Chapter 24: Cold Shock
June 19
Nimbasa
Getting back through Gear Station was some trouble. Curtis had a bodyguard with him, but they still had to get past the nearly two dozen other fans that had come hoping for a date with their idol. On coming out, a few of them groaned as they realized they didn't have a chance now. Others cheered on seeing him. "Hey Christoph, could you talk with me for a moment?" one of the girls said after jumping out of her seat and running over.
"Sorry, but ah, I'm going to be hanging out with Rosa today," he said. "Thanks for coming though! Maybe you can still make it into the Pokemon World Tournament."
"Please let us through," the bodyguard said in a firm but polite tone.
"Let's go before they really start making a fuss," Curtis said quietly to Rosa.
Fortunately, the bodyguard was able to dissuade the other fans from following them out immediately. Once they were out in the streets of Nimbasa, they brought much less attention to themselves. Rosa pulled the silver and black Xtransceiver out of her bag, where she had put it in easy reach this morning. "So, this is yours, right?"
"Right, thanks for getting it back to me," he said, taking it back even though he had a similar and newer model on his wrist. "It's not much now, but I appreciate your integrity."
"What is that?" the bodyguard asked.
"It's the phone I lost a few weeks back," Curtis said. "Although it's funny, that you two would end up being the ones to win today."
"Well we had to try," Rosa said. "So what do you want to do?"
He shrugged. "Whatever you'd like." After the bodyguard shifted his glasses, Curtis hastily added, "Within reason, of course. I do have a place reserved for lunch, and they're expecting me to have guests."
"Are they okay with having Pokemon eat there too?" Rosa asked. "Because we always let our Pokemon share."
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm sure they'll be fine with it. Other than that, I didn't have plans."
Rosa shrugged. "Well I dunno either. We'd probably be training our Pokemon at the Desert Resort. Unless you had something to do, Nate?"
"I wanted to check in on the Avenue, but that was pretty much it for me too," Nate said. "Especially if we're going to get further with this tournament business."
"I haven't been in Desert Resort before," Curtis said. "Sounds interesting; I could probably work on my team too. What's this about an avenue?"
"It's on the way, just over there," Rosa said, pointing out the building. "Let's go after we stop by the Pokecenter."
It had only been a few weeks since Nate had taken over Join Avenue, but it had already changed to a more bustling marketplace. The smell of fresh muffins filled the air from Violet's bakery, which had a number of customers chatting and eating near it. Next to her stall, Melissa and her grandmother had various accessories for Pokemon and humans on display. Along with the vending stall (where the two boys were trying to convince someone into buying a Patch Hat), there was now a florist booth, a berry seller, and a book exchange.
Before they got far, a man approached them. It took a moment, but Rosa recognized him as the owner of the store on Route 4. "Good morning Nate. I'm glad I ran into you. I just wanted to pass along thanks from my friends about your offer to let them start small businesses here. It helps a lot, especially when compared to what I had to go through to open mine."
"No problem," Nate said. "I hope they do well here."
He nodded. "Me too. Oh, and remember that ancient hymnal we talked about?"
"Ancient hymnal?" Curtis asked, interested.
"Yes, I still have my copy with me," Nate said.
The store owner scratched his head. "I hardly believe it myself, but... we finally got a hold of an expert in ancient studies who can translate the old texts and he confirmed that it was a hymnal. You even got the meaning of the songs right. It's really odd, because it's an old language of Unova that few people can read now. He just wasn't sure how to figure out the musical scoring."
Nate really did know that language? "Wow, how'd you learn that language?" Rosa asked Nate. Although he probably couldn't say.
As expected, he shrugged. "I don't know. Who was the expert you talked to?"
The man didn't seem comfortable with that question. "Sorry, but there's special circumstances... I can't tell you who he is right now. But he was interested that there was a young man who could read it. If things change and he wants to meet you, I'll get a hold of you."
Nate was disappointed. "Really? Does it have to do with...?" he hesitated, scratching his head. Somehow, the man seemed to know what he was talking about and nodded. "I see. Well... I think I'd like to meet him, if possible. Let me know."
"Certainly."
After saying goodbye to him, Curtis spoke up again. "What's this about an ancient hymnal?"
"It's a book I bought from him a while back. You want to see it?" Nate pulled out his storage device.
"Sure, I'll be careful with it. It sounds interesting, a book of old songs from Unova." He smiled sheepishly. "Probably not what I normally sing, but I'd still like to see it."
"You do have music training," Nate said, making the book materialize. "Maybe you can make some sense of it, or figure out what the melodies could be. Let's see if we can get a table at Violet's booth; maybe I'll change one of these over to a sitting area soon."
For a moment, Rosa felt a little jealous that Nate had gotten Curtis' interest just because of an old book. But it did have to do with music, and if he was interesting, it was good to let them talk about it. "You guys want to get some muffins from her? They smell really good."
"I don't know if I should be having muffins," Curtis said, looking over the glass display case. "But yeah, they do smell good. Maybe one with fruit? It'll be kind of healthy."
"If we're heading out to Desert Resort, you might need one for the energy to walk around that place," Nate said.
With that in mind, they agreed to the idea and Rosa went to the counter to order for them. Violet was working at the counter, wearing her brown hair in a yellow hairnet with a cute ribbon bow on top. "Oh, hey there!" she said, smiling. "Mom, it's Rosa."
"Hello," she said, waving a hand briefly as she was glazing some muffins fresh from the oven. "Have you heard from Hugh yet?"
"No, not yet," Rosa said, feeling briefly annoyed. "I'd like to, and ask him what he's up to lately. But I don't know if he's following the League challenge. If not, he might be somewhere else entirely." To distract herself from that, she looked over what was on display. There were some tempting chocolate chip muffins there, but that wasn't what Curtis wanted. They also had some cinnamon apple, orange spice, and carrot cake muffins, along with a basket of various poffins.
Violet smiled. "He sent me a text saying that he was all right, a few days back. But we haven't heard anything else out of him. But we have been quite busy since mom got here. I've never made so many muffins at once, but with the amount of people coming in to buy, I don't think there'll be many left over."
"Well that's good," Rosa said. "How're they liking them?"
She grinned. "Great so far! It's just muffins, poffins, and sometimes pretzels now, but I'm looking into trying some fancier things. Did you want something? I've got some bottles of milk, but the boys over there sell a lot more drinks, and the batch we just pulled out are lemon poppy."
"Oo, lemon poppy sounds good," Rosa said. "I'll have one of those, if it's okay. And, um," she glanced back at the rest, looking over that book. "I think two cinnamon apple and a carrot cake; that should take care of everybody."
"Okay... oh, is that Christoph over there?" Violet's ears turned pink. "Really him, or just somebody that looks like him?"
"Don't make a big fuss, but it really is him," Rosa said in a whisper as she leaned over the counter.
"Eep," Violet squeaked, putting her hands to her mouth. "Oh my. I hope he likes them. Um, we'll get that lemon poppy glazed for you, oh wait, better ring that up." She put the order into the computer.
After paying for them and waiting on Violet to get the four muffins ready, Rosa thanked her and took them back to the table. Nate and Curtis were flipping through the hymnal, glancing over the songs. "Here, I hope you like apple muffins," Rosa said, passing the muffins out.
"That sounds good," Curtis said, nodding in thanks. "By the way, is that your friend over there? You were talking for a while."
"Yeah, I've known her for a while," she said, sitting down as well. "Have you figured out any of the songs?"
"The notations certainly is different than I'm used to," Curtis said, looking at the book again. "Most of the world has been using the Kalos style of musical notation for three hundred years at least and... hang on, could you go back a page?"
"What'd you see?" Nate said, turning it back. He looked over the carrot cake muffin he had, then carefully peeled one part of the wrapper away to take a bite out of it.
Curtis put his finger on the title of the song, his lips moving while he thought. "Is that... All Taine Pa Shira?"
"It's most likely pronounced 'Auel Taine Pah Shira', but yes. It's something like 'Song of Loyalty to Shira', Shira being an old city founded by those who worshiped Reshiram. Or it might be better called an anthem, given the sense of nationality it has."
He nodded. "I always heard it pronounced the other way. But, that's a well known tune, used for all kinds of songs. I've used it myself a few times, since it's easy to adapt to. It's just, I've never seen a copy of the original song."
"So if you could figure out how to sing that song, you'd know what the notes mean?" Rosa asked.
"Maybe. As I said, it's pretty simple. I'd just need to figure out how to pronounce these words."
"I can help with that," Nate said. They spent some time eating the muffins and discussing how to sing the words there.
When they were done, Curtis sent his bodyguard to get some water. While he was gone, Curtis surprised her by touching her hand. "Hey Rosa... sorry I haven't said much. But, well, I'm in public still and I have to keep up being Crhistoph right now. The company's strict on that and I know this guy reports on my behavior and actions to my manager."
"That's pretty crazy," she said.
"You get used to it." He shrugged. "They got after me the other day for sneaking off to talk with you, so I have to be careful today. I'm probably pushing things with this old hymnal, but I should be able to explain that away. But thanks. Do you mind if I get your number so we can stay in contact?"
"No, I'd like that," she said, activating her Xtransceiver. If they worked quickly, and they did, they could avoid the bodyguard noticing the exchange. Nate even kept an eye on the crowd for them.
By the time the bodyguard came back, Curtis was back to his falsely cheerful personality of Christoph. Rosa wondered just how false it was. After getting a drink of water, he stood up and held the book. "Okay, I'll give this a shot," he said. "Might not be perfect, but wow, it's probably been centuries since this song was last sung properly. Here we go." He took a few deep breaths, then started singing.
It didn't take long for those in Join Avenue to quiet down out of respect for the song. The words still made no sense to Rosa, but Curtis managed to put feeling into the song that was understandable. With Nate's translation of the song being a pledge of honor and pride in a home city, she could notice as Curtis kept that in mind. Maybe even those who had no idea what the words meant could tell what the song was about hearing it.
When he was done, people around them cheered. Curtis waved to them, then closed the book and handed it back to Nate. "I like that. Almost seems like a pity what the tune's used for now."
"The pronunciation might be a little off, but I don't think much of anyone would care," Nate said, putting the hymnal away. "Nice singing."
He smiled as they got out of their seats as well. "Thanks, it was fun."
"Maybe you could do a recording of old songs like that," Rosa said, excited at the thought of it. It would be different, but more interesting in that way.
"I don't know if the studio would agree to that," Curtis said. "At least, not now. But it'd be interesting to do sometime in the future if the experts can put it to modern notation. I'm sure once they recognize which tune that one is, they can handle it easily."
Rosa clapped her hands together. "Right! So are we ready to head out to...?" and then everything seemed to shift around her. Everything changed, like a gale of winter air through a just opened door, or if the whole building suddenly got punted into the bay. It only lasted few seconds, but it would have knocked her off her feet if the bodyguard hadn't been alert enough to catch her.
"Rosa?" Nate and Curtis asked in concern, coming around the table to them.
"I, I'm okay," she insisted, grabbing the bodygaurd's arm to make sure she had her balance. But her legs felt like jelly, so she dropped back into her seat. "What was that just now? An earthquake?"
"Uh, no," Curtis said, puzzled. "I didn't feel anything."
"I did," she said, gripping the sides of her chair. Things didn't seem quite stable, although not as badly as before. "It was... I dunno, like someone suddenly jerked a rug from underneath my feet. Or like, it was really really cold for a second. Shocked me with that abrupt drop." She rubbed her arm. "It's normal again, though."
"Nothing like that happened, to us," Nate said. "Did she feel any different?"
The bodyguard took her wrist, checking her out. "Her skin was cold. Still a little cool now, but almost normal."
"I don't know what happened, sorry," Rosa said, looking down and feeling embarrassed. "I'm okay, I'm pretty sure of that. But something's not right."
Neo Plasma headquarters
When Colress had said that he could have anything he wanted, he wasn't kidding. Triste had pointed out a bluk and nomel poffin glazed lightly with icing, since that smelled most interesting (soft and sweet and tart and bready, it was also the best thing he'd ever tasted). Colress had bought a dozen of that kind when Triste had only been expecting a single poffin. It had been a while since he finished them off, but even now, the Elgyem felt happy enough that he could handle anything. Anything!
Even Ghetsis in an imposing grumpy mood, thumping along the halls with that cane of his. He had a problem with Colress, so Triste watched carefully in case Ghetsis tried throwing things again. "Why did you order them to hold off on drugging Kyurem for the night? He is still a danger for breaking out."
"If he works up the motivation for it," Colress said confidently, almost cheerfully. "I've timed this precisely; there's a suitable margin of error between when enough of the drug is worn off for my work to be done and when it is too much for safety. You see, I've got another method of controlling him to test out, but I don't need tranquilizers interfering with my readings or mixing with this." He held up one of the emblems, which now had a hair from Reshiram and a hair from Zekrom securely attached to it.
"You will have the drugs ready in case this doesn't work?" he asked, not quite willing to acknowledge Colress' work. That annoyed Triste, but even his good mood wasn't enough to face off against that human.
"Of course, but I need to get in to do my work within this time period," Colress said. "And we don't need you taking a risk by going in too."
"Fine." With that, Ghetsis would allow them by.
Triste had been brought into Kyurem's enclosure before, but usually when the dragon was asleep. Outside of the transparent barrier, it was difficult to feel his presence (aside from the cold; it was always cold here, sometimes misty when it was warm outside). Inside, there was a quiet presence even though Kyurem took up much of the space inside. Triste always felt deeply saddened if he looked too closely at the dragon, but there was also a feeling like having cotton stuffed in his thoughts. It seemed to be the effect of the drugs they used on Kyurem, since that feeling wasn't as strong this morning.
Most of the time, Kyurem didn't stir when Colress was in his enclosure. Today, the dragon moved his head to better look at them, then growled sleepily. "Who are you?"
"Awake today, hmm?" Colress went right up to Kyurem's head, using the scanner on him.
Triste looked up through the glass and saw that Ghetsis, one of the Shadows, and a few of the regular Plasma members were now watching. He turned back and drifted closer to Kyurem. "We're scientists," he said.
Kyurem's nearest eye turned to him. His expression didn't change much, but he seemed further confused, speaking in a way most humans wouldn't understand. "One of you? What world are we on? I..." he shuddered, causing Colress to pause in his work. "I can't think straight, what happened?"
"Is it like your mind's full of cotton?" Triste asked. "That's normal, I believe."
"Where's my siblings? I can almost feel them. I had something to tell them." At this point, Colress put gloves on his hands and pushed down on Kyurem's head. Kyurem didn't resist. "It was..."
"What was it you had to tell your siblings? I saw them recently."
"I'm being blocked off from them, that must be it. But why... why am I even talking to you? I just can't think." He winced when Colress started attaching one emblem to the back of Kyurem's head.
"It was something you had to tell your siblings," he said, hoping that would remind him of what they'd been talking about.
"They need to talk to the guardians of Sinnoh," Kyurem said. "About something that was lost. I had it in mind a second ago. There was something else they want now, but I don't think that's actually lost. We did find six of them, but the most dangerous one is still hiding. I lost her..." His front paws tensed up and the icy parts of his body briefly shone. "I should not have missed that!"
"Calm down," Colress said in a soothing tone, still at his work.
Kyurem wasn't even paying attention to him. "I let my heart get the better of me and I failed in an obvious moment of danger. Was it really worth..."
"Kyurem," Triste said, shaken by burst of grief from the dragon. He wasn't sure what was going on, having trusted that Colress knew what was happening. Why did they even have Kyurem hidden like this? Triste just knew that he'd get in trouble if he let others know.
Then there was nothing and it chilled Triste even more. The Elgyem looked around, but there didn't seem to be any big changes. Colress was still there, as were Kyurem and the ones watching them from the outside. Yet, his psychic sense told him that something had changed and that was the sudden presence of nothing. Triste looked back to Kyurem and noticed that he was no longer tense. He also wasn't sad or confused, which was strange considering the strength of his emotions a moment ago. Wondering if something was wrong, he looked deeper into Kyurem's mind.
It was the depths of space, absent of anything. No emotions, no thoughts, no personality. Nothing. It was to the point that the nothing held immense power and potential, far deeper than that which Kyurem had before. For a moment, the nothingness obliterated Triste's own thoughts and feelings, almost his whole self.
He pulled his attention away from Kyurem, immediately going over to Colress for reassurance. "What happened to his mind?" he murmured, pulling both hands on his Trainer's shoulder.
However, Colress was focused on his work. He took the other emblem in hand once his second scanning was done. "I'm going to need better equipment to detect anything, but that's to be expected. Kyurem, stand up. It's time to see if this truly works."
The dragon's movements were still sluggish from the drugs, but he stood up quietly. Although he was so close, there was no threat of him knocking them over. Triste noticed that the emblems had traces of power active from the hairs.
"Good so far," Colress said. "Touch my nose with one of your front paws."
Kyurem wasn't thinking, but he reached over and gently touched Colress on the nose with one of his nails. The nothing took shape while Colress was speaking, turning into the action. Once it was over, the shape was lost.
Colress was pleased. "You even picked up on my unspoken desire not to be frostbit. Between the sands from places of power and the hairs from your siblings, you can't resist turning to your original state, just an empty shell. And the emblem should keep you that way. Now I just need to find some way to stall Ghetsis to complete my own studies." His voice trailed off into thoughts at the end, thoughts that echoed through Kyurem.
Realizing the truth, Triste put his head on Colress' shoulder. "His soul is gone. I... I made that possible..."
Desert Resort
Despite what happened that morning, Rosa felt fine for the rest of the day. Mostly. There was still that nagging sense in the back of her mind that something really bad had happened in the morning, but not to her. When she couldn't explain what was wrong, she felt embarrassed to admit it. Not even the Pokemon with them had noticed anything. Sure, they were concerned about her, but nothing suggested that they could tell what was going on either.
She tried to have fun with Curtis and Nate, which mostly worked. They spent most of the day in Desert Resort, at the usual Pokemon training and looking around at the old ruins. Curtis seemed to be enjoying himself, especially on being encouraged to let his Pokemon roam out of their Pokeballs for the day. Although, his Pokemon didn't seem sure about running around the desert like the rest. His Spiritomb was a cluster of strange spirits linked to a small stone, which she used to hop around in the sand and watch the rest.
And his Snorlax didn't seem inclined to move at all, having to spend half a minute rolling onto his feet if he was lying down in the sand (which he loved to do). "You can't really get a Snorlax to run willingly," Curtis said, leaning against the huge Pokemon. "But I know I can trust him to swat away aggressive Pokemon while I'm fishing."
"He's really soft," Rosa said, surprising the Snorlax with a hug. He widened his eyes for a second, but then smiled sleepily and took another nap.
At lunch, they took a break back in Nimbasa to get lunch at a really fancy restaurant. The food was worth the price, although it was mostly amusing to Rosa. While they allowed them to share the tables with their Pokemon and give them small meals, the restaurant clearly expected pampered Pokemon pets, only one or two per customer. Not a motley crew of battle Pokemon who liked to have fun. Rosa had to keep Bard from playing with the fancy pepper grinder and Nate nearly missed Ruby and Medusa dueling with spoons because he was keeping an eye on Patience (who had her eye on the shiny silverware and salt shaker). But they had a fun time, especially Curtis.
Around mid-afternoon, Rosa, Curtis, and the bodyguard were near a lone tower standing out of the sand. While she was using Grim to battle a Krokorok (it was pretty easy for her to win here, except if she came across a Maractus, freaky things), she noticed a Vibrava sitting on the tower wall and watching them. Was that the one she'd been looking for all this time? Once the Kokorok decided to flee, she ran a few steps towards the Vibrava. "Lenny, is that you?"
The Vibrava twisted his head at that question, seeming to recognize the name. But when she tried to come closer, he took off, flying into the sandy wind. If that was him, he wasn't coming back like Chuchu. Maybe he felt betrayed; that made her feel bad.
"Is there someone else here?" Curtis asked, coming up from behind her.
"It's a Vibrava," she explained. "My family released a few Pokemon back when Team Plasma was going strong, then we moved away from here so we never saw them again. I think that's one of my mom's; I've been able to find one of mine, so I hoped to find others. But Lenny doesn't seem to want to come back."
"That's sad. But, can't really force him to come back if he doesn't want to."
"Christoph!" a call came through the wind. But it had turned into a stronger gust, with more sand particles flying around.
"Uh-oh, did we lose him?" Curtis said, looking towards the voice. But he didn't seem all that eager to call back.
Feeling mischievous, she grabbed his hand. "Hey, let's really lose him."
"Huh?" he asked, not sure if he should do that.
"Yeah, shhh." She waved Grim towards the tower, then took off running towards the entrance. When they got found, they could always say they were getting out of the sand gusts.
Inside the tower, they found a respite from the gusts, but not the sand. It was everywhere: spilling down the walls from cracks overhead, covering the floor, sliding down the stairs. The stairs up were blocked off with a rope and a warning that the structure was unsafe. But if the door in wasn't blocked by a sign, they were probably okay being in here as long as they didn't go up. Grim came flying in from a doorway above while the Spiritomb hopped in after them.
"He's probably going to figure it out quickly," Curtis said. Then he laughed. "I almost don't believe that I did that. I usually have to bribe them to be alone if I'm anywhere outside and in public."
"Well he lost you in the first place, because of the sand," she said. "We just made you even more lost."
He nodded, flipping up the screen to his Xtransciever. "Yeah, but... how nice, I don't have a signal. Maybe we can stay lost a bit longer." He ran his hand through his hair, brushing out sand particles. "Was it just luck that you ended up winning the date or did you know?"
"We knew you'd be there," Rosa said. "I almost didn't want to do it, since I thought the subway competition was going to be harder than it was. I mean, it was still pretty hard and I don't know if I could handle it on my own. But anyhow, I knew you weren't looking forward to this, so I talked Nate into giving you a chance to be with some friends instead."
Curtis looked relieved to hear that. "That's good. I mean, it isn't much of a break from normal, but I haven't felt all that stressed today, because it's you guys."
"You really think they're trying to run you into the ground?"
He nodded. "As far as they're concerned, my career is just about over. They have me recording a new album, but I can't stand most of the songs on it and it seems weak overall. I haven't been able to talk them out of it and it's really been eating at me how they want to end it all on a flop. But when I complain about it, they get after me for breaking character, not being the cheerful and ditzy Christoph who shouldn't be noticing stuff like that. I'm not sure what to do at all lately."
"Well you shouldn't let them do that to you," Rosa said. "I've loved all your work and it's horrible to think that you might be ruined with a really bad album."
"It'll kill any chance I have of a singing career any time in the future, that's for sure," Curtis said. He sighed and shook his head.
Rosa looked at the doorway, but there was no sign of the bodyguard there. Besides, the Spiritomb was sitting by the doorway, watching. Maybe she would warn them. It gave her an idea. "Well, why don't you run away? They can't release the album if you don't finish it, right?"
"Maybe, but I don't know," he said. "I'd have to get past my own security and the manager, and then what would I do if I got away?"
She put her hands on her hips. "You could come travel with us, or do whatever you want. If they really don't care, then you'll be free to live however you want. If they do come after you, you can at least insist that they take your thoughts seriously or you won't cooperate again."
"You think they could take me seriously with that?"
"Riiiiaaa," the Spiritomb said in a warning tone, right before they heard the bodyguard calling them again.
"Yeah," Rosa said. "Show them you're serious."
He didn't seem sure what to say, rubbing his eyes after a second. "I.. I'll call you another day. I think about it." Then he went to the doorway. "We're in here! Where'd you go?"
It had to be continued another day, since the bodyguard didn't give them another chance like that for the rest of the day.
Team Plasma could have come out and attacked at any point in the game, I believe. But they waited on a particular chance. Ghetsis is crazy, but he's also strategic in his ways. I'll probably ramble a little on that later on.
There were quite a few Pokemon I could have chosen for Curtis, since he has a number available to trade once you talk to him enough. But I wanted to work with a Spiritomb and a Snorlax, so I went with them. Plus, I like the idea of going fishing with a Snorlax. Sit on the shore with it at your back, just relaxing and waiting for a bite. Sounds like a nice way to pass the time.