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Anything outside yourself, you can see and apply your logic to it. But it's a human trait that when we encounter personal problems, these things most deeply personal are the most difficult to bring out for our logic to scan. We tend to flounder around, blaming everything but the actual, deep-seated thing that's really chewing on us.
-Tessa Woodhall
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The Magnolia RV came to a halt before Hammerlocke Stadium. After several Macro Cosmos mercenaries scanned the vehicle for weaponry from afar, Casey and her company left the car and met up with Henry and Sonia by the gates of the Gym.
"Sword!" Casey yelled. "How was the vault tour? Also, Chairman Bronze called us just a bit ago and said that they determined that none of my Pokemon are in the Crown Tundra or Isle of Armor, and they have operatives scouring northern Galar for my Pokemon! They'll get the others back soon, I know they will!"
Henry saw a hunched shadow move behind Casey and put a gnarled hand on her shoulder. "Will they, dearie? The most important thing is to wish it with all your heart!"
An age-worn face with two rheumy eyes appeared over Casey's head, and the Pokedex Holder screamed such a scream that it seemed the blue sky would be rent in two. The old woman buckled over, falling into Raihan's arms. "Opal? What are you doing here?"
Opal...the Gym Leader of Ballonlea City! "Opal?" Casey said, recovering from her palpitations. "I thought you were some witch or a witch's ilk! Your Gym Challenge starts after the next, what are you doing here?"
"Witch?" Opal cackled, leaning on a cane with whorl-shaped peppermint markings. "That is the highest compliment befitting one of my age! I wished to see you two up close and personal, you must understand. I have been too busy to meet you before, but I decided to come now when the day is waking and the world is old. And now I suppose you want to defeat me for scaring you, young lady?"
"Of course!"
"Boring." Opal shuffled. "Generic motivation. Well, the Silent Boy is waiting for you at Stow-on-Side. That impish one with the mask, Allister. You ought to hurry and go see him, girl."
Magnolia revved up the RV. "Now, Stow-on-Side is due east of here! We ought to arrive at the coast in a drive of three hours. Opal, do you intend to come with us?"
"Most certainly," Opal said, walking primly into the RV. "Look at this racket you have going, Magnolia old girl! Spacious seats, amicable quarters! I will get a lift to Ballonlea after a good nap, it is so much easier to lay out here than it is in a Flying Taxi. I have heard that the Glimwood Route on the way to Stow-on-Side is full of corners, bumps, and chicanes. It will be quite the experience."
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Stow-on-Side Stadium
Part of the art of debate is reaching a point in which you have the edge in refuting your opponent's points and they are still deliberating on what to say next, and then cutting off the conversation with an impassable closing argument, essentially saying, "the reason why this ends now is because is does."
-Chairman Bronze Tercano, private diaries
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Once again, Bronze Tercano sat in the executive box far above the arena, hearing the announcements and pre-battle platitudes echo over the grandstands. Another League, another battle, another painful memory of his own experiences in the Rorian League during those dark years fifty-two years ago. On another note, he was also troubled by strange dreams.
Last night, entwined with Moon in bed, he had dreamt of a stonework arch, the only break in a towering, mortarless expanse of the sheer wall before him. Incised metalwork glimmered, figures of Pokemon and heroes of old, testaments to intaglio masterpieces of Elder Days and years of yore. Time and Space slowed to a mournful crawl as he saw a creature rise out of a great aperture in the midmost point of the wall.
It was a beast that came out of the sand, and it had two horns like a lamb but its mouth was fanged and fiery as a dragon, and its body shifted and shimmered with great heat while it hissed like a serpent. And then the monolithic ruin split apart with great force, and two pairs of burning eyes and a dark storm floating above them peered into Bronze's eyes and burned them, and so then he woke.
Bronze tried to forget about the great two-horned beast as he saw Henry and Allister enter the arena, but a terrible symbolism, vague but curiously regular in thought, continued to leak into his mind. What if that beast was someone, two someones, three someones, that I have met and fought before? But why would I remember them now? They are dead, dead, or imprisoned once more! Why now, Arceus, why?
...
Allister, hunched and masked, sent out a Galarian Yamask. Lancelot hewed it with his leek blade, but the Pokemon seized the spear with its body of shadow, and threw Lancelot in an arc, crushing it against the plazcrete arena.
A spotlight shone on Lancelot's battered body, and it began to store the concentrated photons, putting forth all its Willpower and valiant strength into a single attack. Lancelot turned and cut through the Yamask with a glittering Solar Blade, defeating the Pokemon and hurtling it into the ray shields that protected the audience.
I want to hide, Allister gasped. I want to go home...but I have to keep fighting. N-next! Cursola!
Lancelot, at Henry's bidding, swung its blade again. The point touched Cursola's ethereally membranous skin, but then Lancelot halted, trembling in place. "Don't you know?" Allister said, his voice an androgynous whisper. "If you touch Cursola, you will become as stiff as stone, unmoving through the ages. Have you come to this challenge without doing your homework, Henry Sword?"
"Switch out!" Henry said, seeing that Lancelot was completely immobile. "Fanguru!"
Cursola stretched out like a pale tree from its bowl-shaped base, reaching for the Oranguru. Fanguru weaved, spinning around again to parry a barrage of ghostly needles from Cursola's spines. Eventually, the paranatural* spines would regenerate from the imprisoned lesser spirit's innate energy within Cursola's body.
Useless to keep trying to avoid its attacks forever," Henry thought. I need to end this fast with a super-effective Dark-type move, but the only move Fanguru has like that is Foul Play, which needs to touch Cursola's body. We need to aim for the part of our enemy not covered in that membrane!
"Fanguru!"
The Oranguru sprang into motion, dodging Cursola's branching spines with leaps and narrow parries trained by the Pokemon's ancestral genetic memories in the dark forests of Alola. It turned as Cursola swiveled to meet it, and with two outstretched fingers hit the Cursola squarely in the eyes. Wafts of membrane fell away and dispersed into nothing as the imprisoned Elohim howled in pain at the defeat of its host.
Allister stroked a Poke Ball in his gloved fingers. "My very last Pokemon...how dreadful. I feel the noose of defeat close in around my neck. Gengar! Gigantimax, consume all in everlasting darkness!"
Galar Particles merged with the Gengar's shadowy body, and tendrils of dark smoke curled ever wider and wider until the Gengar had reached a monstrous height, with a massive, open gullet leading into shadow. Even from the executive box Bronze could swear he saw burning fire deep within: a gateway to Sheol.
"You can't switch out..." Allister murmured, looking down. "G-Max Terror...it's like Shadow Tag...now you will never escape! I won't let you!"
"Fine by me," Henry said, activating his own Dynamax Band. "I had no plans to switch my Pokemon. I will finish this battle with Fanguru!"
Allister leered. "W-we'll see about that..."
*Paranatural: can only be explained using anomalous sciences.
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Dealing with spirits is a dangerous business, and much can go awry even when starting with good intentions. Not all visions of the dead are from the truly dead.
-common saying among necromancers and natural psychics
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Allister outstretched his hands, looking gaunt and thin in the bloody light of the Gigantimaxed Gengar's body. "Max Ooze!"
"Dodge!" Fanguru saw the puddle of purple acid grow below it and leaped backward as it sprouted into a violet tower, steaming and spewing corrosive droplets every way. A miraculously close evasion! Henry thought. I hoped Fanguru would use its fan to influence the Gengar until its Dynamax wore off...was this because I wasn't able to maintain the fan properly? Then we ought to not rely on the fan as much...
"Improving the weapon alone brings no improvement to its wielder. Have you forgotten that, Sword?"
The voice came out of the air as if from far away, sounding like a chill wind from the lungs of a ghost. Henry peered into the writhing depths of Sheol, beyond the Gengar's mouth. Dust and darkness swirled in the distance, flickers of lost souls and demons visible in the oppressive spiritual darkness.
"Master?"
...
"He hasn't noticed how much damage his Oranguru has sustained," Bede said. "That dodge wasn't perfect. I assume that the Max Ooze attack was just a Dynmaxed version of Venoshock. Although the Galar Particles have removed the attack's ability to poison opponents, its physical force is greatly increased. Oranguru won't be able to take another hit. Sloppy."
Bede stood and started for the entrance tunnel in the challenger box. "Now that it was his chance to end it then and there, I see now that he was careless. Perhaps I had overestimated him..."
Casey fretted over Marvin, showing him the Pokedex data for Gigantimaxed Gengar. "Marvin, look at this! It says that Gengar can make you hear your loved one's voices from beyond the grave, hoping to steal your life force in the process! Sword might be lost in some hallucination...he needs to stop looking into Gengar's mouth!"
...
The arena fuzzed into a ramble of dissociated flickers until Henry saw a shape, cold and ephemeral set within his eyes. It was Father! Father!
My master! How can I see you? Have you not gone away to where even the Powers know not of, for it resides in the Timeless Halls of Arceus alone?
"Yes," the tingling voice of the specter replied. "I have received the Gift of Men, which is Death. For did not the Original One declare that he would give the Followers a new blessing; to not be bound to the world and its fate as long as it should endure? I have found my way into the dwellings of my forefathers and the ancient saints. But I am but vapor and memory that speaks to you here! And you must not forget..."
"As long as a blade is fair and tempered, does it break through all stalwart habergeons of valiant steel? As long as a shield is scored with runes of protection, will it ward away all wounds and harm? Your armament is the same. To improve something do not seek merely to increase its strength. Aiming for a great power to ward evil at bay might turn for ill, and all that begins well might turn to evil in the Ambition of its pursuers. Treasure the weakness in a thing, and then take council on how to amend it."
More voices cried out from behind the wraith of Henry's father. It seemed that there were many dark shapes mixed with the others, and their eyes glittered and they called to him in fell voices. For they are beings that both in the Seen and Unseen world have great power for evil, but there was a trio of figures that shone with white light and did not grow dim, and they warded away the many wicked things and permitted all that was good to pass. A distant flame in the eyes of one Elohim that seemed to be a tall Pokemon with iron Willpower flashed at Henry, and then vanished as the guardian turned away.
"Weakness is not an evil thing," Henry's father said. "Weakness is not shameful. Those who reject such weakness that they perceive are unworthy of training Pokemon or forging weaponry or tools. For although there are many powers in the world that are able to withstand the might of Evil; for a while: and elsewhere other powers dwell and still do. But there is a power of a different sort in righteous weakness. For to reforge anew what is marred into something Good is to embrace its weakness...and to walk with it."
The shades around Henry's father faded away, and the constant vigilance of the three guardians not perceived in the realm of the Seen was availed. Henry permitted the Swords of Justice to pass over him, and then only his father remained.
"And I say as the one with the wisdom of Death within the Timeless Halls: pick up your sword, my son!"
Pick up your sword!
...
Allister saw Henry stand with dead eyes and then seized his chance, his last chance. "Max Ooze!"
The flint-glare in the Pokedex Holder's eyes burned anew.
"Max Guard!"
The geyser of poison broke like an acrid wave on a breaker as Fanguru summoned a shield of psychic energy. The entirety of the spectators burst into cheers and song, for they had thought that Henry was wholly hampered by the visions of his relatives long passed. Tess had calculated Henry's failure, and was so shocked when he blocked the attack that she burst a blood vessel in her eye, only to heal it with a minor mental trick.
The Gengar shrunk down to a manageable size, and Henry made his move. "Now! Max Darkness!"
A colossal implosion of physic energy blasted the Gengar to little more than a mote of black smoke, before rapidly reforming into a very unconscious Gengar. Allister gave a meek bow, before running away into his quarters.
Victory!
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Stow-on-Side Stadium
Quis custodio ipset custodiet? Who shall guard the guardians?
-Kalosi saying
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"That was a most impressive match, Henry Sword," Bronze said, standing with Casey and Marvin in the waiting room reserved for challengers and their supporters. "Whether you would overcome Gengar's psychic influence was an enigma. Others in the audience also heard their loved ones from the beyond..."
"What did you hear, Chairman Bronze?" Casey asked. "If you aren't offended by me asking..."
"I heard little that was clear," Bronze said. "But there were traces and whispers that I perceived, of ones that I loved passed away from the Gift of Men. My mother and father, the weeping of Logarian maidens in days long past, and the rumor of the suffering and joy of my ancestors down until Admiral Berothrim. And what did you hear, Henry?"
"The rumors of Gengar's power were true!" Henry said with a smile. "I heard my late master's voice; he is what you would call a father. The craft of my family is only to be passed down to one child, in a line unbroken."
"Did you find this appointment unwelcome?" Bronze queried. "There are many who would shy away from such a duty."
"Many, you say? Father didn't intend to force me into the role, but I enjoyed everything he did. I thought it was 'interesting,' although perhaps that is not the right word for it. Ever since I was small, I learned from him and aided him in his smithy." Henry stared past Bronze and into wistful memory. "I started to see a Pokemon's weapon or gear as only a tool for battle, not like an intrinsic part of their bodies, necessary for them to live. Father's specter reminded me of that basic fact."
"I wonder if that was actually your dad's voice from the afterlife," Marvin wondered. "What if it was just a hallucination from Gengar's influence? I have heard that the dead are appointed to die once and then never return. If it was really him, he must've shown you the ropes and then left in good grace. And how did your father die?"
Bronze sighed. Children would be blunt and give a brutally honest juvenile lens toward hard subjects. Marvin was ignorant of all the webs of societal hush-hush around the discussion of Death and other nasty things such as drowning and warfare. To be a child again! But I was never a child, not for very long at least.
"Even I am not sure," Henry said, unoffended. "He woke up in the middle of the night once, went to the western shores of Galar, (if the witness reports are true) boarded a white boat he rented, and never was seen again after the sailed into the stars. My mother died of grief soon after, and then I knew he was dead. My grandparents have been keeping me fed and sheltered for a long while. We just say that he went into the Undying West."
The Undying West, Bronze thought. Not the Undying East, as the Hisuians spoke of? But all roads are bent in this round world, and East becomes West at some point. I must investigate this further.
Bronze's comlink rang, and he took the call. After the brief, chopped summary of an ongoing event relevant to the Chairman's interests, Bronze signaled with his hands in a secret battle-language to Jake and two other Rorian Commandos in civilian clothes in the crowd, who promptly moved to guard him. He excused himself and left in haste for the Stow-on-Side mural.
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Stow-on-Side mural...
A plume of dust rose from the broken mural, covered in esoteric carvings made by the Old Galarians even before the departure of the Two Princes and the Kin-strife long ago. Bede commanded his lent Copperajah to put another hole in the mural, without regard for the artwork's historical value. "Give it another strike! Hatenna senses more Wishing Stars behind this slab of rock."
Bronze and his escort came to the long stairs before the mural, trailed by Casey, Marvin, and Henry. A Gym Challenger? Committing an act of vandalism? What irresponsible days are these!
"Your wanton destruction stops here, Bede!" Jake roared. "Come down without a struggle, and maybe we will consider taking mercy on you!"
How did they find me? Bede thought. Must have been one of those damn watcheyes! "I do not follow orders from you, Imperial Soldier!" Bede snarled. "Chairman Rose asked me to collect these Stars for him, and breaking through this crude mural is the best way to get to the hollow behind it!"
"Liar!" Casey squeaked. "Chairman Rose would never have you destroy a historical artifact!"
"Think again," Bede said, standing in front of the Copperajah's swaying trunk. "Rose lent me this Pokemon! If anything, you lot should stop getting in the way of his will!"
Suddenly, a group of four Macro Cosmos mercenaries passed Bronze and his company, heading toward Bede. Behind them were Oleana and Rose atop another Copperajah, with an ominous combat drone floating behind him. "Challenger Bede, we have been ordered to restrain you on the orders of Chairman Rose of Galar," a mercenary said. "You have the right to ask for legal counsel and remain silent. You have the right to deny our escort. You are not under arrest, you are under civil restriction."
"Bede," Rose began, paying Bronze no mind. "It is true that I had you, as a favor along with my other agents, collect Wishing Stars at your leisure. For that purpose, I lent you a Copperajah. I told you that we needed them to protect Galar's future, didn't I? That future will include Galar's people, Pokemon, cities, natural environment, and its ruins."
Rose dismounted the Copperajah, sliding up next to Bronze. The two Rorian Commandos exuded an air of casual brutality that made Marvin shudder as they put their hands on electroblades and Ultra Balls, pushing up against Rose with astonishing arrogance. They knew that a single one of them could best the four mercenaries and their Pokemon in combat at once. "It is not wise to approach the Grand Bashar in such a manner, Chairman Rose!" a Commando growled. "We are the Bashar's men, the Blades of Roria! Those who stand against us, fall."
"Stand down, solider!" Bronze ordered. "I will put aside my grievances with Rose in order to condemn Challenger Bede for desecrating this mural. Perhaps it has monetary value, but now, it is beyond price. Your judgment is reserved to the people of Stow-on-Side and the League Committee, and I am none of those. Rose alone of all assembled here may decide your fate."
"Rose, arrest the Association Chairman!" Bede screamed. "His men threatened you! He's a relic of a past era, an old man! Don't cooperate with him!"
"Quiet," Rose snapped. "Bede, what will I do with you? In your youth, without guardians and with a dark future ahead of you, I admit that I was reminded of my past self. I saw talent in you! That's why I sent you to the trainers' school so that you could show it. I gave you a chance for a better future, boy. Just when you had the chance to reveal your full potential in the Gym Challenge, you squandered it. It truly is unfortunate, Tercano."
"It is, Rose."
Bede's eyes were bloodshot, but he did not dare to fight. "What do you mean?"
"Someone who destroys priceless ruins," Rose continued, "Even in pursuit of a greater mission has no love for Galar and is not suited to take part in the Gym Challenge. You are levied of my request to collect Wishing Stars for Macro Cosmo's stockpiles. Give the ones you have gathered so far to my personnel when you return to Hammerlocke. My mercenaries will accompany you."
"Return your Challenge Band as well," Bronze said. "You won't be needing it from now on."
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"As of this moment, you, young Bede, are hereby under charges of vandalism and permanently disqualified from the Galarian Gym Challenge."
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Reason is the first victim of strong emotion. This is invaluable to our cause.
-Emrett Dialogues, compiled works
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Jake seized Bede's arm, and with a snick-snick from his pulsesword, the Challenge Band fell as a worthless heap. Two mercenaries dragged Bede into a convoy, set for Hammerlocke. "And that's the last of that," Rose said. "Now, Tercano, has my explanation of my need for Wishing Stars suited your tastes?"
"Not much of an explanation at all, Rose; I heard little. We will see how this shall end, long from now."
Rose laughed, insolently gesturing toward a Commando. "We will see! And you have brought along your soldier-fanatics? What training did these convicted felons receive, tell me! Was it forced drowning and torture, four hours of sleep every week, only a few meals a month, serving on eating beheaded animals while lying in a foxhole for countless days with little movement, or making their first kill at age eighteen? And you are one to preach about cruelty!"
One Commando unsheathed his electrablade, holding it ready. Bronze knew that the warrior was too well disciplined to attack without taking orders, but his stature was imposing enough. In a harsh voice, the Commando began to speak, his Rorian dialect full of strange conventions and characterized by a lack of unnecessary baggage to the vowels and consonants.
"The Grand Bashar, the One Who Leads The Way, did not set such things upon us; we did of our own will. We are the Blades of Roria, and we realize that the body does what the mind believes. We go through hell to become the warriors we were meant to be. Your men are weak, Chairman Rose! We despise them. They are not honorable foes and cannot give us true struggle. To know a thing well we must know its limits, and only when pushed beyond those limits will its true limits be seen. We know our limits: they are what we make for ourselves. I say again: your mercenaries are weak because they do not know their limits and thus cannot go beyond them."
Henry suddenly felt great respect for the elite warriors. Whatever ways they trained themselves to serve Bronze, they had given their all and lived to become super-soldiers, part of the stable political tripod of the world as it was: The Association on one side with the regional governments, the Confederated Rorian States and Bronze's armies, and Macro Cosmos, the Aether Foundation, and many other corporations and their allied interests.
"That may be true," Rose said, turning to leave in his aircar. "But the lasting safety and peace of Galar will be kept by Macro Cosmos, not madmen with electrablades. Goodbye, Chairman Bronze. I hope our relations will improve at a later date."
...
Bronze, having left the Pokedex Holders to their own affairs, gathered Tess's report in his Wyndon hideout.
"The Wishing Stars are being brought to Hammerlocke Energy Plant. We must increase our espionage efforts. One full brigade of Rorian Commandos have arrived at Crown Tundra Base Gamma. Once the audit has been run through the proper Confederation channels, Rose will fall quickly."
"That is satisfactory." Bronze felt as though his victory was secure, but something did gnaw at him. Why are you still so afraid? What weapon could Rose have that would destroy your own forces? Why do these premonitions continue to occur? I must seek answers.
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Explanation: Tess's abilities are like Sherlock Holmes on steroids, both in the power of deduction, human intuition that psychic Pokemon or robots cannot have, and a vast memory being able to hold incredible amounts of raw data. She can make computed calculations and educated guesses far beyond what a normal human could. Sure, you could make a supercomputer or stuff a really smart Rotom in a phone to get this kind of interactivity, but you can't carry the supercomputer around, and the Rotom doesn't have the proper kind of intellect to do that.
She learned all this from a book in a REALLY BIG Library that you can read about in another one of my stories.
