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Ch 89 - Long overdue
🕑 Added 2024-04-25 17:57:57 +0000 UTCIt was Koga, gym leader of Fuchsia.
The gym leader of Fuchsia, the head of the junta that controlled the city, the face of the sovereign, the power of the peninsula. He was an unassuming man, bereft of any adornments and sitting before a short wooden table on a simple cushion in an empty room.
David’s blood still ran cold. There was no reason for this man to be here. Desperately he searched the man’s face, hoping he was mistaken, but he couldn’t fool himself. Not with this. He’d seen the gym leader before, as close together as they were now, walking through the streets of Fuchsia wearing an ancient robe and rope belt. Marie had told him it was to symbolize the time that the people of Fuchsia suffered under the Madness of the March. The Psychics. The Voyants.
One of whom David had seen near daily as he trained Venonat. One he could nearly call a friend if it wasn’t for all the secrets. Finn was a Psychic. Finn was an enemy of Fuchsia. Finn had said it himself, complaining about agreements and those following him about the city.
Strangely, David had never thought it a concern. After all, he was hiding from the Voyants. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. Why would he be worried about Fuchsia?
But Fuchsia didn’t know that.
Even if they did, why would they be any friendlier to David? Finn was likely in their city because of him. He’d brought the Voyants here.
He had nothing for this city or the junta. There was no good reason for the gym leader to be here.
His hand sank to his centise, sliding through the carefully woven cords. The familiar scratches and scars on the pokeball lent him strength, faint though the presence within was. There was anger and resolve there. He would not be alone in-
Anger. Annoyance.
Discontent. Anxiety. Hope. Eagerness. Exhilaration. Sadness. Joy. Guilt. Humiliation. Boredom. Pleasure. Regret. Defiance.
Disappointment.
David staggered as he came back to himself. Everything was dull, but it was back. His wooly limbs. The screen walls, the gray-white wooden flooring. The table, the man sitting at it.
What happened? What had hit him?
A sigh drew his fragmented mind to the man sitting at the table. Koga was staring at the left wall of the room, towards a door. He shook his head once. When he turned back to David, his face was expressionless.
“Come. Sit.” Koga waved a hand at the cushion opposite him. “There is no need to call for your companions. You will not need them, and they are already hurt.”
David didn’t move. His feet were coming back under his control, but he didn’t like the situation any better now. That... pulse had made his position clear. He stood no chance against whatever that was, no chance against Koga - he couldn’t win a second badge challenge, let alone fight the gym leader. His Pokemon were weak from the fight. He had no tools, no weapons. Nothing to bargain with.
No. Koga wanted something. If all he wanted was David gone, he would have woken up on the other side of the continent. If Team Rocket could find his campsite in the wild and drug him, then the leader of Fuchsia would have no trouble doing the same in his city. Koga wanted something. That gave David some power.
“My Pokemon are hurt. They need healing.”
Koga inclined his head. “They will get it. Sit.”
“I can come back. I’ll drop them off at the Pokecenter. I’ll come back,” David said, feet inching back even as his heart beat slow.
“No.”
For an instant the air was cloying. Sour. It soaked into his skin.
“You may not. Much has been spent to arrange this. To keep this beneath notice.” Koga indicated once more. For the last time, David could tell. “Sit.”
He sat. Cross-legged instead of the more formal posture of the gym leader opposite him, but David didn’t know how to sit like that or what the procedure of all this is.
From the lack of change in Koga’s expression and the steadiness of the air, he didn’t care.
“A meeting has been bought. That is all. This is under the auspices of Fuchsia. Offer no insults. No violence. Answer what questions you wish. Speak and know who faces you.”
David’s mouth felt dry. Koga’s words were simple, but left much unclear. His voice broke no discussion, yet he had gone silent and seemed to be waiting. There was no escape, no backing away. He swallowed. “Alright.”
Koga turned his head to the left wall. Without a sound or any signal, the screen slid open. A woman wearing red and black walked in, the screen closing seamlessly without any input behind her.
She was beautiful in an ethereal way. Skin so pale it may never have seen light. Delicate features - a button nose small enough to disappear on her face. Even her dark green hair defied reality, flowing against gravity behind her back until it coiled by her hip. She could have stepped out of the cover of a magazine. She wasn’t real... more doll-like.
Then Koga turned back to David. As soon as his eyes left her, those delicate features scrunched into a frown. He knew instantly she was angry, annoyed. It felt familiar.
Step by step she drew closer, walking like her feet didn’t touch the ground. Dipping her head towards Koga, she sat in the same manner as him. Her red skirt clung to her black leggings as she knelt on the cushion, not creasing in the slightest.
Koga inclined his head back in acknowledgement.
“Sabrina Voyant. David Smith. Patience and Principle.”
‘Fuck’
The gym leader of Saffron. A possible Team Rocket member or supporter. The leader of the Voyant clan. An organization he had been running from since Celadon.
Without another word Koga stood up, and with surprising speed, left the room through the same door Sabrina entered.
A moment passed and then David’s wide eyes met dark blue.
‘So this is Sabrina Voyant.’
“Teenage witch.”
‘Oh fuck. That was out loud.’
Sabrina’s eyes twitched.
His hand twitched towards Cloudburst’s pokeball only to freeze. Not grow cold, not pause in fear. It stopped in place. He couldn’t move his hand.
“Enough. Who are you?”
David pulled at his arm. His elbow could still move. It was just his hand locked in place. He strained, leaning into it. Nothing.
Sabrina stared expressionless. The frown was gone.
David grabbed at his right hand with his left. It didn’t connect. Something stopped him before he could touch skin. There was no texture to it, no feeling, just a flat plane. His hand was trapped. Gripping his elbow he tugged. Nothing.
Something brushed against his face, flicking his gaze back to Sabrina.
“Release my hand.”
“Answer.”
They met each other's gaze again. Dark blue brightened until pink began to show around the edges-
“Okay,” David growled, looking away before whatever that was could finish. “My name is David Smith.”
There was that anger and annoyance again, but this time it felt different. More personal.
“David Smith. Twenty, unmarried. License number I38AVS-SAF.” Sabrina drew a breath. “Who are you?”
“It sounds like you know exactly who I am.”
He didn’t know why he was being stubborn. The psychic had him dead to rights. She’d already proved he couldn’t even touch his team or pokeballs if she didn’t want him to. All she needed to do was release one of her own and...
But it had been a long month of running. His fear had long dried up. Now in the face of the head of the Voyants, the source of so many of his problems, all he had left was anger.
He wasn’t alone.
Anger. Annoyance. Frustration.
“What happened on Monday the 13th of February? Who are you?”
“What?” David asked, more in surprise at the date than anything else. “When was that? Why does it matter?”
Sabrina’s eyes flashed pink. Her eyebrows contorted. “You did not exist before the 13th. We have checked. Everywhere. Everyone. Everything. You are the only abnormality.”
“What? The 13th?”
Then it clicked. David Smith did not exist in this world’s systems until he met Beth. He didn’t exist until he walked into that league office and filled out forms. Before then, he was...
Hope. For the first time since arriving, a lead. Something other than the vague hope that was Legendary Pokemon.
David stood, pulled off balance by the iron grip on his hand, but he pushed up anyway. It left him twisted to the side, but he stood. “What do you know? What happened on the 13th? How did I get here?”
Sabrina lent far back but refused to fall in defiance of gravity. Her eyes were wide. Surprise. Confusion. Suspicion -
Suddenly the iron grip on his hand disappeared. David staggered to the right, the support and lock gone. He wasn’t entirely successful and ended up using the same hand to catch him from face planting. To his relief it worked as normal - unfortunately it hurt the same too.
“The 13th.” Sabrina pulled his attention back to the table where she sat. “We felt it. The elders, the elites and I. In my city.”
David scooted back to the table, pain in his hand forgotten. “Felt what? What was it?”
Disappointment. Curiosity.
For a long moment Sabrina stared at him with deep pink eyes. Then she spoke. “We don’t know. None have felt it before. There is nothing like it.”
David collapsed on the couch. Nothing. She had no idea. They had no idea. A sovereign of Kanto. An entire clan of people who could break psychics and transform the world with their mind. Nothing.
“Who are you?”
“I... I was in bed. I was asleep. I was home.” His cheeks were damp. Had it really been two months? “I saw nothing. Felt nothing. I just woke up and I was here. In that alley.”
A pristine notepad appeared over Sabrina’s shoulder. It was already open, and two pens hovered over the pages.
“Where did you come from?”
David’s face twisted. How much should he explain? How much could he? How would Sabrina take the idea that this whole world was a game, a TV show and a source of entertainment. Was it? What would she believe?
“Earth, but the stories - those came from a place called Japan.”
“Japan,” Sabrina sounded the word out. It was clearly not one she’d come across before. The pen behind her scribbled on the paper. “You said ‘that alley’ which alley?”
David gave the directions as best he could. Sabrina had quickly shifted from an enemy to an ally in his mind. It also gave him a twist of pleasure to imagine the doll-like Sabrina floating into the grimy alleyway, freaking out the nearby passersby and scaring the Grimer all the more.
“Why did you run?”
David blinked, suddenly offended. What kind of question was that? “Team Rocket. Why did you chase me?”
Annoyance.
Sabrina scowled back. “I am Saffron’s gym leader. It is my responsibility.”
“It was your responsibility to send psychics after me? Threaten me to come back to Saffron? What about the Saffron police? I was told you’d stopped them from investigating Team Rocket. Was that your responsibility too?”
Her face went blank. Her emotions did not.
Anger. Suspicion. Anger. Bitterness. Anger. Anger. Fury.
“The attack on the twentieth. Who told you this?”
“The-” David hesitated. He didn’t want his nominal allies in Saffron to get in trouble.
“Tell me. No harm shall come to them.”
David searched her face. No expression as normal, but her emotions spoke differently.
Certainty. Gratitude.
“The Dojo.” They already believed the Voyants were crazy and out to get them. Extending Saffron’s gym leader a little trust could not hurt them badly.
Embarrassment. Regret.
The notebook and pens disappeared. “I must go.”
“Wait-”
Koga entered the room, closing the screen behind him gently. Once again David had missed whatever signal between them.
Sabrina waited until Koga was seated before standing herself. She offered Koga a deep bow before turning and striding away.
David was torn between the two. Unsure who he should be watching. There was still more he needed to know.
“How do I-”
Between one step and the next there was a flash of deep pink and Sabrina was gone.
Koga sighed, shoulders falling.
“Someday,” He grumbled.
David blinked in surprise. That sounded almost fond. Weren’t they supposed to hate each other?
Koga turned black eyes back to him.
“Now, it is time we talked.”
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Did you know that in all the games where Koga doesn't use a Venomoth on his team, Sabrina will use one instead, and vice versa?
Seems sus.
The original plan was for this to happen about 100k words ago. Oops.
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