Chapter 6: A Ghost in the Shell

Burgh and Homura transferred Genesect back to Nathans' apartment for analysis, but not before Homura snuck it off to an undisclosed location for some 'adjustments'. Burgh interrogated her about it, trust between them was still not 100% due to her apparent 'history' with Plasma, but he eventually gave up and took the information she had. Homura explained that Genesect was still giving off a signal and probably had a means of communicating with Plasma still, so she wanted to ensure they couldn't track it before bringing it into their own personal space. That made sense, but Burgh still felt tense with how secretive she was about it. Genesect arrived a day prior, and Burgh arrived at the meeting time, on the dot. Apparently, Kiki and Homura did not believe in punctuality and Burgh was left with a chunk of time to fill with Nathans.

He navigated to the back of the stuffy little shoebox apartment. Where there used to be open carpet was now a table loaded with vices and magnets to keep Genesect tied down and locked in his more controllable drone form. It was impressive what Homura could do with junk from a hardware store, the mess kept the drone sedated. Still, he couldn't snuff out that little spark of fear everytime he looked at that thing. Burgh did not look forward to seeing it for the next few weeks.

Nathans wasn't interested in Genesect, and Burgh found the boy toying with an egg incubator.

The egg was a pale pink, about the size of a cantaloupe, and housed in a portable container many trainers used to attach the incubator to their bags. Purrloin batted at the incubator, though Nathans was too engrossed in its set-up screen to notice.

Burgh leaned on his desk and knocked on the surface.

Nathans blinked and looked up. "Oh hi Burgh! Are you early?" He said, searching for a clock.

Burgh grumbled. "On time, actually. Kiki and Homura determined our meeting time so I'm not sure why I'm the only one here."

"Well, I'm here!" Nathans said.

"You live here." Burgh said.

"Ah yeah, right." Nathans fidgeted with the incubator again.

Burgh's curiosity and need to fill the awkward silence got the better of him. "What egg is it?"

Nathans held it up for him to see. "Its an import from Kanto for a cleffa! Their incredibly hard to breed so I snatched her up when the listing showed up. Super sketchy seller, but I got the egg and its legitimate! It's probably better here than in that seller's hands anyways."

Burgh raised an eyebrow. "Why a cleffa specifically? Do you specialize in fairy-types?"

Nathans laughed. "I'm no battler, it stresses me out trying to think on the fly. Plus, I just don't like seeing my Pokémon get hurt." He scratched Purrloin behind the ears and she cooed and preened.

Burgh frowned. "Pokémon don't function like us, battling doesn't really 'hurt' them. Yes, they have bodies, but they're energy-based beings; they don't sustain lasting damage or full pain from each other's attacks and can heal by directing that energy. That's why chansey and Pokémon beds can heal Pokémon but not us." Burgh ranted. He didn't actually have hard feelings towards Nathans, but Plasma and their 'free all Pokémon' message really got under his skin as they blatantly ignored the fundamental differences and evidence backing battling. Burgh wouldn't subject Leavanny to battles if she were truly in pain and refused it; but Plasma made him out to be sadistic just for being a Gym Leader.

"Yeesh, sorry, I just don't like battling, ok?" Nathans went back to the incubator.

Burgh sighed. "I'm sorry, it's not you. Plasma once led a smear campaign against my gym, claiming I was an abuser for battling. Now that they're back, my nerves are suffering for it."

"You and Homura both, apparently, she's been kinda nasty. But I forgive you, Plasma never even cared about that stuff in the first place anyways. Did you know Missy belonged to a Plasma grunt originally?" Nathans stroked Purrloin's back.

"Purrloin's name is Missy?" Burgh asked.

"Yep! I thought it was cute and fitting since she's such a diva sometimes. I spoil her though." He said.

"Did Plasma do anything to her?" Burgh asked. Missy didn't have any scars or missing limbs that Burgh could see. She had her butt in the air while Nathans scratched the base of her tail.

"Not much thankfully, the grunt was a low level and didn't see a lot of action, but she was stolen from her trainer. She was so scared when I first found her, poor thing was dumped in a garbage can after she couldn't battle anymore." Even though Missy was tiny, she purred like an electric motorcycle.

Burgh smiled and scratched Missy himself. Her fur was incredibly soft and well-maintained. "That's good to hear, it seems like you're a kind trainer. We need more of that in the world."

Nathans beamed. "Thank you, I don't do much with my life, my mom reminds of that constantly, but it makes me happy just to see them happy and I'm glad I could use my time for that."

Perhaps Burgh judged Nathans too harshly for his appearance. His whole room was decorated in Burgh's least favorite 'art' but was it really his place to judge what makes other happy? Though the anime posters were a bit strange, Nathans' belongings had a cohesive theme with personal touch and care put into every piece, something Burgh could appreciate. Though, it did remind him of a little girl's bedroom.

The only thing out of place was Genesect in the middle of the room, stuck right into the soft pastel aesthetic like an axe through a painting. Burgh felt chills down his spine at the idea of sleeping next to that thing; he had no idea how Nathans' survived the night with his nerves intact. Genesect fell into the uncanny valley, a malevolent mockery of nature and a bastardization of bug-types. Yes, bugs did have their own blue-and-orange morality and were capable of things deemed 'evil' when their hives or young are threatened, but there was still empathy and nature imbued in their design. They were Pokémon after all, they lived off the emotional energy of humans just as the cutest eevee did.

But this thing had lost its true self somewhere in Plasma's tampering. Maybe its powers were bug-type, but Burgh did not believe it was a bug.

Burgh heard the door and thought, "Finally!"

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I couldn't find my soldering kit." Homura spat, stomping into the room. Kiki trailed behind her, saddled with two laptop bags and a backpack threatening to burst at the seams.

"Maybe if you cleaned your apartment once in a while-"

"Do I look like I have fucking time for that? I'm a bit busy handling all the work you useless fucks can't do." She snapped back. The bags under her eyes were deeper than usual and she looked particularly ragged with a hasty bun and ratty sweatshirt she probably got by robbing the homeless.

Burgh put his hands up in surrender.

Homura released Bode, unpacked a massive array of plastic cases and tool sets, and started setting up a monitor on the table. Then, she knelt down and pulled out her laptop. Kiki just dropped her bags and flicked on the TV again. She had a sucker in her mouth which she occasionally handed to Oslo for a few licks every now and then.

Burgh was close with his Pokémon, but not that close.

He surveyed Homura's work. She already had the laptop open with a weird block diagram displayed on window and a chunk of code on the other. "What's the goal today?"

"Translator." Homura said. "I want to extract some info out of this thing before I crack it open for a look. Only shit I know so far is that it's a bug and steel-type and definitely works with Plasma."

Burgh frowned. Despite being pretty much man-made, Homura had mentioned this thing was organic; the thought of taking it apart made him slightly queasy. Not to mention, it was somehow a true bug-type, though he wondered exactly how much bug was really left in its shell. "Isn't it alive? Can we really open this monster in good conscience?"

"Barely." She spat. Homura clamped a tiny screwdriver between her teeth. "I already dug in a little bit to jam all its communications, there ain't much wet machinery left. That said, the design is actually kind of genius. The circuit boards are beautifully built and organized and the mechanical system controlling the body is so smooth and efficient, I kinda want to meet the guy who engineered this."

"Beautiful? That's not a term I would use for a machine. Beautiful is an aesthetic lens and is applied to things that are pretty, kind, and safe. Perhaps sublime would be a better term, or better yet, boring." Burgh said.

Homura took the screwdriver out of her mouth and stared at him. "Hello, I'm from the fucking real world, beautiful means it looks nice to my eyes, not whatever ponytashit you just said."

"It's a very basic concept in Romantic era art, its not that hard!" Burgh whined.

Homura threw up her hands. "It is so hard to work with you asking me dumb questions! You do this all the time! Can you shut up for once?"

Burgh relented. She was particularly on edge today. He turned his attention to the TV where Kiki was flipping from channel to channel, but most of them seemed to have the same picture of a town up in flames.

"Ugh, there's nothing good to watch, apparently some charizard burned down a whole town in Kanto and for some reason every news outlet here decided to report on it. I get that its bad but like really? Its that important that every network has to report it?" Kiki said.

She finally settled on a channel and Burgh got a good look at the scene from the news helicopter view. It was a small town tucked into a sunbaked canyon and every building was choked in thick smoke as a massive charizard torched them. Thins lines like a durant colony flowed out of the town as officials evacuated the area and several hydro pump attacks arced through the air as rangers desperately tried to fight back. The charizard backed itself into a corner, snapping and spitting fire before taking off into the mountains.

Burgh crossed his arms. "Well that's a lost cause. Once a dragon stops attacking, no one goes after it. I suspect that town will be abandoned too unless the government is generous enough to help out with the damages."

"Didn't this literally happen two weeks ago? A garchomp wrecked a whole section of highway with its dig attack or somethin'?" Kiki said.

"Precisely." Burgh confirmed. "Another trainer who thought they could handle a dragon; there's a reason Unova restricted them so heavily and set up the Dragon Sanctuary; young idiot trainers get ahold of a baby and think it'll behave the same when it fully evolves. They don't seem to learn until its cost a few lives. We're lucky to have Drayden here to teach and regulate but still, some slip through the cracks."

"Charizard ain't a dragon though, just fire-type, right?" Kiki said. Oslo snatched the whole sucker for himself while she was distracted.

"Fire and flying." Burgh corrected. "But they're classified as pseudodragons; they don't possess the elemental typing but still share the disposition and struggles of owning one. Gyarados is another example. They're easier to handle still, but whoever owned that charizard must've done a terrible job raising it."

"I hope they quit with 'em, I wanna watch TV, not people dying." Kiki groused.

"I think the awareness is important. Let's be thankful it was only a charizard and not a garchomp, or worse, a hydreigon." Burgh said. He blamed hydreigon alone for Unova being the first region to heavily restrict dragon-types. It was known as 'the brutal Pokémon' for very good reason; a duel typing of dragon and dark meant that that monster had both the pride and pure power of a dragon and the disposition towards violence of a dark-type. It was easily the most dangerous of all common dragons, outstripping garchomp's body count by almost one-hundred. He'd only ever met two in his life: one under Drayden, the best dragon master in Unova and one in N's castle under the control of a man who shared the dragon's taste for blood. Its cold red eyes, three menacing heads, and dark fur and feathers made this beast more of an angel of death than a dragon in Burgh's eyes.

"Got it." Homura said. Everyone turned their attention to the table where Homura was watching the monitor. She had her laptop connected to a box containing the most ramshackle circuit board Burgh had ever seen and that was connected to both the monitor and Genesect. The monitor read "I am Genesect."

Nathans gaped at the set-up. "No way, you built a translator for that thing?" He exclaimed.

"Yup." She pointed to Bode who was currently drifting upside down. "Bode communicated with Genesect and then relayed the message in morse code while I used the circuit to identify the signal corresponding to Genesect's own 'language', essentially building a Rosetta stone by matching morse code, signals, and words. Then, I fed the message into a new program and back into a circuit to translate the message into English and display it on screen."

Burgh opened his mouth several times like a fish before figuring out the words. "That's…impressive! Can this work for any other Pokémon?"

"Unfortunately, I haven't stumbled on the urban legend of a universal Pokémon translator. Pokémon aren't like humans; they don't share the same biology, so they use different methods to speak. This was only possible because Genesect has its own circuitry attached to its nervous system. Now that is much more impressive than what I did." Homura explained in a condescending tone. She turned to Burgh. "I stand by my previous statement; circuitry can be beautiful."

Burgh smiled. "You make a strong argument for your case." He was genuinely interested if Homura could figure out other methods of translation. Bug Pokémon often lacked distinct expressions most mammalian Pokémon had and trainers frequently dropped them due to communication issues in training. In reality, bugs did speak, but they spoke with chemical signals and sound; an alien language compared to his human mouth. Maybe she could build a device capable of interpreting that.

Kiki walked over and put her hands on Homura's shoulders while she knelt. "Can we ask it questions now?"

"I planned on going first; this thing has to know about Plasma's plans in some capacity." Homura said. She started with the first one. "Who made you?"

The screen was blank. Burgh had a moment of doubt, but then the cursor shot to the right, rapidly typing out a message that said, "I hatched from my mother. But now I cannot hear her. I have been deafened."

"Mother?" Homura said, knitting her eyebrows.

"Mother controls my siblings, and we fight as one under Plasma." Genesect said.

"Well, we knew that." Kiki said, dropping her chin on top of Homura's head. To Burgh's surprise, Homura didn't seem to mind the touch.

"It's a machine, they're incredibly literal." Burgh said, folding his arms.

"You say that like it's a bad thing. Do you ever read your own books, Burgh? It's a nightmare: you could easily compress your point into a pamphlet." Homura said.

"Reading is about the journey, not the message- wait you've read my books?"

"Genesect, what is your task given by Team Plasma?" Homura said.

Burgh waited in agony for the program to translate. Eventually, it spat out the text, "Protect lab 51."

"Fifty-one?" Kiki shouted. Everyone was thinking the same thing. There were, at minimum, fifty-one labs and they had too somehow clear all of them. Burgh felt a pit open in his stomach as he realized his whole career was now sideways for another year probably. Possibly two years.

Homura snorted. "Of course there's fifty one labs! Why would anything be easy? Can you give me the location of each lab?"

"No." Genesect said.

Homura slammed her fist on the table. "Fuck me!"

"No."

"Are most details regarding Team Plasma classified?"

"Yes."

Kiki smiled. "At least it's not 'no'!"

Homura growled, then argued with Genesect for a few more minutes before leaning back and pinching her eyes. "Kiki, why does every night have to be long and difficult? I'm going to work on this for a while alone, why don't you all go play somewhere while I interrogate this over-engineered trashcan."

Burgh couldn't be happier. Homura's temper was terrible this evening and he'd hate to be there for her own Charizard-style rampage. Kiki lowered a hand to let Oslo climb back up to her shoulder and Nathans stood up quickly, knocking his office chair over. The three disappeared from the apartment without a word.

Once the door clicked shut, Kiki let out a massive sigh. "Dude, she's been unbearable the past few days, what the hell even happened in the sewer?"

Burgh threw his hands up and shook his head. "Nothing to warrant that temper tantrum."

Kiki snorted a laugh. "You think that's a tantrum? She'll be totally silent at her desk, then out of nowhere punch the lights out of her screen or somethin' because debugging took too long. That's just the average one though, her worst have put us into the legal trouble. Well, more trouble than usual."

"She broke one of my monitors too." Nathans added.

"And you live with that?"

Kiki pinched her eyes. "Yeah, yeah I do. She's honestly ok most of the time; we just let each other be and sometimes enjoy closer company, but when she's got sand in her vagina over somethin' she get's all shitty with me and I bug out somewhere for the night. But that's just a night, this has gone on for days now, I'm sick of walkin' on eggshells!" She flung her hand and then let it drop.

They started down the stairwell, moving slowly for Nathans. "I'm sorry for the stress, I thought Homura was more even tempered. She was level-headed our whole fight in the sewer, something must've happened when she tampered with Genesect alone." The thought sent chills down his spine.

"Who the fuck knows? Anyone know a good cheap place to hang? I'm out of cash." Kiki said.

"I know a nice tea shop if we take the subway to Downtown. I don't mind paying for both of you." Burgh said. Sinistea's was a local favorite of his with its large array of both import Galar brews and Sinnoh's herbal teas from Solaceon.

"Are you sure? Downtown is expensive." Nathans asked.

"It's free tea dumbass, just take it!" Kiki said. Oslo jumped into her hands and demanded to be carried.

"Yes, I'm sure." Burgh said, giving him a reassuring smile. "I'd like to take the time to discuss a plan for getting the leaders back together now that we have sufficient proof of Plasma's resurgence.

After almost two hours at the tea shop, Burgh, Kiki, and Nathans hammered out a plan to recruit all the gym leaders. It would have to be in -person as their reasoning contained somewhat sensitive information, so they opted to hit the closest leaders first. Elesa, the electric-type master was first on the list since she was just a train-ride away in Nimbasa city.

Day had turned to night in Castelia and Burgh was greeted by a chilly breeze as he left the shop. Summer was disappearing fast and the with it, the warm temperatures Burgh enjoyed. Kiki and Nathans trailed behind, whispering to each other while Burgh walked ahead to think.

Nights in Downtown Castelia were always Burgh's favorite, regardless of temperature. Castelia was often called the Nocturnal City as folks left work at sundown, picked up their beer glasses and instruments, and roused the whole city from sleep with stellar jazz performances and stunts in the streets. The street level was lined with open bars, featuring local performers such as Jared Attaway and his Kricketune crew or Black Lily, the solo singer rumored to have a voice like a primarina's siren call. A savory mix of greasy street food and craft beer wafted out of the bars and street-side vendors, reminding Burgh he hadn't eaten all day.

They dodged a man dancing with a trio of Alolan marowak and several vendors on bikes towing their carts in place for the rush of tourists on their way back to the subway. Burgh walked slowly and did a bit a sight seeing; he wasn't ready to go back to Genesect.

Genesect's words, "I have been deafened." became an intrusive thought to Burgh over the past two hours. That was not the language of a machine, it had meaning and artistic value. It had emotional value. Burgh originally theorized Genesect was a replication of the fossil Pokémon rather than a true resurrection, but there was something so much more going on inside then he first thought, like a piece of the real fossil was still alive somewhere inside. Homura had mentioned 'wet-machinery', though Burgh just assumed Plasma just harvested a bundle of nerves from the Pokémon and used that; they weren't the type to keep free will intact. However, she also said the body was purely mechanical with circuitry installed in its 'brain', confirming Burgh's first theory. There wasn't much left of the Pokémon it once was. Genesect's uncanny mimicry of a bug-type unnerved Burgh, like a monster wearing the skin of a friend.

On the subway back, Burgh mulled over his thoughts until he concluded that he needed to try speaking with Genesect himself, as much as it scared him. That would settle whether or not this thing was alive or a really advanced machine. They wandered back up the narrow stairs and into the apartment where Burgh found Homura with her head on the table in defeat.

Kiki placed a hand on Homura's back. "Yo Homura, Burgh has a plan to get all the leaders involved. Wanna talk about that for a bit instead?" Kiki said, sensing that Homura gave up on Genesect.

Homura picked her head up and looked back at Kiki, then reclined and put a hand on her stomach. "Let's head out for tonight; I'm starving." Homura muttered.

"Wait, let me join! I haven't eaten either." Nathans said.

Homura looked to Kiki, then shrugged. She turned to Burgh. "Coming? Or just leaving?"

Burgh put his hands in his pockets and looked at Genesect. It felt a bit inappropriate to stay in a stranger's house alone, but Burgh needed to speak with Genesect. "Nathans, would it be too much to ask if I could stay here for a bit? Maybe I could interrogate this beast; it is a bug type after all, I may be able to help." He asked.

Nathans shrugged. "I don't mind at all, Leader Burgh."

Homura gritted her teeth and stared at Burgh. "Just don't mess with the set-up, ok? Talking only, if it breaks, you call me first."

Burgh grinned. "I'll try not to ruin everything."

Homura nodded and the three left the apartment alone. Nathans had taken Missy with him, so it was just Burgh, Genesect, and the ambiance of three PC's and loads of beeping equipment. Burgh placed his hands on the table and examined Genesect's eyes. They glowed with dim life, though strangled by Homura's technology for security. The translator was blank with only a flashing tick mark in the upper left corner, waiting for Burgh.

He had the whole conversation practiced in his head from the subway ride, but now that he was standing in front of it, he felt a hint of stage fright. How would he start talking to it? Was there an appropriate place to start? There was no face for his mind to latch on to, just the cold indifference of Genesect's blank red eyes flickering gently in the dim apartment. Despite its appearance, Burgh gathered that Homura's plain questions made no progress on this machine. Perhaps it did need a real conversation, like a human.

Burgh opted for a genuine question. "You said you feel deafened, why do you feel that way?"

Genesect was silent for a moment, then text rapidly appeared on screen. "I cannot hear my siblings or my mother anymore; they've disappeared from this world. Or they've abandoned me for my failure. There is just dead air where they once were."

Burgh was taken aback by Genesect's choice of words. Abandoned, failure, siblings, and mother; these words carried emotion. A simple machine would've just said something like 'connection lost' like Burgh's computer always says when a small cloud passes overhead. "You speak like a human, not a machine." He remarked.

Genesect responded. "It is difficult to tell what I am anymore."

Burgh's expression softened. "The one face we can never truly see is our own, only reflections and photos subject to bias and distortion of our true countenance. But if it helps, you look like a machine to me."

Genesect was silent and Burgh feared he lost it until text appeared again after much contemplation. "I was not always this way, but so long as I reach my siblings and complete my task, what I am does not matter."

Burgh read the sentence with an imagined hint of sadness and denial at the end, which Burgh kicked himself for. Genesect did not necessarily operate like that. It could easily be advanced AI meant to mimic a person as a means of escaping. Still, he felt a pang of guilt in his heart for this lonely drone. "I'm sorry for disconnecting you, I truly am, but I'm afraid your siblings and mother are…misguided." Burgh couldn't say 'evil', it didn't fit anymore. "They fight for the wrong reasons and the wrong people."

Genesect's eyes flashed. "It does not matter to me whether my siblings or mother are misguided or not; we fly together or not at all. If that makes me 'wrong' then so be it."

He frowned. Genesect was clearly a hive insect, there was no convincing it to stray from his moral code. Instead, he asked, "Who are your siblings?"

"My siblings are like me; we serve our mother. But I cannot hear them anymore. Their voices and chatter fill the empty space in my head, sharing their conscience, thoughts, and feelings so we may function as one. Its all quiet. Absence is painful." The tick mark stopped scrolling there.

Burgh looked into its glowing eyes and watched the soft rhythmic pulse behind the plastic shields. The whole shell was metal and clearly manufactured, but no machine could be so…sad. Burgh placed his hand on Genesect. It was ice cold. "Loneliness is painful." He said softly.

Genesect responded almost immediately. "Is 'loneliness' what you call absence? This disconnection from the network 'loneliness'?"

He stared at the question. Burgh never thought to define that term, it was just a human constant everyone knew by instinct. So did Pokémon. He pondered for a moment but failed to come up with a concise definition; that was more in Homura's wheelhouse. Instead, he decided to wander his way to an answer.

"Loneliness does mean absence and disconnection in a literal sense, but there's something deeper to that word." He started. "When I was young, I had no friends, no 'network' I felt I belonged to. There were people around me, yes, but I felt as if there were a wall between me and them. I had my few obsessions, but no one cared to listen. I didn't have voices around me all the time and often lived in silence. And yes, that absence was uniquely painful. I felt it again as an adult. I went through a dark period in my life and though I had a network this time, something inside numbed me from it. I felt that disconnect there too. Loneliness is a feeling of disconnect with a deep emotional pain you can't place."

The screen was blank for a moment. "I feel lonely." Genesect said.

"I'm sorry." Burgh said. Homura did the right thing and jammed Genesect's signal, but he felt heartbroken for this bug trapped inside a machine. "Does my voice help?"

"I feel less lonely with your voice filling the space." Genesect said.

Burgh smiled. He dragged Nathans' chair over and reclined. "Then let's talk for a while. I like your voice too."

Kiki, Homura, and Nathans hit the bottom of the staircase and Kiki felt a hand wrap around her arm, jerking her back.

"Nathans, can you wait outside? I need to talk to Kiki for a sec." Homura said.

Nathans nodded vehemently and disappeared out the door. Kiki felt her nerves start to twitch. She knew what was coming.

Homura glanced around, making sure the lobby was empty. The front desk was still closed as it had been all week. Then, her flat expression wavered. "Kiki, I need you to use it again."

Kiki felt a cold ice-pick slide into her spine. She swallowed and her tongue felt like sandpaper. "Whose nightmares am I searching?"

Homura leaned in close. "When I was looking through Genesect's code, I found trademarks from labs associated with Vesper Inc. I need you to pick a higher-up's mind, maybe a scientist, or better, the CEO."

Kiki looked confused. "The CEO ain't gonna know shit, they're just there for the business side, not the heavy-lifting."

Kiki felt the circulation in her arm disappear as Homura unconsciously squeezed it. "Not this CEO. This one's different." Homura looked paler than usual.

She brushed Homura's hand off her arm. "What's her name? Marcy Whitlock? I know she's pretty involved in competitive sports, but that little secretary lookin' lady doesn't seem like the type to run a Pokémon chop-shop out of the sewer."

Homura furrowed her brow and broke eye contact with Kiki. "Looks can be deceiving. If you do find her, just…be careful ok?"

Kiki reached over and fixed Homura's sweatshirt strings. "I'm always careful, I don't half-ass my work."

"Unlike everything else." Homura said smirking.