"You lost me at the part when you said you got yourself a wild rhyperior."
"It is a wild rhyperior."
I insisted to dad once more over the video call we are having, using a heavily encrypted line that is being monitored by Jarvis. I am currently at Olivine City's pokemon center in order to use the PC Transfer system over there to transfer the rhyperior I recently received from Akamu over to dad.
Akamu had felt a little bad for receiving a dusknoir from me while giving me nothing in return, so he decided that a gift of equal value was needed. I just didn't expect that said gift would be to capture a wild rhyperior while he was at Victory Road in his mission to investigate Moltres' nest.
Do you know just how rare it is to encounter rhyperiors that naturally reached the last stage of their evolution in the wild? Much less spot it, successfully defeat it, and then capture it in a pokeball? You would have better chances winning the lottery. Rhyperiors are so rare because it is so notoriously difficult to evolve a rhydon into one even in the hands of experienced trainers and Akamu just so casually gave one to me he caught from the wild, all just because he felt a little bad for receiving a dusknoir from me for free.
However, I have too many pokemon on hand at the moment and the interpol is running on a tight schedule. I also don't have time to break the rhyperior into the team and get it to listen to me, no matter how strong it may be. Thus, the logical solution which I arrived at would be to send it over to dad. He's been trying to rebuild his team anyway, and a rhyperior would fit nicely in there.
"You sure you aren't trying to pull a prank on me?"
"Dad. Please."
Dad finally got the memo and dropped the issue.
"Alright, just pulling your leg. You sure you don't want it?"
"Fairly certain."
"Then I will consider adding it into my team. Or if Vance is interested, the rhyperior can be his." Dad nodded in thought before continuing. "I know your mum and I had said this many times before, but be careful out there, okay?"
"I cannot promise for certain that nothing bad will happen, but I can promise I will try my best to be as careful as I can be." I admitted, knowing that promises can be easily broken given the current circumstances, circumstances that I am not allowed to tell them yet due to confidentiality issues.
"And that's all we ask for." Dad said with a faint smile. "Is there anything you need us to send over to you? What about your medicine?"
"I brought enough medicine to last me for the next few months before coming here. As for the rest... Nothing that I can think of for the moment. The interpol has everything we might need." I answered after pondering for a few seconds. Come to think about it, what does the interpol not have?
Nothing comes to mind.
"Then how about the PWL meeting you attended? Met all the big shots already?"
"I saw them in person but I haven't interacted with all of them." I informed dad as I placed rhyperior's pokeball on the pokeball slot of the PC and keyed in our family's farm number.
"I'm going to press the send button now."
"Okay."
A second later, rhyperior's pokeball disappeared in a flash of bright light. It didn't take long for dad to confirm that he had indeed received rhyperior. Bill's invention of the PC Transfer System really is revolutionary. Sometimes it still boggles my mind about how such a thing is possible. Pokemon are living beings made of flesh and blood, and somehow Bill made sending them over from one place to another possible through a PC as though you are sending a simple email.
"So who have you interacted with?"
"Professor Oak, Blaine, Fuji, Bill. Ring any bells?"
"Even Professor Oak?"
"I don't have many opportunities to really interact with the members of the other foreign delegations. I did talk to Lucian and Flint, they are nice people. And oh, do you know that Volkner is currently living his retirement life at Olivine? Married to Olivine's Gym Leader no less?"
Dad's reply was a baffled "Huh."
"My reaction exactly." I agreed as I moved myself to a private corner of the pokemon center where I cannot be overheard when more passerbys start to fill into the area where I am at. Rena and Dolly are helping me keep a lookout for any potential evesdroppers.
"Volkner is extremely annoying, like the irritating kind, but he's not too bad otherwise. He even taught and trained me for a short while on his own volition. Grimsley isn't very pleasant to talk to and I didn't have the chance to talk to Elesa. Siebold did promise to cook for us one day after our work here in Indigo is done… not sure how soon that will happen but at least there is something to look forward to. Valerie… didn't see her all that much. Not sure what she is busy with. Alola sent in Professor Samson Oak, who is an expert on Totem Pokemon."
"Oh, those. Heard of them but never had a chance to see them in person before." Dad scratched his chin with a hand. "They fetch a very high price too, simply because they are a lot stronger than their relatively normal counterparts."
"I can help you find one when I got posted to Alola."
"That will be nice." Dad agreed. "How about your new colleagues? Have they been nice to you?"
"They are nice people." I replied. "As of now we have an ex Gym Leader, a Pokemon Researcher, a Historian, an Inventor, and an ex PWL Agent in our team. I already told you about Volkner. Our researcher is Shannon Juniper and let me tell you, she's insanely smart but an airheaded klutz in everything else not related to her research. Our historian is Nova Labelle, also a very capable historian that can tell apart lies from truths in a matter of moments. The remaining two are actually a married couple, Akamu and Mary."
"So which one is the inventor?"
"Mary. She's really nice to everyone she meets unless your name is Looker." I shrugged. "Not sure what kind of history she and Akamu had with him but it sure looks like they hold a grudge against the PWL."
"I looked into this Looker guy in my own free time." Dad spoke up, catching my attention. "There's too many unexplained factors about the few things that I did manage to find out about him."
"I'm surprised that you can actually find out something about him at all. Nobody even knows what his real name is." I commented. "But you now have my full attention. What did you find out?"
"For one, no one really knows exactly how long he has been working for the PWL."
"Couldn't be too long, he doesn't look all that old to me." I frowned a little. "Maybe somewhere in his late twenties to early thirties… I think?"
"That's the thing. I found out that the agent known as 'Agent Looker' had been active from even way back."
"Then maybe the codename Looker is something that is passed down from one generation to the next? And the current Looker we know is simply the Nth generation of Agent Looker?"
"Maybe." Dad shrugged. "I also did find out something else about him through a contact that happens to work in PWL HQ itself. Apparently, Looker is supposedly a very capable trainer, but nobody could say for sure just what pokemon he uses. He doesn't battle very often but it was said that he never lost a single battle in his entire career."
"Huh?"
"Don't ask me. Those were the exact words I heard. I have no idea what they meant too."
"So, he's actually an extremely skilled pokemon trainer?" I clarified, to which dad simply nodded. "Doesn't seem like it. I mean, he never once released a pokemon out with him for company or the sorts, even when we were at the West Forest for the first time and he got teleported away by Volkner's hypno…"
If Looker is indeed a skilled pokemon trainer he would have released a pokemon to protect himself from Volkner's Hippie out of sheer instinct when it attacked us out of the blue. So why didn't he? Or was he very confident that he wouldn't get hurt? If so, how could he have known?
"And there are rumours that initially, nobody in the upper echelons of the PWL accepted your idea of creating an interpol until Looker interfered. Meaning to say, the interpol would have never existed if Looker didn't step in."
"He's such an important figure even within the PWL? Isn't he working for them, not the other way round?"
"Which brings me to my next point. The weirdest rumour I have heard is that on paper, it seems as if Looker defers to the higher ups of the PWL and is working for them, but in practice, there are times that Looker could practically get away with anything he wanted and even order the PWL around. The PWL leaders do not hold any actual power over him. By that, I meant that they couldn't hold any power over him."
"Wait, what?"
"You heard me right."
"Doesn't that make him a very dangerous individual? Someone that even the PWL cannot control? Not only that, he can actually order them around?" I shivered a little at the thought. Getting away with anything he wanted. Dad is not someone who uses words like that lightly. If he said that to me, then he genuinely has reasons to believe that it is indeed the case.
"Yes. So do be careful when working alongside him, no matter how nice he may appear to be. Looker's origins are also a mystery on my end. No matter how I searched using our family's connections I could not find the region which he was from, his trainer records, or anything similar that might tell us a hint or two about who he was before he became Looker. If he indeed had never lost a single battle in his entire career, he must be a Pillar level trainer."
"You are making me paranoid, dad."
"For trainers, paranoia is what saves our skin. You get what I'm saying?"
"I do, but… Alright, I get it. Be more wary about Looker."
"You said that Akari and-"
"Akamu and Mary."
"Akamu and Mary knew Looker from way back, right? Maybe you could get a better glimpse of him through them and arrive at your own conclusion. What I do know is severely limited and may not be entirely accurate anyway."
"I will keep that in mind."
"Good." Dad replied. "Alright, I have to go now. Stay safe and take care of yourself, you hear me?"
"I will, dad."
With that, we both said our goodbyes and hung up, although the frown had never quite left my face even when the call had ended. Dad did raise a valid point. Over the days that I had been here in Indigo I got to know quite a bit of my fellow colleagues but there's one person that I never did truly get to know about.
Who exactly is Looker?
I exited the pokemon center soon after with Rena and Fuzzy by my side. Dolly had slinked back into my shadows the moment we exited because of the scorching afternoon sun. The sunrays here at Olivine are really a lot more harsh than what I experience in Hoenn. Even the sun at Lilycove isn't that merciless.
Don't get me wrong, I love being in the sun, but the sunrays here really are a little too harsh for my liking. I should have brought an umbrella out with me before coming over to the pokemon center.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
I jumped up in alarm the moment I heard a voice from right behind me, one that I am familiar with.
"L-Looker?"
It's him alright, looking down at me with a knowing smirk on his face. How did he get behind us without Rena, Fuzzy, and my fellow ghosts sensing his presence?!
"Let me guess…" Looker dramatically stroked his chin in thought before I could get another word out. "You were wondering why and how I managed to get behind your back even with Rena beside you?"
Rena bristled at his words, offended that he sneaked up on us like that. It's not just Rena, even Fuzzy wasn't pleased at the surprise he sprung on us because this clearly meant that a mere human had somehow evaded their enhanced senses. This also meant that they had failed as my self-appointed bodyguards.
As for me, I could only give a silent nod, still a little wary about this man in front of me. My conversation with dad that had just ended less than five minutes ago is still fresh in my mind.
Be wary of Looker. He is someone that even the PWL cannot control.
Looker blinked his eyes at me in puzzlement.
"Hmm? Did something happen? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You should know better than to spring a surprise on me, especially during such times." I replied as I tried to gently brush the issue off, attributing my behaviour to the Rocket problem that will be blowing out of proportion really soon. Hopefully, he will buy my explanation.
"Ah, that's indeed true. My bad."
The two of us fell into easy silence after that as we strolled along the streets of Olivine, heading back into the West Forest. Throughout the journey, Looker had very thoughtfully produced an umbrella from… somewhere and held it up to shield me from the sun. I gave him a smile as thanks, albeit a little strained. My mind is still a little jumbled, partly because of the accumulating stress that comes from helping to deal with the Rocket problem, what dad told me about Looker, and how Looker got to my back like that undetected.
"You are very quiet today."
"Guess the stress is catching up to me."
Looker's eyebrows rose a little, clearly not believing what I just said. I gave a mental click of the tongue because this is Looker I am dealing with. Petty lies won't work on someone like him.
"Are you a pokemon trainer?"
I cannot help but ask the moment we entered the West Forest. If we are to work together as a team, then it's best that we get to know each other better. I can accept the fact that he will always be hiding a secret or two from us. Everyone has their own secrets hidden in their little closet, I can understand that, but I cannot accept not knowing a single thing about the person who I am to work with for the foreseeable future.
My sudden question had clearly caught Looker off guard. The signs are little and subtle, but I like to think that I know him enough to tell that he was surprised.
"What brought this up?"
"The fact that I just realised that I really know nothing about you. Shannon, Nova, Mary, Akamu, and even that annoying Volkner, I at least know a thing or two about them."
"Does it really bother you that much?"
"If we are to work together as a team for the next half a decade at the very least, then yes." I stood my ground firmly as I looked him in the eye, even if my height really isn't helping my case. "You cannot expect me to trust you when I know nothing about you. Trust goes both ways, Looker."
The both of us stared at each other in silence. Throughout it all, there is a complicated look in Looker's eyes, as though he is going through an emotional rollercoaster. I may be wrong. After all, I really do not know him well enough.
Suddenly, I'm glad that dad pointed this issue out for me. If it wasn't for our conversation I wouldn't have realised that I actually knew nothing about the man in front of me, the man who I am supposed to work with and place my trust in while embarking on this crazy save-the-world plan together.
Looker was the first to break the silence.
"I am." He replied with a slight sigh. "I am a pokemon trainer."
"... You definitely don't act like one."
"My pokemon usually have no need to come out of their pokeballs, and those that do not need to stay in their pokeballs are more than capable of hiding their presence, even if it is hiding themselves right in front of someone like you, Traveller."
And it was at that moment that my world shattered.
Impossible. Nobody else other than the six of us would know. Traveller, that is my title as one of the foretold sages if the ancient prophecy Nova had unearthed is to be believed. It's impossible that Looker would know about it. He of all people shouldn't have known about-
'Mistress! Mistress! You need to calm down and take your medicine!'
Rena's distressed call brought me back to reality, and it was then that I realised that I am bent over and kneeling on the ground, desperately trying to breathe. I think the ghosts within my shadows had emerged from it at one point, concerned about my wellbeing and standing in between me and Looker, viewing him as a threat. However, I could not focus because my whole body was in pain. I do not know if my reaction is due to a panic attack, my sickness suddenly coming back at full force from the shock, a combination of both or something else entirely.
All that I know is that I couldn't breathe properly.
And then I felt it, I felt Looker using his hand to lift my head up and forced my mouth open. In the next second, Looker had taken out the inhaler which I always bring around with me and aided me in taking my medication. By the time I finally caught my breath, Looker had sat me down at the base of a large tree in the forest, gently rubbing soothing circles on my back in his attempt to help me breathe. My ghosts had somehow disappeared. Rena and Fuzzy are looking at me in concern. My reaction had scared them.
'I'm fine.' I spoke to Rena telepathically as I used a hand to scratch her behind her ear, my other hand still holding onto my inhaler.
"Sorry, maybe that wasn't the best way to do a self-introduction."
Looker's admission got me to look up at him once more. Fear, distrust, confusion, curiosity, and many more. Right now, this man scares me more than anything but yet for some reason I cannot explain, it doesn't feel like he meant any harm.
"... How?"
"How what?" He asked. "You need to be more specific."
"Traveller."
"Oh, that? You mean like how I know that Nova, Shannon, Volkner, and Akamu are like you? Born with a powerful gift so unique and yet so unexplainable?"
My breath hitched. This time, I could not hide my inner thoughts no matter how much I tried.
He knows. Someone that is not one of us knows and I know that there's no way he could be Shadow. There would be obvious signs if Looker is indeed one of us but he's not it. I just know.
"Give me some credit, Vel. I am the PWL's most prized agent." Looker said with a snort, ignoring the looks I am sending his way. "Why else do you think I painstakingly brought you guys into the interpol? Putting up with Volkner's distaste towards the PWL and even going so far as to getting Lance to personally ask for his assistance, enduring Akamu's and Mary's scorn even if they are rightfully entitled to do so. It's because you guys indeed have something that nobody else has, a power that might possibly be able to help the world avert the coming crisis. Like you, I love this world too. I don't want to see it get destroyed. More than anyone, I too, wish for peace."
I tried to speak, only to find that I don't know where to start. Looker, as if sensing my thoughts, took the initiative to resolve the tension between us.
"You are right, trust goes both ways. Ask away. Anything that I can answer, I will answer."
"Just who are you?"
"Right now, I am just Looker. The Director of the interpol and the PWL's most prized agent."
"Then who were you before you became Looker?"
"Classified."
"Where are you from?"
"Indigo."
I blinked. Looker's from Indigo?
"Which region?"
"Not telling."
I frowned. So where he's from isn't classified, but rather he doesn't want to let anyone else know about it?
"You said that you are a pokemon trainer."
"Yes."
"Am I allowed to know what pokemon you use and what your skill level is?"
Looker sported a faint smile on his face upon my words.
"Thought you wouldn't ask. It's supposed to be classified but… I guess I can make an exception if this remains a secret between us. Sparkles, Missy, come out and say hello."
Looker's shadow twisted in a way so familiar to me and my eyes widened in realisation. Ghosts. Looker has ghosts as well.
A sableye and a mismagius materialised in front of us. One look at them and I know that they are extremely powerful, so powerful that a part of me cannot help but compare them to the ghosts in Agatha's team. Looker's sableye is a lot larger than the average size of its species and given what I know about the sableye species, the larger they are, the older they are and hence the more powerful they will be.
Sableyes are rare and I only ever saw a few sableyes with my own two eyes, but Looker's ones made the wild sableyes residing in my shadows seem tiny in comparison. Just how long has it lived? Is it Looker's starter? Looker couldn't be over thirty years old and even if sableye has been with Looker since he was a baby, can a sableye really grow to be this big in thirty years? Sableyes age extremely slowly so just how many years have it lived to get this big? With a ghost that is obviously so much more powerful than mine, maybe it is not that far of a stretch for Looker to be able to sneak past even Rena's and Dolly's senses like how he did earlier.
My train of thoughts was broken when Looker's mismagius affectionately nuzzled itself against me, catching even me by surprise at the amount of affection it is showing me.
"That's Missy." Looker introduced before gesturing to his sableye. "This is Sparkles. They are all I can tell you about for now."
"Your naming sense isn't very good." I cannot help but comment upon hearing his pokemon's nicknames, and I took satisfaction in seeing how Looker's lips had twitched a little after hearing that. Sableye let out a hollow chuckle as it sat down beside me and slowly enveloped me in a hug, a gesture which I returned after hesitating a little.
"See? Your Ghost Mistress moniker isn't for show after all."
I gave Looker a scowl, and from the look of his face I know for a fact that he somehow knows that I really do not like that moniker. He's doing it on purpose.
"I'm not done with the questioning yet."
"Oh? Then ask away." Looker shrugged nonchalantly as he leaned back against the tree we are sitting under the shade of.
"How do you know about my title? How much do you know?"
"If you are talking about that prophecy, then no. Not much. All I know is that there are seven people with seven different titles and that I have found five of them. No, six. We just met her recently at the Indigo Plateau, haven't we?"
I don't know what the expression on my face is, but I do know that it is hilarious enough for Looker to laugh at me out loud.
Okay, so he does know about that prophecy. The only good thing that came out from all of that is that I am fairly certain that he doesn't know that the seven of us all possess memories of a life long past.
My gaze returned back to the inhaler in my hand. The frown on my face deepened as I thought further about the issue.
"How do you know where I kept my inhaler? No, how do you know that I needed this specifically?"
When I was a child, experiencing respiratory problems was almost a daily occurrence. The medicine in the inhaler that is needed to keep me alive whenever I have such an attack is very potent and is specifically prepared for my sole use. Even when my health has gotten much better, I always bring it around with me out of habit, putting it in a very specific and accessible pocket of my bag.
However, only my family knows where I put it. Nobody else should know because I never told them about it and neither have I experienced an attack as violent as the one I did earlier. Those are rare after I turned nine.
I had never used this inhaler or even took it out in front of an outsider before, simply because I never had a need for it until now. So how did Looker know where I had put it? Not only that, his reactions were so swift that it looks as though he knew it at the back of his hand.
"How did you know where to find this?"
I held up the inhaler for Looker to see. To his credit, his poker face gave nothing away.
"Would you believe me if I said that you had told me where you had placed it before?"
I narrowed my eyes while searching through my memories. No, I'm certain that I had never told him about this particular piece of information before.
Looker merely let out an amused huff and shook his head after seeing my reaction.
"I can understand what you are feeling right now, Vel. Really, I do. If I could I really wouldn't mind being honest with you and telling you everything about me, but this isn't the right time. I know you have questions and I cannot possibly answer them all, so I just need you to know this."
He turned to face me, Sparkles and Missy had returned to his side by now.
"I will always be your ally, Vel. Always."
With that, he stood up and dusted himself. Sparkles and Missy vanished from view and returned to Looker's shadow. With a turn of his heels, Looker walked off without another word, leaving me to my own thoughts.
"Just who are you?" I asked once again, shouting in the direction of his departing back. Looker stilled for a moment before turning his head partially, allowing our eyes to meet. This time, he didn't brush me off with the answer known as "classified".
"That really depends on who is asking the question and when this question is asked."
"... Have we met before?"
It is the only explanation I can think of. Wordlessly shielding me from the sun earlier using an umbrella during our journey back even if I never told him about my discomfort with Olivine's harsh sunlight. Knowing where exactly I had kept my inhaler, or even knowing about its existence at all and that it was what I needed right at that moment. Only people very close to me would know that.
Looker didn't answer. Maybe he wanted to, I can see the slight movement of his throat, as though he wanted to speak but decided against it at the very last moment. Instead, he said something else.
"Like I said earlier, I will always be your ally, Vel. Always."
In the end, he simply turned away and walked off, disappearing from view and leaving me alone with more questions than answers.
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 13, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Runner-up in the 528th Ever Grande Conference
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Cleffa (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male
Griff Vera, Age: 42, Male, Owner of Vera Pokemon Breeding Farm, Husband to Hanna Vera (formerly Springfield), Father to Vance and Velda Vera
Pokemon on hand:
1) Mightyena (Fang), male
2) Tropius, male
3) Hydreigon (Chewy), male
4) Glalie (Frosty), male
5) Blaziken (Torch), male
6) Rhyperior, male
7) Ninjask (deceased)
8) Ludicolo (deceased)
9) Zangoose (deceased)
10) Ursaring (deceased)
Name: ?
Age:?
Codename: Looker
Pokemon team:
1) Sableye
2) Mismagius