14 - Searching the City of Rain

Daybreak shone across the glistening waters of the Moor of Icirrus in a brilliant flare of dazzling morning light, greeting the gently stirring pokemon of Route 8. Palpitoad and Stunfisk flopped around in the water, getting their daily coating of smooth mud to keep them cool. A group of Shelmet paraded by in a loose group. They moved toward the water so they could feed upon the tiny insects that hovered around the marshes. On their way, one Shelmet accidentally stepped onto a hidden Stunfisk, triggering its natural response to shock anything that touched it while giving an inciting grin. Shelmet fell to the ground, twitching at the unexpected shock. Soon, the other Shelmet bunched up around Stunfisk, squeaking and spitting at the little flounder that zapped their friend. As the bunches of pokemon began arguing, a strong gust of wind blasted them from above, making them quiet down and look up at what caused it.

The Guy slowly opened his eyes, not expecting to he greeted by an ever-bright sun in the face. He gently rubbed his now-human eyes, trying to adjust to the brilliant glow of morning's light.

He let out a big, long yawn, stretching his arms and legs out. "Ahhhh... Huh. Didn't know that I could sleep while dead. I don't feel recharged or anything, but it sure was nice." Golurk looked up at him, smiling to himself.

'(Did you know you talk in your sleep?)' Gengar inquired.

"I do? Since when?"

'(Well, you've always talked in your sleep, or at least for as long as I've been with you,)' thought Dusclops.

'(Yeah, but it's pretty hilarious now. Since you're dead, you talk about the weirdest things,)' thought Gengar as she smiled within her Pokeball.

"Oh? And what was it that I was babbling about?"

'(Something about wanting to find Arceus and give him a golden fork that he desperately needed, or some nonsense,)' Chandelure bluntly jumped in.

"Wait, what?"

'(Yeah, none of it made sense, but it was entertaining to listen to.)'

The Guy leaned forward closer to Golurk's head. "Golurk, do I talk in my sleep?"

Without turning back toward him, Golurk let out a badly suppressed laugh.

The Guy's face turned red as he blushed embarrassingly. "Why didn't you guys tell me that? That's humiliating!"

Golurk let out a big bellowed and metallic laugh as the other five laughed loudly, some more loudly than others. Gengar and Froslass were practically rolling around in their Pokeballs, which didn't help The Guy's confidence at all. He quietly folded his arms and waited for them to quiet down, an expression of annoyance on his reddened face.

Up ahead, the trees began to thin, creating a visible opening in the dense marsh. Just barely peeking out above a few of the trees was the shingled brown roof of a small building.

The Guy sat up straighter on Golurk, trying to get a better view of the terrain. "Alright you guys, looks like we're getting close to Icirrus. You all remember the plan, correct?"

'(Yup,)' assured Chandelure.

'(Got it,)' Dusclops confirmed.

'(Get the golden fork. Right,)' poked Musharna. The Guy's face turned sour at her jest.

'(And give it to Arceus. Roger,)' Froslass joined in.

'(Who needs it as soon as possible. Affirmative,)' Gengar giggled.

"...Eh..." The Guy blurted, burying his face into the palm of his hand. Golurk turned around toward him, smiling to himself once more. Across the horizon, a series of wooden bridges and buildings with windmills attached to them began to emerge.

'(It looks like we're here,)' Golurk thought.

The Guy stopped himself from punching several of the Pokeballs to look ahead. The old-world style buildings of Icirrus City quickly became visible as the thinning trees below passed behind them. Surrounding the buildings was acre after acre of flooded land, remaining ever marshy from the heavy downpours of rain that kept the swamps around alive for centuries. Beneath them, fields of flooded rice patties stretched on for miles, occasionally broken by a small house or two. Icirrus City always was the leading producer of rice in the Unova region.

The Guy looked below at the scattered workers and their pokemon who dredged along in the wetlands, tending to the rice plants. Several of them looked up to see him riding on the back of Golurk, and they gave a friendly smile and a wave. The Guy smiled back and returned the welcoming gesture. He had forgotten how kind the people in Icirrus were.

Golurk and The Guy looked down at all of the workers in the fields as they flew by. Accompanying some of the workers were some pokemon, such as Sawk, Throh, Karrablast, Palpitoad, and the occasional Mienfoo. Watching them working on the rice patties made The Guy crave rice, even though he didn't eat.

The miles of rice fields passed by, but the ground beyond them was still spotted with large puddles of water on top of saturated soil. Somehow, some buildings were built in these conditions, and they became more and more plentiful the longer they flew toward the heart of the swampy city.

'(Wow,)' Froslass thought. '(How can people live in a place like this? There's way too much water around here.)'

'(Well,)' Dusclops replied, '(you do come from Victory Road, where there's nothing but dry cliff sides and hollow caves. What did you expect?)'

'(I feel like if I was still a Durant and I was to try to live here, I'd drown in a puddle.)'

'(Hmm,)' Jellicent began, '(I kind of like this place. Probably because I'm an overgrown jellyfish now, but seeing all of this water makes me want to splash around.)' She smiled within her Pokeball.

'(How's about you be the one to accompany me around town while we try to gather information about Tyranitar?)' asked The Guy.

'(Could I? I feel as though a ghostly jellyfish might make some people unnerved.)'

'(But you're a pokemon. As far as anybody else is concerned, I'm your trainer; in fact, I am your trainer.)'

Jellicent lightly chuckled to herself. '(I suppose that's true... Alright then!)' she cheerily bubbled.

'(Just keep in mind that if you need to talk to me, all you have to do is be in physical contact with me, like Golurk here. Right Golurk?)'

Golurk let out a loud assuring clanking sound from his throat. '(Yep. So long as you're touching him in some way, like how he's sitting on my spine.)'

"Oops," he blurted aloud, adjusting himself. "Sorry about that."

Below, the last of the rural parts of Icirrus City rolled past them. Ahead, a plaza of medium sized buildings sat atop a scattered bunch of elevated hills that held the buildings above the slippery marshes below. From cliff to cliff, bridges connected the city's buildings in a well-constructed web of wooden walkways. Looking at the heart of Icirrus City from above made one feel a deep sense of community that could only be established by hard work, innovative creativity that was shared among all of the residents, and a hearty feeling of a simpler life, where there were fruit stands here and there as well as a fishery at the bottom of the docks. The residents of Icirrus City were known for having simpler, happier lives.

Near the bottom of a steep walkway, a familiar building with a red roof sat wedged underneath of an overpassing bridge: the pokemon center.

"Alright guys, here we are. Let's go ahead and land."

On his command, Golurk slowed his forward momentum as he began to descend. A few people who were walking across the bridge above the pokemon center watched as they arrived, greeting them with a smile and a quick wave. The Guy, being courteous, returned the kind acknowledgement just as they passed under the bridge. Not many people were near the pokemon center's entrance, but through the glassy double doors, The Guy could see the usual population of people who enjoyed resting inside.

Golurk smoothly landed onto the soft ground with a light, muddy splash. The Guy jumped off of his shoulders and deftly landed onto the soggy ground below, being a bit more fortunate and landing on a drier patch of earth without splashing mud onto his legs.

He looked up to his large pokemon. "Thanks, Golurk."

Golurk nodded at him as the third Pokeball at The Guy's belt fired its usual beam of beige light onto him, quickly dematerializing him into his comfortable little soul pouch, where he could see from his trainer's eyes.

The Guy snapped the fourth Pokeball off of his belt and held it out in his open palm. "Come on out, Jellicent." The red and white Pokeball popped open in a beam of black light that quickly shaped itself into Jellicent's shape. Jellicent looked at The Guy, who was placing her Pokeball back onto his belt loop. Behind him, a large, rather deep puddle of water tempted her.

"Mmk, ready to head insi-" he began before hearing a large splash of mud from behind him. Jellicent was splashing around happily in the rainwater, rolling back and forth. The Guy smiled. '(She must love the feel of water now,)' he thought.

From above, he heard some multi-aged giggles. The Guy looked up. Two small children and their parents were looking over the side of the bridge down toward them, lightheartedly laughing. He smiled and waved to them.

"Is that your Jellicent?" the woman called out to him.

Jellicent looked up at them. "Yeah, she's really enjoying the water around here," The Guy replied, smiling.

"She's adorable!" the lady yelled back. Her two kids were jumping up and down, tugging at their father's pant leg and pointing at Jellicent. Jellicent smiled and waved to them with one of her light pink tendrils, and the children giggled and waved back.

"Hehe, thank you!" The Guy called out as the father called for them to move on toward the fruit stand nearby. '(I really like this city,)' he thought. '(The people here are just how I remember them from when we were last here.)'

'(This place really is nice,)' Gengar thought. '(Perhaps we should consider living here?)'

The Guy felt a soft tentacle on his left shoulder. '(I wouldn't mind staying here,)' Jellicent thought. '(This place is great!)'

'(Yeah,)' he thought, '(it really is...)'

Images flashed in his mind of his pokemon and him in his ghostly image reaching out to people who were screaming and running away from them. They try to explain, but everyone panics and flees the city, leaving them all alone in the abandoned plaza.

The Guy's face turned sour. '(On second thought, perhaps we shouldn't...)'

'(Yeah, good point...)' thought Dusclops.

'(Well, let's decide that later. For now, let's pop into the pokemon center and ask the nurse if anything has been spotted. Although, when you think about it, this town is too peaceful for there to have been anything done by him.)'

'(Can't hurt to look,)' thought Golurk.

'(Well, yeah, I'm just saying.)' The Guy turned toward the pokemon center. Behind the clean glass double doors, he could see several people walking around toward the sides of the room while the nurse patiently waited at her desk in case anybody needed help with anything.

'(Oh, Gengar. I had a quick question,)' he thought as he approached the automated doorway.

'(What's that?)' she pondered.

'(Well, I didn't really say anything about it earlier, but when we fought against Fuzh in that decrepit alleyway, Bisharp had hit you lethally with a sharpened Arial Ace. Are you ok after that?)'

'(Strangely enough, yes. When the blade pierced my heart, right here,)' he felt Gengar motioning where her heart was, but he couldn't see exactly what she was doing, '(my entire body went numb, and I couldn't move one bit. But, I'm still here!)'

'(Do you need to get a healing session while we're here?)'

'(I think, somehow, I've recovered from that blow. I feel like I could jump around like normal.)'

'(Hmm... Interesting...)' he softly thought as he stepped through the doorway.

"Hello! Welcome!" the nurse called out from the counter in a bubbly way.

The Guy motioned a wave. "Hello." He looked around for a bit. It was your generic pokemon center, very orthodox and easy to navigate. Several trainers and pokemon enthusiasts were seated at some of the tables along the walls, discussing this and that about their experiences, some even turning into quiet arguments. On the sides of the help desk were stairways that led to the second floor, where they had computer simulators set up so that one could have a virtual reality encounter with other people from across the lands, where people could trade, battle, or just get to know each other. The Guy never really used those functions during his travels.

From behind the help desk, a technological marvel of a machine was placed behind the nurse within arm's reach. With the use of this advanced machine, a pokemon with ordinary injuries could be healed to fighting fit in only a few minutes. Beside the machine was a doorway, which The Guy suspected led to some kind of surgical room.

With hope of an easy journey in his mind, The Guy approached the help desk where the young nurse waited, smiling. '(Alright guys. Time to flip the first coin.)' His pokemon were quiet.

"Can I help you?" the lady asked.

"Hi, I actually just have a quick question regarding..." he leaned in closer, trying to be discrete, "...It's in regards to a pokemon that might be in the area. A dangerous pokemon."

The lady's face grew more serious. "A dangerous pokemon in the area?" she said with failed subtlety.

"Shh!" The Guy spattered at her loud voice. Several trainers turned their heads in their direction. "I'm trying to not have a lot of people know about this, because it may cause a panic. There's a pokemon I'm tracking, a rogue Tyranitar. Have you seen anything related to one in the area?"

The nurse lightly rested her head on the side of her hand, tilting her head in a way that was cute while at the same time dumb. "Hmm, no I don't believe I've seen anything related to a Tyranitar around here." Her voice was quite audible.

"Tshhhh!" The Guy protested.

Several trainers' heads poked up at her words. One of them called out, "Tyranitar? A Tyranitar near Icirrus?"

The Guy turned around, a bad poker face splashed across his head. "No, no! There's nothing of the sort around here!"

"But didn't you just say-" the nurse began just before The Guy looked at her sharply.

"A Tyranitar in the area? I want in on that!" a young trainer said from the back.

"Yeah, me too!" called out a portly man to the right.

Cold sweat ran down the back of The Guy's head. '(Crap...)'

"Tyranitar's a really strong pokemon!" a blonde girl exclaimed.

"Let's go find it!" the portly man rejoined.

"Yeah!" many people exclaimed.

The Guy jumped up in front of the doorway; Jellicent hovered above him with her tendrils out. "Stop!" he yelled. As he held his arms up, the parade of overzealous trainers halted. "There is no Tyranitar in the area! I was checking to see if there was one in hopes of catching it!" he halfway lied.

The mob of people stared at him for a moment before a young trainer spoke up. "But why would a Tyranitar be in these parts?"

"Well, um, you know," he paused, "some of them roam, and I just wanted to see if there was any activity around here..." As he spoke his eyes drifted up and away from the crowd.

'(Very smooth, captain)' Chandelure taunted.

'(Shut it!)' he loudly thought. "I don't suppose any of you folks have seen anything?" The entire crowd shook their heads. "Alright... Well I'll be off then..."

With a wave of murmurs, the energy of the situation died down, and the crowd dispersed back into their selective spots around the pokemon center, many of the trainers disappointed. The Guy let out a deep sigh as he dropped his arms back down to his sides. '(That was way too close...)'

'(Close?)' Froslass thought. '(That nurse downright blew our cover in less than five seconds!)'

'(Yeah,)' Dusclops added, '(Now word of Tyranitar is generally in the air, so I guess we can blow subtlety out the window and just get straight to asking questions.)'

'(Yeah...)' The Guy thought as he felt one of Jellicent's arms gently rest on his shoulder.

'(That was really close to disaster,)' she thought to him.

'(Tell me about it,)' he replied mentally. '(The last thing we need are a bunch of hyperactive trainers pursuing death. Could you imagine if they went after him and found him?)'

Jellicent shivered slightly. '(I'd prefer not thinking about that.)'

He turned around and began to walk out of the opened double doors. '(Yeah, well let's try and make sure that doesn't happen next time we interrogate people.)'

'(So where should we head to next?)' Golurk asked.

'(Hmm...)' The Guy looked around for a moment. All around them were mini hills and cliffs with buildings atop them. Around those, marshy wetlands extended all the way down to the rice patty fields. '(I'm really not sure if there's any other place to check around here... The pokemon center is pretty much the apex of trainers in this city...)'

He and his pokemon quietly thought for a moment, trying to imagine if there's any other place to check.

'(The gym,)' Dusclops thought, finally.

'(Gym?)' The Guy looked around. '(What gym? I don't remember there being one in this city.)'

'(The ice gym. The one with the slippery ice ramps and floors.)' Gengar added.

The Guy tried to picture the gym. His face brightened in realization. '(Oh yeah! THAT gym.)' Images of Scrafty landing repetitive Hi Jump Kicks to a bunch of random ice type pokemon flashed through his memory.

The Guy lightly scratched the back of his head. '(I'd forgotten that gym existed after we blew through it in a few minutes, thanks to you, Scrafty.)' Gengar happily beamed within her Pokeball. '(Good idea, though. The gym leader tends to be somewhat of a kingpin in each city. If they don't know anything about a Tyranitar in the area, nobody will.)'

The Guy turned around, trying to get a sense of direction as to where he was in the damp city. The pokemon center loomed over him, obstructing most of his view. He closed his eyes, trying to recall where he was. He vaguely recalled the gym being located on a relatively high cliff, and behind it was...

'(Dragonspiral Tower,)' he thought. '(I at least remember where that is.)'

'(If we head toward that,)' Golurk thought, '(We should find the gym in no time.)'

Froslass shifted within her Pokeball. '(Lead the way. Me and Reshiram here have no clue where any of the gyms are, right Reshy?)'

'(Pretty much,)' Reshiram thought. '(And don't call me Reshy.)'

Froslass shifted into a relaxing position, trying to get comfortable. '(My point is we can just relax until we get there.)'

'(Whatever you say,)' Jellicent echoed as she sat on The Guy's head.

The Guy had already begun walking, sporting his bright pink Jellicent hat as he headed in the direction of Dragonspiral Tower. "You're not going to fall asleep, are ya?" he said to Jellicent as she curled her arms around his neck.

'(No, no. I'm just gonna- zzz...)'

The Guy smiled as he looked up at the fluffy jellyfish perched on his head.