Chapter 23 – Sootopolis

Sootopolis was ranked as one of the wonders of the world, and it wasn't hard for me to see why. As I walked along the sandy streets towards General Harding's home the things I saw were nothing short of amazing, from the fish market right by the water's edge to the houses built on pillars that didn't actually touch the ground.

The most incredible sights, though, had to be the wall-hugging parts of Sootopolis city.

From what I knew about Sootopolis' history, construction of the wall dwellings had begun some millenia ago when the dormant volcano was initially colonized by a long-dead race. The land at the bottom of the volcano had been prone to flooding, and so they had built their homes into the sheer walls of the volcano itself. Resembling massive, lattice-like structures, the scaffold-like constructs extended nearly halfway along the volcano's walls.

According to General Harding, they were presently used by the locals for commercial purposes. Sootopolis' modern inhabitants had simply bored tunnels through the rock and granted external access to the wall dwellings, complete with helipads where they opened up to the outside world. Otherwise, he said, no one really lived in them, since their maze-like structures made it damn near impossible to find your way around without a teleporter.

Well, admittedly, the rundown state of some of the corridors and walkways also made falling from several hundred feet in the air a possibility for those who went skulking around in the derelict structures.

As we headed to his home, people called out greetings to General Harding, and some even stopped us for a short chat. Most of them were elderly folk who seemed rather fond of him, and who were quite happy in telling others that they'd known him since before he'd gone off to become a hotshot trainer. The rest were teenagers and children of various ages, all of whom he'd not seen since he last visited – I'm still wondering whether his surprise at their current appearances was really that great.

"Here we are, kid!" he said happily as we walked up to a house somewhat close to the water's edge. "Home, sweet home, or at least for me it is."

"Are you sure your family won't mind me, sir?" I asked again, nervously. "I mean, I could try to get a place at the barracks or something."

"Nonsense!" he huffed, as he stopped to take his sunglasses off. "They'll love to have a new kid to harass- I mean fuss over. Everything's going to be cool!"

Just then, the front door opened, and a broom walked out. Or at least, that's what I thought I saw. When I blinked twice and rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, I saw that yes, the broom had indeed made its own way out of the house, and that it was presently sweeping sand off the stairs of its own accord.

"Umm, sir," I said, not believing my eyes, "there's a broom sweeping your house's steps."

"What about it?" he asked me nonchalantly, even as he turned to look at the broom. "Well, that's what brooms do, isn't it? Sweeping stuff?"

"But there's no one using it!"

He smirked at me. "Kiddo, of course there's someone using that broom! Are you saying that there are poltergeists in my home?"

"No, sir-"

"Hell, I bring you to visit my folks, and here you go, claiming my home is haunted!" he said, frowning. "I ought to feed you to my jellicent and cover up your death somehow."

"Wha- what?"

After glaring at me for a few seconds, he burst into a cackling fit. "Heh, I can't believe you fell for that!"

"Sir!" I exclaimed, covering my face with my hands. "Can we just... go inside?"

"Whoa! I know that you're aware of my sexual orientation, but that's a little bit too fast for me, kid!"

"Still as maniacal as ever, I see," said a dry voice from the house's direction. I turned to look, and lo and behold, a gardevoir was hovering next to the broom, watching us with an amused expression on its face. "Nice tank top, Zachary."

"And you're still trying to be the sorcerer's apprentice, I see," General Harding retorted with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "But it's nice to see you again, Ben. Does Mom know that we're here yet?"

"I have not said anything to her presently, since I thought you'd want to ambush her," the gardevoir said, moving down to our level and giving me a once-over. "Cute sex toy you have here."

"What did you say?" I sputtered, as both the gardevoir and his trainer had a good laugh at my expense. "I'm not his... sex toy!"

"He's not, Ben," said my boss, nodding frantically amidst laughs. "Dear gods..."

Ben the gardevoir positively lit up upon hearing that. Floating closer to me and leaning against my shoulder, he then looked at his trainer and batted his eyelashes at him. "In that case, can I have him? I promise that we won't do anything excessively kinky."

While I tried not to puke in the perverted psychic's face, General Harding sighed and stepped in to pry him off me. "No can do, Ben. Just the thought of what you might do to my poor assistant makes me feel ill – no offense. And forget kinkiness, the very idea of humans screwing with pokemon is a damned sick thing."

"Alas, I remain alone, then," Ben sighed melodramatically. "Perhaps someday I'll find someone who wouldn't mind indulging my libido, or maybe that dishy medicham down the road would return my affections. But it looks like for now I'll just have to be patient."

"You're such a drama queen, Ben."

"And a drag queen," said the gardevoir, twirling on the spot to show off his skin skirt – which I had just noticed was not the usual cloak-like outfit worn by male gardevoir. "Anyway, off you two go! I've got to clean up the front of the house today, or Mom will have a cow!"

"Nice to see that you're still normal," General Harding laughed, as we went up the stairs and took our shoes off before entering the house. "See you later, Ben!"

I frowned at the gardevoir's back, even as he picked up the broom and began treating it like an imaginary microphone, while apparently attempting to moonwalk in mid-air. "Is he alright? Mentally, I mean."

"Eh?" my commanding officer looked out at the dancing psychic, and smiled slightly. "Ben's always been a touch flamboyant. Even his name's a fancy name, hah!"

"Benedict?" I guessed, as I took in the sight of his home's living room – it looked very cosy indeed, and that big sofa in the corner seemed to be the comfortable type by virtue of its apparent age.

"Correct," he nodded, as he picked up our shoes and placed them on a small shoe rack next to the door.

The living room wasn't too spacious, with a small television set sitting atop a quaint-looking bookshelf in the corner opposite the sofa. Two closed doors were along the living room's right wall, and the left wall had a hallway leading towards the other half of the house. Age-smoothened planks made up the floor, and several yellowed photographs had been hung on the walls.

"And why's he doing the skin skirt instead of the cloak?" I asked, once I had finished looking around. "Ben, I mean."

General Harding laughed, and gestured for me to follow him. "He was thinking of getting the cloak as a kirlia, but decided that if Fen, Gary, and I could go around topless all the time, he'd do the same. So he started with a loincloth-thing after he evolved, and slowly extended it when his opponents started attacking his legs."

"... I'll never know what to expect of you and your pokemon, sir," I muttered, as Ben used his telekinetic powers to jab at a passing divermon with the broom. "Wait, he went on your journeys with you?"

"Well, sure! But he ultimately decided to stay home and help my folks keep the house in order, so I only see him whenever I come back here," he said, suddenly holding out a hand to stop me in my tracks, even as he lowered his voice. "Now, shush! We've got a person to ambush."

He slowly crept up along the hallway, and silently went through a doorway on our right. Not making a sound, I went after him, and peeked in through the doorway. From what I could see, he was stalking up behind a rather petite woman who was washing dishes in the sink – given the array of utensils I saw in the room along with a stove, the room was definitely their kitchen.

"Give me all your money!" he snarled, as he jumped behind her and placed his hands over her eyes. "Money or life, woman?"

"I'd say 'take my wife', but then again, I am the wife in this house," she said, amusement creeping into her voice. Seemingly unfazed by the fact that someone had covered her eyes, she began washing soapsuds off her hands and towelled them off. "Now, just uncover my eyes and let me give you a hug, Zachary!"

"Aww, Mom!" he pouted, letting her go and stepping back. "Couldn't you play along at least once? You're no fun to prank anymore."

She turned around with a soft laugh, and hugged him tightly around his middle – given her height, that was where she stood. "It's been too long, Zack! You really ought to visit us more often."

Still holding him, she leaned back, and scrutinized his profile. "Still wearing these obscene clothes, I see. And you're looking thin – have you been eating properly?"

"Mom!" he whined, unable to do anything since her arms were holding his against his sides. "We've got a guest, and you're embarrassing me in front of him!"

"Pish posh!" she scoffed, letting him go and elbowing him in the stomach. "No man is ever too old to be mothered! And I'm going to have a chat with Adrienne later, to see if you have been eating right.

"And what's your name, young man?" she said, turning to me with a smile. "I trust Zachary hasn't been too much of a handful over at Canalave?"

"No, ma'am," I replied, taking note of her appearance. Her hair had been swept back into a messy plait, and she had a light tan, with several slight wrinkles on her face. It was her eyes that caught my attention, though – they were the exact same shade of blue as General Harding's. "He's been kind to me, for sure."

"That's my boy," she nodded approvingly. "So, you boys just missed lunch! But between your father, Ben, and I, we don't eat much, so if you want, I'll heat up the leftovers? And before you ask, Zack, we had fried fish."

"I'm cool, but you, kid?" General Harding asked me, as he opened the fridge. "Her fried fish is good, seriously."

I shook my head. "Oh, no thank you. We need to get unpacked, anyway."

His mother smiled, and nudged him in the ribs as he drank some orange juice straight out of the carton. "Handy assistant, he is. And how many times must I tell you not to do that? Gods know what you've had in that mouth of yours."

"Uh, I'll have to check that out," he shrugged, as he put the depleted carton of juice down on the countertop. "Let's see... Fen's dick's for sure, maybe a few others, and food? I don't keep logs of what goes in, you know."

I think I nearly choked on my own saliva when I heard him so casually mentioning the fact that he'd sucked several guys off to his own mother.

She sighed, shaking her head. "Incorrigible as always, I see. So, be a good host, Zack, and take him to your room. Oh, and take that carton with you – I doubt your father's going to drink anything from it now that you've desecrated it."

"Yes, Mom," he said happily, leaning in to grab the carton and giving her a hug at the same time. "Hmm, it's great to be home."

"Go on, son," she said, shooing him towards the doorway once he let her go. "And if you see him, tell Ben that I'm game for some Blackjack later, if he's up to it."

"Will do, Mom," he nodded, even as he left the kitchen.

"Nice meeting you, ma'am," I bowed my head to her, causing her to laugh.

She turned back to the sink. "You're a polite one, that's for sure. Now run along with Zack, since I've got this washing up to finish."

I headed out of the kitchen, and saw Adrienne walking towards it. She waved at me, and walked past me as I made my way back to the living room. Of the two doors that had been closed earlier, the one on the right was open with a pink tank top hanging from its doorknob, and I could see General Harding's bare back as he pulled a dust cover off the bed in the room.

Well, so it looked like Ben wasn't the only one who went around the house topless. At least my boss wasn't wearing a skirt.

As I approached his room, the other door flew open, revealing a broad-shouldered man in a T-shirt and sarong. Despite his intimidating build, his facial expression was jovial, and he brightened up upon seeing me.

"Ah, you must be Zack's friend!" he said, offering me his right hand. "Had a good trip?"

"I'm his assistant, actually. And umm, we teleported or... something with his pokemon," I said, shaking his hand and trying to avoid wincing as he nearly crushed mine in his grip. "It was alright."

"Well, he should be helping you to unpack, or something!" he said, stomping out of his room. "Oi, Zack! Get your ass over here and help your friend get settled in!"

"I'm here, Dad," General Harding said, leaning against his room's doorframe. "Nice to see that you're still as vibrant as ever."

Guffawing, Mr. Harding turned to me and clouted me on the back, causing me to stumble forward. "You hear that son of mine! What he means to say is that his old man's one hell of a loud bastard, even in my old age, HAH!"

"Good to see you, too, Dad," General Harding winced as his shoulder got squeezed in the man's iron grip.

"Go and get a shirt on, you miscreant! Can't you see that we've got company?"

"I know we have company, Dad," he rolled his eyes. "I brought him here, didn't I?"

"And between the two of us, we've got a majority on being shirtless!" declared Ben, as he entered the house. "You really ought to try it, Mr. H."

Mr. Harding snorted and waved his hand in disdain at the two of them. "Nah, I'll pass. I spent more than twenty years doing that, and got more than my fair share of sunburns. I'll settle for retirement in a shirt, thank you very much."

"He's just trying to hide that beer belly," whispered my boss, leaning in and casting a sly look at his father. "Oh, and Ben, Mom says she's game for Blackjack later."

"I heard that, Zachary. Now, why don't you take your buddy here and show him the sights? Heck knows Sootopolis has enough of them to go around," Mr. Harding said, raising his eyebrow. "And just how much money does she owe you again, Ben?"

"Presently, Mom owes me thirteen thousand dollars," he said, after a moment's pause. "But then again, she has a horrible poker face and cooks well, so I keep track more for the fun of it."

"I'll leave you guys to your fun, then," General Harding smirked as he grabbed his tank top from the doorknob. "We'll be going down to town, and maybe the market – anything you need?"

"Hmm, if they have fresh fish, then some wouldn't be amiss," Ben said, after some thought. "Oh, and we need eggs, as usual. We seem to have run out of them, again."

"Hear that, son?" Mr. Harding laughed, clapping me on the back again. "We're a devoted household of egg-eaters, here! Shame I was a trainer and fisherman instead of a chicken farmer, but there you have it!"

"Alright, let's head out before my dad whacks your lungs out or something," General Harding said, as he steered me towards the house's front door. "See you later, Dad!"

"See you, Mr. Harding," I said, as I picked up my shoes from the rack, and headed down the stairs to where General Harding was already bouncing on the balls of his feet, eager as a bibarel. "So, where will we be headed?"

"To the market, and beyond!" he said, placing his hands on his hips and looking perfectly comical.

I didn't even know what to say to that, so I just tried to keep up with him as he practically waltzed down the street towards the market that we'd passed earlier.

xxx

One whirlwind shopping trip later – who knew that General Harding was that good at haggling? – found ourselves heading back to his house to drop the fish and eggs off. Upon our arrival at the house, though, we saw that the Blackjack game mentioned by Mrs. Harding earlier was already on. According to General Harding, Ben was winning, though Mr. Harding and the teddy bear seemed to be close seconds.

"So each round won is indicated by a chip?" I asked him, as we watched Mr Harding shuffling the cards.

"Yup, we use real casino chips here, young man!" Mrs. Harding declared proudly. "No denominations on them, though."

"... How does the teddy bear play?" I asked her, watching as Ben used his powers to deal out two cards to each of the four players. "And what does it do with the money if it wins?"

Mrs. Harding shrugged. "Well, it got boring, playing with just the three of us. So we just deal two cards to it, and if it wins any money, we put it aside for groceries or something."

"We do weird stuff like this all the time!" her husband nodded enthusiastically. "Even a teddy bear can be a breadwinner, this way!"

The teddy bear remained silent, with two cards tucked in its paws.

"Right..." I nodded, wondering just how much of my boss' insanity had been inherited versus that which he had acquired. "That's interesting."

"And we've still got a city to terrorize!" said no one other than the mad general himself. "So toodles, people!"

"Be back for dinner, son!" his mother called out as we left the house. "You too, kid!"

"And the teddy bear wins again!" Ben cried out, causing Mr. Harding to furiously accuse it of cheating.

"Come on, kid," General Harding sighed, rolling his eyes. "They've been doing that since I was five, and even I don't understand it."

"So, where are we going, sir?" I asked him, as we walked towards the shore.

"Well, we'll need to retrieve my jellicent," he answered. "And then, maybe I'll show you the entrance to the Origin Cluster! Bet you've never been even remotely close to such a dangerous place before, eh!"

I stared at him. "Are you kidding me? Why would I want to go near such places, anyway?"

"For the thrills? For fuck's sake?" he shook his head. "Live a little, man!"

It took us about ten minutes of walking along the coast before we found his jellicent, and another ten minutes to persuade it against killing that unfortunate wartortle. Alas, we were too late. Then, we just had to try and hide the wartortle's body, but ended up letting the jellicent devour it instead.

And after that, we headed down to the entrance to the Origin Cluster.

"Here we are, kid," General Harding said, watching the cave with what sounded like a mixture of apprehension and awe in his voice. "One of the Origin Cluster's various entrances."

"I see," I said, somewhat nervous with our proximity to the infamous cavern. "It has five more entrances, doesn't it?"

"Hmm, let me think," he said, staring off into space a little. "It has this entrance, the Sky Pillar, and the Scorched Slab? Most of the other entrances were destroyed when the pokemon inside tried to venture out and people decided to stop them."

"And you guys built a city around it?" I raised an eyebrow at his statement. "Why are we standing around like this, anyway? This place is dangerous!"

He laughed. "Relax, kid – we're safe here. The cave might be right here, but the tunnels dip down into the water further in. Unless you had a very murderous water-type in there, none of the Cluster's inhabitants will be coming out through this entrance."

"Wait, so how did you go into the Cluster?" I asked him. "Did you have a pokemon that knew Dive, or something?"

"Who said I ever went in there?" he shot back, looking innocent.

"You are General Zachary Harding. Need I say more?" I deadpanned.

He smirked. "Well, Moivre knows how to use Dive. I went in there on his back, with Meg leading us and Ursula clinging to Moivre's tail fins and watching our backs. But still..."

I didn't miss the dark look that passed over his face. "What happened?"

"The flooded tunnels are all full of seawater," he said, after a moment's hesitation. "So there are openings where the sea connects to them, and those are usually the bright parts of the tunnels. Otherwise, the tunnels are completely dark."

"Wait, so you wouldn't even be able to see if you were headed in the right direction?" I said, not believing my ears. "How would you know if you were going along the right path?"

"That's part of the challenge, kid," he shrugged. "Anyway, those bright spots are nearly what killed us down there. See, there's a strange type of phosphorescent algae that grows down in the tunnels, and we ran into them once or twice when we tried to renew our air supply.

"We knew that something had gone wrong when we ran into a whole lot of bones near a bright patch, and couldn't find any openings."

"What happened then?" I asked him, half-dreading the answer.

"Turns out, a huntail was lurking near the bright spot. It tried to take a bite out of Moivre, but Meg managed to kill it before it actually got to us," he said, shuddering as he glanced into the cave. "We barely managed to make it into the Cluster itself before Moivre collapsed due to exhaustion."

"Holy shit," I whistled. "And you couldn't turn back after the huntail attacked you?"

"We'd come too far to make it back, then," he shook his head. "And besides... I lost a pokemon during my first attempt at passing through the tunnels. We never knew what took her, but I lost my whiscash down there – one moment she was right behind us, and next thing we know, Sharon's vanished without a trace."

"What?" I could hardly believe it. "And you went down there again?"

"It would have been dishonouring her memory if we hadn't succeeded!" he snapped, sounding frustrated. "Otherwise, she would have died for nothing."

We stood there for a while, watching the tunnel in silence. It felt weird, being so close to such a dangerous place, and yet not having to worry about deadly wild pokemon ambushing us. From what I knew about the Cluster, entire colonies of unbelievably powerful pokemon lurked within its shadowy tunnels. One could supposedly end up on another continent since the tunnels all connected to the likes of Cerulean Cave, Mount Silver, and Stark Mountain, but no one had ever survived in them long enough to actually make it out through another continent.

General Harding broke the silence. "The things we ran into in the Cluster were... terrifying. Lots of powerful ghosts, like dusknoir, banette, and sableye, but the bugs and poison-types were the worst."

"Bugs scared you? Just how strong were they, anyway?" I asked him, wondering just how creepy the Cluster's insectoid inhabitants could have been.

"When they're strong enough to knock out half of your team single-handedly, bugs are bad, okay? At first we thought we were hearing things, until that crustle revealed itself... And that fucking muk... damn it, I'm still phobic of muk till today thanks to that incident," he made a face. "Seriously, bugs and muk have given me the creeps terribly since I went to the Cluster."

"Shall we go, sir?" I asked him, noting that the little patch of sky that was visible through the volcano's opening was already beginning to take on the tint of twilight. "It's going to get dark soon."

"Agreed – and it's dinner at my place, too!" he said, brightening up at that thought. "Now, at least you'll be able to tell others that you've seen the Origin Cluster, or at least, one of its openings."

As we headed back, I asked him the question that had remained on my mind. "Why did you go down there, sir?"

"The Cluster?" he asked, looking thoughtful.

"Well, yeah. Going down there is like a death sentence, no?"

He seemed to pause for a moment, before giving me his answer. "You see, that's where you're wrong, kid.

"All of us would have had our own reasons for going down there. But I think it's safe to say that at the end of the day, we go down to the Cluster to live."