Savoir-faire – To Know and To Do

XXXII : Casser – To Break

(cont.) In the interest of safety, I had Donar evacuated. I believe that Donar does not agree with my assessment, despite my assurances. It is very few factors in my favour that currently result in the whole field trip not being cancelled...

Floating on a Jellicent was a surprisingly difficult move. Maybe because Jelly was, like her namesake, bouncy and without footholds. Léa was balanced atop the Jellicent, but for Serena and I, we were reduced to clinging onto our Water-type Pokémon and floating for dear life towards the SS Azur because the pink menace didn't even lend a tentacle.

Léa looked to the floating tentacles under her perch, exhausted. "Is she poisonous?"

"Yes," I answered shortly. Frogadier blew a few bubbles in the seawater, and I kept quiet.

Serena had no such thoughts. "I'm going to kill her."

"I'll help," I groaned as we managed to get close to the hull. "Léa?"

"I..." Léa swallowed. "How did you guys find me?"

"Well..." I sighed, my anger cooling a bit. "Dr du Bois devised a plan after making sure that you'd be aboard. And then she threw us overboard in rescuing you."

"Oh," Léa subsided, before piping up, "I'm sure she had her reasons."

We reached a short hanging rope, each of us climbing up with help from our Pokémon. Frogadier and Squirt panted tiredly once their bodies hit the deck. Soaking wet, we shivered as a sea breeze passed us.

Serena began squeezing water from her skirt gingerly. "My clothes are ruined."

I gasped, squeezing my cap. My jacket and T-shirt clung to my skin, but at least I was warm... somewhat. "Everyone okay?"

The bangs and clatters echoed up and down the ship as I said, and I regretted it once I saw a dark figure fly over the deck railings. The slim blade of a chef's knife glimmered in the dark light, and then I saw Siebold of the Elite Four advance, a giant cannon hovering behind him.

I blinked at the shrimp holding the cannon. Then I felt stupid. Obviously it must be the evolution of Clauncher, Clawitzer. However badass the Pokémon itself, though, Siebold's knife terrified more.

"Are you alright?" Siebold began without preamble. "You must be Dr du Bois's student."

"D- Donar Oak," I nodded in answer.

"Stay close to the wider corridors," Siebold warned, turning to go.

"W- Wait!" Serena hissed. "What's going on?"

Siebold opened his mouth, but then Léa screamed, throwing herself down. Serena and I followed her, slamming onto the hard unpolished wood. Siebold joined us, his Clawitzer aiming as the blue Water Pulse shot out.

"Get up!" Siebold snarled.

I came up to the deck to see Dr du Bois running, shadows and the ghosts of a Haunter and Phantump floating around her, winged by shadows like some war goddess. Darkrai and Altair were nowhere to be found.

I couldn't see for the life of anyone before I saw a dark figure behind her. I shouted: "Dr du Bois!"

Dr du Bois started, and the gunshot rang in my ears as I saw her murdered.

A few times in my life had left me at a loss for words. When I had gained my baccalaureate, perhaps. When I had graduated as the youngest student of the Université Illumis-Sud Neuvartault in xeno-medicine. When I had, at the greatest crossroads of my life, chosen to take another identity and turn towards society and Pokémon. Philosophy was not for me; sociology and anthropology might be another matter, and had become another matter.

Perhaps, I reflected, my viva voce might present a less stumping argument than this Spiritomb.

"...excuse me?" I answered the stone in my hand.

Madame, surely you have not forgotten I.

I dropped the Odd Keystone. It bounced on the thick carpet, much like what I felt like doing.

"Pardon me," I answered. "I do not remember meeting you. In fact, it is my first time meeting a Spiritomb, especially one as old as you... say. If you claim to have existed during the Century War, I request that you face me immediately."

Shadows gathered over the Keystone. They coalesced into an ethereal composition of swirling purple fog. Green crescents were set in the heart of that fog, much like a Gastly, as its jagged mouth opened. Within those crescents, spirals swirled, no different to the spirals about the fog of its head.

We have met, madame. Its eyes shimmered. Since that awful war, since the start of your reign, perhaps even before it. Since the Siege of Lumiose...

"You are mistaken," I reluctantly answered. "It's been seven hundred years, as you have said. Jeanne la Pucelle is... dead."

...you are not Madame?

"I'm sorry," I replied. "I am not the Madame you are looking for."

You must be Madame. Madame is returned from the dead. Giratina can assure no less for an existence that would disrupt the balance between the Distortion World.

I silently counted the first ten digits of pi, finally realising that there was nothing more to it than the babbling of an old Pokémon, possibly senile. "Fine. You will explain as best as you could later. If I am your Madame, then I assume that you will be an exemplary companion. In that case, would you follow my command?"

Its eyes glowed green. Understood, my Euterpe, madame.

"The muse of lyric poetry," I considered. "And did you have a designation?"

Poucet, Madame.

"I see," I answered, as Phantump hissed and lingered. On the ground, Achillée Morelle began to stir. "Come, then... Poucet."

I hummed the aria as I walked, and all the time while Darkrai joined me I had the thumbling for a shadow. At least, until a gunshot sounded, and something of steel rang behind me, and I realised that Morelle's men were still onboard. They were also shooting me.

I ran with the Phantump, Haunter lingering by my feet as I did and Poucet shadowing my every step. Footsteps echoed like a herd of rampaging Tauros, and Morelle's scream of rage echoed as he yelled for my blood, for anyone to shoot me.

"Dr du Bois!"

"Do-" I started, but then the shot struck.

Guns were subjected to strict control in our world. It was more than practicality; when your guards could shoot fire and survive earthquakes, guns were more than a little moot. Some of them still appeared now and then, Rocket grunts smuggling them from Kanto or Plasma extremists looking for a toehold into the Kalos region from Unova, you name it. Without knowing where to look, getting a gun was almost impossible. Almost.

I thought of none of those, sadly. All I could think of was the pain that tore through my back, even as I drew the bright orange Very and fired a load of hot magnesium. My weight landed on the shot, and I cursed, but at least my spine was functioning. My dress clung wetly, and I cursed for a bit. Phantump cradled close by, as did Haunter. Something scratched, like crystals striking each other.

"Heart," I gasped. Phantump shook, whimpering. Haunter lingered, claws grasping at my hand. I gripped it, looking up to the Spiritomb and its confused expression.

Marguerite... claws graced my head, and Darkrai looked sorrowful as he embraced me. Marguerite... please don't die.

Pain flared in my skull, and I heard soft footfalls. Oh, no...

"Yes," I whispered. Blood dribbled from my back onto the Azur, held only by my own weight and the magic of Xerneas. "This is going to be so hard to explain."

You got shot! Altair's mental shout was about as loud as the actual howl of a Lucario might be. This was a bad idea in the first place! I told you!

He had said the same thing years previously. And back then, against Team Flare. How else did I know the feeling of being shot, if Flare hadn't taken those pot-shots at me before?

"You did," I agreed. "Now be a dear and get the rest."

My Lucario snorted, the better to mask his worry. Darkrai, you get them. I'm a doctor.

"What happened to 'first do no harm'?" I asked.

That applies only to me, the cracks as my Lucario cracked his stubby knuckles echoed. Not him.

Marguerite... stay safe. Darkrai's wispy white hair fairly waved by itself, the spectre of nightmares floating to regard the pack of Houndoom coming for us.

I closed my eyes at that dark promise. "Altair... there's more guards, right?"

...Yes.

Right. There went primum non nocere.

My hand thudded onto the floor, Phantump's screams of horror cutting off. It held a manacle, one that was set with the jewel of the clé du voûte the Keystone. Rose-coloured motes crawled up through like vines, the cabochon of crystal glimmering as the curse in my body began to overflow the vessel with life. The Phantump and Haunter hovered closer to my hands, maws gaping, awaiting the futile moment when my soul tried to leave my body to feed upon my life, receiving a feast of it. Their bodies began to glow with light; the light of evolution.

That... should not be possible. It shouldn't be... It couldn't, and yet-

My eyes fell on Donar. How was I supposed to explain to him? In fact, how would I explain this to the rest of them?

"Evolve."

Then I saw the rock Haunter was pressing next to the Keystone, the same Haunter feeding upon the fount of life that was myself-

I had absolutely no idea what happened aboard the Azur. It made its way back to Kalos the next day, barely the worse for wear. The Zapdos corpse made its Viking funeral, the boat and bones lost somewhere else. Police swarmed onboard, and I could barely remember what had happened. I gave my story of events, uncertain as to what I had seen.

Dr du Bois fell. Ghosts screamed. Altair and Darkrai appeared, facing against hordes of Pawniard and packs of Houndoom. Pumpkaboo floated over, screeching in horror and fear while Léa screamed, her voice thin and reedy from lethargy. It happened, and...

...I can't believe my eyes.

Altair was there, and yet he was not. The cream fur had grown, his legs slimmer. Spikes dotted the back of his paws and on his shoulders, which have turned crimson. The aura-sensing appendages had grown longer, much like the makeup I had seen back at Geosenge, two of them tipped in crimson.

Phantump had grown, too; six roots bent like spider legs, two zigzag indentations wrapped around its body from missing bark made its growth apparent. Two large, crooked horn-like gnarls stuck out on either side of its head, and another smaller gnarl on its forehead, with a tuft of green leaves in the middle and a large, menacing dark-red eye below them. Thin upper arms and thick forearms grew from its trunk like gnarled branches, missing rings of bark clear at the elbow and below the shoulder, a single spike or leaf making it clear that it was still a haunted tree of sorts. Green foliage still dotted it at the wrist, connected to hands with three wooden pincer-spikes for fingers.

My PokéDex clattered as I stumbled and fell. Trevenant, the Elder Tree Pokémon. Using its roots as a nervous system, it controls the trees in the forest. It's kind to the Pokémon that reside in its body.

The monster, though... part of its body had sunk into the ground. An unblinking yellow eye glimmered, like X-rays; it seemed to see through everything. Its spikes had grown, its ears projected back... it was a spectre, through and through, and the fact that it was white did not help.

The Houndoom skidded, warily considering the new threats.

Altair moved; faster than I had believed possible, he had taken out three Houndoom with a Bone Rush. Murkrow swooped from the skies, down; they were warded off as Will-O-Wisps surrounded all three in a ring of fire. Green light began to shine from Trevenant, before the Houndoom reared back as though struck, before the Dark Voids got them. They were up soon, though; then Darkrai pulled out the Dark Pulses and Nightmares. Sensing something, Altair reared back. It allowed the white... monster... to begin unleashing its battery of Shadow Balls.

I knew, somewhere, that Dark-types were resistant to Ghost-type moves, and yet seeing the assault of Shadow Balls, the Houndoom were falling like dominoes. Murkrow tried to run, and Siebold pulled us to retreat, but there was a tug and we fell down, being pulled closer, slowly, ever closer to the menacing white spectre.

"Shadow Tag!" Siebold was no longer calm, in fact trying to escape. "Clawitzer, Dark Pulse!"

The Clawitzer levelled its gun, shooting a blast of dark energy that had the monster reeling with shock and pain. Its glazed eyes turned upon Clawitzer, unleashing a Shadow Ball that nevertheless glanced off Clawitzer, but had the Howitzer Pokémon reeling back, but unable to escape the Shadow Tag too.

Frogadier geared up with a Water Pulse, which seemed only to piss the creature off even more. My breath quickened at the look at this beast, this thing that had the security Pawniard and Murkrow cowering, trying to escape.

A hand landed on the thing. The pulling stopped.

Slowly, Dr du Bois pulled the Mega-evolved Gengar towards herself. Even weakened as she was, none of the Pokémon left her side. "Enough," she whispered, cradling the monster close. "I appreciate the favour. It's enough."

The ferocious creature was calmed, its white façade shattering soon in a burst of rose light to reveal a Gengar, one that clung to Dr du Bois. She pulled one of the branch-arms, the Trevenant rumbling before she used it for a pillow.

Altair powered down, I think; the fur receded, the spikes disappeared, and he looked normal now. Darkrai lingered, hesitant before Dr du Bois's hand made the decision for him.

The Lucario doctor looked down, snorted, and settled to eye all of them, before giving us the universal signal to get up from his perch on the deck railings.

It was the weirdest thing, watching the impromptu dog-pile of Pokémon and Trainer.

"Is it... gone?" Serena finally said, after a hushed silence in which we shivered.

Siebold looked grim. "I am... uncertain. That Mega Gengar... and a Mega Lucario? To evolve two Pokémon at the same time..."

Aboard the SS Azur and its voyage towards Lumiose City, I was uncertain. I had seen Dr du Bois fall from that shot, and now... as emergency personnel approached us, bearing stretchers and blankets and whatnot, the piece fell into the jigsaw of the mystery.

Dr du Bois's dreams. The dreams about Pokémon dying and the thing with horns and the other thing with wings. The dark humour... the Mega Evolution... and how had I not seen it? Hair and eye colour meant so little with dye and contact lenses, and Dr du Bois had always been good at acting...

Wikstrom was coming now. Head bent, he went on bended knee, genuflecting before Dr du Bois. He cradled her to his chest, his expression sad.

Her arm fell over, revealing the manacle, set with a Keystone. Mega Evolution.

The chain of reasoning was flimsy, I was probably insane, and possibly this could all be explained. I was pretty sure, though, that my observer and travel companion was the Champion of Kalos.

Siebold came later to make us sign through several NDAs. Of course, I knew the loophole to every single one, but Donar and I signed them all. The better to plague the League's data entry system with.

Wikstrom visited me, sincerely expressing his wishes for me to get well soon. I might feel better once arrangements to enter Lumiose were enacted... and once I've settled the Morelle girl. The Gourgeist would make a suitable addition, as would an extra Trainer to the Coumarine Gym's stable.

Yes, all will be well.

– Marguerite Linden du Bois

Critiquez, s'il vous plaît!