Chapter 12: Anger & Talks
After returning to the camp, Echo and Melody had set about tying the man to a tree with some spare rope they had and Hibiki rested by lying on a table that they had brought while being looked at by Cherry. "I didn't know you knew a lot about human medicine. I'm not trying to say anything, but I always thought that Pokemon Professors stick to Pokemon related stuff." Hibiki commented as she stared at the sky.
"Have you seen some of the Pokemon in the world and how they act? I would personally like to be prepared in case something happens to someone." Cherry responded, applying medical saliva to the wound.
"You know, fair point." Hibiki squeaked out through the pain she was feeling.
"It's fine, I actually do get that question a lot." Cherry told Hibiki. As Cherry made sure the wound was patched up, Echo and Melody had just finished tying up the armored man as they smiled at their work.
"Thank you for helping me with this Melody. Are you feeling ok?" Echo said.
"I'm feeling better, still a bit sore from that Shadow Pokemon battle." Melody told Echo as she cracked her neck.
"That's good to hear, it looked like you were a bit roughed up." Echo said before looking back at Hibiki. She looked at her sister for a moment before sighing as she felt Melody sit on her shoulder. "I just wish I could have gotten there sooner, maybe I could have done something to help you two." Echo said with a sigh.
"Don't worry about it, that Houndoom was pretty strong. There wasn't much your Pokemon could do. ...Though on that note, your sister is an actual lunatic." Melody told Echo.
"What did she do?" Echo questioned in a judging tone.
"No, don't tell her." Hibiki said from the table.
"She protected me and managed to get the Houndoom in a rope trap." Melody told Echo. Echo glared at Hibiki, who flinched from that glare before sighing.
"Yeah that sounds about one of the things she does." Echo said as she shook her head.
"I get that I'm supposed to stay out of battles, but that was not a normal battle by any means. It was very obviously out to kill me." Hibiki retorted.
"As much as I want to agree with you Echo, Hibiki makes a good point. ...I have some things to tell you about, but first, let's get what we can out of him." Cherry said as she finished patching up Hibiki. Hibiki sat up and swung her leg a bit before giving a thumbs up. As this was happening, the male woke and slowly took notice of their situation. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Cherry said as she walked forward.
"I'm not telling you lot anything." the man said.
"Well, you've already told me what I needed to know and what my friend encountered with your Houndoom has just confirmed what I needed to know. That being said, I think you have more to say on the matter." Cherry told the man. The man simply chuckled and looked towards Cherry.
"Well, I could tell you more, but I doubt that there's much you could get out of me." The man snared.
"Do you work for Cipher?" Echo questioned.
"I'm not falling for that trick twice." the man said.
"I figured as much, but that also wasn't a no." Echo said with a sly smile. The man simply cursed softly, earning a giggle out of Echo and Cherry.
"If you won't answer that, then at least tell us what your employer calls you." Hibiki said from the table.
"...If only so it's not so awkward when you talk to me, call me Sigma. Not a codename or anything, just what I go by." Sigma told the group.
"Sigma huh? Odd that they would give a codename for a regular grunt." Cherry commented.
"I will say that most of us are referred to by codenames. As much as my employer wants stuff done, they also don't want our identities revealed." Sigma elaborated.
"Interesting, anything else you want to tell us?" Cherry asked.
"Not really, I've told you all that I wanted you all to know." Sigma told them. Cherry and Echo looked at each other for a moment before walking away to talk about what to do as Melody floated in front of Sigma. "I still can't believe it, those mercs weren't pulling our legs after all." Sigma said in a hushed voice, loud enough for Melody to hear. Melody tilts her head before realizing something and floating over to Hibiki.
"I feel you might want to have a talk with him, he seems like he knows something." Melody told Hibiki. Hibiki simply sighed as she got up and walked over to Sigma.
"How you came across her I have no idea, but you should consider yourself very lucky and very unlucky to be her trainer." Sigma said as he noticed Hibiki walking towards him.
"...What do you know about Melody and how much are you willing to share?" Hibiki asked simply.
"Oh, I know a lot, but I ain't going to share a damn thing." Sigma said. There was a moment of silence as Sigma waited for a response from Hibiki. The response he got was the feeling of Hibiki's fist punching the tree he was tied to.
"Listen, I'm only going to tell you this once, tell us what you know and we can keep you safe. Otherwise, we'll have to turn you into the IPP for questioning and I would think you would rather have some freedom." Hibiki threatened, a notable venom in her voice. Sigma attempted to stay calm, but was very quickly viably shaking at the interaction. "Now then, what were you going to tell us?" Hibiki said.
"Um… w-well I was about to tell you everything I know." Sigma stuttered out.
"Good. ...Melody watch over him, I need to take a walk." Hibiki said as she walked a bit into the forest. Melody watched as this happened before floating over to the tied up Sigma with Echo and Cherry now returning after noticing the incident.
"Does she always act like… that?" Sigma asked Echo.
"No, she doesn't… but I have a feeling why she might be acting like that." Echo said as she looked in the direction Hibiki went.
"You should go ask if something is wrong or bothering her." Cherry told Echo.
"As much as I would like to… I feel Melody would be better at that. She usually gets clammy when I'm around, so maybe you would have better luck." Echo said.
"What makes you think that I'll have more luck?" Melody questioned.
"Well you do have that link you made with her, that could probably work." Echo said, a hint of desperation in her eyes. Melody thought for a moment before looking at Echo and thinking about something.
"... At least come with me in case whatever she's experiencing affects me. I don't know if it's supernatural or not, but I would rather be on the safe side." Melody responded. Echo nodded at that and the two headed off to go find Hibiki.
"So… can you get me out of this? I'm telling you what I know but I would like to wait til your friends come back." Sigma told them. Cherry looked at Sigma and sighed before walking up to him.
"Just so you know, I do know more than I'm letting on and as a sign of good faith will tell you about what I know, but you have to promise not to tell them. Understand?" Cherry threatened. Sigma nodded in agreement as Cherry let him off the rope.
"Hibiki!" Echo called out as they walked through the forest. The two were silent as they attempted to listen for anything, but heard nothing from her. "I'm worried, she does get like this from time to time, but it never comes on suddenly like this." Echo told Melody.
"Think this has anything to do with that symbol on her back?" Melody questioned.
"Maybe, any luck with trying to find her?" Echo asked.
"Nope, been trying a few times and it seems like she's either not letting me in or just blocking her subconscious." Melody told Echo.
"Well keep trying, I don't think she could have gotten far." Echo said in a worried tone. As the two continued on, they noticed a few trees with marks on them from being hit with something. "I think she might have gone through here. Wow I've never seen her this angry." Echo said as she put a hand on the tree she was next to. As she stared at the tree, she heard the sound of sobbing. "Hibiki?" Echo called out.
"Echo?" a hoarse voice called out. Echo immediately dashed towards the direction the voice came from and found Hibiki sitting by a tree with claw marks on it.
"Hibiki!" Echo said as she ran up and hugged her sister.
"What's going on with me?" Hibiki choked out, her eyes still fresh with tears.
"I don't know, but we can figure it out together. It doesn't matter if it's your powers or not, you're still you." Echo told her sister.
"What if it happens again?" Hibiki questioned.
"Then we'll be there for you, so don't worry you're little head about it." Melody told Hibiki as she caught up. Echo at this point broke the hug and extended a hand to her sister.
"I… I suppose you're right." Hibiki said as she stood up with Echo's help. Hibiki dried her eyes as she looked at the tree she was sitting at.
"Out of curiosity, even though I'm probably going to be terrified of the answer, did you manage to do that?" Echo asked.
"... yes." Hibiki said as she looked down at her right hand.
"Ok what magic was it that let you do that?" Echo questioned.
"Something from Darkrai if I had to guess, considering I basically just used Shadow Claw." Hibiki explained.
"Yeah we definitely need to keep this in check… it might not be all bad though." Melody said.
"How is this not all bad?" Hibiki asked.
"Well for one thing, you still have Creselia's side of your power, how that will manifest and if you can control it is another thing entirely, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Not only that, if you can learn to control those powers, you could be pretty good at defending against Shadow Pokemon." Melody elaborated. Hibiki let that thought sit in her mind for a moment before she closed her eyes and concentrated, causing her hand to become wrapped in a shadow like cloak.
"Ok… that is pretty cool." Echo said as she looked on in awe. Hibiki immediately broke the concentration, causing it to disappear.
"Still developing at the moment… but I see where you're going with this." Hibiki sighed.
"I wonder why this is developing more in depth than my powers. If we're twins, shouldn't we have the same types of powers?" Echo asked.
"That… is a good point. You said your symbol is all white right?" Hibiki responded. Echo simply nodded as they began to walk back, causing Hibiki to put a hand to her chin. "So then that means you would only have Cresselia's side of Powers. ...But then how does it work for me?" Hibiki pondered.
"If that rumor of a fortune teller in the next town is true, we could see how that works and ask." Melody suggested. Hibiki simply nodded and just spoke with her sis and Melody on the way back to camp.
As the three walked back into camp, they saw Cherry and Sigma sitting at the table and talking about something. "... Guess I should go and apologize to Sigma." Hibiki said awkwardly.
"You know he's on the 'bad' side right?" Melody said.
"Yeah, but I gave him a scare he didn't deserve and I feel like I should at least let him know I'm sorry about it." Hibiki responded, rubbing the back of her head. As they got closer, Cherry turned to look at them while Sigma fidgeted a bit.
"Was wondering how long before you would get back. I just finished talking with Sigma and he is willing to tell us most of what he knows." Cherry told them with a smile.
"Cool… should we go talk to him now?" Echo said. Cherry simply nodded and they walked back to the table where Sigma was. As they sat down, Melody sitting in front of Hibiki, they all looked over to the nervous Sigma who looked a bit tense and simply sighed.
"Hey Sigma/Hibiki…" the two spoke at the same time, catching each other off guard. Echo simply giggled at the exchange while they looked at each other.
"Ladies first, I think what I have to say can wait." Sigma said, a bit of blush on his face.
"Okay… I would just like to say that I'm sorry about that outburst earlier. I wasn't in the best of moods and I snapped at you." Hibiki said.
"I forgive you, especially considering you had every right to act like that. I suppose I should apologize for sending my Shadow Houndoom after you. It was a task they gave us." Sigma told Hibiki.
"Speaking of, now is a good time to discuss what you were going to tell us earlier?" Echo interjected.
"Yes I do believe it is and fortunately, there is a bit I can tell you. The only thing that I ask in return is that you hold that promise of keeping me safe." Sigma siad. Hibiki simply nodded, which made Sigma smile before taking off his Helmet. Now that they could see his face, Sigma was a man in his mid 20s, with white skin, blue hair and green eyes. "Sorry, I needed to get that thing off, it hurts your head more than you think." Sigma said as he wiped off some sweat.
"Right, now before we talk about that, there's actually something I need to let you two know about." Cherry commented.
"What would that be?" Hibiki questioned. Cherry sighed as she looked at Sigma who simply got out a small holoprojector and placed it on the table. The projector activated on it's own and showed a symbol along with the phrase "Glory to Neo Cypher" above it.
"If you couldn't tell, the organization I work, or rather worked, for is Neo Cypher. Tell me, does that name ring any bells to you two?" Sigma told the two twins. Echo immediately straightened up as she recognized the name.
"It does, when Hibiki told me about her encounter with… a friend of ours, I did a bit of reading into the Orre Region. Cypher originally did their schemes there, but they were foiled in their last big one about 15 years ago." Echo said.
"Right, and as for what I wanted to tell you, I was originally part of Cypher." Cherry said, a bit of nervousness in her voice. Hibiki and Echo immediately looked at Cherry with a look of surprise and shock, earning a sigh from the Professor. "Look, it was 15 years ago, I was barely becoming an adult and they paid good money. Doesn't mean that I was happy about it." Cherry told them as she put a hand on her head.
"What I want to know is why you did it. LIke I get it, not all of us are saints or have good pasts, but I'm asking because you seem really happy among Pokemon." Hibiki questioned. Cherry looked at Hibiki long and hard before standing up and looking at the sky with her hands behind her back.
"Truth be told, I don't think I'll ever know why I decided to do it. I wasn't the nicest person when I was younger, but I also wasn't dumb either. I suppose if I had to give a reason, it's because my older sister was a big part of my life back then and I always wanted to be with her." Cherry elaborated.
"Who was your big sister?" Hibiki questioned.
"... Her name was Lovrina." Cherry said sadly. Sigma immediately stood up out of surprise when he heard that name.
"Lovrina?! She's a legend in Neo Cypher for her work on Perfect Shadow Pokemon." Sima exclaimed.
"Is she not a part of Neo Cypher?" Echo asked.
"No, from what I know and understand, our head of Science is someone completely different. Not like there weren't attempts to reach out to her for some things, but she never responded." Sigma responded.
"That would be because… she's not exactly with us at the moment. She's not dead, but she's currently working on her own stuff someplace else." Cherry worded carefully. There was an awkward silence over the group for a moment before Cherry clapped and sat back down. "Anyway, that's enough about my past. Let's focus on Neo Cypher." Chery said, a sad smile on her face.
"... We're talking about issues later." Hibiki told her, a more serious tone to her voice. Cherry simply nodded in agreement to that as Sigma coughed and prepared to explain things.
"So back on topic, seeing as you did at least look up Cypher, you should know the general gist of what Neo Cypher's plans are. Create a lot of modified Pokemon, take over the world and crush all opposition in their way, you know how that goes. ...Why did I agree to be a part of this again?" Sigma began to explain, stopping to actually think about what he just said.
"Trust me, you're not alone there." Cherry said.
"Anyway, all of that is basically the same. As for the method of making Shadow Pokemon though, that varies a bit and I don't know the full details because there's only so much I can stomach. From what I understand, it's not a lot of terrible stuff was done to Pokemon, nothing physical anyway. In fact, I don't know how they did it back in the original Cypher, but the Pokemon seem so… compliant for some reason." Sigma explained.
"In what way?" Echo questioned, a bit curious about this process.
"Again, I don't know the full details. All I know is that they take Pokemon to be "darkened", their terminology not mine, someplace and they become Shadow Pokemon in that process. As for the compliance part, whenever we get them, they seem very… timid, almost like they've been spooked by something fierce." Sigma elaborated.
"That's odd, when we had to make new Shadow Pokemon, we did it through a process like Neo Cypher. However, it's not like the Pokemon were scared or anything, just very ticked off and very hostile, even to us." Cherry recalled.
"Neo Cypher must be doing something different then. What exactly that is, I can't say." Sigma told the group.
"Interesting, anything you could tell us about the leader and commanders?" Hibiki asked.
"Very little I'm afraid, I haven't even met our leader, only know him by his codename Cypher… yes I understand the simplicity. The commanders are much the same except for the one that I was under. Every commander goes by a codename that relates to their area of command and I originally worked under Commander Strong, don't think I need to explain what his job is. There is also Commander Sly in charge of infiltration and information gathering, Commander Brain in charge of all the science that goes on, and Commander Intel in charge of dealing with information from our various bases around the world." Sigma responded.
"I'm sorry, did you say around the world?" Cherry asked in a somewhat nervous voice.
"Yep, though they aren't in many places and it's more of just off shoots working off of our main branch here in Alaria." Sigma said. There was a small silence as Sigma thought of more things to talk about when a ringing could be heard from Cherry's phone. After taking it out, she looked at it and put a hand to her chin before standing up.
"It's Looker, I'll let him know what happened and we go from there." Cherry said as she answered the call and walked away from the table. As they waited for Cherry to get back, Sigma looked at Melody, who has been silent this whole time, with a look of amazement.
"Apologies for staring, but I still can't believe my eyes. A shiny Meloetta like those mercenaries said there was." Sigma said.
"Mercenaries?" Echo questioned.
"They're a team of three that were hired by Neo Cypher to go out and look for Legendaries and Mythicals to convert to Shadow Pokemon. You've probably already seen them cause they aren't exactly the most subtle in public." Sigma explained.
"Would they happen to include a person named Wind?" Hibiki asked.
"Exactly, I can tell you more about them later if you want. What I want to focus on is the fact that the commanders have been looking for a Shiny Meloetta for a while." Sigma said.
"Really?" Echo responded.
"Yes, I haven't been able to get anything out of Strong other than it's the key to our weakness." Sigma said. Hibiki looked at Melody, who seemed to be thinking about something, and was about to ask something when Cherry came back with a small smile.
"So, I told Looker about this whole encounter and he said that we are good to keep Sigma with us. However, there is one stipulation he gave and that is that you would talk to him about what you know about Neo Cypher." Cherry said, holding her phone out to Sigma. He took the phone and walked away to talk to Looker as Cherry sat down. "Is there anything you two want to know about me?" Cherry questioned.
"I mean, I suppose the main thing is how you actually ended up becoming a Pokemon Professor with the fact that you were on Team Cypher in the past. I would imagine that getting into a good school for a degree would be a bit difficult because of that fact." Hibiki asked.
"You're right, but that problem was taken care of by the IPP. In exchange for telling them what I knew about Cypher and putting myself under a protection program, I would be allowed to live like a free woman. This included hiding my involvement with Cypher and other things similar to that." Cherry explained.
"Are you still under that protection program?" Echo questioned.
"No, I do still report to them, but I'm not in that program anymore. Hell, they made me part of their science division for a reason." Cherry said.
"Still interesting to know you were a part of the old Cypher." Melody said through the PLT.
"Again, not the proudest point of my life, but if I am who I am because of it, then I wouldn't change it for the world." Cherry said. Melody simply nodded in response to that as Hibiki looked down at the PLT.
"I'm still impressed by this thing. You know what would be a good idea in my opinion? Incorporating this thing into a glove or something more compact." Hibiki commented.
"We've tried that before, but we found that it has a lot of circuits to use effectively. Not only that, but having a screen on a glove, even if we use a more circular design, it would be a bit unwieldy." Cherry told Hibiki.
"If I could offer some opinions, have you tried to forego the screen and instead make it so that the words are transmitted through either AR Goggles as a visual or through headphones as audio?" Echo suggested. Cherry thought about that for a moment before looking at Hibiki and getting up.
"I think we should talk about this in the tent, I don't want to bore Hibiki and Melody with the details." Cherry smiled. Echo looked a bit weirded out by the offer, but simply nodded and walked off with Cherry. Hibiki, now alone with Melody, simply sighed as she put her head down on the table with a frown on her face.
"Something bothering you?" Melody asked.
"I guess you could say that. It's just that I feel a bit overwhelmed with all of this information." Hibiki said.
"I… can see where you're coming from with that. It's a lot to take in and it seems like we're in the middle of all of this." Melody told Hibiki.
"It just seems so surreal, but then again, I did start off my journey by meeting you. Maybe we were fated to meet." Hibiki commented.
"While I would normally say that is very superstitious, you might not be too far off base." Sigma said as he came back from his talk.
"What do you mean by that Sigma?" Hibiki questioned.
"Well, remember how I said that Strong wanted Melody because of their weakness?" Sigma responded.
"I do, but what does that… " Hibiki began to retort when she realized something.
"Looks like you figured it out." Sigma said with a smile.
"What is Hibiki?" Melody questioned.
"The weakness of Shadow Pokemon is being able to be purified to normal Pokemon after being captured. If they were trying to catch Melody, then that means there's some connection that you have to the purification process." Hibiki explained to Melody. Melody let that sink in before putting a hand to her chin as she thought about what that could mean.
"'When the shining songstress and the psychic of shadows sing, the shadows vanish and the light shines on.' That's the quote that Intel told us was from a local legend." Sigma told the two.
"Couldn't that refer to either humans or Pokemon?" Hibiki questioned.
"You're right in that regard and that is exactly why we have two teams on the lookout. One led by Sly looking for humans and one led by Strong looking for Pokemon." Sigma responded.
"Well… looks like we have some things to look out for." Hibiki sighed.
"Maybe, but if you lay low and don't attract much attention, you should be fine." Sigma said. Hibiki simply motioned to Melody, earning a bit of a confused look from Sigma for a moment. "... You know that sounded a lot better in my head." Sigma sighed as he rubbed the back of his head.
"It's fine, we'll deal with it as it comes up. By the way, what did Looker end up saying?" Hibiki responded.
"Oh, he said that the program would work well for me and he's put me in it. He's also told me that I would stay with you for the time being, saying that I would be helpful to you all." Sigma told Hibiki.
"...Boy this is all feeling overwhelming." Hibiki said as she stood up.
"Looker said you might feel like that, maybe I could help. At the very least, I was studying to be a psychologist before I joined Neo Cypher." Sigma told Hibiki.
"... You know I don't blame you for joining Neo Cypher after hearing that, don't know how you would have done." Hibiki said.
"We're about to find out, come on." Sigma said as he urged Hibiki to sit down. Hibiki obliged and the three began to just talk about various worries. After about an hour of talking, the group packed everything up and set out for their next destination.