14.
THE MASKED MENACE
The next morning, I awaken relatively late due to not getting to sleep until gone half past two. I dress quickly and make my way down the stairs of the lighthouse, followed by Reo. I do not wish to stay longer in this place than I have to, now that I am sure Victini will not be appearing here, and I want to get back on track with my Gym Challenge.
I reach the bottom of the stairs and push open the large wooden doors to enter the main chamber, where the first thing I hear is a high, musical voice.
"You're finally awake!" the voice says. I look and see that Luna has awakened also and is standing halfway across the room, looking at me, a smile on her pretty face.
"Uh… Yeah," I say, unable to think of anything else.
"Tell me, are you always this lazy or did you just decide to treat me?" Luna asks, winking at me cheekily.
"Well, some of us were up rather late," I say, not quite meeting her eye. "And I didn't know you'd be waiting for me."
"Oh, of course I'm waiting for you!" Luna says, as though surprised that I hadn't realised this. "Mr. Victicious told me all about you, Luke Norton of Tranila Town."
"He did, did he?" I ask blithely. A moment later I realise how stupid I sound and try and regain my focus. "Uh, what did he tell you, exactly?"
"He said you're on a journey to collect Gym Badges, and you're travelling all over Silvari to do it," Luna summarises. "And I said that sounded awesome, so he suggested I join you for a while."
I raise my eyebrows in surprise. "You…want to come with me?" I repeat.
"Sure! Is that all right?" Luna asks.
"Well, I guess so," I say, trying to shrug my shoulders as if it's no big deal, even though inside I'm jumping up and down unable to believe my luck. The girl from my dream is actually asking to travel with me.
"Awesome!" Luna says happily. "We're gonna make a great team, I just know it. Oh, but first, I should properly introduce myself. I'm Luna. Luna McKowski."
"Yeah, I know," I say, like an idiot, before I can stop myself.
"You know?" Luna repeats, looking at me suspiciously. "What do you mean, you know? We've never met before."
"Uh, Ben—I mean, Mr. Victicious told me about you before," I say, relieved that I have an excuse other than 'I dreamed about you once'. "You're kinda like his adopted sister or something, right?"
Luna laughs. "Sister? That's a bit generous. I could never hope to be as magnificent as him…" Luna repeats in a somewhat dreamy voice. From beside me, Reo gives a slight cough of disapproval. "But I suppose you're kinda right. He took me in when I had nowhere else to go."
"That's very generous of him," I say with an appreciative nod. "Don't you think so, Reo?" I say, looking pointedly at my partner.
"Very generous," Reo admits with a scowl.
Luna lets out a short gasp. "Your Pokémon can talk?" she says, stunned.
"Yeah," I say with a smile. "This is Reo. Say hello to Luna, Reo."
Reo crosses over the room to Luna and extends his paw, which she looks at in surprise for a moment before smiling and shaking it. "Hello, Luna. I'm looking forward to travelling with you for a while."
"Me too, Reo. It's gonna be so much fun!" Luna says excitedly.
I pluck up my courage and cross the room to stand beside my partner, facing Luna. "So," I say to her. "I've already won my first three Badges, so I need to head off to the town with the fourth Gym now."
"Oh, that's Erique Island," Luna recites, and I look at her in surprise for a moment. "The Gym Leader there is Ariel. She loves Water Pokémon. The whole town is on an island, so you'll need to cross the ocean to get there."
"How do you know all this?" I ask.
"Mr. Victicious has been teaching me about all the Gyms in Silvari," Luna explains. "I'm hoping to challenge them myself someday."
"Awesome," I say to her, impressed. "So how do we get to Erique Island, then?"
"Well, since we're next to the ocean, we can cross to there from anywhere along here, really," Luna says. "But of course, you need a Pokémon that knows how to use Surf to cross the ocean."
"Oh…" I say, disappointed. "I don't have anyone that knows Surf. I don't even have the Hidden Machine for Surf either, now that I think about it."
"Don't worry! I hear there's a TM shop in Beachpalm Town," Luna says, her geographical knowledge already proving to be far better than my own. "If we follow the shoreline around from here, we should get to there eventually. They just might be able to sell you a HM for Surf."
"All right, I guess that's our plan then," I say confidently. To my surprise, now that the conversation has built up somewhat, I feel a lot less self-conscious around Luna. Although she still remains as attractive, she's not really any different to any of my other friends. I find hanging out with her as easy as hanging out with Elliot, or someone else like that.
Luna, Reo and I leave the lighthouse and begin to follow the coastline around and away from it. It's a beautiful day and the sun blazes high overhead. I remove my jacket after a very short while and allow the heat to warm my body as we travel and talk together, chatting amicably about our experiences with Pokémon so far.
Luna asks me about my Gym Battles so far, and I explain what happened in each of them. When I tell her about battling alongside Vance against Team SPF, she asks to know more about them, which leads me onto a full explanation about the Silvari Pokémon Force, what they aim to achieve, and how thus far I have been successful in preventing them from doing so.
"But hold on, you live with Mr. Victicious, right?" I say with a frown as I finish my story. "Isn't he hunting Team SPF as well?"
"Yeah," Luna confirms with a nod, "that's one of his main projects. But he never really told me anything about them. I just thought they were your average, everyday criminals."
"When I was talking to him last night, he told me that Team SPF kidnapped someone important to him," I tell her, "and apparently that's why he's so determined to go after them. Do you have any idea who that could be?"
"None at all, I'm afraid," Luna says, shaking her head sadly. "He's never mentioned anything like that before. He's always so guarded about what he says, even to me, and I've been with him almost a year now."
I can't think of anything else to say about Ben, so I change the subject, and for a while talk to Luna about her experiences as a Pokémon Trainer. She reveals to me that her Jigglypuff has been with her for the longest, having found her out when she was still an orphan and acting as her companion, while her Ralts was her first ever true capture. She says that she caught it in Musharna's Playground, under supervision from Ben, as part of her training.
"What about your third Pokémon?" I ask her, recalling that she had three Poké Balls at her waist in my dream.
"I don't have a third Pokémon," she says with a slight frown. "I'd never mentioned having more than two. What made you think I had three?"
"Oh, uh…" I struggle to come up with an excuse that doesn't involve my dream. "It's just…you mentioned that you were planning on challenging the Gyms someday, right? I just assumed you had three Pokémon, cause the Leaders won't battle you unless you have three," I ramble.
"I know that, silly!" Luna teases. "I've just not got round to catching my third Pokémon yet."
Suddenly, from out of the sky, a bird Pokémon swoops down and grabs Luna's hat, before flying off. "Hey!" she calls after it. "Bring that back!"
The Pokémon turns around and lands on the sand a short way in front of us, sitting inside Luna's hat. "Duck," it tweets smugly. The bird does indeed look something like a duck, and is light blue in colour, with a yellow beak and claws. I remove my Pokédex from my jeans pocket and hold it up to the Pokémon.
"Ducklett," the Pokédex announces in its robotic voice. "The Water Bird Pokémon. When attacked, it uses its feathers to splash water, escaping under cover of the spray."
"Duck!" Ducklett opens its beak and sprays a forceful jet of water at me and Luna, hitting both of us full in the face. I brush my dripping hair out of my eyes and see Ducklett sitting in Luna's hat laughing at us. "Duck, duck, duck…"
"Bit of a cheeky one, isn't it?" I summarise. "Well, I'll wipe the smile off its face." I turn to Reo to send him into battle, but Luna talks over me.
"Wait, Luke! Let me battle this one. If I can catch it, I'll have my third Pokémon, right?"
"All right," I agree and step backwards to watch. "Good luck, Luna!"
"Thanks," she says with a smile as she detaches a Poké Ball from the belt around her middle. She throws it down onto the sand with a cry of "Go, Jigglypuff!" and her round, pink Pokémon is unleashed, bouncing happily on the sand. I take the moment to point my Pokédex at the Jigglypuff and get its full details registered.
"Jigglypuff. The Balloon Pokémon. When its huge eyes light up, it sings a mysteriously soothing melody that lulls its enemies to sleep."
I look back up at Jigglypuff just in time to see it get splashed in the face by a jet of water from Ducklett. Jigglypuff gives Ducklett a grumpy look as it continues to laugh at her.
"Jigglypuff, give that Ducklett a taste of its own medicine!" Luna calls. "Use Mimic, then Water Gun it right back!" Jigglypuff sucks in a mouthful of air, growing slightly larger as it does so, then opens its mouth and blasts not air but water straight back at Ducklett, who is caught by surprise and knocked onto its back.
"Yeah, that's it!" Luna encourages. "Now use your DoubleSlap attack!" Jigglypuff runs over to Ducklett and begins to slap it back and forth, leaving the little duck Pokémon dazed. "That's enough, Jigglypuff!" Luna calls, and opens her handbag to pull out a Poké Ball. While she is distracted, however, Ducklett stretches out its wing and strikes Jigglypuff, sending it floating backwards a considerable way because it is so light. Ducklett picks up Luna's hat in its claws and makes to fly away.
"Not so fast! Jigglypuff, put it to sleep with your Sing attack!" Luna calls. A smile crosses Jigglypuff's face and its eyes begin to glow brightly as it sings its lullaby. Ducklett's flight pattern begins to droop as it grows ever more drowsy, and even I find my eyes growing heavier. I struggle to keep them open, but to no avail…
"Luke! Wake up!"
The female voice snaps me back to my senses and I awaken to find myself lying on the beach with Luna standing over me and calling me to wake up, seeming as though she is fighting a laugh.
"Hey, sleepy! Come on, get up," she says, holding out her hand, which I take and allow her to help me to my feet. She looks at my face, and a giggle escapes her lips.
"What are you laughing at?" I ask her suspiciously.
"Take a look," she says through her giggles, pulling a small mirror out of her handbag and holding it up to me. I look and jump slightly when I see that someone has drawn a fake moustache and beard and a large pair of comedy glasses on my face while I was asleep.
"Aack!" I exclaim in unpleasant surprise. "Who was that?!"
"Jigglypuff doesn't like it when people other than the intended target fall asleep when she sings," Luna explains, replacing the mirror in her bag.
"You got a face wipe or something in there?" I ask. "I can't go around looking like this."
"No, but I've got something just as good," Luna says cheekily. "Ducklett, Water Gun!"
A powerful spray of water splashes my face and I recoil backwards slightly, wiping the water off. I look at my hands and see that they are stained with black ink. At least that got some of the pen off, I think to myself. I look up at Luna.
"Thanks for that," I say sarcastically.
"Any time," she replies with a giggle.
"I see you caught the Ducklett then," I say, indicating the blue duck Pokémon at her feet. "Nice going."
"Yup," she confirms, picking it up and hugging it. "He's my pal now."
"You have three Pokémon now," I remind her. "You could go and challenge a Gym Leader."
"Well for now I'm happy escorting you to Beachpalm Town," Luna says. "After all, your geography's so bad you'd be hopelessly lost if it wasn't for me." I scowl at her.
Luna's battle with Ducklett and my impromptu nap seem to have taken their toll on both of us, and as such we proceed more slowly and not talking as much as before. As the sun begins to disappear off the horizon, filling the sky with beautiful orange light, we decide to make camp and sleep on the shore for the night, still being some distance away from Beachpalm Town. I unpack my sleeping bag from my backpack for the first time on my journey, unroll it and climb into it, making myself as comfortable as possible on the lumpy sand.
"Goodnight then, Luna," I say with a yawn, rolling over.
"Goodnight Luke… Hey! Wait a minute," she says. I roll back over and see her march imperiously over to my bag, having set up a sleeping bag of her own a few feet away. She reaches down and grabs the zipper on my bag, zipping it all the way up right to my neck.
"Hey! What's that for?" I ask, affronted.
"Insurance," she says with a smile and a wink, before walking over and climbing into her own sleeping bag, which she also zips up carefully. "Sleep tight, Luke. Don't let the bed bugs bite."
Bed bugs. Of course. That must be what she meant by insurance. She's just looking after me… I smile to myself and drift off to sleep.
The next morning, I awaken and stretch widely, a huge grin on my face. Another day walking along the beach with Luna… I roll over onto my side to check if she is awake, but my heart gives an unpleasant jolt when I see that her sleeping bag and handbag, and Luna herself, are all missing.
"Luna!" I cry loudly, jerking Reo out of his own slumber. I scramble out of my sleeping bag and rush over to the area where hers was before. I look down and see the imprint it left in the sand, and a set of footprints leading away from it. The footprints are large and square, and were clearly not made by Luna's small black running shoes.
"What's going on? Where is she?" Reo asks urgently.
"I don't know, but I don't think she had enough of us and just left," I respond, equally panicky. "I think someone's taken her away, judging by these footprints."
"Who would do such a thing?" Reo asks. "What are we going to do?"
"We're gonna go after her, of course!" I cry, picking up my sleeping bag and jamming it into my bag, before setting out at a run, following the footprints. "Come on!"
Reo and I run along the beach for perhaps twenty minutes more before something comes into view over the horizon. It seems to be a small metal structure, which as I draw closer to it I realise is a cage, and as I draw nearer still I realise that Luna is trapped inside it.
"Luna!" I call to her. "Are you all right?"
Luna looks up at the sound of her name and looks over to me. "Luke!" she says in surprise, standing up and crossing over towards me. She grabs the bars with her hands, but lets go again instantly with a cry of pain, wringing her hands as though she has received an electric shock.
"The bars are electrically charged," Reo says warningly. "Better not touch them."
"Luna, how did you end up in there?" I ask her.
"I don't know, I was asleep, and then the next thing I knew I was in here," Luna says with a shake of her head, clearly as confused as I am. "Someone must have brought me here in the middle of the night for some reason."
"Hohoho! I think she must be talking about me!"
A high-pitched singsong voice makes Reo and I wheel around to stare behind us, where we behold a third person who has entered the scene. Whether we ran straight past him earlier, or whether he has just materialised as if from the shadows is unclear; at the moment, the only thing running through my head is how strange the man looks.
He is dressed from the neck downwards in a kind of black metal armour with blue vertical stripes running down it. His heavy boots are large and square, and clearly those that made the footprints that led us here. His head is completely bald, but on his face he wears an extremely unnerving metal mask which covers his entire face apart from his eyes, which shine through a bright blue colour. The mask itself is silver with a blue stripe down the centre, and the three letters SPF written in gold across the forehead, and it fastens around the back of the man's head with four diagonal straps.
"You're Team SPF?" I repeat, beholding the man with a slight feeling of fear.
"You are correct!" the man says, his high, jeering voice somewhat distorted by his creepy mask. "I am one of the commanders of Team SPF, and also the head scientist and inventor."
"Another commander…" I repeat. "I've met Reddic and Greson, so what do they call you? What's your name?"
The man laughs mockingly at me. "My name? My name has been cast aside like an old sock with too many holes. I am known simply as The Blue One, or Blue for short."
"No…" I look to my right and see Reo take a step backward, his tone hushed, his eyes filled with fear. "Not you…"
"Reo?" I ask my partner uncertainly. "What's wrong?"
Reo closes his eyes and shakes his head, evidently unable to say. I look back at The Blue One, who still stands motionless. "My partner's not very keen on you," I point out to him. "So I take it it was you who kidnapped Luna last night?"
"That's right! Do I get a medal for my ingeniousness?"
I look at the man incredulously, not quite knowing what to say. "Uh, no… Why did you take her in the first place?"
"I wanted to meet you, Luke Norton of Tranila Town," The Blue One replies with a giggle. "It was my wish that we should battle here, our epic contest lasting for many days and nights with you finally emerging as the victor and crushing my broken body beneath your mighty feet."
"He's completely insane…" Luna says quietly, and somewhat fearfully.
"Let me get this straight: you want to battle me, even though you know you're going to lose?" I ask him in disbelief.
"Thaaaaaaaaaat's right!" The Blue One cries, jumping up and down on the spot and clapping his metallic gloved hands together. "So, what do you say, friend? When you defeat me successfully, I'll release your little girlfriend here."
"I'm not his girlfriend!" Luna cries indignantly, grabbing the bars of the cage again and forgetting they are electrified. She cries out in pain, stronger this time, and again shakes her hands vigorously as though trying to cool them after they have been burned.
Across from me, The Blue One bursts out laughing. "Look, but do not touch, pretty lady! Every time you touch my bars, their energy level gets stronger, and I'd hate for you to get fried once they reach their highest voltage!" He laughs maniacally again.
"You really are mad…" I say to him.
"I know," he responds simply, chuckling to himself.
"Fine, if that's what it'll take to get us away from you, then battle me already," I say to him. "Send out your Pokémon."
In response, The Blue One lifts his right leg, and I notice that set into the heel of his metal boot is a Poké Ball. He kicks the ball forward and it becomes loose, hitting the sand and bursting open to reveal a peculiar, rune-like Pokémon, circular in shape and blue-green in colour, with two golden eyes, hovering about four feet above the ground.
"What the heck is that supposed to be," I mutter in confusion, pointing my Pokédex at the floating object.
"Bronzor. The Bronze Pokémon. Implements shaped like it were discovered in ancient tombs. It is unknown if they are related."
I turn to Reo, replacing my Pokédex. "Come on then, Reo. Let's get this over with."
"No," Reo says, his voice still full of fear. "I'm sorry, Luke, but I cannot battle against this guy."
I look at him for a moment, feeling a little let down, but I can see the fear in his eyes. Something about The Blue One terrifies my partner to the point that he feels that he cannot battle him. I nod in understanding and turn back towards my bizarre opponent. I select a different Poké Ball from my belt and throw it forward. "Go, Ralts!" I call as my little psychic Pokémon is released from her Poké Ball.
"Ooh, you have a Ralts as well?" Luna asks excitedly, forgetting our predicament for a moment. "Did you catch it in Musharna's Playground, too?"
"I did, as a matter of fact," I mumble to her, awkwardly, recalling my other memories of Musharna's Playground, which I choose not to divulge to her. "But never mind that now. I've got a battle to win. Ralts, kick things off with a Confusion!"
Ralts' horns glow and she unleashes a psychic move on Bronzor, who spins wildly for a moment, but does not look overly perturbed.
"That's a trick you won't use again!" The Blue One jeers at me. "Bronzor, Imprison!" Bronzor's eyes glow red and a red ring brand appears around Ralts' head. My little psychic Pokémon looks shaken for a moment, but not hurt.
"Oh, that's Bronzor's Imprison move," Luna says knowingly. "It stops you from using any moves that Bronzor itself knows."
"Bronzor, show it what a real Confusion attack looks like!" The Blue One sings to his Pokémon. Bronzor's eyes glow white this time and Ralts is thrust backwards from the force of the move. I realise that Ralts won't be able to use Confusion anymore and I grit my teeth, slightly worried.
"Ralts, don't give up! Magical Leaf attack!"
A flurry of glowing leaves appear in the air around Ralts, who slings them at Bronzor, but the move causes minimal damage.
"This is hopeless," I mutter. "Without Confusion, Ralts can barely harm Bronzor. How am I supposed to beat it?"
"Here, let me help you!" Luna says, extracting a Poké Ball from her own belt, and aiming carefully to throw it between the bars of the cage. "Go, Ralts!"
Luna's Ralts comes free and gives a happy cry, glad to be out of its Poké Ball. Its mood changes swiftly though when it looks across and sees my Ralts with the red brand around her head, at which point it looks over at Bronzor angrily.
"Ralts, you're not Imprisoned! Use your own Confusion attack!" Luna calls out. Her Ralts' horns begin to glow and Bronzor shudders violently in mid-air.
"It's weakened!" I realise. "All right, both Ralts, team up with your Magical Leaf, and hit it before it recovers its strength."
Both Ralts obediently summon up the flurry of glowing leaves once more and fire them at Bronzor, who is caught off guard and crashes to the floor, clearly incapable of continuing. The Blue One recalls his Pokémon, and though it is difficult to tell through the metal mask and armour, he appears indifferent to the fact that he lost.
"Just as I predicted," he says in his jeering voice. "You win, so your friend is free." He claps his hands and the cage around Luna disappears in a flash, releasing her. "I'm glad I got to battle you, Luke. That was the most fun I've had in about forty-three hours."
I have no response to this, so I simply continue to stare at The Blue One in disbelief. Me and Luna just ganged up on him, two-on-one, and he isn't even protesting.
The Blue One raises his left leg, which also has a Poké Ball set into it, and kicks it out. From out of this one comes another blue hovering Pokémon, this one a brighter blue with two long arms with sharp claws on the end, and a somewhat flat head with two circular red eyes set into it and spikes across the back. The Blue One jumps onto his Pokémon's back, and it floats a little higher, before turning to me.
"I'll be seeing you again sometime soon, my pal Luke," The Blue One calls with a giggle. "For now, I'll be off to report my failure to our great leader. He'll be most aggrieved that another one of us has failed to stop you, I'm sure! Goodbye for now… Oh! And the next time you see your friend Ben, send him my best regards, would you?"
With that, the mysterious and mad Team SPF commander whizzes off on the back of his Pokémon, cackling insanely to himself. I watch him for a moment, then turn to Luna.
"Are you all right?" I ask her.
"I'm fine, thanks," she says with a smile. "That guy was such a weirdo, though… It's like he wasn't even trying in that battle, not really."
"Even so, without your and Ralts' help, I would've been pretty stuck," I tell her gratefully. "Thanks, Luna."
"Don't mention it." As one, we both look downward to thank and then recall our Ralts, but find that they seem to be in their own little world with one another. As we watch, Luna's Ralts takes mine by the hands and they begin to dance, revolving in circles around the beach.
"Ralts?" I ask uncertainly. "What's going on?"
"Ssh!" Luna hisses at me. "Just watch! This is amazing!" I continue to watch as the two Ralts continue to dance together, until eventually both their bodies begin to glow. I recognise the signs of evolution and step backwards to admire as they both simultaneously grow taller, their head grows larger and two spindly green legs sprout from underneath them. When they finish glowing, both Ralts have now changed into a different Pokémon, and I pull out my Pokédex to get the lowdown on the new creatures, who continue to dance with one another.
"Kirlia. The Emotion Pokémon. The evolved form of Ralts. The cheerful spirit of its Trainer gives it energy for its psychokinetic power. It spins and dances when happy."
"Wow…" Luna says, mesmerised by the scene. "They must both be really happy with one another then."
"Yeah…" I look across at Luna, and she looks at me, and for a moment our eyes remain in contact with one another, before we both divert our attention down to the dancing Kirlia couple, who continue to go about their way without a care in the world. I look at them, entranced. One day, I tell myself…
One day that could be us.