XIV

Parting Shot

Despite the late hour, Shiri and Ashton were up and busy. Ashton plugged away at his computer, seeking out any other grains of information from long-forgotten articles and pictures rotting away on internet archives. Shiri had procured a notebook from the hotel gift shop and was quickly compiling the information they already had, so as to not forget anything. Patches skittered about the room, occasionally allowing Shiri to stroke her tail. It was comforting.

"Here's something," Ashton said, scooting over on the bed so that Shiri could see the screen of his laptop from her position at the writing desk. "Apparently an Orre village called Agate figured heavily in the Cipher incidents."

"Incidents?" Shiri repeated. "Plural?"

"Yeah, there was an earlier incident with Cipher about three years before Pokémon Labs ousted them for good. Cipher had been connected to a loose gang called Team Snagem. One of the members of Snagem went rogue and started going after some of the administrators of Cipher. They stole shadow pokémon and brought them to Agate to undo the shadow-ness from them."

"Why Agate?"

Ashton scanned through the article again. "I'm not too sure, it doesn't really specify." He opened a new tab and typed "Agate Village, Orre" into the search bar. After a few minutes, Ashton looked up. "Agate is located in one of the last lush places in Orre. Apparently it's a shrine to Celebi, which the people there claim is why everything is still green."

A knock on the door startled the both of them. They stared at each other for a moment, neither moving. "Who could that be?" Shiri whispered.

Ashton rose to his feet and padded along the carpet. When he reached the door, he peered out the peephole. Caution gave way, replaced by anger, and he threw the door open with a glare.

Simon stood before him, and they locked gazes. "You got a lot of nerve to come back here," Ashton growled.

"Simon!" Shiri called, jumping up from her seat on the chair at the desk. She hurried over, shoving Ashton out of the way, and caught both Ashton and Simon off guard as she gave Simon a hug. His warm, soft body felt inviting. Simon gazed down at her in disbelief. "I was worried something had happened to you," Shiri said, smiling at him. She released him and, grabbing his hand, pulled him into the hotel room. Ashton, who's anger seemed to deflate at seeing this gesture, scoffed as his only protest.

"I am sorry for calling by so late," Simon said. He saw the mess of food wrappers and snacks splayed out on the bed and writing desk, saw Shiri's notebook open, her pen resting on a half-written page of notes. He noticed the name Pokémon Labs, Inc. in her large, loopy handwriting.

"Don't apologize," Shiri said. "You've been busy, right?"

Simon was going to answer, but Ashton cut him off. "I bet he wasn't even going to come by at all, till he heard my message." Shiri gave Ashton a quizzical look, and Ashton stated, "When you went to the gift shop, I might have left a little angry voicemail for him."

Shiri turned to Simon, but he nodded. "Ashton's correct," he said. He wanted to avoid looking at Shiri directly, to avoid the troubled look in her big brown eyes, but resisted this urge. "After I finished at the gym, I just hung about. My boss gave me my next assignment, and I was going to head on." Shiri dropped her gaze, and without fully intending to, she pulled away from him. Clearly she thought of Simon more than he thought of her. How stupid could she be?

Simon cleared his throat, turning to Ashton now. "You say Boltund got out of hand?"

Shiri took in a sharp breath at the mention. Ashton glared and said, "So the only reason you came by was to confiscate that one, eh?"

"That is my job," Simon responded flatly.

Ashton's fists balled up at his side. "Fuck you."

"Stop it," Shiri spoke up, drawing both men's attention. A tremble had entered her hands, so she stuck them into her pockets and put all her willpower into making her voice sound normal. She met Simon's gaze. "Why is Boltund like that?"

"Boltund shouldn't have attacked you," he said in place of an explanation.

"No," Shiri said, hugging her arms to her middle now. She was trembling all over. "Why is he like that?"

Simon's brow furrowed. "How do you mean?"

"The aura," Shiri said. "The black aura, and his eyes."

Simon and Ashton exchanged glances. "Shir, what aura are you talking about?" Ashton asked, stepping closer to her.

"You didn't see it?" she asked him, horror entering her eyes.

"He looked a little ferocious when he saw you, but there wasn't any black aura," Ashton said. "Hey, hey, it's okay," he added as Shiri's control over herself fully slipped, and he pulled her into a hug. She hung onto him but looked up at Simon over Ashton's shoulder.

"Do you know what I mean?" she asked Simon weakly.

"I'm afraid I don't," Simon responded. "May I take a look at him?"

"Not in here," Shiri said quickly. "I don't—I don't want to see him again." She let go of Ashton and sat down on the bed. "Show him outside," she said to Ashton.

With a sigh and some rude words muttered under his breath, Ashton led Simon out into the hallway. He pulled the cherish ball from the pocket of his jeans and released Boltund.

Boltund looked up at Ashton, then Simon. He sniffed the air and opened his mouth to pant lightly, looking around the hallway with curiosity.

"I don't think she's going crazy," Ashton said.

"He's not aggressive," Simon observed of Boltund.

Ashton watched Boltund for a few seconds, even sticking his hand out for him to sniff. Boltund did so and gave his palm a friendly lick.

"Well, she wasn't making up the part about him wanting to attack her," Ashton said. "He really did try to hurt her. I returned him before she could get hurt."

Simon was silent, deep in thought.

The room door creaked open, and Shiri peaked out. She gasped, as she gazed upon a boltund which looked vastly different from the one Simon and Ashton saw. The black aura surrounded him, coming off him like licking flames. Boltund sniffed the air, then growled at the door, and Shiri slammed it closed.

"Shit," Ashton said and quickly returned Boltund to his ball. "Shir, you said didn't want to see him," he called through the door. He opened it as she backed away, assuring her Boltund was in his ball now.

Simon stepped back inside with them, looking to Shiri. "Have you seen anything like that before?" he asked.

"Never," she answered.

"What about in Pewter City? The magmar and raichu—they didn't look like that?"

"No." She bit her lip. "They didn't look like that, but I got a weird feeling from them."

"What sort of weird feeling?"

"Foreboding, I guess."

"And the persian?"

Shiri shot Ashton a look. "I never saw that one."

Simon raised his eyebrows, and Ashton grinned in a guilty way. "It seems I'm not the only underhanded one," Simon said.

Ashton glared at him. "At least I'm not a thief."

"Please stop," Shiri said with a sigh. To Simon she asked, "Do you have any idea what's going on with me?"

"I might have an inkling," Simon answered, and Shiri perked up. "I'm not usually privy to much of the inner workings of the pokémon development programs, but occasionally I do get a glimpse of information here and there. It's been observed before that some people can see the auras of pokémon."

"That's just a thing?" Ashton asked incredulously.

Simon shrugged. "Apparently. Some of the old reports mention it."

"How old are these reports?" Ashton asked.

"Quite old," Simon answered. "Pokémon development has been ongoing for a while."

Shiri and Ashton shared a meaningful look. Nineteen years, Shiri would guess. The old reports—could he mean Cipher's reports?

"I wish you didn't have to deal with all of this trouble," Simon said to Shiri. He'd stepped closer to her. "Allow me to take Boltund, and then go home. You won't have to deal with any of this anymore."

There was tenderness and regret in his gaze. Shiri could tell he hated every moment of this. "And what are you going to do to Boltund?"

"He'll go back to the research team," he answered. "They'll figure out what's going on with him."

Shiri wondered at that. She didn't feel that Simon was lying to her. That was probably the extent of what he knew as to that. But Shiri had to wonder what processes these pokémon were undergoing to receive this so-called development.

She took a deep breath. "I don't want to give him to you."

Simon looked incredulous. "Why is that?"

"I don't know what's going to happen to him," Shiri said. "And you don't either." He opened his mouth to argue, but Shiri continued before he could. "Whatever your people are doing to these pokémon, it's wrong. It's unnatural. It's not development. Surely you can see that?"

Simon's cheeks colored, and Shiri figured she had angered him. "It's just a program to make pokémon a little bit safer."

"Well, this program has failed every single time I've seen it in action," Shiri countered. "Boltund may try to hurt me, but I don't think he's like that by any fault of his own. It's whatever your company has done to him."

"And what could you possibly do about it?" Simon snapped back.

Shiri fought to overcome her trepidation. Simon was getting angrier as the argument went on, and his size intimidated her. But she could not bend to his anger. "I'll figure it out," she said as confidently as she could.

Simon sputtered, taken off guard by her response. "What?"

Shiri turned to Ashton. "Celebi," she said. Ashton raised an eyebrow. "Agate Village had something to do with those shadow pokémon, and there's a shrine to Celebi there."

"Well, yeah," Ashton said, and Shiri pulled Ashton's laptop to her.

She typed in "Celebi, Kanto-Johto" into the search bar. The information page for the Ilex Forest came up at the top of the search. "That's it. There's a shrine to Celebi in the Ilex Forest in Johto."

Ashton sat on the bed beside her, nodding. "Yeah. We can take the magnet train from Saffron City to Goldenrod City. The forest is just south. We can do that in half a day."

Simon watched them in silence, his stomach in knots. His heart raced when Shiri mentioned shadow pokémon. That name had not been used to refer to the developed pokémon, but Simon had seen the term in many of Marlena's files. He was nearly shaking in anger. He hated the way Shiri had spoken to him, condemning him in her condemnation of Pokémon Labs, Inc. But worse, he hated more that she was right.

"Wait," Ashton said, "don't you have work tomorrow morning?"

Shiri's eyes widened. "I almost forgot I had a job," she said, cracking a smile. "Well, screw that. Mr. Joseph can manage one more day without me. This is way more important." Now Ashton smiled and slung an arm around her shoulders.

Simon had no place here, and his heart sank at this knowledge. He should have never come back. "Well, I'll be off, then," he said, walking to the hotel door.

"Wait," Shiri called to him. She rushed over, reached out, and caught his hand. Simon looked at her astonished. "Come with us."

"You, what?"

Shiri took a deep breath. "You said you don't like what you do. You told me that, remember? Come with us, help us find a different solution." She held his gaze, pleading with her eyes. Her hand squeezed his.

Every fiber of his being wanted to go with her. He wanted nothing more than to be close to her, to leave this life of misery. But he remembered where and what he was before Marlena brought him onto Pokémon Labs' capture team. He couldn't go back to that. And there was nowhere else for him to go.

He pulled his hand out of Shiri's and looked away from her so he wouldn't see the disappointment in her eyes. "I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I cannot go with you." He glanced to Ashton, to the pachirisu perched on his shoulder, and he was struck with an absurd idea–but he didn't resist it.

He pulled out Houndoom's poké ball and released her. Houndoom looked up at Simon, her tail wagging, then to Shiri and Ashton. Simon knelt down and scratched her on the head. "If I'm not mistaken, the only pokémon you two have is Boltund and that little mischief maker." Simon nodded to Ashton.

"Well, yeah," Shiri said, looking at Simon curiously.

Simon stood again and pressed Houndoom's poké ball into her hand. She looked at it in astonishment. "Take Houndoom with you. She'll protect you. She's been with me since the beginning. I've relied on her more than my own family." He paused, regretting letting that bit out. But he caught Shiri's gaze again. "When you've found whatever it is you're looking for, come bring Houndoom back to me. And let me know what you find."

Shiri's face was flushed, and she smiled at his words. Once again, she threw her arms around him and squeezed.