Chapter 17

Sam, for as displeased as he was to have been back on the sea once again, was at least happy he’d made it through the ferry ride to Canalave without Barry’s Monferno tossing anybody overboard.

The ferry had a prominently posted notice asking riders to keep their pokemon contained (“for their own safety and the safety of the rest of our guests”, the sign told Sam), but he found that he barely cared. Really, what were they going to do to him, he wondered; stop the ferry and insist he get off in the middle of the strait? As it was, Monferno and his own friends had been promised they’d get more time to relax, and Sam had no intention of taking any such time away from them. He heard some of the other passengers complain about their freedom when they thought Sam was out of earshot; he hardly cared about their annoyance. Sam thought of the words on the sign. Safety? He was not some child with his first friend and no idea how to manage it. He was a grown man who had been with pokemon his whole life. He’d just been deemed worthy by the legendary lake guardians. He’d stood up to Professor Rowan, Henrique Alonzo, and an army of doctors who told him there was nothing that could be done for his brother; the last thing he was going to do was let some damn sign on a boat boss him around.

Carlos and the Phoenix Corporation crew were on the far end of the ferry. They refused to leave the cargo holding area because they did not trust the Sinnohans not to mess with their machinery. That was fine with Sam since any moment away from Sideburns was a minor victory in his book. Before Sam had ventured to the more scenic area of the ferry, he noticed that Carlos and his workers managed to look like a fine gang and not at all suspicious by surrounding their equipment and standing in front of it with their arms crossed. 

Upon deboarding, Sam found a bench in front of the ferry station and parked himself so that Carlos and the others could bark orders at the ferry workers on how to properly unload their equipment. Sam intended to just walk to the Phoenix Shipping Corporation building without the lot of them, but he was still feeling the effects of the ocean even after being back on solid ground, and he needed the moment to regain his composure. Obviously, having been tossed into the sea and almost drowning one of the last times he had been on a boat had done little for his seasickness. That was the more private and selfish reason he had no intention of stowing away his friends while on board; they provided him with at least a little distraction from the waves and the rocking of the boat.

If any of his friends shared his displeasure of travel by water, there was no sign of it. Monferno was as chipper and energetic as every other time Sam had seen him; he panted in joy and bounded around Sam’s shoulders like the trainer was personal jungle gym. Bree seemed to be more resentful of Monferno’s keeping her from resting on her trainer than anything. She tried to buzz close to whichever side of Sam Monferno was not hogging, but as soon as Barry’s pokemon swung over to that side, she let out a sharp hum and fluttered away. Chispa had discovered rapture in watching the swaying of Vlam’s tails, and the eldest friend of the group seemed quietly content to amuse the cub with them. Sam breathed deep to help steady himself as he watched Chispa raise a jittery paw, unsure whether or not to swat at Vlam’s tail. A clubbing sensation to the back of the head knocked Sam forward and almost off of his bench; he turned to see Monferno waving an angry fist at his Butterfree.

“Can’t you two calm down?” At Sam’s words, Monferno and Bree turned their attention to him. “You’re gonna concuss me if you don’t stop acting so jealous over each other.” Bree buzzed and stiffened her antennae out in Monferno’s direction. “I don’t care whose fault it was. I just don’t want to get banged in the head anymore. Behave!”

Monferno hopped from the back of the bench to return to Sam’s shoulders where he began patting the back of the trainer’s head. Bree let out high-pitched hum and zipped over to her sisters. She settled onto Vlam’s back and turned so that Sam could no longer see her face.

“Seriously?”

“Seriously what?”

Sam’s head turned to follow the sound of the voice to his right and saw Carlos standing there. Sam rolled his eyes; he had hoped he was done with that guy for at least a while longer. “You guys got done fast enough.”

“Not done. It should to be take a while for now. I came back to go with you to see Mr. Alonzo. He should know what happened.”

Sam stood up from the bench, causing Vlam to rise to her feet next to him. This, in turn, caused a new annoyance for Bree as she tumbled on the Ninetales’ back before getting airborne. “Can’t wait.”

Sam and Carlos walked together in the same manner as how they drove together: with barely a word between them. Carlos’ gait was slightly more determined than Sam’s was, which–when Sam thought about it–made little sense. Carlos should not have been in any more of a hurry to see Henrique than he was. If anything, he should have been dreading it more than Sam. He was the one who chased the trio away when they were so close. Perhaps Carlos just wanted to get it all over with, Sam thought. What was the worst that Mr. Alonzo could do? Fire Carlos, sure, but to Sam? He wasn’t sure. The worst case scenario seemed to be that he’d end up back at square one with no one to help him and no idea what to do. 

The Phoenix Shipping Corporation Sinnoh Division building was across the street from a gothic structure with large, stone monuments in front of it. One monument was simply a round globe. Another was of the mythical pokemon Mew. A third was of a rabbit-like character Sam remembered from a children’s book his mother read him. This was apparently the Canalave Library, Sinnoh’s national library. Sam could not help but wonder if this was coincidence or not. How long had the corporation had a headquarters in Sinnoh? Was it ordered here by Mr. Alonzo? If so, was it located here so that he’d have easy access to all the reference material he’d need on Sinnoh? Perhaps that was how he’d known so much about Celestic Town just from the brief description Sam gave him of a picture he’d seen, or even how he knew so much about the guardians to begin with. But to think that the president of an international company would erect a building across from a library just for research… Sam could not help but think that was a reach. Wasn’t it?

“Are you coming?”

Sam shook his head to rouse himself. He hadn’t realized he had gotten lost in his own mind while staring across the street at the Canalave Library. He nodded in affirmation to Carlos’ question and followed him through the glass revolving doors. He was careful to hold the doors in place as he and his friends entered and exited them; others trying to leave the building at that moment gave him a dirty look for upsetting the momentum of the doors, but the last thing Sam wanted was for Vlam to lose a tail in there. 

There was a corridor to the left of the receptionist’s desk that led to the elevators, according to a sign hung from the ceiling. Sam briefly considered giving the young, blonde, bespectacled clerk at the reception desk a sarcastic thanks for helping him reach Henrique earlier, but he immediately thought better of it. To the right of the reception area was a set of double glass doors that led to a conjoining café; the etching on the doors told Sam that it was called The Canalave Bistro. Carlos headed towards the elevators while digging in his right pants pocket, and Sam began following.

As they passed a plain, metallic, grey door, Monferno bounced off of Sam’s back. The pokemon rushed to the door and began pawing at it. 

“What’s going on, buddy?” Sam asked as he approached the ape pokemon. Monferno turned to face him, but only momentarily; his attention was heavily focused on the door. Sam noticed a placard in the wall next to it that told him it was the stairs. “You really want some exercise, huh? I guess I did have you cooped up in your ball for a while. I don’t know if I have the energy to follow you up however many floors it is to Mr. Alonzo’s office.” 

Monferno ignored Sam and continued scratching at the door. In his insistence to get in, he was leaving scrapes in the paint. 

“All right, all right! Jeez. I’ll check, hold on.” Sam called out to Carlos, who was standing in the corridor and waiting for an elevator, “Hey, the monkey here really wants to run around on the stairs. Can we take these up to Mr. Alonzo’s office?”

Carlos held out a tiny green stick. “No. We to need this key in a elevator to access the office.”

Sam shrugged at Monferno. “Sorry, pal. I promise to run with you for a bit after we’re done here, okay? Get some of that energy out.”

Monferno glanced towards the stairwell door again and let out a whimper. Seemingly very reluctant, he reached up a paw to take Sam’s hand. Despite his agreement to leave the stairs behind, the monkey huffed and whined as he walked with Sam to the elevator. Chispa seemed to be saddened by Monferno’s mood, and she rubbed her head against him as they walked. Bree, conversely, probably couldn’t have been happier; she bounced in the air next to Sam’s head and hummed cheerfully.

Monferno’s head was still downturned as Sam watched the elevator doors close and Carlos slide his key into the control panel. After flipping the key to the right, he pressed the buttons for both the nineteenth and twentieth floors. Sam shook his head and crunched his brow.

“Did you forget which floor your own boss is on?”

“There is a floor between nineteen and twenty. It can not be to access without this key turning and pressing both of the buttons.” Carlos said it as simply as if he’d been reading a traffic report.

“Your boss is on the nineteen-and-a-halfth floor?” Sam mused. “Yeah, that’s not shady at all. Tell me, is his doorknob also a skull?”

“We can not let his office be accessible to anyone. Obviously. He likes to be in the middle of the building. He says it putting him in the middle of the business.”

The elevator lurched upward, and Sam said nothing in return. It made sense, he imagined, but it still seemed weird. He turned his attention to his friends behind him. Vlam was trying to appear aloof by lying down and turning her head away, but he noticed she was wagging her tails near Monferno, most likely in an attempt to cheer him up. It didn’t seem to be having any effect, however; the ape continued standing still and looking down. The only sign of life from him was an occasional snort of breath. He was clearly having a child-like temper-tantrum. 

As the elevator passed the nineteenth floor, Sam felt his stomach rise in his gut; they were clearly slowing down suddenly. The control panel beeped three times, and the elevator stopped with both the lights for floors nineteen and twenty illuminated. The doors parted to reveal a completely mundane hallway that was not at all lined with torchlight and filled with laser security beams such as what Sam had fancied when he thought of the hidden floor. At the end of the short hall, he saw Mr. Henrique Alonzo through an open office door. He sat at a desk that was not made of Donphan ivory and wrote on paperwork with a pen that was apparently not a quill dipped in blood. 

“Mr. Stark, please come in.”

Sam nodded; there was no more time to think about how the meeting would go. It was about to happen. He and Carlos passed through the open doorway, and each took one of the seats on the near side of Mr. Alonzo’s desk. Sam could not help but look beneath his seat; there did not appear to be a trap door. Sam almost could not help but feel disappointed at the nineteen-and-a-halfth floor’s lack of mystique.

“I understand we had something of a mishap in Celestic, and the legends were lost to us.”

Of course, Sam thought. There were more people there than just Carlos and himself. Anyone else in any of the other trucks could have called in the situation. Which meant that they got to put their own personal spin on it well before Sam had a chance to defend himself. He opened his mouth to do just that, but Henrque cut him off.

“I was told that you were admirable in your efforts, but my crew got a little impetuous and frightened them off before you could finish.” Henrique rubbed his palms as if he were washing them. “Mr. Stark, I am exceedingly sorry about this. I promised you a crew to assist you, and instead, they impeded you. I understand if you’ll not be wanting to work with us going forward.”

Sam choked out a noise through his gaping mouth. He had never imagined such a reaction from Henrique. It felt surreal. Perhaps there was yet some magic on the ninteen-and-a-halfth floor. 

“Your men did their best, Mr. Alonzo; I think they were just caught up in the heat of the moment and thought that I was about to be attacked.” Sam heard a sharp intake of breath from Carlos. “I don’t think anyone was really to blame.” He was not sure why he was defending those idiots when they had so terribly screwed everything up. Perhaps it was the thought that one of them took enough responsibility for his own actions that he reported the truth to his boss. Perhaps because he felt caught up in whatever kind of game Henrique Alonzo might have been playing. “I certainly don’t hold any of them accountable.” 

Carlos shifted in his seat and scratched his nose. 

“Were your men out-of-line, Mr. Morales?”

“No, Mr. Alonzo. It is,” Carlos stammered for a second, “just as Mr. Stark say. Accidents. That is all. They are much sorry for what happened.”

Carlos was clearly as disconcerted by the conversation as Sam had been. Served him right.

“Do you have any ideas going forward, Samuel?”

Sam rolled his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “The lakes. It’s the only thing I can think of. If they aren’t being kept somewhere–and they feel like they’ve just been attacked–I think they’d scatter to their homes. To what they think is safe.”

Mr. Alonzo was nodding slowly and stretching back in his chair. Moments passed without any more words. Sam had nothing else to offer–the trio either went home, or he had no idea what they’d do–but Henrique seemed inclined to neither agree nor disagree. While the silence fogged the air, Sam noticed Bree had flown to the ceiling of the windowless office and was circling around the chandelier as the room’s main source of light. 

“Would you be willing to investigate the lakes? I can absolutely arrange for a new crew to work with you so that we won’t be encountering any more…,” Mr. Alonzo’s eyes moved to Carlos, “accidents.”

Sam felt his own words burning in his chest. He had nothing left to offer, so why was Alonzo still so willing to work with him? It did not make any damn sense. Was it just because his crew had godawful people skills and he needed someone to face for them? Was it because he, unlike the Hoennese workers, was less likely to get harassed by locals? These reasons did not seem to matter when it came to the secluded lakes. Sam weighed the notion that Mr. Alonzo would even tell him the truth if he asked; he could feel a tangible game of cat-and-mouse being played, but he could not put his finger on which role he was filling.

“Why?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t work for you. I barely know you. Why are you so interested in having me involved?” Sam’s posture straightened and he felt bold as he spoke the words. He figured, cat or mouse, it was worth a shot to try getting ahead of this game. 

Mr. Alonzo placed his hands on his desk and pushed himself up. Sam stayed in his seat as the president answered him. “I am, I’m afraid, using you, Mr. Stark. Not maliciously or cruelly, but simply because I need you. Could I find the legends without you? And bring them in? Almost certainly, yes. I am, if little else, a man of means. But then what? Then I get painted as a villain by a society that respects and adores men like Professor Rowan. My stature and wealth are used against me to portray me as an elitist or a smuggler or an eccentric or just someone who scoffs at the law. But you? God, Sam, you bring legitimacy. You’re the man who has faced so much; the everyman who needs the legends to repair your fractured life. Society will see you and your brother on every television channel in the world, and they’ll know I’m right. That our world deserves better.”

“Even if I don’t necessarily agree with your stance and I’m just doing this for myself?”

Mr. Alonzo drew in his lower lip, and Sam realized he must have been biting it, even if just slightly. “Even then, yes. All I ask is that you tell your honest story to the media and let them know how willing I was to help out. You don’t have to like or agree with me. Just be honest about what happened and the role I played.”

Sam tilted his head to his right. It seemed too easy, too little to expect in return. “Verity is the closest lake. I’m going there now; just have your boys call me when they arrive.” He knew better than to try to get anything else out of Mr. Alonzo. It was simpler to just let him play his own game while Sam ensured the safety of Tommy. After that was taken care of, he could deal with whatever Henrique had planned. After the president acknowledged his statement with a quick nod, Sam headed out the open door to the escalator. Carlos was right behind him. 

Sam wondered what Carlos was thinking. Was he embarrassed that one of his own men cut his legs out from under him? Was he happy to not have taken any more personal blame? Was he disappointed at the possibility of being replaced the rest of the way? Whatever it was, he wasn’t feeling any more like sharing than usual; he summoned the elevator and boarded after the pokemon and Sam without another word.

The doors opened a few silent moments later on the ground floor, and Monferno shocked Sam by breaking free of his grip and darting through the elevator corridor. Sam reached out to grab him, but Barry’s friend was already well out of range. He charged directly to the stairwell door in which it had been so interested before.

“Monferno, we’re done here. We’re not using–”

Monferno balled a fist. A thunder-like crack came next as he smashed the door open.

“No, Mon–damn it! No!”

As Sam gave chase, he couldn’t help but imagine the next time he had to visit Mr. Alonzo, the Phoenix Corporation president might just have all doors removed from their hinges in advance to expedite the inevitable.

Sam made it to the doorway, finding the door itself to be broken in half. Monferno was already out of sight, but Sam could hear him bounding downward, so that was the direction he took after him. Sam leaped over steps two-by-two in a frantic attempt to stop the monkey from destroying any more property. It was foolish to have let him out of the ball, Sam realized. He had no idea what the ape’s tendencies were. Of course he was as impetuous and instinctive as his trainer; of course!

A cream-colored blur shot by Sam as he rounded a turn in the stairwell. Vlam had caught up and was tracking down Monferno, too. Sam, in his haste to catch Monferno, had forgotten that his pokemon were all loose, too. Vlam was in front of him, and a look to his right showed him Bree, who was having a much easier time traversing stairs since she could fly. Chispa was nowhere in sight, but since he had stopped, he could hear her whimpering from several floors above him. Sam cursed to himself.

“Bree, go keep an eye on Chispa, okay? Don’t let anything happen to her. Can you do that?”

Bree bobbed in the air, then sped upwards to guard her little sister. Sam continued his rush down the stairs.

Having finally reached the bottom of the steps, Sam found yet another decimated door. This one had been wooden, and it had ruptured into splinters from whatever Monferno had done to it. The room behind the door was full of plumbing and large water heaters; pipes both thick and thin criss-crossed the ceiling and ran down the walls into each heater; the room reminded Sam of the puzzle games he’d play as a child, trying to follow a string from one end to another through a jumble of other strings. But what he did not see was any sign of Monferno or Vlam.

“Monferno! This is a boiler room, not a banana room! What are you doing here?”

He heard Vlam bark in response. They were definitely still there somewhere. Sam walked carefully through the boiler room, careful not to bump any pipes or disturb anything that Monferno hadn’t already. He called out to Vlam, and she reacted again, allowing Sam to follow her voice to wherever Monferno was hiding. He was briefly startled as a small, purple, stinging pokemon known as Skorupi skittered out in front of him, but before he could do anything about it, it vanished under one of the water tanks. Sam just wanted to get out of the room. Carlos and security were probably on their way down the steps to deal with the mess Monferno had made; Chispa was upstairs, probably upset by how quickly Sam had ran off. He felt bad about it, but until he had a chance to give the pokemon back, he knew Monferno would have to stay in his ball from here-out.

A last bark by Vlam directed Sam to a small broom closet doorway at the far end of the boiler room. The room appeared to be unlit, but as he approached, he could see sprites of flame dancing on the walls. The light from Monferno’s fiery tale, no doubt.

“All right, so what’s the big idea–” Sam began as he entered the doorway, but what he saw stopped him dead in his tracks.