There was a knock at Johanna's door.
She hurriedly went to answer it, thinking that it might have been Hilda.
More than a month had passed since Hilbert left. Hilda had dogged her every step for just as long, begging for just a word on Hilbert's whereabouts. But Johanna had already given her word, and she couldn't give it again.
The girl had left just the other day, deciding to go and find him herself, completely disregarding the ideal that she'd been hoping would become reality. Her eyes had blazed when she said she wanted the truth, and while Johanna wanted nothing other than to help, to have Hilbert come home…
As foolish as he must have been, as much as he must have been struggling, he was an adult. If he felt he needed to find his own path, she wasn't going to stop him.
Hopefully, he would come home soon. Maybe just send a letter. Anything. He was a good boy. Really.
Shock overrode her downward spiral as she opened the door and saw a totally unfamiliar man and woman standing on her porch.
"Ma'am, we're from the international police," the man said, before displaying a heavily scratched badge on a raggedy leather wallet. He had flat, short-cropped black hair and was dressed in a heavy brown trench coat.
"While I understand this may frighten you," the woman, a rather militant looking Jenny, said, "We're pursuing a case relating to corruption within Unovan medical authority. We believe that your son's treatment in Accumula General Hospital and his recent disappearance may be linked."
"My code name is Looker," the man said. "For that is what they call me."
"And I am Officer Jenny from the special investigations unit," the woman said. "May we come in?"
Johanna's brow furrowed as she stepped out of their way and welcomed them in.
The Lights in the Sky Are Thunderbolts - XVI - Way Away
"Oh my goodness!" Cheryl yelped, "Are you alright?"
Hilbert, suddenly facing the sky, groaned and reached for the icicle embedded in his forehead. With a jerk, he pulled it out and threw it off to the side. Blood was flowing freely from a circle the size of a quarter, and by the way Cheryl cringed at the sight, it had gone all the way to the bone. He could feel the slight indent as well.
He tried to blink the blood out of his eyes and failed. It was about as painful as a bad zit, though his nerves were dulled by the frost surrounding his eyes.
His metal-lined skull spiked outwards as Golett tried to heal him, filling the gap with something like a horn.
Hilbert pushed it back down with his finger and sent Golett a metaphorical glare. "It'll be a scar at worst."
Cheryl fumbled with her bag while muttering something about a handkerchief while Chansey quickly waddled over and offered him their egg.
Hilbert looked at the offered food, which pulsated with Psychic and Normal TE and seemed more like a battery than a source of nutrients.
"Might work, I'll bite," he said, shrugging and taking the egg.
When he bit into it… it was supposed to have the texture of a normal hard boiled egg by the look of things, but it didn't. It was soft like cookies fresh from his mother's oven; the chocolate chip ones that fell apart and practically melted in his hands, not the oatmeal raisin ones. Like cotton candy and milk and cake and sugar and everything sweet-
And as soon as he had recognized the magnificence of what he'd just consumed, he had taken the last bite.
He recalled reading once in a magazine that when you were bored of eating Chansey eggs, you were bored of life. Later, he saw that the statistical suicidality of the magazine's readers had quadrupled.
He could sort of understand it now, if only because Chansey weren't very common in Unova. Raw energy pooled in his stomach and spread throughout his body like the warmth of a rising sun.
Hilbert looked up at Cheryl just as she found a handkerchief and kneeled down to wipe off his face.
"Any chance we can trade partners?"
Golett pulsed with annoyance.
Cheryl sighed with a mix of frustration and amusement. "No, I don't think I could do that." She swiped the cloth across his brow a few times then pressed it to the hole in his head. "I suppose that was a spirit?"
"Something like that."
Why was he having trouble looking directly at her? He'd been close to girls before, though at one point he would have (and certainly did) argue that Hilda and Bianca didn't count as girls. They were friends, that was how that worked.
"I mean, it's gotta be, sorry. I saw a lot of spiritual energy floating around before it transformed into Ice-type energy. I don't know if it possessed the entire house or something, but it doesn't like intruders. Telling from the rust, it's been keeping itself to the inside of the fence, and I can't see any other spirits," he rambled.
She hummed, still focused on keeping him from bleeding out. "I think now we can be certain that it doesn't like intruders." She popped open a first aid kit and began rooting around.
Hilbert flushed and said, "Yeah, uh, I see that now."
He really needed to figure out what was going on.
Golett?
Clank.
Screw you too, buddy.
He resolved to ask Barry or Lucas the next time he saw them. It might have been a normal teenage boy thing that he never got around to figuring out, being in a coma and all. The two things were probably related.
She smeared ointment across his forehead before wrapping it with bandages, forcibly tucking his hair behind his ears and pressing it to his scalp. "Alright… this should do for now. Do you need to rest?"
Hilbert forced himself to his feet, twisting so he wouldn't knock her over and stretching for good measure. "Nope, nope, I'm good. Next stop, Eterna, right?"
"You don't mind continuing?" she asked, surprise clear on her face.
He looked back at the old castle. "Nah, this is like, not even top five bad things that have happened to me so far." His face darkened at the thought. "Not even close."
She tilted her head. "Well, alright. We'll need to speak with the gym leader once we arrive."
Hilbert nodded. "Let's get going."
The rest of the forest was fairly clear of roadblocks. They'd found the main trail in no time and then it was smooth sailing.
They were able to reach the city just before it got too dark to hike, but Hilbert was still able to get a good look. It was as if Sandgem Town, rustic as it was, had been scaled up ten or twenty fold. Between modern office buildings and fast-food joints, there were multi-story houses right out of a fantasy novel, seemingly built of only wood and stone. In the near distance, the city seemed to bend around a single point, where Hilbert was only able to pick out the top of some kind of statue within the skyline. Where there was concrete, there was brick and mortar. Where there was glass, there were wooden shutters. Despite the modern vibrancy of the city, the past still made its presence known.
In some less than helpful ways as well. The motel receptionist was definitely judging them. Hilbert wasn't totally oblivious to the implications of two teenagers of opposite sexes booking a few nights; he was just trying to ignore it.
His one saving grace was that Cheryl understood the practicality of the arrangement and didn't make a whole production out of it. His temper had been flaring up more and more recently, though he wasn't sure why.
He really would do anything for a bit of wisdom from Bianca. It would probably solve a few of his problems.
But no, he couldn't get back into contact with them, because they would ask questions. It wasn't the questions that would cause him problems, but what would follow when he answered them and who might come looking if his location became common knowledge.
Which it would. Hilda would shout it from the rooftops, he was certain.
Hilbert rolled over, ignoring the shuffling of Shuppet, who'd recently taken to clinging to him while he slept. It was a little bit creepy, but it seemed to keep him from waking up thrashing around on the floor. He still wasn't quite sure why they did that.
Golett hadn't come from the Dragonspiral Tower or somewhere the species was known to reside. Someone had made them, grown them, and from what the Pokémon showed him of the experiment, they weren't likely to let an ethics violation get in their way.
That he'd remained untouched in that hospital room for three years was worrying in and of itself. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten there, but those scientists had to have something to do with it. He hadn't 'disappeared' either, meaning they didn't think anything would come of it… or they had someone on the hospital's staff watching him.
Best case scenario, they got cold feet and wouldn't try to track him down.
If only, if only.
Hilbert prayed for a dreamless sleep and shut his eyes tight.
They went to find Eterna City's gym leader the next morning.
The gym itself was a modern building, though it wasn't the monstrous block of concrete and rebar that modern implies. It was built almost entirely of glass, with domes and slopes making up the roof and lining the walls in columns. Vines crept up the sides, though they seemed much too lush to be the weeds of neglect. It looked more like a greenhouse than a gym, which made a lot of sense to Hilbert after his cursory research.
The research in question? He asked one person on the street about the gym leader's specialty. It was grass.
Well done, Hilby.
The secretary's desk looked more like the front counter of a flower shop than a place for paper pushing. He could practically smell the pollen adn see the mother standing behind it and the child bounding down the stairs-
Hilbert flinched at the thought.
"We're here about the property in Eterna Forest," Cheryl said to the secretary, though it sounded more like a question than a statement.
"You mean the Old Chateau?" the secretary asked.
"...I suppose?" Cheryl said. "I wasn't aware that it had a name."
"Oh, I'm sure Gardenia can tell you all about it," the secretary said. "She's in greenhouse four-D right now."
Cheryl bowed. "Thank you for your help."
As they walked in the indicated direction, the secretary called, "And mind the Carnivine sprouts! Once they get a taste for flesh, they never lose it!"
Hilbert shuddered.
Cheryl smiled and waved back in thanks like it was the most normal thing in the world.
She seemed to notice his confusion. "My grandfather taught me about ancient civilizations that used Grass-types to lay traps," she explained. "There are some Pokémon that can grow vines that are incredibly sensitive to pressure. It's better than tripwire if the ruins are infested. Carnivine sprouts were traditionally used to dispose of intruders that were caught, since they rarely release their prey."
"Right. Very normal," Hilbert said. "Good."
It was, in fact, not good, and Hilbert was already adjusting his plans to visit the ruins in Solaceon Town.
The room they arrived in could be more accurately described as a walk-in rainforest, with heat and humidity to boot. Through organized rows of unruly trees and their canopies he could see the morning light filter into the room. Water was sprayed from sprinklers like rainfall, trapping him in Cheryl in a drizzle like they were walking by a waterfall on a windy day.
He wasn't sure why exactly he grimaced, but as something of a Ground-type himself, he supposed it was instinctual.
"It's like a sauna in here," Cheryl murmured.
"How do you know what a sauna's like?" he prodded, accidentally letting his nerves show through.
"There are hot springs in my hometown," she said simply.
Hilbert wanted to know why that statement gave him an odd sense of foreboding. Another reason not to visit Solaceon.
After only a short walk (it was only one greenhouse of many), they began hearing a cheery hum. A woman was tending to a tank of Lotad, brushing off the pond scum that had accumulated on their backs. Her orange hair was tied up with a black headband, and she wore a light green mantle over a black crop top, along with orange cut-off shorts and green boots.
The tune, Hilbert suddenly recognized, was Fin, the ending theme of a Diantha Desterre movie that he had seen with Hilda when he was… fourteen? It was around February, but he couldn't remember much other than that. He was pretty sure it was a romantic comedy because he'd never gotten around to figuring out why Hilda, the most extreme version of a tomboy he could think of, had wanted to see it.
A problem for another day.
"Excuse me," Cheryl called, half-waving. "Are you the gym leader here?"
The woman looked over to them and smiled. She put the Lotad she was grooming down and said. "Yep, that's me! I'm Gardenia." She marched over and put her fists on her hips. "What can I help you with?"
"My name is Cheryl Kusanagi," she said with a bow. "There was a sign on my family's house in Eterna Forest saying that I should speak with you."
Gardenia's eyes glittered with recognition. "Oh, it's great to meet you! Yeah, that place is haunted as shit, I wouldn't bother," she said cheerily.
Hilbert's brow furrowed.
Cheryl seemed incredibly taken aback. "Excuse me?"
"There's something living in the Old Chateau, and it ain't friendly. That sign is there so no one tries to break in. People still try, though," she said with a sigh. "You know, after they found the sixteenth body with an icicle where the head should be, you'd really think people would stop trying."
"So, the spirit has killed people," Hilbert said and heard. If he was in certain parts of Unova, it likely wouldn't constitute a crime. Incredibly violent and traumatizing to all involved, sure, depending on the Pokémon used, but they were called "stand your ground" laws for a reason.
Did spirits have legal claims to property? He would have to work on that eventually. Cheren would probably end up becoming a lawyer, he always had that look about him.
"Yeah, pretty much," Gardenia said, sounding more exasperated than terrified. "They don't attack me or the last few gym leaders when we enter, though, so I've got that going for me."
Which begged the question, as Hilbert's face went blank, "Why haven't you dealt with it?"
"Whatever it is, it's an Ice-type," Gardenia said, before gesturing to the vast greenhouse around them. "I can deal with my specialty's weaknesses, but not with something like that. Also, there are Ghost-type specialists for that."
Hilbert pointed at himself and tried to emphasize the bandage on his forehead. "I'm a specialist. I got stabbed through the face."
"That's all?" She blinked at him. "You're made of some pretty tough stuff, ain't ya… wait, it's Kuroiwa, right?" That glimmer was back. "Aw, this is great! Roark was just telling me about you!"
Hilbert's face went blank again, though not for the same reason as usual. "What?"
"'Hilbert Kuroiwa, that guy's great,' he tells me!" she said with a laugh. "Your battle, I'll tell ya, it wasn't much worth watching, but Roark insists that you're a real crouching tiger, hidden dragon. Wouldn't tell me much more than that, but I know that something happened when you fell through the floor. So," she said, getting a little too close for comfort, "What happened?"
Hilbert tried not to glare.
Hilbert glared. "I'm a medium. A spiritualist. An exorcist, even. There was a spirit. I dealt with them."
"Oh. Cool," Gardenia said. "So you're basically overqualified."
"Yeah. If the problem's that we don't have permission to enter, then you can give it to us," Hilbert said.
"Nah," Gardenia instantly replied.
Hilbert looked indignant. "Why not?"
"You'll die. Pretty simple. Just because you can talk with spirits doesn't mean you're strong enough to fight them."
"Fighting isn't," Hilbert said reluctantly, "Always the answer."
"No, but it makes a pretty good back-up plan," she said simply. "It's also, like, super bad if you die. Like, worse than it was when I was a kid."
"Eh?" Hilbert said eloquently.
"Birth rates are already down the shitter," Gardenia said. "Gotta have a generation after yours. I got that pressure from my relatives, now you guys get it from me. Isn't it fun?" she asked with an irritatingly wide smile.
Hilbert pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, fine, alright. I skipped the sex ed class and I don't want to hear it now either. What do I have to do?"
"Well, pretty simple. If I'm confident in your abilities, I'll let you go right ahead." She flicked the gym badge on his jacket with a little 'plink'. "Let's make it your second official gym battle."
Hilbert stared at her.
"You're serious."
"Dead."
Hilbert inhaled slowly and closed his eyes. "Okay. That'll be enough?"
"Yep. And when I mean strong enough, I mean strong enough for the both of you," Gardenia said. "So, no sandbagging like Roark said you did."
Hilbert scoffed. "Duh. I take all of my battles seriously."
Hilbert was planning on sandbagging it like Roark said he did.
She smiled again. "Great! See you in a week. Go train, young grasshopper!"
With that, Gardenia walked off to take care of something else in the greenhouse.
Hilbert flashed a thumbs-up.
Cheryl still looked worried, but a bit of the emotion had melted off.
The two began walking towards the entrance, Hilbert slightly ahead as he began laying out his strategy.
"Um, Kuroiwa, not that I don't appreciate your help, but I have a question."
"Yeah, what's up?" Hilbert asked.
"What is sex ed?"
Hilbert put the following conversation out of his mind and as soon as the pair broke off to prepare for the rest of the week, he beelined for a GTS terminal. The quicker he could get his mind off of things, the better.
Maybe it was worth becoming an alcoholic? As relieving as it would be, he doubted Golett would let him.
Topic - Sinnoh - News - Eterna - Galactic Industries Tours
GalacticIndustriesOfficial (Original Poster): Greetings, all! Galactic Industries is proud to announce that there will be tours held at our Eterna City location throughout the year to celebrate its completion. We welcome all students, trainers, and professionals to take a look at what Galactic Industries is doing for the energy production of the Sinnoh region! Concluding tours will be free samples of battle items for trainer hopefuls which are vetted by the Pokémon League and used by Pokémon in power plants around the globe. Click here for scheduling information.
We hope to see you soon!
No replies.
Fair, Hilbert thought. It sounded boring and most of his Pokémon couldn't use battle items anyway. They were more like vitamins than items used in the middle of battle, but the rules around doping and drugging Pokémon were strict for league battles. It was a surprise they were able to advertise that.
Or maybe not. Big corporations got away with a lot of stuff that only took a second look to expose.
Galactic Industries didn't seem too fishy, Hilbert thought. He had seen a few of their pamphlets around, promising a better tomorrow and making all of the usual platitudes that big businesses usually did. Probably nothing worth worrying about.
If he was bored, maybe he'd consider taking a tour.
Topic - Sinnoh - News - Eterna - missing pokémon please help
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): A lot of my neighbors have been reporting that their Pokémon are disappearing from the yard in the middle of the night but nothing is getting done. My little brother got mugged on the way home from trainer school today and they took his Bidoof right off of him. The police I've talked to said they're working on it but I don't see anything getting done. Pokémon can't just disappear! There's not enough traffic in and out of this town, and it's been like this for months. What the hell is going on!?
Hilbert's heart pulsed.
"Yeah, duh," he muttered.
SoulReaperBlack: Any description for the muggers?
The reply was fast as lightning.
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): He's kind of clammed up about it, but he said they wore heavy clothes and gloves and couldn't identify them. He said they spouted some crap about creating a better world with his sacrifice before beating the hell out of him, the bastards. What kind of world is worth that kind of cruelty?
Hilbert wasn't sure if he ought to respond, but the mention of Pokémon thieves, heavy clothes, nondescript thugs…
It sounded a little too familiar. Creating a better world by stealing and hurting others? That sounded like that- he held himself back- person, Jupiter.
SoulReaperBlack: Blue hair?
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): I'll go ask, but he's pretty shaken up about it.
A few minutes passed. Hilbert scrolled through news about Fantina's latest tour (that was a coordinator, right? He couldn't remember exactly) and power outages in Sunyshore City before he got a reply.
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): What the hell
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): Yeah, he said they had blue hair.
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): How'd you know?
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): Are you one of them?
Hilbert hesitated before deciding to be truthful for once.
SoulReaperBlack: No, but I've run into them before. I was in Jubilife when Professor Rowan got robbed and heard about it. And a friend of mine mentioned that there have been rumors of thieves in Eterna Forest.
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): I heard that too. Damn. It's everywhere, then?
SoulReaperBlack: post deleted
In his haste, he mentioned Floaroma Town. He didn't want to think about Floaroma Town, he had to stay focused.
SoulReaperBlack: Mistyped, but yeah, as far as I can tell. Nothing about it in Oreburgh.
FarAsTheGICanRafarig (Original Poster): Duh. Nothing happens in Oreburgh. Place is backwater as hell. If the police know about it there too, why isn't there bigger news?
Hilbert had talked to the police on multiple occasions, though his talk with the local department in Floaroma Town was hazy in his mind.
That was a good question, though. Why weren't these thefts being treated as a bigger deal? He hadn't seen anything on the news about it, though he had seen a lot of sponsorships by Galactic Industries. Damn place was everywhere.
Maybe that was because he couldn't read the banners and couldn't understand electronic communication. His spiritual translation only worked with physical proximity.
He clicked away since that conversation seemed to be going nowhere.
Topic - Sinnoh - News - Eterna - Stolen Plaque Discussion Megathread
BurmyDam (Original Poster): Some asshole stole that plaque on the statue in the center of town. Any info would be greatly appreciated. And if you stole it, literally go screw yourself.
DuraDuraludon: Why do you care about a plaque, lol? It's just a piece of metal.
BurmyDam (Original Poster): You're kidding, right? The statue is estimated to be as old as the name Sinnoh, and the engravings on it are written in actual Sinjohan, not Sinjohan-Japanese. It could be as old as the name Sinnoh.
DuraDuraludon: Well, the rest of the statue is still there, isn't it? There's probably pictures of it somewhere, can't they just make a new one?
BurmyDam (Original Poster): Not the point. The plaque has sentimental value.
DuraDuraludon: And? That doesn't make it objectively any more valuable. It's still a piece of scrap metal. Like, yeah, stealing is wrong, but get over it, lol. Make a new one.
BurmyDam (Original Poster): You can't replace everything. It's not just a piece of metal, it's our legacy as the people of Eterna City.
DuraDuraludon: My family's from Veilstone, it's not my legacy. We're in the modern world, we don't need any of that old junk.
BurmyDam (Original Poster): And that'll make you happy, right? Not having ties to anywhere? Moving around constantly? Not giving a damn about what came before, only caring about yourself and what came after?
DuraDuraludon: Whoa, dude, projecting much? Lol, literally it's not that important. The statue is rusted as shit anyhow, so clearly we don't care that much about it.
BurmyDam (Original Poster): I don't think that's right, either. We have a duty to take care of what came before, to pay our respects. Even if you don't feel a connection, you still have that responsibility. It's called Eterna City because it's meant to last forever, but it won't if we don't all keep it going.
DuraDuraludon: It's not worth keeping going, you wacko. The old ways are what led to the conflict.
BurmyDam (Original Poster): Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but that doesn't mean we should just get rid of them and act like they don't mean anything.
DuraDuraludon: Um, that's exactly what it means, actually. Go touch grass, lol.
Hilbert logged off after that.
AN:
So, what might have happened is that I totally forgot the part of the novelization where I need to novelize Looker showing up in Jubilife in Platinum.
Or that's not what happened, and I'm actually making a brilliant AU and expanding the world. Take your pick.
I'm not planning pairings for this story, just to be clear. The topic of romance will come up because, y'know, stupid teenagers are funny, but it's not something I'm going to focus on when I can have Hilbert meet cool ghosts or learn how to make giant robots. I can write giant robots but not a compelling romantic relationship, go figure. Write fanfic if you want, go wild.
Sorry this chapter is so short, I'm only really able to write for a few hours a week and on the weekends now. There are probably errors, I am literally writing this minutes before uploading.