Chapter Text
Mount Coronet looked a lot nicer without a giant hole to the void gaping over its peak, Ingo decided.
After who people had began to call the Hisuian Hero-- his real name was William and he seemed to recoil whenever he was called the moniker the townspeople had come up with --had landed on Prelude Beach and promptly saved the entire region from disaster about three times, give or take, gained the companionship of a handful of gods from Hisuian myth, and then took up the quest of meeting Arceus itself, the world had gone back to what Ingo could roughly define as normalcy. Granted, having only come here in the midst of disaster, he supposed anything besides regionwide panic was pretty normal.
“Sneas?” Right. Sneasler. Ingo gestured with his hand and she slid down the side of the mountain, claws leaving thin cuts in the rock. She took a seat against one of the other rocks along the bottom, crossing her legs and tilting her head at him.
Pokémon, Ingo had realized, were much smarter than some thought. They knew how the people close to them felt, just like a human. It was interesting to the point where Ingo had almost wanted to study it himself, but after watching William come back to Jubilife nearly toasted thanks to an angry Heatran, he decided he’d be lucky to make it a day out in the fields and left the research to Laventon.
“Nothing’s wrong, Sneasler,” he assured her. “I was just thinking. Now that everything’s normal... What am I supposed to do? This isn’t where I should be. I’m... out of place.” He took a seat next to her and tucked his knees to his chest, brows furrowed together in thought.
Sneasler frowned, seeming to attempt to make a coherent reply. However, before she could, Ingo’s phone rang. After things cooled down, Laventon had shown interest in William’s Arc Phone. The kid had happily surrendered it for a week or so and took a well-needed break, and by then, the professor had made copies of the technology in it and made similar ones for Jubilife folk. Ingo had picked one up even if he rarely used it, mostly for emergencies.
He took a glance at the caller. William. With confusion, he picked up.
“What’s the matter?”
“...Right... uh. I need you to get here. Now. Like, now now. This is bad.”
“You can’t tell me over the phone?”
“Just come here, please. You’re gonna wanna be here for it, promise.”
“Remember how I said there were no more rifts?” William chuckled, a nervous glint in his eyes. “That’s obsolete now.”
Ingo froze. He had barely walked through the door when William tugged him into a chair, an awkward and forced smile on his face. He was rambling-- always did when he was nervous --talking about how he needed to tell someone but didn’t want the town worrying, but he saw it open, saw people fall in the Obsidian Fieldlands, confused--
“What-- how? What happened to--”
“I don’t know! If I knew, I wouldn’t be so scared, but--” William took a sharp inhale, one hand gripping a clump of messy blonde hair. “--look. Last time the rifts opened, it was Volo. They got Giratina to open them with some kind of incentive, and that’s why it all happened. But Volo’s off doing almighty Sinnoh knows what, and Giratina was off at the Cobalt Coastlands last I heard, so how did they even find it, much less get it to open more rifts-- and what would the purpose even be?!”
“Okay-- alright, William,” Ingo said, tone as steady as possible as he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Maybe it’s just a fluke thing. You only saw one open in the Obsidian Fieldlands, right? So maybe one person made a mistake and landed here. Volo can’t hurt you anymore. They won’t hurt you anymore.”
“Alright,” William said, and then, after a deep breath, repeated, “Alright. But if there’s more, I-- man, who knows got here! Maybe it’s someone dangerous, or...”
“Why don’t we go there and see?” Ingo let his hand drop now that William seemed calmer. “You can handle most anything. And I’ll be your backup if you get nervous.” He gave a reassuring smile, and William finally relaxed, his shoulders dropping.
“...Okay. If you say so.” He gripped one of the Pokéballs at his hip, thumbing over the opening mechanism-- it was the Origin Ball that he had used on Dialga. “But if there’s more rifts, more random people--”
“We’ll be fine.”
The two stepped outside of the hero’s quarters only to be greeted by a loud, “Hey!” William perked up, his classic smile reappearing in earnest, as Akari came bolting toward them. She screeched to a halt, looking nervous. “Hey, William... I don’t wanna alarm you, but... Professor Laventon’s been seeing a lot of new rifts suddenly opening and closing around the region...” She rubbed the back of her neck. “...I know you’ve been busy, but maybe you could go check out what’s going on and see if anyone’s gotten thrown into this place?”
William’s eyes widened, but he swallowed down any panic for the moment. “Yeah! Yeah, I was gonna head out with Ingo anyways, so...”
“Great! Thanks, Will! Keep us posted!” Akari waved as she bounced off, smiling once more, blissfully unaware of the serious nature of the situation.
As soon as she was out of eyesight, William buried his head into his hands.
“We’re so screwed.”