After Being Blue
Poke-Ball 28: Engage
'Rescue our lost souls?' Blue repeated. She wasn't the first to say that, of course, but this was an enlightenment they could definitely do without.
Blaine hesitated a moment longer, then seized the immobile Erika's wrist by one hand and Sabrina's by another. 'Red!' he called. 'Your Pikachu too!'
Red glanced at the not-Agatha, at Blue and Lorelei, and then tossed Pikachu's poke-ball over to Sabrina. 'Take care of him,' he ordered. Sabrina, of course, because who knew, really, what Blaine had in mind.
But he still wanted to believe in him, probably. That's what Blue thought, anyway. Red was still an idealist, at heart. Someone who tackled things head-on, who was upfront about everything and any attempt at subterfuge was bound to end in disaster.
Blue was the opposite. That was why they were here together. 'Ready?' he asked.
'Don't forget about me,' Lorelei laughed. 'You two clumsy boys would've been swept under the rug without me.'
And Blue wondered about that, because they'd been just barely managing before she showed up and that seemed a little too deliberate to be a coincidence.
And now, new pokemon were rising from the sands to match them, match them perfectly. The old ones vanished, and instead Cloyster fought Cloyster, Exeggutor fought Exeggutor, and when Red called his team out one by one, they were matched as well.
Lorelei hummed, unconcerned, and declared attacks over the sound of the dancing waves. Red shouted his attacks with zeal at first, but soon he too began to frown and let the pokemon battle for themselves. Not-Agatha was still watching them, but now there was a wall of pokemon between them. And the questions Red began to hurl at her went ignored.
She was looking in the direction Blaine had taken the others.
More of those twisted pokemon began to spring from the sand.
That was bad. Theirs would be overrun. Agatha would slip away, after the others… But why? Where were they going, for her – it – to be concerned?
Blue looped around. Red caught on and followed. Lorelei continued to shout commands, hold the not-Agatha's attention.
They cut off her road together, shoulder to shoulder: the two trainers who hailed from Pallet Town.
Her tittered. 'Are you two going to stop me?'
They knew, of course, that she was as dangerous – if not more – than any pokemon.
'Of course they aren't,' Lorelei called over the din of pokemon and not-pokemon clashing. 'Children were only ever the tools of war back then, and the tradition hasn't changed: only the world we send them in to.'
She tried to sound as blasé about it as she did about most things, but didn't quite succeed.
And here was another layer of Kanto's less than stellar past unravelling.
'And, of course, children can defeat the cornerstones of the league, but drown in its secrets.' Her lips curved. 'You know that better than anyone, Agatha. You drowned more than anyone. Not Samuel who walked away before he was gone. Not Blaine, lucky Blaine, who had a feather fall into his soul.'
'Feather?' Red echoed.
'Ho-oh?' Blue asked. There weren't many legends about feathers. But Ho-oh was Johto's legend.
'Moltres,' Lorelei grinned like a shark as the island trembled. 'And, of course, the island that imprisons you.'
But Agatha – not-Agatha – was still smiling, albeit strained. And Lorelei's grin dims as well. 'I was aware of both of those things, if you recall.'
'Then you underestimate them to your own peril.'