Chapter 24: Cause and Effect
Jared heard some noise in the distance, and had Gastly retract into his body.
Holding the stump of his pinkie finger, Jared watched a tall red blur suddenly speed past with someone riding on it's back.
"What the hell was that" Jared murmured.
After a minute, the red blur and it's rider returned, stopping in front of him.
Jared now recognized the figure, causing him to gulp.
With his legs wrapped around the large bug pokemons thin mid section, Botan checked a device in his hand, before turning his attention back. Narrowing his eyes, Botan suddenly leapt off his Scizor as if he was on guard, shouting, "Scizor, restrain him with metal claw!"
Before Jared could blink, he was pinned to the ground, with a metallic pincer-like claw held against his neck.
"W-why are you doing this" Jared choked.
Holding some strange device, Botan moved closer and began probing with the object until it reached Jared's hand.
Observing the wrapped up stump, Botan clicked his tongue, then began frisking Jared's body,
Hearing the sounds of Botan rooting through his bag, and tossing out his things, Jared felt aggrieved, "Why are you attacking me for no reason. Are you robbing me?" Jared said, trying to keep his voice steady.
Tossing the empty bag away like it was trash, Botan accused, "No pokeballs, yet you are in this death trap of a forest, it doesn't make sense. You are also picked up by the readings, and you are extremely suspicious. Where is the creature!? Is someone helping you?"
Spurred on by his trainers voice, Scizor pressed harder.
Unable to breath or speak, Jared began slapping his hand on the ground, as if he were a wrestler trying to tap out, but even when Botan had Scizor release his windpipe, it was already too late, everything began growing dark.
The only thing he could do was to keep mentally telling Gastly to stay hidden and not retaliate.
.
Jared jolted awake, only to find himself handcuffed to a bed in a stark white room. The floor gleamed with a polished surface that mirrored the intense glare of the overhead fluorescent lights. The air also carried a faint odour of disinfectant, reminiscent of a hospital.
The first thing Jared saw was a sleepy looking man leaning into a chair.
Noticing Jared, he quickly jolting to attention, and stood up, that's when Jared noticed a pokemon beside him. The Ampharos stood tall, with a yellow body and a long, curly white crest on its head and back. Its eyes were large and expressive, with a gentle glow that seemed to spark with electricity.
Hearing the man speak to someone across from him, he found a woman, as well as another Pokémon. The Pokémon had fluffy feathers, heart-shaped wings, and a cute, round body. Its large eyes had a kind and innocent look, and it had tiny arms, legs, and a beak-like mouth, but Jared couldn't recall what it was, nor did he care at this moment, instead asking in his mind, "Gastly what happened to me?"
"When you fell asleep, the strong human brought you here."
"I get that, but where is... here?"
"In the city."
"... more specific please."
Why would I know what this place is called?"
"Forget it..." Feeling a headache coming on, Jared stopped his questioning for the moment. "Forget it..."
"Nuina, he's awake, watch him while I go and inform the professor."
After a few minutes, the door opened and Jared saw a familiar face.
Seeing the tanned sunglass wearing man wearing a pristine white lab coat, Jared blurts out, "Kukui? is that you?"
"Surprising right?" Kukui laughs, "But I'm more surprised. To think the man I saved a few weeks ago would suddenly show up in my lab."
"You're lab?"
An annoyed man's voice could be heard behind him, revealing a man in his mid twenties with long wavy hair, "As the illustrious Manto, the owner of this esteemed laboratory, I have repeatedly cautioned against providing erroneous information. You, on the other hand, are merely here to assist, or rather, hinder, considering your apparent lack of knowledge. It baffles me why someone of your incompetence was even brought on board. After all, what expertise could you possibly possess, apart from basic fieldwork?"
Jared watched Kukui's eye twitch, as he turned around, seemingly trying to find the person that let Manto in.
Manto then seemed to forgot Kukui's existence, grabbing Jared's hand with both of his own with a pleading look unbefitting of the mans age, "You came into contact with the anomaly right? Please tell me everything! You will right?"
Before Jared could think of what to say, he could see a firm hand grab Manto by the shoulder and squeeze hard, causing a yelp to emit from the man.
Manto's eyes went wide with panic as if he were a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar, while the woman's voice said, "Sorry again professor Kukui, I took my eyes off him for a second and he was gone. I'll be more careful next time."
While being dragged away by the well built woman, Manto screamed, "No, it's my lab, you can't do this! I demand access to the specimen!"
With the door closed, Jared could see the helpless looks of those around him, and wondered what the hell was happening.
Trying to keep a straight face, Kukui sighed, "Please forget that happened," moving his eyes to Jared's hand, Kukui asked, "How's your hand feel?"
Jared raised his left hand and found the stump of his pinkie finger was no longer bloodied.
"Feels alright." then he he gently yanked with the other hand, causing a clanging sound when the handcuff met the metal bed frame, "Though this is hurting my wrist, would you mind taking it off so I can sit up properly?"
"Sure," Kukui agreed, then asked one of the guards to remove the handcuff.
"Are you hungry or thirsty?"
"I could eat, but more importantly, do you think you can tell me what this is all about now?" Jared said, somewhat concerned about being called a specimen.
Briefly turning his head to the female guard, Kukui began explaining.
Ultra Beasts infrequently appear from Wormholes in and around Alola. Nobody knows how or why these events take place, but these events sometimes release foreign, never before seen pokemon, even once releasing a monstrous twenty foot tall pokemon nicknamed Guzzlord. The pokemon had caused the destruction of an entire town before being slain. It was not until this event that these anomaly's were taken seriously, and research centres established.
"So you see, we think your sudden appearance in the ocean may have been a displacement caused by a wormhole. It's not the first time it's happened. People from all around the world sometimes inexplicably appear in and around Alola, and I had my suspicions at the time that you were one of these people. However this knowledge is not freely available to the public, so I couldn't exactly tell you about it."
"I see... you said that those foreign pokemon are attracted to people who have gone through wormholes. Is that why I was kept in the police station back then?"
Kukui had a stiff expression, making Jared realize he may have connected some dots that he should have left alone.
"I'm just guessing randomly, forget I said anything."
"No, it is exactly as you said." Kukui said appreciatively, "People who travel through wormholes leave a scent behind, that's why you were strictly protected."
"Typically, those who have travelled through a wormhole do not attract these creatures for more than two days. However, it has been weeks since your encounter, so it's safe to assume that your displacement through the wormhole was purely coincidental and not related to the creatures you encountered."
Seeing Jared raise an eyebrow, Kukui added, "If you still had the scent, it would never have let you go, this has already been proven over and over... at least not without killing you first. "
Jared had an inkling as to why. Pokemon aren't supposed to be able to talk, but maybe that only applied to this world, and not from wherever the ultra beasts came from. Not only that, but that creature he spoke with was very intelligent, so it's likely that the anomaly questioned their victims before silencing them for good, and that's why the secret of their language ability had gone unnoticed until now.
Although Pokemon have their own language, humans cannot speak it, Jared had hoped that Gastly would be able to talk with other pokemon to give him some kind of edge, but that wasn't the case. For whatever reason, Ghost pokemon can only speak with other ghosts, perhaps due to the fact that Gastlys were once human.
.
As the conversation progressed, Jared tried to be more careful with his words, but trying to be mostly truthful to not be caught in a lie, "I... was out there because I was searching for some mushrooms, I heard Funguscarpp were valuable, so i was trying my luck. However, on my way back, I was attacking by a weird creature."
Kukui added, "What did it look like?"
Happy that Kukui didn't care to ask about who had tasked him with finding those mushrooms, Jared said, "It was like a giant white... I don't know how to describe it? I guess it was like a bug with two super long antennae? I thought it was going to kill me, but after injuring me, it suddenly ran away, maybe it was attracted to something, but I didn't care why, as soon as it was gone, I began running out of the forest when Botan and his Scizor attacked me, knocking me out. "
"I'm sorry about that," Kukui scratched his head abashedly, "But on the bright side, you were actually quite lucky. You may not know this, but even before the appearance of ultra beasts, the locals they call the forest of Mt Lanakila the forest of death. Even official trainers don't like going in there if they can help it. That aside, I'm really curious about why it let you go, UB-02 is extremely hostile to humans."
"UB-02?" Jared questioned.
"Ah yes, it has an official name, but it's also classified. Haha"
"So... you tracked it through energy readings?"
"How do you know about that?" Kukui asked sceptically.
"Botan said something about that when he found me" Jared explained, wanting to slap himself for once again asking something he shouldn't.
"Nevermind, please forget about this as well," Kukui motioned to the door, "That's everything I needed to know, thank you for your time, I should be getting back now."
Not wanting to be forgotten and left in the hands of someone like Botan, Jared quickly got up, causing the large Ampharos to sizzle with electricity at his sudden movement, "Wait, so where does this leave me? I'm just a random person that nobody would miss."
After turning around, Kukui curled his lips, "What, do you think we are monsters? Don't worry, you will be asked to sign some confidentiality agreements, and even paid for your help in identifying the anomolic threat. Test assured that no harm will come to you."
_________________
I have not forgotten about this novel, but unfortunately I have gotten myself addicted to a little game called dwarf fortress, and that has been eating my free time like a ravenous Snorlax.
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