“Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored,” Shaun muttered, staring at the clinic ceiling again. “Shall I compare thee to a boring day? Let me count the ways-“
Cleffa’s voice echoed from the reception area. “If you keep that up, I’m going to start screaming and I don’t think I’ll be able to stop!”
Shaun’s muttering subsided into grumbling. After being throughly scolded by Chansey, an experience he wished he didn’t have to repeat, he was forced on even stricter bedrest than normal. They had closed the window, to Shaun’s regret, and Cleffa had been instructed to stay awake until the clinic was closed for the night.
All in all, it was very boring. Shaun wanted to scream.
Espeon had visited him yesterday, but it was very brief. He had explained about Buizel being forced to rest, something Shaun quietly approved of, and about something he had to do tomorrow.
“Buizel will tell you more,” he had said. “He should be well enough by then.”
Shaun was tired of waiting. His leg had mostly returned to normal at this point, and he had stayed deathly silent about his broken paw. He didn’t want to be stuck in the hospital for another week.
Something Shaun hadn’t realized before being forced to stay in bed for two days was that Pokemon had unnaturally fast regenerative properties. His broken leg, something that felt like it should’ve taken much longer to heal, was pretty much almost fixed. He wiggled it through its cast, vaguely hoping it would get well faster if he did so.
Someone wandered in front of his bed. He looked up, expecting Buizel, instead seeing Ampharos. “Oh, uh, hello, sir,” he said, a little shocked.
“Afternoon, Shaun,” Ampharos replied. He surveyed Shaun curiously. “How’s your leg?”
Shaun moved his cast. “A lot better, but I’m still supposed to rest.” He didn’t sound as if he cared for the idea.
“I made arrangements with Chansey,” Ampharos said. “You’ll be able to stay at the lighthouse, with daily checkups to make sure you’re not doing anything too strenuous.”
Shaun stared at him for a second, processing this. “Wait, you- you’re getting me out of here?”
Ampharos nodded. “Indeed.”
Shaun sat up, finally taking interest in life again. “Oh my gosh, thank you so much,” he said, tears in his voice. “It’s so boring in here.”
Ampharos looked a little taken aback, but he helped Shaun out of bed and into the lobby area.
Cleffa was at the desk, a paper already prepared. “Just fill this out, Mr. Ampharos, and you’ll be good to go.” She sounded as happy to be rid of Shaun as he was to leave.
Ampharos took a minute to fill out the form, with Chansey scrutinizing it closely when he was done. “…aaaand that all checks out. Thank you for choosing to stay at Island Village’s clinic!”
Shaun nodded politely as they left the clinic, favoring his right paw. After they had walked around the bend, Shaun sighed in relief. “I hate it there.”
Ampharos glanced at him, slightly amused. “Dislike being confined in one space?”
“It’s fine for like, five minutes,” Shaun complained tangentially. “But as soon as you ask me to stay in that one space for longer than a day, I’m out.”
Ampharos chuckled. “Very understandable. I was quite like that myself when I was young, but then I found the love of my life, and staying in one place seemed much more attractive after that.”
Shaun nodded before looking up at Ampharos curiously. “I actually haven’t really heard you talk about your wife that much.”
He shrugged. “There’s not much to say, really. We were good friends who found marriage more of a reason to stay together longer, rather than any explicit romance.”
Shaun looked at the paved road. “That… sounds nice, actually.”
Ampharos’ gaze flicked to him for a moment, but he didn’t press the issue.
As they got up to the lighthouse, Ampharos took a sudden detour to the field in front of it. Shaun curiously stayed on the path until Ampharos waved him over. “What’s up?” he asked.
Ampharos stared at the sky for a moment. A cloud was above them, white and fluffy. Shaun watched as he pointed at it, a spark of electricity dancing off his paw.
The cloud suddenly grew dark, as if an entire storm was encompassed in the tiny cloud. Ampharos reached up a paw just as lightning formed and caught the lightning in a fraction of a second.
Shaun watched in alternating awe and horror as he seemed to fight with the lightning bolt for a fraction of a second, before shooting out of his other paw across the ocean.
The lightning crackled loudly as it sped across the ocean, eventually grounding itself in the water. Shaun didn’t realize how far it had traveled before the distant rumble of lightning reached his ears, making him jump.
Ampharos was panting from the effort. “And, once again, showing off was a mistake.”
Shaun stared at him. “You don’t say.”
Ampharos straightened. “I’ve come to the conclusion recently that if you keep getting into scrapes with no knowledge of how to defend yourself, you’ll be more of a burden than an asset to others.”
Shaun squirmed uncomfortably at the choice of words. “Um, what do you want me to do about it?”
“I don’t expect you to do anything,” Ampharos replied. “I am going to teach you how to use Electric-type moves.”
Shaun stared at him blankly. “Wait, really? You can do that?”
Ampharos nodded. “Every Pokemon knows four moves,” he began. “You technically could learn more than four moves at once, but you would have to have a very good memory to be able to use it properly.”
“I don’t know any moves, though,” Shaun said, a little disappointed.
“You do,” Ampharos replied, surprising him. “You just don’t know it yet.” He held out a paw, which began crackling with electricity. “This is a Thunder Punch.” He rotated his paw, letting Shaun admire the sparks dancing off of it. “The number one thing you should know as an Electric-type is how to ground yourself.”
“Ground myself?”
Ampharos kneeled on the ground and tapped his other paw to the green grass. The electricity around his paw immediately went out. “If you don’t return your energy to the ground at some point, you run the risk of burning yourself out when you use a move.” He stood up and brushed himself off. “Trust me, it’s very embarrassing for everymon involved when you pass out after using one move.”
“How do I do that?” Shaun asked. “I, uh, don’t know how it works.”
Ampharos considered him. “Well, first, we need to actually get charge into you. You’ve been through a few battles, surely you have some memory of generating charge.”
Shaun racked his brain for a minute. “Well,” he said slowly, “I seem to do my strongest attacks after I’ve been running for a while.”
Ampharos’ eyes flicked to his cast and then back to him. “There may be a small issue with that.”
Shaun laughed mirthlessly. “Yeah. No kidding.”
Ampharos tapped a paw to his chin in thought. “I have to presume that running is how you’re naturally supposed to generate your charge. Which presents a problem.”
“My leg is almost well,” Shaun protested.
“‘Almost’ is not ‘completely’,” Ampharos said. He looked at Shaun for another minute before walking over and ruffling his fur.
It was more than just a gesture of affection. Shaun felt electricity pour into him, his fur standing on end. He stared at Ampharos for a second. “What are you doing?”
“For the sake of learning how to ground yourself, I’m giving you charge,” he explained, stepping back. “Now, try pouring the power into the ground.”
Shaun, already standing on the ground, felt like this was useless advice. Closing his eyes, he pushed against the ground slightly, trying to will the electricity into it.
Shockingly, this worked. The strange, staticky feeling left his body, his fur returning to its rightful place.
Ampharos nodded in approval. “Good. This is something you should know cold before actually using any moves.”
Shaun cocked his head as he remembered the various fights he had been in. “Whenever I hit someone else with a, uh, charged tackle, it always seemed to ground me automatically.”
“Volt Tackle is a special case,” Ampharos said. “Usually, because you’re also moving at high velocity when you ram into your opponent, it’ll discharge the attack into your opponent.”
Shaun blinked. “Why don’t other moves do that?”
Ampharos snorted. “Because a Volt Tackle is reckless. You hurt your opponent, yes, but you also injure yourself in the process.”
Shaun mouthed a silent “O”. “Are there any moves that wouldn’t get me grievously injured, then?” he asked.
Ampharos took a step back and considered him carefully. “Well, I’m not entirely sure what moves you can learn,” he replied, “but we can hazard some guesses.”
“Shoot,” Shaun said.
He listed them off. “Thunder Fang, Charge Beam, Thunder Shock…”
“What’s the one you used?” Shaun asked, cutting him off.
“That was Thunder.” Ampharos looked at him with a little worry, the first Shaun had seen. “Are you sure you want to try and learn that one?” he asked. “It’s a very difficult move to learn.”
Shaun nodded eagerly. “I do want to try and learn Thunder,” he said. “It looked really cool.”
Ampharos studied him for a second. “Well, if you want to learn Thunder, we should teach you Thunder Shock first. It uses many of the same techniques that Thunder does.”
“That’s fine with me,” he replied. “So! How do we start?”
Shaun very quickly learned that controlling electricity was much harder than it seemed. He was able to direct charge just fine, but it always jumped exactly where he didn’t want it to. Several scorched marks in the grass later, he sat down and groaned in frustration. “Why does it keep doing that? I focus on exactly where I want it to go, and it goes the exact opposite way!”
“You most likely aren’t focusing hard enough,” Ampharos critiqued nebulously.
Shaun glared at him in frustration. “What is that even supposed to mean?”
Their conversation was cut short by Shaun noticing Buizel out of the corner of his eye. He stood up and watched as Buizel ran up the path to the lighthouse. “Oh, Buizel’s here!”
Ampharos also looked and frowned. “I hope he didn’t hurt himself. He’s favoring his right paw.”
As Buizel arrived, they realized why he had been holding his paw. Sparks of electricity crackled off of it in a veritable fountain. “Um, um, um,” he panted. “How- how do I turn this off?”
His voice told them that he was very clearly trying not to panic. “Touch me with it,” Shaun instantly volunteered.
Buizel looked at Shaun, confused. “But won’t it hurt-?”
“Nope,” Shaun said confidently. He didn’t actually know if it would hurt him or not, but Buizel didn’t need to know that.
Reluctantly, Buizel rested the crackling paw on Shaun’s head. His body soaked up the electricity like a sponge as Buizel suddenly slumped onto the ground, most of his energy apparently going with the charge. “Thanks,” he gasped.
Shaun didn’t know how much electric charge Buizel had until he touched him. He backed away, his body jerking unsteadily from the sheer amount of energy before he turned towards the ocean and stomped the ground in an attempt to ground himself.
The ground in front of him exploded.
He was sent scrambling away from the point of impact, gasping a little from the sudden noise. Directly in front of where he had been standing was a crater, still smoking from whatever had happened.
Shaun stared. Buizel and Ampharos stared. All three of them stared until Floatzel poked her head around the door, somewhat timidly. “Um, is there something I should be worried about out here…?”
Ampharos rubbed his forehead as if he was getting a headache. “No, everything’s fine,” he said. “Except for the fact that Buizel came home with an ungrounded Thunder Punch and Shaun accidentally used Thunder.”
“That was Thunder?” Shaun’s voice sounded pathetically quiet compared to the explosion.
“He knows Thunder?” Buizel asked, even more confused.
Ampharos threw up his paws. “He does now!”
The utter vexation in his voice caused the other two Pokemon to look at him as he trudged towards the house. “I’ll be back out in a minute,” he said. “I need some water.” They continued staring after him as Floatzel stepped aside to let him in and gently closed the door.
“That was something,” Buizel said faintly. He staggered a little as he pushed himself up. “Ow. I feel like I just ran a lap around the island.”
“How powerful are you?” Shaun asked, dumbfounded. “The amount of power in that move was insane! I thought I was going to explode!”
Buizel took a deep breath. “I’m… not really that powerful?” He sounded as confused as Shaun felt. “How the heck do you know Thunder?”
“I don’t,” Shaun huffed. “I was trying to get your dad to teach it to me, but apparently, if I’m charged up enough, it goes off like a bomb in front of me.”
They stared at each other for a second before Shaun walked up and awkwardly hugged Buizel. “I’m so glad to see you again.”
Buizel returned the hug. “Oh gosh, me too. Freaking Haunter thinks I’m dating Sneasel and beat me up over it.”
Shaun backed away and stared at him in disbelief. “Wait. Haunter thinks you’re dating Sneasel?”
He nodded. “I don’t know where he got the idea. Any reason to hate me more, I guess.”
Shaun laughed. “Dude, I hate to say it, but Sneasel is not interested in you. She likes you, sure, but not romantically.”
Buizel flushed with embarrassment. “I- kind of already got that. She’s nice, but I’m not really interested in her either.”
“I wouldn’t really consider her as nice,” Shaun said. “Amicable at best.”
Buizel snorted with laughter. “I should show you the letter she sent me yesterday. She was not happy that we went on our adventure thing.”
Shaun’s eyes widened. “No way. What did it say?”
“I’ll have to show you the letter,” Buizel replied.
Buizel mentioning their adventure reminded Shaun of what Espeon had told him the day prior. He cleared his throat and looked around conspiratorially. “So, Espeon told me yesterday that we’d have to do something today.”
Buizel’s eyes widened as he glanced towards the door. “Oh. Did he tell you that, too?”
Shaun shook his head. “He said that you’d tell me.”
“Well, um…” Buizel glanced at the door nervously as he began to talk in a low voice. “There’s some kind of meeting today, and we’re to ‘attend in Espeon’s place’. He explicitly told me not to tell Mom or Dad, which I don’t like at all.”
Shaun blinked. “No kidding,” he murmured.
“Apparently it’s supposed to help with stopping the Great Disaster,” Buizel continued. “I don’t know how, he didn’t elaborate further. But apparently it takes place at the tavern tonight.”
“I don’t think I’ve been there yet,” Shaun remarked.
Buizel opened his mouth to say something else, but the door to the house opened, causing them both to jump. Ampharos stepped out of the house, carrying the glass of water he was presumably drinking from.
“Hi, dad,” Buizel said nervously as he approached.
“What have you two been up to?” Ampharos asked curiously.
Buizel stared at him blankly. “Uh…”
“Crime,” Shaun immediately replied. “We were just… committing crimes. Invisible crimes that happened so fast that no one else knows about them. Or saw them. To an outside observer, it looks like we never moved.”
“If you’re not careful, I’ll have you sent to invisible jail,” Ampharos replied dryly as Buizel began to giggle. “It’s so invisible that you won’t know you’re in it until it’s too late.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve gone straight in the three seconds it took for you to open the door,” Shaun replied, to Buizel’s continued amusement.
Ampharos nodded and took a sip of his water. “Glad to hear it.”
Buizel calmed down enough to ask, “How did you get Shaun out of the clinic, dad?”
“I made an arrangement with Chansey,” he answered. “He’s almost well, as long as he doesn’t do anything strenuous he should be fully recovered in a day or two.”
Buizel sighed. “That’s a relief.”
Ampharos gestured between the two of them with his water. “And that means no more running off on ocean adventures or time travel or what have you. For either of you.”
Shaun nodded. “One near-death experience is good enough for me, thanks.”
“Same here,” Buizel volunteered. “Dying isn’t very good for my mental health.”
“It’s not very good for anything else, either,” Ampharos remarked. He looked at the sun, which was beginning to get low in the sky. “Already?” he muttered.
Shaun and Buizel both remembered with a start that time was beginning to screw up again. “When’s dinner again?” Buizel asked, trying to divert his father’s attention away from the sun.
“A few minutes, actually,” Ampharos said.
Shaun suddenly realized that he was half-starved. “Food would be amazing,” he said, beginning to limp towards the house. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in weeks.”
“Surely you’ve eaten breakfast?” Buizel asked, falling into step beside him.
Shaun shook his head ruefully. “No, Chansey really skimped on meals. Barely got anything.”
They entered the house, with Espeon nodding at them politely as they entered. Shaun didn’t notice he was there until had jumped up onto the couch to wait for dinner. He blinked at Espeon, who was reading a hovering book. “Oh, I didn’t know you were staying here,” he said, surprised.
“Temporary arrangement,” Espeon replied without looking up from his book. “Hello, Shaun.”
“Hello yourself.” Shaun watched the hovering book in interest as Buizel flopped onto the sofa next to him. “Do you like reading?”
“Quite a lot,” Espeon replied.
“He’s been systematically reading every book on our shelf,” Buizel added. “In fact, he might’ve already read every book on the shelf.”
“I am almost done with your library,” he admitted.
Shaun blinked at him. “Wait, you’ve already read all the books in the village library?”
This caught Espeon’s attention. “Village library?” he asked, glancing at Shaun.
Buizel nodded. “Yeah, there’s a library.” He glanced at Espeon. “You didn’t know that?”
“I left the village some time ago,” Espeon responded, returning to his book. “This is the first I’ve heard of a library.”
“You’d love it there,” Buizel said, slumping further into the couch. “Ugh, today was rough. I got slammed into a tree twice.” He held up both his paws. “Count it, twice.”
“What the heck happened?” Shaun asked, aghast.
Buizel let a paw drop. “First, it was Sneasel. I don’t really know what her angle was, but she was miffed that I had taken you off of the island. We talked it out though,” he added, to Shaun’s relief.
“What about the second time?”
Buizel groaned as he let his other paw drop. “Haunter. I don’t know what his problem was, either, but we had a fight out there. It was rough.”
Shaun surveyed Buizel. “You don’t look particularly worse for wear.”
“Shadow Balls don’t really leave a physical mark,” Buizel replied tiredly. “They just sap your will to live.”
Shaun snorted. “Well, you obviously lived.”
“That’s how I found out that I apparently know an Electric-type move,” Buizel continued. “He fired a Shadow Ball at me, and I tried punching it away from me.” He stared at his paw like it had suddenly grown four thumbs. “And then it kinda… just appeared.”
Espeon looked up at them again. “You know an Electric-type move?” he asked curiously.
Buizel threw up his paws again. “Apparently. No clue how, either. At least I know my fourth move now.”
There was silence for a moment. Eventually, Shaun asked a question that had been nagging him. “Hey, Espeon. How come you needed us to rescue you from the dungeon?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Buizel replied. “You can’t leave dungeons unless you have more than one Pokemon with you. That’s why so many get lost in them, they’re easy to enter and extremely hard to leave on your own.”
“Huh.” Shaun cocked his head. “That seems oddly arbitrary.”
“Mystery dungeons are living things,” Espeon said. “They have their own rules. You can leave if you have an explorer’s badge with you, due to the manner of their inner workings. But otherwise, you are on your own.”
They lapsed into another silence. It was nice to sit in a room with other people, even if they weren’t talking.
“Dinner’s ready!” Floatzel called from the kitchen.
Everyone appeared at the table except for Espeon, who was content to keep reading his book. Shaun didn’t really care what the food was, he was just happy to get a square meal.
After dinner, Buizel and Shaun resumed their places on the couch. Ampharos loitered around the house for a few minutes before departing quietly. Shaun didn’t think much of this before Espeon spoke in his head. It is time.
Shaun and Buizel both jumped. “Oh, already?” Buizel muttered.
He and Shaun slid off the couch, Shaun a little regretfully. “This better not end up with me in the hospital again,” he said.
At the door, Buizel called, “I’m gonna go for a walk with Shaun for a little while.”
“Okay,” came Floatzel’s doubtful reply. “Don’t do anything rash.”
They left the house, Buizel checking to make sure the door latched. “Okay, so I guess we’re headed to the tavern now.”
“Do you even know where it is?” Shaun asked as they began walking down the hill.
“I think it’s near the docks,” Buizel replied, sounding unsure. “Worst case scenario, we ask around.”
They arrived in town, which was still busy despite the hour. The sun still hadn’t fully set, but the lanterns hung up around the village were already beginning to cast pools of light on the pavement.
They made their way to where Buizel thought the tavern was. They found the building easily enough, surprising both himself and Shaun.
The wooden exterior was mostly unassuming, if not for the noise. Shaun winced as they approached it. “Wow, it’s lively here.”
Buizel nodded. “Yeah, not really a place for kids.”
“I’m seventeen,” Shaun said dismissively. “It’s fine.”
They entered the building proper and were hit with even more noise and the faint but unmistakable smell of alcohol. Buizel and Shaun quickly made their way to the back of the building where they could hear their thoughts easier.
“What do we do now?” Shaun asked. He didn’t have to bother with keeping his voice down.
Buizel rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, he said that he would show me the right place when it was time, but…”
“Another message?” Shaun asked curiously.
Buizel stared into space for a second before suddenly walking over to a board in the floor and lifting it up, revealing a hidden passage. “Of a sort,” he said sheepishly.
“Whoa,” Shaun said, glancing around at the surrounding Pokemon nervously. “Come on, let’s go.”
They managed to fit into the passage easily, albeit Buizel had to crawl. The board fell into place behind them, making the passage a whole lot darker. Shaun nervously went ahead, the passage barely wide enough.
They turned a corner and carefully proceeded down a slope, Shaun trying not to slip with his cast. It was slow going, but the floor leveled out eventually.
They entered a small room, a small spot of light shining on the ceiling. Shaun stepped aside to let Buizel in and looked around. “Where even are we?” he muttered.
“What are you doing here?!” a voice hissed, making both of them jump. Sneasel was glaring at them from a wooden beam, suspended above a thin wooden roof of some kind. “How did you even get here?!”
Buizel shrugged, a little embarrassed. “Um, another message?” he whispered.
Sneasel put a clawed hand to her eye, as if keeping it open was giving her a headache. “Okay, fine, whatever, but you need to leave. You can’t be here.”
“Why?” Shaun asked.
Sneasel huffed. “The seven Pokemon who run the town meet here every so often. They’re top secret, and no one is supposed to know about what happens in there,” she said, gesturing at the room. “I’m not supposed to know what happens in there.”
“Espeon told us to attend in his place,” Buizel explained, trying to keep his voice down. “Something about telling them about the Great Disaster.”
Sneasel stared at them. “You seriously don’t expect to just walk in there, don’t you?”
Shaun scrambled onto the wooden beam, all of them wincing at how loud it sounded. “Look,” he whispered, his cast sliding against the wood as he sat down, “we’ll figure something out.”
“As long as you’re quiet about it,” Sneasel muttered as Buizel also climbed onto the wooden beam.
Shaun was just barely in the right position to see through the peephole into the room. All he saw was a wood table, which didn’t help much.
“Alright,” he heard a familiar voice say, “let’s get down to brass tacks. I assume you’re all aware of the Time Gear situation?”
There was silence for a second as the three eavesdroppers exchanged knowing looks. “So glad they’re invested in my well-being,” Shaun muttered unhappily.
“We made a disturbing discovery yesterday: it’s gone missing.”
The room was filled with muttering. “I had my suspicions,” said another voice.
Sneasel’s face contorted into confusion. “This is different.”
“We’ve determined that it wasn’t stolen,” the first voice continued. “Time hasn’t stopped yet, which would have been a very obvious indicator.”
“How did they even learn that the Time Gear was missing?” Shaun asked amidst more silence.
“I was the one who reported it,” Sneasel said, staring down into the room, worried. “This is already a lot different. That’s not good.”
“You may remember the tipoff we got earlier this month about a possible theft of the Time Gear.” The voice cleared its throat. “We’ve come to the conclusion that it was not stolen, or else time on Fifty Island would’ve stopped completely. It is still somewhere on the island.”
“Sir,” another voice cut in amongst mutters and whispers, “how is that possible?”
“We don’t know,” a new voice stated gravely. “We should thank Arceus’ stars that we’re not frozen in time as we speak.”
Sneasel nodded towards it. “That’s the Master. He’s the one behind the entire council.”
The room fell into silence again. A glass was set down onto the table with a quiet clink.
Buizel and Shaun jumped as they heard Ampharos ask, “Are there any known side effects from the Gear missing?”
“Fantastic question,” the first voice replied. “Short answer: we don’t know. Longer answer; we have theories that time will act abnormal until the Gear is returned to its rightful spot on the island, but it’s been gone only slightly less than a week, so we don’t know if that kind of thing will be noticeable.”
“Why is my dad in there?!” Buizel hissed.
Sneasel looked at them in shock. “Wait, you didn’t know?!”
“Ah, so there’s no real use in worrying about it then,” said another voice pragmatically. “We do have mons searching for it, yeah?”
“We will after this meeting,” the first voice said.
There was a short pause. “I’ll get my mons on it as soon as I physically can,” Meowstic said begrudgingly.
Shaun, despite the situation, snorted. “He would be on the council.”
Sneasel flicked his ear, causing him to jump and upset his balance. “Be quiet or they’ll kill us.”
“Alright, that’s my piece for the meeting.” They heard the faint creaking of a wooden chair. “Sucks that it had to be the first thing on the agenda tonight, but whatever,” it muttered.
“Any other things we should know about?” the Master asked.
Unfortunately, at that moment, Shaun cast slipped out from underneath him.
He scrambled to grab hold onto anything as he slid off onto the beam. Buizel desperately grabbed at him, trying to stop him from falling, but he only succeeded in overbalancing and falling with Shaun.
The wooden roof was much thinner than either of them thought. It broke easily, depositing them onto the hardwood table along with ceiling detritus.
They landed heavily, the room reverberating with the sound. Above them, Sneasel curled into a ball, praying she wouldn’t be seen.
There was a stunned silence for almost 30 seconds before Meowstic stood up in his chair, furious.
“Who are you?” he asked.