- Ecruteak City -
William had a feeling that the visit a couple of days ago wasn't the last they had seen of Suicune. The pokemon had spent a long day with them, which from his perspective was a welcome distraction to keep his team from trying out the Ground type all at once. Still he had not heard the actual plan to get Alexa to the Ecruteak Bell Tower, and now that they were within sight of the city he was growing concerned with how they would pull that off.
"Alright, this was an informative trip," Lily said as they approached the city. "However, I am not currently allowed in Ecruteak for another month and also don't think I'm a powerful enough Witch to really do more than teach what I have so far to Legendary pokemon. If you still need instruction, well you have an appointment with Ho-Oh already, he should know of someone else." William was fairly sure this was at least halfway a desire to not be there for that meeting.
"What do you want to bet Ho-Oh would just recommend her first?" Chesnaught quietly asked him.
"Seems likely," William admitted as he took in the city. It was a very historic looking place, which also meant on the smaller side for cities. That was good for Alexa, but he personally found these places a bit uneasy. Possibly, he realized darkly, because he had encountered too many Legendary pokemon at this point for 'historic' to be safe.
"Thank you for your help," Alexa said goodbye to Lily. "Huh, it doesn't really look burned," she added about the sight of the shorter of the two well respected towers.
"It has been fixed up a bit over the years, Ho-Oh can probably tell you more," Lily partially answered that question. "I wish you both well on the League." The Witch immediately turned back and started off the way they went.
"I think I'm going to hate people knowing I'm a Legendary," Alexa tiredly stated once the older woman was out of earshot. She was still a Spectslurry, mostly from Goodra's efforts to make up for lost time teaching others Acid Armor.
"So far it seems like most people don't know," William tried to reassure her. "I think Whitney going all out with the stuff and Falkner trying it out like he did should help with the Gym Leader idea." Whitney having a Legendary on her team would probably be a wonderful distraction.
"Still doesn't help with the people who do figure it out," Charizard contributed. "Not like we can easily lie about that when they see the obvious parts. Experts on this sort of thing don't miss what we are." That reminded him of how he had just thought of the problem with 'historic' places.
"There is a plan for getting to the tower, right?" he asked unhappily at that reality.
"Suicune has a plan, but she said it would work better if we didn't know about it," Alexa admitted with a sigh. "She said to be 'noticeable' so I'm staying with Spectslurry."
"I'm probably not going to be out, unless Chesnaught wants to for some reason?" Charizard questioned.
"I'm going to wait this change out, and if I'm going to be forced to be clay I'm not going to just stay in my pokeball," Chesnaught darkly replied. It had been days now, and William wasn't entirely happy with that decision, but he was going to let her do that if she really wanted it.
"You know you don't have to do that," William said. He had even agreed to try this one during the visit to the city, because he didn't particularly want to be a different form out in the wild as a non-combatant, but this was probably going too far.
"It honestly is helping with the pot thing," Chesnaught admitted more quietly. "Suicune getting better from the worst case did too. I know we've missed some real training because of this, but it is helping overall with the whole situation."
William flinched a bit at the reminder. "We're probably still ready for the next Gym," he told his pokemon. "Wooper at least got some good training." As an apology for the little pokemon not being able to play as clay with the rest of them. William looked over at Charizard to see what the other Starter would do with that news.
"You guys love calling people out on these sort of things," Charizard said and then returned to base Charizard shape and type. "I think any of my forms are going to be just as notable as this one. The talking is the big thing for me, and my gem is fully charged anyway."
Alexa was worried about quite a few things. The largest at the moment was the fact that people were obviously staring at her. It was even more uncomfortable than normal as a part Ghost type. She now knew firsthand how that kind of pokemon found open interactions unpleasant.
"The local Gym is still Ghost typed right?" she questioned William, more to double check than anything. It was supposed to still be the same Leader.
"Should be. Is that a problem or a solution?" he asked her.
"I'm just wondering if saying I'm currently Ghost typed out loud would help," she admitted, possibly a bit more loudly than she needed to. Which didn't clear out the area around her, but did make it so at least the locals were looking away.
"Not really, most of the people looking don't seem to know what you actually mean by that," Charizard grumbled, and that got the attention shifted. "Right, talking now, got to remember that became a thing."
"I thought it was a machine translator," one of the closer people commented.
"It was, magic stuff happened," Charizard complained. "Now I can talk, and that was only a minor idea before. Something to think about that I wouldn't get in reality. Now I have to remember that humans can understand me."
Her Starter continued with that topic and a few nearby out of towners that were brave enough to join the conversation. Alexa was used to the topic, but it was clear Charizard wanted to repeat it a bit more. William and Chesnaught switched to quiet pokemon speech and started to openly wonder if Chesnaught's current composition had been noticed yet. It wasn't as far as they could tell, but that might also be because those around them didn't know what a Chesnaught should be made out of and thought the pokemon looked normal.
Alexa then paused at the sight of a number of girls in traditional kimono accompanied by a collection of Eeveelutions. This was notable because by that point they were well past the Dance Theater, and most of the way to the part of the Bell Tower path that was open to the public. Alexa had tried a drifting pattern to get there, which seemed to have worked to keep anyone from telling she was going there, but was taking a while.
The Kimono Girls should not be along that path randomly to just happen to run into her. The full eighteen rumored Kimono Girls, most of whom were said to have new evolutions that had not been publicly seen yet, should not be on this path casually at all. Only eight Eeveelutions were on the path actually, the typical eight at that, but there were many more girls who might have the rest.
"Is that the type changing trainer?" the Kimono girl at the front questioned with a wordless chirp of agreement from the Espeon on her shoulder.
"Oh, do you know about if there really are more Eeveelutions?" one of the other girls without a visible pokemon questioned.
"I don't think we actually ended up with a Steel type one despite a good effort," Charizard answered for Alexa, which was welcome as she is somewhat distracted by this strange meeting. "Yeah, we actually got an alternate Vulpix evolution first with that attempt."
"They both wanted one if I remember it right," Alexa added with a smile at the thought. "Dad might have found something else that did it for that Eevee afterwards." She had not really thought about it enough to check. "Huh, I wonder if it would be eighteen or nineteen?" she then wondered aloud.
"Nineteen?" the Espeon girl questioned confused by the half made statement.
"Oh, I just remembered that getting a pokemon without an expressed type is something we did too, and that might be an Eevee option," Alexa considered. "It is hard to pull off, but something to consider there."
"Alright girls, I know you want to talk about this, but we have an appointment at the Bell Tower to get to," said the oldest of the Kimono Girls present with a Flareon. "If you really must discuss this then perhaps miss Larch will be willing to come with us, but you will explain to the caretakers why she's there." Alexa had to carefully keep her face surprised even as she realized just what this encounter was. Suicune probably set it up to be planned days in advance, although how the other Legendary pulled the timing off was still a mystery.
"Is that really okay?" she managed to ask after a pause that was hopefully the right kind of awkward. "I mean, not just anyone can go there, can they?"
"It isn't that uncommon," one of the girls further back scoffed. "Hanako and her Espeon both have been wondering about the Grass type-"
"I didn't know Leafeon existed until after I evolved!" said Espeon complained loudly. "I would definitely have gone for that instead. I thought this was the best sun-liking compromise!"
There was a pop, and Alexa's floral lizard pokemon emerged. "Alexa, I just heard a problem I need to fix," Bellossom declared strongly.
"How about we talk about the issue as we go," the lead Kimono Girl sighed. "It isn't that rare, and you will be with us."
William thankfully was allowed along as well with the bare excuse of translating for Bellossom and Espeon. The discussion got a bit technical, and both Alexa and Charizard had to correct the Zoroark a couple of times with the translation of some of the details, but it worked to get everyone's mind off why exactly Alexa was going with the Kimono Girls to the Bell Tower. Alexa herself included as she was sure it kept her from messing up the event.
The Barrier Station let them through after a brief examination that definitely looked common enough, none of the guards at the place batted an eye and the few other people present didn't seem surprised. In fact Alexa was fairly sure the locals were treating Alexa's surprise at being able to get closer so easily as some sort of joke.
"It used to be harder to get closer," the lead Kimono Girl said after they emerged onto a trail past the structure. "But Lord Ho-Oh actually resumed active residence at the Bell Tower and Lord Lugia has taken to showing up more often. The tower is simply too large and too active now to take care of without more people in and out, so the Burned Tower was repaired to be a more quiet home for the Legendary pokemon themselves. It is now harder to get access to the former ruin."
"This encounter wasn't coincidence," Alexa finally challenged the group of dancers.
"What do you mean?" Most of the girls seem strangely confused by the statement. An uncomfortable surprise to Alexa too since this was the perfect excuse.
"That father wishes to speak with them," Suicune, still in the new Ground typed variant, said from in front of them. "Thank you for your help with getting them here discreetly."
"Suicune?" the lead one asked tiredly and received a slightly smug nod in return. "Suicune, this has been planned for months, how did you arrange it?"
"A bribe to Celebi, some discussion with Hanako, and the agreement of my father," the currently pure Ground typed Legendary declared. "I did not think that father had not included the dancers among those who already knew of the appointment. Sorry about revealing you to them."
"Wait, the rest of you didn't know about the new type Legendary?" Hanako questioned.
"That is what we have meant by wanting to meet her," Espeon added. "A Legendary that changes pokemon types can definitely fix me being the wrong one!"
Alexa considered that, looked at the possible example in Suicune's current form, and shared a look with Bellossom. "Well, maybe not directly into a Leafeon, but at least the Grass type," she admitted. "Although Suicune did kind of end up like that. I don't know what dad has checked with an Eeveelution instead, so this might be some new territory."
"Although some of it might be Legendary stuff," Charizard pointed out. "On Suicune's end of things there. We haven't really seen that kind of result before, but she's also the first Legendary who said 'yes' to us."
"Although apparently Entei tried it first this year, and it seems to have happened before," Alexa added with a look to Suicune.
"My sister is also a different kind of pokemon currently like myself," Suicune agreed. "I'm not entirely sure that anyone is aware that it is her working with Whitney."
"When did Entei start working with Whitney of all Gym Leaders?" lead Kimono Girl questioned with outright horror.
"To be fair," Alexa started as they arrived at the tower itself. "I think Whitney was going to try that even without my help." That earned her a few glares.
"I think I'm skipping Goldenrod Gym next year on my League Run," one of the other girls complained.
William was going to pretend to just be a translator along for the ride as long as possible. The Kimono Girls had not seemed to realize that he was actually traveling with Alexa, and hopefully that meant that he could try and stay out of the proper meeting with major Legendary pokemon. A plan that did not last past the main door.
"I take it you are the reason we are cleaning up after Suicune for once?" an old man noted as soon as the door opened. The Kimono Girls scattered deeper into the building a bit too quickly, but there was no way William could flee with them.
"Yes?" Alexa questioned with a nervous look at her own body. William glanced at his Starter too with that particular comment, and Chesnaught thankfully motioned to be returned. "It should only last a few more days."
"You might as well stay in that form then," the old man said to Alexa. "The Lords are not yet in, I think they were delayed by their grandfather, so I will give you a bit of a tour until they return."
"Great grandfather's retirement is a bit of a problem for all of us," Suicune specified. "Last I heard he is still undecided on who will take over being the Shamouti Moltres from him."
William nodded, and then processed that information. "Wait, the Shamouti Moltres is the grandfather of Ho-Oh and Lugia?" he questioned with a bit of confusion. "I thought that the Shamouti trio of elemental birds was younger than Lugia."
"No, I can understand why you would think that, but uncle is the second youngest. The current Zapdos is younger, and the only one not related to the family directly," Suicune explained. "Aunt Articuno is father's older sister, and father is older than uncle. Great grandfather is the oldest."
"The two towers were originally made for the parents of the current Lord Ho-Oh and Lugia," the old man specified. "Although both of them left the towers to their younger sons some time before the fire."
"Father says that it took years for people to associate them with brothers instead of husband and wife," Suicune laughed. William was not sure how to take that information. In fact he was not at all sure about being in a position to even ask the question that led to knowing it.
Luckily they were interrupted by a tinkling of small bells. "It appears that they got back faster than I anticipated," the old man declared, and then led them quickly up the tower.
[Author's Note]
Another chapter down, with a bit more build up and world changes. In this case we have some family complications with the Legendary Birds.
Those of you who read DSS might recall that there was some uncertainty on if Kanto had a Champion of Moltres or a Champion of Ho-Oh, and this reveals the answer is that the local Moltres is the elder bird of that set of options.