Chapter 20
A Gaping Hole
The skies above Mt. Silver were a perfect crystalline blue with nary a cloud in sight on the morning that Kris and Lyra set out on their expedition to find Kanto's missing Champion.
The wind was chill here, and though the weak morning light wasn't nearly enough to keep them warm, it sparkled on the freshly fallen snow in a way that seem paradoxically cheerful against the frozen backdrop of grays and whites and browns, the remote mountain range so isolated from the rest of the world that it seemingly knew nothing of the dire circumstances that had brought the two young women there in the first place.
Or maybe that was just Kris. In spite of everything, she couldn't deny the bubbling surge of excitement and elation welling up in her chest as she trudged ahead, iron-spiked hiking boots crunching noisily on the pristine snow with every step. It had been so long since she'd last gotten out and had a real adventure, and while she knew she wasn't here to mess around, the sheer joy of being one with nature again was enough to make her want to start skipping. Y'know, if that were possible in these heavy boots or in snow that reached mid-calf.
After the summit meeting with the other Champions, Kris had wasted no time in getting prepared for the journey. She'd considered flying back to Ethan's place in Goldenrod so she could grab her hiking gear, but the League had insisted that they waste no more time in finding AJ and had generously agreed to foot the bill to purchase all-new equipment for the trip. Which was why Kris was now sporting her fashionable new hiking bag, new hat and gloves, new goggles, new coat and pants with all the pockets you could ever need, new thermal underwear and thick leggings and the most wonderfully soft stockings made of Flaffy fleece. And let's not forget the amazing hiking stick she'd been given, complete with a thick steel spike at the end so you could easily drive it deep into the frozen ground to help keep your footing.
Her only complaint would be her new boots. They were fine - more than fine, actually - but being brand new, they hadn't had a chance to be broken in yet, and she was already lamenting the blisters she'd more than likely have that evening. Still, though - it was a small price to pay.
When she'd agreed to come, she'd done so purely out of a desire to help - and maybe because the thought of exploring Mt. Silver sounded exciting and fun. She had no idea she'd be getting an all-expenses-paid shopping trip out of it. Maybe she should volunteer to help out more often.
The sound of labored breathing behind her reminded Kris once again to slow her pace a bit. Her companion was no stranger to being outdoors, but Lyra hadn't had as much opportunity to go climbing random mountains as Kris had. She wasn't used to this - either the strain of walking up such steep inclines buried in snow or the lack of oxygen at high altitudes, and they'd had to stop to take breaks a few times already.
The two women had departed the Ranger's Station early that morning, not long after sunrise. They'd confirmed with the Rangers present that AJ and co had in fact checked in almost two weeks ago, but they hadn't heard anything since. When Kris had signed her name on the visitor's log, she could see AJ, Sammy, and Jade's names listed right above hers. When they said this mountain was untracked, they weren't kidding. No one ever came here.
The Rangers had already heard from their superiors and most of them had already set out with their pokemon to begin searching the mountain for AJ, but there'd been no news yet. Not surprising - with how big the mountain was, and without the use of radios or GPS or the internet, a search like this could take days, maybe even weeks if something had gone wrong and AJ was hurt or lost. There was no telling how far she and her friends had traveled or which direction they'd decided to go, but from what Kris had heard, they hadn't planned to be here for too much longer. With any luck, she or one of the Rangers would catch them on the way back.
Though - and maybe this would sound a bit tone deaf - Kris was A-ok with the search taking a few days. Sure, she knew how dire circumstances were back in the civilized world, and again, she wasn't here to play around, but… Well, normal people were never given the chance to come here. This would probably be Kris's one and only opportunity to climb Mt. Silver. Let her have a couple of days at least!
They reached the top of the hill they'd been climbing and Kris, taking note of Lyra's labored breathing, decided it was probably time for another break. The trees were a bit more dense here, thick pines whose arms were heavy with last night's snowfall, but there were a few boulders nearby that sat out of their reach. They could sit there and rest a bit without needing to worry about snow falling on their heads. Wordlessly, Kris made her way over to them, trusting Lyra to follow - and she did, collapsing onto the boulder beside her with a grateful sigh.
Silence gripped the clearing for a bit, broken only by the sound of their labored breathing. Actually, most of the trip had been silent. Other than when they'd passed by the Ranger Station, neither Kris nor Lyra had spoken a word to each other.
It was a bit weird, if she were being honest. Not that Kris was a stranger to silence or anything - most of her journeys she'd taken on her own. But Lyra was usually such a chatterbox, running her mouth a mile a minute. Sure, maybe part of her silence was due to her being out of breath, but if Kris were being honest, she'd put her money on there being another cause. Namely, Kris herself.
She chanced a glance at her companion out of the corner of her eye. Lyra was as decked out in brand new winter survival gear as Kris was, though hers was decidedly more pastel in color. The shorter girl had the rubber straw from her water pack inserted into her mouth as she scowled down at her pokegear, struggling to operate it with gloved hands.
Kris was still sort of surprised that Lyra had volunteered to come along with her. Maybe this was just her trying to earn brownie points from Ethan or the Professors - or maybe she, like Kris, had just felt like she should be doing more to help out - but Lyra had never exactly seemed to enjoy being in Kris's presence, and while the two had hung out in the past, it had always been when Ethan was around. Kris had never thought of her as a friend. They were both Ethan's friends. And it didn't help that Kris had always suspected that Lyra had had feelings for the Golden Boy, which just sort of naturally made things awkward.
And yet, here she was anyway. It was surprising. But maybe it also spoke to Lyra being more mature than Kris had ever given her credit for. Maybe she'd misjudged the girl.
Suddenly, as though sensing the direction of Kris's thoughts, Lyra lowered her pokegear and frowned.
"What are those?" she asked, breaking her two-hour silence as she hopped off the rock she'd been sitting on and trudged her way through the snow over to a nearby copse of trees.
"What are what?" Kris asked, standing up to join her. Her voice sounded a little hoarse from disuse.
Lyra crouched down in the snow a few feet away from the pines and tilted her head.
"Don't these look like Mightyena tracks to you?"
Kris frowned as she reached Lyra's side, squinting down at the footprints she could now see in the snow. How had Lyra noticed those? The girl must have binoculars for eyes.
"Um… Maybe, yeah. They're too big to be Houndoom - but Mightyena aren't native to Johto. Why would there be any here?"
She thought she heard her mutter something about 'introduced species', but then Lyra turned her puzzled expression up at Kris and asked, "No one in AJ's party had a Mightyena, right?"
Oh, good call - but "No, not that I know of."
"I didn't think so," Lyra said, turning back to the tracks, but she still looked puzzled. "If I remember Professor Oak correctly, the only pokemon they had with them at the time they left who have feet anything like this would be AJ's Arcanine, Jade's Ninetales, and Sammy's Leafeon. But none of them would leave tracks in this shape… And they don't really look like Mightyena tracks either, now that I look at them more closely. The toes are all wrong."
Kris shrugged. Maybe they were Mightyena tracks, maybe not. Kris may live and breathe pokemon, but that didn't mean that she'd memorized every footprint for every species in existence. Lyra had lost her a bit for a moment there, but she agreed with the conclusion that this probably wasn't from AJ's party. Which meant that this was a waste of time.
But she refrained from saying that, instead standing back and watching as Lyra struggled to enter something into her pokegear. When she finally got to her feet, she let her eyes sweep the canopies of the trees around her as though she were a crime scene detective looking for clues to a murder.
Deciding this probably meant that they were done resting, Kris started walking on, and Lyra followed behind her. Not really knowing which direction to go, she found herself following the tracks Lyra had found, because why not? They seemed to be heading towards the center of the mountain range anyway. That seemed as good a place as any to search.
She supposed she should be impressed that Lyra was taking this so seriously. Kris hadn't even noticed the tracks. How was she supposed to be finding AJ if she let clues like that pass her by so easily? Then again, whether or not they were Mightyena tracks, they didn't belong to anyone in AJ's party, so what did it matter? Tracks belonging to other pokemon weren't clues about AJ. Still, though - maybe she should keep her eyes peeled.
After a few moments of walking, Lyra surprised Kris by speaking again.
"I wish I could come up here to do some research," she said, her voice thick with melancholy.
From her tone, it was obvious that she was speaking to herself, but Kris found herself replying with a, "Yeah, me too. Not for research, just - like, to explore. Who knows what could be hiding up here?"
"Right?!" Lyra said, suddenly sounding about three-hundred percent more involved in the conversation than Kris was expecting, and she blinked, momentarily caught off-guard as Lyra stepped closer.
"Like - what if those had been Mightyena tracks? Sure, even if they were, it's probably just some Mightyena who was released illegally - but what if it wasn't? What if they've lived here for ages and we never knew because no one is allowed to come here?"
"Maybe," Kris said slowly. "But aren't Mightyena native to Hoenn? And isn't it a lot warmer there? I don't know that they'd be able to handle how cold it gets up here. Plus, even if it was a Mightyena, it could have also just belonged to one of the Rangers."
Lyra gaped for a moment, mouth flapping like a Feebas as though she hadn't thought of that possibility and Kris had just taken all of the wind out of her sails - but then she rallied unexpectedly and surged again, stepping even closer to Kris so they were now walking side-by-side.
"Sure, I guess it could be - but just think about it! I mean, you're right - Hoenn is definitely warmer than Mt. Silver, but it would hardly be the first time a divergent breed of pokemon appeared in a different climate! Look at Vulpix! Fire-type here and in Kanto or Hoenn, but Ice-type where they're found down in the Alolan mountains! What if it's the same here! What if there's some ice-type variant of Mightyena living up in these mountains and we never knew because no one is allowed to come here! A Johto-specific variant evolution, or even an entirely unique regional variant to the entire Poochyena line! Nothing like that has ever been discovered in Johto before! It would be the discovery of a lifetime!"
Lyra was breathing heavily again, though this time it was clearly more from excitement than from exertion. She'd gotten really close to Kris now, and even through her goggles, Kris could see the way her eyes sparkled like the snow under the bright morning sunlight.
Oh - that was right. Kris remembered now. Ethan had definitely told her at least once before that Lyra's research focus was on regional variant pokemon. She had thought it was weird at the time, considering how Johto didn't actually have any recorded exclusive regional variants, but maybe that was the point. Maybe Lyra's goal was to discover any that may exist.
And honestly? Kris had to admit it - Lyra's excitement was infectious. Sure, everyone had thought about the possibility of discovering a new pokemon at least once in their lives, but to hear Lyra talk about it, it no longer felt like some absurd pipe dream like winning the lottery. It suddenly felt distinctly possible. After all, if there were ever a spot in Johto where an undiscovered pokemon could live, it would be here - on the lonely slopes of Mt. Silver.
"That," Kris said, feeling a grin working its way onto her face, "would be so cool! Do you really think it's likely? The reason that footprint looked weird was because it was some kind of Johto-exclusive kind of Mightyena?"
"I mean, likely? Uh… Well, no, probably not," Lyra said, giving a self-deprecating laugh as she seemingly noticed how close she'd gotten and took a step away to give them some space. She continued to walk at Kris's side, however. "But possible? Absolutely! A place like Mt. Silver is a pokemon researcher's dream! And if not Mightyena, then it could be anything! Noctowl, Misdreavus - there could even be still-living Ursaluna up here! But, ah… Well, with the climate being so oppressive, and with how much red tape you have to cut through to get up here, well… It's basically a pipe dream."
Kris turned and flashed Lyra a shrewd smile.
"So are you telling me that the real reason you volunteered for this trip was because you wanted the chance to come up here and do some research?"
Lyra turned away and gazed off over the hills towards Mt. Silver's still distant towering spire. Kris had a sneaking suspicion that the pink in her cheeks wasn't just because of the cold.
When Kris laughed, Lyra got a bit defensive.
"I-it's not like I don't also want to find AJ! I want to help Ethan and the others protect the world, but I'm not a fighter like you guys, so… This is the best I can do!"
Kris made a placating gesture with her free hand, using the other to stab her walking stick into the ground as they pushed on through the snow. The tracks they were following were unusually clear, probably thanks to all the fresh powder from last night's snowfall.
"Hey now - I'm not judging you. Who says you can't have two reasons for doing something? I mean, it's not like I'm only up here out of the goodness of my heart. I figured this was the only chance I'd ever get to see Mt. Silver, so I took it. The fact that I'm helping out is a bonus."
"You too?" Lyra asked, sounding relieved, and when Kris nodded, the shorter girl let out a heavy sigh. "I was just… worried you'd think less of me if my motivations weren't completely altruistic."
Kris let out a 'pshaw' and tossed her head.
"Look, the only people who get uppity about things like that are the lazy people who don't do anything with their lives anyway. As long as people are getting help, who cares if your motivations are selfish? Better to help people selfishly than not help anyone at all. And besides - if we found some kind of brand-new pokemon, that would be the coolest thing ever, and you know Ethan and AJ would agree."
"It really would," Lyra said, breathlessly. "It's honestly been my dream. I mean, I know it sounds silly, and kinda… pie-in-the-sky, but…"
Here, she paused to take a deep breath, then said, "It's just… People at the lab, they all keep saying that I'm probably going to step up and be the next Johto Professor one day after Elm retires. A-and, I know that sounds… like I'm bragging or something, but honestly, it kind of frustrates me. They only say that because they think I'm Elm's favorite and because Ethan and I have been friends since we were kids. They don't say that because they think I'm the best for the job. It's just nepotism.
"But I want to prove that I deserve it. I want to be someone who's made a groundbreaking discovery, just like Professor Elm did. When I become Johto's professor, I want people to know that I earned that spot, that it wasn't just given to me because of who I know and what connections I have."
Lyra blinked, then seemed to realize where she was and who she was talking to, and the sudden burst of bravado vanished and the silly, flippant Lyra who Kris had always known took her place, laughing that same self-deprecating laugh again.
"S-sorry, I, uh… Got a little carried away there, I didn't mean to-"
"No, I think that's awesome," Kris cut in. "I mean it. And when you do, I hope you get to rub it in all of your doubter's faces."
"Yeah," Lyra said softly. Then, after a moment, "Thanks, Kris."
Quiet fell over the two again as they trudged their way through the snow and the cold. As Kris's eyes swept the landscape, looking for any additional tracks or clues of human presence, she found herself internally marveling at just how much her impression of Lyra had changed over the course of the last few minutes. Before, she'd always seemed like a silly airhead who was obsessed with Ethan and thought about nothing else. But now, after actually talking to her for more than five minutes without Ethan present, she found that she was actually… kinda cool? Maybe they had more in common than Kris had initially thought.
"So why haven't you come up here before?"
Lyra shrugged.
"I mean, it's not that easy, right?"
"Sure, but I mean, Ethan is the Champion now. He got in. And AJ was able to bring Jade and Sammy with her. Surely with your connections to Ethan and Professor Elm, getting up here wouldn't be a problem for you, right?"
Lyra sighed heavily, kicking at the snow in front of her in a despondent sort of way.
"Right, you'd think that, but… Well, Ethan's just always so… busy. And I'm not… I mean, I'm not exactly the best battler around, you know? And these mountains, they're… dangerous. I couldn't come up here by myself, but Ethan's too busy, he rarely gets time off. And a proper research trip would take… weeks, probably. Maybe even months. There's no way he'd ever be able to come with me, even if he wanted to."
Oh, yeah - she hadn't thought about that. Ethan was so busy nowadays with all of his League duties, she'd be lucky if he could even come up with a couple of days that he could lend her. Weeks were entirely out of the question.
"Well, alright then," Kris said. "Forget Ethan. Why not take me with you?"
Lyra whipped her head around, practically gawking at Kris through her goggles.
"I… W-what? You… You'd want to come with me?"
"Um, yeah?" Kris said, sounding somewhat exasperated. "Go on an adventure through dangerous and unknown terrain, looking for pokemon no one has ever seen before? That's, like, the coolest thing I can imagine. It doesn't even have to be Mt. Silver - the next time you're going on a research expedition and need company, hit me up!"
"Yeah…" Lyra said slowly, then, with a broad smile blooming on her face, "Yeah! Ok! I-If you're sure, I mean, that would be amazing!"
Laughing, almost not able to believe just how much her relationship with Lyra seemed to have changed after just one conversation, Kris turned and let her eyes scan the horizon almost absent-mindedly…
And time seemed to stop.
There, standing on the hillside a little ways to her right where she swore there had been nothing only seconds before, partially obscured by the trees, stood a very familiar dog-like pokemon. A pokemon with a coat of the purest cerulean, and whose tail seemed to undulate constantly with the non-existent breeze.
Suicune.
Kris opened her mouth, but no sound came out. It had been years since she'd last seen Suicune - not since she'd been on her journey proper, not since she'd lost to Ethan. She had thought that she would never see her again, and yet… There she was. Right there. As though she had been… waiting for her.
Kris extended a hand, but before she could move, before she could speak, the Suicune jerked her head as though motioning for Kris to follow, then she turned and was gone.
With a strangled gasp, she let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. That had happened, right? It wasn't a hallucination? Suicune had really just appeared and had motioned her to follow. What could that mean? Why now? Where did it want her to go?
Lyra, it appeared, hadn't noticed the pokemon, but she did notice that Kris had stopped moving.
"You ok?" she called, walking back a few steps and looking up at Kris in concern. "Are you stuck? Did you… see something?"
She turned and let her eyes rake the treeline, but there was nothing to be seen, now.
How was Kris supposed to proceed here? Could she tell Lyra about Suicune? She would sound crazy, she knew. She'd never told anyone before, not even Ethan. Suicune had appeared to Kris several times over the years, and she'd even battled the legendary pokemon once or twice. She never knew why it had taken an interest in her, but it had, and Kris had always kept it to herself. She didn't want to be one of those crazy people who swore they saw Legendary pokemon everywhere, and besides, it had always felt like her own little secret.
Only now, it had appeared when she was with another person. And it had told her to follow. That must mean Lyra was included, right? Suicune wouldn't be mad if she brought Lyra along, right?
"...Kris?" Lyra asked, now looking genuinely concerned at the lack of response, and Kris gave her head a quick shake.
"Y-yeah, sorry. Um… So… I think I… saw something. Over there. Just… just trust me, ok?"
She expected resistance - because wouldn't that be natural? Why blindly follow someone into the trees with no explanation?
But to her surprise, Lyra just said "Ok" and followed along with no other comment. And maybe that wasn't that odd - they were here looking for AJ after all and they had no clue where to go. Any path was as good as any other, so why not follow Kris into the trees? Still, though, Kris once again found herself pleasantly surprised with Lyra.
They reached the treeline within a few seconds, and it was there that Lyra gasped.
"Look!" she said, crouching down. "Footprints! These look just like those ones I saw before! And they're fresh!"
Kris took a deep breath. So they were Suicune's tracks, then? She didn't know Suicune to leave tracks unintentionally. Maybe she'd been trying to get Kris to follow her all along.
Together, the two pushed on, dragging their legs through the snow, winding around trees and bushes, following the tracks as best they could. Every now and then, Kris thought she saw a flicker of movement up ahead; a flash of blue, the swish of a sinuous tail. They were on the right track. Thankfully, the path they were on wasn't long, and before they knew it, the two breathless women rounded a particularly large rock formation and came up short.
There, on the hillside before them, stood Suicune.
Lyra gasped, clutching Kris's arm, her jaw nearly on the floor, but Kris said nothing.
We followed you, she thought. We did what you asked. What were you trying to show us?
As though Suicune could read her mind - and to be fair, Kris wasn't certain that it couldn't - it turned and ran down the opposite side of the hill, away from them, its body quickly disappearing from view.
"H-hey!" Lyra shouted, running after it, struggling to make progress through the heavy snow. "Wait! Come back! Kris - come on!"
Kris was at her side a moment later, the two of them fighting their way up the hill, trying not to lose their footing and slide back down. It took a few minutes to reach the top, and they'd certainly lost Suicune by the time they did, but as they crested the hill, both of them panting and all but leaning on their walking sticks for support, they discovered what it was Suicune was trying to lead them to.
Four human bodies, laid out in the snow like they were sleeping. Side-by-side, as though placed there intentionally.
Three familiar teens, and one strange old man.
Darkness.
And then, with a strangled gasp, AJ awoke, bolting upright, one arm extending as though reaching for…
Reaching for…
She blinked, confused. Her thoughts felt muddled and lethargic, churning sluggishly in her mind like sludge, her memories just a blur of colors that left everything vague and brown.
Where… was she? A hospital room, it looked like. She was sitting in a bed, scratchy white blankets pooling in her lap, wearing nothing but a paisley nightgown in a dull seafoam green.
There was an IV in her arm and a few beeping machines of indeterminate purpose set up around her. Confused and disoriented, her eyes bounced around, taking in brown wooden flooring and flat emerald wallpaper and a tv on the wall that was showing a muted news report.
Something shifted at her side and she jerked her head, alarmed, only to wince as a deep-rooted ache seemed to thunder inside her brain from the sudden movement. There, sitting in a chair at her bedside, slumped over and fast asleep, was a familiar older woman with a shock of bright orange hair.
She still had her League uniform on. She must have come rushing here straight from some work event. Her makeup was a bit flaky and AJ could see the bags under her eyes that spoke of a late night. How long had AJ been here? And where was 'here', exactly?
"Mom?" she called, her voice a bit croaky from disuse. When her mother didn't stir, AJ cleared her throat and tried again.
"Mom? Mom! Wake up!"
She leaned out of the bed a bit and gave her mother's knee a firm slap.
The older woman woke with a start, eyes wide with alarm as she stared blearily around the room, clearly still not fully coherent.
When her gaze met AJ's, she blinked and shot her a confused frown.
"...Mom?" AJ tried again, fighting off the sudden urge to laugh. She still had no idea what was going on, but seeing her mother like this was never not funny.
"...AJ?" her mom replied, clearly still half asleep.
"Yeah, hi. Welcome. Wanna tell me where we are?"
Her mom stared for another moment, then wakefulness seemed to hit her all at once, her eyes suddenly focusing, shock and relief dawning on her face in equal measure as she took in a sudden, shuddering breath and then practically threw herself at her daughter, capturing the younger girl in a rib-cracking embrace.
"Oh! Oh, AJ, sweetie - you're awake! You're ok! I was so worried!"
"Mmmph!" AJ tried to respond, her face crushed painfully against her mother's collar bone. This certainly wasn't helping her headache. Struggling a bit, she managed to turn her face far enough to free up her mouth so she could say, "Mom! Cut it out, I'm fine!"
Her pleas fell on deaf ears, it seemed, and AJ was forced to simply sit and wait in awkward silence as her mother sat on her bed and rocked her back and forth, letting her seemingly ceaseless tide of positive affirmations wash over her.
Finally, after an uncomfortable eternity, her mother pulled away, her eyes red and puffy but with a relieved smile on her face. She didn't return to her chair, however, and instead remained perched at her bedside, smoothing back AJ's hair or adjusting her gown. It was like she couldn't stop touching her.
"Mom," AJ said, finally managing to get a word in edgewise. "What's going on? Where are we?"
Misty frowned, a look of concern returning to her face. "Where-? AJ… We're in the hospital."
AJ had to fight very hard to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Her mom wouldn't take kindly to that.
"Right, no, yeah. I gathered as much. I meant - where are we? Why am I here? And… why are you here?"
"Do you not remember?" she asked. "You and your friends - Sammy and Jade - disappeared. You left a note saying you were going to climb Mt. Silver."
Mt. Silver… Right, ok, that sounded familiar. They'd come to Johto, met Ethan, got permission to climb the mountain, and then…
Her head throbbed painfully. For some reason, what came next was a blur. The more she tried to remember, the more her head hurt. The best she could come up with was a field of endless white. Snow, maybe?
Just then, the door to her room opened and a nurse walked in. She came to an abrupt halt when she saw AJ sitting up in bed.
"Oh, you're awake!" the nurse said brightly, her surprise giving way to a genuine smile. "Excellent! Let me go and fetch the doctor - I'll be right back."
The doctor was there in seconds, as if she'd just been waiting in the hallway for some reason, and her mother excused herself for a moment to go to the bathroom and freshen up while the doctor and nurse ran her through a gauntlet of questions and performed a variety of routine examinations.
"Do you feel any pain?" the doctor asked, scratching her nose with the back of her pen as she frowned down at her clipboard. "Any discomfort anywhere?"
"Just a headache," AJ replied, absently palpating her body with her hands. Everything felt ok. She gave her toes an experimental wiggle. Nope, all good.
"And you don't remember anything?"
AJ shook her head slowly.
"I… I know we went to the Ranger's Station, and then we started up the mountain… I think we just traveled around for a bit, and then…"
Something stirred in her mind. A dark, frozen mountainside. Trees moving in the night. The ground shaking beneath her feet.
"...an avalanche?"
The doctor looked up, surprised.
"You say there was an avalanche?"
"I… I think so…?" AJ said, but her head twinged in a particularly painful way and she was forced to stop and massage her temples.
"We'll get you something for your headache," the doctor said, motioning to the nurse who quickly made her way over to the medical cabinet. "An avalanche, though… Well, none of you have any injuries to speak of, at least none that we've seen. No head trauma, no broken bones, no signs of succumbing to exposure… I'm genuinely at a loss as to why you were all found unconscious. If I had to guess, I'd wager it was probably a wild pokemon attack."
The nurse returned with a small plastic cup full of some sort of brown liquid that AJ drank down in one quick gulp. She handed the cup back and made a face as the taste fully registered. Yup - it was awful. A nice mixture of cough syrup and motor oil.
"A pokemon attack?" she asked, trying to distract herself from the taste that was now somehow coating her entire mouth in an oily film. The nurse gave her a sympathetic look and returned a moment later with a cup of water. AJ drank it down greedily. "So like… sleep powder or hypnosis or something?"
"Precisely," said the doctor. "Though likely hypnosis - we found no evidence of any spores on you. I've heard that there are sometimes flocks of roving Misdreavus haunting the mountainsides of Mt. Silver. Perhaps you and your friends were unlucky enough to run afoul of one and you all got caught up in the blast. It's hard to say, but your general lack of injuries or any symptoms aside from loss of consciousness, memory loss and a lingering headache… Well, it adds up."
Right… No, that actually did make sense. She'd heard about the Misdreavus as well. She could definitely see something like that happening.
Still though… It was mortifying, in a way. She was supposed to be Kanto's Pokemon Champion, and she got herself and her friends hospitalized because she couldn't fend off a pack of wild pokemon? And worse - they'd had to get rescued?
Sure - things like that happened, even to the best of trainers. Pokemon were dangerous, everyone knew it. But she knew how this would look to the media. Not even a month into her tenure as the Champion and already she was needing other people to save her.
She wanted to curl up in her cheap blankets and die.
"At this point, I think it's safe to say that you're fine," the doctor continued as the bathroom door opened and AJ's mother returned, looking quite a bit fresher than she had before she left. "I think we're going to have the three of you stay another day just so we can keep an eye on you - psychic interference can sometimes lead to strokes or psychological breakdowns, so we want to monitor you for a bit to make sure you'll be ok - but you should be good to checkout in the morning."
"Thank you, doctor," AJ's mother said, taking over for her as AJ herself slumped back in her bed, feeling drained. Being stuck here for a day sounded awful, but what was worse was the knowledge that the media would probably be having a field day once the news got out. Was she just fully incapable of doing anything right?
Once they'd left the room, AJ found herself alone once again with just her mother. The TV in the corner had been turned off when the doctor had come in, and AJ's pokegear was nowhere to be found. Idly, she wondered if she could ask her mother to find it for her. She needed something to keep herself entertained while she was trapped here. Maybe she could also ask her to go to the Pokemon Center to check on her team - she assumed that was where they were, at least - and maybe fetch Pichu and bring him to her before he caused trouble. To be fair, he'd definitely cause trouble here too, but it felt wrong when he wasn't around.
She turned to face her mother who had been awfully quiet since returning to her seat at AJ's bedside and was surprised to find her anxiously fidgeting.
"AJ…" she started, then faltered, looking like she was struggling to find the words. After a moment, she started again. "Sweetie, I… Can we talk?"
"Um…" AJ said slowly. "I guess…?"
It's not like she had anything else to do.
Her mother smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. Why did she look so… anxious?
"Thank you. I… I know it's not very nice of me to corner you when you're trapped in the hospital, but… When I heard you were hurt, and when I thought about the last conversation we had, I just…"
The last conversation they'd…?
Oh. Ohhhh, Arceus, how had she forgotten?! The last time she'd seen her mother was at her big party at home when she'd made Champion and they'd had that huge fight in the kitchen about her dad!
The guilt that AJ had struggled with after the fight now came rushing back to her with all of the force of an avalanche - a thought that made AJ's head twinge in pain again until she pushed it away - but now that guilt was joined by the additional guilt of her running off and apparently almost dying after saying all of those awful things to her mother. What if those had been her last words to her? What sort of monster daughter would she have been then?
"AJ…" her mom said, and AJ began panicking in earnest when she heard how choked her voice sounded and saw the tears welling up in her eyes. "I… I'm so s-sorry… I didn't… I never knew…"
"Mom, no - It's not your-"
"A-and I hit you…! I can't… I never should have-!"
"Mom," AJ said again, louder this time, and she sat up straight and slid her legs off of the bed so that she was facing her mom. "Stop, it's ok-"
"It's not ok!" she said, slightly hysterical, only to stop when AJ pulled her into a tight hug.
"Mom," she said softly, burying her face in her mother's familiar shoulder. "I'm the one who should be apologizing. I said… I said terrible things to you. I made a fool of myself in the middle of that party you worked so hard to set up and I embarrassed both of us in front of all of our friends and family. I'm so, so sorry, mom."
Her mother hugged her back, just as tightly, sniffling slightly.
"I'm sorry I never realized how you felt about being compared to your father."
"It's fine. I mean - I never said anything. How could you know?"
And weirdly - it was fine. For some reason, one that AJ couldn't even begin to explain, all of that normal heat and fire that usually simmered in her belly, ready to erupt at the mere mention of Ash Ketchum… It was gone.
And that was disconcerting in its own way. It had been there for so long, had been such a lasting part of who she was, that to lose it - especially seemingly out of nowhere - was almost scary, in a way. Was the key to getting over her hate just… finally owning up to her mother about her feelings? Or was this some unintended consequence of whatever psychic pokemon had knocked her out? The doctor had said that there could be side effects… Even if losing her uncontrollable hate could really only be classified as a good thing, she didn't know how she felt about some external force tampering with her brain.
Still, though. Whatever hate she'd once held for her father had cooled somehow, and it instead left her feeling… empty. She wasn't sure how to explain that away, either. It was like she was… missing something. Or maybe she'd forgotten something? To be fair, she'd forgotten quite a lot, apparently, but she didn't see what forgetting a few days of a hiking trip had to do with anything related to how much she hated - or didn't hate? - her father.
She hadn't even noticed until right now that she was apparently even calling him 'her father' in her mind. Now that was just spooky.
"I just…" her mom continued, now stroking AJ's hair like she used to do when she was a little girl, "I always felt like I needed to draw comparisons to him because I wanted you to feel connected to him, somehow. He was gone, but I thought… I don't know. I thought maybe you'd feel closer to him if I pointed out all the things you had in common. Maybe that way you wouldn't feel as bad about only having one parent. I wasn't… I never intended to make you feel like you weren't good enough."
"I know, mom. I know… And for the record, I never felt bad about only having one parent. You were always there for me. I never needed anyone else."
"Thank you, sweetie. I love you… so, so much."
"I love you too, mom."
It was funny. After their fight, AJ had been so scared of owning up to what she'd done and apologizing to her mother that she'd literally fled the house in the dead of night and ran off to another country. But now that the time had finally come, it had been so… easy. What had she been so scared of, exactly?
They heard the sound of AJ's door being opened, and the two teary-eyed women pulled apart to find one Ethan Gold, Champion of Johto, standing on the threshold, looking embarrassed and distinctly uncomfortable.
"Um," he said haltingly. "Sorry. I, uh… I should have knocked. I didn't mean to- I'll just come back later."
He went to leave, looking far younger in his embarrassment than he had the last time she'd seen him, but AJ motioned for him to stay.
"No, it's fine. We're done. Did you come to see me on my deathbed? How Champion-ly of you."
He smirked, letting a little bit of his awkwardness fade as he stepped back into the room.
"Of course. Just doing my Champion duties, after all. How are you feeling? Both Jade and Sammy said they were fine, but-"
"Nah, I'm good," AJ said, sitting back into her bed and pulling the blankets up over her legs. "No injuries to speak of. Just a slight headache, but they gave me some drugs for that, so I'll live. You've seen Sammy and Jade? They're ok?"
Ethan nodded along like that was what he was expecting as he came to stand at the foot of her bed, smiling in polite greeting at AJ's mother.
"Yeah, they're in the same boat. No wounds, just headaches, and no memories of anything at all past an avalanche, or something? Does that sound right to you?"
AJ frowned, but nodded. So they remembered the avalanche as well? So it wasn't just a dream then. Her head twinged again as she tried to delve into that gaping hole in her memories, but thanks to the medicine she'd been given, it wasn't nearly as bad.
"Well. As weird as that all is, I guess it's a good thing that we sent people up into the mountains to find you guys. Kris and Lyra said they just… found you all lying in the snow. All laid out, like someone had placed you there to sleep. Who knows how long you might have laid there if we hadn't found you? You could have died from exposure."
AJ had to take a second to process that. Not the 'dying from exposure' bit - that was scary, sure, but it didn't happen, so it was ok. Them all being laid out in the snow was weird - had the pokemon who had attacked them done that? Maybe they'd taken pity on them and tried to make sure they'd be found? Strange, but not unheard of. Plenty of wild pokemon were dangerous, but not all of them were out to kill. Some were just territorial and wanted to be left alone.
But no, what really caught her attention was the first bit.
"You said you sent Kris and Lyra into the mountains to find us?" AJ asked. "But… why? We'd only been gone a couple of days."
She didn't remember much, but she remembered that. That avalanche - assuming it was real, and since apparently they all remembered it, it must have been - had happened on the second night. She couldn't remember anything past that, but their run-in with whatever pokemon had wiped their memories can't have been too long after, right? And they hadn't died of exposure, meaning they can't have been left lying in the snow for all that long.
"A couple of…?" Ethan repeated, looking genuinely flabbergasted. "AJ… It's been nearly two weeks since you left."
Two weeks…? She turned to look at her mom who nodded in confirmation, looking concerned.
Oh, Mew… Whatever had attacked her had erased nearly two weeks of memories from her brain? That was horrifying!
"And quite a lot has happened in those two weeks," he continued, his tone now turning grave. "I… don't suppose you've had a chance yet to fill her in?"
"No," her mom said, sighing heavily. "She only just woke up. I didn't want to just spring it on her."
"Spring what on me?" AJ asked, not liking being kept in the dark. The conversation had taken on an unexpectedly ominous tone and she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer.
Ethan sighed, taking off his cap and running his fingers through his hair. He looked like he was regretting the fact that it had fallen to him to tell her.
"Listen," he said, setting his hat back on his head and fixing his golden gaze steadily on hers. "I know the doctors said they want to monitor you for a bit, but… Do you think you can get the OK to come to League Headquarters for a bit? Lance is waiting there, and so is Champion Iris and Former Champion Hilda. There's… a lot to catch you up on, and none of it is good."
Her mother said something about finding her clothes and stood up, but AJ ignored her as Ethan found the tv remote and turned it back on.
It was still muted, but she could see now what her mother must have been watching before she'd fallen asleep. The live broadcast was showing aerial scenes of what was unmistakably Sootopolis City in Hoenn in what AJ could only describe as a pitched battle. Pokemon were everywhere, trainers in black and white uniforms running wild, ordering their teams to attack buildings or destroy property while police officers and Gym Trainers struggled to fight them off. It was chaos, pure and simple, and the once pristine beauty of Sootopolis was slowly crumbling under the weight of all of the violence.
"What in the world…?" AJ whispered, horrified.
"Welcome to my last two weeks," Ethan said heavily.
Sorry, sorry - I know it's been a hot minute since I last updated. I'm the worst, I know.
The next 2 chapters are done and I'll be posting them over the next 2 weekends. My goal is to be done with this story before the end of the year, and I predict there's... mmm, maybe 5 more chapters or so after the 2 I've already written, so it's certainly doable. Feel free to harass me if I go dark again. I need a good kick in the shorts ever now and then.
Also, apologies if anyone reviewed recently and I didn't respond - I'm normally pretty bad at that as-is, but I just now realized that despite me having email notifications turned on, I have not been getting them. I know this site has been dying for a while now, but yikes.