Team Moonshine: The Little Girl
The team had arrived at the foot of Mt. Bristle. Snow covered the ground as early winter had now fully set in. Adrian offered his cloak to Vileplume as he was the only one without anything for warmth.
"Addy, you and I should huddle toge—"
"Fuck off, Enny," Adrian told his daily nuisance.
"Come on!" Enny pleaded. "It's gonna be way colder at the peak. I'll freeze to death!"
"I told you it would be cold. You chose to wear that outfit. It's your problem, not mine."
"It didn't come with stockings!" Enny said in the full maid dress he'd brought along.
"You've been traveling in the wilderness for months now. You still haven't realized skirts and dresses aren't practical?"
"Scottish people wear them all the time!"
"They wore kilts. Those are made with wool, and they're really thick."
"Well, they're not charming any outlaws with them."
"Guys, it's cold!" Vileplume shouted, interrupting their heated debate. "And Enny, you're not gonna get any warmer whining out here unless Adrian lights you on fire. Now can we please get a move on? I don't want to start wilting."
And so, the two saved their breath for another fight in the future and entered the dungeon. Their job was simple. A trapinch was kidnapped, and the scyther responsible was last seen heading to the dungeon. It was some weird family dispute over custody that was way too complicated and none of their business. All the team had to do was arrest the scyther.
As the team got further and further up the mountain, they had expected it to get colder. However, for some reason, they felt it getting oddly warm. Not an hour prior, the sky was filled with dark clouds. Inside the dungeon, however, the clouds were parting and the sun was shining. By the time they'd reached the fifth floor, Vileplume was getting so hot that he decided to hand Adrian's cloak back.
Adrian stuffed it back inside his bag. "Something's not right here," he muttered.
"Maybe a pokemon here's causing it," Bellossom suggested.
Adrian shook his head. "I don't think there's a pokemon here with a move that can do that. Well... unless there's someone besides our client here."
Vileplume bit his lip nervously. "I don't know if we have the supplies to wrangle an extra outlaw."
"How much rope do we have?"
As the three continued to discuss the potential of an additional target, Enny stood by impatiently. He didn't have anything to add, and it wasn't a good time to mess with Adrian. He looked around, noticing that alongside the sunlight, the dungeon had far more greenery than usual. He thought back to when he played through the games that were set in this world. He was never an expert at them, but Mt. Bristle was an important story dungeon early on. The barren, rocky cliffs in the pixelated cutscenes weren't close to the grassy terrain surrounding them.
As he stared at the dungeon around them, he noticed something else. A wild geodude was wandering into the room. It didn't see the team yet, so Enny shot a hyper voice at it. However, his attack went straight through the target. It didn't even make the geodude flinch, continuing to walk through the dungeon oblivious to his existence.
Then the rest of Enny's team noticed. Vileplume and Bellossom felt a mixture of curiosity and nervous tension. Adrian approached it without hesitation, though, stepping in front of its path. The geodude phased right through him. "Huh. These are actually real."
"He doesn't look real," Enny said.
"Well, of course not in that sense, you fucking idiot. The weird hologram pokemon things are, though."
Vileplume gave a confused look. "Dude, what are you talking about?"
"I read about them in the library," Adrian explained. "It was in a report on rifts that we had a copy of. Someone mentioned seeing these in a dungeon while the rift was active there."
"A rift?" Bellossom repeated. "Does that mean we're in one right now?"
"Of course it does. The weather should've given it away immediately. We'll have to tell someone at the guild so someone can come here and clean this up."
Vileplume perked up immediately. "Does that mean we'll find some human treasure here?"
"Don't get your hopes up. We can't detect the source of the rift, so we have no way of finding any—"
"Look over there!" Enny suddenly announced, pointing a ribbon across the room.
Tucked in the corner of the room was a pile of clothes. Scarves and bands were common dungeon items, but these clothes were unquestionably of human origin.
"And suddenly a random human popped out of the clothes pile," Adrian mumbled to himself as he and his team approached them.
Vileplume, Bellossom, and Enny started digging through the clothes, searching for anything of value. Adrian watched with mild interest but didn't care to search the pile himself. Everything inside seemed to belong to a little girl, judging by the small size and the handful of pink toys, candy wrappers, and bits of paper with scribbled drawings on them that they found inside the pile. The paper was old and yellowed, the plastics had clearly aged, and everything was covered in layers of dust.
"These are really cute," Bellossom said when she found two plastic dolls of humans under a pastel jacket.
"Oh, Barbie dolls! I had some of those as a kid!" Enny cheered.
"Of course you did," Adrian sneered.
To Adrian's right, Vileplume had pulled out a large plastic device and examined it closely. "What's this thing?"
Now Adrian looked surprised. He stepped closer to Vileplume to get a better look. "Is that a dream phone? I haven't seen one of those in a real long time."
Vileplume was stunned. "A phone?! I heard about those! They have access to every piece of information humans ever had!"
"Not this one," Adrian said. "It's just a toy that was part of an old board game. A replica of a phone. Not even the kind of phone you've heard of. I remember my sister had one of these, though. Some bartender my dad was friends with gave it to her."
"Do you think it's valuable?" Vileplume asked.
"It's cheap plastic garbage. The game isn't much fun either. I doubt anyone in the guild would want it, and any pokemon outside wouldn't know what to do with it."
Vileplume was disappointed as he tossed the toy aside. "Man... Is there anything interesting in here?"
Adrian shook his. "It all seems like it came from a bin in someone's attic. Best case scenario, you find a few coins, or maybe—"
"OH MY GOD! A CAMERA!" Enny suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention.
Wrapped in his ribbons was a digital camcorder. It looked pretty old. The lens was cracked, and the strap on the side was falling apart. The blue metal it was built with was scratched up, and there was a smiley face drawn on it with a green marker.
"What is that?" Bellossom asked.
"The coolest thing ever!" Enny answered, unable to take his eyes off the device in his hands. "We used these to record, like... sights and sounds. This might still have recordings on it. It'd be crazy if it did."
"It definitely will not," Adrian said. "There's no record of electronics passing through rifts ever working."
"Well let's at least try it," Vileplume responded.
Enny flipped open the small screen on the side of the camcorder and played with the power button for a little while. Tapping it a few times, holding it in. For a while, it didn't seem like it'd work, but eventually a startup screen showed. It still had a small amount of charge left on it.
"Hah! Update the records!" Enny laughed.
"Gotta be fucking kidding," Adrian cursed.
Enny struggled to press any of the other buttons on the camera with his ribbons, so he handed it to Vileplume and told him what to do.
"Okay, use the arrows to go over to the recordings tab and press that select button in the middle."
"Enny, I can't read anything this says," Vileplume reminded him.
"Oh, right. It's the one furthest to the right."
"Hm... middle button doesn't do anything," Vileplume responded.
"Try clicking the one on top of the camera?" Enny suggested.
"The one you used to turn it on?"
"No, the one in the back."
"Oh, this thing here—whoa."
The screen display showed a long list of videos, with dates spanning over eight years. Dozens of recordings with varying lengths. It was a treasure trove in his eyes.
"Where do we start?" Bellossom asked.
"You can start later," Adrian said. "We still have a job to do, and God only knows what this rift will do if we stick around in it for too long."
"Come on, Addy! One video!" Enny begged.
"This is a huge find!" Vileplume argued. "Besides, this thing might not work again if we don't use it now. It took Enny a while to turn it on, so what if it doesn't later?"
Adrian huffed. He seemed frustrated and conflicted before finally making a decision.
"One video. Then we're going."
"Yes!" The rest of the team cheered.
After looking through the list, they figured it would be best to start with the first video, dated December 25th, 2013. Enny held out the camera a short distance away between him, Bellossom and Vileplume while Adrian stood behind them impatiently. He then clicked on the button on the back of the camera and played the recording.
The video starts with the person holding the camera, pointing it at a carpeted floor with a brown floral pattern on an off-white background. As the camera is lifted, it shows brown walls with a lamp to the right, covering the room in a bright yellow light.
The voice of a young girl says, "It's working now!"
The girl then stands up and starts to introduce herself, the camera still pointed at the wall. The head of a deer is mounted to the wall above a box TV that's turned off.
"Hi there! My name's Lily Walker. Remember that cause everyone's gonna know it. When I grow up, I'm gonna be famous, and then you'll all have to remember it."
A lot of background noise can be heard as she speaks to the camera. Different thumps and bangs, as well as two people arguing. The girl only pauses when a door slams shut before resuming as if it were totally normal.
"Anyways, I'm 6 years old, and I go to school in Culpeper. All my teachers tell me I talk too much, and I just tell them I'm practicing for when I grow up. People on TV talk a lot, and that's where I'm gonna be."
A set of heavy footsteps is heard through the speakers. The girl turns to the right, catching a glimpse of an older man wearing a dark green coat walking towards a door, his back facing the camera. A window on the door shows only darkness outside.
"Hey, where are you going?"
The older man responds, but it's hard to make out what he says. The words "to the legion" and "at 10 o'clock" are the only words that can be understood with the camera's poor audio quality. He's seen picking up a set of keys.
The girl tries asking him, "Do you want me to clean up the—"
But the man ignores her as he walks out the door and slams it shut behind him. Shortly after, another set of more rapid footsteps is heard in the background. The girl points the camera towards a kitchen behind her. Another figure can be seen with a red jacket running towards a backdoor.
"Hey, Dad said 10 o—"
And once again, the girl is cut off by another door opening and slamming shut. The camera hangs there for a bit as the girl lets out a sigh.
"Don't worry. They're always like this. I don't ever ask them what they argue about. I just wait for them to run away from each other like they always do. I'll introduce you to them tomorrow, but for now... um..."
She pauses for a minute. The camera starts to drop further down as she thinks of what she should do. It's clear that she doesn't actually have any plans for this video.
Suddenly the camera jumps back up. "I know! I wanna talk about the stuff I got today!"
"So first, I got this camera from Grammy. She didn't come over today, but Dad saw her yesterday and picked up our presents. It was THIRTY DOLLARS! She also gave me a card like the rest of them. She used to give us money too, but not this year."
"Anyways, Santa came today too and gave me lots of presents! My brother didn't get any cause he was on the naughty list. I think he was jealous. All my stuff's in our room, actually, so let me take you there."
The girl then runs through a hallway nearby. At the end of the hall, the camera captures a brief glimpse of a framed photo with two adults and a young boy before quickly turning to face a shut door. The girl fumbles with the handle for a bit, struggling to open it for a second. She then bursts into the room and jumps on the ground.
The room is lit by a single lamp on a table placed way off in the corner. The dark green carpet clashes harshly with the purple painted walls. There's a bunk bed on the left side of the room and a big mess of toys, pillows, and blankets all over the ground.
"Alright, here's all the—hey, look at this!" The girl says as she points the camera at a wall. She angles it to the ground and focuses it on some broken toy on the ground.
The girl crawls over and picks up some pieces to show the camera. It appears to be an old DS. The top screen had been torn off, and the bottom screen was cracked all over. There was a hole in the wall where it had presumably been thrown at.
"I wonder which of them did this... I shouldn't be asking."
The girl then drops the DS and climbs on her bed. Sitting on top is a variety of plastic toys and clothes, some of which were recognized by the viewers from the clothes pile. She sorts through them and picks out her favorites, describing them with her limited vocabulary. She brushes over the clothes, calling them boring. She seems really excited when she picks up a lavender-colored microphone. Just as she's about to tell the camera about it, however, it shuts off.
"Low battery!" Enny yelled.
The three of them all groaned in disappointment.
"About time," Adrian grumbled.
The group ignored his remark. Enny had been narrating the video for Vileplume and Bellossom as it came through untranslated to them. It required he pause occasionally, meaning they probably could've seen the end if they'd been more efficient. That only left them more annoyed.
After a while, Vileplume looked at the other two and shrugged. "First time seeing a human at least. Well, it's the first time in a while for Enny."
Enny let out a laugh. "I was starting to forget what we looked like."
"That's just one record though!" Bellossom added. "If we can get this thing to work again, who knows what we'll find!"
"Yeah, good luck," Adrian said. "You don't have a charger or a battery for it. It's just a paperweight now."
"Addy, there's electricity here," Enny pointed out.
"You can't just hand it to a pikachu and charge it. You'll fry the battery."
"We'll figure something out," Vileplume said. "Do you think we can store it in your bag? You got your cloak in there. It'd help cushion it and keep us from breaking it."
Adrian glared at Vileplume but quickly realized his team wouldn't leave it behind. He let out a low growl.
"Fine... I just wanna get this job over with."
After an incredibly easy battle with a heavily intoxicated scyther, the team completed the mission and rescued the target. They dragged the scyther along for a bonus from Magneton. They were back at the guild by the following afternoon. Once they returned, Bellossom split off to help in the medical ward, Adrian returned to his room, and Vileplume and Enny talked to the client once they were called in.
After that was taken care of, they visited the guildmaster and told him about the rift they encountered. He told them it would get taken care of, but he asked them to write down some details of their time in the dungeon for the guild's own records. They didn't tell him about the camera, however. They wanted to get it working before getting everyone in the guild hyped up.
When they finished writing their report, the two went to their room quickly to get a look at the camera again. Along the way, they started talking about what to do with it.
"So it needs electricity to work?" Vileplume asked.
Enny nodded. "Mhmm. But like old grumpy said, too much will break it."
"Who do we ask to help with this? I don't imagine you want a native to mess with it."
"True, but I also don't think we should have a human do it. They'd have to be really careful with their electricity, and I don't know anyone we can trust with that. Maybe I could ask that alchemist to make us a new battery."
"Well we'll ask around. I'm sure someone will help us," Vileplume said as he opened the door to their room.
Everyone's bags had been left by their beds as usual. They walked over to Adrian's to retrieve the camera. That's when Enny noticed something.
"Where's Adrian?"
Enny looked around the room, but he was nowhere in sight. He figured he'd gone to the library, or maybe even the dojo. Adrian did seem pretty frustrated on the way back, and he guessed it was because of how easy the fight was.
That's when Vileplume noticed something else while digging through Adrian's bag.
"Where's the camera?"
The two frantically searched all their bags, but the camera was nowhere in sight. Their panic started to set in.
"We didn't lose it on the way back, did we?" Vileplume asked.
"No, we couldn't have," Enny responded. "Maybe Adrian just put it somewhere. We should find him and ask."
"Sounds like a better idea than ripping our room apart."
So the two left the room and started asking around the guild for Adrian. A few people said they'd seen him, but nobody was sure where he went. He wasn't in any of his usual hideaways. Eventually they got a lead when they ran into someone carrying in a load of packages.
"Toge!" The two called as they ran up to him.
The togetic was caught off guard, and he dropped whatever he was carrying. "O-oh! It's you g-guys."
"Have you seen Adrian?!" Vileplume blurted out.
"Um... y-yes?" Toge answered sheepishly.
"WHERE?!" Enny yelled.
The shouting made Toge really anxious. "H-h-he was leaving the g-guild. I s-saw him while I w-was carrying d-deliveries."
"Did he say where he was going?" Vileplume asked.
"He s-said something about t-the woods. He was c-carrying something in h-his scarf, and I asked—"
And just like that, the two ran straight out of the guild. They were so confused, and they needed answers. He took the camera with him, but why?
The two headed out to the forest surrounding Capim Town, following a trail frequently used by hikers. They couldn't be sure if they were following the right path. There were too many footprints in the snow, and they weren't good at tracking. They were just blindly hoping they'd find him somewhere.
After nearly half an hour, they found a sign. Smoke was coming from inside the forest. It definitely wasn't a coincidence.
Vileplume and Enny pushed through the bushes and the trees, covering their faces to avoid breathing in the fumes. When they finally found the source of the smoke, the fire had already died down. A few trees were still smoldering. In the center of the burnt woods was a blackened crater in the ground.
When the two looked closer, they found the broken, partially melted remains of the camera.