Chapter Sixteen: The Will To Battle



Terra's POV



"YOU!" Shu yells, charging at the newcomer wish fists clenched.



The stranger neatly sidesteps the attack, sending Shu plowing straight into the wall. "Relax! I'm one of the good guys," the stranger says.



Shu stumbles back, picking himself up. "Well, you look an awful lot like the guy from Team Rocket that sicced a Rayquaza on Gary's house!" he snaps.



"Look," the stranger says, "maybe you've hit your head a little too hard, but there's more than one guy out there with lavender hair." He turns and looks at Ilima. "Although a male human with pink hair, now that's pretty rare."



The newcomer looks a little younger than James, and is dressed in a fancy red coat and a black eye mask. Notably, his left eye is covered with some sort of crystal that glows slightly. A visual aid, like a monocle? Not likely, as the facets of the crystal would make seeing through a stone like that pretty trippy.



"Name's Will," the guy says. "Will O' DeWisp. I take it you're the time travelers?"



"What makes ya say that?" Wes asks, skeptical.



"Well, there's the time ripple you left right outside, for one thing. Oh yeah, I saw that from inside the ruins. You know, the glitchmancers out there don't go into these ruins because it's taboo? Kept me off their hit list for a while now."



"Who th' hell are ya?" Wes asks.



"I told you -- Will O' DeWisp. But if you mean, what the hell am I doing here, well, I've been spying on those glitchmancers for a while now. I find them curious."



"Curious?" Wes gapes. "CURIOUS? They just frekkin' cursed me!" He holds out his hand as proof.



Will examines the scar. "Hmm... the Mark of Phancero. Yeah, that's not good. From what I saw, you wound up bound to the Squirtle shell in a Life Transference spell."



"Life Trans-whatsit?" Wes asks.



"Life Transference. The Squirtle shell was intended to bind the creature the glitchmancers sought to create to a physical form. If all had gone as planned, the sacrifice's life energy would be transferred into the shell in the shape of an elemental life golem."



Wes shudders. "An' I'd be dead?"



"Possibly. I'm still not sure what the final results would be because they've never been able to complete a spell like that. Usually, Mew tries to drop a tree on them or something like that whenever they show up." Will taps his foot thoughtfully. "Unless... the glitchmancers did something to Mew to keep it from interfering."



"I'd suspected that might be the case," Ilima says. "When I met Mew a week from now, it seemed pretty unhappy to be summoned. What do you think the glitchmancers could have done? Cast a spell, perhaps?"



"Not likely," Will says. "Mew could have countered glitchcraft. I'm thinking the likeliest story is that the glitchmancers poisoned or drugged an offering to Mew, to keep it unable to interfere with their doings."



Ilima shudders. "Why would they go so far as to create an abomination like this in a forest sacred to Mew?"



Will considers this a moment. "They likely thought that a forest housing the creator of Pokemon would have the best ambient aura field for creating new life. Don't ask me why they did so right outside a ruin they were forbidden to enter, but I'm guessing they prolly figured it had good magical vibes or whatever."



"But why create such a thing at all?" Ilima asks. "What purpose would a being of pure elemental fire have?"



Will considers this a moment. "Because they can? That's usually the answer with glitchmancers."



"Look," Wes says, "I'm more concerned that they know how to suck th' life outta people than what they intend t' do with it. Am I gonna wake up dead sometime? Or worse, made into one o' those... THINGS?"



Will walks up to Wes and examines his hand. "Hmm... I'd say that so long as both you and that shell avoid stepping inside any enchanted pentagrams, you ought to be fine. And before you start, no, I don't think it would be in your best interests to destroy the shell entirely. As long as you have that mark on your hand, your life force might still be bound to the shell in some way."



"How'd you know all this?" Shu asks.



"I make it my business to know." He fiddles with his mask a little. "I'm an empath. I sense aura waves created by emotions. But I don't just sense emotions; I can sense aura from even inanimate objects. And right now, Mr. Goggles here has his aura straight-up out of whack from that curse thing."



Wes shudders.



"Oh, where are our manners?" Ilima asks. "I'm Captain Ilima, and these are Wes, Shu, and Terra."



"And Hoopa!" Hoopa cuts in. She'd been so uncharacteristically quiet, I'd forgotten she was even there.



"And Hoopa." Ilima nods at her.



"This is my partner Kachu," Shu says, pointing at Pikachu. "And that Litten over there is Benga." Benga meows politely, then goes back to licking himself vigorously.



"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Will says, bowing with added flourish. "Hoopa, eh? I'll remember that. Normally this would be the point where I'd challenge you all to a battle, but... hey, you'd lose. Not much point in it, then."



"Excuse me?" Ilima asks. He seems almost offended.



"Well, I was something of a child prodigy. I won fights against grown-ups, for crying aloud. Small fry like you aren't worth my trouble."



"Is that so?" Ilima asks, a gleam in his eye. "Those are big words, but can you back them up?"



I can see them both reaching for their Poke Balls, so I interject. "Um, Ilima? Don't we need to be somewhere... you know, a week from now?"



They both freeze, and the aura of impending battle flickers. "You don't want to lose up against Team Rocket because you spent your team against this guy," I add.



Ilima takes a deep breath. "You're right, Terra." He takes a step backward. "Next time, Willow. Count on it."



"Will. Just Will." He grins. "So, any secrets from the future?"



"Jus' one," Wes says before Ilima can stop him. "Yer gonna wanna spend th' next week gettin' as far from Pallet Town as possible. Trust me on this one."



"And away from these ruins," Ilima adds.



"Got it. Thanks, guys," Will says, saluting. "And next time? You're not even gonna know what hit you, Lilyma."



"Ilima." He pauses. "And that's Captain Ilima to you."



"The captain of what?" Will asks.



Ilima pauses. "I'm not quite sure yet," he says. "But it's going to be fantastic."