that sort of helpful?" Hugh asked, his eyes focused in thought as he walked. "She could have at least told you guys which church Hilda was at."

Rosa shrugged. "Maybe her book doesn't even know more than that. But hey, at least the Purrloin is still alive. There's hope you can get her back! Hey, what do you guys want to do when we get into Castelia?"

"Find a hotel and get some sleep," Nate replied. "It's been a long day."

She laughed. "I suppose it has been. But it's been just wonderful! Hey Hugh, did you hear? We got to make a movie!"

"You what?" Hugh asked, confused. So for the rest of the trip, Rosa told him all about what had happened after they had both beat the gym.

It had been a long day... but a good one.

Now we have the author insert, as well as character cameos! The three Pokemon here, Stacy, Trey, and Kip, were all from PMD: Loopholes. Also, I don't normally work with author inserts, but this one has a kind of history. See, my username comes from the first full novel I wrote (never published, likely never will be unless totally recycled) where Ysavvryl was an angelic guide that I used to try railroading a plot that got lost on tangents. She's no longer railroading here, just being vague. And she's human now, which is much better than my original description. Ah, but gotta write bad stuff to figure out how to write good stuff!

If you're curious, the dragon picture I use here is based off Ysavvryl's original form, a feathered silver dragon.

The lost Xtransciever is a sidequest that comes into play later in the games; you pick it up in Nimbasa. But, I have plans for Curtis here.