02

CONCORD

For a while the only thing that Phil could hear was the sound of his shoes striking the pavement and his harsh, ragged breaths. His chest felt like it was about to explode, but he kept going. He had to get away. Had to put as much distance between himself and that thing in the hotel. He didn't even care if the guy and his fire-breathing mutt had in fact saved him just so that they could mug him later – it was a thousand times better than whatever that monster had intended to do.

They finally slowed down when they reached the intersection and by then Phil's clothes were soaked from the sweat coating his skin. The old man reached out for his shoulder again, breathing as if he had just done a light jog rather than a full-blown sprint. 'Are you all right?'

Phil wheezed and pressed his hands on his buckled kneecaps, nodding rapidly. 'I'll be fine,' he said hoarsely. 'Just… just give me a moment.'

The houndoom snorted and slowly scanned the pavements, tail swishing left and right like a whip. Phil's grip on his knees tightened. It was keeping watch – waiting for any sign of movement from the leering shadows and alleyways – and the very thought of encountering another writhing mass of tentacles made his abdomen clench.

'We're heading towards the pokemon centre,' the old man continued, taking his hand away from Phil's shoulder. 'It'll be safer in there than wandering the streets.' He patted his chest. 'The name's Angus, by the way.'

Phil sucked in a breath to ask exactly how a centre would be any less dangerous than the hotel, but his lungs burnt too much for him to say anything else beyond a weak grunt.

. . .

The familiar sight of the centre's red roof was hard to miss – though that had been intentional on the League's part when they'd decided that they wanted to upgrade Sinnoh's pokemon health services. They'd opted for a more modern design too, most likely to rival the state of the art buildings Unova had been boasting about for months – with larger windows and the symbol of a pokeball affixed to the roof to replace the iconic P.C logo that had been a staple of Sinnoh's centres for years.

Phil swallowed. Just how much had things changed since he was a kid?

Angus approached the sliding glass doors – one of which had been left ajar – and pushed them aside as if he was effortlessly shoving his way through a crowd of people. His houndoom sat by Phil's side and yawned, drawing back his mouth so that he could see the dog's dagger-like teeth. Phil's skin tightened as he watched them. God, how little would it take for that mutt to bite down on his arm and tear it clean off? He tore his eyes away from the houndoom and cleared his throat. No, it wasn't worth thinking about right now.

Angus stopped pushing and nodded to Phil over his shoulder. 'After you.'

The first thing that Phil became acutely aware of inside the centre was a person sitting on the set of couches to his left, holding her knees up to her chest and staring down at the tiled floor. He frowned. The girl had to be no older than fifteen at the very most – and her silky jammies only helped to emphasise her frail, trembling figure. Beside her was a small, white pokemon with its green hair (or at least Phil assumed it was hair) done up to resemble ponytails. It was wearing a vest – one of those reflective ones that guide dog pokemon usually wore. A kirlia, if Phil wasn't mistaken.

On the other side of the room was another kid – this one no older than eleven or twelve – who was standing with his back pressed against the vacant counter. Phil tilted his head. There were a couple of glittering objects pinned to his red baseball cap, one of which he recognised. It was the silver and black one that caught his eye – wasn't that the badge the gym leader in Oreburgh gave to trainers? He pressed his lips together. This kid had to be on the Sinnoh League circuit. He looked the right age for it, at least.

The kid jumped to his feet when Angus finished closing the doors behind them. 'You're back!'

'As promised,' Angus replied, stepping back with his hands on his hips. 'Sorry I took a little longer than I said I would.'

His houndoom trotted over to one of the other couches and climbed onto it, curling its tail around its body as the couch whined from the sudden amount of pressure.

Angus tutted and rolled his eyes. 'Typical dog,' he said under his breath and pointed to his pokemon. 'Zach, get down.'

The houndoom – no, Zach – quietly growled and got up, jumping down from the couch and lying down on the floor with his head on his paws.

'You okay there, mister?'

Phil turned. The boy was taking to him now. 'Y-Yeah,' he said. His legs felt like jelly and he staggered over to the couch that Zach had been sitting on. He sank down and rubbed his face with his hands, the adrenaline finally subsiding. 'Oh my god.'

'Give him a minute, Leo,' Angus said, walking over to sit beside him. 'He's had a bit of a rough morning.'

Phil took his trembling hands away from his face. 'What the hell was that thing?'

Leo blinked. 'You saw one of those things too, mister?'

Phil's shoulders rose. 'Saw?' he said. 'More like almost got killed by.'

The girl in the corner moaned, her arms twitching as they tightened around her knees. The kirlia beside her reached out with a doll-like hand and placed it on her fingers, nodding like a reassuring parent, its horns beginning to glow.

'It was huge,' Phil continued. 'Covered in tentacles – broke through the doors of the hotel I was staying at and tried to eat me, or something like that.' He glanced at Angus. 'I could've died if Angus and his pokemon hadn't showed up.'

'Yikes,' Leo said, rubbing his arm. 'Do you have any idea what's going on out there?'

Phil shook his head. 'I'm just as confused as you are, kid.'

'I was supposed to be at the gym today,' Leo said, pointing to the badges on his hat. 'Was really excited about it too, but…' His eyes darted around the centre for a moment. 'When I woke up this morning, everyone in the pokemon centre had disappeared into thin air.'

The girl suddenly buried her head in her hands, sobbing under her breath, and the glow around the kirlia's horns intensified, distorting the air around them. After about a minute or so the girl's cries ebbed away, turning into quietness.

Phil's forehead scrunched as he watched them. 'Is she going to be okay?'

The kirlia turned to look at them with gleaming eyes and got down from its seat, prancing over to them like a ballet dancer. It curtsied in front of them and dug into one of the pockets on its vest, bringing out a small piece of paper that had been folded in half, and held it up to Phil with a waving motion. Phil reached out to take the paper, but paused when he caught sight of his hand. The tentacle that had smacked the piece of wood from his hand had done more damage than he'd initially thought, it seemed. It had turned bright red, and while there was no sign of blood or broken skin he could just make out the murky ghost of a bruise welling up above his thumb. He slowly huffed.

Jesus Christ, he really had been lucky that Angus had rescued him, hadn't he?

The kirlia tapped its foot impatiently, snapping Phil back to reality. He shook his head and forced a smile. 'Sorry,' he said, taking the paper and unfolding it. 'Didn't mean to space out there.'

The kirlia tilted its head and blinked softly, looking at him like an expectant child.

Hello there, the letter began, written in neat, cursive handwriting. My name is Kate, and my kirlia here is called Jade.

Jade curtsied again as Phil finished reading this particular sentence, to which he offered a polite nod in return. A small smirk crossed Leo's face as he watched the two of them.

I happen to suffer from Social Anxiety Disorder, which makes interacting with others on a daily basis very difficult, the letter continued. Jade has been issued to me as a helper pokemon, so if you have any questions or concerns please tell her rather than asking me. Thank you for your time.

Phil folded the piece of paper back up and handed it back to the kirlia. 'Right,' he said. 'Thanks for letting me know.'

The kirlia's cheeks rose into a smile and she ambled back to her owner's side, pocketing the piece of paper as she went.

Angus pushed back against the couch and stood up. 'I'm going up top to keep watch for a while,' he said, eyes fixing on Phil. 'I could use some help if you think you're up to it.'

. . .

Phil climbed a set of stairs for the second time that day and this time around things didn't feel quite as eerie. Maybe it was because there were two sets of footsteps echoing against the walls this time instead of one, despite the stairway leading to the roof of the centre being a lot darker. As for the rooftop itself? Not quite as welcoming, though that was mostly because of how much things had changed outside. Phil paused to look up at the lines marring the sky, gripping his arm and rubbing it, and the familiar feeling of his heart slipping into his stomach made him purse his lips.

Angus sailed across the rooftop. 'Come and look at this.'

Phil shuffled over, instinctively reaching out to grab the handrail preventing them from taking a step off the roof and plunging to their deaths, and froze. 'Oh my god,' he whispered, eyes growing as he looked out upon the forlorn streets of Hearthome.

There – coagulating on the tarmac at least half an avenue apart from the centre – was a swarm of fleshy, writhing shapes. Phil's knuckles whitened and his shoulders rose. All of a sudden he felt a lot more exposed standing out in the open as he was now.

'That's not all,' Angus said, pointing to a small building just north of the pokemon centre. 'Look down there.'

It didn't take long to find what he was pointing at – it was waddling across the pavement on bony legs. The monster's figure was quite lumpy – it was as if someone had taken several spheres and stuck them together to make a body, and then given the body sticks for limbs. Phil watched as this particular monster approached the window of what appeared to be a storefront, its shoulders twitching irregularly. It pressed one of its large, fan-like hands against the glass and grew still, apparently blown away by either the barrier stopping it from entering the shop, or its reflection. Either reason was completely feasible.

Angus tilted his head down and moved his finger to the right. 'There's another one over there.'

The next one was splayed out across the road just a couple of meters away from the monster looking at the shop. Phil gnawed at his lower lip. At first it looked like this creature was nothing more than a flattened piece of flesh, but as he narrowed his eyes he could just make out the twitch of muscles where the flaps of skin were at their thinnest. He watched it for a while as it pathetically inched across the street, the two bulbous bits of flesh adorning where he believed the head was located spasming in the same way the tentacle monster had back at the hotel.

'Yeah,' Phil said. 'I can see them.'

Angus's brow tightened, his eyes digging into Phil's. 'Notice anything about them?'

Phil turned his attention back to the two monsters below, frowning. 'No,' he said, scratching the back of his neck. 'I don't see anything…' The words died in his throat as he stared at the monster near the shop, which by then had begun slapping its bulging fingers against the glass. Now that he mentioned it something did look rather familiar about them – the first monster especially. It was the pair of horns on either side of its head that made him think that. There was a pokemon that had those horns – and it had large hands that it used to create barriers, didn't it?

Angus nodded slowly, watching Phil's eyes light up. 'And the other one?'

The other one was a little bit easier to match up. There was a Chinese restaurant back in Veilstone that Phil visited every week with a couple of his co-workers that had a giant fish tank at the very back of the room filled with fish pokemon. It was mostly magikarp they kept – it was a huge part of their culture after all – but the thing that drew in most of the crowds was the giant manta ray pokemon – a mantine, if Phil's memory was correct – that used to twirl and glide around the tank, showing off for regulars and tourists alike.

And now that he thought about it, there was a pokemon out there that kind of looked like the monster back at the hotel too. He'd been just a boy when he saw one – on a trip to the Kanto region with his family – but from what he recalled the memory of the ball of vines with feet looked uncannily similar to the thing that had tried to kill him.

Phil took a deep breath, furrowing his brow. 'I think I get it,' he said, looking Angus directly in the eye. 'You think they're pokemon?'

Angus cocked his head to the side. 'Probably,' he said. 'Or if they were, then they sure as hell aren't now.' He scoured the concrete buildings, scratching his chin. 'Check the other side of town for me, would you?'

Phil let go of the rail and crossed the roof, stopping to watch the lines again for a second (god, he's probably never going to get used to how it looks now).

'See anything?' Angus said over his shoulder.

Phil shielded his eyes, following the roads beyond the centre. He caught the familiar blue rooftop of the pokemart peering out at him from behind what looked like a coffee shop or maybe a clothes store – and of course there was the unmistakeable, jagged peak of Mount Coronet, silhouetted against the reddened sky, watching from afar. But as far as he could tell there wasn't a single twitching, shuddering creature to be found. He gulped, not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps it was best not to think about it like that for now.

'Not from what I can tell,' he said to Angus. 'It looks pretty clear.'

'Good,' Angus said and headed for the stairs. 'That's all I needed to know.'

. . .

'I'm going back out to look again,' Angus said as he cleared the last flight of stairs, Phil barely keeping up behind him.

Leo, who had been staring out of the windows, whipped around with his mouth agape. 'Again?'

'Yes,' Angus said matter-of-factly. He whistled to Zach, who sprung to his paws and trotted to his owner's side immediately. 'I'll be back in an hour – maybe two if I have to be careful.'

Kate lifted her head, her cheeks creasing the edges of her watery eyes while her kirlia took her hand and squeezed it. 'B-But…' she began, barely raising her voice above what Phil thought was a mutter. 'You only just got back.'

Angus shook his head. 'I know,' he said. 'But there's still at least half of Hearthome I haven't searched yet – and the more people I can find, the better chance we have of forming a proper plan to get out of here and find some help.'

Kate moaned and tugged her ears, which prompted Jade to wrap her owner's arm in an almost motherly embrace. Phil folded his arms together and took a slow breath. It was clear that she didn't like this (and neither did he, if he was going to be honest with himself) – and while Angus certainly looked more than capable of defending himself, what would happen if his houndoom got knocked out or separated from him?

He gritted his teeth at the mere thought of it.

Phil let go of his arms and cleared his throat. 'I could go with you,' he said. 'You know what they say – two heads are better than one, right?'

Angus stopped pushing the doors and turned to him. 'You got a pokemon?'

Phil's mouth twitched. Oh god, not this question again. 'No, uh…' He fidgeted with his fingers and coughed, his confidence dying away with every passing second. 'I don't.'

He kneaded the back of his neck and waited – waited for the raised eyebrows, the snickers and – quite possibly the worst thing of all – the comments ('But everybody has a pokemon!').

'Hold on,' Leo said. He reached down, pulling up the hem of his shirt to reveal two spheres fastened to his belt. One of these was the standard red and white pokeball, while the blue one with red stripes looked to be a more improved model (they called it a great ball, didn't they?). His hand passed by them and dug into a leather pouch. 'Here,' he said after a moment. 'Take this.'

It took Phil a moment to realise what he was being offered. He eyed the long, cylindrical device for a moment, his reflection caught in its lens. 'A flashlight?'

'Not quite,' Leo said with a gleam in his eyes. 'It's actually a Taser that also doubles as a flashlight.' He flashed a confident grin. 'It was a gift from my dad when I started the league circuit, but I don't really need it anymore.'

Phil took the Taser, fingers clamped around it. 'Are you sure you want to lend me this?'

Leo paused and looked down to his belt for a moment. 'Yeah,' he finally said, raising his line of sight. 'I have to help somehow – even if I'm not as strong as Angus is.' His eyes twinkled. 'And besides – I've got a luxio.' He puffed out his chest, his head bobbing. 'His attacks are much stronger than a Taser – in fact Lionheart won me my second badge back in Eterna.'

Phil nodded, curving his mouth into a smile. 'I'll make sure to return it in one piece. You have my word, kid.'

Leo returned the smile. 'Be careful out there.'

Kate had stopped tugging her ears by then but said nothing, and it was up to Jade to offer Phil a curt bow and a wave as a way of saying goodbye on her behalf.

Angus pushed the doors apart just enough to let the both of them through and dragged them shut behind them while Zach reared his head up to the sky, small plumes of smoke billowing from his nostrils.

Phil rolled the Taser in his palm, now warm from the heat in his body, and looked in the direction where he'd seen the writhing mass of monsters.

God, he hoped he didn't have to use this thing.