Author's Note:
Back and slowly getting caught up! Review responses will probably start trickling back into the Tumblr later on today, and I'm so very sorry that they're not up yet. D: Still, shout-out to Doreh and Neophilic for dropping in, shout-out to CAN07 (aka "HEY THIS PERSON LOOKS FAMILIAR" 8D) for joining the legion of reviewers, and shout-out to the new followers, including one of the people who probably unknowingly convinced me to come back to FFN. (Heeeeeeey, Adin Terim.)
On a less shouty note, we are officially halfway through the old material, so I'd like to thank you all for sticking around! That means in a few weeks, you'll be seeing sparkly chapters full of shiny new content not released anywhere else yet. At that point, I'm going to try to keep up with the update schedule, but I admit I write slower than I edit. Sooooo I apologize in advance if the weekly schedule slips. orz
BUT WE SHALL SEE, FOR THAT IS IN THE FUTURE. So for now, sit back and relax for more Fun with Bill. :D
Thanks, all!
Nine
D.E.V.A. CLEARANCE LEVEL 3
CLEARANCE ACCEPTED.
DOCUMENT TYPE: EXCERPT
DESIGNATION: D.E.V.A. PERSONNEL CODEX ENTRY #645279
DESCRIPTION: MCKENZIE, WILLIAM H—ESSENTIAL INFORMATION, LATEST UPDATE. PRIORITY INFORMATION ONLY.
DATE-TIME: LAST EDIT, 18/11/01, 11:16
NAME: McKenzie, William H
ALIAS: Bill
DOB: 31/12/81
CURRENT AGE: 19
DESCRIPTION: Male. [FURTHER DETAILS—SEE ATTACHED IMAGE AND FULL ENTRY]
CITIZENSHIP: Documentation under Japanese registries, Johto Regional Database. Residency registered under the Kanto Regional Database. See JRD Citizenship File #45-097-6421 and KRD Residency File #67-235-0764.
OCCUPATION: Pokémon researcher, expertise in related technology, ethology, and paleontology; administrator of the Kanto/Johto Pokémon Storage System (see Special Entity File #056); lighthouse keeper of the Cerulean Cape Lighthouse, aka "Sea Cottage" (decommissioned)
AFFILIATIONS: Pokémon Symposium, Pokémon Cutting-Edge Technology Research Center, Celadon University, Pokémon League Association (primary affiliations with Kanto and Johto). No recorded political affiliations.
RELEVANCE TO D.E.V.A.: First and only son of Professor John George McKenzie. Explicitly protected by the Yeled Protocol. Creator of Special Entities 056 ("storage system"), 095 ("teleporter"), 141 ("Time Capsule"), 256 ("VS Seeker"). All observations related to these entries have been halted due to the Adam Incident. (See OMEGA REPORT #000473: The Adam Incident.)
BIO: [SEE FULL ENTRY]
CURRENT STATUS: Infected with SE-650, aka 2000KH ("Ixodida")
CURRENT LOCATION: Northwest Hoenn
INSTRUCTIONS: Reconnaissance Team Gamma dispatched for monitoring, as per orders from C-01.
FURTHER NOTES: [REDACTED—ACCESSIBLE TO CLEARANCE LEVEL 10]
—
Raye. Variant of Rae, diminutive of Rachel. What does Rachel mean?
Bill did his best to ignore Adam. His symbiont had woken up not long after Nurse Joy had broken the news to him about Lanette. He had hoped he would have a quiet moment to think and plan his conversation with her, but as soon as the creature inside him stirred, he was inundated with a deluge of chattering in his brain.
Right then, he had a bowl of what seemed to be a cold, paste-like gruel sitting in his lap. It had been given to him by Nurse Joy just a few minutes ago, after she remembered he hadn't eaten for some time. He was left basically to his own devices after that, save for Adam's relentless talk, and it was because of Adam's apparently desperate need for conversation that Bill used all of his willpower to focus on savoring each salty, chewy bite of puree. Something about it was familiar to him, but he couldn't exactly place what it was. Two things were for certain: that he couldn't recognize the dish and that he was perfectly willing to fixate on figuring out what it was to drown out Adam's voice.
Rachel. It is a shame that you take no interest in onomastics. I find it to be a fascinating branch of human knowledge. It reveals so much about a name-bearer and its purpose in life, does it not? Why would you place so much emphasis in titles? Things, people, ideas. Everything must have a title for you.
What was this dish? He knew it would have been disgusting to him had he still been human, but to his new self, it was almost completely irresistible. It was creamy but not in a way that forced him to gag. It tasted like chicken and liver simultaneously, but it felt balanced, with neither flavor overpowering the other. It was neither too salty nor too basic. Before he knew it, before he thought too hard about the consistency or the taste, he had finished off half the bowl, and with each bite, he felt himself grow stronger again.
Rachel. Hold on. I see something. You remember when your mother was with child. How excited she was, how much she prepared.
Bill gripped his spoon tighter, but he didn't respond. The last thing he wanted to do to dignify Adam's comments with an answer. Instead, he continued to scoop out spoonfuls of paste and pull them into his mouth, where his tongue lapped around each morsel carefully.
You remember all the conversations about your sister's name, do you not?
He drew the spoon out of his mouth and clenched his teeth on the swirling pate. In his mind, he saw himself as a child, sitting back home, at the table in Goldenrod with his mother wrapping her arms around him. He could feel her warmth. He could smell her flowery perfume. He could almost hear her sing-song voice in his ear right then. She was asking him to pick a name from a book she gave him. A special name. Something that would be perfect for the little sister he had looked forward to meeting since the moment his parents told him the news.
And he remembered making the lists after that. In between piles of homework read and college applications filled out, he wrote list upon list in a spare notebook. It started with one giant list of names he liked, but then there was a list of names drawn from that and another list of names drawn from that, on and on until he filled the notebook and came to a simple list of five names he hoped his mother would choose from. And she did.
Rachel, Adam said. Hebrew name meaning ewe—female sheep. Fascinating that it is another Biblical name, yet it is also another name that you insist on bastardizing. Is that the name she prefers, or is it the one you assigned her?
Bill scooped the last of the pate from the bowl and shoveled it into his mouth. He swallowed it at once instead of playing with it this time, and as soon as it was gone, he smacked the bowl down onto a nearby side table.
"Enough," he growled. "Are we going to have a meaningful conversation anytime soon, or are you just going to spend all of my waking hours trying your hardest to test my patience?"
Seeing as you had the fantastic consideration to wake me up by being the most self-destructive host imaginable, I feel that it is perfectly within my right to vex you.
"I said I was sorry about that!" Bill said. "It wasn't my idea to fight a trained manectric, much less one that knew Fire Fang!"
Yet you did.
Bill crossed his arms. "Might I remind you what you said to me before you went into hibernation? You told me to survive. I did what I had to do."
Your sense of wit is healthy. Good. It means you recover quickly, a quality I had hoped my host would possess.
At that, Bill jumped slightly, and his eyes went wide for a second. As soon as that second passed, however, he glanced towards the ceiling with an exasperated look.
"Did you just manipulate this conversation to be a good thing for you?" he asked.
Stop being so easy to manipulate, and maybe the next conversation will be yours to win.
"I..." Bill pressed a hand to his forehead. "I think I'm tired again."
As if to emphasize this, he lay back down and slid his arms over his chest. For almost a minute, he shut his eyes tightly and exhaled. In the darkness behind his eyelids, he could almost see Adam's tent: the reds and purples of the cushions and the white flash of the parasite's robes. But more than that, he could see the creature's face. And, more specifically, he could see how bored it looked for the briefest of seconds before its expression turned completely blank.
You are upset with me.
"Of course I am," Bill grumbled.
Is it because of the additional clause?
Bill opened one eye just a crack, dispelling his vision of Adam. "Additional clause?"
Yes. You agreed to allow me to do whatever it takes to ensure our survival.
In response, he opened both of his eyes and squinted at the glaringly white ceiling. His fingers dug into the mattress as he struggled to control the hot anger now bubbling inside him.
"Oh yes," he said in a quiet hiss. "You violated our contract."
I did not. My actions, in every way, uphold our contract to the letter.
Bill sat up. "Don't lie to me! The agreement was that you would give me control, and you wouldn't do anything that would give me any reason to distrust you. You took over my body. That's not exactly upholding our agreement, Adam."
On the contrary. You gave me permission to do so.
"When did I do that?!"
When you gave me explicit permission to do whatever I must to protect you, Adam replied. Remember? You did so while we were trapped in the box of light. Besides, the original agreement was that I was not to do anything that would harm you. By standing by and doing nothing, you would have been harmed. Therefore, I upheld both the original terms and the added terms. The only wrong I committed was neglecting to tell you what it is I was doing, but I did not consider it necessary in what little time we were afforded. Is this an adequate enough explanation for you?
Bill couldn't help but growl. Every last word Adam told him only fed his anger. He couldn't trust the parasite—not now, not when he had lost control once already.
"That's it then?" Bill asked. "You're going to take control whenever it's most convenient for you, just because you tricked me into giving you the permission once?"
Of course not, Adam replied. I will only take control when I have no other choice for the sake of protecting my host. You saw for yourself how much energy I spent getting you out of trouble. As the host body, you hold certain benefits that I cannot take advantage of and are, therefore, better equipped to face the outside world. It is much more efficient and far easier to simply teach you to adapt, rather than to take your body for myself. I hope you take this as your guarantee that control over this body will mostly be yours.
"So you're just protecting your assets?!" Bill snapped.
In a word … yes. This should come as no surprise to you. As a symbiont, it is your physical form that is most useful to me, although your mind is certainly an advantage.
Bill gritted his teeth. "Remind me again why you're not a parasite."
Because if I was, your well being would not be as much of a concern to me.
Sighing, Bill rested his chin on a hand and closed his eyes again. It took a conscious act of will to dispel Adam's image completely and see nothing but perfect darkness behind his eyelids.
"Comforting," he muttered. Then, opening one eye, he added, "There isn't any chance to rescind, is there?"
No.
He sighed heavily. "I thought as much."
It is surprising that you accept that so readily.
Bill opened his eyes fully and lifted his chin from his hand. "I don't have much of a choice, do I? It's obvious that you won't let me dissolve our contract, I'm stuck like this, and you, for the foreseeable future, are living in my head. You've put me in a rather difficult position, Adam, so of course I'd be ready to accept this."
You have no idea how much of a pleasure it is to hear you say that. Perhaps now we can put our efforts into more constructive endeavors.
Closing his eyes again, Bill propped his chin on his hand once more. He had tuned Adam out partway through the creature's response, and now, his thoughts were turned back to more pressing matters. Matters that involved a certain red-head.
No response? Bill, you must listen. We should discuss our plans for the near future.
"Unless it has anything to do with Lanette's impending arrival or the matter concerning my sister and the people in this town, I don't care," Bill answered.
All of those matters are irrelevant. We must leave this town at once.
Bill opened his eyes halfway again and frowned. "Oh. Well, in that case, no, I don't care."
At that point, he felt something cold slither around his brain. He shuddered and winced, but at the same time, he tried not to think about what he was feeling. Bill knew, though. He knew that it had to be the tendrils of Adam's self flicking across his skull. His stomach turned at the thought of the root-like system that grew from the parasite when it attached to him. And he most certainly tried not to think about those tendrils, an entire organ system that wasn't his, writhing just beneath his metal skin.
Bill, Adam said, you are fighting a futile battle by attempting to enlist the help of these humans. It is quite a predicament that you find yourself in, is it not? Your sister, who screams at the sight of you. The woman who was once your closest companion kills our kind in cold blood. An officer of human law who believes you to be a mindless monster. It is far better to give up than it is to continue this struggle to get them to trust you.
To say that Bill would have paid attention to Adam either way would be a complete lie, but at least that time, he had a reason to ignore the creature. A familiar scent caught his nose partway through Adam's lecture. It was a flowery, earthy scent, one that now lacked the sour, metallic bite of fear. He knew this scent, and it came as a mild relief that it was here.
Are you listening to me? Adam asked. I am telling you something important.
He wasn't, and he didn't care. All he focused on was the growing feeling of excitement in his heart. She was here. She was here, most likely of her own volition. Bill swung his head towards the door to catch a glimpse of her. And there she was: half a face peeking around the corner, a body half hidden by the wall, and a small hand gripping the doorframe. But just as suddenly as he moved, she jumped and stiffened, her visible eye widening as far as it would go. Then, she vanished, slipping out of sight beyond the doorway.
"Raye," Bill whispered.
As soon as he moved to go after her, his entire body seized, and he toppled off the medical pod and crashed onto the floor. Wincing, he strained himself to move, only to feel the tendrils all over his body constrict his bones. They pulsed with cold electricity, forcing his muscles to seize in paralysis. His throat vibrated in a strangled cry as he doubled over, pressing his forehead into the floor.
You will not ignore me, Adam hissed.
Bill turned his head, grinding his forehead against the tile. "Let me go."
No. You must listen. The longer you remain here, the more danger you place yourself in. You must leave this town. We must carry out our plan. If you do not—
"Let me go!" Bill shouted.
Without thinking, he slammed his fist into the floor. He didn't even notice the way it fizzled with energy, the way it took on a brilliant, silver shine, or the way the floor yielded and cracked beneath his punch. All he noticed was that the net of nerves under his skin released, giving him the opportunity to move. He didn't even stop to think about why; instead, he scrambled forward on all fours until he could launch himself back to his feet.
"Raye!" he shouted. "Raye! Wait!"
He skidded at the door and reached out and grab the doorframe. Using the leftover momentum from his run, he swung himself around, sliding gracefully into the lobby…
…Only to find it empty.
Bill took a few gasps of air to catch his breath. Raye's scent lingered on each inhale, but the more Bill breathed in, the more he began to notice that it hung in different places. Furrowing his eyebrows, he leaned towards the wall and pressed his nose to separate parts of the doorframe. Where Raye had placed her hand when he caught a glimpse of her, the scent was the strongest and heaviest. But then, there were other places on the doorframe that smelled like her, but the flowery, earthy scent painted on each of the other spots were weaker, as if someone had sprayed perfume heavily on one spot but then gave the rest of the doorframe a light spritz. It didn't seem like much, but to Bill, it told him only one thing.
"She was here more than once," he said to himself.
Leaning towards the door, Bill peered into the room he had just left. His eyes fell on the medical pod, and he realized Raye would have had a clear view of it from her spot.
"Was she watching me?" he asked.
Of course she was, Adam replied. What else on this planet of yours did you think she was doing?
Ignoring the symbiont, Bill pushed away from the doorframe and sniffed the air again. When he caught Raye's scent, he began to follow it towards the door leading to the trainers' dormitories.
"Raye?" he called. "Raye, it's me, Nii-chan! I just want to talk to you!"
No answer. He pushed through the door to the hallway beyond it, only to find that it, too, was completely empty. However, Raye's scent still hung in the air, and much to his relief, it was a little fresher than the one in the lobby. She had been through here only recently. Either that, or it was a place where she frequently passed. Bill bent down to where he thought was her height and took another breath. Although her scent filled the corridor, he could detect the strongest of it heading in a straight line directly in front of him. It was that stream that he followed, but he did so slowly, with deliberate, careful movements. He wasn't about to scare her off again. That much he decided.
"Raye, please!" he begged. "I won't hurt you! You must believe me!"
Her scent led him to a closed door several feet down the hall. If this place was like the other pokémon centers he had been in, Bill knew that beyond the door was a bedroom trainers used for overnight stays. It could be locked from the inside, but Bill didn't bother to check. He had a good feeling that it was, and even if it wasn't, he knew opening that door and barging into the room would accomplish nothing but startle his sister. So instead, he pressed up against it, taking in her scent. It was the strongest there, and every part of the door smelled like her. This had to be the room she was given when the people of Fallarbor brought her up from Lavaridge.
But there was another scent on the door that Bill couldn't quite pin on anyone he knew. It was a scent that smelled like metal and wet dog fur. For some reason, that, more than the fear of scaring his sister, made him pause.
"Raye?" he asked, this time a little softer than the voice he had used to call her earlier. "Raye … listen. I'm sorry about all of this. I'm sorry that I scared you, and I'm sorry that you went through everything that happened to you. But I promise you, I'll see to it that you're safe from now on. Just please, open the door."
For a long while, there was nothing but silence. In response, Bill heaved another heavy sigh and thumped his forehead against the door's surface. He pressed his eyes shut and shook his head, grinding his forehead into the wood.
"Who am I kidding?" he groaned. "She's not going to listen to me."
Bill opened his eyes slightly and turned his head once more. He poised himself to ask Adam about whatever plan he was meant to follow, but before he could get a word out, his ear caught something. Shifting, he pressed the side of his face into the door until he could hear it: a low, guttural growl. The growl of a dog.
And then, it clicked. Smell of electricity and wet dog. A dog that could use electrical attacks.
A manectric.
"Oh blazes," Bill said.
He stumbled backwards, just in time to avoid being struck with the door as it flung open, and a blue and yellow blur dashed out of the room and slammed into him. The force of impact sent him skidding backwards until he flung his hands out and ground his claws into the wall. Looking up, he could see the manectric crouch low, ready to spring forward again. Bill yelped and flung his arm out in a sweeping arc in front of him. A Protect flared to life around his body as he whirled around and dashed for the door, but before he could reach it, a crack of thunder nearly deafened him. Electricity struck his barrier dead-on, and both the attack and Bill's defense exploded in a flash of yellow-green light. Blinded by the burst, he smashed his back against the wall and shielded his face with his arms. But in the next instant, he tripped over his own feet, and before he could stop himself, he slammed his side into the floor. With another cry, Bill squirmed onto his back, only to have the electric dog pounce on him. And that was where it ended: with Bill trembling on the floor and the manectric standing on his chest and baring its teeth close to his face.
"Okay, Manectric!" a voice called from down the hall. "Give him the good ol' slurp!"
Bill flinched, shutting his eyes tightly. He had no idea what the trainer was talking about, but he had a feeling it was going to be immensely painful. Above him, he could hear the manectric bark in confirmation. He could sense its paws shift on his chest. He could smell the electrified air that surrounded its body.
And then, he could feel the hot wetness of a tongue dragging across his cheek.
Bill opened his eyes and stared up at the muzzle of a smiling dog. The manectric tilted its head back and forth as it emitted a curious bark. Immediately afterwards, it stuck its nose in Bill's face and continued to lick every feature it could reach. Bill flinched again, this time in an attempt to avoid letting the dog lick his mouth or eyes.
"What?" he muttered through a half-open mouth.
The response to his question came in the form of a booming laughter. Bill opened his eyes again and sat up, prompting the manectric to jump off his chest and bounce back towards its trainer. At the same time, Bill blinked, staring at the portly young man who had attacked him the kitchen. All the while, Raye stood, visibly shaking and partially hidden behind the trainer's back.
"Oh man," the young man said. "You should've seen the look on your face! You were all like, 'Oh noes!' And Manectric was like, 'Grr, I'm a mighty manectric!' And then you were like, 'Ah!' And then Manectric nailed you, and…!"
The man's speech trailed off into raucous laughter. Bill couldn't help but stare dumbfounded at this reaction, and he had a feeling, judging by his symbiont's silence, that Adam was just as stunned as he was.
Eventually, the trainer wiped the corners of his eyes and said, "Oh man. That was good. Anyway, hi! I'm Thom Wattson, only son of the Wattsons of Mauville. You probably know about my grandpa, the former gym leader there? No? Well, in any case, you apparently know Raye, which is awesome." He extended a hand. "Uh … you okay? I didn't spook you too badly, did I?"
Bill stared at Thom's hand for a long while. In fact, he had been staring rather blankly at Thom in general for the past minute that it took the trainer to finish speaking. It was just that he now had a specific point on Thom's person to channel his utter confusion.
"Oh man." Thom rubbed the back of his neck with his other hand. "I think I overdid it. Nurse Joy's gonna kill me for frying your brain."
"No, uh," Bill replied, quickly shaking his head to dispel the rest of his shock. "I'm … I'm okay." Then, he struggled to stand, using the wall as leverage. "You just surprised me. That's all. It's … it's nice to meet you, Thom. My name is Bill."
"Nice to meet ya!" Thom exclaimed in response. Then, glancing down at his still outstretched hand, he added, "Uh. Shaking's not a thing you do when you meet people?"
With a blink, Bill replied, "Normally, I wouldn't mind, but I highly doubt that would be a good idea." He held up one of his hands to emphasize this point, allowing Thom to view his claws and the razor-sharp plating of his armor. But when Raye squeaked and tucked herself behind Thom a little more, Bill threw a quick look at her and drew his hand behind his back.
Seemingly unaware of this reaction, Thom burst out laughing again and withdrew his own hand. "Oh man! That's so awesome, but I get you."
Bill tilted his head. Thom wasn't the strangest person he had ever met, but he ranked somewhere on Bill's list. Seemingly oblivious to his companion's dumbfounded glance, Thom swung his hands up in the air and smiled broadly.
"Anyway, wow! You guys really do recover quickly!" he boomed. "Man, you were in bad shape when Nurse Joy started in on you. She's really a miracle worker, y'know? Of course, I didn't think I could do that much damage. I don't think I'm much of a trainer, but I guess that's what you get when you use a gym leader's former pokémon, right? Anyway, wow, I wonder if it was Nurse Joy who got you up and about. Or was it just because you're an ixodida? I've heard stories about the ixodida healing from anything, but I've never seen it myself. I was lucky enough to be evacuated from Mauville before the ixodida took it over. Not that I blame you or anything! You're not like other ixodida. Or that's what Nurse Joy says, anyway. I mean, man, she's been telling everyone she's seen that you were polite and friendly when you woke up. 'Course, she didn't say it to me exactly, but I couldn't help overhearing, y'know? 'Cause we're all pretty much in close quarters around here? And anyway, I've gotta keep an eye on Rachel, so hey, this kind of thing is important. Y'know, Officer Jenny assigned me as her personal bodyguard, after all, and when Nurse Joy tried to ask Rachel if she knew you, I knew something was up. Or, okay, I wasn't exactly assigned to the position by Officer Jenny, but, y'know—"
Somewhere in the middle of all of this, Bill could feel Adam stir in his head. Bill, must we continue to listen to this boy's prattling? We are wasting time.
Bill looked up and clenched his teeth. He resisted every temptation to respond, not only because he didn't want to acknowledge the parasite in front of others but also because Thom had just said something of interest to him. If this man was Raye's bodyguard—or otherwise as close to her as he claimed to be—then perhaps he knew more about Raye than anyone else in town.
Barring Lanette, of course. Bill felt a slight twinge in his chest when he realized that the longer he stood there listening to Thom, the closer he was to the moment when Lanette would arrive, and he still didn't have know what he should say to her. And if she was an ixodida killer as Nurse Joy had said, then that was more than a slight cause for concern.
His eyes fell on Raye until they locked gazes. As soon as Bill looked at her, Raye jumped and tucked herself completely behind the still rambling trainer. That alone turned the twinge in Bill's heart into a sinking feeling. If he hoped to help his sister, he had to survive, and he needed as many allies as he could get in order to ensure that would happen.
So with a frown, he decided that the answer to Adam's question was, yes, he had to deal with Thom. If he was going to survive in this town, then he needed intel, and it sounded like Thom had just the right connections to be his inside man, so to speak. Part of him felt a little guilty about seeing a potential friendship that way, but … perhaps that was how Adam felt. Forming relationships out of necessity, out of a desperate drive to continue living.
Adam was silent at that point. Bill only noticed then, right as that thought about why the parasite was so keen on using him crossed his mind. He glanced towards the ceiling once again, wondering for the first time if Adam cared about him as a person more than he thought.
But then, he dispelled his musings to focus on Thom's words. If he had to forge a friendship with this man, he needed to listen.
And it was then that Thom's talk took a completely different turn.
"Or maybe it's because you finally ate something," Thom said. "I mean, Nurse Joy mentioned you hadn't fed for a long time before we found you. Maybe that's why you were so easy to beat. No offense, of course! I mean, yeah, food makes a difference; I should know! But man, was it hard to find something an ixodida would eat. They say you eat meat, right? Like, raw meat and everything? They find a lot of dead pokémon and animals around where you guys camp out. So I was thinking, you know, you kinda look like a skitty or a meowth, and Nurse Joy said your dietary needs or whatever would probably be like a carnivorous animal's, and a cat's a carnivore, so I went all over town and collected up as much food as I could. You know, it took three cans to fill up just one bowl! And we probably have to feed you more than once a day! I don't know how long we can keep feeding you at that rate, but I guess that, since none of us really have any cat pokémon..."
Bill blinked. He had no idea what this discussion was about, and part of him was screaming a warning to the rest of his mind that he shouldn't ask. But unfortunately, the ever-curious scientist in him won out.
"Er … three cans of what exactly?" he asked.
Thom held his hands palm-sides up, as if what he was about to say was incredibly obvious. "Cat food, of course!"
All of the thought processes going through Bill's head went completely dead except for the mental image of the pate. Suddenly, he remembered exactly where he had seen that same type of food: in the pet food bowls he used to give his eevee when he was still a human.
And to that, Bill could only respond with one word.
"What?"
—
Several minutes and a few dry heaves later, Bill had finally dragged himself into the lobby with an apologizing Thom and a silent Raye in tow. Right then, he sat on one of the disused couches in the waiting area with his hands wrapped around a glass of water. Thom sat on an adjacent couch with his manectric's head in his lap, and Raye stood in the doorway to the hall, her hands curled tightly around its frame. Every so often, Bill took a sip from the glass and glanced at Raye, but this act that always led her to yelp and half-close the door to hide all but a sliver of herself. Bill had already given up on trying to communicate directly with Raye; his attention had shifted instead to figuring out a way to connect with Thom and, hopefully, gain his trust enough to prove to Raye that there was nothing to worry about.
"Figuring out," of course, was the key phrase in this instance. It never really occurred to Bill just how rusty his social skills towards non-researchers were until he tried and failed to start a conversation with a thoroughly embarrassed Thom. And for that reason, the past few minutes had been spent in utter silence.
Eventually, he surrendered and went for the most straightforward route he could find.
"Thom," he said, "tell me about Lanette."
The trainer perked up, as if he hadn't expected Bill to speak to him so casually. Thom gazed at the ixodida in wide-eyed wonder before breaking into a smile.
"Hey! You're really not angry about the whole cat food—"
Bill quickly held up a hand. "Uh. Why don't we forget about that?"
"Right, right!" Thom said, nodding quickly. "So. Lanette, huh? Why do you want to know about her?"
With a glance towards the windows at the front of the center, Bill replied, "She's coming."
Thom leapt to his feet and balled his hands into fists that he held in front of him. His manectric toppled off the couch and landed on the floor with a thud, where it rose to all fours and growled.
"She's coming?!" Thom cried. "Here?! Oh man, you are so screwed! Why didn't you tell me?! We've got to hide you!"
Thom snatched Bill's arm and began pulling. Startled by the act, Bill whipped his head back towards Thom and grasped the couch with his opposite hand. Part of the cushions were instantly shredded as Bill rose slightly off his seat, but leaning back, he was able to yank his arm free from Thom's grasp.
"Wait! Wait! You have it all wrong! I asked for her to come!" Bill exclaimed.
Although Thom stopped attempting to grab Bill and run, he still stared down at his companion with a panicked look at that statement. "Why would you do that?! Oh man! Oh man! You are so dead!"
"That's what I don't understand," Bill replied. "Thom, Lanette and I are old friends. I knew her before I was changed and before Hoenn was quarantined. We were close, and while Lanette might have been a little stern, she was never the kind of person who would hurt someone, let alone kill them."
Thom shook his head and slapped his hands onto Bill's shoulders. "Oh man, you don't get it! Lanette's stern, yeah, but she's only nice to humans. She hates ixodida! With a passion, bro!"
Bill tilted his head and arched an eyebrow. None of this made sense. Lanette never hated anything. Sure, Bill had seen her angry and annoyed, but she was never violent and certainly not dangerous to be around. Besides, why would she want to hurt him? After all, she was the one most likely to nag him about things he was doing to hurt himself. If he had forgotten to eat, it was Lanette who would lecture him about how he operated when his blood sugar levels crashed. If he had been up at six in the morning, it would be Lanette who would ask him if he had slept and, if the answer was no, if he knew exactly what a lack of sleep was doing to his brain. If he had mentioned that he had suffered a minor injury or if he had worked through the mildest of colds, it would be Lanette who would talk his ear off about how much he needed to rest or how much he needed to be careful and take care of himself. While Bill had gotten into plenty of trouble and survived even without Lanette's help, she had always been concerned about his well being. So it didn't make sense to Bill that this Lanette, the lead hunter of Fallarbor Town, hated his new species and would potentially kill him on sight.
It was just that the people of Fallarbor didn't know that he wasn't an ordinary ixodida. That must have been it; they had no idea who he was or what he was to Lanette. If they knew, perhaps they wouldn't be so concerned.
With that thought in mind, Bill gave Thom a hesitant smile, but even then, something about this situation didn't sit well with him. He had just told Thom about his relationship with Lanette, and the trainer still gave him the same response. Perhaps it was just that Thom was easily excitable, but Bill still wanted the reassurance that Lanette wasn't a threat to him.
So he tried another angle.
"Thom, Nurse Joy said Lanette is your lead hunter," he said. "What does that mean?"
"You mean you don't know?" Thom pulled away to sit back down on the couch. He patted the seat next to him as a signal to Manectric, and once it jumped onto the couch cushions, Thom stroked the dog's crest to calm his nerves. "Guess you wouldn't, would you? Anyway, you know how we have these parties that go out and look for survivors and stuff, right?"
Bill nodded and trained his eyes on the manectric. "Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny said something about that, yes."
"Well." Thom rubbed his chin. "Those teams are made up of bunches of people with different roles. You have the scouts, usually the people with flying-type pokémon or pokémon that are fast and stealthy. They go ahead of the party, look for any ixodida that might be along the way, and come back to report to the others. Then there're the medics, the people with pokémon that can heal others, and they do what you'd think they do, but they also cook and pitch camp or break camp. The guards are a couple of people with a lot of pokémon; they stay behind and guard the camp. Or you have guards like me, who stay behind and protect the town. Scavengers go into towns to round up survivors and lead them back to camp, or they go in and collect as many supplies as they can carry. They usually have fighting or psychic-type pokémon to do the gathering and dog-like pokémon to do the searching. And then you have the hunters. They're the ones with the best fighting skills or the strongest pokémon, and their job is to go out whenever the scout says there's an ixodida nest. And, y'know, they just kill everything they find."
"I see," Bill replied. He bowed his head and stared at the floor. "And Lanette?"
"Lanette came to town way before they found me," Thom said. "In fact, she was a hunter in the party that cleared out Mauville. So I don't know all of the details to her story, but I know that Mauville used to have parties like ours before they were all pretty much killed off by the ixodida. One of the last parties there found her around what was left of Fortree and brought her to Mauville, but when the Fallarbor teams found out about her, they immediately came down to bring her up here. I didn't meet her then, but I heard she was in pretty bad shape, kinda like how Rachel is now. Next time I saw her, though? She was this massive hard-ass. Don't tell her I said that, by the way. But yeah, she basically runs things around here because she's the smartest, she's got the best fighting skills, and no one knows more about an ixodida's weak points than her. People just listen to her because she knows what to do, y'know? But between you and me? I think a lot of us are kinda afraid of her because she's just way too hardcore into her job. They say she volunteered to be a hunter, and she became the best hunter in town by her third trip out. And even though I've never been on a trip myself, I know that, y'know, the people who go on them? They say the only time Lanette laughs is when she kills 'em."
Bill looked up and leaned back in his seat. A shiver went through his entire body, and shakily, he grinned again. Because he focused all of his attention on trying to understand Thom's story, he didn't notice the sound of the pokémon center's doors whirring open.
"You're … you're kidding," he said. "That can't be true. There's no way Lanette of all people would take that much pleasure in killing someone."
Thom raised a hand. "Right hand up to Jirachi, man. She laughs when she kills an ixodida. They say she hates them so much they have to remind her she's not a scout to keep her from running off into the countryside and going on some kind of ixodida hunting spree."
Bill couldn't help but force a chuckle. Or to be more accurate, he could help it, but he felt like laughing at what Thom said would make it a little less possible. "You're joshing me. Lanette? On a killing spree?"
The next instant went by so quickly that Bill could barely process what happened until the dust settled. Thom opened his mouth, but before he could say a word, a gust of wind burst through the lobby of the pokémon center. Something yanked Bill to his feet and off the floor, but it felt like the air itself grabbed him and hoisted every part of his body off the ground. He gasped for breath, fingers clutching at his neck where the pressure was the tensest.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Thom's manectric jumping onto the floor and crouching into a fighting stance, while behind it, Thom moved to stand. Several feet in front of them, a spinda leapt onto the couch, already launching into its first move before Thom could get a word out. The red-and-white panda danced to a beat that only it could hear, swaying its arms in an pendulous motion as it stomped from foot to foot on the couch. Right away, Bill recognized it as Teeter Dance, but he could do nothing but watch in horror as Thom and Manectric fell for it immediately. Thom began babbling as he mimicked the bear's movements until he spilled over the couch and onto the floor behind it. Manectric, meanwhile, swayed on all four paws, barking and howling at random until it bashed its head into a coffee table and crumpled into a heap. Realizing that both of his potential saviors were out of commission, Bill squirmed in mid-air, struggling to free himself from the mysterious hold.
Only then, only when he tore his eyes away from Thom and Manectric and looked straight ahead, did he realize what was the cause of his trouble. Right in front of the door, a solrock hung, its eyes glowing with a bright, blue light as it stared directly at Bill. Underneath it was the first and last person Bill had hoped to see.
The young woman looked like she had gone through Hell. Her wavy, fire-orange hair hung loosely around her shoulders, but the way it was cut, with its choppy, messy ends, made it look like she had done the job herself. Her green dress was torn in several places along the sleeves, and the skirt, one that came down to her knees, looked like she had patched together several different dresses in a futile repair job. The knee-high, brown military boots she wore were covered with several stains, some of which glowed suspiciously with what Bill hoped wasn't the blood of ixodida parasites. Belts were latched around her waist and across her chest, and strapped to her back via this system was a rusty crowbar covered with dried blood. Her sleeves were long and dark gray, which only seemed to accentuate the pale scars up and down her arms where the material was ripped. But most of all, there was her face. Her glasses, somehow, were intact, but behind them were a pair of expressionless hazel eyes. In fact, the only shred of expression on her long face was a small frown across her thin lips.
Bill knew this girl. He knew that she was half a year older than he was, yet they met when they were both freshmen in college. He knew that she liked to collect dolls and that when she got wrapped up in her research, she often forgot to keep her laboratory organized. And he also knew that she spoke French when she was frustrated, that she hated horror films because she got scared easily, and that she was better than he could ever be at developing a graphical user interface.
Or, at least, that was the Lanette he knew. This woman, meanwhile, both looked like Lanette and looked nothing like her. Her features were all the same, but it was the emotion that separated her from his closest companion. Just by staring into those expressionless eyes, Bill knew he wasn't looking at his Lanette. He was looking at the lead hunter of Fallarbor Town. The ixodida killer.
And he knew, right then, that she was going to kill him.
"I do not laugh when I kill an ixodida," she told him icily. "I do not gain pleasure at all from interacting with your kind. I only kill you because it helps me sleep at night."
She lifted a hand, reaching her fingers out towards Bill. In response, the force holding him in the air threw him across the room. He slammed his back into one of the center's PCs, shattering the machine as soon as he collided with it. Plastic and metal and sparks rained down on him as he crashed to the floor, twisting and screaming. His memory went hazy for the briefest of seconds, and when it cleared, he found himself desperately scrambling forward on his hands and knees, away from wreckage of the PC.
"L-Lanette," he rasped.
The invisible force seized him and flipped him onto his back. He cried out as the air itself pressed down on him, as what felt like several graveler sat on his limbs to pin him to the floor. Then, the psychic energy dragged him upwards, scraping his back and tail against the floor and wall until it held him, arms out and legs straight down, next to the doorway to the trainer's dormitories. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to look forward just in time to see Lanette crossing the room. One of her hands reached up to pull the crowbar from its makeshift holster, and she twirled it like a baton before pointing the straight end at Bill. His eyes fell on it, and in his terror, he saw that one end had been filed down to a point—to a blade pointed directly at his heart. Lanette stopped at just the right distance to touch him with this tip, and from there, she pointed her weapon up until it grazed his adam's apple.
"You have his face," she commented. "Why?"
Bill hesitated, not because of her question but instead because he felt Adam. The net under his skin shifted, and the presence in his brain twisted. He could almost hear a growl in his head, and he knew at once that Adam was threatening to activate the clause he had unwittingly agreed to. At that moment, Bill knew that within the next few minutes, either Lanette would kill him, or Adam would force him to kill Lanette.
And here he was, unable to so much as speak to her in order to convey a warning, not that she would listen to him anyway. His eyes stung at that realization, and his vision blurred with tears.
"Lanette," he whispered.
In the colorful haze that his world had become, he could just make out Lanette shifting the pointed end of the crowbar down. He couldn't feel its tip scraping against his armor, but he heard it, screeching little by little until it came to rest on the jewel over his heart. In his head, the growl grew louder, and gradually, he began to lose feeling in his extremities.
"Please don't do this," he pleaded, although he wasn't entirely sure of whether he meant it for Lanette or Adam.
Lanette narrowed her eyes and ignored Bill's words. "Tell me. Who are you and why do you know my name?"
It was right then that Bill, for the first time in his life, found that he couldn't respond to someone's question.
—
Fallarbor Town and the valley that surrounded it sat in the shadow of two mountains. The first was Mt. Meteor, home of the cave system known as Meteor Falls, and the second was Mt. Chimney, the active volcano at the heart of Hoenn. Although Hoennians had always seen puffs of smoke and clouds of ash rising from Mt. Chimney's peak, they knew that the volcano was relatively safe. The last eruption, after all, occurred over five hundred years ago, back when Entei was said to have been born. Since then, Mt. Chimney had slept, regulated by the resident slugma and magcargo, and in its shadow, the fields of Route 113 lay beneath a thick, gray coat of volcanic ash.
It was that day, at the same time as Bill's struggle against the solrock of an angry hunter, that the volcanic ash was stirred by an unnatural wind. It swirled in a funnel, rising higher and higher until it looped around the white boots of a Rocket operative who landed elegantly in the soft grass. Around her, the thick dust billowed outwards, forming waves of gray and white in the exhaust of her jetpack until she cut the engine and let the ash fall as a ring-shaped smog. Standing, Domino squinted at the obscured sun and scoffed.
"Ugh. I hate Hoenn. It's so…" She kicked the grass with her ash-covered boots. "…Dirty."
Heaving a disgruntled sigh, Domino dusted herself off and reached up to pull a square, black device from under her cap. Her fingers prodded its glassy face to wake it up and summon several app buttons onto its screen. Tapping one, Domino brought up a map of Hoenn with two red blips of light in its northwest corner, and with a few gestures, she zoomed in until she could see each label.
"Hmm. Fallarbor Town is…" Turning, Domino faced due west and glanced down at the device again. "…About three miles that way. And McKenzie is currently located in its pokémon center, six blocks in from the eastern limits. Perfect. This'll be easy. It's just a matter of sneaking in, capturing him, and sneaking back out to the rendezvous point. With how backwater this region is, I might not even need cover."
She reached up into her cap again, this time pulling free a cellphone. Flipping it open, she moved her fingers to punch in a number, but she didn't get far enough to place her call. Behind her, several low snarls rose into the air, causing her to stop partway through dialing. Cautiously, she turned and watched the ash shift a short distance from her. It rose in spikes and twisting shapes until, at last, several heads rose from the grass. Several very human-like heads with horns shaped like cat ears. And all of them had mouths that opened to reveal inch-long, needle-sharp fangs. Turning, Domino shoved both devices back under her cap and whipped her arm out. Her tulip baton snapped into her hand and telescoped as she swept her eyes around the field. More heads rose all around her, each with open, snarling faces.
Except for one. One figure rose to its feet, exposing the sand-colored plates that ran down its front. Spikes covered its back and head, overlapping to give the creature a porcupine look. It clicked its long, bone claws together as it stared down at Domino with piercing, blue eyes.
And then, it extended one slender arm to her.
"A scout," it said. "Kill her."
Domino grimaced. "Great."
As the ixodida lunged at her, she twirled her baton in the air and slammed its stem into the ground. She held her breath while above her, blue powder billowed from the blossom and engulfed her attackers. By the time it settled, the ixodida nearest to her fell to the ground in a deep sleep, causing the others to stumble over their brethren. They fumbled just long enough for Domino to flip her jetpack's engine on, and in the next moment, Domino leapt into the air and flew away, heading due west towards civilization.
All the while, the lone speaking ixodida craned its neck and narrowed its blue eyes at the fleeing Rocket. Then, it shifted its claw towards not only Domino but also Fallarbor Town.
"Follow her," it rumbled.
Without hesitation, each of the remaining ixodida turned towards the town and screeched in unison.