Chapter 33: Debriefings & Talks (Part 2)
Refresh Cafe, Alaria City…
After a bit of a walk from the hotel, Echo and Jovi sat down at a table at a small cafe in town, waiting for their orders to be delivered. "This place is nice." Jovi said as she looked around.
"Is this your first time out of Orre?" Echo asked curiously.
"Of course not, but this is my first time being out without my brother." Jovi said.
"Really? Watched over you the whole time you were out I take it?" Echo questioned, a knowing smile on her face.
"Remind you of someone, does he?" Jovi joked with a smile. The two giggled as Jovi looked out onto the cityscape, taking in the various people and Pokemon that she saw. "It's nice here in Alaria, so many friendly people and amazing sights. I see why you stay here." Jovi said in a whimsical tone.
"I mean, it's not that magical." Echo downplayed.
"Hey, it's my first time here." Jovi pointed out. Echo simply nodded as their orders arrived and the two began eating, Echo occasionally looking in the direction of their hotel. "Worrying about Hibiki?" Jovi asked.
"Could you tell?" Echo said, a strained smile coming across her face.
"Look, I get being protective, especially given what you've told me about and what I heard in the meeting, but aren't you being a bit too twitchy?" Jovi pointed out.
"...Oh god it sounds so much worse when I hear it from my friend." Echo said as she rubbed her head.
"Sorry." Jovi told Echo, rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.
"No, it's completely fine, just… god I hate that's right." Echo responded, sighing as she did so.
"I take it that this comes up often?" Jovi questioned.
"Yeah it does and I know I should listen, but I just can't. It's not that I don't want to, it's more that I want to make sure that my sister stays safe." Echo told Jovi.
"Because of what happened to your grandmother?" Jovi said, trying to sound as non-aggressive as possible.
"Right on the money. Oh, and don't worry, I get you're just trying to rationalize it and make me feel better." Echo said.
"I'm not the best at this." Jovi told Echo. Echo simply smiled and gave Jovi a reassuring look before sighing as she looked at her hands.
"That being said, I just want her to be safe above all else. I know for sure she can take care of herself most of the time, and I know that this is just me repeating myself, but she is very reckless and I just worry for her." Echo said, trying to think of what to say. Jovi paused as she thought about what Echo was trying to get across before piecing it together.
"You want to be able to protect your sister at all times, but you know that she can protect herself very well and you're worried that she'll leave you behind." Jovi told Echo. Echo was silent for a moment as she let that sit in her mind before nodding in conformation, making Jovi smile a little.
"Does your brother tell you all his problems?" Echo asked, a tad curious at how quick Jovi put that together.
"Yep, I take it that you won't be surprised to hear that being the lead researcher on Shadow Pokemon is a bit stressful. He often comes to me to do some venting about problems he's having regarding work." Jovi told Echo.
"Really? I thought he would have his emotions under control." Echo commented.
"He does, but it's more privately that lets his frustrations out, so I would appreciate it if you keep the fact that I told you this a secret." Jovi said with a smile and wink.
"Got it, don't want my new friend to get chewed out." Echo responded, giving a smile of her own. They proceeded to eat their food without much chatter, having put the conversation they were having behind them, before leaving and walking around town a bit more. As they were walking, Jovi noted that Echo seemed to be thinking about something as she noted a quizzical look on her face.
"Something on your mind?" Jovi asked.
"Yeah I guess you could say that, though not about what we were talking about at the cafe. It's more something that has crawled into my mind as of late." Echo responded. Jovi was about to ask what it was Echo was thinking about when she bumped into someone.
"Sorry, I didn't see where I was going." Jovi said as she looked up.
"No, it's fine. I was distracted myse- oh hey Echo." Allegro responded as he helped Jovi up.
"Oh hey Allegro, what are you doing out around town? I thought you would be back at headquarters." Echo questioned as she dusted off Jovi.
"Just getting some stuff for headquarters, I take it you two are taking some time off?" Allegro responded.
"Yep, Echo was just about to tell me what she was thinking about." Jovi said.
"Well, it's something I would rather do in private. People still have bad memories of The Surge and I would rather not bring those up in public." Echo told the two.
"In that case, why don't you use one of the rooms at HQ?" Allegro suggested.
"That… sounds good. Would you like to join us Allegro?" Jovi offered.
"I think I'll pass for now, though if you are still discussing whatever you're going to be talking about after I finish getting what I need, I'll see if I can pop in towards the end." Allegro told the two. They both nodded and began to walk back to IPP HQ while Allegro went off to go take care of his tasks. After arriving at HQ and getting a private meeting room, Echo sighed as she sat at the table and collected her thoughts.
"So you wanted to talk with me about The Surge? That was the event where… a lot of people died and Pokemon, right?" Jovi asked, thinking about how to phrase the second question.
"Yes, and I do appreciate the wording on that second question. How much do you know about it?" Echo responded.
"Only the basics really: During the Championship match 10 years ago, there was a region-wide blackout that caused pretty much everything at the time to fail. The most notable of which was the Pokemon League, which crashed into the northern mountain range. The end result of the whole thing was several hundred people and Pokemon perishing, those included the Champion and one of her Pokemon." Jovi explained. As Jovi continued to speak and listed off what she remembered reading about the incident, Echo simply held her breath as she went deeper into her thoughts.
"Sounds like you read up on this topic." Echo said, a small smile on her face.
"Well, I figured I should at least look it up so I knew what not to bring up when talking with you. Didn't want my first non-Orreinian friend to hate me because of a slip up." Jovi responded, rubbing the back of her head a little.
"Appreciate the thought that you made in that. I appreciate you trying to be careful with your words, but I would recommend you drop that as I want to poke your brain about something that's been bothering me about The Surge." Echo told Jovi.
"Oh, what would that be?" Jovi questioned.
"As you no doubt know, the cause for the whole event is unknown. While most of the events that happened are mostly understood and accepted as fact, the cause has always been a mystery that no one has been able to solve. What I want to talk with you about is potential causes as something has been bothering me recently." Echo said.
"That seems simple enough… oh who am I kidding? I take it you've read rumors yourself?" Jovi asked. Echo simply nodded yes in response as Jovi clapped her hands and recalled the rumors she had read about. "Well in that case, let's talk about the rumors. Most think it was due to a surge in the EM-Field around the region, some think that your local legendary Pokemon had something to do with it, others think there was an EMP, but in the end, no one really has a solid answer." Jovi continued, holding up a finger for each one she mentioned.
"Yeah that sounds about right and lines up with what I've heard. What do you think about them personally?" Echo said.
"If you're asking for my opinion… that is a bit tricky. All three have their reasons for thinking that they are true, but also have good reasons for thinking they are just made up. If I had to pick one to go with, I would pick the one about EMP as there are just too many coincidences in what transpired that day that made me think it was unintentional." Jovi told Echo.
"We are of the same mind then, that is what I believe happened. While I do think there is some weight to the other theories, they just don't make sense to me. I kind of get where that surge theory comes from given how violent and sudden the Blackouts have been, but something about that bothers me with how simple it is. As for if Magnelyryu is involved, I don't see that being the case purely for the fact that we still check up on them and they seem fine." Echo said.
"Those seem like good reasons to think they could be wrong, but what makes you think the EMP is the most likely? Sure, it may be the most likely, and I think I can see where you're going with it, but the question is more what was used to cause the stadium to go down." Jovi asked.
"True, even if we give the people who placed it the benefit of the doubt and say that they managed to place enough EMPs needed to short out everything in the region, it would have taken a powerful one to knock out the power to all of the League." Echo responded.
"I see I've walked into theory talk." Allegro said as entered and closed the door behind him.
"Ah there you are Allegro, I was wondering when you would come by." Echo commented.
"Work took a tad longer than I would like but I'm here. Now, I take it you were talking about theories about the cause of The Surge or did I miss anything?" Allegro said as he walked over to a computer in the corner.
"Nope, we were just starting our talk. Something about that day has always seemed weird to me and it's been bugging me quite a bit recently. You can probably guess who the cause for that would be." Echo told Sigma.
"Neo Cypher. That would open up a few options, but that also doesn't explain the method that they used, only the who." Allegro said.
"Maybe we're thinking about this too hard, maybe we're missing something obvious. Point is that we don't have a solid answer at the moment." Jovi commented. Echo went quiet as she thought about that before turning her thoughts to Neo Cypher and thinking about them.
"The thing is… while we are talking about Neo Cypher potentially being the culprit, are we sure that it is really them? Cypher was defeated a year or two before the Surge, could they really have done something like this after that short of a time?" Echo questioned.
"That is true, but I think there might be something else there." Allegro commented.
"What do you mean?" Echo asked. In response, Allegro booted up a projector that was in the room before typing on the computer and bringing up some documents on it.
"Seems like you and my sister have had a similar line of thinking as she always thought it was something was up about that day as well. About a year ago, she asked me to see if I could look into a lead she had found when I had the time and I agreed. It took a bit for me to actually follow up on it, but I found some interesting stuff when I did." Allegro explained. As Allegro ws talking, Jovi and Echo looked at the various documents that he was bringing up, some of which were dated a few days before The Surge. These documents were full of various plans, conversations, and pictures of various objects.
"Where did you come across these?" Jovi questioned, a bit taken aback by what she was reading.
"I came across them after doing a bit of digging into who might be responsible. While they mostly come from a throwaway account, which I didn't know about at the time, they do seem like actual plans from someone very competent." Allegro said. As they were reading through the various documents, there was one that showed a top down view of Champion's Peak that caught Echo's eye.
"Stop for a moment and go back to that top down view." Echo said, her mind pausing to think about things. Allegro did as he was told and went back to the document that had the image in question, making it the center of the screen. The document in question was a top down view of the main plateau, with a few areas circled and noted. It also detailed several things, including start time of the championship match, the general location of guards, and the location of a package that was indicated with a familiar logo.
"Well it looks like you were right with that Neo Cypher guess Echo. What were they planning to do?" Jovi said.
"I don't know, but this shows that whatever plan they have, it's been in motion for a while." Echo responded. The three were silent as they thought about various things before Echo broke the silence by getting up from her chair. "As much as I would love to keep talking about these theories, I want to take some time to relax with Jovi." Echo said.
"Probably for the best, this stuff is interesting to talk about, but I do want to relax for a bit." Jovi said as she stretched.
"Fair enough, this is just something you wanted to talk about. That being said, I will see if I can get the clearance to send my findings to you." Allegro told the two.
"Appreciated." Echo said. Echo and Jovi both said their goodbyes to Allego as they exited, leaving Allegro alone with the documents he had pulled up.
"Neo Cypher as the culprit…. I wonder…" Allegro thought to himself as he began to look through the documents he had.
Rooftops, Alaria City…
Melody floated above the city as she just wandered and took in the sights, sitting down on the rooftop of a building. "Been a while since I just wandered around by myself, forgot how nice it feels." Melody thought, a sad smile on her face. As she sat on the rooftop, her mind drifted to what had happened before she met Hibiki and her family. "Now that I'm thinking about it, it's been weird to be separate from my family. We've always been together, even through some hard times. Don't think I'll ever regret the decision that I made to lure Wind and co away, but I do have to wonder how they're doing." Melody thought to herself. Her mind kept these thoughts in her mind until she heard voices below her, which she didn't think anything of until one of the voices started to sound familiar to her.
"Are you sure you haven't seen her? Please if you have anything to go off of, I would appreciate it." the older voice told a Pokemon. Melody quickly looked off the edge of a roof and looked down to see her mother, an older looking Meloetta that was a bit taller than her, talking with a Starly. After the Starly nodded no, Melody's mother sighed before receiving a quick pat on the shoulder from the Starly. "Thank you for your time and the condolences are appreciated." Melody's mother told the Starly.
"No problem Ms. Harmony, I'll see if I can get the word around for you." the Starly said. Harmony nodded as the Starly waved goodbye and flew off, leaving Harmony alone with Melody watching her.
"...Mom is that you?" Melody asked after making sure there were no other Pokemon around. Melody's mother looked up and went wide eyed before quickly zooming up and tackling Melody into a floating hug.
"Oh my dear Melody, it's good to see you again! I was so worried about you." Harmony exclaimed as she hugged Melody tightly.
"It's good to see you too mom and I love the hug… but please ease up so you don't crush my bones." Melody said in a delighted yet out of breath voice. Harmony sheepishly let go of Melody only to be met with a gentle hug from her daughter, which she carefully returned. After hugging in silence for a few seconds, they floated back down to the rooftop and sat together.
"I didn't think I would be meeting you out here after that stunt. How did you end up escaping them and evading capture for so long?" Harmony asked, a hint of joy in her tone.
"Well, it's a bit of a long story, though I imagine that you're more than happy to listen to it." Melody responded.
"Of course I am, anything for one of my baby girls." Harmony told Melody. Melody blushed a bit before beginning to tell her mother about her adventures and experiences, from meeting Hibiki to their various battles to her fights with Neo Cypher.
"We had stopped in this town for a debriefing and we just took the day to relax for the most part. I decided to wander the city as Hibiki is currently relaxing at the hotel when I found you." Melody finished.
"Wow, it seems like my little girl has grown into a fine Meloetta. I'm proud of you, Melody." Harmony said, patting Melody on the head.
"Appreciated mom, but why are you here? Did you come to take me back?" Melody asked.
"No… ok at least to find I won't force you to come back, especially after hearing that story." Harmony responded.
"Why are you out here then?" Melody questioned. Harmony sheepishly looked away as she rubbed the back of her head and let out a nervous giggle, which made Melody sigh as she recognized that as the tell for her mother hiding something big. "What happened after I left?" Melody inquired, her tone growing a bit worried.
"Ok, I was hoping to sidestep this a bit longer, but it can't be helped. To answer your first question, your younger sister Viola is missing." Harmony told Melody with a sigh.
"WHAT?! What happened?" Melody exclaimed, panic in her voice.
"A few hours after you left, the whole village decided that it wouldn't be safe to stay at the current village now that our location was found out. Obviously, we were going to move at some point, but this was sooner than we anticipated. With the decision made we packed up and made for the only place we knew would be relatively safe, that old dome you were inspecting. Sure it wasn't the best place, but it was the only one we could get to quick enough to also look for you. So we did just that and it went flawlessly, aside from losing our direction a bit on the way." Harmony began to explain.
"Ok good to know that, but what about Viola?" Melody said.
"I was getting to it. A day after we arrived and rested up, there was talk about sending a search party out to look for you. Most of us were against the idea as we were in a region that we collectively knew little about aside from what you had told us about. A few wanted to go look for you as not only were they worried for you, you knew more about this region than any of us. We agreed to wait a week in order to get settled, but Viola, being the worrywort she is, got a bit impatient and left without telling everyone. After we learned of that, I quickly decided to head out and search for her along with a few others. That was a few days ago and so far we been able to find anything." Harmony finished. Melody kept quiet as she absorbed that information before processing it and sighing.
"God I can only imagine how the rest of the village feels about all of this. Before you ask, I haven't seen or heard anything about Viola at all on my journey." Melody finally responded.
"That answers that question, appreciate that information." Harmony said with a sigh, putting her hands on her chin.
"Don't worry, we both know how crafty Viola can be, she's probably somewhere safe and still looking for me." Melody reassured, a bit awkwardly.
"You're probably right, I just can't help but worry for her." Harmony said. Melody stayed with her mother for a few minutes before she noticed how much time had passed.
"I should probably be getting back to Hibiki, I don't want to worry her for being gone too long." Melody told her mother.
"Yeah, probably for the best. By the way, what did you say her name was again?" Harmony responded.
"Hibiki Eversong." Melody said.
"...Would her grandmother happen to have been Symphia Eversong?" Harmony asked, a hint of nostalgia in her voice. Melody said nothing in response, only looking shocked that her mother knew Hibiki's grandmother. "Had a feeling you were hiding something when you didn't mention her name." Harmony commented.
"You knew her?" Melody questioned.
"Yes I did, in fact she saved me from some pretty strong wild Pokemon about 30 years ago. She never caught me, but did keep coming to check if I was all right. It was nice and when I learned of her death, I felt like I had lost a human friend." Harmony said.
"Wow, how come you never spoke about her?" Melody asked. Harmony put a hand on Melody's head before sighing and giving a soft smile.
"Because knowing my children's propensity for adventure, you or Viola would go out and see if you could make a name for yourselves with one of her grandkids." Harmony said in a motherly tone. Melody simply blushed and glanced away from her mother's gaze as Harmony patted her head before pulling Melody into a hug. "Still, I can't exactly be mad that you ended up where you are, it sounds like she's a good trainer. All I ask is that you keep both her and yourself safe, I don't want anything to happen to either of you." Harmony told Melody in a proud tone.
"I was planning on that, I appreciate the warning mom. You keep looking for Viola and make sure the village is safe." Melody responded, a smile on her face. Harmony simply nodded in approval as Melody waved goodbye to her mother and floated back to the Hotel. As Harmony watched her eldest daughter leave, she sighed and looked at the setting sun.
"Stay safe my children, where you both may be or end up, and may Arceus watch over the both of you." Harmony thought to herself before floating back into the city.