Child of Thorns - A Pokemon Sinnoh Reimagining

Maybe it was the way they had him walk between them as they made their way through Route 208. Maybe it was just the glances they tried to sneak past each other, full of bitterness and anger and distrust. Or maybe it was the constant, tiring, excruciating bickering which made Barry wish he could chop his own ears off.

In any case, he was pretty sure Niss and Metchi had... clashing personalities, to put it mildly. They had only found her fifteen minutes ago and already the atmosphere around them had become tense and awkward, so much so that not even his natural charms could change it. He looked up at the clear sky, one of Mt Coronet's cliffs standing proud at his left, and he saw Steven and Paulette flying high above him, watching the road ahead and playfully soaring in circles around each other. How he wished he could be one of them right now.

"For the last fuckin' time, I don't know anything about this ghost!"

Metchi's voice reached him, harsh and strong . She looked barely less in the process of dying than fifteen minutes ago. The yellow No God pasted on her shirt was still torn from the incident in Eterna City, so that now it read No Coo.

"I was only there for a week and I never saw any of what you're describing," she repeated, her face red from the effort of both walking and talking at the same time. "I never saw a weird girl or an electric ghost, and I sure as shit never got referred to as Big Sis or whatever you imagined you heard back there."

Niss huffed, hands tightly gripping the straps of her backpack. "We nursed you back to health, the least you can do is be honest with us."

"If by nurse me back to health you mean give me a couple cold pancakes, a can of soda and some old bandages." Metchi shook her head. "Forgive me for not singing you praises or throwing petals at your feet."

Niss was about to say something back, but he decided he should interrupt before things got out of hand.

"Niss, I think she's telling the truth." He put a hand between them, doing his best not to be intimidated by their glares. "Maybe someone else was in that house before her. It was pretty old."

Niss wrinkled her nose and grit her teeth, probably trying to find a way to discuss the matter further. But after a few seconds she simply turned away, a sour expression adorning her face.

"Dunno how I can trust the words of someone whose first solution to everything is to blow up whatever's in front of her," she protested, hands in her pockets. "Kind of seems like you were just looking for an excuse."

Metchi scoffed. "Oh, that's fucking rich coming from a trainer brat like you. How about you go f-?"

"Okay! Okay…" Barry put his arm between them, voice shaking. He had to stop them from killing each other somehow. "I know we're all with like… short fuses after what's been happening, but let's try to keep it chill. There's no reason for us to fight; we're all on the same side."

Metchi looked at him for a few moments, lowering her head and nodding slowly. Niss on the other hand looked like she was trying hard to find a way to disagree with his statement. He could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. For a moment he imagined her as Enma and couldn't contain a chuckle he had to disguise as a cough.

The overexcited Monferno was further ahead, helping to clear the road of any wild Pokemon that they could come across. Niss seemed to hope that he would take it easy for once, but there didn't appear to be a chance of that happening. As soon as he got out of his Pokeball he ran ahead to fight anything he could find, to the dismay (and pride, he was sure) of his trainer.

"You say we're on the same side," Niss spoke up once more, "but we don't even know what the sides are. And she's not giving us ample reason to trust her with all this secrecy."

He bit his lip, not knowing how to answer. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't dying to know everything Metchi could tell them about Team Galactic, but he also thought it was extremely rude to harass her for the information while she was weak and injured. Sometimes he wished Niss could have just a little more tact and didn't just insult the woman when she didn't give her what she wanted.

"I can hear you, you know," Metchi replied, a bored look on her face. "I already told you everything you need to know about Team Galactic; they're bad news and you should stay away from them. Leave the fight to those who know what they're doing."

Barry interfered before his friend had a chance to show her impressive knowledge of profanities.

"Now, to be fair…" He tried to make his voice as calm and neutral as possible. "We ran into those Galactic grunts before and we beat them easily."

Niss puffed her chest up. "That's putting it mildly. I wouldn't even remember those losers if they weren't part of Team Galactic."

"Jeez, that hat big enough for you to contain your ego?" he heard Metchi whisper to herself.

Even though her tone was mocking he could see the surprise on her face.

"You shouldn't feel too proud of yourself," she said after a few seconds. "Their power lies in numbers, so it's not surprising one or two of them would lose against a… reasonably talented trainer." She spoke her last words slowly, apparently enjoying the glare full of venom Niss shot her. "They're just children, after all. Barely older than you."

Barry felt something cold crawling up his insides towards his throat. The shadow that set over Niss' eyes told him that she felt the same thing.

"Children?" His voice came out as barely a whisper. "What do you mean?"

"What, you haven't figured it out yet?" Metchi showed him a dry, pained smile. "How do you think they get all their recruits? You can't honestly expect responsible grownups to join a group that dresses like that."

"I'm…" He tried to talk, but it was like something was stuck inside his throat. "That's…"

"They convince young people without purpose in life to follow them. They give them food, money and a roof to sleep under. And more importantly, they give them a sense of purpose." There was a strange sadness to her voice. "The boss has a way with words, I tell you. And kids these day are impossibly naïve and idealistic, so it's pretty easy for him to direct them like Mareep. The only really dangerous folk around there are the com…" She stopped herself suddenly, her eyes opening wide. "Fuck, I wasn't supposed to talk about this! Stop trying to trick me into telling you stuff!"

She turned towards the both of them, maybe expecting Niss to protest or yell at her or anything of the like. Instead she found them a few feet behind her, standing completely still and a clear look of dread pasted on their faces.

"Hey… are you guys okay?" She spoke tentatively, looking around her. "What's with those faces?"

"They're… they were all around our age?" He was scared of the way his voice came out, shaking and almost broken. His body felt cold all of a sudden. "Then back in Eterna…"

Metchi opened her mouth, surely to ask him what was his problem, when realization hit her.

"What happened?" She spoke those words with urgency. "What happened after I teleported out?"

He tried to answer, but the words didn't come to him. He could feel his lower lip trembling.

"The building collapsed," Niss said. "We're the only ones who survived."

In the back of his mind he knew she had intentionally omitted the part where something miraculously saved them from being crushed to death, but that was being drowned by the horrible realization that such miracle had done nothing for the numerous Galactic grunts who were unconscious inside the building at the time.

All color evaporated from Metchi's face, as she stared at them expecting a Just kidding!, but none came. She lowered her gaze towards the ground, her breathing becoming heavier. For an instant, between two of her short blinks, he could almost swear her eyes became golden. A chill went up his spine at the sight of it, but he figured it was just a trick of the light.

"That's…" she said slowly, all strength gone from her voice while she searched for the right word to use. "Unfortunate."

"Is that all you have to say?"

Both of them turned towards Barry, surprised that those words came from him. He would lie if he said he wasn't surprised himself, but the burning knot in his stomach made it hard to reason at the moment.

"A dozen kids died and you think it's just unfortunate?" He could feel the heat imbuing his voice. "They didn't choose to…"

"What? They didn't choose to be there to die?" Metchi spat back at him, and for a second the anger inside him was replaced with fear at the fierceness of her voice. "I'm afraid that's exactly what they did, that's what all of us did. And that's exactly where you two dipshits are headed if you keep digging up all this stuff. You're not heroes like Synn or Nyss, you're just children who are way in over your heads." She blinked furiously, trying to hide the wetness in her eyes. "Just… don't look for them, please. I don't' want your deaths on my shoulders, not on top of everyone else's."

A deep silence fell over them as they avoided each other's eyes. Barry hugged himself, trying to keep the cold away from his body, until he felt something around his arm. He didn't notice Niss getting close, nor her hands closing around him, giving him warmth. Her face was slightly obscured by her black locks, but he could see pain and guilt under them.

"I want to be the Champion." Niss' voice was barely above a whisper. "I want to stand above every other trainer, so that when I look up the only thing I see are the stars. I feel like that's the only way I'll ever be happy."

"That's... something you should probably talk to a therapist about," said Metchi. This time there was no bitterness in her voice, but concern.

"But…" She ignored her words, and kept speaking. "Mars… she humiliated me, she killed my Pokemon and I couldn't do anything about it. I need to make her feel what she made me feel that day, I need to stop… having these nightmares." She looked up, and her eyes met with Metchi's. "I have to take her down. I owe it to Bertha and the rest of my Pokemon. I'll never feel confident in my strength again if I don't."

If he didn't think twice about it he would've thrown his arms around her and hugged her until she had to chase him away with a broom. But he simply looked down, ashamed. So she'd been having nightmares, huh? Of course she did; those heavy bags under her eyes betrayed it clearly as day, and yet he'd been none the wiser about it. He imagined it then; Niss waking up in a cold sweat, tears welling up in her eyes as she realized she's not reliving that horror anymore.

Barry wished the ground would just swallow him. He'd never felt more useless in his life.

"Listen…" Metchi brought a hand to her face, rubbing her eyelids weakly. "That's very… honorable and commendable and all that, but there's something you gotta learn eventually. Dreams die and they die hard, crashing and burning and exploding. And you're gonna crash and burn with them if you don't learn to let them go."

"I'd rather die," was Niss' simple answer.

Metchi shrugged. "You're a lost cause, then. What about you, kid?"

A few seconds passed before he realized she was speaking to him. He opened his mouth, completely dry, and tried his best to give a satisfying answer. The truth was he didn't know. He didn't have Niss' unwavering spirit, he didn't have the desire to be the Champion to the point where he would sacrifice his life for it. He wasn't as strong or as dedicated as her.

He wasn't good enough to be the Champion, not with someone like Niss standing next to him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Niss finally said, arms crossed. "He's not going to give up on it either. We're both trying to be the best."

"We…" He was finally able to get some words out, the warmth of her words untying the icy knot inside his throat. "Yeah, obviously… we gotta compete with each other so we constantly get better."

Niss shot him a satisfied smile, not noticing the wavering tone of his voice. Metchi let out a long sigh and pressed a hand against the back of her neck, looking to him like the most tired person in the world.

"Fine, you wanna throw your lives away? Be my guest." She lowered her shoulders, defeated. "You can each ask me one question and then I'll be gone. We're too close to Hearthome already and I can't risk being seen by anyone."

His eyes opened wide, not believing what he was hearing. Just like that? They could ask literally anything they wanted? He turned towards Niss with a smile on his face, curiosity burning inside him, and opened his mouth to discuss what question they should choose. But the girl had beaten him to the punch and was already talking.

"Mars!" she yelled, a sense of urgency in her voice. "Tell me everything you know about her."

For the first time in his life he felt annoyed at the carelessness of another person. He figured this was karma doing its work against him.

"Of course that's your choice." Metchi muttered under her breath, shaking her head lightly. "Mars is… as far as I know, the youngest commander of the bunch. She's in charge of any operation that involves stealing information or assassination, thanks to her… natural stealth, so to speak."

"Her Ditto can transform her into other people." Niss nodded, hands closed into fists. "That's how she tricked me…"

"That still… doesn't make much sense," he mentioned, trying not to sound like he didn't believe Niss. "I've never heard of a Ditto that could do something like that. All the ones I saw could transform themselves into other Pokemon and that's it."

"Your guess is as good as mine, pal."

Niss narrowed her eyes, "This is really shitty information."

"Look kid, what do you want from me? Do you think Mars went around telling all the grunts how her ability worked? She might be nuts but she's not stupid," she said, a vein of irritation appearing on her temple. "All I know is that whatever happened to her, Charon was responsible for it. He's been doing experiments on Pokemon and people for as long as he's worked for Team Galactic. Other than that, no idea."

Nis crossed her arms, a look of disappointment in her face. He guessed she was expecting a lot more than that for her answer.

"Fine, I'll just have to search for her myself." She sighed, and looked over at him. "Now you go."

He thought it over for only a few seconds, for he knew deep down exactly what he wanted to ask.

"What's your deal?" he said, before he could process his words. "I mean… why did you join Team Galactic? And why did you leave?"

The question caught her by surprise, judging by the way her posture relaxed and by the shadow of a smile that formed over her lips. That's before Niss yelled at him.

"You dumbass! That's what you choose to ask!?" she protested, spitting the words at him. "We could've learnt something useful!"

"I was curious!" he defended himself. "Besides, you did the same thing! If you get to be an idiot then I get to do the same!"

She stomped a foot on the ground, and tried to come up with a rebuttal which never came. He heard Metchi chuckle behind him.

"Well, she's not wrong. That is a stupid question," she said, scratching her cheek absentmindedly. "There's not much I can tell you, unfortunately. I was young and stupid and I had lost too much in a short time. I was practically stranded here in Sinnoh, barely able to speak the language. Team Galactic gave me food, shelter and a purpose. So of course I jumped right in and gave my freedom away for a stupid uniform and a fake name." She bit her lip, eyebrows knit together. "They called me Ursa and assigned me to Saturn's squad. I made good friends back there and I'd be lying if I said I didn't felt like… like I finally belonged. But…"

She swallowed, as if her next words were extremely hard to say. He could see the exhaustion and sadness in her eyes.

"I caught wind of their real plans, which no…" She frowned. "I will not share with you, not that you'd believe me anyway. In any case, I escaped their base and took something very important to them, reason why they blew up an entire bridge just to catch me."

"What did you steal?" he asked, not being able to help himself.

"I said one question." She raised a finger at him, a sly smile on her face. "Sorry, but that's a secret."

"You really like giving non specific answers." Niss narrowed her eyes at her. "It's annoying."

"It sure is," she said. "Well, that's all for now, I really should get going." She looked toward the path in front of them, where the bridge going over the river connected with the final stretch of the road, leading directly to Hearthome. "As I said, I can't stick to the main path anymore. I'll infiltrate the city at night, and I'll try recover my strength before I move again."

"Good riddance," Niss spat back as she turned around towards the road. "Try not to get yourself stabbed again. Let's go, Barry."

"Thanks for your all your help!" He hurried his words, concern growing inside his chest as he was being dragged by his friend forward. "If you need anything we'll be around the city! We'd be happy to help you out again!"

Metchi offered him a warm smile, which eased some of the worry forming a knot inside him. She raised her left hand, the one that wasn't holding her stomach, and waved at him.

"Take care of your friend, and try to stay out of trouble," she yelled, more enthusiastically than he would've expected. "And let's pray we don't have to meet again!"

"Preaching to the choir on that one," he heard Niss whisper. "Come on Barry, I'm hungry, tired and pissed off. Let's try to reach the Pokemon Center before the sun goes down."

They were able to do that, even though he barely noticed the passage of time as they walked, too deep in his own thoughts to pay attention to his surroundings. He was sure Niss was aware of this, along with the strange lack of energy coming from him, but she decided not to call attention to it. He was grateful for that.

The remaining road to Hearthome wasn't long, though they had to stop for a couple minutes one time when Niss accidentally looked inside one of the caves leading to the guts of Mt Coronet. If there was something he'd learned those past weeks was that claustrophobia was no joke.

By the time they finally made it to the entrance of the city the sun was halfway hidden in the horizon, and the light it shone on the buildings standing tall in front of them was almost enough to erase all negative thoughts inside him.

"Wow…" he heard himself whispering, a smile forming on his face.

"No kidding," Niss agreed, eyes glued to the sight in front of her.

Hearthome wasn't nearly as big as Jubilife, but it sure felt like it. The entire city seemed to glow under the weak light of the setting sun, each building and house an architectural work of art on its own right. It was a strange mix of ancient and modern, exuberant colors and lights decorating what seemed to be a town hundreds of years old. The peaks of Mount Coronet cast a heavy shadow over it, giving it a peaceful, resting look. And on the right the forest almost seemed to blend itself with the city, as if it had grown out of it.

Full of life was the only way he could describe the place, which appeared to be an apt way to put it.

"It's a shame it's getting so late," Niss said after a few seconds of admiring her surroundings. "I'd love to walk around and explore."

"There's always tomorrow," he smiled. "Come on, we have to at least see what the Pokemon Center is like."

She nodded, and together they stepped inside the city. He could feel the change of location in an almost physical way, as if he'd just crossed an invisible barrier, but he was too distracted to wonder about it. He could not wait to see the city in person, and whatever the first interesting thing he'd come across would be.

That turned out to be a person. A boy, in fact, that he'd seen before, laying face down on the city entrance's asphalt. He was still wearing his blue and grey shirt and that weird red beret over his now messy hair. The smile disappeared from his face as realization hit him.

"L…Lucas?" Barry asked, eyes opened wide and a look of horror on his face.

"What are you…" Niss turned her head towards the boy, and she almost jumped out of her skin. "Holy shit! Are you okay!?"

"U…ugh…" The boy made a few noises, which didn't exactly put him at ease. "I'm… I'm fine, just… route, too long. I kinda…" He slowly got on his knees, all his clothes stained with dirt and dust. "I kinda… underestimated Mt Coronet…"

He didn't need to finish his sentence for them to understand. Shock disappeared from Niss' face and was replaced with a look of incredulousness. She slapped her forehead with her palm and sighed deeply.

"Today just doesn't want to give me a break, does it," she whispered to herself. "Help me get him up, Barry. Let's get this idiot to a Pokemon Center before he passes out on us."