Nature Power

Elliott's exit was less than the most graceful act I'd ever seen. It was like watching Craig's mareep stumble around the field that time it drank some of the Elder's "happy juice." (I'm not saying how that stuff got into the water trough, but it did start with the words "I dare you to…"). I couldn't figure where she was going—due partly to the fact that I still didn't know what else was in this town—but I couldn't help feeling grateful that she returned my pokémon to me. It had only been an hour, yet I didn't realize how tense I felt the entire time I was away from them. I kept the pokéballs hidden from sight, but I gently stroked the satchel as if they could all actually feel me stroking their fur.

"Hey, dude!"

I jumped, fully ready to throw Elliott under the bus and blame her for the fact that the police caught me with forbidden pokémon. But it wasn't any kind of authority who called me. It was a group of kids whose ages ranged from six to fourteen. A redheaded guy with a lot of freckles on his nose stood on the seats in the next row down from mine as he approached. He was a little shorter than I, but he was the tallest of his group.

Still nervous that maybe one of the kids saw my pokéballs, I quickly put on my nonchalant expression. "Can I help you?" I asked. My voice came out with an accent that suggested ignorance and possibly the inability to dress myself without help.

"You're new here," said the kid. If it was supposed to be a question, he needed to learn a little bit about inflection. "You want to go play Hide-N-Seek?"

That was unexpected. "What? Now? The game's not over."

"Trust me," the kid replied with a laugh. "The clock hasn't run out yet, but the game is over. It's way too one-sided for a comeback. Come play with us. We use the whole village to hide. It's perfect because everyone in town is here, so no one gets in the way."

I shrugged, still aware that I had forbidden fruit in my satchel. "I guess I could go. It sounds more fun than this."

"Cool. I'm Fred. This is Heidy and Chuck and…" He proceeded to list more names than existed in all the genealogy of Natrium Village. Clearly Stannum was much bigger than my hometown, despite both having the designation of "village." Or else everyone here was related. I still can't remember the rest of their names, but I do remember how quickly I got caught on my first time hiding. I had run through the village toward the farthest point I could find—the north side of the village wall right where it bordered the mountains. I found a nice little crevice between two trees to hide in, but the little six-year-old boy found me after hiding for only a minute.

So then I went searching for everyone else, and I must say the village seems a lot bigger when you don't know where you're going except that you're trying to find a bunch of hiding locals who know all the good hiding places. I swear I heard so much giggling throughout that first Seek! The only reason I found that dude Chuck is because a breeze jostled the bushes everywhere except the exact spot he was hiding, and so I knew something was in the way.

Unfortunately, my second attempt at hiding didn't go much better than my first. I found out the walls to the gymnasium had little notches that made it easy to climb. The roof was pretty flat, but when I laid out spread-pidgey, no one on the ground could see me. Except Chuck, apparently. He found me almost the instant he started Seeking and just laughed about it. I was having fun exploring the village, but it was a little frustrating to find out I was so terrible at this game.

I found Heidy near someone's home. The front yard was wide open, but there was a fence as high as my head encircling the side of the property to separate it from the playground. Leafy vines covered that fence, even across the top but for a little dip in the middle. Heidy hid within the vines—a perfect hiding spot if I hadn't noticed that almost insignificant detail.

"You're good at Seeking," said Heidy. She was maybe three inches shorter and had red cheeks like she wore too much blush makeup. "You want to know why you're bad at Hiding?"

"Is it because I'm just visiting and you guys already know all the good spots?"

"No." She pointed to the air around me. "You have bugs swarming all over you."

"Really?" I looked closer and realized she was right. They were tiny and barely noticeable compared with the yanma from the swamp, which is probably why I thought they were less noticeable.

She reached into the bushes and plucked a few red berries by the stem. "Crush these and rub a little on your neck and cheeks," she told me. "The bugs don't like the smell of the berries. You'll find them all over the village."

"Thanks!" I liked the sound of keeping the bugs off of me. My skin certainly appreciated it. Luckily the berries didn't smell that bad to me, nor did they burn or even tingle when I rubbed the juice on me. With a look, I said, "You realize you just made it harder for you to find me?"

"Then I will find someone else," said Heidy. "Now go run off while I count."

"Yes, ma'am."

She giggled as she hid her eyes near the vines while she began counting to thirty. That gave me approximately thirty seconds to hide. Not a lot of time to keep quiet, so I stayed near the houses. There was one across the street with a huge wooden fence surrounding it. The gate was unlocked—a strange contrast to the big sign that said something to the effect of "Don't Enter." I just figured that would make it an even better hiding spot.

It didn't take a lot of imagination to see why the brick building was cordoned off. The foundation was obviously worn because the house seemed to stand at a tilt. It looked like an electrode went off inside. The front door was nonexistent, even taking a large section of wall with it. But that made it easy to slip inside and tuck myself right behind a huge chunk of collapsed mortar as I chuckled at my marvelous hiding spot. I waited there quietly for about a minute before I started to wonder: Why isn't anyone else using this as a hiding spot?

Finally, I stopped to look around. The house looked like someone's home, but only if that someone abandoned the place fifty years earlier. The corner of the room showed a plant with no leaves sitting in a heap among the pieces of a shattered planter. A dining table next to it looked mostly usable, but it tilted dramatically to the right, putting it in contact with the wall. The chairs were broken to the point of looking more like wooden discs. Bookshelves lay overturned, and scraps of what may have been books a long time ago coated the floor. Crates and boxes sat around the grand window, which didn't have a single fragment of glass remaining.

"What is this place?"

Unable to stop myself, I wandered through the small room into the next. This room had a skylight in the form of a massive hole in the ceiling. The jagged told that the damage was unintentional and more likely caused by conflict than by renovation. Broken pieces of plastic covered the floor. It looked like an entire toy chest had been exposed and crushed when the ceiling collapsed. Even a ratted doll missing an eye lay underneath the rubble like a victim of an attack.

"This must have been some child's room," I uttered.

Suddenly someone stood from behind a section of the wall and spoke. "This house was destroyed in the great war one thousand years ago. It was kept this way on purpose as a reminder of what the war wrought."

I was hesitant about approaching the creepy guy hiding in the corner of the dilapidated child's room. He looked to be just a couple inches taller and about fifty pounds heavier than I. There was also a harsh odor coming from his direction. He wore a plain, black t-shirt and blue jeans, which offered me absolutely no clue as to what kind of person he was. It seemed smarter to keep him talking until I could figure out if I needed to run.

"What war is that?"

He just narrowed his eyes at me. "Why are you here? You know this building is off limits."

"I didn't know that, actually. I'm new in town."

"New?" His expression softened instantly. "You're just visiting?"

"Who would want to live in the swamp? No offense to the people who live here."

"How do you know I don't?"

"Because you didn't recognize me as an outsider. Stannum Village is so small that everyone knows with a single glance that I'm new here. Besides, you reek of bug spray. The villagers use crushed berries to keep the yanma away."

A little half-smile crept across the guy's face. "You're pretty bright. What's your name?"

"I'm Gus. Who are you?"

"My name is Drew. This place is off-limits, so I feel the need to repeat my first question: Why are you here, Gus?"

"It's just where I ended up during a massive game of Hide-N-Seek. You've got to admit, this place looks pretty appealing to a kid who hasn't been here long enough to know it's off limits."

Drew furrowed his brow, either struck with a sudden urge to use the bathroom or confused by what I said. "There's a sign out front that says 'Keep Out.'"

"I missed that. Must have been hidden in the bushes or something."

"It's right there on the fence surrounding the house. Plain as day. You had to walk right past it to get through the gate that leads in here."

"We could argue about this all day—"

As a quick aside, he commented, "What arguing?" But I ignored it and finished my sentence.

"—but more important is this: Why are you here if this place is off-limits?"

Drew reached inside his jeans pocket and produced a small, paper document and a piece of hard plastic that looked like an ID card of some sort. "I'm a student at the University of Snowpoint, but I'm originally from Castelia City in the Unova region. I have research credentials that allow me to be here."

The documents appeared legitimate as far as I could tell. The photo on his ID card matched his face, though it may have been taken five years earlier when he was covered in zits. "What are you studying?"

"Well, I came to Perioble as an aide to study the biology of pokémon, particularly in how they relate to humans. But recently I took a furlough to study the dramatic climate change in the region."

"The climate is changing here?" Why did that sound familiar?

But Drew stopped and narrowed his stare at me. "I don't want you to misconstrue my propensity for discussion as acceptance of your trespassing in this building…"

"Of course not," I agreed. "It's just your passion taking over as you discuss your work with an eager, young listener."

The slightest signs of a grin pulled at the corners of Drew's mouth. He may have been an academic, but he was a little bit of a sucker for someone who wanted to hear his story.

"You may not have noticed, but the temperatures have been shifting around the region. First I went to Bohrium City, where the Elite Four live. It has always been a peaceful atoll, but they've had a plethora of earthquakes lately. The air pressure has gotten so intense in Aurum City that the mines there have started producing gold like never before. There's so much available now the streets are literally paved with it! The ice-capped Palladium Mountains where Argentum City is famous for its ski slopes was also known for simultaneously having a tropical environment. That's actually where I'm heading next."

Of all possible responses, including telling Drew about Salamorder and the farce that is Argentum's weird climate, I instead had to ask, "Do you mean 'literally paved with gold' as in 'the rich guy in that Geico commercial' or as in misuse of the word 'literally'?"

He offered as a reply, "Think of an old man's teeth."

My eyes popped open. "That's a lot of gold."

"Yes, it is," said Drew with a chuckle.

"So, I noticed you didn't mention Stannum in your little abstract there. If you're studying climate change, what brings you to a ruined old house in the middle of Yanma Central?"

Suddenly his cheeks flushed a little and he took a step back. "It's a weird story. Unfortunately, this stop is more of a field trip than a scientific journey."

"What do you mean? Are you here because of a folk tale or something?"

He was slow to respond. Either he didn't know what I meant, or I was exactly right. Finally he shrugged with one shoulder. "I mean, even as a scientist, I have to give consideration to all stories."

"What does this one say?"

"How much do you know about the Machine War and the Hydrogen Empire?"

I'd only heard about the Machine War a few times, but it was impossible to forget where. I immediately slipped my hand in my satchel and pulled out my pokédex. After a few seconds, I spun through the lists to find the entries for both Clendine and Salamorder.

367-Clendine

This pokémon's power is so great it created 1,000 new species of sea life 1,000 years ago during the Machine War. It was sealed away with one of the earliest known pokéballs.

370-Salamorder

It is believed that this pokémon is where humans first obtained fire. After its flames destroyed entire cities during the Machine War, its fires purified the region's soil and enriched it with nutrients to promote regrowth.

And the Hydrogen Empire? That definitely sounded familiar. The Elder had said something about it when he was making excuses for kicking me out of Natrium.

"A thousand years ago, the legendary pokémon responsible for the growth and evolution of life in this region broke into war. In time, peace was achieved when they were captured by the Hydrogen Emperor and hidden throughout the region. Ever since then, this region has done pretty well, and we've been generally free of natural disasters and the pokémon are generally peaceful. As long as Clendine is gone, our ecosystem will change, and that means pokémon behavior will change. Many species will leave while others move in. And some species will simply go extinct."

And then Brooke! When she told me her thoughts about Team Omega:

"I don't trust them. You want to know why I took Gnomoder with me?" She leaned in real close and dropped the volume of her voice to a silent whisper. "I think they're rebuilding the Hydrogen Empire. Gus, promise me you'll be careful."

I looked silently back at Drew, though my face probably didn't hide my confusion as well as I would have liked. "They had something to do with the legendary pokémon."

"They had everything to do with them," Drew corrected me emphatically. I could tell from the look on his face that my ignorance was already exposed. But instead of dwelling on his disappointment, he began to explain to me what he knew.

"They were called Creator Pokémon—eight of them, each responsible for bringing life to the region in some way. Depending on where you hear the story, those pokémon were even responsible for the creation of humans. Not everyone believes that, though, and some people will outright object to the idea."

"It sounds like you've already met some of those people."

"So have you. They live here in Stannum."

"Does that have some connection to the people here fearing pokémon?"

"Not that. But the legend does. You see, the Creator Pokémon, despite being so powerful, also fought with one another all the time. Sometimes it was over territorial disputes, or maybe they were afraid of each other a little bit. Ultimately, they're just animals without the cognitive capacity for the higher reasoning we attribute to humans. But when powerful creatures war with one another, the surrounding environment suffers. Thousands of people died through countless battles that destroyed entire communities. That's what spurred the rise of the Hydrogen Empire, an army of people dedicated to ending the battles.

"The Hydrogen Emperor finally decided the only way to protect the people against the warring Creators was to build a coalition of lesser pokémon to combat them. At first he tried behavioral modification, which brought huge returns right from the start. The very first time he witnessed a confrontation between two of the Creator Pokémon, he and his pyragon fought back, leading to the first-ever zero-casualty Creator battle."

I had to stop for a second. "Wait! There are normal pokémon able to fight back against the legendary pokémon?"

"According to the legend, the Hydrogen Emperor had a special pyragon—the only one ever known to fight back one-on-one. But shortly after the people saw what he was able to do with the help of one pokémon companion, his soldiers agreed to engage in the same kind of training. People subordinated pokémon from all over the region, forming ranks based on the specialties of their pokémon and their own training. The efforts made tremendous progress: Whenever the Creator Pokémon battled, Hydrogen soldiers would be there to protect the people and quell the fighting. Temporarily, at least.

"But the wars continued. Soldiers and their pokémon alike died trying to confront the Creator Pokémon. There simply weren't enough soldiers to mount a decent offensive strike. It was tough enough just playing defense. That's what led engineers to begin working for the Hydrogen Empire on ways to tame wild pokémon more quickly."

"Pokéballs."

Drew nodded. "Crude, early versions of them, but yes. That one little device dramatically increased the size of the army's ranks. A single soldier could suddenly build a squad of multiple pokémon and train them within mere weeks whereas sufficient training through trust alone could take months or years. Of course some behaviorists will claim the reason the Hydrogen Emperor's pokémon were so strong was that his bonds were based on trust, making them stronger than any pokéball-trained pokémon could be, but that's a debate for another profession."

I know it was a bad time to interrupt, but I couldn't help noticing something odd about Drew's behavior. "You're a bit of a storyteller for a science student."

"Science is a methodology, not a writing style. Besides, historical accounts tend to become romanticized over time. It makes for more engaging stories."

"Don't you worry about sacrificing fact for the story?"

Drew shrugged slightly. I hadn't expected any nonchalance from a scientist. "I take stories as they are. I present them as they are. I make no assertions to what is fact and what is fiction unless I can objectively observe it. If you want something more solid, speak with a historian. You could probably find plenty of them at the Museum of Social History in Hydrargyrum City." He looked back around the room. "Anyway, this house is purported to have been the Hydrogen Emperor's childhood home. It was preserved as a way of honoring his achievements."

"And that's why it's off-limits," I noted. The place did have that Lucite feel to it, like the floors and walls might have been coated with a little plastic in order to preserve the appearance and prevent further decay. Even the feel of the door frame as I knocked on it suggested a more solid wall than just bricks and mortar.

Drew offered me a handshake. "Thanks for listening, too. It's fun to relay the stories I've heard to someone who will actually listen." The handshake was also a subtle way of suggesting it was time for me to leave.

"Well, I should probably leave you to your work before I get you in any trouble with me." He probably assumed I was just talking about the trespassing. He didn't even realize I was carrying pokémon in open violation of the village's strict policy. There was no doubt Drew—another outsider—would be in big trouble if I were to get caught and anyone knew we were associated.

But as soon as I exited the child's room and hit the main room of the house again, my brain connected two seemingly unlikely points. It was a total longshot—like that time in Natrium when Michelle challenged me to throw a tennis ball all the way up to the waterfall in exchange for a kiss. But two weeks of shoulder pain was worth the reward, and so was this if I was right.

Because I came up with another reason to declare this house off-limits.

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it, and may the rest of you enjoy time doing what you love! This chapter is another without much action, but I hope the story satisfies you a little. There will be more to come in the region's history, but more importantly, the next chapter will bring a lot more action, including a plot twist I doubt if many of you see coming!

Thanks go to BNVshark for contributing Drew to the story.

Trivia: The reference to pokéballs being a "forbidden fruit" is a pun. Get it? They're forbidden in Stannum Village and early versions were made from apricorns? I know puns are the lowest form of wit, but I love them.