Here’s that next chapter segment I mentioned before. It’s incomplete but hey Colress appears and that’s what’s most important. XD This is a WIP so there will be changes between this and the final version, 3.8k words so far.
The Beyonders, Chapter 6 WIP: Connection
It sent him back, reading aloud like this. Back to their childhood, when they would read together with their dad every night…
A sudden pang of guilt and grief lanced through Ingo’s chest, sharp enough to make him stumble on the end of the sentence he’d been reading. He stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm himself, then put a bookmark in the book and closed it. They’d reached a natural stopping point anyway.
Ingo checked his phone and found that the meeting with Dr. Korten was mere minutes away now. Enough time to get himself in order and gather the Pokemon.
“The doctor will be here soon to talk about ways to help Emmet,” Ingo announced. “I don’t want it to be too crowded in here when she arrives, so at least four of you need to return.”
The Pokemon gave Ingo a chorus of affirmations, then huddled together to decide who would stay and who would return to their PokeBall.
Ingo left them to it and tucked the book away in his bag. He took a few more deep breaths, doing his best to let them out slowly; he was nervous for some reason, though he couldn’t pinpoint why. Perhaps worry that Dr. Korten would have nothing to help them in the end.
A claw tapped him on the knee, derailing his train of thought. Ingo looked up and found that Jack, Socks, Kraton, and Ratchet had volunteered to return to their PokeBalls while Zip and Bore remained behind. Ingo retrieved their PokeBalls from his breast pocket and held them out. Each Pokemon pressed the button to their ball and returned inside.
Ingo put the four PokeBalls away, his thoughts already starting to drift back to the meeting ahead.
Bore rested a digging claw on Ingo’s knee while Zip patted him on the head for reassurance.
“I’ll be okay,” Ingo said. “Make sure you don’t leave any static in my hair,” he added to Zip with a small chuckle.
Zip withdrew and gave Ingo’s hair an appraising squint, then began to paw the lingering static out with a contented glurgle. There was static in Zip’s voice, but it was far friendlier and more familiar than what lurked below the other sounds in the room.
Ingo laughed as Zip circled around him and continued to comb the static out of his hair. “Good job, Zip,” Ingo said once Zip withdrew. He combed his fingers through his hair—Zip had left it static-less but a tad messy—while Zip held his head high in triumph at a job well done.
A knock at the door interrupted them. Ingo stood and turned to it to greet the newcomers. Time to see what Dr. Korten could bring to the table.
The door opened.
“Good morning, Ingo,” Dr. Irdin said as she stepped inside. “Dr. Korten is on her way, but there’s something I’d like to talk to you about first.”
Ingo stiffened. “Yes?” Dread started to settle in; what reason could Irdin have for talking to him, other than a bad one?
“As I mentioned before, Dr. Korten is very accomplished in her field of study and she has an equally-brilliant team backing her up,” Dr. Irdin began. “And unfortunately one member of said team has a bit of a history in this region. You’re familiar with Team Plasma?”
“They caused a lot of trouble a few years back. People got hurt,” Ingo replied. He already knew he wasn’t going to like what Dr. Irdin told him next.
“Yes, that’s them. Colress is part of Dr. Korten’s support team,” Dr. Irdin said.
“Isn’t he a criminal?” Ingo asked, shocked. “Why wasn’t he arrested when he set foot in Unova?”
“He was pardoned by both the global and regional authorities,” Irdin replied. “I looked it up myself this morning, after he turned up in the hospital. He can come and go in Unova as he pleases,”she added, her nose wrinkled with distaste. She sighed. “I apologize for the unpleasant surprise. I would’ve warned you earlier if I’d known he would be involved.”
Ingo paused to take it in, his gaze on the floor to Irdin’s right. Colress had been the one to disband Team Plasma in the end and many of its former members of lower rank had tried to find a way to atone for what they’d done. He couldn’t deny that people could change, but... Colress had been responsible for a great deal of the harm Team Plasma had caused in their second attempt at conquering Unova. It was hard to believe that someone like him could change so drastically.
“Has he done anything bad since then?” Ingo asked finally. “Did he actually change at all?”
“Who can say with someone like him?” Dr. Irdin replied. Not the answer Ingo had wanted. “But he hasn’t been up to anything villainous, as far as I could find. He helped the Aether Foundation clear up some dimensional anomalies that cropped up in their main compound. That’s the largest incident he’s been involved with lately.”
“Dimensional anomalies?” Ingo asked as his full attention snapped to her. “Like rifts, or something?” He clasped his hands before him in an attempt to keep them from shaking.
“Exact details are hard to find, but apparently Team Rocket was responsible. Colress helped thwart them and then returned the compound to its normal state afterward.”
Ingo’s eyes went distant as his heart began to race. Paranoia crept in. Could Colress have been involved with— No, no. He was too noticeable, and Unova would not soon forget what he’d done in the past... If Colress had turned up months ago to collaborate with Lucius, people would’ve spotted him. Word would’ve gotten out, especially in a city as crowded as Nimbasa. The Gym Leaders and Elite Four would’ve been keeping tabs on him after they found out he was in the region. Ingo would’ve heard about it if Colress had been around back then.
All the same, he couldn’t keep his hands from shaking.
A set of gleaming claws settled gently on his clasped hands, followed by Zip’s wide paw.
Ingo let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
Irdin watched him, her brows drawn with sympathy. “He doesn’t have to be involved if you’re not comfortable, I’m sure Dr. Korten can make-do without him. I can talk to them about it for you before you even have to meet with them.”
“I’m used to being uncomfortable,” Ingo muttered. This was nothing compared to what he’d endured in Hisui, and it was nothing compared to what he’d gone through after the accident. Working with Colress was a discomfort he could endure, as long as it got results. He took a deep breath and looked up at her. “This is about helping Emmet. If Colress being involved improves our chances then I have to do it.”
“If you’re sure,” Irdin said, a hint of hesitance to her tone. “Still, if you ever want him removed from the team I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thank you,” Ingo said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’ll let them know that you’re ready.” Irdin left him again.
Ingo took another deep breath and let it out in a long sigh as he tried to calm himself. He let his hands drop, Bore and Zip lowering claw and paw as he did so.
Think about the positives… Colress was brilliant, questionable morals aside. If he was fully invested in helping to achieve their goals then he would be a valuable ally.
And as for his apparent knowledge of other dimensions…
It still had Ingo on edge, after his experience with Lucius. It was unreasonable to think all dimensional scientists were in cahoots with each other but his anxiety refused to listen. Lucius had seemed genuine in his desire to help too, and Ingo had been flung into the past without his memories because he’d given him his trust. He would have to be on his guard around Colress, at least until he had some guarantee that he meant no harm.
Ingo turned and walked to Emmet’s bedside. He brought a little order to Emmet’s limp hair as he thought about the coming introduction.
Strange that Colress would be involved with coma research, given what Ingo knew of his past scientific activities. Had he given up on his previous goal of drawing out the full power of Pokemon? Surely coma research had nothing to do with that...
A knock at the door broke Ingo’s train of thought. He turned to face it as it opened again.
The first woman to step through was unknown to Ingo, as was the younger woman who followed directly behind her. The third person to enter was—yes, the hair was unmistakable—Colress himself, clad in a significantly heavier coat than before but still wearing the same relaxed smile as he had in the pictures Ingo had seen of him. Irdin brought up the rear and closed the door behind them.
“You must be Ingo,” the first woman said with a welcoming smile as the group approached him. She was on the stout and round side, with curly brown hair that perfectly framed her face. “Pleased to meet you, I’m Dr. Korten.” She offered a hand to him as soon as she’d closed the distance between them.
“Nice to meet you,” Ingo said, allowing courtesy to take the lead as he returned the handshake. He glanced briefly at Colress, who already had his attention on Emmet.
“I believe a few apologies are in order,” Korten said gravely as she released him. “One of our team members severely understated his history in this region before he tagged along. It was an unpleasant surprise when we found out the full extent of it, to say the least.”
“I was pardoned some time ago,” Colress said cooly, his attention returning to the present conversation. “I didn’t realize there would be so much trouble over it.”
“He understated it on purpose,” the second, younger woman corrected him, her striking green eyes briefly flicking to Colress. She was slimmer than Korten, with medium-length lavender hair that curled at the ends like still-furled ferns. She wore a white doctor’s coat over her clothes as Korten did.
“Must you tell on me like this, Esme?” Colress asked with a touch of faux despair to his tone, though the smile remained unmoved. “You know it’s not polite to eavesdrop on my thoughts like that.”
“You made things needlessly complicated for us,” Esme replied with a small frown.
“We apologize for not being aware, and for not giving proper warning,” Korten continued. “Colress has helped us a great deal in our efforts, but if you’re not comfortable having him on the case given his history—”
“He can stay if he’ll help,” Ingo said, cutting her off. “Sorry,” he added, upset with himself for being so rude. He’d heard the same from Irdin, it was already covered ground, but that was no excuse to treat Korten like that. “I’m still a bit rattled from the news.”
“Perfectly understandable,” Korten said with a nod. “If you have any concerns going forward please let us know as soon as possible.”
“Shall we get down to business?” Colress asked. “If you’ll have me, of course,” he added with a shrug at the flurry of annoyed glances.
Ingo fixed him with an intense stare as he again weighed his options. “If you’re here to help Emmet you can stay,” he said finally.
“Well, I am indeed here to do that, so I will,” Colress said, as if this should’ve been obvious. “I’d like to get a few readings, see if we’re dealing with something we’ve run into before,” he added, holding a hand palm-up to show what appeared to be a sensor on the glove’s palm. “I don’t even have to touch your brother to get them,” he added.
“Fine,” Ingo said with a curt nod. He turned to follow Colress as he walked to the bed, positioning himself so he could keep an eye on him while still talking to Korten.
“You may have heard that our backlog of patients went down recently,” Korten said as Colress began to take his readings by passing the palm of his hand over Emmet. “It turns out that a significant number of those coma cases were caused by some manner of interdimensional interference. We had no idea until Dr. Colress joined our team, he’s been helping us with that and with the device we use to bring people up to full consciousness.”
“So you’ve dealt with cases like Emmet’s before?” Ingo asked, daring to feel a little hopeful.
“No case we deal with is exactly the same, but it does have some similarities,” Korten replied. “Particularly the lack of psychic or ghost interference paired with the unknown energy signature, and the unsuccessful waking attempts.”
“Has your brother attempted any interdimensional travel recently, by chance?” Colress asked as he tapped away on the console on his wrist.
“He hasn’t,” Ingo replied. “He’s been in a coma for months.”
“Interesting,” Colress said as he made another pass over Emmet. “The energy levels suggest it was more recent than that...” He then turned and held up his hand so his palm—and the sensor—faced Ingo. “And you?” Colress glanced at the holoscreen above his wrist. “You’ve been quite the restless traveler, haven’t you?”
Ingo took an involuntary step back. “I’m—so you’ll believe me?”
“But of course,” Colress replied. “I’m no stranger to interdimensional travel, or to interdimensional travelers. What’s really interesting is that one of the energy signatures showing up on you shows up on your brother as well. And when he hasn’t even done any travel himself. Very interesting.”
Ingo looked around at the others in the room—Korten and Esme wore expressions of sincere attention while Irdin’s was one of shock—and put a hand on Bore to steel himself while Zip took the other in one paw. “I didn’t have any hope that Emmet would get better, so a month ago I tried to go back in time to change what happened so he never got hurt at all,” he said, his eyes on the floor.
“So you pursued Celebi?” Colress guessed as he typed something into his wrist panel. “Meddling in the timeline isn’t an easy thing to do...”
“No, I tried to do it without Celebi. There was someone helping me, a scientist by the name of Lucius Moor. He told me it could be done with rift travel.” Ingo looked up at Colress. “Do you know him?”
Colress’s smile faded, his brows lowered in a troubled expression. “I’ve never heard of him. And besides that, I’ve never heard of someone successfully using interdimensional travel to go back in time...”
“I don’t remember the day it happened, but I ended up in Sinnoh, back when it was still called Hisui.”
Colress gave him a look of sincere shock. “A bit far off the mark,” he said. The troubled expression returned, and his gaze wandered the floor as he thought aloud. “Time travel via rift... Did he go to a parallel universe, or dip back into our own after stepping outside of time?” Colress muttered as he tapped away at his wrist panel. “Perhaps it’s impossible for two same-universe versions of a person to exist simultaneously at any point in the timeline, resulting in the missed target...” He looked up at Ingo again. “And you said this happened a month ago? How did you get back?”
Ingo took a deep breath. Here came the really unbelievable part. “Arceus escorted me back here to my appropriate time,” he replied.
“So the stronger bit of residual rift energy is from Arceus itself?” Colress asked, leaning a little closer in his eagerness.
“Yes. It brought me back the night before yesterday,” Ingo replied.
“Incredible!” Colress said, his smile having returned. “Making a note of that...” he added, tapping away on his wrist again. “And you’re sure it wasn’t responsible for the first time this happened? The energy signatures aren’t identical, but they’re similar enough…”
Ingo paused. “If I knew I’d tell you,” he said, trying to remain calm. The implication was a frightening one. Could Arceus be toying with him? Had his stay in Hisui been some sort of game to it, or some complicated scheme to get him to babysit its youngest shard?
“I’d be delighted to find out,” Colress said as he made another note.
“You’re taking this better than I thought you would...” Ingo said slowly. He did his best to shove his worries about Arceus’s intent to the back of his mind for the time being.
“Arceus’s existence isn’t terribly surprising. Its status as any sort of universe-creator, however...” He paused and looked up at Ingo again. “Huh. Your brother has residual energy from your first bit of travel on him, but not from the second one...”
“The waking attempts stopped roughly a month ago, according to the information Dr. Irdin shared with us,” Korten cut in. “And that was when the odd phenomena intensified as well. Could the change in Emmet’s condition be somehow connected to that first bit of interdimensional travel?”
“It’s possible,” Colress replied. “But I have to do more analysis before I can draw any solid conclusions.”
“They’re connected,” Esme stated.
Korten and Colress turned to her. “You’re sure?” Korten asked.
Esme nodded. “The brothers share a psychic connection. I can see it now.” She pointed at Ingo, who stared at her in surprise—even Caitlin hadn’t been powerful enough to see it outright.
“But neither of them are listed in the psychic registry,” Irdin said.
“It’s recently awakened,” Esme explained. “It’s not refined, as it would’ve been if they’d been trained to use it.”
“And when do you suspect this connection awakened?” Colress asked. He was more lively now, clearly excited by the unfolding developments.
“You should ask Ingo,” Esme replied, turning her attention to Ingo. “It’s his power.”
Colress gave Ingo his full undivided attention. “Yes, please tell us more,” he said. It was the most open he’d been since walking through the door, a raw enthusiasm that almost bordered on overwhelming. “Actually, one moment,” Colress said, holding up an index finger. He brought the nearest chair over, drew a slim laptop from the messenger bag he wore, and sat down with the open laptop at the ready. “Now, tell us when this connection awakened,” Colress said, looking up at Ingo again.
“Why don’t we all have a seat first?” Korten suggested.
They each found a chair and arranged themselves in a rough circle near Emmet’s bed.
“Please tell us as much as you can about this connection you share,” Korten said once they were seated. “It may make things easier for us due to the methods we use to bring our patients to full consciousness.”
“How so?” Ingo asked.
Colress fidgeted in chair, plainly annoyed at the delay in acquiring the answers he sought.
“We use a special device called the Bridge to connect the patient’s mind with that of a close loved one,” Korten began. “And with Esme’s help we then guide that loved one through correcting whatever issue is preventing full consciousness. It’s a sort of dream-like inner world that you’ll be traversing once we get it running.”
“Oh.” Ingo relaxed a little; perhaps this whole affair would be easier than he thought. “Emmet and I became connected through our dreams after I went through the rift the first time. I’ve talked to him twice while dreaming since I got back.”
Irdin stared at him in plain amazement. “Why didn’t you mention this?”
“Disbelief,” Ingo replied, bringing a hand to the side of his head. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea. I only started to realize it because Caitlin pointed me in the right direction yesterday.”
“How did you first notice this?” Esme asked, fixing him an attention that while intense was nothing but polite.
“While I was trapped in Hisui without my memories, Emmet would call out to me every night in my dreams. I didn’t remember who he was at the time, but I knew he was important. And then one night his voice started getting weaker, I was so afraid of losing him that it got most of my memories to snap back together.” Ingo paused to look at Emmet for a few moments, then returned his attention to the group.
“You two must share an incredibly strong bond for his mental voice to reach across time and space like that,” Colress said as he typed away on his laptop. “Psychic power alone wouldn’t be able to do that normally. Would it, Esme?” he added, glancing at her over the top of his screen.
“Not by itself,” Esme confirmed. She returned her attention to Ingo. “So it was your bond with your brother that got your memories to return? And you mentioned you’ve been talking to him in your dreams now that you’re back.”
Ingo nodded. “I found out a few things about his condition too, I think,” he said, doing a quick mental sort of what he could and couldn’t tell them—anything that drew attention to the ArcWatch was out of the question, especially with Colress involved.
The rest of the circle listened eagerly, making Ingo a tad self-conscious. He glanced down at the floor to give himself a bit of reprieve from their stares.
“Have you ever encountered any static entities in your cases? Like, blobs of static that squirm around when they move?” Ingo asked, looking up at them. “And can you hear them right now?”
“I can,” was Esme’s immediate reply. “It makes the inside of my head itch.”
“So one of the energy signatures belongs to those,” Colress muttered as he typed.
“I think they’ve been there since before I went through the rift,” Ingo said.
“So what are they, exactly?” Irdin asked. “And why isn’t there more information on things like this?” she added with a sigh and a shake of her head.
“We only just discovered the link between some of the coma cases and extradimensional phenomena,” Korten replied. “With Colress’s help, in fact.”
Colress’s smile widened a tad. “I initially joined Dr. Korten’s team because her methods for curing patients were relevant to my main field of research,” he added. “And it was a very happy little stroke of luck that other dimensions are an area of interest for me as well.”
“As for whether we’ve encountered static entities specifically, no. But we’ve encountered things that are similar to them, I expect,” Korten said, picking up Ingo’s first question.
“If they’re like the entities we’ve dealt with before then I can extract and destroy them if they haven’t embedded themselves too deeply already,” Colress added. “And if they are embedded we’ll just have to do a bit of work to root them out first.”
19 notes
·
View notes