Chapter 4: Breaking Point
"I'm sorry, I don't t think I understand."
A plan is never complete without hitches, but even then, there are some things that come from so far outfield that they leave you stumbling and more than anything, dumbfounded.
"It's not entirely accurate and unbecoming of me as a doctor to say this, but… your qwilfish is um… retarded."
My mind was empty. There wasn't a single thought in my head as I tried to come to terms with this turn of events. The head doctor continued, "He must have suffered some extreme mental trauma, I'm sure he's lucky to even survive. If you don't mind, could you tell me exactly what happened? I've never seen anything quite like this."
"I'm not sure, I just found it floating in the old quarry," I lied without thinking.
"Hm," he jotted down what I mentioned quickly, but I could tell he was disappointed. I looked around the room one more time. I was in the doctor's cluttered private office. Normally pokemon were returned at the counter, but the nurse had called me into a back room away from everyone else. I was suspicious, but not prepared for this kind of news.
"I found it interesting that this pokemon was already registered in our system when you brought it in. Looking through the data, it belonged to another trainer just a few days ago. However, as you were able to catch it, I can only imagine that it was released," the doctor explained.
It made sense. That's why the qwilfish was so familiar with how humans caught pokemon; it also explained it's extensive skills which would be difficult to acquire had it spent its whole life in that isolated quarry. What puzzled me was why a trainer would abandon such an obviously talented pokemon.
"Its ex-trainer was confirmed as one of the casualties in the Silence," the doctor commented after a pause.
"From what we know so far, the Silence appears to be an internal affliction that kills without leaving a mark. Your qwilfish suffered something similar, as far as I can tell. Its prior records indicate that it was an extremely healthy male, but suddenly, its regressed to the point where by all medical accounts it would be considered mentally impaired," the doctor paused and looked quite pleased with himself. "Ah that's the word I was looking for. Well, the gist of it is, I would like to conduct more studies on your qwilfish. I'm sure you understand how important this is for the medical community, and more importantly in solving the Silence," he finished his argument as he set down his pen on the table.
I fully understood the importance of this decision, but I knew deep down that I was the only person who could actually do anything about the Silence. The doctor would only observe the aftermath, whereas I survived the actual thing. No one in the world knew the Silence better than I did. My own priorities would have to come first. I knew that there was the potential to glean valuable information by turning over my qwilfish, but at the same time they must already be testing the leftovers of route 203. These specimens were also directly involved with the Silence, and not the dusk ball. I had to separate myself as much as possible from the events of the Silence in the eyes of authority.
"I think I'll need some time to think it over."
The doctor sighed in disappointment, "As part of Pokemon League law, you will need a special license to prove you are capable of caring for a disabled pokemon. Unfortunately, you can't get your license in Oreburgh. The closest place would be Jubilife." The mention of Jubilife put a sour taste in my mouth but I tried not to show it to the doctor.
"That's sort of out of the way for me," I responded as coolly as I could.
"Regardless, you have one month from now or you will be forced to give up your qwilfish. If you do change your mind you can visit the Veilstone Medical Laboratory where my colleagues will gladly take a look at the qwilfish. Also, please take these medical reports for your qwilfish and read them over carefully. Fish biology is quite different from other pokemon." I nodded as I picked up the lure ball and report before making my way outside.
I had already been nervous about facing the Gym, but this made matters worse. I had thirteen hours left before I had to face Roark. In those thirteen hours, I had to somehow train a once genius, now retarded qwilfish to singlehandedly sweep the gym. I had a type advantage which could be significant if I leveraged it properly. Even then, it all came down to how well we could learn to work as a team.
I stepped out of the sliding glass doors of the pokemon center and was greeted by the same grizzled man who helped me catch the qwilfish.
"How's the fish?"
"It's alive, but not the trump card I was hoping for."
The man nodded in response.
I began to make my way back towards the flooded quarry to see exactly what I had to work with. I glanced at the middle-aged man next to me, if he was tagging along a name for him wouldn't hurt.
"I've been thinking about a name for you," I commented after a while.
"Let's hear it."
"At first, I was thinking of something related to granite because you remind me of stone, and I guess granite is more polished than a regular stone." He laughed at this before I continued. "Although, from what I can tell so far, you seem a good deal nicer than any stone could be."
"Yer right. When I was workin' the mines can't say I ever found a stone that was nice." It was my turn to laugh.
"So, I was thinking of something that's both tough and nice. Well, have you ever heard the stories of the detective, Looker?
"I ain't nearly good lookin' or hardboiled enough to be some bigshot detective."
"I wasn't done. Recently our detective finally got to do a product promotion for G-Mint. He's known for eating mints all the time, so he's always looking and feeling fresh. So, I figured that I'll call you Mint or Minty, because talking to you is very refreshing."
He laughed louder than before and slapped my shoulder jokingly, but the blow wasn't soft to say the least. Even then, I couldn't stop myself from laughing along, something about the man put me in a good mood.
"I like Minty better. As a name, it will do fer now."
The two of us continued to walk along engaging in idle chatter before we arrived at the quarry. I released the qwillfish from the ball and it plopped into the water. It turned around to face me. As our eyes locked I couldn't help but feel guilt as I stared into the now distant eyes of the qwilfish.
"It looks dumber," Minty commented.
"That's the problem. The doctor said it suffered severe brain damage, so I'm not sure how to proceed," I explained. The qwilfish used to be an experienced fighter, there was the off chance that its instincts would still kick in. I cautiously reached forward with my hand to get a response from it. My hand touched its rubbery skin and the qwilfish seemed to smile, enjoying the stimulation. Defeated, I stroked the qwilfish's head and it made what I can only imagine was a purring sound.
"You reckon it had something to do with that ball?" Minty prodded cautiously.
"Well, I'm not sure what else it could be," I responded. "I also don't think it's a good idea to hand it over to any authorities. It's clearly dangerous and I don't trust the government to keep it safe, I mean just look at what they did to Oreburgh."
"Coulda told that jus' from the way you been holdin' on to that ball." After he mentioned it I realized my left hand was rolling the ball idly in my pocket. "Can't say I seen you much without so much as a finger on it."
I pulled my hand out from my pocket and glanced at the ball. I showed it to the qwilfish hoping for some reaction. The fish didn't seem to respond at all as it began to turn upside down in the water.
In its current state, it couldn't tell what was a threat. A normal pokemon would react to unwanted attention, but the qwilfish seemed incredibly docile. Seeing it up close, I could make out the tight muscles flexing below its skin as it wagged its fins excitedly. All the wasted potential, I thought. I began to stroke it with both hands and was careful not to cut my hand on its spikes. Then I realized that its poison wouldn't have lost its potency.
"Its poison should still be potent, right Minty?" I tried to say his name with the same respect that he used for me. I looked over my shoulder at him and I could see him smiling gently.
"I'd think so."
Roark would be cautious of the poison, but would be sure to underestimate its lethality. However, it was a trick that would only work once. If I could get the qwilfish to use some water attacks at my command, I would feel much better about my odds.
I pulled my hands back as I tried to think of how to communicate with my qwilfish. With Chubbs it had been easy. Having him since he was a child really allowed us to grow with each other and come to understand one another on a deeper level. Even though he couldn't speak I could always tell how he was feeling. That was the bond that successful trainers had with their pokemon.
"Its like a baby," said Minty.
He was right. I had to treat it like a baby pokemon. I went through something similar with Chubbs, the only challenge was condensing fourteen years into thirteen hours.
"You don't happen to know any games we can play with a fish, do you?" I asked the man hopefully.
"When I was young, we played a game called Rockin'. Everyone gets eleven rocks an' all ya gotta do is balance ten rocks on toppa each other before someone knocks yer tower down with a rock."
Most games have a lesson in them. For example, a game of red ass teaches you that it's never fun to lose. I'm sure I was overthinking it but, I reasoned that a game of Rockin' would introduce the concepts of limited resources as well as balancing offense with defense. There was a problem.
"I'm not sure if our fish can build a rock tower," I pointed out.
He frowned, "that's true, you woulda lost anyway."
I just needed a way to encourage qwilfish to attack. The poison would suffice as defense, even if it would only work for one attack. I had to put the qwilfish into a situation where it would be on the offense. Throwing rocks at it were an option, but I didn't want to make it suffer anymore than I already had.
I reached into one of the pockets and pulled out my last remaining bag of snacks. I hoped that the qwilfish would like Sunkern Seeds (a brand name). I grabbed a fist full and reached my hand towards the water. The qwilfish swam back up to my hand and began to nibble at the seeds. Its body language was relaxed as it seemed to enjoy the snack.
"You shouldn't feed it those,"
When I pulled my hand back I didn't expect a jet of water that would knock me out.
The first thing I noticed when I came to was that my neck was stiff and sore from the earlier attack. But as I fully regained consciousness I realized I wasn't by the quarry anymore. I sat up straight and realized that I had been laid down on an old maroon sofa. By the looks of it I was in the living room of a long-abandoned apartment. All the pieces of furniture were in various states of decay and looking down at the couch I could make out clear stains over years of use. The air was thick and smelled of mildew. I felt a cool breeze blow in from behind me sending chills through my body. I stood up as I rubbed the back of my neck and turned to look behind me.
A broken window, and past it I could see the crumbling city of Oreburgh. Lightless buildings blackened by soot and dust rose into the cold autumn air as snowflakes gently drifted towards the ground, coating the city in a soft layer of white. The streetlights many floors below cast a soft orange light on the snow on the ground, revealing its unbroken surface. Above the dying city hung a pale moon.
I turned back around to take in the room in more detail as I pushed through the grogginess. All the furniture was mismatched. There was a heavily ornate Victorian cupboard along the far wall flanked by a dark brown colonial bed draped with thick and heavy linen sheets. At the foot of the bed was a large rustic chest and right in front of me was a slick modern table. On top of it was a note. I picked up the note and read the clean and elegant cursive.
Sai,
If you are reading this, I am still out getting dinner and looking for your qwilfish which ran away after attacking you. In the meantime, please make yourself at home. I did the same when I found this place. lol.
I couldn't help but smile as I held my head with my free hand. This was the first time I had seen someone say lol in a letter, and the contrast was only emphasized by Minty's personality in real life and the quality of his handwriting. Which led me to believe that maybe he wasn't just the simple miner I chalked him up to be.
I found a pen on the table and wrote a quick response.
If you're reading this I probably got bored of waiting for you and decided to look for some fun.
I set the pen and note down as I returned to the window. I glanced at the large grandfather clock, assuming it was accurate, it was three. Nine hours left.
Even though I had lost five hours, I learned that the qwilfish's attacks were as strong as they used to be. Though we still hadn't ironed out a working relationship, I took comfort in the fact that qwilfish would probably one shot any of Roark's pokemon, if it was pushed to that point. If it was a reaction to me taking away its food, that would make it difficult to replicate in battle. On the other hand, it hinted at a more aggressive personality so it may retaliate if it's disturbed.
I felt a coldness in my hand and realized that I had subconsciously reached for my dusk ball. There was still the mystery of this left to work out. The ball clearly made an attempt to catch the qwilfish, although it didn't behave like a regular dusk ball should. In fact, it put the qwilfish through immense pain and ravaged it mentally, leaving it a crippled form of itself. My guess was the ball was given to me to catch something with, but it had failed. Although, it was hard to believe that something that could thwart the Silence would fail to catch a qwilfish.
I enlarged the ball and threw it in front of me. As usual it rolled forward before hitting the trunk at the base of the bed. I sighed as I reached for the ball. The metal was colder than normal and I gripped it so tightly that my knuckles began to whiten. I could feel the hairs on my neck standing up. Something felt wrong.
I looked around the room nervously. All of it seemed very bizarre to me now, the cacophony of different styles seemed something straight from the set of a horror movie. I walked through the apartment, stopping by the kitchen to pick up a large knife.
I turned all the doors I didn't bother checking earlier, but was greeted by empty and cold rooms behind them all. I didn't step inside any of them. Growing tense, I reached for the door to the apartment and that's when it struck me.
I couldn't hear a single sound.
I got chills over my body as I cautiously turned to look over my shoulder, knife ready in hand. The cold wind whipped through the room sending small pieces of furniture crashing against the walls.
"Hey!" I called out for Minty, "are you here?"
Hearing no response, I tried the door to the hallway. It wouldn't budge.
"Hey!" I called out again desperation dripping from my voice. "Is anyone here?!"
I tried the door again but my hands were shaking too much to be able to grasp the doorknob. I bolted towards the balcony door and slid it open. I wasn't sure if it had gotten colder or it was my sweat that made it so. I looked around at the lifeless city for a saviour.
"Help!" I screamed as loud as I could, but only a cold silence rang back.
I ran back into the apartment and saw an old black and gold rotary phone. I picked it up and dialed 911. It was silent. I ran into the kitchen and pulled the fire alarm. It was silent. I went back onto the balcony and tried to scream for help. It was silent. My voice failed me and I fell to my knees.
I could feel a familiar tightness in my chest. Tears began to gather in my desperate eyes as they looked for a way out. I noticed the fire escape on the balcony and tried to push it down, but years of disrepair had left the metal rusted and it wouldn't even budge under my weight. Giving up I looked up, there was a ladder at the bottom of the balcony above. I jumped up but couldn't grab onto it.
Without even thinking I stepped onto the railing of the balcony. I made the mistake of looking down and my legs felt like jelly. I was standing on snow and my foot could easily slip. From a height like this I would end up as a smattering of gore on the white snow covering the road. I tried to step back on to the balcony but my body wasn't moving. My eyes were locked to the ground below but something within me whispered faintly. If it wasn't so silent that night I doubt I would have heard it.
Jump.
Without another thought, I jumped from the railing and grabbed onto the ladder above me. The piercing sound of metal scratching against metal broke the silence at last as the ladder crashed down on to the balcony. My left hand got caught below it and I screamed in pain as blood began to squirt on to the snow around me. I struggled with my other arm to pull the ladder off just high enough to slide my hand out.
I tried to inspect my wound but I couldn't make out anything as my hand was a mess of torn flesh and blood. Lowering the ladder must have activated some mechanism causing all the ladders above to fall down. I cursed as the bottom ladders didn't fall. I quickly scrambled up the ladders, trying to get as far away as I could from the room. The old metal was chipped and jagged in places, cutting my hands and feet. I didn't feel the pain as my mind began to feel heavy with intrusive thoughts. My eyes were wide with fear as I tried to cope with these thoughts, but I was being overpowered. Regardless, my body pushed through, climbing the ladders even faster than before
As I pulled myself up from the last ladder I realized I was on the roof of the apartment complex. There was nothing on the roof save a few antennas in the corner and a layer of snow over everything. A tall fence ran along the edges of the rooftop.
My body suddenly seized up as I felt a piercing sensation in my head. I clutched at my head as I fell to my knees and screamed in pain. The pain turned into an intense burning sensation as I fell onto the ground and began to roll around in agony. I pulled myself back onto my knees and began to bash my head against the floor to shake out this invasion.
"Sai!" I heard a voice call out. I wasn't sure who it was, but it gave me the jolt I needed to stand back up. I was disoriented and couldn't think or recall anything. I began to hobble towards the fence as the pain inside my head and the dull throbbing of my head began to intensify. I stopped screaming but couldn't stop the whimpering.
My mind was a mess. Vivid images of the night at 203 flashed through my mind like a movie reel spinning out of control. I could see events that never happened, it was all too fast for me to comprehend. But then the reel stuttered, and I could see myself face half buried in the mud, dead.
I fell forward and caught myself on the fence. Then I heard breathing inside my head. The deep and guttural breath of a hunter, filled with wrath and pride. My eyes opened and through the crisscrossed wires of the fence, I could see the moon staring at me.
"Sai!"
I felt the blood drain from my face, but I was transfixed by the moon.
"Sai!"
Its bright and pale perfection reminded me of her.
"Sai!"
It was beautiful.
"Sai!"
My legs gave out as I fell onto my back. Knocking up a small cloud of snow.
I craned my neck to see the moon again. But I saw a different sphere. This one was green and black and in my hand. I brought it closer to my face and it looked as if its surface was crawling. I felt something drip on me and noticed I was bleeding heavily from my left hand. I turned the ball around in my hand and the blood began to roll down the ball. But it didn't drip. It was being absorbed by the ball. I brought the ball closer to me, it was like there were thousands of mouths on the surface drinking my blood.
It was a creepy ball. Not as beautiful as the moon.
I tossed it aside and stared at the moon. Its light soothed my nerves, my body relaxed and I began to slip away. The world began to fade, but I still stared at the moon. I struggled to keep my eyes open, I just wanted to look for one more second.
And then my reverie broke as reality dawned on me. My mind was clear once again and I immediately felt the absence of the dusk ball, I leapt to my feet and looked around. I could see bloody footsteps and spattering of crimson over the pure white of the snow. Off to my side I could see the dusk ball lying still on the ground. Without thinking I leapt towards it.
It was frigid in my hands but I didn't want to let go. I held it close to me as I curled around it and, even more than my first encounter, broke down into a sobbing mess. I had been Sai for less than a day but I felt as if I had already died.
"Sai…" I heard a soft voice as footsteps approached me. Minty sat down next to me and tried his best to comfort my broken mind on top of a broken city under the vigil of an uncaring moon.