Like No One Ever Was

The lighthouse was much the same as I remembered it from the games, and from the times I’d seen it in my training or walking to or fro Los Platos. It had a brick base with a rectangular building attached to the cylindrical white and red-stone-mosaic tower jutting out into the sky.

Something felt different about it knowing people were living inside it. Most of the moving trucks had left by now, and only a few tire tracks in the dirt road indicated they had been there. That, and the few cardboard boxes stacked outside.

Hopping up, I knocked on the door of the building part (the tower entrance just led to a ladder to climb up the lighthouse). Arven opened the door eagerly. “Nemona!” He cried out, all worries of yesterday forgotten. Foolish, but you will learn young padawan.

The interior was done in a very sleek stainless steel layout. There was a large table in the kitchen right behind Arven, with appliances lining the walls. In the living room to the side was a desk and computer set up, a coffee table, and tons of bookshelves lining the walls. It must have been remodeled recently, doesn’t feel like this was part of the original Poco Lighthouse design. Such a thing would seem like a massive undertaking until I remembered that Pokemon could shape the world around them with ease.

I gave him a big hug. “Arven, good to see you.” I was a bit of a hugger, at least around people I knew well. It also lets me get underhooks, to prevent escape. “You ready for our battle?”

“Oh, uhhh…” He tried to pull away only to find himself trapped. “Ahh, help!!” Maschiff lifted his head to look at his trainer’s horrific fate. Raising a paw up to his head in a mock salute honoring Arven’s sacrifice, the dog went and hid under the coffee table. “Betrayal!”

“What is all this noise- oh, Nemona,” Turo said, having walked away from his desk to see what was going on. “It’s good to see you again.”

Benevolently letting Arven go I turned to face his father. “Professor,” I said, giving him a brief nod. “I didn’t realize you were moving over here.”

“A spur-of-the-moment decision, but one with good reasons. This will keep us closer to my League sponsors in Mesagoza, and Arven will be closer to you.” Makes sense… but you would have moved here anyway in the games, even without Nemona and Arven being close. So is there some other reason?

Glancing over at the table I glanced over at a magazine on it. “Occulture? I didn’t realize you read that stuff.” Turo blinked, scratching at his five o’clock shadow.

“Ah well, I feel there are interesting details in their articles. Supposedly, Zapdos has been spotted near this very lighthouse.”

It took me a moment to realize he was a little embarrassed about his hobby, but not enough to stop himself from getting excited about it. This dude does not emote well.

“Kantoan or Galarian Zapdos?” I inquired.

He brightened up a tad. “Kantoan. Not many people realize there are regional variants of the three Legendary Birds. I suspect that it was attracted here-”

“Because of the light at the top, right?” The lighthouse had some ancient, massive battery powering it in the basement to constantly illuminate both the Poco Path and the ocean out beyond. Some old empire had created it to both help guide the citizens and spot any danger incoming to Paldea. While we had advanced past the technologies used to make it nowadays and hardly had any need to worry about invasion fleets, it was still a solid structure the people of the modern age could use.

If Turo was upset by my interruption, he didn’t show it. “That’s my theory, yes. The bright light and electrical signal might have drawn Zapdos’ attention.”

“The storms probably help too,” I nodded.

“Storms? The forecast claims it’s rather calm in this area.”

“Ooh, are you using Formcast?” He nodded and I winced. They’re generally a good weather prediction site with their Castforms that the employees have, but… “That site doesn’t keep track of Pokemon like Pelipper out in rural provinces like this.”

“Ah,” he said simply before turning to Arven. “I think we should bring those boxes inside, now.”

“Huh? Why?” The boy asked.

“I’ll help,” I said, moving to pull the boxes inside. Jeez, these things are heavy. Are they just filled with books? I would have thought someone so futuristic as Turo would keep more on databases or flashdrives. Then again, he’s obsessed with the Violet Book, isn’t he? I’d tried to obtain a copy of the rare book, but found it surprisingly difficult, even with my family’s resources.

As we struggled with the heavy boxes, I said to Arven “Pokemon have Abilities. These are passive powers that can help in battles, or just generally. Some have Abilities that change the weather around them. Pelipper has one that can summon rain, and they’re pretty common around here.”

“Whoa. What Ability does Maschiff have?” The boy said eagerly, forgetting all about the boxes we were supposed to be moving until I gave him a hard stare. That’s right, don’t leave the work all to us! Turo and I were doing the majority of the work anyway, him being an adult and me abusing the nature of this world and getting all the gains.

“I’ll-,” I grunted, breathing heavily. “Tell you later,” I said as I shoved one of the boxes back towards the end of the kitchen. They might not have much space for making dinner, but that sounds like a future problem. I could even invite them over to my house and welcome them to the ‘neighborhood.’ While there were a few people who lived around here and a decent number of travelers and hikers who passed through, there wasn’t any sense of community in this corner of Paldea. Too much wilderness, and too close to Los Platos for anyone to try and set up any small town or the like when they could just join up with the one that was already there and closer to Mesagoza.

There was something still bugging me, so I asked: “Why were these left outside anyway? Seems like the movers could have at least helped you put them inside.”

“They were getting too nosy,” Turo said, his voice harsh. By the time I lowered the box I was carrying down to look at him, his face was neutral, and his tone was back to normal. “I’ve gained some notoriety over the past few months, some people will go to quite the lengths to try and invade my privacy.”

A reasonable explanation, totally normal. But I know what I heard. The first hint of the paranoia that will lead him down a dark path. How do I get him to turn away from that darkness? It was a question I still lacked an answer to, despite all the years spent here and all the hours pondering the topic.

A sort of awkward silence settled on the three of us after that. It was easily ignored when we were working, but after we got the last boxes inside I could feel the social pressure squeezing down on me. Or it could just be the boxes. There are a lot of them and suddenly the small house feels much smaller. It made the living space even more cluttered, but we could at least squeeze in and out of the entrance.

To stop the silence I turned back to our previous discussion. “Ok, so I actually don’t know what Abilities a Maschiff can get.”

“Whaaaaat? How could you not know that?” Arven gasped and I scowled.

“I’m not a living Pokedex, I don’t know everything!” I said, blushing lightly. “I’d guess that Intimidate is a possibility, however.” Mostly just because Granbull and Arcanine can get that one, so it feels right that a Dark dog Pokemon could access it as well. Turo took this as an opportunity to cut it.

“That’s correct. Maschiff can have one of three Abilities. Intimidate, Run Away, or very rarely, Stakeout. Abilities are much like Moves, my son. Every Pokemon starts with one, and most Abilities are available to several different types of Pokemon. While he could train up other Abilities, I would hypothesize that your Maschiff knows Run Away.”

He had an adorably serious expression on his face. “That’s good. I want Maschiff to be able to get away if anything scary shows up.” I winced as Maschiff barked happily, trotting up to his trainer. Turo leaned down to scratch at the top of the dog Pokemon’s head. “Wow Daddy, you must know everything!”

Looking up at his father with awe, I turned my gaze away from the scene. He thinks so highly of Turo. What am I supposed to do? Tell him early that his father is going down a bad path? Let him stumble into despair while placing him on a pedestal that slowly cracks away to nothing? Fuck.

Lost in my thoughts, I was caught off-guard when Turo suddenly asked me a question. “Would you mind helping me test something out?”

“Sure,” I responded without thinking. Ah well, it can’t be too bad, right?

“I’d like to have a Pokemon battle against you.” That threw me off guard for a moment.

“Huh? I mean, sure. I didn’t realize you were a battler.” I said as I shifted outside. The dirt road was wide and curved around in front of the lighthouse, making for a decent enough battlefield.

“I’m more a man of science than battling, but hopefully this experiment should produce fruitful results.” He replied cryptically. Arven trailed behind him, cheering him on.

“Go, Dad, you can do this! Beat Nemona!” Ouch. Then again, I guess I have been beating Arven for over a year now and Turo is his dad, but still.

I took my place twenty meters away from him, holding up Dun’s Pokeball. “Ready when you are.” He held up his own in his right hand, taking his left hand out of his lab coat pocket and pulling out a tablet. Odd.

Considering that Arven wasn’t going to be taking the place of an unbiased referee, I decided to count us in, fitting for a somewhat informal match. “We’ll release our Pokemon on the count of three. One, two, three.” Two flashes of red light shot out, our Pokemon materializing. Dun, gave a battle-ready cry, while Porygon-Z flipped its blue arms and tail erratically around its round body, fixing me with a crazy stare from across the road with its yellow-ringed eyes.

I suppressed a small shiver. All the Pokedex entries say that something went ‘wrong’ with the change from Porygon2 to Porygon-Z, and I can see why. Whatever, focus on the battle at hand.

“On the count of three, we’ll begin. One, two… three!” With the last word, both our Pokemon began moving, Porygon-Z hovering up higher, and at Turo’s command, focusing in on Dunsparce. I had Dun move to the side, a subtle sweep of my hand as I was counting down let Dun know where to go, and pulled out my Tera Orb.

“Lock On!” He called out, glancing down at his tablet. What is he doing, he’s the one who asked for this battl- oh. That system. Damn, didn’t expect him to have it already.

Tossing my Tera Orb over my starter’s head caused the usual crystal blocks to erupt all around him, then shatter, Terastalizing him. “Body Slam!”

While Porygon-Z was still getting a read on him, Dun leaped through the air and slammed into the digital Pokemon, sending it spinning around. I noticed that no matter how its body spun, its eyes remained locked on Dun.

“Hmm, unexpected,” Turo muttered under his breath. “Zap Cannon!” He called out louder, which his duck-like Pokemon complied with immediately, gathering a large ball of electricity in front of its ‘beak’ and firing it at Dun.

“No dodging, block it!” Sitting in place, my Pokemon focused, erecting a powerful barrier around him, just before the lightning shot hammered into it.

The electrical construct broke on impact, bolts of lightning arcing out all around, and even cracking the honeycomb transparent blue barrier Dun had made - but not breaking it. With a pant of effort, he let the Protect drop, having done its job.

“Great work, now Agility! Dash around and break its lock.” Dun sped up, slithering around the dusty road like greased lightning. I saw the Porygon spinning around and almost keeping up with Dun, but there were a few moments where the line of sight was lost. Good, Lock On should be done. That combo with Zap Cannon could have been really painful.

The Professor was frowning, staring down at his tablet again. Yeah, it’s definitely what I think it is. Alright, I can beat this, I’ve practiced to beat this person a million times over. “Hyper Voice,” I called out before plugging my ears.

A good call, as Dun’s following screech was piercing, even with that and on the other side of the attack. A ripple spread throughout Porygon-Z’s body, its body spinning even more erratically. Arven and Maschiff opened their mouths, likely giving out cries of pain, while Turo just winced, mostly stoic about the pain.

Right, this Move is a bit too omnidirectional to use in a match where we don’t have barriers up. Not that I had to worry for long about losing that tactical matchup, as Turo called out something and Porygon-Z’s body became wispy and pale, the sound no longer bothering it. The Porygon line is known for being able to switch Types, must be why he didn’t Terastailze yet, hoping to use this.

Taking my hands off my ears, I heard “-ri Attack!” Shouted rather loudly from Turo. A bright beam covered in flames, ice, and crackling with electricity hammered Dun, pushing him across the battlefield and kicking up dust. Dun winced as he rolled back onto his belly, a nasty burn covering his right side. Ouch, and that was without STAB, gotta be careful of that attack.

“Glare!” “Close your eyes.” Turo’s command came right after mine, too fast to be anything other than anticipating my command. Dun Glared at the Porygon as hard as he could, but to no avail when those eerie yellow eyes were shut tight.

“Twelve degrees down, 46 right. Tri Attack.” Turo’s instructions let his Pokemon start tracking Dun even with its eyes closed, firing off another beam, one that Dun narrowly avoided. Gah, I underestimated that system. Oh well, time to show it something he hasn’t seen before.

“Earthquake!” Dun pounded the ground, raising sections of it to meet the floating Porygon-Z. It was weaker than it usually was, had less radius and the height raised less too. Definitely a Burn, not that I need it to hit. It still would have, a testament to Dun’s strength and control over the Move, but Turo was having none of that.

“Magnet Rise, then open your eyes. Fire again.” Electromagnetic impulses shot the Porygon-Z up above the sections of dirt that rose to meet it. Another beam lanced into Dun and he let out a pained cry. Crap, is this going too far?

“Duuun!” He responded angrily, spitting out a small wad of blood. Ouch. Not great, but he can still go on. So long as he doesn’t take another attack like that. He wouldn’t, not if my plan had anything to say about it.

“Bring the storm!” My winged snake gave a mighty cry, and Thunder followed. Well, lightning followed, then thunder, but the Move was called Thunder- I shoved aside thoughts of strange naming conventions as Porygon-Z was wracked by electricity coursing through their now ghostly body. The attack subsided, but they still gave off a few twitches, more subdued and likely from Paralysis rather than their strange behavior.

“He-”

“Tri-Beam, again.” Turo interrupted, and Porygon-Z proved itself to be quick on the draw, letting loose another beam at Dun.

“Protect!” His force field once again weathered the blow. Now it all comes down to this. Do you do what’s smart Turo? Or what your tablet is telling you to do?

“...Lock On.” I grinned widely as he chose the latter option.

“Hex!” Dark Shades surrounded the Porygon-Z, and I thought I saw distorted ones and zeros pass by in those shadows as Porygon-Z started flailing about in pain. The Professor blinked in surprise, shoving his face to the screen and rapidly typing in commands. After two seconds, he grabbed his Tera Orb, making the final mistake of the fight.

“Time to show you the true might of my genius. Terastalize!” His black crystal orb shook violently and he threw it above Porygon-Z, covering his Pokemon with crystals.

“Shoot for the stars, Last Resort!” Covering himself in bright energy, Dun shot forward, the glowing light coalescing like a star suffused through him as he shattered through the crystal blocks and into the Porygon-Z, now a Normal Type once more and with the same Tera Jewel ‘hat’ that Dun had atop his own head.

The digital Pokemon was sent flying into the side of the lighthouse, spinning its arms around wildly as it tried to float back up. It’s still able to fight, crap!

“Zap-”

“Giga Impact!”

“- Cannon.”

Porygon-Z tried to gather the electrical power again but Paralyzed and dazed, it wasn’t able to do so before Dun smashed into it. The green energy projected ahead of him smashed the Porygon-Z, and even himself into and through the walls of the lighthouse.

The three of us (and Maschiff) looked on in horror as we saw the bricks blasted apart from the final impact, pieces of stone still falling around.

“Sparce,” Dun gave a weak cry from within. Through the dust and dark room, I could see Porygon-Z lying there, twitching lightly. Still alive, phew. Not that I thought they’d die from that but- ah, gotta make sure this doesn’t get any worse!

Turo was quick to respond, recalling Porygon-Z from the wreckage and back into his Pokeball while I called out: “Dun, use Ancient Power, make sure nothing else breaks!”

Tired, but acting quickly on the urgency in my voice, Dun pulled two large stones from the ground and shoved them inside the new opening, supporting the walls and ceiling from further collapse. A very rushed job, but hopefully should work until we can get professionals here to fix it.

Recalling Dun, I turned to the Arven and his father. “So, uh, want to come over to my place for dinner while we get your new house fixed up?”

***

Turo was quite amenable to the idea, after a few calls and getting a construction team on site within twenty minutes. A tall task usually, but Mom being the head of Paldea’s largest reality company gives her a fair amount of connections.

We stayed after they arrived just long enough for Turo to give them instructions, mostly about which of his personal belongings to avoid. Luckily, there wasn’t much they would be touching in that regard as Dun’s impact had hit most of the lighthouse side of the building, and hadn’t even damaged any of its workings too badly. Wiring and walls would need repairing, but the generator and overall structure were fine.

“Very sorry again about that little mishap. Our youngest here can be so enthusiastic,” Billy laughed as we sat around the table, digging into another fabulous meal our chefs had made.

“Yes. Hopefully, she’ll have learned her lesson… this time.” O’Nare added and I sighed, realizing that they had heard about my cliff destruction incident months ago, even if they hadn’t brought it up.

Turo shook his head, ever the polite guest. “Nonsense. It is my fault for not calling off the battle sooner. I’m the adult here. Fortunately, there was no serious damage, and the data I got from the battle was worth so much more. I’ll have to spend many hours figuring out where I went wrong.”

A small sigh escaped Arven’s lips, his thick bouncy hair flopping about. No one else noticed, but I knew that look on his face. The disappointment of knowing your parent(s) aren’t going to be there when you need them, that they’ll be too busy for you.

“I know what went wrong,” I said suddenly, letting the knife and fork I’d been using to cut into the duck breast clatter onto my plate. “You built a program analyzing how I fight, yes?”

The Professor nodded. “That’s correct. As you said before, I’m not much of a battler, so I designed a program to analyze great trainers and utilize their strategies. I copied your techniques from the tournament, but you were able to best it with ease.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Awkwardly I scratched the back of my head. Glare is one of my best Moves, especially now that Dun has Hex to go with it, and Turo shut it down even with me trying to counter that program, it’s damn scary. And something I knew would be a problem in the future.

Is it right to help him out here, improving yet another defense to his eventual doomsday plot? Or would he figure out anything I could tell him eventually, yet by informing him of what I know now, I might forge a closer bond? A bond that I could potentially use to convince him to turn away from what would be his greatest folly. I didn’t know what the right call was, but looking at Arven’s sad face, I was pushed to help his father.

“The problem was, I’ve been beating the me of the tournament for the past six months. Everyone, every trainer in the world is constantly striving to improve, to get better. It’s in the name; we train. And on that path to the infinite summit, to be the best, we’re constantly looking to better ourselves and our teams. So the strategies you had for the Nemona of six months ago…”

“...Were useless against the Nemona of today,” Turo finished for me. He glanced down, lost in thought.

“There’s also little things, like the fact that you constantly had to look at your tablet rather than the battlefield, not having the right instincts, etcetera. It let me do things like use Protect against your Tri-Attack - a regular trainer would have just kept at it and eventually beat through Dun’s shield, but your program saw the move failed and assumed any further move would fail.”

“How inspiring!”

“How insightful!”

My parents exclaimed, and I blushed. It's not that big a deal guys. The next bombshell they dropped felt a bit more pertinent, to me at least.

“With dazzling insights like that, I’m sure you’ll be the center of attention at any party you attend.” Mom said.

“Huh?” I blinked. What are they talking about? Turo meanwhile, was lost in his own world.

“I see. Incomplete data. I can’t just use one trainer’s skills, even against themselves. I need an amalgamation of all the best trainers in Paldea- no, the world.” He turned to suddenly stare at me intensely. “Thank you, this data will help my endeavors immensely.”

To the table, he added “I’m honored to be receiving your hospitality again.”

Billy waved his hand. “Oh, think nothing of it. Generosity comes naturally for the Gliteratti family, and you asked for so little.”

“It may have been little to you, but to me, it was the final piece in my research, one that let me pave the way for my next, greatest project. I will be spearheading a project to explore deep into the Great Crater of Paldea - the largest expedition planned to reach the fabled Area Zero since Heath’s exploration.”

My parents and Cyan ‘oohed’ appreciatively at the idea, but I saw Arven frown. He’s not shocked; his dad must at least have told him this was coming.

“What are you looking into there?” I inquired.

“We - that is the Pokemon League and I - are trying to study further into the phenomenon of Terastalization and the strange crystals that reside in this land. No other nation has as great a concentration of Tera Crystals as us, and there’s no higher density of them than within the Great Crater. My Tera Orbs are being produced in greater numbers every day, and we will soon need more crystals to make them, and a better understanding of Terastalization would not go remiss.”

Reasonable, understandable, and completely false. But I doubted it would be easy enough to get him to admit to trying to build a time machine outright like that. He continued, oblivious to my misgivings. “I won’t bore you with the details, but we’ll be setting up research bunkers with Area Zero that should give us better, consistent access to the location while keeping the staff on hand safe.”

Billy clapped her hands together. “That sounds fascinating. We simply must go there to see what sights it must hold!”

Turo coughed awkwardly. “I understand your enthusiasm, but this is a very restricted mission. The League itself has been very clear that only those vetted can join me on this project. No matter how rich you are,” he added, quickly holding up a hand, which seemed to shock my parents almost to the point of offense.

“Something money… can’t buy?” Billy said as if sounding the words out for the first time and finding them sour on his tongue.

“This sounds like a pretty big, and long, project. I assume you won’t be taking Arven with you then?” I asked, with an unspoken demand ‘Why are you leaving your son alone?’. I wasn't sure that he heard it.

“No, it would be much too dangerous for Arven. I will try and visit my son as often as I can,” he explained off-handedly, still seeming too excited with his experiment for my liking.

“And this is a multi-year project, there will be long breaks throughout it. But this was another reason for us moving here; I was hoping to ask your family to help look after my son while I’m busy.”

That had me leaning back in shock (and almost tipping out of my chair). He definitely didn’t do that in canon. But then why did he move to the lighthouse in the game? Would he have moved there anyway, but just not had any contact with the Gliteratti’s without my interference? What will this mean for Arven?

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to impose, I know this is a big request-” he began before I stopped him.

“Of course, we’ll be willing to help! Uh, right, Mom? Dad?” I asked Billy and O’Nare, realizing I was kinda volunteering their help. My parents smiled brightly, however.

“We’d be glad to look after your son, Professor Turo,” Billy said politely, and I breathed a sigh of relief before turning back to the man in question.

“But in return…” I began, causing the man to stiffen and look me dead in the eyes. “You need to try and be there for your son as much as possible when you can, ok? I’m sure you’ll do important work in Area Zero, but your son is your greatest creation.” Wow, that sounded cheesy, can’t believe I said that.

Turo nodded solemnly. “Of course. Everything I’m doing is for his future.” Then he turned to Arven and said “I love you, son.”

That set loose the waterworks, and Arven started bawling and hugging his dad. Billy and O’Nare smiled at the scene, Cyan was subtly taking a photo, likely for blackmail/photo album purposes, and I was just left wondering if I had done the right thing, or doomed Paldea.

“We’ll be happy to help look after your son. Not this coming month though, we’ll be going back to Unova,” O’Nare said and I dropped the bite of food I’d been carrying to my mouth.

“Wait what?”

“Did we forget to tell you? We’re celebrating a long standing business relationship and going to a party that Clay is hosting. This is going to be so much fun!”