A Bright Night

“For the longest time, centuries passing centuries, the people of this world have found solace in the beauties of this world. For however many catastrophes have plagued it in the times gone by, it has remained a world at peace, free of suffering.”

“But that would all change with the Great Uprising, when the last legend breathed her last. Without a leader to follow, the lands became wrought with suffering, and countless Pokémon became lost.”

 

“They say, seeing this turmoil, the merciful Necrozma spoke to one Pokémon, and blessed him with inspiration. ‘Follow the stars, and the way will be clear,’ the First Enlightened was told, and so began an age of innovation and prosperity. Looking to the sparkling night skies, our ancestors founded a city in which all Pokémon could live as equals under the midnight heavens. They would call it Galakse, City of the Stars.”

 

Obstagoon Gris paused as he looked up at the young Galarian Zigzagoon sitting on the floor before him. The lamp beside them cast a warm glow over the room, illuminating his old face.

 

“You still listenin’, scamp?”

 

“Yes, papa!” Sable answered cheerily, flashing an innocent grin. “Your voice sounds funny when you talk like that, haha!”

 

Gris smiled. “I can still do the fancy voice, eh?”

 

Gris closed the book in his lap, placing it on the floor beside his old, wooden chair. He had to push aside a few items to make space for it, including a small safety helmet, and he grunted as he stood up. “Alright, enough chit-chat, lemme just show ya. It’s good to see this sorta thing, you know.”

 

He scooped up Sable in one hand, picking up the lamp with the other. The pair made their way out of their small, circular house, leaving the room in the dark. As Gris stepped out the front door, closing it behind him with his foot, a breeze swept by them, blowing crisp air into Sable’s face. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the dim environment, and he saw around him that all of his neighbors were outside of their homes.

 

Up and down the street, Pokémon of every imaginable variety were gathered. The lights of the streetlamps and the windows of people’s living rooms shined onto the outside pavement. Even as the sun fell beneath the horizon, there was not a single shadow to be found anywhere. And, as Sable looked up, he could see the great city above. Galakse. Sleek skyscrapers rose high into the atmosphere, almost as though trying to touch the heavens they were built to worship. Together, they were a shining beacon in the evening dusk.

 

Sable wriggled out of his father’s grasp and scrambled up his arm, eventually coming to perch on his shoulder. Gris chuckled, adjusting his stance so that Sable could stand better.

 

“You see ‘em, Sable?”

 

The young Zigzagoon looked up, squinting his eyes. “No, papa. Where are they?”

 

“Give ‘em a bit, kiddo. They’re comin’.”

 

Sable stared at the sky, watching it slowly fade from blue to black as the sun finally disappeared completely from view. “I don’t–oh!”

 

Though it was hard to see, there were small pinpricks of light all along the black canopy above them. They twinkled with all their might, blanketing the dark canvas above with an array of sparkles. With every passing moment, their brilliance grew brighter and brighter, adding new details to the painting above. A hazy mist streaked across the sky, a small sparkle as a comet flashed by.

 

“You see that one?” Gris said, pointing a finger to one spot of the sky to Sable’s right, where a clump of stars were arranged in a square fashion. “That’s Clefairy, the Angel.”

 

“I see it! Oh, oh, and that one’s Glastrier of the Winter!” Sable exclaimed excitedly, hopping up and down on Gris’ shoulder as he pointed a paw towards the left hemisphere, where a rectangle pattern could be seen just barely above the horizon-line.

 

“Sure is. And if you look straight up–” both him and Sable craned their necks to see a massive net of stars above, “–you can see the biggest constellation of all. Necrozma, the dragon of light.”

 

After letting Sable ogle a bit longer, Gris moved. From beside their house’s door, he retrieved a small paper ball. With delicate claws, he opened up a hatch at the top of the lamp and poured a little bit of what looked like liquid fire into the paper ball, making it glow from within. Around them, all of their neighbors began to do the same, and soon they all stood with glowing spheres in their hands.

 

“You wanna do the honors?” Gris asked Sable, grinning. He held the ball up to Sable on his shoulder, the small Zigzagoon grabbing it with his front paws and nearly stumbling off the Obstagoon’s shoulders. As everyone else began to raise their paper lamps into the sky, Sable did the same, letting it float up into the sky into the air. Around them, countless specks of light rose up, like a great army of fireflies taking flight. They flew higher and higher into the sky, merging with the stars and peppering the black of space with spots of warm yellow for as far as Sable could see.

 

“Listen, son.” Gris spoke with a gentle tone. “Life’ll get’cha down for sure. You gotta bounce back, that’s the key. Necrozma is watchin’ over us, and he’s sure to guide us in the right way.”

 

In that moment, sitting on his father’s shoulder with the gods of the cosmos watching over him, he couldn’t have been happier.

 

---

 

The door creaked open as a lone Galarian Linoone tramped into the bar. The walls were deteriorated, only a few dim bulbs barely managing to light up even half of the room, leaving the rest shrouded in a shadow that the Linoone perfectly blended into.

 

Nobody paid Sable any mind as he walked up to the bartender, a slim Inteleon who was using her index finger to wash glasses and mugs with pressurized blasts of water.

 

“One Passho Berry,” the Linoone grumbled. “Make it hard.”

 

“You’ve got it.” Using her tail, the Inteleon grabbed a cup and a shaker, getting to work brewing the drink. Sable sighed and leaned on the countertop with his front paws, watching the Inteleon’s dextrous hands as she mixed and blended different colored liquids together. However, while his eyes watched his drink, his ears perked up at the sound of a conversation at the table just behind him, and he let his mind wander as he listened in.

 

“-Ridiculous, I’m telling you!” the speaker slammed down on the table. “All this money and they keep spending it on their damned scientists, but all they do with the funding is make fancy new light bulbs! Every single year!”

 

His companion grunted in agreement. A pause, as though the ranter was taking a deep gulp. Another slam on the table. “Couldn’t be bothered to care about the REST of us, could they? City’s already blinding to look at, could make a ghost type blind!”

 

“Aye,” the other Pokémon affirmed. “But I don’t see if there’s any other choice. It’s not like-”

 

“Here’s your drink, sir.”

 

Sable startled a little. The Inteleon was standing before him with a glass of blue-colored liquid in her outstretched hand.

 

“S-sorry.” He took the drink with a paw and sipped on it, trying to refocus on the conversation behind him, but it seemed as though the pair had lost interest in the topic. He shrugged internally and resigned himself to drinking silently.

 

The Inteleon had other ideas. She frowned, crossing her arms. “Are you alright? You seem lost.”

 

“It’s nothing.”

 

“I can’t say I’ve seen you around my place too often. Did you come here today just for the drink?”

 

“Yes. Been saving up for this one for a few days now.”

 

“My prices are hardly unmanageable. Where do you work?”

 

“The mines.”

 

“Ah. That’s a rather grueling profession, is it not?”

 

“I don’t dig. I run delivery errands. Sometimes messenger duty. Usually stay near the entrance, or in the main tunnels so I can run things to the foreman.”

 

“That’s not much better, the air quality can’t be good anywhere near the place. Plus, you still can’t see the stars.”

 

“Could be worse. Besides, haven’t been able to see the stars for years. Doesn’t make a damn difference.” He huffed bitterly, staring at the glass in his claws.

 

“I suppose,” she said hesitantly.

 

Sable took another sip of his drink. “Good jobs are hard to come by these days. Everything is competitive. Especially the cushy upper jobs working in the big city.”

 

“It’s for a good purpose, is it not? To properly pay our respects to the great Lord of the Light is of the utmost importance. What better way than through the gifts of light the engineers bring us so often?”

 

Sable said nothing in response, instead sipping his glass. The bartender, seeing that he was not in a talking mood, said nothing and moved away to return to cleaning silverware. And so Sable continued to drink, alone.

 

“Appalling, isn’t it?”

 

The raspy, high-pitched voice came from his left. Out of his peripheral vision, Sable could see a large Mandibuzz perched two chairs to his left. Her eyes were obscured by the shadows of the dim room, but he could feel them piercing him as she stared eerily at him. He glanced left and right, but there was nobody else.

 

“Yes, I’m talking to you.” Sable raised an eyebrow at this.

 

“What do you want?” he asked, glaring at her.

 

“Oh, only a conversation. Is that so much to ask?” she drawled, raising an eyebrow and smiling, though it only served to put him on edge even further.

 

Sable said nothing, continuing to glower at her before finally turning back to his drink. He swirled his cup around. It was halfway empty.

 

“I couldn’t help but overhear that you work in the mines? It must be so terrible there. Wasting away, without even a light to guide your path.”

 

“I’m lucky. I don’t have to go that far in.”

 

“Oh, but even the entrance is covered in darkness, no? To be unable to see the sun shine, and then to come out to a starless, gloomy night. It must be exhausting.”

 

“I guess. I just deal with it.”

 

“And you do so quite well. But I’m sure you, like those gentlemen behind us, would like something better. To be a part of something greater.”

 

“No.”

 

“No? Are you saying you enjoy the darkness?”

 

“I–No, that’s not what I meant.”

 

“Necrozma has not given us a glimpse of his light for so long. We deserve better.”

 

“Lady, I’m not joining your weird cult.”

 

“So you know who I am?”

 

“No, but I’ve seen your kind around these parts. Rallying people, telling them the stars have abandoned us–”

 

“They have, have they not? When was the last time you can definitely say that you’ve seen a sparkle in the sky that wasn’t from one of the city’s ever-increasing supply of lights?”

 

“…Seven years.”

 

“Seven years?” she exclaimed, a wing over her beak with a mockingly shocked expression on her face. “Goodness!”

 

“You live here like I do. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

 

“Of course I know, why else would I have asked?” The corner of her beak twitched upwards in a subtle smirk. “The facts are bare on the table. The gods have abandoned us, and yet the people of this city still foolishly follow their stupid gods, putting up more and more lights to ‘celebrate’ them while leaving the common Pokémon to suffer in darkness.”

 

She switched seats, perching right next to Sable. She leaned over him, and he could smell her foul breath. “Don’t you wish you could make a change? Show them who they should really care about?”

 

“…”

 

She smirked, pulling away. “I will be waiting at the edge of the city, at the corner of Ampharos-Tail Street and the central western road. I expect to see you there.”

 

With one last flourish, she flapped her wings, lifting up and flying out of the bar, leaving only a black feather on the chair next to Sable. He glanced at it for a long second, before using his tail to brush it to the ground. He stared into his empty cup, barely seeing his hazy, dark reflection at the bottom of the glass.

 

---

 

Sable glanced around the corner. Down the hall, standing by a pair of large, gold-plated double doors, were two guards. A Monferno and a Throh. Sable gritted his teeth and leaned against the wall, the only sounds keeping him company in the smooth, windowless corridor being his breath and the dull flickering of the ceiling lamps above, which basked the hall in a sterile white glow.

 

You want me to do what now?

 

I want you to infiltrate the central generator room of the main tower. Is that such a hard task?

 

Y-YES! Yes it is! Listen lady, I’ve been fine handing out flyers and stuff, why do you want me to do this? You wanna kill me, is that it?

 

Of course not~

 

Sable took a deep breath, adjusting the strap of the bag hung over his shoulder. He raised his right paw, shaking it a little. He felt sand gather in it, summoned with his energy, ready to be thrown. He would have to be quick and precise.

 

You are the best ‘mon for the job. We want to make a statement! Send a message to the entire city!

 

Their foolish gods have abandoned us for too long! We will no longer suffer in the decrepit slums of a city that has lost its former glamor and shine. We will show those idiots up on high that putting up more lights won’t lure their nonexistent gods back!

 

What the hell are you talking about?

 

We’re going to blow up the central generator and blackout the entire city!

 

Sable took yet another shuddering breath and peeked around the corner to aim. After a second, he whipped out his arm, flinging the Sand Attack across the hall. He quickly darted back around the wall, closing his eyes and praying that it worked.

 

A second later, his hopes were answered. He heard both of the guards grunt.

“What the-”

 

“Ugh, something’s in my eye, I can’t see. Hold on, gimme a sec…”

 

Knowing this was his only chance, Sable burst from around the corner and made a mad dash for the doors, the bag wrapped around his shoulder trailing behind him. He could see that both of the guards were busy rubbing the sand from their eyes with the backs of their hands, but that wouldn’t last long. He reached the door, silently but hastily pushing it open, before quickly slipping inside and shutting it behind him. He paused for a second, listening to hear if they had noticed someone slip by them. Nothing. Perfect.

 

You’re crazy. You’re actually crazy. What the hell, lady, why would you want me to do that?

 

To make them see what kind of darkness we’ve been living in, of course, why else? Do you not want to see them suffer for it, to know what it is like to be one of us? Do you not want them to see how stupid they have been for thinking they could bring back their gods with petty offerings and more lights that they don’t even offer to us?

 

I… Yes, I’m frustrated. But a city-wide blackout? Do you not realize the implications? How bad it’ll be? Everything in the city runs on that generator, if it goes out it won’t just be the lights! All the applications will be offline, all the streets will go dark… Even the ones in the outer city! That’ll hurt us more than it’ll ever help us!

 

Oh nobody does anything at night anyways these days. It’ll give people a real shock, but it won’t hurt anybody. And even if it does, who cares? They deserve it.

 

There are innocent people in that city! They did nothing wrong!

 

They chose to follow their stupid gods. They may be innocent, but they are also ignorant and idiotic, and should be punished for their mistakes.

 

The tunnel he was now in was much dimmer than the one outside. Small lights interspersed every few feet along the walls paved a path down the dark hallway, guiding Sable deeper into the building. His claws made a sharp clicking sound as he walked along at a brisk pace.

 

Soon enough, a pair of sealed, steel-plated doors came into view. Sable simply stood there, staring at them. He wondered how he had gotten so far, and whether he wanted to go any farther. There was plenty of time to do so; he would not be able to get past them just yet.

 

I won’t follow you. You can find someone else for this job, I’m out-

 

You cannot leave now. You have been with us long enough to know the pain we go through. You have been to the city enough times on your errands to know how much the council has wasted on their light projects, and how much many more privileges the people living in the city have. We. Deserve. Better.

 

That doesn’t mean-

 

No other Pokémon in our group is as well-equipped to handle this job as well as you. You are among the fastest, most agile, and have great experience in running along narrow corridors, as you have done in the mines.

 

But most importantly, you know what it is like to be one of us. Many of the others have only been here for a short while. They know our pain now, but they were not molded by it. You are the best choice.

 

Because at the end of the day, you and I both know that you want this the most out of all of us.

 

“Any moment now. Let’s see if that Beeheeyem’s hacking skills are as good as they say they are…”

 

And exactly a minute later, the steel doors hissed as they creaked open, revealing a black void just beyond. They came to a stop, leaving an unsure Sable to just stand there, clutching at his bag with a trembling paw. He could turn back. Explain to the guards what he’d been doing here. Maybe they’d relent on his crime sentence.

 

Who was he kidding, they wouldn’t care. They never did, and they never will. They were from the city, they didn’t understand his hardships! Years at an unsatisfactory mine, working for a foreman who didn’t care, mindlessly running back and forth to deliver papers and announce orders for projects that ultimately helped nobody.

 

He took the first step past the event horizon. There was no turning back now.

 

Immediately upon doing so, a bright flash blinded him. All around him, a series of lights embedded in the wall began to light up in an upwards spiraling pattern, illuminating more and more of the cylindrical room until, finally, the entire place was brighter than the sun. The ceiling towered over Sable, the walls made of a strangely reflective material that shone rays of light into his eyes from multiple angles, nearly blinding him. He stood on a large steel walkway that circled the perimeter of the room, with a handful of small operating machines placed at the four cardinal directions.

 

But for how dazzling the rest of the room was, Sable couldn’t take his eyes off the centerpiece of it all: a massive steel behemoth that sat at the center of the room, a tangle of pipes, wires, gauges, and metal boxes that most definitely concealed even more complicated machinery within. It emitted a constant, deep humming sound that unsettled Sable.

 

He raised the bag strap over his head, using a claw to poke open the securing flap. Inside was a pile of small, rounded seeds, each with a red mark atop its shell.

 

Blast seeds?

 

That’s right. Put them around the generator, then detonate them. They should do the job.  

 

Sable took one out, fingering it between two of his claws. It was so small, yet it could pack so much punch…

 

One by one, he methodically placed them around the generator. Eventually, he looped back around to in front of the only entrance to the room, a single seed left sitting in his paw. He threw the bag onto the balcony with the ring of explosives, then walked back out into the hallway. After walking a distance down the hall, he turned, facing the room.

Did he really have to do this? He closed his eyes. Thought on his choices.

 

Listen, son. Life’ll get’cha down for sure. You gotta bounce back, that’s the key. Necrozma is watchin’ over us, and he’s sure to guide us in the right way.

 

Sable’s eyes began to water, his breath growing shaky. “Sorry, papa,” he whispered. And with that final word, he whipped his arm around and hurled the seed at the opened door, into the bright room.

 

The light hit his eyes before the sound. Nearly blinded, he wasn’t ready for the thundering roar that came a instant later, rending metal screeching and scraping even after the initial explosion rocked his ears. A series of successive blasts followed, all just as powerful as the first. A fire billowed out from the entrance to the room, a bright fireball that blew down the hallways, almost reaching where he stood. The shockwave alone knocked Sable onto his back. He laid there, stunned and shocked at the sheer magnitude of the blast, feeling the heatwave lick at his face and lightly singe his already-dark fur, even though he was at a safe distance.

 

“What was that?!”

 

His head shot up, still dizzy and eyes blurry. The guards. He scrambled for his feet, bolting down the hall, his mind racing wildly and his heart pumping out of his chest.

 

The Throh and Monferno that had been guarding the door were now rushing down the hall, eyes focused on him and faces filled with a mixture of disbelief and anger. “Hey, stop!”

 

Mustering power in his hindlegs, Sable leaped straight over them, body twisting in midair to avoid their grasping hands. He landed hard on his front paws and immediately continued his dash, shoving past the double doors from before with the two guards hot on his heels.

 

He rounded the corner and continued to charge down the corridor, making a series of twists and turns to try and lose the guards. When he looked back, the Throh was gone, but the Monferno was still close behind him. Losing him would be hard.

 

It didn’t help that a second later, the path before him was blocked by a pair of Mankey. He made a sharp turn to his left, only to find two of the intersection paths blocked by more guards rushing towards him.

 

It was becoming harder and harder to evade them as the pursuing mob behind him grew larger. Some of the faster mons were almost able to grasp at him, but he would twist out of their reach each time. Even then, there were fewer and fewer paths left to run down as the tight, twisting labyrinth shrank.

 

As he charged down the last corridor, he noticed a sign that indicated stairs up ahead. Taking the opportunity, he burst through the door to the stairwell. But to his dismay, it only went up, away from the building’s exit.

 

He couldn’t stop, the mob was right behind him. With a heavy breath and fatiguing muscles, he began to scale the building he was in, climbing higher and higher and higher. Just when it seemed like he couldn’t get any further, the stairs ended, with only a single door to pass through.

 

When he kicked it open, a familiar fresh, cool gust of air greeted him. Blinding rays assailed his eyes, which had, up until that point, been adjusted to dimmer settings. As his pupils contracted, he saw giant buildings all around him, each with square windows that were filled with light. It was like glaring into the noontime sun. He’d made it onto the roof, and was staring at the heart of the city of light.

 

He quickly turned and slammed the door he had come from, locking it before using Night Slash to destroy the lock mechanism. It might stall his pursuers while he looked for a way to escape.

 

But he would soon only find dismay as he realized there was no way off of this rooftop. He glanced around the edges, but there was only a steep drop into the streets of the blinding city below.

 

Just as he was at the verge of breaking down and giving up, it happened. A high-pitched scratching sound met his ears, and when he glanced up, he saw the nearby buildings, bright and radiant like the rest of the city at night, suddenly turned obsidian black, not a trace of light to be seen. Like a ripple effect, blocks upon blocks of buildings all grew dark as power was lost to the city, shrouding every avenue in darkness. Soon, the last vestiges of light on the outer ring of the city were snuffed out, and Sable’s eyes once again had to readjust to the expansive darkness that Galakse had been shrouded in.

 

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered in disbelief, eyes wide and hands trembling. “It worked. It really worked.”

 

He was elated, his heart pounding even as loud banging sounds could be heard from behind the door a short distance behind him. The plan had succeeded. He could hardly move, his mind frozen with the realization of what he had just accomplished.

 

But then the screams began. At first it was one, but soon it became many. A cacophony of voices all calling out in terror at this pitch-black night that had befallen them.

 

Sable was broken out of his stupor. He stumbled backwards, as the sound of a thousand screams assailed his ears. The sounds grew louder and louder as the panic became increasingly tangible, Pokémon all around the city swarming onto the streets in disbelief and fear as the realization that Sable had come across became clear to their terrified minds.

 

Sable covered his ears with his paws, he couldn’t stand to hear the voices. The fear, the agony, the panic, the disbelief, the chaos, the chaos, the CHAOS, it hurt his head, it hurt his heart, it was him who caused everyone this pain, the pain he once felt, now shared, now torturing everyone, WHAT HAD HE DONE-

 

And then they stopped. One by one, each and every voice calmed and quieted. He uncovered his ears, and stood up from the floor he hadn’t realized he’d been lying on. Walking to the edge of the roof, he looked down on the darkened city, squinting to figure out what had shut everyone up. Small black shapes wriggled about on the streets, a massive crowd all gathered to look at something… Something above them…

 

Sable’s head turned with the rest as he looked up. He had expected to see the same sky as the one he’d gazed depressingly at for the past several years. But when he looked at it hard enough, he realized something.

 

Something was shining, there in the sky.

 

Directly above him, a pinprick in the black dome, shone a single star. It was the one his father had pointed out to him so many years ago, the one that formed the headpiece to the constellation that he had called Necrozma.

 

As he gazed at it, a strangely warm sensation filling his heart, he began to notice other twinkling sparks in his peripheral vision. Other stars. Other celestial bodies, gleaming with all the light they could muster. They filled his vision, dots spread across an inky black canvas that had gone unpainted for so long. Constellations appeared from behind retreating clouds, a familiar milky streak across the middle.

 

The sound of the door to the roof getting blasted off its hinges made it to his ears, but he paid it no mind. The security force rushed onto the roof, reaching for him, but as they noticed he was looking up at the sky, they too looked up, and saw the stars they hadn’t gazed upon for ages and ages. They stood there, all behind Sable, minds going blank and bodies frozen to the spot.

 

For hours, the world was silent. For hours, the people of Galakse simply stared at the sky, the beauty of space once again visible to them, the gods they had so fervently worshiped finally able to speak once again, the veil of light pollution caused by the surplus of lamps the city had installed finally broken away to reveal the curtain of heaven.

 

And for hours, they simply stood, taking it all in. Witnessing that which had not been seen for an eternity. They watched as the stars twinkled, as the bright moon followed its arc across the sky, as little meteorites and comets streaked dashes of white over the fading black, which was quickly becoming a great blue as the gods sought to fill the skies with color once again.

 

Until finally, the sun rose again. One by one, the stars began to disappear, hiding behind the advancing sea of gold and bronze and rose pink that daybreak brought. And when the very last star was out of sight, the people of the city began to move once again, as though brought back to life from death.

 

The guards were silent as Sable turned to them. He nodded curtly, body numb, head filled with a million jumbled thoughts that clashed with his pounding heart and his aching soul. Memories of a cherished past brought tears to his eyes, and he didn’t stop them as they flowed down his cheek.

 

“T-take me in,” he managed to croak out hoarsely, voice breaking.

 

At first, nobody made a move towards him. But finally, one of the guards, an Electivire, walked forwards. She did not bother restraining him, simply pointing to the door. A hundred pairs of eyes watched Sable as he made his way to the stairs, the Electivire close behind him. She closed the door behind her, and once again, Sable was left in the dark.