I finally got around to making reference pages for all the chapters (i.e. lists of characters/team members), which are posted on my profile. There's one for the beginning of every chapter lol. It'll take you to deviantArt, don't be alarmed.
Leggo leggo.
So here's what information I gathered from the newspapers in Pastoria City's Pokemon Center.
Shaymin typically reside on an island north of the Pokemon League, on the edge of the space considered the Sinnoh region. On Thursday, a few scientists went up from Sunyshore City to take data on the population, but came back early. They said they had been attacked by the shaymin, which is literally unheard of. If there was ever a pacifist pokemon, it's shaymin.
There were a number of speculations outlined in the article I found, but one stood out: the shaymin colony had been attacked by humans, and became defensive the next time humans showed up. Volkner was investigating.
Darkrai and Cresselia were not mentioned anywhere in the stacks of newspapers, but I knew from experience (still no mention of a pokedex theft) that Galactic wasn't always consistent.
In other news, Floaroma Town had a power outage on Wednesday that lasted a full 24 hours. Even for a small town, that was a good amount of electricity unaccounted for.
Thomas and his snazzy new blue hoodie accompanied me to dinner at a Johtoan food place in Pastoria. He was pretty chill in the beginning, but when the food actually arrived and he tried it, he was stunned speechless.
"Is this a good silence?"
"It's authentic," he said in awe.
"Were you expecting it to be fake? We have places that sell fake Johto food if you would rather–"
"I'm good, thanks."
Sometime mid-meal he cleared his throat like he had something to say. "So… This has just been bothering me a while," he said.
I narrowed my eyes. "What is it?"
"This whole Galactic thing… Why doesn't Looker – that's his name, right?"
"Right."
"Why doesn't he just talk to the Pokemon League? Can't they help out?"
I snorted, because I knew this answer too well. "The IP is a piece of shit. They – well, okay. The official reason is that they go for the trust-no-one approach. In practice, they're okay with nobody trainers – c'est moi – helping out, but once it gets to be higher-profile trainers, the IP starts looking like it can't do anything without help."
Thomas frowned. "So… It's okay that Looker is getting the help of three novice trainers, but if he got a gym leader…?"
"He'd definitely get fired."
"It would be so much more efficient though. And why does he need novice trainers to help him at all?"
"IP agents aren't really supposed to carry pokemon."
Thomas looked dumbstruck.
"…there was this big thing a while back, I think in Unova? Unova makes sense. They had a problem with police taking things too far, and they banned them from training pokemon. It spread from there."
"If that means the IP needs to employ amateurs–"
"Okay, chill, I'm one of those amateurs."
Thomas held his hands up. "Well, you were, back when you first met Looker."
Fair enough. "Okay. You were saying."
"It's so dumb…"
"I know. But I want Looker to keep his job. So."
I pulled my sodden coat tighter around me and pushed ahead through the snow. It's not like I'd come unprepared, but several days in a blizzard wipe out your preparations rather quickly.
Completely fruitless days in a blizzard. Upon arrival, I'd gone directly to the cavern in the center of the lake, expecting any answers I might have needed to be there. Not so. The rest of my time had been spent walking the perimeter of the lake, looking for further clues. This would not have taken nearly as long if not for the raging storm and knee-high snow. Waist high, in some parts.
The library in Snowpoint City was remarkably unhelpful. I was hoping for mythology notes addressing this lake and Spear Pillar, and I attained little other than the same passages, over and over. These affirmed what I already knew, but otherwise were little help. So I came here.
On most days, I stopped at nightfall. Today, I was losing hope, and by midnight I was still walking, flashlight out to see a little bit better in the snow. There had to be something. Anything. I didn't know what I was looking for, and yet anything would have been better than what I had now.
I stopped in my tracks. A signpost. Oh no.
I fought my way through the snow to reach the sign. Brushing frost from the surface, I felt my heart sink.
LAKE ACUITY
ELEV. 673 FT.
It was the sign I'd seen when I first arrived. I had come full circle.
That couldn't be right. I needed answers. This was my last resort. I'd reached my wit's end. I hated being in the dark. I was out of ideas. I just–
"I need to know," I whispered.
Then, louder, since no one would hear me.
"I NEED TO KNOW!" I shouted, voice hoarse.
Miraculously, someone heard. A warm gold flush washed over the frozen lake.
"Are you okay?" Thomas said for the thousandth time that day.
I put down my glass of oran berry juice. "Yes? Why do you keep asking me? And why are you looking at me like that?"
He was taken aback for a moment. Then his posture softened. "You were sleeptalking last night."
Oh. "I do that sometimes," I said, shrugging. "You've heard me before."
"Not like this. You screamed something about needing to know, and then carried on sleeping like nothing happened."
"Needing to know what?"
"I dunno. You just said, 'I need to know.'"
I'd momentarily forgotten what happened the night before, but it suddenly rushed back. "OH. RIGHT."
"Did something happen?"
"I… It was really weird. I dreamed I was at Lake Acuity… looking for something. Information. And then I didn't find what I was looking for, but then…"
I locked eyes with Thomas. He was listening.
"…the lake turned gold… like it did when Azelf appeared to me… and…" I shook my head. "That's all I remember."
"Do you think something happened?" Thomas asked.
I mean, there was something odd about it. The weirdly complete amount of backstory, for example. And it was so vivid – I was still a little chilly. And I wasn't myself in this dream – which happens sometimes, but not like this. It's like I was–
"I think," I said slowly, "this happened to Looker."
Looker was available to chat over poketch, but not in person. I called him in the Pokemon Center.
"Hello, Lyn," he said when he picked up.
"Hey. What are you up to?"
"Recovering from hypothermia. You?"
"Digesting breakfast. What happened last night?"
There was a pause. "What?"
"Did something happen last night?"
"Er, yes, but what makes you think that?"
"Tell me what happened first."
"I was looking for information up at Lake Acuity. You said you'd found willpower at Lake Valor–"
"I mean, that's not exactly it."
"All right, but I was out of ideas, so I went to Lake Acuity for knowledge." He sounded a little ashamed. "Sorry, it sounds a little silly."
"Nah. Desperate times, desperate measures. Then what?"
"Last night I came full circle with nothing, and Uxie appeared."
"Okay. I had a dream last night that was exactly that."
"You what?"
"I dreamed I was you, walking through the snow at Lake Acuity."
"That's… interesting. Hm."
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Interestingly, yes. Not exactly in the way I was expecting, but we'll get to that later. I've got places to go, first."
"Is there anything I should know now?"
"Now?" Looker paused to think. "You remember how the recording you took said any pokemon could speed up the Red Chain creation?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't know what the seller was playing at, but that's not exactly it. Galactic needs several other pokemon still, but not for this reason."
"Darn, so my recording was a red herring…"
"It pulled our attention to the minor legendary pokemon that went missing previously. It wasn't useless."
"Okay. Anything else?"
"I'll save that for later."
"All right."
There was a pause.
"Looker?"
"Yes?"
"Was there something… anything strange about the encounter?"
"What do you mean?"
"Anything besides just Uxie giving you what you needed."
Because there was something strange about my encounter with Azelf. It didn't feel like he'd popped up just to encourage me. There was something else.
"Maybe. The fact that you saw it might mean something."
"Yeah…" I exhaled. "It would be nice to know what's going on."
Looker laughed. "You're telling me? Anyways, I think we'll know soon."
The Pastoria City Gym was an easy battle last time around, as I had a highly aggressive electric type on my team. With Liana gone, I was looking for new advantages.
Trust was 9001% out of the question, with his double type disadvantage (not to mention bonus disadvantages towards the secondary types of both Gyarados and Quagsire. Wonderful). I was leaning towards Definite, partly because he knew magical leaf, but mostly because he knew teleport. Promise was in the lineup because A) he knew the water well, and B) I can't just not battle with my water type at the one gym with a pool. That left either Faith, Courage, or the one pokemon who had never battled.
"Prrrrri~" Hope chirped, flying higher.
"Wait, Hope, come back–"
Thomas had agreed to have a very, very chill battle with me, in which I was trying to acquaint Hope with the all-around idea of a pokemon battle. This was going fantastically.
"I mean, at least she probably won't get hit up there," Thomas said helpfully.
"Yeah, and neither will Swaine," I said, glancing at his sandslash.
"Well, who knows? Maybe Hope is secretly a sniper."
"She's barely a month old."
We watched her fly around up there.
"At least she's enjoying herself."
It came to me at half-past 11 or so.
I scrambled out of bed and pulled on my jacket. Thomas rolled over to look at me.
"Where are you going?" he mumbled, half asleep.
"Pokemart. I'll be right back," I said, pulling Trust into his pokeball.
"Wh–"
I was already out the door. The Pokemart closes at midnight. It wasn't really an urgent need, but I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I had the TM.
Pastoria's Pokemart is on the far side of town. It was foggy out and badly lit – part of Pastoria trying to preserve its natural habitats includes having incredibly dim streetlights – so I brought Trust out. He was a little big to ride my shoulder, but we hadn't done this in a while so we went for it.
The Pokemart was empty except for one bored-looking employee standing at the cash register. I recalled Trust and went up to the counter.
"Hi! I'd like to purchase a shock wave TM," I said.
The employee went to the back to find it. The door jingled; I looked over and saw a young woman and an ivysaur walk in. We smiled politely at each other and looked away.
I remember standing there a few more moments, waiting for the store employee to come back with my TM. The next thing I remember is lying on the ground outside, Thomas and his ampharos leaning over me.
"Are you okay?" said Thomas.
"…the fuck happened?"
"I'm thinking sleep powder. There was an ivysaur carrying you. The lady ran once Esther defeated the ivysaur."
Something didn't line up. I sat up, head spinning a little. "What about Trust?" I wondered.
He was in his pokeball. The moment I released him, he burst into monkey chatter.
"Wait, hang on, let me contact Def," I said to him.
"Mooooooon," he anguished, hugging me around the waist.
I patted his head. "Def?" I reached out.
"Oui?" Even in my head he sounded sleepy.
"Sorry for waking you. Trust is–"
"Ah, I hear him. He could not escape."
"You couldn't get out of your pokeball?" I asked Trust. He nodded with his face in my side. "You've never had trouble before…"
"Mon."
"He felt locked inside."
"Locked inside…" I thought of the woman. "Maybe she had something to do with it?"
"Mon." Trust nodded again.
"Do you know what it was?"
"Mon." Trust shook his head.
"Well… okay. This is an exciting development."
The Pokemart had almost closed, but the employee still had the TM with him, so I quickly purchased it and headed out. Thomas walked back to the pokemon center with me. He hadn't even taken the time to put on a jacket.
"Thomas?"
"Hm?"
"Thanks." I didn't look at him.
"Sure."