The Champions

Part 2

A Fragile Soul

I trudged through the Mistralton airport with a wide-brimmed hat that I'd swiped off the rack at the airport's duty-free shop pulled down to hide my face. I wasn't the only trainer here, there were more hiding in every corner, but I was likely the most famous by far. Former Champions aren't exactly a common sight in public, even during moments of crisis like this. I'd caught a few lingering glances and I knew that I'd been made by at least one of the other trainers here. There was nothing I could have done about it though. My flight didn't leave for another three hours.

I passed by the desk at the gate and stole a glance at the woman manning the desk. She was deep in argument with a young woman who was growing increasingly agitated. I caught a few lightly accented words and swore under my breath as I realized that she was a foreign trainer, just trying to get out of the country before she lost her friends. I ducked off to the side of the gate and sat myself in the corner of the seating area, as far away from any prying eyes as I could get. As much as I'd have loved to help, I was in no position to do much more than offer empty words.

I flipped open my Xtranceiver and stared blankly at the screen. Alder still hadn't answered any of my hundred or so texts, making me worried. He was strong, but he was not invincible. None of us were, as we had clearly been shown. Drayden and Iris were examples enough of that. I slammed the Xtranceiver shut and looked out at the rest of the terminal from under my hat.

The face of Unova's most infamous trainer stared back at me from across the terminal. His messy green hair was tucked under a wide-brimmed hat much like my own, tufts of hair sticking out from the sides of the hat undermining his effort to hide himself. His companion sat down beside him, a girl probably still in the midst of her league challenge. She was sleeping as far as I could tell, her arms folded and her eyes shut. He held a single finger up to his lips, shushing me.

"So, that's where you met N as well?" She asked as she pushed her glass toward me for a refill.

We'd moved into my kitchen after I'd complained about needing a snack. She hadn't protested, so I'd put together a platter of snacks for the both of us. Meats, cheeses, veggies, berries, everything you could want was piled up high and served with an oversized jar of vegetable dip. It wasn't much of a meal, but I hadn't really been expecting her to stay for dinner. My fridge wasn't usually stocked for two. It was this or a frozen entree, and I didn't think the entree was appropriate.

I poured her another generous glass of liquor and pushed it back towards her. "Technically, we'd already briefly met, but yes that is where we spoke for the first time."

She sipped at her drink, washing down her food. "What was he like?"

I looked down at my food, my feeling conflicted. On one hand, he had been a pawn of Ghetsis during the first Plasma crisis. He'd been used and discarded the moment his usefulness ran its course, just like I had been. On the other hand, he was still the same man who led a rebellion against the League that resulted in dozens of deaths. He was complicit in that as much as the League had been in creating the conditions that lead to it.

"He was a dreamer," I said cryptically. "He still saw the world in the same light, still saw the injustice in the League's system. He was still just as ready to fight for a better world." I shrugged, not knowing exactly how to articulate myself. "At least this time he was on our side."

"That's all great, but I was looking for a more personal take." She put down her notepad and raised an eyebrow at me. "Something real, personal to you."

I looked up at her and she saw the conflict worn clear on my face. "I hated him for what he was. He was a living symbol of the League's failings. His very existence sparked questions about the League's system, just because he dared to ask if things could be different. Don't get me wrong, I have my issues with the way the League works, but it is fundamentally a good thing." I smiled, lost in thoughts of a happier world. "The idea of a team of people dedicated to the safety of the people? A team to defend us against the monsters of the wild? Its an optimistic idea to be sure. As if that team, that Champion would be above political motives and bullshit of the day..."

She looked at me with an intriguing smile. "I take it that its not quite as pure as you expected?"

I frowned. "I never asked for that kind of responsibility. Hell, I didn't know anything about responsibility when I made Champion. I was fifteen for fuck's sake." I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I really can't explain any further. I've already probably said too much."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "In the privacy of your own home?"

I smiled innocently at her. "As if I would be allowed such privacy. Do you really think that I'm afforded that? That the League would allow that?"

She looked down at her notes and frowned. "We were talking about N," she said. She was smart. I could see her putting the clues together in her head. "What did you think of him personally?"

I nodded and sat back in my chair. I'd given her the clues, hammered her over the head with some of them. All that was left was for me to finish up our interview. "He was nothing like the news reports made him out to be, all soft concern and compassion for those who had been wronged. He was no fiery revolutionary, despite what I'd seen on the news. Just a lost soul looking for someone to help him."

She looked straight into my eyes and I felt her gaze working through the layers of emotionless exterior that I kept around myself. "But you still hated him?" she asked quietly.

I nodded. "Yes," I said coldly. "He still thought himself above us, like he was better than the rest of us because he didn't call himself a trainer." I shook my head. "He still had a team of pokemon fit to rival any Champion. He still called them into battle, even when they had no hope of winning. He was a trainer, whether he liked that or not."

She nodded and jotted down a note on her pad. "Where did you meet Ms. Mayweather?" She asked, pivoting away from N. I think she could tell that she wasn't going to get anything useful out of me with that subject. "Records show she was a part of 'The Champions' from the very beginning. How did she come into play?"

My expression froze. I fought the urge to pitch my drink at the mention of her name. She hadn't deserved that cold fate, even less so than the rest of us. "Eliza Mayweather was perhaps the greatest hero out of the six. She was trapped in a foreign country, with enemies at every turn. Through it all, she held onto hope that she would see her home again… Hope that I tried to give her."

"What happened, Mr. Rykker?"

I hung my head in shame. "She died."

It had been two and a half agonizing hours. Alder still hadn't shown, something that was beginning to give me pause. I wasn't entirely sure whether I should get on the plane or not.

Another outburst from the desk drew my attention, along with every other person in the terminal. The woman who had been at desk when I arrived was back at the desk, pleading with the attendant in an increasingly desperate tone.

I glanced around, watching a half dozen of the other travellers at the gate begin discreetly filming her. She was drawing attention to us all, too much for my liking. Plasma could arrive at any second, and she'd given them the equivalent of a blinking sign in the sky. I stood up, catching a knowing wink from N in the process. The smug bastard probably already knew what I was doing.

I crossed the gate quickly and sidled up behind the woman. She was sobbing, loud and hard into her phone. "Excuse me?" I said. "Is there a problem?"

"Oh!" the desk attendant said. "Mr. Rykker, my apologies. We had no clue that you were among us today. I was just-"

"Stop," I said, hushing her before she could continue. She'd recognized me instantly, something I'd been afraid of. At least I could use that to my advantage. Being a celebrity does have its uses at times. "What is the issue here?" I continued. "It's probably not very good for business for Air Unova to have a former Champion as a disgruntled passenger." I turned to the young woman and smiled. "What seems to be the problem with my companion here?"

"Well, as I was just explaining to Ms. Mayweather, we cannot change the departure time for any reason. These things are determined far in advan-"

I turned away, half hauling the desperate young woman away from the desk. She wasn't going to get anywhere like this, and I needed her to calm down. It drew every pair of eyes in the terminal, something that I'd feared. There was nothing I could do. I had to calm her down before someone from Plasma caught wind of the dozen or so trainers impatiently waiting for escape. Or else we were all dead anyways.

I sat her down in the seat and knelt in front of her. She met my gaze with her own and I could tell she was angry. "Look," I started. "I want to get out of here just as much as you do." My mind drifted back to Sherys and I suppressed tears that I couldn't spare. "Making a scene is just gonna bring them down on us that much faster. You understand?"

She looked down at her phone, slowly calming the massive sobs wracking her body. "We should have left already," she said between sobs. "We can't be here when they get here. They'll separate us from our pokemon, take them away from us."

"No," I said. "They won't. They're killing any who resist. The fact that you're here, with me? It means that you resisted."

"I didn't-"

I cut her off with an angry glare. "Look, I didn't make the rules. But we have to stay calm. That's the only thing that's gonna get us through this." My eyes didn't leave hers, and I felt her slowly relax as she slowed her breathing. "We aren't the only trainers here, so let's stay calm until we have a reason to panic. We're all here for the same thing so let's just relax and wait for the plane." I smiled as best I could, hoping that my words would get through to her.

She nodded slowly. "Thank you," she mumbled.

I smiled in a thinly veiled attempt to raise her mood. "Don't mention it," I said. I stood up slowly and sat down in the seat beside her. "What's your name, kid?" She couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen. Probably came over to try her hand at the Unova circuit when she stalled out in her home country. It was pretty common back then.

"My name is Liza. I'm from Hoenn."

I nodded, scanning the crowd for any inquisitive faces. I caught N's gaze for a moment and the condescending bastard just smirked at me. "Well, Miss Liza, welcome to Unova. As you can see, we're in the middle of something at the moment. Please try not to judge us too harshly for it."

She looked at me blankly, shoulder length brown hair perfectly framing her pretty, young face. She had a red bow tied in her hair and I noticed that her travel gear was relatively new. "Was that supposed to be funny?" She asked.

I grimaced. I was really only used to speaking with Sherys and my League handler on a regular basis and it was showing. Even my sarcasm wasn't funny, possessing none of the with that I'd had in my youth. "Yes," I said blankly. I looked down at her outfit, eager to change the subject. "New to Unova? I asked?"

She nodded. "Got here less than a month ago. I was planning on running the League circuit, but that isn't happening now."

I smiled at her. She was just a kid, travelling and seeing the world before she challenged the League most likely. She was still optimistic about the way the world worked, a lot like I had been before I made Champion. I pitied her. "You probably dodged a bullet there," I said.

She turned to look at me, confused. "How so?"

I smiled, my best facsimile of an innocent smile. "The League isn't what you think it is, kid. Take it from me, you're better off finding yourself a nice cushy private sector job and settling down. Better that than trap yourself in responsibility that you never asked for."

She studied my face. I knew I wasn't making a good first impression, but I didn't really care. I'd calmed her down and gotten her away from the desk. That was all that I really cared about. "You're just a ray a sunshine, aren't you?"

I smirked. "I'm positively golden," I replied. "Jason Rykker, former Champion of the Unova League."

She frowned and looked down at her phone. "I know," she started, before she fell silent.

I traced her view to her phone screen. It was open on a message. I looked away, not trying to intrude. It was already too late for that though. There are some things that aren't for other people to see. That was one of them.

"If you don't mind my intrusion, what was the message?" She asked.

I frowned. I hadn't been trying to intrude myself. It still hurt to think about what that kid was trying to say. That she never would get an answer. "I didn't catch it," I said curtly. "It wasn't for my eyes to see."

She frowned. "But your eyes did see it. I can see that on your face."

I met her gaze and I think she felt that pushing on this wasn't going to get her an answer. So she changed her tack. "Moving on," she continued. "Your plane was leaving in half an hour. What happened that made you miss it?"

My grip tightened on my drink almost imperceptibly. I never liked showing my emotions to others, even less so when they'd share them with even more. This interview was practically my worst nightmare. "We actually made it to boarding. N and his companion somehow had been a part of the priority boarding and were already on board. Eliza and I were in line, just a few spots away from the desk."

I relaxed my grip on my drink ever so slightly. Perhaps my therapist had been right by telling me to talk about all this. Should have listened to her before I fired her.

"Then, the goddamn ceiling exploded. Chunks of concrete, steel, rebar, wood, everything that had been above us just collapsed. I felt a chill down to my bones, and I could barely feel my hands anymore."

"Was that the arrival of the weapon?" she asked.

I nodded. "It came from the south, after visiting Castelia and burying Burgh in a casket of ice. Driftveil and Mistralton apparently surrendered right then and there, upon seeing what had happened to Castelia. We had no idea what was happening. With UNN down, the only news we could find were scattered social media posts. All our windows were facing north, so we couldn't even see that damned airship bearing down on us. It hit the airport with that damned weapon and damn-near trapped us all inside."

She nodded, taking down notes furiously. "How did you escape?" she asked. "It seems like an impossible situation. Kind of makes you see why the public looks at you all like heroes. You did the impossible."

I snorted with a rude laugh. "Impossible?" I asked incredulously."We were lucky, and smart, and still that wasn't enough! Look who's left of us! Just me and Benga, and Benga ain't gonna tell anyone what really happened, what we really had to do. Little cocky bastard did enough to be considered a fucking war criminal if he'd lost."

"We're getting sidetracked," she said. "How did you get out of the airport?"

I smiled, thinking back to that beautiful bastard's entrance. "Alder," I said. "And a metric fucking ton of luck."

I groaned, lifting with all the strength I had. Demeter was at my side, helping me lift the steel girder off Liza's leg. The poor girl had been trapped under the ceiling as it fell, sheer luck sparing me from being crushed alongside her. She wriggled out, cursing and spitting in an accent that had noticeably thickened.

"Thanks," she said quietly as she dusted herself off. "What now?"

I found it odd that she so immediately trusted me, but I guess being a Champion does lend you that kind of trust in dire situations. "We gotta move, before..."

She followed my gaze, finding the reason my voice had just died in my throat. The massive airship floating above Mistralton was a monstrosity, hundreds of slits peeking open at us from the bottom of the ship. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that they were cannons of some kind. A larger weapon was slung below the ship, venting snow in massive plumes that already blanketed the ship's path.

The cannon groaned and shifted as the ship hovered in place. I turned to look at Eliza, fear in my eyes. "Do you have any fire types?" I asked.

She shook her head. I could see movement from the remnants of the airport terminal, but I had no time to call for more assistance. I had no way of knowing if any of those still alive were even trainers.

I swore. Soulfire was out in a flash of light, his ghostly flames doing nothing to ward off the cold. Ghost fire did not offer heat, not for the living. "Find us a tunnel!" I shouted, looking back at Liza. It was a ghost of a chance, a thin hope at best, but there had to be some way out. I turned back to face the ship, my courage drying up as I watched the massive cannon level itself with me. I glanced up at my chandelure, watching the flame in his central lantern rage against cruel fate. "Overheat!"

Soulfire erupted like a volcano. For a brief, fleeting moment, the full force of a champion level fire type ignited the morning sky.

The ship fired again, painting the sky white with ice and snow. An avalance met the force of the sun, clashing with an eruption of steam.

I covered my face with my arm, praying that Eliza had survived the blast. Demeter was at my side, and I knew that we had precious little time. "HYPER BEAM!"

Demeter opened her maw, a brilliant ball of iridescent energy swirling in the dead tree's open mouth. She spat the beam into the sky, directly at the ship that had buried us in snow. I felt the shockwave hit us and stumbled when it washed over me. I looked back up into the sky, praying that I'd just saved us all.

The steam cleared after a few moments, leaving us with a horrifying sight. The ship hung there motionless, not a scratch on the hull. I couldn't even see an impact crater on the bottom of the ship, giving me fear that Demeter had missed.

The ship's cannon began venting snow again, and I resigned myself to my fate. My pokemon were spent, Demeter barely even able to move after using a move like that. Soulfire wouldn't be able to use overheat at that power again, not so soon after the last time. We were dead.

Flames and lightning erupted from the ruined terminal. They hit some kind of invisible barrier around the ship. The bubble of energy flared and I realized that fighting would be futile. We were all so dead.

A charizard lifted off the ground, carrying a young trainer into the sky. They were trying to hit the ship from a different angle or something. The kid was brave. He was the son of a former Kantoan Champion, on vacation with some of his friends. They were the ones fighting now, taking after my example. They were the real heroes. Not one of them were over thirteen, and yet they rushed into battle regardless.

I never saw the ship fire. I only saw the result. A couple idealistic kids dead, their pokemon gored by a hundred spears of ice. The charizard and her rider hit the ground off to my side, plowing through the frozen remnants of a plane's fuselage. I wasn't watching anymore, I'd turned away to look for Liza. She waved me over and I ran for my life. I returned my pokemon to my ball, doing my best impression of a civilian just running for their lives. It would never have worked. I was too far away and I'd already given myself away as a trainer.

Alder and Benga chose their moment perfectly. A pair of volcarona swept over the battlefield, bathing the airship in flames that would have melted any of my pokemon on their best day. I covered my eyes as a pair of stars hit the ship's shield with all the force that the flaming bugs could muster. A firestorm erupted overhead and I no longer spared any thought for the battle overhead. My only thought was of survival.

I found myself in the tunnel that Liza had been waving from. N was sitting against the wall of the tunnel panting heavily. His companion was gone. I didn't bother to ask what had happened. I didn't have to.

I set down my drink and glanced back at the clock. "It's getting late, Ms Hall. Perhaps we should continue this in the morning?"

She looked up from her notepad. "Agreed," she said. She glanced at the time and grimaced at the realization of how late it was. Or perhaps it was early at this point, I could never tell. "It seems that I should have booked a hotel room."

I raised an eyebrow. I wasn't surprised by that. There weren't many hotels around my remote home north of Aspertia, and the interview had only been supposed to last an hour or so. "I do have a spare room, if you wouldn't mind staying the night."

She nodded and closed her notebook. "I wouldn't," she said. "We can continue the rest of the interview tomorrow."

I rose to my feet and dropped our shared plate into the sink. "Follow me, then," I said. "But stay close. I've heard that this place can be very haunted at night."

She drew closer to me and I couldn't help but chuckle. The ghosts that haunted me weren't pokemon, but she didn't need to know that. She didn't need to know that I still see their faces in my dreams at night. The house wasn't any more haunted than my last house had been. I was the one who was haunted by the past, by the memories of those I couldn't save.

I might not be a hero, but maybe I can give those memories the justice they deserve. Just maybe. All it'll take is a little push in the right direction.