Click-clack
The sound of heels slowly clicking against the sandy rock flooring at the depths of the Relic Castle felt very out of order. A faint glow of naked flame dimly lit the dark musty corridors of the magnificent building that had once seen glory at the height of the civilisation that built it.
Click-clack
A vague outline of a human slowly came to view. Any wild pokemon who spotted the stranger that intruded into their territory soon fled when they felt the ominous presence beside the human. A delphox and ninetales leisurely stroll alongside their trainer, an elegantly dressed woman whose attire is in stark contrast to the depths of this dreary ruins while a chandelure dimly lit up the path for them with its ghostly flames. Her long chestnut brown hair was tied into a high ponytail, displaying the sharp features of her face and her light blue eyes. The glow of her chandelure's flames illuminated her fair skin within the darkness.
Click-clack
Even within the darkness the woman walked as if she knew where she was heading. Her steps were slow and unhurried yet full of purpose. She's here on orders of her lady and she will not fail her master.
Click-clack
Her feet gradually took her towards the great hall at the depths of the Relic Castle. She paused for a short moment, raising her head to take a good look at the grand entrance of the great hall that the ancient volcarona was said to reside according to her lady. Her lady knows things, she always does.
Click-clack
The sound of clicking heels resumed after ninetales easily pushed open the creaky and ancient stone doors guarding the great hall of the Relic Castle with its psychic powers. The room was lit up almost instantly as a suffocating presence slowly descended from the ceiling to greet her with a menacing buzz. The volcarona was not pleased for being woken up from its slumber once again.
Even so, the woman only spared the powerful being a disinterested glance. She held no affection for this pokemon but her lady had asked for her to capture it, saying that it will be a great addition to their plans. If so, then she will carry out her duty as her servant and tame this monster.
The woman's aware that the Unova League was now keeping a close watch on this place after they discovered the presence of this volcarona just yesterday. She had seen for herself how closely guarded the perimeters of the ruins were before she silently infiltrated into the Relic Castle. There's only so much time she has on her hands before the Unova League inevitably notices her presence.
"Let's make this quick. Our lady is waiting."
Delphox let loose a swirling mass of flames just as volcarona released its own. The two opposing flames clashed in a fiery explosion as the woman observed the battle calmly. She won't deny that the volcarona is powerful, but she dislikes it when she has to spend time away from her lady in this rotten place just to capture a stupid bug.
A small round object rolled out from the long sleeves of her blouse and she idly caught it with her palm. It's unmistakably a type of pokeball and upon closer inspection, the upper half of it was purple in colour with two pinkish circles on the sides of the upper lid of the pokeball.
What was most eye-catching about this unknown pokeball is the big white "M" in the middle of it. It's a gift to this woman by her master, saying that she would need it to capture this powerful volcarona.
The look in the woman's eyes sharpened when her ninetales informed her through telepathy that it sensed a trainer swiftly closing onto their location. Any trainer that could make their way here into the depths of the Relic Castle could not possibly be a pushover.
How troublesome.
Irritatedly, she withdrew and grabbed onto another pokeball as if plucking it from thin air, one that looked very old and worn and within which resides the partner which she formed a pact with ages ago. If a pokeball expert were to take a closer look, they would have realised that the pokeball design was one that went out of fashion a very very long time ago.
"Thirty seconds, end this."
The worn looking pokeball opened and a huge wave of fog immediately covered the area. The volcarona pulled back immediately, its instincts screaming at it that a larger and more powerful predator had arrived.
A huge shadow burst through the fog. The last thing the volcarona remembered before it blacked out was a huge pokemon the volcarona had never seen before slamming its huge fist right into its face.
Wild pokemon scurried out of the way when two shadows flitted past them in a blur. As residents of this place they knew better than to cross anything that remotely resembled a fire-breathing moth, even if this particular one that they spotted was nowhere near the size of the apex predator living at the very depths of this place.
Right beside that volcarona was a huge man with flaming red-orange hair spiked up in a ridiculous fashion and tied into a long downwards ponytail. Despite his old age, Alder Lauro, the current Unova Champion could move at a speed that put many youngsters to shame as he and his partner swiftly descended down the ruins of the Relic Castle. None of the wild pokemon here tried to even stop or challenge them after they felt the kind of power the volcarona beside Alder passively exuded just for it being there.
"Faster."
Alder and his volcarona picked up speed. The news he received was very worrying, especially after every single piece of information they gathered pointed to the conclusion that Team Plasma not only knew about the ancient volcarona who lived here, but also assembled a team to try and get their hands on it. Their plans might have been foiled in the end but that was due to a fortunate coincidence. If the interpol wasn't there and if Elesa and EDGE didn't arrive in time to handle the situation, who knows what other kinds of nefarious things those terrorists hiding behind the disguise of pokemon activists would come up with.
For everyone's sake, he needs to capture and relocate the ancient volcarona as soon as possible. Preferably somewhere that Team Plasma can never locate.
He finally reached the deepest parts of the ruin where the volcarona was said to reside. Alder's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when his keen ears picked up the unmistakable sounds of a fierce battle occurring right ahead because whoever that was, it couldn't possibly be someone from the Unova League. At the very least, whoever was battling that volcarona couldn't be an ally.
No words needed to be exchanged between Alder and his volcarona. They burst into the great hall with a blazing ball of fire, just in time to witness the fallen form of the gigantic volcarona being sucked into a pokeball amidst the fog covering the entire hall in a translucent veil. A woman stood within the company of four other pokemon. A ninetales, a delphox, a chandelure, and the shadowy outline of one other huge pokemon that Alder couldn't quite identify through the fog before the woman swiftly recalled it just a split second after he arrived.
"Hand it over, I'm not going to repeat myself," Alder demanded as his volcarona buzzed in anger. The fog easily dispersed with a flap of its wings, finally revealing the woman for Alder to see clearly.
Alder narrowed his eyes when he finally caught a good glimpse of the unknown woman through the light of the flames her fire types emitted. As Champion, he's privy to certain unbelievable secrets known only to the highest echelon of the PWL. Through that avenue, he had seen the picture of this woman only once before but he would never mistake her for anybody else.
"Tarot?"
"Champion Alder, it's a surprise seeing you here," the woman casually replied as she gracefully crossed her arms across her chest. "I was warned by an acquaintance that I might come across a hindrance, but I wasn't expecting it to be you."
"You are the High Priestess," Alder stated with certainty as he immediately released his entire team out for battle. As the Champion of Unova he has a very good guess as to the kind of power that the mysterious international underground group known as Tarot was speculated to hold. Tarot is a presence that even the PWL do not want to carelessly make an enemy of, the first and only true international underground organisation to date in the world's history. It's a truly wondrous feat in itself how such a group managed to stay in existence for hundreds of years and maintained a solid international presence despite their high level of secrecy.
Alder wouldn't question the power of the trainers within the "Cards" of Tarot. He's reluctant to even refer to those people as humans because he knew for a fact that some of them had long since surpassed the limits of humanity. Even after so long, the PWL only managed to obtain images of a scant few members of the Cards of Tarot to match a face to a name and this was only possible because some of these people were said to have walked this planet for centuries.
"Justice" is one of such people, a very well-known figure to the PWL to those in the know. He's an Aura Guardian and a hero of Sinnoh that was said to have once risen to defend the region and possibly the world from a world-ending catastrophe even if it was a complete mystery why he would eventually end up joining an organisation like Tarot. Aaron Luzel was his name. He's the last Aura Guardian, the student of the forgotten legendary hero Yasui Kenta, and the Defender of Coronet whose tales of his feats are still written into Sinnoh's history books and celebrated today.
In contrast, this woman in front of him is not a known hero. There's very little information the PWL has over her other than one blurry image of her face, allowing them to finally match a face to the mysterious High Priestess of Tarot. Even if the woman doesn't seem to be one of those legendary heroes from the history books nor does she match the descriptions of any of those incorrigible villains persecuted by the PWL, Alder will never underestimate her. To the PWL's knowledge this woman is the one giving instructions to the Cards of Tarot in her leader's stead, the one that holds the title of The Fool. If Fool is the indisputable leader that unites the cards together, then the High Priestess is the messenger that Fool uses to lead Tarot from the shadows.
Furthermore, like Aaron Luzel, the High Priestess was also rumoured to have lived for at least more than a century despite how young her outward appearance is. Contrary to popular beliefs longevity and even immortality is attainable under the right circumstances, but such secrets are kept under wraps by the PWL for obvious reasons. The world's order would deconstruct itself if such knowledge were to go public. If the High Priestess is really one such person who achieved longevity or even worse, attained immortality, she would have power and experience that dwarfed even his despite him being a Champion.
"So the PWL now knows my face. Colour me impressed, the PWL can be efficient if you wanted to," the woman who admits to being the High Priestess of Tarot slowly made her reply, not even the least concerned at being surrounded by the full might of a Champion's pokemon team.
"What do you need the volcarona for?" Alder questioned instead, ready to jump right into battle at the slightest hint of danger. He had never felt so on edge by an opponent's presence ever since he was a youth, which was a testament to the High Priestess' abilities in itself.
"What do you think we need the volcarona for?" The woman answered his question with another question of hers.
"Is Tarot working for the Plasmas?"
"Team Plasma? Those clowns?" The woman released a soft and condescending scoff at the mention of the largest terrorist group currently in existence after the downfall of Team Rocket. "That reminds me of what a failure of a Champion you are, unable to even clean up the mess in your own home just like how Lance and Samuel had proved themselves to be. Champion… Hah."
The woman looked back at Alder, the disinterested gaze in her eyes telling Alder that she's not even registering him as a threat.
"Last warning, child, don't get in my way."
"I'm afraid that I cannot let you go, not after how you captured that volcarona for unknown purposes. As Champion, I have to eradicate any and all threats to my region," Alder declared and he knew that all hopes of a peaceful reconciliation were now dashed. The woman opposite him merely gave him an annoyed glare.
"Fine, suit yourself. Delphox."
The delphox beside the woman let loose a roaring stream of flames that Alder identified as Mystical Fire, a signature move of the delphox line that has the mysterious effects of lowering the opponents' offensive capabilities. Alder immediately understood that he cannot allow those flames to hit any of his pokemon, especially from a delphox of such calibre and skill.
"Volcarona!"
Alder's response was to fight fire with fire, his volcarona responding to delphox's onslaught with Fiery Dance. Balls of purplish flame pelted down at them from the woman's chandelure that looked like a masterful combination of Shadow Ball and Will-O-Wisp and Alder quickly commanded his reuniclus through telepathy to block that attack that couldn't be anything less than nasty.
Another huge wall of flames surged in their direction when the woman's ninetales joined in the battle. Alder grimly accepted the fact that even when he had eleven pokemon against three of the woman's pokemon, he's still being outclassed if it comes down to sheer firepower alone. When he first took up the mantle of Unova Champion and learnt about the existence of Tarot he had heard rumours about it from his predecessor, that among the Cards of Tarot there exists individuals capable of fighting a Champion to a standstill or even defeat them. Hearing about it was one thing, but to experience it personally…
Alder grimaced. Tarot had been keeping a very low profile all this time but it seemed that they had been getting increasingly active as of late. He had no idea why this was the case but it couldn't be anything good.
However, he's the Champion of Unova. He will defend the region down to his very last breath even against an adversary like Tarot.
His krookodile, bouffalant, and druddigon braved through the flames and rushed at the woman's pokemon. The woman's delphox easily intercepted their charge with a powerful Psychic and threw them back like helpless dolls. Alder could only watch in disbelief how the delphox's Psychic ignored the immunity that krookodile's Dark typing theoretically provided it against psychic type attacks, and the delphox wasn't even using Miracle Eye to remove said immunity. Escavalier and accelgor tried to use this brief moment of distraction to overwhelm and swiftly take out the delphox using their superior speed but that was also quickly foiled when the delphox easily evaded their strikes as though it had predicted each and every of their moves.
Alder narrowed his eyes and he immediately understood how the delphox managed that. That had to be an application of Future Sight, specifically modified to function almost in the same way as Detect.
"Fire Blast."
A powerful burst of fire crashed upon them and it took everything Alder's reuniclus had to defend everyone from harm. When the smoke finally cleared the woman and her pokemon were nowhere to be seen. No matter how Alder searched, there wasn't even a single clue left behind by that woman or her pokemon that could allow Alder to deduce where they might have disappeared to.
"Damn it," Alder gritted out and punched a nearby wall in frustration, his immense strength cracking the wall a little in the process. To run into a Card of Tarot was definitely an unforeseeable circumstance, but to think that even he was being suppressed to the point of being unable to put up a proper resistance to the woman's merciless onslaught showed just how powerful Tarot is.
Tarot had never caused any real trouble for the world or the PWL and in fact, it had actually assisted the PWL in averting several world crises throughout the long history of the world since the PWL's founding. As long as the PWL could pay the price for their services, Tarot would not hesitate to offer their assistance. As a matter of fact, Tarot had historically assisted the PWL before, free-of-charge, when the situation had proved itself to be that dire.
However, the existence of this group alone is also very worrying. They are an extremely unstable factor that could either easily guarantee the continued peace of the world, or becoming the bomb that throws the entire world into chaos. They might call themselves a mercenary group but till date, even after four hundred years since Tarot started to really make itself known as an international presence, nobody ever managed to find out what their purpose is or who their leader might be.
If his brief battle with the High Priestess was any indication, if this is the kind of power a Card of Tarot holds, then the power of their leader is simply unfathomable. If that person is anything like Aaron Luzel and the High Priestess Alder wouldn't be surprised if the leader of Tarot had also achieved either longevity or even immortality. That's another huge problem in itself.
Just which Champion in this world can claim to be able to defeat a trainer with hundreds of years of accumulated power and experience? Nobody. Yet, Tarot has several of such trainers in their ranks. At the very least, today, Alder had confirmed the existence of a second trainer other than Aaron Luzel within the ranks of the Cards of Tarot who had lived for over a century while mysteriously retaining the appearance of an adult.
"I'm fine," Alder reassured his companion when his volcarona lightly nudged him in concern. That's a lot of things to do today and what he just discovered was certainly an alarming problem that would get the highest echelon of the PWL in an uproar once they heard of it. He still has no ideas just what Tarot is planning to do, but the other regions need to be kept in the know just in case the worst were to happen and Tarot starts to play an active role to jeopardise the world's peace.
Alder turned and left after giving the great hall one last look.
There's a lot to be done.
She understood what had happened when she suddenly found herself back in the familiar surroundings of the garden outside her lady's home. She sighed and hung her head in shame, inwardly cursing the Champion of Unova for the trouble he caused for her and also at her ineptitude for being unable to swiftly deal with him before her lady decided to intervene. If she was stronger, faster, and more capable, her lady would not have needed to deem it necessary to personally pull her out of there.
She's such a failure as a servant.
Her light blue eyes shone in a faint glow as she briefly activated her Ability to locate her lady. Images instantly flashed across her mind and she understood where her lady was right now.
Her brisk steps brought her to the back of the garden and she found her master, her back facing her as she waters the flowers with a watering can and looking as if she never aged a single day ever since their first meeting centuries ago. Right beside her was the incredibly powerful Aegislash that could always be seen keeping a constant vigil by its trainer's side, its lone eye closed as if taking a comfortable nap under the warm rays of the morning sun.
The woman immediately walked up and got onto her knees in her master's presence.
"I apologise for my incompetence, milady."
"Aline, how many times have I told you to stop with all the needless kneeling?" Her master let out an exasperated sigh, her back still facing the High Priestess of Tarot, Aline Serre, as she continues to water her plants. Aline hung her head deeper in shame after hearing those kind words. She's not worthy of her master's kindness.
A mocking cackle resounded across the beautiful garden and Aline glared at the annoying troublemaker for mocking at her failure. A light-purple pokemon with a vaguely humanoid appearance slowly manifested in view, its green eyes with yellow sclera looking down at her in condescension while it played around with the yellow ring it held in its hands. As much as Aline disliked the childish troublemaker, she cannot deny the power and versatility this pokemon could bring about on the battlefield. She had seen with her own eyes how her lady had conquered battlefields with hoopa at her side. Hoopa must have been the one to extract her out from the Relic Castle upon her lady's instruction before her battle with Alder could intensify. After all, there's nowhere in this world that hoopa cannot reach with its mystical and unexplainable power.
Hoopa's mocking laughter didn't last long, however, as its trainer lightly knocked the back of its head with her fist in silent reprimand. Hoopa whined childishly but upon seeing the warning glare from its trainer, unwillingly stopped its antics and disappeared back to wherever it came from.
"Ignore him, he's just a brat that could never grow up."
"It's my fault for forcing your hand to bail me out of my battle with Alder. I will accept any punishment," Aline replied instead, still feeling ashamed for not being able to defeat Alder before her master decided to intervene. She is her lady's personal and trusted servant that had served her for centuries, such a mistake is inexcusable. How could she stand by her lady's side if she couldn't even defeat a child with less than a century's experience in under three minutes?
"Aline, please stand."
Aline felt even more ashamed after hearing those words. She would feel much better if her lady were to punish or berate her for her incompetence, but her lady had never done any of such things to her for as long as they had known each other. No matter what kinds of mistakes or follies she made, her lady always forgave her.
She's unworthy of such kindness.
She felt a force pushing her up onto her feet against her will, forcing her to stand even before she could resist it. She glanced at the still sleeping aegislash beside her lady, knowing that it must be the culprit. Still, her head remained lowered in her lady's presence, as she should be as her lady's personal maid that had accompanied her throughout their long lives.
"Milady, the volcarona," Aline quickly and respectfully presented the Master Ball containing the ancient volcarona that her lady tasked her to capture. Her lady very rarely tasked her with a mission that took her so far away from each other, so it must have been a very important task even if she could never understand why her lady felt that the volcarona's addition to Tarot is a great boon to the organisation. Still, it's not her job to question her lady's orders. She is her servant who swore to follow after her till the end of time. All she has to do is to carry out her orders.
"So, we meet again," her lady playfully hummed while observing the Master Ball in her hand. Aline remained silent, her head still bowed. She had once heard her lady recounting her experience regarding her first encounter with this particular volcarona in her youth, which was why Aline had a very poor impression of this bug to begin with.
"Have you met Aaron and Yasu?"
"I did, milady. They are making progress on the task you sent them on," Aline replied dutifully. Part of her task in Unova was to meet up with the two oafs before she made her way to the Relic Castle to capture the volcarona. They were happy to see her but the same cannot be said for her when she saw them. They can be a little… overwhelming.
"They really found leads about the Swords of Justice?"
"Yes, milady. Aaron is tracking them down as we speak."
"That boy is reliable," her lady agreed with a nod of her head. "Tell them to keep an eye on the situation at Unova as well. If needed, we will intervene and deal with Team Plasma ourselves. Now, who am I forgetting… Ah, Colress."
"Milady, his… loyalty is questionable," Aline felt the need to remind her lady once more about the madman who held the title of The Hanged Man within their organisation. If it wasn't for her lady forbidding her from doing so she would have terminated that lunatic given the first opportunity and replaced his position with a candidate who they can have a better control over.
"And that goes for about half of our Cards, what's new? But Lovers… did he seriously think that he could accept the commission from the Euclids to steal Genesect's fossil behind my back without me finding out about it? That scoundrel, maybe I really had been too lax with the Cards recently."
"Should I eliminate him?" Aline inquired and her lady shook her head. Again, her lady was being too kind. Anyone who goes against her lady's wishes should be granted a swift and unforgiving death.
"Just a warning would do. We should not forget that he did us a huge favour for stealing the blueprints of the Master Ball without anyone the wiser. Lovers is one reason why we are one step closer to our goal. What about our newest member?"
"He had never made an active presence ever since his induction. My guess is that he still doesn't trust the organisation," Aline replied respectfully, knowing that her lady was referring to their newest member, Magician. Her lady seems to have high hopes for him for reasons still unknown to her.
"It's the smart thing to do," her lady commented. "Well, it's just a matter of time before he warms himself up to us. He can be trusted, I'm in no hurry."
Her lady surprised her once again when she passed volcarona's pokeball back into her hands.
"Milady…"
"Keep it, I intend for you to have this volcarona right from the very start," her lady replied. Aline wanted to protest because she does not deserve such a generous gift but quietly swallowed it all down when she saw the look her lady was giving her, telling her that she's not accepting any objections.
"I humbly accept your generous gift. Thank you, milady, I shall not fail you."
"It's been five hundred years, Aline, we are long past such formalities," her lady sighed fondly as she took a seat at a nearby table and Aline quickly poured her lady a cup of tea from the teapot on the table without losing any of the elegance or grace as expected from her lady's trusted servant.
"That may be so, but I'm your servant, milady. Some formalities still have to be observed."
"And like I said many times, you do not need to walk down the same path I chose to follow. Immortality is a painful curse, one that you do not have to bear."
"And I would return your kindness with the same answer I gave you when you first asked, my life is yours the moment you saved me five hundred years ago. No matter the ending, no matter what shall befall, I will be there to serve you till the end of time."
"You stubborn girl," her lady shook her head in fond amusement but there's no mistaking the slight upwards curl of her lady's lips on her beautiful face. Aline finally felt at peace to smile as well, continuing to stand at her lady's side to refill her teacup when the contents were emptied.
"It's winter over at Unova, isn't it?"
"Yes, milady," Aline answered.
"Then we need to prepare. If all goes as predicted, Team Plasma will begin to make some really big moves during the start of spring. We only have so much time left before the world shakes on its foundations once more. The dissolution of Team Rocket was merely the start."
"Milady?" Aline asked, knowing her lady well enough that there's something that she's alluding to.
"What I know Team Plasma is planning to do when spring comes was one reason why I sent Aaron and Yasu there. I will also need your assistance then, Aline. More people will die soon, that is an unchangeable fate that we cannot avert, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be changed entirely."
"I am at your service," Aline pledged.
"Victini, I will need you to capture it when the time comes. Its power will be needed and I do not wish for Team Plasma to get their hands on it, as unlikely as it seems. The volcarona should prove itself useful in assisting you to capture victini once it's tamed."
To say that Aline wasn't shocked was a lie, but she quickly got over it and acknowledged the order given to her by her master. Forget victini, she wouldn't even hesitate to take down Unova Twin Dragons as long as her lady gave her the word to do so.
"Your wish is my command."
For her lady, there's nothing that cannot be done.
Even if it meant making the entire world her enemy.
90
Work slowed down to a lull after the volcarona incident. Skye had succeeded in getting the hostages safely out of the Relic Castle and handed the captured Team Plasma members over to the Unova League. The Unova League will take over the overseeing of the Relic Castle, including the issue of what to do with the insanely powerful wild volcarona residing in the depths of the ruins.
With the exception of several other serious events that I wasn't a part of and only learnt of from my colleagues after it had been dealt with, everything seemed peaceful on the surface until Dad called and all but forced me to do the one thing that I really detest with a passion:
To see a doctor.
Dad didn't really have any other intentions beyond those three words. All he wanted me to do was to go for one of those regular checkups that he made absolutely sure I would attend a few times every year. Usually, I would visit our family's doctor but I'm not in Hoenn right now. Our family's doctor has the comprehensive set of data regarding my complicated health condition and seeing that I will not be back in Hoenn anytime soon, Dad had found a reputable doctor in Unova to temporarily take over the job of my family doctor to monitor my health during my stay here. According to Dad, this Unova doctor is apparently some sort of super big shot in the Unova medical industry and has a significant degree of influence even on the global stage.
I never liked seeing the doctor. Since young all I ever saw from their eyes were looks of pity that they thought they concealed from me and all I ever heard from them were false assurances that I would recover. Despite their good intentioned lies I could easily tell that none of them believed that I would live for long. The most honest doctor I met told me very candidly that it's unlikely I would live past fifteen and that was him being optimistic. Granted, it was me who wanted him to give me an honest answer and wanted none of the sugar coated lies that I was frequently given, but that was how bad things were then.
My health was absolutely terrible when I was young, to the point that I was pumped with so much drugs by the time I was five that it felt as if drugs flowed within veins instead of blood. I would have respiratory attacks a few times every day, sometimes I would feel pain all over that nobody could find the origins of, and experiencing fevers and colds were simply a daily occurrence.
Thankfully, all of these lessened considerably around the time I turned nine, but that doesn't mean that I became a truly healthy girl. Now, I'm healthy enough to the point of being able to live normally even if my fitness level remains abysmal as a lingering side effect. I do not need to rely on medication to keep myself alive any longer. However, my parents were still very strict about one thing, and that's to see a doctor for a regular health checkup every now and then.
Personally, I can understand where they were coming from. They have experienced too many close calls when it comes to me during my younger years and they are not risking anything. So, even if I really resist the idea of seeing a doctor with every fibre of my being I would still end up listening to them and go see a doctor when it's time for another checkup in order to give them a peace of mind.
The doctor my parents chose for me in Unova was one Dr Kolten Lott, who's a very famous doctor here. There were also some who claimed that Dr Lott is currently one of the best doctors in the world and anyone who wanted to make an appointment with him had to queue up at least months in advance. For obvious reasons, that doesn't apply to me, because I am a Vera and we tend to get preferential treatment if we choose to push our weight around. I don't have any evidence, but I have a suspicion that the reason why Dad had managed to help me book an appointment with Dr Lott in such a short time was because he had made use of our newfound partnership with the Dandolos behind my back. He knew very well that if he had left things up to me, I would have procrastinated to make an appointment with a doctor for as long as I can.
Dr Kolten Lott's clinic was located at Castelia City so it wasn't very far from my current residence at Nimbasa. Sebastian was insistent on accompanying me and at this point it's blatantly obvious that he had received strict instructions from Dad to make absolutely sure that I went for my appointment with Dr Lott. Sebastian was here to "supervise" me on Dad's orders, so to speak.
The checkup was nothing special. The procedures were more or less the same as I had experienced countless times back home since I was a child; changing out my clothes into a hospital gown, getting myself scanned by complex machines one after the other, taking x-rays, ultrasound, and many other kinds of readings that I never really understood the purpose of. None of the doctors we found thus far could properly explain just what was plaguing my health. The best explanation that they could come up with was that I was born with a defunct immune system that makes my body go wonky and that by all means, it was a miracle that I'm alive at all.
"Take a deep breath… and out. Another deep breath… and out," I did as the doctor instructed while he placed a stethoscope on my back. There was a faint scribbling sound and I'm certain that he was jotting something down somewhere. He soon turned me around on the revolving chair I was sitting on and had a female nurse help place the stethoscope on my chest before repeating the process. Deep breaths in and out until he was satisfied with whatever he heard from me.
There were many other checks that followed. Blood and urine tests are the staple at this point. Lipid profile test, cardiac system, vitamin check… the list goes on. By the time I was done with the tests an entire morning had passed. Surprisingly, the results of all of those tests were out by the time I was done with the last test and changed out of my hospital gown and back into my normal clothing.
I guess that's the kind of service I should have expected from a world-class clinic opened by one of the best doctors in the world. Technology in the pokemon world is very advanced in certain fields and the medical field is one of those. I'm not too surprised that all the test results were out even before I could leave the clinic.
"Congrats, Ms Vera, you have a clean bill of health. Well, as much as it applies for someone with a condition like yours," Dr Lott gave me his verdict as I sat opposite him across his desk within his office. He's surprisingly young for a doctor so accomplished, only about somewhere in his mid-thirties to forties. I could see why people call him a genius in the medical field and why he possesses a certain degree of international fame in his area of expertise.
Also, he seems to be the talkative type.
"As far as I can tell your heart and lungs are functioning at only about fifty percent capacity most of the time, which is… not very good, but at least it's much better than the 35 percent capacity I was told was the norm for you when you were around three to eight years old. Your immune system is, for the lack of a better word, bizarre, but it looks a lot more normal now as compared to your past medical reports. Is there anything else that you might want to add that your other doctors have not filled me in?"
"I don't think so," I shrugged nonchalantly, just wanting to get this over and done with.
"Are you very sure?" Dr Lott asked once again, pushing his glasses up with a finger as if he's very aware that there's something vital to this health checkup that I'm not telling him but for the life of me I just couldn't think of anything that I might have missed out.
"Yes."
"I see," Dr Lott sighed softly before gesturing for the nurse to exit his office and leave us alone. He did the same for Sebastian as well, but Sebastian remained where he was standing behind me. I'm not daft, I could tell that the doctor wanted to speak to me alone, but he's in no position to order Sebastian around like what he did for the nurse working for him. The only person here who could give Sebastian any orders is me.
Might as well hear what the doctor has to say.
"Sebastian."
Sebastian frowned a little, obviously reluctant to leave me alone but he still heeded my request and closed the door behind him once he exited the office.
"I assure you, Ms Vera, that I'm very strict when it comes to my patients' confidentiality. After all, I'm a professional," Dr Lott started off before getting to his main point. "Now, since it's just us alone, you can be frank with me. Are you an Ability Holder?"
Truth to be told, I'm a little surprised that he managed to figure out that I'm an Ability Holder when none of the doctors who examined me before came to that conclusion. Now, I can understand why he made the nurse and Sebastian leave the room. In Unova, Ability Holders are not very well-received by the majority who still hold prejudice towards them. He probably thought that the presence of other people in the room was why I was unwilling to "come clean" with him earlier when in truth, I never considered that me being an Ability Holder was a factor in this health checkup.
"How did you tell?"
"I'm afraid that's my trade secret," Dr Lott shook his head slightly upon my question and mumbled thanks to the blissey that passed over a glass of water each to both of us, "but I'm not surprised that your family doctors in Hoenn were unable to figure that out. Ability Holders are not prevalent in other parts of the world but they are very common here in Unova. Many of my patients are Ability Holders, even if a great number of them did not even realise it themselves until I told them that they are one because certain abilities are indeed very hard to detect or only manifest under very specific conditions."
"And me being an Ability Holder is important in the context of this health checkup because…?"
"Because abilities do have an effect on a person's health and biological make up, the only issue is to what extent. Sometimes they are close to undetectable, sometimes you cannot hide it no matter how you try. For the latter case, the most well-known examples are psychics and aura users. Psychics are able to tap into and utilise areas of the human brain in ways that by all means, impossible by medical standards. Aura users have extraordinary vitality and metabolism, their organs constantly functioning at optimal capacity to the point that it can allow them to unlock superhuman strength and senses. Of course, these are just two examples out of many. I had seen many weirder things that had affected the human body of the people who possess such abilities."
Dr Lott had made things very obvious with his words. There's no way that I could not understand the point that he was driving at.
"You are saying that the reason for my poor health, my ability…"
"From the readings the machines gave me, that's the conclusion I arrived at, but even I cannot be absolutely certain because there's very little that I know about you beyond these reports," Dr Lott patiently explained. "Ms Vera, it's fine if you do not wish to answer my question if it's too uncomfortable for you, but your ability, does it relate to the Mind Arts Trio?"
"... Yes. Ghost types."
"Ghost-" Dr Lott's shock lasted only for a brief moment before he swiftly recollected himself just like a professional should. "I apologise for my reaction, but I certainly wasn't expecting this."
"Is there something wrong with ghost type abilities?" I asked, now curious about what's so special about people like me. There are things that the doctor knew that I don't and it doesn't seem like they are good news.
"I won't say something wrong…" Dr Lott pondered for a short moment before asking me another question. "How about… Ms Vera, how many ghost type Ability Holders have you either met, seen, heard, or known about?"
"None," I replied honestly.
"Therein lies the problem. There's very little the world knows about people like you, Ability Holders with ghost type abilities. The reason is simple; very few of them ever live past the age of ten."
"You mean people like us die young, but why?" I asked, trying my best to withhold taking a nervous gulp because I don't think I would like the answer.
"There's no definitive answer to this. As you already know, Ability Holders are rare to begin with, only commonly seen within Unova and even then, Ability Holders tend to conceal their abilities due to the prejudice held against them. Among the seventeen pokemon typings, ghost type inclined abilities are one of the rarest to encounter, which is why research about ghost inclined abilities never made any progress and why I cannot give you an answer. What I can say is this: From what I know, ghost type Ability Holders, almost without any exception, are all born with a very sickly body. Nobody knows what plagues them, what's the true reason why they are born this way, or how to truly "cure" them. Based on the data gathered about ghost inclined Ability Holders that the Unova League managed to compile, the mortality rate of such people is at about seventy percent. Meaning by the time such people reach the age of ten, seven out of ten of them would have already passed away, and that's only if we consider the ghost inclined Ability Holders the Unova League managed to identify. I'd imagine that the mortality rate would be far higher if we include those that were not identified by the Unova League as ghost inclined Ability Holders and did not seek treatment in time."
"My ability… is the thing that's killing me?"
"Like I said earlier, I cannot say for sure, but our findings suggest that it is very likely that there is some sort of connection between ghost inclined abilities and the high mortality rate of children being born with them, that is something that I am sure of."
"Actually, doctor, I have a question."
"Please ask."
"You say that for people like us, seven out of ten would have passed away by the time they reach ten years of age. Then… What about the remaining three who lived? Have you met people like them before? What's so different about them that enabled them to live where others have failed?"
Dr Lott remained silent for a short moment before he spoke.
"Before I answer your question I will have to ask you another. Now, I'm not a pokemon trainer so correct me if I am wrong, but ghost types are one of the most vicious typings out there, right?"
"That's correct."
"Then have you ever heard of the old Unovan saying, that the more Ability Holders use their abilities, the more they resemble pokemon?"
"No, but I do now."
"As for ghost types, do you know what made them stand out from other typings?"
"There are many things I could list out but generally speaking, it will be their viciousness and their supposed immortality."
"That's correct as well. Ms Vera, before meeting you I had only met one other ghost inclined Ability Holder who lived past ten and heard of another similar case of a patient with a ghost inclined ability. From my understanding these two are the only two ghost inclined Ability Holders that's been officially documented within the past twenty years. I cannot say that this is a one-size-fits-all cure because the sample size really is too small, but for both cases we managed to identify one thing that stood out for both patients that differs from the others who passed away before the age of ten."
Dr Lott took a brief pause before continuing, a serious look in his eyes.
"They made very active use of their abilities."
"Active use of their abilities…?"
"You might not feel it yet since you are a foreigner, but in Unova, it is almost second nature for Ability Holders to conceal their abilities and not use them at all. Again, the reason for this is all about the societal prejudice in this region, but I digress. Where the other patients who passed away before ten barely tapped into their abilities at all, those two patients that I mentioned who were the anomalies, they were not afraid of using their abilities in public even if it meant being on the receiving end of society's ostracisation and scorn. Everyone thought that they would die young as well but they proved us wrong when they not only lived past ten, but past twenty years of age. In the end, when we decided to investigate further on what's so different about them, we realised that unlike the other patients, those two made active use of their abilities where others would conceal its existence. That's the conclusion we came to."
I don't even know how to describe my feelings at that moment. Was it joy, or melancholy for being able to relate to people with circumstances similar to mine but had died young, or something else entirely? I don't know, but I felt very conflicted.
What I do know is that I had a sudden urge to meet them, to meet other people who, like me, had toed between the line of life and death far too many times to count for reasons beyond our control.
"Can I… Can I meet them?"
The look in the doctor's eyes dimmed.
"I'm afraid you cannot."
"Patient confidentiality?"
"It's not that… It's…" The doctor visibly struggled to find the right words to say before speaking once more. "Remember when I said that I met only one ghost Ability Holder and heard of another within the past twenty years?"
I nodded.
"The one that I met, he was my patient. When I first met him he was a boy only about eight years old and when I last saw him he had only just celebrated his twentieth birthday. That was a few years ago. He… He's no longer alive."
"But you said…"
"He did live past twenty and he did not die of natural causes. He was murdered."
"Oh…" I trailed off, not really knowing what I should say in this situation. "Then, the other one…"
"That patient's not mine, I only heard about him from other doctors when I was trying to search for records of a medical case similar to the boy that I was trying to treat back then. I never did see or meet him myself and when I heard about him again, it was also on the same day I received the news that the boy who was my patient was murdered. That second patient I talked about, he was the murderer. Last I checked, he's still on the loose."
"... My condolences."
"I have gotten over it," Dr Lott dismissed my concerns with a casual wave of his hand. "But back to the main point. I'm sure that you would have already understood after listening to my long story. For your treatment, Ms Vera, I would suggest that you try something different. I would suggest not seeing this as a medical problem, but rather one of a more… How should I put it? Supernatural nature? Rely more on your abilities. Train it, hone it, let it be a part of you. If things really develop towards the direction we hope it would be, maybe honing your abilities might be the answer to allowing you to live normally rather than relying on the power of science."
Dr Lott then took two files from his desk and passed it over to me.
"Usually, I would not let anyone else read this due to patient confidentiality, but considering that one of them is already dead years ago and another is a criminal on the run, I guess I can bend the rules a little. I'm not sure how useful this might be for you, but maybe you can glean something useful out of this where I had missed."
Under the doctor's approval, I opened the files. The first one is the medical file of a young man by the name of Bernard Havel, which I believed was Dr Lott's patient that he had successfully treated and who lived past the age of twenty.
The second one is the medical file of an older man and by my calculations after seeing his date of birth, should be currently in his late thirties. It seems that his abilities were only discovered by the Unova League rather late in his life, after the man had miraculously lived past twenty years of age and somehow without needing to make frequent visits to the hospital. His name is Emil Bonser and the one who murdered Bernard Havel.
Bernard's ability was determined to be ghost related and his ability forced him to function on very little sleep, or no sleep at all. The doctors have marked his ability as something very similar to pokemon's Insomnia ability. However, while pokemon naturally born with this ability can function and live healthily even without the need of sleep thanks to Insomnia, the human body is not made to function the same way. Bernard's health did suffer greatly from the forced Insomnia when he was younger, although ultimately a suitable treatment method was found to allow him to continue to live alongside such a condition even with this forced Insomnia.
Emil's ability was also determined to be ghost inclined but his ability is also a lot more sinister. Not much was gathered about his ability because he became a fugitive on the run after he murdered Bernard, but it was diagnosed that his ability allows him to "steal people's lifeforce" much like how many ghost types are able to do so passively. As such, he can never get in close proximity with others because anyone who gets too close to him will eventually suffer from a decline in health and if exposed to his ability for prolonged periods of time, it might cause death for the victims simply by being around Emil. It's a very sad and lonely ability to possess and honestly, the lack of human contact brought about by his ability might have affected him psychologically and caused him to turn into a murderer. To date, Emil's motives for murdering Bernard are still unknown. Before the day of the murder, none of them had met each other before.
As for me and my ability…
What am I supposed to "train" when all I could do is to speak to ghosts?