Chapter 6: A Greater Truth
A/N: Note regarding the heights of Pokemon. I will try to stick to the canonical heights of Pokemon, given that's what was originally intended (give or take a few inches). Some Pokémon's official heights already have some room for interpretation (length vs height, etc.) and others are just a bit… kind of nonsensical (in my opinion). So… some liberties with the heights.
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Ethan stood up, walking out of the waiting room as the unmanned doors to the path to Mortimer, the gym leader of Ecruteak City, opened. He walked forward, his heartbeat the only sound apart from the echo of his footsteps.
He stared into the darkness, seeing candle flames far on, flickering in what seemed to be fog. Ethan pressed his hands against the ultra-balls on his belt, seeking reassurance. He had once been told by his older sister that Morty's challenge was the most infuriating in Johto, second in the world only to that of Lieutenant Surge of Kanto.
What seemed to be a candle with eyes approached him, carrying a scroll with its ghostly energy. Ethan stared at it for a moment, remembering it as a Pokemon he had seen once when they had visited his sister in Unova, a Litwick. Finally, he took the scroll from it, unbinding it and reading it in the ghostly light it cast over the charred paper.
'Welcome to my labyrinth challenger. You may see no walls and wonder what I am saying. This is a labyrinth, which does not require a good sense of direction, there are three paths, all of which converge at the end and lead to me. But it requires a good memory. Imagine a labyrinth without the walls, and the area underneath the walls. A series of walkways. The area where there would be walls is a ghostly void, which will transport you back to where I am assuming you are standing now. The lights will extinguish as you pass them, if they are unmanned, or if you defeat the trainer holding them. The paths are about a meter wide. Do not walk with your Pokemon, as the floors are not meant for that purpose beyond this point.
Good Luck,
Mortimer Specter'
"Time to get going." Ethan muttered to himself as the Litwick floated off with the scroll, the light vanishing.
Ethan gingerly stepped forward, feeling the hard surface beneath his feet and walking forward slowly. He could see a light dead ahead, about twenty meters on. He continued carefully, slowly walking through the straight to the light. He found a note tied to the candle, not a Litwick this time, and a coarse strip of cloth tied to it.
'Sometimes, it is better not to rely on your eyes, nor your feet, but your intuition.'
Ethan frowned, pocketing the bandanna. He looked forward to see what seemed to be a corner and path going left to a candle from the darkness. He walked on, hearing the candle go out with a whisper. The sudden darkness shrouding him made him shiver, fear momentarily coursing through his body before it exited. Fear was a dark type's weapon. It was only used briefly by ghosts.
He walked forward, turning left from memory and heading towards the candle. He passed it as it went out, leaving him in the darkness as well. He stepped forward again, taking three steps safely. Then on the fourth step, he felt a sickening sensation in his gut as the world twisted around him, taking him back to the beginning.
He sighed, trying his best not to get exasperated early. He pressed on, taking the same path back but turning where he had fallen victim to Morty's trap earlier. Another few minutes and another few extinguished lights, not to mention three more pulls back to the beginning left him wanting to reach out and punch something. Lucy was right. It was straight out infuriating.
He put one hand in his pocket, finding the forgotten strip of cloth by accident and pulling it out. The words on the note drifted back to his mind as he stared on it. Mentally going over it, he tied the strip of cloth over his eyes, feeling a warm sense of approval from one of his Ultra Balls. He nodded to himself, gingerly stepping forward as he made his way all the way to the first turning.
He nearly turned, but then he remembered the words on the slip of paper and stopped. Thinking for a minute, he stepped forward walking on, no traps in his way, nor any drops into the void floor. He pulled the cloth off, both greatly impressed, and put off by Morty's trick. He walked on, without hesitance, for a few minutes, through the fog before he emerged on a platform, lit by three candles, with a single illuminated path leading up to a higher platform, Morty sitting down on a chair on it.
Ethan walked up to him, handing him the cloth and glaring at him halfheartedly. The blond-haired gym leader on the other hand, broke out into a grin.
"Wonderful! So, you figured it out?" Morty greeted him, his purple sweater and headband making him look like he should have been at a country club playing tennis. If it wasn't for the Banette on his shoulder, Ethan would seriously have doubted him to be a master of the ghost type.
"Um…. By the way, I'm Mortimer Specter, gym leader of Ecruteak City, but I assume you already knew that. Might I ask your name?" the gym leader went on, standing up and cocking his head.
"My name is Ethan Photon. Three badges." Ethan replied, swearing he could have seen a spark in the young gym leader's eyes.
"Ok then, two on two. Let's begin shall we. Challenger draws first, I can't switch out, and this will be a double battle." Morty dictated the rules, laying his hands down on his belt. "First to knock out both enemy Pokemon wins."
Ethan nodded as he felt the sickening feeling in his gut again, being wrenched out of the gym to what he had expected to be another room, a battlefield. Instead, he found himself out in the open, in the middle of golden trees, shedding as though it was autumn. He looked around to see the lines of a battlefield marked everywhere, the area serene for the beginning of January.
Ethan readied his Pokemon, releasing Canis and Leviathan onto the field in a spur of the moment decision. Specter would have been the better choice for a single battle. He wasn't sure how well Specter would be able to work with others in a double battle never practiced before. Canis and Leviathan however, formed the perfect clash of water and fire, and would be a bit hard to work with, but since they didn't hate each other, could really pay off.
"Interesting matchup. If you use them well, I'm going to have a tough time. Hmm…. Misdreavus! Shuppet! Take the field!" Morty released two Pokemon, one a Johto native that Ethan recognized, a Misdreavus, and the other a Hoenn Pokemon, a Shuppet, which Ethan remembered from an old book evolved into Banette, like the one sitting on Morty's shoulder. "Your move."
"Canis, Leviathan, work together and follow my instructions. You can't see the whole field at once while you're battling, so you'll have to trust me and each other. Now, ranged water gun, followed into by a flame wheel!" Ethan instructed them as they moved away from him, looking at each other for a moment before executing his commands.
Leviathan fired off a water gun at Shuppet and Misdreavus, easily avoided, but followed by Canis's Flame wheel, which turned it into steam, confusing the ghosts and landing a moderate hit on both, considering the backlash from spinning with fire on your back.
"Good thinking. Miss, Shuppet, shadow barrage!" Morty called out as the ghost types bounced back from Canis's attack, releasing a quick charged barrage of shadow ball attacks, the spheres hurtling towards Ethan's Pokemon.
He shouted out in time for Leviathan to avoid the brunt of the attack, taking a few hits. Canis was still spinning and easily avoided them all on the other hand.
"Canis! Fire ring around you and charge up solar beam! Leviathan, stay back and barrage them for now!" he called out as his Pokemon moved next to each other, going together as the Typhlosion set up a ring of fire around them about five feet high, the seven foot plus gator easily firing off water attacks over it.
Ethan watched as the rays of sunlight being drawn into the flames slowly died down, Canis invisible behind the flames. Misdreavus and Shuppet were charging in what seemed to be a very complicated maneuver.
"NOW! Hatch plan C!" Ethan shouted, both a good plan and a psychological trick. By saying plan C, he was attempting to trick Morty into thinking he had run out of options, when in reality, he had just been thinking of something that had started with C when he had conceived the maneuver.
Leviathan fired a high-pressure beam of water onto the ground right outside the fire, turning it into mud before jumping over the flames and sliding out across the mud, launching a constant stream of water.
The level of the flames rose as the ghost types charged recklessly into the fire, unable to stop, the ring vanishing after burning them to reveal a missing fire type. Then Canis burst out of the ground at a high speed, surprising and hitting the currently materialistic Shuppet before firing a Solar Beam off at the two ghosts, who by the virtue of being pressed against each other, were lined up perfectly for the light beam to phase through and damage them.
"Leviathan, your time to shine!" Ethan shouted as the Feraligatr fired off a high-pressure water gun at them, a mock attempt of Hydro Pump, hitting the ghost's surfaces, burning from the light, which was basically cutting someone with a long and sharp knife, and then pouring a salt shaker into the wound.
"I'm not giving up, Shuppet, Misdreavus, last resort!" Morty called out as his Pokemon retreated to his side of the field. Suddenly, Shuppet seemed to collapse, and Misdreavus was energized as it fired off a supercharged shadow ball with a diameter the height of a door.
Ethan cried out as his Pokemon took the hit, unable to move in time, leaving smoke trailing form both of them, each weak. He could have sworn he saw Leviathan holding something though.
"Water gun! Fire spin!" Ethan watched as his Pokemon fired off attacks, not bothering with coordination now.
Both weak hits hit Misdreavus, but had another effect. The ground under Misdreavus turned to sludge, and glowing purple stone surface, its energy resonating as Misdreavus began to diffuse a purplish glow.
Ethan watched, sighing with acceptance as the dusk stone reacted with Misdreavus, the little ghost dissociating into purple particles and multiplying before it formed back together into a Mismagius.
"Miss! You evolved! Now let's take him on!" Morty shouted, grinning as Ethan narrowed his gaze. He reached for his phone, scanning Mismagius as it waited for a moment to recover from the sudden evolution.
'Mismagius. This thing can create illusions that don't affect the real world, but entrap the subject. They can be fought out off. But… try not to get stuck in one in the first place.'
Ethan nodded to himself before realizing it was pointless and turning to his Pokemon.
"Back to back! It's an illusionist!" he shouted as his Pokemon retreated, standing back to back as the world around them began to shift until Canis and Leviathan were left standing on a platform in a void.
Ethan watched, unable to relay commands into the illusion he was watching through a divide, taking pride in how his Pokemon, if not at first, but at some point, started strategizing to work together and beat Mismagius. He saw the ghost type pepper them with attacks, wearing them out even as it took well thought out strikes, the illusion slowly fading.
Ethan's voice finally reached the field as the illusion faded away, Canis collapsed on the field, Leviathan and Mismagius on the brink of fainting as well. Ethan saw Leviathan's hand reach up to its jaws for a moment before it took heed of him.
"Leviathan, Jet stream!" Ethan shouted, simply naming a different way of firing water gun as the gator didn't respond.
Instead, it opened its jaw and four streams of water exited, rotating to outline a column as they spiraled around and into Mismagius, knocking it out.
"Good job! It looks like your Feraligatr found a left over!" Morty called out as they recalled their Pokemon, reappearing in the gym.
He walked over to Ethan, pulling something out of his pocket.
"Here you go, the fog badge." He handed him a flat metal badge with a purple surface shaped like a ghost. Ethan handed him his trainer tag in return, the gym leader using the machine press in the corner to emboss the badge into it.
"Good luck on your journey, and take a staff from the entrance, it can get a bit rough past Ecruteak." Morty instructed him as Ethan stepped onto the void purposely, reappearing at the entrance. He looked around, seeing a rack full of plain wooden staffs, both ends the same.
He picked a stout and long but moderately thin one, walking out of the building. He took a look around the city before walking back to the Pokemon center to collect his belongings and get Canis and Leviathan in fit shape for the journey west.
Random thoughts flickered in his head as he approached the building, the glass doors opening automatically. He walked over to the line, waiting. The news screen's volume seemed to be switched off mute for once, an important discussion taking place on air. He glanced at the headline, his eyes widening as he saw Lorelei, former Elite Four member of Indigo, and current leader of Sevii under Indigo, talking to the anchors.
He handed his Pokemon to the nurse and scanned his trainer ID, heading to his room quickly to catch the rest of the talk. He entered, finding the person he was bunking with, another boy his age by the name of Ren, sitting on his bunk watching the talk. With a nod in greeting, Ethan sat down on his own bunk, eyes and ears on the TV.
"Lorelei, how would you describe the situation as it is in the Unified Regions, and what might come to pass?" The news anchor, a young woman with blond hair and piercing eyes asked.
"Caroline. The situation in the Unified Regions so far is tense. They don't have enough Rangers these days to guard themselves if anything on a large scale happens, after all the catastrophes they've been through. As far as I know, Oblivia only has three Rangers! There is unrest within the regions, and unless they work together, they will become very vulnerable. As to what will come to pass, the future is hard to see. But if Almia gets dragged into a dispute, Indigo moves with it, for we do have a hand in this, and the Almians have been staunch supporters of our own Regional Alliance." Lorelei replied, turning to look out the window behind them momentarily before the anchor went back to speaking.
"Thank you, Lorelei, for your time and opinions. It has been an honor to speak with you like this. This is Indigo Transnational News, and we'll be right back with the weather." The anchor turned towards the camera as the segment ended, leaving Ethan's thoughts churning.
"What do you think is going to happen?" Ren turned towards him, looking at him apprehensively.
"I don't know. All I know is that the world might change very soon." Ethan sighed, taking his bag and walking out of the room. He entered the main hall of the Center and collecting his Pokemon.
A shiver ran through his spine as he walked out into the cold damp winter day. He walked onwards, going to the west exit of the city and leaving. Route thirty-eight was fairly dull. There wasn't really much to it at all. Ethan walked down the beginning of the road until he reached the end of the flat plains.
He looked across the horizon at the hilly terrain, ledges and trees making the traversing of the route much more fun than it would have been. There weren't many Pokemon on route 38, and all of them were common, which made it all the more boring. Ethan could feel the sun beating down on his neck from behind him as he looked back East so he could get out a pair of sunglasses without having to squint. He pulled out his frameless shades, slipping them on and turning back to the sun, walking off the end of the road and onto the beaten path, reaching for Aura's ultra-ball.
He released the bipedal cub onto a tree branch, from where it promptly dropped down to the ground, landing without a sound.
'Hello. Where are we headed today?' The canine asked, turning towards Ethan and walking alongside him.
"A city called Olivine. It's a good three or four days trek west of here, and we need to keep moving. We got our fourth badge, and now we're on our way out to the next one. This one, hopefully, if you train hard, will be your time to shine again. The gym leader of Olivine City is a steel type master, which means it's you and Canis for sure, if you can catch up." Ethan replied, stopping for a moment and picking up a few pebbles.
He held them out to Aura, speaking again.
"I want you to train to expand your capacity for aura usage, and to increase efficiency. Levitate these while walking, and keep on practicing random actions with them. Every time one becomes easy, which should be after a few hours of practice, add more pebbles to the mix." Ethan instructed Aura, confused for a moment where the suggestion came from.
Aura accepted the stones, choosing to levitate them first in a circle, then begin a rotation, picking up speed constantly to put strain on himself. Ethan continued to walk, shifting out of focus and boarding the train of thought.
He was to start off as Steven Stone's apprentice, which meant he would like to train hard and try and get not just Jasmine's badge, but Chuck of Cianwood's badge as well. He couldn't disappoint someone of such high standings, whom had asked him to be his student for a while.
Other than that, his mind drifted to what he had seen on the TV earlier. Conditions in the unified Regions were tense, the shortage of able rangers a great hindrance for their struggling economy. As it was, Kalos was exploring into them with more liberty than the governments would like. They were probing around the natural resources and trying slowly to get shares in them. There was a chance that they might attempt a full annexation of them, which could at the very best lead to a cold war.
Ethan's attention switched to Aura as he saw that he wasn't just adding more stones to the rotating ring, which would have been easy, but had replaced the pebbles with proper rocks and had built up multiple rings of them by this point, trying to keep the rotating layers of the tower in check. He looked around, seeing other trainers camping by a grove, roasting their lunch over a spitfire emerging from a young Charmeleon's mouth.
He walked on past them, stepping over the huge pile of dry branches left at the top of a hill. He winced slightly as the loud cracking noise echoed across the hilly terrain, causing a few heads to turn his way. He looked down for a moment, continuing on as Aura hopped and skipped around on one foot of its own volition. Ethan sighed, walking on continuously until maybe four in the afternoon, Riolu having amassed an eight-foot tower of rotating stones by this point, with the same radius as a football.
He sat down on a tree stump, releasing his Pokemon into the surrounding area and taking a looked at them. Canis was in good condition, healthy and fit, flames flickering on the back of his neck. He turned around to groom his coat a little bit before lying down. Leviathan was in tip top shape, his scales glistening and his jaws cranking easily without a noise, except when they collided.
Blur was physically fit, but he was showing signs of flakes to come in his exoskeleton, something which slightly worried Ethan. Specter, on the other hand, was radiating darkness, the slight gaseous rim around him shrunken to barely visible and nearly as dark as his metaphysical form.
Aura was sitting on a branch, rotating the tower of stones while slowly shifting them to the right, before suddenly dropping them into a hollow tree with a bang, jumping off the branch to rest. Ethan smiled at how energetic the little cub was, bringing a good bit of activeness to the rest of the team.
"Okay guys, we're on our way west now, heading to the Olivine Port. There, gym is a steel type one, so that puts Blur out of the running right off the bat. Sorry, but I don't want your energy wasted." Ethan turned apologetically to the bug, who merely nodded.
"Canis is definitely in the running, we just need to work on a few counter measures for dual types, and Aura, if we pick up this pace for the next few days alongside training, you should be able to face her too. The last Pokemon, well that depends on progress at the time." Ethan finished, opening his notes for what he wanted his Pokemon to work on.
"Canis, today you'll be working on solar beam. It isn't very hard to learn, you already know how to catch and re use heat, so working with light shouldn't be hard. If we can get it down quickly, we'll work on charge time and combinations. Specter, sucker punch. It's going to be a brilliant gift in battle, especially since your defense to special categorized attacks is weak." Ethan nodded in the direction of the two Pokemon in question, turning to his next two Pokemon.
"Blur, you're going to be sparring with Aura, and trying to get some practice in on shadow claw. This will definitely take a while. Aura, work on avoiding getting hit as best you can, and on your hand to hand combat. Draw on fighting contact force to develop your own attacks if need be. And lastly, Leviathan, I want your focus on rain dance."
The water type looked at him confusedly as his other Pokemon already set out to start.
"I know you already know it. I want you to concentrate it on a smaller spot, with all the force of your previous one, so say you could focus it on a well and fill it like that." Ethan snapped his fingers, Leviathan slowly wrapping his head around it and nodding.
"When we've got power down with ease, then I'll work more on that. What you do right now is work on it. When Canis has Solar Beam down, you'll practice near him to make it harder for him, his next training regimen. Good. Now set up shop and get to work." Ethan finished as Leviathan un-hunched, picking up huge stones and building a small tower to focus on filling with water, with leak holes all around it.
"Go." Ethan shouted to the gator standing on a high stone, whom began. Low rain clouds began to gather, a slight drizzle starting off as Leviathan frowned, pushing them all together and putting up a good bit of rain right over the tower.
"Yes, now increase the strength. You've got leaks all around the tower. By the time we're done with this, if it works, you'll be able to fill the tower faster than the water can leak out." Ethan encouraged him, walking over to Aura and Blur who were sparring with each other, fighting with hands and blades. Aura was missing most of Blur's hits, avoiding quite a few, and being hit a fair bit. Blur on the other hand was having trouble with shadow claw.
"Blur, I want you to feel for your soul and draw from that. Its spiritual energy that should be focused in the receptacle. First work on that." Ethan instructed, walking away to Specter next.
"Specter, infuse the boulder with energy first, then work on using your own energy to both damage the stone and through that wound absorb energy." Ethan looked up from the descriptions in his phone and looked back at Specter, who was currently pouring ghostly energy into the boulder.
Finally, he walked over to Canis, seeing the fire type with arms raised slightly, focusing as the vents on his neck died down, sunlight seemingly focusing on them. Ethan watched as the sunlight angled towards the fire type slowly, being absorbed into its body as an orb of light started to form in Canis's paws, growing slowly.
Ethan smiled. He was about to say a few words of encouragements when the orb blew up in Canis's hands, releasing only smoke. The fire type looked at him and shrugged, turning back towards the grove and absorbing light again slowly. Ethan watched, biting his lip.
Sweat beaded up on his brow slowly as the sphere grew to the size of a grapefruit before it collapsed into a weak solar beam and fired off at a tree, naturally not damaging it.
Ethan smiled and stepped back as Canis began forming another one, pushing it slightly further than the previous attempt. He watched, the hair on his arms standing up in the chill of the late afternoon. IT wasn't anywhere near as cold as it would have been had he gone east, but still; it was chilly.
The orb in Canis's hands grew slowly, surpassing that of the previous one and reaching the size of a watermelon before firing it off.
"Good work Canis! Take your time with capacity first, then with speed." Ethan suggested as he watched again.
Canis readied the sphere slowly, going up to the size of a basketball this time and waiting. Ethan frowned, mulling over what Canis was doing without interrupting. After a few more moments, Canis fired. This beam was much more powerful than the last one, and it clicked then why Canis had been waiting. The size of the sphere did dictate the strength, but it was spread out as well. Canis was concentrating more energy into one smaller size to create the powerful impact Solar Beam was known for.
"Great work buddy! For today, I just want you to practice generating it without blowing it up and firing off at that power." Ethan smiled, walking back to Specter, whom was still standing there, trying to suck the energy out of the boulder with sucker punch.
"Okay…." Ethan opened his phone, checking Brendan's entry on the move.
If you're teaching it to a ghost type, tell them to do what they would when swallowing a soul, but with their fists, that just sucks energy out. I don't really know about any other types.
Ethan sighed, doubting it for a moment before he turned to Specter, who seemed to have made no progress.
"Okay buddy, I want you to do what you would if you were sucking out a soul, but through your fist." Ethan instructed him, sitting down as it clicked to him why his bag was feeling abnormally heavy. He had a bike.
The Haunter nodded, pressing its hands together and then lashing out at the boulder with one, fists glowing. Something blew up, sending smoke every which way.
"Specter? What did you do?" Ethan coughed, waving away the smoke before the ghost type sucked it all in.
He cackled and raised his hands, doing a backflip before facing the rock again.
"One more try, and if it doesn't do anything at all, we go back to what we were doing in the beginning."
"Sometimes I really don't trust him at all, but he's always right." Ethan murmured the last part to himself, watching as Specter focused for a moment before lashing out again. This time, Ethan could have sworn he saw a wisp of energy flow up Haunter's hand as a tiny depression formed on the boulder.
"Do you feel any more energized?" Ethan asked as Specter nodded vigorously, shaking his hands and punching the rock again.
Ethan stepped back as Specter set back to work, absorbing energy, though barely any with every punch. He would need to work on that.
Then he walked back to Leviathan, who was still focusing on filling the well. He had managed to get a constant level of water around a few inches high, but this would require work. Finally, he walked over to Blur and Aura, who were still sparring, the little cub slowly picking up on its natural ability to sense incoming attacks and block them.
Blur was making progress with shadow claw. One blade was shimmering slightly with dark purple energy, the hint of an ongoing spectral force engaged in the claw.
"Good work everyone!" Ethan called out, stepping back and walking towards the stump again where his bag was propped up against the remaining wood.
"Late lunch!" he called out as his Pokemon stopped sparring and walked, floated or ran towards him. He reached into his bag, taking out five specially prescribed canisters of Pokemon food he kept for treks across routes which led to other routes and thus, longer journeys. For himself, he pulled packaged noodles out of the bag.
"Canis can you warm these up a little bit?" Ethan asked as he placed them in a row on a rock.
The fire type walked over to them as raised a low flame onto the rock, heating it and slowly, heating the cans evenly. A few minutes later, Ethan was sitting with his family, watching trainers below the hill move to and fro.
'Friend-Trainer, the others have concerns they wish to voice. Something was instilled in them, even through the barrier of their containers, in the tower, which makes them want to shed their specific names and return to their generic names.'
"If that's what you guys want, then sure." Ethan shrugged, turning towards them as tension seemed to lift off them at his response. "You too Specter?"
'No, I rather like my name.' the ghost cackled again, doing a backflip and floating higher into the sky as the sun started to sink.
"Okay then, let's just laze around for maybe fifteen minutes and then hit the road again, I want to reach the Miltank Farm within three more days, because they do offer rooms to travelling trainers, and although I like having the stars over my head, at this time of the year I wouldn't mind being in a bed." Ethan remarked, staring off into the horizon.
He picked up his bags and hoisted them onto his shoulder fifteen minutes later and stood up, recalling Typhlosion, Scyther, Specter and Feraligatr, keeping Riolu out with him for more exercise.
"Okay, Au- Riolu, you keep on going with your tower if you think you need to continue with that, but as it gets darker, I want you to be aware of our surroundings. We have maybe two more hours before the sun sets fully, but that's a bit early, so I want to walk for maybe an hour after sunset, without Typhlosion out. Tune into the surroundings." Ethan instructed as Riolu nodded, running circles around his legs as they continued on, keeping track of their surroundings and notifying him of incoming trainers and wild Pokemon.
For the most part he avoided trainers. He didn't want to waste daylight battling when he had already wasted three hours before sunset on training. It had shocked him how much time had gone by when he had stopped. Normally he would train with his Pokemon after stopping for the day. Typhlosion would light a fire and keep them all lit up and warm, and they could train without the worry of losing daylight on a long trek such as the one ahead.
Ethan walked on, watching the sun out of the corner of his eye as it set in the west, considering he was walking northwest, following the beaten path. By the end of the night, he found himself settling down around a quarter of the way through the Route.
It wasn't until two and a half days later that he found himself at the famous Miltank farm to the North East of the Olivine cape. He stood in front of the arched gates to the massive establishment, acres field he had walked past on his way joining up to where the multiple barns opened up.
A sign on the gate was flipped to vacancies, but no one seemed to be about the farms. He walked down the path to the farmhouse, climbing the steps of the massive porch to the door. He wrapped his hands around the huge brass knocker, hitting the door twice. He pressed his ear against the thick door, able to make out scurrying footsteps. He stepped back and waited. Moments later, the doors swung inwards. Standing in the doorframe was a short plump woman with bright orange hair. Her apron was covered with flour splatter, and her cheeks were rosy from the heat of an oven, presumably.
"Good afternoon lad! Are you looking for a room?" she asked him, panting slightly.
"Thank you, ma'am. I am looking for a room if you have any. The sign out by the gate said you had vacancies." Ethan looked down at the hardwood floor for a moment.
"Why yes we do. Third floor, any of the rooms. They're all empty right now." She gestured towards the staircase at the end of the hallway, next to the doorway into the rest of the house.
Ethan nodded politely and walked down the hall and up the stairs. He walked into the first room on the third floor, a cozy little room with a fireplace and a single bed. He set his bags down, walking back downstairs.
"Excuse me ma'am, but how much is it for the night?" Ethan asked, reaching for his wallet.
"I can never remember the rate. Talk to my husband when he gets back." The woman, presumably the farmer's wife, replied, wiping her hands on her apron.
"I wonder… are you a Pokemon trainer?" She asked, looking at him with her head tilted.
"Yes ma'am, I am." Ethan replied, pulling his jacket up from one side to reveal his belt.
"Are you a fresh trainer or do you have any badges?" She asked curiously, leaning on the counter in front of her.
"Four badges ma'am, on my way to my fifth and sixth." He replied, standing straight.
"Could you go and check on my husband for me? The Miltank are a little bit on edge for some reason and I don't want him getting hurt. Problem is they're the only Pokemon we have. He's out in barn four." She asked.
"Sure." Ethan shrugged, walking out to the fields again and going round the side of the building to the barn labeled four. It was in his line of sight when the doors flew off their hinges, a rampaging Miltank bulldozing out of the building, its kin following it as the farmer moved around the side of the broken wall.
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Lance held onto Dragonite's scales as the dragon banked over the farm, giving him a clear view of the ground. He activated the binoculars in his goggles, giving him a clear view of the trainer on the ground. It clicked with him that it was the same trainer whom Steven had brought from the tower the other day. Something about the boy seemed familiar.
"Magnus, stay in the air, but be ready to intervene." He shouted over the wind as the orange dragon roared its reply, circling as Lance watched.
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Ethan stared at the Miltank for a moment before kicking into gear. He reached for his belt, releasing Riolu, Feraligatr and Scyther immediately as he stepped behind them, taking the staff Morty had given him off of his back. He knew the last measure was probably pointless, but it was still ever so slightly reassuring.
"Riolu guard the farmer, Scyther, Feraligatr, calm them down!" Ethan shouted, wielding the staff in right hand as he sprinted behind Riolu, trying to get to the farmer. He looked on as a Miltank charged the farmer, Riolu kicking it aside and getting on to defending him.
Ethan swore loud enough to turn the farmer's head slightly as he noticed a Miltank barreling straight at him, none of his Pokemon close enough to help him. He jumped, pushing himself a few extra inches as he rammed the end of the staff into the charging Pokémon's side, the overall force sending it careening into a wall as he deflected a horn with one side of the staff, the movement coming naturally.
He jumped up again, using the staff as a pole vault to rise over the Miltank and eventually onto it after knocking aside dangerously positioned horns with the staff.
|\/|~^-_-_-^-_-_-^~|\/|
Lance watched from the sky, binoculars to his goggles as he watched the boy guard himself with swift, fluid movements, the style uncomfortably familiar to him. The kid wasn't more than sixteen years old and he was adept with what he recognized as one of the staffs he had ordered Mortimer to give trainers leaving Ecruteak City. And he had met the kid in Ecruteak a few days back.
He watched as the boy sprinted across the field in intervals, defending himself with new found confidence when necessary and making his way to the farmer and his Riolu, his other two Pokemon wrapping themselves around the situation and subduing the Miltank as he stopped by the farmer.
"Magnus! Descent!" Lance shouted over the wind, his oldest companion roaring in reply.
|\/|~^-_-_-^-_-_-^~|\/|
Ethan brushed his pants off, still holding the staff in one hand as Riolu stepped away from the farmer, a lanky man in his forties.
"Aye lad, thank you. I may have met my maker if it wasn't for you." He greeted Ethan, extending a hand. "Clyne Hawthorne. Farmer."
"Ethan Photon, Pokemon trainer. No problem. Your wife actually sent me to check on you after I asked about the rate for the night." Ethan replied, stretching and looking up to see a slowly growing orange blot high up in the sky.
"Forget the fare lad. You done saved my hide that's all. Tonight, we feast like-"Hawthorne was cut off by a blood piercing howl as a shadow leaped out of the trees nearby and shot at Ethan.
Before, Ethan had known what he was doing with the staff, even if he was surprised at how easy it was. As shadow shot at him however, faster than his Pokemon could charge, he lashed out with the staff, snapping the wooden rod between the now visible Houndoom's jaws, unyielding before he pulled it out and slammed it into its sides repeatedly in a three swift motions before ramming it into the dark type's back as a stream of water shot in his direction from Feraligatr and knocked it out.
Hawthorne just stared as with an impact, the orange blot landed in the field near them, a rider disembarking the massive Dragonite and approaching them. Ethan recalled Lance's face as he whipped off his goggles, walking towards them.
"Ethan was it? You fight well for a teenager. My apologies for not being able to descend faster. Farmer Hawthorne." Lance nodded his greeting to the farmer, turning towards Ethan.
"Thank you, sir." Ethan dipped his head in respect as Lance looked at him oddly.
"Is your father a soldier by any chance?" Lance asked, his gaze piercing Ethan's soul.
"Yes sir. He was." Ethan replied, his voice low.
"What was his name?" Lance asked, the answer piecing itself together in his mind.
"Nicholas Photon sir." Ethan replied, head held high as Lance's eyes widened for a moment before retracting to their previous size.
"…" Lance stayed silent for a moment after he opened his mouth before closing it, turning to the farmer again. "No… not who you remind me off. Sadly, I did not know your father."
Ethan stared at him quizzically before turning to the farmer for a moment and then walking off back to the entrance of the farmhouse, Lance and the farmer on the same track after a brief conversation.
|\/|~^-_-_-^-_-_-^~|\/|
Later the same evening…
Ethan toweled his hair dry and straightened his shirt, laying his belt. He looked around the room for a minute before walking down to the lounge, to find Lance sitting there by the fire, talking to someone else, the second person's chair back towards Ethan, but his voice was familiar.
Lance saw him and stopped talking, quietening down as the other person craned his neck around the chair to see him. Steven Stone happened to be sitting in the other chair, talking to Lance.
"Oh, Ethan! Lance was just telling me about what happened earlier. It may have been dark pulses from the Houndoom causing the Miltank to misbehave." Steven stood up, shaking his hand firmly as Ethan simply nodded, sitting down in a chair opposite the fire as Lance stood up.
"I have to be going now. It was good of you to meet here so we could talk Steven." Lance nodded, walking out swiftly.
The room was silent for a few minutes as Ethan held his hands out to the fire, heating them up a little bit before he turned back to Steven.
"Did you know my father? Nicholas Photon?" Ethan asked, staring at the fire.
"…Yes. I did." Steven sighed, leaning back in his chair.
"He wasn't just a soldier, was he? Lance asked me who my father was… And he claimed not to know him, but I get the feeling he did. The story was a bit patchy from the day we were told we'd lost him." Ethan replied, turning to face Steven.
"Ethan…. There is a greater truth behind all of this. Yes, your father wasn't any ordinary soldier. But it isn't my place to tell you. Should you not know and a situation arises where it falls upon me to tell you everything, rest assured, I will. But for now, it isn't my place. Now go to sleep." Steven turned towards the fire, staring into the depths of the flame as Ethan rose wordlessly, going up the stairs to his room and lying down, his mind churning.
"A greater truth…." Ethan murmured to himself as he drifted to sleep, his dreams carrying him away for the night.