XIII

Dark Void

Ashton returned with a couple of burgers from Magnemitey Burger. He had left the hotel room rather cheerful, but he had returned sullen and moody. He and Shiri ate dinner in relative silence. Shiri wondered at his changed mood. Between that and Simon suddenly disappearing, among everything else, Shiri realized too many mysteries were beginning to pile up.

Food seemed to perk Ashton up, however, and once he had finished his meal, he brought out his ever-handy laptop. "I was doing some research today," he said, pulling Shiri's attention from her phone. She'd been obsessively checking it every few minutes for any message from Simon.

"What about?" Shiri asked.

"Pokémon Labs, Inc.," Ashton responded. He scooted closer to Shiri on the bed so they could both look at his laptop together. On the screen was a clean, corporate-looking website. "As Simon said, they're based out of Orre. But they're like a tentacruel, and they got tentacles in just about every region." He switched to a new tab, showing an article detailing Pokémon Labs, Inc.'s closing merger with Devon Corp. in Hoenn. "They started as a pokémon research facility in Orre about nineteen years ago. They were looking into things like terraforming and reforestation for their region."

He opened another tab, this one showing an archived news article from an Orre-based news network called ONBS. Shiri's eyes scanned over the words.

Pokémon Labs, Inc. Ousts Last Remnants of Cipher.

March 15 2005.

Yesterday, the last of the remaining administration of the nefarious company Cipher left the Orre region. Professor Krane of Pokémon Labs, Inc. has reportedly negotiated for and received the last of Cipher's research.

"We do not fully understand why Cipher was creating shadow pokémon," Krane told ONBS News. "We do hope to utilize what research they had for the common good for now."

Last month, Krane's protégé, Michael Russo, age twelve, led a massive investigation into the goings on at Cipher. He successfully brought to light the dangerous continuation of the shadow pokémon research Cipher had been leading since 2003.

"We have high hopes for Michael," Professor Krane said further in his statement. "We believe with his first-hand research into shadow pokémon, we may still have a hope at unlocking Cipher's doings. Perhaps we may even utilize Cipher's research in order to help the pokémon and environment of Orre."

"Michael Russo took over Pokémon Labs, Inc. when he turned eighteen," Ashton said, bringing up more articles. "He still runs it, as far as I can tell. The company started making moves outside of Orre about ten years ago, when they pushed into Unova. They moved into Virbank and began to acquire the poké ball manufacturers. Gradually they slowly absorbed more and more of Unova's pokémon merchandise until they finally gained control of the Poké Marts there. The cashflow from that funded more research and allowed them to expand R&D into Unova. Then they did the same in Kalos. Then Sinnoh. And on and on."

"When did they take over Silph Co.?" Shiri asked.

Ashton flipped through more tabs. "About four years ago, I think."

She bit her lip, trying to figure out where the pieces fit. "Are they in Galar?"

"That's the wild thing," Ashton said, looking to Shiri now. "I couldn't find anything about that. As far as I can tell, they haven't even tried. I think it's because, as big as Pokémon Labs, Inc. is now, Macro Cosmos is still way bigger."

"And Macro Cosmos manufactures poké balls in Galar?"

"They do everything in Galar," Ashton said. "And most prominently, they sponsor and host the Pokémon Gym Challenge. The gyms are all connected by Macro Cosmos. It's insane how interconnected it all is."

Shiri leaned back against the headboard, furrowing her brow. "If Pokémon Labs isn't in Galar, then how did a Galarian man get involved with them in Kanto?"

"An amazing question, Shir," Ashton said. He minimized the browser window on his laptop to reveal a second browser window populated with another dozen or so tabs. "Simon Harron has quite a story to tell himself."

Shiri looked at the screen. On it was a high definition photograph of a boy of about eleven. He stood in a confident pose, a wide grin plastered on his face. He was clad in a white sports uniform with the number 119 emblazoned on the leg of the shorts. His sparkling green eyes and mop of shaggy blond hair were enough to identify him to Shiri, but a caption below the photograph spelled out what was obvious: Among New Gym Challengers This Season, Simon Harron, 11.

"Do you know how the Galarian Gym Challenge works?" Ashton asked her.

"A little," Shiri said. "It's kind of like a sport over there, right?"

"Just about. So here in Kanto and Johto, we do it a bit chillaxed, right? You pick one region, do the gyms in whatever order is convenient, then you fight the Elite Four and the Champion. You get your medal and your accolades and go on with your life."

Shiri smiled. "And if you're you, you go for the other eight gyms."

Ashton grinned back. "I like to think I'm cut from the same cloth as Red and Kris, eh?" He chuckled. "Anyway, Galar's different. They do their gyms in a strict order, and the challengers do it all at the same time during the season. There's two leagues, and each league gets their own season every year. And it's brutal. Dozens of challengers start, and they get whittled down until the finals. Then the remaining challengers fight in a tournament to see who gets crowned the new Champion. And mind you, the gym leaders and Champion compete in the finals as well."

"So no pressure," Shiri commented.

"Right?" Ashton clicked through a couple more tabs, each an article announcing Simon's Gym Challenge entrants over a period of five years. He grew up before Shiri's eyes in the photos, growing taller, stockier, strong. "Simon only got to the finals once in his whole career," Ashton explained. "I told you he's from a gym leader family. That was well known at the time. His mother was a gym leader during the years he attempted, and he only managed to defeat her once. I can't imagine the awkwardness of family holidays after that." Shiri shook her head at that remark.

"Anyway, his last year was his most successful, but it was also his most troublesome one," Ashton went on. He pulled up an article, featuring Simon at the age of sixteen. His hair was cropped short, and his eyes no longer sparkled. Between this year and the previous, it seemed he had hit a growth spurt. He was tall and surprisingly lean, making him almost unrecognizable. Rather than the usual sports uniform, he wore a black pair of running shorts and a very tight tank top which showed off a pair of well-developed muscular arms. Shiri's eyes moved down to the caption which read: Simon Harron Partners with Machamp's Army for the New Season.

"Machamp's Army is a brand of workout supplements," Ashton explained. "The idea is that you and your pokémon can take them and get stronger together. Simon was their youngest ever sponsor, and it prompted a bit of a blowback for the company. People were concerned about someone so young taking supplements."

Ashton moved to another tab. Simon Harron Collapses on Field. Shiri gasped.

"He finally managed to defeat Mother Dearest and get to the finals," Ashton continued. "In his first battle, he was up against Leon. The guy probably had no chance of winning even if this didn't happen. Leon didn't win champion that year, but he's known now as one of Galar's strongest champions ever. Anyway, they had gotten through most of the match when Simon just passed out. He was carried off field and disqualified. People blamed the supplements, but neither Simon or his family ever made a statement about it. But after that, Simon totally quit the whole thing."

"Do you know what happened to him after that?"

Ashton shook his head. "He just dropped off the face of the earth, far as I can tell. There were speculative articles about him when Gordie started rising to prominence and took over the gym from his mother. People were wondering what he was up to. Reporters asked Gordie and Melony about him, but they both refused to give any information."

Shiri cast her mind back to the things Simon had told her. "He said he used to be a pokémon catcher. I guess he got into that somehow and the travel that involved brought him into Pokémon Labs' territory."

"That's assuming he was telling you the truth," Ashton pointed out. The unspoken part said that he heavily doubted such a thing. "It'd be super cool if we could just ask him," he said flatly.

Shiri looked at her cellphone again. No messages. She sighed. "I wonder if he ran into some kind of trouble."

"If there was any trouble at Erika's gym, we'd have heard about it," Ashton said. Then he amended himself. "I'd have heard about it the second it happened." Shiri nodded, and they fell into a silence.

Ashton clicked around on his laptop, his expression settling into a troubled one. After a while, he sighed and closed it. "Shir, I gotta tell you something."

Shiri looked at him, into his eyes, and she saw guilt there. "Is this about the cherish ball in your bag?"

Ashton started, his mouth falling open. "Shit. You know about that?"

"I saw it when I fed Patches this morning," Shiri explained. That felt like a year ago. "Is that from Pewter City's gym? How did you get that?"

Ashton rubbed at the back of his neck, sighing. "I was snooping around the gym yesterday while you were at work. I found a pair of kids, and one of them had won a pokémon. They didn't want it anymore after what happened, so I offered to take it off their hands for them."

"Ashton, seriously?" Shiri said in astonishment at his audacity. "You need to give it to Simon."

"Yeah, about that," Ashton said. He pulled the cherish ball from his bag. "So the pokémon I got from the kids was a Persian, right?"

"Okay," Shiri said, furrowing her brow.

"Well…" He tossed the ball to the floor, releasing what was inside. A boltund appeared, and Shiri screamed.

It was wrong. Very, very wrong. A thick, wide, black aura radiated from it like a miasma. Its eyes were all black, as if they had been turned off like a computer screen. It looked at Shiri and growled.

"Put it back!" Shiri shrieked, jumping to her feet and backing as far from the boltund as she could.

Ashton only looked at her in confusion. "Shiri, what the hell is wrong?" he cried.

"Put it back! Put it back!" Tears stung at Shiri's eyes, and her back hit the wall. She crumpled against it, and the boltund began to approach her.

Ashton swore and returned the boltund to its ball. It disappeared from Shiri's view, and she could only close her eyes and suck in breaths as she tried to calm herself.

Ashton's muscular arms encircled her, and she welcomed his embrace. She buried her face in his hard chest, trying to overcome the tremors in her body. Ashton rubbed her back and apologized profusely until Shiri could finally regain her composure.

She pulled away from him, gazing up into his troubled face. "Shir, what the hell did you see?" he asked.

She opened her mouth, but she could hardly find the words. How could she explain what she just saw? "It's not right, Ashton," she said, her voice raspy. "I don't know what they did to it, but it's not right at all."


It wasn't often Simon got to eat his favorite meal. And that night, it tasted like dust in his mouth.

"I thought you said you were hungry," Marlena said across the table from him. She looked from his barely-touched steak and potatoes to his face. "You better not be getting sick. I heard there's flu going round."

Simon shook his head. "No, I'm not sick," he responded.

"I know I've been working you to the bone," she said. "I thought you might be a bit more grateful that I'd buy you dinner." Her tone was teasing, but it still irritated Simon.

"I've a lot on my mind," he said. Still, he forced himself to take another bite. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare, the potatoes and vegetables roasted and salted and wonderful. He just couldn't appreciate it. There was widening hollowness within him that even an expensive steak dinner could not hope to fill. "How about you distract me with my next assignment."

Marlena scoffed. "You beg and beg for time off for months and now you're all business." She watched him, but he made no response. Her tone went serious. "Simon, what's going on with you?"

He leaned back in his chair, staring at the glass of red wine beside his plate. "Like I said, a lot on my mind."

"Well, tell me about it. That's what family's for."

Simon's eyes narrowed. "Not our family."

Marlena frowned and stayed quiet for a while. Then she tried a different approach. "Heard your battle against Erika was quite a sight. I'm surprised she challenged you."

Simon's jaw clenched and his shoulders tensed. "I really don't want to talk about battling."

"Oh, no, of course," Marlena said. She paused. "So, she gave you one of the pokémon, right? What'd you get?"

He sighed again, irritated, but answered nonetheless. "Boltund."

"Well, that's lovely," Marlena said. "A piece of home."

"I traded it," he said. "That's how I got the persian back."

That made Marlena raise an eyebrow. "You traded it?"

Simon's mouth tightened. "In a manner of speaking." Marlena thought he might expand on that, but he didn't. Instead, he said, "You get time to date much?" Marlena didn't answer at first, and Simon raised his gaze to look at her. She was staring at him like he had two heads. "What?"

"That's just—I didn't expect you to ask that," she said. She scoffed. "You don't usually take an interest in my personal life."

He shrugged. "You're avoiding a direct answer, so I'm going to take it as a no."

Marlena narrowed her eyes at him. Now it was her turn to be irritated. "Why do you care, anyway? Are you looking for a girlfriend?"

"Absolutely not," he answered. He chewed on a potato that tasted like sawdust and tried his best not to think about Shiri.

But it was impossible. When he had spoken to her the night before, he had been well resigned to the idea that he would never see her again. They had had an interesting connection in Pewter City, and for that he was happy to explain at least some of the trouble she found herself in because of his work. But then she had followed him to Celadon City.

Why had she done that? He couldn't ask her because she was sick. He was still worried about her. He was sure she would need to go to hospital when he saw her, and he wasn't sure if Ashton was sensible enough to realize that.

Ashton. He was chaotic. Simon hadn't expected the missing persian would have ended up in his hands. If Ashton had just cooperated and given the persian up when Simon told him to, he wouldn't have had to back out on his promise to visit Shiri again. But he could hardly face Ashton after essentially stealing his pokémon.

Simon sighed again. Maybe it was for the best. He had to nip this attraction in the bud. To her. To him. He couldn't maintain a friendship with either of them, let alone anything more.

He shook his head and took a deep drink of his wine. He hated wine, but the taste at least seemed to shock him out of his dark mood, and the warmth of the alcohol in his belly helped him to relax. "Really, where are you sending me next?" he asked Marlena.

She shook her head. "Alright, fine. Since today went so well and we put the fires out in Pewter rather quickly, we've decided to go ahead with a bigger project in Saffron City."

Despite himself, he winced. "Saffron, eh?"

Marlena took a drink of her own wine. "Your old stomping grounds, in a way. How long did you live there?"

"Too long," Simon deflected. "I assume I'm meeting with Sabrina?"

"You will, I expect," Marlena said. "But Saffron City isn't my territory. You're to report to Vance first. His office is the top floor of the Rocket Mall."

He nodded. "They still haven't changed the name of that place, I see."

Marlena snorted. "They never will. I expect they enjoy the note of infamy the name gives it."

Simon finished his wine. "I should make my way over there, then," he said.

"At this hour?" Marlena said, glancing to her phone to confirm to herself it was way too late. "You can wait till the morning, you know."

"Why put it off?" he said, getting to his feet. "Thanks for dinner."

"Fat lot of good it did," Marlena grumbled, as Simon turned and walked away. She called out, "I know you're running away from something." That made Simon halt in his tracks. "You always run away. Whatever it is this time, you should face it like a man."

"Goodnight, Marlena," he said over his shoulder and left.


Simon was at the train station, fully intending to go on to Saffron City that night, when he recalled he had shut his cellphone off earlier that day. Since he wasn't with Marlena anymore, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it back on.

He was greeted with half a dozen text messages and two voicemails. The texts were all from Shiri. As he waited for the next train to arrive, Simon scrolled through her messages, each one more concerned than the last. She had been expecting him, and he never showed. But he took some comfort in the fact that Shiri had apparently recovered from her fever and seemed on the mend.

The voicemails were from Ashton. The first, sent not long after Simon had returned to the gym, was a long string of curses and insults. Ashton was, understandably, upset. Simon was surprised he hadn't gone back to the gym to confront him, but perhaps Shiri's condition prevented it.

The second voicemail, however, made Simon's blood run cold. "You asshole. I don't know what the hell is up that boltund. You said it was more stable than Persian, but you're a damn liar. It tried to attack Shiri. I hope you're satisfied. If I see you again, I'm going to kick your ass!" The message ended abruptly.

Simon checked when the message was sent. Just a couple of hours ago. He couldn't let this be. Boltund shouldn't have attacked anyone. He wouldn't have left a dangerous pokémon in Ashton's hands like that. He had to get to the bottom of this—and he had to make sure Shiri was okay.

The train for Saffron arrived, but Simon did not board it. He headed back out into the cool Celadon night.