Starlight: Redshift

by the-pieman

Chapter 33

After I enact the typical tourist rule and get Twilight to have memorized ‘Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints’ when it comes to our worlds meshing, I walk into the shop to see how Xavius is doing.

Inside, I see him testing his arm, simply wiggling the fingers, moving the arm, etc. As I’m stepping in, he’s starting to walk out, so I just hold the door for him. He nods to me.

“Alright, whatcha need?” He looks at me, and I see that he’s a pretty good amount taller than me. I mean, I’d seen it before, but now I’m literally looking up at him. It’s a bit surreal, after so much time in Equestria, and with so many kids as trainers.

“I figured we could talk about the Chainers a bit. I mean, I’d like to know more about the people who have nearly killed me and my friends. I hate being an uninformed victim.”

“Ah. Well, there’s too little we know about them. Around... idunno, a hundred years ago? they were just a religious cult, and they wanted to ‘chain their madness’. Mostly, they captured and trained really scary or dangerous pokemon, and tamed them. First recorded instance of a Beclude getting captured and trained, so points to them. Then, sometime in the last forty years, some sort of change went through them, and some new guy or woman was in charge. Then, they started with petty crime, then violent crimes, and kept escalating from there. They say they’re advocates for anarchy, but they don’t quite act like it. Nobody in the League believes it, since they target League stuff more often than anything else.” Xavius thinks for a few seconds. “Oh, and they brand their pokemon, to make sure they can’t run away too easily.”

“Yeah, I saw that. But that lab... what would they want with a UHT beam? I mean... perhaps they want to capture a Zubzilla, but the guy who stole it said he had no idea why they wanted it.”

“Yeah. Biggest change is that they started working in cells. Each cell leader knows someone in the next cell up, but doesn’t know any cells on the same level. Only one person in each cell knows a given lower-grade cell, so each cell member is important to catch. It makes it really frustrating, because I can’t just punch their heads in...”

“And you can’t interrogate them for any truly useful info unless you were lucky enough to grab the one guy who actually had decent knowledge...” Crap in a hat, these guys know exactly what they’re doing. “But they mentioned a dreamer. Surely you know something about that, right?”

“Not really. A little, because there’s some references to it in the surviving texts from before the changeover. A few in various libraries and personal collections. My dad had a copy, but it got stolen by some punks, who ended up torching it when they got caught.”

“So what’s the plan? Just wait for the Chainers to show up again and keep kicking them down until we kick down the right guy, or what? Isn’t there some way to track the UHT laser? Personally, I’d never build something like that without putting in a way to track its location.”

“Yeah, the lab thought of that around the time the Chainers were carrying the damned thing off.” Xavius sighs. “So... got anything else you want to talk about?”

“To be honest, not really. I just figured you’d be able to help somehow. I mean... I’d like to help if I can, but without good info on what they’re actually doing we can’t fight back and do any lasting damage. Clearly they can get past ID Card checkers, who knows what else they can get into?”

“Actually, they arrived by boat. There’s now measures being implemented to prevent that in the future, but I think it’s too late. As for helping out, leave it to the professionals, please. These aren’t like those Plasma goons that one guy cleared out of Unova several years ago.” He takes off his hat for a moment, running his natural hand through his hair. It reminds me to ask about his metal hand.

However, one more thing before I ask about that. “They have the Solrock for the laser obviously, but each firing requires a Fire Gem. If they plan on using it a lot, they’re going to need Fire Gems. Why not try finding out where it would be easiest for them to get the gems and cut them off there?”

“... you mean the gems that are either imported pretty commonly or are mined by the ton all over this Region?”

“Well... surely there’s a location where it’s easiest to obtain them, right? Like a store that sells them for super-cheap, or a place that just lets random people take whatever they want from the gem piles? We need some kind of-”

“None that free, but I can think of three places they’d be the easiest to get ahold of. Mushroot has an active mine, and it’s the largest supplier of all sorts of gems, minerals, and Evolution Stones. Crevasse Village has a large amount of minable minerals, provided you don’t mind working on a vertical surface. And Rustoil Metropolis has its own port access, airlines, and mine, so it could easily have an excess of the things. Hmmm...” He looks thoughtful as he thinks it over.

“I’m just trying to get some lead on them. Yeah they’re good, but they can’t be perfect. There’s gotta be some kind of clue they overlooked.” Fingerprints come to mind, but I recall each and every one of them wearing gloves. They probably ditched their boat and left on a new one so we can’t tell anything about where they came from... shit, maybe they are perfect...

Ah screw it, I have nothing. “So. How’d you lose your arm?”

“Hmm? Oh, that... Well, have you heard about the haunted mansion in the middle of the Krosa Forest?”

“Yeah. What happened? I mean, Ghost pokemon don’t normally kill or maim. You hurt yourself in there?”

“Oh, no, one of them spooked Peanuts, and he tried to cling to me for support. Hand holding is a fine-dexterity sport, and he’s not too good at it.” Wait, the Metagross?

“Why the hell do you even have a pokemon like that? Isn’t it dangero-” I look at his robotic limb. “Scratch that, it is dangerous. Where’d you find one that fucking huge!?”

“He, er, didn’t start that big. And besides, he’s just a big Teddiursa at heart.”

“Jeez. Everyone’s got some kind of special thing going on with their team... I just got an overly-masculine Geodude, a psychotic Carvanha, and a Voltato...”

“Huh. Yeah, the ‘kinda odd pokemon’ thing is actually pretty common around here. So much OC to go around.”

“OC? I uh... to put it vaguely I’m not from Otaria. At all.”

“Oh, sorry, I just sometimes abbreviate long things. OC stands for ‘Obvious Compensation’, and it’s not just endemic to the trainers.”

“I’m just looking for a team that’ll take me to the Elite Four. These guys are great and all but...” I sigh. “They could really use some work, I just don’t know what they need specifically.”

“Hmm... Here, what TMs do you have?”

“Uh... Just Zap Cannon. That’s all we have between the three of us in the way of TMs.” I say as I realize Rarity and Twilight have come in and are standing by, just listening to the conversation. Rarity is also looking at his arm, inspecting it and just touching it.

“Well, that won’t do. Here, what’re your teams, each of you? I’ve already heard his, so I guess just your teams, ladies.”

“Oh, I just have a Pignite, a Spheal, and a Spearow, along with a Tyrunt, though he’s still really young.”

“I’m not a trainer, dear.” Rarity says, though Xavius just waves her denial off, and she hesitantly goes over her short list of pokemon. Xavius takes a moment to roll up his coat sleeve, revealing the relatively bulky, almost steam-boiler-esque limb. A grill-plate covers part of the mechanical forearm, and I can barely see a red-and-white shape inside. A Pokeball in his arm?

Either way though, as Rarity looks over his arm further, he pulls out what looks like an old CD case, and reveals the TMs within. I see eight of them with gold borders on the first few ‘pages’ of CDs, before he stops on a few others.

“Alright, let’s see... Ah! Aerial Ace. Good, handy move. For you, Anthony. I’m sure you’ll like its reliability. And for Miss Twilight here... Yes, I think Rock Smash would do well. Here, take it. Its good for reducing opponent’s defenses, and can be used to clear large obstacles like, well, rocks, from the field. And for you, Miss Rarity, I think Captivate would suit you quite well.” He grins charmingly at the seamstress, and she titters in response.

I decide to explain the use of the move. “Captivate is kind of interesting. It makes the opponent less willing to physically strike at full power, but it only works if the target is interested in the user’s gender. Can’t remember how it works when a genderless pokemon is involved though...” For some reason, Xavius’ face screws up for a moment, as if he needs to sneeze, but the expression clears quickly enough.

“So, thanks. I guess you’ll be leaving now. At least we can call you up if things get bad. I figure that my luck won’t let me go the rest of our adventures without running into those Chainers again.”

“Highly unlikely, even without any luck-skewing. Oh, and here, have a pass to the Serenity Retreat. It’s on the northern shores of the Region, but it’s a good place. I never have time to go there, but you might find time if you’re in the area. Anyhow, have a nice day. You were right, I do need to get going.” He smiles, and waves as he’s walking away, though he also takes the time to tip his hat at Rarity.

“So, let’s see what we can do with our stuff. Obviously since TMs have unlimited uses, I say we just share whatever we get. No sense in being stingy for the sake of being a jerk.”

The two agree, but pack their gifts into their personal cases. I can't blame them, Xavius was really nice, just handing away his TMs like that. There weren’t any other copies of the discs in the spots he took them from, so those must’ve been his last ones. Speaking of...

“Also, one thing that you should probably be careful of. Yes TMs can be used infinitely, they are still just flimsy disks and can break pretty easily, so make sure that they don’t bump against anything in your bag. No idea what would happen if it gets scratched.”

That bit of tutorial-grade explanation out of the way, I try to figure out what to do next. Hmm... maybe I could scope out the gym? There’s usually a spot where you can just look around from, near the entrance, and some larger gyms have spectator areas. I wonder what the gym is like in this city.

I relay my curiosity to the girls and, checking the city-viewer, find the gym. I don’t get a good look at it as it’s just a bird’s-eye view of it, but it’s not that far of a walk. “Remember, we’re just checking it out. If we try and challenge them, we’re probably just going to lose money.”

We get to the building, and see that it apparently doubles as a public swimming area. That makes me curious. We get inside the actual Gym area, which is near the main public pool, and I gasp in shock.

Huge sections of the ‘pools’ are vertical, or hanging in mid-air. I can see metal supports for glass-covered bends, but the main sections of pool are like something out of an Escher drawing. The water is also flowing, steadily, in various directions. There’s suspended sections of flooring, and I can see large floor buttons on some of the platforms.

I turn to the girls. “Well, what do you think? Not every day you see a swimming pool where you can swim up without diving first.”

“It’s magnificent!” Rarity says, looking in wonder at the graceful displays of several folks swimming along, a few of the swimming girls wearing suits with fish-pokemon themed frills or add-ons. What’s worrying is the Huntail and Gorebyss themed pair waiting to sandwich anyone coming along the streams. I look near the entrance, and see an older guy sitting in a folding chair. He kinda reminds me of someone, but I’m not sure who. Either way, it’s obvious he’s the ‘here’s what the gym is’ guy, and he looks up from his newspaper at us.

“Howdy kids! You here to challenge Zoli?”

“Uh no. Just to look. We aren’t quite ready. Do uh... do we have to swim to get around the gym here?”

Before the guy can respond, Rarity jumps in. “Can I get one of those incredible swimsuits?”

The guy chuckles. “Eeyup. Every challenger who doesn’t bring their own ‘suit can borrow one from the Gym. Those lockers over there’ll hold your other gear you won’t need, and each has some swimwear in it. Left is for boys, right is for girls, and the changing rooms are back in the public pool area.”

We stay and check the place out for a while, but eventually we leave. I turn to the girls as we exit the gym. “Let’s head back to the health center and get a room. I’m gonna hit the hay early if I want to see the aquarium and get to the forest all in one day tomorrow.”

“Go back to the forest?”

“Well unless you want to challenge the gym now, or try to level up your pokemon with the weaklings on the roadside outside the city, be my guest. I’m gonna go where I can get a real challenge, maybe catch another Grass type for the Gym.”

“I suppose that makes sense... Hey, Anthony?” Twilight turns to look at me as we start walking.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Why is it a ‘haunted house’ when there’s no real ghosts? All the information I’ve seen says that Ghost-Type pokemon just tend to have an ephemeral or hard-to-classify nature.”

I think for a bit. “Here, let me call up a certain pokemon.” I pull out my eTech. “Look up ‘Dusknoir’ and its evolution tree.” When the Ghost type pokemon shows up on the screen, I tap Dusclops to start with and hand it to Twilight for her to read, though she opts to just have it speak up itself.

-It seeks drifting will-o'-the-wisps and sucks them into its empty body. What happens inside is a mystery-

-Its body is hollow. It is said that those who look into its body are sucked into the void-

-Anyone who dares peer into its body to see its spectral ball of fire will have their spirit stolen away-

“Yep.” I say. “Ghost pokemon. Totally harmless, just like all the others who can melt stone with firebreath or can put four-inch wide holes through solid steel with water pressure.” I slide my finger across the screen to bring up Dusknoir and hit the ‘read aloud’ button.

-The antenna on its head captures radio waves from the world of spirits that command it to take people there.-

-It is said to take lost spirits into its pliant body and guide them home.-

-This feared Pokémon is said to travel to worlds unknown. Some even believe that it takes lost spirits along with it.-

“S- so it’s like a reaper? But... but how does that even work?”

“Catch one and study it. Just like any other pokemon, plant, mineral, and everything else. Duh.”

“I- I suppose... but what if that has consequences? Like engines?”

“Well we already live in a world where someone got close enough to get that information and make it back to record it. Or they just sent a buddy in as a guinea pig and studied the results. Who knows what happened? If you don’t want to take risks, then maybe you aren’t cut out for learning after all.”

Twilight looks shocked and a little hurt by the statement, but I stand by it. After all, she only reads books, so all her information is strictly second-hand. I’ve never seen her once go out and do any field-work. We make it back to the rooms easily enough. Twi doesn’t talk to me the rest of the night, but that’ll be fine. We can try talking again in the morning.