Mrs. Lovett
Rolling writer
It feels good to have something to post again. xP
This is the story I submitted for the Alpha and Omega one-shot contest. I incorporated the judges' advice, made some tweaks, and finally ended up with a version I consider ready for posting. The rating is PG, and the revised text still amounts to less then 10,000 words. I like how the story turned out, and I hope you will too!
My name is Eddie. If you're reading this, you're probably an average person in the city, maybe even a pokémon trainer like me. I don't know if you've seen anything on the news yet, but if not, then you must be wondering what this letter is doing here and how it got to be wherever you found it. All of the following information has been passed on to the Slateport police, but before I leave the city I want to leave behind a more detailed account of what happened. My hope is that, despite what the authorities will announce, and despite the panic that will probably stir up over the next few weeks, there will be people who understand how all of this began and maybe figure out the purpose behind the things that are about to happen to us. Perhaps that person will be you. You might think this is crazy, and I wouldn't blame you if you do, but that's only because you haven't been a witness to what I'm about to tell you. And by the time that you are, with all due respect, it will probably be too late.
In any case, this is what you should know.
Seven years ago, a girl named May moved in to Littleroot Town. She was the daughter of Norman, leader of the Petalburg City Gym, and left her old home with her mother to be closer to him. May was eleven, but as far as I know, she had no pokémon or prior experience with training them. I don't think she ever intended to challenge the League in the first place, but I guess when you move into a town where a famous pokémon professor lives and gives out starters, it starts to sway your judgment. Less than a week later, she left on a journey to start collecting badges.
At the time, I was eight. That's not an uncommon age to start the League (heck, there are tag-team toddlers out there who can kick butt), but it's still young enough to have to make weekly calls home to my parents and to want to jump at any opportunity for adventure. I already knew that Hoenn had a lot of legends: there were Groudon and Kyogre, the puzzle of the Regis, and the ghosts of Mt. Pyre, to name a few. But on my journey, I ended up finding one that in my opinion trumps them all. It's in a house on Route 110.
Every beginning trainer knows what it's like to see Slateport for the first time. Its streets are enormous and crowded and it has eye-appealing stores on every block, which can keep anyone wandering for hours. Then you reach the northern exit, and see that fabled fork in the road where the dirt path branches off to the left and the gleaming bike trail called Cycling Road slopes up to right. Some trainers rent bikes to make the journey faster, but in my case, I thought I would get a more fulfilling experience by walking. I also heard that some people who lived in the routes often opened their doors for traveling trainers. So if I ever got tired, I could take a rest!
But the walk turned out to be really long, and after the first half hour trudging through humid, sun-soaked nature, my backpack was starting to bog me down. I began to think of turning back, but then, out of the blue, I saw it. The house was standing at the junction of Route 110 and 103, right by the road where everyone could see it. I hurried over for a closer look, as if something about its appearance could tell me if the people inside would let me in. The house was tidy but small, and looked like it could have had two rooms, at most. I started to round the corner to glimpse its entire depth, and as I passed the door, my eyes landed on a sign beneath the window. It read: "Three steps → and two steps ↑ to reach the amazing Trick House."
I think I spent a good minute staring at that sign, trying to make sense of it. Obviously, people's step sizes vary, and they don't have identically good vision. What if I read the sign when I was standing five steps away? Or what if I had approached it from the side instead of the front? Then the entire protocol would be shattered.
Out of a sheer sense of certainty and a desire to prove myself right (though to whom, I didn't know), I took a step back and started to walk towards the door. But right as I did, the text vanished and the sign turned into a plain slab of wood. When I stepped back to my former spot, the words reappeared. It was like one of those cards whose picture changes when you tilt them. I thought that was pretty cool, and definitely too good to be an empty decoration, so I was more than intrigued enough to walk in.
Inside, I found a spacious front room with wooden walls and a bamboo floor. There were a few bookshelves, some potted plants, and a big tea table in the center. But apart from that, it was empty.
I wavered for a moment, then let the door close behind me, hoping that someone would hear the sound and come out. But nobody did.
In fact, the only other doorway, which stood on the opposite wall, was blocked off by a blank scroll. I approached to give it a tentative poke and felt the paper sink through empty space. Taking a final look around me, I pushed the scroll aside, revealing a short, dark hallway. Beyond it, though I couldn't be sure, I thought I could see water gleaming on the floor.
I began to walk towards it, waiting for some logical image to replace the illusion, but when I reached the end of the hallway, what I saw instead made me gasp.
I was looking out at a vast tropical ocean, dotted with islands of yellow sand and slender green grass that grew out from the water. The floor beneath me kept going for a few feet, then sloped down into the water and disappeared. In its place, trails of small, flat rocks poked out from the water to provide a path between the islands. The only thing that gave away the fact that this was a room was a low wall that broke it off a few yards in front of me, leaving a narrow gap that led farther in. But even this was blended into the scenery, painted to look like the horizon. Above the wall, the blue ceiling was painted with billowing clouds and a large lamp in the center represented the sun. The entire setup was fake, but it was fake in a charming way, like an exquisitely-decorated theater stage. And it was all the more astonishing when I considered how small the house had looked from outside. Judging by the ceiling, the room I stood in right now was as big as an ice rink.
I stepped to the edge of the water and put my foot on one of the rocks. Right then, I heard a heavy metal slam from behind and turned to see that an iron door had slid over the entrance. My heart jumped up to my throat and I began pressing the stone frantically with my foot, trying to make the door retract. But it didn't budge.
In the end, I did the only thing left to do. I hopped onto the rock and moved forward. Soon, I was a good ways into the sea-maze, only by then I knew it wasn't a maze at all — it was just a series of rooms with one entrance and one exit. The scenery varied as I kept going and the subsections grew steadily wider and larger. Pretty soon, I could turn around in place and see nothing but water, sand, and walls.
Reason told me it was just a house, that it was physically impossible to fit more than a couple rooms inside the tiny shack I originally saw by the road. But the farther I went, the more that reasoning crumbled. I realized that I was lost — and lost in the most bizarre, silly of places. I could almost see the headlines: "STARVED TRAINER FOUND IN MYSTERIOUS FUNHOUSE." "ROUTE 110 CLOSED AS INVESTIGATION CONTINUES."
I began to think of every possible reason why someone would do this. Practical joke? Attention? Setup for a film? All the while, I kept walking along the path of stones, jumping onto the little sand islands whose warmth I felt even through my shoes. The only upside to the situation was that the room was reasonably cool, since whoever installed the sun-lamp had enough sense not to make it give off heat. But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find an exit.
Eventually, I reached a large island with a palm tree rooted into the sand. As I stepped onto it, I noticed a glass bottle buried in the mounds. There was a rolled-up paper inside, so I popped the cork and took it out. It read: Trick Master is cool.
I started at the words for a few moments, but no amount of tilting or rubbing got the message to change. With a sigh, I stuffed the paper into my pocket and kept going.
The other islands were similarly stocked. Some of them had tiny wooden chests peeking out from the sand, which contained money and decorative envelopes. Others had items for battling and training, even the notoriously expensive ones, like Rare Candies. I scooped a few things into my bag and moved on, no longer caring if I was in some sort of fourth dimension, only wanting to find a door. Any door.
At last, I saw something promising — a doorway covered by the same white scroll I had seen in the front room. I crossed the final stretch of rocks and sand, and hopped onto the slice of land that stood before it. I swept my palm across the paper's surface, but found that it was backed by a smooth, sturdy wall.
Still unfazed, I continued to test it in every way I could. I knocked, I rubbed, and I spoke. I tried repeating the words I had found on the scroll, then midway, an idea flashed in my mind. I leaned to the side to glimpse the edge of the doorframe, and sure enough, I spotted a thin silver chain hanging from the top. A pen dangled from the end.
I grabbed the pen and scrawled the phrase onto the paper. Trick Master is cool.
Moments later, I heard a bang, and the scroll fanned inwards as the wall behind it fell away. I stepped into a long hallway with the same floor and walls as the front room and followed it to a single door at the end. I pushed through it, and was ready to smile when I recognized the front room, but then I saw that there was no front door. Only walls.
I grabbed the sides of my head and let out a groan. I stepped forward, and as I did, a voice boomed out from the ceiling, as loud and clear as if it had come from my conscience.
"You are being watched."
I gave a jump, hands flying down to my sides. "What? Who are you? Hello?"
Right then, I saw something gleam from one of the cabinets. It was like sunlight reflecting off of a mirrored surface, and it had appeared on the lower doors. I crept over to the spot and started to pull the handles, when suddenly, I felt another force push them out from the inside.
I jumped back, just in time as the doors burst open and a man came tumbling out. He rolled forward like a ball and sprang to his feet, spinning around to face me with his arms outstretched. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, with average clothes, average hair, and an average face. I had never seen a stranger sight.
"Behold, young trainer! I am the greatest living mystery of a man in all of Hoenn! I am... the Trick Master! Glad to meet you!"
He waltzed forward, extending a hand. I was too dumbstruck to refuse. Moments later, one of the potted plants behind him rustled and a Zigzagoon emerged from the leaves.
"That's Ziggy," said the man. "He's my trusted companion. He's got a secret power, just like me!"
The pokémon walked up to us and sat back on its haunches, fixing its big black eyes on me.
I must have still looked dazed, for a moment later, the man smiled. "Didn't scare you too bad, did I? Sorry, kid! It's only a part of my act. I gotta make it interesting, otherwise people either leave or take too long to go looking for me. That's what you're supposed to do, by the way, go looking for me, and the idea is that when you find my hiding spot, I jump out and reward you for completing my challenge!"
I blinked. "Wait… you built that maze by yourself?"
"Yes lad, every bit of it!" the man said. "I hauled in sand from the Slateport shore and grass from the Dewford coastline. The water I got from a little reservoir up north from here. I had to spend some time painting the wall murals and making sure the visual effects were right, but in the end I got it. I always do!"
I stared at him in amazement. "But how?"
"The Trick Master never reveals his secrets!" he said. "My ways are as mysterious as the night, as stealthy as a Sandslash hiding in the desert! No one who challenges my Trick House leaves without being baffled! Surely you'd know!"
"Know what?"
The man frowned. "The Trick House Challenge! Haven't you heard?"
I shook my head. The man rubbed his chin. "Hmm! That's strange. I thought that all of Slateport and Mauville would be talking about me by now. Are you sure you didn't hear anything on your way over here?"
I nodded, and the man's face adopted a look of genuine puzzlement. "Well! That's certainly peculiar… I guess word of mouth takes a while to spread." He turned aside and began to look over the room in thought.
"Well… why don't you try advertising?" I offered.
The man looked at me with a humored frown. "Advertising is for businesses, lad, not legends! Do you think the Elite Four Champion has to tell people to come to his island and battle him? No! The people are lured in by the mystery, the spectacle! Take yourself for example — you walked in, didn't you? By accident, perhaps, but you were obviously interested enough in the maze to finish it!"
"I didn't have a choice," I said flatly. "The door slammed behind me and the only way out was on the other side of the room."
The Trick Master grumbled. "You're a tough one. Fine, I'll admit, perhaps my introduction can be a little bit off-putting. But what else can I do? I get at most ten visitors in a month, and nearly half of them leave when they see the front room is empty!"
"Then maybe you should change your layout a little," I said. "Like, hide in the front room instead of the back so you can tell people who you are."
The man considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Yes… that's good, lad, that's good! I sense a schemer slumbering within you. Perhaps I'm rubbing off on you already!" His smile rekindled and he scampered over to the bookshelves, where he began to rummage around the items on display. "Anyways, your challenge took thirty-three minutes, twenty seconds. Not the fastest I've had, but since you're the first to complete it today, I'll give you something special. For your help, too!" The man came back and placed a large, heavy pearl into my hands.
My eyes bulged. "Where did you get this?"
"At the bottom of the sea on Route 127! They're made by wild Clamperl, and I tell you, they don't give them up easy. It makes a nice decoration for your shelf, but if you're more of a pragmatist, you can always take it to a PokéMart and they'll give you money in exchange for it. I hear they're valuable for making trainer gear."
I looked at him in astonishment.
When I got to the Slateport PokéMart, the salesman nearly keeled over the counter.
"I haven't seen pearls that big in a museum, kid!" The man blinked his eyes, which were as wide as saucers, and lifted the orb to examine it.
I began to fiddle with one of the straps on my backpack. "How much, do you think?"
"I'd say ten thousand P, if I even got that much." He opened the cash register and started leafing through the bills. My heart began to pound. Ten thousand P. That would buy me enough healing items to beat the Mauville Gym two times over.
Nearby, some other trainers had paused in their shopping and begun to stare. I tried to keep my back straight and my gaze forward, like just another kid with a pearl the size of a pokéball. Finally, the salesman finished counting the money and placed three stacks of bills onto the counter.
"There you go, kid. That's almost the whole register, right there." He wiped his brow. "Uh, d'you want to buy anything?"
I looked askance, saw at least five other pairs of eyes on me, and turned back. "No, I think I'll come back later, sir. Thanks." I shoved the money into my backpack and took off.
I asked other trainers on my way to Mauville what they knew about the Trick House, but none of them had any idea what I was talking about. I didn't find the Trick Master in any local directories, or in the listings of League-related businesses. A few people remembered seeing the house on Route 110, but none of them had gone inside. Fazed by the lack of success, I finally decided to drop the matter and move on. I went back to training, and four days later, I bought as many healing items as my new surplus would allow: ten Potions, four Revives, and five Parlyz Heals. I challenged the Gym and won, partially through my pokémon's skills, but mostly due to the bottles and sprays that I kept pulling out of my pockets, much to the other trainers', and even Wattson's, surprise. Gym leaders and their volunteers were known for using the occasional Potion in dire situations, but that day I outdid them all. As I was putting on my backpack on my way out, I heard a pair of kids whisper:
"Wonder what else he's got in there. A hold item that earns you more money?"
I left the Gym red in the face. Completely forgetting Lavaridge, I let my swirling anger power me straight back to Route 110. Part of me expected the Trick House to be gone, like a novice trainer's mirage, but as I neared the Slateport exit, my eyes locked on the building. I barged through the door.
"Trick Master!"
The door swung closed behind me. As soon as I took my first step in, a voice boomed from the ceiling: "You are being watched."
I clenched my fist. "Yeah, well good! I need to talk to you!" I walked around the room, pushing aside plants and looking behind bookshelves. Right then, I caught sight of the same glassy gleam from beneath the tea table and lifted the tablecloth to find the Trick Master curled up inside.
"Hey! You found me!"
I stepped back to let him tumble out. When the man stood in full height before me, I took out my badge case and flashed my new Dynamo Badge. "Look what I just got!"
The Master beamed. "That's great, lad!"
"Yeah, only it doesn't feel so great!" I said. "Thanks to that stupid pearl you gave me, everyone in the Gym stared at me! Do you know how fast word spreads about people in the League? What if those kids start telling rumors to their friends? Do you think it would be good for me to walk into my next Gym and have half the people there think I'm an item hog? Do you just give trainers random expensive things so they'll be tricked into taking shortcuts? Is that why they call you the Trick Master?"
The Trick Master clutched his belly and laughed. "Not at all, boy, not at all!"
I slumped down into one of the chairs and put the badge case in front of me. "I'm just a cheat," I mumbled. "What's the point of calling yourself a trainer if you always use Potions and Revives to keep your pokemon on their feet? It's like it's not even us battling. It's just me spending money to get a badge."
The Trick Master sat down across from me. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You young trainers just need some time to grow into your running shoes. Each time your pokémon defeats an opponent, it’ll get stronger, and over time you’ll reach for your backpack less and less.” He leaned forward and dropped his voice. “In fact, I’ll give you a trickster’s advice. You can never beat a challenge with power alone. No matter how strong your team gets, their strength will never be a substitute for strategy. And all of those little items and objects scattered around you are just your resources to success! Imagine you were trying to find your way out of my Deception Labyrinth, where each time you step through a doorway the room changes to something different. And imagine you had to do that while fending off attacks from my volunteer trainers! No matter how tough your team is, they’ll get tired of walking around eventually. That’s why you have to keep the right things about you, perhaps the move Flash if it gets too dark, or Antidotes in case your pokémon get poisoned. It's all about choosing the right objects for the right situations. And that’s the whole fun of the game!”
The man clapped his hands, and a cabinet behind him flew open. A teapot came dancing out, drifting through the air and landing at the center of the table. Some plates and teacups followed suit, then an assortment of spoons, forks, and napkins.
I watched it all, narrowing my eyes. “How are you doing that?”
“That’s the one thing I can’t tell you!” He snapped his fingers, and a few bowls of chocolates and fruits emerged to take their places in the arrangement.
“I don’t need tea, mister.”
“Master.”
I sighed. “Master.”
“It’s okay, take it as a little pick-me-up,” he said. “Of course, I’d gladly challenge you to a maze puzzle instead, but I’m still working on my next room.”
I blinked. “Wait.. you’re getting rid of the beach?”
“You bet! That puzzle’s all gone and cleaned up. I keep all my courses open for two weeks and no more. Yesterday was its last day.”
I stared at him, mouth agape. “But… but there could be people passing through here right now and they’ll never get to see it!”
“And good for them! They’ll see something new and better!”
“But you can’t keep coming up with new things forever,” I said. “Technically, someday you’re going to run out of ideas. Then you’ll have to start recycling them.”
The Trick Master lifted a finger. “The Trick Master never runs out of tricks. And neither should you!" He slapped the table. "That's why you shouldn't have spent all that money on healing items!"
"Then what should I have spent it on?"
"A way to make more!"
At this, something in my anger wavered, and a smile spread across my face. "That makes sense, I guess."
We settled back, and after a few minutes sipping tea, I looked over to the scroll. "So when's the next puzzle gonna be up?"
"Two days from today."
I lifted my eyebrows, smiling as a curiosity grew within me. “What will it be?”
The Master winked again. “That you’ll have to see for yourself.”
My face fell. “I can’t. I have to get to Lavaridge. My parents want me home by August, so I have to get as many Gyms done as I can.”
“Then come back in your free time.”
"Yeah, but by then you'll probably have gone through ten courses, and I'll miss all of them." I look at him for a moment, then shook my head. "You know what, it's okay. I'll figure something out." I rose and pocketed my badge case.
But before I could turn for the door, the Trick Master held up a hand. "Wait! I've just been visited by the most fantastic idea!" He rose from his chair. "Something tells me that you have a PokéNav! Vital to every trainer to keeps up with the times!"
I nodded. “Yeah, of course I do.”
“Does it have Match Call?”
“Yeah.”
“Add my number, then! I’ll call you whenever I put up something new, and you just come by when you can!”
I smiled. “That’s a great idea!”
The Trick Master took a tan, egg-shaped device from one of his shelves, and I brought out the same model from my backpack. We exchanged numbers, then he saw me off with a cheery wave.
After that, the Trick Master and I became friends. He was the first person on my journey who really, genuinely astounded me. He could turn a forest into an ice rink with his bare hands and build structures that rivaled professional League architecture. A trainer in Mauville once told me how it had taken a whole month with the best installation teams for Wattson to get his electric switch puzzle set up. The Trick Master had built an electric room in two days. Later, I heard how Pike Queen Lucy had conferred with her assistants for weeks to build a battle challenge of twenty-one rooms and fit it into a building shaped like a Seviper. The Trick Master could fit it all in a tiny square house.
Sure, he was a little full of himself, and the answers to his riddles often had to do with his ultimate greatness, but behind all that, he was really a generous guy. He never forgot about me, and in the weeks after I left, I could tell by his enthusiasm that the Trick House was catching on. Every time we talked, he’d always be in the middle of something new.
“Eddie!” he’d say, “I need some help for the furnace challenge! Bring a Fire type!” The line would then be filled by the sound of a blasting blowtorch.
Or, “Eddie, next week is the Braille Cave! Free mystery dessert sampling!” Metallic drilling and the sound of tumbling boulders.
Or, “Lad, you won’t believe how stubborn these live Sharpedos are. Back. Back, I say!”
Or, “Ssh, I’m hiding under the floorboards! I’ll call later!”
Granted, I had no idea who he was. Or what he was. If the stories were true, he had gone to a nonexistent island to pick Liechi Berries and had survived a thirty-thousand meter plunge into the South Mossdeep Ocean to bring back Heart Scales. I spent hours running calculations and thinking of every possible way he could have the time and resources to put up fully-functional trick rooms and take them down in two weeks’ time. And how he managed to do everything without the people outside hearing a thing.
Naturally, I wasn't the only one who wondered. The next time I visited the Trick House was after I had beaten Flannery, taking Route 110 on my way to the Petalburg Gym. That was the first time I saw the girl named May. She was in the front room when I came in, her hair wrapped in a green bandanna, with two big tresses sticking out at the sides. She wore a red shirt and white gloves. I thought the outfit looked pretty wacky, but I didn't know her, so I didn't comment.
Aside from her, there were a bunch of other kids gathered in the room, waiting for the door behind the scroll to open. Due to the influx of challengers, the Master had reverted to his old arrangement and would be hiding in the back room at the end. While he prepared, the kids were lounging around the tea table and talking.
May seemed to be the star of the show. She was commanding everyone’s attention with a strange red gizmo, which she said Professor Birch had given her to log data on every pokémon in Hoenn. Apart from that, she was also helping the Devon Corporation in Rustboro, challenging the Battle Tents, and had her eye on two thug groups who were after legendary pokémon. My first thought was that either she was way in over her head or was some sort of prodigy. But as time passed, I became sure it was the latter.
“I actually passed by this place a while ago,” she was saying. “I was on my way to Mauville just like you guys, but I wanted to battle the Gym as soon as I could, so I didn’t make any stops. Then after I beat it, I went back to Slateport to get some stuff from the market, and I remembered about this place. I thought it was really cool how the Trick Master was hiding behind that plant and I didn’t even see.”
“He jumped out from under the table for me,” said another kid.
“He was hiding under the floorboards when I came in!”
I joined in with my own story about the sea-maze, and we kept the conversation going for a while before the topics ran out. May leaned back in her chair, and after a moment of silence, she spoke up. “So who is this Trick Master guy, anyway? Does he work for a circus?”
“He’s the greatest mystery man in all of Hoenn!” said a boy. “He challenges trainers and gives them prizes for solving his riddles.”
“What kinds of prizes?”
“He’s got super-rare items that help make your pokémon stronger, stuff that you can’t even buy in stores. I beat a challenge he put up last month and got this weird-looking pokéball that I never saw before. I went out catching with it, and it started ticking like a clock when it turned on. I’m a slow catcher, ‘cause I always try to weaken the pokémon first, and it takes me a while to take my aim. But the more time I took, the louder it kept ticking, and when I threw it at the pokémon, it just snapped shut like an iron lock.” The boy clenched his fist in the air for demonstration. “It didn’t even roll. It was the quickest catch I ever made.”
May lifted her eyebrows. “That’s really interesting…”
“It’s like he’s got superpowers or something,” another girl said. “I was there for his Braille Cave, and he had the whole floor made of dirt, with boulders standing right in the middle of the room. My Machop teamed up with another kid’s and we couldn’t even move them.”
“Then how did he get them in?” asked May.
The girl shrugged. “Like I know. And after I finished, I got this weird-looking fossil thing. I took it to a specialist in Rustboro, and he resurrected it into a pokémon I never even heard of.”
May settled back in her chair, gaze falling to her lap. “I gotta try this Trick House thing…” She looked up. “So, all you have to do is beat the challenge he sets up?”
The girl nodded. “Yep. Pretty much.”
“And there’s no catch?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing happens if you lose?”
“Nope!”
May twirled a strand of her hair. “Huh. That’s really cool… This Master guy must either be rich, or one hell of an explorer to do all that for free. But how does he build all those courses?”
I smiled. “No one knows. That’s why he’s a mystery man. No one knows what goes on behind that door except him.”
May lifted her eyebrows at me. Then, her gaze drifted over to the scroll and her mouth spread into a smile. “Well, Trick Master,” she muttered, “you’re about to meet your greatest challenger.”
We waited a few more minutes, then heard a loud bang as a metal door slid down from behind the scroll. I sprang from my seat and lifted the paper, revealing the hallway.
“It’s open!” I said. “We can go in!”
The kids started getting up and pulling out pokéballs. May rose and smoothed her shirt, then led the way through the tunnel. When we emerged into the challenge room, our entire group gasped.
We were standing at the foot of a vast forest, with green grass and tall trees that reached up to sky level. The ceiling was probably lower than it looked, but right then, I couldn’t tell the difference.
We ran off in different directions, filling the forest with the light and sound of activating pokéballs. The grass was rampant with wild Bug pokémon, as well as trainers who jumped out from behind trees and challenged us. I battled my way through the maze, and a few minutes later, my eyes locked on the white exit scroll positioned on a painted wall. May was running towards it, waving a piece of paper in the air.
“I’ve got the code! Come on!”
I rushed over with a few other kids as she wrote the secret code on the scroll: Trick Master is my life.
The ink absorbed into the paper and vanished. Moments later, the wall behind the scroll fell away to reveal the hallway. We made our way to the exit door and found the Trick Master in the back room, seated at his table. When he saw us, he jumped.
“Aak! You’ve made it to me already?” He lowered the teacup and approached us. “Who got the code?”
May waved the paper in her hand. “I did.”
The Trick Master rubbed his chin. “Hm! I’ve never had anyone finish a challenge that fast before. You’re sharp!” He went to the bookshelves and grabbed a short red scarf. “All right then. Here’s your reward.”
He handed May the scarf, and we all came around to see it. I realized what it was in a heartbeat — it was a Focus Band. In battle, it prevented the holder from succumbing to one-hit-KO moves, no matter how powerful the opponent.
May’s eyes widened. “Whoa… thank you!” She put the scarf into her messenger bag and looked up at the Master. “So, how often do you put up new challenges?”
“Every two weeks.”
“Has anyone ever beat them all?”
The Trick Master smiled. “Nope! No one’s that good. No one knows all my tricks — not even Eddie, and he’s been here a hundred times!”
May was silent for a moment. “Well, I’m gonna keep coming back, too. I’ll beat any challenge you set up!”
The Trick Master’s eyes twinkled. “Really, now?”
“Really.”
“Well, then. Consider your challenge accepted! But I warn you, there’s not a single soul in Hoenn that’s my equal in greatness!”
May knit her brows. “We’ll see about that, Trick Master!”
She went to the bookshelf on the left wall and pushed it aside, revealing the doorway to the twin front room. She left with a brisk walk, and when she got outside, it became a run.
May wasn’t the first person to set herself on beating the Trick Master. Dozens of people had sworn to do battle with him in the past, and the Master always took them on with eagerness and good humor, as ever-recurring testimonies of his charm and popularity. I’d see the same trainers come in time and again, powered by frustration, to the point where they stood out from the other challengers with their poker faces and fluid, practiced motions. They progressed through the courses with an almost mechanical coldness, raising the Master’s rating of them with every win, waiting for the day when he’d declare them his superior. He never did. He’d always get them somehow — with an extra spinning door or a fake side path — that would hold their attention just long enough for someone else to get the code. And their winning streak would break. No one had even gotten so far as for the Master to declare them his equal, though as I later found out, May came very, very close.
I returned at the end of that summer to find that the Master had cycled through five puzzles, and was working on his last for the year. The front room was devoid of challengers, but it was cluttered like the backstage of a theater with boxes, tools, and decorations. The Master was standing on a ladder against the wall. He had removed one of the ceiling tiles, and was fiddling with a mess of wires that stuck out from the darkness like vines.
When he heard me approach, he looked down. “Ah, Eddie! You’ve come just in time to see the unveiling of my latest challenge. I’ve got one last thing to fix up here, then it’ll be ready!”
“That’s great, Trick Master!” I said. “My pokémon are good to go. They’ve really toughened up this season. I don’t think I would have been half as good if I hadn’t spent so much time here.”
“That’s good, lad, that’s excellent!” he replied. “Make sure you’re on your toes today, because this one’s special! We’ll give May a test she won’t forget!”
I paused. “May, the Gym leader’s daughter? She still visits here?”
The Trick Master nodded. “She certainly does! She’s beaten all five courses I put up since you left. The river-rapids, the berry-picking, the slides… I thought I had it when I made the cave of pitch darkness, but then that didn’t work, so I tried extreme brightness… It took me all afternoon getting the mirrors angled right. And she swept through it! Swept right through them all!”
I offered a smile. “It’s okay, Trick Master. You’ll stump her someday.”
The Master pushed the wires back into place and fixed the tile into the ceiling. “And that someday is going to be today. I can feel it!” He stepped down from the ladder and leaned over to me. “I’ll give you a hint… direction arrows!”
I signed on as a volunteer and came back the next day for the puzzle’s grand opening. The Master had lined the floor with arrow tiles that moved you in the indicated direction when you stepped on them. The idea was the inevitability — once you stepped on a tile, you had no choice but to go along wherever it took you, even if it meant coming face-to-face with a trainer.
May was the first challenger of the day. Moments after she arrived, she slid over to me in my place between two large crates, in same outfit as before. Recognizing me, she smiled. “Hey, it’s you! Eddie, right?”
“That’s me,” I said. “How’ve you been? Are you still challenging the Gyms?”
“Yeah. I’ve beaten five already.” May flipped one of her hair-weaves. “My dad wants me to save him for last, because he says I’m not ready for him yet, but I think it’s because he wants to prepare for me! He can’t lose embarrassingly to his own daughter, after all.” She laughed. “Anyways, I love this place. It’s like a self-renewing Gym. I don’t even have to wait for anyone to tell me they’re ready for a rematch. I can just keep beating it over and over, however many times I want. It’s one of my favorite training spots.”
I smiled. “Well, you never know when you might face something you can’t solve.” I took out my first pokéball. “Sorry, May, but I can’t let you pass without a battle. Go, Linoone!”
May shrugged. “Suit yourself. Go, Blaziken!”
I paled. No wonder she had beaten so many Gyms. Her pokémon were on a level of power I had never seen before. The Blaziken towered a full meter above my head and knocked out my pokémon like they were cardboard cutouts on stilts. When I was left empty-handed, May gave an apologetic wave, stepped on another tile, and zoomed off.
I watched her pass through the rest of the room, taking care of the other volunteers in a similar fashion. After a few Flamethrowers or Double Kicks, the battle would end and she’d move on. At one point, her Blaziken fainted and she replaced it with an equally-sturdy-looking Shelgon. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Wasn’t that the pre-evolution form of Salamence? Where on Earth had she gotten it?
Half a minute later, I heard a loud boom as the exit door fell away. At once, the moving floors stopped working and the other challengers that had entered after May froze in surprise.
“Someone got through! I don’t believe it!”
Some trainers left through the entrance in dismay, while others followed me and the rest of the volunteers through the hallway. I reached the back room just as May was pocketing her prize from the Master.
“So that was six courses I beat,” she was saying. “You said I was fifteen steps away from you in greatness. That means I’m only nine away now. You said no one’s ever gotten that far, right?”
The Master was looking dejectedly at the wall behind her. “I see. Very well, then, nine places it is… We’ll see how you fare next time!”
He turned to the shelves and grabbed an armful of prizes for the other challengers. May pushed aside the bookcase to reveal the front room and let the other kids leave once they got their items. She was about to turn to follow them, but then she stopped and looked back. "Oh, before I forget! I'll be away for a while because I'll be busy with the last three Gyms. Then I'm going to take a shot at the Elite Four. But I'll be back by next March! You can count on that!"
She ran out of the room, and when she was gone, the Master turned back to us. “Hmm. March. All right, I’ll have to think of something extraordinary for March.” He grabbed a clipboard and pencil from the shelf. “Kids, bear witness! I am now battling not only for my wits, but for my reputation! And I shall meet the challenge!” He walked off, mulling over the blank page.
This is the story I submitted for the Alpha and Omega one-shot contest. I incorporated the judges' advice, made some tweaks, and finally ended up with a version I consider ready for posting. The rating is PG, and the revised text still amounts to less then 10,000 words. I like how the story turned out, and I hope you will too!
The Master’s Trick
To whom it may concern,My name is Eddie. If you're reading this, you're probably an average person in the city, maybe even a pokémon trainer like me. I don't know if you've seen anything on the news yet, but if not, then you must be wondering what this letter is doing here and how it got to be wherever you found it. All of the following information has been passed on to the Slateport police, but before I leave the city I want to leave behind a more detailed account of what happened. My hope is that, despite what the authorities will announce, and despite the panic that will probably stir up over the next few weeks, there will be people who understand how all of this began and maybe figure out the purpose behind the things that are about to happen to us. Perhaps that person will be you. You might think this is crazy, and I wouldn't blame you if you do, but that's only because you haven't been a witness to what I'm about to tell you. And by the time that you are, with all due respect, it will probably be too late.
In any case, this is what you should know.
…
Seven years ago, a girl named May moved in to Littleroot Town. She was the daughter of Norman, leader of the Petalburg City Gym, and left her old home with her mother to be closer to him. May was eleven, but as far as I know, she had no pokémon or prior experience with training them. I don't think she ever intended to challenge the League in the first place, but I guess when you move into a town where a famous pokémon professor lives and gives out starters, it starts to sway your judgment. Less than a week later, she left on a journey to start collecting badges.
At the time, I was eight. That's not an uncommon age to start the League (heck, there are tag-team toddlers out there who can kick butt), but it's still young enough to have to make weekly calls home to my parents and to want to jump at any opportunity for adventure. I already knew that Hoenn had a lot of legends: there were Groudon and Kyogre, the puzzle of the Regis, and the ghosts of Mt. Pyre, to name a few. But on my journey, I ended up finding one that in my opinion trumps them all. It's in a house on Route 110.
Every beginning trainer knows what it's like to see Slateport for the first time. Its streets are enormous and crowded and it has eye-appealing stores on every block, which can keep anyone wandering for hours. Then you reach the northern exit, and see that fabled fork in the road where the dirt path branches off to the left and the gleaming bike trail called Cycling Road slopes up to right. Some trainers rent bikes to make the journey faster, but in my case, I thought I would get a more fulfilling experience by walking. I also heard that some people who lived in the routes often opened their doors for traveling trainers. So if I ever got tired, I could take a rest!
But the walk turned out to be really long, and after the first half hour trudging through humid, sun-soaked nature, my backpack was starting to bog me down. I began to think of turning back, but then, out of the blue, I saw it. The house was standing at the junction of Route 110 and 103, right by the road where everyone could see it. I hurried over for a closer look, as if something about its appearance could tell me if the people inside would let me in. The house was tidy but small, and looked like it could have had two rooms, at most. I started to round the corner to glimpse its entire depth, and as I passed the door, my eyes landed on a sign beneath the window. It read: "Three steps → and two steps ↑ to reach the amazing Trick House."
I think I spent a good minute staring at that sign, trying to make sense of it. Obviously, people's step sizes vary, and they don't have identically good vision. What if I read the sign when I was standing five steps away? Or what if I had approached it from the side instead of the front? Then the entire protocol would be shattered.
Out of a sheer sense of certainty and a desire to prove myself right (though to whom, I didn't know), I took a step back and started to walk towards the door. But right as I did, the text vanished and the sign turned into a plain slab of wood. When I stepped back to my former spot, the words reappeared. It was like one of those cards whose picture changes when you tilt them. I thought that was pretty cool, and definitely too good to be an empty decoration, so I was more than intrigued enough to walk in.
Inside, I found a spacious front room with wooden walls and a bamboo floor. There were a few bookshelves, some potted plants, and a big tea table in the center. But apart from that, it was empty.
I wavered for a moment, then let the door close behind me, hoping that someone would hear the sound and come out. But nobody did.
In fact, the only other doorway, which stood on the opposite wall, was blocked off by a blank scroll. I approached to give it a tentative poke and felt the paper sink through empty space. Taking a final look around me, I pushed the scroll aside, revealing a short, dark hallway. Beyond it, though I couldn't be sure, I thought I could see water gleaming on the floor.
I began to walk towards it, waiting for some logical image to replace the illusion, but when I reached the end of the hallway, what I saw instead made me gasp.
I was looking out at a vast tropical ocean, dotted with islands of yellow sand and slender green grass that grew out from the water. The floor beneath me kept going for a few feet, then sloped down into the water and disappeared. In its place, trails of small, flat rocks poked out from the water to provide a path between the islands. The only thing that gave away the fact that this was a room was a low wall that broke it off a few yards in front of me, leaving a narrow gap that led farther in. But even this was blended into the scenery, painted to look like the horizon. Above the wall, the blue ceiling was painted with billowing clouds and a large lamp in the center represented the sun. The entire setup was fake, but it was fake in a charming way, like an exquisitely-decorated theater stage. And it was all the more astonishing when I considered how small the house had looked from outside. Judging by the ceiling, the room I stood in right now was as big as an ice rink.
I stepped to the edge of the water and put my foot on one of the rocks. Right then, I heard a heavy metal slam from behind and turned to see that an iron door had slid over the entrance. My heart jumped up to my throat and I began pressing the stone frantically with my foot, trying to make the door retract. But it didn't budge.
In the end, I did the only thing left to do. I hopped onto the rock and moved forward. Soon, I was a good ways into the sea-maze, only by then I knew it wasn't a maze at all — it was just a series of rooms with one entrance and one exit. The scenery varied as I kept going and the subsections grew steadily wider and larger. Pretty soon, I could turn around in place and see nothing but water, sand, and walls.
Reason told me it was just a house, that it was physically impossible to fit more than a couple rooms inside the tiny shack I originally saw by the road. But the farther I went, the more that reasoning crumbled. I realized that I was lost — and lost in the most bizarre, silly of places. I could almost see the headlines: "STARVED TRAINER FOUND IN MYSTERIOUS FUNHOUSE." "ROUTE 110 CLOSED AS INVESTIGATION CONTINUES."
I began to think of every possible reason why someone would do this. Practical joke? Attention? Setup for a film? All the while, I kept walking along the path of stones, jumping onto the little sand islands whose warmth I felt even through my shoes. The only upside to the situation was that the room was reasonably cool, since whoever installed the sun-lamp had enough sense not to make it give off heat. But no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find an exit.
Eventually, I reached a large island with a palm tree rooted into the sand. As I stepped onto it, I noticed a glass bottle buried in the mounds. There was a rolled-up paper inside, so I popped the cork and took it out. It read: Trick Master is cool.
I started at the words for a few moments, but no amount of tilting or rubbing got the message to change. With a sigh, I stuffed the paper into my pocket and kept going.
The other islands were similarly stocked. Some of them had tiny wooden chests peeking out from the sand, which contained money and decorative envelopes. Others had items for battling and training, even the notoriously expensive ones, like Rare Candies. I scooped a few things into my bag and moved on, no longer caring if I was in some sort of fourth dimension, only wanting to find a door. Any door.
At last, I saw something promising — a doorway covered by the same white scroll I had seen in the front room. I crossed the final stretch of rocks and sand, and hopped onto the slice of land that stood before it. I swept my palm across the paper's surface, but found that it was backed by a smooth, sturdy wall.
Still unfazed, I continued to test it in every way I could. I knocked, I rubbed, and I spoke. I tried repeating the words I had found on the scroll, then midway, an idea flashed in my mind. I leaned to the side to glimpse the edge of the doorframe, and sure enough, I spotted a thin silver chain hanging from the top. A pen dangled from the end.
I grabbed the pen and scrawled the phrase onto the paper. Trick Master is cool.
Moments later, I heard a bang, and the scroll fanned inwards as the wall behind it fell away. I stepped into a long hallway with the same floor and walls as the front room and followed it to a single door at the end. I pushed through it, and was ready to smile when I recognized the front room, but then I saw that there was no front door. Only walls.
I grabbed the sides of my head and let out a groan. I stepped forward, and as I did, a voice boomed out from the ceiling, as loud and clear as if it had come from my conscience.
"You are being watched."
I gave a jump, hands flying down to my sides. "What? Who are you? Hello?"
Right then, I saw something gleam from one of the cabinets. It was like sunlight reflecting off of a mirrored surface, and it had appeared on the lower doors. I crept over to the spot and started to pull the handles, when suddenly, I felt another force push them out from the inside.
I jumped back, just in time as the doors burst open and a man came tumbling out. He rolled forward like a ball and sprang to his feet, spinning around to face me with his arms outstretched. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, with average clothes, average hair, and an average face. I had never seen a stranger sight.
"Behold, young trainer! I am the greatest living mystery of a man in all of Hoenn! I am... the Trick Master! Glad to meet you!"
He waltzed forward, extending a hand. I was too dumbstruck to refuse. Moments later, one of the potted plants behind him rustled and a Zigzagoon emerged from the leaves.
"That's Ziggy," said the man. "He's my trusted companion. He's got a secret power, just like me!"
The pokémon walked up to us and sat back on its haunches, fixing its big black eyes on me.
I must have still looked dazed, for a moment later, the man smiled. "Didn't scare you too bad, did I? Sorry, kid! It's only a part of my act. I gotta make it interesting, otherwise people either leave or take too long to go looking for me. That's what you're supposed to do, by the way, go looking for me, and the idea is that when you find my hiding spot, I jump out and reward you for completing my challenge!"
I blinked. "Wait… you built that maze by yourself?"
"Yes lad, every bit of it!" the man said. "I hauled in sand from the Slateport shore and grass from the Dewford coastline. The water I got from a little reservoir up north from here. I had to spend some time painting the wall murals and making sure the visual effects were right, but in the end I got it. I always do!"
I stared at him in amazement. "But how?"
"The Trick Master never reveals his secrets!" he said. "My ways are as mysterious as the night, as stealthy as a Sandslash hiding in the desert! No one who challenges my Trick House leaves without being baffled! Surely you'd know!"
"Know what?"
The man frowned. "The Trick House Challenge! Haven't you heard?"
I shook my head. The man rubbed his chin. "Hmm! That's strange. I thought that all of Slateport and Mauville would be talking about me by now. Are you sure you didn't hear anything on your way over here?"
I nodded, and the man's face adopted a look of genuine puzzlement. "Well! That's certainly peculiar… I guess word of mouth takes a while to spread." He turned aside and began to look over the room in thought.
"Well… why don't you try advertising?" I offered.
The man looked at me with a humored frown. "Advertising is for businesses, lad, not legends! Do you think the Elite Four Champion has to tell people to come to his island and battle him? No! The people are lured in by the mystery, the spectacle! Take yourself for example — you walked in, didn't you? By accident, perhaps, but you were obviously interested enough in the maze to finish it!"
"I didn't have a choice," I said flatly. "The door slammed behind me and the only way out was on the other side of the room."
The Trick Master grumbled. "You're a tough one. Fine, I'll admit, perhaps my introduction can be a little bit off-putting. But what else can I do? I get at most ten visitors in a month, and nearly half of them leave when they see the front room is empty!"
"Then maybe you should change your layout a little," I said. "Like, hide in the front room instead of the back so you can tell people who you are."
The man considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Yes… that's good, lad, that's good! I sense a schemer slumbering within you. Perhaps I'm rubbing off on you already!" His smile rekindled and he scampered over to the bookshelves, where he began to rummage around the items on display. "Anyways, your challenge took thirty-three minutes, twenty seconds. Not the fastest I've had, but since you're the first to complete it today, I'll give you something special. For your help, too!" The man came back and placed a large, heavy pearl into my hands.
My eyes bulged. "Where did you get this?"
"At the bottom of the sea on Route 127! They're made by wild Clamperl, and I tell you, they don't give them up easy. It makes a nice decoration for your shelf, but if you're more of a pragmatist, you can always take it to a PokéMart and they'll give you money in exchange for it. I hear they're valuable for making trainer gear."
I looked at him in astonishment.
When I got to the Slateport PokéMart, the salesman nearly keeled over the counter.
"I haven't seen pearls that big in a museum, kid!" The man blinked his eyes, which were as wide as saucers, and lifted the orb to examine it.
I began to fiddle with one of the straps on my backpack. "How much, do you think?"
"I'd say ten thousand P, if I even got that much." He opened the cash register and started leafing through the bills. My heart began to pound. Ten thousand P. That would buy me enough healing items to beat the Mauville Gym two times over.
Nearby, some other trainers had paused in their shopping and begun to stare. I tried to keep my back straight and my gaze forward, like just another kid with a pearl the size of a pokéball. Finally, the salesman finished counting the money and placed three stacks of bills onto the counter.
"There you go, kid. That's almost the whole register, right there." He wiped his brow. "Uh, d'you want to buy anything?"
I looked askance, saw at least five other pairs of eyes on me, and turned back. "No, I think I'll come back later, sir. Thanks." I shoved the money into my backpack and took off.
I asked other trainers on my way to Mauville what they knew about the Trick House, but none of them had any idea what I was talking about. I didn't find the Trick Master in any local directories, or in the listings of League-related businesses. A few people remembered seeing the house on Route 110, but none of them had gone inside. Fazed by the lack of success, I finally decided to drop the matter and move on. I went back to training, and four days later, I bought as many healing items as my new surplus would allow: ten Potions, four Revives, and five Parlyz Heals. I challenged the Gym and won, partially through my pokémon's skills, but mostly due to the bottles and sprays that I kept pulling out of my pockets, much to the other trainers', and even Wattson's, surprise. Gym leaders and their volunteers were known for using the occasional Potion in dire situations, but that day I outdid them all. As I was putting on my backpack on my way out, I heard a pair of kids whisper:
"Wonder what else he's got in there. A hold item that earns you more money?"
I left the Gym red in the face. Completely forgetting Lavaridge, I let my swirling anger power me straight back to Route 110. Part of me expected the Trick House to be gone, like a novice trainer's mirage, but as I neared the Slateport exit, my eyes locked on the building. I barged through the door.
"Trick Master!"
The door swung closed behind me. As soon as I took my first step in, a voice boomed from the ceiling: "You are being watched."
I clenched my fist. "Yeah, well good! I need to talk to you!" I walked around the room, pushing aside plants and looking behind bookshelves. Right then, I caught sight of the same glassy gleam from beneath the tea table and lifted the tablecloth to find the Trick Master curled up inside.
"Hey! You found me!"
I stepped back to let him tumble out. When the man stood in full height before me, I took out my badge case and flashed my new Dynamo Badge. "Look what I just got!"
The Master beamed. "That's great, lad!"
"Yeah, only it doesn't feel so great!" I said. "Thanks to that stupid pearl you gave me, everyone in the Gym stared at me! Do you know how fast word spreads about people in the League? What if those kids start telling rumors to their friends? Do you think it would be good for me to walk into my next Gym and have half the people there think I'm an item hog? Do you just give trainers random expensive things so they'll be tricked into taking shortcuts? Is that why they call you the Trick Master?"
The Trick Master clutched his belly and laughed. "Not at all, boy, not at all!"
I slumped down into one of the chairs and put the badge case in front of me. "I'm just a cheat," I mumbled. "What's the point of calling yourself a trainer if you always use Potions and Revives to keep your pokemon on their feet? It's like it's not even us battling. It's just me spending money to get a badge."
The Trick Master sat down across from me. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You young trainers just need some time to grow into your running shoes. Each time your pokémon defeats an opponent, it’ll get stronger, and over time you’ll reach for your backpack less and less.” He leaned forward and dropped his voice. “In fact, I’ll give you a trickster’s advice. You can never beat a challenge with power alone. No matter how strong your team gets, their strength will never be a substitute for strategy. And all of those little items and objects scattered around you are just your resources to success! Imagine you were trying to find your way out of my Deception Labyrinth, where each time you step through a doorway the room changes to something different. And imagine you had to do that while fending off attacks from my volunteer trainers! No matter how tough your team is, they’ll get tired of walking around eventually. That’s why you have to keep the right things about you, perhaps the move Flash if it gets too dark, or Antidotes in case your pokémon get poisoned. It's all about choosing the right objects for the right situations. And that’s the whole fun of the game!”
The man clapped his hands, and a cabinet behind him flew open. A teapot came dancing out, drifting through the air and landing at the center of the table. Some plates and teacups followed suit, then an assortment of spoons, forks, and napkins.
I watched it all, narrowing my eyes. “How are you doing that?”
“That’s the one thing I can’t tell you!” He snapped his fingers, and a few bowls of chocolates and fruits emerged to take their places in the arrangement.
“I don’t need tea, mister.”
“Master.”
I sighed. “Master.”
“It’s okay, take it as a little pick-me-up,” he said. “Of course, I’d gladly challenge you to a maze puzzle instead, but I’m still working on my next room.”
I blinked. “Wait.. you’re getting rid of the beach?”
“You bet! That puzzle’s all gone and cleaned up. I keep all my courses open for two weeks and no more. Yesterday was its last day.”
I stared at him, mouth agape. “But… but there could be people passing through here right now and they’ll never get to see it!”
“And good for them! They’ll see something new and better!”
“But you can’t keep coming up with new things forever,” I said. “Technically, someday you’re going to run out of ideas. Then you’ll have to start recycling them.”
The Trick Master lifted a finger. “The Trick Master never runs out of tricks. And neither should you!" He slapped the table. "That's why you shouldn't have spent all that money on healing items!"
"Then what should I have spent it on?"
"A way to make more!"
At this, something in my anger wavered, and a smile spread across my face. "That makes sense, I guess."
We settled back, and after a few minutes sipping tea, I looked over to the scroll. "So when's the next puzzle gonna be up?"
"Two days from today."
I lifted my eyebrows, smiling as a curiosity grew within me. “What will it be?”
The Master winked again. “That you’ll have to see for yourself.”
My face fell. “I can’t. I have to get to Lavaridge. My parents want me home by August, so I have to get as many Gyms done as I can.”
“Then come back in your free time.”
"Yeah, but by then you'll probably have gone through ten courses, and I'll miss all of them." I look at him for a moment, then shook my head. "You know what, it's okay. I'll figure something out." I rose and pocketed my badge case.
But before I could turn for the door, the Trick Master held up a hand. "Wait! I've just been visited by the most fantastic idea!" He rose from his chair. "Something tells me that you have a PokéNav! Vital to every trainer to keeps up with the times!"
I nodded. “Yeah, of course I do.”
“Does it have Match Call?”
“Yeah.”
“Add my number, then! I’ll call you whenever I put up something new, and you just come by when you can!”
I smiled. “That’s a great idea!”
The Trick Master took a tan, egg-shaped device from one of his shelves, and I brought out the same model from my backpack. We exchanged numbers, then he saw me off with a cheery wave.
…
After that, the Trick Master and I became friends. He was the first person on my journey who really, genuinely astounded me. He could turn a forest into an ice rink with his bare hands and build structures that rivaled professional League architecture. A trainer in Mauville once told me how it had taken a whole month with the best installation teams for Wattson to get his electric switch puzzle set up. The Trick Master had built an electric room in two days. Later, I heard how Pike Queen Lucy had conferred with her assistants for weeks to build a battle challenge of twenty-one rooms and fit it into a building shaped like a Seviper. The Trick Master could fit it all in a tiny square house.
Sure, he was a little full of himself, and the answers to his riddles often had to do with his ultimate greatness, but behind all that, he was really a generous guy. He never forgot about me, and in the weeks after I left, I could tell by his enthusiasm that the Trick House was catching on. Every time we talked, he’d always be in the middle of something new.
“Eddie!” he’d say, “I need some help for the furnace challenge! Bring a Fire type!” The line would then be filled by the sound of a blasting blowtorch.
Or, “Eddie, next week is the Braille Cave! Free mystery dessert sampling!” Metallic drilling and the sound of tumbling boulders.
Or, “Lad, you won’t believe how stubborn these live Sharpedos are. Back. Back, I say!”
Or, “Ssh, I’m hiding under the floorboards! I’ll call later!”
Granted, I had no idea who he was. Or what he was. If the stories were true, he had gone to a nonexistent island to pick Liechi Berries and had survived a thirty-thousand meter plunge into the South Mossdeep Ocean to bring back Heart Scales. I spent hours running calculations and thinking of every possible way he could have the time and resources to put up fully-functional trick rooms and take them down in two weeks’ time. And how he managed to do everything without the people outside hearing a thing.
Naturally, I wasn't the only one who wondered. The next time I visited the Trick House was after I had beaten Flannery, taking Route 110 on my way to the Petalburg Gym. That was the first time I saw the girl named May. She was in the front room when I came in, her hair wrapped in a green bandanna, with two big tresses sticking out at the sides. She wore a red shirt and white gloves. I thought the outfit looked pretty wacky, but I didn't know her, so I didn't comment.
Aside from her, there were a bunch of other kids gathered in the room, waiting for the door behind the scroll to open. Due to the influx of challengers, the Master had reverted to his old arrangement and would be hiding in the back room at the end. While he prepared, the kids were lounging around the tea table and talking.
May seemed to be the star of the show. She was commanding everyone’s attention with a strange red gizmo, which she said Professor Birch had given her to log data on every pokémon in Hoenn. Apart from that, she was also helping the Devon Corporation in Rustboro, challenging the Battle Tents, and had her eye on two thug groups who were after legendary pokémon. My first thought was that either she was way in over her head or was some sort of prodigy. But as time passed, I became sure it was the latter.
“I actually passed by this place a while ago,” she was saying. “I was on my way to Mauville just like you guys, but I wanted to battle the Gym as soon as I could, so I didn’t make any stops. Then after I beat it, I went back to Slateport to get some stuff from the market, and I remembered about this place. I thought it was really cool how the Trick Master was hiding behind that plant and I didn’t even see.”
“He jumped out from under the table for me,” said another kid.
“He was hiding under the floorboards when I came in!”
I joined in with my own story about the sea-maze, and we kept the conversation going for a while before the topics ran out. May leaned back in her chair, and after a moment of silence, she spoke up. “So who is this Trick Master guy, anyway? Does he work for a circus?”
“He’s the greatest mystery man in all of Hoenn!” said a boy. “He challenges trainers and gives them prizes for solving his riddles.”
“What kinds of prizes?”
“He’s got super-rare items that help make your pokémon stronger, stuff that you can’t even buy in stores. I beat a challenge he put up last month and got this weird-looking pokéball that I never saw before. I went out catching with it, and it started ticking like a clock when it turned on. I’m a slow catcher, ‘cause I always try to weaken the pokémon first, and it takes me a while to take my aim. But the more time I took, the louder it kept ticking, and when I threw it at the pokémon, it just snapped shut like an iron lock.” The boy clenched his fist in the air for demonstration. “It didn’t even roll. It was the quickest catch I ever made.”
May lifted her eyebrows. “That’s really interesting…”
“It’s like he’s got superpowers or something,” another girl said. “I was there for his Braille Cave, and he had the whole floor made of dirt, with boulders standing right in the middle of the room. My Machop teamed up with another kid’s and we couldn’t even move them.”
“Then how did he get them in?” asked May.
The girl shrugged. “Like I know. And after I finished, I got this weird-looking fossil thing. I took it to a specialist in Rustboro, and he resurrected it into a pokémon I never even heard of.”
May settled back in her chair, gaze falling to her lap. “I gotta try this Trick House thing…” She looked up. “So, all you have to do is beat the challenge he sets up?”
The girl nodded. “Yep. Pretty much.”
“And there’s no catch?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing happens if you lose?”
“Nope!”
May twirled a strand of her hair. “Huh. That’s really cool… This Master guy must either be rich, or one hell of an explorer to do all that for free. But how does he build all those courses?”
I smiled. “No one knows. That’s why he’s a mystery man. No one knows what goes on behind that door except him.”
May lifted her eyebrows at me. Then, her gaze drifted over to the scroll and her mouth spread into a smile. “Well, Trick Master,” she muttered, “you’re about to meet your greatest challenger.”
We waited a few more minutes, then heard a loud bang as a metal door slid down from behind the scroll. I sprang from my seat and lifted the paper, revealing the hallway.
“It’s open!” I said. “We can go in!”
The kids started getting up and pulling out pokéballs. May rose and smoothed her shirt, then led the way through the tunnel. When we emerged into the challenge room, our entire group gasped.
We were standing at the foot of a vast forest, with green grass and tall trees that reached up to sky level. The ceiling was probably lower than it looked, but right then, I couldn’t tell the difference.
We ran off in different directions, filling the forest with the light and sound of activating pokéballs. The grass was rampant with wild Bug pokémon, as well as trainers who jumped out from behind trees and challenged us. I battled my way through the maze, and a few minutes later, my eyes locked on the white exit scroll positioned on a painted wall. May was running towards it, waving a piece of paper in the air.
“I’ve got the code! Come on!”
I rushed over with a few other kids as she wrote the secret code on the scroll: Trick Master is my life.
The ink absorbed into the paper and vanished. Moments later, the wall behind the scroll fell away to reveal the hallway. We made our way to the exit door and found the Trick Master in the back room, seated at his table. When he saw us, he jumped.
“Aak! You’ve made it to me already?” He lowered the teacup and approached us. “Who got the code?”
May waved the paper in her hand. “I did.”
The Trick Master rubbed his chin. “Hm! I’ve never had anyone finish a challenge that fast before. You’re sharp!” He went to the bookshelves and grabbed a short red scarf. “All right then. Here’s your reward.”
He handed May the scarf, and we all came around to see it. I realized what it was in a heartbeat — it was a Focus Band. In battle, it prevented the holder from succumbing to one-hit-KO moves, no matter how powerful the opponent.
May’s eyes widened. “Whoa… thank you!” She put the scarf into her messenger bag and looked up at the Master. “So, how often do you put up new challenges?”
“Every two weeks.”
“Has anyone ever beat them all?”
The Trick Master smiled. “Nope! No one’s that good. No one knows all my tricks — not even Eddie, and he’s been here a hundred times!”
May was silent for a moment. “Well, I’m gonna keep coming back, too. I’ll beat any challenge you set up!”
The Trick Master’s eyes twinkled. “Really, now?”
“Really.”
“Well, then. Consider your challenge accepted! But I warn you, there’s not a single soul in Hoenn that’s my equal in greatness!”
May knit her brows. “We’ll see about that, Trick Master!”
She went to the bookshelf on the left wall and pushed it aside, revealing the doorway to the twin front room. She left with a brisk walk, and when she got outside, it became a run.
…
May wasn’t the first person to set herself on beating the Trick Master. Dozens of people had sworn to do battle with him in the past, and the Master always took them on with eagerness and good humor, as ever-recurring testimonies of his charm and popularity. I’d see the same trainers come in time and again, powered by frustration, to the point where they stood out from the other challengers with their poker faces and fluid, practiced motions. They progressed through the courses with an almost mechanical coldness, raising the Master’s rating of them with every win, waiting for the day when he’d declare them his superior. He never did. He’d always get them somehow — with an extra spinning door or a fake side path — that would hold their attention just long enough for someone else to get the code. And their winning streak would break. No one had even gotten so far as for the Master to declare them his equal, though as I later found out, May came very, very close.
I returned at the end of that summer to find that the Master had cycled through five puzzles, and was working on his last for the year. The front room was devoid of challengers, but it was cluttered like the backstage of a theater with boxes, tools, and decorations. The Master was standing on a ladder against the wall. He had removed one of the ceiling tiles, and was fiddling with a mess of wires that stuck out from the darkness like vines.
When he heard me approach, he looked down. “Ah, Eddie! You’ve come just in time to see the unveiling of my latest challenge. I’ve got one last thing to fix up here, then it’ll be ready!”
“That’s great, Trick Master!” I said. “My pokémon are good to go. They’ve really toughened up this season. I don’t think I would have been half as good if I hadn’t spent so much time here.”
“That’s good, lad, that’s excellent!” he replied. “Make sure you’re on your toes today, because this one’s special! We’ll give May a test she won’t forget!”
I paused. “May, the Gym leader’s daughter? She still visits here?”
The Trick Master nodded. “She certainly does! She’s beaten all five courses I put up since you left. The river-rapids, the berry-picking, the slides… I thought I had it when I made the cave of pitch darkness, but then that didn’t work, so I tried extreme brightness… It took me all afternoon getting the mirrors angled right. And she swept through it! Swept right through them all!”
I offered a smile. “It’s okay, Trick Master. You’ll stump her someday.”
The Master pushed the wires back into place and fixed the tile into the ceiling. “And that someday is going to be today. I can feel it!” He stepped down from the ladder and leaned over to me. “I’ll give you a hint… direction arrows!”
I signed on as a volunteer and came back the next day for the puzzle’s grand opening. The Master had lined the floor with arrow tiles that moved you in the indicated direction when you stepped on them. The idea was the inevitability — once you stepped on a tile, you had no choice but to go along wherever it took you, even if it meant coming face-to-face with a trainer.
May was the first challenger of the day. Moments after she arrived, she slid over to me in my place between two large crates, in same outfit as before. Recognizing me, she smiled. “Hey, it’s you! Eddie, right?”
“That’s me,” I said. “How’ve you been? Are you still challenging the Gyms?”
“Yeah. I’ve beaten five already.” May flipped one of her hair-weaves. “My dad wants me to save him for last, because he says I’m not ready for him yet, but I think it’s because he wants to prepare for me! He can’t lose embarrassingly to his own daughter, after all.” She laughed. “Anyways, I love this place. It’s like a self-renewing Gym. I don’t even have to wait for anyone to tell me they’re ready for a rematch. I can just keep beating it over and over, however many times I want. It’s one of my favorite training spots.”
I smiled. “Well, you never know when you might face something you can’t solve.” I took out my first pokéball. “Sorry, May, but I can’t let you pass without a battle. Go, Linoone!”
May shrugged. “Suit yourself. Go, Blaziken!”
I paled. No wonder she had beaten so many Gyms. Her pokémon were on a level of power I had never seen before. The Blaziken towered a full meter above my head and knocked out my pokémon like they were cardboard cutouts on stilts. When I was left empty-handed, May gave an apologetic wave, stepped on another tile, and zoomed off.
I watched her pass through the rest of the room, taking care of the other volunteers in a similar fashion. After a few Flamethrowers or Double Kicks, the battle would end and she’d move on. At one point, her Blaziken fainted and she replaced it with an equally-sturdy-looking Shelgon. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Wasn’t that the pre-evolution form of Salamence? Where on Earth had she gotten it?
Half a minute later, I heard a loud boom as the exit door fell away. At once, the moving floors stopped working and the other challengers that had entered after May froze in surprise.
“Someone got through! I don’t believe it!”
Some trainers left through the entrance in dismay, while others followed me and the rest of the volunteers through the hallway. I reached the back room just as May was pocketing her prize from the Master.
“So that was six courses I beat,” she was saying. “You said I was fifteen steps away from you in greatness. That means I’m only nine away now. You said no one’s ever gotten that far, right?”
The Master was looking dejectedly at the wall behind her. “I see. Very well, then, nine places it is… We’ll see how you fare next time!”
He turned to the shelves and grabbed an armful of prizes for the other challengers. May pushed aside the bookcase to reveal the front room and let the other kids leave once they got their items. She was about to turn to follow them, but then she stopped and looked back. "Oh, before I forget! I'll be away for a while because I'll be busy with the last three Gyms. Then I'm going to take a shot at the Elite Four. But I'll be back by next March! You can count on that!"
She ran out of the room, and when she was gone, the Master turned back to us. “Hmm. March. All right, I’ll have to think of something extraordinary for March.” He grabbed a clipboard and pencil from the shelf. “Kids, bear witness! I am now battling not only for my wits, but for my reputation! And I shall meet the challenge!” He walked off, mulling over the blank page.
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