One Week after the Weather Institute Raid
Skarm
"What's the logo on that boat?" Winona asked as we cruised up to a dock on a borrowed skiff.
"Looks like Magma to me..." Now I was worried. This seemed like such a good idea 3 hours ago.
"Never mind." Winona swung the boat around.
"I just want to leave some flowers on Bounty's gra--"
"We're not messing with them again."
"10 minutes and you can leave without me." Winona sighed and pulled the boat up to the dock.
“I’ll hold you to that, Skarm.” Winona turned the boat around so it was facing towards the open sea. “Ten minutes-not a second more!”
I said nothing as I approached the visitor center. It was a rather drab, grey building near the entrances to the indoor cemetary and the slopes of the mountain. At least the damn place was open now.
I swung open the door and stepped inside the building. There were a few rangers milling about-all but the one behind the counter left as soon as I entered the room. “Good morning, sir.”
“What is the purpose of your visit, young trainer?” The man looked up at me quizzically, and I thought I caught a glimpse of panic in his eyes.
“I’m here to pay my respects.”
“I applaud your maturity. Unfortunately, we won’t open until 9, so you’ll just have to wait.”
That was a little suspicious. The sign outside said the mountain opened at 8. “Well, I’m in a rush today, I’m afraid. I need to be off by 9. Perhaps you could simply tell me the location of my pokemon’s grave, and I could simply pop off, leave some flowers, and be out of your way.”
“That’s not possible, sir. It’s against protocol to let anyone in after or before hours-grave robbing doesn’t happen all that often, and you don’t look like a bandit, but rules are rules for a reason. I’m sorry.”
“But it’s not too early in the morning.” Maybe Winona was right about the whole “trap” thing. “Your sign says that you open at 8, and it’s 8:15 right now.”
“Really? I must have misread it.”
“Why would you be reading it? You WORK here.” I was about ready to storm out. Something wasn’t right. “Maybe we should go out there and check it out together! What do you think?”
“That sounds alright to me.” The man stood up from the desk and started to ponderously circle around. I walked towards the door.
Skarm, get down!
I threw myself to the right as three sharp cracks rang out behind me, followed by the sound of the glass doors shattering. I sprinted blindly forward, barely making it around the corner to the men’s bathroom. Behind me, I heard the man cursing-his gun must have jammed. I swung open the bathroom door, only to realise too late that it was a dead end. “Well, FUCK!”
Winona
I jumped up from my seat in the skiff when a flurry of gunshots rang out from inside the visitor center. “NO! SKARM!” Gunshots continued to ring out, and finally stopped. Then my phone buzzed.
im k 4 now. was a trap. gtfo of here
I didn’t take his advice right away. I cared about him too much to just let him get a severe case of lead poisoning.
Instead, I reached for my pocket, and drew a poke ball from within. I checked to make sure I had the right pokemon-the familiar sharpie drawing from when I was young was still there. A quick little sketch of a Skarmory’s head on the red half of the ball greeted my eyes.
Skarmory wasn’t my first pokemon, but we shared a lot of great memories. I remember always seeing him around when I was playing in the woods as a child. I would be poking a Nincada with a stick, or splashing about in some creek out in the wilderness near Fortree, and whenever I looked close enough I could see Skarmory watching me. He was good at hiding; you could never really see him unless you knew he was there. I always assumed he was just a wild pokemon, and sometimes when I saw him I would run away and hide. But soon enough I learned he was a benevolent prescence-he never moved to hurt me, never hunted any wild pokemon. Just followed me, sometimes in the trees, sometimes blending into the clouds, sometimes lying flat in a bush.
With all the time I spent in the woods, it was unavoidable that someday some pokemon would show up looking for a quick meal. A Donphan charged me once, shaking its tusks and roaring. I screamed and ran as fast as I could for home, crying my eyes out. It only dawned on me when I clambered up the tall steps of our home’s exterior and barricaded the front door that I realised that I wasn’t being followed any more. My mother asked me what was wrong. I told her that I had been attacked.
She opened a window and whistled. A few minutes later, Skarmory returned, a little dented but none the worse for wear. Then I knew-he was always silently watching over me, the most devoted of guardians. We played a lot together after my mother told me that he was her pokemon, and he was always going to be there to make sure I was safe. But he never really seemed to enjoy our games-he was always watching for threats he was determined that I would never see.
He was gone when we buried Mother. Before her time, of course-she was never a fan of checkups, and when she finally felt sick enough to see a doctor the cancer was too far along to be stopped. But when I tearfully returned to my room after the funeral and cried myself to sleep at 3 in the afternoon (it was always her favorite time-a clear afternoon had endless possibilities), I was greeted by a trio of poke balls resting atop my bedside table. Apparently she had added a clause to her will stating that her three pokemon were to be left to me. The other two left, but Skarmory stayed. I don’t know whether because we had become friends or because he felt that his duty to protect me bound him to stay.
But I knew what his duty was now.
“Skarmory, go! Protect Skarm!” The steel hawk took to the air after giving me a pointed glance. I looked up and saw a group of men in Magma outfits approaching the dock. There was no time to unmoor the skiff-I would just have to fly away.
Just...fly away.
"Altaria, we need to get out of here!" I released the cotton winged dragon, and climbed onto her back just above the wing joint, making sure I didn't tug on the cotton strands. She hated it when I did that. The dragon's wings beat quickly, lifting us off the ground, and then slowed to her normal comfortable slow up and down pace. "Altaria, you've gotta go faster. They're right behind us!"
A single shot rang out from the peninsula ahead, soaking me in blood and grey matter. I plunged out of the sky, gripping Altaria’s sky blue neck, more then a little in shock. We splashed into the water together, a few hundred feet off shore. “Altaria...” I moaned, swimming around to hold her head above water. “No...you can’t die...I need you...” I pressed my hand against her muscled neck, feeling for a pulse. Nothing. My ear came up against her mouth, listening for the faintest hint of a breath.
Nothing. She was gone. The hole through her right eye and out the back of her head was beginning to fill with water lapping in from the waves. I let her go, and the sea waters quickly dragged Altaria’s body down. Gone.
A skiff powered through the waves towards me. I didn’t resist as the Magma men hauled me in and jabbed a needle into my forearm. A towel wrapped around me as the world turned to black. It was my fault.
The last thing I saw before I passed out was a masked face peering into my eyes.
Skarm
The ranger barged into the bathroom, where I was crouched atop a toilet inside a stall. “COME ON OUT!” he roared. “We already shot down your birdbrained friend! There’s no way out for you!”
I flinched as the man stomped through the room, seeing only one stall with a closed door. Winona dead? It couldn’t be.
“YOU THINK A LOCK’S GONNA STOP ME?” The ranger fired, blasting the lock into chunks. I threw myself at the door, slamming it into the man and knocking him into the wall of sinks. The gun skittered away, and the ranger began to hobble towards it until I put him down with a punch to the face.
“That’s....that’s one down...” I grabbed the radio from the man’s belt and the gun across the room and tucked them into my waistband. They could come in handy later. “Now...how to get out of here before more of them show up.
There’s a window at the other end of the room. You can climb out.
“Who are you?” I asked aloud.
It’s me, Spoink.
“No...Spoink is dead....you’re not Spoink. WHO ARE YOU?!”
I am Spoink, Skarm. Bounty’s here with me. Voltaire’s not buried here-his essence is elsewhere.
“How do you....how do you....”
How do I know? I stripped the information from your mind, back while I was alive. I don’t think there’s a thing from your memories that I didn’t see. By the way, the thing with Winona work out?
“No...she’s dead, if this guy was telling the truth. They shot her.”
Skarm, she’s alive. They knocked her out, they’ve got her on a boat.
“I have to help her.” I ran to the window and tried to pry it open. Frustrated, I drew a pokeball. “Ashe, smash that window!” My first pokemon popped out and sprayed the window with a barrage of seeds, shattering it.
You can’t save her now. There’s too many of them. But you can trade for her.
“What?” I grunted as I climbed through the window, Ashe close behind me.
The Magma men are looking for the Red Orb. And it’s here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.
“We have to beat them to it, then. Where do they keep it?”
The location the orbs are rumored to have been created was the top of Mt. Pyre on the outside, but they were relocated to the top floor of the inside section. Magma doesn’t know that-if you hurry you can reach the orb.
Alright.
I circled back to the front of the building to see a boat pulling up next to the dock. Before I made a break for the mountain, a metallic shriek rang out behind me. I spun around to see Skarmory perched on a second story window.
"What are you waiting for? Come on, then!" I dashed for the safety of the inside of the mountain. The floors and walls were the same subdued grey, adorned with flowers in wall mounted boxes every few feet.
Welcome to Mt. Pyre.
“Where are your graves? That’s the real reason I came.” I winced as Skarmory hopped onto my shoulder, his metal claws digging into my skin.
Fifth floor. The mountain is laid out a little strange, the stairwells aren’t all right next to each other. There’s a continuous one to the third floor, and then you have to change stairwells on floors 3 and 4 to reach number 5.
I ran up the stairs until I reached the third floor, then froze on the stairwell. A woman was standing at a grave across the room, facing away from me. She looked strangely contemplative, and appeared to have green skin. I raised the gun I had stolen from the ranger and shouted,”Who are you? What are you doing here?!”
The woman didn’t answer, didn’t even turn. I squeezed the trigger for a warning shot, and nothing happened.
“What the---” I said, but no sound came out. I squeezed the trigger again. Nothing happened. In fact, I couldn’t move anything at all. On my shoulder, Skarmory let out a shrill cry, apparently seized in the same way. A few seconds later, his claws released and he crashed down onto the stairs behind me.
Then it entered my mind. I can't describe the feeling with words-it was like being engulfed in a sea of rage and fear. My memories started flashing through my mind as the thing examined them one by one, then tossed them aside.
A voice rang out from a nearby hallway. "I'm back, Gardevoir. Are you almost ready to---oh!" I was almost as shocked to see Wally as he was to see me. “Gardevoir, let him go!” The woman turned her head silently towards Wally, and they stared at each other for a bit. Finally, the prescence sifting through my memories vanished, and I stumbled as I regained control of my body. Wally caught me. “Take it easy, take it easy, sit down and rest a bit...”
“What...was that?” I asked.
“That was Gardevoir. She’s come a long way from the Ralts that hatched for me back in Petalburg Town.”
“I...I was there.”
“Yeah, you were. Gardevoir doesn’t like guns, though. She doesn’t really like using words either-she just impresses feelings. The purest form of communication, she told me. So, why are you here?”
“About to ask you the same thing.” I stood up and headed down the stairs to help Skarmory up, but he met me at the top and landed on my shoulder again. “I’m here because Magma is. And because some asshole was messing with Bounty’s grave.” A feeling of sadness penetrated my mind. Gardevoir was clearly talkative, if you could even call what she was doing talking. “What about you?”
“Well, I was here because Gardevoir wanted to come. She didn’t tell me why.” Wally followed me as I headed for the second set of stairs.
“This is what I know. Team Magma is here looking for the Red Orb.” Gardevoir glanced up and a hint of surprise entered my mind. “And they’ve kidnapped Winona.”
“Wait, the Fortree Gym Leader? Why were you two here toget---oh.”
A giggle sounded in the corner of my mind as I blushed. “It’s not what you think.”
“Whatever you say. I just wanted some backup.”
“Well, if you wanted to find the Red Orb, why didn’t you just call me?”
“Because...I thought it was a myth.” Suddenly, Wally vanished, leaving me and Gardevoir standing in an entirely different room. A pure red sphere smaller then a basketball but larger then a baseball sat on a pedestal in the center of the room.
Ask and ye shall recieve.
“I thought you didn’t talk much.” I said as I reached for the orb, only to be held up midway by Gardevoir. A sense of foreboding filled my mind, along with scenes of screaming men. Then:
Sometimes I have to use human words to make you understand.
“Not that time. So, how are we going to keep this thing out of Magma’s hands?” Suddenly, the ball lifted off of the pedestal, and floated towards my backpack. The backpack unzipped itself, and the orb dropped in. It was surprisingly light.
Then we were back in the room, in front of Wally’s gaping eyes. “Gardevoir, the orb was here the whole time?” Gardevoir nodded. “That’s settled. Let’s go see your pokemon.”
“Alright. Fifth floor.” We hurtled up the first flight of stairs to the fourth floor. Then we stepped onto the floor, searching for the other stairs. Several Magma men patrolled the floor; Gardevoir disabled them one at a time before signaling us to continue.
The stairs leading to the fifth floor were steeper then the previous ones. But when we arrived, it didn't take long to find the tombstones.
I stood over the tombstones, eyes closed. "I'm sorry."
Don't be. You did the best you could, just like us.
"How can I hear you?"
This is a sacred place. The home of the stripped powers of the earth and the seas. Psychic Pokemon and ghosts have special power here. Since I was buried here and I was psychic in life, I had enough power to contact you in Fortree.
"What about Bounty?"
I regret nothing. I lived a good life.
Don't let us own you, Skarm. Reach for your dreams. Take on the League. Stop Magma. We'll be watching all the way.