#warnings for some corrupted text and mild horror imagery

[ecruteak-city]

Rating: T Summary:

Evelyn's sisters go their separate ways, leaving her to attempt her Pokemon journey alone, in a foreign region, while still tormented by the "glitches" that their parents had been studying before their death. / Her cousin Kris intends to help in whatever way they can. They have deeper connections to the glitches in reality than Evelyn realizes. Word Count: 3669 Chapter: 1/?

Notes: The Battle Tower Leader Kris headcanon was created (as far as I'm aware) by @stoutlandd! Thank you for having such a cool idea!!

XXX

Kris’s brow furrowed as their cousin shuffled down the Olivine pier. Like a Shuckle using Withdraw, Evelyn was trying to disappear into her oversized hoodie. 

Kris didn’t know what they’d expected. Excitement? Interest? They’d never gotten to go to any region farther than Kanto. It was hard to imagine traveling so far just to stare down at the boards on the dock.

Maybe… maybe Kris was wrong. Had another teenage girl with blue hair stepped off of the ship already? They thought they’d been paying pretty good attention. There were no more passengers getting off.

The girl got closer, and Kris picked out the Lilycove Contest Hall logo on her hoodie. Then she probably was Evelyn. Mom said that Aunt Laz—another relative Kris had never met—had settled down in Hoenn with her husband and four kids. Kris wasn’t sure how that had translated to her and Uncle Ambroise getting caught up in the Cinnabar eruption eight years ago, or why none of Kris’s cousins had reached out to them at the time.

Kris wasn’t sure of anything about mom’s side of the family. It would’ve been nice to have a little more preparation for meeting this wisp of a kid. Kris hadn’t been that small when they’d swept the gym challenge, had they?

They shook their head, ruffling the back of their cropped hair. They’d been cocky, trying to take up more space, cut their way out of being a tiny kid from a tiny town. That attitude had probably made more of a difference than their actual size.

A wheel of Evelyn’s suitcase caught on one of the boardwalk’s planks. Right. Kris should probably be helping with that, rather than staring.

“Hey, kid!” they called, jogging up to her. “Evelyn!”

She let out a soft eep and tugged at her suitcase harder.

“Woah, hey. It’s just me. Kris, your cousin?” They gently took control of the handle, lifting it out of the knot in the wood. “Guess you probably haven’t seen me before, either, huh… anyway, Mom told you I’d be picking you up, right?”

“Uh-um, yes… but I tried to call you and you never picked up, s-so I was right scared I was going to be all alone in a big city without my sisters and.” She took a deep breath, “I’m sorry. I sh-should’ve t-trusted that you’d be here…”

Kris smacked their forehead.

“Sorry. My PokéGear got busted earlier today. Forgot to tell Mom it’s at the repair shop, since, uh, can’t call when your PokéGear’s broke.” They grinned sheepishly, hoping that admitting they made mistakes would make Evelyn feel less intimidated. Or should they have tried to appear more put-together, so she’d be reassured? 

Ugh. Kris didn’t know anything about kids, except that they cried the most when they got their butts kicked. Granted, Kris had seen adults way older than themself cry after Suicune washed their Battle Tower streaks down the drain.

“O-oh. W-well, thank you for… um, coming to get me…” 

Evelyn’s voice had a strange accent. Wasn’t she from Hoenn? Kris had only heard that accent from the rare Galarian visitor to the Battle Tower.

“No problem. I practically live here in Olivine, anyway.” Kris strode forward, guiding Evelyn off of the busy boardwalk. The suitcase rumbled loudly over each board on the dock. “I’m the brains and the brawn of the Battle Tower. They’d be hopeless without me.”

Someone punched them in the arm. For half a second they thought it was Evelyn, before they caught sight of one of the Tower trainers passing by in the crowd.

“Careful there, Kris! You keep castin’ out lines like that, and you’re bound to reel in some humble pie!” the fisherman called, walking backwards with his pole slung over his shoulder.

“I’ll eat it as soon as you catch it for me, Hughes!” Kris called back, and was rewarded with one of his hearty laughs.

They hoped he caught something actually tasty today. With a good catch, Firebreather Wong could cook up some mean Kingler legs for their weekly potluck—

The weekly potluck. Crap. That was tonight.

Kris snuck a glance at Evelyn, who was still following silently, just a pace behind. Normally Kris would say the Tower potluck was the best welcome Johto had to offer. But if Evelyn was already cringing at the noises of the pier, how would she handle a hall full of loud trainers and rich food?

“S-sorry,” Evelyn said quietly when she caught Kris staring. She skipped a few steps, almost landing on Kris’s heels.

“What are you apologizing for?” Kris forced themself to walk slower. They weren’t trying to leave the kid behind.

“Uh-um… I don’t know, just… n-nevermind.” She folded her hands inside the oversized pocket of her hoodie. There was no way that thing was her size. It looked like it would better fit a grown man—

Oh. Dead parents. Kris didn’t know how she kept forgetting that. Maybe because she barely felt like Aunt Laz and Uncle Ambroise had existed in the first place. She hadn’t even known the names of her cousins until Evelyn had looked up Mom’s number and…

Kris wasn’t sure how that conversation had gone. They didn’t know why Evelyn had picked them to stay with, when she apparently had three other sisters.

Not that Kris minded—they’d actually been excited to meet a cousin for the first time. They just hoped they could live up to whatever idea Evelyn had of them.

Luckily, the awkward walk was a short one. The Battle Tower was right down the beach. 

“Oh,” Evelyn said as they passed through the gate and into the shadow of the Tower. She craned her neck up so far, Kris had to catch her shoulder to keep her from falling backwards.

“Don’t hurt yourself, kid. We’ve got a better view coming up.” They winked.

They made their way through the lobby, Kris trying not to get too distracted with greeting her coworkers. Maybe it wasn’t professional, but as far as Kris was aware, there wasn’t another professional battling facility like this. The idea had sprung up after challenging Red at the top of Mount Silver, when Kris had decided they needed a place to battle all-out that didn’t require bringing a partner with Flash along. 

They were still waiting on Red to accept their invitation. Which he would, or else he was stupid and just liked getting hailed on twenty-four seven.

Anyway. The point was, Kris got to make the rules. And the rules said she could crack jokes with the other trainers, and blast music during matches, and show her cousin the sweet view from her room.

“You’re not scared of heights, are you?” Kris thought to ask after pressing the elevator button for floor 100.

“N-no…?”

Her shuddering wasn’t really inspiring confidence. The elevator was already ascending, though.

Kris didn’t need to worry. It looked like Evelyn was too distracted by everything else about their room to notice the height. 

“Oh…” 

Evelyn’s blue eyes were wide as a Hoothoot’s as she scanned the room from left to right. The shelves of pokémon plushes and trophies and knicknacky souvenirs. The desk shoved into the gap between the shelves and TV. The Nintendo64 with only one controller. The posters plastering one of the two walls that wasn’t glass. The noble but, uh, unfruitful attempt at an indoor garden. The two beds smushed together, one higher than the other.

“You… you have two beds… is one, for, u-um—”

“Of course it’s for you!” Kris clapped her on the back, a little harder than they meant to. Oops. “It’s just an air mattress, but I wasn’t sure if you were staying here or with Mom—uh, Aunt Beryl—tonight. I should probably give her a call now that you’re here…”

There was a landline down in the lobby. It wouldn’t be the first time Kris had to call from there.

“Y-you can use my, um, my PokéNav—i-if you want! I saved Aunt Beryl’s number… but, um, you probably know it already s-since she’s your mom. Um.”

Man, did Kris really look that scary? Evelyn was practically shaking out of her hoodie, even as she held out her PokéNav.

“Sure, thanks!” Kris accepted the foreign device, smiling unnaturally bright. It didn’t help much, considering Evelyn wouldn’t look up at her to see it.

Maybe Kris would leave her alone for a bit. Give her some time to settle in. Then maybe she’d be up for doing more fun stuff, later.

“I’ll just, uh—I’m gonna step out for a minute. Make yourself at home, okay? You can play any of my games, or my computer, or—whatever you want. Long as you’re here, this is your room too.”

“U-um, o-okay. I mean, um, thank you!” Evelyn’s smile looked more like a grimace, but at least it was something.

Kris gave her a thumbs up and stepped out of the room. Once the door was shut, she leaned against the wall and rubbed her forehead.

Hopefully Mom would have some advice on how to stop scaring their poor cousin spitless. 

XXX

Evelyn was alone, at what looked like the top of the world. She kept her back to the wide windows—it was probably beautiful out, but her stomach was still upset from the long ride on the ship. She would be a horrible guest if she gave herself vertigo and threw up on her cousin’s floor.

She pulled her knees close to her chest, perching at the edge of the air mattress. Counting her breaths, like Morgan had taught her. 

Tears pricked in her eyes. She bit her lip, trying to force them back.

She missed Morgan already. She missed Nita. She even missed Dana.

She shut her eyes, but all she saw was Dana flying away on Mom’s Moltres, again and again and again, leaving her crying on Lilycove’s beach.

And now she was crying again. Dana had been right to leave—Evelyn would’ve just gotten in her way. 

She rocked back and forth, trying to find some comfort in the gentle motion. Like floating on the waves, clinging to her Finneon’s side, not on the deck of a heaving boat. 

Could she let Sunburn out of her ball here? Kris had said to make herself comfortable, but the Finneon might be spooked by the new surroundings. Evelyn would feel horrible if she broke anything. No, she’d have to deal with this—this stupid, irrational panic—on her own.

She reached into her pocket for her PokéNav to play some music—but it was with Kris. Right. That was fine, too—she was fine, she could be fine, she didn’t need her sisters treating her like, like a baby—

She sniffled again. She was going to get snot on the fresh sheets Kris had given her. Kris would think she was so ungrateful…

She spotted a box of tissues on Kris’s desk. She couldn’t make a mess of those… probably.

Huddled on the desk chair, Evelyn blew through tissues until the rubbish bin was overflowing. So much for not making a mess.

Stupid, stupid, stupid…!

She tried to dry her face on her sleeves. Kris could be back any minute, and if they saw Evelyn like this… oh, she’d be scarlet for herself…

Her elbow bumped Kris’s keyboard, making the monitor flash to life. She flinched, but thankfully, it didn’t look like she’d hurt anything. The screen just showed Kris’s desktop—a photo of them and a smirking redheaded man. They had their arms around each other, and a whole team of pokémon surrounded them. Evelyn didn’t recognize most of the pokémon, but they all looked intimidating. Except maybe the small snail-like one with the red-and-white shell. It must’ve been strong, though, or Kris wouldn’t have it.

Kris was strong. Their Battle Tower made Ma’s old Battle Maison look like a wee shack, and they were as popular among the trainers here as Da had been in the Contest Circuit. Why would they waste their time with a cousin who couldn’t even keep her head together?

Well, they wouldn’t, probably. Evelyn would go stay with Aunt Beryl in New Bark Town. That had been her plan from the beginning—to stay out of the way, where she couldn’t make things worse for anyone.

Evelyn wasn’t strong. She wasn’t fearless, or smart, or determined—not like her sisters. They could carry on Ma and Da’s work without her. 

She dropped her damp face onto the desk—and accidentally hit the keyboard, again. Why couldn't she pay attention to what she was doing—!

Scrambling for the mouse, she tried to click out of the window she’d opened. It looked like a decorations storage box, like Morgan and Dana had in their secret bases. Evelyn had always wanted a secret base, but she wasn’t old enough, and then by the time she was, well—she was here. She didn’t even have a Secret Power TM in case she found a spot here in Johto. Not that she would, because she wasn’t—she wasn’t brave enough for an adventure, Dana even said so, even Nita who was two years younger got to go with Morgan but it didn’t matter how old Evelyn was, she was still a baby—

Her hand shook. She misclicked. What—what did she do? Kris had said she could use the computer, but she didn’t want to mess up her cousin’s items—

The screen scrambled, flooding with nonsense letters and symbols. Evelyn’s legs went numb. She screamed.

(Not again not again not again notagainnotagain)

But then she blinked. The screen was fine. Maybe she hadn’t—maybe she’d imagined it. She was just… just tired. She’d left that—that thing back home; it couldn’t break anything here.

Clicking more firmly, she closed the decoration menu. Whew.

She turned around to see a̷̲̮̕n̸͍̓͝ a̶͚͚̲͇͋͝ḏ̶͊o̸̡͎͉̘̔̒̃r̶͖͙̩̮̈́̀͝à̸̬̖̅b̷̖̺̯̳̍̋̿̄l̵̦̩̳͓̓ȩ̶͔̓—̴̢͉̃ͅ

A doll with her face.

Her shriek put her earlier scream to shame. The doll—it looked just like her, wearing the same clothes, the same sobbing expression stitched into its fabric skin.

Evelyn didn’t dare move—couldn’t move, not with her useless legs—even though everything in her screamed to P̶̱͓̠̯̳̼̓Ǔ̶̡͎̜̳̫̼̙̱͇̖̰̤͖̭̜̰̖̜̟̫̀̇̈́̽̇͋̈́̅͝͝͝T̶̪̟̈́̈́̋͑͆̀́̈͘ ̵̛̥̼̖̹̳̼̞͚̗̟̜̝̩̼̣͙͒̅͑̎̽̑͌͒̏̐̊̍̂̔̾̆̕̕͜I̷̛̩̳̋̂̂͒̈́͗͆͊̋͊͌͋̇̆̚̕T̶̟͛̍̇̀̄̍͊͝ ̸̡͈̭̥̔̑͌͛̍͂́̏̄Ã̷̛̰̝̹͕̹͖̎̽͆̿̉͂̾͊͂̇̒̾͆̂͜W̸̼̫͙̤̖̟͚̘̦͕̙̤̰̭̙͋̀̍̓͒̑́̍̿̓̈́͘̕ͅͅA̶̝͒̓̈́̂̾͂͠Y̷̲̘̪̱̻̟̖̦̰̝̩̺̬̲̆̈́̌͛̋̀̃͑̌͆̑͂̏̅̆̍ͅ.̷̡̢̢̢̺͉̬̙̤͙̺̪̹̜̦̟͚̔̂́͂̀͜ͅͅ. She couldn’t turn her back on it, couldn’t risk it blinking at her with those black button eyes, or—or whatever else it might do. 

She’d escaped the floating question mark—the “D̸̑ͅẹ̵̊ḉ̵a̸̓͜m̸̱̌a̶̪͝r̸̟̀k̷̛̩,” Ma’s notes called it—so why was this happening? Was she cursed, like Dana said? 

Was she going mad?

“Evelyn!” Kris burst into the room, slamming the door against the wall so hard that one of her posters fell. “Are you okay?”

Evelyn had blinked when they’d come in. The doll was gone.

“I—I—” 

She couldn’t get anything else out. She choked off into a pathetic sob.

“Holy—I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Kris ran to her so fast they slammed their shin against the coffee table. Still they barely let out a hiss before wrapping Evelyn in their arms. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I won’t leave you alone again—that was stupid, I should’ve…”

Evelyn buried her face in her cousin’s shirt. She was getting snot and tears everywhere, but she couldn’t stop, couldn’t make herself look up.

Kris was strong. If anything happened—if the doll, or the Ḏ̸̉ĕ̶͈c̸̭̿a̸̯͛ḿ̷̮ä̸́ͅr̵̭̂k̵͑ͅ, or anything else came back—Kris could handle it. Maybe they’d make fun of her like Dana, or pity her like Morgan, but she’d still be safe. 

“We—we can find you a new room, if the height’s too scary,” Kris said. Their voice didn’t sound like pity—instead like they were… afraid? 

“N-no!” Evelyn said quickly. “I don’t want… I want—I want to s-stay. With you. P-please…!”

“Of course. You got it, boss.”

She let out a snivel-snort. Boss. She was barely—barely even worthy of being a Grunt.

Kris rubbed her back. They didn’t complain about the snot, or tell her to compose herself. 

They stayed.

“If you wanna talk about it… or, anything else, really… I’m here, okay? I’m not going anywhere.”

Despite everything, Evelyn believed them. Her mouth wouldn’t form any words, though. How could she explain the doll that could’ve been her clone? Did Kris even know about the “glitches” that Ma and Da had been studying? Her tutors had always dismissed such things as superstitions and imaginations. 

“M-maybe… later,” she finally mumbled.

“Okay. There’s plenty of time—Mom can’t make it here until tomorrow, anyway—not that you have to go with her! If you’d rather stay here at the Battle Tower, I mean, there’s plenty of room. Do you like battling?”

The question startled Evelyn enough that she finally looked up.

“I… I d-don’t know? Morgan does—she’s my oldest sister. She wants to be as good as Ma was… b-but, um. I haven’t. I-I mean, I was too little when Ma, um… she couldn’t teach me. So I’d probably be awful…”

And she was rambling, on and on and on. How could she have so little to say and still take so long to say it?

“Well. I, uh, didn’t know Aunt Laz, but I’m no pushover myself. If you wanna learn, there’s no better trainer in Johto to teach you.” Kris grinned.

Evelyn’s eyes widened.

“You—you would? But, y-you must be so busy—”

“Hey, that’s the perk of being my own boss. I can set my own hours.” They winked. “You have a pokémon yet?”

“A-ah—? Oh!” She reached into her hoodie pocket, pulling out two purple pokéballs. “I’ve got—well, I can only really use one…”

She had to squint at the two Master Balls to find the pokémon’s names. She put away the one with Da’s Latios. He was much too strong to fight for a trainer with no gym badges, even if he was always gentle when playing with her.

“Th-this is Sunburn, my, um, Finneon…”

She looked up again, and saw Kris gaping.

“You. You have—two Master Balls? And used one on a Finneon?”

“A-a-ahh! I didn’t—! I mean, me Da caught her for me!”

Kris’s brow furrowed. 

“Man. Either your parents were stupid rich, or the ball market in Hoenn is something else.” 

Evelyn frowned. She hadn’t known there was anything strange about having Master Balls. Maybe she should get some plain ones, just so no one would look at her oddly.

Kris shook their head. 

“Anyway. You’ve got a pokémon, so that’s great! We can start training tomorrow. Tonight, we party.”

Evelyn stiffened. Party? She hadn’t been to a party since… since Ma had opened the Battle Maison, probably. The thought made her nervous, but at least glitches never seemed to torment her when other people were around. A party was the safest place she could be.

“O-okay!” She forced a smile, and Kris patted her shoulder.

“That’s the spirit!” 

Evelyn would be on her best behavior, just like Morgan had taught her. Maybe then she could make up for embarrassing herself in front of Kris.

XXX

When Kris and Evelyn arrived later that evening, a hodgepodge of potluck food filled the long mess hall table. Kris was delighted to see that a bowl of Kingler legs lay steaming in the center of the table. 

“Hey, there they are!” Sawyer waved from the far side of the table, his pokemaniac cloak flapping with the motion. 

“Finally! Almost thought you forgot!” Lancaster laughed.

“They broke their Pokégear again, so I wouldn’t be surprised…”

“Hey.” Kris pretended to look stern. “That was a training accident. Could’ve happened to anyone.”

“Hmm. Yes.” Ogden adjusted his glasses with a smirk. “Statistically, with the number of times you’ve been unreachable in the past six months, each of us should have had two incidents apiece. Anyone, indeed.”

“Oh, stuff a Kingler leg in it.” Kris grinned. “Literally. Thanks for the grub, everyone. Dig in!”

None of the trainers had to be told twice. Kris snuck their store-bought berry tray onto a corner of the table before the commotion got to be too much.

“Man, I’ve been a terrible cousin. You’re probably starving too, huh?” 

They looked down at Evelyn, who was glued to Kris’s side, like one core of a Magneton clinging to the others. 

“Um—o-oh! No, I’ve been fine, honest!”

“Sure.” Kris nodded, though they didn’t buy it one bit. “You ever had Johto food before? I can show you all the best stuff. The Kingler legs are awesome, obviously, but you gotta try Alexander’s stuffed apricorns, too. That’s a classic.”

Evelyn followed Kris through the line, copying the dishes they loaded on their paper plate exactly. Once Kris realized this, they made sure to get even more food than usual. Evelyn could use a little extra bulk.

Cushions lined the edges of the room, and Kris set down their plate to grab two of them, flopping them down near the biggest group of trainers. While Evelyn poked tentatively at the food, Kris flagged over some of their less intimidating coworkers.

“Hey, Park! Come say hi to my super cool cousin!”

“Raine, have you met Evelyn yet? She’s got a water type partner, too!”

“Andrews, you’re fourteen, right? My cousin Evelyn’s about your age!”

At first, Evelyn looked ready to melt into the grooves in the hardwood, but with each introduction her nervousness seemed to slip away. She sat up a little straighter, smiled a little brighter. Maybe all she’d needed was someone else to have some confidence in her.

Lucky for Evelyn, Kris had plenty of confidence to go around. If they kept her close enough, some was bound to rub off eventually.

That was all assuming Evelyn wanted to stay, of course. She might want to go to New Bark with Mom, where everything was quieter. Less scary. 

Kris polished off their Kingler legs as Andrews showed off her Espeon. 

It was up to Evelyn. Judging from the way she glowed as she pet the psychic pokemon, though, she’d fit in here just fine.