"Why is the machine making those noises?"
"It's picking up some sort of activity."
"Does that mean she's waking up?"
"It's hard to know for sure, but-"
"They're opening! Arceus, they're opening! She's awake! Go get Mr. Caldwell. Also a nurse."
Delaney winced before she had even had her eyes open a minute. The pain in her head was unlike anything she had ever felt. A cool, clammy hand covered hers as she gripped the railing on the bed. Opening her eyes for a second time made her privy to the absolutely least convincing smile she had ever seen. The strain in his topaz eyes was impossible to miss, his normally stylishly tussled blonde hair clearly hadn't been washed in days and both his orange and white striped shirt and the kelly green scarf he paired it with had coffee stains dribbled down them. "Good morning sunshine. I was getting ready to fine you a hundred million if you didn't wake up soon. Lucas just went to grab a nurse so she'll be here to help with your pain in just a minute, okay?"
"What in the fuck is going on?" she asked with a grimace as she tried to pull herself upright. It was only then that she noticed the needle in her arm and the massive bruising around where the IV had entered her skin. "What the actual fuck?" she asked, panicked. "What happened, Dax?"
"Arceus, do you really not remember?" He was bewildered. "Delaney Christa Caldwell, you beat Team Galactic, you saved the world! You're a fucking hero!"
"Watch your language!" a nurse scolded. She shot a bright smile at Delaney as she prepared to inject something into her IV. "Welcome back, Miss Caldwell. Can you rate your level of pain for me on a scale of 1-10?"
"9," she said, the high level an automatic response to the throbbing at her temples. She didn't count the pit that was settling into her stomach just yet.
"Hi, it's Delaney! Sorry I missed your call, but leave me a message and I'll call you back!" Except that she wouldn't, as everyone was now well-aware. Still, she was curious to listen to her messages. Only three this week. People were getting tired of her silence, which was a relief. She was sick of making excuses of why she wasn't responding.
"Hi Delaney, this is Jordan from Channel 4 in Hearthrome, how are you?" a female's chirpy voice rang out. "I'll cut to the chase- we'd like to do a feature on you for our morning news next week. You know, something cutesy and feel-good, tell everyone how you're doing a year after Galactic… An anniversary special! Nobody's seen much of you lately, so I'm sure everyone would like to see that you're doing well, training, that kind of stuff. You can call me back at-" Erase.
"Delaney Christa Caldwell, I am fining you fifty million dollars if you don't start answering your damn Crosstransceiver. This is the fourth call you haven't answered and you know damn well I can't go down there right now to see that beautiful, infuriating face of yours, so call me the fuck back. Ok, bye!"
Delaney had to chuckle at that one, but still she hit erase. "Delaney, it's your father. You not answering your phone is very childish and it's getting very old. Please stop ignoring me. I'm here to help you and I love you." Erase.
The best part about Pastoria City was that it was quiet. The worst part was everything else. Of course, there was the rain that would last for days on end, the fishy smell in the air and the mud that caked every pair of shoes she owned. There was also the creepy fisherman that lived in the cottage next to the Pokemon Center with his mother who leered at her when she bothered to leave (Delaney had dubbed him 'Leech') and last but not least, the still-destroyed Great Marsh, courtesy of Team Galactic.
It wasn't like she had spent much time there as a trainer, because it was too touristy and gimmicky to really catch the fifteen year old's attention, especially considering there wasn't anything she particularly wanted to add to her team in there. Really, it represented when Team Galactic had crossed the line from being annoying idiots with a groupthink mentality to actually being a Problem with a capital P, and not just any Problem, but Delaney's Problem. "Chase down that grunt," they had told her, and she had. She had chased him all the way to Lake Valor, sweat glistening off her forehead as she ran after him in the afternoon sun, her well-worn sneakers hitting the sand.
It was safe to say that Pastoria was not Delaney's first choice for residency, but few reporters wanted to risk ruining their hair and expensive footwear and the peace and quiet from the media was precisely what Delaney needed. Of course, she still got calls asking for interviews, like the one she had deleted earlier in the day from dear old Jordan from channel 4, but down here, at least they were easier to avoid. Also easier to avoid was, well, everyone. With Dax up in the Battle Frontier, training under dear old daddy Palmer, and her father busy with his numerous deals, it was easy to remain in solitude- it wasn't like anyone else was looking to spend any quality time with her.
Jordan's call had been on her mind for most of the morning, if only because it had served to remind Delaney that it had almost been a year- "a year after Galactic", Jordan had said. With the formerly great and now mainly just muddy marsh just down the road, Delaney got to see the remnants of what she mentally referred to as "The Incident" any day that she decided to wander outside of the Center (though the Marsh, the rain and Leech were enough to deter her from doing so most days). Since leaving the hospital after The Incident, each day had crawled by, so it stunned Delaney to think that it had almost been a full 365 days since then.
"I'm sure everyone would like to see that you're doing well, training, that kind of stuff." Except that she wasn't. She could understand why Jordan of Channel 4 would've thought that, after her highly publicized battles with the Sinnoh League and "devastating" loss to Cynthia… Well, devastating to those who wanted to see Delaney win and not really devastating to Delaney at all.
Honestly, she should never have gone to the Pokemon League at all, but at least in the beginning, she had been pliable to the suggestions of others. The idea of not completing her journey filled her with guilt- wasn't this what she had been working for? Shouldn't she want to go? Not everyone got to the final gym battle with Volkner- shouldn't Delaney realize that she had an amazing opportunity, one that only a select handful of trainers got? These were the arguments given to her by her father, by Dax, by Cynthia, and at first, she had listened.
She did realize how fortunate she was, but it didn't really change the way she felt. Blake had pleaded, even cried a little, telling her that getting back to her normal routine would help Delaney get back to "normal". As soon as she looked out upon the city and realized that the damage from Galactic that had scathed so many other places in Sinnoh and left her in the hospital for a month and a half hadn't touched this technological wonderland at all, she realized there was no "normal" anymore and she just wanted to bury herself in her blankets and never come out.
Even though she hadn't been to Sunyshore since a childhood vacation and thus had no memories associated with Team Galactic in this city, reminders of The Incident were everywhere she went. There was nothing on television but trials of the higher-ups, rebuilding coverage and "eyewitness" testimonies. People she had never met would come up and hug her and thank her for saving them, leaving Delaney to sputter awkwardly because she wasn't quite sure how to respond to such a thing. Several people had even suggested that Volkner should coordinate a parade and celebration from "the heroine from Hearthrome that defeated Team Galactic" but luckily for Delaney, Volkner wasn't particularly enthused about the idea to begin with. Once Delaney had told him that she wouldn't show up even if he did do it, he put the lid on that idea. He had just chuckled and said that parades were ridiculous and Delaney had nodded. Then she had destroyed his team with a combination of Blitzkrieg and Bellby and he had a grin a mile wide as he handed her that last badge and wished her luck at the Pokemon League. She didn't smile back.
As she and her pokemon set up camp in Victory Road on their way into the League headquarters, she pulled away and slept alone where she once would've kept close to them. Blitzkrieg, the feisty infernape that had accompanied her since the first day of her journey and who often walked beside her, stayed in his pokéball more often than not and instead of wearing the expensive belt that held her pokèballs close to her, they now stayed in her tote bag. It was too painful for her to see five instead of six and when a veteran trainer with a carnivine challenged her and she reached for that sixth ball and found nothing, she had an anxiety attack in the middle of the battle and had to be taken back to the Pokemon Center at the beginning of Victory Road. No, it wasn't the fault of any of her pokemon, but she felt disconnected to them all the same.
She couldn't celebrate with them as Blitzkrieg tore through Aaron's bugs. She didn't giggle as she once might've as Bertha congratulated her on winning and mentioned that she had a grandson around Delaney's age. Flint was nothing more than a sidebar after Hazel, her gastrodon, knocked him out and even Lucien, with his powerful psychics, had been rocked by her luxray, Samuel. She didn't even crack a smile when Hazel knocked out Cynthia's lucario with a single earthquake and the only emotion she felt when Hazel then fell to the garchomp Cynthia sent out was relief.
Arceus, she would've been a horrible champion anyways.
Dax had been waiting for her as she walked out of Cynthia's battle chambers, probably waiting to wipe some tears, but Delaney had shrugged him off. There had also been a pack of reporters, ravenous as hungry mightyena, but she had shrugged them off too. That night, she had left her pokemon at home and went out for a jog around route 212, as she had done many times, except on this night, she decided she didn't want to come back, and that was that. She had told a ranger that she needed to get to Pastoria and he had flown her on his staravia and since then, she had inhabited a room in the Pokemon Center.
At first, the calls had been hysterical, pouring in one after another, until finally Delaney answered one, knowing damn well that Blake Caldwell would call in all armed forces of Sinnoh if she didn't. "I need some time off," Delaney had told him. "I need to get away."
"I don't know why you couldn't have told me that!" Blake had said hysterically. "Arceus, Delaney, you left without telling anyone. Do you think this is easy for me? I almost lost you once and now I can't help but think that I might lose you every single time you walk out the door."
Delaney was quiet. For a moment, she felt guilt for scaring her father, but she pushed it away. Don't you dare. It's too late for you to start caring now.
The sound of knocking on the door woke Delaney up from a sleeping-pill induced nap, the only sort of peaceful sleep she ever got. Well, so much for peace- whoever was knocking had thrown that idea out the window. It was such an odd sound, the knocking- nobody had knocked on the door of room 214 of the Pastoria Pokemon Center since Delaney had begun occupying it. She sat up in her bed, blinking away the sleep and wondering if the knocking had been in her dreams. Nobody knew where she was, so how could anyone be here?
Knock, knock, knock.
Delaney groaned and threw her platinum hair into a haphazard ponytail as she crossed the room to the door. "Ugh, why do these doors not have peepholes?" she muttered to herself. Wasn't that like, a safety hazard anyways? With a grimace, she threw the door open, only to find a tall blonde girl, younger than Delaney herself, with a heart-shaped face and a plain black jersey knit dress.
"Miss Delaney?" she said cautiously.
Delaney raised her eyebrows at her. "Who are you?"
"My name is Annette," she said, pushing a lock of her golden hair behind her ear. "I work for your father. He-"
"Fuck!" Delaney swore loudly. "How in the fuck does he know where I am?"
Annette's eyes widened. "Um, I don't know. He, um, sent me here to check on you and um, see if you'd like to come home for a bit. He'd really like to speak with you, Miss Delaney."
Delaney sighed. "Did he say why he couldn't come himself? Because you know, that'd probably be a better argument. Like he actually cared enough about my well-being to trek all the way to Pastoria."
"I don't know. I, um, think he might have been working," Annette said, looking down at the black pleather flats that adorned her feet, mud covering the bottom of them. "But I do know that he would be very pleased by your presence."
"Ugh, you poor sap, forced to do his dirty work," Delaney grimaced. She had to admit, she did feel bad for the girl. The cheap shoes on her feet had been ruined by the Pastoria mud and the thin cloth jacket she wore was more than likely no match for the greater amount of precipitation. "I'll come for the night, but that's it and then I'm leaving again. I'm not coming back to Pastoria either. I'll go somewhere nobody can find me for real." Though she didn't know where that was yet, she was damn certain she would eventually find it.
"That sounds great, Miss Delaney," Annette said, exasperation tingeing the sweet soprano tone of her voice. "Would you like me to help you gather your things?"
"I can get it," Delaney snapped. She glanced around the room and for the first time, realized just how little she had with her. She had four shirts, four shorts, a pair of sweatpants and a white cotton bra, all of which were flung in random directions around the room. Looking out of place was a lone strapless navy blue cotton dress hanging up in the closet. Delaney wasn't sure why she had bought it in the first place, but it had seemed like an important purchase at the time. Delaney half-considered apologizing and asking Annette to help her after all as she picked up and folded a plain mint green t-shirt, but she thought better of it and glared at the girl instead.
She didn't want to seem incapable, after all.
Author's Note (4/21/14): Hello all, and welcome (or welcome back) to The City and the Ghost: Redux! If you are new to this story or you are an old reader that didn't see my update regarding the original, this is the basics: I wrote the original TCatG (as I have affectionately dubbed this story) in 2011 and ended it exactly 365 days later. I threw the original plans I had for the story out the window when my hard drive crashed and I lost everything I had for the story and so I rewrote my outline, cut the story in half and decided to write a sequel instead of the original ending. This turned out to be an awful idea, and I am at the point with the sequel that I will never end up finishing. While I won't delete the originals, I also will no longer be continuing.
I made the executive decision to reboot the story and follow more closely the original plans I had. In writing and planning for this reboot, I have made a lot of changes, both to the plot and character. While I wouldn't say this is a completely brand new story, I will say that there are enough changes to be able to treat them as two separate entities. Especially as we get into chapter two, those of you who are returning readers will see some huge changes to how this is going to go. One of these that should be noted, particularly by any younger readings, is that this is a hard T rating, particularly where language is concerned. This may ease up as we go along, but I will say that the ending stretch will return to this hard T and may even be changed to an M, depending.
If you can't already tell, I am really excited to be going back to this story and trying to fix some of the mistakes I made the first time and just in general make this the best story I can. I very much appreciate all feedback, particularly constructive feedback, so please let me know what you think, whether you're new to the fabulously dysfunctional world of Delaney Caldwell or you're here for the reboot.
Those of you who are familiar with my writing know that my updates are usually inconsistent at best (and that's probably the nice way of putting it) due to a very busy school schedule, but this time around, I'm actually going to be sticking with weekly updates! This is mainly because I graduate in May and actually have a good amount of time on my hands to be dedicating to writing (shocker, I know) but also because this has been an idea I've been kicking around for awhile and so I've had time to get things rolling.
Lastly, a tremendous thank you as always to my wonderful wonderful beta reader, Noteleks!
I swear, this is the longest author's note you'll get from me, but I figured we'd all get on the same page before we really kick things off, yes? So here we go, we're back in business and see you next week for chapter 2! Hurray!