That's the Spirit! - Chapter 18

[Melemele Island]

“...and that’s when I found a magic puddle, and a big scary snake popped out and dropped Danny in front of me and told me to take care of him, so I got the Professor. And that’s that.”

Zorua yawned. Technically, he was nocturnal. As much as he liked to stay up past his bedtime, he wasn’t really adjusted to staying up all day yet. His story told, he curled up on the wooden deck and tried to get a quick nap in before whatever was happening today got started.

He’d have thought that Rick and Robin would be understanding of that, as a ghost and an owl respectively, but Robin was apparently used to daylight, and Zorua wasn’t sure Rick slept at all in the first place.

“You can’t just leave it at that!” Robin insisted, flapping a wing into Zorua’s nose. “Laser beams and walking through walls are one thing, but Danny came from another world?!”

After the thing with the mirror and the too-shiny Corsola, Danny realized he hadn’t actually explained anything to his Pokémon, and so he told them and Burnet everything he could remember about how he got to Alola. It was much-needed context for Burnet, and came as a shock to the other two.

Zorua didn’t care. “Does it make a difference?” he asked lazily.

Robin huffed, clacking her beak in agitation. “I would have liked to know I was getting involved in that level of nonsense.”

“It makes sense to me,” Rick said seriously. “Danny… feels weird.” The ghost looked to the sky, thinking. “Familiar, but not.”

Zorua closed his eyes.

Robin hooted angrily. “Don’t go to sleep, I still have questions!”

“I’ve already told you everything I know,” Zorua said, annoyed. He opened one eye to glower at her. “Here’s a question from me: does this make a difference?”

Robin met his glare with one of her own. “...”

“Then what’s the problem?” The fox shifted, flopping over to get more of his body in the sunlight. “Danny is Danny, and Danny is cool.”

Rick grinned. “You have no idea…”

Robin folded her wings and looked away. “Fine, fine, I’ll get over it. But I hope that’s the end of the weirdness.”

“If you didn’t want weird, you shouldn’t have gone with the kid with superpowers,” Rick teased, sticking his tongue out.

Robin grumbled. After a moment, she quirked her brow at the Gastly. “What do you mean he feels weird?”

Rick’s face went through a series of expressions, settling on uncertain. “I don’t know. He’s just weird.”

“Very informative.”

Zorua tuned them out as they continued to talk. Well, bicker. Whatever.

Truth be told, Zorua didn’t think it mattered where Danny came from. What mattered was that he was here, with them, and Zorua liked him. He was funny, gave good scritches, and liked to share food. Everything else was just extra.

The door to the lab opened, cutting the arguing pair off. Danny stepped out and took a deep breath of sea air.

“Ahhh… Hey, guys. Burnet said she’s done with me for now, so how about we get some training in?”

Zorua whined, sitting up.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun.” Danny grinned and held up a rubber ball. “I think we should do dodge training today, the old fashioned way: dodgeball.”

Rick’s expression flattened. “Do we get to throw them back at you?”

Danny chuckled, tossing the ball from hand to hand. “Yeah, feel free to throw it back. I get the feeling I’m gonna need to learn to dodge too, if things keep going like they have been.”

Another thing Zorua liked about Danny: he seemed to have a knack for picking up what they were saying, even if he didn’t understand the words. Rick was older than the rest of them by a lot, and he said some trainers could understand their partners, but it usually took a much longer time than Danny was taking. Zorua took it as a sign that Danny was just a really good trainer… though he supposed it could just be another weird power.

“Let’s go!” Danny ran out onto the beach, Rick following behind. Zorua padded out at a more sedate pace, still feeling sluggish. Stupid owl, keeping him from catching a nap…

Zorua blinked, looked behind to see Robin perched on the porch railing, not making a move to the beach. She looked a little sheepish.

“You go on, I’ll catch up,” Robin said, waving a wing. “Three on one won’t be fair to Danny, will it?”

The fox’s eyes narrowed, but ultimately he decided that if Robin didn’t want to train, it was on her.

A ways off, a rubbery PING bounced off of Rick’s forehead, judging by the surprised yelp, and Zorua didn’t waste any more time--he didn’t want to miss that a second time!

-----------------------------------

Burnet set her tools aside and examined her work so far.

Once the shock had worn off, she felt a familiar excitement building within. Truly she must be the luckiest girl in Alola, because once again she had a chance to pave the way to an entire new dimension, with maybe more beyond.

Three years ago, she and her old college friend Dr. Fennel worked together to peer into the Interdream Zone, a space between the waking and the sleeping, and even launched a probe in the Dream World, though actually entering it while awake seemed impossible for humans. That had been Fennel’s discovery, though, and Burnet had come onto the project later to help develop the traversal technology.

Next was her current project, with the Ultra Wormholes, where the Aether Foundation had hired her to study the spatial phenomenon. The infrequency and randomness of the phenomenon made research slow going, as she’d yet to witness a Wormhole firsthand, but she’d gotten interesting readings on Ula’ula and believed that with more time and effort, they would eventually be able to track a Wormhole before it opened.

This, though… She was being given an opportunity to study the Distortion World. No one had ever been able to do that before. Spear Pillar was restricted to only the Champion of Sinnoh and whoever she deemed worthy of visiting, and Cynthia guarded her personal archeological playground jealously. As for Turnback Cave… most people weren’t even allowed to know that place existed, let alone go inside to study it. Burnet only knew because her boyfriend knew someone who knew Cynthia.

If Burnet could open a path to the Distortion, she would be famous beyond her wildest dreams. She’d receive more grants than she’d know what to do with, and maybe the publicity would get Alola enough attention by proxy that Kukui would be able to accelerate his plans for a League! And then there was this ‘Ghost Zone’ Danny mentioned, and most amazing of all, an entirely separate dimension with native humans!

Burnet giggled to herself, visions of scientific endeavor and new worlds unknown dancing in front of her eyes, when a concerned hoot broke her out of her reverie.

“Oh, hello Rowlet,” Burnet said. “Robin, sorry.”

The owl lighted on the back of another chair around the table. “Rowl.”

“You’re not training with Danny? Is something wrong?”

Robin shook her head. She pointed a wing at the table, and Burnet grinned.

“This is how I’m going to help Danny get home,” Burnet said happily, picking up the altered hand mirror. It was the one Danny used when washing the shiny Corsola, and had come from Burnet’s vanity. It was simple, gray and unornamented, and now it had bits of faintly humming metal attached to it. “The next time one of Danny’s watchers looks in on him, these gadgets will record the energy output from the interaction for later study. If we can identify the energy used to maintain the aperture, we can theoretically replicate it--” She cut herself off with a grin. “But I’m getting ahead of myself.”

Robin’s eyes were slightly glazed, so Burnet stopped talking. The owl nodded seriously, then looked around. “Hoo?”

“Kukui’s downstairs,” Burnet explained, guessing at her question. As she continued she went back to working on the mirror. I really should give this a proper name… “We’ve sent a request to Professor Rowan of Sinnoh for any information he has on Giratina and the Distortion World. In the meantime, he’s looking through our own library for anything useful.” She frowned in thought. “...I don’t think we have anything on Sinnoh legends, but maybe some of the literature on Ultra Wormholes will be useful.”

“Let, rrrowl.” Robin stared at the mirror with a suspicious look.

“I’m not sure what to make of this ‘Ghost Zone’ Danny mentioned,” Burnet mused. “We have some pictures of the Distortion, but as far as anyone knows it’s not actually an afterlife. I doubt the Ghost Zone is either, for that matter, but even the possibility that it might be, is…” She paused, considering what to say. She settled on, “...concerning.”

Ghosts were nothing to be afraid of, of course. 99 times out of 100 it was a Ghost-type Pokémon playing pranks, anyway, but still. Burnet wasn’t superstitious, but she’d been in Alola long enough to have absorbed much of the culture, and the islanders had opinions on spirits. There was a reason they had a god whose job was to gather them up. Two, according to some texts.

Something exploded outside, and Burnet looked up. “What was that?”

Robin groaned, rubbing her beak. She stuck her tongue out, reluctantly.

Burnet blinked. “...The Gastly? Can they learn an explosion move?”

Rowlet made a gesture Burnet couldn’t interpret, though she could guess. She stood up and walked to the window.

Danny was yelling at Rick, who was laughing and rolling… a cartoon bomb around on his tongue. The ghost swallowed it and readied himself as Danny threw the dodge ball. It went low, and Zorua barely avoided it in time, and Rick caught it after it bounced.

Burnet hummed. “...Three doesn’t make for a good dodgeball game.” She smirked. “I should send Incineroar and Lucario out there to make things more interesting, eh Robin?”

Robin didn’t answer.

The Gastly batted the ball with his tongue, and Danny caught it. Judging by his expression, he wished he hadn’t, and Burnet chuckled. “You should come see this. Who knows, maybe you’ll decide to join them after all.”

“Rowlllll…”

Danny suddenly doubled over, coughing, and Burnet straightened. “Wh--is something wrong?”

“Rowlet!”

Burnet grimaced. “Robin, Danny’s having trouble with--” She stopped, because something was beeping.

She’d put a small alarm on the mirror to signal when the scanner was working.

Burnet turned, eyes wide. The hand mirror was shimmering, glowing, and the device blinked as it made its recordings. “Well! I wasn’t expecting something so quickly.

Robin hopped up and down, panicking. “Rowl, rowl!”

Burnet looked over her shoulder. Danny was standing straight now and coming this way, so he was probably fine. So she turned her attention solely to the mirror, picking it up to see what was on the other side of the reflection.

The light inside the distortion was silvery, and the surface rippled like a disturbed pool. She peered closer, trying to see inside.

Then the light turned green, and Burnet screamed as a hand the size of her head reached out of a space too small for it to fit.

She held the mirror out at arms lengths, but the green, glowing hand extended and brushed against her nose.

She stifled a scream; it felt gross, like seaweed washed up on the shore and unexpectedly cool to the touch. The hand tried to grab her, and reflexes kicked in. She threw the mirror away from herself.

Burnet felt like kicking herself before it even hit the ground, after all the work she’d already done, but the mirror didn’t break. It was the hand that landed on the ground.

“Ow!”

The voice was distorted, and sounded more surprised than hurt. The mirror settled onto its back, facing up, and Burnet’s eyes widened as the shimmer expanded to let the ghost--because that’s the only thing it could have been--crawl out.

The lights overhead flickered and the colors washed out of the world to leave everything dim and grungy. The ghost pulled himself up, breathing heavily through his old-fashioned diving helmet. A tangled fishing net rose off his back and shoulder like it was drifting in water, and a sickly yellow glow emanated from the helmet’s viewport.

The ghost stood on shaky legs, hunched. Slowly, it looked up at her. Its eyes were invisible but she could still feel its gaze on her.

It started laughing.

“Ha… haha. Hahahahahaha!! I made it! I’m here! Finally, I walk among the living once more!” He raised his right arm, and a wicked harpoon-hook hand gleamed in the eerie gloom. His viewport contorted like an eye, looking at her smugly. “I suppose I have you to thank? Or maybe not. It doesn’t matter.”

Burnet’s mouth flapped noiselessly. She hadn’t expected anything like this. She’d worked with Ghost-types before, and they’d never had this kind of aura about them.

Kukui ran up the stairs with a clatter. “What’s going on up--hah?!”

The ghost pointed its harpoon towards him. “Another one! And unreasonably tan, too! We must be near the ocean! I can feel her calling!”

The diver turned towards the east, staring through the wall of the lab.

“I will destroy the sea!”

“What?!” Kukui blurted, baffled. “Why?”

“Because I need to octopi my time!”

Burnet blinked. She and Kukui exchanged a look from across the room. “What.”

“Rowl!” Robin suddenly darted forward, flashing into the ghost’s face.

“Gah! An owl?! That doesn’t have to do with the ocean!” the ghost complained, trying to swat her away.

Robin used Astonish, and the ghost flinched. The light went out behind his visor and he flailed blindly. Robin lost a feather to his swinging hook and trilled in alarm.

The door to the lab slammed open. Danny and Rick ran inside, Zorua on his shoulder. “What’s going--on?”

Rebreather opened his eye and stared at Danny. “...What in cod’s name are you?”

Danny gasped, and a wisp of blue air came out. He pointed. “Ghost!”

“That’s right!” The diver struck a pose. “I am Rebreather! Savior of the deep!”

Robin cooed in confusion.

Kukui raised a hand. “I thought you said--”

Rebreather suddenly stabbed out at Robin, and the Rowlet barely avoided it. The follow-up punch surprised her, and sent her sailing right into Danny’s chest.

“Hey!” Kukui’s face hardened. Abandoning confusion for anger, he pulled a ball off his belt. “Empoleon! Teach this guy some manners!”

The penguin appeared, and suddenly the cabin felt a lot more cramped with all these people and Pokémon and other inside it. Rebreather seemed thrown by Empoleon’s presence. Empoleoon was visibly startled as well, but to its credit it didn’t waste time on confusion and launched a powerful Hydro Pump.

(Inwardly, Burnet bemoaned the fate of their rug.)

The ghost made no move to avoid the attack, and the water stream splashed across him with all the force of an industrial firehose. Streams of the attack running off him knocked things off the kitchen counter behind the ghost, and knocked a stool off its feet.

Rebreather was utterly unaffected. “FOOLS! You think you can use the water against me?! My turn!”

He pointed his hook at Kukui’s Empoleon, and it retracted back into his arm. A blast of luminous water surged forth from the hole. Empoleon brought its wings up to block.

The attack missed entirely, not having been aimed at him in the first place. Rebreather’s attack tore a massive hole in the wall; Empoleon looked at the damage with wide eyes, swallowing harshly.

The amateur widow installation gave them a lovely view of the ocean.

“HahaHA!” Rebreather paid them no further mind. He lifted off the ground and flew straight for the hole. Empoleon moved to block him, but the ghost went through him as though he wasn’t there, making the penguin shudder.

The ghost zoomed across the beach and dove directly into the surf. The sea didn’t even ripple.

Silence fell over the lab as everyone tried to process what just happened.

“...What the heck,” Danny finally settled on.

“That’s probably not good,” Kukui agreed. “Burnet, what happened?”

She gestured vaguely at the mirror on the ground, metal bits blinking to signal the data ready for receiving. Words weren’t coming to her at the moment.

They looked back out the hole. Kukui sighed. “I just paid to have the one wall fixed, and now this?”

Something in the distance exploded.

“We should probably do something about that,” Danny said, slightly dazed.

Nobody moved for a few seconds. Then, they all moved very quickly.