In the wake of the Other attack, Suoh had come alive again. Like a turtle peeking out from its shell, the populace had taken to the streets once more, all their business hastily resumed as if an assault from bizarre brain-eating monstrosities barely constituted a blip on the radar. The Sector 3 plate was a big city with an awful lot of ground to cover, enough to be overwhelming to an outsider even without the psychic sensitivity necessary to see its extravagant true form. When looking for a needle in a haystack like this, where could one possibly begin?
Luckily, Goldlewis had at least a semblance of an idea as for where to start. He set off at a leisurely lumber, trying to retrace his steps to where he began despite the detour offered by Luka’s teleportation. “Before everythin’ went belly-up, the Princess and I were in a courtyard kinda thing surrounded by apartments,” he explained to his companion. As he spoke, he paused whenever their trek brought them too close to a camera cluster out of an abundance of caution, which meant frequent breaks in the conversation. “People were walkin’ their dogs, and if I know anythin’ it’s that dogs love goin’ after other critters, so if there’s any psychic creatures around it ain’t a bad place to start. Plus, I remember seein’ some kind o’ board with some folks gathered ‘round. Didn’t think much of it at the time, but maybe it has to do with housin’ in these parts.”
Midna listened to this and then, considering there did not seem to contain nearly as much skullduggery as she had assumed, popped out of his shadow so he wouldn’t look like a weirdo talking to himself. Not that she was going to give up a free ride either, and so the princess wound up perching herself on one of his very wide shoulders as they navigated the dud unfriendly town.
Limited by the veteran’s rather pedestrian mobility, the two made their way back toward the bottom end of Main Street. With the crossing signs invisible to the mentally inept, they needed to use the raised walkways, which took them on a somewhat circuitous route.
Good thing we’re in no rush, Goldlewis noted. He took advantage of the journey to keep a close eye out on the off-chance anything interesting appeared, but the Suoh streets didn’t cough up anything of relevance. After some time, though, his trip along the tiled sidewalk brought him near two people who seemed to be in a heated argument. Though both seemingly in their early twenties, and sported striped clothes, the young
man and
woman were otherwise diametrically opposed, their back-and-forth causing such a ruckus that Goldlewis couldn’t help but intervene. “Beggin’ your pardon,” he began. “But is everythin’ alright with y’all?”
“Ah!” The twin in green turned to face the newcomer, relief writ large on his face. “Everything’s fine. Better now that you’ve arrived in fact. You look like you have a head on your shoulders, sir. Maybe you could help me explain to my sister here that’s she’s talking complete and utter nonsense…”
The twin in pink scoffed. “Pff, don’t make me laugh! This guy’s obviously not from around here, so you’re about to get a serious reality check, Palom.” She looked from her brother to Goldlewis. “So? Who’re you rooting for?” With her eyes she motioned in the direction of the wall in front of the two of them.
Goldlewis followed her gaze, but he saw nothing there.
Drat, must be one of them Vision things, he thought, trying to think of a way to handle this. “Well, who’re you two rootin’ for?”
“Shinra, obviously!” Palom laughed. “Like any self-respecting citizen of Suoh, or Midgar, for that matter! Thanks to his administration Psych-OSF is stronger than ever, doing the jobs of the other branches for them, and we’re finally making real progress against the Ever Crisis.” He crossed his arms. “Porom doesn’t get that if he’s voted out now, we’ll be right back to square one!”
Emphatically shaking her head, his sister jabbed her finger at him. “You’re full of crap. We’re
not making any progress, it’s all smoke and mirrors. The media’s in Shinra’s pocket, and all he cares about is money and power. Meanwhile, people are suffering everywhere, even on the plates Shinra loves so much. It’s like Armstrong says: the administration’s rotten to the core. It’s time for a do-over, and when the undercities come to bat for him, you’ll see for yourself.”
“That’d cause so much more harm than good, it’s not even funny. Armstrong’s dangerous, he’s just taking advantage of people’s anger and resentment. Like lighting a powderkeg! Besides, it won’t matter what rabble thinks because it’s the councilors’ vote that matters, and
they’re appointed by the administration.”
“That’s exactly the kind of BS I’m talking about, Palom! People are sick and tired of the way things are. If Shinra’s corrupt system wins again despite all the public support for Armstrong, there’s going to be riots, mark my words!” She rounded on Goldlewis. “So? Who’s right, me or him?”
Such vehement political discourse was nothing new to Goldlewis. Although not happy to be embroiled in this all of a sudden, he counted his lucky stars that it didn’t involve him directly. “Hmm,” he mused. “Well, I ain’t decided yet. Both sides got a point or two, I reckon. I’m gonna wait ‘til tomorrow’s debate.”
At that, both twins rolled their eyes and groaned. “Ugh, another enlightened centrist.”
“Must be tough having to lug that gigantic brain around with you everywhere.”
“I bet he’s gonna go third-party and throw away his vote.”
“Not even! That’s actively sabotaging whichever
real candidate he agrees most with!” Suddenly united, the two turned to walk away together. “Hey, Palom, I could go for a latte right about now.”
“And overdose on sugar? Get bent. How about a nice tea instead?”
“If you like dirty water so much, go boil your head.”
”This seems like a pretty convoluted and ineffectual voting system” was what Midna had to offer on the subject, specifically to Goldlewis and not to the pair who she was happy to let get another argument started between each other.
Goldlewis shrugged. “Par for the course when it comes to politics, princess.”
”Can’t agree, mine is much better” she retorted, though she was incredibly biased of course, being that it had put her in power.
”I mean, if there’s only two people really in the running, and there’s these councilors who make the decision anyway, then it seems to me like the election part is pageantry to give the drapings of popular support and legitimacy? Or does it actually matter?” the princess asked the man who lived here, wanting to know if they should be paying attention to this at all, before realizing that
”Not that there’s really been one of these before I suppose. All the previous ones are fake Galeem memories” “I…hmm.” Not expecting to have been left uneasy by Midna’s remarks on the matter, Goldlewis scratched at his neck, contemplating what she said. “Probably. Hard to tell what really happened, and what just started out this way when the World of Light got made.” He crossed his arms, his brow furrowed. “For instance, Shinra’s been president in the World of Light for years, that much I know, but when I ask most folks can’t say how many years. Now, I can rattle off fifty US presidents in a row, first name, last name, political party, home state, and favorite football team, but I couldn’t tell ya who took office before Shinra. And I used to be Secretary of State, for Pete’s sake! Somethin’s plain wrong when it comes to record-keepin’ in Midgar, and I’d sure like to find out why.” By this point the twins were gone, so Goldlewis and Midna got moving again.
”It must be a real headache to be a historian in this place, that is for sure” Midna said in agreement.
”You know I sort of want to find one and grill them now, just to see what will happen. Because that is the kind of thing that would be written down somewhere in a real world, and I have to wonder what is sitting in the places it normally would be written. Are they just missing? Are there empty books that the Galeeming see as full?” she speculated
”and I wonder if there’s a way to pull at the seams enough for the whole charade to come undone?” because wouldn’t that just be a mighty boon and a half to their efforts.
Her speculation earned her a shrug from Goldlewis. No matter which world he resided in, there would be countless secrets locked away behind closed doors. Given the sheer size and complexity of Midgar, his team would be lucky just to find and topple the Guardian here. Finding out and exposing the truth of this world was a much less simple and concrete task.
Before much longer, the two arrived back where Goldlewis and Peach began, the central courtyard of the apartment complex called Kong King. People were out and about again, some of them with their dogs or other critters. He sauntered over to the important-looking board he remembered seeing earlier, but could only heave a sigh when he came to a crucial realization. “...It’s psychic,” he said aloud, staring at the blank slate with its dark obsidian sheen. A discreet glance at a nearby homeowner, perhaps checking up on property values, confirmed the sort of rapid eye movements that one might expect when skimming through a spreadsheet or something similar, but whatever he was reading was completely invisible to Goldlewis. “I really oughta figured. Woulda asked Raz to come along, but I didn’t want to stress the poor boy any.” He held his hands up helplessly. “Not to disparage present company, mind.”
”So, I do have a way of reading this actually … it’s just going to be filtered through a, uh, well you’ll see” Midna replied, before she snapped her fingers and summoned one of the Psynumbra Initiates she had acquired from the convent atop the split mountain. The nearby homeowner’s jaw dropped, allowing his cigarette to fall to the pavement. He then cleared his throat, did an abrupt about-face, and strolled away with his hands in his pockets, whistling badly.
The dead amazonian woman, wearing hooded and spiked attire, and the general aura of desolation wafting off her, turned her glowing gaze from the man she had just scared off to the princess and asked, simply “what?” to which Midna replied by pointing to the board and telling her to to tell them
”What’s it say on here?” As it turned out, this particular board contained nothing of use. Just about every apartment around here was occupied, and the couple that weren’t all had dozens of bids on them, with amounts reaching into thousands if not tens of thousands of kins. Housing in Suoh Central was at a major premium, it seemed.
“That ain’t surprisin’,” Goldlewis said as the Striker disappeared. “Even the cheapest places are gonna be an arm and a leg when you’re smack dab in the middle of one of Midgar’s supercenters. With all the surveillance up here, we probably don’t want somewhere in Suoh anyhow.” He stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. “If anythin’, we oughta set our sights a little lower. And I mean that literally.” He extended a finger, circling in the air, then pointed it straight down. “In Seiran.”
He put his hands in his pockets. “From what I gather, Seiran ain’t bad as far as undercities go. The skyscrapers go all the way from the reservoir down below to the plate itself, like they’re helpin’ to hold it up. Might be easier to commute between Suoh and Seiran than most uppers an’ lowers in Midgar. And it’d be a hell of a lot easier findin’ somewhere to hole up. Only problem is, how to get down. We could…?”
Goldlewis glanced over Midna’s shoulder. Pets weren’t an uncommon sight in this spot, but he had yet to see something unattended, or without an obvious owner. And just now he spotted a small, furry shape dart down the stairs from the central gazebo into the underground concourse. He blinked a couple times, knitting his brows together. “Huh, thought I saw somethin’ skedaddle down that way. Someone’s dog get loose?” He glanced at Midna, wondering where she stood on random acts of kindness.
”I missed it” she admitted, as she turned to look the way he was, peering down into the more comfortable looking dark before gave him a glance and asked
”What, do you want to go look for it?” rhetorically before shrugging and saying that
”I wouldn’t be against it. We can walk and talk and take a look at the same time. Or well, you can walk anyway” ”As for how to get under?” the shoulder riding princess said, getting back on that topic that had been interrupted, and having a think out loud on the matter
”Well… I’m not exactly familiar with how you’d even build a city like this … but, well, there have to be sewers, and big ones too, with this many people and with the streets this clean, right? Not that I like the idea of being in one, but the waste must go down from up here … and presumably under the plate somehow to a … lower sewer of some kind and then out to the sea … whichever direction that was in again” Goldlewis shuddered as the two made their way to the courtyard’s central control point, then hooked a left to head down the stairs. “Not too fond of that idea. My first thought was to find some parachutes or somethin’, head to the edge of the plate, and just fly down. Buuut after considerin’ how far out o’ the way that is, and how it might leave us stuck down there, we best think o’ somethin’ else.” After reaching the underground concourse, he took a wide, sweeping glance around the partially-covered
passageway, wide open as it was. Like the area up above with its projections of a grassy field dotted with wildflowers, this area used Visions as well; on the blue-tinged side it simulated an underwater reef, with fish and other creatures swimming around, while the red-tinged side featured a crystalline cave with miniature streams of magma. Goldlewis could see none of it, so all that he observed was a pretty stark, wide-open corridor. “Other sectors have ways to get between upper and lower legit, so I reckon there’s ways here, too,” he continued as he looked around for any sign of runaway critters. “Blue-collar workers gotta get up from cheap housin’ to work their city jobs somehow.”
”Guess we could always follow one home then” Minda said, before realizing how bad what she had said sounded and quickly detoured into suggesting
”or, well, I mean there must be somewhere where they have maps of the city, maybe even on sale, right?” In the opposite direction, a couple boxes suddenly stirred. They rocked violently as a blue, raggedy shape pushed in behind them, trying to hide out of sight. With all the Visions around the average bystander would be experiencing too much sensory overload to notice, but for the nearby duds the desperate maneuver was a clear giveaway.
”I’m starting to think we followed whatever Midgar’s rat equivalent is instead of a lost pet” Midna speculated, before shrugging and slipping off the big man’s shoulder anyway
”oh well, in for a green in for a red. I’ll grab it, don’t want you getting physic rabies or something after all” That said, she pulled out the sun on a stick from the twilight realm, floated silently over to the box, and then used the stick to tip up the box. Before whatever it was that had led them down here had a chance to run, she darted her shadowhand forwards to snatch it up in her magical grasp.
What she grasped was not a rat, but a cat. Or at least, something very cat-like. It had two puffy tails, ears tall enough to curl forward, and slitted green eyes. In pristine condition it might have been an
adorable creature, in fact, but to say it had seen better days was a gross understatement. It was scrawny and clearly malnourished, and its blue fur was lusterless and thin. Injuries covered its body, including lacerations, blunt impacts, and even burn marks. In Midna’s grasp it struggled furiously, but weakly, equal parts angry and terrified. After a moment spent flailing its limbs around, the critter attempted to focus, and as its eyes began to glow it lifted its ears. A Psybeam shot at Midna’s head in a last-ditch effort to deal damage to and perhaps confuse its captor so that it could make its escape.
”On no you poor- ah!” the princess, who got completely blindsided by the attack due to a rush of empathy for the beat up cattish creature, cried out as she was blasted by psychic power … and also lost the 1 in 10 dice roll and was struck with confusion.
”What in their name” the princess said, holding her helmeted forehead in one hand as her mind spun and she lost her grip on the creature.
Goldlewis ran toward her, taken aback. “What happened? You okay?” He furrowed his brow at the critter as it ran, knowing that there was no way on earth he’d be able to catch it, let alone use his coffin on it–even if he wanted to. More than anger, he felt pity for the poor thing. Just what the hell happened to it?
The ragged stray scurried away on all fours, only for shouting from the direction of the stairs to freeze it in its tracks. Down the steps thundered three rank-and-file OSF soldiers, all of them very distinct. In the lead was a rather blobbish woman with little hornlike nubs on her head that bounced along with the rest of her as she plodded along, her skin slightly tinted green. Just a step behind her followed a yellow-haired man with a really big nose, his pupils beady and small, with a fancier Psych-OSF uniform than normal thanks to its fluffy white collar. A little farther back was a teenage boy with no outstanding features to speak of, although he did look rather distressed.
“There it is!” the woman thundered. She stopped, planted her leg like a sumo wrestler, and extended her palm. With a yowl the Meowstic floated in the air. “Ready for Somnokinesis, Mifune!”
Her colleague with the massive snooter stepped up to bat. Rather than wield the weapon slung across his back, he began making swirling motions with his hands. “...Sleep!” As if on cue, his target went limp, passed out and snoozing in the air. He relaxed, exhaling deeply. “...Alright, you’re up, Souta.”
“R-right.” As the other two watched, the boy stepped forward, a Pokeball held in his hand. He looked terribly reluctant, however, and his hand was shaking.
Goldlewis didn’t know what to make of the situation, other than that these people seemed to be some sort of supernatural animal control. Maybe someone had called the psychic pound on that critter if it had been running around blasting people’s brains. Unsure of what to do, he remained by Midna’s side, trying to literally snap her out of her confusion.
Midna, not in a state of mind to recognise that these were probably professionals and not threats to the poor panicked catcreature, but also aware enough of herself to know she was in no state to do anything, vaguely pointed in the direction of the pokemon and commanded
”Fetch”Promoted by this her wolfos burst out of a portal and when scampering across the concrete towards the pokemon and a breakneck pace, only to skid to a halt right before the cat which it moved to gently pick up like a puppy/kitten by the scruff of its neck in order to transport it back to the princess.
“Hey! Stop!” Before the wolfos could get far, the catcher’s telekinesis lifted it into the air. It was too late, however; the sudden motion woke the sleeper up, and it began to attack, scratching its captor’s face. She flashed an angry look in Midna’s direction. “What’re you doing!? Call that thing off immediately!” Looking at the young man with his pokeball, the woman jerked her head in the stray’s direction. “Hurry and catch the Meowstic before that monster bites it in half!”
Souta grit his teeth and held up his pokeball. A streak of red light shot out and hit the struggling Pokemon it beamed out of the wolfos’ jaws and into the container, which continued to shake slightly as the feline’s rage subsided.
Goldlewis shook Midna by the shoulder. “What
are ya doin’? We don’t wanna stick our noses where they don’t belong. That thing was feral, anyway. Could o’ had rabies or somethin’.”
”Huh, what?” The princess replied, shaking her head in addition to the shoulder shaking which managed to clear the confusion a little bit. Certainly enough to retort
”Wasn’t this your idea in the first place?” while waving a hand in the direction of her wolfos to get it to calm down and stop struggling in the telekinetic grip.
Taken aback, Goldlewis could only shake his head emphatically. While he suggested taking a look, he’d never once considered the possibility of fighting the Psych-OSF over whatever the two of them might find.
The woman seemed even less pleased. “What do you mean, your idea?” she questioned, her tone full of suspicion.
Then Midna took a breath or two, and apologized
”Sorry about that, it did something to my mind, didn’t quite get what was going on” while rubbing one of her eyes in a futile attempt to deal with the throbbing in her skull the psychic damage had left her with.
”As for the idea, man thought he saw someone’s lost pet is all, and looks like he .. we were wrong about that” “Hmm…” The animal control team leader thought for a moment, then decided that a brain blast sufficed as an explanation for this behavior and shrugged. “Yeah, they’ll do that. You should steer clear of any and all Pokemon, they’re dangerous.”
That got Goldlewis’ attention. “Dangerous?”
“Uh, yeah.” The one called Mifune crossed his arms. “You must be new here. They’re heavily regulated in Midgar for safety reasons, and psychic ones are banned. Unregulated Psynet access drives them berserk, and once they go feral they cause no end of trouble. Right, Hifumi?”
The woman nodded, frowning severely. “That’s where we come in. Psych-OSF’s Containment Division. If you see any more feral Pokemon, call our hotline immediately. That is all.” She gave Midna and Goldlewis a stiff nod.
Before she could leave, however, the veteran piped up with one other question. “Beggin’ your pardon, but just so we know what to look for, I don’t s’pose there’s any other psychic creatures around we oughta be aware of?”
“Other than Others, not in particular,” Hifumi told them.
Mifune, however, had another answer. “If you head down into Seiran for whatever reason, stay away from the lower levels. The reservoir is infested with Psifish. They’re weak ‘cause of how polluted it is, but give them half a chance and they can still pop your brains like firecrackers.” On that note, the three soldiers departed, the captured stray in hand.
”Well… that could have gone better. Poor creature” Minda said, still somewhat sympathetic despite the brain blast and just a bit upset about what she expected the containment division would do with the illegal feral pokemon
”Still, guess we have two options if we want to go monster hunting for psychic powers as a group … though it seems pretty risky either way” as neither running afoul of the law or these ‘psifish’ sounded like a good time
”Oh and we’re definitely gonna need to warn Bede about both the law and that Psynet issue before something goes wrong” she realized, before also noting that she was also going to have to worry about part of the first half:
”and I’m going to need to be careful about using the dragonfly-thing … which I really should learn what its called”Unaware that Bede’s Pokemon were psychic-type, Goldlewis gave a noncommittal grunt. “I reckon we should head back to the gym, then. Guess this explains why there weren’t any of ‘em Pokey-things in there.” With the commotion dispersed, small as it had been to begin with, the two began to retrace their steps away from Kong King. “When we get back, I wanna use that terminal again. See if there’s any transport hotspots that might get us down to Seiran.” Stepping back out from the underground concourse into the sunlight, Goldlewis looked out across the city of Suoh. There was a reflective window nearby, so he pulled out a comb to fix his pompadour before heading on his way with Midna along for the ride.
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