"Are you able to get into contact with them?"
Griff solemnly shook his head upon his wife's worried question after hanging up on his phone. Despite their connections they had no way of obtaining the latest developments at Unova in real time, only knowing that things there are currently very dangerous and chaotic. From what they knew, telecommunications with Unova had gotten very spotty, especially at Castelia where the supposed large battle should be taking place right now.
And if their suspicions were right, their little girl would be right in the vortex of that mess as they speak.
"We shouldn't have let her go to Unova," Griff could only watch as his wife paced about worriedly after muttering those words. He's also trying his best to keep his cool but as a father, the thought of his child being right there in that mess, going up against a terrorist organisation capable of nuking an entire city with ice and killing Gym Leaders left and right gnawed uncomfortably at him to no end.
And there's also the news that Sebastian reported to them about the Devouring that their daughter had experienced at Opelucid and what it did to her ghost-inclined ability. The implications of that news and how it would irreversibly change their daughter's life is not lost on him as well.
Thankfully, Sebastian is with her, so Griff is hoping for the best. Velda will have to come home whether she likes it or not after everything at Unova dies down. The Magma-Aqua crisis, the Battle of Olivine, and now the war going on at Castelia; being involved in three or more of such huge conflicts, intentionally or not, is too much in Griff's opinion and he no longer wants to see his daughter being caught up in similar situations in the future. He will order Sebastian to drag his daughter back home once they have ascertained her safety and well-being, by force if needed. Flannery should be able to help with that too if they asked.
"Flannery and Norman are there with her too. She will be fine," Griff did his best to reassure his wife despite his own worries. The first time he saw his wife fretting about worrying like that was when they learnt that Vel was inflicted with an incurable sickness, the other time she acted like that was when they learnt Vance had gotten himself seriously hurt on one of his ACE missions gone horribly wrong that involved him fighting for his life against enraged wild slakings, and there were two more times she acted like this when they learnt that Velda was caught up in the Lilycove Invasion and also in the Indigo One Day War respectively.
He knew that to Hanna, this family is her entire world. Both of them were not very forthcoming to their children about their grandparents, giving them very vague answers to their questions, and neither did their children ever think to probe further beyond the very basic questions when they first asked it in their curiosity when they were very young, showing that they caught on that this was a topic that they were not comfortable with talking about. For Griff, it was because the death of his parents were a heavy and emotional topic back then. For Hanna, it was because she had close to no idea who her parents were and thus, had no idea how to formulate a proper answer when her children were still so young and probably wouldn't understand whatever she said. By the time the couple were emotionally ready to answer their children's questions should they bring that topic up again it just never happened. That topic simply never came up in their conversations even till today.
Hanna was old enough to remember a few things about her father before he abruptly disappeared from her life. She was just old enough to vaguely recall that she had a father who had a tattoo of a sword with its blade wrapped by a thorny vine inked on his chest. She was old enough to recall that her father seemed to be somewhat involved in the medical field, or at least gave off the impression that he had a strong interest in medicine, which was a factor that influenced her to eventually choose to study nursing and subsequently become a nurse at the Petalburg Pokemon Center where Griff first met her, wooed her, and eventually wedded her. She had no memories of having a mother. She was just old enough to remember that she was very happily living with her father until she was suddenly left all alone at an orphanage one day for reasons unknown and probably will never know.
Hanna did use the connections of the Vera family to try and search for her father after their marriage and Griff gave her his full support. Strangely enough, they dug up enough evidence to be heavily convinced that her ancestors had roots in Hoenn for as far as approximately about two to three hundred years back at the bare minimum, meaning that Hanna has to be a true Hoenn native when it comes to her ancestry, yet everything in the last hundred years or so were a complete blank. Their findings suggested that something fishy had certainly gone on within her ancestral lineage during that missing hundred years but all investigations came to an abrupt stop when they reached this dead end. They eventually had to give up when there was no progress in this matter for years.
All she wanted was her father to answer her questions that had been buried deep in her heart for four decades, the burning question of why he had abandoned her. Was it due to circumstances beyond his control or was it simply because he never loved her? Was her memories of him simply her imagination filling in the missing gaps in her memories of her younger years?
She eventually ceased her search when it yielded no results. She is already in her forties and at this age she had come to terms with many things in her life and had learnt how to be at peace for things beyond her control.
However, her children being involved in danger of such a scale is not something she can just brush off and tell herself to relax and calm down. She is a mother first and foremost and a mother will always worry about her children. She would prefer if her children hated her for restricting their freedom as compared to losing them in a foreign land when she could have prevented the worst outcome. She may be the matriarch of the noble Vera family but at the end of the day, she's just another mother who will forever fret and worry about her children no matter how old or capable they are.
Hanna had never been a religious person, but it was at this moment she actually found herself praying to the divine. It doesn't matter if it's groudon or kyogre or the legendary titans or the slumbering jirachi in their family's sanctuary. As a non-believer, praying is now ironically the only thing she can do as a mother who only wanted to wish for the safe return of her youngest child when she is currently being obstructed from instantly going to her daughter's side due to the vast ocean of the world.
She will do anything if it means that her daughter can return home safe and sound, because at the end of the day she is just a mother, and a mother will do anything if it means keeping their children safe.
Even if she has to move heaven and earth in the process.
He didn't start out to be the person who he was today.
Time had tempered him, teaching him the value of patience and the worth of exercising the shrewdness of the mind rather than relying on raw strength to brute force his way through. Funnily enough, it took him about a good sixty to seventy years- or maybe it was eighty years and counting, he couldn't really remember- for the lesson to finally sink into his stubborn self.
It was when he finally met someone who made him feel the impulse to be with for the rest of his life that he learnt that he was not who he imagined himself to be until then. He's not infallible, he's not indestructible, he's not undefeatable and most importantly, he's not without weakness, for one would inevitably have weaknesses once they have somebody who they care about.
"Kosho? Helloooo, you are starting to space out again."
They met under the most ordinary of circumstances but ended up sticking with each other no matter how dire the situation. She had the ability to simply bring out the best in him, the ability to have him realise that he too, has the capacity to be gentle and to love another.
It was after meeting her that he started to regret how he had lived his life thus far. He had made many enemies in his long life and had close to no allies, let alone friends. He was arrogant, believing that he required nobody's assistance whatsoever. His arrogance was rightfully earned, being somebody who could single handedly take down a team of Elite level pokemon with his bare hands without needing a pokemon's assistance. It was how he earned his spot in that frightening underworld group consisting of monsters and heroes, him belonging to the former category instead of the latter.
But it was that same arrogance that came to bite him where it hurts the most much later. He believed that he alone was enough to protect the person who he held dear, he trusted that his strength would deter anyone from ever dreaming of laying a finger on her and their unborn child. He believed that he could easily stand up even against an army no matter the odds.
Oh how wrong he was.
Somewhere down the line, the number of people who he had offended and pissed off had unknowingly accumulated far beyond his wildest imagination. He was taught a very bitter and harsh lesson, that it always pays to be cordial when it is an option, that making friends is certainly better than making enemies when given the choice, that the presence of a common enemy is the strongest adhesive for people to band together for a common cause despite their individual weaknesses. His enemies had joined forces to eliminate him and the person who he had grown to hold dear, his only weakness, one that he should have done everything to keep under wraps for her safety. His weakness multiplied into two when their daughter was born after his beloved had to undergo a very perilous childbirth process that nearly took her life due to complications originating from her ghost-inclined ability.
His enemies chose that exact moment to come knocking on their doors.
Yes, he was ridiculously powerful, but he was taught a very humbling lesson that even the strongest of individuals cannot shoulder everything alone. Things got so bad that he was forced to swallow his pride and seeked help for the sake of his family. Nobody had offered to help him when he was at his lowest because he had burnt too many bridges in his earlier years and his social network was so pathetically narrow due to his arrogance and disinterest in widening his social circle back then. He learnt that being a Card of Tarot did nothing to persuade anyone to lend him aid if people's impression of you is being an arrogant dickhead. He didn't have any form of charisma or political clout to make people want to listen to him or lend him their assistance.
Only she stuck by him through thick and thin out of her love for him but her health had severely weakened after she had given birth to their beautiful daughter, the greatest gift to grace their lives. He felt so apologetic because they never had a formal wedding ceremony nor was their union officially registered anywhere, all because he couldn't risk the chance of alerting their enemies' of their whereabouts by doing so.
He owed her too much. Yet, all she did was to forgive him with a smile on her face and wordlessly hug him with her loving arms.
He was powerful, but for all of the power he possessed he still found himself powerless in the face of the inevitable. The first person whom he had grown to love left him shortly after due to her rapidly deteriorating health, but not before using her death to eradicate most of the threats that were looking to seek him and their daughter harm. Her ability to "curse" truly was something out of this world, a double-edged sword that harms its bearer as well as the targets it's unleashed upon.
He was then left to care for their daughter all alone. He raised her for a few years while being constantly on the run from his remaining enemies, ensuring that his daughter's existence remained a secret and making sure those who knew those secrets could never divulge it. He strived to provide her with the best he could under those circumstances in those dangerous times. He wanted nothing but to be alwaysby her side, watch her grow and be a part of her life from start to end, but after a few years had passed he eventually understood that his presence would bring nothing but danger to her. He will never allow the same fate that befell his lover to occur again on their child.
For her sake, he was soon forced to come to a decision.
It was with a heavy heart that he left her all alone in Hoenn and his decision proved to be the right one to make, because she was no longer tangled with the dangers that were involved simply by being near his presence. He did make arrangements such that she would still live a comfortable life, as much as he could reasonably do so from another region as he travelled from place to place to draw his pursuers away from Hoenn for their daughter's sake where he eventually eliminated them with extreme prejudice, go into hiding to plot his revenge against the masterminds responsible for this unfortunate turn of events, and also to fix his shortcomings.
He had always taken an interest in medicine but had never furthered said interest further due to his domineering strength granted by his ability. He regretted not knowing enough to save his lover and the circumstances of her death spurred him to religiously study the wonders of medicine through any means available, and it was in his travels that he eventually reemerged as the renowned Dr Kolten Lott of Unova and the world's foremost expert on Ability Holders.
He started to repair the burnt bridges, slowly gathering his own network of acquaintances, business partners and allies from both sides of the law. His social network deep under the surface eventually became his most monstrous strength because he always knew the right person to contact for the right occasion no matter the situation, to the extent that people eventually forgot about the original reason why he was so feared before he became the renowned doctor. Being a renowned doctor that frequently dealt with both sides of the law meant that many people owed him favours, favours that he regularly cashed upon for his own agendas, and he began to relish in utilising the shrewdness of the mind rather than the brute strength his ability granted. While it's also true that whatever he did as Dr Kolten Lott made him a few enemies along the way, the pros still heavily outweighs the cons, and he had so many enemies to begin with that a few more additions honestly wouldn't matter as long as they remained unaware of his daughter's existence.
Dr Kolten Lott eventually successfully enacted vengeance for the woman he had mourned for many countless nights. It was vengeance delivered two decades late, but vengeance is vengeance nonetheless. The past forty or so years were him fixing everything that he shouldn't have destroyed with his arrogance but it was still forty years too late. She has been dead for more than four decades, their daughter hadn't known of his existence and had also lived happily in his absence in that same period of time. This is his sin to bear alone and he intended to bear it alone. Someone like him had no rights to intrude on his daughter's blissfully happy life she had now forged with her family consisting of her husband and children.
That was his belief, his resolve, but that same resolve suddenly felt so laughably fragile when he had an unexpected encounter with his granddaughter. He usually left the booking and arrangement of his patients' appointments to his PA, never really caring which patient he will be looking over until one or two days before, or sometimes on that day itself. He only realised that his granddaughter ended up being his patient just about two hours before the scheduled appointment when he was browsing through the files in preparation of the consultation. It was a very conflicting mess of emotional turmoil that he had undergone in those two hours, with him wanting to finally meet one of his grandchildren but at the same time, feeling ashamed and scared to meet his own kin.
He had no rights to meet them. He's afraid that he might be unable to exercise restraint and come clean with certain facts that might ruin their already perfect life.
What's done was done at the end of the day and he had a lonely drink in his own room to reflect on his life that very night. He wasn't able to save his lover, wasn't able to do his part as a father, but he could at the very least, pull some strings to make his granddaughter's journey in Unova a little smoother and safer until she makes the return trip home.
Unova is not safe, especially for Ability Holders like her. He doesn't know if she will ever encounter dangers like how he and his lover had once faced but if she does, at least this time, he's well prepared.
The things that he couldn't do for his lover and daughter, the mistakes that were made back then, he wouldn't repeat them a second time again.
He stood hidden and unnoticed within the dark alleys of Nimbasa, quietly observing the building which he knew that the person who he was here for resided during her stay in Unova. He was finally done with his job as a member of the organisation and now he had time to himself once more. That's how he found himself here again. Alone and in secret.
His hands reached into his pocket out of habit and as usual there were no cigarettes for him to smoke on. He had kicked his addiction but some habits still remained.
He still has a lighter stored in his pocket out of habit and so he settled for flicking the switch of the lighter on and off to pass time here meaninglessly while watching the building for no apparent reason than to watch it. He doesn't have any idea what he's really here for to be perfectly honest with himself. Thinking back about his past mistakes? Fantasising about a touching reunion? What else?
No, he doesn't deserve any form of recognition or love, not after all he did in his deceptively long life.
He still cannot help but frown at the thought of the information he fortunately- or unfortunately- chanced upon. An Ability Holder, never in his wildest dreams would he expect for her to have inherited her grandmother's affliction. Their daughter certainly didn't, and the odds of an ability manifesting in a family within three generations is so much lower than the chances of striking the lottery. He could say that for certain as the world's foremost expert on Ability Holders.
He's far from a good person and so was his lover. It was why he used to frequently change and switch identities to avoid being hunted by their enemies and why he left their daughter to grow up all alone in Hoenn. It was to keep her safe. Even if he was absent from her life almost entirely he had made sure that she grew up with the best he could afford, as much as he could realistically do when he had been away from Hoenn for about four decades. He had constantly kept tabs on her life in secret after he left her, when she attended school, got her first pokemon, graduated, got her first job, fell in love with a man and eventually got married… He didn't keep a surveillance on his daughter ever since she had gotten married and he had ascertained that his son-in-law can be trusted to take care of her, but that doesn't mean that he had stopped keeping tabs on her life entirely.
He knows that he has two grandchildren, a grandson and a granddaughter. His daughter and son-in-law kept them very well-protected from the public eye since there's very little he can find out about them through the internet beyond their participation in the Ever Grande Conference, a rite of passage for all Hoenn trainers who earned all eight badges in their journey. He did know enough that his grandson had served as an ACE operative until his recent resignation and is a very skilled trainer, but that was about it. He knew even less about his granddaughter until they unknowingly met in Unova when she coincidentally became his patient.
It was after reading through her medical report that he really regretted not keeping a closer tab on his daughter and grandchildren. If he had done so, he would have found out about his granddaughter's medical condition much earlier. If he had done so, his granddaughter would not have needed to undergo so much suffering in her younger years. If he had done so, he might have already found a suitable method to help her cope with her ability, whatever it may turn out to be.
He's arguably one of the best doctors in the world. He should have been there to prevent his own flesh and blood from experiencing such needless pain.
His ability had the unexpected side effect of allowing him to remain much more youthful than his actual age is among other things. His lover's ability, for the lack of a better word, was to "curse". Her ghost-inclined ability was a main factor that led to her demise, something which he would forever regret not being able to avert. If their granddaughter ended up having a similar ability, if nothing was done about it…
His experience in dealing with his lover's ability and what he learnt about Emil and Bernard had led him to formulate a hypothesis about ghost-inclined Ability Holders, which might also explain why Emil had chosen to murder Bernard for seemingly no reason. Unfortunately, it will be a hypothesis that he could not test the validity of unless he managed to locate Emil and he's hoping that his hypothesis will not turn out to be a fact, because his granddaughter is a ghost-inclined Ability Holder as well. The only thing he's certain about is that his granddaughter's ability had not fully manifested and bloomed. What he's now afraid of was that his granddaughter's ability might further develop and take after her grandmother's, which was a very fearsome and self-destructive ability that he'd rather she did not inherit.
He had been careless and too naive. He should have known. Just because their daughter was not an Ability Holder like them it doesn't mean that their grandchildren wouldn't. Thankfully, he's now aware of this problem, which means that he could do something about it as well even if it might be a little too late but it's better late than never.
And therein comes a new problem, which is how he should naturally approach them for him to be able to keep a constant eye on his granddaughter using the identity of a "doctor" without raising their suspicions. He'd prefer if his daughter and grandchildren never learnt that they are related because it would mean that there's one less element of danger threatening their lives. Should he just move back to Hoenn and "coincidentally" live at Petalburg? Create "coincidental" run-ins on the street? Hmm…
He lit up his lighter once more, staring at the burning flame before releasing the switch. Someone just had to ruin the atmosphere.
"Get lost, I'm not in a good mood."
Several figures emerged under the cover of the darkness of the deserted alleys after he said that. The doctor often presented himself as a friendly and approachable man, sometimes even going so far as to act the part of a comical fool, but his eyes were colder than the winter at this instance. He was not a trainer, not back then and not now, but there's a very good reason why he's still alive despite having so many enemies out for his life for the past century.
More importantly, contrary to popular beliefs currently floating about in the organisation he wasn't originally awarded the Card of the Sun for his medical expertise. It's true that he has possessed a heavy interest in medical knowledge ever since he was a child but it was not until he had held onto this position for more than six decades that he started to really dabble in it for real. There really is only one reason why he held onto this position and survived for so long in the underworld despite not being a trainer.
He's an Ability Holder with a very powerful ability.
The hostile figures made their approach. He looked up at the sky to check the position of the sun. It's midday, which meant that his ability would work at its peak right now.
He gave them one final warning, his final mercy.
"Last warning. Who sent you guys anyway- Never mind, it's a pointless question."
He had made too many enemies for him to truly care who sent killers after him at this point. It may be the Plasma remnants who figured out that he had played a vital role in their recent loss, it may be some of his archenemies that are still out for his blood. Honestly, it really doesn't matter anymore.
The hostile figures continued to encroach. The last of his patience ran thin.
"I warned you."
An excadrill flew out from the darkness with the intention to skewer him. The doctor simply grabbed onto its drill-like paws with a single hand with a bored look on his face. The excadrill stared at the doctor with wide eyes in disbelief but the doctor did not indulge them with the time to be reeling in from the shock.
The doctor slammed the excadrill onto ground with enough force to crack the ground beneath them and also caused the excadrill's chest to cave in from the blow. It's not getting back up ever again. More pokemon charged at him from within the darkness, the cover of the shadows obscured the brutal exchange of blows that took place within but did little to hide the fearful screams of the pokemon and their trainers that soon followed.
"Fuck-! An aura user-"
"Aura user?" The doctor cannot help but mock his assailant's ignorance. "Have you ever seen such a lousy aura user like me?"
Another muffled scream rang out together with the dull sound of crushed bones. The shadow casted upon the wall of the alley showed a man lifting his victim by the neck, the victim's head lopped to a side at an unnatural angle before the victor unceremoniously tossed him aside with disinterest. The doctor reached into his pocket out of habit again, only to be reminded once more that he had quit smoking a long time ago.
That murder attempt was another unimportant interlude in his long life. He has a greater matter to ponder about at the moment, and that was to find a legitimate excuse to be able to stay by his granddaughter's side without raising anyone's suspicions for the foreseeable future, at least until he's able to figure out a way for her to train herself to control her ability. It is something that has to be done simply because her ability is ghost-inclined. Something bad and irreversible will definitely happen if this is left unattended for too long, like how it happened to his lover which their granddaughter had definitely inherited her ability from.
He ran a hand through his hair in slight frustration. Things just couldn't be easy when it comes to his lover.
"You are so cool, doc."
"And you could have lent me a hand," the doctor retorted, already aware that one of the Tarot members that he had a closer working relationship with had been here midway when the one-sided massacre took place. They had arranged to meet here to begin with, it was the ignorant assailants who crashed their pre-arranged meeting.
"I don't see a need to," the masked man with a meowstic accompanying him shrugged his shoulders. "Genuine question, if you and Bruno were to have a kung fu showdown, who would win?"
"Finished your job?" The doctor asked the man instead, who goes by the moniker of Avatar in the underworld.
"Successfully guided the Unova forces to rescue the hostages imprisoned at the castle."
"And Gracidea?"
The man pointed to another corner where a masked woman had been standing undetected in plain sight for quite a while now. He could see how she became an international hitman with such an uncanny ability to reduce her presence in plain sight. She just has a knack of allowing people to easily overlook her presence.
"Your medicine," the doctor tossed a bottle full of pills to the woman which she easily caught with a hand. "Two pills a day, one each before breakfast and dinner. If you feel the onset of another attack coming, take one pill, it should calm you down. Let me know if you need more."
He turned back to the other man in question and passed to him a thumbdrive.
"Latest data about your enemy. From her latest team's composition, her favourite haunts, daily routines, her schedule for the next three months, weaknesses, you get the gist. Do what you want with it, but my personal advice is don't be rash and stupid. Now is still not the time to execute vengeance. A successful revenge takes a lot of planning to be carried out and executed, take it from someone who had been there."
"I appreciate it," Avatar accepted the gift from the doctor. "Any updates from above before we go back to our daily lives?"
"Not that I know of, but I do have a personal request," the doctor turned back to the only woman in the group who he knows excel in infiltration.
"So, uhm, how do you become a patient's doctor without raising anyone's suspicions that me approaching the patient is entirely intentional?"
From the way they reacted he could already imagine the figurative question marks forming in Avatar's and Gracidea's minds. He supposed a little more context is needed before they are able to offer any useful suggestions. He was about to give said context but his phone chose to ring at that very moment.
"Excuse me, one moment- Hello? Yes, Dr Lott speaking… What?"
Talk about perfect timing. Guess he has the perfect excuse on his hands right now.
Unova won the war.
As with all wars, the cost of victory is a steep one. The loss of a handful of Pillars, the loss of public's trust to the governing body of a region, the loss of trust in the Five Weapons and the Twenty Assisting Houses that had generationally protected the region, the loss of innocent lives from the polarisation of ideals and beliefs of an entire region that split the population into opposing halves.
It is a price too hefty.
I'm sure every survivor of this crisis had paid a price one way or another, physically or mentally or perhaps both. I paid a price too. It's been a few days since the interpol had participated in the battle that decided the fate of Unova and played a vital role in stopping the legendary dragon and I don't feel good at all.
I feel awful.
I finally understood how Bernard's ability had tormented his life. His Insomnia ability started to really take root in me for real after the Battle of Castelia and is really starting to have a disruptive effect on my daily life. I'm sure that there are people who wish that they have no need to sleep and have the full 24 hours a day to do whatever they want. Yes, it probably sounded nice in theory to be able to not sleep and do whatever you think is worth your time, what you probably didn't account for is why your body needed to sleep in the first place.
I had done preliminary research about the lack of sleep and how it affects the human body after Dr. Lott shared Bernard's file with me. Staying awake for 24 hours would make one feel tired, cause them to have impaired concentration and judgement and increased irritability. After 36 hours the symptoms become more intense; impaired memory, difficulty in learning new information, impaired decision making, slow reaction time, impaired immune function. After 72 to 96 hours this would quickly spiral into having illusions, delusions, disordered thinking, depersonalisation, and beyond that the patient would be unable to interpret reality anymore and eventually go insane.
Pokemon born with the Insomnia ability had long since had their bodies adapted to function without sleep. However, the human body clearly hasn't evolved to that point. I haven't been sleeping much at all and it was not for the lack of trying. The good news is that sleeping pills still work to a certain extent, but the bad news is that it is definitely not going to be a healthy long term solution. I'm already feeling the effects of increased irritability. Being unable to sleep but also fully aware that both your body and mind really needs the rest is a very unpleasant experience that nobody should ever go through.
How on earth did Bernard deal with this crap for more than two decades of his life? Gosh, he really earned my respect now that I have a taste of what he had to go through.
There are five new abilities that I had inherited from Emil: stealing of lifeforce, insomnia, night vision, reduced presence, and ability sensory. Among which, night vision and reduced presence are welcomed additions and would not have a noticeable impact on my daily life. Ability sensory is a devoured ability that only works on fellow ghost-inclined Ability Holders and our own kind are rare to begin with, so it's pretty much dormant for most of the time as well.
That left two other abilities. Emil's ability is an undeniable problematic hurdle to overcome. Emil's ability is deadly and very useful on the battlefield, but the same cannot be said when I currently have no control over when this ability will activate and how to turn it off at will. The effects are indiscriminate and merciless, I had seen and experienced it for myself during the Battle of Castelia. I do not wish to do what I had done on my enemies to my loved ones and to ensure that never happens, the only realistic option that is available to me now is to isolate myself until I figured out a way to be able to control this new ability of mine where I will no longer be a hazard to the people around me.
The last ability is Bernard's Insomnia and as you can see, his ability is an absolute disruptive terror to possess.
Argh goddammit this is so awful. I'm so freaking tired but I can't sleep!
I had lost count on how many times I had screamed into my pillow in frustration. My pokemon were probably too used to my random muffled screamings at this point. I had alerted Sebastian about my problem the moment I noticed that my newfound Insomnia ability was starting to take a toll on me and he had immediately started to search for someone who could help. The first candidate that came to both our minds was Dr Lott for obvious reasons. He was the doctor who accurately identified me as an Ability Holder when none could. He was the one who informed me that my ability had most likely been a big factor that led to my poor health since birth.
But Unova is in a chaotic state right now. Trying to search for one person in a war torn region is going to be so difficult.
The effects of the insomnia that had been afflicting me had worried my pokemon. I could see them acting restlessly trying to comfort or help me sleep only for their efforts to come up with nothing, which made them even more restless in a vicious cycle. Wacky even tried to coax me to sleep with Hypnosis, which did help initially, but my Insomnia ability would simply wake me up in about an hour or two. While that wouldn't be so bad if I was simply taking an afternoon nap, it's an absolute pain to keep waking up every hour or so at night and then being unable to fall asleep for the next few hours. I couldn't keep troubling Wacky either, it's simply not a good long term solution and I had read through the classified files of Project Illusion before. I had read up on what long term exposure to Hypnosis could do to the human mind and I certainly do not want to be a victim to it like how Jayce once was.
If Sebastian did manage to contact Dr Lott and if he's still alive after the mess that happened in Unova, I really hope that he's able to do something about this.
I probably don't look very good right now, with dishevelled hair and black rings starting to form around my eyes from the lack of sleep. I had spent most of my time tossing and turning on the bed for the past few days trying to sleep with little success. I probably didn't even get over ten hours of sleep by my estimate and at this point I wholly believed that I'm on a downward spiral to insanity.
Rena leapt up to join me on the bed, nuzzling her head to my cheek in a display of concern and encouragement, but I'm so mentally tired that I couldn't even be bothered to scratch the back of her ears in return like I usually do so for her.
'Mistress, Sebastian's medicham informed me that his master is back with a doctor. I had told him that he can send the doctor up.'
"Doctor? Dr Lott?" I immediately perked up in attention. For the first time in these few horrendous days I finally saw hope. I swore that I never had felt so excited to see a doctor before.
'I believe so.'
Two knocks sounded on the door of my bedroom almost right after. Rena assisted me in opening the doors remotely with her psychic powers and to my relief it really was Dr Lott striding through the doors. He took a brief pause in his steps when he finally got to take a good look at me, the look on his face a mix of shock and concern. It's confirmation that I really look like an utter mess right now.
"You look terrible."
"I know," I lamented with a helpless sigh. "I assumed Sebastian briefed you about what's happening to me? Please tell me that you have a solution."
"I will have to do some quick diagnosis to be sure," Dr Lott hurriedly took out his equipment from the bag he brought along with him. "How much have you managed to sleep so far?"
"Haven't kept an accurate count, but it probably didn't go over ten hours."
"Not good," he stated with a grimace as he took out his stethoscope. He gestured to me to turn around before placing his stethoscope on my back. He also shone light into my eyes using a handheld torchlight, took an ice-cream stick to poke into my opened mouth to see whatever he needed to see. I very helpfully cooperated in hopes that it might help to get him to come up with a solution soon. I'm just that desperate for a solution.
"So how bad is it?"
"Your insomnia is frankly, much more severe than Bernard's," Dr Lott admitted. "And Devouring? First time I heard of such a phenomena but it does support my findings and my own hypothesis about ghost-inclined Ability Holders. I heard you possess Emil's abilities now?"
"It's very dangerous. I kept myself in self-isolation ever since the Battle of Castelia ended because I really have no idea when the next outburst will be. I still cannot control it."
"How many times have you had an outburst since then?"
"Twice. Only ghosts can safely stay by my side when that happens. Everyone else has to keep their distance, but my other non-ghost type pokemon are safe as long as they stay in their pokeballs. Still had no idea how that works."
"Okay, so your insomnia is the most pressing issue at the moment. Let's deal with that first," the doctor immediately prioritised which problem he should start working on. "You will have to start with Bernard's method as soon as possible. This Insomnia ability is the most glaring threat to your well-being right now, one that we must address immediately. What I did for Bernard is through exploiting the fact that the human body is highly adaptable and quick to fall into well-established routines. We will do just that."
I had read Bernard's medical files, I knew what method the doctor was talking about. I had tried doing the exact same thing but it was to no avail. For some unknown reason my Insomnia ability is simply much more potent in its effects as compared to when Bernard had it.
To put it very simply, the method which Dr Lott and Bernard came up with is segmented sleep, or also known as polyphasic sleep. For most people our sleep schedule is a single six to nine hours sleep that occurs overnight. The basic idea of segmented sleep is splitting the human body's sleep cycle into several segments, allowing the person in question to also sleep for six to nine hours a day, but dividing that total duration into various shorter individual segments. So assuming that the maximum period of deep sleep I could get for each rest is two hours and my usual period of rest before being affected by Insomnia is eight hours, I would simply divide my original eight hours into four different segments. I would sleep for two hours, be awake for maybe another two to three hours, sleep again for another two hours, and continue this cycle until I have clocked my compulsory eight hours of rest per every twenty-four hour cycle.
Is segmented sleep healthy? The medical community is still unable to give a definitive answer till date. Segmented sleep is common in the era before artificial lights were created, suggesting that humans are perhaps segmented sleepers from the beginning until the invention of artificial light compressed segmented sleep into one long session. Many pokemon are also natural segmented sleepers, especially wild ones, mainly due to the fact that they could not afford to be in deep sleep for too long because predators may approach them when their guard is at their lowest. It's their basic survival instinct at work.
What we do know is that segmented sleep does have its downsides when not exercised properly, but this is the best solution to my Insomnia problem for now. It's obvious from the observations I had made so far that my sleep cycle is going to get exponentially shorter and shorter and something must be done about it before it turns into a big problem for me.
The remedy that the doctor came up with for Bernard is through exploiting the body's tendency to remember well-established routines. Old habits die hard, there's actually a reason why this is the case. The body naturally remembers the things you do or subject it to frequently, especially if you do it in a set routine at very specific time periods of the day. People who frequently take naps at a specific time in the afternoon would find themselves sleepy whenever it's time for their naptime, and there are also people who cannot find the energy to kick start their mornings without their daily cup of coffee. Could they continue their day without their naps and coffee? Certainly they could, but the reason why they felt that they needed their naps and coffee was because their habits and routines had programmed their bodies to be reliant on such an action whenever it reaches that particular time of the day.
So that is what we will do. We will gradually program my body to feel sleepy and want to take naps whenever it reaches specific times of the day. Like this, it will hopefully allow me to fall into deep sleep without needing to rely on external aid like sleeping pills or Hypnosis. If Insomnia does not allow me to have a long fruitful rest I just have to make sure I am able to have deep sleep in each and every of my segmented rest, enough to not let me undergo the effects of sleep deprivation.
But the specifics of how we are going to put the practice of segmented sleep in action and how long each segment of rest is going to be will have to wait at this juncture. The bigger problem that prevented me from putting this same method into use was the fact that I could barely fall asleep in the first place. At least Bernard is able to sleep for at least a full two hours for each segment, I could hardly fall into deep sleep for a single hour at this point.
I voiced my thoughts out to the doctor while trying to keep the irritation out of my voice. The lack of sleep is really getting to me now.
"I understand that the practice of segmented sleep is going to be the long term solution, but I couldn't even fall asleep even if I tried now."
"I understand, which was why I came prepared. Here, have this, it will help you sleep better," Dr Lott took out an incense pot and a lighter, lit up the incense in the pot and placed it on my bedside table. The incense started to burn and faint wisps of unknown odourless smoke began wafting out of it.
"That incense is an unfinished work in progress but it should be of great help to you. It's made from the extract of koffing's gas," Dr Lott elaborated. "It's something that the academics had only just discovered, but some koffings are able to produce a very specific type of gas that has the properties of suppressing pokemon's abilities. It should work for Ability Holders too. They are still undecided if this is an indication of a new pokemon move or ability that nobody had yet discovered. More tests will have to be conducted until someone can come to a conclusion."
The doctor's words had fully captured my interest. If what he said was true, if what the academics had discovered is correct, this might just be the cure that I so desperately need right now.
The doctor chuckled at my curious reaction before proceeding to elaborate.
"You now have an Insomnia ability, so burn this at night before you go to sleep. It should help you sleep better. I will work on coming up with an alternative method in the meantime, just in case you might need it. For now though, it's imperative that you get some deep sleep to compensate for the sleep debt that your body incurred. Once you have caught up on some sleep we can start discussing properly what I can help you with going forward so that you do not have to go through this experience again and minimise the negative impacts of insomnia on your everyday life."
"You're awesome," I gave the doctor my sincerest praise, now totally in awe of him. Now I can really see why people call him one of the best doctors in the world. He came up with a viable solution to the problem that had been plaguing me for days within mere minutes. I don't think that I'm exaggerating with my praise. Just by inhaling the incense I could feel the long awaited sense of drowsiness slowly permeating through my body. It would probably take a while more for me to naturally fall asleep, but at least there's something that finally worked for me.
The doctor gave a warm laugh upon hearing my compliment and his hand reached out to presumably pat me on my head in what I assumed to be an action borne out of habit, but he quickly retracted his hand before he could actually do so when he obviously realised that it's out of place for him to do so. I'm guessing that he probably dealt with kids often and I do tend to give others the wrong impression that I am younger than I really am.
"It will take a short while for the incense to take effect. So lie down, relax, close your eyes, deep slow breaths," the doctor advised and I decided to heed his words. I'm not exactly a very trusting person by nature and I am still a little wary about the doctor because at the end of the day, we are still technically strangers. However, I'm not too worried about him potentially doing anything funny to me because of Rena and co just standing there right by my side and an armada of ghosts hidden out of sight in my bedroom. Rena is a psychic with powerful empathic abilities. If anyone near me harbours negative emotions and if such intentions are directed towards me, I would know in an instant.
Rena looked very relaxed with the doctor around, which is a huge assurance for me. I opened my eyes a bit when I heard the doctor trying to take something out of his bag and I frowned a little when he took out a bag of needles.
"Acupuncture?"
"Surprised?" The doctor asked with a smile while waving that bag of pointy things at me.
"You practise traditional medicine too?"
"Believe it or not, I was a practitioner of traditional medicine before taking a dip into modern medicine. I know traditional medicine does not have a very good rep today and is often seen as unreliable when compared to modern practices but trust me, miracles can happen in the hands of a skilled practitioner of traditional medicine."
"Which you are?"
"Which I am," the doctor assured me with confidence. "Like for instance, from your pulse which I read when I placed my fingers on your wrist earlier when you weren't paying attention, the last time you had any bowel movement was about three hours ago."
My facial expression probably was one of sheer awkwardness and embarrassment at this point. Yes, everyone has to take a dump, it shouldn't be something to be embarrassed about, but to have it being pointed out like that with such accuracy is still awkward.
At the same time, it's also proof of the doctor's skills in the traditional medicine department. You certainly couldn't tell when somebody last had a dump even with all the high tech machines used so prevalently in modern medicine, yet Dr Lott did just that with a few seconds of pulse reading. Practitioners of traditional medicine are getting scarcer as the world began to modernise at an unprecedented pace. Skilled practitioners are even rarer. It is a dying ancient practice at this point in time.
"Scared of needles?" The doctor jested as he rolled out his needle pouch in an infuriatingly slow manner for me to see. I could almost swear that he's doing this on purpose. Guess the doctor has a cheeky side to him that I never knew until now.
"Who isn't?" I admitted with a gulp. I had been poked with many pointy things before due to my frequent bouts of sickness when I was younger but that doesn't mean that I am a fan of needles. "Is there really a need to do this?"
"Technically speaking, the acupuncture is just a supplementary measure, the main part of your treatment will still be the incense. But, if you want to enjoy a few more hours of sleep beyond what the incense can provide you, I would suggest…"
The doctor picked up a long and thin silver needle that glistened under the light, his smile polite yet evil at the same time.
"Heeding the doctor's words."
My eyes looked at the fearsome needle, back at the doctor, and back to the needle again. My entire body is screaming in disagreement.
"Relax, it really wouldn't hurt. You would barely feel anything, promise," the doctor stopped his mischief and began to gently coax me. Again, Rena's lack of any hostility to the doctor was the only thing reassuring me that my well-being was ensured and that the doctor really has my best interest at heart.
"See? Nothing at all," the doctor said after poking one needle into my left arm while I remained absolutely still while trying to keep my body relaxed and less tense like what the doctor advised me to do. He was right though, I really barely felt the sting.
"I could tell you a story if it helps to distract you from the scary needles. Take it as a bedtime story if you like," the doctor kindly offered as he began poking more needles into my arms and legs while I lay still on the bed. I rolled up my shirt a little to expose my navel at his request so that he could poke these needles in the area there later. I'm turning into a spiky sandslash at this point.
"Heard of the move Acupressure?"
"You mean this move originated from practitioners of traditional medicine? They invented it?" I asked, quickly making the obvious link that I deduced he was trying to imply. Kind of hard not to when I'm being subjected to acupuncture right now.
"Yes, and also no. A long time ago before the move Acupressure was officially recognised as a valid move and when modern medicine had not yet came into existence, doctors from certain ancient civilisations observed that certain species of pokemon are able to boost their capabilities with near instantaneous effects when they applied pressure to specific stress points on their bodies. Supposedly, that was how humans discovered the practice of acupuncture and its viability in medicine. Granted, it took a lot of trial and effort for it to become a recognised practice and dependable treatment method as with all types of medical treatment, but in theory it is indeed possible to treat the wounds of both humans and pokemon alike with just acupuncture alone."
"But that is highly dependent on the skills of the practitioner in question, isn't it?"
"Yes, you are right. Sadly, it takes a lot of time and effort for anyone to get to that level of skill and sadly, very few ever attained that level of mastery. As a whole, when dealing with sickness and injuries it generally takes a much longer time for the effects of traditional medicine to be gauged when compared to modern practice. Modern medical practices propagated swiftly across the world because of its immediate effects, like how potions are able to swiftly close the wounds of injured pokemon within minutes or even seconds. They are very effective immediate treatment methods when the injury or sickness is first discovered, making them very effective first-aid methods as well."
Another needle was poked into my body.
"But the highest level of traditional medicinal practice can also achieve everything modern medicine can do, be it brewing herbs or concocting other folk remedies or acupuncture or massage, the only problem is that the bar to achieve that mastery is too high for most people. Modern medicinal practice is successful because it drastically lowered that bar for many people. Lowering that bar meant that there will be more doctors around, and when there are more doctors around and there are more generalised yet effective treatment methods becoming widespread, it means fewer people getting sick and injured. Bear in mind that no single type of medicinal practice is better than the other, it's just simply a matter of which one is more suited for the very medical case you are looking at. Personally, I prefer using the traditional method if possible. They tend to have fewer unwanted side effects."
"So the historical dramas where the main character bleeds profusely after being slashed with a sword and they stop the bleeding immediately by pressing on a few pressure points on their bodies…?"
"Oh, that's technically possible at the highest level of acupuncture, but it's not that immediate. You have to give it at least a minute or two to take effect. Applying pressure to the wound, disinfecting it, and closing it up as soon as you can is always going to be the optimal solution."
The doctor gently pressed his knuckles on both sides of my head and began to slowly massage my temples. I have no idea what he's doing and why his actions had the effects it did, but I am indeed getting noticeably drowsier and drowsier.
The doctor really is good at what he does.
"Relax, deep breaths. Have a good rest."
I certainly did not remember when I knocked myself out like a light, only remembering that I did.
He sat by his granddaughter's bedside for a while to watch her sleep. His mind felt content and at peace while doing so. It was his intent for his flesh and blood to never find out that they are related and he will keep it that way. He doesn't want his presence to bring danger to their lives even if he's sure that his son-in-law is entirely capable of protecting his family simply because he is a Vera.
He now has the strength and clout to protect anyone he wanted to take under his wing but at the same time, he's aware that he had made too many enemies in his long life, so much that he would not take any risk for the sake of the few that he cares about. The assassination attempt on his life shortly before he made this visit was enough proof that he wasn't being overly paranoid. His enemies are still watching his every move and action, patiently waiting for the right time to strike.
He guessed he could allow himself to have some level of personal interactions between him and his descendents, but it would be best to take the safer option and keep his true identity a secret until the end of time. Outwardly, his act would need to convince everyone else that his relationship between the Veras and him is strictly business between patient and doctor. That would be the best disguise to protect them from his enemies given the circumstances.
He gently removed the needles from his granddaughter once she fell into deep sleep and gently pulled the covers over her thereafter under her espeon's scrutinising watch. He's glad that she has such a pokemon companion with her. Espeons are well-known for their protective tendencies towards their trainers and they are indeed very well suited to be a trainer's bodyguard thanks to their unique empathic abilities.
"She should be asleep for at least the next six hours," he told her espeon with a light whisper and the psychic feline acknowledged his words with a nod and a look of gratitude. It even helpfully opened the door for him to see him out.
The doctor reunited with the butler at another empty floor of the building where they can have their conversation in private. Truth to be told, he was very alarmed when he first learnt of what had plagued his granddaughter from Sebastian. Never had he been glad to have the medical knowledge and experience to deal with that kind of problematic ability, he's pretty sure no other doctor in the world could effectively solve that mess.
"So will she have to constantly rely on this incense?"
"My fear is that prolonged reliance on it might lead to her body building up resistance to the incense, which is an outcome that we do not want, but whether her body will build up resistance to the incense or not requires further study since this cure is a new and untested method. Until we can get any conclusive findings, using this incense is going to be a last resort in the case where she was unable to fall asleep for extended periods of time and needs to get some deep sleep as soon as possible before irreversible damage is done to her mind and body. Practising segmented sleep like what my previous patient did is going to have to be the best long term solution until we can find a better way," the doctor patiently answered each and every query of the butler that his son-in-law and daughter assigned to care for his granddaughter. "I will provide you with more of this incense as soon as I can, I have a feeling that she might need it. I can even teach you the method to extract the specific type of gas from koffings and weezings and the process of manufacturing them into the form of an incense. However, not all koffings and weezings are able to produce this extract, you will have to learn how to identify which ones do and which ones don't, and it goes without saying that you have to be very careful with both the selection and extraction process because they are poison types. You won't want to accidentally mix poison into your extracted product."
More advice and instructions were given by the doctor and he dismissed Sebastian's offer for a very generous tip, only accepting what was paid in accordance to the market rate for his services. If it wasn't for the fact that it would be very strange to not accept any recompense for his service he wouldn't have accepted the money at all. His patient is his granddaughter, even if nobody but him knows about it.
However, this also became an opportunity for him to finally get the perfect legitimate excuse that he needed to finally be able to continue to observe his flesh and blood up close. Velda's insomnia problem had been addressed somewhat and it can be controlled for the time being, what's left is the other problem of her involuntary outburst of Emil's original ability. It didn't take much effort on his part to "remind" Sebastian about this underlying threat to Velda's well-being and also to everyone around her, how it would affect her daily life, the lonely life she might lead if she were to isolate herself in fear of harming her loved ones and oh the poor thing, just look at what happened to Emil and what kind of twisted abomination he turned out to be just because of his ability and that he had nobody to help him with his ability and who is the world's leading expert about Ability Holders again? Who is one of the world's best doctors again? Hmm, a certain Dr Kolten Lott certainly came to mind, didn't it? And who is standing right in front of him right now?
Bam, it's Dr Kolten Lott in the flesh! The perfect solution to your problems!
And so, when Sebastian very humbly requested his assistance to be his young lady's personal doctor overseeing her health for the foreseeable future with promises of hefty remunerations for his services (he really doesn't care about the money but he has to pretend he does for the sake of not appearing to be odd), Dr Kolten Lott knew that he finally got what he wanted.
He's a little nervous at the thought of finally seeing his daughter again after about four decades, to be honest, even if she would never know that he is her father, but he would be lying to say that he's not looking forward to it, to get to know his daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren better on a personal level after so long.
Maybe he should really consider settling down in Petalburg after all.
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male