CATHERINE CARLISLE & TIM Thaumatoff
Misunderstanding?
The previous month had been a strange one for Catherine. Although, the months leading up to it had been plenty unusual in and of themselves. She had managed to find some peace, to actually process her thoughts and figure out where she stood on things. At least she had when Valerie hadn't been sending her messages or trying to lure her into a larger group chat.
It was still uncomfortable to Catherine, opening herself up to people that little bit more and giving the world a chance to show her that some of it wasn't tainted. She still didn't really trust her newfound friend. She
definitely didn't trust people at large. Traveling through the wild area above Hammerlocke and into Route 8 hadn't been a luxurious journey by any means, but it had given her space from people. It was soothing to only be with her team again for a while.
Her team seemed to be aware that there had been a paradigm shift though. At first, it had just been Indra who had been with her at the time, but as she had rotated through her team over the weeks of travel, she had noticed all of them seemed to have caught the Poliwhirl's chipper mood. Even Lancer was being more friendly and sociable.
By the time she had finally crossed into the harsh, cold landscape of Route 8, Catherine's team were in some of the highest spirits she'd seen them in for a while and she herself was feeling… calmer at the least. She still had a lot of thinking to do, but she was at least at peace away from civilization with Stampede curled around her shoulders and Indra happily striding along at her feet.
It was a shame that as she got closer to Circhester, it was ever more likely she would eventually run into someone else. A harsh voice from nearby drew her attention. Catherine's immediate instinct was, naturally, to find another path. But she had long since reached a point where it was easy to push those instincts aside, even without feeling Stampede's tense up in anticipation. She moved in the direction of the sound, slipping past boulders larger than she was to investigate.
It wasn't too long until the harsh voice came again, and Catherine found herself passing a last bunch of boulders to see a clearing of sorts ringed by more such boulders and piles of rubble. There was a man at the far end of the clearing with his back to her, apparently the source of the voice as he barked at a Sudowoodo he was watching as it beat its arms against a cracking boulder. A Boldore passed nearby Catherine but ignored her arrival as it continued galloping its way around the perimeter of the clearing.
Maybe it was something that others might have glanced at and then walked away from, but something about the sight didn't sit right with Catherine, nor with the Seadra becoming progressively more tense around her neck.
She decided to wait a moment and watch instead of simply passing by. She didn't much want to have to talk to the gruff trainer, but she felt obligated to see what was going on.
As the Boldore clomped its way past the man it made a low sound and the man turned to face Catherine. He was in a hooded coat more tarp than clothing and the ends of his ragged pants tattered away around the tops of boots that were likely made for stomping a few lifetimes ago. The man regarded Catherine silently for a moment through opaque shades and a thick black walrus mustache, long at the ends. Boldore galloped around past Catherine again before the man broke the silence with his deep voice. "Why are you here?"
"I heard shouting, so I came to see why. Turns out it was some guy barking orders at his Sudowoodo like a drill sergeant. How's that working out for you?"
"Oh, well enough, I suppose." The man motioned low with one arm and the Sudowoodo behind him left off its training and moved to a nearby pile of rubble, letting itself down with a sigh without so much as looking at Catherine. The man's hood was ringed with tangled, black hair that was apparently his own, bunched clumsily into the coat and flaring out like a ratty mane. "Does your Seadra keep you warm out here?"
"Not really, but he's not there for warmth. It's a pain for him to get around out of water without legs. Not that he doesn't insist on trying first."
At Catherine's feet, Indra started to raise an arm in greeting, but slowly lowered it again as he caught note of the tension in the atmosphere. Catherine and this other trainer might have been exchanging conversation fairly cordially, but anyone could tell that under the surface things weren't necessarily so friendly.
"I take care of my team," Catherine said. "No point in exhausting him when he might be battling later."
"Hm." The hooded, mustached man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Interesting perspective." He gestured with his hand again and this time the Boldore slowed its gallop as it came near Catherine. It trudged a little closer to her and then let itself down flat on the ground, apparently at rest. Hood motioned a hand at it. "I am ill-equipped for company, but I can still offer you a seat. It is not the most comfortable, but I assure you you weigh nothing to him."
There it was again, a comment that seemed inane but that carried unpleasant connotations - especially from a person who Catherine had found screaming orders into his Pokemon's face. The fact that he then offered her
his Boldore as a seat was just icing on the cake.
"It's not a perspective. It's just basic decency. Like not using your partner as a stool. Our teams work hard for us - often for little to no gain to themselves, they keep us safe in the wilderness and they're trustworthy and loyal where most people aren't. The least we can do is show them kindness and respect."
One bushy eyebrow raised behind Hood's shades. His lack of eyes or mouth behind his mustache and glasses almost made him seem like an animated mannequin wearing a redesigned beaglepuss. "Right, right," he said evenly. "And as with people, mons may show and expect respect in different ways." He seemed content to stand since Catherine hadn't sat down. The Boldore remained where it was regardless. "I'm sure you've noticed the variety of folks poking around in this region, have you given further thought to your plans?"
"I give thought to my plans almost every waking moment. That's why I'm going to succeed. Why I
am succeeding." Catherine met the eyes of the hooded man as best she could with his face obscured by his large hood and sunglasses. Something felt very off about him, but she wasn't going to back down.
"I hope you don't mind my saying so, but I'm sure Leon thought much the same when that little mix-up happened in front of the world, not so long ago." Hood shrugged. The Sudowoodo behind him rolled onto its side, dozing. "Winning the Gym Challenge is just the start, I recall you had some very big words back in front of Kabu. What sorts of measures would you take to handle things if you were Champion, if you don't mind my asking?"
"I might not have followed his time as champion that closely, but I'm pretty sure the only thing Leon ever talked about publicly was how much he liked battling," Catherine replied. So that was how it was going to be. "The champion here has an absurd amount of influence, access and even resources. I'm going to use all of that to promote change, put pressure on the people who can affect it and give back to the people who need it. I'll lead by example. It won't just be words, and it will be the first time in recent history a Galarian champion has done anything that matters."
Indra and Stampede both made noises of affirmation and support. They couldn't possibly understand the specifics of what Catherine was talking about, but they certainly could respect the feeling behind the words. The Boldore hummed against the ground too, although it was too strange of a mon for Catherine to gauge if it was a noise of agreement or a jeer.
Hood nodded thoughtfully. "There's little issue anyone could take with a goal like that." He shook his head. "But the Champion is only one person." He looked at Indra and Stampede. "Well, one
unit, anyway. What happens when you can't be everywhere at once, or things happen where you can't see, or people suffer in voices too small for you to hear?"
"I'm not claiming I can make a perfect world, as much as I'd like to." Catherine studied the hooded figure closely. Did he take her for an idiot? Did he really think she hadn't asked herself those very same questions? "But if I can improve things in general, then I won't
need to be everywhere because other people will hear those voices and might actually do something about it when they do for once. Humanity is too flawed to hope for perfection, but I'm still going to make things
better. It's about time someone did."
Hood lowered his face as Catherine spoke and now seemed to either be glowering or just looking dumbly at the ground. After a moment he lifted his face back up. "That is a lot of faith to put in
strangers, Catherine," he said low. The tension in the air grew imperceptibly thicker. "You
just said that most people aren't trustworthy or loyal. I fear your ideals are beginning to sound rather like platitudes."
"If I didn't believe in the capacity for change I wouldn't be doing this," Catherine voiced aloud thoughts from a month ago. "I don't trust people, no. But I believe that things can be better than they are. I've seen first hand that people can start bad and work to improve. I've seen it in classmates and in myself. As few as they are, good people
are out there, because it's impossible that I'm the only one."
Catherine shook her head. "But, despite that, I'm not stupid enough to believe that winning some battles is going to magically fix everything. But when I win, I'm going to be in a position that can promote change. People will
want to do better because their champion will be encouraging it and, for some reason, people here care a hell of a lot for what their champion says. I'm not trusting in humanity's goodness, I'm trusting in people's tendencies to follow trends and in my own ability to change a broken system. Between that and that handful of actually decent people? That's a start. I'll take a start over what we have now."
Hood rubbed his chin. "My, my. You would rely on the 'few' good people out there? And what about everyone else?" He patted his chest with one bony-fingered hand, fingers hooked like claws. "I'm going to take a
wild guess and suppose I'm not one of the 'good ones.' What's your plan for me, Catherine? Or do my aims in life not matter in the face of a Champion? Good guys beat up the bad guys, after all. Is that what you're going to do? Beat me up? And what if you can't? What if a bad guy sweeps your team with a Scolipede in front of a crowd?"
"I told you, most people will follow along just because their champion is asking them. I don't have to just rely on the handful of good people. As for you? You certainly aren't acting like you're one of the rare few. I'm only standing here because I heard you screaming in your Sudowoodo's face."
Catherine considered Hood again, she hadn't missed how he'd jumped to thoughts of violence. It didn't matter. Seething as she was, she wouldn't flee his questioning. She'd dealt with worse. "If your aims are to keep abusing the team you should be caring for, then you won't get far in an improved Galar. If they're noble - or even neutral - you'll have better odds of reaching them in a more just world. I'm not interested in hurting you or using force to change your actions. That would make me no better than the kind of person who gets wrapped up with an organization that brainwashes and dangerously alters Pokemon to take away their thoughts and replace them with power. Which is the only reason I lost that battle, because at the time Simon was stupid enough to do exactly that - against a team I had barely trained for battle. I haven't lost a single battle since then and I wouldn't lose against that Scolipede now either. And you know what? Since interacting with me, Simon has gotten a lot better as a person. I won't take all the credit obviously, but he's living proof that what I'm doing works."
"You make a lot of assumptions,
Catherine. I can tell you don't know me, but you still decide to tell me how to raise the team
I eat and sleep with. What should I do, wear a Boldore about my neck or take
him on a walk through the store?" Hood pointed behind Catherine at the same time a heavy impact shook the ground. A Stonjourner had kicked itself upright behind the boulders nearby her, it having apparently been laying flat the whole time.
A pile of stones further away stirred and cracked open an eye, revealing itself to be a dusty Rhyhorn. And over there a Relicanth climbed over a pile of rubble, and on the opposite side a Rolycoly's red eye crept into view. Behind Hood, the Sudowoodo stood up and rolled its arms. Boldore jabbed the ground with its leg and shivered, but didn't get up.
Hood continued. "But it doesn't matter what I do in the end, does it, Catherine? All the good little boys and girls will emulate their Champion and overpower whoever doesn't check all her little boxes." The mons ringing the clearing were casting various gazes at Indra and Stampede, but none of them seemed to think Catherine was even worth glancing at. "Or," Hood continued, flexing his fingers, "they'll have their mons do so anyway. It's only 'dangerously altering' a mon's thoughts if you're not one of the good ones. I suppose you are right to be so comfortable in your worldview—might makes right, doesn't it oh Catherine the Undefeated? Simon lost to little old
me after his showing at Motostoke after all, so he was
obviously wrong the whole time." Hood cocked his head. "If everyone were emboldened to stand up and 'do something' about things, who decides when they're standing up about the wrong things? Of course I suppose
you would, oh Saint Catherine. Of course the girl who frowned her way through all her classes and looks down her nose at strangers is the
perfect measure for morality." He didn't even say it as if it were a jeer, his voice remained as even as it had been at the beginning of the conversation.
Catherine, for her part, barely even felt Stampede slipping down from her shoulders to the ground. She'd been in enough life-threatening situations at this point to retain at least a facade of calm, but she knew that things had just taken a turn for the dangerous and her heart was pummeling her ribcage with the ferocity of its beating.
"I really wish people would stop assuming I think I'm somehow superior. I never claimed to be perfect. I've had - I still have - plenty of my own problems that I'm working on. But yeah, I'm not going to look favorably on people who are selfish, greedy or evil. I won't apolgoise for trying to create a world where those traits are in remission. I'm not telling you what to feed your Pokemon or what leisure activities to give them. I'm telling you that screaming in their faces is a pretty shitty way to treat them."
Catherine glances around, noting the positions of the Pokemon around her - noting
what they were. She hadn't missed that he apparently knew her from her time at the academy. She remembered there being a guy with a Rhyhorn who was sometimes around, but she couldn't really put names and faces together with her mind firmly in threat assessment mode. Was he the sort of person to always tend thoughts of force or violence? Or was he particularly aggravated because of their shared origin? It didn't really matter, she decided. She had to focus on the present. His name could wait.
"Do you really want to lecture
me about morality when you're the one making implicit threats and jumping to thoughts of conflict?" Catherine asked, both a biting remark and an invitation to escalate. She wasn't sure which was the goal. "Do you
really want to make this situation worse than it already is. You're at a disadvantage. You've got nothing but rocks. Half my team is Water types. And, it might be a bit conceited to say it, but I remember enough about you to be pretty sure I'm just
better too. I really don't want to see your Pokemon getting hurt because you're having a tantrum."
Well so much for de-escalation. Negotiating is not a talent of yours. She was regretting the aggressive tone just a little, but it was what she defaulted to - especially in moments of stress.
But Hood didn't immediately take the bait. He shrugged and shook his head. "
I really wish people would stop
assuming I'm abusing creatures that could crush me like a soda can faster than I could cry for help, out where no one would ever find my corpse. But it's not about what we
wish, Catherine, it's about what we
get. And what I
get is open, scathing disdain from everyone who looks at me, from people I sat in arm's length of, who I trained and learned with, who wouldn't know if I died and disappeared."
He crossed his arms and his voice hardened. "Do you really want to make this situation worse than it is? You're in no danger. I've got nothing but Rocks. Half your team is Water-Types. But no, please, show me what our future Champion—who would see this world get better—does to rudesbies in the wilderness when no one's watching."
The Rhyhorn seemed to be looking straight at Catherine now, and with murder in its eyes. Hood rubbed his chin. "Whether I'm abusive or not, my mons never did enjoy standing around as I was insulted by ferals. I daresay they take just as much offense when it comes from a human. Show them too what happens when someone doesn't agree with Catherine."
"Honestly, I'd rather not," Catherine said. "I'd just as quickly come to your defense as I would anyone else's. Whatever happens next is on you. Your choice."
"Ha ha." It was a humorless laugh, more like a weird cough than a chuckle. "That's a new one. 'My choice.' Did you hear that? It's our choice." The Rocks around the area narrowed their eyes and looked between one another. Boldore made a sighing noise.
Hood shook his head. "Catherine. I want to believe. I really do. But how can I? You talk of seeing this place become better, or at least less bad. But you intrude upon my activity to insult me and then puff out your chest at me. You claim you're going to be an exemplar for the people and inspire them to greatness. But hasn't Champion Leon already inspired people to take up the Gym Challenge, to walk the Trainer's path, bringing mons into more lives?"
Hood put one arm up and Sudowoodo smacked it with its own in some kind of show of kinship. "This one almost ripped my arm out, but lost to a human for lack of restraint. My idea of 'helping' this would be to instill a sense of discipline." Hood put his arm down and nodded around the clearing. "I would not have tried, once upon a time. But I want to help these mons get better. I want them to help me get better. But the world is harsh. For all our training, there is no doubt in my mind you would trounce us with very little effort. For all our training, we have not gotten much better."
Hood crossed his arms. His mons seemed to ease back a little bit. "You want people to
try, Catherine, but what if trying isn't good enough? What if, as Champion, you don't inspire change at all, and rather make the message that even a standoffish, holier-than-thou brat can reach great heights so long as her mons have the right Type coverage? Would you
really have 'come to my defense,' or is that just what you have to say in case anyone who matters is listening? If this Sudowoodo had turned around and knocked my block off, even if you had deigned to step in, it still would have been me getting what I
deserve, right? What else do you suppose I deserve? What about those suited gun-toting hooligans that have been crawling around the shadows, or the mad mons that rip their ways through untread wilderness deaf to all reason? What do they deserve? What do
you deserve?"
Hood lifted his face. There was a palpable sensation of being fixed with a very hot gaze. "And why should the world care?"
"If it was
just type coverage carrying me to great heights I would have lost at the first gym. I'm achieving great things because I work hard, I work
with my team. They're all plenty disciplined and I haven't had to yell in their faces to achieve that."
Catherine couldn't help but let a sigh escape her lips. Partly, because her opposite seemed to be cooling down a little. Partly, because she didn't like having to explain what to her was as plain as day. "I'd have come to your defense as readily as your Sudowoodo because that's the right thing to do. It doesn't matter if I like you. It doesn't even matter that you probably would deserve it. It's not about personal preference or gain, it's about what's better for everyone. I'd be going against my philosophy and the philosophy I want to spread if I stood back and let you get your arm torn out or whatever it was. You're an asshole, but I don't get the impression you're a criminal. Not yet."
She bent down and ran a hand down Stampede's back, a signal to back off just a bit. She knew him well enough to know that if he thought she was being threatened he wouldn't hesitate to start launching Hydro Pumps into people and Pokemon alike. He settled just a bit.
"As for the black suits, I know exactly who they are. One way or another, they'll be getting dismantled along with the rest of the rotten elements. Things will change. People will resist at first. But Galar puts too much power and influence into the hands of its champion for me to fail. I work too hard to let myself fail when I have everything I have in arms reach."
"And if Raphael wins the Championship? Or Simon? Or even Leon again, defending his title?" Hood turned his back to her. His mons slowly turned away as well, disappearing beyond the boulders in different directions. Boldore got up and walked away too, as if Catherine weren't there. "I hear a lot of hopes for when you have all the resources of the Champion. How you're going to enact change
then. As if it's a given that
then will come. What if it doesn't?" Hood's head lowered and he crossed his arms behind his back, talking at nothing. "What of now, Catherine?"
"It is a given. Failure isn't an option," Catherine replied. "I'm committed to this. I'll succeed even if it ruins me. The same way I deal with every stepping stone along the way. Until then, I'll do the best I've got with what I have. Sway people as best I can. Help people where I can. Look after my team."
With her classmate's army of Rock types backing off, Stampede and Indra finally relaxed - the former more reluctantly than the latter.
"Ha ha." That dry laugh again, like a skinwalker attempting to mimic what a real laugh sounded like. "And is this the best you can do to sway others then?" Hood turned back to face her, shrugged, and started walking towards her. He hadn't raised his voice, and he was moving casually, but his heavy boots sounded like hooves and every step made it a little more apparent that he outsized Catherine. "I'm not feeling very swayed right now, being lectured on how to raise
pets. That how you sway people, insisting they're wrong and you're right? The example you'd set is that everyone should just trust themselves to be right and have their mons back them?"
"The example I'd set is to help others, try to do the right thing, regardless of how little you want to involve yourself or how little you stand to gain. You think I
want to be having this conversation? Talking to an ex-classmate who keeps throwing his literal and metaphorical weight around because he doesn't take well to criticism? I only came here because I heard someone screaming their lungs out and figured someone might need help. Instead I found
this and ended up wrapped up in a situation that I'd really rather not be involved in. But I wouldn't change anything I did. Because there's a slim chance that maybe you come out of this with something to think about. And if you don't? Well it's just one more person I know to watch out for - just like the blacksuits."
"Is that right?" Hood stopped a short ways away, head angled down at Catherine given his head of height over her. Even this close his mouth was still invisible behind his mustache as he spoke. "You walk in, say your little piece, and then shrug and walk away? Can I expect similar flippancy if something happens that bars you from the Championship? Or even if you do become Champion and there's some pushback? Just walk away because you tried and it's on the rest of the world for not fixing itself when you told it to?" He lowered into a squat to look up at Catherine severely. With his strange face and long limbs it was a decidedly bizarre posture for him to adopt. "Is that how you're gonna change the world? Say a few things and then let everyone else act on
your words? And if they don't act, they're villains unworthy of further attempts?"
"I make do with what I have. I told you. There's a big difference between what I have access to and how much people will want to listen to me now compared to when I've secured the championship. So right now? Yeah. The best I've got is to say my piece and hope there's a shred of decency in there listening. Even if I'd gone your route and tried to force you, I'd still be left in the same place where you may or may not listen to me. Except this way, you have a lot more reason to give it some thought than if I'd walked in and had you immediately blasted with a Hydro Pump."
Catherine had very quickly come to the conclusion seeing this guy launched across the landscape would have been significantly more satisfying, but that wasn't a temptation she was actually going to submit to. He seemed intent on asking her the same few questions over and over in different words and then to keep pressing when he didn't get a defeatist answer. Still, she continued to hold her ground. She wasn't really why she was elected at that point though. She may as well have been discussing things with actual stone.
"You're wrong if you think I won't act though. If someone was in actual danger, person or Pokemon - even you, I wouldn't just be standing here talking. There are real villains out there and I'm not going to ignore them. I'm going to bide my time until I have actual power and resources and then take them apart. I've had my life threatened more than once on this journey and I'm still here, still working towards my goals. You keep trying to poke holes in my plans or pushing back against my efforts but if you want me to actually stop you're going to have to one-up the blacksuits' attempts and actually kill me."
Hood shook his head, almost as if in disappointment. "Catherine, how can I accept that as any more than toothless drivel when you're the one contradicting yourself? 'Not going to ignore them,' but still just 'bide your time.' As if you
can't make a difference without being the Champion. How am I supposed to take that? How can I find hope in your conviction when even
you don't think there's much to be done without such exceptional resources. I might not be in visceral danger, Catherine, but I think I probably still qualify for some help regardless. A little more than a hateful criticism spit into my face, anyway." He stood back up with a series of unpleasant cracking sounds, apparently from his joints. "If even Champion Catherine can't enact change without all the resources and connections afforded her station, whatever is a nobody like me supposed to be able to do about anything? I'm not the Joltik King or the Demon Queen. I'm just some deplorable that barely gets the time of day. What am I supposed to do?"
"I'm not contradicting anything." Catherine scowled. Again, finding immense frustration in the continued, willful missing of the point. "Immediate action to do what is needed and possible in the moment. Long term action to deal with the systemic problems and dangerous, powerful organizations in the long term. If I don't win? Then I keep doing things on a smaller scale until I do. Keep moving towards the shouting and the screaming instead of away from it even if it means I find myself at risk again or in a million more irritating circular conversations. That's what you're supposed to do. If you're deplorable it's only because you choose to be. Do good where you can and then aim to do better, bigger. You want help doing that? I'm all ears. You've already got help from the team you treat like soldiers, but I'm not going to refuse a request for assistance."
"So I'm supposed to move towards the screaming, but my mons aren't? I'm not sure what you think I must do all day but you may have noticed a lack of a tent in this clearing. You may even have noticed I'm not exactly very prim and proper either. I
am doing what I can to get better, and they are doing it with me." He straightened up a little, insulted. "We can't all be gifted with such a natural penchant for bringing the best out of others, as you apparently have with your little mons," he nodded at Stampede and Indra. "How might I make up for this except to push myself, to push them, and to have them push me back? You make it sound so easy, Catherine, and I'm sure it must be very nice to be so naturally gifted. I'm sure it just makes sense to you that if I'm out in the cold sparring living statues it's because I
chose to not have a friend to my name."
He deflated rather abruptly, and his voice calmed back down. "Ahem. Never mind that." A little red eye poked up over one of the perimeter boulders as the Rolycoly from before checked up on the situation, and then it disappeared again. "If you would give me advice I would like to hear it. Even if I'm almost certain it simply will not apply to me, I would like to hear what you think I should do to become one of the 'decent' ones in your estimation."
Catherine already had a retort on her lips when Hood suddenly deflated. It took her aback and despite herself she found herself fumbling a little for her words. "Have you actually
tried just talking to them as equals? Or… anyone really? For most of my life, I did choose to be alone and friendless. These guys changed that. Recently, I've even been giving human friends a chance. It's… I don't know if it's really a good idea, but I said it earlier: I have to believe in the capacity for change or what's the point in even doing this? I think that if you actually reached out to someone - living statues or otherwise - you might be surprised with the results. It's a lot like the tent. You don't have one, but you could if you wanted to. I know how much you make from the league challenge, and I recognise you so I know you're participating. You could afford one if you wanted one. I don't know why you'd choose to make things harder for yourself or others than you need to."
"You recognize me?" It came out in a different voice than Hood had been using, but he returned to his deep thrum after ignoring his own question. "My mons are too large to share a tent with me, and I will not leave them outside. Nor will I confine them to their balls any more than I already have to when I move through town. I speak to them as I expect to be spoken to, and how I often
am spoken to. So far they seem to receive my behavior well enough, and I doubt they would be shy of making it very clear if I were to offend them overmuch." He rubbed the side of his head. "People like me don't get to mingle with people like you. You and the others are proper celebrities, and it will not do for you to be seen with such as myself, except on the trail, or for battles. My mons are the only companions I have, and I do try to be receptive of them."
Hood looked at Indra and squatted again to look him more in the face. He looked up at Catherine. "I know how this sounds but I feel it still needs said: 'don't be such a prick' is a little less convincing than it might have been coming from you." He looked back at Indra. "What are your favorite things about Catherine?" he asked the Poliwhirl.
The Poliwhirl in question, naturally, could not respond in a language Hood could actually understand. That did not stop Indra from beginning a long series of enthusiastic Poliwhirl noises while gesticulating wildly - frequently at Catherine and sometimes at Stampede.
Catherine also had no idea what Indra was saying, but she couldn't help but feel a flutter of pride and affection nonetheless. She waited until he was finished before adding a reply of her own. "I can't tell if we're working towards a middle ground or just firmly establishing divides. If you're telling me the truth and it's about solidarity, I can respect it even if it isn't the smartest of ideas. But then that doesn't seem to line up with the way you behave towards them at all. I can't trust you yet, but it has nothing to do with how you look or live. I don't care about status like that."
Hood looked between Indra and Catherine a few times. "It is hard for people to understand each other sometimes. I am still unsure of your aims as a Champion, and I don't imagine I can be made to be sure of them either. I can't understand your Poliwhirl, but I can understand that it had a very passionate answer to give, and I suppose I can understand that you have a passion behind what you say, too." He stood up. "But it is easy to be impassioned when things have been going so well for you, and of course the mon you started out with would have a lot to say about you." He looked at Stampede. "Why do
you follow Catherine?"
The Seadra tilted its head for a moment before vocalizing a short, but firm reply. He pulled himself straighter, still glaring at the hooded figure that had been threatening them not that long ago as if daring him to contradict the answer given.
Hood nodded to himself, apparently satisfied. "Hm. Hmhmhm. Well, this has been an interesting encounter." Hood turned aside and started walking away unceremoniously. "You're on a high climb, Catherine," he said over his shoulder as he went. "But some day you'll slip. Maybe you'll get back up, and maybe you'll stay down forever, but I will be watching to see what your goals look like after they've fallen to the hard ground." He climbed a pile of rubble at the perimeter and stopped at the top. "You said it was a given that you would be Champion. I take that as a promise. Not to me of course, but to the world. Don't break your promise, Catherine."
"I've never been someone who went back on their promises," Catherine replied. "When I'm done things will be better for you too."
Hood snapped his fingers down at his side and a column of smoke rose from the far side of the rubble pile he was on. "I'll remember that, Catherine," he said over his shoulder. He looked away and walked down the other side of the rubble, towards the smoke. "May we never meet again." After a moment longer, the smoke dissipated, and he was gone.
Catherine waited a moment to be sure he was gone, then sat down on the nearest rock, suddenly feeling very tired. She looked over at her companions. "What am I supposed to make of that?'
Of course, they didn't have any answers.