I had a dream. It was quite… positive and thus strange, not like a usual nightmare. The beautiful stars falling from the sky around me, the endless backgrounds of space… It looked like I was flying through a wormhole of something, to the unknown… To the place where no people that want to kill me. No people that want to rob me. The place that doesn`t exist… The Utopia.
This looked exactly like a paradise… Strange technological paradise… Just like Nagatha seemed to be in the first time. But with much more light.
And then…
Someone painfully poked me in my nose.
I woke up in a hospital and saw Dumpling scratching my nose. I have no idea was that fun for him or he tried to wake me up with such strange method, but I didn`t like it.
"Hey… Stop that!" I strictly said to him.
Charmeleon slowly moved away, letting me get up. As second time I found myself in a bed and not on a tree or something like that. Should be careful with that - I can get used to it. And I definitely should not.
"Where`s everyone?" I asked my pokemon, and he jumped off the bed and ran to the door. Charmeleon tried pretty awkwardly to reach the door handle with his clawed hand, but to my surprise, he actually made it.
The opened door revealed a bench with lying Erika on it. Poor woman was really tired after all our misadventures, and doctors didn`t even give her any room to have rest. I just wonder how much this rest will cost us.
Actually, Dumpling surprised me once more. Not good this time. He quickly headed to Erika and poked her nose too.
"Dumpling! Leave the woman alone!" I yelled at him whispering.
But it was too late – he woke up the gym leader. Erika lazily opened her eyes and looked at my pokemon.
"Dumpling? Give me some rest, please. Look after Ven…"
But when she tried to return back to sleep, Charmeleon barked at her and pointed at me through the opened door. When she noticed that I`m awaken too, got up and headed to me right away.
"No, don`t go to me. I`m sorry enough for this little hooligan already! Return back!" I commanded to her. "I`m fine and… Actually, no, come here and tell me what happened."
The gym leader approached me and sat on a chair nearby. I guess she had very little rest recently. I expected to hear a very dark story, but instead of it she just stared at me with her big brown eyes.
"Are you sleeping already?" I quietly asked her.
She didn`t react to my question. She was already sleeping.
"Damn, Erika! Wake up and answer me! Or lay here and continue sleeping, don`t just stare at me like that. I don`t want to sleep anyway…" I clicked fingers before her eyes, and she snapped out of sudden slumber.
"Ah!" She somehow twitched and just barely managed not to fall down the chair.
"Don`t 'Ah!' at me, woman. You`re exhausted. So lie down and have a rest." I slowly got up from the bed and left the place for her. She sighed and took my place.
I have to say, Erika really looks cute when sleeps. She somehow managed to keep this young beauty even in her age. Yeah, this woman distracts me a lot. I would like to find out what`s happened after my fainting, but I`m not that cruel to disturb Erika now.
As I looked at my hooligan Dumpling standing nearby and chewing the curtain, I realized he can`t tell me anything now too.
"Keep it up, Dumpling. Curtains are good for your health." I petted him and looked around to find my clothes. Walking around in just underpants and lots of bandages isn`t a proper thing despite I like it partly - the body feels free and breathes.
The large white wardrobe really contained all my clothes. Looks like I was right about one thing – the right-back side of my shirt is all covered in blood. At least, the doctors bandaged me again, and the pain isn't as strong as it was before. I started to get used to it.
"Hey, why you`re out, by the way?" I asked Charmeleon, but he grunted in reply. The sound of it was… displeased enough. I think I know what`s the reason. "Do you still feel aggrieved after our first visit to the tower?"
He was so touched by this that he even left the tasty curtains to turn away from me.
"Come on, I did this just for you!" I squatted before him. "You were shaking in fear at that moment. And I didn`t want to show Douchebag AND – especially – his Quartz your weakness. You don`t want to give them a reason to laugh at you, yes?"
"Brrrhhh…"
Maybe this wasn`t that easy than I thought.
"You know what, Dumpling? Someday… with my help… you will beat Quartz. And you do this with style!" I gladly said to Dumpling and smiled. "Maybe he`s big and strong and drug-powered and water-type… But we have our own tricks, remember? The way you defeated Onix… you`re going to defeat Quartz!" This seemed to really cheer my Dumpling up. "I promise. You will beat the shit out of that annoying Blastoise."
He mistrustfully looked down to think about it. Well, I can give him time, if he needs some.
This time I managed to get dressed by myself. Still hard and painful, but by myself. I think I accidentally tore one of the bandages, but it doesn`t matter much. Scratches will heal up eventually, and the shoulder… I will try not to strain it too much now.
I carefully looked into the corridor to find any doctors that can force me back, but there were none. Good, I really need to know what happened this night… Or previous night… Damn, I don`t even know what date it is already.
But my searches were quick enough as the quiet weeping sounded from the nearest chamber. I looked inside and found that girl with purple hair – Mr. Fuji`s granddaughter… Don`t remember her name.
She was sitting near the old man`s bed, crying and immediately heard me when I stepped inside.
"How is he?" I carefully asked her.
"Badly…" She whipped her nose and looked at me with a strange look on her face. I couldn`t understand whether she blames me for this or not. "…he may be alive… for now… He awoke once… but then time doctors couldn`t awake him. Nothing worked."
"How much time passed here?" Something felt not right here. If the old man regained conscious once, but then fainted again and didn`t come back to senses for a while… I guess, it`s more than a couple of hours.
"Nearly a day..." Girl answered me very sadly.
A day… I slept nearly a day! Well, I could sleep much longer after a day like that… After the DAYS like that… Still, much time wasted, and I don`t like it. And the fact that Mr. Fuji didn`t awoke after the last time, gives me bad thoughts too.
"He is… in a coma?" I supposed. This is not the thing I could expect now. This is definitely not the thing I would need now! "Maybe we just give him some more time."
The girl didn`t reply – just turned back to her granddad. Damn it… Now I actually feel guilty for what happened to him. Maybe Team Rocket got him for another reason – not for working with me, but still I believe I could do better.
"…but before that… when he awoke in the night… he told me what happened. He asked to tell you this." Girl suddenly said and walked away from her granddad. She headed to the chair nearby, and I took place on the other one. All this looked so weird now… But I felt that I have to listen to her.
"Give me a second to understand… He suddenly awoke in the night… told you what happened … asked to tell me this… and then just blacked out again? And didn`t recovered until now?"
"Yes…" She shortly replied. Somehow right at this moment I remembered her name. Susan, I guess…
"Okay. Then I`m listening." I leaned on the chair and prepared myself for something really strange. And it was not for nothing…
"So…" Susan quickly tried to gather all her thoughts together. The girl seemed not to believe into what she`s going to say. "My granddad was the keeper of graveyard for some time after we moved here, and somehow he managed to restore order there. He found the common language with even the mystic pokemon living there. Especially – with one lone Marowak…"
"I think I have seen that pokemon…" I interrupted her, but when she gave me a serious look, I silenced. It seemed hard for her to talk too so I better not to interrupt her anymore.
"Recently this Marowak had her egg hatched into a small Cubone. Gramps saw the moment by himself… But when he brought me there to look at the child, we found Marowak lair destroyed and the Cubone stolen by Team Rocket."
Why would Team Rocket need a wild newborn Cubone? They don`t look like guys that take much care of pokemon. And this pokemon doesn`t seem to be that rare and valuable to sell him on the Black Market.
"So, my granddad and Marowak chased them." Susan continued. "Chased them to the very Daycare Center on Route 5. Rockets decided to keep the child there for some reason… In the night my granddad with Marowak attacked it and retrieved Cubone back. They tried to escape quietly, but Rockets were on guard, and so gramps had to hide in Cerulean City for some time."
The courage of this old man really amazes me. Being so active at his age… Is just great! This is something I can respect him for.
"Next day gramps left Cerulean City and headed back, but Rocket found them chased to the very end of Rock Tunnel… There they battled, and caused the cave collapsing…"
At this second the tears appeared on her eyes again. All of this makes sense, and even explains the stone block in Rock Tunnel that we saw.
"The collapse divided Rockets from my gramps… He and Cubone survived… But not the Marowak. Poor pokemon was crushed by the rocks… to death."
Susan turned away again and quietly cried. I didn`t persuade her to continue, she needed some time now.
"That`s horrible." I commented and just waited for the girl to calm down. Soon she whipped the tears and finally finished the story.
"My gramps buried Marowak in the tower, somewhere high. Near their own lair… But Cubone ran away somewhere. And the day you assaulted the Pokemon Tower, Rockets returned back to get my gramps and find out where that Cubone is… But he didn`t know!"
And then she fell silent. She had to think through everything she told me, and so had I. Some things now became clear… Some did not. Some caused new questions. Why Mr. Fuji asked her to tell me this? I would like to listen to it anyway, but why being so specific?
"You know…" I carefully said to Susan and looked at Mr. Fuji. For some reason I was worried now, like he can suddenly wake up. "Your granddad actually… hired me. To investigate the pokemon disappearing from Route 24."
"Route 24? We lived there before moving this town…" Susan replied to me. "…and what did you find?"
"Your granddad was right – Team Rocket takes pokemon to their base in Celadon City, but I don`t know what for… Well… Actually, they do this no more. Because I kinda destroyed their base."
"Really?" She surprisingly exclaimed. "So… you`re like… a detective?"
"Well… No… maybe… Yeah, like a detective. But now I lost my trail. And now I doubt that the crooks from Team Rocket actually can tell me something new."
"Ah, they…" The girl suddenly made very shocked look. "A couple of hours ago the car from Saffron City`s general hospital took them all."
"What? How did you…" Such unexpected turn of events really shocked me too. "Never mind, girl. They won`t get away from me."
"And what are you gonna do now, detective?" With a hope in her voice she asked.
"What a detective must do." I stood from my chair and fixed the cap. "Carry out the order."
I left her alone with Mr. Fuji. I wanted to ask the old man some questions, but he isn`t in a fitting state now. Maybe in a couple of days I`ll check him again, but now I have to do what he asked me.
Somehow I managed to escape the hospital without being noticed. I didn`t need my pokemon now despite I was heading to one of the most dangerous places in all Kanto – back to Pokemon tower.
The story of Susan made me think. I tried to recreate the whole story in my head, and now I had the missing details. This was pretty interesting, I have to say.
The last detail I needed was hidden in the PokeDex.
Cubone, the lonely pokemon.
It lost its mother after its birth. It wears its mother's skull, never revealing its true face.
I wonder if the early death of his mother is just a coincidence that… happens to EACH Cubone or just a cruel fate. Anyway, this really opened my eyes and I accelerated even more. Now I understood what was so unusual in that Cubone appearance that I saw on Route 5.
I returned to the pokemon tower. In the night this place looks even scarier than ever. But now I know that nobody will disturb me. At least, the wild pokemon will not.
Going back there was a tough thing. I didn`t want to. I could send all this to hell and go back to hospital or PokeCenter to eat and sleep. But I had to find the end of this damn story.
As I was slowly going up the tower, wild ghost-type pokemon sometimes appeared again. Some were running away in fear, some were clapping with their phantom hands, some were screeching something, I guess, inspiring. But not a single one attacked me.
Because I finished what they tried to begin.
I realized this not so far ago, and the answer to this mystery gave me another to a mystery everyone forgot very long ago. Just like in Korrok region, the sect was just a bunch of random women possessed by ghost pokemon. When we destroyed that sect, no one of its members could remember a thing, not to mention ability of summoning Circles again. They just could not! And everything happened in the ghost-filled place. Exactly like this one.
The Paradigm Mansion… Ugh… Just the thought about that place makes me shiver and cover with goose-skin. Damn that was some horrible experience for my sanity.
But the main thing in that story was… that it wasn`t finished. We never find the source. We never found the leader of group or their purpose. In the end, all sectarians didn`t even know each other! I departed too soon to find it out, and the rest must have just forgotten about it.
Now, I think, that all this was somehow connected to the legend of the Dark Crusader – a vengeful spirit that inhabited the underground levels of Mansion. And – what`s more important – now I think that our little mystery connected to the spirit of Marowak as well.
I was going upstairs and repeating the whole story in my head, as I saw her.
The death of Marowak was unnatural. It was caused by the hostile actions of Team Rocket that tried to steal her own child. Usually I don`t believe in mystics despite I meet it quite often… But this time is different. This somehow seems logical to cause the appearance of the spirit. Enraged and troubled, it was too negative even for the local pokemon.
Maybe this sounds too fantastic… But I guess, it was them who possessed those women and made them perform a ritual of Circle summon, because pokemon can`t do this by themselves. They tried to calm down the Marowak spirit! And Douchebag didn`t let them do it. Stupid Douchebag.
But now the spirit has departed and the peace finally returned to the tower. Just the one thing was remained…
I finally got to the floor I needed and looked forward.
…the source of all this. The little creature before me, impertinently digging the grave of his own mother. Maybe, for them this is a regular thing, and I can`t judge them by our laws. The exact Cubone I saw on Route 5 back then.
"So, it is you who caused all this." I quietly said and squatted before the Cubone. Pokemon squeaked in fear when heard me and jumped back, almost falling into the grave.
"Crraaur…" He growled at me and tried to hide behind the modest tombstone made by Mr. Fuji for the poor Marowak. I think now I begin to understand what was so interesting in him. Despite the image of Cubone in PokeDex being brown, this one was… green. Maybe this means something, I don`t know.
"Don`t be afraid of me, little one." This time I actually tried my best to express care in my voice and sound as least threatening as I can. Definitely not a thing I could get used to. "Be afraid of those people who destroyed your family. But not for long… Be brave in general and train hard." I actually imagined this little one becoming a vengeful bastard like me. Not a really good destiny, but ironically fitting one. "I… I don`t dare to take your honor of doing this by yourself… But I don`t refuse from mine. So I kinda challenge you to a race. Who will destroy Team Rocket first? We… shall… see." And thus I stood up and headed away from here, leaving the Cubone alone.
I don`t know whether he understood me or not. I don`t know if I`m actually right about him. But I know one thing – this is not the last of me seeing this exact pokemon.
The thoughts got mixed up in my unrest head. Something`s going on, and I don`t actually understand what. Everything is so confusing… And I constantly forget something. A lot of something. Something important. Maybe I just need to rest a little bit more…
I returned to the PokeCenter to spend the rest of night. I guess I already got used to the dark atmosphere of this town and began to find it… fitting.
"Welcome to the PokeCenter!" The lady behind counter greeted me. "Oh, mister, aren`t you the one that dealt with the Pokemon tower crisis?" She suddenly changed the topic. Seems like I get some famous here. I don`t like it.
"Yeah… So what?" I wasn`t in a very friendly mood to keep the conversation going.
"Then miss Erika asked to tell you that she booked the room for you already. And your pokemon are all right. The Charmeleon, though, is with her in the room 19, on the second floor." She informed me and handed over the key. As the label was stating, this key was from the room 19 itself.
"Let me guess… Room 19 is mine room too?" I suspiciously asked the nurse.
"Yes. It`s doubled, and paid for the next two days forward."
Strange… Why would Erika want to stay here for two days? Our misadventures in tower are ended now, so… what else does this woman expect from me?
"Thank you. I`ll take my pokemon tomorrow. Let them rest for some more. And… give a special check for Golbat, okay?" I asked the nurse and headed upstairs to my room.
A hotel room is pretty nice. Nothing special, but nice. Awesome couch where I can watch TV and then sleep without turning it off. Right now it is engaged by sleeping Dumpling that carefully keeps his flaming tail in the claw even when sleeps. Clever pokemon, really.
Erika wasn`t there right now, but the sound of shower immediately told me where she is. Too bad, I would like to talk to her. I guess we will do that later. But I still approached the bathroom door and carefully knocked in.
"Hey, milady, I have come. If you were going to walk out of here… some time… free and naked, then you still have the chance to change your mind."
I returned to the couch and noticed how charming my Dumpling can be when he sleeps. Damn, I can`t just take and disturb him… I guess I should take some time on the bed. When Erika comes, I`ll obediently leave. But until then… I`m gonna do what I do the worst.
Rest.
