Chapter 23: Receding

Chapter 23: Receding

“This is town hall?!”

Mathew was left bewildered as he drove the buggy up to the building. Made of worn brick and cloudy windows, it reminded him of an Earth town hall, but the sheer size of it threw him off. Its doorless entrance, hid behind dark green pillars holding the building up by the edges of the roof, could easily fit him even if he was four times larger.

“It’s huge!” Joey exclaimed.

“Well, when you have to create a building everybody is meant to enter, you kind of have to make it huge,” Chip explained. “You wouldn’t want to lock out your good friend Dragonite just because he’s too big, right?”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense…” On second thought, that should’ve been obvious to Mathew. He supposed he was still feeling a little overwhelmed from his talk with Joey. He regretted that he didn’t stay in the condo longer to fully collect himself, but he knew that OCEAN wouldn’t wait for him to feel better. Not to mention, none of the others were familiar enough with vehicles to drive the buggy through town, so that left the task to him.

The cold air of the cloud-covered sky outside was replaced with something much warmer as soon as they stepped through the entryway. There was a large crowd filling up the spacious lobby — a sign on the ceiling suggested a food court was that way, and they were just in time for the start of the lunch rush. Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to wait in a line for food. “So, where are they?” he asked Chip.

“If they’re still in that meeting, then they’d be in the guildmaster’s office,” Chip said, already leading the way. “There’s an elevator that goes down to the basement over here on the right.” He took a moment to wave down a guild member — a purple monkey with a hand-like thing on her tail — and get her to keep an eye on the buggy, then they made for the massive elevator Chip had pointed out.

When it opened into a basement hallway, they were greeted with a painting of a large beast pokémon captioned “In memory of Fogside and Mayor Scapelli. 1804 – 2060.” They turned a left, and there it was: a pair of extremely tall double doors. Next to it was a plaque that read “Guildmaster’s office”.

Joey stared at the door. “Uh… How do we—”

“Like this.” Meowth grabbed a subtle knob and pulled open a part of the door. He gestured to Mathew, pressing him to go first.

A door inside of a door… From the euphoric to the miserable to the comical, Mathew felt like he had experienced everything today. He pushed forward as Meowth opened it the rest of the way. “Hello? Guildmaster? We—” Mathew’s throat constricted as he realized that he certainly had not seen everything yet.

There was Jermy, Minichino, Politoed, and Breloom, and Poliwrath, alright, talking to a monolith. The quadrupedic beast, resembling the one in the painting, must’ve been seven times taller than the cubone. Its head protruded upward like a minotaur, and its backside bore a tail like a mermaid’s. Its front and hind legs were a mismatch between green talons and black paws. To top it all off, on its crest and tail were highlights of a contradictory bright pink. It looked like a gross fusion of Frankenstein’s monster and a wolf, topped with a pixie dust-colored bandage.

Needless to say, Mathew took the door out of Meowth’s paws and immediately slammed it shut. “Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed.

“Mathew?!” Joey said. “What’s in there?”

“It’s a…it has a…!” Mathew tried to recount the creature’s appearance, but words failed him. “I don’t even know how to say it!”

“Woah, hey!” Breloom shouted from inside. “Silv isn’t gonna bite!”

“You’re not interrupting, if that is your concern!” The beast spoke with a deep, voluminous voice.

Mathew slowly pried the door within a door open again. “You could’ve warned me your leader was gonna look like that,” he mumbled to the others as he stumbled into the room. It was a tall and wide space in which the beast stood at the back, behind a desk suitable for his size. There was a little tag on the desk that said “Guildmaster Silvalla”. A smaller table in a half-ring shape was where everyone else was seated…besides Minichino, who was sketching something with chalk on the hard-wood floor in the center of the room.

“Hey guys!” she exclaimed, looking up from her work. She gave them a grin that faded slightly when she saw their expressions. “Everything okay? You guys look down…or, more down than usual in Meowth’s case.” Minichino’s prod prompted a sigh from Meowth.

Mathew was not all interested in talking about this more than he had to. “It’s fine…”

“We’re a little out of wack because of what’s going on,” Joey mumbled. “We’ll figure it out.”

“That is understandable,” The beast, Silvalla, said. He focused his attention to Mathew. “If it’s of any concern to you, Mathew, let it be known that what occurred today is clearly an act of self-defense. So, unless Meowth wants to…” Silvalla was silenced by a cutting glare from Meowth. “There is nothing to charge you with.”

Oh. Well, that explained a bit of what they had talked about before their arrival. “Good to know, I guess…”

They each settled into some of the open chairs. After sinking into the beanbag chair, Mathew noticed a set of plates had been laid out on the table, spread out so that each of them could easily reach one.

“There is complimentary food, if you wish,” Silvalla clarified.

Mathew leaned forward. On the plate… Garlic bread? He picked a loaf up, studying it. What kind of place serves garlic bread as complimentary food? He hadn’t had anything like this since—

“Wait a minute.” Mathew looked up at the beast. “Isn’t there a restaurant in town that shares your name?”

“Ah, my side project.”

Mathew slowly put the loaf down. This place gets weirder by the goddamn second.

“Where’s Demurke?” Meowth asked.

“She’s still in questioning, I think,” Jermy answered. “I dunno how I got done faster than her.”

“With how fast you were blabbering, you would out-talk most people,” ORB, next to Jermy’s chair, said.

“Well, she did send half of us into an ambush,” Breloom said. “If any of us needed more thorough questioning…”

Chip idly tapped the table with his wing. “I agree with the idea, but not in the time it’s taking.”

“Well, it gives me some time to keep working on this,” Minichino said. She seemed to be slowly drawing a circle…a Gate?

Mathew was tempted to ask about it, but there was a, literally, much bigger thing on his mind. “So, what’s a g—” Right, they didn’t know what a god was. “Er, legendary doing running this whole service thing, anyway?” Mathew asked.

“Well, that’s somewhat of a history lesson,” Silvalla said. “I’m uncertain if we have the time.”

“Oh, they don’t know about this?! I’d be glad to explain it quickly. I studied this topic heavily in Higher Education…” Chip was so excited he hardly even waited for permission to continue. “Back when when services like guilds were run by mortals, for mortals, the city of Rimek had a guild with an exceptional reputation. Behind closed doors, however, it wasn’t so pleasant.”

“I remember readin’ those reports in one of our history classes,” Poliwrath cut in. “It was crazy!”

“Little more than just crazy…” Politoed remarked. “Members treated each other terribly and supervisors turned blind eyes.”

“Well, yes,” Chip cut in, “but previous guildmasters knew how to make sense of all that chaos. Then, some three hundred years ago, they got Guildmaster Gothitelle. To make a long story short, she lost control of the guild’s worst members, which led to infighting so severe that, one day, tensions snapped and the in-groups started killing each other.”

“Killing…?” Joey gawked.

“It went about as well as you’d imagine a practical free-for-all between the greatest fighters around could go,” Breloom said. “Twelve dead, including the guildmaster herself, and more than triple that injured. Their facility got leveled. Pretty much everyone retired or got arrested by other guilds. Crime rates skyrocketed. Lots of mourning on all fronts. You get it.”

“Yes, I do.” Mathew slouched. All good rules are written in blood — it was a truth of Earth, and now it was a truth of Solceus as well. He was such a fool for thinking running off to Solceus and fulfilling OCEAN’s wishes would result in him living in a paradise where he could keep his friends safe.

Chip seemed a little miffed by Breloom’s interruption. “And that is why Arceus and the four Tapus collaborated on the LeadType Project!” He swung a wing towards Silvalla. “One of many silvallys has been provided to every major town, city, or other congregation of people to establish standards across all local service groups and ensure that an incident like Rimek’s does not happen again. There was pushback on the idea, but after the success and reputation of groups who accepted the help of their silvally skyrocketed, that minority quickly dissolved. Now, we hardly even think about it.”

Silvalla straightened his neck. “Thank you, Chip.” The chatot gave a nod of appreciation, then let him have the floor. “One of the lesser-known services that us silvally provide is a form of protection for those who are being hunted or otherwise in danger. People are led along what we call the Silvally Safety Trail to a location that is kept secret between us silvally, where they are able to keep living while, ideally, not in constant danger.”

Mathew could see where this was going. “So we’re going into witness protection.”

“If that’s the closest human equivalent to what I’m describing, then yes. All of you will be moving to a new location temporarily until this ‘OCEAN’ force is no longer a threat. On the trip there, you will be accompanied by Poliwrath and Chip, as additional protection in case you encounter problems on the trip.”

Poliwrath groaned. “Say bye-bye to our plans for the week, Chip…” he quickly caught himself and redoubled his vigor. “B-Because we’re gonna put our A-game into gettin’ these guys safe!”

“How flattering.” Politoed gave an amused smile, which seemed to make Poliwrath seethe in his seat.

“And that’s not all!” Minichino leapt away from her drawing that was much more clearly a Gate now. “I just finished my way of getting us some secret extra help!”

“Extra help…?” Mathew was intrigued. What more could this girl possibly be hiding?

“So, when I first showed you guys I was a priest, I didn’t tell you everything about what it’s like to be one,” Minichino said. “See, each priest like me is given a blessing by one Legendary Pokémon. It’s supposed to be our job to represent them to everyday pokémon, so we can help guide them.”

“You were blessed by a legendary?!” Jermy exclaimed. “You’re fifteen!”

Minichino turned towards Jermy with a giddy grin. “I know, right?!”

Something clicked to Mathew at this realization. “Then…what legendary were you blessed by?”

“And that’s why I didn’t tell you that detail when we were in the Church of Arceus,” Minichino said, giving him a side eye. “I didn’t want you trying to figure me out. So if you didn’t know that about priests, you wouldn’t think to ask!”

Meowth wasn’t impressed. “Couldn’t they have asked any of the other priests in the church about what they do and learned about it that way?”

Minichino whirled to clap back at Meowth…then stammered. “I mean…well…uh…they didn’t! So yeah!”

Politoed just shrugged. “Wasn’t in charge of that part of the plan.”

“So, what does this have to do with the Gate?” Mathew asked. “Do priests get to do some kind of special imbuing?”

“Imbue?” Minichino smirked. “Nah, for us, Gates have a whole ‘nother feature we get to use. Watch this!” She dropped to her knees and planted her paws on the floor. Suddenly, the Gate on the ground glowed brightly. Even without anything to imbue, Minichino was somehow activating it. There was a brief moment of silence, and then…

“Minichino!” A bright and youthful voice echoed through the air, a bit muffled but still easy to hear. “That’s you I’m sensing, right?!” the voice exclaimed.

“Yeah, it’s me!” Minichino said. “Got a couple minutes? I’ve got a lot to tell and show you guys…”

“Couple minutes, coming right up!”

Mathew’s eyes widened as a glowing light filled the office — then it dispersed, and another figure appeared, standing in the midst of the Gate. Before them all was a cream-colored colt, coated in a blue hue that matched the color of his tail, the end of his hooves, and a great horn that sprouted from his forehead. He had a fiery red mane, flowing gracefully from his head. Three strands at the front had been dyed different shades: the left green, the middle orange, the right blue. The cubone found him familiar, but the name eluded him.

Minichino stood up and dramatically gestured to him. “Everyone, please welcome to the room—”

“Minichino!” A voice bellowed with the gruff deepness of a bass. At the edge of the Gate, a second figure suddenly formed, charging straight into the colt.

“Wait—waaah!”

The colt was barreled over, almost crushed underneath the gray and brown bovine with two curved horns. “There you are!” he looked at Minichino with a wide grin. “What’ve you been up to this whole time?”

“Going undercover, like I said,” Minichino answered. “I had to make myself look totally innocent, so OCEAN would buy it!” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Did I make you worry?”

“We were a little worried, yes.” A woman’s voice came through, and yet another figure leapt smoothly into the Gate — a green antelope with a cream-shaded underside and hooves shaped like boots. A leaf tipped with bright red sprouted from her neck, matching the shade of her eyes.

“A proper warning would have been appreciated.” One more pokémon marched in. The blue stag with yellow horns in the shape of lightning bolts looked down upon the minccino, the white beard-like mane on his neck instantly giving him an age and authority. “We were forced to reroute to pass Kalmwa’er so we could check up on you.”

“Yeah, that’s my bad…” Minichino fidgeted with her hat, seeming a bit embarrassed.

“H-Hey, if it makes you feel any better…” The colt pushed the bovine off of him and rose to his feet. “I always knew you were okay.” That seemed to make her smile again.

Mathew couldn’t believe his own eyes. He hadn’t been able to recognize one on their own, but all gathered here in the middle of the room, it was clear now. “You’re a priest for the Swords of Justice?!”

All four of them whipped their heads in Mathew’s direction, but none of them seemed to actually lock their eyes on his body. “Oh, we have an audience?” Cobalion remarked.

“Yeah! We’re actually in the middle of Kalmwa’er Service Guild’s office.” Minichino acknowledged the confused Mathew. “They can only see people and stuff that’s inside the Gate.”

“Hello, Swords,” Silvalla called down to them. “This is Silvalla. You’re surrounded by a few mortals who, along with your priest, we are helping to take on a passage to safety.”

“A passage…you mean the ‘Safety Trail’ then.” Cobalion looked up to roughly where Silvalla sat. “Are you absolutely certain that their destination will be safer than where they are now?” Mathew could feel some underlying tension in that question.

Silvalla shut his eyes and gave a long sigh. “What happened there was…unfortunate. But I assure you, Mithlline offers no such risks.”

“Oh don’t tell me that they rerouted that whole thing to go there…!” Poliwrath mumbled.

Politoed nodded, much to his dismay. “Going to be taking the humans home with us.”

The moment Politoed said that, the demeanor of the four changed. “There are humans with you?” Virizion asked, seeming surprised and a bit intrigued.

“Oh! Oh! Bring them over here! I wanna see!” Keldeo exclaimed.

Mathew was not particularly interested in presenting himself to a bunch of strangers, even if they were Legendary Pokémon. So when Joey voiced an “I can come up there,” Mathew did not object. Once he stood inside the Gate, the red-haired colt slowly approached him.

“Hmmmmm…” He squinted as he stared Joey up and down. “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm…”

“Uh, hi, mister,” Joey said. “I’m Joey. Is everything okay?”

Keldeo cocked his head, seeming a little disappointed. “Huh. I thought you’d look a little more…human-y.”

Virizion shook her head, amused. “See? We told you they look the same as any Solcean.”

“But that’s so lame, though!” He exclaimed to the antelope. “It’d be way cooler if they got, like, a little hairtuft or something.”

“On a crocodile?” Terrakion chuckled. “That’s a riot!”

“Let’s get back to business.” Cobalion’s eyes sweeped the room, addressing everyone. “We are about two days away from Kalmwa’er. Is there a way we could assist with your escort of Minichino and these humans?”

Silvalla pondered for a moment. “How long would it take for you to reach Bylaide Forest?”

“The dungeon south of Vahle Village? We could easily reach that by tonight,” Cobalion said. “That will provide us all with some cover…meeting there would be wise.”

“Bylaide Forest is pretty far from here,” Breloom mused. “If we wanted to make it without stopping to sleep, we’d have to leave this evening and travel through the night.”

Jermy groaned. “Even without OCEAN, I’m never gonna get any sleep, aren’t I?”

“According to my calculations,” ORB said, “the probability of you fixing your circadian rhythm is 0.00—”

Suddenly, the door within a door to the guildmaster’s office burst open. Mathew turned, expecting to see Demurke…but instead, it was the purple monkey from earlier. “Guildmaster!” she exclaimed. “Somebody outside is begging to be let into your office! He says he needs to talk to some people here!”

A tense silence fell over the group. Mathew could feel his heartbeat quicken. Had they already been found out by OCEAN?

“Who is this person?” Silvalla asked.

“He claims to be the owner of the vehicle Chip came in on earlier, Guildmaster. He is a light persian wearing a purple bowtie.”

“What the heck?” Minichino said. “Mr. Persian is here?!”

Mathew was immediately suspicious. It wasn’t David, or Dit, or any of the soldiers they had fought earlier, but that just made him more concerned. “This might be a trap. They might have sent Mr. Persian to act as a familiar face to lure us—”

“You guys have a meeting to finish. I’ll handle this myself.” Meowth sprung out of his seat, making a beeline for the door.

“Meowth! Wait!” Joey cried, but he was already past the monkey and through the door.

The cubone shook his head, disappointed. Of course he would run off like that…

---

That was so selfish of you, Meowth. You could’ve gotten all of us killed!

Already, Meowth could hear the rambling of the others after he returned to that meeting he just abandoned. He didn’t care.

Going to Misery Cave had been an opportunity to get a taste of what his father was hiding from him. Mathew going over the deep end, those OCEAN workers fighting them to the death, and that gurdurr whose blood was now on their hands… Mr. Persian had been overlooking all of this, he was certain. That message he sent this morning proved it.

Soon, he was stomping his way out of town hall, making a beeline for the buggy. Sure enough, there he was, looking desperate as he spoke with a random guild member. “Please, is there any way I can convince you that…” Mr. Persian’s voice fell away as he approached.

Meowth planted his feet down so firmly, his claws almost dug into the dirt. “What are you doing here?”

“Meowth…” His ears drooped. “You didn’t get my letter, did you.”

“Of course I got the letter. Why are you here?”

Mr. Persian slowly walked up closer to him. “Did they hurt you at all? I know you always have oran berries and reviver seeds on you, but—”

He took a step back. “Answer the question.” Meowth closely studied his father’s face. Where was that grin of his?

Mr. Persian paused his approach, giving him a look full of despair. “When I saw the buggy coming in, I knew you all were going to leave town. There are a few things I need to do before you go…but this is the one that mattered the most.” He reached back and clawed at his own hind leg. Some piece of clothing had been wrapped around it.

Meowth watched his father with scrutiny as he pulled it off his leg and laid it flat on the ground. What could he have possibly gotten him that—

Oh. Oh.

A tie. Just like Mathew’s. Although, this one wasn’t a simple burgundy like his — it was striped, alternating between a pure black and a pure green.

“I wanted to give this to you personally when you turned fourteen, but I never got the chance.” Mr. Persian said solemnly. “When I learned you were going to be a physician-therapist, I thought you might want something like this.” Unable to meet his gaze, he looked away from Meowth. “I’m sorry if it doesn’t fit, or it’s not your style. It matched your contacts, so…”

Meowth picked up the tie and let it dangle. It was fashionable, stylish, appropriate for his career, and it really did match his eyes. A few years ago, he probably would have hated it — he remembered hating neckwear, and he’d avoid wearing anything like this even when his academics called for it. He couldn’t really remember why…

No. He did. Meowth just had to take a look at his father’s bowtie to remind himself.

Immediately, Meowth began wrapping the thing around his neck and tying it into shape. At this point he didn’t even know where he wanted to point his spite anymore, so he didn’t have a good reason not to try it on. He fumbled with it for a bit, tying it into ugly and clearly incorrect knots before undoing it and starting over.

Mr. Persian reached a paw forward. “Do you need me to—”

“No. I got it.” He whirled away from his father, pausing to recollect his thoughts. What was it that his classmate said that one time…? Wrap around…up and over…thread it through…

Better. One or two more attempts later, and the tie was tied, only slightly loose around his neck. Meowth tightened it as he returned his attention to his father.

“Oh. You did it all by yourself…” Mr. Persian’s expression was surprisingly sunken. “Good job, Meowth.”

He focused his attention back on his father. “Five years is a long time to find a chance to give a gift.” Meowth reflexively dragged his foot against the ground a little. It was only natural, since that was what Mr. Persian’d been doing.

“I know.” His sullen demeanor didn’t change. Even now, he was denying it? “These past few years have been so difficult. I imagine it’s been as hard for you as it’s been for—”

Forget this.

“Can you just stop being so fake?!” Meowth almost grit his teeth as he spoke. He knew there were people watching, but it hardly mattered now. “I’m tired of having to fish this out of you. Just tell me that you hate me, so that we can move on!”

Mr. Persian flinched at his raised voice. “Fake?” He sounded as though he was in disbelief. Then he retreated further from him, looking off towards that resort of his. “Is that how long I’ve been gone…?”

“You threw me into a dorm the moment you got the chance and never let me come home. Then you’d send your assistant to handle me instead of yourself, because you preferred it that way. The only reason you got me to join that stupid Club was because I had a career that was convenient to you! Now I…” He only let himself hesitate for a second. “I know that it’s true. I got in your office and saw the contract. That document to keep me away…you signed it yourself.”

Mr. Persian spent several seconds soaking his words in. He lowered his gaze from the resort. “I signed so many things, Meowth. All those years ago, I was a hopelessly naïve businessman. I wanted to make a vacation space anyone could enjoy — and support you and your mother along the way. I really did think that ‘SEAS’ meant well, offering to partner with me and make my business thrive…” Then, he found it in him to once more meet Meowth’s eyes. “But that contract I signed with Emily isn’t one I regret.”

Because it got rid of you.

Meowth crossed his arms. “You really care about the resort that much? Was it really worth throwing away our whole family for?”

“No! I hardly care about the resort anymore!” Mr. Persian exclaimed, seeming distressed at even the thought. “That contract…it was supposed to protect you.”

…Wait, what? Meowth blinked, a bit stunned.

“Using SEAS, OCEAN hunts for ‘business partners’ that get them what they want. Food, or resources, or people, all without having to put their name on it front and center. For me, they wanted a small place to train new recruits from Earth — and an appealing reward for their most loyal workers,” Mr. Persian told him. “Meowth, if you had stayed close to me, they would have gotten you involved in all of my responsibilities. Signing you away to Higher Ed was the only way to keep you safe…and to give you the closest thing to a normal life.”

No… No, that couldn’t be true. Mr. Persian was just making this all up. He had to be! “Then what’s been these past few weeks then?” Meowth asked. “Nothing about this job you gave me was normal.”

Mr. Persian seemed strained. “I’ve missed you so much, over all these years. So, when I saw they were going to make Minichino run a recruitment front in the resort, I thought I could use that to…reconnect in a way that kept you safe, somehow. But after all this, I guess that was a terrible mistake.”

None of this was the answer Meowth was looking for. Mr. Persian hated him. It was the only explanation that made sense of his distance from him, and the way he was so dodgy, and how he’d send Demurke in his place… Everyone hated him! So how could he just walk up to him and say…

His world was splintering. That doubt he had that this started and ended with his father’s malice, that maybe he was wrong about him… If all this was true, then Meowth had been right to think that way.

What did that mean about everything he had done these past few weeks? These past few years?

“…Meowth?” Mr. Persian’s voice startled him out of his thoughts.

“I don’t know whether I can…believe you,” he said.

His father seemed sullen, but not as heartbroken as he was initially. He seemed to be making peace with Meowth’s uncertainty. “I have no idea how long it will take them to notice I’m not where I’m supposed to be. This might be the last time I see you,” he whispered. “You need to go live your life, where it’s safe, away from me. But please…please don’t wonder whether my love for you was fake. Because it was real. It always was—”

“M-Mr. Persian?”

The two of them snapped their heads towards the source of that familiar voice. Demurke was standing, stunned, just inside of town hall. The red on her wings was clearly on display, clutching a folded-up piece of paper. Seeing her here filled Meowth with concern.

Mr. Persian gasped. “Demurke!” he cried, sprinting up to her. “Thank goodness! I was so worried about you.”

“Wh-What are you doing here?! You’re…supposed to be…”

“I came to say goodbye.” Mr. Persian peered back at him. “To both of you.”

Meowth walked up to the murkrow. “So you’re done with questioning. Why aren’t you down in the meeting with the others?”

“Yes, I-I finished getting questioned and everything! But… I…” She tipped her hat. “I’m not going.”

“Not going?” Meowth didn’t know what to make of that. Where did she planning on going then? Home, whatever that was for her?

But instead of him, it was her father she focused on. “I was going to…buy you t-time. So that you c-could go with Meowth.”

“What…” Mr. Persian was taken aback. Then, he shook his head, panicked. “No, no, no, Demurke, you need to go! You’ve lived with them for so long, you of all people deserve to—”

“I can’t.” She seemed nervous, but still looked Meowth’s father dead in the eye. “Not after…what happened in that c-cave. If they f-find out that I went missing with everyone else…they’ll do everything they can to find me. You know how my dad is. A-and…” That was the moment she broke eye contact with him. “my mom…”

Mr. Persian reached for her. “I get that, but—”

“Please!” Demurke found her composure again. “You’ve been…waiting for s-so long to be with him again. I w-won’t let you walk away! I can make th-them look for you in all the wrong places for…an hour, at least! I…” She raised her wings, then caught her own intensity and lowered them. “L-Let me do this for you.”

Mr. Persian stared at her in disbelief. Then in a burst of emotion, he lowered his head and leaned in, hugging her the best he could. “Thank you.” His father’s whisper wavered as much as his breath. “For everything.”

Demurke was dumbstruck. “I…I should be the one th-thanking you,” she said.

Mr. Persian pulled his head back and looked her in the eyes, his forepaws on both of her shoulders. There were tears in his eyes. “Demurke, stay strong, okay? Take care of yourself. Promise me you will. Please.”

She quickly nodded. “O-Okay…I’ll try.” With her wings, Demurke pushed Mr. Persian’s embrace away. “It’s been…a-a good few years, Mr. Persian.” She turned around, set the note down in a seat of the buggy, and outstretched her crimson-painted wings. A single red eye met Meowth’s gaze. “And Meowth…I’m sorry that I c-couldn’t do more. Goodbye…”

As Meowth watched Demurke take off for what might be the last time, he could only feel the weight of the past hanging on his shoulders. Demurke was just Mr. Persian’s assistant, wasn’t she? She only ever visited him in Higher Ed because Mr. Persian could never make the time to see him. But, after what he just told him, and what she did, and how they spoke with each other…

Reflecting on all this ate away at him in a way he couldn’t explain. Just how much of this had he gotten wrong?

“Meowth!” That was Joey’s cry, coming from within town hall. He was followed by the rest of the Pick-it Up Club.

“Demurke’s aura signal is currently above us,” ORB announced as they formed a crowd next to the buggy. “She is flying in the direction of Kalmwa’er Resort.”

“What the heck is Demurke doing?!” Joey asked the two of them.

Mr. Persian was the one to answer. “You just missed her. She’s going to sacrifice her own freedom for all of ours…including mine.”

“Oh no! Demurke!” Minichino cried. She tried to break out into a run, but she was promptly stopped by Breloom’s foot stepping on her tail. She grunted, trying to pry it out from underneath. “Lemme go! We gotta save her!”

“We’re supposed to be dead, remember?” Breloom said, seeming upset herself. “By this point, OCEAN’s probably only now finding out the sting didn’t go to plan. If any of us show our faces, they’ll figure it out even faster.”

“Then we can get one of the humans to go or something!”

Jermy seemed surprisingly calm in the face of this, if gloomy. “I dunno if we’d talk her out of this either…”

“Minichino,” Meowth said. “She made her choice. We can’t take it back for her.”

“No!” She gave Meowth a cry of defiance, but seconds later, her resistance faded. When Breloom lifted her leg, she didn’t try to run. “I at least wanted to say goodbye…” Mr. Persian came to her aid, patting her head.

“Think we should probably focus on what this means for us,” Politoed said, looking irritated. “Chances are that she might spill our plans to OCEAN, which means they could come for us fast.”

Mr. Persian’s softness faded, his paw recoiling from Minichino as he gave Politoed a fierce look. “Demurke wouldn’t do that.”

Politoed could only shrug. “And we thought Demurke wouldn’t put our lives at risk, but here we are now.”

Mr. Persian’s mouth held agape, but only air came. He hung his head.

In the meantime, Meowth made his way to the note she had wordlessly left behind. Written on it was the name of…huh. He passed it on to the nearby totodile. “She addressed this to you.”

“Me?” Perturbed, Joey unfolded the letter and read it aloud.

Joey,

I don’t have time to say it to your face, but I wanted to tell you that I’m very sorry. On the first day of work, I had to say that I didn’t find out anything about where your mom and dad could be. I always felt bad about that, so I’m going to make things right now.

Greg and Catherine were being recruited into OCEAN in Rimek. I tried to figure out what was going on with them, but everyone I talked to either didn’t know or didn’t want to tell me. Jermy doesn’t know anything either, so don’t be mean to him. All that I got is that there was some kind of big fight and it has all of the leaders stressed out. I really hope that you find them.

There are more things I’ve said and done that I want to admit to, but I can’t write about them and save Mr. Persian at the same time. I’m sorry for all of it. Just please be there for Mathew. He’s going to need it.

Sincerely,

Demurke

“She knew about all this?!” Mathew cried.

Jermy seemed to have a flash of recognition. “So that was…”

Joey, stunned, gave a sweeping look to the rest of the group. “My parents are here on Solceus.” He seemed both in disbelief…and relieved. That made sense to Meowth — he’d spent so much time knowing nothing about them, and now he had learned who they were and where they might be in a matter of hours.

Both of them were learning a lot about their families today, he supposed.

“Something we can think about back inside,” Politoed asserted. “Gotta get back to the meeting before we make any more of a scene. That includes you, of course.” His serious expression gave way to sympathy as he looked again at his father.

As they all filtered back into town hall, Meowth’s uncertainty did not fade. But it wouldn’t change what he had done, nor would it change what was happening now. Would he be able to accept all this? To be honest with himself, he had no idea. All he could do now was face it. He looked to his father as they began to walk inside. “Welcome to the club, I guess.”

Mr. Persian nodded his head. “Thank you.”

---

The sun finally met the ocean.

Mathew had watched the sunset several times through the window of Meowth’s condo. Each time he did, it only made him more determined to get the view on Kalmwa’er’s beach after he got everything in order with his rise into OCEAN’s ranks. Now, he was finally getting that chance, sitting down on a blanket laid over the sand near the edge of town.

Joey, Jermy, and Meowth were with him as well. After the meeting, the lot of them had gotten a few hours’ nap inside of town hall to rest and recuperate. They were now ready to set out — except for Jermy, who had thrown himself onto the blanket and immediately passed out again. In response, ORB had begun working his way through a playlist of all of the most childish Earthen lullabies. Mathew couldn’t help but find it amusing, and the music seemed to pique Joey and Meowth’s curiosities too. It was a nice distraction while they waited for the rest of the Solceans to pack their belongings.

To protect them while they were out on the beach, Breloom elected to stay with the humans. But right now, she wasn’t around the blanket. A couple minutes ago, she’d taken her guitar case and walked off into the darkness. Mathew tried to peer through the dark in search of the kangaroo. Where…?

It wasn’t his sense of sight that found her first, but his sense of hearing.

Backed by the roar of the wind and the chatter of the waning tourist trap, a lone guitar’s melody filled the air. Mathew could just barely see Breloom sitting in the sand, her silhouette’s edges lit by the town’s lights. The kangaroo faced the ocean as she idly played, completely lost in her music. Her cape was blown about by the breeze, completely unfurled behind her back.

Mathew had never heard this song before, but it sounded so…melancholy. He could feel a wave of strong emotion wash over him, and he was left speechless. Nobody else dared speak, either, and ORB’s lullaby stopped. The beach fell to silence.

“The best part about music?” Laura sat before her computer, clutching a guitar in her arms. “Damn, that’s not an easy question…”

Mathew, sitting on a chair out of her stream’s way, was impressed. “Huge props to chat tonight,” he called out. “I was prepared for these questions to be some of the worst shit in the world, but we actually got good ones.”

Laura patted her guitar. “The best part about music…is that you can’t take it away from anybody. We can always express ourselves whether there’s six billion of us or only one. For me, it’s almost like…music gives me the power to defy everything that’s been going on. I can tell the world that it doesn’t matter how bad it gets — I can keep lifting spirits and telling stories. And that message’ll live forever, you know? Even when I die, I’m still kind of living, in a way. Knowing that is what keeps me making music, I guess.”

Suddenly, the playing stopped. Mathew could see Breloom flinch, claws silencing the strings. She seemed to have only now taken notice of her captive audience. “Sorry, my bad. I probably shouldn’t be playing when we’re trying to lay low…You guys can keep doing what you’re doing.”

“No, please.” Mathew wondered if, in this light, any of them would notice him wiping the tears from his eyes. “Keep going.”

Breloom seemed uncertain, but she wasn’t met with any objections from Joey or Meowth, either. So she kept strumming, and her melodious sound returned to the beach. Mathew leaned back, satisfied.

She really would have loved this.

They all stayed that way for a few minutes, listening to Breloom play, until they finally heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. “I have to say, you do play a good tune,” Chip remarked. With a few wingbeats, his colorful silhouette set its talons upon the blanket’s edge. carrying a bag joined them,

“Well, I try my best,” Breloom said modestly as she rejoined the group forming around the blanket. Mathew saw her take a few cursory swipes at her legs to clean off the sand.

“So, what’s left?” Meowth rose from a sitting position and addressed the rest of the hardly-visible crowd.

“Not much,” Politoed told him.

“The buggy’s hidden away, Sire and I have cover stories for leaving town, and we’ve packed everyone’s stuff,” Chip listed off.

“Yep! I was so ready for them to be staking out my place, but nope, they weren’t there at all!” For emphasis, Minichino tossed a single blue leather bag onto the blanket. It crumpled when it landed, as if it were empty.

After the commotion outside town hall died down, Silvalla offered the group that small, inconspicuous-looking bag. Apparently, they had bought this so-called ‘Dwelling Bag’ off of somebody in the quaint Vahle Village to the north, and kept it around in case of an emergency like this. Because of the conditions, Silvalla wanted them to have it so that they could pack all of their precious belongings without the luggage being a burden.

“I still can’t get over this thing,” Mathew remarked. “Shouldn’t trying to make this just create a black hole or something and…” He trailed off as he grabbed the Dwelling Bag and tested it for the umpteenth time. When he reached into the pure black interior, he found nothing but a void of darkness far larger than the actual bag, as if he was reaching into a wardrobe that had no back wall. He pictured his scrapbook, and just like that, he felt a book grazing against his hand. Then he cast it away and took his hand out. “Just — how does any of this work?”

To his surprise, Mathew had learned that even the native Solceans were mesmerized and confused by the Dwelling Bag. “Maybe it’s a kind of portal to some place, like one of Hoopa’s rings?” Politoed proposed. “Think we’d know if there was a market for ‘Hoopa bags’, though…”

“Forget how it works!” Minichino cried. “Do you know how much more trash we could’ve cleaned up if we had something like this when we started out?! We could’ve done weeks of cleaning in a day!”

Mr. Persian, who’d been hanging on the edge of this group around the blanket, finally spoke up. “Sorry, Minichino,” he said. “If I had known there was something like this out there, I would’ve asked OCEAN to find out how to make some.”

“Speaking of OCEAN…” Politoed gestured back towards town. Night had crawled a bit closer, so the street lights illuminating Kalmwa’er had gotten brighter. The resort was especially luminous.

“It’s hard to believe.” Mr. Persian looked at his creation longingly. “I’ve lived in this town for more than twenty years now, and I’ve worked on making the resort a reality for just as long. And now, just like that, I’m leaving it for good.”

“Hey, maybe after all this is over, we could at least start up the Club again?” Minichino offered. “And not make it a secret human recruitment plot this time, obviously.”

“That does sound nice…”

Breloom put her guitar in its case, then slipped it into the Dwelling Bag. “We should probably get moving. We’ve gotten lucky with not running into them so far, but I’m not interested in testing their luck any more than we already have.”

Everyone quietly agreed. Meowth and Joey yanked the blanket out from under Jermy, which, combined with ORB’s mockery, quickly woke him. Minichino sweeped both of them clean with sand and looked happy with herself. Politoed took initiative, leading their march away from Kalmwa’er. Poliwrath and Chip walked side-by-side, in their own little world.

Before it’d go out of sight, Mathew looked back at Kalmwa’er one last time. When it was lit up by night owls and busy businesses trying to make a quick buck, it seemed just as beautiful as the day he first laid eyes upon it. But he knew now that all that was just innocent fun — to the side, the obelisk of OCEAN’s craft blistered the view with its hidden malice. From here in the sand, the cliff walls seemed so much taller and so much more daunting, surrounding the town. From the oceanside, it couldn’t be more vulnerable.

It really didn’t turn out as great as he felt it’d be.

Maybe it never was.