Celebi Like Them (14)

Quinn took a few minutes to catch his breath, there atop the upper balcony. There were no chairs or cushions here, just the rails and the security hardware facilitating the way back inside. He sat on the edge, not caring about the dirty looks the guard inside occasionally shot his way.

The mew don't like the Pokémon who came from them. They're trying to cure us so desperately they don't care if anyone gets hurt in the process.

The why was less clear. The other Pokémon already existed, and clearly weren't going anywhere. The other mythicals all still existed into the present day, regardless of what this "hospital" wanted to do.

I'm far in the past. Anything I do here might change the future. Could I change something so badly that I'm never born?

Quinn had spent a lifetime researching time as a physicist might. But even inside his field, there was no consensus about things like paradoxes. At least he could operationally disprove the impossibility of reverse time travel. It worked. It could work again.

Quinn lifted off the balcony, and glided down towards the ground. It still felt like a long way, though it couldn't be more than three meters high. Shame he couldn't get out to see the rest of this Mew city, it was probably a fascinating place.

He didn't have to go far before Cedrin found him, buzzing up with damaged wings but a proud, satisfied expression. "Quinn, you were right! It worked, I did it! There was nothing, then there was a flower! I felt it grow!"

He sounded so excited, so fantastically proud by what he'd just done, that Quinn couldn't help but embrace him. The little fairy didn't just sound better, he looked a little better too. His skin didn't feel as dry against Quinn's. "Told you!" He drifted back towards the grass, if only so the shrubs and fake trees would make it harder for any guards above to watch.

And if he had his telepathy back, he might as well use that. Anyone who could build aircraft that didn't need wings probably had little microphones everywhere. But could they overhear thoughts too?

"You did amazing, Cedrin. I bet that Shaymin is doing much better."

He nodded eagerly. "She transformed! I haven't seen her move that much in weeks! She got so big, it looked like she was gonna fly away!"

His antennae sagged as he said it, and the smaller Celebi avoided his eyes. "There was nowhere to fly to, obviously. It's not a very big place."

Unlike his own species, Shaymin were relatively common in his own time, common enough that some of the trainers who partnered with them did interviews. Her powers work the same now as they do in the present. What do I know about the others here?

"Her mom wants to thank you! Probably on her way over now! You knew more than the doctors!" Cedrin touched down, looking relieved to have his feet back on the ground. Which made one of them. Quinn had just spent plenty of time recovering from the cruel touch of gravity. He didn't need to deal with it again.

Quinn's wings kept open, and his focus spread between the two of them. If he could hold up a struggling kitten, he could keep a fairy from getting squashed. No flower could bloom when shoved into a space too small for it!

The smaller Pokémon glanced briefly back at him, obviously relieved. "I miss being able to just do that. When I wasn't a degenerate mutation, I mean. Miss my tail too." He was back to speaking out loud. Even if the young Celebi's telepathy was more graceful than Quinn's, it still took focus that might not come easy to him.

They weren't wandering at random, but back to the little "apartments" tucked into the back corner. The space wasn't large, but at their size it would still be a few minutes of walking yet.

Fine by Quinn—he didn't want to go inside anyway.

"How long has it been since you were a mew?" he asked. With telepathy instead of something cruder, since he could send the concern along with it. It wouldn't feel just like he was sticking his nose somewhere it didn't belong, not when Cedrin felt what came along with it.

The Celebi stopped walking. It wasn't the weight of gravity crushing him now, not with Quinn holding it off him. This was a simpler pain.

"A while. I'm an 'intractable' case. The mutations are deeper when they happen young." He stopped beside the pond. Overhead, the false sunlight was beginning to dim. Whoever ran the hospital did not care very much to make day and night feel realistic. There was no progression of darkness across the sky, it all dimmed at the same time, like the kitchen lights did with a twist of the wheel in Quinn's apartment home.

"You'll probably be cured soon. It was the same the last two times someone like me came here. I hope you come back and visit after you go."

Quinn had not been an older sibling before. He had no practice giving this kind of comfort. He had hoped that he and Avery would adopt one day, and that he would get to raise a child.

He hadn't studied the topic very much; there was no equation for proper childcare. His many years of higher education had shown him no calculus for kindness.

Telepathy was a bit of a cheat, and having antennae helped in some other ways. Quinn wrapped one arm around the kid, as far as his tiny limbs would allow.

"I was never a mew, Cedrin. If there was some way to change me back, I'd probably end up a kitten like my friend." He shuddered at the thought, touching his free hand to his head. Currently enormous, the single reason he needed to use a bit of psychic powers to keep them comfortable. It was that stupid head on his tiny neck.

"I don't think I like that idea very much. Couldn't tell how much of her got changed when she transformed. But I still feel like myself."

Cedrin stared up at him with his own oversized eyes seeming even larger thanks to young anatomy. Hard to imagine anyone looking at a face like that and deciding they were a threat. "You're not a wild animal!" He took a step back, out onto the pond. His own wings buzzed, giving a little extra lift that Quinn's own focus didn't.

"I know what wild animals are like. They can't learn things, can't remember anything their parents taught them. When I still lived upstairs, the Admiralty was talking about... some kinda gas, to clear things up for people to live." He floated right over to Quinn, poking his chest. "I think you were an important cat, and you just don't wanna admit it. Maybe even worked in my mom's chronology lab, because you couldn't look like me otherwise. Or you could've been on the Fleet Council."

"It's not nice to pry," said another voice, from much closer. The leaves parted, and Aria emerged from within. The Pokémon hadn't changed in any physical way since Quinn left for his brief meeting. Yet she was also almost unrecognizable. She walked directly over to Quinn, then lifted him in those stubby little arms and held on.

He needed no telepathy to feel the hot tears on his face. "Arceus must've sent you, Quinn. I can't think of any other explanation. You knew. If I still believed in him, I would pray for thanks. But I don't, so thanks to you instead."

He squirmed, legs dangling just above the ground. It didn't hurt, much. Though he didn't feel terribly comfortable to be out of his own control, either. Somewhere deep within, that scientific part of himself remained. He wasn't an anthropologist, but there were probably several who would wonder what it meant that a nonhuman culture worshipped the same god.

"I just shared something obvious. Shaymin need the Gracidea. They're the only pollinators, despite lots of bug Pokémon who live in the same ecosystems. You can't have one without the other."

She set him down abruptly. But only so something small and fast could smack into him from the side, tackling him to the water. He splashed and rolled, before managing to get one small hand around the paw pressing on him.

He hadn't ever seen one in person before, but still he recognized it: Sky Forme Shaymin. This one was younger than most, with paws bigger than the rest of it. Importantly, the vulpine shape wasn't as wilted and decayed as the hedgehog shape had been earlier. But it's getting dark. She's going to lose it.

"Quinn! Cedrin made me a flower! Said you taught him how! Knew there was a special one!"

He wiggled free, sitting up in the sand. Despite the growing darkness, he could still see the sharp green of the water, and smell the algae within. Shame that grass types couldn't be as successful down here.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," he said, nudging the Shaymin off him. She still licked at his face, far closer to Pokémon behavior than anything “civilized.” But he'd seen his best friend licking herself not long ago, too. He would have to let go of human biases to survive in this ancient time.

Another little shape popped up from the gloom nearby: the Manaphy, tiny face grinning at them both "Swim with me?"

"Sure!" Aster turned and dove in, then paddled across the pond, oblivious to the fading light above. How much fake light would it take for her to lose her forme?

I saw a shower in the apartment. I can get the pond scum off upstairs. But a little mild discomfort could wait.

"They did not intend for you to wake," said a voice from just behind him. He turned, and the other few Pokémon did too. Bright eyes glowed from the trunk of a nearby tree. Seconds later, a flickering form appeared beyond, its body transparent. The frightening dead were real too. "But they didn't intend my daughter to live. A relief to see their plans come to ruin."

He approached, separating from the lengthening shadows behind him. Quinn could not feel his thoughts the way the others shared so freely. He could be coming to unleash some painful torture on Quinn. Nothing dead should move.

He fought his fear, keeping tiny feet in the grass as the ghost approached.

"There will be a price exacted against us. Our jailers will wish to discover the source of our information and root it out. Only those who can be cured would leave alive."

Quinn shrugged. He couldn't even be sure his powers worked enough to send simple telepathic messages to the ghost. But he could try, and hope he would allow it to be overheard. "I don't care what they allow. I'm getting out of here."

It must've worked, because the Meloetta spun her way over in the growing darkness, gathering with them. Quinn stepped aside, giving Cedrin room to join too. He did, though he cowered behind the larger Celebi. As though he could protect the kid from a ghost. "How? There's no trick you can try that my mate hasn't already attempted."

Quinn gestured at the water. "It's getting dark. Your daughter is about to lose her transformation. They always do, when it gets dark. She should sleep close to the flower. Under it, if possible."

He had barely even sent the thought before the excited splashing and high voices transformed from laughter to something else. Panicked splashing, and a tiny voice called out from within, shrill.

Quinn was too slow to react. Aria was faster, splashing forward and waving at the water with those stubby little arms. Something lifted out from within, dripping wet. That small, pathetic Shaymin—though less pathetic than she had been. There didn't seem to be as many missing patches of grass from her back as before!

"You knew that too," the ghost said. "Can you say such things about every mutant here?"

Aria carried the little Shaymin past them. Not towards the apartments, but the nearby grove of trees where Quinn had first met them. Probably where Cedrin had grown that first flower.

They're listening to me. If everyone does, we might actually escape this place.

"More about some, less about others. Not every Mythical wants to be around—" He stopped himself short. "Some are more private than others. Or they were closer to my area of investigation. Like Celebi." He shook himself off, and found most of the moisture trickled down to the floor around him.

There were some benefits to the waxy skin of a plant. Hopefully he didn't absorb too much of it that way.

"There's no point trying to get out of here," said another silent Pokémon. Quinn recognized her by the heat, and made no move to turn around. If he didn't look her way, maybe she wouldn't attack him this time.

Victini landed next to him, where Aria had been a few moments before. That made Cedrin retreat, backing closer to the ghost than the bunny. But Sable wasn't actively burning them. "There's nowhere to go. Even if I could break our way out, the Admiralty would send destroyers after us. They'd bombard us from orbit. Melt us to glass."

Quinn shrugged. "I had a different idea for escaping this place. When I was up top, I saw gaps behind the wall panels. There's rock back there, with damp limestone. Before it was a hospital, this place was a cave."

The ghost sighed, his flickering body becoming diffuse and unfocused. "For a moment I almost believed you had a plan, Quinn. But no—there is no escape behind the facilities. I have been everywhere, squeezed into every inch. The cavern is sealed. Even if it weren't, the containment field can't be breached without enormous energy. It would be difficult to cut through without turning everything inside into plasma in the process. I do not wish for others to suffer as I have."

His words became as indistinct as his body, as though it were drifting away in an unseen breeze. Quinn replied anyway. "I figured there were no easy ways left. But there wasn't always a hospital here. We don't have to escape now, we'll do it then."