Viridian Beedrill
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(Note: Created for the 2025 Writers' Roundtable using the theme "Trick or Treat".)
Summary: A weird man just moved to Icirrus City…and he’s completely ignoring the candy-seekers! No treats means tricks, as they say…but Aarune and Ryuki’s attempt to set up a prank takes an unexpected and chilling turn.
Rating: Everyone
Content Warnings: fantasy violence; potentially frightening imagery including (spoilers) heavy scarring as seen through low light and an overactive imagination; a (male) character going shirtless.
Aarune was the oldest, which meant he was the first to get a Pokémon, which meant he was the reason they were allowed to go trick-or-treating by themselves this year. He was proud of that. He was so pleased, in fact, that he didn’t mind Ryuki cutting in front and ringing more than his share of doorbells.
Well…he didn’t mind too much. Aarune did grumble a bit when Ryuki did it yet again at the latest house. But the annoyance evaporated when the door opened and he saw what Mrs. Banks was holding.
Full-size candy bars! We were right! Aarune gave himself a quiet fist-pump. He and Ryuki had been taking notes of who bought what at their parents’ general store in the weeks before Halloween, and their diligence was paying off.
“Trick-or-treat!” the brothers chorused. Ryuki punctuated his exclamation by raising his gloved hands and snarling.
“Ah, the St. John boys!” Mrs. Banks said. “No mom or dad with you this year?”
“They said we could go without them, since we have Fractal to protect us,” Aarune said. He gestured at the Cryogonal hovering behind them.
“That must be exciting! Now, let’s see…Ryuki, you must be a Hydreigon,” she guessed, observing the dark blue hoodie with purple, tread-like felt stripes sewn to the front.
“Yeah! And I just won a Pokémon battle! Look!” He held up a rubber Galvantula with red eyes and exaggerated fangs. It had been intended as a Halloween decoration, but it now had scribbled spirals over its eyes to play the part of a fainted opponent.
“How adorable!” Mrs. Banks exclaimed. “Using mittens for the other heads is so clever! I love their little button eyes.”
“Thank you,” Ryuki said, although he was actually quite peeved. He had been going for ferocious, not adorable. But it wouldn’t do to be rude to someone with full-size candy bars.
Mrs. Banks studied Aarune’s costume—a white hoody with orange wings sewn under the sleeves and blue spots on the sides of the hood. “And you are…a Volcarona?”
“VolcaroMan,” Aarune corrected.
“Is that a new superhero?”
“No, it’s a cryptid,” Aarune said, sighing a little. He’d been having to explain his costume a lot tonight. “It’s this creature that walks like a human, but has big wings and shining blue eyes like a Volcarona.”
“My, that would be frightening to encounter.” Mrs. Banks adjusted her peaked hat. “Well, as you can see, I wasn’t nearly so creative this year. I just have a boring old witch costume.” She held out the candy bars. “But I know you didn’t come here just to talk about costumes. Go on and pick out what you like. In fact, why don’t you each take two.”
Ryuki froze midway through reaching for Cackles bar, stunned by the woman’s generosity. “Two whole candy bars?! Can we, really?”
“Your first year trick-or-treating on your own is quite the occasion. I’d say it deserves a little something extra.”
“Woah, thanks!”
“That’s so nice of you!”
Ryuki picked a Cackles bar and a Choco-Razz bar, while Aarune picked a Milton Moomilk Chocolate bar and a Static Crackle bar. Then they said goodbye to Mrs. Banks and continued down the sidewalk, with Fractal the Cryogonal floating behind them.
“Well, that was all the most promising houses,” Aarune said, stashing the luxurious treats in his Swoobat-themed bag. “What now?”
Ryuki opened his Litwick-print bag and peered inside. “The candy we got is all good, but there’s not enough of it. We need to visit more houses.”
“Got any strategy in mind?” Aarune asked.
Ryuki shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Me either. How about this?” Aarune pointed and started tracing a line down the street with his finger. “We’ll start from this next house, then go down the street and try—oh.” He lowered his hand. “Maybe we won’t start with that house.”
Ryuki looked where Aarune had been pointing. “Oh,” he said, understanding immediately.
The next house was set back further back from the road than its neighbors. It was old and mostly wooden, with clapboard sides and a creaky porch. It was either white or gray; the paint was too chipped and discolored to tell which. As far as the boys were concerned, there had been a For Sale sign imbedded in its lawn since forever.
Until a few months ago, when somebody very strange bought it.
They knew the new owner was a man, but that was about all they knew. He rarely left the house, and when he did, he wore a jacket with the hood pulled low over his face. And he never spoke. Ever. He was just there. Quiet. Lurking.
A little bit scary.
Something cold touched Aarune’s shoulder and he yelped, which made Ryuki yelp. “What? What is it?!”
Aarune whirled to see his Cryogonal with one of its ice tendrils extended. “Just Fractal,” he grumbled.
“Why’d you scream, then?”
“Because it was cold! You’d scream too if something cold tapped your shoulder!”
Fractal made a few crackling vocalizations and waved its crystal tendrils. Aarune was still getting the hang of understanding his Pokémon, but he picked up the gist. “It’s wondering what’s taking us so long to decide,” he translated for Ryuki. “Well, next time you get impatient, just make a noise or something!” he told his Pokémon.
Fractal crackled again.
“No, that’s NOT just as bad as being tapped by something cold. I already know what you sound like, so I’d expect it.”
Fractal hissed.
“Yes, I also already know you’re cold, but I don’t expect—well, I do expect you to be cold, but—it’s just—you—it’s different, ok?!”
“I think we should go ring the doorbell,” Ryuki interrupted.
Fractal and Aarune turned to stare at him. “Why should we?” Aarune asked. “He doesn’t have any Halloween decorations out. He’s probably one of those people who has a sign saying No Solitter…Solatick…” he scowled, frustrated by the elusive vocabulary. “You know, that weird word that means people ringing doorbells.”
“But think about it, everyone is scared of him,” Ryuki said. “If we trick-or-treat at his house, it’ll show we’re way braver than everyone else! We’ll be famous!”
Aarune considered this. “What if he gets mad and chases us?”
“We run.”
“Seems reasonable. Hmmm…” Aarune didn’t want to be famous, exactly, but having something to one-up the kids who made fun of “that cryptid nerd” was a tempting idea.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Aarune decided. “But we’ll need proof, or no one will believe us. Hang on…” he reached into one of his cargo pants’ pockets and pulled out a bulky wristwatch with a screen instead of a clock face. He pushed a button to make a second screen slide out of the side. The display lit up in response, and he poked around until he found the camera app. “There! We can use this to take pictures of each other on the porch. Then we’ll have photographic evidence.” Technically, their dad had loaned the brothers his fancy new Xtransceiver “in case of an emergency”, but Aarune figured this was important enough to count.
“Great! You take a picture of me first.” Ryuki walked toward the house. Aarune followed, glad for once that Ryuki was cutting ahead. Fractal trailed behind him, and Aarune could sense its confusion over the purpose of this probably candy-less venture. He made a mental note to explain playground cred to it later.
The porch steps creaked like a horror movie. Joltik had spun spindly proto-Electro Webs everywhere, including the door. What used to be the porch light was now only a dangling wire. The only illumination was the sparking webs, the muffled glow leaking through the sheer drapes on the front windows, and the street lamp way back on the road.
“Ok, stand next to the door,” Aarune whispered to Ryuki. Ryuki posed, and Aarune pointed the Xtransceiver to snap a shaky, shadowy, but distinguishable picture. The brothers switched places and Ryuki took a picture of Aarune. Aarune took the device back to check the picture and grinned when he saw his face was recognizable. “Great, everyone will have to believe us now.” He stashed the Xtranceiver and looked around. “I don’t see a No Suh…No Salociter sign,” he commented. He realized in that moment that part of him was hoping there would be one.
“Then we really gotta trick-or-treat here,” Ryuki said. “Maybe we’ll get candy after all.”
“Right. If you don’t put out a sign, you have to give out treats. First rule of Halloween,” Aarune confirmed.
“And even if we don’t, trick-or-treating here makes us even more cool than just being on the porch does.”
“Yeah.”
Neither of them moved.
“It’s your turn to ring,” Ryuki prodded.
Aarune shot him an annoyed look. “Now you care about turns?”
“What, are you scared?”
“No!” And Aarune pushed the doorbell to prove it.
The chimes sounded deep in the house. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then a shadow passed behind the faintly-lit windows. The drapes fluttered, but not enough to see the person behind them. The shadow moved toward the door.
Aarune stared at the door and the tiny glass circle the mysterious owner of the house was surely using to peer at him. He waited for the old hinges to creak. He braced himself to run. His Cryogonal floated closer to him, sensing its Trainer’s tension.
…But the shadow reappeared in the window, retracing its path back into the depths of the house.
“Did…did he ignore us?” Ryuki asked, in a voice that was equal parts astonished and offended.
“I think he did,” Aarune said. His fear ebbed away, replaced by indignation. Being chased away was frightening, but being ignored was just insulting. “That’s a blatant violation of the first rule of Halloween!” he said, savoring the chance to use the word ‘blatant.’ It was easier and more fun to say than the people-who-ring-doorbells word.
“We need to trick him, right?” Ryuki asked. “Since he didn’t give treats?”
“Right! It’s practically our duty! We…” he trailed off. His shoulders sagged. “Ah, we can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Mom and Dad would get mad.”
Ryuki cocked his head in confusion. “But it’s a rule. Don’t grown-ups like rules?”
“They do, but they also don’t like pranks or tricks. Remember Tomfoolery Day? You’re supposed to do pranks on Tomfoolery Day, but all the teachers got mad and we got grounded.”
Ryuki thought about that. “I guess you’re right, but…it’s still a rule. Grown-ups always say ‘rules are rules.’ They should like a prank if it follows the rules. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Aarune gave a helpless shrug. People’s logic became warped when they turned into grown-ups.
Ryuki took on a conspiratorial expression. “…Exactly how mad do you think they would get?”
Aarune shook his head. “I’m trying to convince them to let me go to Ranger Camp, remember? I can’t get in trouble at all, or they’ll say I can’t go.”
“Hmmmm…” Ryuki fidgeted with his rubber Galvantula’s legs. He perked up. “Wait, I know!” He held up the Galvantula. “We could hang this somewhere! And since that’s basically giving him a free Halloween decoration, we’d also be doing something nice and Mom and Dad couldn’t get mad about it!”
Aarune brightened. “I like it!”
Fractal made an unconvinced noise.
“No, it does make sense. Trust me,” Aarune told the Ice-Type.
“Do you have string and scissors like usual?” Ryuki asked.
“Always!” Aarune pulled a ball of twine and safety scissors from their designated pockets. He snipped off a generous length of string. Ryuki held the Galvantula out to him and Aarune ran the string through the little loop on its back. He tied a quick but sturdy knot. “There!” He handed the loose end of string to Ryuki. “Now we just need a good place to hang it. Let’s look around the yard.”
The boys left the porch and crept around the house, taking care not to get too close to the windows. Nothing looked promising as a trick site until they rounded the back corner.
“There!” Aarune whispered. He pointed at an old, twisty tree whose branches bent toward the house. “See that big branch near the back porch? He uses the back door, so if we hang the Galvantula there, it’ll scare him next time he leaves.”
“How do you know he uses the back door?” Ryuki whispered back.
“You can see sparks from the Joltik webs everywhere, even the front door. But they’re not on the back door.” Aarune pointed at the dark rectangle in the middle of the porch. “That must be because he breaks the webs when he opens the door.” Aarune smiled to himself, pleased with his environmental observation skills. He was so ready for Ranger Camp. He reached for the rubber Galvantula, but Ryuki pulled it away.
“No, you picked the spot, so I get to hang it,” Ryuki said.
“But I’m a better climber,” Aarune countered.
“But it’s my Galvantula!”
Aarune sighed. “Fine,” he consented. This was a stealth operation and they couldn’t waste time arguing.
Ryuki wrapped the string around the Galvantula and shoved the whole bundle down the front of his costume. He handed his bag to Aarune and crept to the tree. He circled the trunk, then picked a started point and hoisted himself up the tree, handhold by handhold. It took longer than it should have. Aarune bit his tongue to stop himself from trying to coach his younger brother. They needed to be as quiet as they could.
Ryuki scooted down the limb, which sagged under his weight. It looked awfully precarious. Aarune held his breath, willing him to tie the Galvantula on and get back to the sturdier part of the tree.
But Ryuki scooted even further down the limb, then hopped from the tree to the wide awning covering the porch.
“What are you doing?!?” Aarune hissed up at Ryuki.
“There’s an open window up here,” Ryuki whisper-shouted back. “It’s like an attic or something.”
“So what?”
“Wouldn’t it be even scarier if we hung the Galvantula inside the house? He wouldn’t know how it got there.”
There was some logic to that, Aarune had to admit. “All right, but hurry up.”
Ryuki vanished into the dark opening.
“We’d better keep an eye on him,” Aarune whispered to Fractal. The Cryogonal made an affirmative noise. Aarune returned it to its Pokéball before stashing the candy bags under a half-dead shrub. He climbed the tree in a fraction of the time it had taken Ryuki. He’d just settled into a fork with a good view of the window when Ryuki poked his head back out. The younger boy looked down where Aarune had been standing and seemed to panic when he didn’t see him.
“Over here,” Aarune hissed. Ryuki’s head snapped up. His eyes were wide.
“Aarune, I think you need to see this,” Ryuki said. His voice had a strange shakiness to it, like he was afraid. But not with a normal kind of fear.
With a sudden, deep sense of unease, Aarune maneuvered out onto the branch. His brain was so busy running wild with possibilities of what had scared his brother that he almost didn’t notice the branch sagging before it was too late. An ominous creak re-awakened him to his precarious situation, and he made a quick jump to the awning. He looked back at the quaking branch with a shudder. Then he crawled through the window.
He first breath inside the attic almost made him gag. He understood immediately why the window had been open. The room smelled like the last time it had gotten fresh air was before Aarune had been alive. As overwhelming as the mustiness was, though, he forgot about it when he saw the thing looming in the center of the room.
Amongst the stacks of boxes you would expect to find in an attic was a metal table, with a square-edged frame above it. One of the side bars had a lever sticking out of it. The top bar had a spool of rope, and at the end of the rope…
“Is that an ax?” Aarune whispered.
“Uh-huh.”
Morbid curiosity forced Aarune closer. There were leather straps on the table, right where a person’s hands, feet, and waist would be if the person laid on the tabletop. “Th-this is like when the bad guy is trying to get the hero to talk. He’d strap the hero to the table and flip the lever, and the ax would swing down until…”
“That’s what I thought, too!” Ryuki said. “And I think there’s more stuff over there, look!” He pointed at a different table. This one didn’t have a frame or straps, but it was covered with glinting contraptions. Aarune tiptoed over for a closer look. Ryuki did too, but made sure to keep behind his older brother.
There was a wicked-looking device shaped like a water pistol, but with a strange metal cannister where the water tank should have been. Electrical wires coiled from the cannister down the barrel, which ended in a sharp, antenna-like prong. Next to that was a rack of beakers filled with unidentifiable liquids. Coiling transparent pipes wound a couple feet above the table, leading to a glass flask over a burner. There was a black control box with a big red button, another pistol-thing speared through with crystals, a huge, claw-like gauntlet, a scattered collection of evil-looking sharp implements, and some horrible contraption that looked like a cross between a cage and those weird bowls ladies sat under at the haircut place.
As his wide eyes swept across the table, something in the corner of his view caught Aarune’s attention. He stifled a gasp.
“What’s—eeep!” Ryuki squeaked when he saw it too.
“Shhh!” Aarune hissed. “I think it’s just a mannequin.”
The figure was dressed in all-black clothing, a uniform of some sort. A jacket with lots of buttons on the chest, gloves, shiny, fancy shoes, an odd-looking flat cap...
And a mask.
Aarune looked at Ryuki.
Ryuki looked at Aarune.
“I think a supervillain moved in,” Ryuki whispered.
Aarune was slightly wiser in the ways of the world than his younger brother, and knew that the odds of encountering a supervillain weren’t nearly as high as cartoons would have you believe. Still, their neighborhood might be one of the unlucky few. At any rate, he couldn’t deny the evidence.
“We’ve gotta tell someone,” Aarune decided. He returned to the attic window and looked out at the swaying branch. He pulled his head back in. “I don’t think we can get on the tree from this direction.”
“But we’ve gotta get down somehow!” Ryuki said, his voice rising in fear.
“Shhh! I know, I know.” Aarune racked his brain. “Fractal can float. Maybe he can carry us down one at a time…”
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Aarune’s blood froze. It was the worst sound he’d ever heard—the sound of someone coming up the stairs.
“Quick, hide!” He pulled Ryuki behind a stack of boxes. A sliver of light invaded the attic as a trap door creaked open. The silhouette of a man emerged, getting taller and taller as he climbed up from the floor. Once he had reached his full, terrifying height, he stalked to the attic window and leaned out as if looking for something. A bit of moonlight fell on him.
Aarune wanted to scream. He could tell Ryuki wanted to scream too, so he put a hand over his mouth to make him not. The man was shirtless, revealing that his left side was discolored and rough, almost scaly. His flesh seemed to pulsate with monstrous energy, and his wild blue hair spiked in all directions like a mane.
He’s a mad scientist! Aarune thought, his heart pounding in his throat. He must have experimented on himself! We’ve got to get out of here! But how—the trap door! He left it open!
Aarune crept around the boxes, motioning for Ryuki to follow. They snuck across the attic floor to the trap door. Aarune waved for Ryuki to go down the ladder first. Ryuki tried, but the fourth rung creaked.
The man turned from the window.
“Gogogo!” Aarune yelled. Ryuki tumbled the rest of the way to the floor and Aarune barely touched the rungs at all. The pair pounded down the hall, down the stairs, through the living room, toward the front door—
Something huge, white, and hairy lunged to intercept them. The boys screamed and skidded to avoid it, tumbling out of the living room and into the kitchen.
“It’s a Beartic!” Ryuki yelled.
Aarune threw his Pokéball to release Fractal. “Use Ice Shard!” Aarune commanded. Fractal formed some small ice crystals, but the Beartic swatted at it before it could fire. The huge paw sent Fractal flying, and the Ice-Type would have smashed into the wall if it hadn’t dissolved into vapor at the last moment.
We’re way outclassed in battle, but what else can I do?! Aarune looked wildly around the kitchen, until he spotted a sloppy pile of groceries spilling out of a bag on the counter. He snatched a can of beans and threw it at the Beartic. But the Pokémon just swatted it away. The big, furry Ice-Type started to squeeze himself through the kitchen doorway.
“AAAUGH! GET OFF ME!’ Ryuki screamed. Aarune turned to see his brother being hoisted off the ground by a semi-solid, pale haze. A very familiar sort of haze. This guy also has a Cryogonal?! Aarune lunged for the grocery pile. Please have bought salt, please have bought salt, please—aha! He grabbed a plastic container, yanked the lid off, and threw it at the Cryogonal holding Ryuki, spraying salt everywhere. The Pokémon hissed in protest and dissolved, dropping Ryuki to the floor.
“Yes!” Aarune exclaimed. Then he screamed and dove under the table as the Beartic, now fully inside the kitchen, made a grab at him.
The lights in the kitchen flashed on. “What is going on here?” asked an adult voice.
The Beartic stopped. Aarune peered out from under the table.
The house’s owner was standing in the doorway. Aarune could see his face for the first time and…it wasn’t what he had expected. It was just a normal, tired-looking face. The hair was still crazy but it was more messy-crazy than mad-scientist-crazy. And the guy wasn’t even really that tall, by grown-up standards. Most noticeably of all, under the brighter lights of the kitchen, the man’s left side looked less like mutant monster flesh and more like…
“Are those scars?” Aarune blurted.
The man looked down at him. “Yes,” was the blunt response.
“Wow,” said Ryuki. “Something must have hurt you really bad.”
“You don’t know the half of it, kid.” The man ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “What are you doing in my house?”
Aarune crawled out from under the table. “Well…umm…you ignored us trick-or-treating, so we had to trick you.”
“Trick me,” the man echoed.
“It wasn’t bad!” Ryuki said. He pulled the Galvantula out of his hoodie. “We were just gonna hang this up somewhere.”
The man shook his head. “You know not everyone’s obligated to give out candy on Halloween, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but if you’re not gonna, you need to put out a No Saltsitters sign,” Ryuki countered.
“It’s basically the first rule of Halloween,” Aarune added.
The man opened his mouth, then closed it, an odd expression on his face. He turned to his Beartic. “I didn’t think about making a No Solicitors sign.”
The Beartic growled.
“You’re right, you’re right.” The man turned back to Ryuki and Aarune. “Sign or no sign, don’t you two realize you’re breaking and entering?”
“We didn’t break anything!” Ryuki protested. “The window was wide open! We didn’t need to break it!”
The man just sighed.
Aarune and Ryuki exchanged looks, unspoken communication flashing between them. “You know,” Aarune began, “we thought you were a mad scientist… “
“…But you seem more like a sad scientist,” Ryuki finished.
“I’m not any kind of scientist.”
“Then what’s all the weird evil gadget stuff in your attic?” Aarune challenged.
“Oh, that. No wonder you kids look like Wurmple watching the Swellow.” The man left the doorway, walking back toward the stairs. “Come with me. I have something to show you that should put your minds more at ease.” Somewhat reluctantly, the boys followed. The imposing Beartic trailed behind all of them, blocking any chance for escape. Fractal slipped up next to Aarune and re-solidified, which made the boy feel a little better, even if he knew his Pokémon was no match for the Beartic.
The blue-haired man led the group through the still-open trap door while the Beartic stayed at the bottom of the ladder. Once everyone was in the attic, the man walked over to the ax table. “I assume this caught your attention?” Without waiting for a response, he pulled the lever to its lowest position. The ax plummeted.
Aarune and Ryuki winced, waiting for impact of the blade on the table. But it never came. The ax stopped a good two feet short of the table surface.
“Why’d it stop?” Aarune asked, confused. “There’s still rope on the spool.”
“It only looks that way,” the man said. “Most of the rope is glued on. This is a movie prop.” He pushed the level all the way up, and the rope retracted. He pulled lever down midway, and the spool played out the rope slowly, tightening and untightening so that the ax swung. “The blade isn’t real metal, but the prop crew didn’t want to take any chances of it hurting people regardless.”
“So…these are props, too?” Aarune guessed, gesturing at the table of gizmos.
“Exactly. Nothing here is dangerous.”
“Why do you have all this stuff?” Ryuki asked.
The man winced.“I…suppose if I don’t give the real answer, you might jump to other conclusions. Very well. I used to be an actor. I kept mementoes of all the movies and shows I performed in. I was proud of them, once.” He looked around the attic. “Now I’d as soon throw them away, but that feel disrespectful to the crew who so carefully crafted them.” He gave Ryuki and Aarune a hard look. “I expect you to keep that confidential. Consider it repayment for not reporting you to the police.”
“Ok,” said Ryuki. “What’s confidential mean?”
“Secret,” Aarune translated. He pointed at the mannequin. “What’s the supervillain costume?”
“That’s from my first major role.” For the first time, the man smiled. A very faint smile, but a smile. “The character was not as villainous as he looked.”
Aarune edged closer to the table for a look at the props. “This is cool stuff. Why’d you stop being an actor? Seems like it’d be fun.”
The man looked angry, and Aarune was afraid he’d said something wrong. But the man didn’t yell at the boys, instead turning his gaze down to glare at his scarred left arm. “It can be fun, if you can handle the fame responsibly. I couldn’t. I became arrogant, and my arrogance caused this.” He used his right arm to gesture at his left side. “I was the only one to blame, but I was not the only one hurt.” His expression softened into sadness. “I realized I was not the actor or the man everyone praised me for being. So I left show business.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Aarune didn’t know what else to say.
Thankfully, Ryuki did. “Maybe you made a big mistake, but you’re not scary or mean. Why don’t you talk to people? I bet they’d like to meet you.”
The man studied them. “You two must not recognize me. I suppose you would be a bit young for the sort of action scenes I used to film.” He shook his head, his face reflecting something like disgust. “That’s good, but unfortunately, most people have seen my movies and would recognize me. And I’m ashamed to face them.”
“You could wear a mask,” Ryuki suggested. He pointed at the mannequin. “You’ve already got one.”
“That would stand out in its own way.”
“Not on Halloween,” Ryuki answered. Aarune nodded in agreement.
The man considered. “Perhaps not, but that would only work for one night.”
“But if you keep wearing it, it becomes normal,” Aarune said. “There’s a man from Johto who works for the Unova League, and he wears a mask all the time. It’s just part of how he dresses.”
The man stared at the costume. “…All right, I’ll try it.” He walked over to the mannequin and lifted the mask off the head. “I won’t wear the rest of the costume, though. Fitted clothes irritate my injuries.”
“You should put on some kind of shirt, though,” Ryuki advised. “Walking around without half your clothes really is weird.”
“Duly noted.” The man walked toward the trap door and found Fractal floating there, keeping an eye on the proceedings. He studied the Ice-Type. “Whose Cryogonal is this?”
“Mine,” said Aarune proudly. “I just got old enough to have a Pokémon.”
The man looked back at Aarune. “It’s a different color than mine.”
“Yeah, it’s shiny.”
“How did you get something so rare for your first Pokémon?”
“I dunno. It wanted to be friends with me.”
“…Good answer.” The man led the way back down the ladder.
“Hey, mister, what’s your name?” Ryuki asked. “I’m Ryuki St. John, and that’s my brother Aarune.”
“I’m the oldest,” Aarune added, in case the man hadn’t figured that out.
“Brycen Hachiku.”
“Oh yeah, that does sound familiar,” Ryuki said. “I think I saw one of your movies. But we had to skip past the part with the Sharpedo tank. Sorry.”
“No offense taken.” The man paused. “Thank you both.”
“For what?” Aarune asked, confused.
Brycen shook his head. “You don’t know the half of it, kid.”
Aarune and Ryuki looked at each other and shrugged. Grown-ups were strange.
Summary: A weird man just moved to Icirrus City…and he’s completely ignoring the candy-seekers! No treats means tricks, as they say…but Aarune and Ryuki’s attempt to set up a prank takes an unexpected and chilling turn.
Rating: Everyone
Content Warnings: fantasy violence; potentially frightening imagery including (spoilers) heavy scarring as seen through low light and an overactive imagination; a (male) character going shirtless.
Aarune was the oldest, which meant he was the first to get a Pokémon, which meant he was the reason they were allowed to go trick-or-treating by themselves this year. He was proud of that. He was so pleased, in fact, that he didn’t mind Ryuki cutting in front and ringing more than his share of doorbells.
Well…he didn’t mind too much. Aarune did grumble a bit when Ryuki did it yet again at the latest house. But the annoyance evaporated when the door opened and he saw what Mrs. Banks was holding.
Full-size candy bars! We were right! Aarune gave himself a quiet fist-pump. He and Ryuki had been taking notes of who bought what at their parents’ general store in the weeks before Halloween, and their diligence was paying off.
“Trick-or-treat!” the brothers chorused. Ryuki punctuated his exclamation by raising his gloved hands and snarling.
“Ah, the St. John boys!” Mrs. Banks said. “No mom or dad with you this year?”
“They said we could go without them, since we have Fractal to protect us,” Aarune said. He gestured at the Cryogonal hovering behind them.
“That must be exciting! Now, let’s see…Ryuki, you must be a Hydreigon,” she guessed, observing the dark blue hoodie with purple, tread-like felt stripes sewn to the front.
“Yeah! And I just won a Pokémon battle! Look!” He held up a rubber Galvantula with red eyes and exaggerated fangs. It had been intended as a Halloween decoration, but it now had scribbled spirals over its eyes to play the part of a fainted opponent.
“How adorable!” Mrs. Banks exclaimed. “Using mittens for the other heads is so clever! I love their little button eyes.”
“Thank you,” Ryuki said, although he was actually quite peeved. He had been going for ferocious, not adorable. But it wouldn’t do to be rude to someone with full-size candy bars.
Mrs. Banks studied Aarune’s costume—a white hoody with orange wings sewn under the sleeves and blue spots on the sides of the hood. “And you are…a Volcarona?”
“VolcaroMan,” Aarune corrected.
“Is that a new superhero?”
“No, it’s a cryptid,” Aarune said, sighing a little. He’d been having to explain his costume a lot tonight. “It’s this creature that walks like a human, but has big wings and shining blue eyes like a Volcarona.”
“My, that would be frightening to encounter.” Mrs. Banks adjusted her peaked hat. “Well, as you can see, I wasn’t nearly so creative this year. I just have a boring old witch costume.” She held out the candy bars. “But I know you didn’t come here just to talk about costumes. Go on and pick out what you like. In fact, why don’t you each take two.”
Ryuki froze midway through reaching for Cackles bar, stunned by the woman’s generosity. “Two whole candy bars?! Can we, really?”
“Your first year trick-or-treating on your own is quite the occasion. I’d say it deserves a little something extra.”
“Woah, thanks!”
“That’s so nice of you!”
Ryuki picked a Cackles bar and a Choco-Razz bar, while Aarune picked a Milton Moomilk Chocolate bar and a Static Crackle bar. Then they said goodbye to Mrs. Banks and continued down the sidewalk, with Fractal the Cryogonal floating behind them.
“Well, that was all the most promising houses,” Aarune said, stashing the luxurious treats in his Swoobat-themed bag. “What now?”
Ryuki opened his Litwick-print bag and peered inside. “The candy we got is all good, but there’s not enough of it. We need to visit more houses.”
“Got any strategy in mind?” Aarune asked.
Ryuki shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Me either. How about this?” Aarune pointed and started tracing a line down the street with his finger. “We’ll start from this next house, then go down the street and try—oh.” He lowered his hand. “Maybe we won’t start with that house.”
Ryuki looked where Aarune had been pointing. “Oh,” he said, understanding immediately.
The next house was set back further back from the road than its neighbors. It was old and mostly wooden, with clapboard sides and a creaky porch. It was either white or gray; the paint was too chipped and discolored to tell which. As far as the boys were concerned, there had been a For Sale sign imbedded in its lawn since forever.
Until a few months ago, when somebody very strange bought it.
They knew the new owner was a man, but that was about all they knew. He rarely left the house, and when he did, he wore a jacket with the hood pulled low over his face. And he never spoke. Ever. He was just there. Quiet. Lurking.
A little bit scary.
Something cold touched Aarune’s shoulder and he yelped, which made Ryuki yelp. “What? What is it?!”
Aarune whirled to see his Cryogonal with one of its ice tendrils extended. “Just Fractal,” he grumbled.
“Why’d you scream, then?”
“Because it was cold! You’d scream too if something cold tapped your shoulder!”
Fractal made a few crackling vocalizations and waved its crystal tendrils. Aarune was still getting the hang of understanding his Pokémon, but he picked up the gist. “It’s wondering what’s taking us so long to decide,” he translated for Ryuki. “Well, next time you get impatient, just make a noise or something!” he told his Pokémon.
Fractal crackled again.
“No, that’s NOT just as bad as being tapped by something cold. I already know what you sound like, so I’d expect it.”
Fractal hissed.
“Yes, I also already know you’re cold, but I don’t expect—well, I do expect you to be cold, but—it’s just—you—it’s different, ok?!”
“I think we should go ring the doorbell,” Ryuki interrupted.
Fractal and Aarune turned to stare at him. “Why should we?” Aarune asked. “He doesn’t have any Halloween decorations out. He’s probably one of those people who has a sign saying No Solitter…Solatick…” he scowled, frustrated by the elusive vocabulary. “You know, that weird word that means people ringing doorbells.”
“But think about it, everyone is scared of him,” Ryuki said. “If we trick-or-treat at his house, it’ll show we’re way braver than everyone else! We’ll be famous!”
Aarune considered this. “What if he gets mad and chases us?”
“We run.”
“Seems reasonable. Hmmm…” Aarune didn’t want to be famous, exactly, but having something to one-up the kids who made fun of “that cryptid nerd” was a tempting idea.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” Aarune decided. “But we’ll need proof, or no one will believe us. Hang on…” he reached into one of his cargo pants’ pockets and pulled out a bulky wristwatch with a screen instead of a clock face. He pushed a button to make a second screen slide out of the side. The display lit up in response, and he poked around until he found the camera app. “There! We can use this to take pictures of each other on the porch. Then we’ll have photographic evidence.” Technically, their dad had loaned the brothers his fancy new Xtransceiver “in case of an emergency”, but Aarune figured this was important enough to count.
“Great! You take a picture of me first.” Ryuki walked toward the house. Aarune followed, glad for once that Ryuki was cutting ahead. Fractal trailed behind him, and Aarune could sense its confusion over the purpose of this probably candy-less venture. He made a mental note to explain playground cred to it later.
The porch steps creaked like a horror movie. Joltik had spun spindly proto-Electro Webs everywhere, including the door. What used to be the porch light was now only a dangling wire. The only illumination was the sparking webs, the muffled glow leaking through the sheer drapes on the front windows, and the street lamp way back on the road.
“Ok, stand next to the door,” Aarune whispered to Ryuki. Ryuki posed, and Aarune pointed the Xtransceiver to snap a shaky, shadowy, but distinguishable picture. The brothers switched places and Ryuki took a picture of Aarune. Aarune took the device back to check the picture and grinned when he saw his face was recognizable. “Great, everyone will have to believe us now.” He stashed the Xtranceiver and looked around. “I don’t see a No Suh…No Salociter sign,” he commented. He realized in that moment that part of him was hoping there would be one.
“Then we really gotta trick-or-treat here,” Ryuki said. “Maybe we’ll get candy after all.”
“Right. If you don’t put out a sign, you have to give out treats. First rule of Halloween,” Aarune confirmed.
“And even if we don’t, trick-or-treating here makes us even more cool than just being on the porch does.”
“Yeah.”
Neither of them moved.
“It’s your turn to ring,” Ryuki prodded.
Aarune shot him an annoyed look. “Now you care about turns?”
“What, are you scared?”
“No!” And Aarune pushed the doorbell to prove it.
The chimes sounded deep in the house. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then a shadow passed behind the faintly-lit windows. The drapes fluttered, but not enough to see the person behind them. The shadow moved toward the door.
Aarune stared at the door and the tiny glass circle the mysterious owner of the house was surely using to peer at him. He waited for the old hinges to creak. He braced himself to run. His Cryogonal floated closer to him, sensing its Trainer’s tension.
…But the shadow reappeared in the window, retracing its path back into the depths of the house.
“Did…did he ignore us?” Ryuki asked, in a voice that was equal parts astonished and offended.
“I think he did,” Aarune said. His fear ebbed away, replaced by indignation. Being chased away was frightening, but being ignored was just insulting. “That’s a blatant violation of the first rule of Halloween!” he said, savoring the chance to use the word ‘blatant.’ It was easier and more fun to say than the people-who-ring-doorbells word.
“We need to trick him, right?” Ryuki asked. “Since he didn’t give treats?”
“Right! It’s practically our duty! We…” he trailed off. His shoulders sagged. “Ah, we can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Mom and Dad would get mad.”
Ryuki cocked his head in confusion. “But it’s a rule. Don’t grown-ups like rules?”
“They do, but they also don’t like pranks or tricks. Remember Tomfoolery Day? You’re supposed to do pranks on Tomfoolery Day, but all the teachers got mad and we got grounded.”
Ryuki thought about that. “I guess you’re right, but…it’s still a rule. Grown-ups always say ‘rules are rules.’ They should like a prank if it follows the rules. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Aarune gave a helpless shrug. People’s logic became warped when they turned into grown-ups.
Ryuki took on a conspiratorial expression. “…Exactly how mad do you think they would get?”
Aarune shook his head. “I’m trying to convince them to let me go to Ranger Camp, remember? I can’t get in trouble at all, or they’ll say I can’t go.”
“Hmmmm…” Ryuki fidgeted with his rubber Galvantula’s legs. He perked up. “Wait, I know!” He held up the Galvantula. “We could hang this somewhere! And since that’s basically giving him a free Halloween decoration, we’d also be doing something nice and Mom and Dad couldn’t get mad about it!”
Aarune brightened. “I like it!”
Fractal made an unconvinced noise.
“No, it does make sense. Trust me,” Aarune told the Ice-Type.
“Do you have string and scissors like usual?” Ryuki asked.
“Always!” Aarune pulled a ball of twine and safety scissors from their designated pockets. He snipped off a generous length of string. Ryuki held the Galvantula out to him and Aarune ran the string through the little loop on its back. He tied a quick but sturdy knot. “There!” He handed the loose end of string to Ryuki. “Now we just need a good place to hang it. Let’s look around the yard.”
The boys left the porch and crept around the house, taking care not to get too close to the windows. Nothing looked promising as a trick site until they rounded the back corner.
“There!” Aarune whispered. He pointed at an old, twisty tree whose branches bent toward the house. “See that big branch near the back porch? He uses the back door, so if we hang the Galvantula there, it’ll scare him next time he leaves.”
“How do you know he uses the back door?” Ryuki whispered back.
“You can see sparks from the Joltik webs everywhere, even the front door. But they’re not on the back door.” Aarune pointed at the dark rectangle in the middle of the porch. “That must be because he breaks the webs when he opens the door.” Aarune smiled to himself, pleased with his environmental observation skills. He was so ready for Ranger Camp. He reached for the rubber Galvantula, but Ryuki pulled it away.
“No, you picked the spot, so I get to hang it,” Ryuki said.
“But I’m a better climber,” Aarune countered.
“But it’s my Galvantula!”
Aarune sighed. “Fine,” he consented. This was a stealth operation and they couldn’t waste time arguing.
Ryuki wrapped the string around the Galvantula and shoved the whole bundle down the front of his costume. He handed his bag to Aarune and crept to the tree. He circled the trunk, then picked a started point and hoisted himself up the tree, handhold by handhold. It took longer than it should have. Aarune bit his tongue to stop himself from trying to coach his younger brother. They needed to be as quiet as they could.
Ryuki scooted down the limb, which sagged under his weight. It looked awfully precarious. Aarune held his breath, willing him to tie the Galvantula on and get back to the sturdier part of the tree.
But Ryuki scooted even further down the limb, then hopped from the tree to the wide awning covering the porch.
“What are you doing?!?” Aarune hissed up at Ryuki.
“There’s an open window up here,” Ryuki whisper-shouted back. “It’s like an attic or something.”
“So what?”
“Wouldn’t it be even scarier if we hung the Galvantula inside the house? He wouldn’t know how it got there.”
There was some logic to that, Aarune had to admit. “All right, but hurry up.”
Ryuki vanished into the dark opening.
“We’d better keep an eye on him,” Aarune whispered to Fractal. The Cryogonal made an affirmative noise. Aarune returned it to its Pokéball before stashing the candy bags under a half-dead shrub. He climbed the tree in a fraction of the time it had taken Ryuki. He’d just settled into a fork with a good view of the window when Ryuki poked his head back out. The younger boy looked down where Aarune had been standing and seemed to panic when he didn’t see him.
“Over here,” Aarune hissed. Ryuki’s head snapped up. His eyes were wide.
“Aarune, I think you need to see this,” Ryuki said. His voice had a strange shakiness to it, like he was afraid. But not with a normal kind of fear.
With a sudden, deep sense of unease, Aarune maneuvered out onto the branch. His brain was so busy running wild with possibilities of what had scared his brother that he almost didn’t notice the branch sagging before it was too late. An ominous creak re-awakened him to his precarious situation, and he made a quick jump to the awning. He looked back at the quaking branch with a shudder. Then he crawled through the window.
He first breath inside the attic almost made him gag. He understood immediately why the window had been open. The room smelled like the last time it had gotten fresh air was before Aarune had been alive. As overwhelming as the mustiness was, though, he forgot about it when he saw the thing looming in the center of the room.
Amongst the stacks of boxes you would expect to find in an attic was a metal table, with a square-edged frame above it. One of the side bars had a lever sticking out of it. The top bar had a spool of rope, and at the end of the rope…
“Is that an ax?” Aarune whispered.
“Uh-huh.”
Morbid curiosity forced Aarune closer. There were leather straps on the table, right where a person’s hands, feet, and waist would be if the person laid on the tabletop. “Th-this is like when the bad guy is trying to get the hero to talk. He’d strap the hero to the table and flip the lever, and the ax would swing down until…”
“That’s what I thought, too!” Ryuki said. “And I think there’s more stuff over there, look!” He pointed at a different table. This one didn’t have a frame or straps, but it was covered with glinting contraptions. Aarune tiptoed over for a closer look. Ryuki did too, but made sure to keep behind his older brother.
There was a wicked-looking device shaped like a water pistol, but with a strange metal cannister where the water tank should have been. Electrical wires coiled from the cannister down the barrel, which ended in a sharp, antenna-like prong. Next to that was a rack of beakers filled with unidentifiable liquids. Coiling transparent pipes wound a couple feet above the table, leading to a glass flask over a burner. There was a black control box with a big red button, another pistol-thing speared through with crystals, a huge, claw-like gauntlet, a scattered collection of evil-looking sharp implements, and some horrible contraption that looked like a cross between a cage and those weird bowls ladies sat under at the haircut place.
As his wide eyes swept across the table, something in the corner of his view caught Aarune’s attention. He stifled a gasp.
“What’s—eeep!” Ryuki squeaked when he saw it too.
“Shhh!” Aarune hissed. “I think it’s just a mannequin.”
The figure was dressed in all-black clothing, a uniform of some sort. A jacket with lots of buttons on the chest, gloves, shiny, fancy shoes, an odd-looking flat cap...
And a mask.
Aarune looked at Ryuki.
Ryuki looked at Aarune.
“I think a supervillain moved in,” Ryuki whispered.
Aarune was slightly wiser in the ways of the world than his younger brother, and knew that the odds of encountering a supervillain weren’t nearly as high as cartoons would have you believe. Still, their neighborhood might be one of the unlucky few. At any rate, he couldn’t deny the evidence.
“We’ve gotta tell someone,” Aarune decided. He returned to the attic window and looked out at the swaying branch. He pulled his head back in. “I don’t think we can get on the tree from this direction.”
“But we’ve gotta get down somehow!” Ryuki said, his voice rising in fear.
“Shhh! I know, I know.” Aarune racked his brain. “Fractal can float. Maybe he can carry us down one at a time…”
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Aarune’s blood froze. It was the worst sound he’d ever heard—the sound of someone coming up the stairs.
“Quick, hide!” He pulled Ryuki behind a stack of boxes. A sliver of light invaded the attic as a trap door creaked open. The silhouette of a man emerged, getting taller and taller as he climbed up from the floor. Once he had reached his full, terrifying height, he stalked to the attic window and leaned out as if looking for something. A bit of moonlight fell on him.
Aarune wanted to scream. He could tell Ryuki wanted to scream too, so he put a hand over his mouth to make him not. The man was shirtless, revealing that his left side was discolored and rough, almost scaly. His flesh seemed to pulsate with monstrous energy, and his wild blue hair spiked in all directions like a mane.
He’s a mad scientist! Aarune thought, his heart pounding in his throat. He must have experimented on himself! We’ve got to get out of here! But how—the trap door! He left it open!
Aarune crept around the boxes, motioning for Ryuki to follow. They snuck across the attic floor to the trap door. Aarune waved for Ryuki to go down the ladder first. Ryuki tried, but the fourth rung creaked.
The man turned from the window.
“Gogogo!” Aarune yelled. Ryuki tumbled the rest of the way to the floor and Aarune barely touched the rungs at all. The pair pounded down the hall, down the stairs, through the living room, toward the front door—
Something huge, white, and hairy lunged to intercept them. The boys screamed and skidded to avoid it, tumbling out of the living room and into the kitchen.
“It’s a Beartic!” Ryuki yelled.
Aarune threw his Pokéball to release Fractal. “Use Ice Shard!” Aarune commanded. Fractal formed some small ice crystals, but the Beartic swatted at it before it could fire. The huge paw sent Fractal flying, and the Ice-Type would have smashed into the wall if it hadn’t dissolved into vapor at the last moment.
We’re way outclassed in battle, but what else can I do?! Aarune looked wildly around the kitchen, until he spotted a sloppy pile of groceries spilling out of a bag on the counter. He snatched a can of beans and threw it at the Beartic. But the Pokémon just swatted it away. The big, furry Ice-Type started to squeeze himself through the kitchen doorway.
“AAAUGH! GET OFF ME!’ Ryuki screamed. Aarune turned to see his brother being hoisted off the ground by a semi-solid, pale haze. A very familiar sort of haze. This guy also has a Cryogonal?! Aarune lunged for the grocery pile. Please have bought salt, please have bought salt, please—aha! He grabbed a plastic container, yanked the lid off, and threw it at the Cryogonal holding Ryuki, spraying salt everywhere. The Pokémon hissed in protest and dissolved, dropping Ryuki to the floor.
“Yes!” Aarune exclaimed. Then he screamed and dove under the table as the Beartic, now fully inside the kitchen, made a grab at him.
The lights in the kitchen flashed on. “What is going on here?” asked an adult voice.
The Beartic stopped. Aarune peered out from under the table.
The house’s owner was standing in the doorway. Aarune could see his face for the first time and…it wasn’t what he had expected. It was just a normal, tired-looking face. The hair was still crazy but it was more messy-crazy than mad-scientist-crazy. And the guy wasn’t even really that tall, by grown-up standards. Most noticeably of all, under the brighter lights of the kitchen, the man’s left side looked less like mutant monster flesh and more like…
“Are those scars?” Aarune blurted.
The man looked down at him. “Yes,” was the blunt response.
“Wow,” said Ryuki. “Something must have hurt you really bad.”
“You don’t know the half of it, kid.” The man ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “What are you doing in my house?”
Aarune crawled out from under the table. “Well…umm…you ignored us trick-or-treating, so we had to trick you.”
“Trick me,” the man echoed.
“It wasn’t bad!” Ryuki said. He pulled the Galvantula out of his hoodie. “We were just gonna hang this up somewhere.”
The man shook his head. “You know not everyone’s obligated to give out candy on Halloween, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but if you’re not gonna, you need to put out a No Saltsitters sign,” Ryuki countered.
“It’s basically the first rule of Halloween,” Aarune added.
The man opened his mouth, then closed it, an odd expression on his face. He turned to his Beartic. “I didn’t think about making a No Solicitors sign.”
The Beartic growled.
“You’re right, you’re right.” The man turned back to Ryuki and Aarune. “Sign or no sign, don’t you two realize you’re breaking and entering?”
“We didn’t break anything!” Ryuki protested. “The window was wide open! We didn’t need to break it!”
The man just sighed.
Aarune and Ryuki exchanged looks, unspoken communication flashing between them. “You know,” Aarune began, “we thought you were a mad scientist… “
“…But you seem more like a sad scientist,” Ryuki finished.
“I’m not any kind of scientist.”
“Then what’s all the weird evil gadget stuff in your attic?” Aarune challenged.
“Oh, that. No wonder you kids look like Wurmple watching the Swellow.” The man left the doorway, walking back toward the stairs. “Come with me. I have something to show you that should put your minds more at ease.” Somewhat reluctantly, the boys followed. The imposing Beartic trailed behind all of them, blocking any chance for escape. Fractal slipped up next to Aarune and re-solidified, which made the boy feel a little better, even if he knew his Pokémon was no match for the Beartic.
The blue-haired man led the group through the still-open trap door while the Beartic stayed at the bottom of the ladder. Once everyone was in the attic, the man walked over to the ax table. “I assume this caught your attention?” Without waiting for a response, he pulled the lever to its lowest position. The ax plummeted.
Aarune and Ryuki winced, waiting for impact of the blade on the table. But it never came. The ax stopped a good two feet short of the table surface.
“Why’d it stop?” Aarune asked, confused. “There’s still rope on the spool.”
“It only looks that way,” the man said. “Most of the rope is glued on. This is a movie prop.” He pushed the level all the way up, and the rope retracted. He pulled lever down midway, and the spool played out the rope slowly, tightening and untightening so that the ax swung. “The blade isn’t real metal, but the prop crew didn’t want to take any chances of it hurting people regardless.”
“So…these are props, too?” Aarune guessed, gesturing at the table of gizmos.
“Exactly. Nothing here is dangerous.”
“Why do you have all this stuff?” Ryuki asked.
The man winced.“I…suppose if I don’t give the real answer, you might jump to other conclusions. Very well. I used to be an actor. I kept mementoes of all the movies and shows I performed in. I was proud of them, once.” He looked around the attic. “Now I’d as soon throw them away, but that feel disrespectful to the crew who so carefully crafted them.” He gave Ryuki and Aarune a hard look. “I expect you to keep that confidential. Consider it repayment for not reporting you to the police.”
“Ok,” said Ryuki. “What’s confidential mean?”
“Secret,” Aarune translated. He pointed at the mannequin. “What’s the supervillain costume?”
“That’s from my first major role.” For the first time, the man smiled. A very faint smile, but a smile. “The character was not as villainous as he looked.”
Aarune edged closer to the table for a look at the props. “This is cool stuff. Why’d you stop being an actor? Seems like it’d be fun.”
The man looked angry, and Aarune was afraid he’d said something wrong. But the man didn’t yell at the boys, instead turning his gaze down to glare at his scarred left arm. “It can be fun, if you can handle the fame responsibly. I couldn’t. I became arrogant, and my arrogance caused this.” He used his right arm to gesture at his left side. “I was the only one to blame, but I was not the only one hurt.” His expression softened into sadness. “I realized I was not the actor or the man everyone praised me for being. So I left show business.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” Aarune didn’t know what else to say.
Thankfully, Ryuki did. “Maybe you made a big mistake, but you’re not scary or mean. Why don’t you talk to people? I bet they’d like to meet you.”
The man studied them. “You two must not recognize me. I suppose you would be a bit young for the sort of action scenes I used to film.” He shook his head, his face reflecting something like disgust. “That’s good, but unfortunately, most people have seen my movies and would recognize me. And I’m ashamed to face them.”
“You could wear a mask,” Ryuki suggested. He pointed at the mannequin. “You’ve already got one.”
“That would stand out in its own way.”
“Not on Halloween,” Ryuki answered. Aarune nodded in agreement.
The man considered. “Perhaps not, but that would only work for one night.”
“But if you keep wearing it, it becomes normal,” Aarune said. “There’s a man from Johto who works for the Unova League, and he wears a mask all the time. It’s just part of how he dresses.”
The man stared at the costume. “…All right, I’ll try it.” He walked over to the mannequin and lifted the mask off the head. “I won’t wear the rest of the costume, though. Fitted clothes irritate my injuries.”
“You should put on some kind of shirt, though,” Ryuki advised. “Walking around without half your clothes really is weird.”
“Duly noted.” The man walked toward the trap door and found Fractal floating there, keeping an eye on the proceedings. He studied the Ice-Type. “Whose Cryogonal is this?”
“Mine,” said Aarune proudly. “I just got old enough to have a Pokémon.”
The man looked back at Aarune. “It’s a different color than mine.”
“Yeah, it’s shiny.”
“How did you get something so rare for your first Pokémon?”
“I dunno. It wanted to be friends with me.”
“…Good answer.” The man led the way back down the ladder.
“Hey, mister, what’s your name?” Ryuki asked. “I’m Ryuki St. John, and that’s my brother Aarune.”
“I’m the oldest,” Aarune added, in case the man hadn’t figured that out.
“Brycen Hachiku.”
“Oh yeah, that does sound familiar,” Ryuki said. “I think I saw one of your movies. But we had to skip past the part with the Sharpedo tank. Sorry.”
“No offense taken.” The man paused. “Thank you both.”
“For what?” Aarune asked, confused.
Brycen shook his head. “You don’t know the half of it, kid.”
Aarune and Ryuki looked at each other and shrugged. Grown-ups were strange.
