A GLIMWOOD TANGLE AFFAIR SERIES
Truth or Lie?
A Pokemon Sword and Shield Fanfiction
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Gloss, a pretty man with long turquoise hair and dark eyes, smiled at them from his hologram. “Why, hello, Allister! I thought you would never call.”
Allister, Piers, Raihan, and Daniel stared at him with consternation.
The Ghost type gym leader adjusted his mask. He mumbled, “Sorry. I — I couldn’t find your number.”
Piers frowned at his white lie, though he understood why Allister didn’t want to admit to Gloss that he had forgotten about him. Especially if Gloss was truly a bad guy.
The Spikemuth punk glanced over at Daniel, who had an interesting expression. The guy scowled but then actively avoided eye contact with Gloss.
Not that Gloss seemed to notice. The turquoise haired man chuckled. “No worries. How have things been keeping with you, Allister? I see you’ve got some friends here too. Am I interrupting something?”
Gloss’s voice was tranquil, but there was something dangerous underneath.
In Spikemuth, Piers survived by detecting the true intent of other people. He was especially sensitive to those who were friendly on the surface, but nasty deep down.
Raihan tapped him on the shoulder. “Piersy, if you feel on edge, we can step away for a moment,” he whispered.
Piers shot him a scathing look. “I’m not afraid of him,” he hissed. “And I wanna know what’s goin’ on, and how we can help the pokemon at Glimwood Tangle.”
The dragon master nodded. “I want to know too. Just saying that if you feel the need to step aside, I’ll come with you.”
Uncertainty curled in Piers’ stomach. It was so unlike Raihan to offer to escape a situation, rather than to confront it head-on.
Meanwhile, Allister eyed Gloss warily. “You’re not…interrupting anything.” The boy paused. “What do you want? I never…never said I wanted the wild pokemon at Glimwood Tangle to rampage and hurt people.”
The way Gloss quirked up his eyebrow would have been funny if the situation weren’t so serious. The man laughed and flipped his hair back. “Of course not! We’re not interested in hurting anybody. You’re a ghost type master, Al. You know better than anyone that it’s all about the thrill and scare, not about causing real harm.”
“Really?” Daniel finally spoke up, his face twisted into a sneer. “That’s not what you told me.” His arms crossed over his chest, like an Aegislash in its defense forme.
Gloss looked at Daniel at last, but his eyes were cool and assessing. “Daniel, I know there were problems between us in the past, but it sounds like you’ve distorted my intentions to the others.” Gloss’ gaze darted back to Allister.
“Al, let me say this again, since my message clearly got lost in translation.” Gloss’s eyes flashed. “At Team Hex, we give people chills and thrills. Sure, not everyone will appreciate them, but nobody will get hurt beyond regular Pokemon battle damage. Goodness knows there’s too much ennui in life that we need some excitement.” The man closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, a blissful smile on his face.
Piers couldn’t resist quipping, “What are ya sniffin’? Some wholesome stuff, I imagine?”
“You’re a funny guy, Piers,” Gloss said with a careless laugh. “I’m a ghost type specialist, and maybe because of that, I’ve never seen eye to eye with dark type users. Not because of anything personal, mind. But dark type specialists tend to take things too seriously. You all need to relax and have fun sometimes.”
“So you terrify people for fun,” Raihan pointed out. He revealed his dragon-like canines in a threatening manner.
Gloss shook his head, his shining teal hair slipping around his shoulders. “Raihan, you’re a dragon type gym leader. You do everything in the open, so you’re direct and fierce. I don’t expect you to understand the indirect, subtle force of ghost types.”
“About ghost types,” Piers cut in, “why don’t we let the other ghost type expert speak?” He cast a pointed look at Allister, hoping to clear the way for the boy, who seemed to have lost his confidence ever since Gloss showed up.
Allister cringed. He rubbed his neck. “I — Well — People think I take myself too seriously as well, that I’m n — no fun.”
Gloss nodded with a sage expression. “See? You’ve got so much potential in you, my friend. You don’t need to live by other people’s rules, or worry about their expectations. You can forge your own path and flourish, and even enjoy yourself in the process.”
Piers huffed at this. “Allister doesn’t need ya preachin’ and bein’ a fake nice guy to him.” He heard Daniel sigh and Raihan grunt.
Oddly enough, the Gengar beside Allister looked confused, like it didn’t know whose side Gloss was on, and whether it needed to protect its trainer.
Allister was silent for a while.
Just then, they heard a peculiar humming in the air, like someone was singing. Piers, being a musician, was the quickest to react. He cursed. “Perish Song!” In a jiffy, he dug out his concert earplugs again and gave a pair to Raihan. He rushed over to give Allister a pair too, and after a moment, he handed out some earplugs to Daniel. Daniel looked dubious but Piers spat out, “Take this or endanger your life. Your choice.”
Daniel frowned but at least accepted the plugs.
For the first time in this conversation, Gloss looked startled, his eyes wide with dismay. “What on earth is happening? What is that strange music?”
Allister responded this time, “It’s Perish Song. I’ll need to investigate this. You probably can’t hear it that clearly through the hologram, but just in case, I’m hanging up.”
Before Gloss could retort, the boy tapped a button on his Rotom phone, and the Team Hex leader disappeared.
It was a relief but also a shock to see the annoying Gloss vanish from sight.
Raihan could feel chills run down his spine even as Piers’ earplugs blocked out the Perish Song. “What the fuck is going on?” Raihan didn’t mince his words.
Allister straightened, seeming more alert than he was earlier. “I’m not sure why.” He returned his Gengar into its pokeball despite the ghost Pokemon’s protests. He murmured to the pokeball, “You can’t wear earplugs, so you won’t be safe from Perish Song.” Allister said to his human comrades, “I already instructed my pokemon earlier to stop singing Perish Song…”
“Well, maybe your Banette decided to sing again,” Raihan sniped, putting his hands on his hips. He knew he was being grouchy, but who wouldn’t be?
“Ghost pokemon ain’t the only ones who can sing Perish Song,” Piers countered.
“But who else could it be?” Raihan asked, tossing his hands up into the air.
Daniel, who had been silent for a long while, finally spoke. “For once, I don’t think this is Allister’s fault.” His eyes narrowed as he perused the Stow-on-Side gym. “But instead of playing the blame game, let’s actually find the singer!”
It irked Raihan that Daniel was taking the lead here, but Raihan supposed he was right. The dragon master huffed. “All right, but I’m not riding in those spinning teacups again!”
“That’s something we agree on,” Daniel snorted.
Allister piped up, “Don’t worry, this isn’t a gym challenge. Does everyone have a Pokemon that can fly and wear earplugs?”
The Dark type gym leader shook his head, his monochrome locks covering his beautiful face again. “I don’t have any Pokemon that can fly at all.”
Raihan was eager to be helpful. “I have my Flygon. Daniel has a Corviknight. Piers, do you have enough earplugs for this?”
Piers nodded. “I got plenty to spare.”
“Thank Arceus we have a musician in our midst,” Raihan said, and Piers just smirked.
They decided to have Piers and Raihan ride on Flygon, while Allister and Daniel would ride on Corviknight.
Daniel had an uncanny expression throughout this all. Raihan commented, “What’s up with you, Daniel? Do you know something that we don’t? And it sounds like you and Gloss already have a history together, since he mentioned problems between you in the past…”
Daniel grimaced as he climbed atop his steel bird pokemon, and helped Allister up, too. “The things between Gloss and I are none of your business, and unrelated to this Perish Song anyway. We haven’t even found the singer of the song.”
“Ya don’t think Gloss used a ghost pokemon to sing a Perish Song for us?” Piers asked.
Something in Raihan relaxed when he felt his crush’s arms wrap around his middle, as they sat on Flygon together. Some of Piers’ hair trickled over Raihan’s shoulders and teased him pleasantly. But back to business.
Daniel said in a disgruntled voice, “Huh, I would have believed it was Gloss’ pokemon if he didn’t look so caught off guard at the end. He looked mighty confused about what was happening.”
“And he didn’t even bother callin’ back,” Piers observed.
Daniel looked like he was about to argue but Raihan spoke first, “Well, let’s keep searching for that Perish Song singer. Then we’ll see who’s right.”
It felt surreal to fly on Flygon and Corviknight through this confounding ghost maze, dodging the teacups, ghost hands, and other obstacles.
Allister must have returned all of his pokemon earlier, since no more ghosts floated about, not even that Banette who sang a Perish Song to them earlier.
As they rose up the levels, their surroundings grew lighter and lighter. Before long, they reached the top where a gym staff member stood, looking bewildered at their troupe.
Allister dismounted from Corviknight and quickly explained the situation to the gym staff, minus the part about Gloss.
But the gym staff member frowned. “I didn’t hear any Perish Song.”
How odd. Raihan took the risk to remove one of his ear buds. Indeed, it was silent now. The Perish Singer must have left.
Raihan could feel a headache coming, and was tempted to remove his bandana. But instead, he took a deep breath and said, “That’s it. Let’s go out to Glimwood Tangle to solve this, once and for all. We won’t let Gloss get away with this.”
At that, an unknown voice wafted up and said, “Are you sure? You lot look too underclassed to deal with Mr Gloss.”
A new person stepped in from the dark corridor that led to the gym. Their long black hair was in waves like a ghostly haze, and their gold eyes sparked with menace.
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