Chapter 143: Countermeasures
Hey everyone, here's the August chapter at last. Sorry again for the delay, and thanks for the well-wishes, those who reached out. Still alive, still dealing with a bunch of stuff all at once. Hoping next month goes easier, but I'm not feeling the optimism bias, personally ;)
Chapter 143: Countermeasures
Red stands at the entrance to Bill’s house, listening to the wind rustle over the grassy fields and the distant cries of wingulls in the nearby bay. Memories war within his mind; light and laughter, with Leaf when they first visited. Panic and pain, when he arrived and sensed Rowan below.It feels like visiting a grave. The grave of someone he knew, someone he killed, someone whose fate only he truly understood…
Well. Him and the Dreamer.
Red feels a shiver move through him in the warm daylight, and almost looks around, though for what he’s not sure. He’s not paranoid, exactly. He wants the Dreamer to contact him again. But he can’t pretend he isn’t anxious about it, doesn’t dread it. He ran over the conversation a hundred times in the past few days as he worked hard to persuade and demonstrate that he was fit to be discharged from the hospital, thinking of things he should have said, arguments he could have made. Wanting to be ready in case the Dreamer appeared in his mind again.
They didn’t. Red tried not to read too much into that, not to worry that he came off too judgmental, spooked them from talking again despite what they said. Would they think Red told others, maybe set a trap for them?
He hopes not, but he can admit that the thought occurred to him. Not with serious intent, only as a hypothetical, an extension of his wondering what the Dreamer really was. Leaf’s story, Dr. Fuji’s notes, didn’t include a lot of details; only that they were humanoid and looked horrifying to others, though that might have been artistic license. In one of Red’s occasional nightmares, he was visited by an Alakazam with a human face, features shifting until they resembled Rowan’s just before Red woke up.
Uncharitable though it is, Red wonders what contributed more to his mind treating the Dreamer as an enemy; the admission of what they’d done, or the non-denial of being a hybrid. He knows which he prefers would be true.
He could try Focusing on it, if he really wants to know.
Red takes a deep breath, then slowly lets it out. Jensen is standing at a respectful distance, not commenting on Red’s continued inaction, which he appreciates. The other guards are patrolling the area, and Red reminds himself he’s wasting their time with idle thoughts that aren’t even related to the task at hand. He can think about the Dreamer later; right now he’s here to figure out what Bill’s secret psychic shielding technique is about.
He steps toward the front door, and as soon as he does, the clefairy hologram pops into existence.
“Wondered how long you’d stand there.”
Amidst his sudden shock, Red is distantly gratified to see that despite having even more reason to be surprised than he did, Jensen reacted with both the same amount of shock and a lot more professional competence, two pokeballs in either hand, one empty one full.
Red glares at the clefairy, then remembers it’s a hologram and directs his glare at what he presumes is a camera somewhere around the doorway.
“Come on in, food is almost ready. Alone, please.”
Red’s heartrate is almost back to normal, and he looks at Jensen, who doesn’t seem happy about the idea. Or maybe he’s just peeved by the prank.
Eventually he nods, though, and Red nods back before going through the door.
Red descends the stairs, following the hologram in its usual fits and starts to where Bill is. There’s some damage to the lab from the Hoenn incident, cracks in the walls that were resealed, but everything else is so… pristine. Orderly. His imagination keeps wanting signs of battle, scars of the conflict he intellectually knows was entirely psychic in nature, and over a month ago, no matter how recent it feels to him.
He tries to take in the scientific and engineering wonders around him again. Tries to feel that spark of wonder and excitement from when he first entered the lab, back when they were stationed in Cerulean City.
Instead he just feels jittery, heart pounding as he remembers flashes of running through the lab that day…
Red nearly trips over a knocked over chair, then skids to a stop as his next psydar pulse reveals Bill moving in a new direction
…then fighting to hold himself together amidst the mental fury of Rowan’s madness…
He carefully creates a partition to hold those memories away, for now. It’s a relief to be able to do that again, to regain that control over his own mind and feelings. He’s been careful, since waking up, not to overdo it, not to get back into the habit of having dozens, let alone hundreds, of memories separated from each other. He was given a clean slate of sorts, and more range and versatility in how he organizes his mind; he doesn’t plan to take it for granted.
He finally finds Bill sitting in the engineering lab at a wide desk, feet on the edge of it, leaning back in his chair as he fiddles with some setting on the rim of his glasses, a similar model to the one he gave Red. In front of him is what looks like a helmet, bulkier than Red’s and without any eye to aesthetic design, even to Red’s eye. Bill looks mildly disheveled, like he just recently woke up, or maybe didn’t go to sleep at all, but when he turns to see Red he smiles.
“Heya, Hero.” Bill taps something and his lenses clear as he swings his feet off the desk to face Red. “Welcome back.”
Red nods, gives a mild smile. He’s not sure what he would say if he could say something, and for a brief, fleeting instance, he’s grateful he doesn’t have to.
“Right,” Bill says after a moment. “We’re both busy people, I’ll get to the point. You asked about how I had such a good mental shield, kept my head from getting too scrambled.” Red nods, and Bill points to the helmet. “You’re looking at it. Or rather, the newest version. A month ago it was still just a series of panels I had to hold around my head.”
Red blinks, then focuses on the helmet again. After a moment he feels it; the stirring of wonder, the questions bubbling up, one after another as his mind starts to race ahead to the implications of each potential answer.
His notebook is already out of his pocket, hand scribbling, Anti-psychic helmet?
“Told you I wanted to try to replicate psychic abilities with tech, remember? Well, the reverse seemed worth a try too. I’ve had this in the backpocket for years, working on prototype after prototype. Cloning tech is what helped unlock it. Artificially created umbreon muscle, suspended in a nutrient-loaded mesh to keep the cells alive. It’s not perfect—I think the neck is the weak point—but once I got to it the mental attacks became far less intense.”
Red stares at Bill, then looks back at the helmet with a sudden queasy shift in his stomach. There’s… living tissue inside that?
Well, he supposes it’s hardly worse than growing meat to eat it. He has to remind himself that without a nervous system muscle has nowhere to send pain signals, and what he’s looking at is basically an incredibly complex petri dish shaped like a helmet.
Still, he wonders what Leaf would think even as he writes out, So psychic connection and intensity follows dimensionality and density after all!
“Yep,” Bill says with a glance at the sheet. “Just so long as the intervening density is the right kind, apparently. Makes me wonder if there’s something like a psychic mirror that could be made to enhance the effects of mental connection if positioned around a subject.”
Red began nodding along halfway through, writing, Umbreon only?
“Tried mightyena and sharpedo muscle as well. So far as I could tell the type of pokemon meat doesn’t matter, so long as it’s Dark. If there are different levels of immunity, it’s too subtle to notice even at this thin a concentration.” He shrugs. “Like I said, I only had some panels when Rowan got here, and they were in different parts of the lab so I could tinker with different aspects whenever I wanted. Did my best with the anti-psychic training I’ve done, but I knew I had to get more pieces so he couldn’t keep walking around to hit me from a new angle.”
Red has set his notebook down so he can reach out to the helmet, then glances at Bill for permission. The inventor nods, and Red takes the bulky helmet and lifts it over his head.
It’s lighter than he expected it would be, and he feels a sudden surge of squick as he visualizes a layer of disembodied muscle around his head, with the exception of his neck and the thin visor for his eyes. It feels a bit like wearing a skull, though upon further reflection that doesn’t make any sense.
He tries extending his psychic senses out and…
…wow, okay that feels very strange. He never really visualized his abilities as anything but an expandable sphere, but in a vague way that was only felt through the minds he detected all around him (if they were there) or not at all; at some point he tried concentrating his psychic awareness into different shapes, like a cone in front of him, but it never really worked. He could focus his attention on particular minds, and those minds could be grouped by something like the direction they were in relative to him, but it didn’t feel like the same sort of thing.
This is that, but not in his control. Wherever he turns his head, he can feel his psychic awareness stretch outward and forward in a tight beam where the visor is. Presumably some of it is also going downward, but there’s nothing to sense down there.
He wonders if the “eye beam” of psychic particles are more concentrated, and awkwardly shifts around to summon Pikachu onto an empty patch of tile.
“Hey,” Bill says with mild reproach and apprehension. “Lotta expensive equipment here.”
Red flashes a thumbs-up of acknowledgement, then tries forming a merge with Pikachu while not looking at him. Nothing. He moves his head slowly until his pokemon is in his line of sight, sending the merger outward constantly…
…and as soon as he sees Pikachu, ears twitching and nose sniffing the air as he looks curiously around him, Red abruptly feels him as well, a flood of heightened senses that bring the sharp smells of warm metal and plastic, the sounds of whirring and humming too low for Red to pick up, a heartbeat far faster than Red’s in a body much warmer, thanks to the pokemon’s fur… all of which is secondary, to Pikachu, compared to his electromagnetic senses, which are endlessly stimulated by the massive, intricate computer that Bill pretends is a lab.
“Weird to watch that from the outside,” Bill says, and one of Red’s—Pikachu’s—ears twitches toward him.
Watch what? Red wants to ask, but his human mouth won’t let him, and his other one can’t form the words correctly when he tries.
“Your posture changed a lot to match his.”
Red absently nods as he tries to feel out the connection, get a better sense of it. Is the merge deeper than it would otherwise be? Higher bandwidth? He carefully lifts the helmet off his head, wanting to notice the shift between having it on and off, but forgot that once the visor is no longer lined up between his head and Pikachu the merger would cut off.
It makes him newly curious about where exactly his psychic particles are being emitted from, and how wide the blocking material’s surface area would need to be to stop a merger. It could be as small as a single molecule, but he doubts it, and if there’s an inbetween amount that does affect the connection… would it be a binary effect? Or would it start to interfere with the merger in a measurable way?
“Yeah, I thought that would get your wheels spinning,” Bill says, watching Red with a smile. “Sorry it wasn’t some secret mental technique or whatever, but I hope this makes up for it. Whatever questions are running through your head, I want you to write it down so we can follow up on it. Sound good?”
The idea of being involved in research again, especially with Bill, makes Red smile wider than he can remember doing ever since he woke up. He nods, and flashes a thumbs up for good measure.
“Cool. Speaking of which, I've got something for you on that front. I’ll go get it, and a bonus surprise, but meanwhile use that console there to write out your hypotheses, experiments you want to run, whatever. You’re the first psychic to put that helmet on, and I’d prefer you stay the only one for a while.”
Red nods, and goes to sit and type at the keyboard Bill indicated; the system opens itself into a guest account as Red sits, and he wonders how for a moment before he remembers Eva. He realizes he hasn’t heard her speak since he arrived, and is about to speak to her before remembering he can’t.
He opens a text file and types, “Eva? Are you there? Can you read this?”
A moment later new text appears on its own:
“Hello Red. Yes, I’m here. Nice to see you again.”
“Thanks.” He hesitates as a sudden impulse grabs him, and glances back to confirm that Bill has already left. Not that he couldn’t get access to this conversation if he wanted, at some point. “Could you… tell me what happened that day, when Rowan was here, from your perspective? My memory of that day is pretty fragmented.”
“I’m sorry Red, I would like to help, but my systems were offline and in the process of being backed up at that time. When Bill reformatted me, I had lost a week of time.”
“Oh.” Red remembers the lab being still and silent, he should have realized… “I’m sorry too, then. I lost about a month.”
“I know. Bill spoke with a number of people about your condition since he recovered from his own mental injuries.”
Red feels a bit wary of learning anything too private from Bill’s AI, and almost stops the conversation there, but… “Did he find anyone with similar long-term issues, or experts in the field for consulting?”
“A few. Would you like a summary and references for independent followup and research?”
“So long as you think he won’t mind?”
“I’ve already informed him, and gotten permission.”
Right. “That would be great, then, thanks.”
“You’re welcome, Red. Good luck in your search.”
Red nods, as if he’s talking to a real person, almost types out thanks again, then remembers that Eva can see him through lab cameras and probably saw the nod after all. Still, maybe she’d appreciate him typing it anyway…?
He shakes the feeling of social uncertainty off, types “Thanks” again just in case, then opens a new tab and starts typing out his thoughts and ideas from wearing the helmet. It only takes a few minutes, and he’s occasionally generating a new one every so often when Bill returns with new container balls attached to his belt.
“So,” the inventor says as he detaches and places them on the table. “First, a question. Did you ever figure out your telekinesis?”
Red remembers the rock he carried around for months, from Cerulean all the way to Fuchsia, trying again and again in vain to lift it even a centimeter. He shakes his head.
“Then I guess this bonus surprise is going to be less impressive than it should be.” He opens the box and takes out… half a container ball?
Incomplete, if so. It’s a dull chrome rather than the polished silver of a container, or the white of most pokeball variants’ undersides. Red approaches to study it, and when Bill holds it out a bit further, Red takes it.
The inside looks the same as any other ball he’s seen, but he’s never really studied tech; if there’s something about the arrangement of the reflective panels that’s supposed to make it more efficient or something, he can’t tell. It does look more like a heavy ball than a pokeball…
But Bill wouldn’t expect Red to guess this by tech knowledge, and he asked about Red’s telekinesis. Red holds the half-shell up between himself and Pikachu so that his pokemon’s body is almost completely covered, and tries to merge with him.
Nothing. Red feels a thrill of excitement as he moves the shell a little at a time until Pikachu’s head is visible, and his mind is suddenly there, ready to be merged with.
He moves the shell around until he confirms that he can’t find a threshold for when Pikachu’s mind is sensable beyond a basic check of whether he can see enough of his pokemon’s head.
Red turns to an expectant Bill and holds the half-ball up with a curious expression.
“Yeah?”
He lifts it up and down, then points to the helmet before holding his empty hand cupped lower.
“Yep, the helmet’s bulky because it’s meant to last a while. What you’re holding is mostly proof of concept that it can be done without getting much heavier than a pokeball. The tradeoff is it lasts about four minutes. Even if we could get it higher, it’s not meant to be casually carried around. And of course the Dark function will stop working once it catches something; there’s no way to ‘refuel’ it, and while I can imagine someone else working that out, there’s not much point given it won’t be able to be re-stored after it catches something.”
Red nods. An anti-psychic pokeball would be incredibly valuable to have on hand, well worth carrying around in a container and only taking out if you can preprep for a catch, or if you can buy some time in emergency situations.
He wonders if there’s a particular use-case this is being made for. Just catching psychic pokemon in general? Sure, they’re a bit hard to capture if you don’t beat them down first, or at least distract them enough they can’t deflect the oncoming balls, but it seems a lot of hassle. Worth each trainer having a couple in their bags just in case, sure, but…
Legendaries? There aren’t any psychic legendaries rampaging around the islands, maybe they’re being made for some distant region… The unown? Reports said they used all sorts of random attacks, and telekinesis didn’t seem more prominent than any others.
The unown god?
Or…?
Red feels a chill as he looks down at the half-sphere in his hand, then up at Bill. He points to it, then spreads his hand to the side and shrugs.
“Why?”
Red nods.
“Don’t think it’s worth having?”
Red pinches his fingers together, then shrugs again.
“Hey, I’m an inventor, not a trainer. People say we need a ball for psychics, I put it on The List. People offer to pay, I bump it up The List. It overlaps with one of my ongoing interests, it shoots to the top..”
Red does his best to maintain his casual air as he raises a brow and shrugs again, holding up two fingers.
“Who offered to pay?” Red nods. “Silph. They were working on it for years already, them and a few private labs, but they put a bounty up for it a few months ago, and I was happy to jump on the bandwagon.” He watches Red for a moment. “Why do you ask?”
Blue grips his machamp’s arm tight as his fighting-type navigates a near-vertical section of rock face, its other three hands alternating between finding purchase on tiny ledges and cracks and digging new ones out of the rockface for it to wedge fingers and toes into. Muscles flex throughout its body as it lifts itself and Blue meter after meter, until its head finally crests the ridge and it heaves them both up onto it and sets Blue down to look around.
The hills west of Viridian have been shaped over time to imitate the mountainous terrain of Victory Road, and from here Blue can still make out the city in one direction and the rising path in the other. He could have just flown across, of course, or taken the winding route between them, but instead he’s been pitting himself and his team against increasingly difficult parts of the terrain since he got his last badge.
Below them, Incineroar paces along a narrow ledge, practicing the kind of precise movement that will be needed to traverse Victory Road's more dangerous routes. He considered bringing Soul instead, but while arcanine are used to both open fields and rocky hills, they tend to avoid mountains. Even for a pokemon as agile as incineroar, Blue had to run extra simulations to teach caution; Victory Road kills the reckless as efficiently as it does the weak.
"Good job," Blue murmurs as his machamp finishes catching its breath. He snaps his fingers twice, and a few moments later Incineroar comes scrambling over the ledge to join them. Three snaps, and his pokemon rushes up the next rise, this time ensuring it’s safe for them to ascend instead of watching their rear. Far above, Zephyr flies a slow circle to keep additional watch, but every bit of caution helps.
Victory Road isn’t just about battling whatever trainers are climbing alongside you. It’s meant to also test the would-be Champion’s skills in wilderness survival, emergency response, mental fortitude, and overall endurance; a “final check” against people who might be really good at pokemon battles, but unable to actually lead a region through a crisis.
There’s speculation that Victory Road is also a way to weed out the young, but Blue has no reason to doubt his ability to reach Indigo Plateau. He has no idea how long it would take, though. Most people get through within a couple weeks, but it’s possible his fame will work against him; a lot of people would love to add “beat Blue Oak” to their legacy. People aren’t forced to battle others on Victory Road, but common wisdom says if you can’t beat someone on their way to the Champion, you probably can’t beat the Champion, and challenges are a common way to get some last bits of training in.
Blue looks his newly bought machamp up and down, getting a sense of how recovered he is. One of the practical issues with new pokemon is getting a sense of them, not just on a species level but individually, and while Blue would normally say he can’t afford to worry about all that now, it’s also the case that he didn’t really have a good climbing pokemon on his team.
(Rillaboom would have been amazing, and he almost bought another, but even though he only had it for a week it would have felt… disrespectful.)
Judging the machamp to be ready for another climb, he gives the appropriate clicker command, then holds relatively still as his machamp scoops him into the crook of an arm that’s nearly as tall as he is, legs dangling as he wraps his own arm around the muscular shoulder for extra stability as the machamp begins to climb again.
Halfway up, Blue's phone buzzes against his chest. He carefully extracts it from his jacket pocket while maintaining his grip on Machamp and sees a message from Red: Just reached Viridian, heading to you now.
Blue sends back an okay and shares his location, then tucks his phone back away and focuses on staying vigilant of their surroundings while he gets used to Machamp’s movements. Red's been recovering steadily since Blue’s first visit, and finally got discharged a couple days ago, not long after he sent the text about the “need to talk.” There was an urgency in his message that, combined with saying it couldn’t be at Interpol, set off every alarm bell Blue's developed over the year and a half of crisis after crisis.
He really hopes it’s not related to Zoey Palmer’s recent article. If Red’s been keeping something like that secret to Blue and Leaf after all this time, it would be nearly impossible to prove that they didn’t know all along…
Part of him, a somewhat selfish part maybe, hopes it’s nothing that’s going to derail his plans to get to the Plateau. He’ll put off becoming Champion for a bit if he has to, especially if Red really needs him, but… he feels the itch to just be there already. To ascend. To get started on the changes the region needs, before the next inevitable incident, whether from Stormbirds or something else.
He’s done with his journey. It feels sad, in a way, like leaving behind… not his childhood, he did that when he started it, but leaving behind the life his child-self dreamed about. He’s ready to challenge the best trainers in Indigo, and has the badges to prove it. The real work of his life is ahead, and he’s impatient to get to it.
Machamp pauses midclimb, and Blue follows its gaze and sees the problem immediately—a gap in the rock face, maybe three meters across… just far enough that the leap might be too much for Machamp while he’s carrying Blue.
“Wait,” Blue says in case his pokemon is actively weighing the decision in a way that might lead to risking it. He looks around and spots a series of gaps all along the cliff-face, but not uniformly big. There’s a section to their right that looks about half as big, and he points it out to Machamp, who follows the gesture before starting to move in that direction. The safest route would be to climb back down and find another part to climb, but they need to practice risky maneuvers while it’s safer.
The overhang proves trickier than expected—Blue has to direct Machamp through a complex series of movements, hanging them both out over the gap while the pokemon's feet scramble for the tiny footholds Blue can see from his vantage point. For a heart-stopping moment they're suspended over nothing, Blue's stomach lurching as he watches the ground far below. Then he gives the command to push off, and Machamp launches them both up and onto the ledge.
They land hard, Machamp executing the rolling technique Blue drilled into it to absorb impact while protecting its trainer. Blue waits until they’re still, then says “Release,” and untangles himself after Machamp relaxes his grip. He checks himself and his pokemon for injuries and sprays some potion on a scrape.
The final approach to the summit is mercifully straightforward—a steep but manageable slope that Blue can climb himself. Once they all reach the top, he summons some food and water for his pokemon, whistling to bring Zephyr down to join them for a rest as he stretches and settles up against a boulder, looking out over the gently sloping valley toward Viridian City.
He spots Red’s charizard within a few minutes, a flash of orange against the distant sky. Zephyr shifts his weight from one foot to the other, head tilted to keep the approaching dragon in his vision as it gets close enough for the distant thump of its wingbeats to become faintly audible to Blue.
He keeps expecting it to start descending, but it just keeps getting closer and closer, and Blue wonders if maybe Red hasn’t seen him yet. Is he checking his phone every so often, or did he just look at what direction Blue’s in and fly in a straight line toward him? Maybe it’s not Red at all, just some other charizard…
Blue gets to his feet, about to start waving his arms so that Red doesn’t fly past him, when the charizard abruptly dips into a steep dive rather than a spiral, so steep that Blue's heart leaps up in his throat and he takes an instinctive step forward, convinced his friend is about to crash, before wings abruptly snap out to flap.
A burst of wind blows dirt off the plateau in an expanding ring, and Charizard flaps a second time to stabilize before he sets down on all fours. Blue's heart is still pounding as he walks forward to meet Red as he slides down his pokemon's side, then sets out food and water containers for him.
"Hey," he says with a smile. "If I didn’t know you better I’d call you a showoff.”
Red gives him a distracted smile, then triggers another container ball. He lifts a pair of gloves out of the box, along with the speaker necklace and a pair of tinted glasses. Blue waits patiently as Red puts the necklace and glasses on, then the gloves, presses some buttons on each, then starts “typing” on the air.
"Hey," his voice says from the necklace, and then Red types a longer message out, fingers of one hand occasionally making a motion that flicks from one side to another. Blue notices a slight frown on Red's face the third time he does this, and wonders if it's a way of backspacing.
"New toy from Bill?" Blue asks while Red is still typing, and Red nods as he continues typing. "Can you see me through those things?" Red glances up at him and nods again, smiling this time, though the expression quickly fades as he goes back to typing, gaze out of focus as he watches the small words printing on the lenses.
Blue feels a pit in his stomach, and can't tell if it's worry over whatever message his friend is typing, or something else. Grief, maybe, over what his friend has to deal with now, just to have a simple conversation.
It feels like forever, but in truth is less than thirty seconds before Red’s distractingly-accurate autogenerated voice speaks again. "Leaf is about five minutes out. I'm going to wait to say anything because it's a lot. Small talk okay meanwhile? I want to know how you’re doing. Oh and the landing thing, that wasn’t showing off, it was just… well, my powers have gotten stronger in some ways. Merging with Charizard is really deep now, to the point that I feel like I just sink into his instincts without losing my sense of self. It’s kind of cool, actually, like every action is instant and I’m as confident as he is in how things will go.”
“Huh. Not sure how impressive that is compared to what other psychics do, but it sure as hell looked impressive.” He thinks of the thing Koichi said about humans growing faster from life-and-death situations too, not just pokemon, and subtly checks if Red is taller than he was before, now that he’s seeing him standing upright. Maybe? But then again, it has been over a month…
“What?” Red asks after a quick flick of his fingers. The synthetic voice somehow managed to sound… self-concious? Does he have a setting for that?
“Nothing. It’s just… really good to see you out of the hospital.”
Red smiles. “Good to be out of it. Sorry for the vague message, by the way. I figured we’ve sent each other more ominous ones before."
"Yeah not even the top three, honestly.” Blue’s smile feels only half-forced. “Whatever major secret you’re about to drop on us, at this point I’m just hoping it’s something like a city-wide threat instead of a regional one. I’ve got my Champion plate full enough already."
"Sorry.” Red's expression is serious, and Blue’s heart sinks, own smile fading. “But I guess this is a good opportunity to say, I'm more grateful than ever that you're going to be Champion. I trust you to make the right calls, even when they're hard."
Blue blinks, caught off guard by the sincerity in Red’s expression… and the confirmation that whatever this is, it’s going to make his job even more complicated. “Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it.”
"I mean it,” Red continues. “I've been thinking a lot about leadership while I was in the hospital. About the kinds of decisions Champions have to make." Red's hands pause, then continue. "I couldn't do what you're about to do. Lead a whole region, be responsible for everyone's safety. I think I’m pretty good at noticing problems in society, understanding why things go wrong, but you’re good at solving them.”
"You’ve solved plenty of problems."
"Sure. But those were mostly… I don’t know, puzzles.” Red stops typing a moment to gesture broadly around them. “Puzzles about the physical world, which solved problems for people and changed stuff that way. You changed things in society directly, made things better by making people better, helping them do different things.”
Blue slowly nods. “So… this is bad, huh? Something you’ve been sitting on for a while?”
Red hesitates, then types, “Bad, yeah, but a while? Yes and no. Remember that conversation we had in Fuchsia about secrets, and trusting each other?”
Blue has to think for a moment, then smiles. “The one with the three-headed stormbringer? Trust versus ‘real trust.’”
Red smiles back. “Yeah, that one. It’s not something I didn’t say before because I didn’t trust you. Even if we disagree about what the right thing ends up looking like sometimes, I want you to know that however bad this all sounds, I’ll be there to help however I can."
Blue feels a warmth in his chest, but also a growing weight. "There’s no one I’d rather have." He wants to say he's always known that, even after Vermilion, but that would be an unnecessary lie. They both know their friendship has been tested before, and come out stronger. "Makes whatever bombshell you're about to drop feel a little less scary."
Before Red can respond, a shadow passes overhead. They both look up to see a familiar pidgeot banking in a wide circle, its rider scanning the plateau for a safe landing spot.
"Crimson's looking good," Blue observes, watching the pidgeot's powerful wingbeats as it descends.
“When did he get so big?”
“She’s continued stepping up the combat training with Janine and the gang. Her pokemon are nearly as strong as Glen’s, last they fought.”
Crimson touches down with practiced ease, wings folding as Leaf slides down from her position. She pats the pidgeot affectionately before summoning some food and water for him, then jogs over and triggers a container ball on the ground beside them.
"Caffeine delivery," she announces as she pulls out some thermoses. "Figured we might need caffeine for whatever this is about." She studies their faces as she distributes the drinks and hugs each of them. Blue opens his to find some mild green tea with honey inside. "Okay, based on your expressions and the remote location, this is either really sensitive information or you're planning something stupid."
"Why not both?" Red types.
Leaf uncaps her tea and takes a sip, her eyes moving between them. "The kind of sensitive that requires meeting on a windswept plateau without your bodyguards?”
"It’s not them I’m worried about, but staying out of any possible psychic range.” Red looks around, then types. “Hopefully.”
"Ah." Leaf leans against a nearby boulder. "Well, I've got news to share too, though if this is about the Dreamer, I should probably go after you.”
Red nods, not seeming surprised by her guess, which makes Blue reevaluate the comment about psychic range. Does Red believe the Dreamer is somewhere in Viridian? “I pretyped a message, one sec…”
Blue and Leaf wait as Red clicks some buttons to unpair the necklace speaker from the glasses and gloves, then strips them off to take his phone out, then pairs the phone and the speakers instead. Blue shifts his weight as he waits, feeling another pang of frustrated grief.
Eventually the words start, Red watching them as the headset speaks for him. “I’ve met the Dreamer. Not face to face, through merger. Multiple times, actually, I just didn’t remember. They helped me prepare to face Rowan, let me model their mind and way of thinking, the same way Sabrina and the others did. We became… not friends exactly, it was just a few visits, but friendly. We talked a little about the dreams too, of course, the risks of unown research. We also talked about our lives a little, now and then. They were always very secretive and careful about what they revealed, but they did admit they were a student of Sabrina’s. I felt I could trust them. I guess they thought the same, because they visited me the night I sent you guys the message to meet and told me they’ve been the one influencing the minds of unown researchers to get them to quit.”
Blue has to remind himself to breathe, and blink. He knows Red’s been holding onto some secrets, they all have, but this…
“They’re also the one that helped me finally heal enough to wake up. Or, they say they are, but I believe them, and Agatha and Jason and Sabrina all confirmed that I started to get rapidly better after a certain point, and Agatha guessed what I was thinking about, or she saw around my partitions, and admitted that the Dreamer said they would help me, so overall I believe them, and believe I owe them a lot. I want to say that explicitly, make it clear that I know it might be biasing my judgement. Maybe I should pause for questions here, I can type the responses…?”
Red stops the message, then starts swapping things around again. Blue puts a hand out. “Wait, I don’t… I think it’s better to just hear it all first?” He looks at Leaf.
She’s biting her lip, eyes wide, but nods. Red looks between them, then slowly nods back and fiddles again. “Right, so again, the Dreamer admitted they’ve been psychically changing unown researchers’ minds. They said they only did it to people who were reckless and had other career paths they were excited about, but there’s no way to know for sure. On top of that, they didn’t admit to being a pokemon hybrid, but they didn’t deny it either. We really can’t know their full capabilities, and they seem regretful but determined to do what they need to stop the unown research. They said they’re open to other options, but in the meantime they’re going to keep going. I need to try to find a way to convince them to stop, I couldn’t do it before. I don’t think they’re a bad person, just doing the wrong thing out of desperation, and I’m worried there’s going to be some confrontation between them and the League about all this soon. I thought you guys might have ideas, I have one to start with but I’ll stop for questions again first.”
Red gives them an expectant look, and Leaf says, “Yeah, I have questions now” in a low, mildly shocky voice.
“Me too,” Blue says, and Red starts swapping things to his glove inputs. Blue tries to get his thoughts in order, and gestures for Leaf to go first.
She doesn’t seem to have the words either, but after a few moments takes a breath and starts pacing. “Okay, first things first. I should admit I knew some of this already.” She tells them about her meeting with the Champion and various others, including Gramps(?) to learn if she knew who the Dreamer was, and how it resulted in her using her story as a way to bait them into a meeting. “I assumed it would only work if they really were the hybrid. I believed they were, but not with enough certainty to be scared, especially since Lance and the others could have been wrong? I was hoping if the Dreamer showed up they would say it wasn’t them messing with people’s memories, that the latest plot development in my story got it all wrong.”
Leaf stops moving and rubs her face with both hands. “Now… I don’t know what to think. But I have to ask, Red… what are you going to say to Sabrina?”
Blue nearly slaps his forehead. He’s been lost in his own thoughts, struggling with all the other implications of what Red said, he hadn’t even considered that if the Dreamer is Sabrina’s student and the hybrid… “She has to have known, right?”
Red’s fingers are already tapping at the air. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask about it, I was too surprised and there wasn’t much time. It’s theoretically possible that Sabrina didn’t know… if the Dreamer approached her the way they approached me, I could see her accepting them as a student out of sheer curiosity. Still, I admit it’s suspicious. I still haven’t figured out what to say to her about it all.”
“But you do plan to ask her soon?” Leaf asks, and when Red nods, bites her lower lip. “Let’s talk about that some more later, before you do, okay?” Red nods again, and it seems like Leaf is going to say something else, but instead just shakes her head. “I asked my main question, I’ll let Blue ask his and then maybe we should hear the rest of what you want to say before we ask any more.”
They both turn expectantly to Blue, and his stomach feels cold as he reconsiders what he wanted to say. It feels bad to say it, bad to believe it might be true, but he has to. “My question is pretty simple,” Blue says, speaking slowly and calmly as he looks at Red. “How do you know the Dreamer hasn’t manipulated your thoughts the way they did the researchers?”
Leaf’s eyes widen, but again Red is already typing, like he predicted the question. “I thought about that a lot, of course. The Dreamer spent a bunch of time in my head and they’re way more powerful than I am in a lot of ways. But I can’t figure out what their goal would be. I let them know I’m opposed to what they’re doing with the researchers, and they didn’t do anything to change that. Maybe they couldn’t for one reason or another, but I’m assuming either way for now that my thoughts and feelings are my own.”
“No, Red, that’s not… don’t you get it, the Dreamer may not just be more powerful than you, if they can see into your head that much they might know you well enough to twist you in a way that makes you feel like yourself, still, to feel like you’re still opposing them where it matters to you, but still pushing for their safety, for cooperation!”
Leaf turns to Blue. “Someone doesn’t need to be manipulated to believe that, I’ve been saying it since I found out about them.”
Blue throws his hands up. “Leaf, for all you know the Dreamer already visited you because of your story and changed your mind! If they’re subtle enough, maybe Agatha wouldn’t notice.”
Leaf crosses her arms. “I’ve been tracking my time meticulously with recordings, and regularly writing down what I believe and why in a private document to ensure I’m not being manipulated into any drastic shifts in views. I regularly check the meta data and edit history to ensure it’s the one I started with, and I have regular reminders, including from specific people from different regions, to let me know to check it and what the metadata should say. If you think I’m not being paranoid enough already about my mind being tampered with, given it’s something I’ve been thinking about since Red and I went on the cruise convention, by all means make some suggestions.”
Blue takes a second to absorb all that, then gives a grudging nod. “Okay, sorry, Leaf, I shouldn’t have underestimated you. Red, you should start doing the same, even if it’s too late. Hell, with Miracle Eye out there I should probably start doing the same too…”
Red, meanwhile, has been typing, and eventually his necklace says, “I don’t know how to prove that I have or haven’t had my mind tampered with, especially if Agatha checking isn’t good enough. But either way, my point in all this is that we need to stop the Dreamer from doing what they’re doing, and I think I have a way to do it, if I can finish the recording?”
Blue and Leaf exchange a glance, then nod.
Red swaps systems again, and as he does Leaf begins opening more container balls to pull out collapsible chairs and a huge umbrella and stand to ward off the sun. Red gives her a surprised smile, and both of them help her set them up as Red’s message starts playing again.
“So, the basic problem is that the Dreamer doesn’t believe negotiation is possible anymore because Lance is adamant that unown research continues in Kanto, and the government is going to basically consider it a matter of regional security and look to him for guidance. I think if Blue becomes Champion, though, there’s a chance the Dreamer will agree to stop and discuss what our options are, as a region. I think if we put enough smart people in the room together, we can all figure something out, or else… I don’t know, what’s the point of having all these smart people around, you know? Even if there’s disagreement between people like Professor Oak and Lance, you’d still have final say, Blue. I’m open to other solutions, though, I don’t mean to put it all on your shoulders. But there’s one more thing that’s got me worried.
“Obviously Silph is still developing the Master Ball, and I think they have a new target for it. When I visited Bill he showed me some new anti-psychic tech, like a protective helmet to basically turn someone dark. Would have been a lot more effective before Miracle Eye, and it doesn’t have perfect coverage, but still it’s a huge step forward, and what’s more, the same technique can make a pokeball immune to telekinesis. Bill said Silph were the ones originally researching it, and that they recently made a big push for it to get developed soon, and I don’t think the goal was just to make it easier to catch kadabras. I think they wanted this tech for the Master Ball because they knew about the hybrid, because Fuji knew about the hybrid and he was the one working on the Master ball!”
They’re all sitting by now, which Blue's tired legs are grateful for. The automated voice is doing a pretty good imitation of Red being excited, but his expression as he listens to the recording with them is grim, and Blue mentally re-interprets the tone as meant to be alarmed. “It makes sense, right?” Recording-Red goes on. “I can’t think of a way to prove it, especially with him missing, but I checked with Silph too—it’s a bit weird that he’s still so willing to talk to me about stuff, but I’m not complaining. Anyway, I asked him what the plan was for the Master Ball once it’s done, and he said that he and Lance got into a bit of a ‘debate’ about that, and he gave me a big speech about the efficiency of the market and so on, but said Lance wanted it to go to the Champion first and foremost and from the way he talked about it, the debate sounded more like Lance was strongarming him into it. Which makes a lot of sense if he knew about the Dreamer being a hybrid psychic, but the timeline is a bit off, maybe? Less clear about that part. Okay I think that’s it. More questions, then general discussion time? I dunno, maybe you guys already have other ideas about what else we can do about all this. I’ll leave it to Future Red to say if he has other ideas about what comes next.”
Red waits for the message to finish running, then swaps back over to his live setup. Blue watches him with a sick feeling slowly churning in his guts, still processing everything he heard, and what it means about Red’s position on the Dreamer…
“No new ideas, any new questions?” Red types out, then looks expectantly at them. Blue doesn’t even know where to begin… “Something I thought about since I did the pre-message was about how useful it would be if I go public—”
“No!” Blue and Leaf say together, and Red rears back from their combined intensity. “Red, you going public about this is a terrible idea,” Blue says, and Leaf nods.
Red’s eyes are wide behind his tinted glasses as he looks between them. “Well I figured it might be, but I wanted to check…”
Blue sighs and rubs his face. “You haven’t been following media mentions of yourself much, have you?”
Red hesitates, then types, “I try to batch it for once or twice a week… why?”
Blue and Leaf exchange glances, then Leaf pulls out her phone and taps at it a few times before showing Red. Blue remembers the article well, but pulls it up on his own phone to reread it as he drinks more tea.
Questions in the Ashes: The Unown Incident's Convenient Hero
By Zoey Palmer
PALLET TOWN - Work crews from around Kanto work day and night to rebuild our local beacon of pokemon learning and research, their work overseen by Professor Oak himself. The town is still in a state of mourning over not just the destroyed facility, but the local researchers and technicians who were killed here just a few weeks ago. None were native to Pallet Town, but all came to consider it their home after years of working at the now destroyed lab.
As the region continues to grapple with the aftermath of the incident, one name keeps surfacing with curious frequency among those who responded that day, a name that is Pallet born and raised: Red Verres. Sources say the young psychic trainer, already famous for his role in multiple high-profile events, appears to have been remarkably well-positioned when disaster struck Cinnabar Island, arriving at the laboratory mere moments before the region-wide crisis began.
Interpol has confirmed that Verres was present at Cinnabar's research facility when the unown "awakening" occurred, despite having no official reason to be there. More intriguingly, witnesses report he arrived with what one researcher described as "urgent purpose," as if responding to a warning that hadn't yet been issued to the general public.
We now know, of course, that the events of that morning did not begin in Kanto, but at a lab in Hoenn. Still, the timing is curious.
Curious, and one might say suspicious, when examined alongside Verres' documented history with the creatures. The trainer was present during the Lavender Tower incident, has been conducting private research into psychic phenomena with both human and pokemon subjects, and maintains close ties to multiple parties who would benefit from advanced warning of such events. One of the researchers lost at Cinnabar was even Red Verres’s collaborator on some preliminary research involving unown months ago.
When asked for further comment, an Interpol liaison stated only that "We cannot comment on the systems and sources of information that help our members act quickly to protect Kanto’s citizens, as Mr. Verres has time and again." Such praise, while no doubt deserved for his public actions, does nothing to address the fundamental question: how did the young psychic know to be at the (regional) ground zero of an unprecedented disaster before it began?
The destruction of Pallet Labs (and with it, decades of irreplaceable research and nine talented staff) represents one of the greatest scientific losses in Kanto's history. Red Verres was reported to be at multiple different locations on the day of the incident, but the two most glaring inclusions are Cinnabar, where it all began, and Pallet Labs, where no unown research was known to be occurring. That the lab's most unusual apprentice knew to come to his hometown lab’s defense anyway, in the midst of a crisis that itself was already so unpredictable, is again not merely a curiosity, but a mystery.
A mystery that compels at least some reconsideration over the pattern of heroism Red Verres (and to some extent his journeymates) has enacted across the region, from Mt. Moon to Lavender Tower, from the Rocket Casino to Silph Co.
The official narrative asks us to believe that the young psychic, through pure coincidence, has been present at the majority of unprecedented events in Kanto’s recent history, and emerged not only unscathed but celebrated. That this same researcher and trainer, who has demonstrated abilities that even seasoned psychics find remarkable, had no special foreknowledge of an event that compelled him to try and protect his friend’s life and his mentor's life's work.
Because, to be clear, my investigation has found nothing to indicate that Red Verres is not what he appears, on some level; an earnest, clever, and caring trainer who helped save many lives, time and again, at great personal cost.
But either Red Verres is among the unluckiest trainers in Kanto's history, or something else is at play.
Red Verres himself was unavailable for comment on this story. Professor Oak declined to discuss the matter, as have his other mentors and friends, from Leader Sabrina to President Silph.
The people of Kanto deserve answers. How did Red Verres know to be at Cinnabar? What connection, if any, exists between his psychic abilities and the unown's "awakening,” let alone some of the other incidents, and what distinguishes them from the ones he wasn’t present for, such as the emergence of the ditto, or the recent gyarados rampage along the Lavender coast? And perhaps most critically, if this isn’t all just a coincidence, what else may be coming that he’s either aware of or suspects?
In times of crisis, heroes emerge, and Red Verres appears to be a hero on par with many in Kanto’s history, heroes who have taken an active interest in his life and whom we trust in their continued, steadfast vouching for the young trainer, researcher, psychic, and renegade hunter.
This reporter will continue investigating these questions, however, until my curiosity is sated. The truth, as always, remains my only agenda.
(Zoey Palmer is an independent investigative journalist based in Cerulean City. She can be reached at…)
Red slowly lowers the phone as he finishes reading, staring off into the distance. After a moment he blinks and hands the phone to Leaf, then slowly types, “Well. That could have been worse, I guess.”
“It’s not true, is it?” Blue asks. “I know, I know, meta-honesty stuff, but… is it?”
“Not as far as I know,” Red says with a shrug. “But I doubt that answer would satisfy Zoey, would it?”
“It’s a whole separate conversation, and honestly I thought it was what you wanted to talk about today,” Leaf admits. “If you want advice on how to approach her, I’d be happy to talk through things, but… uh, better I don’t make the connect directly, we have a bit of a history.”
“Do you think I should meet with her?”
“No,” Blue says at the same time Leaf says, “Maybe.” They exchange looks and Leaf gestures at Blue to go first.
“Do another press conference, those have gone well for you in the past and there’s less chance of her, or any individual reporter, twisting or taking what you say out of context, or pushing you down a particular narrative.”
Leaf nods. “It’s a good point, but I think some of the same effect can be had if you just have the meeting be recorded. But either way, it’s a story I think you should get ahead of somehow, or else more and more people are going to start believing you have some precognition, or worse.”
“Either way, do not tell people about your relationship with the Dreamer.” Blue looks at Leaf to see if she disagrees, but she just nods. “It’s a risk, obviously the Dreamer could say something themselves if they ever decide to make a public statement, but if Agatha and Lance aren’t announcing their conversations with them yet then you shouldn’t either.”
“Not to mention Sabrina,” Leaf adds. “You need to understand that relationship a lot more before anything else.”
Red slowly nods, and Blue feels some relief that he’s taking them seriously. Red picks up his thermos to drink some tea, then sets it down before typing, “Okay. What about the rest of it, then?”
Leaf holds a hand up, and Red nods to her. “Have you talked to Professor Oak or anyone about the idea of Blue setting some new policy when he becomes Champion, yet?”
“No, why?”
“When I spoke with everyone… I mean, Looker was mostly neutral, but everyone else, they were pretty clear that they don’t want a fight with the Dreamer, so I think it’s a good idea in theory. But even if Blue replaces Lance, I’m not as confident as you are that they could find a solution that makes everyone happy. At the very least they might end up convincing the Dreamer to go to another region, if we stop allowing unown research here, but…”
“But we can’t do that,” Blue says. He looks between them. “Guys, come on. Obviously we can’t do that, right? Just let the other regions keep researching unown without us? I get that it’s dangerous but there’s no way Indigo can just let itself fall behind like that, especially not just because some—” pokemon hybrid “—the Dreamer threatened us. Imagine if Rocket tried that!”
Red frowns as he types, “Rocket aren’t trying to save the world.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“No, I said I’m against what the Dreamer is doing—”
“You said you’re against them manipulating people’s thoughts, which, yeah, great, of course. But you still think their goal is a good one, and I’m not convinced.”
Red looks shocked, and it makes Blue’s stomach churn again. “What about the dreams?”
“The dreams they’ve been sending out?”
Red shakes his head sharply as he types, having to backspace a lot for corrections before he finishes. “Blue, it’s real, whatever is driving the unown crazy I felt it through Rowan, it’s not something the Dreamer made up! Or are you going to say I might have been manipulated there, too?”
Blue lets out a long breath, rubbing his eyes. Is he ready to say that? Is there a reason he shouldn’t, other than not wanting to hurt his friend’s feelings? He turns to Leaf, who seems nervous as she glances between them, and he can guess she’s thinking of their fight after Vermilion. “What do you think, Leaf? Am I being an asshole?”
“A little,” Leaf says. “Maybe. I don’t know, I think you’re right to be suspicious, it’s just… we have to trust Red somewhat, right? Or else why even change anything we do based on what he says, instead of just assuming he’s going to mislead us to do whatever the Dreamer wants?”
Blue takes in a deep breath, then lets out another long breath, then nods. “Yeah, okay, fine. I do believe you, Red. But I don’t know that Lance is wrong about what the region needs to do. I thought the hybrid was too dangerous even before they turned out to also be the Dreamer, and before they started going around messing with people’s minds. I wanted the Master Ball to catch the Stormbirds first and foremost, but there are other threats out there, and after finding out what the Dreamer’s been doing? Making it work against psychics is an obvious decision.”
Red's fingers hang suspended in the air, not moving as he watches Blue, wide-eyed. Leaf is staring at him too, and Blue feels heat growing in his chest as he looks between them. “What? You think I’m wrong?”
Red’s fingers twitch, but he doesn’t continue. It’s Leaf who says, “Blue… would you use the Master Ball against the Dreamer?”
Blue looks at Leaf for a long moment, then at Red, whose hands are still frozen over his gloves. He knows what they’re thinking. They’re thinking of the Dreamer as a person… and if he’s being honest, much as it makes him uncomfortable, they’re right to.
But that doesn’t change what has to be done. "If they keep manipulating people's minds? If they escalate beyond what they've already done?" Blue's voice is steady, even as he feels something hollow in it. "It depends how the law judges them. I’d argue they’re more pokemon than human, if they do that, but either way, they need to be stopped.”
Red's hands finally move. "Even knowing they might be the only one that can help us understand the unown threat?"
"Even then." Blue’s nerves are jangling, body full of pent up energy, and he gets out of his chair and mimics Leaf’s earlier pacing to vent some. "Red, you're asking me to prioritize one person's life over everyone else in the region. That's not leadership, that's favoritism."
"It's not favoritism to recognize that some people have unique value—"
"Everyone has unique value!" Blue's voice cracks slightly. "The researchers whose minds got messed with, they had unique value too. The people who might die if we fall behind other regions in unown research, they have unique value. I can't just decide that the Dreamer matters more because they might be able to help us with the unown threat or whatever else.”
"But you're talking about destroying who they are,” Leaf says. “Making them a slave."
"I'm talking about stopping someone who could take over or destroy civilization if they decide to," Blue shoots back. "We capture dangerous pokemon all the time. Being intelligent doesn't give them the right to hurt people."
"This is different and you know it."
"How? From where I'm sitting, the Dreamer is no different than a renegade with an extremely powerful psychic on their belt. They just happen to be in the same body, in this case.”
“They’re not a renegade! They’re trying to help, they helped me, they’re just alone and scared—”
“Would you be arguing that if they killed the researchers instead?”
Red hesitates, and it’s Leaf who jumps in, making Blue turn to her. “Killing someone would make them a different person. Whatever they’ve done, maybe it can be undone, but either way they’re clearly using restraint.”
“You say that like it makes it better! It doesn’t make me feel safer, and I bet it won’t for the rest of the region.” Blue feels like he’s being ganged up on by both of them, and has to take a deep breath to remind himself that they’re not trying to do that, he already knew that they’d be closer to each other’s sides on this... “They can’t just do what they think is right because they’re scared. That's tyranny, and I for one am not grateful that it’s not as cruel a tyranny as it could be.”
They’re both staring at him again, and Blue feels something tearing in his chest, feels the arcanine growling and prowling and spreading burning tendrils through his torso as it paces back and forth. He wants to believe they’ve been mind-controlled by the Dreamer, but only because it hurts to imagine his friends would be looking at him like that otherwise. Like he’s a monster, instead of trying to protect them. Protect everyone.
His jaw aches with the way it’s stubbornly set forward, and he forces himself to relax it and sit down again. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. Two deep breaths. Three.
The sun is still shining down around them, making the air a bit too warm. Wind blows in unsteady gusts, cooling him off, and when he opens his eyes, he sees a heavy cloudfront approaching the sun, one that might lead to rain in a few hours.
The other two don’t interrupt him as he works to calm down, and eventually he looks between them, voice low and rougher than he expected. "What do you want from me? When I become champion, I’ll swear an oath to defend the region. The same oath Lance swore, but more. You both know what I plan to do. How can I lead the region against the Stormbringers while letting this go? How can the people ever trust me to put their safety first, if I’m not looking for every edge against a threat this big?”
Neither of them have an immediate answer. After a moment Red types, “Maybe they’ll trust you more if you handle it with care and grace, and avoid a fight.”
Blue smiles, heart aching with the split desire to hug his friend and gently slap him upside the head. “They won’t, Red. If they were all you, maybe. But they’re not, and it’s okay that they’re not. There’s always going to be people like you and Leaf and Gramps willing to take the risks to do the right thing, but everyone else?” He sweeps his arm out to the side, toward Viridian City and the rest of Kanto. “They want to feel safe first. Morality comes after, always.”
He expects them to argue with him again, and he’s not sure what else he could say to make it clear to them how out of touch they are with the average person, how all this philosophizing about the Dreamer’s intentions and nature are just noise to people who will hear that they’re taking over people’s minds and freak the fuck out…
But Leaf is rubbing her face and sighing. “You’re right, Blue. He’s right, Red. It’s not… I wish it wasn’t true, but we can’t convince people to take that risk.”
Red’s jaw works, eyes wide as he stares down at his hands, or maybe the space between them where the keyboard should be. Eventually he types, once again having to delete multiple times to get out, “But Blue still doesn’t have to do that…”
“I do, Red.” Blue tries to keep his voice gentle, though there’s a part of him that wants to say the words hard, to shout that he doesn’t want this but it’s the way it has to be… “I do, if I’m going to be their Champion.”
Red’s eyes shut tight, and stay shut for a while before he starts to type again, eyes opening to watch the words on his glasses before the necklace speaks:
“I was going to tell the Dreamer about the Master Ball.”
Blue goes very still. "Red. No."
"They deserve to know what they're facing. If Silph is specifically developing countermeasures, and if Lance is planning to use the Master Ball against them..." Red's hands move faster. "How can we ask them to trust negotiations when we're preparing an ambush?"
"Do you honestly believe they would reveal their full capabilities in negotiations?”
"If they don’t, it’s because they don’t trust us. And they would be right not to.”
Blue shakes his head, unsure where to even begin. “You need to talk to someone. Not me, I don’t know how to put it in your language. Ask Surge, or Silph, or Giovanni, or someone who understands negotiation and politics.”
“Game theory,” Leaf suggests. “That’s the thing you’re thinking of. It’s about how people make decisions to cooperate or defect against each other, especially given adverse incentives and unequal information.”
Blue waves a hand. “Sure, that. The thing you’re thinking of, it’s… I won’t say it’s insane, I understand why you want to do it, but you can’t.” He turns to Leaf. “Please tell me, despite everything else we disagree about on this, on the hybrid and the Master Ball and whatever, you at least get why he can’t do that.”
Leaf shakes her head, looking sadly at him. “I’m sorry, Blue, I… this isn’t me saying you’re wrong, but I don’t think the Master Ball should be used on any pokemon, let alone the Dreamer. It’s not… about what’s pragmatic, it’s just… it’s deeper than that, I think it would be better if you caught them in a regular ball or even killed them.”
Red looks at her in shock, but Blue thinks he gets it. “Right,” he says, suddenly feeling tired, like the day of hard travel and climbing is suddenly all catching up with him at once. He sighs and turns back to Red, trying not to sound bitter as he says, “Guess that’s it for trusting me to handle things, huh?”
Red’s cheeks flush, and he types, “I do trust you, Blue. I’ll hear you out, talk to others if you think I should. But I still also have to do what I think is right.”
“Sure. But do you have to do it right away? Or can you get through a few conversations with them without letting it slip first?”
Red goes still, and when his fingers eventually move, they move slowly. "I don't know."
"Not good enough."
"Why does it matter?"
"It matters because I need to know how much time I have." Blue wants to start pacing again, but settles on gripping the sides of his chair. "You want to get all the big brains together and try to figure out a peaceful solution, great. I’m not going to get in the way of that, even if I’m Champion. But I don’t have any leverage until I am, and if the Dreamer thinks they can’t work with Lance, what makes you think they’ll just peacefully accept a threat like that?”
Red stares at him for a long while before typing, “It would feel like a betrayal, if I talk with them again and don’t say anything. You’re asking me to be part of a plot to capture them.”
"I'm asking you to think. Even if I could somehow reach the Elite Four tomorrow, the Champion transfer ceremony would take a week. I said I’m willing to negotiate first, and we’d know if the Master Ball was finished being built meanwhile, right?”
"I get that it makes sense to wait, I’m saying the Dreamer saved my life and I don’t think I can betray that!”
"For fuck’s sake, Red, of all the times to suddenly prioritize loyalty—"
"Stop." Leaf’s voice is sharp without yelling, and all of their pokemon turn to her. Charizard’s tail whips left to right, causing Machamp to flex his arms and fingers while Crimson shifts his weight, wings ruffling. "Both of you, just stop for a second."
Blue’s breathing hard, the anger bright and painful as it paces through his chest. He plays back what he said a few moments ago, and closes his eyes, one hand rising to rub his face as the tiredness sets in again, deeper than before. “Shit, I’m sorry, Red. I didn’t mean…”
“Wait,” Leaf says, and Blue drops his hand to blink at her. She gives him a strained smile. “The apology was good, I just… hold on, okay? I want to say something.”
Blue glances at Red, who looks about as miserable as he feels, but nods to him. He nods back and returns his gaze to Leaf, who sits back down and stares at her clasped hands between her knees.
"After Vermilion,” she says, “After Celadon, we good as promised each other that we wouldn't let something like that happen again. We’re stronger together, always, no matter what secrets we might have to keep from each other now and then, or what we might disagree on. We care about the same things, and even when we don’t, we care about each other enough to still be allies at the very least. This isn’t any different. Even if we disagree on what the right thing to do is, here, we’re on the same side. We’ll figure it out together.”
Blue feels something easing in his stomach as she speaks, and glances at Red, who slowly nods and types, “You have a suggestion?”
"I do, and it’s to stop treating this like a decision we have to make seperately or right now," Leaf says, voice firm. “There are people we should talk to. Some, like Blue’s grandpa and Red’s mom, we can all talk to together. Others like Sabrina or Looker might be better approached alone, but after we’ve gone through everyone who might have relevant advice, we meet up again, compare notes, and come up with something to offer the Dreamer. And all of us agree on what happens if they refuse."
Blue wants it to be that simple, but he has to ask… “And if we can’t agree?”
"Then we figure out a compromise we can all live with."
"What if there isn't one?"
The question hangs between them. Leaf looks at Red, then at Blue, and her expression crumples briefly before smoothing out. "Then I guess we find out whether our friendship can survive another sacrifice."
Blue sits back down heavily. "We do what we think is right, and we live with the consequences." He looks at Red directly. "But we don't do it without talking to each other first. Not this time."
Red nods slowly and types. "I won't tell them until we've talked again."
"When?"
"After we've all talked to Sabrina."
Blue blinks, and Leaf asks, "We?"
Red types for a while. Blue checks on his pokemon, then takes another sip of tea as he forces himself to wait patiently, still feeling some lingering anger and stress from before Leaf’s mini-speech. "She's been keeping secrets too,” Red’s voice finally says. “If we're going to make decisions that affect everyone, we need to get her to come clean, and I think she’ll understand that this is something we’re working together on. She knows Blue is going to be Champion soon, she knows you’ve been writing the story about the hybrid… and maybe there are things she would only tell me in confidence, but at this point I think we get more from confronting her together rather than apart.”
Leaf nods. "That... makes a lot of sense.”
Blue shifts in his seat. “I think it’s a good idea too, but I don’t exactly have time to hop around, let alone fly to new places. And the longer this takes, the longer it’ll be before Indigo has a champion the Dreamer might negotiate with."
"How long will it take you?" Red asks. “I tried looking up averages, but—”
“Two weeks. That’s what I’m aiming for, and I think I can do it.”
Red's hands move quickly. "What if the Dreamer contacts me before then?"
"Can you... not respond?" Blue asks carefully.
"Not… really? I only know they’re there when they mentally connect, and I can’t ignore them, they’d know if I’m busy or something. So far they’ve only merged when I was alone… I guess I could try always having someone around…?” Red's synthetic voice expresses the uncertainty well.
Leaf leans forward. "What if you were honest? Tell them you learned something that has you worried about them, and are working on a solution. That you need time to convince people to listen." Leaf looks between them. "It's the truth, after all."
Blue frowns. “What if finding out he knows something just makes them try to pry it out of his head?”
“We have to trust they’re not going to take drastic, antagonistic action like that, or else we’re probably already sunk.” Leaf holds a hand up. “I know I’m biased, Blue, but Red says they saved him. We can’t ignore that and just assume they’re going to do the worst thing at every opportunity.”
Blue considers this, then nods slowly. "And Sabrina? When do we talk to her?"
Red types quickly. "Tomorrow. I can arrange a meeting at the gym, say it's about my recovery and psychic training. She won't be suspicious."
"What about your mom?" Blue asks. "And Gramps?”
"After Sabrina," Leaf says. "We need to know what she knows before we can figure out what to tell them."
Blue nods again, then stands and stretches, looking toward the path back down to where he can continue toward Victory Road. There’s still the anxiety in his stomach, the lingering sting in his chest that came from feeling like they’d turned against him. He wants to say something about making hard decisions, about the weight of leadership, but the words feel too stiff.
Instead, he turns back to his friends. "I want you both to know... whatever we decide about the Dreamer, I'm going to try to find a solution we can all live with. But if it comes down to protecting the region..." He pauses, searching for the right words. "I hope you trust me to do the right thing.”
Red's gloved hands move, and the synthetic voice is quiet. "I do trust you, Blue. It’s just… they trusted me too.”
The words hit Blue hard, and still-painful thoughts of Aiko, the journey-long companion that could have been, come and go. He looks at his friend, really looks at him, taking in the tinted glasses, the gloves, the speaker around his neck, all the technology that's become necessary just for them to have this conversation. Red’s changed so much since they left Pallet Town together, and of all the things Blue can’t get upset at him for, it’s loyalty to a friend…
Even if it comes at the cost of loyalty to himself, or the whole region.
"Two weeks,” Red continues. "I can promise two weeks before I tell the Dreamer anything.”
Blue feels something ease in his chest, but it's accompanied by a deeper ache. Two weeks to become Champion. Two weeks to find a compromise that might not exist.
"Thanks," is all Blue says, then turns to Leaf. “And thank you, Leaf, for talking some sense into us.”
Leaf’s smile is strained, but seems genuine enough. She stands too, starting to pack up the umbrella and chairs. As they help her fold everything back into container balls. "I need you both to know,” she says without looking at them. “Whatever happens, I'm going to document this. Not for publication, maybe not ever, but someone needs to record what really happened here. What we tried to do." She finally turns to meet their eyes. "History may end up judging us quite harshly, for one reason or another. And I want the record to show we tried to do right by everyone, but also where we failed, if we do."
Blue swallows his reply as he meets her hard gaze, and just nods. After a moment Red does too.
The wind picks up as they finish packing, and Blue pulls his jacket tighter. Overhead, clouds have continued to roll across the sky, the bright afternoon slowly giving way to something grayer.
"See you in Saffron," is all Blue says, then starts down the rocky slope toward Victory Road. Behind him, he hears the sounds of Charizard and Crimson take off, the beat of wings filling the air as he leads his pokemon down. He doesn't look back.
The road to the top is lonely. He’s read it before, thought it before, said it before, to Glen and Elaine, to Red and Leaf, to others.
He's never felt it more than he does now, looking up at the mountainous path to Indigo Plateau.