Chapter 22

"It's called Starfall," Lane began. "Korina didn't discover it—her ancestors built it. From what I've seen, they came here from somewhere incredibly far away. Nothing humans could do right now. This place makes our best space-station look like a toy."

"I'd never believe that on the surface," Elisa muttered, pawing at her food. One thing they hadn't been given was utensils—evidently that was too human an expectation. She nudged her food, then scooped it up for a gigantic bite. "But I don't know who could build something like that, or how they'd do it. You must be right."

Dominic had a harder time. He stared down at his plate for a few silent moments, before leaning down and… sticking his tongue into it? Lane wanted to look away, but her mouth fell open and she stared, fascinated. There was nothing remotely familiar about a tongue that long and thin. It was a wonder it could fit into his throat, or that he could somehow sound almost the same when he spoke. Might explain why his voice shakes a little though. It's all that tongue down there somewhere.

He finally noticed Lane staring and twitched, tongue pulling back up into his throat. "What? Did I get some on my face?"

Lane shook her head, then focused on her own meal for a few seconds.

All things considered, she probably shouldn't be pointing out how weird they were for being Pokémon. They hadn't given her much of a hard time over it, so she would try to show the same respect. "You're okay eating that?" she asked instead. "Even though it's just flowers?"

Dominic shrugged. "I think it's more than just the flowers. There's this powdery stuff… pollen, I think it's called? It smells pretty good too. Bet I could do something interesting with it if I mix them together. Are you okay eating meat that just came out of a machine? There's no way that came from a real Pokémon."

"Considering I'm a Pokémon right now, I'll take the cultured meat," Elisa said.

They ate in relative silence. Lane didn't much want to stop, considering how rarely she'd had the chance to taste real meat. Maybe with all the chaos of having more humans around, Korina would slip on the little things and let her have real food more often.

"So what else is in here?" Dominic asked, once they'd all finished eating.

Though he'd been the most desperate to get food, he was also the first to finish. Probably easier to do when he was just drinking sugar. "Magic food, weird new materials, doorways up by the ceiling for maximum inconvenience…"

"Lots of dangerous stuff," Lane said. "Korina said that it was too dangerous for me to get near. I think from the crash. She doesn't seem willing to talk about how the ship got here, or who else was here, or… please don't ask her about her kind. She's not very patient with me, but it feels like she would be even worse with you two."

"Got it," Elisa said. "Just don't go full Stockholm on us just because she's your favorite Pokémon, Lane. She's kidnapped us, threatened us, and mistreated us. We're trying to escape. You gotta keep that straight."

"I won't forget," she said. It was true, even. She could remember that Korina was dangerous and mean. It was harder to ignore all the good things in the light of that truth, but… "Anyway, she did give us some instructions. You should learn to fly, Dominic… and Elisa, you should learn your psychic powers.

I'll do all that with both of you. More practice means we get out sooner!"

"I still can't believe this." Dominic rose, spreading his wings wide. "Look at me. Look at you! We're… Pokémon. When do we wake up?"

"I don't know," Lane whispered, clearing away their empty trays into the receptacle machine. "I had some trouble believing it was real myself, when it started. The longer I'm here, the more I think that it's not going away. For me, anyway. You two… I'll get you out of this, I promise. You never wanted to be part of this."

They didn't argue the point. Elisa rested one paw on her shoulder for a second, having to stand on tiptoe to reach up so high. Or maybe that was just the way she usually walked. Lane was going to have trouble getting used to those eyes no matter what happened. "Don't think we're going to leave you either, Lane. Dominic can bail if he wants to. But going on a Pokémon

adventure was always what I wanted. Venue isn't quite what I expected, but I'll figure it out."

She took a few steps from her, paws glowing again. This time it looked deliberate, though what she was trying to do, Lane couldn't guess. After a few seconds of standing still, nothing happened. So maybe not very much. "Dang.

Thought I'd be able to fly like you too. You make it look so easy, drifting like you do. It doesn't seem like it should be that hard."

Lane didn't get a chance to explain herself right then—Korina finally appeared, her body dusted with soot and a strange-smelling fluid. She could only guess it came from somewhere deeper into Starfall. Korina refused to explain what she'd been doing, or to accept offers of help.

"I'm still not sure I can trust you again yet, Lane. Eventually I'll feel better about your lie, but I don't yet. Now you're coming with me. Little Pokémon, you stay out of trouble while we're gone. If you break anything, I'll dump you on the surface and let the locals do whatever they want with you. You won't like it."

They were smart enough not to argue, though Lane could sense Dominic's anger in particular, so Korina must have too. She should probably remind her friends that their captor could read minds.

But either Korina hadn't bothered to check how they felt, or maybe she just didn't care.

Lane flew out with her on her own power, up into the ruins of Atico above. There Korina ran her through more dexterity drills in her flight, weaving quickly through densely packed ruins. A few times she stopped to converse with the locals, letting Lane explain who she was and what they were doing there.

In every case, the Pokémon who lived nearby seemed friendly to her.

They didn't know what mew were, just calling them "sky cats." But Lane found she didn't mind the nickname, or her association as Korina's kitten. If only the bigger cat had been happier about it, Lane might've been able to enjoy it more.

But Korina didn't seem interested in her apologies. Anything Lane tried to say only ended with more practice, until she was so mentally and physically exhausted from all the training that she couldn't even think to ask it.

Days passed more or less the same. Korina didn't sleep in the same quarters as Lane anymore, though she did check on her right before bed and sometimes take her away early in the morning. She spoke little to Lane's

friends, barely even seemed to notice they existed. But that was fine for the two of them.

Lane didn't get as much time to practice her powers with Dominic and Elisa as she would've liked. Despite her promises, Korina didn't seem willing to trust her training to the other former humans. They spent most of the next few days on bubbles and shields, the same kind she'd accidentally called on when she was attacked.

"But you're blowing your energy all at once. You don't need to make every shield strong enough to resist an atom bomb—do that, and you're unconscious after a few minutes of some stupid dragon blowing fire. Measure the external forces, and match them exactly. Discipline leads to endurance."

Once Lane used a new power once, it wasn't nearly as hard to repeat it a second time. Though whatever she'd done to teleport across the room that one time had yet to be repeated. Her friends weren't taking to it nearly as quickly, with one minor exception. Despite it being so strange, Dominic mastered flight even quicker than Lane had. After only a single day, he could move at a slow walking pace through the air. After a week, he could move faster than Lane.

It feels like she's trying to prepare me for something, Lane thought, after another exhausting day of training. Her tail hung limply behind her in the air, dragged along rather than floating.

"I'll leave you with them the next few days," Korina said, when they were drifting back down to Starfall. She no longer carried Lane, which might've been a mark of pride for her if she wasn't struggling to keep herself in the air. "I expect some improvement when I get back. Do whatever you want that you think will make you better, just don't break anything in Starfall, or leave Atico.

I know you will need more space to practice flight than what you can find in here."

"You don't want me to come with you?" she asked, almost hopeful. "If it's a long trip, you might enjoy it more with company."

Where had that even come from?

Korina spun, glowering at her. "I don't need a kitten's pity. I demand your respect, but that's all. Maybe when you're older, I'll trust you. Right now…"

She levitated Lane close, licking at the fur of her face a few times. Lane twisted and curled up in the air, purring by reflex—but it only lasted a second.

"We're almost extinct, Lane. We're myth and legend and not even a well-remembered myth. I thought humans could help us—they made monsters instead. You're the other way that humans prove themselves. There's no going back for you. There's no being human again. There are almost a billion humans on this planet, and only three of us. I need you more than they do."

Do you mean humans, or my friends?

Before she could open her mouth to answer, Korina vanished, light fading from around Lane's eyes. She reached out in vain for the empty spot, before returning to her friends in exhaustion.

They took the news of Korina's departure far better than Lane did. "You mean we're free already?" Dominic asked. "Free to… we can go anywhere we want!"

Him and Elisa spent most of their time in the empty room beside the mess hall, where couches and beds formed a resting area for weary mew of ancient times. From the size of those beds, Lane had always suspected they'd been used for more intimate purposes, though she had a hard time imagining any couple actually wanting to be out here with their crew and Arceus himself to watch.

"We should be careful if we explore," Lane said. "There are dangerous things on Starfall. The ship doesn't have physical controls—it answers to psychic powers."

She shook herself out once, wincing at the smell. It didn't get any better.

"I'm going for a bath. You guys wanna come?"

"Nope!" Dominic called, lifting into the air in a steady hover. His wings beat surprisingly slowly, pushing him up for a moment only to drift back down like a cotton ball. But he'd landed on her back once, and he didn't weigh much more than a cotton ball either. "Only time I went underwater I discovered that I don't have lungs and whatever I use to breathe was rapidly filling up with liquid. No. Thank. You."

"Sounds better than licking myself," Elisa said, hurrying after her. "Don't get yourself into trouble, Dominic! Wait for us!"

"I won't!" he called, already turning his back on them both. "See you at dinnertime! I'm going to find a radio console in here and call for rescue while you two are playing around."

But before Lane could object, he was already gone.