Ash's Story (Part 6: Unova)

Chapter 26: Power and Pressure

Castelia City still looked enormous when we stood in Central Plaza, but it felt different after the Gym battle.

The buildings had not changed. The traffic had not softened. People still moved through the plaza like currents splitting around stone, and the city still smelled like pavement, food, and sea wind.

I had the Insect Badge safely away, and Swadloon's Poké Ball felt warmer at my belt than it should have. Burgh's Gym had been a place of threads, but those threads had opened instead of trapped us.

Pikachu sat on my shoulder, watching the crowd with bright eyes. His meaning came lightly against me. "Badge road clear. Dark ship still waits."

"I know," I murmured, keeping my voice low.

Alice walked close beside me. She did not look at the harbor, but I knew she remembered the strange ship too.

Golly checked the route map on her Rotom Phone while Gastly floated behind her like a purple shadow with teeth. "Route 4 is the next practical direction. We should leave Castelia while we still have daylight."

Iris stretched her arms above her head. "Finally! I want to see something that is not a sewer, a cocoon, or a huge building."

Cilan looked wounded. "Castelia's buildings are part of its flavor, Iris."

"And some flavors need fresh air," Iris said.

Before Cilan could defend the city again, a familiar voice reached us from near the plaza's center.

"Hello to you again!" Colress called warmly.

Dr. Colress approached with that calm smile of his, carrying a tablet-like scanner and wearing his neat coat as if dust did not exist in his world.

I felt my shoulders tighten before I could stop them.

Colress noticed. His smile did not change much, but his eyes did. "If it is not an inconvenience, may I have a look at your Pokémon?"

Golly looked at him immediately. "Purpose?"

Colress inclined his head. "Research. Observation. Measurement. I am studying the ways Trainers bring out the power of Pokémon."

Alice answered before I did. "That is the theme of his research."

Cilan's eyes sharpened with interest. "Bringing out the power of Pokémon?"

Colress brightened. "Precisely. Is it possible to bring out their maximum power through the bond they share with their Trainers? Or is there some other, different method?"

The words should have sounded harmless. They did not.

I knew what happened when people talked about Pokémon power like it was a locked room waiting for the right tool.

Still, Colress was not a Plasma grunt shouting liberation in a sewer. He was polite, careful, and connected to people I knew had trusted him before.

Golly did not lower her suspicion. "Observation requires consent."

"Of course," Colress said. "No coercion."

I glanced at Pikachu. "Your choice, buddy."

Pikachu hopped down from my shoulder and stood in front of me with his ears high.

Pikachu's meaning came steady. "I choose because you asked first."

I nodded and touched Absol's Poké Ball. "Absol, will you help too?"

Absol appeared beside Pikachu, calm and watchful. Its red eyes rested on Colress, then on the scanner.

Absol's meaning brushed through me like a careful warning. "Machine looks. It must not decide."