Converging Destinies
In honor of the holiday, I'm posting two chapters of Hero's Path this week. So... yay! Also, if you haven't already, make sure to check out
A Journeymen Solstice Carol, a League of Heroes holiday special.
“It’s very beautiful,” Joan whispered as they hiked along Acuity Lakefront. The evening sun sparkled along the crystalline water. Despite the harsh temperature, the lake wasn’t frozen. Masamune splashed through the shallows, completely comfortable with the frigid water.
Charizard grumbled, shivering a little. Cole patted the dragon’s neck. “Why couldn’t the Gate be at Lake Valor?” He drew his duster tighter around him. “It’s summer! I don’t want to be cold!”
Magnus rolled his eyes. “Cole, just enjoy it! The worst of the wind has abated, and Snowpoint City is in a valley. There will be almost no chill there.” He chuckled. “That said, there is a Gate along the Valor Lakefront. I suppose Arceus just had bigger plans for us up here.”
“That’s just cruel and unusual punishment. I’ve never done anything but help Arceus. I hate having to walk through ankle-deep snow.”
“You’ll manage, I’m sure. This all builds character.”
Joan glanced at them. “Do you… want to keep going? The lake is nice, but I would prefer not to camp tonight. Let’s get to Snowpoint before the temperature drops.”
Magnus threw the folds of his cloak back, and thrust his walking stick out in front of him. “The lovely lady has a point! Let us continue!”
The two younger people huddled against Charizard’s warm flanks again, though Magnus was stubborn as ever. After another hour of walking, they arrived at the outer line of the city. Several boats bobbed in the harbor, and the loading equipment was shutting down for the day.
Magnus sighed as the sound of the wind died away. Charizard snorted a puff of smoke out his nostrils, making Athena cough. The old man turned to Cole. “Perhaps we should go to the pokemon center, and make sure no one is at risk of frostbite?”
Cole nodded. “I could go for some hot chocolate.”
They tramped through the town, eventually reaching the iconic building. The Temple loomed up in the background, but Cole forced that out of his mind. They would handle the Gate tomorrow. The glass doors slid open, and the heavenly feeling of central heating washed over the company.
Cole and Magnus strode up to the main desk, already bringing out their pokemon for treatment. “Joan?” Cole asked.
The young woman stood behind them, not moving from the doorframe. Her eyes were wide, and she was shaking. She hurriedly unclipped her pokéball holster and threw it to Cole. Then, as soon as he caught it, she turned and bolted.
Cole passed the harness to Magnus. “You handle things here, I’ll go find her.”
He dashed out the door, and hurried down the main byway of the city. The streets were freshly shoveled, so he couldn’t track her by her footprints. Anywhere that there was a light dusting of snow was so trampled by other peoples’ feet, it was impossible to track.
“Joan!
Joan!”
The Firebrand saw a man leaning against a bar, smoking a cigarette. “Hey!” Cole said, sliding to a stop. “Hey, I’m looking for a woman.”
The man exhaled a puff of smoke, and then waved his hand dismissively. “Aren’t we all, brother?”
Cole grabbed the man’s collar and pinned him against the wall. “I don’t have time for games. She must have run right past you.
Where did she go?”
“Listen man, I got no idea what you’re talking about.” The smoker struggled against Cole’s grip.
The young man leaned in closer. “There are only a few places anyone can run to in this town. Where. Did. She. Go?”
“Look, I don’t want any trouble Maybe I saw this chick, maybe I didn’t. What’s it to you? You should keep better track of your girlfriend.”
Cole dropped the man. “It’s not like that.”
The man stamped out his cigarette and drew a pokéball. “Oh yeah? Well, we’ll see.”
“I don’t have time for this.” Cole stalked away, his duster flaring. He stalked down to the docks. Joan had run this way initially, so perhaps she had continued in a straight line. Certainly, it was worth investigating. As Cole walked, he immediately regretted accosting that man. He hadn’t done anything wrong to Cole, so his reactions were wholly unwarranted.
Besides, it wasn’t like he was even close friends with Joan. If it were Becca, or Ammy, or any of his other female friends, then perhaps he would have had a reason to act so brashly. Why did he feel so protective of this girl, who he had only known for a week?
A lone figure leaned against the railing of the Snowpoint Dock, staring at the boats. Cole slowly made his way down the icy stairs. The evening sun glinted off the harbor waters, dazzling his eyes slightly. Cole leaned against the rail, and glanced at Joan, who was shivering.
She looked up when he draped his duster over her shoulders, leaving him in nothing but a t-shirt. “I’m not cold,” she muttered, and went to take the jacket off.
“Well, you’re shaking. Ex
cuse me for being a gentleman.”
“Sorry. I just don’t do hospitals.”
Cole raised an eyebrow. “Why not? I’ve never had any problems with pokemon centers. The staff is always nice, and my pokemon don’t mind the attention, not a bit.”
“It’s not the center. It was… the smell. That antiseptic.” Joan stared down at her hands. “You probably think I’m crazy.”
“No, of course not.”
Joan didn’t speak for a while, and the two of them stared at the setting sun. “They put me in a hospital, back when I was a kid.”
“Oh?”
The young woman puffed out a breath of air, making a cloud of steam. “Yeah. When most kids were starting out on their journeys, I was put in a mental institution. Oh, don’t give me that look. I’m not some dangerous escaped patient. Okay, so I
am an escaped patient. But I’m not insane, and I’m
not dangerous.”
“You escaped…? Joan, I have so many questions right now, I don’t know where the hell to even start. I’m not sure if I should be calling the cops, or running for my life, or hiring a lawyer…”
“I’ll give you the abridged version then,” she replied, shifting in the duster. “You deserve at least that much. When I was little, I heard voices. Arceus and Mesprit, though naturally I didn’t know it at the time. But no one else seemed to understand that these voices in my head were actual entities communicating with me. It got worse as I got older, so when I was eleven, they brought me to a mental hospital. It was okay at first, just some psychoanalyst stuff. I had a nice enough room, and all the books and puzzles I could ask for.
“But as I got a little older, and none of the doctors were making any progress, the tests got more intense. There was this helmet thing they put on me, monitoring my brainwaves. They used psychic and ghost types to get inside my head, try and see my thoughts and memories and where all this stuff came from. I can remember one Alakazam particularly. He used all the finesse and subtlety of a bulldozer.
“A few months ago, the wall to my… well, I guess it was a cell at that point… exploded. Mesprit was there, and she led me out and hid me while the doctors tried to track me down. Like something out a damn movie, Houndoom trying to sniff me out and everything. I made my way across Hoenn, before all this war business began, and caught my first few pokemon. Then, I made my way to Sinnoh, and from there, to Spear Pillar.
“Cole, I have to admit, when I first saw you, and recognized you, I really thought everything was going to change. I mean, a real, true, genuine
hero was backing me up! And this past week, it’s been a lot of fun. But walking into that center, and smelling that… it made something snap.
“Suddenly, I had to face it. What if this is all some freakish dream? What if I’m going to wake up on an operating table again, and all the doctors are going to be scribbling and muttering and I’m carted back off to my cell? Or worse, if this is all some psychic test, and I really am insane? How do I know you and Magnus and Mesprit and Arceus and all my pokemon aren’t real? What if it’s just some crazy dream?”
Her voice was gradually getting higher and more panicked. Cole grabbed her shoulders, and spun her around. “Joan, look at me! Look into my eyes! I’m not a dream! Damn it,
look at me, Joan! Magnus and I are as real as can be, and you’re here, in Snowpoint City.” He slipped the duster off her shoulders a little. “This cold, this is real. And look.” He placed his hands on her neck, gingerly and carefully. “How do they feel?”
“Warm.”
“That warmth is real. Believe me.”
Joan trembled and collapsed against Cole. “I want to believe… I want to believe…”
“Then believe, damn it!”
Joan’s shaking subsided, and she pushed herself away. “Sorry… I… I feel like such a damsel right now.” She shook off the duster and tossed it back to Cole. “Come on, let’s get back. Magnus might be worrying about us.”
***
When they again walked through the sliding door, Magnus stood up from his spot in front of a television, which was playing a documentary on ancient Clefairy involvement in the foundation of the Tojoh civilization, a conspiracy theory that Cole never bought into.
As the old man started walking towards them, Maeve looked up from the National Geographic she was flipping through, grabbed the remote, and changed to the Pichu Brothers cartoon.
“Well, glad to see you back, mademoiselle.”
“I’m better now,” Joan assured him. “No need for your sarcasm, Magnus. And what’s with that look?”
He laughed. “Oh, you two just remind me of some people I knew a long time ago. Ah, young love. How beautiful it is.”
“Wha—?” Cole cried, and Joan pushed away from him. “I don’t… I mean… Magnus, what the
hell are you talking about?”
Joan shook her head emphatically. “You think I’d settle for
him?”
“And what’s
that supposed to mean?”
Magnus chuckled and walked away to the food counter, singing under his breath. “Honor, riches, marriage blessings, long continuance and increasing. Hourly joys be still upon you, now we sing our blessings on you…”
Joan and Cole glanced at each other, then turned away. Joan went to go check on her pokemon, while Cole sat down next to Maeve, the only one who did not need medical attention. If anything, the cold had only invigorated her and sped up the healing process of her arm. He stared at the animated Pichu running around the screen before raising an eyebrow at Maeve. “This stuff will rot your brain, you know.”
“Well, what else is on?”
Cole consulted the guide. “Oh, hey, V for Vendetta. I think you’ll like that one.”
***
“…And V was all ‘It is my very good honor to meet you, and you may call me V,’” Maeve gushed to Athena as they walked to the Temple. “And then, he used his
sword to make a V in the
wall. It’s like that other guy… uh…”
“Zorro,” Cole supplied.
“Yeah, him. But cooler.” The Weavile fell silent as they passed through the threshold of Snowpoint Temple. A guide standing nearby scurried over.
“Hello. Welcome to the Temple. Please, feel free to look around on this floor. If you would like a guided tour, one will be starting in about half an hour. Please do be careful, though. Our efforts to rebuild and restore the Temple after Regigigas’s attack in the Omega War are still very much underway.”
Cole glanced around at the various scaffoldings set up around the Temple. “Um… we’re actually not tourists. I’m here on business.” He started off to the stairs that led to the lower levels, Joan and Magnus in tow.
The worker jumped in front of him. “I’m afraid I can’t let you down there, sir. Firstly, the entirety of the lower levels has been closed to the public ever since Regigigas returned, and furthermore, many parts of the catacombs are at risk of collapsing. The wild pokemon have been restless, and at the moment are easily provoked. Not even workers are allowed down there at this point.”
Cole turned slowly. “I’m assuming you don’t know who I am.”
The guide shook his head. “Sir, truly, I’m sorry, I can’t allow you down there…”
The young man sighed, and dug deep in his pockets, finally procuring his Trainer Card. “Cole Culain. The Firebrand. The Defender of Legends.”
“Oh! Sir… I didn’t…”
“Look, I’ve been given sanctions by the Global League Confederacy to investigate any signs of strange activity brought about by legendary pokemon, so I think you have to let me go down there.”
“Right… of course…”
“And do not be alarmed if we don’t come up any time shortly. We can see ourselves out. Anything that happens down there, my associates and I can handle.”
“Uh… all right…”
Cole motioned to Magnus and Joan, and they started down the winding staircase. Joan drew up alongside him and chuckled. “Global League Confederacy? Is that a thing?”
“Hell if I know. Sure sounded pretentious though, right? And it served our purpose.” He shrugged, the leather of his duster making a satisfying noise as it slid.
They made their way carefully around a large crater in the next floor, which opened up to the floor below. Maeve peered down. “Looks like Regigigas was in a rush, huh?”
Cole nodded, and then glanced around. “I don’t see any of the pokemon that guy back there was talking about… do you?”
Athena sniffed the air. “I smell them around, but I can’t see them…”
There was a great rustling in the shadows, and a gigantic cloud of Golbat and Crobat swooped down on them. “Masamune, go!” Cole shouted, and the Samurott appeared with a roar.
Joan too threw a pokéball. “Maximus, take ‘em down!” Her Aggron appeared with a cry like grinding metal plates.
Cole hissed in a breath, but Magnus shook his head. “Don’t let it get to you. It’s just a name. How could she know?” Cole nodded, and the old man ran forward. “Hamlet, front and center!” The Druddigon roared as he emerged from his pokéball, lashing out with his wickedly sharp claws.
“Masamune, Ice Beam, let’s go!” Cole shouted over the clamor. “Maeve, Ice Punch! Athena, Fusion Bolt!”
The Victini and Weavile leapt at the swarming bat pokemon, jumping off walls to hit hard-to-reach targets. Athena’s telekinetically-boosted bounds were getting better and better, and Cole hoped soon she would reach the point of levitating flight. In the myths he’d studied, Victini seemed to be able to do that…
Masamune and Maximus roared in tandem, and the Aggron swept out a heavy arm, catching a Crobat as it veered away from Hamlet. He threw the purple beast down into the crater, where it disappeared. The Samurott shot a blast of icy white light from his maw, freezing enemies wherever he swept it.
Hamlet and Magnus were busy clearing a way to the next staircase, but the old man’s staff shot up. “Cole!”
At that moment, Athena dove to Cole’s side. “I sense something… something big.”
The floor rumbled as a colossal noise echoed up the stairs. “Magnus!” Joan shouted. “Get out of there!”
Hamlet grabbed his trainer and swept to the right. A large group of Graveler and Golem rolled up the stairs and directly at them. “Maximus! Hamlet!” Masamune barked. “Get the humans out of here! Athena, take care of Maeve! I’ll handle things here and follow up!”
Athena nodded, and caught the Weavile with a telekinetic force, before leaping down the wide crater. Maximus grabbed Joan in his left arm, and barreled towards Cole. “Wait!” the Firebrand shouted. “Masamune, I’m not leaving you!”
“It’s only for a moment, Cole! Trust me, I’ll be fine!”
Before Cole could protest, the Aggron swept him up and charged straight into the crater. Joan screamed as they dropped two floors straight down. Hamlet and Magnus dropped beside them, the Druddigon’s wings spread to increase drag.
Cole winced as they landed, the ground splintering beneath them. Maximus grunted, but seemed fairly unharmed. His rocky hide and metallically reinforced skeleton had held off most of the damage. Athena and Maeve drifted down as gently as feathers, and Cole immediately grabbed them out of the air, one in each arm.
“What’s going on up there? Where’s Masamune?”
“He’ll be down soon. He said.”
“But what’s happening?”
“I dunno.”
***
At that moment, Masamune roared, loud enough that Cole and his friends could hear it. Water surged around him as he prepared a Waterfall attack. He shot one final Ice Beam into the hordes of bat pokemon, and then sprang forward, water trailing behind him.
The Samurott charged through the advancing rock types, scattering them. He leapt down into the crater, aiming for the opposite side. He scrabbled against the rocky lower ledge, and as soon as he found the purchase he needed, he jumped down once again. He continued jumping from ledge to ledge, outcropping to outcropping; a trail of iridescent water flowing behind him.
Finally, he crashed down next to Cole and Maximus, with a triumphant roar. A cloud of Golbat had followed him down, and Masamune stepped forward. “Hold on now,” Cole muttered, and stepped in front of his valiant water type. “You’ve done your part.” With a flourish, he cast out his remaining three pokeballs. Charizard, Thor and Scathatch appeared in a brilliant flash of light.
“Charizard, Heat Wave! Scathatch, Night Daze! Thor, dash to the other side and use Discharge!”
The brilliant three-pronged attack hit the Golbat flock from all sides. Those that weren’t struck fled as fast as their wings could carry them. The unlucky ones that were hit fell to the ground, and limped away on their weak and spindly legs.
Athena cheered, and Cole saw a purple and red aura fade from around her body. So that was why everyone’s attacks did so well. He had never commanded Athena to use her ability, Victory Star, but obviously it had now just activated of it’s own accord.
Magnus turned around, tapping his staff against the old, worn stones. “Well then. Looks like we’ve reached the bottom. Shall we find this Gate?” He strode to the altar, and Joan followed him. Cole, however, remained locked in place.
“Something’s wrong. Where’s Regigigas? The guide said it returned.”
Magnus shrugged. “Not our problem. Probably snuck out to go wander the forest.”
“Something the size of Regigigas doesn’t simply sneak out.” Cole brushed off his duster. “Magnus, despite whatever crap I spouted up there, I
am the Defender of Legends. If there’s something wrong with Regigigas, I need to try and fix it.”
The two other humans, who had already made it to the altar, turned back. “Cole…” Joan said. “You’ll… You’ll want to look at this.”
The Firebrand signaled to his pokemon, who hurried after him. He clambered up onto the altar, and looked where his friends were pointing. “Arceus… it can’t be.”
Magnus nodded solemnly. “I believe it is.”
Cole shook his head in disbelief. “No. It can’t be. It can’t be.” The empty carcass of Regigigas lay on it’s back, it’s vacant oculi staring up at the Temple ceiling. A large cavity had been carved where the lower half of its torso had once been, revealing its ribcage and the top section of its pelvis. The gargantuan creature’s left hand had rotted away, leaving a giant cluster of bones.
Joan pressed a hand to her mouth. “I didn’t even think the Regis could…”
“They were biomechanical,” Cole replied softly. “I suppose it was the ‘bio’ part that did this one in. After the Omega War, Regigigas had suffered some severe injuries. I was unconscious for some time afterwards, so I never found out if it got the care it needed.
“I suppose it was just transported back here and left to fend for itself. I know that on some species of pokemon, external wounds heal very quickly, but it can leave lasting internal damage. I think that here, this was the case. Arceus… I can’t believe Regigigas is… gone.”
“Here now,” Magnus said, leaping down to the body. “What’s this?” He leaned into the large cavity in the behemoth’s chest. Maeve hissed and looked away.
“Magnus, you shouldn’t do that!” Joan admonished. “Show respect!”
“No, look at this!” The old man held up a round object for them to see. “I think… I think it’s an egg!”
“So what?”
“Come here, look closer. See these markings on the shell? They’re a dead match for Regigigas’s pattern, albeit on a smaller scale.” He grinned. “Don’t you two see? This is a miracle! This Regigigas might have died, but sooner or later, a new one will be born from this very egg!”
Magnus began wrapping the egg in his cloak. “What are you doing?” Cole cried. “We can’t take that!”
“Why not?” Magnus shot back. “Better with the Defender of Legends than the next collector to sneak down here. Besides, when it hatches, you can be right there, and we can make sure our little fledgling brute goes somewhere safe.” The spry old man jumped back up to the altar. “Come now, Cole, shouldn’t we be moving on?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
Joan moved along the wall, feeling for the pattern. “Don’t we need a riddle to open the Gate?”
“You can use the Gates?” Cole cried.
The young woman glared at him. “
Obviously. How do you think I got from Hoenn to Sinnoh?” Cole mentally slapped himself. It should have been obvious. But he simply hadn’t put the pieces together.
Magnus glanced around. “All right, try this one on for size. How is a raven like a writing desk?”
Cole scowled. “Oh, come on, even the Mad Hatter couldn’t get that one! Magnus, think of one with an answer!”
“No, no!” Joan said. “I know this one! Poe wrote on both!”
There was a flash of light as a panel on the wall light up. A great gust of wind blew through the Temple, and the band of adventurers walked through the Gate.
***
Cole emerged into blinding sunlight. He blinked, trying to acclimate his eyes. Magnus emerged next to him, their pokemon in tow. The Firebrand slowly took in their surroundings. They seemed to be in the ruins of an ancient city, the stone walls of some archaic castle rising up around them.
“Joan? Joan? Magnus, where’s Joan?”
The old man shook out his hat. “I haven’t the foggiest. Apparently her destination was different from ours. Ah! Cole, I know where we are!”
“That’s wonderful, but Magnus, I thought we were supposed to help Joan. She must be around here somewhere…” He began to wheel around, and only then realized that something else was very wrong.
“Scathatch, Masamune was next to you when we came through the Gate, wasn’t he?”
“Yes…”
“Where is he now?”
“Cole, I thought perhaps you had returned him.”
The Firebrand shook his head. “No. No. This is bad. This is very, very bad.” He clambered up a ruined pillar, trying to see if Masamune was nearby.
“He was called to be with Joan,” Magnus intoned from below. “Cole, please, try to calm down. You have been granted a rare privilege.”
Cole slid down the pillar, recalling all his pokemon but Athena and Thor. “Screw privilege. When’s Arceus’s gift going to show me the next Gate? I want to find Masamune.”
Magnus grabbed Cole’s shoulders. “Cole. Look around you. Have you ever been anywhere like this?”
“N-No.”
“This is the lost land of Sidhe.” The way Magnus pronounced it, it sounded like Shee. “This is a place where almost no humans ever tread. Only highly ranked league officials come here, and even then only to make sure nothing too damaging has happened to the ecosystem. Cole, you might be the first human to stand in that spot for at least seven hundred years.”
The Firebrand was floored. “R-Really? That’s… kind of cool, I suppose.”
“Listen, boy. I’ve been here once before. I know the country a little. This is a large island, located in the great ocean between Unova and Tojoh. It’s far out of flying distance to either of those places, unless we wanted to push our pokemon to exhaustion every day, or found a highly favorable current. It’s a beautiful land, Cole, and there’s only two active Gates here. I can take you to the other, but it’s on the other side of the island. Please, try and enjoy it. Masamune is where he is most needed right now.” He turned and called out his shiny Rapidash, Shadowfax. “Saddle up.”
Cole leapt onto Thor’s back, and nodded. “The sooner we know where we’re going, the sooner we can get back to Masamune.”