13.

Volcano Man

And his mind is a beacon in the veil of the night —
For a strange kind of fashion there's a wrong and a right

Candice's faded mauve faux-Sandile-skin handbag was loaded with contrabands.

The front pocket held jewelry — thick, heavy rings of obsidian too big for her fingers, polished carnelian pendants, loose agates from the shores of Lake Acuity, loose garnets from the murky caves of Galar, a whole handful of metallic ear studs, multiple packets of smoke seals, and tie clips crusted over with citrine. At the top of the pile was a tiny gold-plated lapel pin inlaid with the shape of a four-pointed star. This she often removed from the top of the pile, just to rub her thumb over the ridges and imagine it gave off its own heat.

The other things were too eclectic for a girl's day out. There was a bag of red jellybeans, sure. And fancy cutlery, okay. And a pair of sweaty men's fingerless biking gloves, a memento? No, the mementos were the photos of Flint she'd snatched out of their frames. And the wallet full of his credit cards and Battle Frontier Platinum passes. And his three-in-one body wash and razors and deodorant. There was a badge case containing retired designs and autographs from bygone Gym Leaders with names like Darius and Gladys and Aaron. Then there was the incense stick, and a statue of a Lopunny with a perilla leaf in its paws, and letters from the Kalosian Champion Diantha of all people — Candice hadn't read them — okay, she had. And they were… different than expected.

She tore the first one out again:

"Je suis désolé, mais je ne suis pas votre mère. Merci de ne plus m'écrire."

Whatever the context, it was dated from over ten years ago, and she'd found it in a shoebox shoved deep under Flint's bed with Volkner's retainer and a slew of similar denials. She figured it was worth taking, if only to keep it from getting out there.

Yet the most concerning contrabands in Candice's handbag were the over twenty Poké Balls that barely allowed the top clinch to close around them. Her own, of course, and then the ones she'd taken from Volkner's nightstand and Flint's lava lamp chandelier.

And with a blue jacket hanging too-big around her shoulders and a pair of outgrown black bangles squeezing her wrists, she rubbed the lapel pin and flopped over in the sand of Sunyshore Beach, ready to let the overcast sky and the roaring tide rush in to swallow her whole.

"Hey, are you alive?"

Candice flinched. She'd only been lying down for a second, and now something big and black was licking her nose. She tilted her chin to stare into the unblinking red eyes of an Umbreon, which purred and wagged its tail when it confirmed she was indeed breathing.

"Were you talking to me?" Candice whispered.

"Up here, Pecha Moscato."

And a sandal jabbed playfully into the small of her back. Candice squeaked, then rolled over and sat up to catch the equally-red eyes of Umbreon's trainer. Never mind those. Take in the eyebrows above them — thicker, lighter, but still the same quirky arches that were so familiar and gut-wrenching she was forced to stare at the sand again.

"Hey Moscato, I'm not a ghost. You can say hello to me. I'm already gonna be in big trouble for making my fifteen-minute break a whole morning to come down here. Whaddaya got to make up for all my missing tips?"

That voice. Even scratchier, but still with that spritely cadence that turned her heart inside out.

"You are in rough shape, dude. I'd help if I could, but I don't exactly serve energy roots," the newcomer laughed, scooping Candice up under the armpits and helping her to stand. She finally jolted awake when the firm hands gripped her, squeaking out a quick apology.

"Buck. Thanks for coming. I'm so out of it right now. I can't remember what I'm thinking about moment to moment. I might be getting sick."

"Aw, no problemo, Moscato dude," Buck said, passing her a water bottle. "If there's somethin' going on with Fireball, I don't see why I shouldn't know about it. Usually I hear about his misadventures and just laugh at him, but that's when he shows up to the island and tells me himself. It's a little different when a Gym Leader gets me involved."

"And I'm not Volkner."

"You're not Volkner. But you are wearing his jacket."

Candice shrugged, coughing a bit as she choked down as much water as she could. Her cheeks were sticky with sweat and sand. It wasn't the first time she'd stolen the famous blue jacket, and she would make sure she was its one and only thief. No shifty Zoroark claws or grabby detractor hands allowed.

Zoroark…

She forced herself to look at Buck. He was Flint's half-brother, eight years younger and quite a bit shorter, yet with all the toned muscle in his arms and legs Flint hadn't managed to gain. His nose was thinner and his eyes larger. His red hair was more kinky than curly, all pulled back into an explosion of a ponytail most of the time. He had a natural tan where his brother was fair, at least in winter months. But the shape of his nails was the same. The tendons in his neck were the same. His lips were the same — soft and kind and stretching wide when he caught her staring.

"They're awesome right?"

"What? Your lips?"

"These!" Buck cried, pointing to his earlobes. The skin was tight and red around two thin, shining spikes shoved through the centers. Black obsidian. Candice cursed herself for knowing immediately.

"I was gonna try and pierce my septum with this cool shard I found, but my mom caught me with the bottle of rubbing alcohol and made me some actual spikes instead. They're obsidian like what Fireball likes! And I still did the piercings myself! They hurt like a Bidoof! They still hurt. Not too bad, but I keep rolling on 'em in my sleep and then I gotta get up and clean 'em. That was a couple weeks ago, before my evening shift. My boss totally lectured me about The Battleground being a "professional establishment," and I had to tell him if he tells me to take the spikes out, he's disrespecting my culture. I'm just carrying out ancient traditions as a Volcano Man. I can rock a stereotype, right? I don't know a whole lot about my ancestors, but if I say I'm a Volcano Man and I have to keep my spikes in, presumably the idiots will buy it instead of trying to offend me, you know? Anyway, I didn't get too far with my argument. My boss is my own grandpa, and he knows I'm not a Volcano Man. My ancestors were apparently migrants from all over the place who thought Stark Mountain looked cool. That's what the old pots say."

"Buck, your lips are a volcano."

"What's with you and my lips?"

"They just…"

"Do I got something in my teeth?"

"No, you just… remind me of Flint."

Buck laughed again, loud enough to scare away the Wingull. His Umbreon was smiling too, if that were at all possible.

"How the heck do I remind you of Fireball!? You know, when I tell people we're related, they just kinna stare blankly at me and call me a dumb kid. And I'm like 'No, seriously, my older brother is in the Elite Four. Flint. He's my brother. He comes here sometimes. He drinks straight Fireball and gives me noogies and calls me his little volcano man.' Then they wanna get all hung up on the details, 'cause nobody else in my family's got red hair, and I gotta explain how my mom's my mom, but my real dad is actually Flint's dad — the one who backflipped off the lighthouse. My mom took me to live on the island when I was little 'cause Flint went off on his journey and Sunyshore wasn't all cleaned-up and gentrified yet. That's when she got married again to my alive dad and had my little brother and sister. And then they wanna ask who Flint's mom is, and I'm like 'Some movie star.' And they're like 'You're a lonely kid, aren't you, Buck. You're always makin' stuff up.' And that's when I tell 'em Fireball doesn't have gangly dancer legs for nothing."

"He does have dancer legs," Candice agreed.

"He does! I know that, and I barely ever see him, so obviously he's my actual brother! I wish I saw him more often! Maybe people would actually believe me then. They say if my bro's an Elite, then I'd have to be a Gym Leader or something. Why am I a bartender? And… I dunno. I don't really have an answer for that. For a while I thought I was gonna be an archaeologist, but then I broke my ribs trying to steal Heatran's stupid rock. We Perillas cannot sit still. You've learned that these past few days, haven't you, Moscato."

"Yeah… "

"Did you guys make out?"

"Yeah…"

"Uffda. That's what you'd say, right?"

"Yeah…"

"But I'm just as hot as he is, right?"

Buck didn't get an affirmative answer. Just Candice's snow-pale cheeks going completely red, and a snort of laughter that sounded a bit strangled under the weight of the circumstances. He picked up her handbag and glanced briefly at the contents, then handed it to her. He had questions, and he didn't have questions, and he'd stick to the burning questions for the time being. With a nod, he and Candice began walking back up the surf, away from the taped-off section of blackened sand and charred-up foliage.

"Maybe it was the wine, but I'd finally decided I was going to challenge the Four and try to take a seat. He was all over the idea. We must've talked for an hour about who I should dethrone. Flint told me it's a state secret, but Aaron wants out. He says thirty's too old to keep calling himself the Boy-Wonder of Bug-Types and he's sick of Lucian bullying him and Flint. But he likes the limelight too much. I could target Lucian, but he'd see our relationship and make it into a scandal of some kind. It's safer to secure a seat first and then take him down from the inside. I asked about Bertha, and Flint got all offended. 'She's my second cool grandma!' he said. And then I teased the idea of taking his seat. His eyebrows did that thing. He reminded me of my Type disadvantage. I'd have to beat him twice, and he wouldn't go easy on me. He'd use his full power — the kind that's never shown on TV. He only uses it when he's battling Volkner. And then I said, "Let's not talk about Volkner" and he said, "Let's not talk at all," and he started kissing me again. It was like when you have two red jellybeans and one is cinnamon and one is sour cheri berry and you accidentally put both in your mouth at once and the flavors actually work—"

"Stop," said Buck.

"Sorry. I'm not like this usually."

"You are like this, but… I think you should fill me in more on what happened after the kissing stuff. My brother is missing, Candice."

She nodded, hand coming up to cover her mouth and fresh tears already streaming down her cheeks. Buck pulled her close, but she shoved him away. That torso. That strength. That late-summer heat…

"I was drunk and scared, and I was so embarrassed," she sobbed. "He was taken right in front of me. I barely registered what happened. Only that the Zoroark had made itself look like Volkner, and then it transformed and took him. I stood staring out the hole in the windows until morning, and then I put all his rings and Poké Balls in this handbag, and I thought if I found him and he needed soap and deodorant I would pack some for him—"

"When did you tell the police?"

"Yesterday."

"Not until yesterday?"

"Well, you heard yesterday. I called you."

"Right, then the police called my mom and she called me. Then Cynthia called me. Aaron was at the bar talking to me, so that's how he found out. I'm sure the whole League knows some version by now. A Zoroark's taken Flint."

"Except Volkner," Candice forced. "I still don't know where Volkner is. He cut off all communication."

Buck shook his head. "No sign of him anywhere on the island… You don't think his disappearance is connected to Flint's."

"I don't know what to think at all. It was Volkner's handwriting on the note. But then… what if a Zoroark took him too? What if it was a Zoroark that battled Flint? What if that's why he was so angry? It just wanted Flint to think him leaving was his fault so his emotions would weaken him…"

"There's no motive, though. Why would Zoroark target Flint, if not also Volkner? He's been around the world and never told me anything about angering one."

"That's why I'm scared, Buck. An Elite Four member, a powerful Gym Leader… I'm strong enough to beat both of them if I try. That's why I've been hiding out. That's why I need you to take care of all these Poké Balls. I need to search for him. I'm not going back to Snowpoint when I could be next. If Volkner's out there, free somewhere, he'll find out eventually and help, but if he isn't…"

"Ah, so this is why I'm not a Gym Leader," Buck said.

"I didn't know I'd ever have to face something like this as a Gym Leader. It was Pokémon, fashion and romance for me, and the romance was supposed to be the kind where you wake up in the morning to the smell of something burning and he gives you a pancake with a crispy black heart shape underneath… "

She broke down again, sniffling and shaking despite the muggy temperature.

"Well, I'm not leaving you here if you're gonna sleep in the sand," Buck said. "We can go to the Survival Area. You can rest up, and if you're feeling better tomorrow we can look for him. Don't forget how strong he is, Moscato — Candice, don't cry. It's okay. Uh… yeah, I'm not as… good with feelings as my brother. Um… it'll be okay."

"How can we go to the island!? I have all these Poké Balls! It's too many for one trainer to take on the boat. Volkner's parents can't take his. They're not even in the region right now."

"Hm, well, you did call the right dude for the job. Claydol! And Claydol! Show your double awesomeness!"

Buck tossed two Poké Balls in the air, and two Claydol emerged. Their bulbous, many-eyed bodies floated so that they reached just above his head in height. Then he set down his satchel and took out what looked like two big nets made out of hemp suspenders sewn together. Plastic handles ripped from inner tubes were glued along the edges, and a leather belt was clinched around the center of each. Buck tapped the stubby floating limbs of one Claydol so they rotated, points facing upward. He slung a corner of a net over each one so it hung down under its body as a kind of mesh hammock swing. With too much force, he got down on one knee and flung out his hands to the thing.

"Presenting the Ride Pokémon of Alola, miss."

Claydol spun around and rumbled, all its eyes looking none too pleased.

"You made that?"

"I sure did. I've got the burns from the hot glue gun to prove it. Since Claydol's amazing psychic power makes it float, I've been able to island-hop all summer checking out ruins and crap, and looking in Fireball's windows, of course. His pad back on Lily-of-the-Valley Island is an absolute mess, but I can't blame him when Aaron is a thirty-year-old man who lives in a ball pit. As long as I don't get caught by the Rangers patrolling the bay, I don't have to pay a cent in boat fare anymore. I even checked out that big protest at the Sunyshore Gym. If ya stayed long enough, they were giving out freezies to people who screamed too much. I got two! And of course nobody recognized me, so I didn't get slandered. Also a good reason not to be a Gym Leader."

Candice came over, tugging on the straps. She slipped her arms fully into the sleeves of Volkner's jacket for warmth. Then she plopped herself down in the net, stretching it with her heels and slipping her sandaled feet into two of the handles. Buck clipped the belt tightly around the waist of her camisole and set her handbag in her lap.

"And this is totally safe," she said.

"How do you think I got here just now? I trust my Claydol with my life. They're the reason Heatran didn't eat me. Just relax and enjoy the sights," Buck replied, buckling himself into the other Claydol's hammock. With Umbreon tucked in beside him, he tugged on two suspenders serving as hanging reins.

Both Claydol rose up and shot forward over the waves. Candice's every muscle seized. The cold wind was spitting spray from below and fresh rain from above, and in no time her skirt and jacket were soaked in saltwater. She panicked when a few globs of dark clay slid off from above and landed in her hair. Then Claydol's body glowed faintly, and suddenly the spray and rain all hit and streaked down an invisible barrier, protecting from further damage.

Buck drove his ride far out ahead, navigating between protruding rocks and over large clumps of seaweed. Candice's tried to follow, but every so often would dip too low or lean too far left or right, and her elbows nearly kissed the slimy green growth. Dark shapes spied her from under the rushing gray waves. Things with fins and fangs unused to whatever animated sculpture carrying a human zinged by them. She'd gone surfing with Flint, yes, or paddled on a board, at least, but hovering suspended over the waves with only a few strips of hemp between her rear and the cold blue sea had her heart pounding and her hands clasped too tightly around her handbag.

Eventually they passed between the Veilstone coast and Lily-of-the-Valley Island — that which had once been one peninsula creating a full, rounded gulf on Sinnoh's eastern edge. Now the sea was such that the island was cut off, made mysterious and isolated. It was the site of Sinnoh League tournaments and the League HQ — forever home of the Elite Four. Flint's home, her heart screamed over the wind.

Focus, she screamed back. Her feelings were being as fickle as Flint's, and she couldn't tell whether that was a good thing.

"Someday you'll fall in love, Candice, and all that focus of yours will go right out the window," her friend Gardenia once told her.

Yes, she snapped back at the memory, but Flint was just a friend until the other night… and we only kissed once. Twice. And we had snacks and he put his arms around me and his chest was so warm and I could feel his heartbeat... It was one night! I shouldn't feel so miserable!

Buck had the Claydol duck into a rocky tunnel beneath the island to avoid being spotted by Rangers. The momentum had her smashing into dark waters, and her skirt and hair were soaked.

She was soaked and morose, then, when both Claydol, melting and rumbling with annoyance, finally surged north between the prongs of Stark Island — the volcanic mini-region surrounding Stark Mountain, and found themselves in the rocky cliffside village known as the Survival Area. Buck's parents and Aaron of the Elite Four were already waiting with towels and scoldings, rushing both of them into a house from the downpour.

Candice was showered and fed and questioned, and seemingly inspired by Buck's volcano of a mouth, she spouted every detail of that fateful night.

"I think it was a beige tank top — not a yellow one. He wasn't wearing it when the Zoroark came in. I put my hands on his bare shoulders and his bare chest swelled out."

"Tell us more about the Zoroark," Buck's mom said.

"Player!" Buck scoffed.

"Buck, please."

"Playyyer," Aaron agreed, doing sit-ups off one arm of the couch, a Skorupi threatening his neck with its claws if he let himself hang too far down.

And then Candice let the handbag spill out everywhere, revealing everything inside of it — the rings, the pendants, the deodorant and razors, the little Lopunny statue ("Hey, that's dad's! Did you know we're a long line of respected Lopunny trainers?") and the sweaty biking gloves ("Why do you have those?" asked the little red-eyed girl. "They smell like him," Candice said.) And the letter from Diantha (Buck just laughed and laughed. No explanations given. He was quickly stuffed away upstairs so he could clean his ear spikes and throw on his apron to make up for the missing morning shift.) And all the Poké Balls — her own and Volkner's and Flint's. One popped open, revealing Raichu, and then they all had to be opened, so the situation could be explained fully, and by the end of that whole deal Candice's eyes were as dark and blotchy as Volkner's, and she was sneezing into her damp towel like Infernape using Flamethrower.

"I am so sorry, Venia," she told Buck's mom. "I'm a mess. I'm not like this usually. I don't know what's wrong with me. And I feel so awkward telling you we're dating… that we started… that I wanted him to kiss me and he did."

"He's liked you for a long time, Candice," she replied. "From what he told me, anyway."

"True dat," said Aaron, sliding up next to her on the couch.

"Aaron, are you actually a thirty-year-old man who lives in a ball pit?" Candice asked, slumping down over her knees.

The green-eyed Bug master leaned back and snickered to himself. "Which part's harder to believe? There's an online forum with five thousand members devoted to arguing whether I have a babier face than Leader Milo from Galar. He's thirty-two."

She looked at him, narrowing her eyes.

"Every time I see you, I have to say it. You are sixteen years old."

"Every time I see you, I gotta feel old. You wanna know why Flint says 'Burn, Baby, Burn?' It's 'cause he's the Sinnoh Four's baby," Aaron whispered, slipping her his Trainer ID. "The Aaron on that badge case is me, you know. I gave him and Volkner the Forest Badge way back when."

"Is it true you want out of the Four?"

Aaron shifted uncomfortably. His lips twitched, his eyes grew dark, and she felt a gravity grow between them — something powerful separating the worlds of incarnate Leaders and heavenly Elites.

"Don't get any ideas in your head about icing me over, Candice. I was the first Bug-Type Gym Leader to ever win a seat, and I've fought pincer and mandible to defend that seat ever since. I'm the one they always want to rematch. I'm the one who fights his hardest to win."

He got up and left, then, heading for a better conversation with Buck at The Battleground bar.

Left alone with her thoughts, thundering louder than the storm outside, Candice traipsed up the stairs to the bed Venia had prepared for her. She cuddled into the sheets, only to find the little room was so much darker than she was used to. Her home back in Snowpoint City had a friendly bronze streetlight outside the window. It was one of those lovely solar-powered ones popping up all over the mainland. They reminded her of Volkner's spark — alive and electric beneath lonely snow and silent winter breezes.

"Who put these up!?"

"You mean it wasn't you?"

"No! Mine have motion sensors! I could install some if you want! Really, whose idea was this? It's great!"

"I can't say. All I know is you're rubbing off on the whole region, Volkner. Sinnoh's going solar."

He'd grinned, he'd actually beamed at her. Volkner wanted a tour of the whole photovoltaic system, of which she knew nothing about. They'd ended up driving out to the electric company responsible. She listened to Volkner talk to guys in orange t-shirts and hardhats until his spark had swelled into a nuclear beacon hot enough to melt the snow outside.

She had a photo from that day, saved on her computer at home and shared with her Rotom Phone so she could bring her folder of besties wherever she went. Candice awakened the symbiont with a light tap, and it floated up to where she could quickly locate the memory in question.

[This is a photo of the trainer known as Volkner. Favorite dessert: vanilla éclairs. Favorite movie: Sleepless in Striaton. Favorite Pokémon: Dedenne. Zzt!]

Candice flicked the screen. "I really need to show you my magazines. He's totally a lone wolf who wouldn't touch a romcom with a ten-foot lightning rod. And his favorite Pokémon is Pikachu, not Dedenne. He only thinks Dedenne is cute."

[Nu-uh, bestie. New data suggests Volkner's favorite Pokémon is Dedenne. Here is a photo taken at 8:04 a.m. today of Volkner cuddling a Dedenne. It is a 94% match with your photo. Zzzzzzzzt!]

The screen flashed, and she was taken into the World Coronation Series app — the photo-sharing side. Some trainer named Ash in the Normal Class had posted a photo of a training session.

[My new partner Riolu is working hard! It already knows the move Vacuum Wave! Any Normal-Class trainers can find us for a tough battle in Vermilion City! Just stay safe!]

"Rotom, this is one of those photos of Volkner that's making me say 'That's not Volkner. That's Ash from Pallet Town.'"

[You gotta zoom in, girl. He's there.]

Candice strained her eyes in the dark. She took a screenshot of Ash and his Riolu, then zoomed in with her fingers.

There… in the background. Next to a streetlight. There was a man in a black coat cuddling a Dedenne while tampering with an electrical panel on the side of the pylon. A screwdriver in his right hand, a reel of copper wire in his left, and the pudgy orange mouse nuzzling into his chest. His eyes were invisible under his sunglasses, but he was smiling with perfect white teeth.

"The hair is different. It's all shaved on the sides. Volkner's always had his funky spiky ear wings."

Rotom pulled up the two pictures side-by-side. With a marker tool, she outlined the men's small, blocky chins.

[Facial structure a 98% match. Person identified as Volkner, former Gym Leader of #Sus_yshoreCity. Sorry, thought you should know that's a new one. Zzt-zzt.]

Candice gasped, tracing the faces. "Oh my god, the retainer under Flint's bed… Volkner had braces…"

[Do… you want me to add that to his database?]

"Yes… and then you can tell me the quickest route to Vermilion City in the Kanto Region. Something weird's going on."

Volkner would never get up so early.

~N~

Take my headcanon volcano vomit. I have to forsake this fic for the next week at least while I work on a final paper and I had to get them all out there. ^^

So this is interesting: If only going by anime continuities, Buck and Flint are NOT related. In the main series Buck is treated as some random character-of-the-day unfamiliar with the Sinnoh League, and in "The Magma Stone," he only states he wants to become a strong trainer, never mentioning an older brother in the Elite Four. So only the games and manga confirm their relation! In inconsequential dialogue, I should add. They don't converse in the games. The only proof of their bond is in the manga, when they talk on the phone, and Flint is later angered by Buck being stupid around Heatran and getting hurt. (Let's be honest, Generations' version of an older Buck backflipping off flying rocks is just a fanfiction of himself inside his head. XD )

Buck is a descendent of Zisu, Iscan and Palina. His mom is a jeweler based in the Survival Area, and his adoptive dad (her second husband) is a geologist working on the island, sparking his interest in exploring and treasure-hunting escapades. He has one gym badge: a Beacon Badge he won from Flint, and the battle is one of his favorite memories.

Published by Syntax-N on FanFiction . Net April 18th, 2022. Reposters sussy Dedenne. Reviews are Pikachu cute!