The sound of a baby’s cry echoed through the Lost Hotel’s halls, creating an eerie ambiance that left Lykas and Mykel to wonder what exactly was going on. “I hear something but I dunno what exactly it is…” Lykas told his partner as he walked, the Gardevoir nodding silently.
”It sounds like a baby to me but why would there be a baby here, of all places?” Mykel replied quietly after a few minutes of traveling the empty halls.
“A baby?” Lykas asked, wondering what in the world that could mean. “Wait… how long’s it been since we went to Galar?”
”About a year now, I think?” Mykel replied.
“~/~!” Lykas exclaimed. “I had hoped nothing would come from that…” He muttered as he shook his head. A second cry joined the first about that time. “I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”
The low light within these underground halls was beginning to strain the hybrid’s eyes already so he pulled out his SNAG and turned on the flashlight to help him see where he was going. “I just realized there aren’t any of the usual riffraff that hangs around here. I wonder if Countess Pump finally got tired of them and chased them all off?”
”Would it surprise you? Pump has never been known for her hospitality.” Mykel questioned, reminding Lykas of the Channeler’s disposition.
“It actually would. Being hospitable is a huge part of being a noble. Pump and Geist were always so proud of their nobility. I’d be very surprised if Pump just decided to chase people out of her home.” Lykas responded, sounding a bit concerned. Shining his SNAG’s flashlight around the hallway the pair were walking down, he’d notice the vines growing along the walls with their large, broad leaves looking slightly withered in the gloom.
The number of voices crying in the distance had increased as the hybrid and his Pokémon had conversed, now sounding as if there were nearly a dozen babies crying around the hotel. “Where are those cries coming from?” Lykas finally asked aloud.
The vines along the floor seemed to perk up at this, the leaves on one in particular beginning to unfurl, almost seeming to point in the same direction like arrows. “D’you see that?”
Quickly turning his head to look, Mykel spotted the leaves as they moved, seemingly wilting again almost as fast as they had unfurled. He nodded his head and the pair moved rapidly, dashing forward to follow the moving arrow as it led them through the labyrinthine hallways of the Lost Hotel. At some point, they had stepped through the portal that led to what was the impossibly confusing maze of the Hotel’s innermost chambers. Hallways and rooms that didn’t exist folded open as Lykas neared them, revealing more and more of this abominable place. Fifteen minutes of nonstop dashing later, Lykas slid to a halt, holding Mykel’s Pokeball in hand from having to recall the Psychic-type several minutes into the vigorous run it had taken to get here. The hallways and empty rooms had finally stopped stretching out before him and he now stood before set of intricately ornate double doors. “The ballroom. Didn’t think I’d ever find my way here again.” He muttered to himself as he took one door’s handle in each hand and gave a push as he shoved his way through them.
As the doors swung open, Lykas was greeted by a raucous noise, the sound of revelry he hadn’t heard in quite a while. This was some kind of celebration, clearly.
“Welcome to the proclamation day celebration!” Countess Pump will be joining us shortly to make a special announcement!” Someone greeted as he entered the room. Looking around for the speaker, Lykas fund a man of minuscule stature whose head appeared to be made of wood. A Phantump hybrid? Or just a very small Trevenant hybrid.
“I received a direct summons from Pump herself.” Lykas replied. “Where can I find her?”
The small man gaspe, a hand shooting to his chest as if he’d been shot through the heart. “That is
Countess Pump! You will place the respect upon her name that her royal title commands or you will not speak with her at all!” He snapped, eyes narrowing with indignation. How dare anyone not show the Countess proper respect!
The small man’s indignation would only intensify when a Super Size Gourgeist floated over and spoke quietly to him. “No! She can’t seriously think to entertain this rabble, can she?!” The Gourgeist spoke quietly once again and the man’s demeanor changed entirely. “My apologies! I had no idea you were **him**! Please! Follow Hugo here and he will show you to the Countess.” The small hybrid finally stated, his voice filled with embarrassment Ashe bowed, stepped backed and motioned toward the Gourgeist with one arm.
“You must be Hugo.” Lykas assumed aloud as he turned toward the Pumpkin Pokemon. Hugo nodded and then turned around to lead Lykas away from the ballroom’s main door, to an inconspicuous, smaller door hidden in a corner. It almost looked like a broom closet from the outside but when Hugo knocked, he heard Pump call out from within “Let him in.”
Lykas nodded as Hugo made the turn the handle, looking back to be sure he was prepared to meet with their mistress. “Might as well go ahead and get this meeting started.” He told the Gourgeist before he heard the click of the door opening and Hugo stepped out of the way as the dire swung inward. Stepping through, Lykas heard the door shut behind him.
“Hello, Blue. It’s been too long.” Pump’s voice chimed from nearby. “You look well.”
“Don’t play games, Pump. You called me here for a reason. And stop calling me that.” Lykas snapped back, eyes roaming across the room as he searched the shadows of whatever this room was for wherever the Countess had spoken from.
“Don’t be that way, Blue. You helped make today possible. It’s time for a celebration.” Pump’s voice replied, dripping with a strange sort of verbal venom the hybrid couldn’t quite place.
“I’m not here for a party, **Countess**.” Lykas replied firmly, glaring into the shadows.
“Oh, fine. Be that way, Blue.” Pump’s voice replied with a playful pout in it, the Channeler stepping out of the shadows at last. “Did you hear him?”
“Who?”
“The crying? It’s him. He was calling for you.” Pump replied, reaching out and pulling the shadows away to reveal a crib with a bow-quiet infant boy sleeping peacefully in it.
“Is that?!”
“Our son? Yes.” Pump replied, looking down at the fact lovingly. “I thought that I would offer you the kindness of seeing him as a father once. It will be the only time you’ll look at him that way, you understand?”
Lykas walked over to the crib and looked down at the sleeping baby. Only a month or so old with a mop of jet black hair tinted with icy blue. The hybrid couldn’t see the child’s eyes as he slept. “Why?” He asked quietly. “Why did you bother? It was never part of any agreement that we see the product of my efforts…” There was a pain in the hybrid’s voice.
“As I said. I thought I would offer you that kindness. Especially since I have another surprise for you.” Pump replied.
“A surprise. For me?” Lykas replied, curious yet suspicious.
“Yes. Your efforts produced me an heir.” Pump responded, pulling him away and dropping the shadows that had hidden the child away behind him as she did. “But it also produced something else.” As Pump spoke this time, she reached into the darkness and pulled a small bundle wrapped in an old cloth from within, almost shoving the bundle into Lykas’ arms.
“What?!” The bundle wriggled in the hybrid’s arms, almost causing him to drop it.
“This is yours now. It shows no aptitude for the Ghost energies needed to be an heir to my family and I won’t have it distracting my son while he trains.”
“It?” Lykas snapped, jaw locking as he reached for the bundle with one of his ponytails, pulling the cloth away slightly to reveal a second infant. A girl with the same jet black hair with the icy blue tint to it. “This. Is. A. Child.” He barked out quietly, forcing each word through clenched teeth.
“Indeed it is.” Countess Pump replied, turning away from Lykas at that point. “A useless one. Take it with you when you leave. I have no time or energy to invest in such a thing.”
Lykas’ eyes flashed black as he glared at the back of Pump’s head. “Useless? Thing?” He was practically grinding his teeth at this point, a rage boiling just below the surface.
“How can you talk about her like that?!” He demanded, taking a step forward, pulling the intact girl up against his chest and holding her securely as he moved. “She is a living breathing being. A part of you that you asked for!” He snapped at the Countess.
“Wrong, Blue.” Pump replied coldly. “I asked for an heir. You gave me twins and only one serves that purpose. The least you can do with the other one is take it away considering that it’s the fault of your failure of a Channeler for a partner that caused me to be put in this situation to begin with.” She snapped, turning on her heel as her own eyes began to glow with a hellish fire within them.
“Had your partner not allowed Geist to be killed by that abomination, I would have simply trained his offspring when they came about and our duties would have been passed on to the next generation. There is a reason my family tree has always had two opposing branches and now we are reduced to a single sapling that may not survive for another generation.” Her voice carried a deep resonance with it at this point.
Lykas wasn’t sure what to say at this point for a moment before he finally settled on something. “Dull killed Geist because he wasn’t strong enough to beat him. That’s no one’s fault but his own.” The hybrid growled out. “Odd at least got some kind of payback when he killed the b*****d.”
“Killed?” Pump questioned, a callous, almost hateful laugh boiled up as she questioned her new infant’s father. “You think Red killed him? No. He banished the abomination to the empty space between life and death, certainly, but if the beast ever finds a way to escape, it will be back and there will likely be no stopping it. That is why he is a failure.”
Lykas stared at the back of Pump’s head for a moment longer. “You can believe whatever you want. I never agreed to raise a child but if you can’t even view other living beings as human if they don’t serve your purposes, you’re lucky I don’t take the boy from you as well. You don’t deserve motherhood and you don’t deserve to have your lineage continue.”
“And who would enforce such an attempt by you? Your
illustrious leader? He was the one who promised me an heir if you remember. He won’t go back on his word.” Countess Pump replied, calling Lykas on his threat. “You try and take my new Count Geist and your leader will not only return him to me but he will likely punish you as well. Now leave so I may present my child to my court and bestow his title upon him officially.”
“At least tell me something before I leave.” Lykas demanded. “Tell me you at least gave them **both** names. She deserves to have a proper name at least, even if you refuse to acknowledge her.”
Pump nodded. “That much was a kindness I offered before I knew it was useless. I named it Libelle. The boy’s name is none of your concern. Like me, you will only know his title when he grows up. Count Geist.”
Lykas had to fight the urge to lash out once again. The cold tone of Pump’s voice. The heartless way she spoke about this infant as it coo’d in his arms, now properly awake and trying to investigate her surroundings. It all reminded him of the way his own father had seemingly thrown him away, passing him off into the care of someone who was practically a stranger and forgetting he existed afterward. “Libelle, huh? No middle name, no surname? Just a given name and nothing else. You aren’t even going to give her a title like her brother?”
“It does not deserve such a luxury.” Pump replied. “Now, for the last time. Leave.”
Lykas didn’t even get the chance to respond at this point. The door he had entered through opened from the outside and Hugo entered, grabbing him and ushering him out even as he tried to stand his ground. Before he knew it, he’d been pushed out of the ballroom and found himself standing near the stairs he had first descended into the hotel with the tiny bundle in his arms. He sighed, giving the infant girl a sad look and shaking his head. “You didn’t deserve **her** for a mother and you definitely deserve better than me as a father, I’ll give you that…” he told her.
“The consequences of my actions weren’t supposed to be my problem!” He grumbled under his breath before he wrapped the baby back up in the blanket he now realized was a tattered old table cloth and not even a proper blanket. “You poor thing…” He thought hard for a moment, standing in the cool air of Brun Way, trying to figure out what he needed to acquire in a hurry. “I have no idea what I’m doing…” he realized aloud, his breathing quickening.
“I don’t know anything about kids, let alone babies. I can barely remember to feed myself half the time. How am I supposed to remember to feed her? Mykel does all the work keeping my Pokémon fed… Mykel! Of course!” Panic was rapidly setting in as the young hybrid began to realize just what kind of responsibility had been thrust upon him and that he had accepted in the heat of the moment. Fumbling with his belt for a moment before remembering he could hold the baby with his tentacles, he transferred her carefully into the embrace of his hair before finally finding Mykel’s Pokeball and popping it open.
Sorry, boss… I’m not made for that kind of- What’s with the kid?” Mykel began as soon as he appeared, veering off track from his initial thought upon spotting the Nantes in his master’s grip.
“How?” Lykas asked, his thoughts racing.
”How what, boss?” Mykel asked, confused.
“Babies!” Lykas barked out. “How am I supposed to take care of one?”
Mykel shrugged.
”That’s a human baby, boss. I don’t have any idea how those work. You might want to put some clothes on her, though. Poor thing’s freezing.” He remarked, picking up on the infant’s uncoordinated, wordless thoughts before they had fully manifested.
It was about that time that the baby began to cry, small whimpers at first, followed by full-on crying. “I don’t have any clothes for her! I didn’t know I was gonna have a kid to take care of until five minutes ago!” The hybrid snapped back, the panic mounting again.
”Calm down! Call Terashi or Keiko. Didn’t they just have a baby? Maybe they have some spare clothes you can use while you get some for her?”“Ter? Keiko?” Lykas thought aloud, remembering seeing the two of them with an infant before they’d left for Paldea. “Of course! Let’s get back to HQ and I’ll see if I can contact them. They might not be able to come back until Claydol or one of Ter’s Pokemon can Teleport to somewhere in Paldea, though, so it could be a while…”
Mykel nodded and he and Lykas vanished in a flash of light, the baby going with them as they were Teleported back to Snagem headquarters.
“Message to Terashi and Keiko”
I need help from one of you. Urgently. Meet me back at HQ asap and I’ll explain. Please hurry!”
Sending the message out, he would then begin trying in earnest to figure how to stop the baby from crying. By the time Terashi or Keiko arrived, they would find him looking extremely frazzled on the couch, bags already forming under his eyes and a video of some sort quietly playing on his SNAG, the hybrid watching intently. If they paid close attention, they’d hear that it was a video explaining some of the particulars of caring for infants.
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