The Four Mirrors
Sequel to ‘Legacies’
By MMM/AJ
Chapter I – V1
The Johto Government Administration Complex in Goldenrod City was one of the dullest and drabbest places Venius had ever seen. Endless seas of grey and taupe walls and cubicles filled the halls like a vast flat sea of colorless uniformity. Humans in equally drab business suits milled about their daily business, soullessly grinding away at their endlessly boring paperwork. They turned their heads and stared up at Venius and his brothers as the 4 of them walked through. To Venius it was almost like watching the heads of peels poking out of their hiding places in a big grey and taupe coral reef. They all watched warily, almost like Venius and his brothers were sharks or some other predators intruding upon their little reef of mediocrity.
They finally found the small waiting room outside the office of the Governor of Johto and walked up to the secretary’s desk. When he saw them approach he jumped in his seat and spilled his coffee all over the floor in shock.
“We’d like to see the Governor please.” Opulous said politely.
“D-d-do you have an appointment?” the secretary sputtered, staring at them partly in fear and partly in awe.
“What do you think?” Venius quipped sharply.
“Um…uhhh…just a second please.” The man said, and climbed out of his seat clumsily and walked over to the door of the Governor’s office. He opened it just wide enough to fit his head through and peeked in.
“Sir…the sons of Tanis want to see you.”
“What? Who’s Tanis?”
“The one that the psi-slayers murdered with a bombing run about 18 years ago, remember? One of the Mewtwo species.”
“…Show them in!”
The secretary waved to Venius’ group and they walked past him through the door as he opened it. The Governor was a short chubby man with an obvious toupee, but he had a look of kindness and generosity about him that seemed to have a calming effect on Venius. The nameplate on the desk read “Cardan Taman, Johto Gov.”.
“What can I do for you fellows?” Taman asked.
“I wanted to discuss the dump-lands south of Orre. I’m interested in acquiring them.” Opulous said, taking the initiative before his brothers could speak.
Taman’s face passed through a myriad of emotions, starting with happiness and then confusion. “Well, that’s great! I think…But I can’t make that decision on my own you know, I’ll have to talk to the other Governors.”
“When should we come back?” Cygnus asked gently.
“Oh, you don’t have to leave; I can call them all up for a holo-conference. I should think they’d like to see who was asking for ownership of that dump…err, place.”
Venius chuckled a bit and they nodded a general agreement to the conference. Taman dialed various numbers into the digital interface in his desk and slowly the other Governors appeared in holo screens around his desk. First to appear was Colene Stefanick of Kanto, who had short black hair and a small transparent digital screen over her left eye. She was youthful and elegant despite how stuffy her professional clothing appeared. Next was Irwin Elwood of Hoenn, a middle-aged man with brown hair and ugly purple rings around his eyes that indicated a lack of sleep. The final two governors appeared simultaneously: Kurtis Genning of Sinnoh and Maris Pullano of Orre. Genning was wearing a military uniform of some type and had a pristine crew cut to attest to his meticulous obsession with perfection, and his face was marred with an ugly grimace of frustration. Pullano was an extremely thin and pale woman who appeared sickly and weak but still managed to seem dangerous.
“What the hell is so important that you had to call us all up lat-minute for a video conference?” Pullano droned tonelessly, giving Taman a lethal stare.
“I’m sorry for interrupting your schedules everyone, but I may have finally found a solution to our problems with the South Orre Dumplands. Someone is interested in acquiring them!” Taman said eagerly.
Pullano’s face brightened dramatically, as if she had been under some sort of curse and Taman’s words had instantly lifted it. “Really?! Who are they?”
“Right here. Everyone, these are my friends Opulous, Venius, Cygnus and Nolus.” Taman said, gesturing to each of the brothers.
The Governors, who seemed to have been ignoring the brothers before, all turned and looked at them. Venius immediately felt a bit nervous when he saw Genning’s face turn from irritated to enraged.
“What? But they’re Pokemon! Pokemon can’t legally own land!” Genning growled.
“I know what the law says, but-” Taman began, but Genning interrupted him.
“But what? You want to start a court case for the legal status of these animals? I don’t have the time or the patience to sit through it, and I have doubts about your chances for success. Not that I’d support such an initiative in the first place.” Genning said haughtily.
Venius ground his teeth but managed to suppress his anger. He didn’t want to blow their chances.
“What are you going to use this land for?” Stefanick asked calmly before an argument could erupt.
In an instant Venius forgot his rage, it melted into a mild panic. He didn’t want to give away the fact that they were going to build a town, perhaps eventually a city or a whole nation on this land, but he hadn’t thought of any other explanation for it in the mean time. He mentally fumbled as he tried to think of something to say, but thankfully Nolus spoke before an awkward silence could fill in the gaps.
“We’re starting a new environmental initiative of our own to clean up tainted lands so that wild Pokemon besides Grimers can live in them. We’re going to use our psychic abilities to collect and isolate the toxins and then send them into space. We plan on living there during the restoration and hopefully afterwards to maintain the land, pending your approval.” Nolus said amiably.
Besides Genning, the other governors seemed impressed. Venius got the distinct impression that perhaps part of the reason they were so impressed was that Nolus had managed to maintain his friendly demeanor despite Genning’s angry tirade.
“An admirable goal indeed!” Elwood said with a tone of approval.
“I’m more than willing to give you the land free if it means putting a stop to the constant seepage of sludge into our farmlands and cities!” Pullano said eagerly.
“I think that if it weren’t for the ownership law this would be a fantastic idea.” Stafanick concluded.
“Well I won’t let it stand! I’ll take it straight to the Prime Minister if I have to!” Genning snarled.
“Wait, I have an idea!” Stefanick chimed in. “Why not designate the area as a Wild Pokemon Preserve, and also mark it as under renovation? As far as I know there’s no law on the books that specifically forbids a Pokemon from holding the position of Caretaker. That way you could be legal permanent residents there and take responsible for the maintenance and development of the land.”
“All in favor?” Taman asked happily.
Genning looked even sourer than before couldn’t raise an objection. This time he abstained while the rest of the governors voted for it, and the holo-conference ended. Venius felt a sense of victory even greater than the time when he had watched Admiral Dupree being executed. He loved that look of fury and defeat on Genning’s face and relished the thought of him having to deal with it for a few hours.
“Alright guys, you’ll have to fill out some online forms for me and bring them back in a day or two. We still have to get the Prime Minister’s approval, but he’s not exactly a stingy asshole so I doubt he’ll nix it. Especially since he’s too busy handle economic issues right now to have to deal with vetoing a measure that the governors have majority on.”
Venius took the digital pad that Taman presented them and glanced over the form. It looked complex and irritating but not impossible. He frowned briefly and handed it to Opulous.
“Thanks Mr. Taman, if you don’t need anything else we’ll be going now.” Cygnus said politely.
“Actually, there was one thing I wanted to discuss before you go. Would one of you mind closing the door please?”
Venius quietly closed the door telekinetically and the lock made a gentle click. Taman looked a little spooked for a moment and then squeaked out a small self-derisive laugh.
“It’s easy to forget the scope of your powers.” He said nervously. “Now then. Do any of you know Shakara et Benca?”
Once again, Venius didn’t quite know what to say, but one of his brothers picked up the slack.
“Yes, she was our aunt. What about her?” Opulous asked.
“Well, I may have a lot of paperwork to do here, but I have a story to tell you that demands I make time for it.”
“Wait, if you’re that busy then we can just read your mind. It’ll only take a few moments.” Opulous.
“Uhh, I don’t know how comfortable I am with that…” Taman said.
“It’s not like we’re going to dig for your life secrets and personal shames, we’ll only see what you want to show us.” Cygnus said reassuringly.
Taman seemed to squirm as if he were being forced to sit on an anthill. His face twisted with indecision and he wrung his hands together uncomfortably. “Alright, go ahead.”
Opulous did the actually mind reading by himself and simply transmitted everything he saw to Venius and the others to save time and energy. Venius understood why Taman was so hesitant to allow them to read his mind; he had been a part of a wing of soldiers specifically tasked to capture Shakara back during the time when the Psi-slayers had been in power. Apparently he was planning on smoothing over that fact or perhaps even hiding it from them in the verbal version. But the rest of the story was spotless from there; he had been stabbed and threatened by Shakara during their ambush upon her, but she decided to spare his life. He then followed her into the basement and managed to save her life just as one of military’s hunter-seeker drones was about to fire a bolt of plasma into her face. Venius hoped that the story would give them much needed resolution over whether Shakara was truly dead or not, but to his disappointment it ended with her teleporting off to her fleet to take the fight to the UN.
“…Thank you.” Cygnus said softly after they finished. “Even if this still doesn’t completely answer what happened to her, at least we now know that she put up one hell of a fight.”
“You’re not mad at me for being a part of that group?” Taman asked.
“What would be the point of it? You left the Psi-slayers afterwards so it’s obviously you learned from your mistake. You helped save our aunt, got out of that hellish organization with your reputation intact and now you’ve helped us find a new place to live. If anything I’d consider you a good friend!” Nolus said warmly.
Taman looked relieved. “Glad to hear it. If all goes well and you get that place of yours cleaned up, it could be good publicity for all of us.”
Chapter II – EI
Emael Redclaw, Venius’ first son, scowled as he strode through the city with his family. Anger seemed to fir his appearance, it complemented his deep orange fur and made him feel like he looked dangerous. Even though he was 18 years old he still had a bit of an immature attitude and liked to intimidate people. He continued frowning as they walked into the industrial district, the lines on his brow made the darker orange diamond mark on his forehead crinkle up a bit. He had one other distinctive set of markings:3 darker orange rectangle markings on his chest. Occasionally he would scratch at them like a nervous tick. Eventually their group found the building they were looking for.
“Montalbo Metals” Opulous read aloud from the sign.
Opulous, Venius and Cygnus lead their small procession towards the large industrial building, which was located on the Western edge of Olivine City. Emael was walking along behind his father and watching its front doors intently for any human activity. His orange eyes glinted with irritation as they approached. Behind him were Amara Bluetail, Eloniel Nevica, Talas Aurah and Aturiel Kesta. They were all mixed from the families of the 4 brothers and all had volunteered for this job, except for Emael himself.
“Really dad, is this necessary? I don’t want to work with the humans!” Emael moaned.
“It’s just as loathsome to me, but there’s a lesson you’ve got to learn here Emael. You’ve got to work hard to earn the things you want in life, and often that includes doing things you find utterly hateful. Right now you want your own home, and building materials aren’t going to magically materialize out of the air just because you want them. We may be powerful psychics, but we’re not gods. So if you want the materials to build a new home, you’re going to have to work for them!” Venius lectured.
Cygnus pushed open the doors and their group emerged into a large warehouse filled with the sounds of heavy machinery and workers moving about their business. There was a strong metallic flavor in the air; it made Emael feel a bit nauseous and light-headed as he followed his family into the work area. The workers were too busy to notice them as they passed the steel processors; they only gave them a few passing glances before going back to their work. One of the men on a catwalk above them shouted something indecipherable to Emael’s ears, and the yell was relayed quickly by other men until it reached the far end of the plant
A short old man of impressive girth emerged from a door on the opposite side of the room and walked toward them. He looked to be 80 or 90 years old and at least 300 pounds in weight. Cygnus waved to him and he nodded curtly.
“Mr. Montalbo?” Cygnus asked.
“Yep, that’s me. You must be Tanis’ sons, Cygnus and Opulous. Good to meet ya.” Montalbo said, offering a handshake.
Opulous took Montalbo’s hand with his robotic one and gave him a vigorous shake. Montalbo stared at the arm, obviously very impressed.
“I see the steel your father bought from me went to good use! That’s an amazing grip you have!” Montalbo said affably. “So, you said you had a deal for me?”
“Indeed, we need some steel and Tritanium and we knew that you were the man of choice to provide it. You were a good friend to our father and we knew we could trust you because of it.”
“Your father was a terrific man; he helped me turn my little 10 man endeavor into the steel mill you see here today.” Montalbo said.
“Hopefully we can help you expand even further. I’d like to introduce you to my sons Talas and Aturiel.”
“These are my daughters Eloniel and Amara.” Opulous added.
“And this is my son Emael.” Venius finished.
“The family’s been expanding hasn’t it?” Montalbo laughed. “Glad to meet you, very!”
“We wanted to find work for them, and we figured that we could use the same deal as before. They’ll do as much psychic labor as you need in exchange for a percentage of steel and Tritanium that we need to build.”
“Sounds good!” Montalbo said, and turned to Emael and his siblings. “How much do y’all know about steel mining and processing?”
“Nothing sir, but we’re eager to learn!” Talas said eagerly.
“Well if you learn as quickly as your grandpa did then we shouldn’t have a problem!”
When Emael got home that night that same scowl was still painted over his face but it would have been much more sour and unfriendly if he hadn’t been bringing back a huge payload of steel and Tritanium with him. He and the others had worked themselves so hard that none of them had any psychic energy left in them to carry their load home; they were forced to put it onto an older model hover trolley. It wobbled and dipped as Emael and Talas carefully guided it across the lawn towards Venius’ house.
They had come up against a curious problem at the end of their shift: without any psychic energy leftover they were unable to teleport home or contact their parents. Thankfully Mt. Montalbo had offered to let them use his computer to send a video mail to Cygnus, who had then teleported all of them and their load of metals home.
“You can keep my share of the Tritanium in your place Emael, Eloniel and I are going to go home and study.” Amara said amiably before taking off with her sister.
“Tell your dad I’ll be over there in a few minutes to get to work on those blueprints!” Emael called after them as they ran off. Amara replied with a quick shout before vanishing through the door of her home.
“I’m going to get a drink, can you guys handle the trolley on the stairs without me?” Aturiel asked as they pulled it up onto the porch of the house.
“Yeah yeah yeah” Emael said dismissively.
Aturiel broke away and went to the kitchen as they entered the house, leaving Talas and Emael to ease the hover trolley down the stairs. It tilted dangerously the moment they guided it over the edge of the first step, obviously it wasn’t designed to handle anything other than flat surfaces. Emael cursed Montalbo’s cheapness for not buying modern trolleys and felt glad he had suggested that they tie down the girders. He scratched a spot on the back of his head that had been splashed with some kind of chemical during his refining lessons at the beginning of the day.
They found Venius in the basement working his life away on the holo-computer. Emael caught a quick glance of what looked like a schematic of some kind of weapon on the screen before Venius quickly flipped open another window over the top of it.
“Hey boys, how was your first day at work?” Venius asked.
“Tiring.” Emael moaned. “That Montalbo worked us like we were androids who never got tired!”
Venius turned around from his console to look at them and smiled. “It looks like your work paid off though! If you keep it up at this rate for a few weeks and you’ll have enough to build houses for the whole family!”
“Yeah well I’ve gotta split it with the others so that’s inevitable anyway. It’s going to take a long time this way unless the rest of the family pitches in too!” Emael complained.
“Or you could get a second job!” Talas joked with a grin.
“You know we’re all going to be working together to clear out the Dumplands, so you really will be taking a second job of sorts Emael. Don’t forget that!” Venius scolded.
“Yeah I know. Listen, I’m going over to Opulous’ place to work on designing my home so that we’ll be ready once I’ve earned enough building supplies.” Emael said, heading back to the stairs and starting up with Talas following.
“Don’t forget to feed Luxxy and the others before you go, tonight’s steak night for them!” Venius called after them.
Emael and Talas went to the kitchen to feed Luxxy and they found Aturiel and Melicia chatting away. Melicia had big colored blotches of paint spilled all over her, apparently she was still working on her big family portrait. Aturiel was taking long gulps of water from a glass while she told him about how a real artist never used their psychic powers to wash paint out of their fur. Emael scratched the back of his head again, the itch just wouldn’t go away.Z
“It doesn’t burn at all as long as you don’t get it in an open wound or something!” Melicia said, scrubbing away at her arms in the sink.
“So you couldn’t be satisfied just splashing me with refining chemicals Aturiel, you had to throw paint all over my aunt too?” Emael said passive-aggressively, opening the fridge to grab Luxxy’s steak.
“I told you that I didn’t do it! You just weren’t paying attention when the human next to me accidentally spilled!” Aturiel said hotly.
“Alright you two, lay it off. These stains have built up over the course of the day!” Melicia chided.
“I’m going home now Emael, if you need me just call.” Talas said, and headed for the door. With a frown to Emael and a quick goodbye to Melicia, Aturiel followed him.
Once they were gone Melicia turned off the faucet and turned to face Emael with an angry expression. “What’s your problem today Emael? You know I spill paint all over myself all the time when I work, why would you attack Aturiel like that?”
Emael refused to make eye contact with his aunt, he busied himself prying open the plastic container with Luxxy’s steak in it. “He dumped refining chemicals all over me and never apologized for it!”
“Oh come on, do you really think he did it on purpose?” Melicia asked in disbelief
Emael didn’t respond to her, he opened the back door and whistled for Luxxy. A few of her sibling Luxrays that were hanging around in the yard stood and walked over with wistful faces, but they knew that the steak wasn’t for them. Luxxy emerged from the bushes carrying a dead Ratatta in her mouth, obviously she had gotten tired of waiting and gone hunting herself. She tossed the Ratatta to her siblings and leapt up the steps to grab the steak. Her yellow and black fur glimmered and sparkled even in the dimming sunlight.
“I think you’re in a foul mood because you hate the prospect of spending time around humans, and you’ve just spent 8 hours being bossed around and told what to do by them!” Melicia said with a smooth insight.
Emael dropped the steak at Luxxy’s feet and she eagerly grabbed it in her jaws and made a dash for open ground where she could eat it without her siblings interrupting. He then closed the door and walked towards the sink to watch the blood from the steak off of his hands. Melicia put herself in between him and the sink though, angry that he was ignoring her.
“You need to get out of my way.” Emael said coldly.
“I’m right and we both know it. You need to get over your problems with humans and quickly before you do something to ruin this deal with the Montalbo company! You absolutely need their help if you want to build a home of your own and you need to get your own prejudices under control to keep the deal sweet! Besides, you don’t have a reason to hate humans, you’ve never been mistreated by them at any point in your life!” Melicia lectured.
Emael’s eyes drew thin with anger and he stepped around Melicia deliberately to avoid her. He needed to wash the blood off of his hands quick so that he could use them to scratch the back of his head again. That spot was starting to burn a little now. Melicia didn’t bother getting between in his face this time, she just sighed heavily and walked back towards the hallway to go to her room and paint some more. She stopped to speak one more time before leaving the room.
“Get it together Emael, we all have to live with humans whether we like it or not. There are just too many of them to avoid!”
Emael grunted with vague annoyance as she walked off and began scratching his head again the moment he finished washing his hands. He continued scratching as he walked over to the door and left the house for Opulous’ place; the damned itch seemed to keep getting worse. It was burning like a nasty rash now, but he didn’t feel any bumps on his skin yet. One of the other Luxrays in Luxxy’s family followed him and nuzzled up affectionately; he gave it a few pets with his free hand until he got to the door of Opulous’ house.
The inside of Opulous’ home always made Emael felt as if had been teleported into the inside of a gigantic computer. Opulous loved to decorate with a digital motif almost to the point of fetishism, and the inside of the house was living proof of it. He had built it with polished steel walls, digital access panels for every door, holographic art, and not a single house plant or sculpture. Emael passed Amara on his way to the stairs and waved at her briefly. She smiled at him and waved back as she walked down the hallways back to her room to study some more.
The stairs seemed to get blurry in Emael’s vision as he walked down them. He gripped the stainless steel railing and slowed down a bit. He felt dizzy now and a little sick to his stomach. Maybe he should have taken a shower after that chemical spilled on him? He reached the bottom of the stairs with a woozy look on his face and found Opulous working on a holo computer, already working on the basic blueprints for him.
“Hey Op.” Emael said, his voice a little low and grainy.
“Oh, Emael! Amara said you were on your way so I began designing your house for you already, I hope you don’t mind. If there’s anything you don’t like I can change it for you.” Opulous said, only glancing lightly at Emael before turning back to the computer and gesturing to him eagerly to walk over and see.
“Op, do you have any painkillers I can borrow? I feel…”
Opulous took the time to look at Emael more closely this time. Emael felt his conscious begin to rapidly fade so he opened his mouth to ask Opulous for help, but no sounds came from his mouth. The last thing he saw before going out cold was Opulous’ robotic eye scanning him. It made him wonder if it could see into his soul.
