Mary-Sue woke feeling surprisingly cozy and well-rested; it was almost with regret that she crawled out of her sleeping bag and emerged into the hazy summer air.
"Good morning!" called a voice while she was still getting her bearings.
"Huh?" She blinked at the boy who seemed to be just now restarting the campfire. For a moment, she'd forgotten that she wasn't traveling alone anymore, but it all came back at once. "Good morning," she smiled back. "Hang on, I'll change inside." She'd intended to take off her pajama shirt outside, where there was space to maneuver, but that would be weird to do in front of a stranger.
When she came out again, she packed quickly, and used her own remaining rations for their shared breakfast, insisting on repaying Aaron for the curry dinner. Just as they hefted their backpacks onto their backs and were ready to go, though, Aaron tilted his head and walked over to a specific tree, oddly slowly.
"Aaron?" Mary-Sue asked.
Not even glancing at her, he reached up and lightly stroked a single leaf. "Excuse me," he said, and he didn't seem to be talking to Mary-Sue. "You've done a wonderful job growing this leaf. May I have it, please? I promise to value it." He pinched the stem and pulled lightly, and the leaf snapped off. "Thank you," Aaron said, bobbing his head in a quick bow to the tree.
"Uh…" Mary-Sue blinked at him as he turned back to her at last. "You…talk to trees?"
"Hey, when you grow up in a fairy forest, you learn to respect the trees," the Galarian boy said with conviction. "You never know if it might be an illusion, or a Shiftry or a Trevenant, or even something worse." He gave her a sheepish smile and relented, "It's become kind of a habit. I'm sorry, that was strange, huh?"
"It's fine," Mary-Sue assured him. "Whatever makes you happy. But what did you want that leaf for?"
"It's perfect," Aaron explained, waving it at her. When she didn't know how to respond to that, he cupped it in his hands. "Look."
Bringing the leaf to his lips point-first, he twisted his fingers around it in a weird way and blew. To Mary-Sue's surprise, a sharp, warbling trill emanated from it as it vibrated too fast to see. Aaron swayed, moving his fingers to change the pitch, and the effect was similar to a flute being played impossibly quickly, an uplifting, energetic tune that really shouldn't have been possible to make with just a leaf.
Mary-Sue gaped at him as he lowered the leaf and grinned. "How did you do that?" she asked, amazed.
"I started with blades of grass," he answered, still smiling, and he carefully tucked the leaf into a pocket of his backpack. "That was the first thing I learned to play. I think that's why most instruments come pretty naturally to me once I figure out how they work. And this leaf is just the most perfect shape and size! I hope Grookey will be able to keep it supple."
There was nothing Mary-Sue could do but shake her head in amazement. "You're…really good at that," she said. "Music, I mean."
"Thanks!" he said brightly. "Like I said, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to make music or Pokémon training my path for a while. But…well, Pokémon are just so interesting, and they inspire my music a lot, so both of my passions are rooted in Pokémon. Plus, I always knew I wanted to go on a journey with my buddy Zigzagoon."
"Maybe…you could do both," Mary-Sue suggested.
"Well…" He shrugged. "I'd like that, but…eh, it's not like I have to make up my mind now. Anyway…" The boy turned in what seemed to Mary-Sue to be a random direction and said, "This way. We should be in Pewter City by nightfall."
"Great!" Mary-Sue chirped, falling into step behind him. "Thank you again for this, Aaron, I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't found you."
"It's not that big of a forest," Aaron dismissed. "Really, Mary, I'm sure you would have found your way out eventually."
"Easy for - wait." She cut off abruptly, her smile dropping. "What did you call me?" she asked.
"I called you Mary," Aaron answered, his tone friendly.
"My name's Mary-Sue," she corrected.
"That's two names," he protested.
"No," Mary-Sue scowled, "it's my name."
"Well, it's a mouthful," he stated. "Come on, can't I please just call you Mary?"
"No," she grumbled. "My name is Mary-Sue."
Aaron sighed. "Names should roll off the tongue easily," he said. "I swear I'm gonna bite my tongue at some point if I call you by your full name. I'd shorten it to 'M.S.', but that sounds like a disease, so…"
"Aaron," Mary-Sue said evenly as her fists curled, "may I please hit you?"
"What?!" he exclaimed, turning back to blink at her.
"I want to hit you right now," the young girl explained, "but mom says it's never okay to hit someone if they're not okay with it. So would you be okay with it if I hit you?"
"Er…no?" Aaron answered, his eyebrows drawing together. "No, I'm not okay with you hitting me. Who would ever be okay with someone hitting them?"
"My mom hits my dad sometimes, and he doesn't mind," Mary-Sue shrugged.
Her companion stared at her for a full minute as they continued walking, only breaking eye contact when he tripped on a root and almost fell, though he caught himself before Mary-Sue could react, returning his attention to the ground. Even then, though, he didn't respond. Things had become awkward, and Mary-Sue searched for a safe change of topic.
"So…you're going to Cerulean City next?" she finally settled on.
"Uh, yeah," he replied shortly.
"You said you got the badges in Viridian and Pewter," she went on. "Have you gotten any others?"
"No, just those two," he answered. "Grookey swept both gyms easily - that was another reason I decided to take some time in Viridian Forest, I hoped to give Zigzagoon and Toxel some more practice. I'm actually kind of surprised Grookey hasn't evolved into a Thwackey yet."
"Hmm," Mary-Sue mused. "Well, maybe it just doesn't want to evolve, there's nothing wrong with that."
"Huh?" He turned back to her, maroon eyebrows raised high.
"Well, several of the Champion's Pokémon chose not to evolve, and they're still incredibly powerful - especially his main partner, Pikachu," Mary-Sue explained, and she couldn't stop the grin that stretched her lips as she thought of Ash Ketchum's signature Pokémon. "That Pikachu has taken down some of the best battlers in the world, and it's not even a Raichu. Apparently, the Champion tried to evolve it once a long time ago, and it rejected the thunderstone. He has other Pokémon that haven't evolved, too, because they didn't want to. Pokémon don't need to evolve to be perfect."
"Hmm…" Aaron frowned pensively, then surprised her with a smile. "I like that," he remarked. "This Champion fella sounds pretty cool."
"Cool?!" Mary-Sue exclaimed. "He's amazing! I grew up watching his battles on TV, he's the greatest Pokémon trainer ever! You really don't know about him?! He started in Pallet Town and…"
The next few hours were filled with Mary-Sue chattering continuously about the wonders of Ash Ketchum, while Aaron slowly gave up on trying to get a word in edgewise and resorted to the occasional grunt and "uh huh" while she babbled. A few things did seem to get his attention, but he seemed mostly focused on navigating the forest, which Mary-Sue appreciated; she was glad she could share stories of the global Pokémon Champion with someone who really seemed to not already know them in return.
Eventually, the trees thinned and gave way to a wide dirt road, just as Mary-Sue was finishing up recounting the day Ash Ketchum first became the global Champion.
"Of course, all of this was before I was even born," she was saying, "but he's had a bunch of interviews and stuff about his journeys, and of course his battles play on TV day and night."
"Uh-huh," Aaron responded for the hundredth time. Planting his feet on the even ground, he pointed to the buildings visible on the horizon. "See there? That's Pewter City."
"Oh wow!" Mary-Sue gasped with relief, hopping once. "Thank you! I don't think I ever would have found it!"
"You would have," Aaron said. "But I'm glad I could help."
"Thanks," she repeated as they resumed their pace. Her smile dimmed slightly as she focused on the not-so-distant rooftops. Now that she was basically out of the forest, she realized she had to start thinking about where to go next. She had three Pokéballs and no other supplies left, and not much money to restock… "Hey, have you seen any Pikachu here?" she asked abruptly.
"Huh?" Aaron turned and blinked at her.
"I was hoping to catch one," Mary-Sue elaborated, "or at least a Pichu. I know they live in Viridian Forest, but they're rare, and I haven't seen one the whole week I spent looking. What about you?"
"A Pikachu…?" He frowned. "What do those look like, anyway?"
"Oh!" Mary-Sue gasped. "I'm sorry, I should have shown you, I just thought…well I guess if you didn't know about the Champion, you wouldn't…" She pulled out her Pokédex and quickly entered a search. "This is a Pikachu," she told him, holding up the device as it displayed a picture of the bright yellow creature.
"Hmm…" Aaron peered at the screen. "No, I don't think I've seen any of those in this forest," he told her. "Sorry."
"Ohh…" Mary-Sue sighed heavily, pocketing her electronic encyclopedia.
"Why do you want to find one so bad?" he asked.
"Because Ash Ketchum has one!" Mary-Sue exclaimed.
"You keep going on about how his Pikachu is special, though," Aaron pointed out. "Just catching a wild Pikachu wouldn't get you the same results as using his Pikachu. And you also said yourself that Pikachu are generally weak Pokémon."
"Well, yeah, but…"
"I mean, if you want one, that's cool," Aaron went on, "but I don't see how the Champion having one matters."
"It matters because I wanna be like the Champion!" she stated.
"I think that's more about developing bonds with the Pokémon you meet, not using the same kinds of Pokémon he does," Aaron said. "Isn't that what you said he said being a Pokémon master is all about?"
"I…" Mary-Sue blinked; she'd been worried Aaron hadn't really been paying attention to her all this time. "I mean…yeah," she conceded, sighing. "Maybe you're right. I don't know…Maybe I should just go ahead to Cerulean City, too; I bet Magikarp could handle the gym. Budew could take on Pewter and Viridian, but it needs to learn to fight first, so…maybe if it sees a gym battle, it'll stop refusing."
They walked in silence for a minute, before Aaron slowly said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but…don't you think maybe you should just respect that your Budew doesn't want to fight? You told me to respect if my Grookey doesn't want to evolve…"
"Well, if a Pokémon doesn't want to evolve, that's one thing," Mary-Sue said, "but all Pokémon are supposed to fight! That's just what they do, what they're for! Whatever Budew's problem is, it has to get over it eventually. I mean, what kind of Pokémon refuses to battle? That doesn't make any sense!"
"Hey, kid."
A sudden, unfamiliar voice made both Aaron and Mary-Sue stop in their tracks, turning to the right to see a person who Mary-Sue didn't think had been there a moment earlier. They were dressed in an extremely strange outfit, shiny white plating like armor patched here and there across their entire body over tight black fabric. On their head was a white helmet, with a black visor that covered everything above the nose, making it impossible to see the person's eyes, or anything other than the fact that they were smiling; coming out the back of their neck were two tails of a chestnut scarf, though Mary-Sue mistook them for hair for a moment.
"Sorry," the person said, "I didn't mean to startle you. But I couldn't help overhearing, and I like what you're saying. Pokémon are just tools for fighting, yeah?"
"I, uh…" Mary-Sue blinked and frowned. "I don't know about tools," she said hesitantly, "but I mean, Pokémon are for battling."
"Good to see a kid who gets it," grinned the man.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Aaron asked.
"I'm with a group dedicated to unlocking the true power of Pokémon," the stranger replied. "We've developed a technique to turn any Pokémon into a fighting machine. Did I hear you have a Pokémon who won't battle?"
"Y-Yeah," Mary-Sue stammered, "my Budew. I order it to attack, and it just won't."
"We can fix that easily," the man smiled, and he held out a hand. "Just give it to me, and I'll have my boss handle it."
"And why should we trust you?" Aaron asked pointedly, blue eyes narrow. "What, you want us to just give you our Pokémon?"
"No, of course not!" the man laughed, and he refocused on Mary-Sue. "You've got the right attitude," he told her. "You understand what's important. I'm asking you to join us - we're always open to new members."
"Members…?" Mary-Sue repeated.
"You don't have to," he clarified, raising his hands. "We can just fix your Budew and you can go on your way. But those of us who understand what Pokémon are for really oughta stick together."
"You said you…want to unlock the true power of Pokémon?" Mary-Sue repeated, unclipping Budew's Pokéball. "But…Pokémon just need to be raised with love, trust, and understanding…"
"Oh, don't buy into all that garbage," the stranger dismissed. "Just come with me, my group has a much better way. I promise you, your Budew will be a fighting machine by tonight."
"You can say that all you like," Aaron spoke up coolly, "but we have no reason to believe you. Come on, Mary," he added to Mary-Sue, "let's get away from this creep."
"My name's Mary-Sue," she corrected. "And…" She turned back to the strange man, lips twisting in uncertainty. "I…"
"Would it help if I show you one of our success cases?" the stranger asked, taking out a Pokéball.
"Sure," Mary-Sue replied immediately. "Yeah, I want some proof that you're not just trying to kidnap me."
The man chuckled, then tossed the ball. "Come on out, Bibarel," he called.
"Biba!" A large, brown Pokémon with a massive tail materialized from the capsule, large eyes gleaming with ferocity over giant buck teeth.
"A Bibarel!" Mary-Sue gasped. "Those are mostly found in Sinnoh, where there are more rivers…"
"Bi ba," the creature snarled at her. Though it didn't approach, its expression was almost scary, as though it couldn't think about anything but how much it craved a battle.
"It…It looks so strong," Mary-Sue breathed.
"It could take down any Pokémon you send out," boasted the stranger. "Do you want a demonstration, or will you take my word for it?"
"I…" The thought of sending out Magikarp against this beast made Mary-Sue's chest tighten. "No, I believe you…"
"What the…?"
"Huh?" Mary-Sue blinked and turned to Aaron, who was staring at the Bibarel with a furrowed brow. He rubbed his eyes, blinked rapidly, looked at the Bibarel, then rubbed his eyes again.
"What…What's wrong with that Pokémon?" the boy asked. "What did you do to it?"
"What are you talking about?" Mary-Sue asked him.
"Can't you see it?!" he exclaimed. "It's got this, like, black cloud around it!"
"Uh…" It was Mary-Sue's turn to blink, and she looked back at the vicious Pokémon. "It…just looks like a Bibarel to me. A really strong one."
"So you can see it, huh?" the man said softly, and a chill ran down Mary-Sue's spine at his tone. "Well…that's unfortunate." Turning his shielded face to his Pokémon, the man barked, "Bibarel, that boy is a threat! Deal with it!"
"Biba!" it hissed, its toes digging into the dirt as it prepared to pounce.
"Wait, what-?!"
Before Mary-Sue could get the question out, the Bibarel lunged at Aaron. The foreign trainer let out a startled cry, barely managing to react in time as he dove out of the way of the creature's charge. Mid-tackle, the Bibarel turned and snapped its jaws at the boy, its massive teeth catching Aaron's upper arm.
Bright red splashed into the air, and Mary-Sue's world stopped.
Time itself seemed to grind to a halt as Mary-Sue's vision focused entirely on that crimson spray, unable to believe what she was seeing. One of the most mysterious things about Pokémon was that, despite their incredible power, it was actually very rare for a person to suffer any sort of injury from one of their attacks; there were one or two reported instances of it happening, just enough that it was confirmed to be possible, but for the most part, people - or even other Pokémon - who suffered the brunt of a Pokémon move only experienced pain, with no lasting damage. Body Slams, Hyper Beams, Flamethrowers, and Ice Beams had hit countless people throughout even recent history, and the victims always came away unscathed. Though there was still no definitive explanation for this, the most commonly accepted theory was that somehow, Pokémon had the power to choose how much damage was inflicted on their targets, regardless of the strength of their attacks, and generally avoided wounding people or other Pokémon unless it was absolutely necessary, preferring to make their point with temporary pain.
For Aaron to be bleeding, that had to mean this Bibarel wanted to injure him. Maybe even…
Aaron screamed and tumbled across the dirt, grabbing his arm as his life spilled from the wound. Mary-Sue couldn't breathe, couldn't move, the blood in her veins seemed to have turned to ice; never had she felt fear like this, dreamed of fear like this. This was a nightmare, it had to be - surely, if only she could open her eyes forcefully enough, she would wake up in her tent, still lost in Viridian Forest.
But the illusion didn't fade as Bibarel spat its name and turned on Aaron to lunge at him again. Aaron could only curl up in a desperate bid to protect himself, tears streaming from his eyes as they squeezed shut-
"Pluplu, Mimi, Shock Wave!"
Suddenly, a new voice cut into the scene, and two pulses of electricity arced through the air and struck Bibarel just before it landed. It cried out, its momentum halted by the attack, and it fell back, stunned.
Dazed, Mary-Sue looked past Aaron to the newcomer: a girl, significantly older than her, was running towards them, flanked by a Plusle and a Minun. Her long, cobalt-blue hair was long enough to reach her waist, but all the hair on the sides of her head that might have gotten in her face was bunched and tied up into two tight balls at her temples. She wore a fitted black shirt, black denim shorts, blue stockings, and heavy-looking black boots; over that, what looked to be a white lab coat flapped about at her knees. What was most striking, though, was an odd set of mechanisms that seemed to encase her left arm, plates and wires leading down from a device clipped over her left ear and thickening into a sort of armored glove covered in little flashing lights.
"You?!" The angry exclamation drew Mary-Sue's attention back to the armored stranger, who was baring his teeth and taking a defensive stance.
"Cipher!" the girl shouted, snarling at the man as she came to a stop a few paces away. "You're attacking kids now?!" she demanded, brandishing her bare hand in a violent gesture. "Are there any lows you won't sink to?!"
Growling wordlessly, the stranger's head turned back and forth, as though he was looking for something. "What are you doing here, brat?" he hissed at the girl. "Is your rotten brother going to show up?"
"I don't need my brother to deal with you, peon," the teenager sneered.
"Plus!"
"Min!"
The two electric rodents at her feet stepped forward, both focused on the Bibarel that was getting back up, determined expressions on their little faces.
"We'll see about that," scoffed the man. "Bibarel, use Shadow Rush! We'll take this meddling kid down here and now!"
"Shadow…?" Mary-Sue breathed. That's not a Pokémon move…
"Bibarel!" the furious monster hissed, and it seemed to almost crackle with an odd sort of power as it lunged at its new opponents.
"Look out!" the girl shouted, and her Pokémon tried to dodge; the Plusle didn't quite make it, though, taking a heavy blow from the Bibarel's broad tail.
"Plu!" yelped the little creature, but it managed to get up from where it landed.
"Minun, use Helping Hand!" the girl ordered. "And Plusle, use Thunderbolt, give it all you've got!"
"Min!"
"Plus!"
"But…" Mary-Sue's head spun as the duo prepared to obey. Two on one isn't fair…
"Plus-le!" trumpeted the red-tipped creature as it took in its partner's power and unleashed a bright blue beam of lightning, far stronger than the previous shocks.
"Biiibaaaaaa!" cried the Bibarel as it took the attack, immobilized by the force. When the Plusle's attack ended, the brown creature slumped to the ground.
When Mary-Sue turned her attention back to the other trainer, the older girl was lifting her left arm, a Pokéball appearing in her hand from somewhere and expanding to its active form as the device lit up and flashed, causing the capsule to glow. "Go, Snag Ball!" the girl shouted, and she hurled the altered Pokéball at the Bibarel.
But that Pokémon's already owned!
The ball connected with the Bibarel and opened, but instead of the downed Pokémon dissolving into a red cloud, what seemed to be a massive clawed hand made of light emerged from the device and scooped the Bibarel inside. It closed, tumbling to the ground and shaking wildly as it let off shimmering gold-and-violet smoke.
Then, it clicked and ping!ed, signaling a successful capture.
"But how…?" Mary-Sue whispered, too stunned to even drop to her knees.
With heavy, confident steps, the older girl strode forward and picked up the ball containing the stolen Pokémon. As she pocketed it, her eyes, the same bright blue as her hair, lifted to focus on the armored stranger. "Now then," she said coldly, "you're going to answer my questions, Cipher grunt."
Mary-Sue somehow managed to turn to look at the man whose partner had just been taken from him. He was visibly gnashing his teeth, even as he took a step back. "Gotta run," he muttered to himself, and he turned and dove into the trees.
"Get back here!" the girl shouted, sprinting after him, and as Mary-Sue watched, the teenager tackled the armored man to the ground and pinned him.
"Aagh!" the strange man cried out. "Get off me!"
"Not a chance," his assailant snarled. "Where's your boss, huh, peon? Where's Ardos?! What's he up to?! Tell me right now!"
"STOOOOOOOOOOOP!"
The shriek that came out of Mary-Sue's throat barely registered as being her own as, without thinking, she hurled herself at the taller girl, shoving with all her strength to rescue the man from her grip.
"What are you doing?!" yelped the blue-haired teenager, only really struggling to grapple with Mary-Sue out of surprise. Beneath them, the armored man squirmed his way free, stumbled to his feet, and started running again.
"Wait, don't go!" Mary-Sue called after him, even as the older trainer shoved her and she tumbled hard onto the grass. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her Pokédex. "I'll call for help, this has a distress call-"
"Mimi, Quick Attack, grab that!" the other girl shouted quickly.
"Mi mi!"
A blue and white streak darted in front of Mary-Sue, yanking the electronic encyclopedia from her hand; in the time it took her to flinch, the Minun handed the device to its trainer, who reached into one of the pockets of her long white coat and took out a sharp tool.
"Sorry, kid," the teenager grunted, digging the point into the button that would call for officials and levering it out before sticking it back into the resulting hole and snapping a wire. "I can't have you getting the police involved." With no further explanation, she dropped the broken device on the ground and turned to run after the man who'd disappeared into the brush.
Eyes burning, vision blurring, Mary-Sue lurched to her feet and grabbed the second capsule on her backpack strap. "Magikarp, Tackle her!" she screamed, throwing the Pokéball with all her strength.
"Karp kaaarp!" trumpeted her reliable orange fish as it appeared, and it flew through the air and smacked into the retreating girl's back with a forceful slap of its tail.
"Oof!" The girl fell flat on her face, and Mary-Sue dove at her before she could get up, trying to pin her as she had the strange man before. "Get off of me!" shouted the girl, tossing and turning to try to dislodge the younger trainer. "You have no idea what you're interfering in! I can't let him get away!"
"Stop it stop it stop it stop it stop it!" Mary-Sue wailed, feebly punching the thief. "You stole someone's Pokémon! I won't let you get away with that!"
"I rescued that Pokémon!" snapped the other girl as she finally managed to fling Mary-Sue away. "You don't know what's going on here, kid," she snapped, glaring down at her junior.
"But you do."
A weak voice caught the attention of both girls, and they turned to see Aaron shuffling towards them, gripping his arm. He was pale, his tearstained face contorted in pain; red fluid was still seeping between his fingers and spilling down his skin. The sight of his blood shocked Mary-Sue all over again, her breath catching in her throat.
"You know…what was wrong with that Bibarel, don't you?" Aaron asked the older girl through gritted teeth. "Why it had that…that dark cloud around it?"
"Dark cloud?" All the anger evaporated from the teenager's face, and she stepped closer to the wounded boy. "What do you mean? What did you see?"
"It had this…like…shadowy fog around it," Aaron managed. "Aagh…" He dropped to his knees, breathing hard.
"Are you telling me you can see Shadow Pokémon's auras?!" the girl gasped, and she ran over to him, kneeling at his side.
"Shadow Pokémon…?" Aaron rasped.
The blue-haired girl glanced over her shoulder in the direction the armored man had gone, then sighed heavily. "I guess he already got away," she murmured, and she turned her attention to Aaron. "Here, let me see your injury."
Groaning with pain, Aaron allowed the strange girl to gently prize his fingers away from the gash. More red spurted forth, pouring down his arm and dripping in the grass.
"Ooh, that got you good, didn't it?" the girl murmured. "You probably shouldn't have put your hand on it…" As she spoke, she set down her backpack and started digging through it, quickly pulling out a rope and tying it around Aaron's arm above the wound. "I'll patch you up," she told him. "Here, I have to clean it first; this is really gonna hurt, but I promise it's for the best."
"H-Hey," Mary-Sue choked, stumbling towards them. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Go away," the older girl snapped at her as she wetted a white cloth with fluid in a dark brown bottle. "You've caused enough trouble."
"It's not her fault," Aaron protested faintly; he looked and sounded like he was going to pass out.
"Shh," the girl gently admonished him. "Don't strain yourself. Now, take a deep breath, this is really gonna hurt."
"Don't you dare hurt him!" Mary-Sue yelped, lunging forward.
"I said go away, kid!" the strange girl snapped, whipping around to smack Mary-Sue across the face to deflect her, and Mary-Sue fell on her side. "This has nothing to do with you!"
Mary-Sue tried to push herself up, but her arms and legs refused to obey her. Trembling, she struggled to breathe, her vision completely clouding over; all the confusion and frustration that had been building since the confrontation with that first Rattata poured through her chest and spilled over, and before she could stop herself, she screwed up her face and wailed, almost loudly enough to drown out Aaron's cry of pain, before finally dissolving into violent, wretched tears.
Nothing made sense anymore. Pokémon that wouldn't fight, Pokémon that hurt people, Pokémon being stolen from their trainers…everything Mary-Sue had ever believed about being a Pokémon trainer seemed to be falling apart. She desperately wanted to go home, to hug her mom and dad and sleep in her bed and watch the Champion's battles on TV and just go back to a world where things made sense. As she sobbed, curled up in the grass, she didn't hear any of the words exchanged between Aaron and the mysterious girl, didn't hear Magikarp flopping at her side or offering her babbles of reassurance, didn't notice time passing; she was aware that she was crying like a baby in front of a stranger, but that just made her cry harder.
It wasn't supposed to be this way.
It was a long, long time before Mary-Sue's tears subsided; her face, wet and plastered with grass, tingled and burned, her body aching from the force of her sobs. She got to her knees and wiped her eyes, hiccuping and sniffling, looking up to see that it was almost sunset.
"Karp karp?"
She turned to her side and saw Magikarp flopping lightly beside her, the upwards-facing eye fixed on her with something like concern.
"Karp?" it asked her.
"O-Oh…I'm sorry…" Mary-Sue croaked, retrieving Magikarp's Pokéball. "I…I didn't mean to leave you out here. Return."
"Kaaarp," it mumbled as it dissolved in a cloud of red light and returned to its home.
Looking around, Mary-Sue didn't see Aaron or the blue-haired girl anywhere. "H-Hello?" she tried to call out through her ravaged throat. "Aaron? Are you there?" Did he just leave me? came the devastated thought, and she whimpered, fresh tears pouring down her face.
"Plusle!"
"Min min!"
Squeaks made Mary-Sue open her eyes again, and she saw the Plusle and Minun that belonged to the strange girl trotting over to her.
"Plusle," chirped the red one, and it turned and hopped.
"Min min," agreed the blue one, waving one tiny paw.
"You…want me to follow you?" Mary-Sue whispered.
"Plus!"
"Min!"
"O…Okay…" Grabbing a leaf off the ground to blow her nose, Mary-Sue struggled to her feet and stumbled after the two electric-type Pokémon as they led her a little ways further into the forest.
Within seconds, Mary-Sue's sniffles allowed her to smell a fire, and then she was in a small clearing, where Aaron was leaning against a tree and the blue-haired girl sat on a log across a small campfire from him. As Mary-Sue approached, the older girl looked up at her, her expression none too pleased.
"You done crying yet?" she asked bluntly.
Mary-Sue sniffed. "I…I'm sorry," she whimpered. "I just…I don't understand…and…"
"Take it easy, Mary-Sue," Aaron said. She looked at him, and though he still seemed tired, he smiled at her.
"Aaron," she breathed. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Jovi patched me up," Aaron said, gesturing to the thick bandage that covered his upper arm. "She says I just need food and rest for a couple of days and I'll be fine."
"'Jovi'?" Mary-Sue repeated, turning her attention back to the newcomer.
The girl gave her a very forced smile. "Why don't you sit down?" she offered, gesturing to the grass by the fire. "Aaron insisted I wait for you before I explain what's going on."
"I think we're both owed some answers," Aaron stated as Mary-Sue sank to her knees. "What was wrong with that Bibarel?"
"And how did you steal that man's Pokémon?" Mary-Sue added.
"I didn't steal it, I rescued it," the girl groaned, already sounding irritated. She took a deep breath, then sat up straight. "Okay, how about we start with introductions?"
"Well, I'm Aaron," Aaron offered, "from Ballonlea, Galar."
"And I'm Mary-Sue, from Celadon City, Kanto," Mary-Sue added.
"Right," the older girl nodded. "Well, my name is Jovi, and I'm from the Orre Region."
"The Orre Region?" Mary-Sue and Aaron looked at each other to confirm that they weren't the only one confused. Satisfied, Mary-Sue shook her head. "I've never heard of it," she said.
"Yeah, we get that a lot," Jovi sighed. "We're not much of a region, really. There's a barren desert, a sheer, rocky mountain range, and a raging river separating us from Unova, even Pokémon don't come to us by land, and the sea around our port isn't the easiest to navigate."
"Huh." Mary-Sue glanced at Aaron again, but his eyes were fixed on the older girl.
"Pokémon don't come to you?" he asked.
"That's right," Jovi nodded. "I guess that's…kind of where it all started." She took another deep breath and settled onto her log, elbows propped up on her legs. "See, a few generations ago, decades before I was born, wild Pokémon kind of…disappeared, from the Orre Region."
"Disappeared?" Mary-Sue asked.
"Mostly, they were caught," Jovi shrugged. "Like I said, Orre's pretty isolated - most of the people who lived there originally were retired trainers and their families, but of course, their kids and grandkids wanted Pokémon, and there wasn't really any restriction on catching them. I guess people didn't realize what was happening until the wilds just sort of…went barren. Of course, industrialization, like the making of factories and such, didn't help.
"Point is, there were no more wild Pokémon, so if people wanted Pokémon, their options were limited. It was possible to order Pokémon to be shipped to Orre across the sea, but that was complicated and expensive, and…well, since all the Pokémon in the region belonged to someone, the only way to get one was to take it."
"Like you did?" Mary-Sue asked pointedly.
Jovi rolled her eyes and sighed again. "Not like that," she said. Then she relented, "Though I guess you're not totally wrong. See, the lack of wild Pokémon inspired the formation of a group called Team Snagem, who were dedicated to stealing Pokémon for themselves; out of necessity, they designed a machine that could alter Pokéballs to catch Pokémon that had already been caught.
"Then, about sixteen years ago - a year before I was born - one member of the team basically went rogue. He sabotaged the entire organization, blew up their headquarters and original Snag Machine, and made off with the portable Snag Machine they'd just finished designing. No one really knows why he did it, but…it turned out to be good that he did, because at that exact time, a new group was just starting to bring their own plans together, a team called Cipher."
"Cipher," Mary-Sue breathed. "That's…what you called that guy."
"That's right," Jovi nodded. "See, it wasn't just catching Pokémon that was limited at the time, training them was difficult, too - again, with no wild Pokémon to practice on, people had to depend on each other for battles, and that wasn't good enough for Cipher. I don't know exactly how they started - I guess maybe they saw an opportunity in Orre, a region full of weak tame Pokémon and no wild Pokémon - but they wanted to create an army of powerful Pokémon and…I don't know, conquer the world or something. So…" The teenager sighed heavily, blue eyes going distant as they gazed into the flames. "Somehow - we don't know how, and frankly, we don't want to - they developed a way to artificially close the doors to Pokémon's hearts."
"Close…the doors to their hearts?" Mary-Sue repeated, blinking. "What does that mean?"
"We don't know exactly what it means," Jovi admitted, "only what the effects are. Basically, when the door to a Pokémon's heart is sealed shut, it loses all its memories, all its personality, everything that makes it unique, and turns into a mindless weapon, what we call a Shadow Pokémon. Shadow Pokémon are perfectly obedient to whoever owns their Pokéball, and only understand violence. The power they use is devastating against all other Pokémon that aren't Shadow Pokémon, and they won't hesitate to attack people when ordered to."
Mary-Sue looked at Aaron again, at the bandage on his arm.
"Going back to the guy who sabotaged Team Snagem," Jovi continued, "just as he got away from the explosion, he ran into some Cipher members who were trying to kidnap a young woman because she could somehow see Shadow Pokémon's auras."
"See their auras?" This came from Aaron, and he sat up straighter even as he winced in pain.
"That's right," Jovi confirmed, "just like you. To my knowledge, no one else has been able to see their auras without help - which is what this is for." She tapped the device clipped to her left ear. "This lets me see their auras - but I'll get to that. Anyway, the Snagem deserter rescued the girl, and together they uncovered Cipher's plot, rescued all the Shadow Pokémon Cipher had made using the Snag Machine the boy had stolen, exposed Cipher's leader, and completely took them down."
"Why bother rescuing the Shadow Pokémon, though?" Mary-Sue asked.
"Because Shadow Pokémon can be cured," Jovi answered. "At the time, there was only one way to do it: a trainer had to spend time with a Shadow Pokémon, treat it kindly and build a bond with it, slowly opening the door to its heart, until it was ready for the final lock to be released using the Relic Stone in Agate Village - an old monument in Orre's only real forest that's said to hold the power of Celebi. Apparently, it forces Shadow Pokémon to relive their happiest memories, and that completely purifies them, returning them to normal.
"So yeah, the two heroes of the original Shadow Pokémon Incident took down Cipher and rescued and purified all the Shadow Pokémon. But my dad…" Jovi sighed heavily, an air of melancholy settling over her. "My dad was worried that something like it might happen again. He shared his worries with the Professor of our region, Professor Krane, and together, the two of them started working on developing countermeasures for Shadow Pokémon." Again, she put a hand to the device on her ear. "This Aura Reader is one of their designs - a device that can detect and reveal Shadow Pokémon to people who can't see them naturally. And this…" She lifted her left arm, brandishing the device covering it. "…is a modified version of the Snag Machine, designed to only become active when the Aura Reader it's attached to detects a Shadow Pokémon - stealing other people's Pokémon is wrong, it's really shady tech, so my father and Professor Krane put failsafes on the design so it couldn't just be used to steal any Pokémon."
"So then…that Bibarel…" Mary-Sue said slowly.
"Finally catching on, kid?" Jovi asked, almost bitterly. "Yeah, that Bibarel was a Shadow Pokémon. See, five years after the first Shadow Pokémon Incident, Cipher returned, just like my dad thought they would." Bowing her head, she said softly, "He didn't live to see it happen, he died before that day…he didn't even live to see the completion of his magnum opus, the Purification Chamber - a method he designed to artificially purify Shadow Pokémon without the need for the Relic Stone."
"I'm so sorry," Aaron offered.
"It's okay," Jovi sighed, "I don't even remember him. But when I was four years old, Cipher came to our lab and kidnapped Professor Krane, hoping to use his research on purifying Shadow Pokémon to find a way to create Shadow Pokémon that could never, ever be purified. They'd already designed a prototype, and used its power to steal an entire cruise ship full of Pokémon that were bound for the Orre Region, but it wasn't perfect."
"How did it steal a whole ship?" Mary-Sue asked.
"It was a Lugia," Jovi explained casually. "The first XD Shadow Pokémon, codenamed XD001."
"XD?"
"Short for 'Extra Dimension'," Jovi clarified. "Anyway…like I said, they wanted Professor Krane to help them 'perfect' their XD Shadow Pokémon design. My brother Michael was ten years old at the time, and he was the best trainer at the lab - he mostly battled in simulations, of course, but he had our father's Eevee, too, so…he was really the only person they could send. He was given a Snag Machine and an Aura Reader while my mom helped the rest of the lab workers finish the Purification Chamber, and Michael went out and…took Cipher down again. It turned out this really rich guy, Mr. Verich - or, as he was known to Cipher, Master Greevil - had taken control of Cipher and revitalized all their plans." A scowl twisted Jovi's lips for some reason as she concluded, "My brother went all over Orre, raiding Cipher's hideouts, exposing their plans, rescuing people and Shadow Pokémon and the Professor, and eventually stormed their headquarters and took down Greevil.
"The thing was…" Jovi sighed heavily again, hugging her knees. "Greevil had two sons, Ardos and Eldes. Eldes, the younger son, was inspired by my brother and managed to convince his father to abandon his plans and disband Cipher, but the older son, Ardos…well, he wasn't convinced. My brother was confronting them all alone, so there wasn't much he could do to stop Ardos from getting away.
"Wild Pokémon started reappearing around then, too, if only a few - we still aren't sure why, but it seemed like maybe people wouldn't be so inclined to join Cipher anymore, even when catching regulations started being enforced…but, a lot of us at the lab were kind of worried about Ardos still being out there. He occasionally appeared at a local Colosseum for a little while, but then he vanished entirely; all the authorities scoured Orre for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Professor Krane got concerned that Ardos might go somewhere we couldn't find him, and attack a region that wasn't equipped to handle Shadow Pokémon, so he reached out to the Professors of all the other regions and told them what to watch out for.
"When I was eight years old, Professor Juniper in the Unova Region called the lab with word that there had been signs of Shadow Pokémon activity. We were the only ones in the world who could handle the situation, so we all…set out, to chase Cipher. My brother was the hero of Orre, and my mom was Professor Krane's right hand, so I kinda got dragged along with everyone else. We spent a year rooting Cipher out of Unova, but Ardos slipped away, and before we could even book a ferry home, word of him came to us from Professor Sycamore in Kalos. We spent two years there, and I had my tenth birthday in the meantime, so I started training to help out. Once again, Ardos got away by the time we chased them out of the region, only to reappear in Galar." Her frown deepened, blue eyes glinting with something like anger. "We spent four years combatting them in Galar. Four years. The mess they left behind was monumental, and we didn't even manage to catch Ardos in the end. When we heard a few months ago that there was reason to believe he'd come here, to Kanto, my brother was still working on cleaning up Galar. So…I was sent ahead, alone, to keep an eye on things, and report on Cipher's movements as much as possible." She turned her glare on Mary-Sue. "That Cipher Peon you let get away was the first lead I've managed to find in the three months I've been here," she stated.
"I'm sorry," Mary-Sue said in a small voice.
"How come I never heard about this?" Aaron spoke up. "I only transferred out of Galar a couple of months ago myself."
"Yeah, you wouldn't have heard about it," Jovi grumbled. "Pretty much the whole of Team Spirit wants to keep the public unaware of what's going on as much as possible, partly to prevent global panic, partly because they don't want to advertise Cipher's agenda to anyone who might be inspired to join them."
"But if people don't know, they can't help," Aaron pointed out, and Jovi's head shot up from where she'd been all but cradling it in her arms. "Like Mary-Sue today - if she'd known about Shadow Pokémon, she wouldn't have stopped you from capturing that Cipher guy, she probably would have even helped."
"Thank you!" Jovi cried, waving her hands in a dramatic gesture. "Finally, someone gets it! I've been trying to tell everyone that for years! Spreading the word in was the way to go in Orre when Cipher was contained there, and we had people helping us all over the place! Just like I've been trying to tell everyone that we don't have Cipher on the run, that they're plotting something bigger than just region-by-region takeovers! But noooo," she mocked, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "no one ever listens to Jovi. Jovi's just the hero's annoying kid sister, nothing Jovi says is worth listening to! Ugh," she growled, planting her chin on her arms again. "I'm pretty sure the only reason I was sent on ahead was because everyone wanted to shut me up."
No one said anything for a minute. Eventually, Minun walked over and poked Jovi's leg, and she let out a breath and reached down to pet its ears, to which Plusle quickly joined in.
"…Team Spirit?" Mary-Sue eventually asked.
"The Shadow Pokémon Rescue Team," Jovi explained. "That's what all of us who left Orre to chase Cipher decided to call ourselves, but it was too long; we tried abbreviating to S.P.R.T., but then my mom pointed out that that kinda spells 'spirit', and since that lines up with what we're about, we rebranded to Team Spirit. Our proper name is the Shadow Pokémon Rescue Team, though."
"Uh-huh." Mary-Sue turned her gaze to the low-burning fire; around them, the forest had gotten dark, though the sky wasn't black enough to show stars just yet. "So…um…is it really so bad, making Shadow Pokémon?" she asked.
"What?!" both Aaron and Jovi sat up and exclaimed at the same time.
"I mean…they get strong, right?" Mary-Sue all but pleaded. "That guy said that it - it unlocks their true power. It helps them fight better. Is that so awful? Closing the doors to their hearts sounds bad, but…maybe it helps them? Maybe they like it?"
"Shadow Pokémon don't 'like' anything," Jovi said sternly. "Everything that makes them who they are is taken from them - they're suffering, you idiot. They can't even use their natural abilities anymore."
"But…" Mary-Sue trailed off as her eyes started burning again.
"Pokémon aren't tools of war, Mary-Sue," Aaron said softly. "They're so much more than that. Reducing them to weapons is just…cruel."
"Glad someone here has sense," Jovi sighed, and she stood up, turning her attention to him. "Now that I've explained what's going on, I want you to explain what you see." She took out the Pokéball from earlier and opened it, a white flash revealing a large, buck-toothed Pokémon.
"Bibarel," growled the stolen Pokémon.
"Bibarel, I am your trainer now," Jovi told it firmly, placing a hand on its head. "You must obey me. I command you to hold still."
"Biba…" it hissed, but it went completely motionless.
"Please, Aaron, tell me," Jovi said to the maroon-haired boy, "what exactly do you see when you look at this Bibarel?"
"There's just a…a purpleish-black, shadowy cloud around it," Aaron answered slowly, tilting his head and peering at the creature. "If I squint just right, I can see what Mary-Sue sees - like, just a Bibarel, without an…aura, you called it? But seeing it that way looks kind of like an illusion you'd find in Ballonlea Forest."
"An illusion?" Jovi prompted.
"When you grow up in a dark forest full of fairy-type Pokémon, you have to learn to see through tricks pretty quickly, or you'll wind up a Phantump," Aaron said. "Every illusion has a way to see through it. I've…always been kinda good at it, though any one of my friends could do the same."
"Interesting," Jovi mused. "When I call my brother with my incident report, I'll ask him to talk to people in Ballonlea and see if he can find anyone else like you, who can see Shadow Pokémon's auras without an Aura Reader." She smiled. "Thank you for your help," she told him.
"I don't see how it's that much help," Aaron pointed out.
"You could help more," Jovi said, and it didn't sound like an irritated remark so much as an offer. "I'm totally dependent on my Aura Reader to find Shadow Pokémon; if you travel with me, I'd have a backup I could count on."
"Travel with you?" Aaron repeated. "I…I don't know…"
"Doesn't the Aura Reader need to recognize a Shadow Pokémon to activate your Snag Machine?" Mary-Sue spoke up.
"There's a manual override," Jovi dismissed. "Everyone knows I'm not gonna steal Pokémon that aren't in need of rescue, so I've been told how to deactivate the failsafes if it comes to that. But without the Aura Reader, I'd be sunk…unless Aaron helps. Think about it?" she asked him.
"Maybe," he mumbled.
Sighing heavily, Jovi turned back to the immobile Bibarel and reached into her backpack. "In the meantime, the Purification Chambers are all full with the victims in Galar," she said, though Mary-Sue wasn't sure who she was talking to, if anyone, "so I might as well try to do things the old-fashioned way." She pulled out a sleek case and opened it, removing a small spritzer bottle and holding it up to the angry creature. "Hold still, Bibarel, and try to relax," she said to it soothingly; "I'm going to give you a massage."
"Biba…" it growled, but it held still as instructed as Jovi sprayed it with something that smelled vibrant and rejuvenating and began rubbing it into the Pokémon's fur. "Biibaaa…" Its eyes half-closed as Jovi worked.
After a minute, Jovi straightened up and lifted her Snag Machine, pressing buttons on the back of her forearm, and a screen lifted from the series of small metal plates. A Pokédex? Mary-Sue thought. "Ugh," Jovi groaned, "that hardly did anything! Even the lowest grunts' Shadow Pokémon are getting tough to purify. I swear, if we don't do something soon, they'll all be XDs…"
"What's going on?" Mary-Sue asked.
"The Snag Machine provides data on the Shadow Pokémon it snags, displaying how close it is to being ready for the final phase of purification," Jovi told her. "Massaging them with a Vivid Scent should have a significant effect, but I'm seeing almost no change in this Bibarel's heart gauge." She slumped back to her log, sitting down heavily. "How can Team Spirit deny that Cipher's getting stronger?" she muttered to herself. "We don't have them on the ropes, they're obviously planning something bigger…"
"And XDs can't be purified?" Mary-Sue remembered out loud.
"They can, but not by conventional means," Jovi sighed. "My brother found a way to purify Shadow Lugia, but it took everything we had. We've been increasing the strength of the Purification Chambers since then in case more XDs turned up, but…well, we can only do so much at a time."
"Hmm." At some point, Mary-Sue had shifted to sit cross-legged; now, she curled up and hugged her knees tightly to her chest.
Beside her, Aaron shifted, fumbling one-handed in his backpack, and Mary-Sue turned just in time to see him take out his harmonica. Wincing, he brought up his other arm to cup the instrument in both his hands, but when he began to blow, his playing wasn't impeded at all. The song was profoundly sad and mournful, and Mary-Sue thought she could feel the notes resonating within her. It almost felt like she understood what he was playing, as though the tune was a spoken language she hadn't known she already knew.
"Bi…ba…" Bibarel began rocking slightly with the music, its eyes going lidded again.
Jovi looked up, then started tapping buttons on her device. "Oh my gosh!" she gasped.
"What, what?" Aaron asked, cutting off his tune.
"No no, keep playing," Jovi urged him with a wave of her free hand, still staring at the small screen. "Just keep playing."
"Okay…" Aaron lifted the harmonica to his lips again and continued to blow. Bibarel had gone still during the brief pause, its beady eyes turning cruel again, but it calmed and resumed slowly rocking back and forth as the sad song filled the clearing once more.
"Incredible," Jovi breathed. "Aaron…your music is having the same effect on Bibarel that being in a Purification Chamber would."
"Aaron's really good at music," Mary-Sue offered. "He almost chose to be a musician instead of a Pokémon trainer. You should hear what he can do with a leaf."
Jovi's cobalt eyes shone in the low light as she stared at the boy with the harmonica. "Aaron," she said softly. Then, a bit louder, "Aaron?"
"Hm?" He stopped playing and looked up at her.
"Won't you please join Team Spirit?" Jovi asked him, almost begging. "Between your eye for auras and your musical talent, you could do wonders helping us stop Cipher."
"I…" Aaron frowned, staring hard at Bibarel, who was already rousing from its passive state. "I don't know…I'll…I'll sleep on it," he said at last, punctuating his decision with a tremendous yawn.
"Right, of course, you need to rest," Jovi said quickly. "Um…" She glanced at Mary-Sue. "We already ate, are you hungry?"
"Yeah," Mary-Sue mumbled, "but I'm tired, too."
"Okay…well, you can have some of my crackers, I guess," Jovi said, pulling a small package out of her backpack and handing it to Mary-Sue; with her other hand, she returned Bibarel to its Pokéball. Mary-Sue took the half-empty packet, and Jovi stomped out what was left of the fire. "Let's get some sleep," she declared. "We'll talk more in the morning."
"Sounds good to me," Aaron groaned, and he heaved himself to his feet and stumbled to where his tent had been pitched a little ways out of the clearing.
What was presumably Jovi's tent poked out from the trees a short ways away, too, and the older girl was already walking towards it by the time Mary-Sue got to her feet, stuffing crackers into her mouth even as she walked over to the most even space in the clearing and dropped her backpack, ready to pitch her own canvas shelter. Exhausted though she was, Mary-Sue had gotten used to setting it up in the almost-dark, and it was with tremendous relief that she sealed herself inside, let her hair down, changed into her pajama shirt, and crawled into her sleeping bag.
Nothing makes sense anymore.
To be clear, Jovi's Snag Machine isn't the same one as in Gale of Darkness, it's not as bulky - presumably, after eleven years, Professor Krane would have streamlined the design. I think of it as like a cross between the one in Colosseum and the one in Gale of Darkness - tech-y, but also kinda stylish, more of a gauntlet than a big cyborg arm.
Also, I just heard that Jessie's VA, Rachael Lillis, died recently, and I wanted to say something in her honor. She lived a worthy life, and her work shaped a generation of children - the fact that I'm here writing this story today, and anyone is reading it, attests to that. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Jessie, and even today, her influence on me is clear, I would not be the person I am today without Rachael Lillis's voice acting giving such perfect life to such an iconic character. May she rest in peace, knowing the impact she left behind will live on forever.